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104° Degrees
Fahrenheit
= 40° Degrees Centigrade (All temperates are in
Fahrenheit, but felt like they were in Centigrade)
I keep my eye on the weather.
That's one of the problems with renting a Motorcycle.
You
have
to reserve it at least a couple of weeks before your ride. This is Fort
Worth, Texas. It is August. It is going to be hot,
with
lows in
the 80° and the highs will top out at
around 104°. I'm more worried
about rain.
Hot in August is a given, but rain in August that's a sign
from
God. The weather forecast for the week calls for isolated
thunder storms on Monday the day I pick up the bike.
It is suppose to be mild on Tuesday for the ride down to San
Antonio with a high of 98° and a low of
81°. Wednesday it's suppose to warm up a
bit with a high of
101° and a low of 78°.
Thursday,
the day Matthew and I will be riding the eight hours back to Fort
Worth, it
will
be a little warmer topping out at 104°. Friday will be
the same as Thursday high of 104° with
a low
of 83°, of course the low will be at 4:30 am.
Saturday, when I have to return the bike, it will cool off
because
of the heavy rain only getting to 103°.
I get a first choice and a second choice when I fill out the rental
form on-line. I pick a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic
as
my first choice. I have owned four bikes in my life; a
Yamaha,
Kawasaki, Honda, and a BMW. I have never owned a Harley and
figure it will be fun to ride one. I get to the
rental
shop, the guy behind the counter looks me up and down and says, "You
the
Gold Wing?" I tell him, "No my first choice was
the
Harley, Electra Glide." He smiles at me, looks me up and down
again and says, "No you're the Gold Wing."
 
We pick up a pair of gloves for Matthew, a couple of helmets that we
will trade between Cheryl, Matthew and myself. I
sign about
ten
forms
which ensure that the rental place will get their money no matter
what I do to the bike. I had a dream that Cheryl got into a
car
accident the night I first reserved the bike, I woke up thinking I
should get the insurance just in case the bike is damaged or more
concerning stolen. I lay wake the rest of that
night thinking, "Man, I
would surely hate to be paying for a motorcycle when I don't even own a
motorcycle." I decided to take out the VIP insurance which
limits my liability to a thousand bucks. I notice as
I'm
filling out
the forms that even though I didn't order insurance they have
included it.
I suppose that the guy behind the counter decided that I
needed
insurance when he decided that I shouldn't be riding a Harley.
I sold my last motorcycle about 15 years ago when my old boss
told me that
he didn't think I looked professional scooting up into the office in my
leathers
on the top of a BMW Café racer. He told me ten
years later that
he was just kidding. I have been wanting to get another bike
ever
since. I haven't, because of the kids, or the job, or
travel,
or for whatever reason. I keep kidding Cheryl that I should
get
another bike and every time I saw a bike on the road I'd say, "Look, a
sign from God."
I do it so often both the kids say it for me now.
I'm not
sure if this pleases her or pisses her off, but it brings a
smile to
my face.
I'm not sure when I'm going to buy another Bike but when Cheryl
saw me researching bikes she took all of our money and put it into CD's
that won't mature for a year. I guess she figures
that this buys
her at least a year.
I have a lot of hours riding. When I was in the Army
I
used spend two months in Texas then two weeks at home with Cheryl in
Georgia and back to Texas and then back home for two weeks.
This lasted over a
year. She would keep the car in Georgia and
I'd take the bike to Texas. One summer I rode from
Texas stopped by Georgia to kiss Cheryl, then continued on up to to
visit my family in New
York.
It rained from Atlanta to Rochester, NY. My air filter got so wet that
the bike wouldn't do more than 65 miles an hour. I didn't know this
until my ride back since I never drove the bike faster then 65
on
the way up since it was raining. On the way back I opened up
the throttle and the
bike died
away. I pulled over yanked the air filter and the water
poured
out of it like I was emptying a boot.. I tossed the
filter away, rode on to the
next big town, picked up a new one and continued back to
Georgia to kiss Cheryl, then straight back to Texas for the
next
couple of months. That wasn't my longest ride In 1986 I
took a year off from work after the Army while I
waited to
become a
California
resident for College. That's right I was a kept man.
Cheryl
worked and I was a house husband. Since we didn't have the
kids
yet and our house as you could see was California small it was a sweet
gig. I'd get up do a little laundry, clean up the kitchen,
vacuum
and then go out for a 10 mile run, two mile swim, followed by a 20 mile
bicycle ride. You have to look "pretty" if you are going to
be
a keep
man. You can see from the photo that
the bike I was
riding was a smaller version of the one I rented
this time, but you might notice that I was also a
smaller
version back then.
The start of my
ride across North America. 11 Jun - 25
Jun 1986.
I decided that since I would become a California resident in
September and would be losing my freedom to
become
a full time student I should do a road trip .
I have
20 days off between
Army National Guard drills in June so I decide to ride from our
house in California through the Southern U.S. up
to New York.
I'll make my way back by way of Canada to
California.
It was a long trip, and
since it was June it was a bit hot in Texas, Arizona, Utah, and
especially Nevada. I really thought about selling the bike in
Las
Vegas. My dad gave me a silver dollar when I told
him I
was going to ride through Vegas. He told me to play
the slots for him. I lost his dollar but won twenty bucks on
my
dollar. I now had 20 shiny silver dollars in one
hand and
the keys to my motorcycle in the other. I was
thinking.
"I
wonder if I sold my bike how much money I could win." My real
motivation was to stay inside the air conditioned casino as long as
possible. LA is a quick ride from Vegas, well quick if you
were
in Sturgis, South Dakota just 29 hours ago, so I couldn't afford to get
a
hotel room unless I won a lot more than $20. I was sun
burned,
was just about to finish a six thousand mile road trip and the
outside
temperature was well over a 105° (but it was a dry
heat) so it was
win big or hit the road. I hit the road.
I must have forgotten all about this when I decided to rent a
bike in Texas
in August. My Brother sent me this poem. Where he
got it from I
don't know but it goes:
The
Devil's Place
The devil wanted a place on earth
Sort of a
summer home
A place to spend his vacations
Whenever he wanted
to roam.
So he
picked out an enormous plot of land
A place
both wretched and rough
Where the climate was to his liking
And
the natives hardened and tough.
He
dried up the streams in
the canyons
And ordered no rain to fall
He dried up the lakes
in the valleys
Then baked and scorched it all.
Then
over
his barren country
He transplanted shrubs from hell.
The
cactus, thistle and prickly pear
The climate suited them well.
Now the
home was much to his liking
But animal life, he
had none.
So he created crawling creatures
That all mankind
would shun.
First
he made the rattlesnake
With it's forked
poisonous tongue.
Taught it to strike and rattle
And how to
swallow it's young.
Then he
made scorpions and lizards
And
the ugly old horned toad.
He placed spiders of every
description
Under rocks by the side of the road.
Then he
ordered the sun to shine hotter,
Hotter and hotter still.
Until
even the cactus wilted
And the old horned lizard took ill.
Then
he gazed on his earthly kingdom
As any creator would
He
chuckled a little up his sleeve
And admitted that it was good.
Twas summer now and Satan lay
By a prickly pear to
rest.
The sweat rolled off his swarthy brow
So he took off his
coat and vest.
"By Golly," he finally panted,
"I
did my job too well,
I'm going back to where I came from,
Texas
is hotter than Hell."
I thought of that poem a lot over the week that I had the
bike. I got very sun burned. It was so hot that I
could
smell
the sap from the Mesquite trees on the way down to San Antonio.
It
ain't bad, when your moving down the highway at 70 miles an hour but
when you are at a stoplight or get stuck in traffic it is hot., Texas
hot. Matthew rode with me a lot, and he mentioned that some times it
seemed
like the Sun had moved closer to the earth. It felt like it
was sitting just a couple of feet above
our heads.
We went out every night just before Sunset. The first
night we scared the heck out of Cheryl because we got lost.
Matthew didn't  mind. He thought it was a kick to be on the bike
and I didn't mind since you
can't really be lost if you don't care where you're going.
We
found our way home by watching the sky for a "Sign from God."
I could have called Cheryl since she knows her way around
Dallas /
Fort Worth and I have a hard time find work in the morning
and I
work from home. I am so famous for getting lost that a
friend of
mine gave me these instructions, "When you leave here, turn right. When
you get to the water tower, turn around because you went the wrong way
and turned left." The funny thing is when I left I did have
to
turn around at the water tower. In fact whenever
I call
Cheryl to tell her I'm lost, I start the call with, "I'm at the water
tower."
