Good Morning!!!! 55F @ 6:45AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 77F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Whew!!! You folks are sure busy, and prolific in your posts. Every bit of an hour to catch up, so I guess it's sort of a good thing that the trip got cut short.
Hope you enjoy that new truck, Buppies. Sure is a nice BD present!:thumbsup:
Welcome, Ian!:welcome: Hope you're a faster reader than I am.:laughing:
Sorry to hear of the medical issues, Randy. And the garage door. Maybe time to have that opener looked at, too?
Sounds like your shake down run is going well, Drew. Safe travels on the ride home.
Thursday's ride down to Oakhurst got started a little later than I would have liked, but I still got to travel over some favorite roads and see some pretty fall colors. Very comfortable room at the motel, walking distance from a brew pub, just the thing to work the kinks out. Sat at the bar for dinner, and half way through a pair of young men sat down next to me. We struck up a conversation, and it turns out they're touring the west coast in a Dodge Charger, having arrived in San Francisco from London a few days before. The were both Millennials, born after Budweiser wiped out many of the traditional brewers in England. They were both drinking IPAs, I was sticking to stouts and porters, everyone happy. They were curious about our speed laws, and if the cops really did use rider. I was beamed half a dozen times that day, and told them to just follow someone else a few hundred yards back if they wanted to avoid an expensive souvenir ticket. :laughing: They didn't seem too happy with their socialized medicine; they had trouble getting appointments, didn't like paying more than their fair share while others paid nothing. I wouldn't have placed their accents as London, or maybe my ears were still ringing from the ride, but I had to keep asking them to repeat themselves.:confused2: They loved Yosemite, but not the food or the prices in the restaurants, and I wondered at their choice to spend the next week split between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. City boys, I guess.
More nice roads on the way the campground, finally got to ride the full length of CA245; I think I saw my own tail light half a dozen times on that one. Up and down, round and around, sure used up a lot of asphalt on all those twists and turns, Buppies! Made camp at about 5PM, got the tent set up just in time for dinner. Nice warm sunshine, but it got really brisk when the sun set, and the wind picked up as well. We had a short campfire, and decided not to feed it anymore when the wind got even worse. I think we all went to bed about 8PM, it was so cold. I'd brought a mid weight sleeping bag and a down liner, and was nice and warm, but wasn't so good with where I'd pitched the tent, as the level was off and it had something of a hump in the middle. The worst problem was the gas from the chili dinner, which just wouldn't stop. Maybe it was a good thing the wind provided good ventilation, but between the gas and the wind flapping the tent around, I didn't get much sleep that night. I guess no one else did, either, and when I got out of the tent the next morning, everyone was packing up and leaving, complaining about the wind getting worse, and the cold.
They were all home in a hundred miles, I had about 400 to go. A buddy from Nevada and I headed north to get some breakfast, and after the late start, didn't finish eating until just after noon. We parted ways not long after that, me heading north, and him branching off to the east. With no plan in hand, and no reservations for a Saturday night, I decided to just jump on the freeway and head home. I was reminded of why I try to stay off freeways when one lady tried to change lanes into me, and was very thankful for those two big horns that woke her from her trance. She mouthed "I'm sorry" through her window as she swerved away; too bad she didn't turn her head and look before she turned her wheel into me. Then there was the two miles of stopped traffic and lane splitting, only to find the road covered in glass and plastic and a big rig stopped in the middle of the fast lane at the front of the line. Another someone not paying attention looked like they rear ended the big guy.
I made it home in time for sunset on the back porch with a short glass of Bourbon to take the edge off, happy that the bike ran well and seems to be using much less oil, so maybe break-in is almost over. That campground would have been perfect on a hot summer day, so I hope we get a rematch at a better time of year. I'll put the two days I was planning to be gone to good use, starting today with some seat time to get the pad leveled for the new shipping container. I've also got a new proposal for the solar power system to go over.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!
:thumbsup:
