Photo Gallery - S&M Scooter Club Inaugural Ride

January 17th, 2004. Wow what a ride indeed. Thank you to each and everyone who made it out on this great, fun, and sometimes scary ride! It was a long ride with beautiful scenery, cold mountain air, warm sunshine, twisty but clean roads and thankfully no one died!

Most of us met at the store (thank you for making an effort to get there on time). We met up with Michael and his wife at the Chevron station on Sunset Blvd. And after gassing up we headed off to Topanga. PCH traffic was not too bad. No one lane split and we all took it easy up to Topanga Blvd. Going up Topanga to Old Topanga we split up into two groups. I hung back with Gretchen as it was her first "real" ride on a scooter. She's an excellent rider, I must say. And I emphasize that because at one point while we were traveling the back road at about 50 mph, some idiot makes a U-Turn right in front of her, forces her (and myself) right off the road and never stops. They had a "Student Driver" sign on the back of their red compact car. Gretchen rode magnificently. No panic, no slamming on of brakes, no crash! She dodged the car and pulled over.

We sat for a minute and then continued on. Everyone was waiting for us at the scenic overlook and pictures were taken. Michael even rode ahead to take pictures of us taking a sweeping left hander! We'll post all the pictures as I get them from everybody.

Onward to the Rock Store. We were fairly late so it was not as crowded as it could have been. Met a rockin' young lady on her Ducati Monster (Stacey) in the parking lot. She was soooo hot. Hmmmm, I think I am getting off topic. :-) Anyway, it was pretty cool seeing our scooters lined up there with the motorcycles! Some of us ate and the others snacked. As we left the Rock Store, I was amazed at just how much fun it was taking the tight twisties up to the "look out." The little Vespa scooter carves the twisties like a hot knife in butter.

All the motorcyclists we passed along the way were really friendly with lots of hand waves. We did take a detour going down Encinal Canyon rather than Latigo Canyon which turned out to be a good choice. The weather was getting cold and a tad foggy as we made out way closer to the coast. But, the ocean view was still spectacular. PCH had quite a bit of traffic but thank goodness because it would have been even colder had it not been for the traffic.

Michael and his wife peeled off on the way, then Eric, and eventually James (?) went on his way. So Jorge, Brian, Gretchen and I continued on to the Vespa store where we completed the ride with congratulations to each other, and bid our farewells.

It was a most wonderful inaugural ride and, again, thanks to everyone. You made this a great ride!

cheers, Victor

The first stop is Chevron @ Sunset Blvd.	Eric checking out his Vespa	Brian and Michael gabbing
A scenic stop on Mulholland		A late lunch at the Rock Store

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Last modified: 12/12/04.