Peninsula Red Riders

Riding alone

Marc Hyman

Anyone who has ridden with the breakfast club for any length of time is well aware of our motto: when you ride with us you ride alone. Sometimes the reason is individual choice; other times the vagaries of happenstance. In my case: karma.

I neglected to make any reservations in Death Valley because "the Stagecoach always has room". The Sunday before the Death Valley ride several comments were aimed at my direction regarding the fallacy of that notion. Sure enough, after an hour or so on the phone Monday I found that the Stagecoach was full, as was the Explorer Club, the Burro, Stovepipe Wells, and the Furnace Creek Ranch. I could get rooms at the Inn, though. Of course I would be the only one there; riding alone, so to speak.

I found Dennis, Ramon, and Jill in front of the donut shop a little before 6:00 AM Friday morning. Mandy pulled up at about 5:59 and wondered if he'd made us wait. Nope. I assured him that we'd have left at 6:00 AM, regardless. That's just another way we help members ride alone.

The morning route was US 101 -> Ca 25 -> breakfast at the Cozy Cup in Hollister -> Ca 25 -> Ca 198 with a stop at the 25/198 junction to regroup, and then into Coalinga for gas and a rest stop. From Coalinga we took Ca 33 -> Ca 46 -> Ca 99. At 99 I split off from the group. I'd planned on taking an interesting route a few weeks back and published my itinerary on the mailing list. The others decided to go the direct route, possibly scared off by Dave G.'s comments about sand and snow. So off I went by myself; when you ride with the breakfast club you ride alone. Before starting on my interesting route I stopped at a mobile station just across highway 99. "Going to Death Valley?" the attendant asked. "Yep." "Where's the rest of your group?" Now how did he know I was with a group? "Going the easy way" I replied. "There was a guy here on a GTS about an hour ago" he said. "Ahhh, I probably know who that was." Golly Dave had read my itinerary and mentioned in email that he'd probably do the same route. "His name was Dave, uh, something that starts with a G." So know I know Golly Dave is about an hour in front of me, also riding alone.

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