I didn't call her since like I said you can't be lost if you don't care
where you are going. I was a bit concerned when we didn't run
into any roads that I do know. Dallas/Fort Worth is ringed by
major highways so after a couple of hours I told Matthew to look for
airplanes. We live pretty close to the airport so I figured that if we
headed toward the airport we would find our way home. I
was also a little concerned that Cheryl might be getting nervous since
this is the first time I have been on a bike in 15 years.
We saw the airplanes and after awhile figured out which ones were
landing and which ones were taking off. This is an important
point, if your going to use this trick and mistakenly follow the
ones taking off you
might end up in Austin, or Chicago, or London..
We got our sign from God in the form of airplanes turning on
their
landing lights and dropping their gear. We were on
the
road for another 30 minutes following the planes when we finally hit a
road that I knew. We had to stop for fuel since we
had
been
on the road that long. I told Matthew to give his Mom a
call, I
wasn't brave enough. She was a bit worried. She
had called
us, but of course you
can't hear a cell phone on a motorcycle. She also told me
that
she had read that the mostly likely person to get hurt on a motorcycle
is a
fifty year old
guy. It has something to do with slower reflexes.
It was a lot of fun. The following morning we headed off
to San Antonio. It is about a 7 hour ride on the back roads.
It was hot but still a lot of fun riding the two lane road
through small backwater towns listening to country western music,
because only one station reaches some of these towns.
The speed limit drops from 70 mph to 55, 45, and bottoms out
at
35 right in front of the single building that houses the Jail,
Firehouse, County Courthouse, Post Office, general store, bait shop,
and
gas station. I stopped a couple of times in these
towns to
fill the tank, buy a Dr. Pepper and a moon pie. It
also is
cheaper to stop and buy a moon pie than it is to blow through the
town
at 70 mph and pay the ticket at the Jail, Firehouse, County
Courthouse, Post Office, general store, bait shop, and gas station.
They also like you a lot more if you stop by and say, "Hey"
I beat the family down to San Antonio because Cheryl stopped by the
Capital
in Austin to try and force some educational content into the
trip. I showed up at the Marriott looking like a raccoon. I'm
surprised because I ride my bicycle almost everyday I'm not on the
road.
I guess riding at 6:00 am doesn't build up a good base tan.
My arms were so burned that I had to walk around Six Flags
with
my arms shaded behind my back or it felt like someone was cleaning them
with gasoline and drying them with a match. Six Flags in San
Antonio is connected to the water park which is a nice way to cool down
but also a nice way to increase your sunburn. I
ended up
looking
like a lobster at the end of the day and like a snake
shedding
his
skin when I was at LinuxWorld in San Francisco the following week.
I ended up with an "Amusement park headache" about 5 hours
after
arriving at Six Flags. Matthew was done about 5 and half
hours
into it, Cheryl was right behind him and I think Katie could have
stayed until midnight.
We did Mexican for dinner which put us over are quota for Southwestern
food for that week. We walked down to the Alamo and then
called it
an early night. I slathered on a new coat of Solarcaine,
took a couple of aspirins and laid underneath the
painfully heavy
sheets. We got up early the next morning grabbed breakfast
and
hit the road. Our plan was to drive up to the Natural Bridge
Caverns with Cheryl and Katie in the car and Matthew and I on the bike.
Matthew was sure he would stay with me and ride
the rest
of the way to Fort Worth, but I at least left room for the
possibility that he might give up and decide to ride up with Cheryl.
We snaked our way out of San Antonio in
pretty
heavy traffic then stopped just North of the city and bought a couple
of Dr. Pepper's and some moon pies. We should
have
stopped a little less North because when I turned on the GPS it keep
trying to direct me down these small farm roads that lead to smaller
dirt roads. I wasn't really happy about driving down a
dusty
dirt road with my son on the back of a 1000 lbs Gold Wing. We
stopped in the shade and called Cheryl. She had been waiting
on
us for twenty minutes already at the Cave so it was decided Matthew was
with me. Cheryl was going to take the Interstate 35 North
which
is faster but a lot more boring and Matthew and I were going to rocket
up Highway 281. We stopped for fuel, Dr. Pepper and a couple
more moon pies.
