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Redwood Empire BAD Event
by Laur
On Sunday we saddled up for the Redwood Empire B.A.D. event in Cotati with Reed leading and Michael sweeping. Michael and I were at Denny's around 7:15 a.m. and we were the only ones at that leave point, but we hung around until 7:35 just to make sure. We came about two feet from being smeared all over 880, which got my heart beating really, really hard. In order for the idiot to avoid banging into our rear end the driver had to slam on his brakes hard, which made the front end of his car take a severe nose dive. That quite simply is not how I want to start a day of riding at 7:45 in the morning! Luckily, we arrived in one piece at the Hesperian location even though I think I aged a little bit. Reed & Lisa, Michael & I, Kathy & Mike, John B. and Lito R. left there about 8:15 and we were on our way straight up to the Cotati dealership. As we arrived there were already hundreds of motorcycles there and it was pretty cool hearing them announce, “Welcome Fremont!” over the loud speaker as we rode in! We checked in, got our run pins & paperwork and set off for the ride. We started off by following behind a large contingent from San Mateo and a nice guy from the Redwood Empire group joined in with us. If Saturday's weather was wonderful, Sunday's was beyond words. The Napa valley was gorgeous and since this was my first B.A.D. event I was having the best time ever. We got to the second poker stop at Digger’s, were there for about 10 minutes and we were off again to the third poker stop in Tomales along the coast. Unbelievable perfect riding weather ever! We did ride into some coastal fog, but it didn’t get cold and the ocean was so beautiful.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting, to put it mildly. We’re tooling along the coast behind another large group and just after we turned onto a road we were riding over a small two lane bridge over a river. Michael is sweep with John in front of us and Lito in front of John. I’m looking over Michael’s left shoulder somewhat and suddenly Lito’s trunk decides it doesn’t want to go along on the ride anymore and flies off his Harley, passing John and bouncing merrily along the road to us. Oh my. The trunk comes to rest upside down with gear everywhere. John tried to yell out to Lito and we told Reed on the radio what happened and that Lito was unaware of the mishap. Michael and I stopped to get the gear off the road. We scurried around picking up stuff and then I notice something familiar floating away in the river below far below: Lito’s paperwork from the dealership along with his lunch ticket; I took a picture of his lunch floating away for posterity. Lito & Michael were able to jimmy-rig the trunk back onto his bike (note to self: wouldn’t hurt to carry a cargo net or bungee cords just in case your gear decides it has a mind of its own and doesn’t want to be with you anymore), and we were on our way to Tomales, but I have to admit I was somewhat leery of that trunk staying put after what I just saw! Lito however, determined his trunk had been mortally wounded after all, took it off and left it behind for garbage pick- up day. In my humble opinion, that was a wise decision.
After that we rode to the Petaluma County Fairgrounds and wow! What a huge shin-dig! The numbers we heard were they had about 800 people who registered! They had a huge barbeque area, shaded picnic tables, the food was wonderful, live music and numerous vendors. We did not participate in the chapter challenge, though but that was ok by me as I’d had enough excitement. Or so I thought.
We left the fairgrounds around 3:00 and as we’re heading south on 880 in Oakland I see movement up to my right in the air. A pigeon was flying over the freeway and came so close to our helmets I ducked. Reed said if we had reached up we probably could have grabbed it. That was the final signal it was time to go home and get off the road!
Our thanks to Reed for what was truly a wonderful, fun, and beautiful riding day! I certainly won’t forget it!
