Quote:
Originally Posted by Chocaholic
Ah...but you’re sugar coating the reality. Or should I say, romanticizing the misery. The inevitable downpour that soaks your bag and tent (and you) to the bone leaving you to sleep on the cold wet ground with a soggy leather jacket for a pillow. Miserable.
Don’t ask how I know this. Thankfully the 1971 Lucas electrical system held together throughout that trip..at least until I got home.
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Oh man... yeah, "those were the days", weren't they?
My first trip to Sturgis, in the early '80's, still in school. On this very Sportster, day pack full of clothes, sleeping bag and tent bungeed to the front and back of the bike. We hit that infamous Eastern Montana rain one day. Yup - nothing like laying your head on that soaking wet rolled up leather jacket at night. Those were the days...
So, my wife - how I knew she was "the one"...
While still dating (and therefore young, limber and stupid enough to both climb onto this very Sportster), I decided to take her over Snoqualmie Pass, which traverses our Cascade range east of Seattle and divides our state into Eastern Washington and Western Washington. We were going over to the then quite small college/cow town of Ellensburg for their annual Labor Day rodeo. And these are the "big kids", too - the PRCA tour. And a big parade through town on Saturday morning, big county fair, tractor pulling, and all of the usual small town to-do.
My buddy Jeff and his wife lived there, and it had become a tradition through college to go over and camp on his lawn. There were a dozen of us that did that every year and, this year, it was time to bring my new girl friend. On the Sportster, sleeping bags and tent bungeed to the handlebars and sissy bar.
And, yeah, we all know where this is going - it absolutely dumped on us going over the pass. We were drenched, everything on the bike was drenched. And it was cold - like low 40's cold, at least over the pass. It warmed up, but was still pouring by the time we rolled into Ellensburg.
Nary a whimper. She tapped my shoulder, pointed at a laundromat, and said "let's dry this stuff". A couple of hours later we were back in dry clothes, all of our stuff was dry, it had stopped raining, and it was on to Jeff's. When we got there, she apologized for being "a little late - we got a little wet..."
We've now been married 35 years. And yes, we've "gotten a little wet" a few more times in between. I'm a very lucky man.