More fun than a barrel of monkeys

Motorcycling is too much fun.
I rode the best route so far today. I went straight out to Orland on Highway 32 and kept going when it became County Road 200.
If you haven't taken a ride around Black Butte Lake and you live in the area, go do it.
Seriously, just get on a bike and ride out to Black Butte Lake.
It's beautiful. The road is great too, plenty of straight stretches to go fast and plenty of curves to give you a challenge.
The lake itself is nice, there are also a few places to pull over and have lunch, I stopped at the dam overlook, which also has bathrooms. It is marked as "B" on the Black Butte to Willows  route on the map.

A view from the dam overlook.

Getting back on County Road 200, I didn't actually see the lake again, but riding through rolling hills and seeing old barns and cattle in the fields between the buttes, it reminded me that California is such a gorgeous place to live.

There were a couple places where the road was really torn up. One curve had about half the westbound lane completely eroded but potholes were all easily avoidable.

I thought about turning around and going back the way I had come, but decided to drive south on County Road 306, then hit Highway 162 to get back to Chico through Willows.

Taking a quick break.

I stopped at a small cemetery and looked at the gravestones. There were a bunch of Powells which is my dad's family's name (Reidel is my mother's maiden name, long story and not important to this story).

A couple of Powells buried in the Grindstone Cemetery.

With a roughly 20 minutes stop for lunch, this ride took me about 3 hours.
This route will surely be a regular part of my life, I can't wait to go do it again.

Commuting

It's my lunch break.

I rode the bike the work today. There were two court cases I wanted to check out so I rode to Oroville for the first time.

Nelson-Shippee Road is not paved. It's all gravel and I found out too late. To not take the road meant a 15-20 minute extra ride and I was already late. 

Except I wasn't late.

I read the date wrong. The two cases were scheduled for Thursday.

But I did see that Yatee Her was to be sentenced today. So I got to ride back to Oroville.

I took Table Mountain Blvd to Clark to Durham-Dayton Highway.

That's a nice ride. It was a little windy so I didn't go too fast but it was beautiful.

I'm back at the courthouse waiting on Her's sentencing.

It will be interesting to see if the family of the deceased speaks in court.

The above was written Wednesday. Yatee Her was sentenced to 159 years to life for murder.

It took a long time for the judge to call the sentencing. By the time I got back to the office, I had to ride home and finish up the story there because it was almost dark.
My permit doesn't allow me to ride at night or on the freeway, so I had to plan out the route without using the freeway. The stretch of Highway 99 I rode is not freeway, it's a highway, and yes there is a difference, I checked.

The map route is Commute.

Rain, rain go away

Water fell from the sky Monday.

I know it was needed in the worst drought in recent California history, but I didn't have to work and I wanted to ride.

The weather report Sunday night said it would rain the morning and clear up by the afternoon. I thought I could wait that long.

Obsessed with riding now, I checked the weather over and over throughout the morning.

The storm kept coming in.

I thought to myself, OK, I have pat the registration fee to register the bike in my name, I might as well do that now.

It took a little bit of a wait at the DMV, but I got it done.

While I was in the DMV office, reading "The Lord of the Rings" for the upteenth time, the sun came out.

By the time I got home, the clouds were back but the hourly weather forecast said there should be time between 3 and 4 p.m. 

I readied the bike and waited. 

It stopped raining, the sun came out and I waited for the roads to dry a little.

I know after a rain it can be more dangerous because the debris and oils are all sitting on the surface of the road.

Riding is so much different than driving.

You have to be aware of every little thing on the road.

A little bit of dirt on the road can ruin your day when you wipe out on it.

I held on tight and rode the same route I had done before, bbut this time I continued on River Road and crossed the Sacramento River.

Bridges are windy.

So was the rest of the route, it was sunny, but it had just rained.

I made it to Hamilton City, the wind blew me around a little bit and I let cars pass me on County Road 45 because I wasn't confident going too fast with the wind blowing me all over the road.

I eventually made it Hamilton City and turned onto Highway 32. I did stall on at the stoplight in Hamilton City (there's only one stoplight), but I made it the rest of the way without any issues.

It was fun.
The map shows the route I took. You can click on the different elements of the map to see routes and hazards.

First ride

I backed her out of the garage with one goal: River Road.

The slightly winding route that runs along the Sacramento River isn't far, but I had only been around the block a few times.

I made it down the avenue I live on, through one stop light (had to stop, didn't fall over or stall), then pulled up to the intersection of West Sac and Nord Avenue.

If you happened to pass that corner around 11 a.m. Friday, I was the man waving for cars to go around me as I picked up an enormous red Honda Goldwing.

I didn't have any other troubles, and I rode down West Sac all the way to River Road.
Turned the bike down and went to Chico River Road, then I turned around and rode back up to the Pine Creek boat launch.
There's a map of this route at the bottom of the page.

Selfie time.

A photo posted by Dan Reidel (@dan_reidel) on Oct 30, 2015 at 11:36am PDT

The road:

1. A few potholes on the northbound side of River Road in the mile south of the West Sacramento Avenue intersection. Easily avoidable.
2. Some curves, nothing crazy, as a brand new rider I had no problems, but I did slow down.
3. Few other drivers, it seemed a good place to get a handle on riding the bike, doing little things like smoothly shifting and testing actual stopping distance. 

The fastest speed limit along my route was 55 mph and I got the bike going that fast. 

I think I may need a different helmet than the one Dad gave me, it gets pretty loud with the wind at higher speeds.

After doing one loop, I headed home and drove around the neighborhood before I went back to the house. 

Then I skipped going back to the house and rode back out to River Road.

If you happened to pass a man with a huge grin screaming "WHOOOHOOO!" as he rode back and forth on River Road from about 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., that was me.

Eventually I had to go to work.

It's been two days.

All I want to do is ride, but I haven't gotten off work with any daylight left.

Tomorrow.

If the rain stops.