Observatory Ride

Yesterday I was checking over Jenny's bike and discovered the front brake pads were about worn out, so we made a quick run to the downtown San Francisco Cycle Gear and bought some new ones that I installed:

I also tried to lube the clutch cable but was not too successful without the cable lubing tool that pressure feeds lube down the the length of the cable. Jenny suggested an early start today for our ride to Lick observatory so that we could beat the traffic. We stopped for breakfast on the way at "Just Breakfast" in San Jose:

Her suggestion to start early was right on the mark as we had no traffic on the way up to the observatory on one of the best roads I have been on. It's only flaw was that it was a little bumpy. Here is a pic of my GPS when we got to the top:

Now that's a curve:

Some more pics taken at the top:

I could hardly believe it, but the ride down the backside of the mountain was even better. The road was smoother and had more "flow" to it. You can never have too many curves, but I found you can have enough, and by the time we got down off the mountain I had had enough. At one point it got kind of narrow and there were even a couple of water crossings. Who needs an adventure bike?

There were more views of the beauty of California after a rainy year:

What is a ride to San Francisco without a stop at Alice's Restaurant? So we went by there on the way back, but it was such a jam up, with no parking even for motorcycles that we just kept on going. We got back to Jen's around 3pm and a cold PBR and a snack really hit the spot:

Tomorrow I head back. Maybe I can get to grant's Pass which will allow me to beat the Portland rush hour on Tuesday.