Road to the MotoGP

After months of waiting and planning it was finally here. The morning that my alarm would go off, way before the sun would rise, and it would be time to strap on my helmet, throw my leg over my Italian Beauty and begin the journey to the Laguna Seca MotoGP.

Mike, Randy and I have been planning on this trip since last year. Ride our motorcycles up to Monterey and experience our 1st ever MotoGP. Since then Mike has moved to Oregon, so plans changed only slightly. He would leave a day earlier and meet us there, opposed to all 3 of us riding together.

Friday morning at 5:30am I met Randy at the gas station near Coffee Bean. I knew it was going to be a good day when you start your ride before even the coffee shop opens (they open at 6am, the pansies). Randy and I had 440 miles to cover in one day, so hence the 5:30am meeting time. And since we were camping at Arroyo Seco for the entire weekend. We wanted to get to camp before the sun had set.

To get thru LA as quick as possible we took the 405 to the 101 then jumped on Mulholland Dr for the 1st set of twisties. The 1st of many of the next 4 days. Since it was early we hardly saw anyone else on Mulholland. From there we took the 1 up to Ventura where we met up with John and finally got to grab some coffee. John wasn't going to the MotoGP with us, but wanted to ride with us for as far as Pismo. We took the 33 up thru Ojai and stopped at the biker place that is never open. It keeps promising to open soon, but every time we pass by it, no progress is appearant. But once it does, it promises to entail Bikes Babes and Beer. Yet again the Babes and Beer were no where to be found, just us 3 fools talking about Babes and Beer.

We continued on till the 166 and took that thru Cuyama and back down to the 101. John road with us as far as Morroy Bay before turning south and heading back to his hotel in Pismo. Randy and I continued on north on the 1. It was my 1st time this far on the 1. And it was exactly what I had pictured it to be. Crowded in some spots, open and fast in others and great scenery along the way.

From the 1 we took a right and headed up Naciemento Ferguson rd. All I can say about that road is damn. Damn in a good way and damn in a bad way. It is really narrow for most of it. Barely wider than 1 lane. And the tightest, sharpest corners I have been on. And of course most of them, blind. But once in a groove, it was pretty fun. Despite my saddle bags sticking way out and all the extra weight. I did get some good corning in and scraped my pegs. We did pass a few cars and a few other bikes. Almost at the end of N.F. road you come to a check point where the road goes thru the military base. And to get thru you need to show your drivers license, registration and proof of insurance. Of course my reg and ins was in the glove box under my back seat. So I had to untie and unpack all of my gear to get to it. It sucked, but what are you going to do? Once passed the check point we came across a tank that was sitting about a hundred yards off the side of the road. I was thinking of pulling next to it and taking a pic of my Duc next to the tank, but wasn't sure if the tank was currently being used in some army exercise, and snipers were waiting in the trees waiting to shoot unsuspecting terrorists on Italian motorcycles that hate our freedom. I didn't want to be mis-identified so we kept on riding.

Then we took the G15 back to the 101 and into Greenfield and then down Arroyo Seco rd to camp, rolling in around 4:30. A full 11 hours on the road. It was flippin sweet.

To be continued....