Estrogen Ride to Murphy's
April 1/2, 2006

We were scheduled for a 2-day trip up to Murphy's in Calaveras County. As of Friday night, the weather looked good for Saturday and possible showers for Sunday so we said "F" it, let's ride this muthah and get outta town!! And we were so glad that we did... Saturday morning was cool and cloudy but no rain. We headed out of town and hit Patterson Pass where I stopped to take a pic of the road up ahead and found out to my chagrin, that somehow the battery in my digital camera had fallen out back home... ARGH!!! So at the first gas stop, I picked up one of those disposable cameras so please forgive the quality of the photos!

The hills everywhere were SO green! One of the benefits of all this moisture we've been having. The day was beautiful... crisp, cool, blue sunny skies with some big fluffy clouds... the rivers and streams were running rampant and the wild flowers were in full force... we were SO glad that we made it out for the ride!! We jetted up 580 to 205 to Hwy 4. We hitPools Station Rd. (a favorite in that area) where I let CC and Nat go on ahead while I got my photographic ya-yas off. The area was beautiful… green fields, lots of wildflowers, and rivers/streams running wild and woolly.

Once we got to Murphy's, we parked the bikes, checked into our hotel, freshened up, and headed out for the other most important part of the trip... wine tasting! We hit up several of the local wineries in town but our favorite of the day was the Twisted Oak tasting room. The place boasts all kinds of whimsical decorations in the way of rubber chickens, clothing items (shirts that say "Are you twisted?"... guess who bought one... we ALL did!!), and a Chicken Chucker, a little plastic "gun" that shoots miniature chickens across the room (by the time we got to this place, we were a little bit inebriated so had lots of fun with that item – Nat tried to shoot me but ended up sending the chicken to the other side of the room!!). Was pretty funny!

We kept running into three ladies who were on their annual girls' birthday celebration weekend. When we mentioned that we had ridden our motorcycles there, we found out that two of them rode as well... what a coinckidink!! After wine tasting, we had a great dinner at a little restaurant and then hit the sack, remembering to turn our clocks forward before going to sleep!

The next morning we had the challenge of trying to figure out to pack up all our wine purchases from the day before (oh yeah, we’re riding motorcycles… duh! Lol). Securely packed up, we headed out via Sheep Ranch (great goaty road that winds through the hills) and then Mountain Ranch Rd. We had planned to do a few more but the clouds were starting to look a bit ominous, so we decided it would be good to make a break for home. Hwy 4, Vasco, then slabbed it back and managed to dodge most of the rain. Y’all missed a great adventure. Looks like the weather is starting to shape up so hope to see you soon!

Peace,