Useless Ululations and Random Ruminations

This past weekend I met my buddy from Elyria, OH in Virginia for our (nearly) semi-annual ride. This was at least our 5th (possibly our 6th) ride together. He brought along another rider, his step-son, who was 9 when last I saw him and, as always, 'twas a blast.

Our trips are always early, before the school year wraps up for the year, and are therefore unpredictable. Weather was atrocious on the way home and on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The rest of the trip was pretty cool for distance riding, but tolerable. This was not the worst weather we'd had for our trip, but not the best either.

High Point (Life): Re connecting with old friends
High Point (Motorcycle): Hwy 52, North, out of Wytheville, VA
Scariest Point: Blue Ridge Parkway @ 40° and raining fogged up my visor so I could not see the road under my own tire
Low Point: 212 miles of non-stop rain which fried my cell phone under two jackets (Mooresville, NC to mile marker 136 in Georgia)

Still, I count this among the best weekends of my life.

This trip was memorable for the rain and cold in combination. We've had a rainy weekend before. We've had cool temperatures before, but this was the first that combined the two in such abundance. Overcast and cool 90% of the time, rain was a significant event, especially for me on my way home.

Highlights:
Left Atlanta, GA for Mauldin, SC on Thursday night after my daughter's school orchestra concert (which was GREAT!). Stayed with a college buddy I hadn't seen in 20 years and caught up. My five kids are ages 18 to 8, with one graduating this year. His six kids are ages 18 to 8, with one graduating this year. We each have one boy and they are one-year apart. I loved their kids, although one would not talk to me, the other 5 made up for it. I left after breakfast for VA.

My bike was wet from rain at both departures (Atlanta and Mauldin), but I did not get any rain while riding.

Rode a chilly ride to the Virginia Welcome Center (Northbound) on I-77. I didn't need to stop, but did anyway. This is my favorite Welcome Center in the United States. (Granted I have not been in them all, but I've been in them in about 2/3 of the continental United States, and this is the best I've encountered.) I stop here every time, just to be greeted nicely and made to feel welcome! The folks staffing this one are AMAZING!

Met in Fort Chiswell, VA at the same exit we met at last time. This gave me some worry: I'm not superstitious, but on our last trip both of us wrecked and I broke ribs. I was nervous before this ride, and meeting up at this exit did not help. I'm not superstitious, but sometimes I am.

We camped at A and C Campground outside of Sparta, NC on Friday night. Temperatures dropped to 37° and we tried to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway next morning. Got about 20 miles in and I could literally no longer see the lines in front of my tire or the brake lights of the bike in front of me. We had to dismantle my helmet so I could ride with no eye protection in the rain in order to get back off the parkway and into decent weather.

The rest of the day was decent, but cloudy. While we eventually dried out, partially because of the constant cross-winds, we never really warmed up. Bought some t-shirts at the Black Bear HD store in Wytheville in an attempt to warm up. This was when we stumbled on the best riding of this weekend: Highway 52 North out of Wytheville up to I-77. Such a great ride, that we returned to Wytheville the same way.

We camped at the Wytheville KOA on Saturday night and left from there. This was another repeat occurrence: we had stayed at this KOA before. This night was warmer; it stayed way up at 42°! The morning ride was fine: windy and cool. I got out of VA before the rain hit (my big goal). I did not want to negotiate the 7 mile-long, quite steep, stretch of I-77 leaving VA in the rain!

So, it rained from Charlotte, NC to Suwanee, GA. My cell phone fried, under two jackets and a liner; it was still soaked. I put 950+ miles on my bike this weekend and had a blast with old friends! That is what life is all about

Being a treatise on the value of cellophane for riders of motorcycles:

I'm thinking of abandoning Starbucks altogether, and it's all due to the fact that they no longer have cellophane on site. They've quit carrying it. To quote an employee, "We no longer buy it, because we don't have anything to use it for anymore." According to that self-same employee, as stores run out they're done with cellophane. They no longer are authorized to use it. I'm not even going to get into questioning why they wouldn't want it on hand, but without cellophane. . . I can't see my way clear to using them.

