Backyard Ridin

Today I didn't have anything going on and decided to run the local back roads around home. I find it help full to keep up with the road conditions locally. Anyway, I took off around 9 am just puttin around.
About half way into my ride brought me back to an intersection in the middle of the town I live in. Since it was getting close to lunch I drifted up to a local gas station that has a decent cafe and ordered a burger. After giving my order to the girls at the cafe I wandered back outside to sit at the picnic table while I waited. Most of the morning it had been very hot and muggy feeling, like it was going to rain and just as I sat down it did. Man! It opened up and poured. Glad I was under the awning.
As I sat there watching the rain a big Yamaha cruiser pulled in and the rider looked very relieved to be out of the rain. Also, at this time two young guys walked out of the store and began talking to the Cruiser rider. After a few minutes of listening to them talk I noticed two sport bikes parked next to the building in the rain. Their conversation centered on the riding they had been doing and how bad it had been. I learned that the Cruiser rider had just left his home and had ridden a total of eight miles before he was forced off the road by the rain. The two sport bike riders had about 20 miles in when they noticed the sky getting dark and headed for cover. Absent mindedly I checked my trip meter and my total for the morning was 126 miles.
The conversation finally drifted my way with one of the sport riders asking what kind of bike I had. I told them all about my antique and one asked if it was a bobber as it looked like something was missing. I explained that compared to when it was new a lot was missing. That I striped off everything I didn't like. So, I guess you could call it a bobber. At hearing this the other sport rider began to show some interest and started asking questions. As we were talking one of them noticed my mileage and asked how long it had taken me to put 126 miles on it. When I told him a couples of hours or so this morning they both acted like they were hard of hearing and said "huh"? About this time, Mary, one of the girls from the cafe brought out my burger and started telling them how I always ride and junk like that. They were kind of caught short so to speak and said that they didn't ride much, just around town and that 20 or thirty miles was a big trip to them. I told them that I understood. Life sometimes gets in the way and you do what you gotta do.
Both of the sport riders were seriously giving thought to our conversation and looking over my bike and the big Yamaha as well as their own. They seemed to have a question on their minds but suddenly changed gears and went back to chatting about bikes in general.
I finished my lunch and offered to let Mary kick start my bike. She grinned and passed. The cruiser said you have a kick starter? Pointing it out I offered to let him start it. Mary started giggling and he got red faced and I guess thought better of the idea saying no. All three said that they had no experience with anything other than late models. None with a kick starter.
I couldn't resist and flipped out the pedal and kicked it to life. I let it idle a few minutes and switched off. About this time we all agreed on a couple of things. It was time to go and electric starters were sooo much easier.
All in all it was a good day totaling 207 miles. It's funny what you can get into just puttin around your on Back yard.

Proud Member Of the 365 Group
(i rode mine today)