|
(posted to r.m.h. on Apr 4, 2003)
After suffering along for some weeks now with a many years old Corbin seat that is too hard, too low, and too slippery (more on this later), I took possesion of a brandy new factory king/queen seat for my BlueBird. Just in time to take the longest ride I have done in a couple of decades. Now don't all laugh at once but this was to be a couple of hundred miles and a bit more ride on a new to me bike with a brand new seat. Throw in the fact I stupidly pulled a muscle in my right forearm a week ago lifting a garage door improperly and the beginnings of some trepidation set in the night before as I hoisted some liquid courage. Well it's morning. Time to get up and have at it. Some coffee, cereal and fruit. SSandS. The air temp is just above freezing with the forecast reaching the mid 70's by afternoon. I discounted that a little as I was going 100+ miles due north. So in goes the jacket liner and on go the heavy gloves and chaps. I have decided to head up on HWY 12 all the way to Tomah and then take a different way back. Just as I get out of town the road turns to shit. Bumpy as all get out. They are rebuilding it as a 4 lane and no attention has been paid to the 2 lane for a few years. Then my throttle arm starts to get sore. Great. 20 miles out and I am already feeling no so good. Well I limp into Sauk City and knowing there is always free food at the HD dealer (and the always entertaining poserfest), I stop in. They have Kuryakin throttle rockers. I get one and some more sustenance for the road. I ask about the state of 12 north of here and get mixed results. Forging on I discover the road is very nice all the rest of the way with some quasi scenic bits around the Dells and north of there. The throttle rocker works. My arm is better and I start having a good time. Sure is a nice day. Sunny and not too warm. By the time I remember to look down at the trip-o-meter its time to get some gas. I stop near Camp Douglas to get some and scarf a mini Subway chicken breast sandwich. The scenery here is very nice. Notice I haven't mentioned anything about the new seat. I haven't noticed anything either. It's doing the job admirably. Pull into Tomah and ask where the fairgrounds are. Right over there. Duh. Fair number of bikes and the usual sounds we all like. I would guess there were a couple three hundred bike there. I spotted several clubs. Get off the bike. Shuck the warm clothing and chaps. I don't mind sticking out in the crowd. Pays the nice ABATE lady some money and walk in. My first impression was somewhat lackluster as I have seen bigger swap meets but I decided to check everything out in an orderly manner. After making the rounds of the venders (there were about a dozen or so) I head down to the main attraction: the bike show. Somewhere between 50 and 75 bikes were entered. A few were awesome. Wish I had the camera. Just as I am nearing the end of the bikes, I hear a voice "Are you Nemo"? I look around then look down to see a nice lady walking up to me (actually she snuk up and was trying to surprise me I think). "Hi, I'm Donna" We shook hands and as we started to shoot the shit I got this funny feeling. It started with my right hand. Great. A new problem with the throttle hand. It wasn't pain though so I tried to ignore it and continued swapping lies with Donna and CrowDog. Sure are nice folks. The feeling had now crept all the way up my arm and down to my loins. Dang I gotta pee. Since they had just arrived and I had seen the whole show we said our farethee wells and I hustled to the john. After takin care of business I did a quick primp in the mirror and noticed that my helmet hair was now slicked back by some greenish crap. It had covered most of my upper body by then. Trying to look inocuous among the leathery throng I beat a path back to the bike only to find I had left the parking light on. For almost 2 hours. Doh! Some guy wanders up to me.. looks at me funny and asks "didn't you hear the announcement about the blue Triumph with its lights on?" Nope. That green crap musta got in my ears by then. Well. Time to see if it will start anyway. Put the key to off for a spell. (There is an evilly designed "Park" position the key will easily go into past "lock") Another thing to wire around later. Turn on the gas, on with the kill switch, ignition on, choke on, IT FIRES. Somebitch! That green crap is electric! And charged my battery while I stood there! While it warms up I don the ridin' duds again and get out of there with little of my pride now intact. Head out of town south on 131. Now this is a far superior road to HWY12. New concrete 2 lane with nice pastoral landscape. I turn southeast on 71. Same deal. Same road really. I am now wishing this ride would never end and don't notice the slime creeping slowly down me onto the bike. Thru Elroy and Union Center I get onto 33 and head to Wonewok and Reedsburg. This is a nice road too. I think am getting close to riding nirvana. Hell. Time for gas again. I get a whopping 125 miles out of my first petcock. Lady looks at me real funny as I pay for the gas. Kids are pointing. I ignore that as I am now "A Big Bad Biker in Nirvana". Guess the green shit hanging off the gas hose should have tipped me off but (see previous sentance). I know somewhere along the line I will have to take HWY12 again but want to minimize that so I take 12 from Baraboo to Sauk then 78 which is real nice but too short. 78 gets me to 14 which is no great shakes but happens to end up being the street I live right off of. Park the bike.
WTF!! Thanks Donna. I think.
-- |