Sunday was a.........

[cruzinaz]

Day for me not to ride. The signs came early that it was just gonna be one of those days.

Getting out for a later than planned was the 1st, but I thought what the heck I still have time to hit Vaca its only a 120 mile ride. So geared up I jump on the bike and head out, made it almost 3 blocks. There is a swap meet just south of my shop, I am always verrry careful thru that area. The shoppers already have visions of the deals and the beers to pay attention to driving. Yep, sure as hell I'm coming up and had that "feeling",, slowed down to about 20 (in a 45)..... swear she was staring right at me, getting ready to make that dreaded left hand turn that every biker hates to think about. Guess she was looking thru me tho b :angry: I was on the brakes hard when she woke up and realized she was driving. She nailed her brakes and I went to the other lane to get around. That was # 2 sign and I havent gotten down the road a 1/4 mile yet. help

Ok, time to get fuel or should I? hmmmm, I may be ok. Nah better stop and give my heart a couple more minutes to slow down. At the time I didnt realize how that that may have been the best decision I will probably make today.

Down the road I go again and feeling a little better, I mean holy cow its 73 degrees with plenty of sunshine and I have a nice fast ride to look forward to. :fing02:

Fast forward to about 5 miles down the road where the speed limit goes to 55, in VFR terms thats 65.or so :laughing6-hehe: I'm just cresting a hill on a right hand sweeper rolling on the throttle cuz thats the last curve I will see for a while. Just as I get around the corner I see something I have never seen on that road, a good sized dog wandering back and forth across the lanes. Oh goodie I get to practice my panic stops again today :angry:

# 3 sign to tell me I should just wash my truck and not continue the ride.

Took it easy and just enjoyin the scenery after that... well more like my head was on a swivel looking for the next thing to happen. For the next 25 miles it was uneventful WHEW. I finally get to Amado which is the turn off for Vaca

Still not feeling anywhere close to a 100% I just took it easy.

Corner after corner started get me back to having a smile on my face, MP3 was playing some good upbeat songs and I was having fun. About 5 miles of smiles so far and feeling 80% now so I picked up the pace some more. Keep in mind on Vaca there are few curves you can see thru and its like a roller coaster, enuff so that airborne bikes are a commonplace. Sure is fun doin that tho :biggrin: :biggrin:

Coming up on a left that flips right immediately and now I'm running about 80 and usin the tires up. Can ya guess what made me practice my panic stops for the 3rd time?????

3 deer doing their best to figure out which side of the road had the best grass to eat :angry: After I got slowed down to 20 or so a horn blast got them clear Sign #4 :angry:

Time to shake off yet another heart stopper.

Oh well I still have about 17 miles of twisties to look forward too. This road is patrolled heavily by Border Patrol and today was no exception. Most all of the time BP will pull off the road to let bikes around and really dont care about speed. I wont pass them on a dbl yellow anymore (another story all in its own :blush: ) but I sure was temped yesterday. Got stuck behind one that didnt much care if I wanted to get around him or not. Must not have cuz in the very small stretches of passing zones he would floor the truck and run it up to 90. It kinda pissed me off and I almost broke my own dbl rule. Funny, I guess I realized that I was starting to get road rage over a guy that was going twice the speed limit! What the hell ya thinking finally took better control of my head and I slowed down, even stopped for a minute so he would not be a factor in the rest of my ride. Sign #5

The rest of the ride in was uneventful and at a slower than normal pace.

Finally in Vaca and havin a good time with a couple locals and then who should walk in but Nancy and Kathy.(I met those two thru VFRD) They told me one of the deer was already not a threat anymore. They were on the way to the lake to kayak so off they went.

I had to be back at the shop by 3 and it was gonna be close. Tried to change the meeting time but couldnt get cell service,,, thats ok I figured, it'll be close but I guess I could pick up the pace some :biggrin:

Their was a couple groups of riders that had headed out ahead of me and I warned them about the deer. Dressed in the normal Harley fashion of course and looking at me like I was strangely dressed :blink:

Time to hit the road and the 1st 7 miles of road on the way out have the tightest corners and the few that you can see thru. Yep my favorites for sure. I was really starting to have fun again All went well for ride out until........... about 5-6 miles out of Amado the traffic came to a stop, something else is wrong. I decided it was time to take gloves and helmet off and see if anyone knew what happened. Walking up the road I found out it was a biker and they were going to airlift him out. Damn it I thought, hated to hear that. I was hangin out and waiting to hear a chopper and nothing,,,, walked up a little further and understood why I didnt hear one as it was already on the ground in the middle of the road.........with the motor shut off, thats not good.

