Random Thoughts

I suppose I could whine some more about how much I miss my scooter, but you've heard all that before and it won't make The Scooter Doctor work any faster.

So maybe I'll just mention that the US coverage of the Olympics was pretty dire. Were the only events in the Olympics the really interminable, unending women's beach vollyball matches, gymnastics and Michael Phelps? Were all the sappy, supposedly heartrending "biographical" stories about American athletes really necessary? Does anyone other than Ke-double ell-o-double good good and Michael Phelps care if he signs up to promote Frosted Flakes? Does anyone else remember that spelling of Kellogg? And why do male beach volleyball teams wear real clothes and the women all wear itsy bitsy teensy weensy bikinis? Did the NBC announcers drive anyone else crazy round the bend with their inane commentary and useless remarks? "Oh, THAT's gonna cost her a medal!" as some impossibly tiny gymnastic sprite (apparently successfully) completes some physically impossible move and does that wierd thing with her pelvis at the end of her routine. Well, exactly why did that apparently perfect routine cost her a medal? I don't think they know, they are just flappin' lips.

And speaking of flappin' lips, it's time for the Political Conventions. Major lip flap hurricane force wind ensues, followed by a high pressure zone full of lying attack ads and exceedingly empty promises. We still have months to go and I'm already sick of it all. At this point I think they all reek worse than Limburger. I begin to wish for a limit on campaigning. Let's have campaigning start in June, a national primary in September and the elections in November. Why, oh why do we have to drag it out for years and why are we supposed to accept a formerly despised and zealously attacked, thoroughly pummelled and trounced former opponent as the perfect choice for running mate? And why oh why are male politicians apparently genetically unable to keep wedding vows intact and zippers up? Mothers, don't let your sons become politicos! Let 'em be cowboys, but not in the government, out there with the dogies where they belong.

And then there is Washington weather, which has been totally un-Washington this year. Heavy rains in August? Never happens. Trees blown down in August? Never happens. Until this year. All the political wind is blowing ill here in WA. ("Just say WA", our state tourism slogan. Very expensively produced by some overpaid consultants and very short lived.) It's either politics or global warming or perhaps both. Remains to be seen.

I miss my bike!

I am suprised by how much I miss my scooter. Looking at his empty parking spot in the garage aches like a missing tooth. Every time I go out to the garage, it feels vast and empty where Wrex should be and so, like when I lost a tooth when I was 7, I go probe the spot. I stand there, I walk around in Wrex's space, I picture him home again. I commiserate with Ray's lonely Silver, out there all alone. Poke, poke, poke at the sore spot. By this time, I can feel him missing out there. I don't even have to go into the garage....I feel his absence.

It will be sometime next week before I get him back and it feels like a long, long time. The weather hasn't been the best in the last few days, and some of those days I would not have ridden anyway, but still. I miss my bike. It suprises me that in this short time I've bonded with Wrex so much. I hope the weather's good when he comes home.

Here's another thing I've been pondering. When we went on our training trips, we carried everything we might concieveably need on our bikes. We carried more than we needed and maybe more than we might ever need. Just about every emergency was covered, one way or another. We even carried our pillows with us. I'm attached to my pillow---most hotels have horrid pillows) Turns out my pillow makes a nice backrest when rolled up tightly in a stuff sack and strapped to my top pack.

But still, everything we thought we might find useful on a month's journey fit into 2 top cases and 4 sidebags, one glovebox and one tiny trunk. We did not come home and say, oh gee, we really wish we had brought "X".

When we travel in the mini-van, we can hardly fit in all the stuff that Ray deems prudent and necessary. Go off to spend a week in a fully furnished cabin in Oregon and there's barely room for the poor dog in the van! You should have seen the van the time we hauled the dog, the sons, the Christmas presents and all the prudent and necessary that Ray could squeeze in. We were a van full of sardines and still some stuff had to be left behind that Ray would otherwise have hauled along.

Now, how can it be that we can travel with both so little and so much?

I think about that as I sit here missing my bike.....

Full Face Helmets and Degrees of ATGATT

Several people I know wear full-face helmets. Those things freak me out and I can't wear them longer than a few minutes. Can't get those things off soon enough. Hmm. Since I am in there all by myself, does that mean I'm freaking myself out? No. it's the helmet. A person can't really breathe in there. This person can't anyway.

