My First Bike Road Trip

Slowly and patiently I waited for it. And then finally one day the oppurtunity arrived. I wiped out my card and punched on the keys. Black and yellow leather jackets with vents. Plus additional armour for back and elbows. All just for $150 plus shipping and handling. Thanks to the clearance sale on newenough.com!!

Though I haven't got leather pants yet I was getting eager for my first freeway ride, my first road-trip on my bike. November 19, 2005 was when it all happened. My friend, who owns a Suzuki Katana 600cc, called me for a bike road-trip to Napa valley - the place of the World famous California wineries. I reached his place in Mountain View early in the morning at 8am. We filled up the gas tank of our bikes and started on freeway 237. Its a smaller freeway and not crowded at all on weekends. Started going on 65mph using 4 or 5th gear. Then we merged into 880N going to Fremont. And then the fun began. The two of us stuck with the rightmost lane and maintained about 75mph throughout. I had to very careful with the merging and exiting traffic all the time. Plus the lane had grooves at some places. My bike would give a little shake as I would go over them. A little scary. In the end reached a apartment complex in Fremont and I was so excited. I started talking like a little kid high on sugar. "Weee..." "It was awesome.." "Did u see I touch 80mph at one point..." "The bike was shaking and I was holding on soo tight..."

Then we met up with 10 more people who had decided to drive to Napa in a SUV and a sedan car. We decided to sync up with them at Napa directly as we would be going slowly and taking pit-stops for gas. The two of us hit the roads again. The route was 680N, 780E, 37W and then 29N into Napa Valley downtown. With a little confidence built up I start cruising at 80-85 mph and this time we were in the second to the leftmost lane. The sound of the air rushing through my helmet was deafening. Turning my head to check out blind spot felt like fighting against a marine who wanted to snap my neck. Every other bike rider was waving at me like we were old buddies saying "whaass up?" to each other. Only this was at 80 mph!!! Taking the gradual curves of the freeway was easy. But it felt good to have finally taken the freeway. When we reached the visitors center there was no sign of the SUV. Called up the gang and found that they had taken a little pit-stop. We waited for them at the side of the road and soon we were riding the streets of downtown looking for parking. All of the car people just kept calling us show-offs. Well its just the bike that makes them feel that way. I say they are jealous.

After our falafal lunch we started for Robert Mondavi winery. All the grape-wines had turned a golden color. It was a breath taking scenery with the California sun shining and the road passing between the wineries.


Here is a picture of the winery courtyard.






Here is the hot Ninja babe and me...




The pure gold wineries...











The return journey was even more exciting. We started at around 3pm from Napa. This time somehow the freeways seemed to be much longer. We made a quick stop to check if we were on the right track. The map said that it was all fine. Why? it didn't take soo much time when we going to Napa on the same road. Finally we get onto 680S and then the speedometer just kept moving up. Soon I was riding 90 mph!!! Suddenly going at 75 or 80mph felts sooo slow. We took one pit-stop for gas and stretched out our aching backs. My arms felt strained. The last pit-stop on this road-trip was at a starbucks for a tazo chai latte. When I reached home I was sooo dead tired. Called my best friend and told him to pick me for the dinner plans. I soo not in the mood to drive. I just wanted to sleep in the back-seat!!!

My friend Umesh and I at a starbucks on our return journey.