DDT (12)
Member
Posts: 4120
Sometimes ya just gotta go...
Winter Springs, FL - Occasionally...
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« on: February 13, 2016, 09:43:22 PM » |
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Tour de Dixie (Part Four)
Another phone call, another ride! Well, I’d been hankering to ride down to Florida on my big winter tour, but it was starting to look like rain was going to prevent that. It hasn’t rained every day, and only a few times has it rained all day for a couple of days at a time… but, rain events just seem to have been a little closer together than usual… at least to me they seem to have been. Still, this has been one of our wetter winters in recent years so far, and that does tend to cramp my riding…
I checked the weather forecast for the next several days, and it looked like the coming weekend would be dry and pleasant! I posted a message on the Florida Board announcing my big plan, but due partly to short notice, and partly to my preference for doing something in the northern section of the state, I didn’t get any takers. Then…
Shortly after making that post, my daughter called. I’d been supposed to swing by her house around the holidays sometime, but weather had prevented that. It appeared things were lining up for me to go get some credit for family participation after all… But there was a catch.
Everybody at her house is either working or going to school these days, so weekends are about it for normal visitations. Oh well, more rain was in the forecast for the following week anyway, so a brief weekend pop-in was probably the best thing under those circumstances.
The rain ended at my house Thursday morning… but it was heading southeast towards her house! I much prefer to ride back roads, and her house is just under 500 miles from mine… and the last 30 miles or so is through heavy Orlando area traffic!
For me, the ideal option is to make it a two day ride down and two days back. Now, if I were to spend two days there, then I wouldn’t make it back home until the following Tuesday… and heavy rain, even thunderstorms were forecast for that day at home! A narrow window for sure!
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I figured, so around noon on Thursday I backed ALI out of the garage and pointed her front wheel southeastward… hoping the rain had moved far enough ahead I could stay behind it… It almost worked out that way, too.
I made about 200 miles that afternoon total, but I found moisture after only about 100 miles. Sheesh, talk about taking the edge off of an otherwise great day in the saddle! Nothing bad was encountered, though, as the stuff I did run into was very light… just enough to make the roads wet and to dirty up ALI and her rider.
I guess you know that you’re a real rider when you enjoy being out even on a day like that! My Gerbigs were needed all the way, and wet roads are not particularly enjoyable, but there still is just something special about being astride a scooter out on the open road. I’m really glad I made that call!
Heck, we also had some things actually working in our favor! No pending poop issues, no hard rain, virtually no traffic along the route I’d selected, and every mile made that day was one less for the following day! And, a cold brewski or two would be waiting for me at the end of the trail…
Napper and I had stayed at a motel in Thomasville, GA, once upon a time, so I’d hoped to make it that far at least… and I did. Glad to be off the road, but a tad sad I hadn’t been able to make a few more miles.
Still, not bad really, and I could do the rest of the ride the next day and probably still work-in a good BBQ stop along the way (I happen to know of a few Q places down in that corner of America!). And, there was another advantage to stopping at this particular motel… they had a lounge, and I was ready for some of that! Ummmm, maybe…
When Napper and I had stopped there back then, the lounge had been closed for renovations… I was sure hoping it was open this time, because I was just in one of those moods, you see, and… No worries, it was open!
I unloaded ALI and put her to bed. I then proceeded to see what might be observed on another of my ‘wildlife viewing’ expeditions… As usual, it was interesting. A few folks were inside, but no crowd… which is actually a good thing. Yep, groups this size often produce more interactions between all present… depending upon the folks themselves to a large extent, too, of course.
This was a friendly mixture of out-of-towners, locals, young (early twenties), a bit older folks (early forties), a bartender (early fifties) and one aging biker-gypsy fly on the wall… I didn’t really want to talk much, preferring instead to attempt to gauge what others were thinking and chatting about nowadays… especially during this election cycle…
Not much, it turned out… Hardly any mention at all about politics and elections! Probably a good thing, but I was expecting at least some mention… Small talk mostly, and testimonials about life’s trials and tribulations, business issues, taxes… I suppose the only thing that might qualify as a surprise was the degree to which everybody seemed to agree… on everything! I wasn’t looking for bloodshed or violence, of course, nor even heated arguments, but there was nothing that came even remotely close.
I don’t go in bars much, but when I’m out and about, especially when traveling solo, I find this to be the easiest way to chat with others to keep my finger on the pulse of regular folks. I’ll have to ponder on that night some, though, because I’m sure there was a pint or two of wisdom to be distilled from those events… although nothing stands out to me at the moment… and that is exceptional in itself. I guess we need to be careful with expectations… Things rarely if ever turn out exactly the way we think they will.
DDT
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