It started with a Saturday night message, inquiring as to my availability the next day and my intended exact location, with little other input.
Sunday morning at precisely 9:11, I received a call from my old friend and colleague, jamesa, telling me that he was “picking up the donuts” and would be near my door in seconds.
After about an hour and a half of discussion and a little driving/riding and some quick and dirty documenting, he was gone, almost no sooner than he had arrived. Returned to his home in northeast Oregon where his wife was waiting, as he had told her that he was going to pick up some donuts, and probably promising to be back “before long”. Turned out that it was her birthday and he knew that her favorite donuts could be procured at Popular Donuts in Walla Walla as a surprise treat.
Upon his return to the Oregon outback on his wonderful BMW R1100RS, jamesa reported that the 180-mile run, via Tollgate, was pleasant (and relatively cool on the higher-elevation Oregon side) and yielded 47.8 mpg at decent (but not the hard-charging of his younger years — as he says, “The older I get, the faster I was.”) speeds.
And a little more doc:
