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Southwest Spring Desert Tour
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Arizona, California and Nevada
March 18 - 27, 2005
Tuesday, March 22 Indio, CA to Sun City, CA 151 miles
Day 3: Riding twisties in So Cal
I woke up with a headache today. The Quality Inn actually had excellent complimentary breakfast, sausage and scrambled eggs and muffins. As I opened up the phone book I realized, at least we were in So Cal. Getting MC tires should be easy. I was wrong. There were a few motorcycle dealerships in the area and I was shocked that 1) they didn’t have a back tire in stock to fit my bike 2) they couldn’t mount a tire while we waited 3) they wanted to charge me an arm and a leg.
After almost two hours of phone calls we decided to go to 10 West Motorsports in 1000 Palms. They did not guarantee fast service but at least their prices were reasonable and they had a few tires in stock. It was 56 degrees when I woke up and well in the 60’s when we left Quality Inn at 10AM. Leaving so late and there was rain in the forecast for the afternoon, it was beginning to look like a short riding day. I had never ridden with a nail in my tire, everything felt fine but just knowing that it was there made me uneasy. I stayed in the right lane just in case. At 10 West Motorsports the selection was slim, so I picked a BTO12. It was a beautiful day outside and we spend about two hours waiting in the sun for the bike to be done. The temperatures peaked in to the mid 70’s but soon after clouds started to roll in and the temperatures got cooler. The bike was done and we left just after 12PM. I tried to salvage as much of the route as I could for today. Since we were staying with Brian’s dad tonight in Sun City we would have to skip Montezuma Grade, 78 though Julian, Mesa Grade and Palomar Mountain.
We continued on I-10 West towards Banning. It was very gusty on the highway. I had a tough time staying in my lane at times. On the horizon I noticed huge windmills, so many of them, over a hundred or at least. No wonder they put them there it was unbelievably windy here. We got gas in Banning, again pre-pay only. What’s with this place? The stations have credit card readers but you can’t use them. The sky was covered by dark clouds now and it was very cold. We put on some more layers and headed toward 341 South. The signs were not very clear but we found it. What a great road this turned out to be. This is one of those roads where the curves flow just right, not too tight or tricky, you can rail though them easily in third gear, take some of the tighter ones in second. My tires were new and I took it easy. All along the road there were spots to pull over for pictures. The road climbed up pretty quick to 6500 feet, first through some canyons then though a forest. The views from the road were amazing and you can see for miles from the top. There was a bit of traffic on this road and it wouldn’t be until we got to the top that we realized that people live here. As a matter of a fact the school was letting out when we passed though. There were cars everywhere and school busses. It was pretty cold up at the top too somewhere in the 40’s. It threatened to rain on us here but never did, I was just crossing my fingers that we would make it to Sun City before the rain started. I still wanted to get some riding in today. We were running late and decided that the granola bars that we brought with would have to do for lunch, we couldn’t afford to stop anywhere since we wanted to arrive at Brian’s dad’s about 5PM.
We passed though the town of Idyllwild which is nestled in the San Jacinto mountains, set among tall pines and sweet smelling cedars. It was very cute, a great place to have lunch, if we had time. Next we took 74 South, which has some tight curves at first but it straightened out quick, both of these roads travel through the San Bernardino National Forest. Then 371 West, which had nice views and sweepers, a bit on 79 west and we finally turned North on our final twisty road of the day - R3. This road was also twisty but also very narrow and the pavement looked like it was pee-graveled. There was a bit less traffic here and also nice scenery. One section of the road was flooded and muddy but not too bad.
As we entered Hemet, there was a lot of traffic. We turned on 74 West and headed toward Sun City which was not that far away. The skies been looking darker and darker since turning off R3 and it had finally started raining around Homeland. I pulled off in to a gas station, wanting some of the oil to wash away from the road and mostly hoping that it would stop, but it didn’t. 30 minutes later we continued. The traffic was heavy since it was rush hour. We arrived in Sun City, and found Brian’s dad’s place around 6PM. Then it really started pouring. We had dinner at the local Coco’s where Brian and I both had quiche. All night it poured with intensity. The forecast was calling for many more days of rain with another storm system hitting this Thursday. I was counting on the weather people to be wrong about the forecast, as they usually are. I certainly didn’t want to ride around in the rain for the rest of the trip.
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