Silver Penguin
Silver Penguin
Lessons Learned On a Road Trip
It is said that everything we do in this life is a learning experience. Our weekend road trip was that and a lot more. We had a great time and I’d like to share some of it with you now, that you may experience some of the joy that a shared motorcycle ride brought to us.
Lesson #1.
Not all the thrill rides are on the bikes.
We stopped for a dinner break in the town of Hemet. I’m not going to bother describing Hemet to you, since I’d like you to stay awake awhile longer. It’s THAT kind of place. Motorcyclists tolerate Hemet because it sits on Highway 74, between two seriously awesome sets of twisties. Riding through Hemet is the price we pay to enjoy those roads.
Anyway, we stopped at the Golden Arches where a colorful poster proclaimed that the customer could get Chicken, any way you want it, with a depiction of a delicious looking salad. I ordered said salad and was met with a blank stare. As an aside, one must praise McDonalds for providing employment for people like this young man. His IQ was not into double digits, yet MickeyD was promoting his self-esteem by allowing him to fill the role of a cashier. He told me that the McD’s down the road had salads but they didn’t. I couldn’t resist asking why this store was advertising the salads. This question elicited the attention of a manager. Did she fear a biker riot breaking out over the lack of lettuce? “Fridge broke” she stated, with folded arms and a shrug. OK, time to move on. Nothing would be gained from pursuing this argument.
Back to the thrill ride, which was located in the ladies’ room. I’m the trusting type, basing many assumptions on previously known facts. One of those (until now) was that the pot is securely bolted to the floor. Believe me, it is not always the case. This normal looking commode had a good inch of play. An inch doesn’t sound like a lot but when you’re not expecting it………..
When my heart rate returned to normal, I swung a leg over my bike, enjoying the comparative safety of two wheels firmly resting on the road.
Lesson #2
Friday drivers are faster than Sunday drivers
Need I elucidate upon Friday afternoon traffic here? I didn’t think so. It was a relief to get out of the city. The hills were a zillion shades of green, enhanced by the warm glow of the afternoon sun. Spring flowers punctuated the greenery giving the whole panorama a cheery look. XM radio provided lively music to ride by. The only blip on the horizon would be the nervous cager, crawling around the turns at 20mph. You know the type? So focused on getting around the next turn that he is oblivious to turn outs, and the thirty vehicles stacked up behind him. It wasn’t the case today. Unlike previous, weekend rides on this road, the Friday afternoon drivers were in a hurry to be somewhere. A couple of times, we even paused at a turn out to let a car pass us. What a great ride! We were able to set our own pace. Fast enough to be glad we had sport bikes but modest enough that we could enjoy the ride. We also remembered the proverbial
‘Escaped Circus Elephant’ that might be waiting around the next blind curve.
Lesson #3
The most careful of directions are sometimes not enough.
You guessed it! We got lost. It gets confusing when the main numbered road takes a sharp turn onto another named road. Do you follow the number or the name? We opted for the wrong one and ended up at a dead ending road. Fortunately, there was a gas station. My anonymous traveling companion went inside and asked for directions. (He asked that no-one ever find out that he did this). I give him great credit for breaking the stereotype here. Had it been early in the day, in good weather, there is NO WAY he would have missed the opportunity to ride around in circles. On this occasion, it was getting dark and the wind was strengthening. We were both tired and hungry. It was a smart move to ask for directions. Now that we knew where to go, we hit the freeway for a short ride to the hotel.
Lesson #4
You can ride a motorcycle in high winds, but it’s no fun.
We were riding in the Palm Springs area of CA. We could see the windmills spinning beside the road. Why do you think they would put lots of windmills out there? They obviously knew something about the weather that we didn’t. As we approached the on ramp, there was a stop light. I had to gamble on which foot to put down. My bike is tall. I’m not. By moving on the seat I can get one flat foot to the ground, or both tippy toes. The wind was so wild that I wanted both flat feet down while stopped. The light changed and we moved onto the freeway. This was a thrill ride like never before. I was following Andy, watching how far his bike was leaned over. One of our radios was stuck in ‘transmit’ mode. I reached up to check mine and immediately grabbed back onto the handlebars. It was his radio but he was wise enough to let it transmit and not take his hands off the bars. He said later that his bike got more stable as the speed increased. Over 100mph it felt quite steady. (And that’s the truth, officer!) I was more than relieved to get off the freeway. Surely it would be better on the surface streets? Not so – the wild winds were now loaded up with sand.
