Modern Vespa

Can you show me a map of this road? It looks like something worth exploring some weekend morning....

Tienes.

I'm taking tomorrow and Wednesday off as observance days for my grandfather's passing so I'll be doing a good amount of riding. Hopefully I'll find a decent spot to continue the thread (hopefully not too easy).

[quote="Masala"] Anytime you want to ride in this neck of the woods (Eastern foothills), PM me and I'll be only to happy to ride with you.

Cheers,

Bob

Thanks, Jess, and thanks Bob for offerring to ride with me! I'll definitely take you up on it sometime.

I'll join in on the fun. Haven't done much exploring.

Try this one.

*BONUS ROUND*
Extra Shot = Extra Drink

Get this one and I buy you a round at Trial's (Devine and 1st, San Jose).

Come out and kick back a few with the South Bay Scooterists every Tuesday night at Trial's after 8p.

Offer ends 08/21/2007

Need another clue, "dirty doves" isn't doing it for me!

Cheers,

Bob

This is what it sounds like: pigeons.

\osc

"Jesus SUN to Our Lord,
His trade was of a simple man,
Building homes to A Breed of birds,
Followed by silent men of Santa Cruz,
In the year of our lord Three Eighties."

I think that might give it away; a clue in every line.
(You can tell I've watched Da Vinci Code too many times)

Nope, I still don't get it! The terrain suggests somewhere around Hicks Road, but the clues don't work with that. Am I warm, or cold?

Cheers,

Bob

Far from Hicks Road.

FFFAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR . . . . . . . . .

Hmmm - unwashed pigeons.....

Well, it's obvious that I haven't the faintest idea where the shot was taken, in spite of your clues. I've searched the map program I have for some hint, but - nothing! Your bonus pics look like they were taken from the eastern foothills looking towards the bay, I have a similar view from my driveway, but much further south. Calaveras road, maybe? Need more hints!

Cheers,

Bob

i dunno where it's at either.

mommy, i don't like this game anymore!

the first couple pictures were great because they had some kind of clue in them that helped you figure out where they were.. these pictures are not like that.

I wouldn't mind riding an hour away to get a pic somewhere, but i'm not gonna spend an hour riding aimlessly trying to figure out what road i'm looking for! guess it would be easier if I had lived in the area longer, but oh well guess I'm outta luck.

Actually Jester took some similar shots at the last Classico Moto Italia. Scoot.net

Alright, alright, alright . . .

So I'm terrible at playing this game so I might as well start spelling it out for everyone.

Clue : I had to get HERE to get THERE (see picture)

Clue : We in California are familiar with Spanish named streets/roads/points, so start using Spanish translation for 2 of the clues I dropped. (e.g. Lake Lagunita = Lake "Little Lake")

Clue : DON'T search on a computer program - look at a map (I'm old school).

Clue : "Jesus SUN to Our Lord,
His trade was of a simple man, (what was his trade?)
Building homes to A Breed of birds,
Followed by silent men of Santa Cruz, (What's another word for silent religious men and where do they stay; what is "Santa Cruz")
In the year of our lord Three Eighties." (C'mon! 3 80's)

I think I've pretty much triangulated everything.
It's Friday, go W-ayward!

Has this game been changed to find the dented Vespa?

apprently, yes!

I recognized some of the roads from Classico... but it's not like I had a map of the rides or anything or even knew where the @#$! we were. I was just following you guys. LOL!

You sure you weren't looking at google maps on your iPhone, old school?
8)

Yeah, yeah, yeah . . .
Yuk it up you clowns. We all know, "It's not a matter of if you go down, rather when . . ."

Who's next?

As for the bonus spot - Yes, I did take pictures up there after Mod'n'Rockers SLO and Classico Moto Italia. That place is considered sacred to me b/c it's where I've always ridden (scooter or bike) to blow off steam . . . that, and take unsuspecting females to let 'em know "I like you."


Clue to Bonus - I still consider it "my territory/backyard" and is off a road VERY difficult in twisties if you're headed towards lunch on Skyline.

Yes, but I scrolled around the Google Map no different than looking at a paper map. Sorry, but I'm not rich enough to afford a GPS like the rest of you.


Like I said - start triangulating the clues I dropped. If Banana Suit's guidelines are correct, I'm on track for the 3 day limit on giving enough clues (photo taken on Tuesday).

Dude, pick something easier to find!

OR, take me there so I can pretend I found it

Oh SERIOUSLY!

You can't tell me any of you would have had the faintest idea where Mike's picture was, with a clue like "tour" and "his haunts", would you?

NEXT CLUE - Retrace the route we did for Classico Moto Italia's Saturday AM Ride (through the East Hills) but make a left at the fork-in-the-road.

