Oregon or Bust ride

Monica A

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Ladies, can you feel my pain? This past 3day weekend (Memorial Day) I went for a ride with my hubby and 6 other men. I turned into their mommies. Can you zip my vents, can you unzip my vents, can you help me on with my rain jacket, can you help me get off my rain jacket. :D Believe it or not, I had the smallest pack and I was always ready to go before the men. :cheer: (Don't tell them that my hubby doubled up with my stuff in his trunk- heehee)

We left Reno Saturday morning. We hit rain about 2 miles out of town. It rained for the first 2 hours then the sun came out. We rode for 12 hours and finally made it to Eureka, CA at 7:30pm. All but one of the guys had ridden with me before so they knew my skill level. At Sbucks when I was introduced to that AD, he asked if I was riding my own. I said yes and he looked a little concerned. I'm in my late 40s and pretty "girly" looking. At the first stop he comes right over to me and says "d*mn girl, you can ride". I just smiled. The leader of the group, whom I've ridden with a lot, says yeah she does pretty good. About half-way through the ride, at another stop, I was complaining about my hair being a mess from the rain (even though I had it tucked into my jacket the rain dripped down my helmet) AD says "girl, you could have a booger hanging from your nose and still by HOT the way your ride" the other guys agreed. I looked at my hubby. He was grinning from ear to ear. When we were in California, we remembered we could filter, but it's hard to do at stoplights when there are 8 bikes. At one stoplight near Clear Lake, CA, we all filtered to the front. I ended up right next to a pickup. I looked over at the driver. She was smiling and waving at me. I guess she thought it was cool I was a lady rider. When we finally went to dinner at 9:00pm, I played the "I'm the only woman in this crazy group of 7 men, and I really need food" to get us a table at the restaurant we ate at Saturday night. It was funny. They brought out my salad first and brought me some restaurant swag - for free. Hahaha

Sunday we headed out of Eureka into the Trinity Alps to ride to Oregon and back to California and back to Oregon and back to California. We got sandwiches at a shop and headed to a beach. Hung out at the beach, enjoyed the view, and ate lunch. It was very nice. I worked hard on getting off the bike in turns to increase my pace and for better control in the corners. At one point, my hubby ended up behind me. I was getting pretty good at my new skill, which he hadn't seen because he was at the front of the pack most of the time. He comes on the intercom and tells me to slow down. hahaha I said no that I was fine and comfortable. He was impressed with my new pace. I did discover on this part of the trip that my front suspension needs work. After riding my new Street Triple R with upgraded suspension, my Sprint front suspension felt like crap. It has an upgraded rear suspension already. Nice project to keep the hubby busy. :cheer:

Oh, I almost forgot. We saw a bear cub on this day. Luckily, the lead bike was able to avoid it when he came around a curve, it was in the middle of his lane. He stopped and then the rest of us did. It popped out of the woods farther up the road and crossed the street. It was so cool, but I decided I didn't want to hang around and wait for mama bear to show up, so I suggested we take off. Being mom again, they geared up and followed me.

I'll post pics and the final day later. I just realized I have to head to work. :(
 

Monica A

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How about some pics? :cheer:

The last day we rode two of my favorite roads (highway 36 and I can't tell you the second one - top secret).

We went from heavy fog near the coast to 85 degrees in the valley to cool drizzle when we got close to home.

Highway 36 Baby! Better than Tail of the Dragon (and longer too)
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On day 2 we rode through the redwoods. Found a fun place to take a few pics (can you say BOTM?)
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Our crew of 8
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Overall, a great trip, but I needed another vacation to recover from this vacation for sure. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I learned how to get both cheeks off the seat. Loved it! Also, I figured out the suspension on my Sprint is crap! I got spoiled with my new Street Triple R's great suspension. New project for the hubby :cheer:
 
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