Castro's Comm

Every time I take the Ural out for a ride it turns into an adventure in human interaction.  One of my regular stops is at the El Rancho Market in Santa Ynez.

Well,  stopping at El Rancho has been known to result in great lunches, great people watching and even better interactions (plus they have the best whiskey selection on the Central Coast).  I have to admit that I have gone there rather selfishly (w/o regard to the project) and should have been more prepared to record the events for Sidetrak'n.  For example, once while having lunch, David Crosby walked up and started admiring the bike.  We chatted for quite a while about everything from motorcycles to gunsmithing and I didn't have a single camera available to take a picture.

I really dig how this bike has what can only be described as a magnetism towards inhibition.  Two things are absolutely guaranteed; 1. Complete strangers will come up and talk to you with hesitation, 2. Everyone that goes for a ride smiles uncontrollably.  So, recently while having a cup of coffee at El Rancho and talking with a passerby about the bike, another gentleman overheard our conversation.  As the first fellow walked away the second man walked up to me and with a very strong spanish accent he points at the bike and says,  "that is like a Jeep missing one wheel"...."They will go anywhere"... "I know this!"  I had to chuckle at his accurate assessment but more to his 'as a matter of fact' delivery.  So I agreed and asked him what brought him to this conclusion.

So... how do you come to this conclusion?" I ask rather sheepishly.  He then proceeds to tell me something I did not expect.  He told me how he was in the Cuban Army when he was a young man as a Communications Specialist and how they would use the Russian Sidecars to carry and advance the communications gear across the battlefield.  He told me how they used the front machine gun mount for the antennae mount and how the receiver/transmitter equipment would be carried in the sidecar body.  Both operators would ride on the bike just as they did with the anti-tank units.

We walked over to the bike and he was shocked when I told him that the bike was in fact a 2011 model year.  He was amused at how much of the bike had remained unchanged over the years.  He did comment how he wished he had a reverse gear on his old military unit but all in all he was always impressed because it just kept going and going.  He thanked me and before I could gather my thoughts he and his wife got into their truck and drove away.

The thing that strikes me about this interaction was the fact that had he not heard my previous conversation he may have never started into a conversation with me and I obviously would have had no reason to pry into his life to ask if he had a story.  Thankfully the bike was the catalyst for this particular Sidetrak'n experience.  More importantly it made me realize that everyone has some kind of story and they are all around us.  We just have to be open to hearing them.

So... until next time go get Sidetrak'd...  --jp