Let's Ride

Chapter 6

Greg and I crawled into our tent, and since it wasn't quite as cold tonight, quickly stripped off our clothing, lying in the enlarged bag our bodies pressing against each other, Greg began to nibble my ear, and squeeze me tighter, "So tell me, are the Marines going to surrender tonight?" I giggled and whispered in his ear, "Actually I was thinking about letting the Army plant an "IED" Greg snickered, "I'd like to "inspect" this device first," I whispered. "Go for it!" he whispered back. I disappeared into the bag signaling the start of our "war games" A couple hours later, both of us were worn out from all that "combat" with both of us ending up "surrendering" to each other.

The next morning brought the usual moisture build-up on the inside of our tent, any movement, brought down "rain" on my face, both of us had stuffed our clothes inside the bag, so I was able to find all of mine in a hurry. Slipping on my boots and throwing on my jacket, it was back outside heading for the restroom.

When I got back, Greg was working on coffee, the little primus stove going full tilt. Both of agree that this was what camping was all about, cold mornings campfire smells, people cooking breakfast, standing there sipping my coffee, watching a couple magpies peck around on the ground. "You know babe, it wasn't so long ago, mornings like this usually meant we would be "mounting up" and heading out to kill bad guys, and with that the thought in your head, is this the day I "get it" mornings had a special meaning for us back then." commented Greg, I nodded in agreement, "It wasn't so bad for us," I replied, "just a lot of "make work" projects but yeah your right, going out to "meet and greet" the Afghan women always put a little worry in your mind, I liked the kids though, I always felt bad for them, they didn't know what was going on, poor little guys, kids always seem to get caught in the middle."

Tossing the dregs of my coffee on the ground I said, "We'd better get going," we let the bikes warm a little but didn't rev them too much out of concern for people still trying to sleep, Ah who were we kidding, they were awake. Riding out of the campground I could feel the cold on my face, I had my helmet on for added warmth as well as my other pair of gloves, I turned my heated handgrips up full and adjusted to the cold creeping around me looking for a way in. About halfway to Canyon junction Greg pointed towards the river on our right, sure enough, there was a moose just leaving the water on the opposite side of the river, soon after we spotted a small heard of elk feeding in a meadow, too far away for decent pictures. Traffic was picking up so I didn't think we would see any bears, as we approached Alum creek cars were lined up on both sides of the road, "now what?" I wondered, there was a moose out near where the creek widened out on our left, Greg indicated that he was pulling off, so I did as well.

We stood there watching the scene, Greg had his binoculars out studying the human comedy and laughing, "Check this out babe" handing me the binoculars, "look at those idiots" focusing I saw a man and two pre-teen types cautiously approaching a bull moose. "Look at the ground, they're walking on, if they have to make a run for it, somebody's gonna trip and get hurt." I examined the ground but couldn't really tell what he was talking about, but then he had been in recon and was trained to spot things like that. Sure enough, the moose made a lunge and the people backpedaled, with the man tripping and falling down. A collective gasp arose from the crowd below us, at the mans plight, thankfully the moose didn't attack, and just walked into the water but that man and those kids sure beat feet back to the road. "Check out the guy's pants, I'll bet he s**t 'em probably has a nice brown spot in his crotch" chuckled Greg.

The show was over so we jumped back on our bikes and made a lot of racket heading out. We still had some time so we stopped at Canyon village and had breakfast at the diner there, while we were eating, another biker couple came in saw us and came over. "Chilly morning for a ride" said the man who introduced himself as Chuck Walker, and his wife as Stormy. "Hard core all the way!" replied Greg. It turned out they were going on a ride just as we were. Chuck and Stormy rode a brand new Electra Glide custom, so the three of us motored over to the stable to change "horses."