CaFO Exploratory Thread:

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Dang!!!! I will be in Montana that weekend. Let me know if the dates change. This would have been a great one to attend.

 
Let me try to give a quick long-winded geographical/cultural/road rundown of the local area.

The county of San Luis Obispo (SLO) is divided by the Cuesta mountain range, which separates the North County (NC) from the South County (SC). The SC is represented by towns like San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach, Arroyo Grande, Santa Maria, while the NC is represented by Santa Margarita, Atascadero, Paso Robles, and CRESTON, home of Silent's favorite restaurant! (Sorry Silent, I should have taken y'all to the Loading Chute, the food there is really EXCELLENT, charbroiled steak, sea food, shrimpies, ummm,, but you seemed to enjoy the burger just as well)... but I digress.

The SC is more 'cultured' with Cal Poly State University and the Performing Arts Center, Christopher Cohen center, and university environment. Downtown SLO features a Farmers Market every Thursday that is really fun, and is the place big city cousins like to relax in; it's a 'small' town by LA/SF standards with a SLO attitude. SLO is also a very expensive piece of real estate, and no offense to my southern and northern cousins, but many a SF/LA folk has moved into SLO with the unfortunate result of them wanting to 'rebuild' SLO to look like LA, e.g huge tall buildings, big box stores, etc. IMHO of course; buy me a whiskey and I'll give you proof!

The NC, although, has been picking up the cultural pace. It's the place where 'affordable housing' is still available, whatever that means. Median house prices are much lower the SC, the job market from both industrial and technical is growing by leaps and bounds, yet its primary city, Paso Robles, is starting to lose the home town roots it was founded upon. Some look at this as progress, some lament the loss. The town tries to remain true to it's farming and ranching roots, as evidenced by the herd of cattle ran right down through main street every year to commence the start of the Paso Robles fair. Hey, we have big name stars at this fair!

The SC is blessed with more temperate weather due to the Los Osos Valley which provides a direct path to the cooling ocean breezes. The NC is blocked by the Santa Lucia mountain range, and thus has greater weather diversity; it regularly sees 100+F days in the summer and 17F mornings in the winter. This also explains how, in the summer, Morro Bay can be 59F and Paso Robles can be at 100F. The marine layer soaks Morro Bay, while Paso Robles sees none of the cool air and roasts.

Both counties have acres and acres of wineries. Each area produces grapes best suited to the environement. I'm not a wine guy, so I can't speak with authority, but I *think* the lighter wines like pinot noir are found in the SC while heartier wines come from the NC. But once again, that's just a best guess, Alex. (TWN and real men drink Whiskey, not babbly boobly wine!)

What does this mean to you for this ride? Well, the NC will be in 'fall'; trees will be turning color, loosing leaves, and tarantulas should still be crawling around, although they will at the end of their migration period. In other words, you will see more weather diversity on a NC ride rather than a SC ride.

OK, what does this really mean?

The NC early morning will have a bite in the air. It will feel like fall, nippy, yet with promise of warmth. You may find backroads that have Oak, Pine, and Sycamore leaves in the corners. The SC will be 'nicer' in the morning. You won't need to layer at all, even with an early start. Both NC and SC have good roads, although the NC has better twisties, more miles of them, and is, overall, the better ride.

I took Barabus on a 2 day excursion, covering ~70% of the NC rides that are within Candy Butt Association tolerances, and, at the end of day two, without repeating a single road, Barry made the comment I hadn't yet realized. He said 'the nice thing about this area is that you can ride all backroads without having to slab to get there; they are all good'. Or words to that effect. The NC geographical area is huge, as you bound North of Paso Robles, you can go East or West and simply be in the middle of nowhere on really good, fast, technical roads.

OK, my 'short' post has turned into a diatribe. Let me leave y'all with some teasers.

Carissa Plains

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The Pozo Saloon (best on a Sunday, in biz since 1858! - wooden floors, music, slow food delivery, google 'pozo saloon' for a lousy web site - although they do have GREAT concerts there.. Big n Rich,Charlie Daniels, Willie Nelson, etc.

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Nitwit Ridge - Cambria, on the coast

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Naciemento-Ferguson ride (bring your reg/drivers license)

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They really DO check!

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Great eatin at a down home diner.. (San Miguel)

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On a personal note, this is the worst possible weekend for me. As a computer geek, I have a huge upgrade rolling into prod the Friday before this event. If it goes good, I'll be able to spend all weekend with you. If not, I won't. Simple as that. I will, however, provide MapSource routes of the best roads, at least in the NC, for y'all. If a SC peep wants to step up to provide routes, now is the time!

