Day Fifteen : FR19 – Part 1
Well, I wake up at 5:15-5:30 again — I suppose it must be the “bright” outside the tent. It’s certainly not because I’m going to bed early!
No negative affects from last night’s champagne. Nice.
When I wandered back to the tent last night – I found myself listening to snoring in stereo – Steve and Winnie just up from me and Gooz just down from me. The two guys should be in a “rev-off”. 
I’m going to ride today – it feels odd not to have done so yesterday. Decide to ride “Beth’s Favorite Road”, aka, forest service road 19, out of Oakridge. I may ride with Gooz – I may ride solo. After breakfast, I get Gooz to show me the route – and then we decide to ride together. We’re out before 11 – stop at 58 for gas and pick up two riders – a Laverda and a BMW RT. I probably give a Gather rider or two a heart attack as I turn right out of the station without a signal – cause there were a couple riders preparing to turn left into the station at the same time.
Construction on 58 made me think of Idaho – although this time it’s not chip-n-seal but the laying of fiber optics. Still, it makes for slow going. In Oakridge, we lose the Beemer – and are passed by Joanne, MarkA, BB, etc etc who then pull into a service station. Some are less fearful of Oakridge speed limits than others.
Out on FR19 – and the road is as advertised. Gooz eventually pulls away from me and I pull away from Steve (on the Laverda). I have trouble getting a rhythm – except for the accelerating out of the curve part. Gooz waves me past where the road straightens and I joyfully crank the throttle into triple digit zone (indicated, anyway). Gooz later tells me he was thinking, “Kathy, deer!” “But I was scanning for them,” I said. *smile* Hey, it Felt Good (and was only for a few miles).
I start feeling more as one with the bike – then Gooz passes me (like i’m surprised) – and we find those wonderful sharp-left-long-rising-right, sharp-left-long-rising-right turns. Ah, my combo!
Stop at the reservoir and watch Joanne pass by a few minutes later. Chat. Hear bikes – and there’s Mark, Catfish, and Ash — we point the way Joanne went – and they’re off.
We mount up and head into McKinley for gas, water, ice cream. I make a deposit in the karma bank to counter some of the withdrawals made on this trip. Steve and I are chatting outside by the bikes. A guy parks a beater truck by my bike and goes into the market. The truck seems to move – is that my imagination? No, the truck is starting to roll … and there is an Expensive, new car parked directly behind it. I dash over and put it in gear (why do people park cars and bikes in neutral?). Potential messiness averted.
We play with my brake light — it’s still being screwy. My temporary ‘fix’ seems to vibrate away – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. BB comes up and asks about my “lost” tail light. Huh? It seems the lens cover of the “real” brake light decided to disengage itself in Oakridge and bounced off the pavement, hitting BB in the foot. Sure enough, it’s gone.
Kathy