To: nedod@linus.mitre.org Subject: A sunday ride with two babes... Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 15:56:21 -0500 From: gayathri Two sickies and a hungover partier met for breakfast at Hill Street Cafe, at the base of the Angeles Crest Highway, at the ungodly hour of 9am. One sicky was late 'cause her sick partner had to be left with plenty of juice, junk food and medication and running up and down the stairs is still winding her. (having asthma _sucks_, especially when you get the flu. :/ ) well, ok, one sicky was me. The other recovering sicky was Jeniffer, who's actually mostly better, on her trusty seca II, and the hungover one was Brian K, on his BMW R1100RS (no bags! its so much sexier that way). (who were the two babes? up to you to decide. :) anyway, being cooped up for 4 days had left me half nuts, so I decided to bundle up, and see if some cool clear air would help my poor lungs. (it did. especially after it warmed up after breakfast) We all needed stuff from Cycle Gear, so decided to get there the long way -- Angeles Crest to Angeles Forest (hey, I'm keeping up with Brian! now I kno the trick -- he's gotta be HUNGOVER!) to Aliso Canyon (whee! its more FUN this way) to Soledad Canyon. One scarey moment on Angeles Forest when a Large White Truck seemed to be missing the turn: Two completely seperate incidents running thru my head scared the shit out of me, and I paniced and _didnt_ do the right thing (which would have been to late apex the turn, rather then take the classic line). :/ I just kept going. Truck woulda hit me if he'd missed the turn. :/ Fortunately, the truck made the turn, as did I. I had been taking it easy all along, but now, I slowed down some more. I hadn't thought that being sick wouldnt slow down my reflexes (stupid!), but once I realized it, I tried to compensate: slowed down, and got back to basics, really looking thru turns, body steering and trying to aim for the perfect line. okie, where was I -- Aliso to Soledad Canyon to *muble* back to Soledad Canyon to Sand Canyon to *mumble* to Sierra Highway to *mumble* to Lyons Ave to Cycle Gear! The redheaded lady that usually helps me took one look at me and said, "You are going to go straight home and to BED after getting this vest, right?" Boy, I must look like SHiT. So I bought the widder vest I've been meaning to get since a June day in Utah when I thought I was gonna freeze to death. Heading home, we took Sand Canyon. Both Jeniffer and I noticed this ranch in the middle with a lot of animal cages stacked up against their fence. We asked a LABiker who makes his living doing animal work for movies about it, -- supposedly they used to raise parrots and maybe Emus, but he didnt know what htey were doing now. I've often seen peacocks wandering around near there as well. But I felt like riding some more rather then taking the highway home - -- Jeniffer and Brian went their seperate ways, and I headed for Lower Big Tujunga -- it was completely empty and I cranked the music out of my headfones, (the song appropriately had the hook, "Ive never been so alone, and i've never been so alive" -- I think it was Smashmouth.) and just rode. second kinda stupid moment of the day -- there is a driveway or a small road connecting to Lower Big T and two cages decide to split left and right -- which would have been ok, except you couldnt really see very far around the corner it was in -- here I come flying 'round this turn to see a car in the oncoming lane and a slow moving bimbo box in the lane in front of me -- I wonder if the drivers realized the error (they hadnt left an escape route for a CAR doing the same thing.) Fortunately, I was slow enough I could slow down, and the cage going in my direction sheepishly let me by.. Angeles Forest back to Angeles Crest (lots of traffic), back to home... a great day of riding, albeit some errors on my part... It was good to get out and get some fresh air into my lungs. I'm glad I got my Widder vest, finally. Jodie York (WSMC racer and writer for a local moto rag called Friction Zone) had been harrassing me to pick up a copy. So I did. HEY! she mentioned ME in an article! whoohoo! I got print! of course, the cover of Friction Zone has Jodie doing a stoppie on a zrx7 -- what a squid. :) Gayathri >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #158 '88 FZR400 ('gurlzbike') '98 T595 Daytona, "huckleberry" Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.