I had a small gap between my scarf and helmet. The sand found it and ripped at the bare skin. The feeling rates up there along with eyebrow waxing. I’m still emptying sand out of my helmet, three days later. The ergonomics of the BMW made it much worse for Andy. The air swirled between him and the fairing, funneling the sand up inside his helmet. Even with visor down tight, he got a face full of sand.
Lesson #5
Not everything you read on the Internet is true.
Newsflash! You weren’t expecting that, were you? We booked our accommodation through a timeshare company. All the timeshares were occupied that weekend, so we opted for a hotel room instead. After making our non-refundable booking, we looked at reviews of the hotel online. Oh dear. This timeshare company that had provided us with the most spectacular digs for the last six years had put us in a dive. The reviews went from bad to worse. From surly staff, per person surcharges, lack of water pressure, shabby décor to not enough parking, the reviewers slammed this place.
How wonderful it was to be proven wrong. The Riviera Racquet Club of Palm Springs CA is a very nice place to stay. We were warmly welcomed and invited to park our bikes in the valet lot, underneath a security camera. Our room was comfortable and well appointed.
Lesson #6
Husbands are right sometimes.
I blush as I write this. As we got ready for our day out, DH had put his keys on the sidewalk. We have all kinds of padlocks to secure the bikes at night, with the keys together on one ring. He pointed the ring out to me and asked me to pick it up. With all the bags fastened up, I dropped the keys into the inner pocket of my leathers. Make a note of this action (I didn’t).
When we got home after a long day of riding, he prepared to lock up the bikes and couldn’t find the keys. He went through both tank bags, all his pockets and even looked on the sidewalk. I tried to be patient and not complain but I was tired, hungry and wanted a shower. Eventually, we went to our room without applying Fort Knox style security to the bikes. I stripped off my gear and guess what I found in my pocket?
Lesson #7
Some freeways are faster than others.
We live and work in the Los Angeles area. Freeways are NOT free. Even at 6am in the HOV lane, it’s not unusual to be doing 20mph. Imagine our joy at finding a freeway where the majority of traffic moves at 95-100mph. We each ride bikes that will handle these speeds with ease. When passing slower vehicles, we had the opportunity to open the throttle (just a little).
Lesson #8
Missing a turn off can be a good thing.
For our day ride, we headed towards Lake Havasu, AZ. One of the intersections was confusing and we took the wrong road. It was narrow and winding with no place to make a safe U-turn (do I hear other sighs of relief here too? I don’t like U-turns under perfect circumstances never mind narrow, hilly, gravelly mountain roads).
The road turned out to be a dream to ride. It had mountains on one side and the most beautiful river views on the other. Throw in some wildflowers, bright sunshine, great music and moderate twisties and you have the ideal motorcycling road. At the top, we stopped to admire Parker Dam, and wonder if we could ride across it to the other side. The road was open to a narrow range of vehicles during business hours only. We fit the profile and rode across the dam.
Lesson #9
I can ride on gravel.
That was a first for me. There are a lot of things I’ll do before willingly taking my bike onto gravel. We’d ridden over 50 miles along the straightest, most boring stretch of the old Route 66. With another 50 miles to go before reaching Twenty Nine Palms, we were looking for a place to stop. Road signs promised a town coming up soon. I was eagerly anticipating a cold drink, perhaps some ice cream and definitely some pills to stop my knees aching so much. I’ve just looked at our map book to find the name of the town again. It doesn’t even appear on Thomas Bros smallest scale map. The town consisted of a post office (closed) and a fifties diner (closed). The diner was set well back from the road, having once incorporated a gas station (also closed). The whole lot was gravel. The main road wasn’t safe to stop on. Although traffic was scant, speeds were high because the road was so straight. We drank warm, bottled water from the saddlebags and savored a dose of Naprosyn each.
Lesson #10
The Marine Base doesn’t like casual visitors.
I understand that, especially on the weekend that the President is coming to tea. However, they COULD add a road sign that says something like ‘No Through Road’ or ‘This Road leads to the Base ONLY’, or ‘In 5 miles, you’ll have to do a U-turn unless you’re a Marine coming home’. The latter would convince me, without a doubt. So, we did a U-turn and headed back to look for a different road.
When we got back to the hotel that evening, we’d done 460 miles since morning. The slightly warm, gas station sandwich from the saddlebags provided a perfect dinner for us before we fell asleep.
Lesson #11
Low blood sugar is not good for riding.
During our long ride Saturday, I’d tried very hard to stick to my calorie controlled diet. I’d made good food choices all day. It turned out that I’d been TOO good. I had not taken in enough nutrition, especially when hitting the road before breakfast. We’d decided to get some miles done first, and then find somewhere to eat, on the way home. As soon as I got on the bike, I knew something was wrong. I just wasn’t in the ‘zone’. I made a couple of poorly executed turns and knew that I had to concentrate harder.
