SISKIYOU WRITERS’ CLUB: Uneasy Rider, Pt. 1

Uneasy Rider
By Jess W. Ward
– Part one –

This is a story about the worst road trip in the history of road trips. To make matters worse it was a motorcycle road trip. First, I need to start off by saying that this story is no bullshit. All great stories begin with this or a similar introduction.

It was a beautiful spring day. It was sunny with only a few white fluffy clouds floating in a lake blue sky. I was renting a room from my good friend Scott. He owned a house in Eureka California. My friend had a Yamaha motorcycle that looked like a Harley Davidson sportster. I referred to it as his hardly because it was hardly a Harley.

My friend told me that it was too bad I didn’t have a motorcycle because it would be a good day to take a ride to Phillipsville. They had a restaurant there that served the best hamburger in Humbolt County. It was called a Loger burger.

It had a two-pound patty, and they had to order custom buns with a ten-inch diameter. They served it on a dinner plate and the only thing on the plate was a burger, and it filled the plate. If you ordered fries they came on a second plate.

My brother had a Kawasaki 750 four-cylinder motorcycle. He was still in the Marines and was stationed overseas. He kept his motorcycle at Mom and Dads about four-blocks away. He had given me permission to use it any time I wanted, so I retrieved my brother’s bike, and we started for Phillipsville.

We had just got on highway 101 heading south when it clouded up and started to rain. It rained so hard that the drops were bouncing back up to about waist high. This was just right to almost blind someone riding a motorcycle.

There are reasons why people don’t ride motorcycles in the rain. If you see someone riding a motorcycle in the rain, it’s because they have no other choice, or because they are idiots like my friend and me.

It takes about thirty-five minutes to drive from Eureka to Fortuna. It took us longer because of the weather. We pulled into Fortuna and went to a bar called John’s Club. We ordered beer and strait shots. We decided to cancel our trip because it was too miserable to continue.

We finished our drinks and went out to start back for Eureka. When we went outside, it was a beautiful day again. It was sunny, blue skies, and not a cloud anywhere. We decided to continue our trip. We had no sooner got back on the highway heading south, when it started raining again. It seemed to be raining even harder than before.

We pulled into Rio Dell. Rio Dell is the next town south after Fortuna. Of course, we stopped at another bar and ordered a recovery round of drinks. Once again, we decided to cancel our trip. After another round or two we went out to head back. Once again, it was a beautiful spring day. No way, we’re not falling for this again. We are going back to Eureka.

This was my first trip to Rio Dell, so I was unfamiliar with the towns lay out. We were heading through town toward the freeway entrance going north. We were heading down a strait stretch when my friend goosed his motorcycle and sped up. I was trying to catch him when he turned off onto the freeway entrance. I overshot the entrance.

I had to ride down a little way to turn around. Then I had to ride back past the entrance and turnaround again so I could take the entrance this time. When my friend saw that I overshot the entrance, he stopped to wait for me. It took me a little while to get turned around because I had to wait on passing traffic for both turns. My friend shut off his motorcycle while he waited for me to catch up.

When I finally caught up, my friend needed to restart his bike. It would not start. We tried and tried but could not get the bike to start. We tried to conceal the motorcycle in a small tree, but it was still highly visible. We decided to ride back to Eureka to get my pickup to retrieve Scott’s motorcycle.

We had to ride double all the way home. Riding double is considered insulting to the rider in the back. In biker parlance this is referred to as riding bitch. My friend had to endure the shame for the long drive back to Eureka. Incredulously we made the trip without further mishap.

My pickup was a 1954 Chevrolet five window cab. I had christened it rebuilt. I had found It sitting in a guy’s yard. It needed a lot of work and didn’t even have a motor. I had to obtain and rebuild the motor, the brakes, and the transmission also needed work. I had gotten the vehicle running and licensed, but it still needed a lot of work.

It had a six-cylinder motor and had the old six volt charging system. The six-volt charging has a positive ground. Twelve volts have negative ground. My starter was a small pedal on the floor you pushed with your foot.

My starter was out, so I had to push-start my truck. Fortunately, I figured out how to push start it by myself. We started back to Rio Dell. We had to hurry because abandoned motorcycles don’t do well. We had to retrieve it before it could be stolen or vandalized.

End Part One

---