Random roads and thoughts

I have been wanting to do a "joy ride" for a while now.  I've not had much opportunity to ride over the last two weeks or so other than to work which in its own right is a nice ride; but I've had the itch to ride different roads.  Every day I ride the same route, more or less, and I have been wanting...no needing to explore some quiet backwater places.

So today I did a little under 100 miles (93.8 to be exact) on a nice sunny day with not enough twists and turns to satisfy me, but enough to keep me interest.   Somehow I managed to get completely lost as well...since every road leads somewhere and I was  thoroughly enjoying my ride I didn't worry about it.  I don't have much chance to simply do a purely recreational ride anyhow.

I work second shift, my job can be 24/7 and on top of that I have another job that I work two days a week and takes anywhere from three to eight hours to complete.  In other words, I work a lot.    Since my girlfriend is unable to work, we spend our mornings together.  Riding 2-up with her is just not possible right now.  She feels that I need a more experience before she climbs on the back of the bike with me.  I know she is right.

All this limits the time I get for recreational riding and frankly since the untimely death of Gary B - I've no one to ride with.  That may change in the future but for now I'm a solo rider.  Riding with a friend is safer and in my opinion a hell of a lot more fun.  Not that solo riding isn't fun.  I've found a little 3 mile long stretch of road near where I work that has 15...yes, 15...wonderful twists, turns and bends.  Everything from sharp abrupt corners to a few sweeping rights and lefts.  If I get to work early enough I can be found riding that road.

One of the joys about about getting lost, I had originally planned on a 50 mile ride following a predetermined route, is finding the unexpected.  Even though I live in West Central Florida I just happen to live in Kumquat country.  A nearby town even has a kumquat festival.  I found the packing plant and a Kumquat specialty shop.  Sadly none of my pictures really came out well.

From Florida Estates Winery

I drove up the road some, finally finding a route I recognized and a little winery right down the road some.  Now having been known to indulge now and again in the fruit of the vine I stopped.  Sadly I was riding so could not sample to many but what I did try was sadly lacking.  If your interested in Florida wines I highly recommend Fiorelli Winery.  Somehow however I ended up with a bottle.

But I digress.

I've only had the Burgi for a few months and am enjoying the ride a hell of a lot more than I would have ever of guessed.  When I first considered getting a bike it was for commuting purposes only, now here I am taking 100 mile joy rides.

Givi airflow AF266 for the Burgie!

There are a few things I wish I had though - the fact that I have a AeroStitch catalog has nothing to do with it (eye roll).  The plastic on the bike needs repaired and although scars might tell a story...they shouldn't be on a bike.  My stock windshield was really designed for a person much shorter than me.  I'm 6' foot tall and 200 pounds.  Not really heavy but big enough, and the wind comes right over the windshield and catches me in the upper chest and head.  I would love to have to have a Givi Airflow windshield and a top case to go with it.  Okay, I really don't need the top case but hey, it looks cool and a little bit of extra storage never hurts.  Particularly since I hope to take those longer and longer rides.  A backrest would be nice too.

My birthday is in April.   Checks can be sent to..........

Fear of Twisty's???

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I had four days off, then worked a day and had an additional two days off.   Lots of time to get the Burgie out and do some riding, but it didn't work out that way as family obligations and other duties kept me off the bike till a glorious day just ripe for riding.   Warm and sunny the road called out...."Twisty's Robert....Twisty's".


Gary B and I headed out, him in the lead.   He in the lead through orange groves and country roads, for 110 miles we road a circle north and south, east and west.   Something happened somewhere in the route, I started to feel a bit more confident taking some turns.

I felt a little bad as Gary had to keep slowing down for me, going through the curves with practiced ease, but I needed to do this at my pace.  I felt that I was lacking experience taking the curves I knew Gary had planned.  Gary has about 10 years if not more of riding experience on me, and he knows the roads we were riding well.

I took my time, feeling better and more confident with each curve of the road.  Each time letting the road and the bike tell me how to move.  Leaning, slowing down, powering through each curve.

A little explanation is in order.  Since buying my bike,  I've been a commuter traveling the same tired roads day in and day out on my Burgman.  While my route to work offers a little variation; I can ride to work a few different ways...taking the highway briefly or the twisted back road....a straightaway country road...the truth is it's pretty much the same ride day in and out.  So I was feeling a little tentative then  as we started the ride.  I just don't get to do twists and turns often enough to feel comfortable with them.

Thanks to anonymous1310 on DA.

Towards the end of the ride I was feeling more and more secure.  The smile started to return to my face.

On Sunday, I went out again.  Driving into a blinding setting sun I had left early enough to hit some winding side roads I know of near work.  Again I went to get used to the twists and turns of an unfamiliar road.  In and out and powering through.

It sounds silly as I write this, that I should have a fear of twisty's.  It's not really a fear, it's more of a respect.  I have not had much chance to ride them. To practice, to simply ride the roads.   Florida is full of straight roads or a road that slightly curves, easy turns to make.   Some sharp curves are here and there and those are the roads that I want to ride, to practice on.   You don't become a better rider by riding the straight away...you ride the twisted roads.

