Shorter, with no breaks!

Yesterday afternoon we went on a shorter ride. We again headed up the 5 but got off at Torrey Pines so that I could do the big hill. Torrey Pines is a couple of miles long and it's this long, fairly straight climb from the beach to the top of the canyon. One of the cool things about a motorcycle is that it can accelerate FAST! I hit the bottom of the hill at a sedate 40 (I was driving by the beach parking), but when the road cleared up I hit the gas. I swear I was going 75 up the hill! There was no one else on the road, and I slowed down to a sedate (and legal) 45 at the top. Then we headed down the other side of the hill into La Jolla to drive along the coast.

La Jolla's Cove is famous, and is very much a tourist attraction in the summertime.

It's a beautiful ride, but it's a challenge, too. The road is not that well maintained and the parking is right there next to you, and with lost tourists and clueless pedestrians and desperate parkers...well, you get the idea. I was NOT having fun. Thankfully that part of the ride is only 1.5 miles long. When we got away from the coast I dropped my hand to acknowledge an oncoming guy on a chopper. He dropped his hand for me, and in my ear Nick said, "Now you're really a biker." I guess being able to let go of your bars with one hand makes you a biker! ;)

On the freeway coming home the traffic was horrible--I was doing about 15 mph--and I needed to say something to Nick through my Chatterbox. Now, because of my long-ago broken left elbow I can't touch the left side of my head with my left hand. That's where the Chatterbox is, though, so I have to reach across with my right. I reached up to hit the button and...accidentally flipped the kill switch  as my hand let go of the throttle. ACK!!! Thankfully I was in the inside lane, so I just steered over to the shoulder. I put my feet down, figured out what happened, assured Nick that I was okay, and tried to figure out how to get into traffic again. The lovely thing was that traffic was crawling, not racing by. So I only had to get up to about 15mph before I could merge back in at speed. I merged in and we got home safely.

58.5 miles yesterday, with no breaks! We did not stop and relax anywhere. I'm building up, but I was still shot when we got home.  I'll get there.