To: nedod@nedod.org Subject: Saturday: eat, ride, eat, ride, eat... *long* Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 13:39:07 -0400 From: gayathri Jeniffer (our Pit Wrench-in-training) and I had planned a wild gurlz nite out before going on the Froggie's Ride eat Ride, 'cept we both fell asleep before we could do anything, and I cant seem to spell Sarah's name to have invited her along too. Good thing, tho, I needed all the sleep I could get. (squidboy's off having fun in Las Vegas, and NO, he's NOT taking Freddie Spencer, 'cause I'd have gone with him. ) we made it to Home Kitchen (our usual meeting place for a GMR run) on time, but they stuck us in the back -- next time I'll be sure to ask for a table up front so that we dont get forgotten. Unfortunately, since our waitress took so long, we realized 1. we'd not make the 11am meet with Tony at the Shell Station near the Angeles Crest and 2. we might not be able to do the longer trip. Breakfast: Sarah, Jeniffer, JudyM (ltns!), Kev, his friends: Fred and Shane (sp?). Jim Dutton made his usual quiet surprise appearance (always a joy, let me tell ya -- no one is quite as cute as Jim doing his 'stitch dances), Joe Munch, Cecil showed up to ride (our thanks to liz for letting you out!), and last, but not least, Beav. The tattoo discussion led to Jeniffer pulling out a whole bunch of temporary tattoos which some of us applied in vaguely appropriate spots on our bodies. (Tho i believe it was Fred who has us BEAT on the _real tattoo list_, damn, he's gotta take more clothes off-- when the pics show up, I'll be sure to post the urls. :) ) Leaving Home Kitchen, we made a gas stop, but my first communications snafu was not telling Jeniffer and Joe that one has to go east on Alosta and make a U Turn. So everyone but them heads out... and they are confused... I sent folks on ahead with Cecil leading, and waited for Jeniffer, Sarah and Joe. Then Sarah takes a wrong turn but some how manages to find us again... Second Snafu: I forgot to tell the folks who didnt know the route that once you get on Azusa Ave, you simply stay on it 'til the first right over the bridge, so I paniced that these boyz would fly up to Crystal Lake and I'd never catch up, so next thing I know "evil squidgrrl" took over and I made sure I made it to the bridge first. (*ahem, double yellow passes are your friend, be be careful of the police!*) the odd part here was even as evil squidgrrl was causing toes to drag on some of the off camber turns, I realized I was still being lazy and sitting on the bike, not even shifting my butt off the seat, so I coulda gone even faster, and the sightlines were Just Fine. Hrm, that envelope is finally expanding... Cecil and Jim were kind enough to lead from East fork to GMR so that I could stuff evil squidgrrl back into her box. *BACK BACK! DOWN!* Hey, that stupid turn that heads downhill isnt bad if you are going slow behind some stupid cage... I pull up to the intersection of the start of GMR to see a swarm of men on Jeniffer's bike -- well, looking at Jeniffer's bike -- turns out her brake light was stuck on. Beav and others managed to back off the adjustment to the rear brake, and Cecil explained with many hand motions what was needed to be done to loosen the switch. We head up GMR, and as usual, its FUN! some sand a little gravel, almost no cages, (were there any?) and the bicyclists... Jeniffer and I'd bought a couple of little bicycle horns, so I tooted them as we passed the bikers... Up at the top, we stopped to take a buncha pictures of tattoos and scenery. I'm finding that both Melissa Etheridge and Third Eye Blind work well on this road. :) Cecil was videotaping some of us, and on the way down, actually pulled over to tape a few of us -- tho I think he ran out of tape. Hey, I hope I looked fast! (*hee hee, at least not spastic would be good today. *) I realized that having only ridden recently on the track for schools, I was quite spastic, and my lines werent clean, nor were my motions and riding all that neat. Its going to take a few weeks to integrate these new skills into the mix... At the bottom of the hill, we asked Cecil to lead us to the freeway to avoid some kind of kids box car racing, and headed to the Crest. We were an hour late to meeting Tony and company, so we had no hope of catching them. The freeway wasnt much fun, with some horrid slowdowns due to police and the Santa Anita (horse) race track. Evil SquidGrrl must have ended up on Sarah's bike, tho good karma deflected the evil onto some hapless pickup truck driver as they exited the freeway. I was trying to keep jeniffer, shane and fred in sight behind me to make sure everyone got to where they needed to go. :) Cecil had to go home (hope the rest of your day was marvelous!) and Sarah had decided to be good and feed the puppies she was housesitting and meeting us at the start of the Froggies ride. Joe had to go back to Ojai and rescue a pool cue, and Judy headed home, promising to try and make the Froggie's ride... We got to the shell station about 90 minutes past the time that Tony sez he was gonna leave, *darn!