One last thought - I've contacted a bud who works at a hotel, nicer than the one JB suggested, and near by. I'll keep you posted - it's a longshot but I'll give it a try; will post next Tuesday at the latest.

 
As a computer geek, I have a huge upgrade rolling into prod the Friday before this event. If it goes good, I'll be able to spend all weekend with you. If not, I won't. Simple as that.
If you're a good computer geek, you'll get to spend the weekend with the FJR peeps. If you're a lousy computer geek, you won't. Simple as that. And then we'll all know just what level of geek you really are, besides being a candy-ass. :rolleyes:

 
Very nice pix Don.

We spent some time in, and around SLO last summer (without the bikes, sadly). I found the historic district just fascinating to walk around. The homes are just gorgeous to look at, right out of another era. It was such a contrast to L.A.

Jill

 
"It will feel like fall, nippy, yet with promise of warmth." -dcarver

With talk like that, are you sure you aren't a wino?

 
It's all good, he meant to say "nippley", which brings him back to the manly whiskey category, right?

 
I would love to make this meet. I've been riding with and organizing the NorCal chapter WBVMC. Thease guys all ride HD's. It makes for really long 200 mile days.

Unfortunatly I'm performing in Alameda. The show, Mornings At Seven, opens 19 Oct and runs weekends through 19 Nov. I'm out of this one.

Later all

Tim

 
Damn it. I missed my 'big ride' this year so was looking for another opportunity. Unfortunately, my tattoo artists (one from NYC and another from Japan) will be at the San Jose Tattoo Convention that weekend.

 
So now we have two rides, one Oct 6, 07 meet and greet and ride two Oct 26-28, 07 the CaFo ride

Is it safe to say the Oct 6 ride is still on or is everyone confused??? Thanks JB

Is it safe to say the Oct. 26-28 ride is still on???? Thanks JB

I need to decide which one to go to, unless J B is paying with his fat wallet for a cheap motel for me.... :yahoo:

 
All I have to say is ride what you can and miss what you can't. Life is full of choices and as long as you can ride, not much else matters. Atleast JB is riding and planning and putting it out there for the rest of us to have a choice. Thanks JB for giving us a choice. I may not make this one, but I have the choice because of you. :D

 
So now we have two rides, one Oct 6, 07 meet and greet and ride two Oct 26-28, 07 the CaFo ride
I guess I missed the Forum rule that says Only One Planned Ride Per Month.... :blink:
Gunny +1

The problem is usually that there are no or few planned rides in CA. I'd rather have the problem of having too many and being unable to make all of them than be sitting around twiddling my thumbs for months on end wondering when the hooligans were going to be coming out to play again...



To recap...

Twowheelnut had a ride-in lunch at Pinks in Hollywood on September 9th.

There is no planned ride this weekend, but several forum members went on a dual-sport excursion.

There is no planned ride for the weekend of 9/21, but there are awesome air races going on Saturday down here in San Diego (www.redbullairraces.com)

The "33" ride is two weeks from now, Sunday, Sept 29, organized by Barabus. This is simply a "meet-up and let's ride".

The ride-in lunch at Avila is the next weekend, Saturday, October 6, organized by Mr. Blue. This is "let's meet here for lunch" gathering, although some will surely ride somewhere together that afternoon on the way home.

There is no planned ride for the weekend of 10/13

The SPANK rally begins Thursday, October 18 and concludes Saturday, October 20, down in Escondido, organized by beeroux.

The CaFO gathering, as planned in this thread, is the weekend of Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28, organized by the magnanimous James Burleigh.

This concludes your Sept - October Cali activity overview. ;) We now return you to your sedentary web surfing.

 
Nice recap there Rayban. I must admit to being just a tad disappointed though. How come the prime riding season in CA has taken off while I'm still off the bike?

Hope this frequency of rides carries on, once I'm able to participate.

Jill

 
Please do not micconstrue what I have asked. Ah, two rides that is a good thing, I will have to attend both.

So I will plan accordingly and that is prepare for two rides.

I would like to personally thank none other than the honorable Mr. J. Burleigh for putting this ride together.

It will be a pleasure having some of the middle Ca riders show us some of there treasured back roads.

If in doubt and have trouble financing your rides, do as I do, I go to the bank of J. BURLEIGH in Ca. he is a one stop shop

for rider financing, fast, easy and friendly to deal with, with an easy re-payment plan.... :yahoo: :yahoo:

This announcement has be paid for by the Burleigh financial instutition for advertisement.. :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

 
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