Apparently I wasn't the only one having midnight battle cries.
Russell and Vance were also duking it out. It turns out, Russell
was probably the one that kept Nate up two nights ago. Vance
emerged from the tent and made a comments that it wasn't him that was
so loud and that is wife was wrong. It was Russell that won the
war.
It was a slow morning and the set of people that were up early the
previous day are also the ones up early this morning (e.g. Russell,
Vance, and myself). Nate and Steve were probably at home sleeping
the trip off. I started breakfast and we
all got filled up.
Vance is going after the sausages
There was not much that happened the rest of the morning. People
got up, all got fed, and got ready to take off. Vance was the
first one to go.
For some strange reason, Russell decided to start the fire again.
Guess what happens when the flames are dancing? Yup, good old
Joseph and Vince started joining in. Next thing you know 2 liter
soda bottles, foam cups, etc. were feeding the fire god.
All well and good, we all finished out packing and started heading out.
Joseph had notified me that he doesn't have very much fuel left.
He said approximately 20 miles. I was concerned but managed to
pull up a couple of fuel station not too far from us on our way toward
Santa Barbara. The TomTom indicated 12 miles. That's not
too bad and Joseph should be able to make it fine.
On our way out things were OK. That is until we got close to the
nearest gas stations. What the TomTom had failed to tell me, or I
had failed to verify in detail, is that the gas stations were on the
opposite side of the highway (101). While I was riding there, I
didn't want to deal with getting this pack of motorcycles to cross a
quite busy highway. The thought of dragging this entire pack
across on coming traffic and then dragging them through it again was
not such a good idea. So I decided to push on until we get to the
State-154 exit in Santa Barbara. I notified the support vehicle
that we're not going to stop at the initial gas station and should try
to get into Santa Barbara. They responded with a positive
confirmation and we kept on rolling. When we got close enough to
the State-154 exit, I tried to notify the support vehicle about the
exit again. To this, I receive no confirmation and cursed under
my breath about the short range of these radios. Just about 3/4
of a mile before the exit, I noticed that Joseph is starting to slow
down. Without even a glance, I knew he was out of fuel. I
continue to press on to the exit and to the nearest gas station.
Kevin and Primo was with me. I pulled into the gas station,
fueled myself up, went and got a fuel can, fueled up the gas can, and
start attaching it to my motorcycle. In the time I was doing
this, the support vehicle had contacted me on the cell phone. I
told them to take the state-154 exit. They said that they had
just passed the exit and are going to wait at the following exit.
They also told me that it looks like Joseph is having some type of
difficulty. I told them that he was out of fuel. When I
asked them if they could come back to the 154 exit, they were insistent
on waiting for us at the following exit. Not wanting to deal with
the hassles of the support vehicle and the Joseph gas problem at the
same time, I decided to get the fuel to Joseph as fast as I can.
In the meanwhile Russell had stopped along with Joseph and was making
sure he was OK. Russ called me on the phone to tell me that
Joseph is pushing his bike up the exit ramp and want me to meet him
there with the fuel. I confirmed and Russell eventually showed up
at the gas station. At this point I had just finished strapping
the gas can on to one of my panniers and was ready to head over to take
care of Joseph. I asked Russel to accompany me and he did.
We both rode out and easy 1/4-1/2 a mile to see Joseph parking his bike
on the side of the street.
Russell and I pulled over close to Joseph and I begin unstrapping the
fuel can. Poor Joseph, I felt bad forcing him to push on so much
further than he should and running out of gas. We dumped all the
fuel from the can into Joseph's bike and then headed back to the gas
station. Once there we all parked on the one side of the gas
station and took a break. I then received a cell call from the
support vehicle asking me where we were. I told them that I had
to get fuel for Joseph because he was out of fuel. From there
they asked when we were going to go to their exit or if they should
circle back. I then gracefully asked them to come back to the
State-154 exit if they didn't mind. They said they would do that
and see us here.
A couple of minutes later, they got on to state and drove right pass
the gas station we were at despite the instructions I told them.
I couldn't quite understand why they went so far east on State
street. Not too long after they came barreling into the gas
station huffing and puffing mad. They claimed that we treated
them like shit and that they were second class citizens. To this,
I thought... "Huh? what the f*ck are they talking about?!" Why
are they mad when Russell and I had to go and get fuel for
Joseph. Support's priorities are all screwed up. I
responded to Nunez telling him that he can be mad if he likes but I'm
not going to be mad because I had a job to do and I had to take care of
a person that was in need. Apparently, Vince also went and told
Russel and Primo that they were pissed off because of how we treated
them. Russell and Primo both didn't understand why they were
mad. We all looked at each other and said ... "Whatever!" I
wasn't going to make my last day of this trip turn sour because a
couple of people that can't think straight (the trip was free for them
and they just had to provide their time). We all rested a bit and
then headed for home.
Eugene had originally planned a pizza party at his place after the ride
as a celebration of the trip. In the end everybody was tired and
just wanted to head home. We all decided that the pizza thing is
welcome and should be put off until another weekend. All agreed
and the event will be set at another time.
As we headed out, Joseph forgot to close his face shield and ended up
getting a bug hit in his eye. He pulled over to the side of the
freeway to collect himself while the rest of us continued head East on
the 101 towards Ventura. On the way home (still in Santa
Barbara), we were confronted by 1 police motorcycle and one patrol
car. Apparently they were chasing after somebody. I was
riding in from of Kevin and received a call from support that there is
a cop behind us. I inform Kevin to slow down but Russell, Eugene,
Jaime, and Primo were too far out in front of me to notice the
signal. I knew Russell was doing and easy 80 and didn't want to
see him get caught. When the police motorcycle passed me, I saw
him heading straight for Russell. I was concerned that he was
going to pull Russell over. To my pleasant surprise, it wasn't
Russell he was after. The police passed him and the other without
issues. The police patrol car came up and passed us all not too
long after. I eventually saw the two police vehicles on the other
side of the freeway.
Eventually Joseph caught up and we're all OK. The rest of the
trip was straight forward and nothing much happened. I stopped at
Kevin's place, dropped off all of his group's camping equipment, and
headed home.
The lesson I learned for this trip, either cater food for dinner and
breakfast or go to restaurants. It is too much of a logistical
nightmare to worry about feeding a lot of people especially if more are
coming next year. I have equipment but it maxes out at 13-15
people. Also, this trip is not as difficult this year as last
year. I think we all have better equipment this time around and
we know what we were getting into. Next year's strip will be
different. Instead of Morro Bay, Russell and other are mentioning
Monterey. It will also be a longer trip and more days.
There is also a possibility that no support vehicle is needed for next
year.
Introduction [It's sheer pandemonium!!!] Page 1 - [...And they're off!!] - May 4th,
5th Page 2 - [Loopy in Guada-loopy] - May 6th
Written on: June 8, 2006
Last modified: June 8, 2006