Now first let me assure you that, without Starbucks to go to, I'm not S.O.L. as far as coffee goes. Across the parking lot from the one nearest my house is an Einstein Brother's Bagels which has always had coffee every bit as good as the aforementioned green and white vendor. In fact I prefer the coffee from Einstein Brother's Bagels, but they sell so much food that lines are longer and slower and they have fewer locations so I don't use them as much. Well, that may have to change.

Ninety-percent of the times that I purchase coffee, I'm alone. So I'm usually on my motorcycle. Coffee lids at most places have 3 holes in them. If you drive a car, you're probably only really aware of the largest hole, which provides access for your mouth to obtain the coffee from within the cup. The other two holes are not much more than pinpricks which vent the cup and allow air in while you drink, expediting the drinking process. Since in a car the cup is perfectly upright (banning any accidents) and there is very little air-flow, you never really think about the two pin-holes. On a bike, though, you do.

On a bike the dynamics are different. When you place the cup in the cup holder, the large hole has to face away from you or the coffee will pour out (on handlebars, the cup holder is angled and the cup is never "flat"). This allows lots of air-flow into the top of the cup, faster than the pin-holes can vent. The result is that, at 30 miles per hour, the coffee is forced out of the rear pin-hole in a stream that lands all over the gas tank. At 40 mph, it sprays the riders' jacket at breast level. At 50 mph it sprays the riders' goggles and helmet. At 60 it shoots right over the 6'3" riders' head to cream any passengers behind. The clean up is a pain: wash the bike, gas-tank especially; wash the leather jacket; wash the goggles and helmet; wash the jeans, which are now likely stained with coffee all over the leg. It's a mess.

The solution?

Cellophane

A piece of cellophane between the cup and the lid keeps all the coffee in the cup, thus eliminating the need for all that cleanup. Another good solution is to order a medium coffee and have it placed in a large cup, the coffee will sit low enough in the cup to avoid being shot out: however, they refuse to do that and I really like lots of coffee. So, barring the return of cellophane, I may end up taking my business next door and just dealing with longer lines/slower service at Einstein Brother's Bagels.

I wonder if they have cellophane.

I just missed becoming road-kill this morning and boy does that change your priorities for the day. I'm sitting at work and can't even think about working; I just want to vent about my experience, but I can't. I have two students in here working, but they're here to work not to listen to my rant and my ramblings. The teacher next door to me is prepping for his festival performance next week, so has a room full of kids. I can hear their tunes wafting not-so-gently through the walls. So, I'm left to vent to you, my faithful readers: both of you.

Here's how it went down: My daughter and I were headed to work and the roads were relatively wide-open. It's Friday and traffic is always much lighter on Fridays on the way to work. Coming home is a different story, but I digress. We're about to ride through the third traffic light since leaving the house, it's about 50 yards ahead of us and has just turned green. We're in the middle lane, which is (as usual) wide open because the following light splits traffic. Most folks turn left or right, only a very few of us continue straight onto a little residential road.

So, the light turns green. I release the brake, which I had hitherto been using to slow my approach and at the same time the little, gray Nissan in front of me releases her brake. I see the traffic ahead, in both side lanes release brakes and we all start moving. Then I see it.

Being on a motorcycle I have learned to scout out intersections for dangerous drivers upon approach and I almost immediately start braking again. A blue minivan has decided that she needs to get through her red light before it turns green again and traps her there interminably. She decides to turn left, across three lanes of (slowly) approaching traffic: after all, it's not her fault she caught the light red!

This plan probably wouldn't have worked anyway, as I don't believe the white car in the lane to my right would have seen her in time; an accident was inevitable. However, the ever-so-small hitch in her plan was the fact that I and the gray Nissan had never had to stop for our light. The lane was open in front of us and we'd slowed but never stopped. I saw her coming and slowed and yelled, "Watch Ou....." The little Nissan was too low to the ground and her view to our left was obscured by a bigger car. She never saw the minivan turning in front of her.

