Somebody left behind.....

Ahhh, 840 miles down 1160 to go to reach my 2000 mile goal on my Harley.  

We started out on Friday morning, Jay and I left the house at 6:15 am to get gas and meet the rest of the HOG group at the Carson City dealership.  We had 20 bikes show up to go on the last ride of the year which is called "Sierra to the Sea"  We end up in Point Arena, just outside of Mendocino.  It really is a beautiful ride, it took us 11 hours to get from Reno to Point Arena and as we rode through the mountain ranges to finally get to our destination, all I could to was suck that beautiful smell up into my nostrils, whether it was pine, cow manure or skunk, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I have had such a busy summer with Stevi being involved in everything under the sun we have not been able to get more than 3 rides in this year, coming from last years Head Road Captain and the Ladies of Harley Director, that is pretty sad.  I guess as your children get older, they actually require more time and attention when you thought it would have been the other way around.

  We rode into Point Arena just after 6pm on Friday evening and stopped at their version of a grocery store and Jay, Denise and I split out groceries into thirds for the weekend so we would have healthy snacks and breakfast while everyone else raided the liquor isle.  I guess they were in a hurry to get their party on........because they left me and Jay at the store.  We ended up catching up, but in my book that is a no no, kind of like when you and your girlfriends our out on the town, you go out together, your stay together, you leave together, right?  RIGHT!  So we arrived at the lighthouse keepers quarters and Jay was really worried about getting stuck in the party house but we lucked out,  we ended up staying with Lori, Mark, Ray and Janey, Denise was supposed to be locked in as our roomy but it didn't work out, she stayed next door, (their are 4 houses that sleep  6 each)  and just came over every morning and afternoon to snack and have breakfast.  Saturday we rode up to Bodega Bay.  We went in 2 groups and we rode in the last group, it was really foggy and we decided after going to dinner the night before and not being able to see a car length in front of us, it was a little too dangerous on those windy roads.  We ended up meeting our friends Mike and Debbie  in the morning and they rode us in, the roads are so windey it takes almost 2 1/2 hours to go 80 miles or so.  The highway we were on is highway 1 which is the road I was on when I crashed my Dyna 3 years ago.  I'll tell that story in my memoirs at a later date...ANYWAYS.....we are in Bodega Bay and we went to the old school house where they filmed "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock, which I have never seen, but have been told around 50 times this weekend that I HAVE to.  Then as Mike and Debbie where getting on their bike, Jay, leading the group took off like a bat out of hell, and left me there AGAIN!  I am a road captain, and we are never supposed to leave anyone behind so I patiently waited for Mike and Debbie and we arrived around 15 minutes after everyone else, Jay was freaking out because he had no idea he left us, next time check your mirrors dingbat!  So then we had lunch and as we were leaving the wharf, Cat and Jerry got stuck in the parking lot and were around 6 cars behind the group.  I kept checking in my mirrors and couldn't find them, over and over, the road was so curvy I wasn't sure if I was missing them because of the trees or because they weren't there.  After around 45 mins. we got to a stop sign and signaled Sena who was our road captain back to Point Arena and signaled her to pull over at a safe spot.  We told her we were missing Cat and Jerry and Jay headed back to find them, around 15 minutes later he came back and said "Nothing"  We told them to go ahead because they had tickets to go see Janiva Magness at the Blues Festival and Jay, Mike, Debbie and I made it all the way back to Bodega Bay were we found them.  They had taken their eyes off the road for just a second and a car stopped right in front of them, and instead of breaking, he accelerated and slammed right into the back of the car.  We sent Mike and Debbie back to the lighthouse to let everyone know what was going on, none of us had phone service and Jay and I stayed with them until a tow truck got there around and hour and a half later, in the meantime all the locals were coming to see what was going on and we watched three young boys break into the Grange Hall and steal champagne and chug the bottle down while we were fixing what we could of the bikes.

  The ride back was miserable, Cat and Jerry on my bike with no foot pegs and me on the back of Jays with no back rest almost sliding off his barhopper seat for the whole 2 1/2 hours, my legs where shaking from squeezing and my back was killing me from just the tention I am sure.

Sunday we decided to rest, we were all sore and the four of us were exhausted from the long day, but I announced to the group that I was training in honor of Kathy Taylor who was a HOG member and I would be walking/running the 2 1/2 miles up to the diner and they were welcome to join me.  To my surprise 7 of the group showed up in sweats and tennies or leather and boots and ran/walked the 2 1/2 mile to breakfast!  I was so excited and a couple of the girls may do the marathon with me!  After breakfast Ray was the only party pooper and road bitch (on the back of a bike, for all you civilians out there), back to the keepers houses which was hilarious because he ended up riding on the back of the only Honda that came with us.  He got so much crap for that the rest of the weekend it, was funny.  That day the men watched football, we watched seals, whales, napped and read books until dinner which Heidi cooked in their house, lasagna, salad, german chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Back to bed and up bright and early to leave by 7:30.   Then Sena blew her stater in her Dyna and had to ride up to Santa Rosa in an Envoy with Cat to go to the dealership and make arrangements to get her ride fixed, so now Jerry and Sena both have a bike at the Santa Rosa Harley Dealership getting fixed, and as they are riding off, Mike dropped his Heritage and broke the mirror off, cracked his windshield and bent his foot peg.  It's always and adventure, there was much more drama but it is almost midnight and I am done!  So we are back safe and sound, in one piece except for maybe some of the bikes, gotta love it, always somebody left behind, but we are always retrieved!