USA4CT - Ride Day 14 - Tour Day 11 - June 11, 2013 - Tue

Start Time: 0600 PDT
Stop Time: 1545 PDT
Start Location:  Laguna Beach, CA
Stop Location: Santa Nella, CA
Lodging: Hotel Mission de Oro
Dinner: Pea Soup Andersen's
Miles Traveled Today: 386
Weather: 60-95, Sunny

We got up early to head out of the Los Angeles basin. Bill knew a good route that was a great motorcycle road. We headed up the Laguna Canyon Road. If you can avoid traffic there are some very scenic nice motorcycle roads in the Los Angeles area!! There was hardly any traffic on the toll roads which helped at the toll station we had to stop at. Had a little traffic on Rt 91 & I-15 but most all of it was heading west in the opposite direction we were going!! Did see a dead cougar that had been hit by a vehicle that night along one freeway. A LA police car was just on the site. It was a really big cougar on the edge of the road. We don't see those hit on the road back east!!

Someone had told me about a good road to take around the north side of the LA basin. I believe that was Blake with the SCMA. Thanks, Blake!! That was I-15 to CA-138 and then the Lake Elizabeth road back to CA-138 and I-5. I also had bookmarked on my GPS, The Rock Inn  at Lake Hughes and we planned to stop there for breakfast. What a fantastic motorcycle road and Inn along the Lake Elizabeth road. This was one of the highlights of the trip. Now, CA-138 was not as good as there was a lot of trucks on this road, but the Lake Elizabeth road was really nice! As we traveled further we started to see the hillsides had recently been burned with a forest fire. That sight triggered in our minds that we had heard on the news recently about some major forest fires north of the LA basin and we realized that we were traveling right in the middle of the fire zone!!!We began to see fire trucks along the road and we could smell the smoke but did not see any fire or smoke so we headed on.

Here is a pic of the hill side that was common along the Lake Elizabeth road:

We could see where the fire had been close to many houses and unfortunately we saw a couple of homes completely burned to the ground. After we got to the Rock Inn, we picked up a copy of the fire incident update. WOW, the fire had only been contained yesterday and 30 homes had been destroyed.

Another dramatic thing we saw from the fire was the melting of vinyl farm fences in the area. This really gave you a feel for the fire intensity and heat!

As we pulled in at The Rock Inn (by the way, in addition to great food, this place has a lot of history and character associated with it. You can click on the name and see the web site.), we saw the banners along the top of the Rock Inn thanking all the firefighters. I don't think we visited a town anywhere on our trip that had friendlier people than Lake Hughes. I don't think a single person that we passed by on the street or inside the Rock Inn didn't stop by to speak to use, ask us where we were from and talk to us about the town and fire. You could tell instantly that it was a nice town with very nice people who cared for each other and their town, BUT at the same time welcomed outside people like Bill and I on motorcycles. One lady told us about the fire and she had been evacuated just the Saturday before. One of her friend's home had been completely burned, but she said they were looking after the family and would recover.

The Rock Inn is a fantastic place to stop for a visit and/or breakfast/lunch/dinner/drinks!! Very nice inside with a lot of character, history and very friendly waitresses.

You could tell they catered to motorcyclists, especially HOGS!!!! hehe

Here was Bill settled down with his coffee reading the morning newspaper:

I had a breakfast burrito and it was fantastic!

Our waitress invited us to tour the upstairs where they still have a historic lodge still in use. Very tastefully restored/maintained. I took a neat picture of our motorcycles looking down from the balcony:

The upstairs lodge lounge area:

The upstairs common area fireplace:

The stairway to the lodge comes right down into the restaurant/bar

On up I-5 we headed after a hearty breakfast and great stop at Lake Hughes. Here was one of our rest stops. This guy on the ground was really taking  the literal meaning of a "rest" stop!!

Time to talk about one other "highlight" of our trip. In preparation for this trip, Bill decided he didn't need a seat bag on his motorcycle so he bought a cooler bag. By the way he found it at Walmart!! (I gotta pick one up for my use before Harley starts marketing it and adding a couple of hundred dollars to the price!! hehe).

Every day on our last gas stop before stopping for a hotel, we would pick up a 6 pack of our favorite beverage, a small bag of ice and stock the cooler on his back seat. The cooler has a plastic removable shell inside it so it didn't leak. Now that was the "cat's meow"!! There was nothing better than an ice cold beverage upon arriving at the hotel (with an apprioprate toast to that days ride!) and then a walk to a restaurant!! Great idea, Bill!!

 

It got pretty hot heading up I-5 that afternoon. Marty, another USA4CT rider from Richmond, VA that was about a week ahead of us, had mentioned a neat hotel he stumbled upon just south of Sacramento so we decided to try it as we were passing by. New owners had been working on it to restore it and it was very nice. Friendly people there too!

Bill out on our room balcony:

The view from our room balcony!!

The owner even gave us dedicated covered parking near our rooms for our motorcycles!! He even brought a water hose by with wash rags and we washed the bikes up that evening. They really needed it as they had not been cleaned since driving through Tropical Storm Andrea in Florida several days ago!!

The evening meal was a little more than a walk (about a mile) so we rode our bikes and got take out at a neat place called Pea Soup Andersen's.

We had a great place to eat out on the room balcony. It was really good pea soup and a great chicken salad sandwich. With the cold beverages from Bill's now famous bike seat cooler, we had a great evening!!