It all started on Friday morning, June 29th. I met Ric (Valkano) and George Yarbourough at the Elmer's restaurant in Clakamas, OR for breakfast and then we took off for what was to be a great weekend of riding in the incredible natural beauty of Central Oregon.

I met Ric Martin (Valkano) and George Yarbourough at the Elmer's at OR 211 and I-205. After a nice omelette and coffee, we took off up the twisty Clakamas River Road and over the lower Cascades to Detroit, Oregon. Detroit lake was all but dried up due to the drought this year, but we stopped for a photo anyway. It was the 3 musketeers on 3 black Valks, heading for the hills.

From Detroit we headed over the high Cascades to Sisters. The Harley dealer in Bend has a shop in Sisters to sell t-shirts, hats, stuffed animals and all those other Harley accoutrements. We decided to park there while we ran across the street to get a bite to eat.

After leaving Sisters, we headed to Bend to check out the Bend Bikefest. The event was sponsored by the Norwestars (a Yamaha club) and there were mostly metric V-Twins there at this point. We saw one Valk there (black of course) and what do you know, it was Musclehead (Tom Rudd). Now we had 4 black Valks (Hmmm, where are all the 2-tones... Still back in Portland? LOL!) We chatted with Tom a bit but he had to go to work, so we rode out to Prineville. I was staying with friends there and Ric and George were heading back to Portland that evening. We stopped for gas in Prineville and the kid at the service station said, "Man, this is the most impressive motorcycle I've ever seen". I told him he'd probably never see three at the same time anytime soon.

As Ric and George headed west back to Portland, I headed up the steep dirt road to Uncle Cliffie's hideaway, where fried chicken, jo-jos (potato wedge fries) and cold beverages were awaiting my arrival.

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