Global Warming has it's perks

 November-freakin-18 and for a brief couple of hours, ahead of a storm front pushing up from the south, it reached 64 degrees. I was in the process of putting Christmas lights up outside, when I happened to look at a weather app and saw that it had hit 60 degrees. No choice at that point: I had to stop what I was doing, get suited up, and head out for a ride. It's the law.

I figured that I had at least an hour before the weather turned bad, so I ran a figure 8 out around the eastern part of the county. It was a bright, sunny mid-day and any other time I would have ridden for another hour, but things needed to get done so I was back home after 41 miles. Less than 2 hours later the temperature had dropped 15 degrees and it was raining. I'm 99% sure that was the last ride of the season as high temps are in the 40's going forward, but it was a great escape.

As an aside, I've changed my seating position for the 4th time now by installing the 2" riser under the back of my solo seat, and this was my trial ride with it in place. Had to adjust my mirrors again and get the feel of yet another new seating position. I'd estimate I've raised the seat 4" from stock, my hips are above my knees, and it fits me perfectly now. I've already been researching the upgrades for next year...

Okay, THIS must be the final ride of the season...

 November 9 and the temps touched 58 degrees. Un-believe-able. Nothing for it, I had to get out for a quick spin. No one was available to ride with that afternoon, so I decided to do a loop around the north-east part of the county where we used to live a couple houses ago. It wasn't a pretty day; bright enough but full overcast, which made things look a bit dreary at times. Any leaves that were still clinging to trees were long past their brilliant yellows and reds and oranges and now were pretty much brown and crispy looking.

But it was warm and I was riding! I was running along some twisty roads by a large reservoir, not a car in sight, and thinking about riding again. I've wanted to do this as long as I can remember and all these years later I am still able to ride motorcycles. I do not take that for granted. I had wanted to stop at the top of the lake again in a frequent spot for a quick picture, but there was a car there so I kept going, a bit annoyed.

At one point I just peeled off on a road to the right and rode for many miles, just making random turns at intersections when one direction or the other looked appealing. Put me in mind of many decades ago when one or two of us used to go out for day rides and pick a direction and then just make turns based on where the sun was and dead reckoning. Always made it home.

After 1/2 an hour of just riding with little idea of where I was at the time, I made a turn and immediately realized I was right back at the spot that I had passed by earlier, so this time I stopped.

2 hours and 70 miles from the time I left, I was back home again, a bit sad that this was the end of riding for now. But as always, I was glad to have had the chance to go.

Be safe.

Might be the season end… A Trip to Blenheim

November 1 is a milestone around here to still be able to be out riding. Unlike last year, and many before that where there was snow at Halloween, this day was pretty nice. We had been monitoring the weather apps for about a week waiting to see if the predictions held out, and we got pretty lucky: right around 50 degrees with partial sun. Good enough.  Three of us planned to meet up and take a ride south to a covered bridge, just as a destination. We also know that the roads are usually in pretty good condition out that way, as we wind through the mountains.

Two would gather then come south to where I would meet them, and we’d proceed from there. An hour before that, a shower was passing through from Northwest to Southeast. So it’s raining a bit at Scott’s house… He waits it out and soon the sun is back again. Then Luke reports it is now raining at his house… We decided to push the meeting time 1/2 hour and gather at noon. I head out at 11:30 to meet them and I run into light showers — just enough to be annoying — along the way. We take off south on a planned route to go to the Blenheim Covered Bridge, which claims to be the “Longest single span wooden bridge of it’s type in the world”.

I’m pretty bundled up for this ride as I don’t have a batwing fairing or lowers or heated grips; some of that will be rectified over time. Many of the roads we traveled were known from Sunday ride routes we’ve taken in these areas over many years. The roads were mostly excellent and the scenery was very nice. That part of the ride was about 60 miles or so from where we met up.

Turns out that this is a re-creation of the original bridge which stood until 2011 when Tropical Storm Irene came through and caused historic flooding, which destroyed and washed the bridge away. It was rebuilt using the original plans in every detail, allowing it to maintain it’s historic designation, 10’ higher above it’s original location.

This is the Schoharie Creek many feet below flood stage

 

The ride back took a slightly different route to be both a bit quicker while the sun was still up, and avoid rush hour traffic. Overall I rode 132 miles, most of it through the local mountains to the south, on a sunny day in November, with two long-time good friends. If that turns out to be the final group ride for this year, it was a good one.

"Hey, which bike is yours?"  "The black Harley"...