Additional comments from the present (Sep. 12, 2019): I didn’t plan on just recapping what happened a year ago, however… I came across this stuff, and found it worth sharing. Mostly because biplanes are flippin’ awesome, and the events of the 25th were just interesting. Interesting enough to share.

Aug. 18, 2018

Today, I flew in a biplane. A 1940 Waco UPF-7, to be exact. It was… amazing!

I happened to be in Seattle for work, so I extended my trip through the weekend to spend time with some friends. As it was their anniversary weekend there was a pretty cool surprise planned for Gary, and I was lucky enough to get to tag along. Biplane ride over Seattle!

Aug. 25, 2018

Sometimes you take the long-ish way to Morro Bay. 280 exploratory miles before lunch.

It isn’t every day you run into someone wandering the Ojai backroads alone. Nor is it every day they flag you down for help. More than likely, that rare occurrence is less likely to end up being a young lady on acid missing her friends, and having a bad trip. I assume all of this is not an every day occurrence due to the simple fact that it does not occur in my daily life. Imagine that.

At any rate, I stayed with said young lady until we could get some extra help. Somehow I doubt very much a motorcycle would be the ideal conveyance for a woman in this particular situation. Decent deed done I suppose.

Today was supposed to be day 1 of an overnight road trip to nowhere (well, Big Sur). It ended up being 598 meandering miles, and only saw me make it as far north as Atascadero.

Left my house just after 6, but by the time I ate something, fueled up, and generally lollygagged it was closer to 6:45 when I finally hit the superslab. Yawn.

Rode up towards Gorman, not realizing the rally was today. So some surprise rally cars on the road were cool to see. Noticed the old road over to Grapevine is mostly still there so explored that, including some unpaved stretches that weren’t challenging, but certainly fun.

I rode the boring way up so I could connect with Hwy 58, a lonely, desolate, winding ribbon of mostly good tarmac packed with all manner of corner, broken up by all manner of dead straight madness. Some interesting spots where air could certainly be had. Allegedly.

After that, and barely making it to the gas station, I wandered to Morro Bay for a burger. It was good, but not memorable enough to have tried to remember the places name. The view was, as always is in Morro Bay, beautiful.

I enjoyed the winding road here so much, and I’ve done 1 enough times that I was ok changing things up, so I decided to throw my original plan out the window in favor of a new one: chase more twisting roads somewhere else.

That somewhere else ended up sending me south on the 101 to intersect with the 166, turning east towards Ojai. The 166 isn’t anything incredible, but it does have a few moments that are smile worthy. The real reason for it (at least for me) is that it delivers you to the 33 to Ojai.

Oh yeah! So. Much. Fun. Fast. Slow. Mostly empty. Elevation gains. Elevation losses. Insane scenery. Totally worth the change in plans. I’ll be back to 33, I’m sure of it.

After that I just kept going towards home, calling off the overnight in favor of booking it back to my own bed. Nearly 12 hours later I ended back where I started.

Didn’t take many pictures, was too busy riding. Pretty damn good Saturday I think. Time to find some dinner, and pass out.

Another observation, maybe two. The beast is a bear to split with the boxes on. Until you get a good feel for the extra width, then easy-peasy. Second, not sure why hating people lane splitting means it’s ok to attempt murder, but it seems to be how it goes. Absolutely nutty logic.

Remember, friends: safety third.