As I noted some time back, I have a motorcycle that I get to ride from time to time.
Part of the intent was to make that both for pleasure and to help save on gas going to and from work.
Since I got the bike though, other than a couple of attempts at improving my skills, pretty much all of my riding has been of the “I need to get there, and I’m here” variety. It has been and can be a fun way of doing just that, but at that point it’s mostly a utility, not an activity of it’s own right worth doing.
3 weeks ago we had our last pre-con concom meeting. If you haven’t been following my blog, or some of my other writings, that may be a bit confusing to you, but it’s not critically important. Suffice it to say that the past couple of months have been filled with a lot of my time being used to get things done for the convention, and not all that much time used for my own entertainment. The ‘important’ thing related to the meeting was the ‘ice breaker’ question, and my response. The Question was going to be “What are you going to do ‘next weekend?’” and they realized that most of us would be tied up with final preparations for the convention, so they re-phrased it to “What are you going to do the weekend after the convention?”
Several people reported that they would be sleeping in for the first time in a while. Or working on other conventions, or a few other ‘common’ themes. A few were going to see some movies that hadn’t arrived in theaters yet, or which they didn’t have time to get to yet.
My response was ‘Weather permitting, I’m going to be on a highway some place, out of the city, riding my bike.” I did get a bit of applause, especially from a couple of friends who suddenly realized that that was something they wanted to do as well.
One of the thing’s I have learned over time, is that there are two important elements to getting things done. The first is actually ‘doing’ what you want to get done. Well, perhaps that’s more the obvious element. What’s not quite as ‘obvious’, but I think is even more important is defining what it is you’re going to do. I could have said I was going to improve my home theater. Which I did do, but would have been rather mundane. Instead I elected to define a ‘get away from it all’ event that fit with what I had intended to do with other things in my life. Ride and see more than the road to and from work.
Circumstances did work to throw some sand in the gears. As I was riding to the convention one of the days, I lost the end of one of the zippers that attaches a sleve to the body of the jacket. The slide worked to temporarily re-fasten the zipper, but pretty much every time I put on the jacket the zipper would come undone again, so that jacket is going to become part of my costume supply I think. In any case I did not have reliable body protection suddennly. So on Monday I pulled up Motorcycle Superstore’s website, and found an affordable jacket that was right for the conditions I expect over the next couple of months to weeks, and ordered it for next day delivery.
Amazon has spoiled me when it comes to ‘next day delivery. Next day delivery means I get it ‘the next day.’ Not quite the case with Motorcycle Superstore. Yes the do ship it ‘Next Day,’ but that doesn’t mean you’ll get it ‘tomorrow.’ It means you’ll get it the day after they ’ship it.’ My experience is that the ’ship it’ anywhere from 2 to 4 days later. In the case of my jacket, I ordered it on Monday, and the jacket was shipped Thursday. Considering that I work from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am Wed., Thur., Fri., this week, you can envision what sort of a problem this generates. It’s a little tough to be ‘up’ at 12:35 (or whenever) when UPS shows up at the appartment complex door to deliver a package. Yes they will deliver it to the office, but depending on when they actually deliver to the office, who receives it, and what time I wake up, that may mean I get the package that day, or the following Monday.
In the case of the jacket, I was actually able to run down the UPS delivery guy at the next appartment building when he was going to deliver another package there.
Thus I have the new jacket. Of course I fail to transfer a few of the things from the pockets of the old jacket, into the new jacket, but that’s a quick walk back to the appartment to collect it before I hit the road today.
A while back, one of my friends pointed out that a friend of hers had been having stability problems with a bike, and it turned out that the problem was that the tire presure on that bike was too low. An immediate flag went up that I need to be checking the tire presure. Not a problem I start off thinking, I’ve got several tire gages about. Of course that’s only useful when the tire gages in question are available when you go to ride the bike. The one in the car? Not so useful. Likewise the one on the compressor that’s burried under 200 lb of stuff in storage. So this week I also picked up a digital tire gage to ride on the keychain for the bike. ($19 at Target in the automotive section.) It’s also handy to know what the tire presure is supposed to be. This is dependent on the tire, not necessarily the bike, but the bike’s owners manual is a good place to start looking, especially when you don’t see any recommended pressure listed on the sidewalls of the tires.
So I check over the bike, get it started, finish suiting up, and locking up the garage, ride over to the gas station, and top off the tank, and the receipt says it’s 2:19 pm. Since I don’t want to spend the entire day staring into the sun, I decide to head west. By the time the sun get’s to be a problem, it should be time for me to start heading home anyway.
An observation on the mesh jackets. If you like to ride in a t-shirt because you get to feel the wind on your skin, you’re going to love the way the wind goes through a mesh jacket. Remember to keep yourself hydrated.
‘West’ means a couple of different routes for me. I can head down to Highway 7, and head west there. That takes me along the south side of Lake Minnetonka, and I’ll probably ride that route one of these days, but I chose not to today. It can also mean riding on Highway 55, which is mostly where I ended up riding today, but wasn’t the choice I had started off on.
West also means memories of summers gone by. My grandpa and grandma (grandparents on my mom’s side.) had a trailer and a cabin on Big Stone Lake on the border of Minnesota and South Dakota. Next year I hope to make a ride out to Clinton, with a visit to Big Stone Lake, to visit their graves. I haven’t decided on a date for that yet, but I’m currently thinking late July, or even late August. I’ll work it around my other activities.
