Meandering in Mojave
It is beautiful and desolate. Time passes.
Unwanted 737's destined for 3rd world airlines or the boneyard slump
waiting on the crumbled mixture of sand and macadam.
All vegetation is stomped or JP8-burned to brown stubble.
F-86's, F-100's, F-5's, F-no clues and even a mig lounge hopefully
in their tie-downs for a pilot to join in for a dance.
Orange Tailed QF-4's wait out their appeals until the inevitable final NULO
blaze of glory-death sentence over gulf water.
The airport repavers are back at their losing battle.
Yeah I'm on the LeMond - my back is as old and crumbly as the pavement here.
Feels like XC though; dodging the crumbled potholes, tumbleweeds and rabbit carcasses.
Avoiding the half-ass piles of tar and gravel the county guys forgot after their mid-morning coffee break.
Riding on the dirt is smoother and more interesting, so smooth 1/2 inch rubber meets earth
and 40 years of miscellaneous human detritus.
30 mph winds and icy. The wind screams through helmet holes.
I hear the Drakken spin up and sprint to the flight line fence to see fire gush at me.
Pilot sees me as he lowers the canopy and gives me the thumbs-up race signal. Huh?
I parallel him as he taxi's out to the runway - he looks hard over and grins like a crazy bastard.
I am a crazy bastard and I get the jump!
I get 30 yards before he screams past and goes near vertical in seconds.
I'm laughing my ass off and heading out hwy 58 at tailwind propelled 36 mph.
Just as the frontage road appears over the far side of the overpass (a shot up sign says this is the future home of a convenience strip mall), the full afterburner roar and jet wash smash into me.
After my heart restarts and I somehow pick my way back onto the road I look up.
A quick snap roll reveals that same maniacal grin that challenged me in our lopsided drag race.
The black silhouette is already a mile above leaving frosted coils of contrail against a sky to blue to be.
I choose the dirt airport perimeter road back around toward the Tehachapis.
Some skin is gone when I roll into the hangar and the A&P's roll their eyes as I try a 'cross dismount and fall into the rollup.
God I love riding!
Posted by FFW  a 47 year old Cross-Country Rider riding a MPB from Palmdale on 03/01/06
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- Re: Meandering in Mojave
Jet noise, the sound of freedom.
Posted by Notorious MTB a 42 year old Die-hard Enthusiast riding a lot of different bikes from Orange County on 03/01/06
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- Re: Meandering in Mojave
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What??? You mean you didn't win the race? WTF, has Reg been teaching you or not teaching you is more like it? I could just picture you getting up out of the saddle taking off and the pilot laughing his ass off as he took off. Good one.
Posted by Pain Freak riding a Surly Turner from The 909 on 03/01/06
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- Top Gun crit...
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...is more like it! Very cool story. Racing against a Saab fighter jet with a mere 1/3 horsepower set of human quads has to be one of the most lopsided contests I've ever heard of! But yet, FFW got the jump. I've raced cars on the street before and got the jump on them for at least the first 20-50 feet before they catch up, the drive tromping on the pedal hard so he won't lose all his manliness! Isn't it funny how many drivers accelerate very hard around roadies? It's like they feel inadequate or something. I mean, Grandma can do the same thing in her 78' Fird Granada. It must be to impress us. That's it. I'm always impressed. Finally, Mojave is a tripped out place. Quite a few 50's, 60's and 70's era jet fighters hang out there and being an avaition buff, it's cool to see these things as flying condition instead of engineless museum pieces. The flyable Mojave F-4 Phantom with a pair of J-79's certainly looks different from the engineless museum piece at the Palmdale Air Museum. The ass-end no longer squats close to the ground. Take a look at a ground picture of an F-14 Tomcat and then remove 10,000 pounds of engine. It won't have that mean, gunfighter on his haunches look to it, that's for sure.
Posted by STP a 45 year old Racer riding a K2 Razorpiggie from P'Dale on 03/02/06
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- Re: Meandering in Mojave
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Reg, why do I picture you screaming down a frontage road bordering a runway in your Escort, RazorPig bungied to the top, with Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" blaring out of the factory speakers hanging out of the door panels?
Posted by Captain Carve a Downhiller riding a LibTech Pacifier from Freshie County on 03/02/06
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- Re: Meandering in Mojave
That's not an entirely inaccurate picture you're drawing. <8^) Alas, Escort #2 the 'Nana' car died after three days of use. With only 41,000 miles, the 89 Escort decided to self-digest the transmission at a stoplight. Screw putting any money into a first-gen Escort POS. Escort #1, the blue pimp wagon is already with it's new owner. Tonight, I'm picking up the new STP mobile at the local Ford dealership. Nothing crazy, just reasonable transpo, tho' it had to be a wagon. Gotta be able to fling winter gear in all directions so that it can dry out!
Posted by STP a 45 year old Racer riding a K2 Razorpiggie from P'Dale on 03/02/06
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- Re: Meandering in Mojave
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I know - I'm replying to myself again Pilots have fragile ego's and I know Loyd's is extra brittle; so I backed off just a bit at the end ; ) BTW: Loyd's greatest enjoyment is making finance weenies puke in the back seat. Since the insurance weenies ended that opportunity - he's left only with the full afterburner up from behind scare the living Sh1t out of the finance weenie option. It works! I'm just bummed the plug was pulled right before my turn to blow some 9-G chunks.
Posted by FFW a 47 year old Cross-Country Rider riding a MPB from Palmdale on 03/02/06
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