My vacation.
Yes I am on vacation this week, let's see, I worked Saturday so the vacation started then...and...I was sick on Sunday and Monday. So I made arraignments to pick up a friend and ride on Tuesday..remember Tuesday? Come on...it was yesterday...and...That's Right!!!...It rained. So much for a ride. So I jumped in the cage, picked up my rider and we went to Cabelas and Hooters (Wethersfield)...and a ride. The sun did come out...just as I was dropping her off.
So.. let's get to today.
I woke up early and took the bike out for breakfast to visit a "friend", (yes a different one), she works. Dumb woman. Any how... I headed out on the highways and byways of this great state of ours, the weather was fantastic, 68 degrees and rising, dry, sun shining..absolutely brilliant. I arrived at her place of work and found out she is off today, (probably out on her Sportster cruising northern Ct). So I ate a little toast,(not crazy about liquid chickens), had a little coffee and set out on my own ride. Let's see I told Joe to meet me at Dunkin at 10am, I thought I told Mike to meet me also. Now...What to do with two hours on a beautiful day...oh yeah...leave a message on Danny's Cel to let him know what he's missing,(It's sort of a duty), and ride. So I cruised round Mystic, Noank and Groton, then proceeded up route 12 to the Mohegan Pequot bridge. On the way I learned something, Those signs along the road...the ones that say "Work area ahead" they are there for a reason. they let you know there may be a "hazard" ahead. Today's Hazard took the shape of the Utilities Company, in this case..The Water Department. In the area of Dow Chemical I noticed there was a lot of water on the road, and it was in the vicinity of a Hydrant. Ah-ha, they are flushing hydrants. Just up the road, past the Gales Ferry Firehouse there was a Water Company truck on the shoulder opposite my lane, there was a water department person standing off the shoulder on my side of the road, and there was a Fire Hydrant. The hydrant was shooting water onto the opposite lane and amazingly enough the water filled the entire road, I watched a car coming the other way and it took a hit from the water, water flew everywhere, it was great, Now I slowed a bit, probably not enough, and proceeded through, The water sprayed both directions as the front wheel plowed through, then I came across the actual stream of the hydrant, mind you it was not shooting in the air across the road it was more like a jet stream under the waters surface.
Have you ever had a hose in your hand and decide to put something in front of the stream? What happens? That's right!!! It sprays everywhere, Well, when you are on a bike and the water is streaming across the surface and you break the stream with oh..lets say...a motorcycle, there is only one place for the water to go....UP.
It felt like I was stepping over a geyser that decided to go off just as I was on top of it. The water went up...I felt like I was driving in a Swimming pool, (do I taste Chlorine?) Now on a hot summer day it probably would have been wonderful, but when it's in the high 60s and you are making a breeze, and everything you own is..dripping...it gets chilly fast. Oh yeah, the water ends up on your windshield, behind your windshield behind your glasses and ...up your nose. It was actually rather enjoyable at that moment...the rest of the ride wasn't. As I cleared the geyser the Water Company guy on the side of the road was just shaking his head.
I headed to Dunkin on 32 to await the arrival of Joe and Mike. I ordered a tea and went outside in the sun to dry. Joe arrived and ordered a Coolata and we waited for Mike. As mentioned in the first sentence Mike wasn't coming because I forgot to hit send on the mail message that said where and when. At 1015 we hit the road, 163, Chesterfield, Grassy Hill, around abouts to 154, 154 to Lyme where we saw two lines of motorcycles approaching, not just any bikes, these boys were rigid, and neat, and perfect, It was eight bikes of the Connecticut State Police, probably training. We headed up along the river then took the route that the Road Captain took us on, up hills down hills, corners curves bridges a big Buck, Yes a rather large animal crossed the road ahead of us just before we regained 154. We took 154 to 82 and followed the same route I took the guys on a week or so ago to Bidwells except that we went to... Bidwells. As we approached Cottage street from Doyle I could see Joe was going to miss the turn, so (following) I turned on my indicator and blew my horn. This would normally work, the person in front hears the horn, looks in his mirror, sees the turn indicator and adjusts the ride accordingly. And this would have worked, except...we believe because I drove through a Hydrant flush..my horn doesn't actually blow, it sort of goes "gnek" . So for the rest of the day I annoyed Joe with Gneks.
We did find that just about every winding twisty road we chose above route 6 had...a slow car on it. Cross road actually had a member of the undead driving a car ahead of us, I swear she was dust in a dress.
After Bidwells, Joe took us down 32 to 6 across to 97 down to 14, Then a right turn at Martellos down to 49, a left after Newent took us across to rte 12. We grabbed 395 across to Jewitt City and rte 138, stopped for fuel,(Victory motorcycles), then it was one back road after another across 165 down to 201. A left on 201 and up to 165, a right turn and we ended the ride at Buttonwood farms.
All in all a great day, I had the plates and kickstand sparking on a couple roads and I know Joe had a couple hits way back on Grassy hill. Because as we got to the end of that road he said," Hey,You made me scrape my plates"
klay
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