Why that’s interesting though is that Highway 12 is the most direct route there. So for me Highway 12, more than other routes, means ‘West.”
Of course selecting a route, and actually being able to make use of that route are two completely different things. In Minnesota, we have a saying about roads, that I suspect is far from unique, “Minneota has two seasons, Winter, and Road Construction.” This year just happens to be pretty hard on Highway 12. I figured it was a bad sign when I hit the entrance ramp for Highway 12 at Carlson Parkway, and there was a traffic Jam. Remember it’s about 2:30 pm on a Sunday, and this is a route leading out of the city. The higway itself is down to one lane in each direction, and pretty much every 60 mph speed limit sign has been boarded over and 45 mph signs are all over the place. As I was getting close to Delano the signs saying “Road Closed” in Delano, suggested that taking the detour for highway 12 was in order. I selected the ‘truck’ detour, on the presupposition that it would be reasonably well monitored.
Oddly enough, the Truck Detour took me to highway 55. And as I’m riding along on 55, generally experiencing no indication of road construction, I decided Let’s just go with it. and instead of following the detour back to higway 12, stayed on 55.
There’s a lot of beautiful scenery on 55. And for some reason, once you get beyond Buffalo, there’s enough of a supply of bugs flying over the highway that I’m glad I was wearing a helmet with a face shield.
As I was rolling along, and passing through Maple Lake, I spot a DQ, and think “You know, when I get out a couple of hours, that wouldn’t be a bad stop if I can find one.” Back at the gas station, I had picked up a liter of Diet Mt. Dew, on the off chance that I found a rest stop or something that caught my eye (I know that there is one on 12 that I want to visit) but figured that a DQ would work at least as well. About an hour and 45 min out I spot a sign for an A&W, some 33 miles away in Paynesville, and decide that’s just about the right distance for my first rest stop. And an A&W would be an acceptable fallback for DQ. (Yes Abby, I know you don’t necessarily agree, I’m of the same feeling regarding Kwik Trip as I once worked at Quick Stop. Long story.)
In any case I roll on, and as I’m rolling into Paynesville, MN, I see a DQ. So I start making my turns for it, see that across the Highway is the A&W, and continue on to DQ. I picked up a couple of cheese dogs and a French Vanila Frozen Latte (large) and head over to a table. While I’m there, a couple show up on a pair of touring bikes, and as I’ve finished up my dogs and am enjoying the Frozen Latte, a guy and his son (Trevor?) roll in as well, and join me at the table. We get to talking about bikes, riding, permits, where we’ve come from and are going. That kind of stuff. The receipt says it was 4:34.
I had pulled out my laminated map, and had tentatively selected taking 23 to Saint Cloud, then crossing the river and jumping on 10 down to 169, which I would take home. But with all my routes, It was something to think about, and I would see where the road took me. After bidding adieu and safe riding, I got to rolling again, and took 23 east. About 15 miles out of Paynesville, it switched from 2 lane highway to 4 lane divided, with varying speed limits from 45, on up to 65 mph. While that’s an ‘easy’ ride, it get’s somewhat boring after a while. I ended up getting to Saint Cloud, and after getting too close to the intersection to change lanes, realized that 23 was turning, and I wasn’t. So I went with the new direction, and ended up back on the west side of Interstate 94, in Agusta, MN, on a county highway. I stopped at a BP, made a pit stop, and picked up a couple of peppered beef sticks, and got back on the road. The BP receipt says 6:06 PM.
This highway almost immediately turned into “Loose Gravel.” No, not a gravel road, but a paved highway that they first layed down a coating of oil, then overlayed that with Gravel. Because that is a thin layer, but enough to cover the oil (OK, thin tar that does hold down the gravel it is in contact with) not all of the gravel is held down securely by the oil. About 5 miles into this, they layed down a layer of tar on top of the gravel to more completely secure the gravel, but it’s still fairly fresh, and from time to time the bike kicks up a stone or two, and throws it against the wheel fairing.
Eventually even that goes away, and I’m back on a fully set pavement road, so I can get back to a less tense riding style. A couple of miles later I’m back to Highway 55 in South Haven. Today seems to be focused mostly on highway 55 I guess, so I take that back home. About the time I get out of Maple Lake, I decide that it would probably be a good idea to stop at the Cenex. One of the problems I had been having is that the sun glasses clip ons for my glasses have caused my glasses to go down my nose a few times. So I was hoping to find a eyeglass retention strap to attach across the ends of my bows, and around the back of my head. No such luck, but noting the muscle aches I picked up a travel pack (4 caplets) of Motrin. I have a feeling I’m going to be a bit sore tomorrow. I paid cash, but the ATM receipt suggest it was 6:53 PM.
The ride from Cenex to home was mostly uneventful. Strangely enough, a little over half the lights I encountered along the route back turned red before I (or a lot of other traffic ahead of me) got to them. I am somewhat used to the experience, as I get that often enough going to and from work, but after riding for 160 miles or so, most of it without any lights, it was somewhat aggravating.
The clock in the apartment says it was 8:03 PM when I sat down at the computer. Just about 6 hours after I decided it was time to go for a ride. A somewhat laborious map tracing in google earth suggests that I rode about 185 miles today. Considering a ride to and from work, or the convention hotel takes a 20 mile chunk of travel, it’s only partial compensation for all the ‘utility’ riding I’ve done so far. But it’s a start. Who knows, maybe I’ll hit New Ulm next week.
Ride safe, have fun.
~Rusty
