{"id":3222,"date":"2009-11-29T16:56:33","date_gmt":"2009-11-29T23:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=3222"},"modified":"2009-11-29T19:09:13","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T02:09:13","slug":"motorcycle-log-112930","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=3222","title":{"rendered":"Motorcycle Log: 11\/29\/30"},"content":{"rendered":"

0630:<\/em> Alarm goes off.\u00a0 Much to do if I’m to leave by 0800 \u2014 shave, brush teeth, shower, make coffee, get the bike ready, pack what I’ll need for the day, etc.<\/p>\n

0700:<\/em> What was that?\u00a0 Thunder?\u00a0 Hard to tell with the shower blasting.\u00a0 Maybe Donna’s moving the dressers around.\u00a0 I sure hope so.<\/p>\n

0710:<\/em> Donna’s still in bed.\u00a0 She says it was thunder.\u00a0 It’s raining but I can see blue sky.\u00a0 I think the ride’s a go.<\/p>\n

0745: <\/em>Everything’s ready.\u00a0 The eaves are dripping and the ground and roads are wet, but except for some scud here and there the sky is clear.\u00a0 It’s a go.\u00a0 Feed the dog on my way out the door.<\/p>\n

0805:<\/em> On the road.\u00a0 I’m kicking up a lot of spray, but it’s not raining.\u00a0 Not too cold either.\u00a0 Should be a great ride.\u00a0 I hope some of my Tucson riding buddies can meet me at Montgomery’s in Vail \u2014 I emailed them earlier, telling them I’d be leaving from there at 0830.<\/p>\n

0835:<\/em> At Montgomery’s; no one here but me.\u00a0 Might as well hit the road for Benson.\u00a0 Maybe some of the Sierra Vista crowd will meet me at Reb’s Cafe \u2014 I told them I’d be stopping for breakfast there.<\/p>\n

0840:<\/em> Heading east on I-10.\u00a0 Dark clouds ahead.\u00a0 The weather looks like it’s farther to the east than Benson, maybe as far away as Willcox.\u00a0 I’m turning south at Benson, so we should be okay.\u00a0 Getting cold, though.\u00a0 Time to turn the handgrip heat on, about halfway.\u00a0 First time I’ve used it since last winter.<\/p>\n

0850:<\/em> Is that lightning up there?\u00a0 Now it looks like the edge of the rain is right over Benson.\u00a0 These must be the same clouds that were over Tucson a couple of hours ago.\u00a0 If they are, that means the rain’s moving east.\u00a0 So the ride’s still a go.\u00a0 Yeah, that’s the ticket.\u00a0 Hmmm . . . maybe I’d better turn the handgrip heat all the way up.<\/p>\n

0900:<\/em> The roads are soaked in Benson.\u00a0 Deep puddles in the parking lot at Reb’s.\u00a0 I can’t be more than a minute or two behind the rain.\u00a0 That’s cutting it pretty fine.\u00a0 But hey, I’ll be here for an hour \u2014 the rain’ll be in New Mexico by then.<\/p>\n

0910:<\/em> Breakfast.\u00a0 Nice and warm in here.\u00a0 Sometimes you don’t notice how cold you are until you start warming up.\u00a0 This head cold I’ve been fighting off is definitely getting worse, though \u2014 my nose just shut down and I’m breathing through my mouth.<\/p>\n

0930:<\/em> Calling Donna on my cell phone to tell her how I just missed the weather.\u00a0 She scoffs at my “moving east” theory and reports that it’s clouded up again in Tucson.\u00a0 I don’t see rain through the window but I don’t see blue sky either.\u00a0 Could I be mistaken?\u00a0 Another half-hour to wait, in case anyone’s coming to ride with me.\u00a0 Good thing I brought along a book.\u00a0 Better enjoy being indoors while it lasts.\u00a0 Ditto good thing I brought that pocket pack of Kleenex.<\/p>\n

1000:<\/em> No one shows.\u00a0 Probably because they have more sense than to go riding motorcycles in the rain.\u00a0 So when did<\/em> it start raining?\u00a0 I looked out the window five minutes ago and it wasn’t, but it sure is now.\u00a0 It’s raining hard<\/em>.\u00a0 And it’s cold<\/em>.\u00a0 I’m going to have to take the sheepskin pad off the seat and stuff in in a saddlebag, otherwise I’ll have a wet butt all the way home.\u00a0 Yeah, I’m aborting.\u00a0 The plan was to ride south to Tombstone and Bisbee, but it’s all black down there.\u00a0 Looking west back toward Tucson, it’s only gray.\u00a0 Gray is less bad than black.<\/p>\n

\"rain11\"<\/p>\n

1010:<\/em> Headed west on I-10.\u00a0 Just passing out of the rain, but the pavement is still soaked.\u00a0 I’m keeping my distance from big trucks so I don’t get enveloped in spray.\u00a0 I’m sure glad I wore my full-face helmet today.\u00a0 The Goldwing’s windshield and fairing are keeping my body nice and dry, and thank God for these handgrip heaters.<\/p>\n

1020: <\/em>I can see darker clouds ahead, and great sweepers of rain coming down to the ground.\u00a0 It’s hard to judge their distance \u2014 if I’m lucky I’ll be turning north off the interstate onto Houghton Road, which leads straight to my house, before I hit it.\u00a0 There’s snot running from my nose down my moustache.\u00a0 Not much I can do about it.\u00a0 With a full-face helmet, I can’t even wipe it on my glove.\u00a0 Grin & wear it, I guess.<\/p>\n

1025:<\/em> Nope.\u00a0 The rain is definitely close.\u00a0 No way I’m going to avoid it.\u00a0 God damn, it’s cold.\u00a0 Fucking snot.<\/p>\n

1028:<\/em> Is that hail bouncing off the road?\u00a0 You have got to be shitting me!\u00a0 Hail?<\/em> Better slow down.\u00a0 Ah, that’s better, now it’s only rain.\u00a0 Wow, was that loud or what?<\/p>\n

1030:<\/em> My full face helmet lets water in somewhere.\u00a0 It’s dripping down my face.\u00a0 Along with the snot from my nose.\u00a0 Really raining hard now.\u00a0 For the first time my feet feel wet.\u00a0 That’s probably because they’re soaked.\u00a0 I don’t want to look.<\/p>\n

1035: <\/em>On Houghton Road at last, riding north toward home.\u00a0 Still raining.<\/p>\n

1040:<\/em> Every fucking stoplight is red.\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 Still raining.\u00a0 Lots of church traffic, people snug in their cars.\u00a0 Let ’em stare.<\/p>\n

1055:<\/em> Home.\u00a0 Still raining, but I’m in the garage now.\u00a0 First things first: helmet off, Kleenex out, blow nose!\u00a0 Ahhh . . . now I can turn off the ignition and put the kickstand down.<\/p>\n

1100:<\/em> Wet clothes off, dry sweats & furry slippers on, sitting in my chair with an afghan pulled up to my chin and a little warm doggie wrapped around my neck, a hot cup of tea and a full box of Kleenex by my side.\u00a0 Life is good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0630: Alarm goes off.\u00a0 Much to do if I’m to leave by 0800 \u2014 shave, brush teeth, shower, make coffee, get the bike ready, pack what I’ll need for the day, etc. 0700: What was that?\u00a0 Thunder?\u00a0 Hard to tell with the shower blasting.\u00a0 Maybe Donna’s moving the dressers around.\u00a0 I sure hope so. 0710: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycling","category-personal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3252,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions\/3252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}