Good riding and good eating!

Like I promised, I got out on the Baja Blaster a bit tonight with my Nikon for some evening beauty shots.  The last few days in So Cal have been awesome…great weather and nice nights…perfect riding weather!

If you’ve been following the news, we’re going through what the news media is calling “Carmeggedon” right now.   Cal Trans shut down the 405 freeway for the weekend (it’s the major north/south route though west Los Angeles) and everybody’s staying home.    What better time to get out for a cool summer night’s putt on my California Scooter!

I had visions of riding all the way over to the Donut Man in Glendora for one of his incredible strawberry donuts, but that’s a story for another time.  I instead burbled along on the Baja Blaster to Corina’s Pizzeria, a relatively new place not too far from where I live that has already made a name for itself as the best pizza joint in the valley. 

Corina's Pizzeria in Upland...the best pizza in the valley!

My good friend Johnny runs Corina’s, and it’s a favorite of ours. I always like buying from local businesses, and Corina’s sure fills that bill. Good food, great service, and not too shabby for a night time photo shoot, either!

My next stop was The Hat, an iconic pastrami palace offering this planet’s perfect pastrami dip.  I’m not exaggerating, folks!  And you better come to The Hat with an appetite, too, because each sandwich could easily feed three people!

Another So Cal icon...The Hat (nobody beats these guys for a pastrami dip!)

So, the particulars…I used my Nikon D200 and the Nikon 24-120 lens, I set the ISO at 800, and I shot everything with the camera in the manual mode.   A tripod, a bit of tweaking in PhotoShop, and a couple of great photo subjects made for a fun evening.

I actually didn’t eat at either of these places tonight (I don’t think anybody could eat at both places in one evening), but I’m a regular at both restaurants and I knew they’d make great backgrounds for my CSC motorcycle.

I sure enjoyed getting out tonight.  There’s something about riding a motorcycle on a cool summer evening that’s just super, and it’s really special on my California Scooter.  Folks came out of both Corina’s and The Hat to get a better look at my bike, and the compliments flowed.  Everybody loves these bikes.  One guy in a Chevy pickup truck stopped just to tell me my Scooter was the most beautiful bike he’s ever seen.  Everybody wants to know…how much was it…what kind of fuel economy does it get…how fast does it go…and on and on.   We’re still relatively new in the motorcycle world, and a lot of folks haven’t seen a California Scooter in person yet.   Everybody tells me my bike is beautiful.  I know that, but I don’t mind hearing it again.  I like that other folks recognize it.  When you ride a California Scooter, you just become a rock star.  But those of you who ride CSC already know that…