31 March 2008

Rocketman

This Saturday we were helping out at Christmas in Action. It is very similar to Habitat for Humanity here in the Midland area. One of my Brother Knights invited Eric and myself to go riding in the sand dunes on Sunday.

I agree so i go home and prep my DS 650 for a fun time in the dunes. The next morning we all load up and head to Imperial TX for the dunes.

The dunes in this area are migrating sands. The hills are never the same from day to day. Some hills will go up and top out like a mesa while others are knife edges or razor backs. You have to time your climb to almost stall out when you reach the top because you never know what is on the other side. If you stop and your bike is in the uphill position you are stuck. You need to stop so your bike is pointed downhill and you have gravity on your side when you take off.

So there we are riding around the trucks and cutting up. Darrel decides that Him, Bobby, Eric and myself should go gripping and ripping and have a good time. Let me set the scene. Everyone riding is experienced in the dunes except Eric. Can you guess who has a mishap?

We take off. Darrel has the lead and i am on his butt. Bobby and Eric are following slowly behind us. We are on the trail for about 10 minutes and we stop for a beer brake. Yes we carry beer with us.

After a round we are on the trail again. Darrel is in the lead and i am riding cleanup. I actually like being the last rider, you get to see everyone mess up. Darrel and Bobby are about one hill ahead of Eric and myself. I top this little hill and Darrel and Bobby are setting on top of a 40 foot tall hill. I would guess that the incline is about 35-40 degrees. I am watching Eric as he goes up the hill. He doesn't have enough momentum so about 3/4 of the way up he stalls. He has to ride down the dune backwards. Me being the good friend that i am i take off up the hill and cut in front of Eric to give him a good dusting. I top the hill and we are sitting on a knife edge. It is just as steep going down as it was coming up.

Darrel, Bobby and myself are sitting on the top like a couple of crows on a fence just giving Eric the business. We are questioning his riding skills, manhood and upper body strength. We were actually laughing and having a good time.

Bobby takes off and leaves Darrel and myself sitting there. Here comes Eric. We are watching as he backed way up and got a good running start. Just before the start of the hill Eric hits third gear. He is hauling ass. Darrel gives me this look like "can you believe this shit" and i just shrug my shoulders.

I am waiting for Eric to back off the throttle as he nears the top of the hill. He didn't. When he cleared the top he realized it was a knife edge. When he hit the brakes all 4 tires were in the air. You know what happens when you hit the front brakes in air right? You got it, he went nose down. He probably had an air time of 4 seconds. He stuck the nose of the 4-wheeler like a lawn dart about 3/4 of the way down that hill.

The bike flipped ass over handle bars burying Eric's head in the sand like an Ostrich and kept flipping to a level spot. Darrel and i look at each other with this look of disbelief and fear. We thought it killed Eric. We take off down the hill and help pull Eric out of the sand. About that time Bobby comes back and thought the mummy had returned.

Eric had sand coming out of his ears, mouth and nose. His eyes were packed shut with sand. We checked him out and found out that he is OK. Nothing was broke and he could move all his extremities with no pain. He did bite his tongue and shit his pants. After we checked him out we dang near passed out from laughing so hard.

He had good form until he reached the apex of his trajectory and realized he had to crash land. I am still laughing about it. When i got home today i googled Rocket man then called Eric and played it for him.

Eric's new name is the rocket man. A name well earned and bestowed upon him by his closest friends.

Later i will tell you about Rabbit man.

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