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Saturday, April 26

(2003 04 26) Up semi-early, "continental" breakfast in the IHOP/Best Western Lobby, then a couple of hours spent searching for John's glasses, then we finally saddled up and started riding north. Up the 101 for a short while, then onto route 1, the PCH. Radian needed gas (it always needs gas) and after overshooting the last gas station for 30 miles, we backtracked and gassed up just before San Simeon.

We had a lovely ride up PCH. Parts of it reminded Kate and me of the Cabot trail in Nova Scotia, especially the northern bit of the Cabot with the Atlantic Ocean on your left and the grassy fields on your right.

Lunch was at a Jack-in-the-Box. Quite adequate.

We rode up to Monterey, then turned inland and headed for Salinas and eventually back to 101. Then we slogged up the 101 to Novato. John dropped the baby Ninja in some sand by the side of the road on the way to Salinas. We picked up the bike, gathered the pieces of turn signal lense, and I straightened and re-adjusted the bent shift linkage so the bike was ridable.

Finally arriving in Novato, we checked into the Best Western.

Meanwhile, Don, riding in from Nebraska, had to get a truck to carry his Wing over the snow covered Donner pass to get to Novato. He managed to get to the Best Western just in time to make the dinner meeting.

We met our fellow travellers in the lobby before dinner. A small tour group this time, just two other couples besides Kate and John and me, plus Frank and Denny from the AMA. The hotel gave us a ride to the restaurant, Frank gave his speech, we introduced ourselves some more, Frank handed out trinkets, a fine dinner, and we got shuttled back to the hotel. On the way, I mentioned that I want to get some Honda Cleaner. Don said "use Lemon Pledge". The hotel person said they'll be happy to give me a ride to a supermarket that's open at night and close by, which they did after dropping off the rest of the party at the hotel. $3.79 later, I had my Pledge. Back at the hotel, I borrowed a screwdriver from an accomodating hotel guest because I was too lazy to open the bike's tool kit, disassembled the remains of the turn signal on the Ninja, and glued the housing back together with Goop. Rubber bands clamped it together to cure overnight. Back in my room, I Gooped the lense fragments together. Meanwhile, Kate got her laptop plugged into the high speed network connection in the room, and after she did her thing, I checked my email to make sure my job hadn't caught fire. We can't quite escape our work, it seems.

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