Only the lure of another day’s beautiful riding could lure us from our Westin and Sheraton Heavenly Beds this morning!  We rode out of the hotels in formation and through the heart of the Stanford neighbourhood, and across the eastern reaches of San Francisco Bay on the Dunbarton Bridge.

No matter how developed areas of California are, there is always a patch of wilderness just off the freeway or around the corner.  In minutes we were riding beautiful twisty roads through Niles Canyon.

We popped out onto the freeway briefly, with the group showing off its perfected group lane changes, and then pulled over for gas before our next stretch of riding.  This took us through Castro Valley on another gorgeous windy road, with views of a reservoir, and then down through some huge redwood trees before we made our way to Walnut Creek Harley-Davidson.

We were thrilled that one of our past van drivers Maria (aka Stitch) came out to see us again, and the bargain hunters swarmed the sales racks before we had a great lunch.

Our final stretch was a short ride along the freeway across a huge bridge to reach Benecia and our hotel for the night.

We arrived early enough for some time in the pool and the spa, sharing stories of the ride and also our personal experiences of life and breast cancer.  The hotel put on free drinks and dinner, and then Kathy LaTour gave a special performance of her one woman show about her experiences of breast cancer.  We cried, and we laughed and our shared journey connected us all.