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The first 450 miles saw me riding down I-5 with a partly cloudy day. Even though it was 81 degrees in Redding, I still kept all my leathers and my full faced helmet on. I had no idea just how comfortable a full faced helmet was to prevent wind fatigue. No, I still don't like wearing helmets. Seven hours later I rolled into my sister’s home in Lafayette, Calif. My bike seemed to be starving for fuel at about 85 miles into a fuel run. Just when the reserve was to kick in I added another fuel line from my lower cross over line to the main fuel line and by-passed the reserve all together. Problem solved and she runs great all the way through the fuel run now.
Monday was a day of rest. Randy and I just drove around doing errands. I got to see 24 last night and can't wait till next Monday night to see how Jack Bauer will finish out the season. Randy & Cynthia's neighbor, Rob, spent quite a few hours with me and this here laptop showing me a lot of neat features that most computer savvy people already know. (He still couldn’t find the grammar check.)ed.
I left my sis's house at around 1:00 and figured time would be close to get to Mather VAMC when the rest of the crew arrived from Auburn. I rolled into the medical center and there were no bikes anywhere to be found. I rode around one building and when I turned around to go back, they were just about to pull into the parking lot. I beat them there by about two minutes! Wow, what timing... I was just as happy to see all my old riding friends as they were to see me. What a great reunion it was just before we all entered the hospital. Maria was our hostess, (guide), and got us to where we needed to be. We all spread out and went into numerous rooms and spent a little time talking to our Veterans. They were very happy to see us and more than willing to tell us about their past service to our country. We went into the Out Patient area and saw a lot of people who seemed to look bored because they had to wait to be called to be seen. They weren’t bored after we got there. We had a great time talking with a guy named LT who played for the Oakland Raiders in the early 70's. We talked with a lot of folks and put a lot more smiles on people’s faces as well. After about an hour and a half we headed back to the bikes and took off to Auburn. There were about 23 bikes by then.
We had been at the motel for about 10 minutes or so when Larry called someone to inform them that he had ran out of gas and needed help. Milo's Tow Bike to the rescue. The spare gallon that I carry on the side of my bike comes in handy again. I rode back about 3 miles and found Larry on the off ramp. I had to turn around and go the wrong way to get to him. I followed him back up the off ramp and he started leading me south. I stopped him and told him to follow me, because our motel was 3 miles north! We got fuel and made it to the motel and it was all good.
Dinner found us at a nice little restaurant where it was hosted by NVAR. We had introductions all around and a rider’s meeting to discuss riding do's and don'ts. It was a very good time and a great "get to know the new people” too.
Back at the motel we found time to visit each other and talk about past rides. Lionel & Tischiaya were a couple who met the group coming out from Indiana, in Rawlings, Wyoming. Lionel was a Marine and talked to Headdog and they decided to meet up with us in Auburn. They had dinner with us and they were both very fascinated with my Rat Bike. I took a lot of people’s pictures to put in here and I am just wrapping it all up. Time to get some sleep for the 6:00 am wake up call. Terry from Ohio is my roommate again (thanks Dee)! He is asleep already and I am almost ready. See ya tomorrow.