Burgerbob,
You should be on to this by now.
Mike

OK, I just got back from a 120 mile round trip and all I got was the second photo clue! From there I headed north until the 680 junction. Hwy 84 seemed to be the next logical step so I continued on it through Sunol and on to Fremont. Turned around and headed back. Then noticed Palomares Rd, which looked interesting, so I took it for a while, great fun road, also, it was the first road that had brown colored armco barriers, so I thought I was onto something, but, after a while I figured I was on the wrong track, so headed back home as my gas and enthusiasm level were both running low. At home, I checked on the translation of "palomares" - it's "pigeon houses"!
I'm not going back, at least not today!

Cheers,

Bob

I think you earned that drink Bob

Yyyyeeeaaahhhhhh . . . . . the drink was for the pictures at Foothi. . . . .eerr . . . . the OTHER pictures.


WTG, Bob! A regular Robert Langdon.

The burning question is - was I on the right track? Should I not have turned back?

Cheers,

bob

Trust your instincts, Bob. I've pretty much spelled it out for you - run with it.

I drive that road almost every Friday - after 4 days of what it bypasses, the extra time is almost OK.

I did ride it the day they put down the 2 inches of new gravel.

I'm able to be bribed to get you there.....

Snatch!

Finally someone can bring this up to my neck of the woods. Thanks Jess

So I guess this means that I'm "it" for both the historic/improbable game and the Bay Area game. Cool.

Let me know when you're also it for Orange County and San Diego, and I'll be impressed!

There's no emoticon for shaking a fist...

Give RexGT200 a few minutes, and there probably will be one.

Seriously, nice job on that NorCal find. I showed it to my wife, who is a NorCal native from Lafayette, and she had absolutely no clue, and that photo was so nondescript, it could have been any of a thousand hills up there. Well done.

At first, I thought Jesse K had taken the picture down in the South bay somewhere, maybe somewhere near where the last VCLG First Sunday ride took place. I wasn't going to pursue the picture because I didn't have any plans to be down that direction on my scooter.

Then BurgerBob started pointing in a different direction, so last night I started doing some digging.

Here's my breakdown of his clues. Pretty easy after he spelled it out. Sunol. Someplace to start. That's easy. Carpenter. However, finding something to do with carpentry was a little tough. Turns out there's a place (not a town, exactly) called Carpenter in Hayward. I'm not sure what Google Maps means when it says "Carpenter in Hayward CA" but it seemed like a good triangulation point. At first I thought that the picture was actually from this Carpenter area, but discounted that after I read more of the clues. BurgerBob pointed out that the name of one of my favorite roads to ride, Palomares road, translated to Pigeon House. Nice sleuthing there, Bob, and I'm sorry I snatched this picture before you could revisit and get it.

The capitalization in the second half of this line gave me the next hint -- Interstate 580 is also known as the Arthur H Breed Fwy. The two halves of the line together, plus Jesse K's very first clue ("Dirty Doves"), combined nicely into an interlocking piece. So, another point in the triangulation. This threw me for a little bit of a loop. I knew he was referring to monks, who stay in monasteries, but I didn't know of any monasteries around the area. Google maps wasn't helpful here, although it should have been.

I looked up the history of Santa Cruz, and saw that it was on the San Lorenzo river. There's a San Lorenzo around the area the other clues pointed to, and I thought that might be the tie-in, but it seemed too vague. I then started dredging through my vague memories of high school spanish, and came up with Santa Cruz == Holy Cross.

Another google maps search, this time for Holy Cross Monastery. Low and behold, there was such a thing, on Palomares road, no less. That had to be it. I initially thought, before deciphering the other clues, that Jesse K was referring to Interstate 380. That didn't make much sense, though, as I didn't expect him to venture up from the South Bay to 380 for this picture. Once the other clues were deciphered, I realized this referred to the area between 880, 580, and 680, where Holy Cross Monastery and Palomares road is. It reassured me I was in the right place, but ultimately wasn't necessary to solve the puzzle. This kinda threw me off, as Jesse K seemed to be indicating West to Hayward. However, that's off track -- the photo location is East of Hayward. The Holy Cross Monastery was too good of a clue, though, so I ignored this last bit.

So this morning, I jumped up and ran out the door, raced down to Palomares, took the picture, raced back (doing about 15 miles with zero bars on my gas gauge) and posted the picture. I half expected to run into BurgerBob or ritchj along the way, but no sign of anyone else.

Thanks for saving me the time, Jess! I knew it was there, but I had other things I had to do, so decided to let it go. I also know where his bonus pic is, now that he almost spelt it out, but I still don't have time to go there. Maybe later if no one nabs it first! Looking forward to see what you come up with, Jess. Some kind of landmark, I hope.

Cheers,

Bob

what photo are we tagging now?