Let the Lovin begin! So toward the end of our ride to Oak Glen a few weeks ago, Scott brought up that the Love Ride was in a few weeks. He asked if T and I wanted to go. I declined at the time because I was to leave the week after to go to NY for Thanksgiving.

Anyway, long story short, I ended up going on the Love Ride!

I road up to Scott's at the freezing early hour of 6:00. We met up with a friend of his and then road over to another friends house. We met up with 3 other bikes (bikers and riders) there for a total of 6 bikes and 9 people. We then gassed up and headed over to Glendale.

And was it busy there! I couldn't believe all the organized chaos and how many bikers there were there! My jaw just dropped. After the initial shock, I also realized how outnumbered Me and my Honda were. Not to may solo chicks, and not to many "Rice Burners." We got to the end of the line and walked up towards the stage to register (thanks again, Scott) and to scope out the place. I wanted to look in some of the stores, but didn't like the looks of the very long lines and the picture in my head of what it must look like inside with all those people in there didn't make it seem worth it.

After we got the word to head back to our bikes, we all suited back up and then got to hang around for an hour until the moving line finally reached us.

And we were off! It was a very cool feeling... for 12 seconds. Then the line stopped. About a half block up I could see smoke rising from the middle of the group. Everyone then saw the smoke plumb rising and began chatting amongst themselves as to the cause. Once we got started again, many were standing up on their pegs trying to catch a glimpse of what caused the smoke.

Once we were past that it was fun again! Too see all the people on the sides of the roads waiving and running along side. And then the freeway!! How cool it was to see a FLOOD of motorcycles just pour onto the freeway! I felt sorry for any cars on the road. Lane splitting is a gray area here in California, it's not exactly legal so much as it isn't illegal. So all the adrenalin riders getting on the freeway had no patience for slow moving cars and would just split up between them. It was quite a site to see. I grouped together with the other riders from our group, and we actually ended up the lead of 100+ bikes! Riders just fell in behind us and when I looked in my mirror, it was bikes as far back as I could see in a double line behind me.

We finally arrived at the Lake and found parking on a gravel/grassy area. All the guys were worried about a domino effect so they made sure to park far enough away from each other that if 1 bike fell over, it wouldn't take others down with it. I had to go to the bathroom (3 cups of coffee is hard to hold for an hour!) and it was the first time I have ever seen open stalls in a women's bathroom. I freaked out when I first walked and had to run back out to check the sign and make sure the stick figure was wearing a skirt.

We headed over for some very tasty BBQ and water and then wandered around looking at all the pretty display paint jobs and parts and accessories and bikes and loaded up on all the freebe stuff. I'll have to take pictures of the mini belt loop tool kit, the nifty wallet, the kick-stand mat, and the creditcard tool kit I scored.

At about 2:00 half the group (aka, the half of the group that was sober) decided to head back towards home. I just don't understand the logic of selling lots of beer at a biker event.

The ride home was a lot nicer then the ride up. For one thing it was warmer! I loved the experience of getting to participate in such a large biker event and loved riding with all those bikers. I had quite a few guys impressed with the size of bike I road, even though there were chicks ridding bigger. To be fair, most of those chicks were bigger too. ;)







  ¶ 4:00 PM