"Monkey Wards"

365 Group (f)

8-20-10
I had another appointment to keep the Doctors kids tuition shored up so I saddled up an headed out. Since it was an afternoon appointment and only 80 miles I got a very lazy start.
The traffic on the road down, Highway 412, was light. Also the temperature was a lot cooler than it had been. Felt like the mid 70’s. Just an overall good day for riding.
My trip down went rather quickly and before I knew it I was rolling in to Harrison for phase one. After leaving a “half gallon” of blood with the nice folks at the Hospital I pulled out for phase two at my doctor. He’s a pretty cool guy and it wasn’t so bad dealing with him. (he only wanted a pint) With all the “doctorin” done I headed out to grab a burger.
I got a burger to go and started up the mountain out of Jasper. The sign said 7 percent grade, five miles of it. It was nice. A couple of real tight curves at the bottom that trucks have a lot of trouble with if they don’t get their speed in check at the beginning.
I made the mountain and decided on a stop at the Green Thumb over look to have lunch.
It was still fairly cool when I pulled in and the burger, after not being allowed to eat anything for almost 24 hours, was GREAT!!!! A pepper jack cheese burger with everything…umm…umm!
Pulling back out I made the eight miles on over to my place in Deer and decided to crash for the night.
Pulling into my lil old home town I noticed nothing had changed in the three months since my last visit. That was a good thing.
8-21-10
I had a good visit with the family. Ate some real food and generally felt like I always do when I’m here. (that I should move back)
Firing the bike up I pulled out for the Gas station to top off. I visited a bit with the station folks and got the nutshell version of what all was going on in the area. Man it was hard to head back out.
On the road I didn’t see another vehicle for twenty six miles. Just me and yes, it was very nice. The only other life form I saw was a deer. He ran along beside me for a ways until I explained that I didn’t pick up hitch hikers.
The temperature had been holding to the mild side until I dropped off the mountain into the Boxley valley. It felt like it jumped up 20 degrees. But still the bike was running nicely and I was on it so it was all good.
As I started down the last hill into Kingston I caught a glimpse of a bike behind one of the Antique shops. Turning around to get a better look at it I saw a man out with it. Rolling up to the fence I saw that it was the guy that had helped me when my throttle cable had went south on me on my last trip through. We chatted for a few and he invited me in to look over his 125 cc “Monkey – Wards” flier. He’s putting it back together to make a ridable display for his shop. So far it was looking good. He kicked it to life and it didn’t sound too bad. It’s a 1966 125 with a Benelli 2 stroke engine.
Seems like this guy has ridden for years and was now getting into the restoring of small machines.
I made a list of things he was looking for to finish out the little bike and headed out toward the house.
I made the last forty miles to the house in somewhat heavy traffic without getting splattered. Saturday evenings on 412 can be a pain.
Pulling into the house all the critters seemed to be happy to see me. Guess it really doesn’t get any better that this.
Just a short ride, around 250 miles.

Catch ya on the road