* so of course, he wasnt there. Given the time, we simply went to Newcomb's Ranch for a bite to eat and some more tyre kicking. Kev and JimD graciously (read made me) lead up the hill, and I was feeling even more spastic -- I was working on the quick flick and hard countersteering, but wasnt apexing late enough, (damn, where's squidboy when I really need him to give me the turn in points?? in some strip club on the vegas strip, I'll bet! ) and realized I would end up picking up too much speed. Lots LOTS of CHP on the Crest -- we passed 3 traps in the first 28 miles, but at least two had cages pulled over, so I wasnt too unhappy about it. anyway, here's to hoping i didnt bore kev too badly! On our way out, we passed Kurt and Monster Dan coming up to Newcombs, but since I'd realized to make the meet point in time, we'd have to head back down Tout Suite -- blew off Kurt and Dan, decided to take the 2S to the 5S, to the 110 S to the 10 W to the 1N to Gladstones... made it fine, tho did anyone else see that squid on the '900RR with the half helmet and no protective gear almost get squashed by that Mercedes (?) that decided from the far left lane that they really should have gotten on the 405 S exit... Jeniffer and I were honking our bicycle horns at stop lights and we got to the start point at a good time. The only problem was gladstones seemed to want to charge us all 2$ each for waiting there for each other. I went to the Chevron station across the street to get gas, and waited. Marc Siry popped up, looking dashing in his forgotten for his 'stitch leathers. Who else did I see? Judy shows up on her virago (hey, I dont think I've actually SEEN this bike before), KenT on the Sprint, Barb on her new to her VFR, Sarah and Joe back from their respective errands. Two guys on BMW's that I didnt recognize (Friends of Gracie's, we found out later), Tony made a brief appearance and disappeared to rescue someone, C.W and Leonard showed up (one on the Kawapotamus and the other on the honsuka), Squish and Jen(n) who I hadnt seen in _forver_ and I'm forgetting a whole list of other people -- Jeniffer, I hope you've got it! :) I sat on Judy's Virago and thought, This isnt so bad. :) got teased as I was wearing my vanson leathers, but I said that babes always look good on bikes. This ride was great fun, and I'm gonna have to do it again soon, since 1. I was tired 2. I was hungry 3. I kept getting completely lost. Followed Cowboy and Judy for a good bit of the roads, and had a blast! Judy, following you is fun for me, since I dont have to think about my lines and can just ride. :) BIG Thanks to Marc Siry and Sarah for playing sweep and making sure we lost lambs made it to dinner. Only one U Turn, and one road missed. DINNER! oh man, this was the POINT, right? What fantastic food! great company! thanks to Leonard who let me eat half of his artichoke and to C.W. for showing off the pictures of the sad sad Bandit 1200. (Some guy looped his bandit doing a wheelie near the rock store) I got to talk to Kevin and Wanda briefly about the great pepper chase, Judy and Sarah and Jeniffer about taking CSS in the fall with me. (come on, I'll help prep the bikes and we'll take the truck and squidboy will be our Pit Wench, at our beck and call with water and grapes and mechanical assistance...) It was good meeting the new folks, tho I'm terrible with names... Monster Dan took me to task for talking trash about European bikes (really, Dan, its simply _jealousy_) but he's so cute its hard to pay attention to what he's saying. we took over the joint, I tell ya! Scared the local customers, and Sarah made the poor waitress lose half her ice and water glasses... (fortunately, they were plastic glasses, but the floor was covered in ice...) My blackened ahi was perfect and the veggies werent soggy. The artichokes were to die for (but I wasnt keen on that sauce...) AND the fried calamari was _great_ -- Shane, Fred and Kev got gypped as they had to leave dinner early to make it home.. Did anyone have the crab cakes? I got good vibe on the fish and chips... The waitstaff had some problems keeping up with us, but all in all, given that we were moving around and making things difficult for 'em, I think they did a good job. Hey, surprise visit from Fred, Mel and Terry (from NY). Jean came late (from work?), Marc's lovely wife (Judy Siry) was there in this odd 4 wheeled vehicle and Vince finally showed up after rescuing his friend who cant wheelie a bandit 1200... Some poor ol' blue hair'd lady wanted to know "why all those BIKERS were in here" when I walked past the maitre d'. I said, "Ma'am, they are eating dinner." talked some more and kicked some tyres and realized 1. it was getting dark 2. I was TIRED and 3. the 27 has some curves in it.. The Fearless Sarah offers to lead me and Joe to the 101... So it was fearless sarah, sweet joe and chickenshit moi -- for some reason I'd forgotten how to ride between arriving and dinner... maybe its the dark, maybe its I'm tired, maybe.. damn it, you Fscking fat hippo! TURN! (that's the BIKE, not me!) ahh, we got to the 101, and Sarah took me to her friend Stefan's house to watch a few hours of motorcycle racing, cuddle with the world's cutest dogs, and then I headed home... The 101 is fairly peaceful at 11 pm, and I zipped home, looking forward to telling my cats the adventures they miss by not coming along with me.. They might not have liked Choco and Homer, but I had a great time! Gayathri >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #158 '88 FZR400 ('gurlzbike') '98 T595 Daytona, "huckleberry" ------- End of Blind-Carbon-Copy