The coronavirus lockdowns caused a ton of tragedies across the world. We were blessed that the only real tragedy was that the RedHaired Girl and I were unable to journey to California to witness the First Grandchild’s birth. Those of a certain age can bear witness to the momentousness of such an event. Since the Eldest Daughter had the support of most of the family, we decided to wait for the First Birthday for our visit.
I’m happy to report that we were able to squeeze a great deal of family time into a short period time for this trip.
Westbound Planes and Motorcycles
We did another of our complicated fly/ride/ fly home schedules for this trip. My Red-Haired Girl flew to the Golden State on a Sunday to spend a week with the family and play with the wee one in the days leading up to her first birthday. On Tuesday evening from Houston, I left on the Indian and headed for rendevous outside San Diego on Thursday evening. Dear Bonus Daughter flew out from Houston on Wednesday after work to San Diego. Confused? Yeah, me too. I just knew I had to be in SD on Thursday night!
The trip out for all of us was relatively uneventful; the girl’s flights were easy, my ride was all about casually making time. That means not trying to set any Iron Butt records, but not meandering either. A good balance.
California Dreamin
Friday was a good day. We dropped the bike off with the folks at San Diego Indian for a 20k mile service, then spent the day with the in-laws driving around the area in the rain (glad we were in the truck). Very low stress and laughs were had all around.
The Ride
Saturday was the day. Family ride! Bonus Dad & Daughter ride! Well, first, some ‘chores.’ SD Indian didn’t have my bike ready until LATE Friday + it was raining pretty hard, so we all agreed that Saturday early AM would be the best time to pick it up. My father-in-law (“Dad”) came to pick me up in his truck to give me a ride over to get my bike, and then he had to stop by his house to get his bike. Finally, we were all at our hotel and ready to depart.
RHG hopped on behind her Dad, and DBD climbed aboard behind me. Following along behind was Eldest Daughter with husband and First Grandchild in their car. Looks like we got us a convoy, albeit a tiny one.
We wound along through Chula Vista, then on CA-67 through Lakeside, CA, stopping for a little break in Santa Ysabel at Dudley’s for a soft drink and pee break. Well, and of course some photo ops! Above is the four of us bad-ass biker types. Below is a pic of our girls, all three generations of them!
Back on the road, we continued up CA-79 to Julian, CA. It was a beautiful ride up the 4,200+ change in elevation from Imperial Beach, where we started.
Julian !
Once we got into Julian and secured parking for the bikes and the car ( separate areas by necessity ), we began to explore. Since half of us had been here just the day before, there were a couple of stops we already had planned. The first stop was Quinn Knives, where everyone bought a knife (or two), and we had a good visit with the gentleman working the counter. It’s a great little knife shop with very reasonable prices for quality blades. None of that cheap flea market crap here!
After a bit more shopping, we rallied the troops and headed to Miner’s Diner on Main Street for lunch. I’d love to come back here during the week when all the touristy types from San Diego aren’t packing the place. It was tight squeezing all 7 of us at a table, but the staff there managed. The service was surprisingly good, considering how absolutely packed the place was. And the food… Mmmmm. I mean, it is burgers and sandwiches, not fine dining, but damn it was good. My Reuben was just about perfect, and everyone around the table seemed pretty happy, considering the conversation basically stopped while we chowed down.
Headed home…. to the hotel.
After lunch, we mounted up and headed back down to Imperial Beach, this time without stopping at Dudley’s, sadly. Once we got back, we dropped off the bikes, loaded into Dad’s truck to go to the family home to hang around for the evening. I’ll be honest, Dad and I hung out in the garage and talked bikes the whole time!
As the evening wore on and the kids headed to bed, Dad took us back to the hotel after a brief stop at Baskin-Robbins for a wee snack! A couple of drinks at the hotel bar, and our day was done.
It was a great day on the bikes, and being able to ride with Dad and the girls was a highlight for him and me. We are all getting older and live so far apart; we don’t know when or even if we’ll get another chance to have a day like this. I could see the joy in Dad’s eyes that mirrored my own. I am thankful that we were able to do this, at least this one time. Thankful we could ride with our daughters together. Another memory I’ll always treasure.
May there always be Morstuph!