Sunday, April 27, 2014
Copyright(c) 2014, Jim Beachy
Copyright(c) 2014, Jim Beachy
The church we attend features four services every weekend, and they stream one of the morning services live. So instead of attending in person this morning, we sit in my little home office and watch the service on the Internet. After a light lunch, we finish last-minute packing, perform the dance of the car-truck-motorcycle repositioning in driveway and garage , take a quick photo of Kitty standing by the bike, and climb aboard.
“And there we go!” says Kitty in my headset as she has for years when we start out, although recently she has taken to saying “Click-click” to represent the small click we hear in the headset when she plugs in. And so we roll out, headed for I-66 west and I-81 south, just before 2:00 PM. There’s really no destination goal for today, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking Roanoke, VA, about 200 miles from home.
The temperature is a pleasant but cool 64 degrees. We’ve talked about how to dress for our new-jacket experiment; for now, we’re wearing the mesh jackets, a liner in each, and under that a t-shirt plus a long-sleeved shirt. I have a medium-weight sweatshirt, Kitty is wearing a thinner long-sleeved t-shirt that I think will be a little cool for her. The passenger always gets more turbulence as the still air pocket collapses around the shoulders, and it’s always a little chillier back there in cool weather. An hour later, I feel perfect without using any of the fairing’s heat vents or heated seat, and Kitty is a little chilly but has turned on her seat heater, which she says makes a big difference. I think we’ve learned that with a t-shirt plus sweatshirt, we can ride comfortably in these jackets with temps in the mid-60’s. That is probably the lower limit for an extended ride.
Spring has come very slowly to Virginia this year. None of the trees are in full leaf, but the enthusiastic patches of reddish-purple redbud trees offer a beautiful contrast to the pale green of the early springtime growth. While the Shenandoah Valley holds promise of full spring and summer on its rolling hills, as we look eastward toward the mountains where runs Skyline Drive, no sign of green is to be seen.
By the time we’ve ridden a hundred miles or so to Harrisonburg, VA, my windshield is completely and distractingly splattered with remains of many bugs. As I inspect the carnage and clean the windshield at a fuel stop (we’d left home with just half a tank of fuel), it appears most of the insects were yellow jackets or wasps - maybe relatives of the one that stung me yesterday? Perhaps I’m getting my pound of flesh after all! And speaking of which, the huge hard lump on the back of my neck is actually below where the helmet rests, so it’s fine. However, the wind and the tails of my do-rag tickling my neck in that spot make for a maddening desire to spend the whole day clawing and scratching at my neck.
And thus to Roanoke, 213 miles for this short bonus day. After checking in to a motel, I clean the front of the motorcycle - I don’t remember when I’ve ever had to work so hard to clean bugs! So they get the last laugh after all!
I’ve spent some time reevaluating our trip for tomorrow and moved our stopping point 60 miles or so farther south to Cleveland, TN, near Chattanooga, where we plan to leave the Interstate for good for the rest of the outbound trip. Before covering the bike and trailer, I’d programmed the new route into the bike’s GPS system. Rain and storms are making their way eastward, so I’m not sure when we’ll hit those - it would be preferable, it we must ride in storms, to do it on the Interstate tomorrow rather than on Appalachian Mountain roads the next day.
We’ll take it as it comes.
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