First Solo Ride

Today, DH had the rental car to drive to the golf course, so I could have taken the car to the barn. But, sooner or later I’m going to have the bike over there by myself (can’t carry golf clubs on a bike). So, I decided that it would be sooner and I just felt like riding it over today. The roads had dried out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so what was to stop me?

I was going to have to wear my horseback riding boots and I knew that the gear shift on the bike was going to rub the leather on those. My solution… vet wrap! I had some around the house so I wrapped it twice around the toe of my left boot.

The next hurdle was going to be carrying my wallet (just in case), my garage opener and house keys (usually DH’s job), a towel (because it’s ungodly hot), and something to drink as we don’t have saddle bags yet. I decided a back pack would work and threw it all together, locked up the house, suited up, and set off.

This route is very familiar to me, I drive it at least once a week and had done it on the bike once before with DH along. I knew that the speed limits were all less than 45mph so I wouldn’t feel pressure to go faster than I might be comfortable with AND I knew there wouldn’t be too much traffic.

It was a FANTASTIC ride over! The only troublesome spot was one traffic light where I had to stop on a fairly significant hill. But, I handled it like I had been taught in my MSF class (right foot on the brake and engage the clutch before letting off the brake) and it went really well. I was a little nervous when I first left the house, but my confidence built with every mile I put beneath the tires.

I got to the barn right at the time my friend and I had agreed upon for the trail ride. They all LOVED my bike! I parked it kinda off the drive, in the dirt, under and between trees so no one would run into it and the seat wouldn’t get too hot. The “coaster” that I got at my MSF course to put under my kick-stand on very hot asphalt or “mushy” surfaces really came in handy. Thanks to the backpack I had everything I needed. I enjoyed my horsey trail ride AND my ride back home on the bike.

I’m thrilled to death that I did it myself and did it safely. Loving every minute!

Riding in the Rain

After work and dinner (AND picking up DH’s rental car for work) we decided to go for an evening ride. It was looking a little cloudy out so we checked the radar map and it looked like we had about two hours before the rain moved in.

I wanted to ride along the lake by the State Park nearby so we turned, once again, to google maps. We decided we could ride down Annewakee Rd. to Riverside Dr. then cut over on Flat Shoals Rd. to Mt. Vernon Rd. We were having a fantastic ride, right up until we realized that at that point Flat Shoals is a DIRT road…. cruiser bikes don’t really do well on dirt roads. So we ended up on Thornton Rd., which is four lanes, heavily trafficked, and pretty fast moving. It was the last place I wanted to be! But, we had no choice really so we merged into the right lane and got up to 60mph as fast as we could. We got passed by one car, but held our own until we got back to slower, more familiar roads.

After that, we decided to head over to the State Park on the roads that we usually take in the car and we would just turn around after we got past the lake. This part was actually REALLY fun! Then we were on our way home. When we stopped at a light, DH turns to me and says, “Hey, looks like we’ll just beat the rain!” You’ve heard of the announcer jinx… that was it!

As we were about to turn onto the second to last street to get home, it started pouring down rain! I mean, pouring down to the point that I could barely see out of the shield on my full-face helmet. I don’t see spectacularly well anyway, so this made me really nervous. I slowed down, way down, dropped into third gear and was just concentrating on safely navigating. The thought occurred to me to pull over, find shelter, and wait it out. However, the radar earlier had shown that once it began it would rain all night, so I figured it would be best to just keep on going. At the next light DH overtook me, much to my relief as then I could follow his tail-light home, making navigation easier. Of course, once we got within 100yds of home, it was bone dry and we were soaked to the bone!

But, we made it home safely! DH said all the way through he was thinking, “Frog Togs, Frog Togs, Frog Togs.” I don’t think we will make it a point to ride in the rain, but sooner or later I think we will be investing in some good rain gear! Squishy boots and wet undies do not make for good motorcycle rides!

July 4th Weekend Ride

It’s always been my opinion that long weekends were specifically designed for breaking new ground, expanding horizons, doing something new, and having a great time. So, at my insistence, DH and I were up and at ‘em at 7:30am. We sat in front of google maps on my laptop to dream up a route for a morning motorcycle ride. For the holiday weekend, I was determined that we were going to find a new route that neither of us had ever ridden (or driven) before.

This is actually harder than it sounds. We initially thought that we would ride for an hour or so and then have breakfast at the IHOP by our house. However, when you don’t have an actual destination, its hard to use mapping websites to plan a route; all you see on the map is a maze of little roads, especially in GA! So then we decided that we would head west and have brunch at the Mirror Lake Country Club where we were married thirteen months ago! So we put the address in and of course google maps wants to find you the fastest, shortest route. That really doesn’t work when you’re riding for fun. So then we had to modify the route piece by piece, back road by back road.

We finally settled on a route that was about 34miles long round-trip (I’ve posted the highlighted map below). The route started out on roads that we knew, but we were quickly on unfamiliar turf. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a ride! Kinda warm out, but on shaded country roads, cruising along between 45 and 50mph around winding turns… what could be better?

After a great brunch we hit the road again heading back towards home. We actually got lost a little because we were unfamiliar with the roads and the area, but on the bikes it doesn’t really bother us! We just kept heading in the right direction and knew we would eventually come to a road we recognized. Next thing you know, we’re at Hwy. 5 and almost home.

This was when I realized that my fuel indicator light was on. I was a little worried because I don’t know what kind of range I have left after that light comes on (looks like I’ll have to do a little reading in the manual!). Fortunately, there is a gas station right around the corner from the house where we stopped. I ended up putting almost 3.5 gallons into my 5 gallon tank AND on 3.5 gallons we got 150miles! We are now at 250miles on the bikes, loving every minute of it, and still excited about it every time!