An excellent day overall in my opinion. I'm dead tired after a long night
last night (2:30 AM sleepy time) and waking up today at around 6:00 AM all
excited about today's Lunch & Ride... So this will be brief (for me anyhow)
and lack lots of personal details...
Weather - Turned out okay. Not spectacular, but not bad either. Plenty
warm for most folks I think, but a bit sunless. Hit 69 in my hometown and
probably 65 during the riding we did. I was plenty sweaty by the time I got
home due to the layered leather and sweat jacket... I think we had a decent
group today considering some came from NJ, NY and PA... And wherever you
started from could have been beautiful and sunny or pitiful and wet...
Attendees: 8 people total. Had received "RSVPs" from 8, but I think we had
some no-shows and some surprise visitors too. Awesome group. 4 Vulcan
750's, 3 Goldwings, one other... 800cc Shadow, Nighthawk, or Yamaha
something... I forget what it was! Forgive me. I'll let those of you who
showed up give your own review of the day too. Let's hear from you here...
If you were there, reply or post your perspective! I know some names and
some "handles" but can't match them all up mentally right now (tired,
remember?). I keep coming up with like 10 people after my mix-and-match
attempts.
Route & other details: Pre-Lunch & Ride. GC and I departed my house at 8
AM or so and headed north on 23. Wound up somewhere in NY on Route 17
somethingorother trying to get to Harriman(?) State Park without using the
highway system... Found Florida but not the park. We wound up too far
west. Hit some really nice roads though and had a blast! Got a bit lost
trying to get back to Budd Lake for the fellowship and food and showed up a
bit late... In fact, we were the last two to show up. SORRY FOLKS! We ate
and had a decent time but got out of there rather quickly to RIDE!
As I normally do when I organize a "gathering" I let everyone else decide
where we are going to head off towards... Someone else (I'll let them speak
up) took lead in a random, "you have some good ideas. Go to the front" type
decision. Great decision because... We headed west on 46 to 519(?) and
then through some places I had never been and rode parts of Old Mine Road.
Some of the roads we were on were totally awesome. The best I have ridden
to date since getting on a bike or even in a car... But they were more
frightful than a Fear Factor episode with all that grit and crater avoidance
going on... Great ride even though one of the "wingers" lost a piece to
their fairing along the way during a smooth portion of the roadway. I
almost stopped to pick it up, but I thought it was probably just road
debris...
Made a stop on 206 for gas and we all split up to head home. Hit some
stop-and-go traffic just before 80 on 15 south but otherwise had a
trouble-free run all day.
Learned something important today... If you ride alone all winter, you lose
some good group riding habits. At least I did! I had a hard time staying
in my portion of the lane, went to block an intersection for the two bikes
behind me on 46 and shot past the intersection while being overly careful,
and generally had more difficulty than I remember keeping my distances close
enough or far enough from the rider in front of me! Also had to sorta
relearn the signal habits for road debris, sand, etc.
Answer to this problem??? Ride with more people soon. <grin>
If I don't see you sooner, I'll see anyone who wants to join us on April
24th. First thoughts on route location are south to the pine barrens the
next time around. All you southern boys and gals need to contact me now so
we can get you hooked in and plan a good route!
Hope and believe everyone got home safe and sound.
Joe - V#8013 - '86 VN750 - joe @ yunx .com
Ask me about "The Ride" on July 31, '04:
http://www.youthelate.com/the_ride.htm
Born once - Die twice. Born twice - Die only once. Your choice...
Wanna ride Saturday, April 24th? eMail me...
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