DDT (12)
Member
Posts: 4116
Sometimes ya just gotta go...
Winter Springs, FL - Occasionally...
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« on: January 20, 2020, 05:40:30 AM » |
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Well, it was… downright cool yesterday morning… to this tenderfoot, anyway! Now, my Yankee friends, Canucks too, will scoff at this, but for a Florida boy experiencing his first real dose of briskness this season…the change in atmospherics had immediately become all too apparent! I know 40*F ain’t much, and I’ve certainly ridden in much lower temps myself, but still… and there was also a rather significant breeze stirring, too. Maybe I’m just getting… nah, that can’t be it. Maybe I’m just growing soft… yeah, that has to be it. I’m confident I’ll have ample opportunity to toughen up soon enough, however.
Anyway, those Gerbings were fully utilized throughout the day, and they were a most welcome apparel item. They have become absolutely indispensable this time of year, and I thank my Hillbilly buds daily for turning me on to them. My old gloves had stopped working last year, so I’ve had to replace them, but the new ones are filling the gap nicely and keeping my delicate digits from going into pain mode. Lower speeds also helped ease the wind chill effect (a spanking breeze smack out of the north all day). No slabs this day, as we made the turn towards Natchez, MS, and continued on across the ‘Big Muddy’ into Louisiana.
I was paying careful attention as we came upon the turn onto LA 28 that would take us to Alexandria, where we’d pick up another highway towards Lake Charles… I didn’t become cocky or anything, as we effortlessly made the turn and headed in a more just south of due westerly direction… OK, yes, I suppose did I feel borderline smug, I guess… The wind continued to batter my right flank… ALI barely noticed.
Soon enough we were ‘in town’, and that’s when things got a bit challenging… Just enough traffic to force me to vigilantly watch out for that, while also keeping an eye out for our highway number… I had US 165 in mind as the road we wanted, but when US 167 came up, I figured I’d misremembered, so… I made the turn… and it was the wrong turn… We went about 25miles or so out of the way, but we did recover well enough, so no harm done. Besides, we’d been making good time, so we weren’t feeling any time pressure… I’d called JP (Hard6) the day before to make sure a drop-by visit would work for them, so he and Bobbie were expecting us.
We jogged west over to the ‘correct’ road (US 165) and made the turn southwest… Back on track again and none the worse for wear… for awhile… I was no longer feeling smug by then… Now, we’ve traveled this route before, and I knew where we were going and how things would look at our next necessary turn… Well, there ain’t much one can do when a full-blown cranial crap (brain fart) kicks in, as some of you may also know; so, unless one is completely certain he/she can safely recover, the best thing I can figure to do is just ride it out… and correct later. Again surrounded by SUVs, sedans, and pick-ups and obviously a bit distracted, I spotted a sign out of the corner of my eye… It was an I-10 sign with an attached Detour sign… I didn’t at first see the other sign, Alternate, also on that same pole… Yep, I made the split-second decision and made the turn…onto US 190…
Oh well, once I was already committed to the turn, and more than a little worried somebody might be about to run us down… I just continued on. No real problem, as we would be going in the right direction anyway, paralleling the road I’d figured on us taking (I-10); and, we could jog down later and get right back on track… Actually, it worked out rather nice, as we rode a two-lane road instead of a stretch of slab, and with time still not being a concern… I just love it when a boo-boo works out in spite of my mistakes! Feelings of smugness never returned that entire day, but feelings of relief sure did!
We arrived at JP & Bobbie’s house pretty much on-time and intact. I was most pleasantly pleased with JP’s condition. I’d been keeping tabs on him ever since his cancer diagnosis, so I did know he’s made progress and been feeling much better with each passing month, especially since the last time I’d been to visit him. Seeing and not merely hearing about someone’s condition, as we all know, can often reveal a very different perception, and this was wonderfully one of those times! Things were really working out… and then… Bobbie set a plate with ribs, corn on the cob, and smashed taters on it in front of this ‘navigator’ and… There are definitely times when life can just be downright oh-so good, aren’t there?!!!
DDT
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