CalSTOC

October 26-28, 2012

Chris and I feel that going to CalSTOC is a must, so it wasn’t hard to get her to go with me… as long as I trailered the bike up to Lompoc. What I do to make her happy! :/

Our last trip to Pioneer (May 2012 - Old Gold Country) for the SabMag Spring Fling, hauling the bike, we had a couple of issues with the trailer. The first issue was a bad left tire on the trailer. I caught it before it popped, but that was scary! The second was the fact that one of the eye hooks had broke, after we got home. And most of the others were bent. So I had to fix both issues. The left tire was replaced during the trip and I had bought a replacement from Wal-Mart for the right, just hadn’t mounted it yet.

So I mounted the new right tire and then proceeded to replace the eye hooks. I went to replace the eye hooks with 3/8" and decided that ½" would be better, which turned out to be a good idea. So the trailer was ready.

I took Friday off, so we could leave late Thursday after Chris got home. We took the usual route, except I decided to go 134 instead of following 210. What a mistake! That short section goes right through LA type traffic patterns, something I like to avoid! L Once we were able to get to the 101, and west of the 405, which wasn’t much better. Next time I’ll just stick to my normal routes, of staying on 210 to the 118 and then the 23. We still wind up on the 101 and it is a little longer, but less traffic!

We stopped in Santa Barbara for a break and snack. Before leaving I was checking the trailer and found that the right front strap had come off. So I had to re-connect it, but this time I put the straps through the eye hook and the crashbar, which kept them where they needed to be! I’ve had the "hooks" come loose in the past. I’m sure it is caused due to the flexibility of the trailer. By running the strap through the hole of the eyehook and the crashbar, if the hook does come loose, the strap will hold it until I can check it and take care of it.

We drove up 154 (San Marcos Pass) which by-passes going up along the coast. We arrived in Lompoc at 11:30pm and because it was so late, I didn’t want to disturb every one so I didn’t even remove the bike from the trailer, we just went to bed.

The next morning (Friday), everyone was meeting at the campground for a group ride. So we hurried, got breakfast and headed to the campground. When we got there, the area was blocked off, thinking it was blocked off for our STOC campers, so I thought, perfect, I could just leave the truck and trailer there without any issues. I tried to get the bike off the trailer and get us suited up in time to leave with the group, but I couldn’t do it. So Chris and I took our own little ride, the whole time thinking we could catch up to the rest of the group.

Our ride from the campground, consisted of going south on Cabrillo Hwy then east on Santa Rosa Rd, north to 246 and headed east to Alamo Pintado Rd where we went north up to Los Olivos to hwy 154. On 154 we turned left and turned north (right) on Foxen Canyon Rd.

We followed Foxen Canyon through the farm country and even stopped, as I was thinking maybe we were ahead of the group, so we doubled back about 9 miles, but we never saw any signs of them, so we turned around and never did catch the group.

We ended up at Betteravia Rd and 101. We stopped there to get our bearings, I played with the GPS until I found the Jalama Beach, punched it in and started following the route. Khris called me back and he told me that they had already made it to Mike & Cindy’s to pick up their son to take him to go get a hamburger in Jalama Beach. I figured we would be able to get there shortly after they would. So we continued back towards Lompoc by riding down the Orcutt Express way, until Hwy 1took off towards Lompoc.

I thought we would have enough time to meet everyone there, but, as we were on Jalama Beach road (very windy two lane road with lots of dear sitting/standing around on the side of the road), we kept seeing others (Mac & Carole and others) going the opposite direction. So we didn’t think anyone would be there when we were eating. When we got to the Snack Shake, we were right; we were the only ones from CalSTOC there. So we ordered our food and sat down at a table next to a window overlooking the beach. We were not there ten minutes when Tim & Diane showed up. They ordered their food and sat down with us. About ten minutes after that, Mike, Khris and the rest of those that went for the morning ride (that we missed by about 20 minutes) showed up.

So all of a sudden the place was over run and we were able to enjoy the company while eating. Too bad the people running the beach only allow one hour for getting a hamburger, Chris and I had to get out of there so we didn’t have to pay the $10 day use fee!

When we arrived back at the campground to pick up the truck, we found that the area being blocked off was not for the CalSTOC campers, but for a High School Cross Country meet! There were cars all over the place and had blocked me in where I couldn’t get the truck out without disconnecting the trailer and even then I wasn’t sure if I could get it out. So Chris and I just stuck around and talked to the others. About an hour later we decided to just ride the bike back over to the hotel so we could get ready for Mike & Cindy’s. As we were getting prepared to ride the bike back, I looked over at the truck only to see it was no longer blocked in. I rushed over and pulled the truck over to the bike so Chris could drive it (& the trailer… a first for her).

