2009-04-12 Riding with the Clampers and Turbo Dave

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but concrete monuments

Things have been a bit rough of late. $$$ are short, time limited. Cheap-Ass Avon Azaros bought and installed with resultant HUGE head shake and work pressures. Dad's health is failing, and his investments now are transferred to me. WTF do I know? Pressure in the kettle rises. Gauge hits red line.

I need some time alone in the saddle to think.
Problem is, I'm the Candy Butt Association Prezident and all. No more than 200 miles in one 24 hour period or pay a fine to me. Of course, I have no money.
pssst.. psssst... where the hell is the relief valve?

Email from TurboDave... the 'Clampers' are going on a 'poisy sniffing, Candy Butt Ride' and I'm invited? Woot-phooking-Woot! Understand that Dave is my hero. I make no qualms about this; he's done more in his life than most could accomplish in 3 lives. And he's still kicking, and kicking hard, too. He's riding the Iron Butt Rally this year, are you?

So how could I say no? I'm in, and loving life riding the motobike. The Clampers, I've been told, love to camp, eat, smoke, and some like to ride motobikes, so why the hell not go?

Leave out of the casa de la Hondarosa and head to California City to review Pop's newly acquired house. Actually, I love that area (the city has created DIRT BIKE trails into town so you can support the local economy without getting a stupid ticket) and from Pop's new house I could ride Wabs for over 200 miles of dirt....

Soon enough, it was time to head from CA City to TurboDave's la casa. For some unexplainable reason, he invited me to stay overnight and actually introduced me to Mrs. Turbo.. Mrs. Turbo is one tough gal. She currently has a wounded wing (broken arm) and wasn't up to full form... but trust me on this - if she can, and she has, stood by TD for all those years, then she is one tough gal.

So let me tell you about Turbo's la casa. The man has a subscription to EVERY motorcycle magazine ever published. When I arrive, knock at the door and gain entrance, Turbo greets me with a big hug, shows me the guest bedroom and bathroom. Moto magazines are everywhere. I purposely head for the bathroom since I intuitively know the BEST magazines are always in the shitter department. LOL.

After relief, Turbo provides a cold fresh one and we discuss the next days’ ride. The Clampers are, uhh, eclectic, and mananna’s ride will have a variety of riders, most of what us on the forum would call FairWeather riders, with exception, of course, of the other FJR pilot, Jim, (can’t recall forum handle) who is a LD guy.

Mr. and Mrs Turbo like cats. I liked this one in particular

And the coolest cat of all; evidently Turbo has already received his stimulus package.. hey, where is mine?

The morning broke early and Turbo mentioned he'd like to be rolling by 0730. No problem, so I wandered out to the garage get ready. Did I mention Turbo likes motobikes?

So how does a hero put his boots on? One foot at at time, that's how!

Then again, Turbo appears to be a bit confused.. Perhaps he really wants a Harley?

Finally, here we are at the meet up point. I'm really curious to see what level of riders this group consists of, especially since I'm the sweep. It occurs to me that Dave likes red. He has a silver and red AE, red motobikes and other vehicles. Red baby, just red. Like the meet up point, for example!

Dave even had special T-Shirts printed, and handed them out. Red, of course.

Finally, the eclectic group is underway and the ride starts from Rancho KookaMonga. From recall, a Sportser with with a brand new group-ride rider, a Harley Ultra with side car, Honda 700 twin, 3 FJR's and a 2-up couple on an ape hanger Harley.

Part of the ride was to inspect monuments the Clampers had installed.. The farther north we rode, the less graffitti there was..

Paul is a high school teacher and quite the historian. Clampers research and document early Ca history, and Paul was the best. I lent him my 2nd GRMS radio, and we chatted for hours with him telling great gold-miner history as we rode along. Paul was running a chase truck for the group, and also did a great job in keeping the cages from splitting our group.

On the way to Kramers junction (395/58) then California City.

The chase truck and choo-choo train

Just outside of California City, which is a huge off-road recreational area. Local town council has even provided dirt trails into town so that off-roaders can legally get gas, food, booze and generally spend money. It's also the home to tortoise..

Turbo and friend

We were here

-- ------------ continued-------------------

In all the years I rode dirt, I've never been to Randsburg, CA. It's an old gold mine town, with lots of character. Here the Clampers chow down.



Cute girl

Neal and Gene? wait for the boyz room.

On the way out of town, I got real uncomfortable. Had anybody seen the deal go down?

Posey Ride!

MCML

The unofficial Clamper Salute..

The cleanest public restroom in the world is here at Searles..

Views approaching Searles, night destination the beautiful StageCoach Saloon in Beatty NV.

Yet another Clamper monument

Paul's better half, Mollie

Approaching Death Valley National Park

At Stovepipe, found this real adventure bike. Didn't see the rider, even though I looked..

Then there was Jim, he's on the forum, but I don't recall his handle. Sorry Jim.

After a night of libation and great story telling Clamper style, the Clamper's woke up early for an 0800 return ride home. MCML and me decided to stay another day/night in Death Valley, do some exploring, and get some pix.

Riding with the Clampers was really fun. They are a great group of manly men who take and give no quarter yet watch out for each other. They Sportser rider, on his first long trip, made an excellent decision to stop and rest when his throttle hand went numb. I don't know how that dude rode a Sporty for that long - and he had no qualms about staying safe and riding his own ride. Turbo's pre-ride debrief must have worked..

Update - just spoke with Turbo, he broke down near Baker, CA - electrical problem same thing that Airhead1234 had - the ground block under the tank left of steering head. The Ape-Hanger Harley also broke down, no headlights. Two bikes towed. Makes a feller want to inspect that ground block, eh?

Day two - Death Valley with MCML will be a separate thread.