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Its been probably a year since I last went to church.  For me, that would be riding my dirt bike in the desert.  Believe me, its been way to long, and today wasn’t without its challenges.

We finally got some good rain during this year’s monsoon season.  That means minimal dust and peak traction in dirt bike lingo.  Prior to the monsoons, we haven’t had noteable rain for over six months! 8O  And while I like riding in the dirt, eating powder is not my idea of fun.

Anyway, as I was prepping my bike last night (ahem - knocking the dust off of it), I noticed a fuel leak at the petcock.  I took it apart, and the o-ring was FUBAR and needed to be replaced.  No dealer is open past 7:00 around here and it was an odd ball size.  I made the calll to my riding buddy and we decided we would delay an early start and get to the dealer when it opened (8:30) and go from there.  Fine.

The problem was that it is blazing hot and I actually wanted to be an hour into riding by 8:30am.  We got there a couple minutes before 8:30 and waited at the door.  We watched the pre-opening sales hoopla / meeting.  That was wierd.  It’s been a long time since I have seen the pom-poms brought out for people to sell - cheering, recitals, speeches, etc.  We then realized that 8:30 had cam and gone…it was 8:36 and time was wasting, but the ‘rally’ was still going on.  Finally, a non-sales guy walked by and said “they’re probably not going to be done until 9:00am.  WTF?!?!?!

We grabbed that same guy and asked if we could weasel in to the parts dept.  He obliged and off we went.  The parts guy was cool, bur even though the computer stated they had one, it could not be physically located.  There is no other dealer close by, but an affiliate about 20 minutes away had four of them.  When we left, I made the offer to go riding tomorrow and I’ll chase parts on my own. 

NOTE:  All this was happening on my buddy’s fuel and in his truck.

He stayed mellow and suggested that we just go to the other dealer.  We did.  They had the part, so I bought two of them.

What was originally supposed to get us riding aorund 8:00am, got us with kickstands up at 10:37, some two and a half hours late.  Not once did my buddy get pissed.  I cannot say that I would have handled the same situation in the same care free manner.  Lesson learned.  It was still worth the hassle and wait once the engines got fired up.

We hit some good washes, some single track stuff, and some two-tracked.  We also realize how out of shape we were/are.  Its been a year for me and about two and a half years for the other guy.  While I have been exercising at the gym since January, ‘motorcycle muscles’ are different.  They hide until you are on two wheels, then remind you that you need to ride more when fifteen minutes into the ride, your ability to grip the clutch is marginal.

As it runed out, we did not suffer from the expected desert heat.  It was cloudy and we actually got caught up in some mild rain which was rather refreshing.  We rode for about an hour and a half and called it quits and the only time it got hot is when we stopped.

My goal was to knock the cob webs out and simply enjoy myself - mission accomplished.  The scenery was incredible as we were riding over hills and mountains and thorugh canyon style washes.  Even though the morning sucked…bad…it was worth the wait.  I learned a lesson to chill out a little and not to sweat the small stuff if a ride is just around the corner. 

I sit here now in the pre-sore condition knowing that I am going to hurt tomorrow.  I am getting old I guess, but I think I’m going to take my motorcycle muscles’ advice and use them a little more.  It was a great time and very relaxing. 

Life is good.