The question has come up whether a DOT and/or Snell approved 3/4 helmet with a face shield, when worn with all the other standard motorcycle safety gear, qualifies one as an All The Gear All The Time (ATGATT) rider. Thank you, TJ and Brother Bear, I needed a topic for today, since Wrex is in the motorcycle hospital and about to be abandoned by his heartless, vacation-bound doctor.

I think a Snell/DOT 3/4 helmet is safe and surely better than nothing. I am aware it leaves jaw bones and chins imperiled. Perhaps I only think that it's safe because I can't stand to wear a full-face helmet.

Do heavy Levi's qualify as ATGATT gear? I feel safe enough in my jeans, but then Wrex is a different animal than a 2 wheeler. Denim doesn't give you much protection after all. Perhaps denim gives me a false sense of safety, as I know it doesn't take much pavement to grind away jeans.

Ray used to wear Draggin Jeans, which at least had some abrasion protection, but now he has a pair of armoured Flex Pants he likes very much and which should carry him through the year. I guess that puts Ray higher on the ATGATT scale than I am, even though he too currently wears a 3/4 helmet.

We will not get into one of my favorite rants, the failure of Active or Sport clothing manufacturers to recognize the needs of short, fat ladies, or indeed fat ladies of any height. And probably overweight men are also seriously neglected by the same manufacturers.

Is there an ATGATT scale? Is a person either ATGATT or not, no degrees of ATGATT-ness? What constitutes ATGATT?

I think ATGATT constitutes a DOT/Snell approved helmet, motorcycle gloves, motorcycle boots, armored jacket and at least heavy jeans. What do you think?

Takes All Kinds....

....of people to make a world, I guess.

Today on the way to the Family History Center to work my shift, I saw an old truck that stalled exactly when the light turned green. He was obviously trying to get the rust bucket started again, you could hear the engine grinding. The person behind him in a mini-van was apparently in a huuuuge important urgent hurry, as she immediately began to honk her horn. Beep. No moving on the part of the truck. Beep beep beep. Still no movement.

BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Poor guy in the truck was trying so hard and this woman on his bumper was not giving him any credit for trying. She seemed to think he'd purposely stopped his truck there at the light and was stalled there soley to keep her stopped all through the green. Tsk. Soccer Mom road rage. I drove on contemplating society's general impatience and frequent lack of understanding for our fellow man and promising to be more patient, especially on the road.

Then a couple of blocks later what do I see? A father on a Silver Wing is taking his daughter to school. He was wearing full gear and Glory Be! The daughter, who looked to be about 8 or 9, was also wearing full gear! She had on her helmet, gloves, not sneakers or flip flops and a riding suit in miniature size. Protected from head to toe. It looked like a little version of an AeroStitch suit.

So different from our neighbors, who also have a Siver Wing. He rides wearing a helmet only (it's the law here) and his kids ride behind him also wearing only a helmet. They all ride in shorts and flip flops and sleeveless shirts. It gives me the creeps every time I see him toting his kids around "naked" like that. Even if he does not care for his own skin and bones, he should care a bit more for his kids' skin and bones.

I know that wearing gear is a choice and I know we don't all make the same choices. but if the first dad should have an accident, his precious daughter stands a better chance of surviving without serious injury than my neighbor's kids do. Aren't parents supposed to teach their kids the safest/best ways to do things?

On the Wrex front, it seems he'll be in the hospital for a couple weeks. Thankfully, the part to fix his front brake will only cost 40 bucks. The bad news is the part won't be here til next week sometime and next week Jason is going on vacation. The nerve! My Wrex is sick and his doctor is going on vacation! Oops! I already forgot to be more patient.

Grand Tour News

Well, it's been a tough, tough decision, but we've decided the smart thing to do is postpone our trip to Chicago for a year.

There are many factors that went into the decision and they all added up to wait.

We're disappointed, but this is not an abandonment of our idea, it's a postponement.

We still want to make the trip with Wrex and Silver, we just have come to realize that we need to work hard on being in better physical shape, being stronger. So this next year, we'll be back to the 1300 calorie diet and exercising daily. O, how I hate to sweat! But the rewards of the hard work will be great.

