A funny thing that happened on the way to the office.
I leave for work as usual but take the long way. I have a little throttle rest device that attached to my throttle grip to rest my palm on. So I'm sitting at a light on Watt Ave south, and I reach over to adjust it and somehow my bike just falls over. It was just like the little guy on his tricycle falling over on Laugh-In. I mean down on the crash bars, which are a good thing to have as it turns out. I fall over on the right side, and while straddling the bike I try to right it, but it's too heavy. I decide to get off, lifting my left leg over the bike but can't do it. My shoe lace is caught around the spring at the kickstand. I have to lay the bike back down on it's side and unhook my lace to get off now. I get unhooked and then proceed to lift the bike, and man was it heavy. As it was coming up, it was in neutral and started to roll forward. I have to stop lifting - lay it down once more - swing my left leg back over the bike while on it's side, and put it in first gear. I get back off again and start the process of the lift over again. By now, some guys in a truck behind me asked if I wanted help, but I had it going and kept it going by then, and due to having an fairly large audience by now, was able to get it upright. It took me about fifteen minutes to recover from that one.
Feeling better, I go to start the bike, but it just turns over and won't start. Being careful to not burn the starter up, I wait a minute before trying again, but still no start. After a few minutes and several attempts at this, I'm thinking I'll have to call the Kawa shop and have them come get it and fix it. Then I remembered that this bike has an auto shut down if the bike gets at a certain angle. When I fell over, it had shut itself off and when I tried to restart it it wouldn't start because I had never turned the ignition off. You must turn it off and back on to reset the kill function. Once I did that and it started right up. But, wait! There's more! I've never had a big windshield like we have now, and it's great. So now I'm coming down Hwy 99 south (still Friday morning) behind a big truck when a rock flies from it's wheel and hits me in the forehead. Bam! ouch.... No injury, but a zinger eh? Now here's the ironic part of it all. I have crash bars for the first time, and in just two days I manage to fall over. I have a big windscreen and manage to get hit in the head with a rock. I was starting to get concerned this was going to be a weird day, but afterwards I got to work fine, and it's a beautiful day, and no damage to the bike, windshield or my head, but my ego is somewhat diminished..... ************************************************************************************
Ron & Patty arrived at McDonald’s, our starting point in North Natomas
followed shortly thereafter by Greg, 
and then Les & Laurie.We gassed up and left going west on I-80, exiting at Mace Boulevard in Davis. This takes you onto Lake Berryessa.
However, we made an incorrect turn in Davis, and had to stop to turn around. 
While we were stopped at some farm, Greg decides to customize his motorcycle. 
We went up Putah Creek to along the west side of the lake and it was spectacular scenery. 
Berryessa is a very large lake and beautiful this time of year. 
It was populated with boaters, and sunbathers lining the shores. 
We got a strung out some at times, and while Greg and Ron were waiting for Les and Laurie, 
Ron washes the bugs from his bike. 
Oh here they are. 
We were way behind the schedule originally considered, but who cares? We’ll still call it lunch be it was around 3:00PM when we finally ate. Part of the problem was most of the restaurants were closed. We were going to eat at a BBQ joint, but they didn’t have any beer. Greg couldn’t fathom BBQ without beer so we rode on and ended up at Henry’s Grotto. It turns out this was a decent stop for lunch. Ron mentioned he and Patty considered this ride their anniversary ride, as their wedding anniversary was Sunday, the next day. The waitress overheard this and brought some cake and a candle and sang the little song. It was a very nice gesture, and the food was good.Leaving Clear Lake we headed to highway 20 and onto Highway 16 descending into the Capay Valley. This is a great road to ride on. Lazy twisties and the roads are in excellent shape. Next, we stopped at Cache Creek Casino for Margaritas.
It’s now about 7:00PM, and we headed towards Woodland where we would stop at Tazzina Bistro in Woodland to exchange goodbyes. We had a couple of bottles of Zinfandel here, hugged, kissed and got on our way. Les & Laurie headed back home to Folsom for their hot tub. Greg, Ron & Patty rode into Sac to the Torch Club to listen to the Danny Castro band. A fine blues man that had this place popp’n! They closed the joint, parted ways and headed home around 2:00AM. 
The ride was about 220 miles, and would normally take about 4 to 5 hours plus stops. We were a little beyond that. Remembering the last time we gassed up was Clear Lake and I think we were averaging 20 MPH then. I’m not going to figure this one out.Hope to see ya with us next time.
SleazyTours
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