6/6/09 fishin

365 Group (f)

This morning was a nice morning for a ride. Temperatures were almost perfect.

I loaded up and headed out towards Huntsville, to Withrow Springs State park. The park was having a Kids Fishing Derby. A friend of mine was taking his family over to spend the weekend and his three boys were going to do some fishing. The park had stocked a small lake with Trout. It had all the makings of a good time. Plus I was invited for something to eat. Whats better than that?
I made good time over to Hindsville and Hwy 412. Once I got on 412 the traffic picked up a little. Still it wasn't bad for a Saturday morning. There were lots bikes on the road and that always makes for a nicer ride. I kind of floated along with the flow of things until a Big Hat popped up and put a real "slow down" on everyone. Funny how that happens. One minute every ones being a real terror of the roads and the next everybody is wearing a halo.
Coming up on downtown Huntsville's own cloverleaf I hit the Eureka Springs exit and made the five miles down to the park entrance. It was sort of disappointing, I was just getting warmed up for the ride and it ended.
Pulling into the park I saw that the Derby was already going on. Looked like lots of families had shown up. I made my way through the cars and people and located my friends campsite. It was guarded by the family Wiener Dog. After a few minutes of some serious behind the ear scratching and other assorted forms of lovin up which is sure to put me in a special place with the Pup Dog Gods, I headed back down to the activities.
The Derby was for kids under sixteen. Prizes were given for biggest and smallest catch, most caught as well as door prizes. This was pretty neat as two of my friends kids won door prizes. Everyone was having a good time. The kids were really working at it. I even noticed that some of the parents "lost track" of the fact that they were only allowed to help the kids and were having a good time themselves. Funny how people can lose track.
I watched a few good sized Trout get caught and took a couple of pictures of the event as a whole.
After visiting for a few minutes I headed back out to the highway and decided to run on down to Marble for some hush puppies.
Traffic was light and behaved. I made a good ride into Marble. As I pulled in to the store I noticed that the sky was getting dark and it was starting to look a lot like rain. Nothing in the weather forecast about rain. This could put a damper on the rest of my day.
I got a couple of large orders of Hush Puppies and walked back out to my bike. There were a couple of other bikes out by mine and I chatted up the riders a little and had a Hush puppie or three. They looked at the sky and got a nervous look on their faces. Apparently neither had anything other than their stylish Harley tee shirts, absolutely no rain gear. Ahhh come on now, they were tough bikers, ridin Hogs. As a cool breeze blew in they decided it was time to leave and took off like they were late and were trying to beat out he weather. Nothing against those guys. But the thought "it's hard to look cool when your soaked to the bone", came to mind. I looked over the sky again and felt the chill in the wind that was picking up and looked at my rain gear and decided that I might ought to quit screwing around and have another hush puppie.
Finally, after my second cup of coffee and a half of a large order of "puppies", I started packing up to head for the house. I thought about how good these Hush Puppies would go with dinner later. Cornbread of any kind is always a good thing. Especially in this size, in a bowl of hot brown beans. Yep! it be good.
My ride back wasn't as nice as the ride over had been. The wind had picked up with the storm front. It was cooler and I was blown around a little. But still it was a good ride.

I had a good time watching the kids fish and the parents "help". Parents always put on the best show.
I got in around a hundred miles and even managed to stay dry. By the time I pulled in to my drive, I was ready to go to another get together like this. Not quite a bike rally but still loads of fun. If you get the chance to attend one I highly recommend it.
catch ya on the road

mail: bikin_ridin@yahoo.com