Sooo, on monday Desmolu and I decided to have ourselves a little adventure and go out to watch the meteor shower. I mean, wine, meteor showers, cigars, and ducatis, what's the worst that could happen?
I had the new bike fever and decided to take the 996. Desmolu as always was on her ubiquitous 620.
The bikes:
The original plan was to go to the river in New Braunsfelds and camp out in the darkness. We went and picked up a couple of sleeping bags and by the time we had everything ready, it was already 4 o'clock and the traffic on I10 would have been killer. Considering I was riding the WORST BIKE IN THE WORLD TO BE IN TRAFFIC IN, we decided to revise our original planning. This is where the red lights first started flashing.
We got to Desmolu's to pick up the 996 and rendezvous at my house. Once I started the bike and got moving, I realized something. I had no freaking front brake. SHIT! My monster isn't running so that put a big damper on the whole thing. I think this was god's way of telling me that I shouldn't go. I really should pay more attention to signs.
We got to the home base and researched closer alternatives we could go to, which didn't require the use of much front brake. after some quick google action, we decided upon lake Sommerville. Just outside Brenham, it was the perfect spot to go see the meteor shower, dark, isolated, and with plenty of campsites, what could go wrong? We checked the forecast on weather.com, it said that there would be no rain or clouds all night. perfect!
We decided to head out around 7:30 so we wouldn't be caught in traffic and ended up hitting the road around 8. the ride up 45 was pretty uneventful until we reached Brenham, where we decided to stop to pick up some smore stuff. Well, this has got to be the most ghetto HEB I've ever been to, and keep in mind that I used to work in south houston, crack ho central. I checked about three times to see if no one had stolen the bikes the whole 5 minutes we were inside the store. I'm such a ducati snob
Well Desmolu had said she knew how to get to the lake so I didn't bother with directions. FAIL. It was probably around 10 pm at this point and it got really really dark, and considering that the lights form the 996 are useless, I had about a 10 yard sight span.
We started going on some country roads at Desmolu's guidance, and all of a sudden I see some shapes in the darkness. By the time enough light had shined on it to make me realize that it was three huge freaking deer just chillin in the middle of the road, They were at about 8 yards from me. I slam on the brakes, what little I had, and I honk on the horn instinctively. I saw my short twenty years of life flash by my eyes, and all I could think of was, NOT MY NEW BIKE! AAARGH!!! I HATE DEER!!! all of a sudden Bambi hears the horn and jumps to the right, i swerve as little as I can to the left and I miss him by less than 6 inches. Needless to say, I went 55 the whole way on from there.
We finally roll into Sommerville and ask directions to the lake. half an hour and some serious getting lost later, we found a place that looked like the main gate. Of course by this time, it was around 1130pm and the park was closed. No matter, we'll just sneak in. Let me tell you, sneaking in is not easy when you have full race Termis and an open dry clutch.
We go in as quietly as we can, but of course a huge 300 pound hick comes waddling towards us screaming: HOW IN TARNATION DID Y'ALL GIT IN MY PARK. I try to reason with Jabba, but he keeps shouting that he's calling the "Shirriff" so we decide it's in our best interest to get the make the beast with two backs outta dodge.
We go back to the entrance of the park and park our bikes behind a rig that was overnighting there and hike towards a camping spot were we could sleep. We find the right place about a mile and a half from the entrance and set up camp. AHHH, relaxation at last. we set up the sleeping bag and proceed to eat some chips, have some wine, a good cigar, and wait for the skies to clear up a bit. HUH, this is wierd, weather.com said there wouldn't be any clouds. half an hour later, as we taking shelter inside the sweltering heat of our sleeping bag, getting bitten by all sorts of bugs it was more like, HUH, this is wierd, weather.com said there wouldn't be any torrential make the beast with two backsing rain. Maybe we should have brought a tent. To add insult to injury, rain = no fire = no smores
We proceeded to try and not get completely soaked. This went on the entire make the beast with two backsing night. finally, around 6 AM it decides to stop. We try to get a little sleep, but by 8 AM we gave up and started to pack up and try to forget the horrible night.
This was the sight we woke up to: (check out my look of happiness)
Then we look at the sky and see what's coming:
My reaction:
Of course our gear and things were entirely soaked, so we pick pack up as best we can and start hiking back to where our bike were. We hadn't taken more than 5 steps when the storm of the century broke out. I kept looking around to see if there were any old men shepherding different animals into a huge ark. I probably missed him because the rain was so hard I couldn't see my hands in front of my face.
We finally reach the bikes, excited about the prospect of riding in the great weather:
We say goodbye to the lake that loved us so:
We had planned to stop in Brenham to have breakfast at a diner called Must be Heaven. The ride out there was uneventful, except for the fact that my nerves were shot because I had only slept 2 hours and was riding a bike with almost no front brakes in the worst downpour imaginable. We get there and park in a parking spot with a slight incline. This will come into play later.
We had a really good breakfast and the rain let off a little bit. Things were starting to look up a bit, maybe nothing catastrophic was gonna happen. FAIL.
I straddled the bike and started to move out of the space, it was an incline so I had to put some effort into it. a couple of steps into it, my foot hits one of the painted lines for the parking spot covered in water and slipped, the bike fell over. make the beast with two backs SHIT SHIT GOD DAMN!!!! MY NEW BIKE! AAARRGH I HATE THE WORLD!!!!
Picked the bike up and the brake lever was broken off at the pivot point. AAAARGGGHHH I didn't even have a little stub to use. It was bad enough when I didn't have much front brake, now I had none, and it started to rain again.
We decided to get on the road and take it easy, which is what happened, a really uneventful ride back through the rain.
I'm sure one day I'll look back and laugh about it, but for now, That day really really sucked
The one thing I can say is that I learned something from all this. The guys at weather.com are make the beast with two backsing dicks.
