So in response to being overwhelmed We took a road trip over the last day or so - riding to Paso Robles, having a brilliant dinner there and riding home.
We stayed a great B & B (nameless at the owner's request - but email me and I'll tell you all about it), had a great dinner at Justin Winery, and had one hard leg up - riding the freeways to get to Paso after work on Thursday - and then a brilliant ride back on back roads.
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The B & B was where TG and I stayed on our abbreviated honeymoon, and the owners remembered us - we'd ridden our motorcycles up and walked to all the wineries within three or four miles of there. When TG and I rode up, they remembered us - as well as the story of one of the other couples staying there who had coincidentally been heading to a concert at Disney Hall the afternoon we were married in the garden there, and had seen the end of our wedding.
What are the odds? It's a 3-room B & B...
We discovered Justin by driving randomly around the roads a few years ago on a trip we were taking in the car. Wine tasting is difficult on a bike, since we have an "eight hours bottle to throttle" rule we've borrowed from some of our pilot friends.
Justin makes great blended reds, and all of their wines are far more than well worth drinking...we wound up joining their club (we love wine clubs...great wine just shows up!). They have one of the most beautiful wineries on the Central Coast...here's the view from our table.
So dinner was beautiful and great food...hospitality warm and comfortable...and it feels like the angst of the last two weeks has been pretty well washed away.
I'm hoping your pilot friends said 12 hrs B t T .....otherwise might want to tell them to be looking over their shoulders for the FAA...!
So how is that Tiger working out for you? Thinking of a big dualsport, seems most of the time the DR650 is a touch on the anemic side for the pavement around here- it would be perfect on the roads in the east, the ones originally routed for horses, twisty and tight. What sort of MPG does the Tiger return with easy riding?
I'm loving the Tiger, except that I have one of the small number that seem to burn a lot of oil. I'm wrestling with Triumph on it, and we'll see how that comes out.
Just went to the garage and on this trip (since I reset the trip computer) I'm showing 36 mpg - and we were flogging it pretty hard (running with traffic at 90mph up the 5, and moving - uh, quickly - down the 33).
I did massively upgrade the suspension (Hyperpro shock & fork springs, Race Tech Gold Valves in the forks) which transformed the bike.
I'd get another one in a heartbeat.
And I stole the 'idea' - not the exact # of hours...so my pilot friends are OK, I'm thinking...
A.L.
Adding to this - I can't think of a lot of bikes that you could knock off a fast & comfortable 300 freeway miles with and then crank off another fast 300 miles of twisties...it's a short list.
A.L.
Raven:
FAR 91.17 says:
Sec. 91.17
Alcohol or drugs.
(a) No person may act or attempt to act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft--
(1) Within 8 hours after the consumption of any alcoholic beverage;
etc.
See the FAA website
Brings back memories. I had an Aunt who lived in Dinuba and I spent the summer playing in amateur tennis tournaments (the only kind they had in the pre, Open Tennis era)around the area in 1960 (H.S.) and 64(College). Paso Robles was just a wide spot in the road then, with a couple of seedy bars and a gas station. Life is dynamic and the times do change; look at the region now.
The 12 hr rule is a military one, by the way, more honored in the breach than not in my day. But I'm a Dinosaur from the pre, neo-prohibitionist days of fighter-pilots. If today's standards had been applied in my day easily half of today's Generals would have never been promoted past Capt.to Major. Reminds me of those states who had drinking ages of 18 for eons and were dragooned by the feds into raising age to 21. Half of today's State Bar in those States grew up under the age 18 rule--didn't seem to send them to hell and perdition. Of course they weren't flying their clients around the next day.
When I saw the word TIGER my mind at first lept to the 60s era Sunbeam Tiger. Ever take a spin in one of those little monsters? Had a giant Chrysler 300 engine shoe-horned in and weighed less than 1500lbs. Quite a life altering experience to enjoy the "comforts" of this English import whether as driver or passenger when driven flat out.
Correction,I had a senior moment there. Sunbeam had a FORD engine, but was bought out by Chrysler--who wanted to put in a 300 engine, but couldn't make it work for technical reasons that made economic sense as my now refocusing memory serves me.
LOL - Virgil, I owned one for five days when I was 16. A 260, not a 289...I spent my summer job money, but my parent's insurance agent took one look and made us sell it back...
A.L.