A beautiful summer day in the mid-80s is quite a gift.  Having checked the forecast for Saturday earlier in the week, I had been especially looking forward to today’s ride.  All week we had temperatures into the 90s with building humidity that resulted in daily afternoon thunderstorms.  But Saturday was partly cloudy with a high of 85, what should be a beautiful summer’s day for riding a motorcycle.

            The ride began well enough, with a comfortable coolness coming from the wind generated by the ride.  Bill did have to tighten up the battery connections again to get the Triumph Rocket to start but, after last weekend’s lesson, that was a quick fix.  We headed out with cloud cover and cooling air, but my left shoulder was hurting.  Somehow the clasp on the Alpinestars armored jacket was pressing into my front shoulder most uncomfortably.  I reached in to adjust the strap, which I could do because I kept my jacket zipped only halfway to increase air flow.  But it kept digging in.

            I couldn’t understand the issue.  The strap was not the one I had undone to get the jacket on and then secure the plating.  My best guess was that it had gotten twisted when I put my gear away last week.  Had it continued to press in painfully, I would’ve stopped riding, dismounted, and fully adjusted my gear.  But after shifting it around four or five times, it became just a little uncomfortable and completely endurable.

            We rode the twisty road, and I worked again on setting up my entries into the curves.   These went great giving me time to enjoy some scenery.   I saw some beautiful tall phlox in a gorgeous fuchsia shade along the twisties. 

            Having not done much with slow speed maneuvers last weekend, we spent quite a bit of the ride zooming into courts and cul de sacs to work on U-turns and S-turns.  It was during all of this turn practice that I noticed my right hand again becoming numb.  As soon as we got to the shady parking lot, I parked the bike and worked on loosening up my sleeve.  I don’t actually know what causes this numbness; it is a fairly new development that I’ve only noticed as I ride the R Nine T.  I’ve tried various undershirts thinking that my sleeve may have twisted underneath the safety gear and caused pressure on my arm.

            During today’s ride, I began to wonder if the numbness is due to my pre-loading my front brake.  I would think the pre-load and rolling on the throttle would be enough motion through the hand and arm to prevent any numbness, but something is causing it.  I have wondered if it might be the riding position of the R Nine T.  I don’t sit entirely upright, like I did on the 310, Scrambler, and GSA; I ride with a slight hunching forward.  However, if the position was causing the numbness, I would think I’d experience some numbness in my left hand as well.  Bill has suggested that my Alpinestars jacket may be causing the numbness because of the change in my arms.  I workout and lift weights, in part to better help me handle motorcycles, and I am beginning to see some muscle definition.  So Bill’s theory is that definition is creating a new tightness in the sleeve and leading to the numbness.  Next week I’m going to try wearing Bill’s jacket and see if that prevents my right hand from falling asleep.

            I did have a distraction from the numbness and that was, the heat.  Even though the day was cooler, the humidity worked on me to the point where I began to feel a little sick.  I’ve decided that the t-shirt I got that is supposed to wick moisture away from my body doesn’t breathe well enough.  I’m going to try wearing a plain, white, men’s undershirt underneath my gear and see if that works to keep me more comfortable.

            I tried something new while we worked in the hospital lot.   Because I was feeling the heat, I didn’t want to spend too much time on slow U-turns.  Earlier in the week, Bill had mentioned that I should try and lock up the brakes so I could feel the ABS (anti-lock braking system) kick in.  I asked him how I would know if the ABS was activated, and he explained that I would feel a shudder in the motorcycle, like a “chiggering.”  To keep cool and still work on my riding skills, I sped along in the lot and grabbed hard on the brakes.  I felt the ABS activate three times.  Why should I do this?  As a skill, understanding the feel of the ABS can help me in an emergency braking situation to not freak out and, heaven forbid, stop braking.  The practice also let me work up a cooling breeze to help with the heat.

            Despite the discomforts of the ride, I did have a good time.  I enjoyed seeing some tall sunflowers in bloom and caught a strong whiff of fragrant air from a mimosa tree.  And I was quick enough to spot not only a couple of cabbage white butterflies, but two small Fritillary butterflies, one of which fluttered by six inches from my helmet.  My riding skills are becoming second nature allowing me to enjoy these natural sites while keeping aware and riding safely.

