We’ve been in a lingering pattern of rain and thunderstorms for the past week. It’s rained so much; we were unable to take the two BMW motorcycles this week for their annual inspections. Today’s ride was delayed as we waited for the roads to dry from Friday night’s storms. Because of this delay, we wound up riding around 1:00 in the afternoon into the building heat and humidity of the day.
I was wearing a new, moisture-wicking t-shirt, but I didn’t feel much relief. Last week I wrote about all the safety gear I wear, and during today’s ride, it not only kept me safe, but it also kept me baked. From the moment I sat on the R Nine T, with its black gas tank, I felt uncomfortably warm. And there was enough movement in the clouds to keep the hot sun bearing down on us throughout the ride.
There wasn’t much of a wind chill either. In fact I only felt relief when we rode close to the river. I rode with my helmet visor up and my gloves unzipped to encourage more air circulation and dreading our slow speed maneuvers. I noted on the curvy road that I do better when the road curves to the right than when it curves to the left. I pondered this difference in curves and decided that I am more comfortable with the road curving to the right because I enter that curve close to the center line and have the lane and the shoulder of the road to work with. However, on the left curves, I enter the curve at the edge of the road near the shoulder and work toward the center near the lane of oncoming traffic. Now at my speed and with the neighborhood roads, there isn’t much oncoming traffic to worry about, but I’m glad I am aware of the difference and can work on my left curves approach.
As we cruised about I noticed that the brown-eyed Susans and purple cone flowers have joined the hydrangeas in bloom. We went up a new court and I saw gorgeous orange and yellow sort of starburst flowers on a bush that I didn’t recognize. Only cabbage white butterflies were visible flitting about with even the dragonflies in short supply. Perhaps the heat of the day kept things quiet. Even though the temperature was in the mid-80s, the humidity was up in the 90s. It was so uncomfortable that we saw a small dog on his leash laying down in a shady spot on the sidewalk and refusing to budge even as his owner tried to encourage him to keep going.
Our hospital lot slow-speed practice was cut short to get us home and give us the chance to start cooling down. Bill took off his gear and sat down in front of the small fan in the garage. I grabbed some cold water then found a fan inside to sit in front of. I hope the rain will back off some to allow us an earlier in the day ride; the days are only going to get hotter from here.
Flutterby Biker 