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| Dan (guest), Bomber, Smooth, Lee (guest), Grim, G-Man, Rip City |
The gang met at the Garage Cafe in Notus to begin the ride. Present: Rip City, G-Man, Grim, Smooth and Bomber. Not present: Duke, Zeus, Big Easy and Krome.
The crew exchanged the usual jibes and greetings before enjoying a nice breakfast. We then rolled away on the way to our latest adventure. As we rolled away, it appeared all were ready although G-Man was just putting on his helmet prior to climbing on his bike. We were used to this as it was not unusual for G-Man to be still primping when everyone else was started up and rolling. (Sound of a phonograph needle ripping across a vinyl record.) As we rolled away, the pack was noticeably short of the 7 members. We looked over our shoulders and could see us being waved back to the cafe.
G-Man's "Old Blue" had failed him for the first time and would not fire up. A quick call to Carl, at Boise Cycle, rewarded us with an educated guess that it was the crank position sensor judging from G-Man's most recent motorcycle check-up. We reluctantly left G-Man in our rear-view mirrors but I knew he would catch up somehow.
We rolled through the countryside through Midvale and over through Payette. We then headed up through the backroads and along the river. There was a moment of "rolling silence" as we passed through Huntington and the site of the "Kid Rock" near disaster of a year ago. We rolled on up through small towns and burroughs and jumped on the freeway for a short jump to Baker City.
We stopped at Baker City for fuel and encountered a couple of guys on 100th Anniversary Ultra Classics. Ironically, one of the bikes had stopped charging. We sounded very savvy and experienced as we told them it was either the stator or the regulator. (Flashback to two years ago where we had the same adventure with Bomber's bike in the same town!) One of the bikers jumped on his bike and headed to the same little ATV/motorcycle/RV shop where we had found the regulator for Bomber's bike. Truth is stranger than fiction.
We rolled on down the road passing through Haines, Union, Cove and ended up in Elgin for lunch at the White Horse Cafe. We landed right in the middle of a female birthday party with the four participants being in their 60s and 70s. They were surprised when one of the members made a fuss over the birthday girl and gave her enthusiastic birthday well wishes. We had a great lunch and Rip City bore the brunt of the friendly jibes and ribbing since G-Man was not present. We called G-Man and he was enjoying a nice ride in the AAA tow truck delivering "Old Blue" to the dealer.
We rolled on up the road passing through Wallowa, Enterprise and finally Joseph. The traffic was unbelievably light and it almost seemed as though we had the road to ourselves. It was the most peaceful, serene and relaxing leg of a run I had ever experienced. It did not feel like the 270 miles that it was. Even with the late start, it was the earliest we had ever arrived in Joseph.
Sometime during this leg of the adventure, we found out, over the new-fangled wireless telephone, that G-Man had the crank position sensor (great call Carl) replaced on his RK and was headed our way at warp speed.
We checked in to Walter Brennan's Indian Lodge Motel and put our gear away. We headed downtown to do our tin sign shopping and chocolate shoppe stop.
The sign shop and hardware store have changed and moved but we found some tin signs that were perfect for Smooth, Bomber and even an Indian sign for Rip City. Even though he said his wall was full, Rip City could not pass the Indian sign up. I can't blame him.
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| Rip and Cherokee |
We went over to the chocolate shoppe and I spent $3.50 for three little pieces of chocolate. They were very good, however. The high prices do keep one from overeating. We then stopped by the custom t-shirt shoppe. As luck would have it, the shop had some very cool "Highway to Hell" t-shirts commemorating the road through Hell's Canyon. Unbelievably, the motorcycle celebrated on the t-shirt was a vintage Indian motorcycle. Very cool t-shirt for only $15 bucks. Rip City and Smooth got a special 2 t-shirt price for $30. Wow! I had to pass on the t-shirt as my size was out in the sleeveless version.
Unfortunately, the fly store shop still had not restocked any foreskin shirts. Dang it.
After that special find, we sauntered back down Main Street to the motel. We had only been lounging around drinking Diet Coke for a few minutes when G-Man rolled into the parking lot rejoining the band of OGRES.
