Blind Curves by Linda Crill

Author:Linda Crill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

13

Sacred Silent Giants

“Where are Ron and Alberto?” I asked, looking up in the direction of their room as Eva and I loaded our motorcycles the next morning in the Humbolt Bay Inn parking lot.

Eva was already on her cell phone. “Hurry up, you guys. We’re going to leave and see the redwoods without you.”

After four days of practice tying down my luggage, I had developed a formula of precise movements that I further refined each day. I used six bungee cords, each a different color and length. Leaning over I hooked one end of a black and green bungee under my rear left turn signal, wove it through the handles of my backpack and gym bag positioned on the back passenger seat, and stretched it hard as I attached it diagonally behind the right side of my driver’s seat. As I was fastening the last cord, Ron and Alberto rushed toward their bikes. Without saying much they hurriedly loaded them.

By now, we all had been late at least one morning, but no one had been brave enough to face the consequences of being tardy on two consecutive days. The trick for escaping harassment from this group was for the non-punctual party to show the right degree of remorse by saying something like, “Sorry to have held you guys up,” combined with an equal amount of mock defensiveness, “Hey, it was only ten minutes!”

Soon we were huddled around Ron’s motorcycle as he sat holding a map against its handlebars. This was our typical daily two-minute briefing. We rode highly unscripted with only the beginning and ending places acting as anchors.

“We’re starting here in Eureka, with Mendocino as our final destination for the day,” Ron announced as his finger traced the yellow-highlighted line on the map. “Our primary route will continue to be the Pacific Coast Highway (a.k.a. Route 101) except at the end of today’s trip where we’ll veer off southwest on Route 1 at Leggett and ride along the coast to Mendocino.”

He reminded us that tomorrow we would be taking our only day off from riding to enjoy Mendocino’s vineyards, galleries, restaurants, shops, and beaches.

“We’ll only have to cover one hundred twenty-five miles today, so we can search out challenging roads and explore some of the redwood forests along the way.”

“Wow, this is an easy day. We’re getting soft in our old age,” Alberto said.

“But the redwoods,” Eva sighed. “How could we come so far and not take time to see these magnificent trees? I can hardly wait.” Now it’s time for female potpourri of redwoods and pine needle scents, I thought silently, remembering my earlier Harley machine shop experience.

On family vacations when I was young, we camped in both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. I remembered being amazed that the four of us kids could not collectively stretch our arms around a single tree. We were awestruck as Dad drove our Mercury sedan through a tunnel in the center of one. Today I view that adventure differently since we now know that these large holes weakened and destroyed the trees.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.