We got lost (and found a pretty little road) and I got annoyed instead of enjoying the detour. Making a U-turn was even worse than usual. Where I should have made a smooth, easy turn, I ended up paddling around the last part on my tip toes. DH encouraged me on the radio and suggested taking two bites at the turn if necessary. He meant well, but backing the bike up is just not an option for a short rider.
Eventually, we got to the restaurant I had in mind. All would be well now. I would eat a hearty breakfast and recover all my riding skills and more. It was not to be. The parking lot was packed and customers were waiting in line for tables. We found a parking space but didn’t stay. As DH quite rightly observed, we’d be waiting a long time for food and we couldn’t see the bikes and luggage from the restaurant. I was so disappointed but his reasoning made sense. My concentration was so poor at this point that he had to get the bike out of the parking space for me.
Further down the road, we found a bagel shop. With every ounce of skill I could muster, I navigated the bike around the parking lot and into a space. The relief of making it safely that far was palpable. I sat on the bike without moving for quite some time, just gathering myself together.
We had a delicious meal of breakfast bagel sandwiches and coffee, which is just what was needed. I felt renewed and able to ride again.
Lesson #12
Countersteering works.
For a long time I rode a cruiser. It just kinda ‘went’ around corners. Not particularly well but it went. Sometimes I got the line I wanted, other times I drifted out precariously close to the center line. If I leaned the bike over it made scary scraping noises as the boards connected with the road. Now that I have a sport-tourer, I’m learning a lot. The biggest thing is my lack of riding skills. I’m working on that now but it’s only when you KNOW, that you realize what you didn’t know before.
On the way home, we followed the Sunday drivers through the twisties. Knowing that we were both tired, we kept a moderate pace and didn’t attempt to pass any but the slowest of drivers.
I made a conscious effort to really push the bike over and it worked, or at least as well as it could at the modest speeds we were traveling. I got the same effect as sliding my butt across the seat, in getting the bike to lean over.
Lesson #13
Hot tubs are worth every penny you pay for them.
That explains itself right? As does the final lesson.
Lesson #14
Leaving a 20yr old CHILD home alone can cause problems.
He has earned himself a lot of extra chores this week.
It is said that everything we do in this life is a learning experience. Our weekend road trip was that and a lot more. We had a great time and I’d like to share some of it with you now, that you may experience some of the joy that a shared motorcycle ride brought to us.
Lesson #1.
Not all the thrill rides are on the bikes.
We stopped for a dinner break in the town of Hemet. I’m not going to bother describing Hemet to you, since I’d like you to stay awake awhile longer. It’s THAT kind of place. Motorcyclists tolerate Hemet because it sits on Highway 74, between two seriously awesome sets of twisties. Riding through Hemet is the price we pay to enjoy those roads.
Anyway, we stopped at the Golden Arches where a colorful poster proclaimed that the customer could get Chicken, any way you want it, with a depiction of a delicious looking salad. I ordered said salad and was met with a blank stare. As an aside, one must praise McDonalds for providing employment for people like this young man. His IQ was not into double digits, yet MickeyD was promoting his self-esteem by allowing him to fill the role of a cashier. He told me that the McD’s down the road had salads but they didn’t. I couldn’t resist asking why this store was advertising the salads. This question elicited the attention of a manager. Did she fear a biker riot breaking out over the lack of lettuce? “Fridge broke” she stated, with folded arms and a shrug. OK, time to move on. Nothing would be gained from pursuing this argument.
Back to the thrill ride, which was located in the ladies’ room. I’m the trusting type, basing many assumptions on previously known facts. One of those (until now) was that the pot is securely bolted to the floor. Believe me, it is not always the case. This normal looking commode had a good inch of play. An inch doesn’t sound like a lot but when you’re not expecting it………..
When my heart rate returned to normal, I swung a leg over my bike, enjoying the comparative safety of two wheels firmly resting on the road.
Lesson #2
Friday drivers are faster than Sunday drivers
Need I elucidate upon Friday afternoon traffic here? I didn’t think so. It was a relief to get out of the city. The hills were a zillion shades of green, enhanced by the warm glow of the afternoon sun. Spring flowers punctuated the greenery giving the whole panorama a cheery look. XM radio provided lively music to ride by. The only blip on the horizon would be the nervous cager, crawling around the turns at 20mph. You know the type? So focused on getting around the next turn that he is oblivious to turn outs, and the thirty vehicles stacked up behind him. It wasn’t the case today. Unlike previous, weekend rides on this road, the Friday afternoon drivers were in a hurry to be somewhere. A couple of times, we even paused at a turn out to let a car pass us. What a great ride! We were able to set our own pace. Fast enough to be glad we had sport bikes but modest enough that we could enjoy the ride. We also remembered the proverbial
‘Escaped Circus Elephant’ that might be waiting around the next blind curve.