We headed over to the Stubborn Mule for our annual visit and found a table. We got our orders in and settled down for the longest wait in the history of mankind (or womankind). After several eons, I stood up to stretch my legs on the front sidewalk and my ploy worked. As I stepped in, our food finally arrived. However, I was rewarded with the best ribeye steak and mashed potatoes I had scarfed down at this restaurant. I enjoyed the peach pie also. As I look around, most everyone must have been satisfied as the plates were empty.
There is a rumor that after dinner, a random card game broke out in Rip City's room. It was especially handy that Rip City chose a chair with both mirrors in the room at this back. It was a very fun game, so I heard, and there were many, many bad beats involving high powered hands. Lee was down to a buck and rallied after whining about never winning a hand. Dan was the first one out and I might have ended up with the most overage, barely, over the hot card shark Lee. For the first time in memory, Rip City ended up with chips in front of him that weren't made of potatoes although he was short of what he started with. Smooth was his usually unflappable self and ended up 45 cents ahead.
Everyone enjoyed a peaceful slumber except for Dan. Next door to him was an amorous couple who made for a less than peaceful nights sleep.
First thing in the morning, we found that Dan's bike would not start. Fortunately, this was not a new problem and Dan was sure, after the dew dried off the bike in the sun, that it would start. It did. We went down to the Cheyenne cafe and enjoyed a nice breakfast. We got there just in the nick of time as the cafe filled completely and quickly after our arrival. Unfortunately, the owner was the only waitress and it took a while getting our breakfast. Again, I gotta get used to the small town pace. We got the "stink eye" from a group of the regulars as we had the big table that they required. Or they were put off by the sight of wild motorcycle outlaws.
We collected our motorcycles and headed to Hells Canyon. We had been warned several times the road to Hells Canyon and Pine Creek was gravelly and potholed worse than normal. I had dismissed the warnings as the road has always been a bit of a challenge with the potholes, switchbacks and shadow changes. But the road was under construction with large stretches of gravel and increased potholes and pavement break-ups. The group elected to skip stopping at the Hells Canyon overlook and we stopped at Scotty's at Pine Creek instead. The road between Joseph and Pine Creek was more challenging with the washboard gravel stretches but still a great run.
We sauntered in to Scotty's and grabbed beverages and snacks. G-Man quickly jumped on the Scotty's wife and scolded her for not getting the remodeling done that she had detailed the last time we were through the area. He succeeded in making her irate for the rest of us to interface with her. Wow, how rude! Rip City then picked on me for being extra nice to her to try to mend the fences. It's no wonder I am retiring in 8 working days and they still have their noses to the grindstone. People skills, people !
We then headed out after talking to several guys on cross country/dual sport bikes. We told them about the road we had just passed and they just giggled as it sounded to them like a super highway compared to where they had been riding. Oh well, I will stick to good old smooth pavement. Not a fan of gravel.
The rolling rabble continued down past the reservoir and across the bridge back into Idaho. The ride between Pine Creek and Cambridge was extremely enjoyable with the sweeping rolling curves and topography making riding the steel steed a dream.
We rolled into Cambridge where we stopped at our usual cafe, Mrs. G's Ranch House. We made our way into the usual back room with the big round table making us feel decidedly like King Arthur's knights of the Round Table. I have no doubt that Galahad and Lancelot received a lot better service. Or maybe it's just me needing to adjust to slow small town pace after the fast pace of the City. It didn't help that I wasn't completely concise about my order. Uggh...brown gravy. The peach pie was good, though.
We grabbed gas at the Sinclair that had reopened since the divorce closing event of the previous year. It was easy going down to Weiser where we picked up Joy (Dan's wife) as she waited on her Street Glide to join us. We continued on to Payette, where I missed the turn to highway 52 to head towards Middleton. The signal light threw me along, with the 52, as I was looking for a Highway 30 sign. I'll just stick with the sergeant half brain explanation.
Then a nice run on Highway 52 over to where it turns into Sand Hollow road as we dodged the old folks in the Lincoln, the cowboy-hatted caballero in the Ford F150, the hay hauling semi truck and the tanker truck. As we dodged the folks leaving the church, we rolled into the Shell station at the junction of Highway 44/30 for the goodbye stop.
Final goodbyes, handshakes, hugs, lies and jibes were exchanged before the crew went their ways home or to church meetings. What a great 480 mile ride with such a great gang. I left wishing this was not the last official run for the year.
I am proud to be an member of the OGRES and wear the cut proudly. Old Guys Rule!
