May 19, 2013

Gypsy Stats:
7 hours 16 minutes Elapsed Time
4 hours 20 minutes Riding Time
169 Total Miles
39 Ave MPH

Beemer Stats:
175 Total Miles
40 Ave MPH
46 MPG




We were not able to find an open weekend for a 2 or 3 day trip this month, so the plan for May 19 was to go long, forming up early and blasting out to Carlisle for 300+ miles on a beautiful spring day.  Cory and Kevin joined us hoping to go long.

Our policy with weather is to ignore the reports and at ride time look up to the sky.  If our faces get wet, it's raining, if not, not.  Usually this system gets us out on the road in a pleasant overcast despite ominous forecasts of rain.  Today seemed to be the opposite.  At 6:30, the Doppler radar showed a storm piled up over the Missouri River and clear skies from there east to Pennsylvania, and the satellite image showed cloud cover breaking to the west.  But the face test came up wet.  Everything showed wet roads and moisture in the air despite the good radar reports.  So we decided to modify the plan and ride up to the Lawn Fire Company Motorcycle Breakfast.  

OK, no question about it:  this day got tapped with the ugly stick.  It's not actually raining raining but there is enough moisture in the air to constantly bead up on the visor and the roads are wet and traction uncertain.  The overcast makes for an even light with no contrast but really, with poor visibility it's a constant struggle reading the road surface and not a whole lot of fun.  Even at 59 degrees I am glad to turn the heat on low and run the grip heaters to help dry the gloves that get wet from wiping the moisture off of the visor.

Lawn FC does a good job with breakfast, $12 all-you-can-eat cafeteria style buffet, kind of a HOG trough given the theme.  But the coffee was probably the best FC coffee encountered so far and the sausage gravy, though not quite Richwood Moose, was top drawer.

We rode back to the south through the Amish country.  Around 11:30 the ceiling lifted, the air cleared , and the roads dried, so the day was not a total bust.  In the end, 170 miles on the clock, not long but not quite short and home by about 2:00 with time do some chores.