[ST] True and Unedited Hollywood story of the lost Pannier

[Doug Bailey <dougthe2wf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

They may regret digging up us Old Dawgs out of lurk mode.
   
  Yes, it was I, Hound Dawg, that won the 2000 Loctite Award for, apparently notoriously, loosing a pannier.  The True and Unedited Hollywood Story of the Lost Pannier goes as follows.
   
  I had ridden down Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway from PA when I met and went to lunch in Hendersonville with 5 NC cruiser riders playing hookey from their lawyer and banking jobs.  After lunch I turned around in a small and very sloped parking lot.  While riding perpendicluar to the slope a young kid darted out from between two cars.  Despite my 5mph speed, the quick and improper application of the front brake along with the sloped surface naturally applied a sideward movement to the bike and rider.  Unfortunately the sideward movement was in the down hill direction.  By the time my right foot found the ground there was no stopping the momentum, only slowing it to a gentle laydown.  Gone was the nice look of my 5 month old bike with scratches through the thin red surface exposing the white core of the side middle panel and right pannier.  
   
  Upon uprighting the bike with the help of the NC riders a too quick a look revealed just a few scratches.  So I continued on my merry way through the buckboard roads of Hendersonville.  At some point shortly thereafter I noticed that I didn't see the right pannier in the corner of my mirror anymore and a look over my shoulder made my heart stop when I saw what looked like a big gaping hole.  Granted it is on the side of the bike, but when you ALWAYS see it there it looks like a hole when it is gone.  Inspecting the latch I realized that when the bike went down on the right it must have displace the bag over the rail and only the latch had held it on.
   
  So I slowly rode and then walked the weeds and ditch of the area I had just passed.  Then retraced my ride from the scene of the mishap (in the helicopter business you don't have accidents, you have mishaps).  All was lost.  Happened to ride past a LEO and in the slim hope that someone found it they could contact me.  But later realized that if it caused a traffic accident when it fell off I really didn't want them to find me.  Not exactly a lesson to learn but something to remember should you find yourself in a similar situation or if you're the guy who lost the Walmart smiley bag in-front of a motorcyclist, but that's another Old Dawg's story.
   
  Arriving at the Rallye quite embarrased it wasn't as bad as it could have been, or has been remembered.  My underware was fortunately in the left pannier.  I had only lost all my shirts, extra jeans, and a couple things I bought on the ride down the Parkway.  It was a fantastic rallye though.  
   
  Lesson No. 1for you, put all your clothes in the left pannier!  When I had an unplanned off road excursion in the sands of Death Valley 2 years later and found the bike on it's right side trying to catch a tan, I checked the right pannier.  Then 1 year later after side swipping some sort of knee high forest creature in the No. Cal. woods in the dark of night with the right side of the bike it was again good that the underware was in the left pannier as I needed it and that I checked the right pannier.  
   
  Lesson No. 2 for you.  Don't do anything memorable at a rallye with these guys, they'll never let you forget.
   
  Doug "Hound Dawg" Bailey  
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