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Highway
93 2024
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The
LaQuinta has a 'true' hot breakfast with pig meat and hen fruit and some
fried taters. Usually 'hot' breakfast means they have a waffle or pancake
machine and some sweet rolls and cereal. They also have hot chocolate so
I avail myself of that as well. |
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Today
is my ride-in appointment with Russell Cycle Products for them to build
me another custom seat.
I was here back in 2016 when they built me two more. As always,
I arrive here early as I hate to be late - it wastes other people's time
and I consider it to be really rude. |
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Jay
directs me to come around to the side gate that is open. Once I'm in the
office I'm glad to see Mocha - CIC - Cat In Charge - still involved in the
business. |
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And out
of the kindness of her heart she allows me to give her a belly rub. |
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Then as the important
executive that she is, she goes out to survey what needs to be done so she
can direct her humans to get after it. |
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For a ride in to Russell, you
are the only one that they deal with that day. Once her humans get through
sorting out how my new seat should go, she dismisses me until lunch time
to go out for a ride. |
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Jay suggests that
I might enjoy taking a tour of the Shasta Dam so I head up that way to check
it out. |
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The water behind
the dam is so blue it reminds me a lot of the
waters of Crater Lake. |
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I pause for a minute
above one of the pulloffs to get a 'calendar' shot of BlueBelle with the
dam and lake in the background. |
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When I go into the
visitor's center to ask about the tour, they let me know that the elevator
that goes down into the power generating area is broken. They are having
a walking tour across the top but it doesn't start until 11 AM and I need
to be back at Russell by then. They tell me there is a interesting video
for me to watch about the dam and it's construction, so I figure that would
be good and take them up on their offer. |
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I learn that the engineer,
Frank Crowe, also oversaw the building of the Hoover Dam. His method was
to have a gigantic control tower in the middle of the project where one
man controlled all the huge concrete buckets for pouring the dam. In the
video room they have a model of the control tower and ... |
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tools used by some of the workmen
on the project. |
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On my way out I
meet Bree, a combat veteran who was a dog handler. Things are sort of slow,
so we get to have some great conversations about a variety of topics. |
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But soon it's time
to head back and see how Mocha has gotten her humans to work on my seat.
The effort has obviously exhausted her but they have the 'pad' ready for
me to test. It is absolutely wonderful so I head out for lunch so they can
do the upholstery work. |
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Lunch is a no-brainer as the
local restaurant, Old Mill Eatery, is still open and for that I am thankful.
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My server notices that I am
on a motorcycle so she says -
"I bet you are here to
get a seat built up at Russell."
"Yes I am and this is
where I come for lunch when I do" I say with smile.
They have a killer New York
Strip sandwich, but she tells me they are out of them as the delivery
truck hasn't shown up. She tells me -
"We do have some smoked
brisket can do a sandwich with".
I sign up for that cruise instead
and I am not disappointed.
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Once again I leave the battlefield
victorious with very few fragment that remain. |
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I still have a little time left
so I take another spin up around by the dam to get some more shots. When
I was talking to Bree earlier, she told me those pipes are big enough to
drive a bus through. |
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It's a lovely run around the
edge of the lake ... |
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and I get another shot of it
a little higher up. |
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I get back and it still early
so Mocha allows me some special time to hold her and tell her what a good
job she is doing running the business. |
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Mike is my seat builder and
is also the son of Terry, the human that Mocha lets think that he is owner.
He was one of the first people to be trained on seat building by the original
Russell seat builders when Terry bought the business. I tell him -
"It's great that you and
your dad can be in the same business and get along."
So many times I've seen families
working together and it turns out to be nothing battles. Mike and Terry
get along great and I just think that is so neat.
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Jay, who splits his time between
managing the office and building seats is also one of the early trained
seat builders. They face the same problems most businesses do today and
that is finding workers that want to work, learn the trade, and stay with
the company. Once my new seat is finished I decide I will ride back on
it and let them ship my old seat home. We get to talking, and then I decide
that this new one is so good that I might just get Mike to rebuild the
one I rode in on. Jay responds -
"Why don't you ride on
for a while and then let me know whether to rebuild your old seat or just
ship it."
That makes good sense to me,
so I tell him I will call him and e-mail him on Monday sometime to let
him know what I decide. By then I should have about 4,000 miles on it
which will be plenty of time to get it broken in.
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With that taken care of, I head
to Redding and the motel. I still have leftovers from the steak and tater
last night so I dine in. Afterwards it does not take me long to find the
place of perfect rest. |
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