Finally, the conditions were perfect for a nice all-day ride!
I gave the bike an oil change and wash last weekend. Last night I finally got a replacement speedo cable from bikebandit. This morning I went down and fitted the new cable, checked the pressures and brakes and pronounced all as being well and truly good.
Today’s destination: Idyllwild. This little mountain town just east of Hemet is one of my favorite places to ride to. Its not that the scenery along much of the trip is all that outstanding given that the route I usually take winds its way through Lake Elsinore, Perris, and Hemet. The two high points of the trip are always the great view decending Ortega Highway into Lake Elsinore, and Idyllwild itself.
After leaving the house around 10:30 and gassing up I hit the 405 south to highway 74, the infamous Ortega Highway. The Ortega was fairly decent. I got stuck behind some slow cars so I just backed it off and had a nice relaxing ride through the canyons. I did get lucky and managed to get through the contruction zone without a wait.
The trip continued on fairly uneventfully until I hit Hemet. All of a sudden traffic stopped, and right in front of me in the other direction there was a bike down. I instantly pulled into the center turn lane, parked it and jumped off to do what I could to help. Luckily, it looked like it had been a very slow speed sort of thing. The rider had a nasty raspberry on his elbow, but other than that he and his pillion both seemed ok. His V-Star seemed ok except for a chrome piece that looked like it broke off his footpeg. He got the bike pushed to the side of the road, and all seemed well, so I jumped back on the bike and continued my voyage. Yet another good reminder why I go to the effort of always wearing my safety gear.
The rest of the trip up the mountain went fairly uneventfully, and I finally reached my destination: Idyllwild, and the Bread Basket Restaurant
I decided upon their skillet breakfast which was basically hash browns covered with peppers and onions, covered with country fried steak, covered with eggs, covered with sawmill gravy. YUM!
Desert was then indicated, and since they didn’t have any pie I settled on a brownie and ice-cream.
The brownie was delicious, and uniquely for me, it had raisins in it, something I’ve never had in a brownie before.
After lunch I poked around some of the neighborhood roads in town looking at houses with snow on them. Found a place with a decent view and stitched together this panorama.
After that I headed home. I normally spend some time in the town, but it was getting late, and I’ve been there plenty. I’ll save that for another trip.
