09-03-14 The Hills Of San Diego County

[johnny]

a crazy thing happened saturday morning... micki and i were going to go ride san diego county s1 and s2... she had been sick for a few days and wasnt up for it... so i headed out 1 up for the hills i had not ridden before...

i roll into the usual meet spot for group rides... the shell at the 15 and the 79 in temecula... i was minding my own business when i saw a fjr rider in motoport gear... looked like fjrme but wasnt sure because i had only met him once on the matthewp big bear ride... well it was fjrme... he was down from san jacito and was gonna make run of the sunrise highway...

well now... come to find out the s1 is the sunrise highway... interesting...

then a reddish bmw pulled in... it maybe red if it ever got washed and waxed... it was jeffeverde pulling in to top off... he was out for short ride on bald tires... he said he though he could make it around the hills of san diego county and back home... cough... just trying to get every last dollar of rubber... and steel... i guess...

then about the same time i see a silver viffer and a red viffer pull in... nvr2l8 from the death valley ride was on the silver viffer... and viffergryl was on the red viffer... seems like we all had similar plans... kinda... borrego  and sunrise anyway...



the fog was getting ready to break up... sooner the better... visibility was down to less than 100 feet...



so we joined forces and headed to sweeper madness... the s22 n s3... montuzuma valley road... the fog eventually broke and we has sun the rest of the day...











then we headed out on the s3 to the 79 to the s2... also known as the great southern overland stage route of 1849... it was a fine road... not twistie but good scenery as we headed into the desert arriving on ocotillo...





we stopped to see where we are headed... at the end of the day we will be on the top the that ridge there in the distance...









the s22 to ocotillo...















after a closer inspection of the metzeler z6... jeffeverde was gonna head home... but then the idea of a blow out on some deserted road with no cell coverage came into play... we all got on the 8 and headed towards san diego... right lane... 60 mph... hoping for the best... we stopped once to take a look and decided to keep going to viejas...





the slab... not too much traffic on the 8...



we make it to viejas and jv decided not to continue... so he made a call to the keeper of the trailer and was going to wait to be fetched... we decided to get some lunch to help jv kill time and to refuel ourselves for the roads south of the 8 and then the ride home on the sunrise highway... we opted for the casio buffet... no photos... it was a casio buffet... got the picture...

we left jeffeverde in the parking lot with his trailer enroute... fjrme headed back home via the sunrise highway... nvr2l8 and viffergryl and jo headed out to lyons valley and japatul valley...

we stopped to see blackjack the donkey... son of elmer the donkey... i was too late to meet blackjack... he passed away in january... i hear he a fine donkey and hammed it up for the bikers who frequently stopped to visit him...

his memorial... cardboard now... but i hear a proper memorial is on the way...





in remembrance... i ripped these from some of his loyal fans...







rolling on... rip blackjack...







lyons and japatul...









sunrise highway...













looking down to where we were many hours ago...







bypassing the tourist trap knows as julian... took mesa grande and engineers... yeeeeehaaaa...























the lilac overpass... the 15... escondidio this way....



temecula this way...



we split up here... viffergryl went her way... nvr2l8 and jo rode the ortega to the 5 and split up... the ortega at night... yummy...

j o