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| This trip started out as one thing,
but slowly turned into its present form. Linda and I were going to
take a trip over to the coast, come back to the house, then go up
to Martinez for a mini-class reunion with old friends from the classes
of 1961 & 62. Hey, it got late so I decided to do our sight seeing
on our way up to the reunion. It worked out just fine, thank you.
I decided to take Montague Expressway to Hwy 680, to Calaveras Blvd. Calaveras, once it leaves the city of Milpitas, turns into a twisty, back road with few people, and fewer cars. That makes for a nice, slow, scenic, motorcycle trip. Our first stop was just off of Calaveras Blvd. at the Ed Levin County Park where hang gliders and paragliders fly off the hillsides. These things are both interesting and colorful (photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7) and make me want to try it, well, maybe the paragliders. I’m getting too old for those hang gliders. I don’t heal as quickly as I used to.
Ed Levin Park is a nice place to just go to for a relaxing day. They have horseback riding (photo 8), golfing, fishing in a small lake, hiking, and of course, hang and paragliding for the more bold among you. As we head out on Calaveras Blvd, we start to climb up into the foothills and the road quickly becomes as crooked as an Enron executive with twists and turns, this way and that. There are few motorcycles out today and I’m not sure why except that this is not a fast road. With all the short turns and switchbacks, with no guardrails I might add, our speed seldom gets past 40 mph. That’s all right with us because we don’t have to be anywhere until 6:30 p.m. so I can drag my butt along at this relaxing pace, all day. As we make one of the many turns on this very wrinkled road, we see Calaveras Reservoir for the first time. We still have another month or so in our summer season and there will probably be several more really hot days, but the reservoir is already low (photos 9 & 10). This won’t be good if we have another drought, which seem to be coming more frequently than in the past.
California only has two seasons, wet and dry. As you can tell from the pictures, this is the dry season. But, for me as least, both seasons have there own beauty. Most of California in the summer is rolling hills, covered with dry grass, interspersed with oak trees (photo 11). When my relatives from Missouri first saw these hills from a distance, my uncle asked if that brown stuff was sand. Missouri in the summer is green. When you ride this way in March, after we’ve had a couple of months of rain, the whole area will be green grass and oak trees. OK, I like Spring better. Calaveras Blvd. eventually intersects with Hwy 680 again and we turn north toward the East Bay. Even though Hwy 680 is a “super slab,” this section passes through some scenic areas of Pleasanton, Dublin, and Danville. This would be a great ride in itself if it weren’t for California traffic. There is way too much of it. It’s at Danville that I turn off the freeway onto Diablo Blvd, which will take us to Mount Diablo State Park and finally to the summit at 3800+ feet.
Diablo Blvd. takes us through some expensive housing developments but slowly climbs towards the summit and we soon see our first elevation sign, this one reads 1000 feet. The road from this side of the mountain is very curvy with many switchbacks and Linda is a little nervous as I maneuver the Goldwing around these short turns at 10 and 15 mph. Thank God for the torque this big muthuh has. We easily pull out of each short turn and quickly head for the next. We finally reach the ranger station and stop to pay the $2.00 fee. I can never figure out the pricing system in the various park systems. We just left Ed Levin County Park and they made us pay $4.00 for the privilege of watching the paragliders. Now this State park only wants $2.00 to drive all over creation, use the picnic facilities, etc. Either way, I guess it’s cheap entertainment. After another 20 minutes, we reach the summit and the brick observation tower that adorns it. We park the Goldwing and climb up onto the observation deck for some pictures (photos 12 & 13).
As 3800+ feet, Mt. Diablo is the tallest thing in the neighborhood. From here, if the weather is clear, you can see all around the East Bay and even up towards the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Today is not a clear day. To the west, you can see fog drifting in to the coastal range and licking its way toward the east bay and the delta (photo 14). To the east you can see the cities of Pittsburg and Antioch, gateway to the delta and the Sacramento River (photo 15). At the northwest bottom of the mountain, you can see how Pleasant Hill, Concord, and Clayton are all running into each other and devouring the east bay landscape (photo 16). It actually looks like someone has spilled something and it is staining the area between the hills - don’t you think? There are some great views from up here. We make a visit to the natural area, located in the lower section of the observation tower, which explains how Mt. Diablo came to be (photo 17). Interesting stuff. In short order, it’s time to head out so we can find this pizza parlor for our reunion with old and trusted friends. We take a different route out of the park and head towards Walnut Creek using the North Gate Road. Within an hour we are in Martinez. As we walk into the restaurant, we see familiar faces, who have changed, as we all have, but whose hearts and personalities make it seem that we have been away from each other for only a short time instead of the years it has actually been. I spend time talking with Bud, an old friend (photo 18). We shared many a day of foolishness together as teenagers. Linda shared memories with Bud’s wife, Suzanne (photo 19), while Barbara, Penny, Toby, and Jeannette enjoy catching up (photo 20).
Gary and his wife, Dottie helped put all of this together and sat at our table. They now live in Nevada. We were all in high school together and hung out about 40 years ago. How do we allow ourselves to get so busy that we don’t keep in touch with folks we’ve shared so many memories with? Having said that, I know it will probably happen again. Such is life, I guess. After three hours, which pass by way too quickly, it’s time to get on the road and head home. It’s cooler now but the night is clear and we make the 60 miles in a comfortable amount of time as Linda and I talk about how much we enjoyed the visit, how we’re glad we made the effort to come, and why we won’t let ourselves get “out of touch” again. Tomorrow is another day. |
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