A few more minutes go by and a Sheriff was walking back to let everyone know what was going on, it was a Harley, guy was wearing a helmet but when you hit a fence post at a 100 (Sheriffs estimated speed) nothing short of a miracle is gonna help.

My options now are sit on the road for at least 2 hours for them to clean up and take pictures or go the loooong way around....which I hate.

Of course decided against waiting and headed out. With so many things going thru my head that it was hard to ride. I'm alone, no cell service, no one knows I have to take that way, what about that guys family, what about mine. Ethans CBR deer hunting episode in August,,etc... I dont think I took one corner right the rest of the day. The road on the other side of Vaca should just be torn up and turned into a graded dirt road, I'm sure it would be smoother and the amount of dirt on it wouldnt change very much compared to the way it is now.

Those last 90 miles were some of the longest I have ever done. By the time I got back I was mentally drained and really ready to get off 2 wheels.

I guess my whole point of this post is to remind everyone anything can happen at anytime on 2 wheels. The other is if you start to have a Cruzinaz day I suggest you turn around, park the bike and get a beer and wash your truck. :fing02:

One last thing, if you do decide to keep going make sure you fill up cuz the long way may not have a fuel stop. Remember that was my one and only good decision of the day

I had posted this on Monday on another board but it seems like with all the wreck/retirement posts I would toss it up here too

[Dutchy]

Yep, them little voices in our heads, little things we see that we should listen to and just turn back....

Been there, done that and crashed.........

[Monk]

Interestingly... It seems you were doing pretty close to what most riders should be doing. It's just a lot of inapt people out there for you that day.

I'm starting to see a lot of people in cages come around a blind turn at least 1/2 way into my lane(one the other day gave me just enough for my bike), and each time I'm thinking, "What the heap would we be doing if I had been in my jeep(off roading if room,or not), there sure wouldn't have been enough room... I thought driving "101" is to stay in your lane in a blind turn(or even if it isn't blind). Some of these people tried some counter measure which wouldn't have been enough for two cars, and some didn't even attempt to widen their path. There seems to be enough room to slide by on the bike though.

Now to these same people we give a cell phone to amuse themselves, since they seem to have mastered everything else about driving safe........

It's up to us to ride safely, the other drivers/riders/deer/rock falls/etc. are not going to do it for us..... What's seems strange now, is that most of the wrecks happening now(Fall), usually is in the Spring after a lot of peeps have not been riding in the Winter..... Also more animals seem to be involved, not just deer(rutt season)....

[VFR4Lee]

Sounds like you were alert and doing the right stuff. :fing02:

Just an extra batch of idiots in your path kind of day. :comp13:

I can't imagine BP not doing something if you scream by at 10,000 RPM, so I'll guess you're not doing that. :biggrin:

Ride safe!

[MisterBill]

I can relate to those type of days. Always ride aware and be ready. Glad you made it home okay.

[Baileyrock]

That's a tough day for sure!

Glad you were able to avoid all the potential threats and make it home safely no matter how much the day sucked! :fing02:

BR

[cruzinaz]

That's a tough day for sure!

Glad you were able to avoid all the potential threats and make it home safely no matter how much the day sucked! :fing02:

BR

Yep, one I don't care to repeat that's for sure :biggrin:

Just happy at this point that I didn't have to take any pix of my bike in the desert somewhere to post :fing02:

[jaimev34]

Crappy day, but you made it. It's hard to turn around once you're committed.

[BIGRHINO]

Interestingly... It seems you were doing pretty close to what most riders should be doing. It's just a lot of inapt people out there for you that day.

I'm starting to see a lot of people in cages come around a blind turn at least 1/2 way into my lane(one the other day gave me just enough for my bike), and each time I'm thinking, "What the heap would we be doing if I had been in my jeep(off roading if room,or not), there sure wouldn't have been enough room... I thought driving "101" is to stay in your lane in a blind turn(or even if it isn't blind). Some of these people tried some counter measure which wouldn't have been enough for two cars, and some didn't even attempt to widen their path. There seems to be enough room to slide by on the bike though.

Now to these same people we give a cell phone to amuse themselves, since they seem to have mastered everything else about driving safe........

It's up to us to ride safely, the other drivers/riders/deer/rock falls/etc. are not going to do it for us..... What's seems strange now, is that most of the wrecks happening now(Fall), usually is in the Spring after a lot of peeps have not been riding in the Winter..... Also more animals seem to be involved, not just deer(rutt season)....

Funny you should say that about the people half way in your lane. I took a group up to Smith Mountian Lake last year and stopped and warned everyone once we got on the back roads of VA everyone rides in the middle of the road so always make sure you have room in the turns. Those guys could not beleive it.

Those little voices in your head and the little things that say just go home already. They sure do get ignored. I have deffinatly done my share of ignoring them.