For various reasons, I haven't been out on my bike for about a month. So as I was pulling out of my driveway today and hitting the throttle, I was reminded how much I love to ride.
There is a road about one block from my house which is a rider's dream. It has curves, hills, valleys, dips and rises, straight stretches and views. I was waiting at the red light with my left turn signal on anticipating getting reacquainted with the mechanics of my ride. We were about to share some quality time with the wind; lean a little into some curves, flow like water over the drops in the landscape and power our way up some really beautiful mountain roads.
Green light, turn, throttle up shift to 2nd gear, cross over the thruway bridge ready to kick her into 3rd gear as I come over the rise of the bridge, except there is a car in front of me. On a road with a speed limit of 40mph (on which I was prepared to travel 50) this car is crawling along at 30---except for when it came to a curve, any curve, all of them, where it would slow down to 20mph!
I usually live in a mindset that these are guardian angels sent to protect me from the dangers on the road ahead however today I didn't want a guardian angel. I wanted to play with my ride in a slightly frisky/risky way and this car was completely impeding my goal. My motorcycle was crying with anticipation as we crept up the hill at 20 and had to downshift just to prevent a stall...ugh!!! This motorcyclist knows trucker language and was utilizing it. I was also digging into assorted other random skills and languages I have learned over my lifetimes to help the driver of this car feel a need to move out of my way.
My patience finally won over my angst as I remembered that John Joy Rd was coming up and I could turn left there and enjoy a few other roads that are almost as good minus the turtle car. I turned on my signal so the hubby would know we were changing routes. Unfortunately snail male ahead of me read my signal and turned onto the same road, WITHOUT using a signal!!! May his car battery be dead tomorrow! I threw my hands up in the air and realized I had acquired a new skill-I've never driven my bike without any hands before.
Hubs was not surprised that I turned off signal, hit my throttle and flew into 50mph until the stop sign at the next turn. He pulled up next to me laughing out loud and just shaking his head. At least crawler was gone and we had the road to ourselves again. We did enjoy a very good ride the rest of the time. There is a spot on a Woodstock mountain road which overlooks the Ashokan Reservoir and when the leaves are off the trees you can see almost the entire lake from a great vantage point. Our timing was such tonight that the full moon was just coming up over the top of the mountain also. INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL and particularly because a November ride is so unexpected.
Written by "Q" aka Queen of Questions
There is a road about one block from my house which is a rider's dream. It has curves, hills, valleys, dips and rises, straight stretches and views. I was waiting at the red light with my left turn signal on anticipating getting reacquainted with the mechanics of my ride. We were about to share some quality time with the wind; lean a little into some curves, flow like water over the drops in the landscape and power our way up some really beautiful mountain roads.
Green light, turn, throttle up shift to 2nd gear, cross over the thruway bridge ready to kick her into 3rd gear as I come over the rise of the bridge, except there is a car in front of me. On a road with a speed limit of 40mph (on which I was prepared to travel 50) this car is crawling along at 30---except for when it came to a curve, any curve, all of them, where it would slow down to 20mph!
I usually live in a mindset that these are guardian angels sent to protect me from the dangers on the road ahead however today I didn't want a guardian angel. I wanted to play with my ride in a slightly frisky/risky way and this car was completely impeding my goal. My motorcycle was crying with anticipation as we crept up the hill at 20 and had to downshift just to prevent a stall...ugh!!! This motorcyclist knows trucker language and was utilizing it. I was also digging into assorted other random skills and languages I have learned over my lifetimes to help the driver of this car feel a need to move out of my way.
My patience finally won over my angst as I remembered that John Joy Rd was coming up and I could turn left there and enjoy a few other roads that are almost as good minus the turtle car. I turned on my signal so the hubby would know we were changing routes. Unfortunately snail male ahead of me read my signal and turned onto the same road, WITHOUT using a signal!!! May his car battery be dead tomorrow! I threw my hands up in the air and realized I had acquired a new skill-I've never driven my bike without any hands before.
Hubs was not surprised that I turned off signal, hit my throttle and flew into 50mph until the stop sign at the next turn. He pulled up next to me laughing out loud and just shaking his head. At least crawler was gone and we had the road to ourselves again. We did enjoy a very good ride the rest of the time. There is a spot on a Woodstock mountain road which overlooks the Ashokan Reservoir and when the leaves are off the trees you can see almost the entire lake from a great vantage point. Our timing was such tonight that the full moon was just coming up over the top of the mountain also. INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL and particularly because a November ride is so unexpected.
Written by "Q" aka Queen of Questions