The impact spun the Nissan a good three times. Her radiator overflow tank and ½ of her radiator were left in the road. The van was t-boned and had 2 flat tires that I saw, but managed to get onto the road she had intended, albeit in the wrong lane. The Nissan, though, in spinning tagged another white car and ended up on the sidewalk with the front end on the road facing the direction she had just come from. The Nissan is definitely totalled! The lady in the blue van had a child with her, maybe age 9 or 10, and he was a mass of tears: inconsolable. But everyone was able, after a moment or two, to get out of their cars and begin the process of walking it off. As bad as the damage to the cars was, the driver of the Nissan was the most shaken, but not a bleeder among them.

After giving my report to la policia I left the scene and went on to work, a bit shaken but none the worse for wear, replaying the entire ride in my head. At some point I realized something: that should've been me going first through that intersection! The Nissan in front of me had sped up about a block earlier just to pass me; I think she was just trying to get out from behind a slow-poke in front of her. When she got in front of me, she resumed more normal speeds. I had to slow a little bit to back off of her. If she hadn't done that, I'd probably have occupied the spot on the space-time continuum that she was in. If she'd been behind me, I'd have been the one rolling through that green light first. If she hadn't force me back a few feet, I'd have t-boned a blue minivan on my motorcycle with my beautiful daughter in tow.

Thank God for getting cut off in traffic!

The wife and I went to the Honda Hoot last week, so I didn't blog. I didn't have the space to pack a laptop on the motorcycle, so we went to the Honda Hoot sans computers. It was a great time and we kept so busy we didn't notice the lack of computers. We used the hotel computers 4 times (2x each, separately, for email, 2x together for Rand McNally maps).

I'll tell you what, it was really a hoot!

Both my wife and I most enjoyed riding the Tail of the Dragon. We started on the Maryville, TN side and ended at Deal's Gap, NC. I must say it was the best ride I'd ever taken. Of course, I have to qualify that with the statement that I've not taken many rides for the sake of rides. I don't get out on the bike jest fer kicks very often. Usually I have a distinct (and local) destination in mind with a specific time-frame. However, I've been out a couple of times and this was the best ride of my life thus far.

The food was good, the folks were friendly, the kids were at their grandparents' house! It was perfect.

I'd personally like to thank Martin and Faye (from Oregon, I think they said) and Rob and Tracy (more locally housed) for the time they spent with us, chatting and pointing us around. My wife and I had never been to an event like this, and while we enjoyed it thoroughly, some things were nice to have guidance on.

I think we're going back next year.

My motorcycle seat was fried. Two summers ago, the bike spent the entire summer in the driveway, rain or shine, without a cover. After a summer of exposure to the elements, the rear-seam came apart, partially exposing the foam filling (which was okay with me). I rode on that for a couple of years, but this past week the seat moved past the point of no return. Pieces of foam were cut out and were sticking to my backside afer long rides. I'd get off the bike and pieces of foam would stick to me for a second, then fall off "me bum" and I'd have to bend all the way to the ground (a long way for a 6'3" overweight 37 year old) to pick 'em up and put it back together again. So it was time to replace it, which irked me somewhat since the bike is only a 2003. However, I decided to look into replacing it only out of necessity.

Well, motorcycle seats are ex-pen-sive!

$600 bucks for a nice Mustang seat, $500 for a Corbin, and $300 for a Saddlemen. My friend Jeremy and I discussed my options via the phone and I still wasn't comfortable spending that kind of money on a seat, despite the comfort a fancy seat might provide. Jeremy suggested that I make my own new cover and that idea took.

So this a.m., I stopped by Joann fabrics and picked up some marine vinyl and put together a new seat cover, making it slightly larger than the original in order to take a gel-pad under it to improve comfort. Custom designing it along the way, of course. If you look at it closely, you can tell it's not professionally done, but it looks okay.

So, the best part? $27 plus 4 hours labor and I have a "new" seat, custom designed and slightly more comfortable than the old one. Much better than multiple hundreds of dollars. What a bargain!