We stopped for lunch at a small Bar-B-Que joint in Lampasas, TX. We
ordered a little bit of everything. Matthew got another Dr. Pepper and
I
got an ice cold beer. I enjoyed the atmosphere more than I
enjoyed the food. You can't help but feel like a Cowboy when
you
ride up on your bike to a Bar-B-Que shack and have ice cold beer.
We hit the rode after snapping a photo in front of the place.
You
would think that Matthw would really want his picture in front of the
bike
but it was so hot he really just looked at me and said, "Lets get
moving."
We continued on up the road. About hour six, Matthew had just
about
all
the fun he wanted for the day. He leaned forward and said,
"When
are we going to hit civilization?" I told him, "Be
careful
what you wish for since with civilization comes traffic.
If you
don't want to stand in the shade and get your picture taken you are not
going to want to sit in rush hour traffic stopped on a freeway
surrounded by hot car's belching out exhaust.
Thirty minutes later we were sitting in rush hour traffic stopped on a
freeway breathing in exhaust. I ended up at "the Water
Tower" at least twice which didn't please Matthew too much,
but we
beat Cheryl home by about an hour. She and
Katie had driven
through the Animal park next to the cavern for a couple of
hours. Cheryl hadn't been on
the back of the bike yet so after it cooled down
to 98°
I took her
out for ride and then out for dinner. We did a
quick 25
miles total that night and since it didn't drop below 94° I
wasn't
surprised when she told me the next morning, "I don't want to ride the
bike this morning." I was surprise to find out she meant she
didn't want to ride the bicycle. We ride together on the
weekends and since I was home on vacation she assumed I wanted to go
ride with her. I didn't want waste the cool
92°
weather on a bicycle ride. I wanted to ride the motorcycle
that
I was renting for $75 a day.
She was up for motorcycle ride especially since I promised to take her
out for breakfast as part of the ride. We rode around
aimlessly
for about an hour then stopped for a lazy breakfast. It was
a
straight
home after breakfast since the temperature was climbing back into the
triple digits and I do want to buy a bike again someday. I
figure
strapping my wife on the back of a bike in 100° weather is not
the
way to convince her that a bike in Fort Worth is a good idea.
I went back out to terrorize the highway a couple more times since I
didn't want to let my sunburn fade too much. I talked
Matthew
into going for another ride with me, mostly by asking him. We
headed off in the vague direction of downtown Fort Worth of
course the plan was to stay off the beaten track and on the back roads.
We surprisingly ended up at the Fort Worth
Stockyards which
was where we wanted to end up. I'm not sure how that
happened.
I guess even when your lost you have to be someplace
and
in
this case the place we ended up was where we wanted to be. I
have to admit I was lost. I mean I ended up at the place I
wanted
to be but I was completely surprised when I got there and there is no
way I could every drive that route or any route to the Stockyards.
I'm going to have to chalk it up to "A sign from God."
He
really wants me to have a motorcycle. Just to prove that it
was
divine intervention we used the GPS on the way home and it got us lost.
If fact it tried to put us on Interstate
35 North
going South. Going South on the North bound
Interstate is
a bad idea. I turned it off and said to Matthew
over my
shoulder, "We are going for a ride." He just settled
back in his seat with a big smile on his face and said, "Sounds good to
me."
We didn't just ride down to the Stockyard for the ride, I
promised him
dinner. He also knew that since I was so happy to be out
riding
again after 15 years that I'd be pretty open to buying an expensive
dinner. Matthew likes to ride but he loves to eat a good meal
at
an expensive restaurant. We cruise around the
Stockyard a
couple of times and then decide to park the bike and hit a steakhouse.
He's given up on Tex-Mex and I have taken him to one too
many
Bar-B-Que places. He has matured a lot in the last
year.
He went from being a nine year old to about 21. I
chalk it
up to Megan his girlfriend. He is in love. Since I
started
dating Cheryl when she was 13 years old it has been hard for me to
tell
him, he is too young to be this serious about a girl, plus
selfishly I like hanging out with him a lot more now. Hell
I'm
hoping he marries her. Back to the story, my new mature son
gets off the bike and we talk about father and son stuff on as we walk
down street. He stops in front of the most expensive
restaurant in
the stockyard and says, "This looks like a good place." I
give
him my "I'm not made of money look." and he says, "Want to check out
someplace cheaper?" It is of course, exactly the right thing
to
say. The only way to reward perfection is to say, "No,
What
the heck I'm on vacation, lets eat here." He capitalizes on
my
great mood and orders a steak that is $5 more than mine. It
makes me respect him even more since you have to know when you have a
winning hand and bet big. We talk about life,
love and
privilege and how he has come to understand that he has it better than
most
on all counts. We have a long slow meal and I'm
smart
enough to mark it down as one of times you should stop and say, "Life
doesn't get much better than this." I have only been smart
enough "to stop and smell the roses" four times in my life.
