Saturdays at Cook's Corner

Our drink bottles are in the fridge. The packets of Gu are on the kitchen counter. The bike tires are pumped. Yep, Tim and I are ready for another 100 mile Saturday bike ride in the morning.

Our Saturday bike rides most often include a run through Santiago Canyon, a two-lane country road in Orange and Irvine. I typically have to use the restroom about 12 miles into the Canyon. Lucky for me, there is a restroom 12 miles into the Canyon, in the form of Cook's Corner.

Cook's Corner is, um, special. I don't know how else to put it. It's a true biker's bar. You show up to the Cook's Corner parking lot anytime of the day and you're bound to see at least six Harley Davidsons and at least eight men and women smoking cigarettes.

I always like walking into Cook's Corner. The place is chock-full of men with mustaches (ladies, too) and pitchers of beer - at 8:30am on a Saturday. The place is also chock-full of leather; leather jackets, leather vests, leather pants, leather boots, leather motorcycle decorations, leather baby onesies. I'm not kidding. The onesies are for real.

So there I am - and fellow cyclists are - suited up in our spandex, click-clacking through Cook's Corner in our cycling shoes amidst the beer and mustaches, refilling our water bottles, using the restroom and catching the latest game score on TV (and then getting back on our bikes for another 75 miles). I'm sure the bikers think we're missing out on perfectly good leather...

If you have to be on a 100 mile ride, it's good to stop at Cook's...