Southern California - meeting up with Frankenduck Oct 2011

[Crapdealerbob]

Donna & I planned an overnight to southern CA., Frankenduck was in the vicinity - so we met him in Big Bear City and spent some quality Motobricking time together.

The route

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We left Las Vegas at 5:15 - first stop in Primm, NV.  for coffee & gas



Early morning on I 15, riding with the sunrise



It was a nice cool ride, needed a pit stop in Baker, CA.  Had to get a pic of the world's largest thermometer



South on HWY 247



Into Big Bear, riding around the lake



Frankenduck was waiting for us on the bridge



Into Big Bear for coffee, then off we go.  We now had our very own tour guide



Following the Duck on HWY 18





Great riding and scenery



OK, we are having fun now



Donna is getting pretty good with the camera as we take some fun curves



Going down



Onto I 10, heading east towards Banning, CA.



We took HWY 243, stopped at a pull off, great view of the valley



Another pull off



Caution:  fast low flying Duck !!



Great riding on HWY 74



The "Granny" knot on HWY 74



Into Rancho Mirage, CA. on HWY 111



Luxury accommodations in Rancho Mirage



The Duck took us to the Grind, had some good burgers & onion rings.  Great ending to a perfect day of riding.



Our luxury motel didn't have a coffee pot, so it's down to the Circle K for early morning 5 am. coffee



We met Franken the next morning, he put one of his LED kits on my bike



I supervised the work...(notice I don't touch anything - hands kept in pockets)



Thanks again Duck for the visit and doing a little work on the bike for us !!  We will have to do this again !!

Off east bound on I 10



Frankenduck recommended the Patton Museum at Chiriaco Summit, so we stopped there and had breakfast, and toured the museum











One more cold drink before we hit the road



We had planned on riding through the Joshua Tree National Park, but the road was closed, so we decided to take HWY 177 north & HWY 62 to Needles, CA.

North on HWY 177



If anyone is  looking for HWY's with "dips"  - 177 & 62 are the roads for you.  Not much to look at, but fun riding on the wide open desert.  We stopped at Rice, CA. - what used to be some kind of structure, now a place for people to throw pairs of shoes over the lights - somewhat odd, along with a strange greeting







We stopped at Vidal junction for a cold drink



North on HWY 95, more dips and wide open nothingness



but, good riding





Construction zone just south of Needles, about a 20 minute wait



Almost to Needles



We gassed up in Needles and had some Mexican food, then back onto HWY 95 north



Nice sunset on the way north



We arrived back in Vegas around 6:15 this time, avoided the rush hour



The LED kit that Frankenduck put in looks great, a nice emerald green glow - highly recommended!  Picture really doesn't capture how it glows such a green color



Total miles for this overnighter - 708.  Some of the best riding we have done!

We really enjoyed meeting Frankenduck - thanks again for riding with us and showing us around.

We look forward to doing this again!

[DRxBMW]

"If anyone is  looking for HWY's with "dips"  - 177 & 62 are the roads for you.  Not much to look at, but fun riding on the wide open desert.  We stopped at Rice, CA. - what used to be some kind of structure, now a place for people to throw pairs of shoes over the lights - somewhat odd, along with a strange greeting"


What's up with the shoe trees lately ?

Here in the Mid Atlantic, numerous trees with 10 or more pairs of sneakers dangling from them. Some appear to be almost brand new.

Kids, most likely part of being punked. 

[Crapdealerbob]

Forgot to add - I now know what a "puck" is....a frozen hamburger patty.

Motobrick dictionary still needed for us Noobs !!

[johnny]

very nice there cdb... dont puck me bro...

dig these...





the highway 50 shoe tree in nevada was the kingpin of all shoe trees...

photos here...

but it was chopped down last year... boooooooooo...



j o

[frankenduck]

62

62 - Winter 08:

Same day:

Those corner pics that Donna shot are quite good!

[mystic red]

This one is a dandy, Duck!



Nice RR, CDB.

[frankenduck]

This one is a dandy, Duck!

CDB gets the credit for that one.  He's got a Nikon SLR and knows what he's doing.

[Crapdealerbob]

Here are a couple that Frankenduck sent me...



I like this one





Johnny - Yep, Donna is getting to be a pretty good backseat photo - taker

[frankenduck]

Finally getting around to adding my pics to this thread....

My route for the day.   I met up with CDB and Donna at the bridge across Big Bear Lake. (B on my map)

After about 50 miles of slabbing I-10, I headed up 38 to Big Bear. 38 is the sweepy/twisty "back route"" to BB so there usually isn't much traffic on it. ;D  It was looking a little cloudy/foggy at first.

But it cleared up pretty quickly for a nice morning ride:

It was a little nippy at the 8,443 pass on 38 but not too bad:

A lovely morning in Big Bear:

Big Bear Lake:

Panorama shot:

My riding buddies had arrived:

After a Starbuck's visit and riding 18 down to Redlands we gassed up at the Chevron:

I'd never been to this chain before but it looked promising since there were a fair number of cars in the parking lot:

Very mediocre puckage, barely an idle on the motobrickoburgometer

Then we headed east on I-10 to Banning and headed up the very twisty-licious 243.  We stopped about half way up for a good view of the valley below:

Motobrick poser shot:

After Idyllwild we headed towards Palm Desert on 74:

For dinner we went to "The GRIND BRGR BaR" in Palm Springs. This is their evlevator:

Easily 3/4+ revs on the motobrickoburgometer. 

Pretty good O-rings too....

The next morning CDB and Donna stopped by for installation of instrument cluster LEDs:

And then headed back to the land of sin....