First Ride of the Season
Day One -
Chuck and I are off to a slow start with preparing the bike for a new season of riding this year. We've had many mini-crises that demanded our attention first. Our bike was overdue for the state inspection and our sticker was glaring proof to any cop that might go by. We pretty much ran our tires into the ground from last season, so they needed replacing also.
We have a 2002 BMW K1200LT and we call it the “Flyer.” I love this bike with a passion. As a passenger, it is so comfortable and easy to for me to ride on for hundreds of miles. It has room to pack gear for two. It has ABS brakes, along with cantilever and paralever suspension. It loves to go fast and it glides through turns like a sport bike. It is an 800 lb bike dry, then add the fluids, gear in the bags, and Chuck's and my weight; it is a lot of bike to maneuver. Chuck is not a big guy, but he really has no problem with this bike. It only gets tedious if you have to crawl slowly in heavy traffic. The down side of this bike is that parts are very expensive, and the dealers are few and far between.
Saturday morning, we woke up with a plan. Take the wheels off of the bike; drop the wheels and the new tires to the Honda dealer (they do this at a reasonable price). While waiting for them, drive the car to the BMW dealer another 30 miles away, buy new brake pads (might as well change them while both wheels are off) and have lunch. Take the brake pads and new tires back home, put the bike back together, and then bike to a different Honda dealer 20 miles away in the other direction, because they are the only ones that do inspections late on Saturday. Bike for a while, and then take the car to meet our friends at our favorite microbrew pub for dinner and beer.
We found at the BMW dealer, that the 3 brake pads (two in front and one in back) were $50 a piece! We bent over and bought them, but decided that our current brakes pads still had plenty left on them for this season. We can use the new pads next year.
Bike back together, we headed out to the other Honda dealer. It was a beautiful day with billowy clouds – a perfect time to ride. Had a great time poking through the Honda dealer's stock and looking at all of the shining new bikes. Saw the Rune with a big sign on it – “DO NOT TOUCH!”
Inspection was finished, yeah, we're legal again, and are on our way. This time however, if you looked towards the west, over the mountains, the sky was very angry. Did I mention that we live in the mountains? The day before we had tornado warnings. This sky looked like a funnel cloud could emerge at any time. Hmmmm, probably best to head home, I thought. Chuck complained, but in the interest of marital harmony, started to head home. The closer we got, the darker it got. It had been a nice warm day, but we could feel a sudden cold wind rushing off the mountains. The wind tried to blow me off of the seat, but I held on and the (glad to have a heavy bike) flyer didn't let us down. Big crack of lightening – Oh sh__! We are getting close to our turn off of Highway 15, not too far from our house. Here comes the rain - ice cold and sharp, going right through our mesh jackets. We made the turn and I notice an expression of pity on the face of a woman in an SUV. She is coming from the direction we were heading too. This is a bad sign. The road we turn on is called Log Mill. It's a roller coaster ride with abrupt up and down hills as it weaves up the mountain.
Suddenly all hell breaks loose from the sky – torrents of cold rain – yes, we have debris! Chuck wears an open-face helmet, can't really see and is riding from memory as there is no place to turn off. I'm wondering if a tornado is in front of us and tuck in behind Chucks back and dream of a nice hot shower. We make it to a side street to get Chuck's snap-on shield out of the side bag. The side bag and Chuck's helmet instantly become containers for the rain. Now that Chuck can somewhat see, we head back up the mountain and turn on our road – aptly named Mountain Road. This is a beautiful road with twists and turns and ups and downs. The foliage is so thick and wooded that you feel like you are in a green tunnel. Those tress are now sharing their branches and leaves with us as the wind blows them free. The road starts out beautifully paved with a 35 mph sign that no one pays any attention to, and ends with a gravel road with an “End of Speed Limit” sign. Of course, we are 100 ft. past the paved section, turn right and go up ½ mile of one-lane washed out gravel/dirt road, pretty much straight up, complete with ruts to get to our house. We had navigated through the pounding rain, flooded areas and broken branches to get this far. Now usually, I will beg off at this point. Get off the back of the bike and walk up. Chuck will take our 800 lb bike, stand up on the pegs and Yeee Haww – ride it like a dirt bike all the way up through the ruts and mud and hope like hell that no one is coming down at the same time. This time however, my wonderful, sweetie pie, love-of-my-life husband makes the turn, stands on the pegs and keeps going with me on the back! Ahhhhhhhhh! I was soaked, but at this point it wasn't just from the pelting rain. I closed my eyes and just hung on, pretending that this was just an amusement ride. I think he can – I think he can – I think he can……. Well, we made it unscathed and it did prove to be an amusing ride all right!
The hot shower was great! So was the beer.
Day Two –
Sunday started out with more rain. We had a gully washer during the night and there wasn't much left of the dirt trail that we live on. The weather report revealed a break in the rain between noon and 9 p.m. A friend of ours had just bought a new Honda CBX, but is new to the area and wanted us to take him on a ride. His sister, who never rode on a motorcycle before wanted to ride with him. We decided on a short but interesting run. Kathleen borrowed my leathers and I wore my mesh - still wet from the day before. I had an extra helmet and it fit her, so we were off to a good start.
The first half hour we found ourselves weaving through heavy traffic (yes, in this area there is heavy traffic on a Sunday afternoon…). That wasn't fun, endless SUVs with soccer Mom, Hummers and Dualie pick-ups darting around contantly switching lanes.
We finally were in the clear heading west on Route 7 to Bluemount Rd. This road is a great twisty windy. Beautiful million + dollar houses on 5 – 15 wooded acres. It's an “Oh wow!” road because the sites are so great. My mesh is finally dry again. This road has a bonus. In the middle of this country out-in-the-sticks road is a curious, scary kind of place: Mount Weather. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/mountweather.html . Mount Weather is an unacknowledged Continuity of Government (COG) facility operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It is on 434 acres. You can see the 8 ft high fences with rolled barbed wire on the top. Guards with guns and dogs walk the above ground support facilities. It has around 900 employees, with about a dozen buildings that link to the White House Situation Room. It also is an underground city for the government, should we be attacked. It is a very spooky looking place – fodder for a great adventure book.
Soon we forget about Mt. Weather because this road is so much fun, but we end up on Route 50. 50 heading west is great. It winds through West Va. We have taken it many times (and dusted a couple of Wingers on the turns). Heading east, it goes into D.C., but that was still a good 60 miles or so away. We headed to Snickersville Turnpike. You have to love the name of this road and wonder who was snickering and what about?? Again, a major twisty windy and the flyer is in it's glory. Beautiful rolling farms, tiny country store that offers dusty canned goods, and the “5 mph turn”! Kathleen is doing really well. A little frightened at first, she was really getting into it and having fun. The bad part was that the road surface had taken a pounding over the winter and it was trying very hard to be a gravel road with huge potholes and coming apart everywhere. I kept thinking about our new tires….. Oh well!
Time is up and we have to head back to Kathleen's house. Great ride and we are all grinning! We kibitz a bit and head home. The sky is getting a bit thick and dark again. As we were biking through the town, I felt an assault on my helmet and red wings are all over my shield – oh! A bird had run into me with a splat! Bummer! That was a first and hopefully the last.
Home again, back to reality, jobs, bills, grass to be cut. I love weekends!