By kiki
On the road
Back in the early 1980’s my brother Mando (a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, he is now retired), his then-wife Terry and Connie, and I was on a week-long motorcycle trip with some friends, Al and Irene Garcia and Pres and Cecilia Sanchez. We left home early on a Saturday morning and rode north through the Mojave desert on Highway 395. After stopping for breakfast and lunch along the way, we arrived at Tom’s Place, a must-stop when you are in that part of the state. After a drink or two, we made our way down the road to our first overnight stop, McGee Creek Campgrounds. After securing a campsite and putting up our tents, we walked across the road to the McGee Creek Lodge for dinner and drinks. After dinner and some drinks at the lodge's bar, we bought some beers to take back to our campsite. Back at the campground, we lit a campfire to sit around and tell lies as we drank beer; the more we drank, the bigger the lies got, but we soon ran out of lies to tell, so Mando decided to play some music on his motorcycle cassette player, Soon, like most drunks do, we started dancing. Soon dirt was flying low around our heels as we dance to some slow music; the dirt really started flying knee-high as we boogied to some fast tunes. After dancing and running out of beer, we walked to, some might have crawled, our respective tents. About 20 minutes after we hit the tents, some lights were being shined at our tents, it was the cops, some camper we think called the cops to report some crazy drunk Mexicans doing the Mexican dirt dance. That’s was okay, we had lots of fun that first night of our trip. The following morning I made some coffee on the campfire. After having coffee and putting the coffee pot and cups away, we doused the fire out and hit the road on our way to Susanville in Lassen County. After a few stops here and there, we arrived in Susanville in the early afternoon. After walking around the small town, we decided to head west on State Route 36. After riding the mountain road for a bit, we arrived in Chester, Plumas County, home of beautiful Almanor Lake.
We secured a campsite on the lake next to an occupied site. Tents and camping equipment were set up in our neighbor’s campsite, but there was nobody around. We spent some of the afternoon fishing and strolling around, and having dinner in the small hamlet of Chester. As the afternoon was coming to an end, we lit up a campfire. And as we were sitting around the campfire drinking beer (you’ve to drink beer when you are on a week-long motorcycle trip), two young guys drove up to the site next to us. We notice that they cooked their dinner on a Coleman Stove. After eating, they sat around a campfire talking and smoking, so, just to be neighborly, we made our way over to their campsite. They welcome us to a beer and a smoke. We accepted their beers, but we wondered what they were smoking because they kept passing their smoke back and forth, but, of course, we knew they were smoking weed! Guy #1 passed his smoke to guy #2, who, after toking, asked Al if he wanted a toke; Al answered him, “no, that’s okay” “how about you?” guy #2 then asked Mando, Mando too refused the toke. “Do you guys have your own mota? Guy #1 asked Mando, “no, but I have this,” Mando replied as he flashed his badge. At that guy # 2 who was still holding the joint, told his buddy, “here this is yours” Guy #1, stretching both arms out, said to guy #2 “it’s yours now” We started laughing as Mando told them to toke up, that he didn’t care because we were on vacation…We were drunk when we got back to our campsite, and we found that the ladies were already in the tents. Al tried to crawl into his tent, but Irene told him he was sleeping outside, he did, on the campground table…The next day with a slight hangover, we hit the beautiful Feather River Canyon road to Old Sacramento, where we spend a couple of nights. We spend three more nights on the road before we arrived back home.
Irene Garcia and Connie
We secured a campsite on the lake next to an occupied site. Tents and camping equipment were set up in our neighbor’s campsite, but there was nobody around. We spent some of the afternoon fishing and strolling around, and having dinner in the small hamlet of Chester. As the afternoon was coming to an end, we lit up a campfire. And as we were sitting around the campfire drinking beer (you’ve to drink beer when you are on a week-long motorcycle trip), two young guys drove up to the site next to us. We notice that they cooked their dinner on a Coleman Stove. After eating, they sat around a campfire talking and smoking, so, just to be neighborly, we made our way over to their campsite. They welcome us to a beer and a smoke. We accepted their beers, but we wondered what they were smoking because they kept passing their smoke back and forth, but, of course, we knew they were smoking weed! Guy #1 passed his smoke to guy #2, who, after toking, asked Al if he wanted a toke; Al answered him, “no, that’s okay” “how about you?” guy #2 then asked Mando, Mando too refused the toke. “Do you guys have your own mota? Guy #1 asked Mando, “no, but I have this,” Mando replied as he flashed his badge. At that guy # 2 who was still holding the joint, told his buddy, “here this is yours” Guy #1, stretching both arms out, said to guy #2 “it’s yours now” We started laughing as Mando told them to toke up, that he didn’t care because we were on vacation…We were drunk when we got back to our campsite, and we found that the ladies were already in the tents. Al tried to crawl into his tent, but Irene told him he was sleeping outside, he did, on the campground table…The next day with a slight hangover, we hit the beautiful Feather River Canyon road to Old Sacramento, where we spend a couple of nights. We spend three more nights on the road before we arrived back home.
The beautiful Feather River Canyon
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