Lesson #3
The most careful of directions are sometimes not enough.
You guessed it! We got lost. It gets confusing when the main numbered road takes a sharp turn onto another named road. Do you follow the number or the name? We opted for the wrong one and ended up at a dead ending road. Fortunately, there was a gas station. My anonymous traveling companion went inside and asked for directions. (He asked that no-one ever find out that he did this). I give him great credit for breaking the stereotype here. Had it been early in the day, in good weather, there is NO WAY he would have missed the opportunity to ride around in circles. On this occasion, it was getting dark and the wind was strengthening. We were both tired and hungry. It was a smart move to ask for directions. Now that we knew where to go, we hit the freeway for a short ride to the hotel.
Lesson #4
You can ride a motorcycle in high winds, but it’s no fun.
We were riding in the Palm Springs area of CA. We could see the windmills spinning beside the road. Why do you think they would put lots of windmills out there? They obviously knew something about the weather that we didn’t. As we approached the on ramp, there was a stop light. I had to gamble on which foot to put down. My bike is tall. I’m not. By moving on the seat I can get one flat foot to the ground, or both tippy toes. The wind was so wild that I wanted both flat feet down while stopped. The light changed and we moved onto the freeway. This was a thrill ride like never before. I was following Andy, watching how far his bike was leaned over. One of our radios was stuck in ‘transmit’ mode. I reached up to check mine and immediately grabbed back onto the handlebars. It was his radio but he was wise enough to let it transmit and not take his hands off the bars. He said later that his bike got more stable as the speed increased. Over 100mph it felt quite steady. (And that’s the truth, officer!) I was more than relieved to get off the freeway. Surely it would be better on the surface streets? Not so – the wild winds were now loaded up with sand.
I had a small gap between my scarf and helmet. The sand found it and ripped at the bare skin. The feeling rates up there along with eyebrow waxing. I’m still emptying sand out of my helmet, three days later. The ergonomics of the BMW made it much worse for Andy. The air swirled between him and the fairing, funneling the sand up inside his helmet. Even with visor down tight, he got a face full of sand.
Lesson #5
Not everything you read on the Internet is true.
Newsflash! You weren’t expecting that, were you? We booked our accommodation through a timeshare company. All the timeshares were occupied that weekend, so we opted for a hotel room instead. After making our non-refundable booking, we looked at reviews of the hotel online. Oh dear. This timeshare company that had provided us with the most spectacular digs for the last six years had put us in a dive. The reviews went from bad to worse. From surly staff, per person surcharges, lack of water pressure, shabby décor to not enough parking, the reviewers slammed this place.
How wonderful it was to be proven wrong. The Riviera Racquet Club of Palm Springs CA is a very nice place to stay. We were warmly welcomed and invited to park our bikes in the valet lot, underneath a security camera. Our room was comfortable and well appointed.
Lesson #6
Husbands are right sometimes.
I blush as I write this. As we got ready for our day out, DH had put his keys on the sidewalk. We have all kinds of padlocks to secure the bikes at night, with the keys together on one ring. He pointed the ring out to me and asked me to pick it up. With all the bags fastened up, I dropped the keys into the inner pocket of my leathers. Make a note of this action (I didn’t).
When we got home after a long day of riding, he prepared to lock up the bikes and couldn’t find the keys. He went through both tank bags, all his pockets and even looked on the sidewalk. I tried to be patient and not complain but I was tired, hungry and wanted a shower. Eventually, we went to our room without applying Fort Knox style security to the bikes. I stripped off my gear and guess what I found in my pocket?
Lesson #7
Some freeways are faster than others.
We live and work in the Los Angeles area. Freeways are NOT free. Even at 6am in the HOV lane, it’s not unusual to be doing 20mph. Imagine our joy at finding a freeway where the majority of traffic moves at 95-100mph. We each ride bikes that will handle these speeds with ease. When passing slower vehicles, we had the opportunity to open the throttle (just a little).
Lesson #8
Missing a turn off can be a good thing.
For our day ride, we headed towards Lake Havasu, AZ. One of the intersections was confusing and we took the wrong road. It was narrow and winding with no place to make a safe U-turn (do I hear other sighs of relief here too? I don’t like U-turns under perfect circumstances never mind narrow, hilly, gravelly mountain roads).
