Tracey's Birthday Ride, Chapter 9

Okay, all the planning and managing and scrounging and begging and pleading is done. We're sitting in the room relaxing, reading books and watching the clock --- tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. Okay, fine, so no clocks do that anymore but we hear it just the same. Finally Tracey says, "They gotta be done with Ruby by now, call 'em." Funny, 'cause I'd just looked at my watch and thought, "Damn, it's 3:15, surely they're done by now. Maybe I should call them." At 3:17, before I can dial the phone, it rings...All Done!!!"

I think we made it out of the room before I hung up my cellphone!!! We get down there as fast as a Hyundai will fly, pay the bill and Tracey takes off in the trusty Hyundai (yeah, still kinda rhymes) and I climb aboard Ruby FINALLY!!! I start her up, pull out of the parking lot, head to the 4-way stop ----------- you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, aren't you? You're thinking, "What's gonna go wrong now? What else will befall our Ruby-ridin' duo?

Well, I won't totally disappoint but nothing really big. When I grab the front brake at the stop sign, it feels like someone stuck a ripe banana in place of the brake lever. "Oh shit!" I think, do I have to take it back? What if they can't get it fixed today? What if they slow-roll the repair because I questioned their expertise? I quickly decide I'm gonna go ahead and ride on and see if it magically repairs itself. What the heck, I've got a back brake. Then it hits me --- it takes awhile for the disc pads to reseat and for the fluid pressure to build up. WHEW!!! Wadda ya know? We really are ready to roll. On the way to Budget to meet up with Tracey and turn in the car, I'm shaking Ruby down pretty hard. I figure I'd rather have something fail now instead of on our ride back to Gundo. Cars following me probably thought I'd either lost my mind or was drunk. In any case, nobody passed me or even got close behind. Everything felt great though - we're ready to blow this popsicle stand early tomorrow morning.

Hit the road early and beat the heat is our plan. We figure if we can make it to Barstow before noon, we'll avoid the worst of the heat. Yep, another miscalculation you can read about tomorrow. :-)