Almost six months since I last plugged in.
I won't be sorry to see '09 go away.
Too many events along the Path this last 12 months causing too much pain and grief. The passing of so many people I care about; the passing of my membership in an outfit that I always thought I'd be a part of; my powerlessness over any and all of it... I can't do anything about most of it, except continue staggering on down the Path, and 'be there' for those who need/want me(and I'm grateful that I can!), so while the tone of this latest screed is a little blue right now, read on.
I took a ride in August with one of my best Bros, Brett. We set out to do some healing, as we both are former members of that aforementioned outfit, and it wasn't too much past the beginning of Spring that I began to plot it out. There were people I needed to see, and with the added benefit of my face in the breeze for a few thousand miles, well that ain't so hard to figure out. I would have liked to get it going way before August, but, back to that powerlessness thing, my bike was still in pieces at the shop. Technical difficulties and circumstances BMC. I had been visiting the shop several times weekly so that the folks knew ALL about my impending ride, and that the only thing in the way now was... a still unassembled bike. Long story short - before the week of the ride, T (the shop owner and a good friend) told E (his shop tech) that if my bike wasn't ready, I'd be riding his brothers bike. Ha! (Not that I would have; I wanted MY bike. Her Darkness has been the 'other woman' in my life for nine years now, and by the Gods that's the bike I ride on road trips, period - as long as she ain't broke down, knock on wood.) Such as it was, I got her back two days before the trip.
We rode out on a rainy Thursday morn. The only unpleasantry was my rain gear: I was sweating pretty well by the time I got to Brett's place, so I wasn't sure if I'd be better off just being wet from the rain! Anyhoo, after a few minor details we set out.
Normally, the second week in August is fairly furnace-like: 113 degrees or so(likely higher), the humidity from the wet season - what we deluded desert rats refer to as the"Monsoon" - may or may not have abated, but in the Rim country, where we were going, afternoon T-storms are the daily special. This day, the rain was falling gently - that alone a little strange, as it is usually going sideways, accompanied by lightning - but it wasn't hot, to me, anyway. (BTW, "hot" to me is 114 degrees or higher. Deal with it, I live in the northern edge of the Great Sonoran Desert.)
The rain stayed with us, on and off, right on up to Flagstaff. But not before a quick stop in Corde
s Junction to check the gear strapped on the bike. All being well, we continued. Brett is a damned capable rider, and this makes riding with him a real pleasure. Not only that but he and I have ridden together plenty already. We each have a pretty good idea of how the other is going to act, or react, in most situations.I was originally going to go on this trip by myself, but when I talked with him about it a few weeks earlier, he wanted to go along. Oh HELL yeah.(My reaction.) We'd already been up to Idaho earlier in the year for, unfortunately, the funeral of a dear friend of ours; over the years he and I have done some travellin', indeed. His company on the road trip? See the reaction above. So on we go... Flagstaff for lunch, then on we go. Our plan was to get up to Kanab, UT to stop for the night. We crossed over the Colorado River at Marble Canyon, rather than go into Page. Brett noticed the view, not only of the canyon, but also the western sky:
He said something to the effect of "Boy that looks bad over there" to which I replied "It's only the sun going down behind the clouds!" at which I got a "Yeah, sure!" look, LOL! Intrepid explorers we are, we kept going... right into a nasty thunderstorm on the south end of the Vermillion Cliffs, as we were headed to Jacob Lake.Lightning is supposed to strike the highest object in the area, you'd think; Pariah Plateau and the Cliffs on our right as we were going. Where do you suppose the damned lightning was? In the lower lands, directly in front of us. I began to wonder, as we were blasting through the lashing rain, if the hair on the back of my neck would stand up before or after I got hit. You know it's close when the bolts look like they're an inch thick and the thunder follows instantly. As bad as it was, we noticed that there was what looked like a tunnel through the worst of it as we pointed west toward the hills - the rain was falling in sheets so thick it looked like clouds on either side of us, while only lightly thrashing us as we rode on. Yeesh. It ended literally right at the foot of the hills as we got into the switchbacks that would lead us to Jacob Lake. After that, it was only cold. We stopped at JL to thaw a little:
F**kin' hard case Brett decides he don't need no steenking cold gear while standing about. Phooey. This occured once or twice more during the trip - but I remember at least once we stopped and he put his jacket back on... The only spooky moment(after the lightning!) as we were riding off the hills towards Fredonia and Kanab came when a doe looked like she was going to dash out in front of Brett, who was ahead of me. I think my heart stopped for a split second.. and then she turned aside. Woof.We arrived in Kanab without further trauma, and landed for the night at a place with neon lights! The Sun n Sand Motel! The manager was a friendly enough fellow; he let us know that we could
get a discount at the restaurant across the street by mentioning we were staying at the Sun N Sand. Being the cheapskate that I am, whattaya think we did for dinner that evening?!?
We spent 11 days traipsing about in Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Northern Cal; as days go by, I'll be posting more about
it. To try that now would be a bit much, and I committed to cleaning up the train wreck that my desk has become. More later...