In the meantime, there will be motorcycle riding going on and so there will be postings to the blog. Maybe you'll all get in the habit of reading it and maybe I'll even learn how to write a shorter blog.

Clean Bikes and Corduroy Roads

When Ray came home, we washed our bikes with this stuff we bought, S100 motorcycle cleaner. You just squirt it on and then rinse it off right away. It worked pretty good where the bugs weren't. He had to scrub the bugs, which on my bike means alot of scrubbing. Ol' Wrex catches alot of bugs on his wheel fenders.

It not being his bike, but mine, he did not wipe Wrex down and so now I have to Honda Wax him. Wrex, not Ray. Waterspots all over my beautiful trike! Tsk.

Wrex has to go into Jason's shop today to have his front brake system checked. It should just about pop Wrex on his nose if I jam on that brake, and it isn't. And he's got 2 lights out in his rear stop light. Ray says it makes Wrex look gap-toothed.

It came to my attention that I had forgotten to tell you about the mountain roads in Oregon....they seem to have sizeable logs as the first layer under the tarmac. And I thought the washboards in Washington were bad! And to make it more interesting, the State of Oregon's road builders laid the logs in a clever chevron pattern, with the point being at the middle of the road. I don't know if they do it for wet/winter traction reasons or just to rattle a motorcyclist's teeth loose.

Imagine you are an ant with an ant-sized motorcycle and you have to ride that motorcycle over wide wale corduroy. That's about what those roads felt like to us. It was bad enough for Ray, but for a vehicle with widely spaced wheels, it felt worse. Some wheel was always going over a bump, but every wheel hit a bump at a different time. Good thing those wheels have independent suspension!

I bet there's lots of other things I forgot to tell you, but that's what I can remember right now. I should have a microrecorder and talk all day, then I'd remember everything. Mostly I remember we had a great time and even conquered the Road from Heck.

Races With Semis......

....And loves it! Yes, it turns out that Wrex and I were made for 70 mph interstate sweepers. And semi racing. I discovered that there is a kind of trucker that absolutely will NOT be passed by a fat old lady on a 250cc scooter and will go any speed necessary to prevent such passage. No fair!


But I did pass my share of semis and exulted each time. I doubt the truckers had any idea how much it made my day to pass them by on my little mosquito rocket.


I dreaded riding the interstates home yesterday, but much to my great amazement (and Ray's outright astonishment), I loved the rural and mountainous interstates. More love is reserved for the mountain interstate. What a hoot! I was so pumped from zipping up and down the mountain (well, ok, most of the zipping occurred on the downside and most of the chugging on the upside) that I even survived Issaquah-Seattle. Those who don't live around here don't know how righteously awful Puget Sound traffic can be, but it's second only to Los Angeles.


Ray followed me all day and hung so far back he was on the edge of communication device contact....about 1/4 mile. He said it was in case I did something (the stupid part of that statement was only implied) and he needed to evade. I was highly insulted, but as I think about it, I think he hung back so that he could catch up and zoom his bike. His license plate frame does say "Cogito Ergo Zoom."


We made more miles faster than any other day, but the road allowed for 60-70 mph and not 20 mph twisties and we got home about 3:30. We felt pretty good when we got home, but by 8 we were pretty worn out. Ray unpacked his m/c bags and packed up a suitcase for this week's trip to Baltimore.


We had the usual people gather around Wrex every time we stopped. We're almost used to it now. A family in a black Accura sedan took cell-phone pictures of Wrex and I on the road and when I waved back at their little boy, they were so excited. Takes all kinds and if I made them happy, then I'm happy.


All in all, it was a great weekend. Well, except for that Road from Heck that I didn't like. Ray would do that one again, but I think I'll wait a couple of years before I tackle Heck once more. We went just over a 1000 miles in the 4 days. I have learned so much on these trips! We did discover that while a loaded down Wrex can make 70 mph on the interstate on the flats and the small hills, he guzzles gas something awful when he's asked to run at full throttle all day. He also has an altitude problem, which Jason says is not fixable because it's a closed circit fuel injection system and uses outside air, which at altitude is thin enough to make a difference.


