The ride

Well we got a bit sidetracked.  After deciding to detour to visit the Ducati shop that David bought his bike from, we set off down the expressway from home.  I immediately had a small problem with the ETC card, which you need to present to a human being at the toll booths.  I thought it was being read automatically by the system (duh).

We got to the Ducati dealership, and David ended up agreeing to trade in his current bike for a much better one - a white 848.  Plus a reasonable amount of cash... They are pretty good there, and allowed David to take one of the 848s for the day (test ride).  We eventually got underway again, and headed down to the coast, in the direction of Odawara.  And promptly spent the next hour or two in stop and start traffic.  It turns out that the road I had picked goes straight through the various cities, with traffic lights all the way.  Not a good thing, especially when it was a hot day.

We made it to the beach at Odawara in the end, which turned out to be very stoney.  More of a coast than a beach.  Now, back home and looking at the map, it would have been much better to take the expressway almost all of the way, then drop down to the windy roads for some fun... Next time.