Catchin up on two weeks

The month of June has been reserved for visitors to the Karen B&B here in San Diego. The first of my scheduled guests is my friend Bridie who arrived on Friday. Even though I'm almost 15 years her senior, we've been sharing adventures ever since we became friends during my USOC internship 5 years ago. The last time I saw Bridie was in MA at the wedding ceremony I performed for Deb & Karin last fall. She's just graduated from Cornell University and is taking a little vacation time before joining the rest of us in the rat race of making a living.

After hearing that I just upped and took a motorcycle safety class on my own a couple of years ago, Bridie decided to do the same and ended up buying a 1995 Yamaha Virago 250 shortly thereafter. Although she rides her bike quite often during the warm months, New York isn't conducive to year-round riding in order to gain experience. Up until today, her longest time in the saddle was 70 miles or just a couple of hours. When she decided to come out here for a weeks' vacation, she tossed around the thought of renting a similar small bike to scoot around on. Needless to say, I steered her towards at least an 883 HD Sportster, which we picked up on Friday. We rolled around locally for the afternoon to allow her to get used to the bike, then went for a full on day of riding today.

After only a day of riding, you would think she's been riding a "bigger " bike all her life! It was so much fun to look in my rear view mirror and see Bridie grinning from ear to ear as we navigated winding valley and mountain roads for much of the day. We took off this morning from Coronado and headed south-east on Hwy 94. After checking out the border at Tecate (we decided not to go down to Mexico today), we stopped in Campo for a great roadside diner lunch.

From there, we took S1 Scenic Byway to the heart of Cleveland National Forest- Mount Laguna. I had been up to this 6000 foot road known as Sunrise Hwy before, but it was a totally different experience during this upper-80s degree day! There were a ton of bikes out on the road today skirting the eastern edge of the National Forest with hairpin turns overlooking the California Desert. It was pretty technical riding, but Bridie held her own as we maintained a steady pace on the uncrowded mountain roads.

After exiting the National Forest, we descended into the historic town of Julian where we stopped to stretch our legs. The main street was lined with bikes of every make and model with folks strolling along the streets enjoying afternoon refreshments. We popped into a local "soda fountain" where I enjoyed a delicious chocolate shake! I was able to alleviate some of the guilt over this indulgence by reminding myself that I had worked out for over an hour this morning before we set off on our road trip (unlike Bridie who decided to catch up on some beauty sleep)!

After 5 hours in the saddle and over 175 miles clocked on the odometer, we rolled back into Coronado to celebrate the day. We stopped off at my favorite local wine shop and picked up a tasty beverage for the evening. We packed a little picnic basket of crackers, cheese, humus, fruit and wine and headed to the beach. We hung out there for a few hours catching up while snacking and enjoying some great wine. The day was perfect- adventurous yet relaxing! In typical Karen fashion, we have no plans for the rest of her time here in Southern California, but we have no doubts that the next few days will involve some two-wheeled adventures. We'll start off tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee and the map spread out on the table. Who knows what the day will bring. . .