Friday, February 09, 2007
January Ride To Lucerne Valley (part 2)
Why do I say the things I say? Why do I make promises I can't keep? What the hell am I talking about? The end of my previous post said: "Okay, tomorrow's post will be all about the ride. See you then." Yeah, right! That would mean I posted yesterday. Either that, or lately the days have been longer.
Okay, so my good intentions to post the 2nd part of the post shortly after the first didn't pan out. I'm sorry, I got busy.
I promise I will talk about the ride this time, and not the drive to the ride. So, as you may remember, we bought two new quads - one for Nina and one for Laura. Brady got Laura's not-so-old quad, and I got a piece of coal. As with other rides in the past, we sometimes forget something. Sometimes it's important, and sometimes it's something we can live without. This time in our haste to pack the trailer we forgot something really important. Just look at the picture below and you'll see:
No, that's not a new riding boot to go with Nina's new quad. That's a slipper. It's lucky we had a slipper already packed in the trailer. Otherwise Nina would be pictured in the socks she had slept in. We actually took her out of bed earlier that morning, and left for Lucerne. We didn't realize until we pulled off of Camp Rock Road and were driving up that wash-board dirt access road that WE FORGOT NINA'S BOOTS AND SHOES!
Okay, so my good intentions to post the 2nd part of the post shortly after the first didn't pan out. I'm sorry, I got busy.
I promise I will talk about the ride this time, and not the drive to the ride. So, as you may remember, we bought two new quads - one for Nina and one for Laura. Brady got Laura's not-so-old quad, and I got a piece of coal. As with other rides in the past, we sometimes forget something. Sometimes it's important, and sometimes it's something we can live without. This time in our haste to pack the trailer we forgot something really important. Just look at the picture below and you'll see:
No, that's not a new riding boot to go with Nina's new quad. That's a slipper. It's lucky we had a slipper already packed in the trailer. Otherwise Nina would be pictured in the socks she had slept in. We actually took her out of bed earlier that morning, and left for Lucerne. We didn't realize until we pulled off of Camp Rock Road and were driving up that wash-board dirt access road that WE FORGOT NINA'S BOOTS AND SHOES!So we got there, found our spot, parked, leveled (as best as we could considering we camped on a slope), unloaded all of our stuff, and gassed up the quads. However, before we could ride, I needed to give Nina a lesson. After all, up until this point she had only been a passenger on my quad, or in the Go-Cart. By the way, we left that anchor (the Go-Cart) behind. So here I am giving Nina her first riding lesson:
After we went over the basics, Nina was ready to ride by herself for the very first time. I had her circle the fire pit (which you can see in the picture above). She just went around and around until she became more comfortable. It didn't take long for her to enjoy the feeling of riding that quad. Lucky for us her quad comes with a remote control "kill" switch, which I only had to use a couple of times. Once to stop her from running into the wood pile, and once when she approached our trailer too quickly.
Nina was ready for a "big" ride now. Here she is giving me the Peace Sign, or maybe she's saying lets go twice around the big rock formations:
Riding around the fire pit and riding around the rock formations are two different things. None of us realized how long it would take to go around the rocks once. That Viper 50 doesn't go very fast, and poor Nina was in pain. Not her feet because of lack of boots; her thumb, for holding down the throttle. In a manner of speaking, Brady was in pain too. He was hurting to go on a longer, faster ride. Poor guy - to make matters worse, Joey, one of his buddies that he only sees when we're out on a D.O.M. ride didn't show.
I took Brady on a ride while mom stayed back at camp with Nina. Here he is on what will now be his quad:
This 250EX is perfect for him. It's fully automatic (no clutch) and has an electric start. When I was first trying to teach Brady to ride he used to struggle, because my quad has a kick start, and you have to use a clutch to shift gears. And this quad has more power than my old 250x, plus it's his favorite color - red!
Here's a funny story about Laura's first ride on her new 250EX. All four of us were riding around the rocks slowly because of Nina, but when we returned Laura told me she thought there was a problem with her quad. There wasn't enough power, even though it sounded fine. So I took it for a spin and it performed fine for me. We talked about it further - the shifting, the braking, etc., and determined that she forgot to disengage the parking brake before we left. Well that explains why the quad doesn't go very fast at high throttle. So here are my two favorite ladies on their new quads with the beautiful Johnson Valley behind them:
Next ride: Searless Station - Presidents' Day Weekend. I'll write about it and post some pictures sometime after we return, but no promises.
After we went over the basics, Nina was ready to ride by herself for the very first time. I had her circle the fire pit (which you can see in the picture above). She just went around and around until she became more comfortable. It didn't take long for her to enjoy the feeling of riding that quad. Lucky for us her quad comes with a remote control "kill" switch, which I only had to use a couple of times. Once to stop her from running into the wood pile, and once when she approached our trailer too quickly.Nina was ready for a "big" ride now. Here she is giving me the Peace Sign, or maybe she's saying lets go twice around the big rock formations:
Riding around the fire pit and riding around the rock formations are two different things. None of us realized how long it would take to go around the rocks once. That Viper 50 doesn't go very fast, and poor Nina was in pain. Not her feet because of lack of boots; her thumb, for holding down the throttle. In a manner of speaking, Brady was in pain too. He was hurting to go on a longer, faster ride. Poor guy - to make matters worse, Joey, one of his buddies that he only sees when we're out on a D.O.M. ride didn't show.I took Brady on a ride while mom stayed back at camp with Nina. Here he is on what will now be his quad:
This 250EX is perfect for him. It's fully automatic (no clutch) and has an electric start. When I was first trying to teach Brady to ride he used to struggle, because my quad has a kick start, and you have to use a clutch to shift gears. And this quad has more power than my old 250x, plus it's his favorite color - red!Here's a funny story about Laura's first ride on her new 250EX. All four of us were riding around the rocks slowly because of Nina, but when we returned Laura told me she thought there was a problem with her quad. There wasn't enough power, even though it sounded fine. So I took it for a spin and it performed fine for me. We talked about it further - the shifting, the braking, etc., and determined that she forgot to disengage the parking brake before we left. Well that explains why the quad doesn't go very fast at high throttle. So here are my two favorite ladies on their new quads with the beautiful Johnson Valley behind them:
Next ride: Searless Station - Presidents' Day Weekend. I'll write about it and post some pictures sometime after we return, but no promises.
