hey, it happens ...
A few months ago, I took a ride on the beach in Padre Island National Park, Texas. It's about 70 miles of beach to the southern-most point in the park. It took me a few hours, but I made it about 50 miles down. To those of you who think taking a 4wd thru loose sand is difficult, you should try it on a 350 lb bike! Nevermind. I made it, and had a blast. But it was exhausting, and required FULL concentration. If for a moment I took my eyes off the track, things would get pretty hairy.
I stopped for a bit to rest, then headed back up the beach, almost making it the full 50 miles back without incident. Almost.
And wouldn't you know it, it was girls in bikinis that brought me down. (hmmm, now that doesn't sound too bad, does it).
It all went down about 2 miles before the main road: Me - standing on the pegs going about 25-35 mpg and looking pretty damn cool (think Dakar riding, but at 1/4 the pace
). Them - a pack of horny college coeds sporting bikinis and a desire to hook up with a "biker". (hey, it's MY story, so why not!). I had their attention ... and of course they had mine.
As I rode by, I turned my head to the right, made eye contact with what I decided to be the alpha female, and gave a nod. They all continued to look. "Yeah," I thought, "I'm pretty much the man."
Fate didn't think so.
So as I'm riding by, I hit a soft patch of sand, and get thrown off course. Shit! Ok, attention back to task at hand. I try to recover, but my efforts seem to be making the situation worse, as the bike veers languorously from side to side. At least this was causing me to slow down. And just when I think I might be able to ride out of this (I've done this several times throughout the day and never had a get-off, but then again I was anticipating it) I hit a really soft patch of sand at a funny angle and the bike stops, then falls over. I go with it.
That's pretty much the story. From here, I sprang up, picked the bike up, and feeling quite embarrased, jumped back on and rode off. Thinking back, this was probably the best opportunity to strike up conversation with the girls, but that didn't occur to me until quite a few minutes later. Oh well ...
so, yeah, it happens ...
