Sunday, March 25, 2012

Saturday's ride

Having already made plans to have a rider I knew I would be unable to meet the Club for the ride to meet Vinny in Durham. So I contacted Danny and we met at the Dunkin Donuts at 32 and 2A at 8:30. Our bikes topped off we headed up rte 395 to 2 to 32 to pick up my rider in Franklin.


With her on the back of the bike we took 32 to 207 to 16, cruised through Colchester to rte 149 which we followed through Moodus to East Haddam, crossed the Connecticut river then ran north on 154. My plan was to take 154 to Chester then shoot across the state to rte 17 below Durham, but I am stupid. Cruising north on 154 it wasn't long before I remembered that Chester was south. But seeing as I have a distinct aversion to U-turns we continued along 154 till we arrived at Higganum were I took us onto rte 81 to 9 north. We jumped off exit 11. This exit f sucks, as anyone who has used it can tell you, it is a sharp right with an opposed camber and the pavement is crap. Managing not to drop off the exit and fly down the grass hill we arrived at rte 155 which took us to rte 17 south where we arrived at Dunkin at 10am, one and a half hours before the 11:30 AOB. Luckily we found Sean Legacy parked out back he having arrived shortly before us. We went in for coffee and it wasn't long before others arrived.

We departed Dunkin a tad early in order to meet up with those members of the Club that had met in Montville for the ride. Vinny took us down 17 to 79 where we turned east on Higganum road which took us back to 154. We met the Club group at Dunkin on 82. The group from Montville consisted of 1 bike, Tom Yuchniuk. Vinny took us across the river to 149 which took us north to 16. We crossed 16 and stayed on that road til we arrived at Old Hartford road. We took a right then a left on 85. We continued to cruise north until we arrived at Riens Deli in Vernon. There we met up with The Cropleys and Evert. We had seventeen people and helped fill the restaurant more than it already was. After a great lunch we broke up, small groups heading in different directions. Vinny's main group headed for Hot Leathers while Evert, Myself, Tom Y., and Danny went east on 30 to 31 then 44 to Mansfield and UConn for ice cream. From there we headed down into Willimantic, deposited Julie in Franklin then south on 32 and we split up in Norwich. Tom to 395 south, Danny into Norwich then 32 south, Evert off in Norwichtown and myself rte 2 to 177 and home (Equinox). In Vernon the sun was shining and the air was warm, I contemplated dropping the jacket and just using the vest but just settled on shedding the chaps, down below Norwich I was actually glad I kept the Jacket and sorry I dropped the chaps.  All in all a rather great day. (Any day on a motorcycle is a great day)

For those that were with me when we dropped Julie off....

THat is Julie on the left, Her mother in the middle and that little kid on the right...
That would be her brother, the one that came down the stairs when we dropped her off. You might say he got a tad taller, but then...the photo above was taken June 1997.


klay

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