Feeling homesick this time of year. Riding in the fall.

I always have mixed feelings with the arrival of fall.  Living previously in Western Pennsylvania I was blessed with remarkable colors, cooler nights, football (both the European game and my beloved Steelers), sharp apple cider - either spiked or not, warmed or not.  Egg Nog - again spiked or not and either served with or without chocolate favored whipped toppings.

It was also depressing as the nights grew longer and the days hinted of winter just around the corner.  Where I have always enjoyed working in my yard, raking leaves is a never ending task...perhaps better suited to the horrors of Hades.  I've often wondered if Sisyphus was given the choice of pushing the rock up the hill or raking leaves.  I'm sure he chose the rock.  I will not mention the four letter word starting with an "S" that always replaces the raking of leaves with another back breaking labor.

Now that I live in Central Florida there is a much subtler autumn.  Marked by the migratory arrival of the grey and blue tufted snowbirds, the drop in the Gulf's water temperature from "warm bathwater" to "bathwater" and the cooler days and nights designed for riding.  Although the other day when I rode to work the ambient temperature gauge on my Bergie said "93".   That is "Freaking Hot" for the understanding of my international readers.  When I left work at midnight the temperature was a much more manageable 73 degrees.

When I ride home at night, I normally just throw a sweat shirt on under my bright yellow riding jacket and that is the extent of my winter gear.  I certainly cannot imagine such things as heated pants and gloves and other equipment that many of my northern friends either have or are considering to extend their riding season.  Some I am sure have already started to put their bikes away.

I can picture what it must be like right now in my home state of Pennsylvania, the leaves blazing with color.  Riding at a leisurely pace along the back roads just living in the moment, pulling over in some small road side cafe', where the locals bring their own coffee mugs that hang proudly displayed behind the freshly made pumpkin pie.  I can just imagine what it would be like to put my 400cc Burgie into the twists and turns of my home.

It's not that adventures and twisties can't be found here in Florida.  A simple trip to get gas lead to my going out of my way some 60 odd miles just to ride on a clear and sunny morning, where I passed someone on a 1980's era Honda Elite that looked ecstatic to see another scooter rider.  It's these moments I am starting to realize, is why people ride.   I also begin to feel that the scooter is well suited for me at this stage in my life...where I am more interested in enjoying the journey than rushing from point A to point B.

If this is what growing older is...I can live with it.

A nice Saturday ride

It's only been a few days after my longest ride yet, easily over 150 miles including my commute to and from work that day.  I'm sure that a better writer could describe it in detail without the sickening use of so many adjectives.

This past weekend I got the chance to go over hill and dale, through valleys deep and wide and twist and turns at speed that challenged and scared me...while at the same time putting a grin on my face and a ringing laughter in my helmet that only I could hear.

Not the church in question but similar.

I lost track of the miles as my riding partner Gary choose a route through the orange groves and forgotten little towns of rural Florida.  We rode hard and faster than I would have liked at times due to a late start and the fact that I had to work late in the afternoon.  We rode for a solid two to three hours passing a small local winery...which frankly I hope to find again on another journey.  Past an old Spanish Church straight out of the American southwest which called for exploration but learning it's story will have to be put off for another day.

We rode on down tracts where farm equipment roamed free and threatened to push us off into the saw grass, past trees loaded with oranges and kumquats.  Turn after turn to the right, to the left until I was unsure if I knew how to get home if I should lose Gary around a corner.  Truthfully it would not of mattered, every road leads somewhere and once you're somewhere you can always figure out a way home.  A brief stop for gas to feed a hungry beast and his smile was as big as mine.  We were children on Christmas day again; all brought about by a few twists and turns in the road.

Just an old funky building found on another ride.

While the ride did encourage me to ride longer and harder, proving to me that I can indeed go more than 50 miles in any one direction - without numb ass too - it also got me thinking about one of the reasons I wanted to ride in the first place.  To discover the hidden parts of America you don't see from the Freeway.  That old Spanish church, a small winery, an old graveyard, some weird little building that has a story to us, if we are willing to listen.

I can also see the attraction of rallies and poker runs.  Making and sharing stories with new friends over endless cups of coffee at the local diner and then chewing up the asphalt.  I may have bought scooter with the intention of simply going back and forth to work with it, but damned if I don't want to do more with it now.  That sense of adventure...of wanderlust...is hard to explain.  I've had friends that have been bikers all their lives and who would try to explain it to me.  I don't think I ever "got it" till now.

You go into a twisty and you feel your body react...you see that butterfly at the edge of the road...Your connected to the world around you in a much different way when your riding.  Suddenly "taking the long way around" doesn't seem like it's that bad of an idea.  So yea, I hope to go riding with Gary or others again.  Hopefully we will have more than two and a half hours to spend on the road.