[enjoyLIFErides] 12/12/04 Brrrride Report - And I'm not talking marriage...

[Enjoyliferides at yunx.com]

Okay...  So we had a ride yesterday.  It was supposed to hit almost 50
degrees and be mostly sunny.  Care to guess what happened?

No need.  I'll tell you.

I leave home at 8:15 AM.  36 degrees and toasty warm!

Met at the Pompton Plains Kawasaki./Yamaha/Dunkin Donuts location.  I got
there at 8:30 and found one of my local buddies and his HD waiting for us.
Surprise to me since I called him more than a month ago to tell him about
the ride and he remembered!

A half dozen other riders showed up from the N.J. Highlanders riding club -
all of them on Rolls Royce-type bikes with GPS and stuff.  Can you say
jealousy!?!  Anyhow, they were headed to the same place and had a more
complicated route planned than we did so we decided not to follow them and
their GPS.  I'm BCCing their leader as we may do a joint run in the future
and I wanted to exchange eMails.

Departed around 9:15 AM with 6 of us...  V-Strom guy (name!?!), GC, me,
Gilbey, HD Guy, and Henlo in formation.  We intended on taking the short
route to the end location in PA for some warm food and enough time to take
the scenic route when the sun came out and would keep us warm!  23 to 287
top 80 to 33 to 209.

At around exit 30 on 80, Gilbey pulls up to me and gives me the universal
"I'm dying" signal.  Now...  This is the guy with all the gear and the
totally winterized KLR650...  And he's freezing.

We jump onto 46, cut through Budd Lake, back onto 46 (we missed a bunch of
traffic according to GC) and rode over to the Portland Bridge.  Crossed
over, took 512 North sorta randomly looking for 33.  Cut through the "Slate
Hills" near Bangor, PA and eventually jumped onto 33 North.

Finally made it to the HD Dealer in Snydersville around 11:30.  The place
was PACKED!  Looked like a thousand bikes...  But the official count is
200-300 showed up.  Trikes, Goldwings, Vulcan's and even a few HDs.

At first, we thought they ran out of food.  No Chili or pea soup left...
just corn bread.  Soon, they restocked and we were all happy and full.

Departed there around ?PM and decided to go the long way home via the north
route...  Why not?  I mean the sun never came out and it was cold...
Destination - High Point State Park.  Why go south and miss all the fun?
Rode 33 North to 80 East.  Hit a very small rain sprinkle - I think GC and I
were the only ones to notice and went to 94 North then to 521 I think...
521 to some other 600 series road (617?) and onto 206.  Took 206 North up to
where 521 splits off towards 23.  Got onto 23 North and had some real fun on
the up-hill, 2 lane twisties...  Made High Point around 2:30 I think.  One
word...
freakincoldwindyanduncomfortablebutworthitasitwasdesolateandoursbaby!

Henlo was the color of a tomato, Gilbey kept trying to do wheelies
(unsuccessfully) and I kept wondering how good of a cell phone signal I
could get but never actually tried... GC took a test ride of Gilbey's
recently lowered KLR and gave his customary technical report shortly
thereafter.  V-Strom guy asked me about my flip-up helmet and I promised to
eMail him the details...  But I forget his eMail address (plus his name -
but don't feel bad, I forget my buddy's name and he lives a mile from me and
we've ridden together three times already...)

Enough of that wind, cold, etc.

V-Strom guy #1 (name!?!) took off first with me, Gilbey, Henlo and by friend
on the HD heading down 23 South towards my personal ground zero...

Somewhere before 94, Gilbey disappeared.  He split off to go home in a most
Houdini-like fashion.  Made me stop and ask the others where he went before
I remembered him saying he might split off at 94.  He decided to take some
random back road to 94.

Henlo dropped off at 287 and headed towards home and my HD buddy with the
radio, fairing and lots of grins headed towards out home town.

Made it home at 4:30 PM - just in time for a shower and off I went to lead a
group of about 60 teens in a Strawberry/Calamari cake and Raw Octopus
slinging Fear Factor contest...  Yes, I'm serious.  Thanks to The Kid for
some useful tunes during that event which lasted until around 9:30 PM.  Home
I went and collapsed.

Overall memory.  Excellent.  Overall experience?  Cold.  Never got above
around 45 here in NJ and I'm sure it was lower than that in PA and at High
Point.

Next Enjoy Life Ride?  Probably not a ride.  NY Bike Show maybe in January?
We shall see...  Stay tuned.

Joe - V#8013 - '86 VN750 - joe @ yunx .com
Northern, NJ
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