Gathering for a group picture in Brownsville.

Hiding in the shade waiting for Paul to get run over.

The road that wasn't!!

Diana's hanging off the back of the bike trying to "Capture the Moment" !

Is Val smiling with joy or whispering, "We'll lynch him" ?

Gathering for an after-dinner liqueur on the lawn at the Pine Hill Motel.

The Great Short / Tall people debate brings laughter to all.

Dave & Marion have a flag backlit by floodlight while our group carries on!

RIDE REPORT:

 
Moon Over Quincy
A novel by Paul Kircher (in other words it is LONG!)

 Well, here it is, the eagerly-awaited Ride Report for the 2004 Edition of the Annual Quincy Overnight Ride!  Grab a refreshment, maybe some popcorn, and settle back in that Barca Lounger (that one’s for you, Walt!).

 I’ll begin by telling those who weren’t able to make the ride missed witnessing several exciting events.  The Sacramento Road Cruisers now have 8 riders and 4 passengers qualified as “Offroad Specialists” ---- better yet maybe we should qualify that as “No Road Specialists”.  Dwell on that for a while – I’ll get back to it.  You also missed the explanation of the title of this report.  Leave it at that – you really didn’t miss anything there!  Then there was the chance to be qualified as an official “Triumph Dismantler & Rebuilder”.  (thanks, Frank, for providing the training machine!)  You missed another different route to get to Quincy (for the most part).  Then you missed the usual Great Prime-Rib and other Fantastic Meals at Bucks Lake Lodge, the always-changing but always wonderful accommodations at the Pine Hill Motel, the “humongous pancake” and other great breakfasts at Morning Thunder.  And, believe it or not, you missed Mother Nature providing us with comfortable weather for the ride.  OK, enough of that!

 This year’s participants included Walt & Val, Dale & Diana (not blonde), Paul & Diana (blonde), Wes & Sandy, Wendy, Frank, Dave, and good-ol’ Sparky.  Needless to say a great time was had by all.  Here’s how:

 The crew, minus Paul & Diana, assembled at Carrows Restaurant in Roseville and left around 9:00 a.m. to begin a day that I’m sure some thought would never end.  They rolled in to Higgins’ Corner about 10:15 where they were met by the remaining adventurers from Greenwood.  With butt-rest #1 out of the way, they took off on the next leg of the trip up Hwy 49 to Marysville Road near Camptonville.  There they headed out through the foothills past Bullards Bar Reservoir (a mudhole – like every lake we saw), Collins Lake, and a CHP hiding behind a tree (we all waved!).  From Collins Lake we headed to our second butt-rest, Brownsville.  Since Paul forgot to take a picture of the gang at Higgins’ Corner, he dutifully snapped a couple of shots of the still-happy Cruisers.  He and Sparky deliberated over the distance to Quincy from this point.  Paul’s Tripmaker map told us it was around 65 miles.  Both Paul & Sparky thought it was more like 80, so those who thought they needed gas filled up as Paul had found on their pre-ride that there was no gas in between. 

 Off we went, going through quaint little towns reminiscent of days gone by towards Lake Oroville.  We merged onto Hwy 62 (the Old Oroville-Quincy Road) about 15 miles north of Oroville, and headed towards Quincy.  A few signs that we passed paled our estimated distance to Quincy, and shattered what the Tripmaker map had told us.  Oh well, it was too late to turn back!  The Old Road is a beautiful mixture of turns and scenery.  It was truly beautiful as the first shades of autumn color were beginning to show.  Hey, remember that “Road Construction 18 miles Ahead” sign we passed……about 18 miles ago?  Well, here we are.  Not too bad, though.  Yeah, the pavement did end, but at least the whole highway was thick, chunky, makes-you-swerve-unwillingly gravel.  We can do that!  Uh-oh, why’s the gravel ending and dirt beginning, and what’s all that construction equipment ahead?  Why are all those vehicles sitting there?  Don’t they know it’s Saturday and they don’t do construction on the weekends?  I guess we kinda lucked out that the Pilot Vehicle was pulling in just as we pulled into line for the “E” ticket ride ahead.  That way we didn’t have much time to think about this. Wait a minute, this isn’t Disneyland – they’re not taking ride tickets!  The road got narrower and narrower, and uglier and muddier (is that a word?  It is now!).  There was NO road!  It appeared that they were forging a new path hanging over the edge of this mountain!  I will admit that I was dying inside thinking of what I had led these poor souls into!  This wasn’t like this on July 4 when we checked everything out!  Way too late now!  There wasn’t enough room here to turn around if we wanted to.  So we went on, and on, and on.  Hark, there’s civilization ahead!  At least it was a person with a “slow” sign standing out in the yuck.  We MADE IT!!!!   So on we went through the pretty scenery.  Paul was looking for a nice shady place to pull over so that he could find out how mad everyone was as well as rest some sore butts.  Finally found one about 20 miles further on.  I am thankful to say that there was not a lynching in the forest above Quincy on this otherwise beautiful Saturday.  However, I did have to promise to wash a few bikes!  We rode on and on once more.  I knew we were getting close to Bucks Lake, but the gas gauge on my bike was already deeply embedded in the RED!  I knew a couple of the bikes should be having the same problem, but we could only forge forward. 

