Thanksgiving Ride

Thanksgiving Day (after) Quarantine Ride

Hope everyone had as Great of a Thanksgiving week as I did!  I was fortunate enough to have visitors with motorcycles and firearms show up for the week. This may have been the Best Week Ever!!!

Buck of SBB suspension fame showed up with his wife Marcie and a newly acquired KTM 300 xcw. I got a smile on my face that didn’t go away until they left. There was also MJ’s lifelong friend, Matt, from Montana with his CRF 450 X fully decked out and set up to do rides worthy of taking him out on a tour.  Then the Circus rolled into town, Big Bob Gates, his grandson Cameron and the legendary Baja race coordinator Doug Smith. This crew brought along a KTM, KX and Husky in the arsenal.

Buck got his feet wet by going on the legendary ‘Taco Ride’ that takes place on Monday. I know you are thinking ‘Taco Tuesday’ is what everyone says. Three reasons why it is on Monday.  First because the bar/restaurant we ride to has taco specials on Monday.  Second, who in the heck wants to do it like every other knucklehead they know!  Third, because Tuesday is Range day and I am not giving up my shooting day!

Buck rode with Recon, Cory and myself. Cory was in the right place at the right time because Buck rebuilt his shock the day before in my garage with parts he brought on the road. Cory’s shock had NEVER seen any love and it was a 2008 YZ 250.  Glad I wasn’t riding that before the rebuild.  Cory got setup and adjusting by SBB suspension tuner Buck on our ride. Hard to put a price on that!  Recon and I both ride bikes with big tanks on our KTM 500’s and can go for tacos and back without fuel. But in the Girlz bike category 250/300 2 strokes you gotta carry oil so we can stop and get fuel to make the complete trip.

We had a great ride out and back with only a couple small mishaps. On our way home I noticed Cory was beginning to make a few mistakes. It seems the younger generation gets tired a bit sooner than the Geezers!  So about mile 75 we talked it over and decided to take a less meandering route to avoid any potential injuries. Everyone got home fine and there was talk, by Recon of course, of meeting for Milk Shakes around 6pm. Recon, Buck and I did meet up for milkshakes but it seemed Cory decided he didn’t want one that bad. He texts and thanked us for the invite but he was going to stay home.  The Geezers all enjoyed the payoff!

The Tuesday shooting day was a lot of fun, we shoot paper targets and some steel gongs with side arms to add variety to our day. It started out as any normal shooting day until Marcie got a little instruction and accelerated her fire arms proficiency dramatically.  All of a sudden she was a female Rambo and needed more bullets!!!  She was actually hitting the target and handling the pistol in a much more efficient and controlled manner. The look on her face was priceless, when she saw what she could do after being taught how to do it correctly.  She was back stuffing magazines for the next round every time she ran them empty. I think Buck shot a couple times but backed up every time Marcie was ready to shoot. I am pretty sure he was afraid of being punched if he got in her way!  She loved my small Glock and it seems they went to a local gun shop to shop for more ammo.  Buck may have a monster on his hands!

The day after Thanksgiving the Circus rolled into town, a bit late, but it was a long drive from So. Cal.  After all the visitors met each other and the B.S. session concluded we got on the trail about noon. I was trying to decide how many miles we could cover with the remaining daylight. Some of the loops are big and take a few hours to complete. With our group of 6 riders the average speed would be lower. I rolled the dice and went out a bit further, heck 4 of us had lights to get home. What could go wrong?

We rode and had a great time. Swapped bikes a couple times to evaluate, did a little trail side wrenching and we saw a few sights; the cabin is a cool stop when no one is there. It is a rebuilt cabin tucked away in a canyon but since it was a holiday weekend we found it was overrun with a group of Polaris RZR drivers. Must have been 12 to 15 of them each having 2 to 4 people per vehicle. Too busy so we looked, took a few photos and moved on. It was late in the afternoon anyway. On a side note, the RZR vehicles create a chop or washboard in all the sand washes that can knock your teeth loose. Sometimes these go for many miles at a time. To get some perspective, Big Bob says after riding some of these washes, “This is so much fun I think I will schedule a colonoscopy when I get home”.  I don’t think he liked that part.

So we headed out and took another route back that eventually brought us closer to a hiway and a bit of 2 stroke gas that I had stashed around 6am that morning. As the tour guide I wanted to make sure everyone would make it.  It was late in the day and Bob who is 78 yrs. old by the way listened closely when I gave our options at that point.  Continue to ride the trail and finish at about dark or hop on the highway and beeline it back to town in about 14 miles. Bob instantly made an executive decision and said we were going on the highway, lol.  No one objected and we did just that, half of our bikes are plated so we just put the non-plated bikes in the middle. When the first three of us rolled into town we noticed the other three missing. We waited a few minutes and were just turning around when Recon, Doug and Bob come rolling in. It seems Bob’s KTM had run out of gas just a couple miles outside of town and he had to lean the bike over to get the last bit of gas to make it. Perfect!  Bob was out of gas too but he made it.

The boyz got back to the trailer and loaded up for the long drive home. This was their first visit to come ride with me. I have gone over to ride in their neck of the woods on many occasions and know full well how long the trip seems when going home. The rolling circus got all the bikes loaded and said their good byes. Away they went.  I wonder if they will ever come back?              I mean after the Colonoscopy!

The next day was an easy day with only one rider showing up.  Matt is from Butte, Montana and quite an accomplished rider. He rides a very well maintained and prepped Honda 450x. He should, in so much as Matt had a motorcycle shop, ‘Two Wheelz’, in Butte for a number of years. He has been in the motorcycle business a long time.  It shows in his riding and prep.  We meandered out on two track and some single track for a few hours and had a great ride. A lot of fun and pretty uneventful. With Matt’s ability and only two of us I was able to take him on some of the stuff I can’t take most people or groups. It would require camping gear and lots of spare parts if I try that! I had a great time and we wrapped up with, can you believe this, “33” miles when I hit the pavement to ride home. I smiled and laughed when I saw that. This might be the Best Day Ever!  I dropped Matt off at MJ’s and after a bit of a B.S. session headed home. When I got home I checked and realized, Holy Schmokers, these guys had kept me busy all week and it was time for an oil change! I got to work and the Mighty KTM is all serviced up and ready to go! New oil and air filter. Anybody want to ride?

#33

‘When is old enough to know better supposed to kick in?’