Butt Seriously by Richard Keegan

Author:Richard Keegan [Keegan, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978 1 904887 51 5
Publisher: Oak Tree Press

Bonus 14: “General Grant”, Sequoia Forest, California.

Up and away, or so I thought. As I walked towards the bike, a park ranger’s SUV pulled into the parking lot. The Gold Wings had gone and only my bike was there. I realised I was parked illegally. Oh boy! Tick, tock. “Good morning, sir. Do you realise you are parked illegally?”. Despite the 100˚ heat, I was in a cold sweat. It’s never a good sign when they are polite to you and call you “Sir”. You know they don’t really mean it. I apologised and hoped for the best. Five minutes later, I had explained what I was doing, why I had an Irish plate on the bike and where I was going. Five minutes later again and I was away. My story had been too ridiculous to have been made up. The officer took pity on me. I was obviously physically and mentally below par so maybe I qualified for parking where I had anyway. I left feeling chastened but thankful. I had been really worried that they would ‘take me in’ and that I would lose half a day.

Coming down out of the Sequoia National Park was an absolute delight. Steep road, huge forests and perfect road surfaces. Brilliant. Another spectacular road. I got out of the hills eventually and hit the heat of the ‘Valley’ again. The road was lined by farms producing fruit and vegetables. The road surface deteriorated and the traffic increased. I was back in an industrialised agricultural area, where lots of business traffic was the norm. It was well over 100˚F and I was approaching the foothills again, with the prospect of several more hours’ riding on the twisty roads of California’s mountains. It was about 12:30 and I decided to take a break and pulled into a real restaurant. Real tables, real people, real knives and forks, real food. I had been surviving on quick food and power bars for the past six days and this real food break was my first real meal of the Rally. Lunch consisted of about a gallon of iced water and the most beautiful chicken Caesar salad with ranch dressing. I wanted to award them three Michelin stars – it was a lovely meal, probably made even more so by the lack of decent food in the previous week. I called home and checked that the tracker was working OK now and that all was well.

Saddle up and ride. Off to Mono Hot Springs, which had been a bonus in previous years’ rallies too. The stories told about the ride into Mono are the things of legend among the longdistance community. It’s impossible to explain why, but I wanted to go there. Climbing through the foothills, I got to the mountains. Climb. Climb. Climb. The road reverted to Alpine style. Lots of twists and turns. It is very hard to make time on roads like this, but it is very easy to have a good time. The slopes increased.

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