That Doug couldn’t make. 🤣 The plan was to go up for Doug's birthday on Saturday evening and then ride together on Sunday but then he had too many guests staying over and couldn't leave. I haven't ridden in this area in 6 or 7 years. I remember it being pretty and the roads being really bad. It was still pretty and many of the roads were still pretty bad but some were very nicely paved and smooth. My favorite roads were Harrison Grade Rd., Green Valley Rd. and Barnett Valley Rd. Coast Hwy was of course great as well. Sunny and beautiful, we had a crazy tailwind down the coast. When we turned onto Mays Canyon Rd. that's when the crappy Sonoma roads we were expecting started. It was pretty though. River Rd. wasn't as busy as I thought it would be and traffic wasn't too bad until after Bay Hill Rd. actually. We stopped off at Gold Coast Coffee and Bakery for a snack before having lunch at La Bodeguita in Bodega Bay. After the snack, the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. It got better once we got to the coast and it became a tailwind but at lunch it was chilly. Lunch itself was insane. Our burritos were massive. One of them was definitely enough for two people. Sonny and I should've split one since we ordered the same thing. They were delicious but there was no way I was finishing mine. I ate a little over half. The plan was to head out to Bodega Head, the tip of the peninsula to have some time to digest before tackling Bay Hill. On the way out we got a sampling of some gale force crosswinds. Out at the end, it was howling and when we turned around we learned what an awesome tailwind we really had. It was blowing so hard, I could taste sea salt in my mouth, the wind was picking up so much spray of the water. We had heard at Doug's party that Bay Hill had been repaved and the climb was nice and smooth. It was the one thing going for it since it was steep. Thankfully we had the tailwind helping us up. Once over the top the pavement was terrible again. Probably my least favorite part was Bodega Hwy on the way back. Not as pretty as the rest of the ride and many cars, despite having a decent shoulder. It was just noisy. We had a pretty long climb up to get to Barnett Valley and turning on to it, was an even steeper hill. It was short though and it was very nice to be away from the cars. We stopped by Doug's on the way back and had some more cake and chatted some more before finishing the ride. On the way back, before getting onto 101, I got a warning light. A big red battery icon in my dash and on my screen a warning about a charging malfunction. Every time I tried to clear it, it came back a couple seconds later. I didn't think much of it, figured I'd take care of it when I got home. Also figured the car is on so even if it isn't charging the battery, everything is running. Well on the way other warnings started to flash on during the drive. More serious warnings of malfunctions happened when I got to San Rafael. And then just after Corte Madera, the car went into neutral with more warnings lighting up. I tried putting my car in gear as I was coasting along the freeway but it wouldn't. So I realized I needed to get to the shoulder. I don't know if the engine shut off as well but I'm assuming that's what happened. I had my foot all the way down on the accelerator and nothing was happening. I put on my hazards and somehow managed to get all the way to the right lane but there was absolutely no shoulder. How stupid is that? So I was coasting towards the Tiburon/E. Blithedale exit which is up and over the hill. My car was slowing fairly quickly and I came to a stop about 50' from a shoulder with the exit sign in front of me. I pulled the car over as much as I could but I was still about halfway in the lane. I called 911 as cars were buzzing by me. Somehow I didn't get hit and a CHP came within 5 min. He was going to try and push me off the road but I couldn't get my car in gear and out of P so he just parked behind me until the tow truck came maybe 10-15 min. later? I told the tow truck driver what happened and that I thought I just need a jump. He plugged a jumper device to my battery and I was able to restart my car but after he took it off, the car was running and I could get into 1s gear but it wouldn't actually disengage the clutch to let me drive. So we tried it again with the device hooked up. I had to have the hood unlatched because I couldn't close it with the device hooked up. The tow truck was driving ahead of me and the CHP was escorting me from behind. I was actually able to drive and as we got going, the hood just opened all the way. After a split second of, "OH NO!" I just started driving looking out the gap at the bottom of the hood. It was 3/4 mi. to the exit and we managed to get it off the road and parked somewhere safe. I needed a flat bed tow truck which wasn't what the driver brought. And somehow he got a nail in his tire so he couldn't have towed me with that truck anyway. While I waited for him to bring a flatbed, Bob showed up and I was able to fit my bike and my bags in his car. When the tow truck came back, we did the same thing of hooking up the jumper device to my car so I could drive my car up on to the flat bed. Then I went in the tow truck down to my shop close to home and Bob met me down there. A huge, huge, thanks to Bob and Linda for saving my butt! What a crazy day!