J.,

I will always remember my first long ride. I rode from San Jose to Yreka. A friend, Tom, was driving down from Portland and his car broke down in Yreka. Another friend, John, and I rode up to see if we could help him get moving again. I was on a KZ900, John was on a HD Lowrider.

We pulled out from San Jose about 5:00 on a Friday. I was wearing a light riding jacket. There was no helmet law in the late 70's, so away we went. The first mistake was leaving during rush hour, what a pain.

We rode out to I-5 and headed north. Along about 1:00 AM the second mistake was becoming painfully clear. The temp was about 40 degrees and a light jacket just didn't cut it. We were stopped along side the road under a brilliant starry night, looking at Mt. Shasta and huddled over the exhaust pipes of our bikes trying to find a couple degrees of warmth. We only had 30-40 miles to go, but almost couldn't make it. We finally pulled in about 2:00 AM and found Tom sitting in Denny's drinking coffee.

After we got warmed up, we started fiddling with his car. We finally got it started, but nearly blew up a BIG propane tank in the process. We syphoned some gas out of the tank and was trickling it into the carb. I was in the car and hit the key. The car backfired and caught the tube of gas on fire. Tom jumped back and splashed the burning gas over the propane tank his car was parked beside. When I glanced over at John, all I could see was elbows flying. I don't think I ever saw a big man run so fast. I jumped out of the car and started smothering the flames with my jacket.

We got his car going and pulled out for the return trip about 9:00 AM on Saturday. About 100 miles south of Yreka you hit Redding and the end of the mountains. From there it is a long, hot drive south. The giant dragonflies seemed to think we were great targets. They would hover over the freeway and dive at us when we rode through. If you have never been hit by one at 80-90 MPH, let me tell you, it is like getting hit by a rock. It leaves bruises. We stopped at Dunnigan for gas, and the third mistake became clear.

I had been riding all day without a helmet. While getting gas, I went in to splash some water on my face and realized that I had a severe sunburn. I washed my face, pulled my helmet on, wiped the tears of pain away, and down the road we went.

My face was so sunburned that it peeled till it bled. My face looked like a bloody red shiny skull. It took almost 3 months for it to heal.

Needless to say, I learned some valuable lessons on that ride.

It's a trip that I will never forget. We pulled in at my house in San Jose at near 5:00 PM on Saturday. I'm not sure how many miles we covered in 24 hours, but it had to be close to a SS1000.

Glad you had a good time on your trip. Sorry to hear you didn't make it to Seattle, but hey, as long as you had fun, that's what really matters. Hopefully, you will try again and allow 2-3 days each direction. There's no sense in getting beat to a pulp. The Northern CA mountains and coast are beautiful. The Oregon coast is a great ride too. I have taken 101 from Seattle, around the Olympic Penn. and all the way to LA. It's a long ride, but one you never forget.

Good luck on your next long ride.

Some of the guys here may remember hearing me describe my first long ride before. Sorry for re-hashing the same story again, guys. It ain't nothing but a thang.

Putz