To: nedod@nedod.org
cc:
Subject: a july 4th weekend ride, or getting over some fears..
--------

So this geek-babe I know is supposed to be in SF on Saturday night at
some other biker-geek friend's party, and I decide, Hey -- I can go to
this! I'll spend saturday riding up to SF and sunday riding back and
monday recovering. :)

	The last long trip I took alone was to Laguna Seca three years
ago, and I scared myself stupid on the way back by suffering heat
exhaustion -- I was in Taft, CA all alone, sick to my stomach and
headachey. Fortunately for me, Taft has a Chevron station with a large
bathroom with AC and I managed to finish my ride home tho it took me a
few days to recover my electrolyte level (I had been drinking water
and gatorade, but not enough on the gatorade...)

	Between then and now, I realized that I tended not to do any
longer rides _alone_ -- the last day of the Pepper Chase was alone and
I spent much of it being scared/worried taking the I15 from Vegas back
to Los Angeles (i couldnt seem to find any of the twisty roads, and
most of that was on purpose.)  I'd sort of put that whole taking a
trip on my own thing out of my head for a year, until staying in town
for the weekend became less interesting then heading to San Francisco
to see some old friends.

	So I ask the LaBikers how to get to SF via the backroads.  I
plan on taking the 5 north til Gorman and heading on this little road
that hits the 33 north (Mil Noreste), then taking the 33 north for a
Long Long Time 'til it hits 198, 198 to 25, 25 to the 101 into SF.

The trip was funny... all sorts of little things kept saying: "stay at
home," or "Don't go!" or "Turn back!"

	my front tyre was a little worn -- it would definately need to
	be replaced before heading to Laguna Seca next week, but I
	couldnt manage to replace it before leaving for this trip
	(last tyre got sold out from underneath me due to a
	communications snafu wiht my raceshop...)

	Three different really cool motorcycle rides get called

	Two different friends I havnt seen in a while in LA call to
	invite me to cool parties.

	When I start the trip I forget my Boosteroo and I can barely
hear two of my tapes over the wind noise / traffic in my helmet.

	the I5 North has _nasty_ traffic -- 4 lanes move to 2 and I
see signs that say 90 minute delays over the Grapevine... 

But i ignore these little demons and press on to head out on saturday
morning. and it was a good thing. :) once I get past the 5 onto Mil
Noreste, i start to enjoy myself and while keeping it all reined in,
this road is so pretty thru the mountains, and passes the turn off for
LockWood valley Road -- another one of those neato roads I'd forgotten
about. (hrm, should do a rid eover this way in a few weeks... its nice
and cool.)

33 north is just Dull. I stop at Maricopa to get some food and a whole
herd of really young Navy boys and their even younger dates (is she
LEGAL? are you SURE?) mob the small fastfood place and so I grab a
turkeey sandwich from the consession and sit in the shade. I dont
spend much time eating, but am careful about getting my camelback
prepared and making sure I'm hydrated and that the bike seems to look
ok.

The 33 north past Maricopa is thru oil country. Stinky, hot and the
road was STRAIGHT. hrm.

	5th gear, roll it on. Now for the truly stupid part. I dont
roll off. There is no traffic, there are no side roads and I can see
for miles. *look down* Well, i still havent beaten Patrick's indicated
on Bouquet Canyon, but still... 5 miles off wasnt bad. Then I start
thinking, "gee, I think the error on THIS speedo was about 14%... that
makes my speed...*starts to try and do math in head* Hurts head* yells
at self for doing math without a calculator* yells at self for trying
to do math whilst going dod nominal plus 30...*then realize that this
is about how fast I go into turn 8 at willow and calm down, _IF_ the
error is 14%, and about how fast Squidboy goes into turn 8 if its
7%... *"

Slow down when I need to but in general keep the speed up above a rate
that probably would have me arrested if I got caught. Still no cages,
nothing much on the road... 

at least in Coalinga, the road gets interesting -- 198 is fun, mostly
fast sweepers, but then I see the sign that always makes my heart
clench... 

	"RoadWork Ahead"

On this road, roadwork ahead meant a bunch of miles of nothing, and
then suddenly, a 100 feet of compltely torn up road, gravel/sand/dirt,
no asphalt.

	I stop and look at it.

	I roll back and start the bike at a reasonable speed (30?) and
stand on the pegs and let it bounce a bit, and hold the tank with my
knees and let the front end bounce some more and then I'm out of it
and now I can take a breath. *whew* There was one more patch of this,
but I was ok. It felt like skiing -- stopping at the top of a bad one
and looking and then finally comitting and just hopping off the edge.


