“I’m quitting tomorrow, I’ll ride with you.”
That’s the end of our conversation with old friend Jeff Sullivan, deciding he’d rather take a four day motorcycle trip than continue supplementing his retirement. Jeff showed up at the house in Bend the night before; we woke early to rendezvous at 0800 with the rider we would accompany south. Thus began our little adventure to Russell’s Day-Long Seats in Lake Shasta so Jon Girod could get his seat custom fit to his ass. Good thing its a wide load-carrying Goldwing F6B.
Getting south out of Bend does not offer many options, but we managed to find a nice road off the central Oregon straight-a-way 97. Taking a right at Diamond Lake Junction, the straight black ribbon of asphalt cut a line up through lodgepole pine forest. After about 15 miles the road finally became a bit more entertaining with curves and beautiful vistas poking through pine trees, turning off onto Rt230.
Mister I-need-a-custom-seat-to-replace-this-stock-piece-of-sh*# was going to mutiny if we didn’t stop every hour to massage his sore behind, first stop 1 hr 46 min. So we fertilized the local fauna with a view of Mt. Thielsen on our circumnavigation of Crater Lake. We proceeded down through the forested byway to Medford. Saw an overturned semi and trailer left abandoned recently, but other than that no traffic that I can remember. Watching the clock on the dash, I pulled over into a Rogue Elk river-side park 64 minutes later. We lit up cigars and as usual, motorcycles attract people like moths to a flame, two friendly fishing tourists approached us for a 20 minute chat.
We fought through Medford’s red light district–I don’t think we got a single green light–run a 1/4 mile, stop, wait, go to the the intersection, repeat….etc. After the 700-eth red light we turned, regrettably, onto I-5. Mt Shasta vistas made up for the mind-frustrating interstate experience. We were going to make Redding AirBnB our next stop, but a combination of a toothache, bulging bladder, heat, and I-5; I dragged everyone into a rest area to piss, drink, and take a couple of Tylenol. While getting our sense back together at the wayside pitstop, I Yelp’d a restaurant in Lake Shasta, CA. “Four and a half stars from 196 people.” Done.
We pulled into Joe’s Giant Orange Cafe wedged between Slick’s Used Auto Sales and Dirty Harry’s Guns and Tire shop. Not a single vehicle in the parking lot, but it was 3:30pm. We chanced it, and found it to be five stars. Great food, great price, and great service. If you’re every in Lake Shasta, CA, I highly recommend Joe’s Giant Orange Cafe.
We finally arrived at the AirBnb, a manufactured home in a rural setting with a horse and chickens in the yard. The key box didn’t work, so that was a little inconvenience at first, but that solved we thoroughly enjoyed an evening on the porch, petting the horse, bullshitting about everything from $900 punt bets, Coast Guard sea stories, and motorcycle adventures to Jon being blown off his ass-fit custom seat by a fart.
Tomorrow, here we come….
trafalgar adventures 