The day Cheryl finally said yes to marrying me after saying no about
1000 times. (Cheryl proof read this so wants me to add the
disclaimer that, "She was 17 years old when we got married and was 5
days out of High school, so her reluctance to say yes before she did
was
pretty well founded.) The second time I got it, was the first time I
was on a private jet, sitting across from the chairman of EDS
drinking a glass of champagne served by a long legged blond flight
attendant. The next was flying over to Europe to become the
Director of System Engineering for EMEA. The last was this
dinner with Matthew That doesn't mean that the
other huge events like my wedding, or the kids births, were
not moments
of amazing happiness it is just that I was too overwhelmed at the time
to
experience the moment in the moment.
I was able that night to sit back and think, "No matter what happens
after tonight, I'll always have this." We walked
around
the stockyard and my only regret was that at 14 you really can't stop
off at a bar and get a drink with your son. We
jumped on
the bike and rode back to the house. I think he
wouldn't have ridden longer but after almost heading the wrong way onto
the Interstate the moment was over, not diminished just completed. We
scared Cheryl by staying out a little to long again but she was happy
to see us back and pleased to see how happy we were.
Saturday and the bike has to be back to the rental place by noon.
Cheryl offers to do one more ride with me. I
figure we
will end up at some breakfast place. I don't decide which one
I'm
thinking of "The Waffle House" where we can watch the convicts cook but
that is really more of a place for me ,
not a place she will enjoy. I try to think of the place she
would most like to have breakfast and then realize that it is
our house
with me making her a couple of sunny side up eggs with Texas
toast
and fresh orange juice. I offer to stop by the
grocery
store to buy some fresh bread but it is next to the Starbucks and this
reminds her that a couple of her friends were going to meet
her
so she decides that she would rather skip breakfast and see if they are
there. My goal is her happiness, it almost always is
so, I
drop
her off and park the bike. I wake up Matthew
which I
almost never do unless I want him to cut that lawn and say. "
I'm
going to have to drop off the bike before noon so I wanted to see if
you wanted to ride with me to drop it off. " He
make me
pretty happy by saying, "Sure, Of course." I tell him we
have a
couple of hours so he doesn't have to get up just yet.
Cheryl comes back I pop the kids on the bike take a couple of photos so
I can remind them how much fun it was to have a motorcycle.
(Katie didn't get to ride it is since she is only 9 years
old. I don't want to have her on my side only to lose Cheryl)
We all go to the bike shop. Katie riding with her Mom and taking
the
photo of Matthew and I on the bike with the window sticker overlaying
us. Matthew on the back of the bike with me. We
don't get
lost since we are following Cheryl. I drop off the bike. They ask
how it was and I say, "Great but the back speakers don't work."
They tell me that's understandable since they are not
installed. The bike did have a small dent over
one of the
speakers which I didn't notice until after I got it home. I
was
afraid they were going to think I did it, but wasn't too worried until
Katie heard me say the back speakers didn't work. She asked
Cheryl, "What speakers?" Cheryl said the speakers
in the
back seat. That didn't help so Katie asked again.
Finally
Cheryl pointed them out by running her finger over the speaker and
saying, "This is the speaker." I noticed that she was
running
her
finger
right
over the dent. Katie still doesn't understand about the
nonexistent speakers so Cheryl keeps running her fingers over and over
the dented speaker. She doesn't notice the dent but I'm thinking please
stop that. I don't want to get into an argument with these
guys
about how the speaker was or wasn't dented before I picked up the bike.
Just then I realized that I forgot to top off the tank and
don't want
to pay $5 bucks a gallon so cut the conversation short by saying I have
to fill up the bike why don't you guys wait for me inside.
I pull up to pump and another bike pulls up next to me. He
looks
over and says, "Nice bike." I figure it's "A Sign from God.
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