Update,
a bit long
Im not a Dave Bouge, nor have the literary repritoir that he does, But I try to make the best out of my public school system education.
Started this morning with a trip out to "wine country" to show the inlaws a little Color from the Northern CA perspective. The folks and wife jumped in the town car and I followed on the 12. Due to the heat the wife opted for the cool comfort of air conditioning Vs. riding on the back.
We took Hwy 29 out of Lakeport and continued onto Bottle rock road which has some nice scenery of the Upper wine country but lacks the maintenaince that our supposed tax dollars are sopposed to improve.
On the way to Guenoc winery that is in Middletown, CA we came upon a bunch of 600cc sport bike riders that became the talk for the rest of our day.
Keep in mind my folks are pushing their mid sixty's and are from a VERY reserved environment. They still think all bikers are from the late 60's early 70's era, and are hellraisers and convicts about to happen (they are not too far off).
While rounding a blind corner on a two lane road, there were about 5 of these guys in a pack with their lead rider crossing the yellow line around a farm truck and coming about 1 foot from being a hood ornament on my Pops grey hair express. Behind the "old man" is myself in the leftmost portion of the lane keeping an eye out for potholes, roadkill, and gravel. Upon retrospect, if the rider had lost controll after hitting a pothole or other road debris, we all feel that our little outing might have turned into a life flight experience for not one, but possibly 7 riders today. the "old man", being a former Navy CO, was Quite verbal and shaken about the whole experience, as were the rest of us. Mom and Gma both volunteer as Pink Ladys at the local hospital and have seen MANY a bike accident victim. As one of the board member here likes to tag on their posts, "Stupid hurts". Nuff said.
So... the rest of the day we do a little wine tastin and take a tour of the Calpine thermoelectrc plant. Which the old Navy folks in our little group enjoyed due to all the machinery that is reminicent of a ships engine room. On our way back, however, Quickwilly had a run in with CA's finest.
After following the fogys around all day, "Willy " decided it was time to play before turning in for the night. Most of the more traveled roads in this part of CA are pretty well maintained and offer some nice uphill and downhill twisties that should not be taken at the posted sped limit. After passing several rubbernecks and depends crew types.. I came around a turn at about 85 Mph and ran spack dab right into "Johny law", Ponch but no John, Starsky without the Hutch... well you get the picture. Since I had just passed some cars, my speed was a Tad over the posted 55 MPH. Needless to say I was busted dead to rights.
From my body language alone, this cop knew I was done for , he had me. I did what I thought best and pulled over (lots of places to run but nowhere to hide). he gets out of the car, asks me tho remove my helmet, and procedes to do what most good police do. "do you know how fast I clocked you at??" he asks. Since I was the only person on the road for at least 1/2 mile, I thought it more prudent to just tell the truth. I said I think I was hitting about 85 when I saw him. I get a little ebrow raise from that because I was right on, although I didn't get a prize for that correct answer. "liscence, regestration, and insureance please." No problem, I retrive them from the "trunk", just as my parrents, inlaws, and wife pass us. "can you tell me why you were exceeding the speed limit??" he asks. At this point I think is looking for any reasonable excuse not to slam me with a hefty fine, I was being very curtios and not trying to be a total ass about the whole thing. So, I tell him the truth. "I just passed a couple of vehicles when you rounded that bend." That wasn't the correct answer. I try again (this time a little more on the lame side). "Its so hot out here, I was keeping the pace up to try and keep cool". That didn't sway the jurry either. Happens that the cop had been riding bikes for about as long as I had been alive, he also wore leathers and had no trouble keeping cool.
To cut to the chase (no pun intended). Officer S. Thomason of CHP cut me a nice deal. Since I did not lie to him about my clocked speed AND becouse I was so curtios and cooperative with him. He dicided to write the ticket as 70 in a 55. I thought this was quite nice of him and thanked the kind officer. As a parting shot (and a smirk) he asked me what my personalized licence plate ment (QKWILE). I laughed my ass of and told him "Quickwilly." He smiled and said "unfortunatley today that would be a true statement."
All in all the whole experience was not unpleasant. This officer was very professional and I have had worse run ins with THE LAW. However, when I got home, the wife had quiet a bit to say about it.
Its time to turn in for the night and we have a couple of days left on our trip. I will be updating this thread for the remainder of our trip (MC related of course). We will be going back to Vancouver, WA on Wed, and I hope this trip has more entertaining experiences that don't involve me getting a speeding ticket.
Gdnight folks.
-Will
live fast, die young, and leave a great looking corpse </p>
"> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"> 
