First Officer CDR. Rusty Piston’s
Entry:
Last we
spoke, or last I spoke, or last I wrote, I described the group ride to Buck’s
Lake and of my lending a bike to a buddy. Since then
the bike lend didn’t happen as he was offered a stock Norton Roadster, which was a much
better fit for him. I hadn't planned on going on any rides that day but since my bike was available I went on the group
ride to Portola, CA, about 30 miles south of here. There were about 75 bikes on that ride and once again I must say I don’t like group
rides, so I hung waaaaay back and once again, again found myself leading
a group of 10 or so kindred souls who believe in the old guy’s philosophy of
slow and steady.
The captain
rode along with a couple of other ladies in a quadracycle (car) rather than
being subjected to 30 miles of wind-beating.
We met in Portola where the club had a lunch buffet all set up in the
local park. Portola is the location of
the Train Museum of which, as you know, we had already seen. So the ladies searched for interesting small
shops to browse, and I headed off in search of Johnsville, which was supposed to
be an old mining town with a mining museum.
I finally found it (it wasn’t well signed) and when I got there, there
was no there, there. The funky old
1800’s town with funky old buildings and funky old shops I had in my head just
didn’t exist. In fact I rode through
what was there without realizing that what was there wasn’t the there. I did find the museum and another dozen of
lost Norton riders, so we all had ice cream bars, perused the artifacts, and
headed north to Quincy.
Today was
the “Concours” bike show where we all show our bikes and the bikes are judged
by the club members, and any members of the general public who wish to
attend. I had the Starship Snoopy (my
Norton) in the Custom Modified Class and the Shuttlecraft Woodstock (my
Triumph) in the British–Non-Norton Class.
The results will be announced at the end-of-rally banquet tonight. I have no hope for the Norton as there are
bikes in that class that make my bike look as if it should be in the “Rat Bike”
class. We’re talking mega-dollars in
customization and years of hard work in making it all go together. I will include some detail photos after this
bit of prose.
On the other
hand, the triumph could possibly take 2nd or 3rd
in its class behind a BEAUTIFUL Vincent, and a cute-as-a-bug little Triumph
single that looks to maybe be a 250cc or possibly even smaller.
Here are the photos.
End First Officer’s Entry.
Captain’s Entry:
The rescue
mission to retrieve the captain is, so far, a resounding failure.
It seems she
doesn’t WANT to be rescued.
Negotiations
are underway.
Signed:
First
Officer: Cdr. Rusty Pistons.
End Captain’s Entry
No comments:
Post a Comment