Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Weekend on the Bike
What a great weekend. Rolling hills, sweeping curves, big V-twin 88 engine roaring under me… It was an absolutely beautiful weekend…
Saturday was a bit on the cold side as temps were in the lower 40’s as I left the hotel at 9:00AM expecting to meet up with some Moose Riders and a couple other folks at the local diner for breakfast. Much to my surprise, when I arrived there was only one other bike there and he was as puzzled as I was. He made a few phone calls and found out that everyone else whimped out due to the temp. Come on guys, if a Florida boy like me can do it, it should be easy for a bunch of people accustomed to the weather to ride with the chill in the air. Anyway, the other guy decided to head back home since his buddies didn’t show. How about that, get invited to a ride and then be the only one to show up, what’s up with that? Must be that Georgia hospitality… As it worked out, I had a great day in spite of them, riding north to Dahlonega across through Helen and on to Ellijay. I then made a large circle around Atlanta and headed back in through the northwest corner toward Smyrna. The temp got up to the lower 50’s in the afternoon and really wasn’t bad at all. The colder temps made the bike really run well. I put about 250 miles on the bike and the weather didn’t bother me at all. Layers are a wonderful thing for this type of activity and I had plenty. I kinda looked like a black version of the Michelin Man with my riding leathers about as full of clothes as they could handle but I was warm and happy.
When I left the hotel on Sunday, I was bundled up like the day before but it got warmer much earlier and right after I got to the Moose Lodge at about 10:30 for the Special Olympic Benefit Ride I was peeling off layers from underneath my leathers. This ride was much shorter, about 85 miles total with 3 scheduled stops before returning to the Smyrna Legion Hall. There were 24 bikes on this run and we broke out in three smaller groups to make it easier to stay together. It was a beautiful day and the temp got into the 60’s that, while still cool, made for an awesome time. We raised about 2K on the ride and combined with the early activities at the Moose Lodge and the later activities at the Legion Hall the total we raised for the Special Olympics for the day’s activities topped 15K. It was a good day…
I took a bunch of pics, really I did, but when they transferred my programs from my old computer to my new one they left off my Kodak software and the disks are at home in Florida so I’m still not able to post them here. I’ll have Stacey bring the software with her this weekend and I’ll get it up and running and post some pics next week.
Time to get some work done. After all, that’s what they pay me for…
Saturday was a bit on the cold side as temps were in the lower 40’s as I left the hotel at 9:00AM expecting to meet up with some Moose Riders and a couple other folks at the local diner for breakfast. Much to my surprise, when I arrived there was only one other bike there and he was as puzzled as I was. He made a few phone calls and found out that everyone else whimped out due to the temp. Come on guys, if a Florida boy like me can do it, it should be easy for a bunch of people accustomed to the weather to ride with the chill in the air. Anyway, the other guy decided to head back home since his buddies didn’t show. How about that, get invited to a ride and then be the only one to show up, what’s up with that? Must be that Georgia hospitality… As it worked out, I had a great day in spite of them, riding north to Dahlonega across through Helen and on to Ellijay. I then made a large circle around Atlanta and headed back in through the northwest corner toward Smyrna. The temp got up to the lower 50’s in the afternoon and really wasn’t bad at all. The colder temps made the bike really run well. I put about 250 miles on the bike and the weather didn’t bother me at all. Layers are a wonderful thing for this type of activity and I had plenty. I kinda looked like a black version of the Michelin Man with my riding leathers about as full of clothes as they could handle but I was warm and happy.
When I left the hotel on Sunday, I was bundled up like the day before but it got warmer much earlier and right after I got to the Moose Lodge at about 10:30 for the Special Olympic Benefit Ride I was peeling off layers from underneath my leathers. This ride was much shorter, about 85 miles total with 3 scheduled stops before returning to the Smyrna Legion Hall. There were 24 bikes on this run and we broke out in three smaller groups to make it easier to stay together. It was a beautiful day and the temp got into the 60’s that, while still cool, made for an awesome time. We raised about 2K on the ride and combined with the early activities at the Moose Lodge and the later activities at the Legion Hall the total we raised for the Special Olympics for the day’s activities topped 15K. It was a good day…
I took a bunch of pics, really I did, but when they transferred my programs from my old computer to my new one they left off my Kodak software and the disks are at home in Florida so I’m still not able to post them here. I’ll have Stacey bring the software with her this weekend and I’ll get it up and running and post some pics next week.
Time to get some work done. After all, that’s what they pay me for…
