June 10, 2012

Gypsy Stats:

Elapsed time:  6 hrs 26 min

Riding time:  3 hrs 24 min

Total distance:  154.6 miles

Ave speed:  45.4 mph

Beemer Stats:

Total distance:  158.6 miles

Ave speed:  45 mph

Fuel consumption:  49 mpg

Gas price:  $3.40/gal for 93 octane with a $0.30/gal discount from Redner's

Winter wheat has turned golden

When I raised the side stand after backing out of the garage this morning, I found a loop of our new 100 ft garden hose, which had been lying in the driveway, hooked on the end.  I put the stand down and kicked the loop of hose off and took off up the drive with a slight unaccounted wobble (loose stones?).  I pulled out, rode to the the stop sign at Grist Mill Rd, stopped, checked mirrors - what's that green snake behind me???  There was my new hose stretched out behind me on the road.  Seems when I kicked the loop off the side stand, it managed to hook itself on the center stand firmly enough that when I took off it stayed attached.  That unexplained wobble was the the tug the hose gave as I ripped it off of the hose bib (it had, of course, been hooked up).  As Dave pointed out later, if I had wanted to hook the hose on the center stand firmly on purpose I probably would not have been able to make it stay.  Still, what a boneheaded start to the day.  Of course if that's the worst that's in store for the day, there's a great ride ahead...

Corn in tassel

 It's a warm summer morning in southeastern Pennsylvania, temps in the upper 60's heading out at 7:15 under a blue sky.  Field corn is a bright dark green and knee high in the Oley Valley and the winter wheat is already golden and soon ready to harvest.  I even saw one stand of corn in tassel but I suspect that it must be an early season sweet corn, not field corn; it's way too early for corn to be in tassel.  But with the dry conditions this spring many farmers got in to the fields to plant very early.  Then the warm weather followed by timely rain gave the corn a huge head start.

Approaching the mountain on Rt 501

Heading out, I had put on a pretty wide-range, medium temperature outfit, meaning summer LD base layer, Gerbing electric jacket (not plugged in), suit with liners, and summer weight gloves.  I stopped for gas at the Redner's Quick Stop at Rt 73 and Pricetown Road and soon had the Gerbing jacket off.  With the bright sun and temperature of 68 and rising, it was definitely summer riding conditions.  By form-up I was shedding the suit liner from the jacket, as well.  

For breakfast, we headed up the back way to Haag's Hotel in Shartlesville for the Sunday breakfast buffet:  family style seating, buffet service, good Dutch cookin', all you can eat for $8.  Can't beat that with a stick.  It tends to attract a lot of bikes, especially in June weather but we were early so it was no problem finding a parking place and there was still plenty of food.  In addition to the standards - ham, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, SOS.... - Hagg's serves apple sauce,  a big bowl of tapioca pudding, and shoofly pie.  It took us an hour and half of chin wagging and coffee to accomplish it, but we managed to leave with full bellies.  By this time, the lot was filling up with a collection of interesting bikes, several vintage R bikes, one with antique plates, and a fairly new F800ST, which we stopped to admire.

Dappled light and day lilies blooming at the road side

Well, afternoon obligations loomed and we only had time for a quick loop over the mountain this morning:  so west across the top of the county, up over Blue Mountain on Rt 501 into Pine Grove, west on Rt 443 to pick up Goldmine Road (newly repaved!) up over second ridge to Tower City, north on Rt 209 to Joliet and the cut-off down Mollystown Road to Ravine.  By this time, temperatures were in the low 80's, the weather was fine and afternoon was approaching, meaning...theyyy'rrre ouuut.  The road was starting to fill with "occasional riders".  At one point, I got caught behind a couple of Hardley riders who seemed to think the speed limit and yellow speed signs on curves applied to motorcycles.  Rt 895 at 45 mph; go figure.  Well, they get the four of five too-hot Sunday afternoons each summer to pile up the miles on their bikes; we get the rest of the year.  Time to head home:  over Rt 895 to Deer Lake, down Rt 61 through Port Clinton (obligatory nod to Hermy's in passing), and over the back way through Hamburg to Windsor Castle, and on to home.  Nice 150 miles and home in time for that 1:30 obligation.

The Valley and Ridge Province of SE Pennsylvania