7.26.14 ride to lunch

Boog

Traveling Story Teller
Joined
Oct 17, 2013
Messages
8,485
Location
Dumfries, Virginia
Ride
2014 R3T, RAMAIR, Full Viking Dual exhaust
Pretty Pillion and I went on a little trip down to Virginia Beach for lunch yesterday at Jollibee. It’s an “American” style fast food restaurant from the Philippines. Since she is an island girl and requested to ride down, I could not resist.
We took off to Montclair for breakfast as is usually done before a long ride where my day took a turn for the bottom. I got a call from the wife of a riding couple I met when I first moved to Virginia 5 years ago. I hadn’t seen either of them for over a year though and both had stopped riding (she rides a Ninja 650 and he rides a Kawasaki Nomad). I thought she was calling to see if I wanted to ride. But no, she told me that her husband Chris had committed suicide last week. Oh ****. I won’t get into the rest of that call but I will mention a couple of things that made Chris a great guy while I knew him.
I was riding the FZ1 back then and Chris would always be the pack mule on each ride since he had the bags. Chris was a big man, around 400 pounds but I never heard him ever complain about a thing. He always rode with enthusiasm as the tail gunner sayin’ he can always catch up with the sportier riders if we took off in the twisties. Funny thing is, I never saw him fall behind even when I let the snappy Yammy have its head. He always surprised us on the ride stops too with some sort of delicious treat or drink that none of us, including Ondra his wife, knew he had brought. You’ll be missed by many Chris, you are one of the good fellows.
I knew I couldn’t dwell on Chris because I had a 3 hour ride ahead of me and surely wanted to keep Pretty Pillion safe. After the now low mood breakfast, we took RT1 south. The weekend DC ‘get away’ traffic was out in full force already and she doesn’t like running freeways due to congestion and high speed, so we weren’t doing it this morning. Wouldn’t have been fast anyway with all the red lights I saw as we rode over the freeway en route to Hwy 1. The trip south to Hwy 17, our next turnoff, should have taken roughly 30 minutes. Well, 30 minutes later, we had only gone a quarter of that distance. It’s time to leave the beaten path and take the back roads. I turned on to Court House road in Stafford, the same road I took Tdragger and Karen down last weekend. This will be more fun any way, just a bit longer. Based on the traffic situation though, I think I made up time.
Once on RT 17, we scooted along at a very relaxed yet brisk clip. No bad drivers, no deer darting in front of us, no farmers with heavy equipment out, heck, even the slight sprinkling of rain was refreshing and welcome. The road was wonderfully open and like we had the world to ourselves.
We weren’t able to communicate as normal because I sent my Scala Rider Q9 back for warranty repair, so I wore my half helmet today. I had not planned on any high speed riding so I didn’t need the extra wind protection. It was right about now that I ‘intimately’ met a rather large hornet. Said insect decided to prove out that age old saying that they hit you right between the eyes. Well, as fate would have it, there is a slight space of flesh above my sunglasses and below the lip of the helmet and this is where he struck. It felt like I had been hit by a baseball! Whether it was my reaction or the force of mass on mass, but my helmet bounced off of Pretty Pillion’s (good thing she was wearing a full face rig). I didn’t get stung though despite the intense sensation this two inch long little fellow gave me, so I got that going for me.
We stopped shortly afterwards for a water break and discussed how far we were behind schedule; about 45 minutes but we would still get to Jollibee for lunchtime. So far, I had spoken with two fellows about the bike, both at stops on the RT 1 portion of the walk. Now the third fellow walks up and asks what year it is and was amazed at the engine size (never gets old). And then mentioned his brother has a super charged (Buick 3.6L) V-6 custom that he is going to buy next week. He doesn’t think the bike is as big as the Rocket he said. I told him to bring it to the races at Colonial Downs next month and show it off. We will be there with Tdragger and hopefully a few others. He said he will so maybe I can get a picture of it then.
Back on the road, we zoomed along and came to the point where 17 joins I-64 towards Virginia Beach. The first overhead marquee announced that a disabled car was blocking the tunnel under the bay. Well that stinks! It said there was a four mile backup. Well, being a sailor and this is a sailor town, I figured we could move up to the front of the backup by taking side roads. We rode for about a 30 minutes which was much faster and more enjoyable than walking the bike on the freeway. We rejoined the masses just before the tunnel which was now cleared but still congested. The rocket coasted down the grade in neutral at about 25 MPH, then I added power at the bottom. I love the sound that engine makes when you are inside a cement tunnel. It totally dominates the atmosphere, not over powering, but a very powerful sound with a hint of explosion waiting to come out. As we emerged from the tunnel, my inner sailor’s blood awoke at the sight of the Aircraft Carriers lined up and the wide expanse of water all about. Do I miss that life? Nope. But a part of still gets excited at seeing the ocean and those big grey ships…
We finally got to Jollibee, two hours late. Our itinerary included a trip to the ocean’s walkway, the light house to the north and finally the Red Ribbon Café Bakery, another Pilipino treat. We decided to cut the light house trip for another day since we have had two extra hours of ride time. I told her the extra saddle time was a good warm up for her for the 911 America’s ride coming up after I return from Sturgis. She wasn’t amused. However, for this trip she has been sitting on an AirHawk cushion. She finds that adjusting it to a lower volume of air works best for her backside. And she says it is noticeably better than riding the seat alone; score for Boog…
At the beach, we saw many parasailing chutes up in the air, thousands of scantily clad folks, lots of tourist traps, and more panhandlers than an aircraft carrier could house.
I have avoided the water for long periods of time after retiring from the Navy, but every time I see that big pond, something clicks inside me. I find that I long to be back out there, but maybe on a jet ski this time.
We stayed longer than planned and as it was getting late, we decided to hit the bakery for her goodies. We got the little cakes and breads and she was a happy island girl. She even said let’s take the freeway back to get home sooner, and we did. We stopped for dinner at the Cracker Barrel just north of Richmond and made it home around 11pm. She spent just over 10 hours in the saddle today with a mix of stop and go and freeway blasting. Hopefully she is ready for the long group ride to the 911 memorials next month…
 
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