RTE
RTE (Ride To Eat) at McMenamins in Bend. The call was made by one of my Scummies (Oregon Biker Scum) who is also one of those Iron Butt types. He becomes the RM (Rally Master) because he made it contingent on getting POI (Points Of Interest) that had points attached to them, therefore the person with the most points would win (just bragging rights). It sounded like fun and I hadn't ridden for a couple weeks so I started making plans.
Given that the notice was only posted on the Internet the day before the dinner, I only needed to change my rear tire and do a few minor packing adjustments. After mowing a couple lawns and doing yard work all morning, I returned home to exchange rear tires with the extra bike and then do a little test ride on Thursday night. The evening was warm and I put on 18 miles, then started up the Virago and did another 18 miles. BTW, the 1995 Virago is for sale.
I plotted out a route on Microsoft Streets and Trips that would take me on a 316 mile ride to Bend and McMenamins. I would get 23.5 points for every mountain pass that I documented and 6.33 points for every female with a rally hat (or not) documented on the way. I also need to pick up Timothy Day for one of my Dam Tour checkpoints, so I plotted a route over Mt. Hood and picking up Lolo, Barlow, Bennett, Wapinitia and Blue Box Pass, then cutting across to Detroit on Skyline Drive, picking up Timothy Dam along the way. I then headed for Santiam Pass with a little back track on U.S. 20 to pick up Tombstone Pass. I then headed down to SR 242, one of my all time favorite roads in the U.S. of A, if there isn't any traffic to slow you down or interrupt a smooth ride through the corners.
I was in heaven, waiting for the axe to drop, as there wasn't any traffic to slow me down or disrupt my perfect ride. This was only the second time I have been able to ride from the Mckenzie Highway to the Observation point without having to pass a car or truck. Although there were a few vehicles coming the other direction that were trying to use my lane in the 10-20 mph corners. One time there were three SUVs with each following SUV cutting the corner a little more. Good thing I'm a slow rider and was able to adjust my speed and lean just that little bit to keep their tire for touching mine. My preparedness might have been at a high due to the occasional gravel on some (not all) right hand blind curves. Mostly washed off the rocks by hard rainstorm, most likely the day before or that morning as there were both inside and outside tracks clear of gravel. Being that I typically had been picking the outside if the gravel was early in the turn and inside if the gravel was late in the turn. Most of the time I was on the outside track, as I was when the threesome was cutting the corner.
When I got to the viewpoint it was pretty wet, as it was raining on the East side of McKenzie Pass. From the Pass to almost Sisters, the road was quite wet. I got suck behind a couple HDs pulling trailers and one car, so I stopped to clean the bugs off my windshield and visor. I later caught up with them just as I got to Sisters. The Quilting Convention was going on so I took the side streets to the other end of town. FYI, this worked out quite well. Try it the next time you have to do Sisters. I turned off the main highway at Tumalo and took OB Riley Rd. into town. I arrived at McMenamins about a half hour before the call to find four others already there. John, Reno John came up from Nevada, Doug C. from Sublimity, Dan C. local and Russ D. from Portland. Also arriving at the same time as me was Ernie and Lynn, from Portland, then Ken M. (RM), Vancouver, arrived last. Ken M. lives near me and had his Vstorm quite running and had to push it home about 1.2 miles to get another bike, so he was just a little late. We waited. As you can see from the pics, the tots were favorites.
Nice call, had a great time. Here are some
pics for those that just think about these kind of get togethers and can't quite get up off their a__'s to come.
