The Big 20!

It was going to be a good day with lots of sunshine......we hoped!  After spending some time in our Sunday morning book study, we got ourselves ready for the road......:-).

Now, if you have been following my blog for a couple of years, you will remember my first "dirt nap" with Ms Vicky on this same road.  Most of my fellow biker friends ride motorcycles with gnarly tires unlike my scooter tires which seem to have very little traction.  Anyway, here I was again facing this same gravely, pitted, incline (on worse two years later), where I came off my bike and slightly dislocated my shoulder.  I decided not to take the chance this time.  

Scootard kindly took Raspberry down the hill for me and I walked down.  And let me tell you, I had never walked down that hill and had to walk "sideways" to keep my feet from slipping!  Had I taken a shot in the other direction, you would see the slop that the drive way is on.  You couldn't park a car on it without using your emergency brake or you would roll into the traffic below.

And of course, He just cruised on down with his knobby tires.   The tires on his bike look like dirt bike tires....  Lookin good there, Sir Scootard!

I think Raspberry was as nervous as I was!  I mean afterall, this was going to be her longest trip with me!  You know, we had to establish "trust" and all........:-)
 

She purred along like a kitty around the winding roads and even got up to about 58k's (down hill of course), but dropped quickly to a mere 28-30 when trying to climb steep hills.  We pulled over about 4 times to let cars go by.  I thought, wow.....  no wonder these little guys can't go on the expressway!  haha.  A person would get squashed like a bug!

We went to the beach on the main street in Penticton and found a spot marked just for motorcycles.  Yay!  There was also a bench in eyeshot right by the water.  That was pretty cool.  Raspberry was taking in the view....:-)

We noticed an ice cream shop right across the street and Scootard went to go get us a taste......:-).

The skies started to look a bit suspicious to me while Scootard was gone.  Or maybe I just noticed it when we got still.  I was hoping that it was just going to be a nice cloud cover for us.......

The ducks were hilarious!  They just waddled up to this ladies blanket and decided that was going to be a good place to roost.  She chased them way....ha.  Oh well.  I would have let them as long as they didn't start ......well, you know.  Who wants to clean that off of their blanket!

This ship has been sitting there for many years.  You can take tours, but we have ever been inside. I suppose we will do it one of these days.  It's called Sucamous.

Hey!  He's back with the ice cream..........\o/ \o/ \o/..... (that's me jumping up and down).

And guess what it was called........wait for it.........."Rocky Raspberry"!   haha.....I had to get a picture

 The street was decorated with banners like this one.  The Volkswagen on the front of this one made me think of the famous Heights/Ashbury district in San Francisco.

We must have stayed at the beach for at least an hour and then decided to find some coffee.....

Unfortunately, we had to park across the street and up a little ways.  But, I kept my eye on everything.....:-)

Scootard was "chillin" and checking messages on his android while I decided if I wanted coffee and desert or just coffee.

After deciding on coffee....I went in and saw the menu.  And guess what they had....did you guess?

Wait for it.......Raspberry cheesecake coulis.   Hahahaha.  Seriously, I had never been in this place to know what they had before that moment.  But isn't it funny that I keep running into all things raspberry?  ha.  It must have been her day!

The cheese cake reminded me of the kind you would make with cream cheese and the "coulis" just about locked my jaws it was so tart!  Scootard scraped it off after having witnessed my agony after the first two bites of trying to "brave it"....

And as we sat....here came a butterfly (or moth??) that landed on Scootard.  He's thinking of what to do next with it.....

Bad idea!

He decided to let it live.......:-).  Then "it" decided to fly off into the middle of the street where a couple of birds picked a fight with it.  They didn't win, but the car that came behind them did!  Poor thing.....:-(.

Well, back to my coffee......The coffee was pretty good. I love bistro settings.  My kitchen is set up like one at home.....:-)

Well, it was time to head back since we had a twenty minute ride and it was starting to rain.  AND.... don't forget those hills I had to go back up on slick roads.  Somebody else was feeling pretty confident, though...

This being my second ride of this very short season found me with a case of "monkey butt" when we got back to the house.  I decided that the next time I ride her, I would borrow Ms Vickey's airhawk.  That should take care of that issue.  I made sure it would fit.

We made it back without incident although the skies opened up on us and I had to slow wayyyyyy down.  We were soaked, got our gear off and loaded the trailer for the ride home the next day.
  Total miles today......The Big 20!  (or about 30k's).  Did I mention that the gas tank hadn't moved?  ha

Along the way, we saw these guys.   I'm sure this is the closest to hell I will ever be!  Ride on, fellows, ride on!

After our 6 hour road trip, we stopped past our garden to give it a water and decided to pull some beets to make more room.  I discovered while we were in Penticton that the tops of beets taste just like spinach!  I love spinach.....:-).

After they were soaked in a mild vinegar and water solution, they were rinsed......

the stems chopped, and the roots boiled.  Very nice, indeed!

We settled in for dinner and enjoyed the fruit of our garden.  Thanks for coming along...:-)
 See you next time.....:-).