Greetings from a weary traveler

I'm not really all that weary, but I do wish I could go riding. I'm on a family vacation, having driven the large white van through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, Washington, and now into Oregon. This time we didn't bring the dirt bikes, so I'm going through withdrawals. We have driven through some of the most beautiful riding areas -- Moab, the Cache National Forest near North Logan, Colorado, B.C., and here in Oregon I'm wishing I could hit the Trask Mountains. We've benn having fun, though. We'll be gone another two weeks, so I won't get to ride until Sept. 10, most likely. Maybe by then it won't be as hot as the surface of the sun in Texas. Keep cool.

No, the wife argued loudly against taking the bikes, feeling that they would steal our few free days, so I just gave in. I am having fun with the fam, though, so it's all good. I'll just ride even more when I get home. The knee is a mess; definitely needs a tune-up. I'll have it looked at when I get home, probably get the operation in the winter.

Tony, I have been wanting to go with you guys to Moab for two years, but it hasn't worked out. Maybe next year. I usually take a March trip to New Mexico, but maybe I'll postpone it and take my boys to Moab next year, maybe get Rick to go, too. And maybe we can talk Grady and Brian and Alan into going, just take a huge group and see how many people we can leave by the wayside in the desert.

This has been a nice trip, though. The most beautiful drive rip was up Highway 93 into Canada, all the way to Glacier National Park (Canada). Very scenic all the way to the park, then it just gets amazing!

We're leaving Portland, Oregon, tomorrow, heading for a school chum's house in Eugene, to go down the McKenzie River in his boat, and we hope to catch some big trout on fly rods. Then it's on to Grants Pass, Oregon, to see my wife's mother for a couple of days, then on into California to visit my sister and her kids. Then we'll make a turn east and head for home. Can't say I miss those hundred-degree days. It's been 67 here in Portland. But man, it rains the rest of the year. Keep cool, and don't break anything 'til I get back.

I rode the Los Padres National Forest near Gorman, California, with a friend from Victorville. He has a '99 CR500 and he borrowed his uncle's '95 CR500 for me. They're desert bikes geared down for this mountain trip. The 500s worked fine; they're not the fire-breathing monsters people make them out to be. I found them easy to ride, even without flywheel weights. Sure, you had to be a little careful not to grab too much throttle, but if you lugged them around they were very tractable.

The Los Padres trails were great. We rode switchbacks up and down the mountains, sometimes plunking along on narrow sidehills. There were great vistas, miles and miles of forest and mountains, and the air is remarkably clean up there. It was nice to get up into the pine trees after the heat of L.A. We rode a short 30-mile loop, and I didn't wreck my knee, so we called it a day at about 2 p.m., and went out for a steak. There are lots more trails up there, and I'd love to go and spend two or three days riding them. There are lots of rocks, but not as many as the Kiamichis; some whoops on the well-ridden trails, lots of stream crossings, lots of pine trees.

Still, it was good to be home and riding Muenster Monday. Acre for acre, it's tough to beat.