Today was a day of blogger meetups. We thought we might get up early and ride some fun roads, but instead we slept in. Sleeping worked out better anyways as it was raining when we woke up. We lounged around enjoying breakfast and slowly packed up. Staying in one spot for more than a night always seems to make the luggage explode all over our space.
We hoped to have lunch in Corvallis. We were so slow that we ended up eating in Portland instead. It was tasty.
Instead of fun roads, we took I-5 from Portland to Corvallis. It wasn’t fun, but it was a faster route. It stopped raining before we got to Corvallis, and then it got hot. Over 80F hot. A new record I think for the trip.
Our first stop was to meet Dan aka Irondad. He is a very busy guy, and we almost didn’t get to meet. He invited me to visit Team Oregon where he works now. It was pretty cool to see. Almost every state in the country uses the MSF material to train new riders. Oregon made their own, and as a rider coach myself, I found it interesting. We had fun chatting, but much too soon it was time to go. Dan had a lot of work to do.
We stayed with the blogging couple Trobaritz and Troubadour. We were both quite excited to meet them as it isn’t very often we meet another motorcycling couple who has so much in common with us. Trobaritz made a delicious dinner.
Troubadour and I did make a quick sunset ride to check out some of their favorite roads nearby, and to make it just that little bit more special Trobaritz said I should ride her Gladius. Who am I to argue with an extremely generous offer like that? Ride a different bike? SURE! The Gladius is based off the naked SV650 I own. The engine is similar but slightly more power due to the fuel injection. The handling and ergos were also slightly different. I enjoyed riding it through the twisties even though I was a tad nervous riding someone else’s bike, on twisty roads, at night.
For the return trip, Troubadour suggested we switch bikes. Ok! His Triumph Tiger was very different than the Gladius or my SV. It was actually like a lighter version of my GS. I enjoyed riding it as well. I also enjoyed the windscreen since it was one of the few I have been behind without a lot of noise. It also did a fine job keeping me warm as now it was dark and the temperature was dropping. I was dressed in my mesh gear for the 80F ride into Corvallis. We arrived back with the only casualties being several hundred bugs splattered on our coats and helmets. The evening mosquito genocide ride.
Since three of us were moto bloggers, we couldn’t resist geeking out without computing devices. My wife thought it we were a bit odd, but we practice safe computing.
A huge thank you to Troubadour and Trobaritz for their generosity and hospitality! We both really enjoyed our time with you, and I hope we meet again soon!
