Grass Valley Ride, March 31, 2006

Having dinner with Greg on Friday night, he tells us how his business meeting for Saturday fell through and he would be joining us for the ride to Grass Valley. After absorbing that bit of info along with BBQ riblets and a few beers, we decided to head to Jan’s in Orangevale where we were entertained by the local lounge lizards. It was some good fun and we got a few licks in there. Then we headed to Bistro 33 downtown for a few more relaxing hours. Closing the place we headed home where in just a matter of hours we would be leaving again for the Saturday ride to Grass Valley

Before leaving Ron dusts off Greg's bike. Greg thought Ron was doing this as he might be ashamed to ride with him, but the truth is Ron's just a cleaning machine.

We left town somewhere around 10:30AM to Auburn, and up to Grass Valley where we visited the Empire Mines State Park. We pulled into the parking lot and who shows up just behind us? Looks like Les with a couple of his friends all riding Harley’s. So this is what he does when he’s not talking to us on the list? When we see these guys pull in, Patty asked, “isn’t Les on the list”? I assured her he was on the list and is now on the other list too. Two-timer.

Wow, what a fun experience this park is. Very cool place to visit for just $3

This was California’s richest producing gold mine.


The old stone buildings are still well preserved and the grounds are manicured magnificently.

Seeing the massive equipment used was truly interesting

An old rail car


descending into the original mine was intimidating.

We all got a little dizzy being in the mine and didn't want to stay too long


We continued walking around the grounds of the park





As we all showed up here together, we visited the Empire mine together


After seeing most everything, including visiting the owner’s mansion it was time for lunch

We headed towards the exit

Stopping at the gift shop on the way out, Patty buys Ron a stone necklace

Arriving in Grass Valley in search of food.


This place had beer so Greg checks for food. Nope not here.

After asking some locals about restaurants in the area, we chose to eat at the Railroad Café

We were told this place has good food, but I wouldn't recommend it

Greg had a Roast Beef, and we had Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. Both were a little dry, but being very hungry we overlooked that for the most part. Other than that it was OK. However, the decor was fun with little model trains running around on tracks above the seating area.

Les and his troop headed up towards Nevada City


We left going west on 20 taking the Smartville Road south down the east side of Beals AFB

Lush and green, and so the road goes

Whoops! We had to take about 5 or 6 miles of a gravel road with some severe washboards on the surface at times

This is the part where Greg was swearing into his face mask

Lots of happy California cows along the road

We came onto Camp Far West and road around the west side of the lake

Eventually we’re headed west through Wheatland taking country roads all the way back to Citrus Heights.

Greg continued on his way home to make a musical seminar he has planned for the night. We headed to Orangevale to pick up tickets for the Rod Stewart concert we’re attending tonight at ARCO Arena.

Today sure was a pleasant, mellow ride. Except for a few spots of chuckholes and washboards, the roads we’re good and the crowds were light. We rode about 130 miles today. Having run on some dirt, our bikes looked like they’d run the Baja 1000!

http://www.allamericanspeedway.com/

Next, we’ve been talking about a trip through the Golden Chain for next Saturday. Possibly to Daffodil Hill with a little running through the foothills. We’ll come back to Roseville in the early evening and catch the Nascar sanctioned “Weekly Series” racing at the all-new and remodeled “All American Speedway” at the fair grounds.

Think about joining us for this one! More to follow…….