SECTION 2: Part 2
“What is that smell?” Jennifer asked. She would have to remind me of our mishaps yesterday. However, when in the wilderness with no particular way to deal with it, one must apply the mantra to it. “F-it! We will be at Tinder Kevin’s by this afternoon. I bet he will let you use his shower.”
See what I did there? You forgot all about my pants and are wondering who Tinder Kevin is. I do the online dating thing from time to time. I have met some fun people and told Jennifer about it. She decided to give Tinder a try to see if she could find someone to “redneck” with. In the few hours she was on it, she met Kevin who lived outside Ellensburg. It was the perfect place for us to camp at the end of the day. (We will come back to that part of the story later.)
Goal in mind, we ate some more oatmeal, packed up camp, and headed on our way. Because every day we have to have a bit of a challenge, Jen’s bike did not start. She tried a few times before it finally caught. We were on our way once again.
The views were absolutely beautiful! This might be a good place to let you all know about my big fear. Heights. Heights cause me tremendous anxiety. Not only heights, but steep downhills as well. Come to find out, when bumpy roads are part of a steep hill on a mountain, it intensifies the effect the height has on me.
I heard Jennifer’s voice through the intercom. “It is beautiful. You can see all the mountains.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” I proclaimed and gave a nervous giggle.
“Find a place to stop. You have got to see this!”
I was not thinking at all of the beautiful views. I was dealing with bumpy roads and steep downhills. What is the best way to control one’s bike in that situation? Walk it, of course! That is exactly what I did. It wasn’t a big deal. They were short. I just put my feet on the ground and played with my front brake and clutch until I got to a place where I felt comfortable picking up speed again.
**No pictures here. We never did find a place to pull over on this portion.**
In the meantime, Jennifer was pretending to be Graham Jarvis. (For those of you who don’t know who he is, neither do I really. From what I understand he is a dualsport god. Apparently, “that boy can balance”.) My speed varied from walking it to maybe 13mph. She is used to riding at much higher speeds. Riding with me gave her the opportunity to balance in a variety of ways. Standing up. Sitting down. Going around a curve. Going downhill. Going over bumps. Shifting while standing. You get the idea. Graham Jarvis may be her dualsport god. She is mine.
Eventually, we got to better road. As in, I was more comfortable going faster than 15mph. The trail took us right to a gate. Opening gates to go through felt rather badass. We didn’t have to open one, but two!
We were back on tarmac! Any stress I had immediately dissipated even thought the mud on my mirror had not. Epic Adventure Playlist once again the soundtrack of our cruising.
I was pretty excited to think we would be on highway for the rest of the day. Silly me to think such a thing! We had asphalt for a few miles before it turned into a dirt thoroughfare. The difference with this one is that it was a state road which meant it was wide and smooth, which meant that I could look around and enjoy the scenery. And it was beautiful!
In no time we were back in civilization. Just in time for lunch! A sandwich at Jimmy John’s gave us the sustenance we needed. We chatted with the family next to us as we watched the clouds get darker. Again.
Before heading to Tinder Kevin’s house, Jennifer wanted to have my bike checked out to be sure it was safe. We found a Powersports store just as we felt a few drops of rain.
“Can I help you?” The salesman asked. Jennifer told him about my crash. They walked out together to check it. I wandered around checking at the bikes. Unlike the Team Powersports store back in NC, this one had mostly bikes meant for off-road. They made it back in just as the sky let go a downpour. We made ourselves comfortable and sat out the storm. Finally, the sun came back out and we were on our way once more.
In no time we pulled into Tinder Kevin’s. We parked our bikes in front of his RV, which was his current house while he was building a new house. When I thought I had been polite long enough, I asked to use his shower. This is what I had been waiting for all day!! It made no difference that we did not bring shampoo with us and a bald man had no need of. I washed away the crash of yesterday from my body and my pants. Feeling fresh and clean, I put on my shorts, long socks, and hoodie. Meanwhile, Jennifer was all about rinsing the mud off our bikes….and my riding pants before she jumped in the shower and enjoyed the luxury of soap and water.
Let’s talk about Kevin, host extraordinaire. We happened to arrive in time for a cookout with a few of his friends. Highlights of the evening included:
Opening a wine bottle with a screw and vice grips in the absence of a corkscrew
Elk burgers, deer sausage, and other yummy food
Patching the holes in the tent with duct tape
A group picture that only took ten minutes to take
Of course there were many more memories made that night, but you will need to get yourself a copy of the book to learn more about that. Kevin really was an incredible host. He insisted we sleep inside on his pullout couch rather than out in the cold tent. Jennifer was kind enough to remind me of the rules: 1) Wear clothes to bed and 2) No touching her. We slept well and woke up to Kevin cooking us breakfast. Soon we were headed to our next destination.
But first a side trip to an old segregated cemetery. (Yup, more on that in the book.)
As for Tinder, while neither one of us are still on it, Jennifer would still like someone to “redneck” with her. Me? I am looking for my next adventure.
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