{"id":624,"date":"2008-12-31T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T02:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/?p=624"},"modified":"2010-03-20T20:09:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-21T03:09:23","slug":"last-ride-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/2008\/12\/31\/last-ride-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Ride of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last day of the year calls for a last ride of the year, so that\u2019s what I did today with my pal Greg and one of my club brothers, E.<\/p>\n

Greg and I took the 101 freeway across the valley to meet E, then we took Kanaan Road to the coast. It was pretty comfortable in the valley, but as we dropped down to the coast it got chilly fast. E was wearing just a flannel under his cut and put his leather coat on as soon as we stopped.<\/p>\n

Our first stop was at the Leo Carrillo campground. My club is planning a campout in the summer, so we were scouting potential places to do it. We rode our bikes through the campground, drawing lots of stares from the people already camping there, and there were several little kids who waved excitedly as we passed.<\/p>\n

We rolled a little further north up PCH to our second stop, Neptune\u2019s Net. We hung out there for awhile, making idle conversation with a couple of guys from a MM club, then we crossed the street to sit on a bench overlooking the ocean, think deep thoughts, and watch the surfers and dogs play in the water. I whipped out my camera while I was at it and took a few pictures.<\/p>\n

I took this one as we crossed the street, looking south on PCH right in front of Neptune\u2019s:<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/p>\n

I took these two from the bench. This is the shoreline across from Neptune\u2019s parking lot:<\/p>\n

\"Shoreline<\/p>\n

\u2026and this is the surf break right in front of the bench across from Neptune\u2019s itself:<\/p>\n

\"Surf<\/p>\n

It was a pretty gloomy, chilly day down on PCH today. Just for comparison, here\u2019s what that shoreline view looks like on a nice, sunny day:<\/p>\n

\"Shoreline<\/p>\n

\u2026and this picture was taken on my New Year\u2019s Eve ride along the coast last year:<\/p>\n

\"Malibu,<\/p>\n

Last year it was clear and warm and beautiful. This year\u2026 not so much. But I\u2019m not complaining. You can\u2019t beat a ride along the coast anytime, especially on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

After Neptune\u2019s Net, we headed inland to one of my favorite places to have lunch on a ride: the Somis Market<\/a> in, well, Somis, just outside of Camarillo. It\u2019s a little Mexican cafe where they serve the best chili verde and menudo I\u2019ve ever had. I had the chili verde today. Dump in some homemade salsa and diced jalapenos to make it even hotter, tear up and dip the fresh flour tortillas, keep a handful of napkins handy to mop the sweat off your brow and slurp it up faster than your metal spoon can melt\u2026 That\u2019s some good eatin\u2019, boy.<\/p>\n

We needed coffee after lunch, so we headed north to Moorpark and stopped at a Starbucks along the way. I usually just order a medium coffee (that\u2019s right: \u201cMedium coffee\u201d \u2014 I don\u2019t have time for that whole venti\/grande\/whatever bullshit), but today I needed something \u2026 different. I\u2019m not usually into the whole hot & sweet thing, but I ended up going with something that sounded disgusting anyway: a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha. It turned out to be the perfect choice; it was exactly what I wanted, even though I had no idea what it was.<\/p>\n

After sitting around and bullshitting for awhile, we hit the road for home. E split off for his place along the way and Greg rode most of the way back to my place with me.<\/p>\n

I say \u201cmost of the way\u201d because he had another Wrong Way Corrigan moment<\/a> when we got to Burbank, the exit I wanted to take. He was riding on my right and looked over to me as if to say \u201cAre we getting off here?\u201d I nodded \u201cYes\u201d and he started to exit \u2026 then wavered and started to pull back into my lane \u2026 then started to exit again but didn\u2019t actually move all the way into the exit lane until the last second. End result being that he made the exit but I was left hanging on the 405 alone. So I had no choice but to go to the next exit, which was the transition to the 101 North.<\/p>\n

I jumped on the 101 \u2014 and ran smack into bumper-to-bumper traffic. I didn\u2019t mind, though; I got to fulfill my Recommended Daily Allowance of lanesplitting. It wouldn\u2019t have felt right to close out the year without one more white-line session. So I did my thing for the next couple of exits, and ended up living the dilemma from my Split or get off the Botts entry<\/a> (I\u2019m inordinately proud of that title, by the way). I was doing my thing when I caught up to a guy on a Honda CBR who was also lanesplitting \u2014 or I should say trying to lanesplit. He was so bad at it, it hurt me to follow behind him and watch. I followed him for a hundred yards or so and then didn\u2019t have the patience to wait for him to figure it out, so I dropped over into the next lane gap and passed him like he was standing still.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on a Road Glide with full fairing and saddlebags, he\u2019s on a crotch rocket with full leathers, and I\u2019m the one putting on a lanesplitting clinic? Sad. On that CBR he should have been riding rings around me. Dude needs to retire before he winds up on the pavement as traction.<\/p>\n

I pulled into my garage about five minutes behind Greg and shut her down for the last time this year. I clocked about 110 miles on the ride today and almost 12,000 miles on the year. Not bad, but I\u2019ll do better in 2009.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year!<\/p>\n

1\/1\/08 Mileage<\/p>\n

\"1\/1\/08<\/p>\n

1\/1\/09 Mileage<\/p>\n

\"1\/1\/09<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s route:<\/p>\n