Thanksgiving '97

Thursday Morning! Thanksgiving!

Get up, eat food, go to the Crest. Bill Jennings and I meet up with
Bob Light and Yves Bolomet.  Ride Ride ride. lotsa curves, ride. lose
Bill and Yves in the straights, follow Bob Light and keep up with
him. Go to Newcombs and find out its CLOSED! shit. Not enough food on
the bike for Gayathri. Ride back down the hill, start getting fuzzy,
end up on a new road that was really awesome, but I was getting kinda
faded for it.. Make it safely to somewhere and drink an entire COKE
CLASSIC without even realizing it tastes awful.

The day was amazing. Sunny, fall like in temperatures, the views from
above were great - newcombs ranch is about 4000 feet up. I'm having
fun riding with Bob - he has perfect entrances and his lines are a
pleasure to follow - he also has the same habit in the straights that
I do - he doesnt go too fast - 65-75 so that one doesnt have to hit
the brakes to get into the turns. (I like letting the V-Twin engine
slow itself down before the turn).

Friday:
Go to ProItalia and see what they've got.

Talk to the dealer. Sprint has gone down from 12K to 9500. He offers
the bags for free. Gayathri says she'll take it. Gayathri goes home
and calls everyone she knows.

	I'm gonna buy a triumph sprint 900 in british racing green.

Friday evening, drag everyone over to go see the bike.

Saturday:

Saturday morning, meet Yves with Bill and Brian and head out to the
Rock Store to on Mulholland.

Brian, Bill and I end up lane splitting for a couple of miles on 101,
and come to a dead stop just before 405, due to a HUGE pileup of
cars. I counted 5 cars being pushed off the road by the cops. the
entire 101 westbound was stopped. Some folks were annoyed at the three
bikes, red, black and pearl, who passed them when they couldnt move.

Most people moved out of our way. Flat bed trucks were the nicest.

Finally find Yves, and head up mulholland. I hate leading. We end up
on a detour off of Muholland Highway, a windy road thru the Santa
Monica mountains, onto some residential street which was badly paved
and gravely, STUCK BEhind a truck.

Unhappy.

Zoom by the truck, keep zooming up to the Rock store. I am in the back
now, end up blowing by the rock store and find some of the most
amazing bit of 2 miles of road...whoa whoa WHEEEEEE!!!!!

Get to the top, come back, go to the Rock store, find yves, bill and
Brian. Laugh at them.

Drink juice, go up the hill again. Let them go ahead, *zoom zoom, lean
lean lean lean WHOOOAAAAAHHH!!! lean lean lean lean* I didnt get out
of second gear. those curves are tight! yeehaa!

We get to the top of this little set of two miles of road and Bill and
I stand there, looking around over the valley, and we watch a bunch of
bikers come up the hill...

	Damn, I'm glad I moved out here. :) The view was great! The
weather awesome. The roads have NO FROST HEAVES on 'em!

Head back down Muholland to Stunt Road. The other three head zoom and
pass three other bikes. I find no way of passing them. Find Stunt Road
and head up it. (turns out Yves, Brian and Bill miss stunt road twice
- they pass it heading one direction, turn around and blow by it
again.)

This actually manages to let me go all the way up the hill to the top
of Stunt Road. The view up there was stunning. I got off Pickle, and
sat there, watching two hawks dancing on the thermals straight in
front of me.

	life is good. I'm going to buy a BRG Triumph Sprint, my job is
	going well, my social life is hopping.

I head down the hill, figuring I'll find them, and if I dont, heck,
_I_ know how to get home. Bill is the one that will be in
trouble.. (well, Brian knows how to get to my house.)

I meet them at the bottom of the hill. We go back to the top, and then
head down the other side. Now, I'm hungry, and again, getting hungry
on a ride is a bad thing for gayathri - I've GOT to pack more food.

The hill on the way down is VERY tight, very curvy and VERY very
down...

ick.

Drive home was uneventful. Got gas, went to ProItalia, drooled on bike
some more, sat on other bikes, Brian and Bill were bored.

Sunday:

Sunday is another ride of amazing proportions - a whole bunch of us go
up the Crest, head around this 9 mile loop, I run out of gas going
downhill and am saved by a ducati with easily available petcock.

I follow Bob Light, which again leaves me going at good speeds around
the corners, and really just enjoying what my bike can do.

Near the Mile High resturant, I get some dust on the contacts, and
blink clear to see CLIFF WALL! shoot. Pickle goes off the road, and
rides over the large rocks and gravel - miss the cliff, get back onto
the road and then almost totally lose it on the next turn - I really
really blew it badly on that turn.

Slowed down a lot to clear my head and eyes and get myself back into a
good mindset for riding, get up to the resturant. Eat ok so so steak
and then decide to go with the gang up to the Crest from the back side
of the mountain.

	Just a little rocks and maybe some ice.

Oh yea. right. Just a LOTTA rocks and everything looks like ice when
you get nervous and the temps have dropped and your body starts
getting chilled.

We have the first mishap of the weekend when Brian hits a rock and
loses the front rim of his bike. The rest of the evening was spent
getting Brian and the other bikes down the hill and getting his bike
down the hill.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.