First Ride of 2008

Spring has finally sprung enough to get out there and enjoy riding again. Warm dry weather moved in this week and dried the roads out so there was no question about getting in some serious riding this weekend. I learned Thursday night that Jorg and Becky were going to be at the BMW Dealer picking up her freshly painted bike so she could join us riding. Like a little kid at Christmas I spent Friday scouring the web, not for gifts but for destinations. I put together a nice little ride with some planned stops in case we had to warm up. We left the BMW dealership and headed south along one of the nicer roads escaping the traffic of the city. I was smiling ear to ear enjoying every minute of the 2008 maiden voyage when the light bulb in my head went off… Bingo! I have the camera and I am not putting off stopping and getting a picture of this cemetery that has put a smile on my face every time I ride by for the past five years.

After we scored a couple of pictures and rode off, I starting thinking… “you dummy, you didn’t even read any of the stones to see if it was for real or not… hmm… why ruin the picture I have in my head, some things are better not known”. I am now concentrating on remembering what roads I want to take to get to our next destination when out of the corner of my eye I catch this sign. I am not sure if it was because I just left the “Hooker Cemetery” or the fresh spring air but I was curious what this band looks like. I had to turn around and get a picture for you all.
We now are on some of the nicer roads around that twist and bend through the woods with big left and right sweepers and it felt good blowing all the cob-webs out. After about 25 miles of these great roads we again approach the confines of another city but our destination is only a couple of miles away. The destination of today is the Ducati & Triumph dealer to check out the new Ducs and other goodies they might have.

The place was packed with people and bikes. Once we got our gear off and was making our way towards the row of freshly imported Italian equipment the owner comes out and starts yacking away with Becky, seems they now each other. He shows us around and gets us coffee. After getting our fill of eye candy I confirm with one of the employees that the bar I had chosen to get lunch at was truly good, and she confirmed that it was awesome. We headed just down the road to the Corner Bar and had a superb burger and beer. The prices where great too, logged that one into the ole’ brain full of great roadside stops for a future RTE (ride to eat).

This is when we had to start heading for home, of course only by way of more winding, twisting scenic roads. All in all it was a great ride and I managed to add another 153 clicks to the 650. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.