The data is in the Zumo. I hope we can post some of that when Ray comes back. We hit some pretty good summits. I got the pics on my 'puter, but can't figure out how to process them into posting size. When Ray gets home...there aren't very many for this day as there are not many places to stop and take pics on the interstate.


Got something wrong with front brake, the braking is not what it should be and two lights are out on my brake light array, so Wrex will have to visit Jason at the shop for examination and rehab. Poor Wrex!


Silver seems to have loved the trip and no matter how high or where we were, he always had plenty of power. Silver is a strong machine. Morphous Wrex was not built to be an interstate bike. Hmm. I need a 650 cc Bergman trike! yeah....

Gasless in Oregon

The day dawned cool and sunny but we could tell the day would warm up. We decided not to wear extra clothes, though I changed my mind after 20 miles and put on an extra shirt until about noon when it warmed up enough that Ray decided to go with only the mesh part of his Flex pants.

Out of Bend, we took 97 to 126 to 26. On 26 we went over Ochoco pass at 4722 feet. Then we took highway 207 and it had a summit of 3600 feet. From there we connected to 19. These were fun roads that were a mix of sweepers, curves and twisties. We turned at Kimberly and took a "local road" to Long Creek (one of many places where there was no gas!)

Highway 207 was 21 miles of brutality. The surface was truly horrid, rough and nasty and the twisties were wicked. Because I felt so good about yesterday's twisties, this road decided to teach a newbie a lesson and threw every kind of curve and camber at us.

That road, I think, was way beyond my beginner's abilities and some of those curves were very intimidating because of the radius and because if I really messed up there were 2 possible outcomes: my molecules would become one with the mountain or I would launch into the abyss and my molecules would become one with the mountain at a lower altitude.

There were no guard rails and there were no shoulders. The land generally ended at the edge of the pavement, which comprised a very rough and none too wide 2 lanes. The twists came quickly one after the other and I don't think there was a straight piece on the entire road. There was very much upping and downing, of which Wrex does not do up so quickly. Luckily for me, there was very little traffic on this road and so I wasn't holding up too many people. I think TJ KneeDragger would enjoy this road very much. I think he might go over this road and then turn around and go back over this road just for the fun of it. But I am more than happy to be done with that road. It knocked the stuffing right out of me and when we finished, I was sore all over from being tense.

We did stop a few places one little county dry (I do mean DRY) camp near a river with a boat launch and rest rooms, thank God. That was at the end of 207. We needed the rest and the rooms. Here are some pictures we did take along the way today:

We met up with highway 395 at Long Creek. There is not much there there. I never saw so many places with names that once you got there you couldn't figure out why anyone bothered to name a place with 2 houses and a barn. One "town" had 4 falling down houses and 2 still occupied. Needless to say, no gas. At the mini grocery they told Ray the nearest gas was at Meadowbrook 16 miles up the road. Luckily it was 16 miles in the direction we wanted to go, but we didn't progress very fast because I was still spooked by the "mean" twisties on the pavement from Heck. Suddenly, my gas gauge said my tank was nearly empty and estimated I could go all of 2.1 miles on what was left. O dear. We're in the mountains, there's trees and curves and not much else.

We come into a beautiful little valley and I spot a small faded sign that says Cafe, RV Park, Store, Propane, Gas. I give Ray a shout and we pull in and low and behold, there is one gas pump stationed next to a big propane tank. Out comes the nice young proprietor, carrying his 18 month old, to start the pump for us. We paid a fortune, but didn't mind. Ray went in to pay and I wandered in to see the store. I spot some tableclothed tables and ask if someone's cooking today. Answer, oh, yes, are you guys hungry? Since it's nearly 3 and we had breakfast at 7:30, the answer is a resounding YES!

We had burgers, and those burgers were worth the wait! Kris is the young man's wife and she cooks. Brandon is the young man and he does everything else. They just bought Meadowbrook Resort this past spring and live there with their 2 kids and 3 dogs, one of which is an 11 month old very goofy golden retriever. They have two cabins, one with an indoor potty and plumbing and one "dry" cabin. Then there are RV and tent spaces and 3 meals a day. Right now it's more of a hunting camp type place, very rustic, but they have plans, if all goes well. We gassed up, chatted, ate lunch, and took pictures. We spent about an hour and a half there, but it was worth it. I can't imagine a better place to raise kids than that. Should you have the desire to get away from it all...no cell phones, no Internet, nothing but quiet and woods and fields, we have all the particulars.

