24
Sep 11
My
first riding day
After the
stress of just getting there, I was so keyed up, I think I could have
left to go on a ride right away. V10 and motoed both said they
didn't know what time the ride would leave. It varied but they'd
wake us up in plenty of time to join them. I felt confident in
speaking for my roommate because the last message I'd gotten from
thepopularjock was something along the lines of he definitely wanted
to ride in the morning and he'd leave a key in the door (but not the
light on).
The day
before three riders had gone down. One was serious enough to need
air lifting to the closest hospital. He had a broken back but was
expected to recover. Everything else was minor and those guys were
still riding. It left me thinking maybe I wasn't supposed to be
there when I should have been and everything happened for a reason.
When I got
the HHR, I wasn't even thinking about that vehicle when I started
thinking about getting something. It just seemed to be destined for
me to get one. After hearing the news about the multiple crashes, I
was in a kind of move with the flow mood. Yes, I'd driven all night
just to get there and ride with these people but I also did it to
hang out with them too.
So when our
wake up call was grommet knocking on the door saying they would be
leaving in 10 minutes and wondering if we could be ready to go by
then, I went with the flow. No, we couldn't be ready in 10 minutes
maybe half an hour but we didn't want to hold them up either. It
wasn't their fault we'd arrived in the wee hours of the morning.
 |
| Where we were going to meet the group |
grommet and
thepopularjock exchanged some details about where the group would
gather for lunch then disappeared into the sunshine. Then it was a
bit of a furry as we washed up and went to see if anyone was left
around. You see, I needed to change my rear tire. Yes I'd had two
weeks to get that done but I didn't get the tire until Friday
morning. I just couldn't multi-task finding a car and buying tires
for my motorcycle.
I'd been
working from some imaginary list. There were things that needed
doing and I was scratching things off and moving on to the next.
Like after TheMomma died, I went ahead with installing the R6 shock
and multiguage because it's what I was planning to do. I didn't put
much thought into it but did it because it was something to do.
Leading up
to the Gather, it was much the same thing until I derailed myself by deciding
to get the car before the trip. It was like something was driving me
to get the car more than tending to the rear wheel on the bike. So
it happened that when I finally left to go to Arkansas, Baby was
still wearing that worn tire and I hadn't put much thought into the
chain problem beyond knowing it would need replacing and I wasn't
happy about that. In fact I put it out of my mind.
 |
| Our Ride |
So after
thepopularjock and I realized that everyone was gone, we looked at
that tire. Well, he looked at the tire. I knew that I was willing
to do another ride on it as long as I didn't push it. After the
accidents the day before combined with not knowing the roads, I
didn't expect to push it. So we put the lunch spot in the new gps
and headed out. I think it was Oark.
Earlier I'd
had the new gps, the old gps, and later the phone gps guiding me
through the night. The new gps's route matched closely with my old
one so I felt confident in it's routing ability. The estimated times
were way off though! The first thing it does is tell you how many
air miles to your destination. Why? Because it comes loaded with
CoPilot. Get it? Yea, I didn't like it either. I hadn't had time
to figure out how to change it so it would read road miles. As we
rode along, I noticed it was cycling between a lot of different
information. We left Eureka Springs a different way than the way I
came in.
And I
quickly discovered the sweeping curves with signs that read “50
mph” are too inviting to take it easy. Once I realized how grippy
the road surface was and that I still had pretty good grip, all
thoughts of taking it easy seemed to have slipped my mind! I hadn't
taken the time to mount the cameras, thinking I'd do it once we met
up with the group.
It was a
beautiful morning to be riding. I was already regretting not having
the cams rolling. thepopularjock is a good riding companion. It
took me a little while to get used to his style; that is where he
should be when exiting the curve. I was leading because of the gps
but I'd forgotten to bring the bluetooth transmitter. It was still
at home in my room where I left it after charging it.
So instead
of having instructions in the helmet I had to keep glancing at the
unit and made sure the volume was up high so I could hear in beeps or
dings. After a bit, I was comfortable enough to get the camera out
and try to take pics. Its a new camera and I don't like it. I
should have brought the old fuji. I'll be giving the new one to my
niece after I buy something of equal value for my nephew.
 |
| I tried to get a pic of thepopularjock but this was the best i could do. |
I put the
camera away when I realized I'd missed a turn. At least I think I
missed one, it was one of those blue signs with gold letters. Every
road that those signs indicated looked like paths down to the
moonshine still!
We stopped
a couple of times so that I could get a better look at the route and
ended up talking. Those stops turned into breaks as if we'd
forgotten that we were supposed to be meeting the group. After
awhile, I decided that to get to where we were going, I'd have to
take one of those roads. When we finally did, there was a red dawg
at the top that looked like he might have chased us. Instead, he
shook his head and went back into his yard. I didn't think much of
it at the time but a mile or so later, I realized that dawg knew
something!
The gps
said 2 miles on this gravel road. But a closer look revealed it was
leading to another gravel road that was 15 miles on it. I didn't
have the rubber or the inclination to dirt it all the way to Oark so
I consulted with thepopularjock again and we decided we were better
off turning around. We'd just find somewhere to eat and catch up
with the others later at the hotel.
I used the
poi on the gps to find a nearby town and we headed in the direction.
At the top of the road, another dawg greeted us. He seemed to be
smiling as if the other one told him about the two idiots on street
bikes and he was heading in our direction to see the inevitable
wreck. Not this time pup, these two idiots got smart about a mile
back and were going back to where we belonged.
thepopularjock
needed gas so that was our next stop.
 |
| thepopularjock |
After
filling up the bikes, we went to a Taco Bell/KFC combo joint and had
lunch. Yes, we were that hungry! After some more good discussion,
we headed back towards Eureka Springs and the hotel, Candlewick Inn.
We arrived
just in time! The group was getting ready to head out for dinner in
Eureka Springs at a local spot. Somebody had a brother or something
with a winery and they would be meeting us at the restaurant. I got to meet fz1grl though!
thepopularjock and I took the HHR into Eureka Springs to meet the
group. It seems we waited forever for a table but there was plenty
to keep us entertained in the little town. We all spent time getting
to know each other and after a super long wait when the last 24 hours
were beginning to catch up to me, we finally were seated.
We had the
whole balcony to ourselves. It was a fantastic meal with great
company!
After
dinner, thepopularjock made sure to ask around to get my tire
changed. He had it all arranged so all I needed to do was bring Baby
around to the parking lot tire shop! We had an ex-No Mar employee
who bragged he could get the tire changed in less than 5 minutes. There were plenty on hand to keep him to his word. But before that, we got together at 38fordhwk's request.
He had a surprise for everyone, trophies!
Since the hour was getting late, it was time to open the tire shop. He had a
little trouble getting the axle out and the wheel off of the bike but
he did have that tire off and the new one on in about 5 minutes. At
least I think it was that long, I was busy talking to Seena and
fz1grl.
It wasn't
until the wheel was back on the bike that they realized there was
something wrong back there. With so many FZ1 experts around, I knew
I was in capable hands and just watched as they diagnosed the
problem: bad wheel bearings. Not just bad but “Girl put that bike
back on the trailer, I wouldn't ride it like that” bad.
When I saw
the wheel wiggling in the swingarm I'd already decided that. I'd
taken enough chances driving all night and didn't want to use up my
good will. I left Baby right where he was and after a little more
socializing with gixxerjasen, we called it a night.
thepopularjock
was hoping to join some others for a ride the next morning while I
contemplated when to leave. I could get some rest or take off in the
morning with the rest of the gang.
Thanks for
reading,
patrice,
theWolfTamer
Last part of the report.
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