October 9, 2009 The Duck days of October

365 Group (f)


These last few days have been really strange weather wise. Rain and sunshine. Rain and rain....


This morning I rushed around and got ready to leave hoping to catch a break in the rain or at least get out before the morning traffic. It was coming down hard. Finally I was ready and couldn't put it off any longer. I grabbed my helmet and went out. Thinking again for the umpteenth time I need to hit the salvage yards and get my car back on the road. Putting on my helmet I stepped out into what I refer to as an Ozark Hurricane. Heavy winds and lots and lots of hard driving rain.
Strapping my thermos on I figured the bike wouldn't start after being left out in the storm. Hey, it was warm and sunny when I parked it. I hit the kicker and she fired up. After sitting all night in a down pour, fired on the first kick. I'm ever and always amazed at my old machine.
Sloshing down the drive I saw just how much it had rained. My drive was all washed out again and water was standing everywhere I looked.
I eased onto the road and started down toward the highway. There wasn't much traffic so I just eased along and looked over all the trash and gravel that had been washed into the road. The next thirteen miles was going to be a ride.
At the stop at the highway the street makes an ever slight dip. Water was running about four to six inches deep. I pulled out and eased up to highway speed. The rains had washed off all the oils so going wasn't too bad, just had to keep an eye out for standing water.
From town to my turn off at the foot of the mountain wasn't too bad. I made as good of time as I normally do. After I made my turn I hit some heavy ground fog. I also had the high lite of my trip. In the fog I saw what looked like a small truck with one head light. As it got closer I saw that it was a Honda Shadow with a totally drowned young man riding it. He had on a leather jacket and chaps and looked like he was soaked through. I figured he had been riding in the worst part of the storm. He was wet to the point of normal. I've been that wet a couple of times in my life. Just comes a point when you just don't notice the water anymore. He was at that point. As we past he waved real big and kept on going.
I made good time over to Butterfield Coach Road. As I came up on the stop sign the rain eased noticeably and the fog was all but gone. I could see both ways well enough to slowly roll the stop and not break my ride. I was having a good time. That's another thing that always amazes me. No matter the situation I can get lost in riding.
Pulling up to the new parkway as it's called traffic was stacked up due to the rain. I managed to get on and got out ahead of most of it. I did have that feeling of being the ball in a pinball machine run up my back. Especially when a guy in a duel cab pickup tried to jump out on top of me. By this time the rain had all but stopped and I had decided that I needed to get out of every ones way before they figured they could go back to their normal driving routine. So. I wound the twin up and put some real distance between me and the advancing enemy forces. From each traffic light I blasted away ahead of everyone so I had time to pull over almost off the street at the next light. That way maybe someone wouldn't slide all over me.
Finally I got off on the side street I was looking for and just tooled on up to the job.
Rumor had it we had gotten around six inches of rain. It looked like. everything was definitely soaked. The job site looked washed.
Good rain gear is a must. Don't care who ya are. Nothing cooler than being dry on a wet day.
About noon the sun started peaking out and I got that old familiar feeling....come on 4 o'clock so I can get on the road.
May be doin the back stroke but I'll catch ya on the road