Wednesday, July 7, 2010

To Find The Perfect Road.


Living in Northern California, there is an excessive amount of beautiful back roads and highways to explore. I am always on the quest to find the perfect road to fit me and my scoot. While what I want to experience on my ride may vary day to day, currently my list topper is HWY128.

You might be wondering what makes a perfect road, being that perfection is subjective. In my book it usually has to include a few things....Tight twisty turns, long sweeping curves, fast zippy straight a ways, outstanding scenery, minimal traffic and an awesome destination.

Too much to ask for, you might say. Not when you riding the route from Winters to Calistoga CA. Hop onto this highway about 30 min northwest of Sacramento, and 10 miles out of town you'll be climbing over the Coastal Range along Lake Barryessa. From there, you can take a few different paths to get over to Napa/St. Helena/Calistoga. Passing along the way rolling hills with oak trees covered in Spanish Moss, vineyards and spectacular views.

When you pop out in the valley, there are a ton of things to do and places to eat. This time around we checked out Taylors Automatic Refresher for some tasty burgers and calamari with garlic aioli. Afterwards, we ventured over to Castello di Amorosa, a winery in St. Helena. We wondered through the cool stone passageways and pretended that we were lost in French Castle. A beautiful day all around.

While a have taken this road quite a few times, each adventure has been unique. The highlight that made this ride so special for me, was that I got to take my GoGo Gear jacket out for the first time! http://www.scooter-girls.com/products.html They sent me the Trench, a classic design. It's a medium weight jacket that is super fashionable (I’m wearing it in my profile pic) but still has armored protection like traditional motorcycle gear. They really nailed the design. The fabric has just a little stretch to it for effortless movement; along with its belted waist, it hugs my curves nicely. Some of the other thoughtful features the ladies at Go Go Gear included are plenty of highly reflective accents for great visibility, a silky lining that feels divine, oversized buttons that are easily fastened/unfastened while riding and my favorite....wind cuffs! I'm in love with this jacket (if you couldn’t tell already: ) I felt stylish and safe while sporting the trench.

So yes, my list topper right now is the lovely HWY 128. However, the summer is still young and I have plenty of more exploring to do. In fact, I’ll be heading out to Yosemite for the first time to ride with friends over weekend. I look forward to packing up the SYM, throwing on my trench and heading down HWY 49 along the Sierra Nevada. Who knows, maybe HWY 128 will get bumped to second place.

PS: I'd love to hear about some of your favorite roads to ride!

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