The road turned out to be a dream to ride. It had mountains on one side and the most beautiful river views on the other. Throw in some wildflowers, bright sunshine, great music and moderate twisties and you have the ideal motorcycling road. At the top, we stopped to admire Parker Dam, and wonder if we could ride across it to the other side. The road was open to a narrow range of vehicles during business hours only. We fit the profile and rode across the dam.
Lesson #9
I can ride on gravel.
That was a first for me. There are a lot of things I’ll do before willingly taking my bike onto gravel. We’d ridden over 50 miles along the straightest, most boring stretch of the old Route 66. With another 50 miles to go before reaching Twenty Nine Palms, we were looking for a place to stop. Road signs promised a town coming up soon. I was eagerly anticipating a cold drink, perhaps some ice cream and definitely some pills to stop my knees aching so much. I’ve just looked at our map book to find the name of the town again. It doesn’t even appear on Thomas Bros smallest scale map. The town consisted of a post office (closed) and a fifties diner (closed). The diner was set well back from the road, having once incorporated a gas station (also closed). The whole lot was gravel. The main road wasn’t safe to stop on. Although traffic was scant, speeds were high because the road was so straight. We drank warm, bottled water from the saddlebags and savored a dose of Naprosyn each.
Lesson #10
The Marine Base doesn’t like casual visitors.
I understand that, especially on the weekend that the President is coming to tea. However, they COULD add a road sign that says something like ‘No Through Road’ or ‘This Road leads to the Base ONLY’, or ‘In 5 miles, you’ll have to do a U-turn unless you’re a Marine coming home’. The latter would convince me, without a doubt. So, we did a U-turn and headed back to look for a different road.
When we got back to the hotel that evening, we’d done 460 miles since morning. The slightly warm, gas station sandwich from the saddlebags provided a perfect dinner for us before we fell asleep.
Lesson #11
Low blood sugar is not good for riding.
During our long ride Saturday, I’d tried very hard to stick to my calorie controlled diet. I’d made good food choices all day. It turned out that I’d been TOO good. I had not taken in enough nutrition, especially when hitting the road before breakfast. We’d decided to get some miles done first, and then find somewhere to eat, on the way home. As soon as I got on the bike, I knew something was wrong. I just wasn’t in the ‘zone’. I made a couple of poorly executed turns and knew that I had to concentrate harder.
We got lost (and found a pretty little road) and I got annoyed instead of enjoying the detour. Making a U-turn was even worse than usual. Where I should have made a smooth, easy turn, I ended up paddling around the last part on my tip toes. DH encouraged me on the radio and suggested taking two bites at the turn if necessary. He meant well, but backing the bike up is just not an option for a short rider.
Eventually, we got to the restaurant I had in mind. All would be well now. I would eat a hearty breakfast and recover all my riding skills and more. It was not to be. The parking lot was packed and customers were waiting in line for tables. We found a parking space but didn’t stay. As DH quite rightly observed, we’d be waiting a long time for food and we couldn’t see the bikes and luggage from the restaurant. I was so disappointed but his reasoning made sense. My concentration was so poor at this point that he had to get the bike out of the parking space for me.
Further down the road, we found a bagel shop. With every ounce of skill I could muster, I navigated the bike around the parking lot and into a space. The relief of making it safely that far was palpable. I sat on the bike without moving for quite some time, just gathering myself together.
We had a delicious meal of breakfast bagel sandwiches and coffee, which is just what was needed. I felt renewed and able to ride again.
Lesson #12
Countersteering works.
For a long time I rode a cruiser. It just kinda ‘went’ around corners. Not particularly well but it went. Sometimes I got the line I wanted, other times I drifted out precariously close to the center line. If I leaned the bike over it made scary scraping noises as the boards connected with the road. Now that I have a sport-tourer, I’m learning a lot. The biggest thing is my lack of riding skills. I’m working on that now but it’s only when you KNOW, that you realize what you didn’t know before.
On the way home, we followed the Sunday drivers through the twisties. Knowing that we were both tired, we kept a moderate pace and didn’t attempt to pass any but the slowest of drivers.
I made a conscious effort to really push the bike over and it worked, or at least as well as it could at the modest speeds we were traveling. I got the same effect as sliding my butt across the seat, in getting the bike to lean over.
Lesson #13
Hot tubs are worth every penny you pay for them.
That explains itself right? As does the final lesson.
Lesson #14
Leaving a 20yr old CHILD home alone can cause problems.
He has earned himself a lot of extra chores this week.