It was a warm mid-July morning with the promise of more thunderstorms at some point in the day as we planned to head out for our ride.  We didn’t get far at first, but eventually we did get going. 

My parents’ driveway is very steep; walking up it I can feel my calf muscles straining.  Plus, ever since I dropped the Ducati Scrambler in the driveway, Bill has been the one to back both motorcycles out of the garage and park them down on the road.  He starts with the Rocket and then the R Nine T.  I visit a bit with my mom, change into my Daytona riding boots, while he does this. 

On this particular morning, I was helping my mom scan some documents and had popped out to let Bill know that I wouldn’t be long.  Bill was sitting on the Rocket having backed it out of the garage in preparation for riding it down into the street, but instead of riding, we waved me over.  The Rocket wouldn’t turn over.  The dashboard lit up as it should though the fuel gauge didn’t move, but when Bill again hit the starter, it gave a whine and nothing.

We haven’t owned the Rocket even a year yet.  It is a beautiful motorcycle, a dream bike in man ways, but it does have technical issues with the key fob.  Many riders report connectivity issues with the key fob, having the bike say it is out of range in the middle of a ride.  Bill has had issues in closeness of the fob for the engine to engage, but it always did engage until today.  We pushed the motorcycle back into the garage, and Bill went out and bought new batteries for the fob.  Still no turnover, so I called the Triumph dealer to speak to a mechanic.  The only practical suggestion to come from the conversation was to check the connections on the battery because they may have “vibrated loose” according to the mechanic.  Bill did so jiggling them as he checked for tightness; they were tight.

It seemed as though our ride was shot, but Bill pressed the ignition switch one more time and was rewarded with the grumble of the engine igniting.  Since the battery cables weren’t really loose, we think he jiggled them enough to let the starter connect.  It is a good thing to know when a motorcycle acts up to check the battery cables.  We keep all of our motorcycles on battery tenders.  These provide a constant charge to the bikes’ batteries, useful because they are not ridden every day like our cars are driven every day.  But even with the tender, the connections on the battery that respond to the starter can vibrate out of place—all part of learning the character of a motorcycle.

Speaking of character, once we got going, I came to the realization that of the three main motorcycles I’ve ridden for some period of time, the R Nine T is by far the easiest to ride.  Once I developed my comfort level with the clutch, I’ve not had many struggles.  There’s been that odd day when I had some missed shifts (and almost crashed), but I see that as character that comes with the bike.  The balance of the motorcycle is phenomenal and has helped develop my confidence in making Uturns.  It has the power to let me easily keep up with Bill on his Rocket, and it looks fantastic.  Looking at the bike, it embodies the essence of what a motorcycle should look like.  In its retro styling, it harkens back to the motorcycles of the 1940s and 1950s, and with the exception of the weird numbness I get in my right hand, the riding position is great.  I still find myself thinking about the R 1250 GS, and I do still believe that is my dream bike.  But being “stuck” with the R Nine T is a pretty good place to be.

Speaking of good places to be, even with the cloying heat, the ride was wonderful.  My shirt was stuck to my back within five minutes of us zooming off.  With our late start due to the start up issues, we went for a quick ride that was mostly cruising.  The cruising allowed the air to circulate enough to keep me mostly comfortable.  I also had decided to try wearing my Klim riding jeans instead of the Rev’It leather pants, and I do think those kept me a wee bit cooler.  I was rewarded on the ride with three different butterflies—the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, one Cabbage White, and a small Black Swallowtail making me even happier that this ride did happen.

I had a get together this weekend with friends I hadn’t seen in quite some time, some since before the pandemic.  With this event, the weather, and feeling a little under the weather, riding our motorcycles will have to wait until next weekend.

            I do have some motorcycle news, however.  We’ve had an offer on the BMW G 310 GS at our price ($4950).  Once the cashier’s check arrives and clears, we may have one of the two motorcycles up for sale sold.  I had to go back on CycleTrader and buy a new ad for the Ducati Scrambler.  Unfortunately, once a listing has been live for 24 hours, they don’t let the seller edit the full listing.  I had listed it as a Ducati Desert Sled Scrambler Fasthouse, and Bill pointed out that someone searching for a Ducati Scrambler has to wade through 10 pages of results before ours showed up.  Once I put it in as the Ducats Scrambler, it came up with only one other motorcycle being sold out in California.  I did get an offer on the Ducati, but it was way under what we’re asking, so I refused it.

