Another Close One..!

This weekend the weather was fantastic. We both wanted to get out and ride. So on Saturday, we decided to do a long ride (about 300 miles). The main purpose of this trip was to give my seat (Scot) a trial run. I just bought a new seat from Sargent and wanted to break it in and see how it felt. We are doing a big ride in April (about 600+ one way) and wanted to make my butt feel a bit more comfortable. Its not that the factory seat is bad, I just get pressure points after sitting about 60-90 mintues. I read a LOT about seats and Sargent seems to be the one to get. So I pulled the trigger and bought one.

I was really looking forward to the ride. Will it fix the issue with my butt? We will see. Well the ride started off great. We were going to ride to Sierra Nevada brewery. Well, we did not make it. We got sidetracked a bit AND I had to be back by 5:30 for a prior engagement. So we adjusted our ride and ended going to Chimney Rock via Forest City (we stopped for lunch at The Hoot Nannie). Well, on our ride getting there, we were on Highway 74. Things were going ok until the metal box appeared.

We were in the left lane. Kirk in front behind a truck who had a sedan in front of it. I was behind about 50 yards. Ok, Kirk and I both admit he was a bit close to the truck..not tailgating but closer than we should have been. The sedan swerved left onto the rumble strips and close to going town and country (half on the road and half on the grass) and truck just had no time and hit this large metal box. It was about 3'x3' square and luckily very flimsy. Kirk did an excellent job swerving but the box hit just on the left side of his bike and hit his foot (knocking it off the peg).

Mean while I have a back seat watching it all and then it dawns on me that I need to take evasive action too! There is debris flying everywhere but luckily Kirk hitting the main box knocked it far to the left of me. I am not sure what happened to those behind me (and honestly do not give a crap as I was just happy we both were ok).

Keep in mind, we have an intercom system and this happened SO fast, that there was not exchange of words. It was all by sight. Once we were through it, I asked if he was ok and he was. I told him all looked good from my view but at the next turn off, we stopped an inspected the bikes.

Luckily no damage but a few scrapes to the crash bar. He was fine. His foot was fine. I was fine. Another close call!

We also were able to head up to Lure Lake. This time of year they let out a lot of water so they can work on the docks and also the dam.

On our way up there, we stopped at The Hoot Nannie in Forest City for lunch.

We then headed out for higher ground. We did not hit many trails since the main purpose was to put on miles. We did find a nice mountain stream at Chimney Rock and stopped for quick break and a picture.

Was a beautiful day and had a great time just getting out for the day.