I hate office fights. I hate it �cause after the fight, I still have to deal with the same person day in and day out. The evil stares. The moments of silence when I encounter my enemy in the office restrooms. The inevitable confrontation later. I hate it. One Friday I had one of those fights with a co-worker, which pretty much ruined my whole day. So it was that incident that made me opt to clear my mind by taking a motorcycle trip. Daylong trips on my Hayabusa are quite possibly the best wellness therapy I can think of. So it was Saturday that I decided I was going to take that trip. Where? The Pines to Palms Highway sounded pretty good. The last time I had been up there was 6 years ago in my truck.
I originally planned to leave very early Saturday to avoid the morning squid rush hour at Ortega Highway, but sometime during dawn when my alarm went off, I somehow turned it off and fell back to sleep. I woke up an hour later around 7AM, and I realized I�m �late�. I really didn�t have a schedule to follow except I prefer to get to Ortega Highway early, before the squids and the cops get there. That wasn�t going to happen today. I rode out of my street at 7:45AM.
The ride through Ortega Highway on any given Saturday or Sunday morning is always an adventure in and of itself. This morning was no different. As I entered the canyon portion of the road where the real twisties started, I came up on a couple of sportbikers that looked like squids. How do I know? The lead guy was riding a GSXR-something with a neon paint job, and the rider was wearing jeans and sneakers with leather jacket. The guy behind him was wearing the same thing except his R6 was pretty tattered. No rear view mirrors. No signal lights. It also had out of state plates. These bikes could have been stolen for all I knew. I almost ran into the R6 as it slowed way down on corner entry, then the rider tried to hang off in mid-corner while the bike remained pretty much upright. At first it was entertaining to watch. Soon it became annoying as I felt like I was going backwards not forwards! The R6 refused to let me pass however. So, after showing the R6 rider my front wheel a couple of times with no response, I zapped by both bikes on one of the short straights. They both tried to hang with me but quickly disappeared from my rear view mirror after the first corner.
After Ortega Highway, I hopped on Interstate 15 for a short stint, and then I exited at Rancho California Road in the city of Temecula. This road went through the city, and then kept on going to the Temecula Valley Wine Country. Nothing scenic or spectacular here, even the ride through the wine country was pretty boring. On both sides of the road, the hills were lined with grapevines, and the occasional wine tasting �chateaus� in each family�s field. It was kind of like a smaller and way less scenic ride through Sonoma County in Northern California.
Rancho California Road kept on going beyond who knows where, but I turned off at East Benton Road. E. Benton was a smaller road that was a bit twisty in many sections and sweepers in others as it went through farms and scattered homes here and there. Again, nothing scenic but at least the road was devoid of cars, which was always good. After E. Benton, I switched to another twisty road called R3. This road was a good bit twistier than E. Benton but it was much bumpier. It rose up and down, with quick lefts and rights usually happening after I emerged from each rise on the road. Exciting stuff! I had a great deal of fun as I crested each rise because it felt like a rollercoaster when the bike would lighten up at the top of each rise. I was only on R3 for a few miles before making the turn to Wilson Creek Road. This road was better than the latter two as it was continuously twisty and smooth. There were only a few homes along this road and there were no cars around. In some parts of the road, there was a scenic view to be had of rolling hills and mountains in the distance. |