As I was getting out of the truck, I saw Jeff on his cell phone and didn’t pay too much attention other than just observing him. When he got off his phone, he look right at me (seeing the truck and trailer) said something to me about needing to go get a wrecked bike. Unfortunately one of the guys coming from Oxnard was forced off the road by a car and a couple stopped to help him and found they had to take him down to an emergency room in Santa Barbara. The person on the phone was one of them helping out and told Jeff where the bike could be found. Jeff got in the truck with Chris and we first had to go to the hotel to drop Chris and the bike off. Jeff and I then jumped in the truck to go pick up the bike.

The bike was sitting under the Cold Springs Bridge on stagecoach road. Very close to where my family had stopped back in 1963 so my dad could show us the bridge before it was originally opened. It was about 20 miles away from the Hotel. On the return trip, I dropped Jeff off at the campground to pick up his bike and then stopped by to pick Chris up at the Hotel, then drive over to Mike & Cindy’s.

As I pulled up at M&Cs, everyone out front came over to see the bike and confused a bunch of them because it wasn’t a red (’05) bike, but ’03 Silver. A few thought it was my bike but I assured them it wasn’t. I was able to demonstrate my trailer set up for single person Motorcycle unloading. It took longer to un-strap it then to get it out of the trailer! I then parked it in Mike’s garage, where it will sit until the owner can come get it.

Dinner was on, so everyone headed into the house where Cindy had been working in the kitchen really hard ALL DAY! Chris found Cindy in the kitchen and asked what she could do to help? Dinner was great and I don’t think anyone left hungry.

Everyone was soon on their way to either the campground or the motels/hotels they were staying at. When Chris and I left, most of the bikes were gone, and we got into the truck and went back to our hotel.

Chris and I hit the sack once we got back, since we were still tired from getting in the night before and doing an almost 150 mile ride.

Saturday morning started early for us so we could make the group ride. At first I wasn’t going to go, but Mike changed the route a bit and made it a little bit more appealing. We started it the same way the day before started, on Santa Rosa rd. Then thru Buelton on 246 and through Solvang and Santa Ines to the 154, San Marcos Pass road towards Santa Barbara. We cut off at Foothill and headed south east on 192, which ran into 150 over to 33 and up thru Ojai. We continued on 33, which goes through the mountains, so it was a fun road.

When you get out of the mountains, 33 then straightens out and you find yourself in the middle of farm country. At one point, someone’s hat flew to the ground and as I passed it I kept going until I saw Bob’s (BlewByU) sidecase opened. I pulled up to Bob and pointed at his topcase and in the meantime, Mike (Squirrel Hunter) had stopped to pick up Bob’s hat. By that time the rest of the group was about a mile ahead of us and Chris and I was trying to catch up to them. Everyone had pulled over to the Pistachio Store, so I went out to the road to make sure Bob & Mike didn’t miss us and kept going like had happened a number of years ago when I was on another ride in Arizona.

A few minutes later, Mike and Bob showed up and we all checked out the store and took a nice little break. Next stop was a hamburger place on 166 about 10 to 15 miles down the road. Chris and I didn’t want to eat too much since dinner was only about 2 to 3 hours away, so we just had some over cooked zucchini. That wasn’t too good at all. Because one of the rest rooms were out of order, we waited until everyone else was done than took care of our own business, thinking Mike would take off before we were ready anyway, but he waited for us until we got suited up and were ready.

From here, the route went west to the 101, except we took the Tepusquet Rd down towards Santa Maria. While riding along, we came across a flock of wild turkeys! And it was a large flock! We also saw a dear off in a meadow below the road. We eventually made it back to the Orcutt Express Way and followed the same route back we took the day before to Lompoc and our hotel.

The entire ride covered about 250 miles, for a total of around 400 miles for the two rides! Way to go Chris! What a trouper she was to ride with me for both days!

Chris and I stopped back at the hotel, cleaned up and then drove the truck to the campground for the tri-tip, chicken, sausage (I’m thinking I’m missing something) dinner that was excellent! We stuck around the fire for a little while and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning we got up, dressed and headed back to the campground before packing. Mike and Cindy were making breakfast for everyone before leaving. Chris and I had a great time talking to those that were still there and then we went back and I loaded the bike up, then packed up and off we went.

We decided to take the ocean route (Hwy 101) back to Santa Barbara since the weather was just so nice! We jumped off the 101 for 126 to avoid the LA traffic and back on to 210 to head east.

We got home and I was even too tired to unload anything for the first couple of hours! Chris and I had a great time and really want to thank Mike, Cindy and Jeff for putting together another great event! And it was amazing how the weather was in the Lompoc area for this CalSTOC.

Pictures