            I do hope that we manage to sell both these motorcycles, and I hope we can give more serious consideration to purchasing the BMW R 1250 GS.  At this rate, though, I should be able to test ride the new 1300 model coming out in the Fall.  If I’m lucky, the upgraded engine will be a big hit, reducing the demand for the 1250 and bringing those prices down.  That would really make me happy.

            It was a week of taking care of the BMW motorcycles.  Bill got to do most of the riding as I started my summer job.  I was bummed at not getting to take the 310 in for its annual inspection while Bill took the R Nine T.  Instead, Bill rode the 310 over to the Honda dealership for that inspection, and then the next day, he rode the R Nine T over to the Harley dealership for its inspection.  Both bikes passed, but when we did an oil check on Saturday, we realized the R Nine T needed some oil.

            Because of this oil need, we had to postpone our usual Saturday ride.  For one thing, we had to get the proper oil to add, and we had to get the tool that opens the cylinder head for adding oil.  When one buys a motorcycle, it comes with a small toolkit.  This toolkit usually fits under the seat.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the R Nine T toolkit was back at the house in Bill’s tool chest.  So we headed back home to pick up the toolkit and buy some oil.

            Our first stop for the oil was back at the Honda dealership.  During the inspection earlier in the week, Bill visited with the owner of the store.  He was there again Saturday, so we had a nice little stop but no luck on the oil (15W x 50).  However, the Honda shop owner suggested we try Cyclegear.  Now we have shopped at Cyclegear for motorcycle clothing gear, but we would not have thought of them for motorcycle oil.  Thanks to the suggestion, we found the oil we needed—Motorex, an oil manufactured in Switzerland.

            Back we went to my parents’ garage.  One of the suggestions for checking and changing the bike’s oil was to ride it for a couple of miles, let it sit for five minutes, and then check the oil.  This warm up ride was my utilitarian ride.  I geared up and headed out on my own.  Since I knew the curvy road would get me at least a mile of the ride, I headed up it.  What was interesting was I realized I relied more than I thought on Bill selecting our approaches into the curves.  Riding solo gave me the opportunity to work on that skill.

I rode until the odometer moved from 1143 to 1146 to ensure I had covered at least two miles.  Back at the garage, we waited the suggested five minutes, Bill checked the oil level again, and then added the oil.  On the R Nine T, the oil fill “line” is a red circle; the oil should be near the top of the circle without going over.  Well, despite adding only about half a cup of oil, it went over the top of the circle.  Now oil needed to be drained which necessitated finding a large enough allen wrench to open the drain plug.  Luckily Bill didn’t have to go all the way back to our house; he could run over to his Mom’s house and get the needed tool.

            I haven’t mentioned the weather yet, but it was the first day of July, and the day was a typical July day—hot and humid.  The temperature was in the upper 80s, but with the humidity, the heat index put us up in the 90s, and Bill was stuck working in the garage with only a small fan to cool him off.  My Mom needed help on the computer, so I got to hang inside in the air conditioning.  But he got the excess oil drained.

            By now it was four o’clock in the afternoon, very late for us.  I was pleasantly surprised when Bill said let’s ride.  Due to the lateness of the day, the heat and its impact on Bill working away in the hot garage, we went for a zoomy, short ride.  I love how the wind cools me off as we zip along.  One perk of the late afternoon ride was I got to see two pairs of osprey up circling as they hunted.  We sacrificed our slow speed practice which I didn’t mind on the warm day.  And the final perk was my suggestion.  Usually after our ride, we head home and cook a delicious blueberry French toast brunch.  However, I was hot and tired and in no mood to cook, so I figured Bill for sure had to be hotter, more tired, and more not in the mood to cook.  My suggestion was we head over to Kanpai Sushi and get our usual dinner and save the French toast for tomorrow.

            It was a day where we learned a lot about the motorcycle and about our bike resources.  I learned I need to think more purposefully about my ride even when I’m following behind Bill.  And I relearned to always be grateful for every opportunity to ride.       

      Happy Independence Day!  Have a wonderful day celebrating our awesome country’s birthday!

            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.