Back on highway 395 to finish the trip to Pendleton. There was a stretch of 35-45 mph twisties and some nice sweepers. It was a road where you don't know whether to slow down and enjoy the scenery going by or speed up and enjoy the road. It followed a river with semi open woods in a valley. We didn't even stop to take a picture. We'll need to come back to do that. We decided that part of highway 395 was our favorite road of the day. 395 was good for Susan because she got to build confidence again after being knocked down a peg by the road from Heck.

All along the way was beautiful scenery. There were very few places that had much shoulder to stop and take pictures and most of those shoulders were loose large gravel. We did stop at Battle Mountain Park 34 miles from Pendleton for a butt break and water break. So beautiful, so quiet and only us there. We couldn't figure out why a nice park like that, within easy driving distance of Pendleton was empty on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Perhaps it's because there aren't that many people IN Pendleton? And it's hot here in town so maybe people didn't know how lovely it was up there. I really would like to drive this route again, with time to stop and take pictures and read all the markers and see all the parks. Maybe some day!

Where did they put the straight bits?

The word for today is twisty! Another word is long. We left our hotel at 7:30 and finally got settled in tonight's hotel at 8:20. Long, long day. We are both worn out and our butts are worn out. I think the only thing that's being toughened is my scoot's seat.

It was cold again in the morning and overcast, 53 chilly degrees. We progressed to Herb's Burgers and Beers where we ate a very good breakfast. Herb's never disappoints! No, we did not have burger or beers, although they have lovely burgers and a large selection of beers.

Then on the road again. It got as cold as 51 when we were crossing the coast range and we ended up with all our warm stuff on again, including the Frogg jackets. The road went up and down and round and round and had many fine twisties. In fact, the road through the coast range was all twisties. We passed many fine bridges, but having such a long way to go and being on a narrow road with no wide spots we did not take any pictures. We'd like to come back and take our time some day.

We peeled off some layers at gassing up time in Carlton, Oregon. It was finally sunny and 65 there. As we were feeding engines dozens of Porches of all kinds passed by on the way to a Porche Festival of some kind...there were old ones and new ones and they were all neat to see streaming by.

Almost as soon as we left Carlton the sun disappeared and it got darn chilly again. We perservered in spite of the chill and made it to some place that had a A&W in a convienient spot and feasted on chili dogs and onion rings....although I appreciated the opportunity to walk around a bit and sit in a different place almost more than the food.

After lunch we had some curves and interspersed short straight bits and went through some nice small towns, places with real tree-lined Main Streets and real, thriving downtowns. At Sweet Home we started in on the twisty bits again.

We went into one curve a bit fast, it was posted at 30, and we don't know how fast we were going, but we do know it was too fast. Ray put a bigger lean on that Guzzi than I'd ever seen him do and I pushed that handgrip and hung off like I was taught to do and we stuck right in the lane all the way through the curve and didn't slow down either, until it was over and then we said, O my gosh! We were both a bit startled by that curve. I'm proud of myself for sticking on that curve! TJ, rest assured that Ray has not yet put your status as Family KneeDragger in jeopardy. But you better watch out.

We stopped at the one summit we saw all day that had not only signage but also a place to stop. So we took pictures just to prove we were really there and that ol' Wrex really can make it over the mountains.

All day long, we saw beautiful things we'd have loved to take pictures of, but the point of this trip is to marathon, so we didn't stop often. Part of the road went through Deschutes National Forest and part of that was badly bitten by forest fire. Acres of dead trees! It was so sad.

It was all twisties until we got to Sisters, where the road straightened out and shot us into Bend. We actually checked into the hotel at 5:30, then went to eat at a place called Johnny Carino's that was about a mile from the hotel, and the closest place. The food turned out to be Oh My Gosh Awesome and we brought half it back to the hotel and may eat it for breakfast. That's the plan anyway. We'll see in the morning. The shopping complex the restaurant was in had one of those nasty parking lots that you can't get out of in the direction you want to go. Miserable thing and we had to spend a few extra minutes on those bikes because of it! Grumble.

