Nowhere Near Ramona

If you look at really old maps, They have blank spots labelled "Here Be Dragons"
I have spent a fair portion of my life looking for those dragons.







This thread is hopefully going to be a safe place to help me remember my searches for dragons.
And a place for me to brag about how cool my wife is!

A recent ride.
Bikes - check!





Sacrifice made to Single track gods - check!





Better make that 2!





The STG's must be happy with our offerings.

I love this kind of stuff.




Have to stop eventually.





More happiness the next day.









This is Traveltoad.









This is the point where we started to think that we should have sacraficed more livestock.
I figured we could get our bikes down......

Good times!

We will bring ropes next time to finish that "trail".

A smart person would take a look around the corner before dropping his bike off a small cliff.
Took a 10 minute walk.









It was really hard to make the decision to turn around. Ended up getting injured while turning the bike around.




At least we get to re-ride an awesome trail.

Love big trees.





Heading for home.









Testing the center stand on Ted's 350.




How do you find a nail.....





....on a trail like this?

Up next - who is Rollergirl and why does she put up with me?

Very good question...

Cause no one can resist....

OK, I'll bite. How close to Ramona?

Looks like Baja to me.

One hour from Ramona

Just past these cows.





And behind this gate.

Anywayz, enough about where you think we may have been riding.
I was going to tell everybody just how cool Rollergirl is.

Rollergirl

I met Rollergirl about 7 years ago and immediately fell in love with her smile.


"Does this sign make my hair look messy?"

She had never ridden a motorcycle and I hadn't ridden for quite a while. We watched the Long-way-round together (thanks Ewan and Charlie) and decided we wanted to get a big offroad-capable touring bike. We did a bit of research and decided on a KTM 990 Adventure. Thank you to everybody on Advrider for providing far too many hours worth of "research". Next on the agenda was figuring out how to buy a 990, as the economy, and my business, was collapsing. A few weeks later, a nice young man in a Honda civic came up with a great idea on how to help us achieve our goals. He T-boned me in my Dodge truck and rolled me into a ditch.

No injury to me, but I made sure to call Rollergirl while I was still upside down in the ditch and let her know that I was ok, the truck was dead, and that we might be getting our bike. The insurance company gave me a check for the truck. I was able to pick up a shiny-never-dropped-never-off-road slightly used 990 (with those big grey picnic boxes too) and an older, cheaper truck.

After numerous short adventures two up on the 990, Rollergirl got tired of having to help drag me and the 990 out of the trouble I had got it into.


"Sorry baby. Why would anyone lock the gate at the end of a fun ride?"


"Sorry baby. It didn't look deep."

She said that I had better make a plan for getting her a bike.



Or else......

Being a cheap bastard, I happily started teaching her how to ride on an old xr150 that I had bought hoping that I could someday teach my daughter to ride. Rollergirl picked up riding quickly and requested a big-girl bike. Back to Adv to see what bikes other guys thought their significant other should be riding. Tossing all advice aside, I picked up this little beauty.




"This will be a great learner bike baby!"
"You're feet can both touch the ground!"
"No my love, nobody is going to laugh at you."
"Yes it needs a new top end, but..."
"No it doesn't have electric start."
"No, you don't NEED an electric start, baby."
"Yes, I know that my bikes have electric start."
"Yes, I know that my bikes also have heated grips and TrailTricked suspension."
"It is a learner bike, my sweetheart, and your feet can touch the ground!"

So Rollergirl put a new top end in it and rode it for a few thousand miles!












We rode to Mammoth all the way on dirt. We rode all over northern Baja. I made her laugh and I also made her cry. She hated kickstarting the damn thing, but loved the places that it took her.

We used to live where this happened:




And now we live where this happens:


Toby and little Whynowthen

Soon she got tired of kickstarting the XT and having well-meaning people laugh at her and her road helmet and borrowed safety gear. We started test riding some proper offroad bikes.


Here she is test riding a Beta 450 with Adv hero Riceless950.
She loved that bike!

Rollergirl had passed all the tests, I mean adventures, that I had thrown at her.
And, my Mom told me that women prefer stability, so the next time we where here:




I asked Rollergirl to marry me.
She said "of course YES!"