Leather pants, t-shirt, long-sleeved armored shirt, jacket, thick safety vest, and thick boots—not the typical wardrobe for an 82-degree day in June, but my favorite outfit by far.  As we headed out for our ride, I thought of the irony of “bundling up” on a near summer’s day.  But later when I saw a young lady in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt ride by on her motorcycle, I shivered.  There is such a hubris in assuming one is in total control, especially on a motorcycle.  I prefer to get a little sweaty every ride and protect my skin should the unexpected happen and I come off the motorcycle.

            Today’s temperature and breeze worked together to make the riding pleasantly cool.  I realize different people have different comfort zones when it comes to body heat and temperature, but as I felt the wind chill at 30-mph, I wondered at the t-shirt and shorts wearing riders who are cruising at higher speeds.  Don’t they feel chilly?  I realized more so on today’s ride how the safety gear also keeps me comfortable on most of our rides.  Sure, we’ll get to 90+ degrees with 80% or higher humidity and the gear will feel like too much.  But on days like that, I think we just need to cruise more, especially on the 35-mph road to cool off.

            I was lucky to get the chance to ride at all.  Friday afternoon super sever thunderstorms moved through the area dumping a ton of rain and causing wind damage to one of my oak trees.  At one point there was zero visibility, just a grey sheet of rain in front of me.  I was worried the roads might still be wet and was expecting to at least dodge a lot of puddles.  But the bright sunshine on Saturday dried up all but the deepest puddles and gave us a perfect day for riding.

            My ride was far from perfect, however.  I had three missed shifts; twice, I went into neutral, and one shift I skipped over second and went to third gear.  At least I was fully aware of these missed shifts and was able to correct.  One correction I made was to pull in my clutch.  I did this automatically, and the benefit of pulling in the clutch is that it’s one way to help slow the motorcycle down.  It’s also helpful because with the clutch pulled in, I can correct the gears.

            Friday’s storms gave a softness to the green grass and leaves on the trees.  More day lilies have bloomed giving bursts of orange and yellow flowers throughout the ride.  I saw several cabbage white butterflies and many dragonflies gamboling about.  One dragonfly was flitting about on a collision course with my helmet when he adjusted super quickly mid-flight and zoomed to safety.  One more smile on a ride full of smiles.

Waiting at a long light as we headed home for our ride, I spotted a petite looking person on a motorcycle behind us.  The rider was wearing a head-helmet and had a kerchief covering nose and mouth.  To pass the time at the long light, Bill and I debated whether it was woman or small man on the motorcycle and whether it was a Harley-Davidson which we both bet it was.  When the light finally changed and we headed onto the interstate, we knew it wouldn’t take the rider long to zip by us.  As the rider rolled on full throttle, we had confirmation that it was a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy and that it was a small, skinny man astride it.  The “skinny man, fat boy” as Bill said.

            That rider was one of many we saw both as we rode over and rode home.  Getting on the interstate, we saw ahead of us a man on a Harley and a woman on a naked bike.  We had no chance of seeing what kind of motorcycles they were as they rolled on the throttle and shot out far ahead down the interstate.  They were good confirmation of what a glorious day for riding it was.

            We finally had a week where there was no rain predicted for Saturday.  The sun was shining, and the temperature was heading into the low 80s, so we had mid-70s for our ride.  Today’s ride was marred, however, but lots of weird traffic.  Riding down the curvy road, we had to loop around the mailman’s truck.  As we entered the cul de sac at the end of the curvy road, I spotted a car ready to come out of its driveway, so I pulled over instead of practicing my turns.  Coming out of the cul de sac, we again had to move slowly past the mail truck as the curvy road isn’t very wide.

            To avoid another mail truck, we rode back down the block toward my parents’ house.  It was along this route I spotted my first of five cabbage white butterflies.  When I wasn’t watching out for mail trucks or delivery vans, I enjoyed the gorgeous hydrangeas now in full bloom.  I spotted more day lilies and Kniphofia in bloom; the latter is a tall grass plant with bushy orange blooms that look a bit like those Swiffer dusters.  I even saw the first crepe myrtles in bloom which surprised me as we’ve had a good long spring with milder temperatures, and I’m used to the smell of the crepe myrtles in the summer heat.

