Magic carpets, big bruins, and our next ride!

Lots of good stuff this week, folks.   Susie and I are headed out to Reseda in a bit…we’re getting our Turkish carpets cleaned at a place that specializes in this sort of thing.   I kind of fell into the Turkish carpet thing when I was doing a lot of business in, well, Turkey back in the 1990s.   Turkey is an amazing place, and if you ever have an opportunity to visit, it is something you wouldn’t want to miss.

Anyway, during one of those earlier visits, I visited a Turkish carpet factory outside of Kayseri.  It was the most vertically integrated factories I’ve ever seen.  They literally had sheep walking in at one end of the factory and finished carpets coming out at the other end of the factory (beautiful carpets, too, I might add).   Wild times and wild stuff.  I brought home several (the prices over there were obscenely low).   The U.S. Customs guys at LAX were kind of pain about me carrying them in, but hey, I got through that okay.

So our trip to Reseda later today is only part of the traveling I’ve up doing this week.   My good buddy Landon over at Motorcycle Classics wanted an article about riding in the San Bernardino Mountains, and it doesn’t take much for me and the Nikon to hit the road.   There’s just something about a ride in the mountains, snow-dusted roads, and a country breakfast up in the pine-scented air.   I had a great time, and I thought I’d share some of the photos I grabbed with you here in the blog.

This first shot is Silverwood Lake, on the way up along Highway 18.    I guess I should mention that all of the “view” shots you see here are courtesy of my 12-24 Tokina wide angle lens.   It is one of my favorites because it always returns great shots, they are sharp, and the polarizer really makes the colors pop.

This next few shots are from the “Rim of the World” Highway along the southern edge of the San Bernardino Mountains.  It was cold up there, but it was great.

Here’s the little mountain town of Running Springs…it’s where I stopped for a magnificent breakfast.

Ah, the Old Country Coffee Shop in Running Springs. These folks know how to do it right!

Two eggs over medium, coffee, extra crispy bacon, and well-done hash browns…the breakfast of champions…with some cool artwork thrown in for good measure!

After that great breakfast, it was back on the road for the run up to Big Bear Lake…

And here’s a view of  Big Bear Lake from the southern end, right at the dam…

I had a great time and a great ride…and I stopped for this low wide angle shot of Highway 138 on the way down near Onyx Summit.

Cool stuff and a cool ride…speaking of which…

Next Sunday, folks…it’s our next company ride.    That’s the 13th of April, and we’ll do it up on Glendora Ridge Road, leaving from the CSC plant at 9:00 a.m.   Watch for more details right here!