A fun weekend…

I’ve probably watched the China video 20 times already, and I’ll probably watch it again after I finish this blog.   The China expedition was one hell of a ride and I find myself thinking about it a lot.   It’s almost as if I don’t even need the video…I can still see the scenes from the Tibetan Plateau, the Gobi Desert, Lanzhou, Ping Yao, Liqian, Qufu, Qingdao, and elsewhere vividly in my mind.  It was the ride of lifetime, and I did it on the world’s most perfect motorcycle.

I sure had a great weekend.  It started on Friday for me when I saw my good buddy Willie with his fully accessorized TT250.   Willie rode with us in Baja twice (don’t forget that he’s the world’s most interesting man).  I had not seen Willie’s TT250 since the Tecate run, and he had a couple of new mods he’s added since then.  One was the RX3 headlight guard; the other was swapping the stock footpegs for those from the RX3.  Both look like they were designed for the TT250.

Saturday morning saw me running around getting tires for our Subie Crosstrek (the original tires went over 61,000 miles and I probably could have made it to 70,000, but I don’t like to take chances on tires).   The shop that works on my cars (Scooter Patrick’s in Montclair, California) always does a great job for me.  They get to work on interesting cars.   While I was at Scooter’s I spotted a dynamite ’71 Vette and it brought back a lot of memories…

I love Vettes, and I really like the Coke-bottle C3 Corvette design.   The C3 came on the scene in 1968, and I wanted one so bad back then I could taste it.  I was just a teenager and there was no way I could afford a Corvette in those days.  I had to wait another 36 years before I finally pulled the trigger on one, and I can tell you it was worth the wait.  I love my Corvette.

More cool stuff…I took a ride in the Vette and visited my good friends Art, Jeremy, and the rest of the crew out at Doug Douglas Motorcycles in San Bernardino.   I don’t ride big bikes any more, but there’s nothing that says I can’t look.  And if I did ride a big bike, you can bet it would be a Triumph.  There are two models I especially like…the new 900cc Street Cup and the 1200cc Thruxton…I’d like to have both just so I could sit in my garage and stare at them!

Triumph sure nailed it with the styling on those bikes, and the folks at Douglas Motorcycles are good people.  I knew Doug Douglas, and he had a keenly-developed sense of humor.   I bought a new Triumph Tiger from Doug personally in late 2005 (it was love at first sight when I saw that bike).  Here’s a shot of it at the Old Mill Hotel in Baja a decade ago…

When I first spotted that Tiger 10 years back in the Douglas Motorcycles showroom, Doug saw the look in my eye and he told me I could get it for some price.  I don’t remember the number he named, and I was way beyond caring what the number was at that point.  I simply said, “okay.”   When Sue took me back to pick up the Tiger, she told Doug he must be an incredible salesman to get me to agree to a price without making a counteroffer.   Doug just smiled and told her that he was a pretty good motorcycle salesman, but where he really excelled (according to Doug) was in selling living room and bedroom furniture.  Both Sue and I gave Doug a quizzical look.   “Oh, yeah,” he said, “I can’t tell you how many bedroom suites and how much living room furniture got sold because I sold somebody’s husband a motorcycle…”

Old Doug has gone on to his reward (RIP, Doug), but the atmosphere he created at Douglas Motorcycles lives on.  He sure was a character.

More good times continued earlier today when the crew got together to send some copper-jacketed lead downrange at the West End Gun Club (followed by a great Mexican lunch at Rancho Las Magueys).   Half the crew that shows up for our informal range sessions these days consists of CSC motorcycle riders, including guys like my good buddies Duane, Fathi, and Willie.   It’s fun getting together to shoot and it’s as much fun getting together for lunch afterward….

The c0nversations at lunch are always great.  It’s mostly motorcycles, guns, and politics.   We solve all of the world’s problems at these get-togethers.   We realized at the end of our meal that the problem is this:   All the people who know how to run the country are out riding motorcycles and hanging around at the rifle range!