I found the book I was interested in in Redding, but didn’t want it after I’d seen it, if that makes sense. B&N and Food Maxx are pretty much in the same place, so I left my Beastie to rest while I had a nice iced coffee and picked up a few supplies. I sure have lost the habit of riding in cities, though.

This happy-looking fellow was the only motorcyclist in the Fourth of July parade at Weaverville today. His impressive trike was decked out all in red, white and blue. But it was the big smile that I really noticed. :)

I took Beastie for a ride. I had errands to run, and a mountain pass to navigate in order to get down to Redding. I stopped here at the visitor center hoping they’d have some food, but they didn’t. Lovely view, though. ;)

As water runs down the roof, Beastie gets an impromptu shower. We make our own rain here. It’s really very humid and unpleasant, otherwise…

At the weekend we had the teeniest, weeniest amount of rain. A few specks of water fell out of the sky, and I went out in them to get rid of the horrible stickiness of humid heat. Unfortunately, it really didn’t last that long, not even long enough to wash the dust off Beastie.

How to take part:

1. Write a post on your blog about any aspect of motorcycling.
   
2. Mention that it’s part of the July Motorcycle Carnival.
   
3. Paste a link back to this post, to encourage others to join in, and maybe post the instructions too.
   
4. Send me a message with the url of your post when it’s up.
   
5. On the 21st a blog post will go up with commentary highlighting all the posts.
   

What is a carnival? A carnival is a collection of posts on a related topic, in this case motorcycling. Carnivals move from blog to blog, so if you are interested in being a host, please let me know! The readers get new and interesting things to read, the bloggers get some link love, the host gets some traffic, and it’s a win-win bit of fun for all.

Please help promote the motorcycle carnival!

Start mileage: 39,257.5
Miles in June: 546.8
Miles in 2008: 4064.6

If I recall correctly, Dad used to have a Tiger Cub, yea these many years ago. Triumph has certainly come a long way. This is a serious-looking dual sport, and even has stripes. ;)

We’re parked in the post office at Weaverville. Here, there’s a billboard with information on where the fires are and what to do. This is a whole new world for us.

Going up the high street, I snapped this photo of a bike parked outside the historic hotel. The smoke was thick and unpleasant, the light quality somehow hellish. Fascinating, but uncomfortable.