            Interestingly, after last week’s post about dogs, Bill actually was chased by a little puffy dog.  We were waiting for an SUV to pass so we could turn right into a cul de sac to work on S-turns.  I noticed that the vehicle was moving rather slowly like maybe it was looking for a particular address.  I had also noticed two small dogs gamboling through yards.  When the SUV stopped and the driver got out without really parking the vehicle—it was close to the curb but not pulled into the curb—I realized that he was seeking his dogs who had gotten loose.  These two had a clear case of what Bill calls “spunkybuttitis,” and they were enjoying running around and being chased.  Well Bill didn’t realize what was happening because if he had, he would have turned left away from the dogs and the cul de sac.  As we turned right, I saw one of the dogs take off and give chase to the Rocket.  Unfortunately, because of where the dogs’ owner had stopped, I couldn’t turn around in the street and had to also enter the cul de sac.  I pulled around and stopped just as Bill came to a stop to watch the dog who ran off as his owner tried to corral him.

            During this excitement, I realized I was too fast in my turn, so I told myself to slow down.  A beat after I had that thought, I realized I had automatically pulled in my clutch to help me slough off speed.  This was a happy realization that I was gaining enough skills to automatically apply them to ride safely.  But I didn’t have time to get cocky.  Five minutes later, as we practiced our turns in the square lot behind the post office, I misread Bill’s direction and had to come to an awkward stop as I was not set up for a good turn.

            In addition to the silly dogs, I saw a white egret intensely hunting in the shallows of the river.  We also chased the now adolescent goslings out of the road, and we had two sudden stops to avoid crazy squirrels.  There was even a largish box turtle hanging out on the curb.  I did see another Tiger Swallowtail, but I didn’t see it until we were driving home.  As we drove home, Bill said he started to feel the heat.  We have been lucky so far with our extended spring, but the warmer temperatures are coming, so we’ll have to start shifting our rides to earlier in the morning.  No problem for me as long as I get to keep riding.

            One of the interesting aspects of motorcycle riding is watching how dogs react to the bike.  A few dogs ignore the motorcycles as they zoom by, but not many.  At the very least dogs attentively watch our passing, and several dogs will aggressively bark and give pseudo-chase.

            My mind went to dogs on this ride as my brother’s dog, Buddy, was out admiring our motorcycles pre-ride.  Really, Buddy was waiting for the word to cross the street and come get his doggy treat that my mom gives him on his visits, but I liked the image of Buddy from over the handlebars and the silly idea of him checking out the Rocket and R Nine T as the two bikes waited for our ride.

            I managed to gear up early enough before Bill did, so he suggested I head out for a little bit on my own.  I rode the R nine T around one block, and then headed up one of the main roads through the neighborhood.  As I came to where I wanted to turn left to get back on my mom’s street, a Jeep SUV zoomed up and had clearly planned to run the stop sign but saw me and came to an awkward stop splayed across the right side of the road I needed to turn on.  So I had to turn onto the left side while shaking my head at how crazy someone would drive in a neighborhood with lots of pedestrians.

            And there were lots of people out enjoying the gorgeous sunny, warm day.  We passed a woman walking her little whippet three different times, and each time the little dog stopped walking and watched our passage.  There was another gentleman walking his dog (I didn’t recognize the breed), and this dog was oblivious to us.  There are three houses we ride past that must have invisible fences where the dogs race to the edge of the yard, barking at us, and following us as far as they can.  I heard that dogs react to motorcycle riders like this because of the odd movement.  There’s a human shape up top, but the movement on the motorcycle does not look natural to the dogs.  I also have learned that if a dog gives actual chase while riding a motorcycle, the key is to change speed.  Stopping quickly will cause the dog to overrun the bike, and as the dog regroups, it is easy enough to speed up and away or change direction.

            Luckily so far in our rides, we’ve only been barked at.  And I do enjoy seeing the dogs out and about as I ride.  On this ride I also saw several of the cabbage white butterflies and had no sooner wondered what had happened to the young Tiger Swallowtails, when I spotted a large yellow flutter up among some tree branches.  There was a large surprise for us toward the end of our ride.  As we came around a curve, a huge turkey vulture swooped in front of us and looped around for another swoop before heading up and away from our motorcycles.  It clearly was enjoying its dead squirrel feast.

            As for my riding skills, I enjoyed the smoothness of my shifting gears.  I also worked some more on entering a curve.  I had a struggle with the on-street U-turn and had to ride onto the grass.  I believe I had too much speed going into the turn, so I couldn’t turn as tightly.  But even in making a slight mistake, I got to practice the change in surface from road to grass.  I enjoy my learning as much as I enjoy my riding.

Cool, windy, and wet Memorial Day weekend for us, but the wind kept the rain at bay long enough for us to ride.  Because we ride neighborhood streets, the wind isn’t much of a factor, but it would’ve been had we tried to ride on the highway.  As it was, the wind kept the butterflies away, all except one determined little cabbage white fighting his way to the clover that I spotted near the end of our ride.

            As we headed out toward the curvy road, we have a yield sign where we make a left turn.  Approaching the intersection, there was a white pick up coming up the road we were going to turn on.  He indicated he would turn left at our street, but as he did so, he slowly took the turn and I realized he was looking over our motorcycles.  They are two of the best-looking motorcycles on the road.  Before the looks of admiration were reserved for Bill when he rode the R Nine T; the 310 and the Fasthouse never drew many looks.  But now that I’m on the R Nine T, I draw looks but so does the Triumph Rocket.  I think the two bikes complement each other quite nicely.

            Later in the ride, as we waited at a stop sign to turn, a driver in a blue Toyota SUV slowly rode by again admiring the beautiful motorcycles.  It is fun to know I’m riding a great bike that handles well and looks amazing.

            I didn’t focus on any particular skill on this ride.  Instead, I let myself enjoy the ride and enjoy how my riding skills have progressed to keep the ride safe.  Halfway through the ride, I realized I was leaving the stops in sync with Bill without consciously focusing on doing so.  My riding skills have improved so much that I found myself trying the tight turns from a stop and having little trouble–at least at first. 

            A tight turn from a stop means there isn’t much road to turn onto so the arc of the turn is constrained.  In order to navigate this tight turn, I need to turn the wheel to full lock, lean the motorcycle in the direction of the turn, counterbalance with my opposite foot applying pressure on the outside peg, and go.  My first few attempts were very successful even though I forgot to load the opposite foot peg.  I judged my success on whether I stayed within two feet of the parking space line I was using as my marker.  After my successful tries, I had several that didn’t go so well; I kept straightening the wheel too soon.  So that just means more to work on.

            While I didn’t get to see too many butterflies on this ride, I did get a lovely surprise.  Bill led us into a small parking lot beside one of the churches to another tight U-turn.  We had a bit of traffic to wait through to turn back onto the main road.  As we waited, I saw some rustling in the ligustrum bushes across the street, a large rustling caused by what I thought might be a crow.  But instead, an upset kestrel flew out and right past me.  Seeing that kestrel made up for the missing butterflies.  But I do hope to see many butterflies during next week’s ride.

Our luck finally gave out and we were met by rainy drizzle as we headed over to ride.  We had some spanakopita to deliver from the local Greek church fundraiser for my mom, so the trip wasn’t a waste of time.  She also needed some help on the computer, and by the time I finished assisting, the crown of the road was looking more dry than wet.  I suggested to Bill we go do our grocery shopping and see if the roads continue to dry out or if there’s some more rain on the way.  The delay worked, allowing the roads to dry enough to allow us to ride.

            With the cloudy skies and the breeze, it was quite cool on the bike making for a very comfortable ride on what was supposed to be an 80 degrees day.  The challenge for today’s ride was dodging puddles which was easy as the roads really had dried out.  There were damp patches that we had to ride through, but we weren’t riding on wet roads.

            Since the weather was ideal for ducks, I saw several mating pairs here and there throughout the ride.  I also saw a gaggle of geese, both Canadian and white, with eight goslings being shepherded between them.  A few cabbage whites were flitting about, but I only saw three during the ride and one super quick Fritillary zoom by.  One lucky wren managed to zip by in front of Bill’s Rocket without getting hit, and we had to stop for several squirrels acting squirrelly.

            The hydrangeas are in full bloom, and I enjoyed the cool blue and bright purple blossoms.  They added more colors among the red and white roses and yellow and orange day lilies.

            During the ride, we passed a Harley-Davidson rider heading the opposite way which gave us the chance to exchange the “two-wheels life” wave.  It is traditional among motorcyclists to not wave but to hold out two fingers down towards the clutch as they pass.  This sign really is appropriate as there is a mindset that goes with riding motorcycles that only other riders appreciate.  This mindset gets me out of the house every week excitedly looking forward to my chance to ride.  As summer arrives, I’m hopeful that I can find even more opportunities to enjoy the “two-wheels life.”