 Ta-da!!!  Here’s Quincy!  We rode directly to the Chevron station and filled up.  I actually had four tenths of a gallon left!  We were real close!  The actual reading from Higgins’ Corner to Quincy on this route was 146 miles.  At least we were here, and all were safe!  We went to our respective motels (poor Frank was the only one who hadn’t been able to get a room at the Pine Hill), checked in, and then kicked back out on the lawn and unwound for an hour until we gathered up for a trip back up the hill to Buck’s Lake Lodge for our very-longed-for dinner (did I forget to mention that we didn’t stop for lunch?).  Poor Sparky had to head back to the flatlands, so we wished him well and sent him on his solo trip.  Anyway, back to food.  The menu and service lived up to everything that I have said about the place for years!  Pam, our waitress, had ridden with her husband for 30 years, so she took extra-good care of us.  Another successful eating experience for the Road Cruisers!!  We rode back to Quincy, parked the bikes, and gathered  a bunch of chairs around one of the picnic tables for what ended up being a multi-hour discussion about short people, tall people, and world events.  Without any of the gory details, and for those of you who monitor lunar phases, we were “treated” by a full moon much later in the evening.  That pretty-much sent the remaining few participants scurrying to our rooms for some much-needed rest.

 Early on Sunday morning, Wes & Sandy, and Dave took off early to head back down to the valley.  The rest of us took advantage of the cool morning to rest up for breakfast and the trip home.  When Frank arrived he noticed some green stuff dripping from his bike onto the pavement.  When all was said and done, the bike didn’t drip anymore, though the sweat pouring off of Frank’s brow wondering if his bike would ever be whole again could have washed away all of the coolant that lay on the ground.  A sincere “thank you” to Dale and Walt for jumping in to help in this situation.  This is one of the wonderful parts of the motorcycling brotherhood, and of the Sacramento Road Cruisers!!  We checked out, and went in search of breakfast at the Morning Thunder Café.   We were seated right away, and all had their fill of the humongous portions. 

 Finally, we were ready to mount up for the trip home.  We stopped in Graeagle for gas so there would be no chance of a repeat from the day before, then proceeded up over the Lakes Region and the mountain to the Downieville side.  Except for a motorhome in front of us with one of its lower storage doors partly opened and threatening to dump stuff all over the road in front of us, the trip to Downieville was uneventful and beautiful as always.  Keeping tradition alive, we stopped in Downieville to rest, reminisce, and use the restrooms and ice cream parlor.  Oh, yes, it was pretty windy.  One of the screens from the second floor of the pizza parlor flew down by us after bouncing off an Isuzu something, so Paul brought it inside and gave it to its owners.  Auburn seemed like it was 1000 miles away by the time we got there.  We pulled into another Chevron station at Bell Road, filled up, rested our way-tired butts, said our thanks and good-byes, and went our separate ways towards home.

 A personal “THANK YOU” to one and all who participated in this historic ride.  I had a BLAST!!  From the lack of club response to this ride I had pondered the idea of making this the last one.  From the response of the participants, I am already making plans for next year.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to surpass the great time had by all on this trip, but let’s try!!!

 One final note:  I didn’t take many pictures on this trip, but those that we took will be out on the Digital Rides section this week.  Please do check them out, especially the construction pix when Diana turned around and snapped some great shots.  Also, I am planning to put ALL ride reports out on the website, starting with this one.  I don’t seem to receive pictures of rides anymore, so I will post the ride reports out there.  Hope you like what you see.

  Paul