Then, 198 to 25.. and no one in the LaBiker crew seemed to remember to
mention that this was the weekend -- THE weekend to party in
Hollister, CA, which lies on rt 25 between 198 and the 101... 

It took me  a good hour and a half to get my butt and Triumph thru the
main part of town. The great part was the number of guys recognizing
the marque, cheering me, and then getting even more nutz when they
realized I was a chick on a triumph. (if i didnt have to be in sf that
night, I'd have stayed to party with them...)

oh, and Cheap Trick was playing. who woulda thunk Harley Bikers would
be mainstream. :) 

The best part was being on rt 25 south of hollister, passing harley's
left and (well, only on the left) and hitting the twisties to have my
ASS kicked by an old fat guy on a big harley (didnt recognize which
one, 'cause of the dust he kicked up) but boy, he could ride. :) I had
a good time chasing him 'til I relized "he's from 'round here, and I
dont wanna go this fast..." and slowed it down to my turtle pace for
the weekend.

	riding the 101 was dull, cept I'd keep catching up and
filtering thru bike gangs of Harleys... So I hit this party in SF on
Saturday night expecting a certain crowd, (computer geeks) and find
instead bikers who make lots of money with computers. A great time was
had by all, and my friends thought I was nuts to only come up for the
party (well, except Charles, who understood. :)

Sunday, I head back, taking 101s to 25 to something Indian Road
(Indian Valley?) which was Really Cool.

I stopped on the intersection of 25, 198 and this road to get a drink,
clean the bugs off my helmet and change tapes, and an old expensive
sports car pulls up next to me, the passenger window comes down and
this rather nice woman peers up to say, "Are you ok, Miss?"  and I
say, "oh thanks so MUCh for stopping, I'm fine, getting a drink!"  Her
husband/partner/boyfriend in the drivers seat sez, "Do you know where
you are?" and I grin, "50 miles from anywhere, but I think I'm heading
to Paso Robles and route 58..."

He smiles that _smile_ -- the one where you're sharing something good
to say, "This is the road, miss! have a great time!" then she says,
"lovely motorcycle, dear," and they take off...

Indian Valley Road (if that's the name) rapidly becomes 1.5 lanes of
badly crowned off camber sometimes dirty sandy road thru
farmland... wheeeEEEEE!  I'm by myself so I'm not going quick but what
a great fun road. Slowed me down a lot -- every time I felt like I
could pick it up, i'd end up hitting a section with sand and pea
gravel and feel that familiar panic, but I'd yell at myself "Look
where you want to go, *&^&*(, not at the sand," and by the end of that
road, I think i might have partially conquered another little demon...

Route 58 was as much fun as I remembered it, and I have to thank Mark
Drake (and my biker friend up north, Charles who also recommended it)
tho the section in the middle seems... shorter...

The tight section near the 33 has been recently repaved and should be
Mucho Funo for those heading to Laguna Seca -- hopefully they will
clean the fine sand off of it, but even that's not a real issue.

The last stretch to home was just painful -- the 5 north on Saturday
was down to 2 lanes over the grapevine and I had to lanesplit a
lot... the 5 south was just filled with idiots. I felt like I was in a
pinball game and with little energy to deal with it. 

Home sweet home on Sunday night with a toasted front tyre and a really
tired butt. (Charles sez I need to recover the seat of the Triumph,
but I dont often do back to back 400 mile days...)

Saturday was warm, but sunday was _perfect_ even when I had to slow
down in Hollister (again!) -- what a great energy to ride thru there,
with all the Harleys and a few other bikes, signs that said "Welcome
Bikers" everywhere and lots of people really enjoying
themselves... but the weather, temperature, sunlight and slight breeze
made it a great day to be riding.

	I'm still not over the fears of riding alone, (its definately
more _fun_ for me if I have friends with me) tho having taken a remote
first aid class last fall, and signing up for a basic mechanics course
this fall seems to help, and I'm still searching for a good cellphone
service, but have vowed to get one by the end of July.

Gayathri, getting ready to head out for Laguna Seca
>--------------------------------------------------------------
 gayathri@world.std.com          Calamari Club #002, WSMC #158
 '88 FZR400 ('gurlzbike')        '98 T595 Daytona, "huckleberry"

   "If you want truly to understand something, try to change it."
			- Kurt Lewin