10-13-09 Ridin in the Rain....finito

365 group (f)

In keeping with the duck days of October, it rained again.

I woke to another drizzly mess. It was cool and soggy all over. If this keeps up I may have to start parking at the church next door.they don't seem to have the red clay problem that I have.
Kind of rough every once in a while to find your bike laying on it's side because the kickstand buried up in the soft clay.
I uncovered my bike and it fired up with with just the minimal amount of sweet talking. Strapping on my thermos and camera's I planned to make a day of this mess. As the bike was warming I went back to the house for some last minute extra lovin on the "hounds". They always seem to like this last minute stuff, or maybe it's the treats I give em? grabbing a hand full of treats for radar I headed out. Radar got up and showed an unusual amount of interest in walking with me to the bike. he even reared up on the seat and gave everything the serious sniff over. Kind of like saying "OK, I got a good grip on things." I gave him his treats, scratched his ears and he trotted back to the dry porch. Hound after my own heart.
I bounced down my drive to the street and headed southeast. My intent was to run the county roads toward Elkins and pick up hwy 16 and run it all the way to hwy 7. From there I guessed I'd just flip a coin and go north or South.
The county road I was on brought me into the middle of Elkins. Elkins is a small town with a big reputation for being a speed trap. I'm always hearing stories of people getting tagged for as little as one mile per hour over. Since this is far from being my first rodeo, I eased through town about five under. Clearing Elkins I got up to a good comfortable speed and started making a dent in the miles.
Before I knew it I had run through the small communities of Crosses and Combs and was coming up on St. Paul. St. Paul is a very small community on hwy 16. All that I know of there is the gas station and store. As the station came into view I was reminded of a Poker run a few years back. One of the runs stops was at this store. While we were there , one of my buddies blew an oil line off his Harley and had managed to soak everyone riding behind him with oil. Turned out to be a small fix, just a clamp. I had gone into the store to see if they might have a small clamp and as I came out I was struck by the size of the town and the number of bikes. Bikes were parked side by side for what seemed like a half a mile in each direction. As I stepped onto the porch of this store I said to no one in particular "looks like Hollister California in the forties". For some reason the sight of the bikes had brought an old movie about that incident to mind. As I stood there looking around an old guy grinned real big and says, "It does." we started talking and he told me that he had grown up out side Hollister and was living there when that incident took place. Although he wasn't in town during the incident. He was in the area and recalled the numbers of bikes and all the Cops. He said it was big talk for days after. His introduced himself and all I can remember is, his first name was Lenny. We chatted for a few minutes and I remembered the clamp and oil line. As I tooled on through the little town, I wondered if the old man was still around.
Leaving St. Paul the road is a pretty fair two lane that you can travel for it's entirety at times without ever seeing another vehicle. Today was almost one of those days. All in all I rode about eighty miles without seeing a vehicle. I finally came up on a pickup as I neared the town of Fallsville. Fallsville is a neat little wide spot. Sometimes there is a store-gas station there sometimes there isn't. Not a whole lot of business in the area. Today it looked dead as I came through. Setting my sights on the station at Nail I eased on down the road and hoped I made it. The bike does pretty well but over the years I have learned a thing or two and pushing your luck when you didn't have to was one of them.
At nail I gassed up and headed on towards Deer and lunch with mom before I flipped the quarter. I have four days to kill and I wanted to get in several miles before I turned back. So far I only had a hundred and forty seven of them. I'm hoping for at least that many more through these hills before I call it a day.
Let ya know tomorrow how today ended up.
I ended up staying over with mom for another day and night with Flu like symptoms. I felt like I was done. No energy no nothing. It was a job to just get out of bed and into the kitchen for breakfast. I finally gave up and went back to bed. I slept all day and most of the night. I mean I slept. Deep with out interruption. That seemed to be what I needed. I got up the next morning much improved. Since I had lost so much time I just decided to scrap trying to recover and had mom make me an appointment with her doctor.
About ten I struck out for Jasper and the Doctor. The ride to Jasper is always a good one. A real good combination of straights and twisties. Especially on the mountain. Great curves on the mountain.
Pulling into Jasper I slowed way down and just looked over everything. Not much changes around this small town, but there is a yard sale of something of interest usually going on.
I made my turn off the square and ripped up to the clinic. The doc is a cool dude and gave it too me pretty quick. I had a case of a new fast moving flu. Usually hits the stomach and lasts a day or three. Yep that would be me. Told me to down lots of liquids and hold on. I could do that.
back out at the bike I had picked up some "groopies". A pack of neighborhood hounds were laying beside my bike. They looked all comfortable and kind of sad that I was taking their "leaning post". Firing up I eased back out to the street with the hounds trotting along behind. I though it looked cute. It only lasted a couple of minutes. One saw a squirrel or something and they all took off like they were late for something.
Getting back on 7 I decided that since I was actually diagnosed with the flu I would just be line it to the house and try for a trip next weekend. With this all settled the rain started again.
I picked a route home up 74 and over to 21. 74 out of Jasper is another favorite short ride of mine. Like most of the little area rides around this part of the country, straight stretches and twisties. Very enjoyable but very much too short.
Pulling the Boxley mountain I made good time all the way to Kingston and actually, good time all the way to the house. Pulling into the drive I saw a bunch of Rabbits sitting in the middle of my drive. On up at the house where I normally park I saw Radar laying by one of my other bikes. Neither party of critters seemed overly concerned. Man! It's always good to get back.

My ride this weekend wasn't as much as I had planned but sometimes it happens that way. I did have a good time while I was on the road. I enjoyed my time with my mom, always do. I'm hoping that the coming weekends are a little dryer and that I can get in my last trip of this years season in without too much trouble or fanfare. About 370 miles this time around. Not bad.
Catch ya on the road