DDT (12)
Member
Posts: 4112
Sometimes ya just gotta go...
Winter Springs, FL - Occasionally...
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« on: September 25, 2024, 02:40:12 PM » |
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When Life Gives You Lemons…
I gave up on slumber at 4:30am and threw the covers back. I then sat up and turned off the alarm clock feature on my smartphone set for 5am. It was only then that I noticed Valker (Eric West), my traveling companion, was also restlessly awaiting the appointed time for us to hit the road. We’d gone to bed thinking we’d go KSU at 6am, weather permitting, of course…
We’d been enjoying a great ride up until then. We did get wet during much of the last 100 miles of our ride here, though, but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm! We’d found some unexpectedly good riding on several back roads in southeastern Indiana and even some in Ohio. This had definitely been a most pleasant ride… so far. It had been cloudy nearly the entire way following the DRU with mercifully mild temps, but remarkably moisture-free… mmmm…
No riding plans, particularly those made amid overall dicey weather conditions, consistently survive as originally made to the arrival of departure time… let alone those down the road a way. This was to be one of those no-go days for us after all… I had gotten up and pulled the curtain back hoping for good news… No joy at all.
In fact, the ‘news’ was rather bleak! Being a couple of veteran long riders, however, neither of us were distraught; we simply turned our thoughts and conversation to what actually was happening and away from what we’d thought would be our lot… The local ‘Door Dashers’ would a little later be receiving yet another call from us after all.
“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it…” observed Will Rogers once upon a time. In the case of this dubious duo, we both agree that there’s simply no point in bitching about our plight… It is what it is, and our only sensible recourse is to consider how we might deal with it…
We also are determined to enjoy as much as possible whatever surprises find their way onto our paths… My good friend is a pure delight with whom to travel, by the way, as he is amazingly flexible in nearly all ride-related matters! If there is a more easy-going ride partner, I’ve yet to meet him or her!
For starters, we’d need to keep the motel room another night… possibly three more nights! Yes, a check of the online weather forecast sources and the updated versions of their guesstimates indicated the forecast had become rather grim… There were no restaurants close-by, either, but we at least already knew for a fact delivery was available!
We’d not received the ‘rain break’ that had appeared on the weather map the evening before. That frequently happens, as all veteran travelers know… We look at the best available information and make our ‘plans’, then we adjust to actuality as it unfolds… As often as not, those two differ sometimes only in some small detail, but at other times in near diametrically opposed outcomes. This time things were evolving decidedly more towards the ‘undesirable’ end of the scale…
We’d been dodging hard rain fairly successfully but occasionally getting caught in a sprinkle or two now and then throughout this entire ride. The time had by then arrived, however, for us to face the ‘Full Monty’ of Mother Nature with all the vagaries of her repertoire of tricks… the law of averages had at last overtaken us. It appeared at that moment we were facing far more than just an inconvenient delay in our ride, too… We were staring at the likelihood of a total disruption and subsequent major rerouting.
Not at all usual for either of us, we were on this wander-about operating under somewhat of a time constraint. My driver’s license would expire in a couple of weeks, and this time it must be renewed in-person. In Florida, the law requires every other time drivers must appear in person, and I’d renewed mine online the last time. My partner was just fine with a detour like that… That was just part of the experience, he’d observed, and it’s all good!
I also had a change-of-address issue to overcome with those delightful ‘rules-bound’ bureaucratic functionaries who do their jobs just as they’re instructed. Yes, I have a couple of odd wrinkles due to my chosen lifestyle and with advancing age (the dreaded eye test) that will make it a bit more challenging to finally complete that onerous chore this time… This could get complicated! And, what if I finally must get prescription eyeglasses? I’d deal with whatever popped up, of course, but… this could indeed get very complicated!
One option seriously being kicked around was the possibility of renting a car and leaving our Valks at the rental company lot someplace. That would nicely address the likely heat/humidity we’d encounter in central Florida, and it would enable us to jump through whatever hoops I needed to without the added risks of possibly riding in the rain around a very busy urban area (Orlando and environs)!
Then, there are those two storms about to dump tons of moisture on the southeast over the next week or two… The thought of caging is becoming a very real and increasingly appealing possibility! When circumstances are far from ideal, we must look for acceptable alternatives… and be willing to make previously unthought of changes…
Yessir, when life throws lemons at ya… Come to think of it: No lemonade is available here, so I am sipping a ‘Mt Dew’ instead, as I compose this…
DDT (12)
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