As usual, everywhere Morphous parked, a crowd was sure to follow. While we were having lunch 2 different people took his picture (watch for Wrex on the internet!) and earlier in the day a woman had asked if she could take his pic. Many people had questions. Lots of middle aged and older women like it because it's something they can see themselves riding too. We get a kick out of watching people look him over while we're in the restaurant. Twice today, people came back for a second look. Too funny!

We think we'll get a sign made that we can clip to the windshield: This is a Yamaha Morphous 250cc automatic transmission scooter with a Tow-Pac trike kit. It will go at least 83 miles per hour on the flat parts and gets 73 miles per gallon if you stick to the speed limit. It's kind of slow up hill, but you do get up hill. No, it doesn't tip over very easily. No, the extra wheels don't ruin the gas mileage. Yes, you can have one too. Take a trike training class first.

We went 275 miles today. We are currently at 3450 feet and it's supposed to be 43 degrees at sunrise. I think I won't bother stuffing the Frogg Toggs back in their sack tonight.

The Rhythm of the Road---and the Rain!

We made it to Astoria! We got to our hotel about 4, having left "late" at 8:30. We went 202 cold and sometimes wet miles today. We are at a grand elevation of 29 feet, at 46 degrees north 123 degrees 51.35 minutes west. Find it if you can.

We learned that when the bodies need rain gear, so do the luggages. Doh! Newbies! We also learned that pouring rain is probably not the best time to figure out how the rain covers go on everything and where on earth you put everything's raincovers.

Actually, it didn't rain until after lunch. We had said lunch at Rain Country Restaurant in McCleary, Washington and I am sure that was tempting fate. While we were waiting for our food a man came to talk to us about my bike and it turned out that he's a member of Ray's MotoGuzzi group, an older man named Sasquatch Jim. He was an interesting fellow!

It was cold the entire trip and we ended the day wearing all the warm stuff we had...I was wearing 2 long sleeved shirts, a windbreaker, my jacket, tights, jeans and my Frogg Toggs. Ray had on a long sleeved shirt, his jacket, his Flex Pants, and his Frogg Toggs. We did get a chance to try out the visor wipers I bought and they work well. You slide them on over thumb or forefinger and they have an edge that looks like a little windshield wiper. The Frogg Toggs really made the difference for both of us. Those light weight papery things keep you warm. They fill up with air and I don't know how cold air can keep you warm, but when it fills up your Froggs, it does. Of course, we looked like the Michelin Doughman and Woman, but when you're warm, who cares. The Froggs also have a hood that goes under your helmet, so no more cold drips down your neck!

Everywhere we stopped, we got the usual: Can I talk to you about your bike? What on earth IS that? Do you mind if I take some pictures? One of the ferry workers talked to us about the bike the entire crossing.

We met 4 Harley riders sheltering at the Dairy Queen in Raymond. They were from Yakima and hoping that up the road was drier than down the road where they had been. Alas! Not to be as we'd gotten a good wetting down on that road.

As usual for Western WA, the scenery was spectacular, but we didn't take any pics all day. We do have some of the Astoria Bridge, which we took just for Kim. The view is from the balcony of our hotel room. But I don't think this would make a good bridge to live under....too wet. We wished for helmet cams a few times, the views were outstanding.

I have discovered the rhythm of the road and I like it. When we stop, it takes me a while to find the rhythm again, but I do find it. Finally I understand look through the curve. It was not until I got out on the highways that it clicked and I could see how it helped. I love completing a curve in perfect form, it just feels so good when that happens! I love the ballet of the bikes, the lines into and out of the curves one after the other, the pas de deux. That's the best part of following. Ray doesn't get to see that out in front.

It was interesting watching the raindrops scamper up the windshield, but guess where they go when the get to the top...yep, right in my face. I began to see the real value of a full face helmet today. Rain hurts at 60 mph and it's not fun to have a wet, cold chin.

Tomorrow we go 275 miles to get to Bend. That's going to be a long day. We may stop at Herb's Burgers and Beer for breakfast. They have great bisquits and gravy. It's going to be 43 degrees in the morning. How I wish I had not brought my mesh jacket!