Ride Report posted for Spike:

This was a real fun mission.  When I rolled up to staging at our local gas station, I had checked the flight status since she got on her flight early that morning.  Due to weather in D.C., I wanted to make sure her flight landed and departed on time.  With that accomplished, everything seemed to be on time with no delays.  When I arrived at staging, I called the Duty Manager and was informed that the flight would be in an hour early!  I then called Mom, who was on the road headed towards us, to let her know.  We waited for the family at staging & headed directly over to S.F.O.  Now, most of our homecomings are coordinated with all of our support groups.  In this case, her flight was not due in until 6 pm.  So, we were not supposed to arrive any earlier than 7:15 pm off the freeway exit for P.D. assistance and folks arriving at the family home at that same time.  We waited for Beth and greeted her as she arrived.  We collected her bags and headed out to our parking area, which was now 5:10 pm.  So, I told Beth we were waiting on two more bikes to arrive because she landed an hour early.  We stalled an extra 20 minutes…  I actually had one bike leave & wait 20 minutes at staging (just in case) & then return to the airport.  So yes, I fabricated a story in order to stall for time.  While stalling, I called Bryan Welden of Lafayette Flag Brigade.  Bryan was at the family home setting up – he told me to do the best I can & to NOT show up early!  I think I almost gave him a heart attack when I told him the time of Beth’s flight arrival.  So, with 20 bikes and some joining along the way, we headed home on the freeway at 40 m.p.h. (with NO Calfornia traffic in sight).  I later found out from Beth’s Mom that she was kind of curious as to why we were traveling so slow.  She was told it’s parade mode, NOT.  It was called STALL MODE!  We crossed the bay bridge at a brisk pace of 45 m.p.h.  We reach the Caldecot Tunnel & slowed the pace down to 35 m.p.h.  Tim was waiting on the other side for us & joined in on the escort as we rolled through.  We kept the pace at 35 m.p.h. in the slow lane on the freeway.  I’m watching the clock on my bike and it seemed to take forever for each minute to pass!  We had less than five miles to go to our exit and we needed to arrive at the exit in about 15 minutes.  So, I slowed the whole group down to 25 m.p.h.  We hit the exit at 1915 hours on the button!   There were four Walnut Creek motorcycle cops waiting, plus four cruisers to escort us through town.  Two of the motors jumped up in front & lead the way to the house.  All the rest did traffic control.  We came up underneath the freeway headed up to their house and there were seven more bikes, plus Ray’s POW/MIA Corvette and a few more cages with several other of our members waiting.  Once we got in view of their home, we could see the fire engine with its lights flashing & nothing but P.D. red & blue lights in front of us.  There must have been at least 150 people waiting at Beth’s house!   From her Girl Scout Troop, her high school Principal to the Vietnam Veterans of Diablo Valley and many, many others.  It was a great Welcome Home and our first in Walnut Creek.  This was done in such a grand style that even the city council and Mayor showed up.  Welcome Home Beth.