Today I had planned a ride from Matewan to Williamson. I knew it would be the shortest ride out of the 3-day trip. But sometimes it’s not the miles but the fun had while going nowhere.
So we were off and heading down the trail, and on this day, we had Dave and Brenda join us, along with Doug from the gas station, which is where Terry met him and his boys. The weather was a little warm for this time of the year, but it really had no dust, so that was great for people trailing behind others.
The day was beautiful, and we got to see several overlooks as far as the eye could see. I took a trail that I hadn’t taken previously, and we found something called Castle Rock. James and I went up there and found that you could crawl through a hole out on a rock ledge with a great overlook. It was probably the highlight of the day.
What the group was very excited about was that last year we did a big ride from Gilbert to Williamson, and by the time we got there, everyone was starving, as it’s a pretty lengthy ride. So, we ate at this pizza place called 3 Guys Pizza & Brew, and I know everyone was excited about that because of how good everyone remembered it being.
We were off and made it to our last stop before dropping into Williamson, which was one of the Almost Heaven Swings. Always a great time up there and a good place to hang out.
Now we made our way through Williamson, and everyone was very excited to be at the pizza joint and order our food. I was kind of watching, and it didn’t appear everyone was enjoying the food as much as they did last year. So, then the comments started, and I wondered, is it really that much worse than last year, or were we just really, really hungry when we arrived late after a big ride the year before?
We were preparing to head back to Matewan, and I hear Terry talking, saying it’s going to be a really bad day because he never stops to eat early, and he’s about to take us on a hell ride, and we are all going to suffer! Well, we get back to the Matewan Bed and Breakfast, and they were like, “Really, that’s it?” I said, “Yes, tomorrow will be the big ride, and today was just a nice laid-back ride.” I said, “Unless you guys want to go to Wilmore Dam, which we didn’t make it to yesterday, and we will go by road.”
That’s what we decided, and we were all off to Wilmore Dam. We were going down the road at a good pace when Pam said, “You better pull over and let them catch up at Marathon to wait on everyone at that turn.” All of a sudden, I started getting mayday calls that someone was broken down. So we were off to head back to locate the broken-down machine.
We were heading back and saw an orange Kawasaki Teryx along the road, all powerless, driven by Dave Carter with a big frown on his face. It appeared the old machine had trouble keeping up on the road, and his belt exploded. At least that was his excuse! But at least this time, he was able to get over half a day out of the machine, as he hasn’t had good luck for several years, not making it more than a day before that little rubber band had some sort of issue.
So it was decided by Casey and Dave’s grandson Nathan to try to swap his belt out right there. All I can tell you is it’s not like switching out the belt on the newer ones or a RZR. After removing the passenger seat, you then have to take everything apart there and remove the gas tank just to get the cover off and the belt off. It was a group effort between Casey, Nathan, and James, but they got it after a long while. So, it was decided to just go back to the Bed and Breakfast until the big ride tomorrow. Sucks for them, as I have seen Wilmore Dam in person! What can I say, someone doesn’t want them to see it, as it was the second attempt in two days.
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