Mid-week would work for me, but isn't an option for the wife.
I actually just talked to a coworker who told me her and her husband rode their motorcycle out to Borrego Springs on Saturday and that it was a horrible experience. They ride out there at least once a month, even in the hottest months. They live in the Fallbrook area so they took Highway 79 to San Felipe Road and dropped down into the valley via Montezuma Valley Road, which is the same route I'll be taking.
She said they left their house about 9:30 am and were just starting down the mountain around 10:30 am, and got stuck in traffic that was backed up more than halfway up the mountain. After about an hour of sitting in the backup, the bike started to overhead and they dropped in behind another group of motorcycles that was riding on the double-yellow to get down. They hated doing that (they're usually very safe riders) but didn't have much of a choice, as the bike was starting to cut out. Once in town, she said they couldn't even find a place to eat. Everywhere they went had at least a 90 minute wait for a party of two, and most restaurants said they had taken reservations in advance and were all booked up. They decided to leave and when they were headed back up the mountain, she said that Sheriff deputies were starting to set up a road block at San Felipe Road and Hwy 79, and weren't letting anyone go that way into town anymore because of how backed up the mountain was.
If it was that bad last Saturday, I'm very worried about how bad it's going to be next Saturday.
We're planning to leave our place in the Temecula Valley around 6:00 or 6:30 am, so hopefully we'll be ahead of it, but I guess I better scrap our plans to have lunch in town and just plan to spend the whole day in the back country.
