Springtime on the Pacific Coast Highway

With the convention over and three days to get home, I hook up with a group of folks headed back to various places in California and Oregon.  I'd been invited to ride along with a group of people who all currently or used to work together, or have known each other for a long time.  They're all in the broadcasting industry in one way or another and they've been making the ride from Northern California and Oregon to Las Vegas for a few years now.

We hook up at a Starbucks in town at about 8:00 ish on Friday morning.  Yup, here we were, a group of biker bad boys and girls, making the cops nervous on the first day of the Laughlin River Run - all of our Harleys and leather and tatoos and three day beards ... while we sipped our Lattes and Mochas.  Yeah, it was kind of funny, actually.

The route today would be through Death Valley.  One place I've never been is Death Valley - I was looking forward to the ride.

We struck out at about 9:00 ish and headed west on Nevada 160 and we ride about 35 miles and take a break.  After a 30-45 minute stop, we continue on the next 20-odd miles to Pahrump where we're meeitng up with a couple more riders and stopping for breakfast.  The group was made up of terrific folks with great stories and it was a fun morning.  Breakfast ended at about 11:00 and we hit the road again eventually around 11:30.

The next stop was in Panamint Springs.  This was to be a long stop - maybe lunch, certainly some liquid refreshment.  By Panamint, you've ridden through the Death Valley National Monument and seen the elevation signs drop to negative numbers along the road.  We had stopped for gas one time at Death Valley Junction and pressed on - well, two of us pressed on.  The group was great - very nice folks, fun to talk with, trade stories with and so forth.  One rider and I, however, were a little more in to riding and a little less in to the talking and story-swapping thing.  At Death Valley Junction, the two of us headed off a good 20 minutes earlier than the rest of the group in order to make things ready at Panamint.

The two of us rolled in to Panamint at about 2:00 PM and went about claiming a table out on the porch of the local inn & eatery.  An ice bucket full of liquid refreshment was procured and the rest of the gang rolled in about half and hour later once the beer had had time to cool properly.  I had a Gatorade and swapped some stories and talked some more with the group.

At about 3:00 PM, two of us, realizing that we still had a good four and half to five hours yet to go to get to Bridgeport, decided that it was about time to hit the road.  I drizzled about a gallon of $3.66 gasoline into my tank and proceeded west to US 395, where I headed north.

Just before leaving Panamint, I managed to coax one more picture out of my camera before it went totally dead


I rolled in to Bridgeport at about 6:45 PM.  My friend rolled in about 30 minutes later.  He and I and his girlfriend had dinne about 8:00 or so and the rest of the gang rumbled in to town somewhere around 11:00 PM - I was mostly asleep by then.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great time riding with these folks.  And I'm sure that if I had been more familiar with the area in which I was riding, I wouldn't have minded swapping more stories and stopping three more times and rolling in to town near midnight.  My riding style is just a little different , that's all.  I like to be on the bike, on the road and when in unfamiliar territory, I like to be where I'm going to get that night before dark.

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