Took a nice ride today.

My riding lately has pretty much consisted of commuting to work and back. Today was a windy, beautiful, warm day here in Indiana so I decided to take a day off from remodeling and bowhunting and go on a solo dinner ride.

One of my favorite after work rides is to Hillsboro Indiana about 55 miles North of my house. The entire ride is two lane highway surrounded mostly by woods, hills and fields. Fifty percent of the ride is on what passes for twisties here in my part of the world.

I called the Penalty Box which is the restaurant/bar I usually eat at in Hillsboro to see if it was “smelt” night, it wasn’t. Tonight’s special was tenderloins, Oh Yeah, That’ll Work.

As usual, things didn’t go smooth at work and I had to stay a little late. Then I got behind an LEO on my way home and actually had to drive at the 40mph speed limit instead of the 60 mph the road seems designed for. After getting up at 4AM for work and driving home in a slow speed parade led by an LEO a nap was a necessity before heading out.

Five minutes of sleep, a cup of hot tea and I’m ready to rock. Traffic is running at an interesting speed this time as I head North on 59 following and followed by pickup truck drivers who seemed as happy to be off work and in the great wide open as I was.

Lots of combines in the fields and semis being loaded with shelled corn along the highways. And enough spilled corn in the roads to keep me on my toes.

It was a great ride through some really small towns such as Bellmore, Waveland, Wallace (the home of some kind of fair queen as a sign proclaims) and finally Hillsboro. (A time or two when I’ve been there a neighbor behind the tavern had a shooting bench in his yard and was sending rounds downrange. Obliviously my kind of place.)

I had a good meal and small talk with the owner who is also a rider and a few other patrons.

I started the 60 minute ride home just as dark thirty/deer thirty arrived. I had to ride slower now since it was nearly impossible to see the spilled grain in the corners but the air felt good and the scooter and I seemed to be readin’ each others thoughts as the evening became the night.

I watched for deer but only saw 5 which is 5 more than I’ve seen while bowhunting so far. And, I did have a brown bat or brown bird fly straight up into my headlight beam and slam into my windshield at 60 or 70. I also met a vehicle with it’s headlights going on and off on highway 59, it turned out to be an Amish buggy with headlight and taillight flashers.

That’s all I guess, 4AM is creeping up on me again.

Happy Trails