Always Remember The Code

I stuck around at work a while to let traffic die down a bit, and hit the road a little after 6. I'd tried to convince myself to stay until 7 but the itch to hit the roads was just too strong.

I lucked out overall and really didn't hit too many slowdowns at all, and managed to maintain a well-above-the-posted-speed-limit pace for most of the run north into New Hampshire.

I was about 15 miles into NH proper, ripping along the speed lane, when my eye caught sight of a guy sitting on a guardrail, a solid black dead ricer sitting on a kickstand in front of him.

I signaled a lane shift and sliced over into the breakdown lane, dropping the transmission down through the gears until finally coming to a stop about 100 yards past him.

I jogged back to see what was up; bike just died completely, he had no tools and was waiting on a flatbed. Well, let me get my bike backed up and let's dig in to things and see if we can get you moving.

We checked out his connections, as well as his fuses, but they were all fine. I started tracing his main wire and quickly ran into a lot of aftermarket wiring. Ruh-roh...that poses a lot of potential spots for issues...

After trying to do some tracing, we had to admit it wasn't a problem for the side of the road. The coming flatbed was driven by a buddy of his and would probably be there within 20 minutes, anyway.

As I was packing up my tools, I noticed his license plate; "BT MAN". Huh...how about that. Solid black bike...The license plate...This was Batman! (I commented that I hadn't recognized him without his mask and cape, and he laughed.)

I told him I was sorry I hadn't been able to get him going, but he thanked me repeatedly for pulling over and trying. I shook his hand and said it's part of the Biker Code. You don't pass a broken down brother without at least trying to help.

I rolled back out to the highway and the rest of the trip was smooth and uneventful. Now it's time for a bit of a reward...

Ride Hard, Remember The Code.

A Long "Long Labor Day Weekend"

I'm putting in a few extra bits of time here at work so that hopefully the traffic will die down.  I'm not headed home from here, I'm headed up to NH for the night.  That's right; I've got tomorrow and Friday off, meaning it'll be 5 whole days before I have to look at this screen again.

It'll be an up-early-and-hit-the-road morning tomorrow, as I ride to Mount Washington.  I've never made it up there and have always hears such great things about it.  Each year, I think; "It's not far at all, I can squeeze it in anytime" and then the season is over and I'm left thinking "What the hell?  Another season down and I still haven't made it."  So this is the year that I mark it off of my list.

From there, I've got another destination to hit, then I'll point my front tire toward The Clearing, where we'll have our annual Labor Day Maine Event shindig.  It's gonna be a real small one this year; only 6 people from NY and I think it's only going to be 5 from Mass (not including Dave/Karmen and Olivia).

For those that weren't able to join us up there this year, you'll be missed.  Hopefully next year will see a return to the larger crowds that we're used to.

Either way, we'll cram a whole ton of fun into the weekend!

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Bog Iron Brewery and Shayne's Pre-Run

Saturday was the Shayne's run yard sale, where we all donate stuff we're looking to get rid of.  Hey, one man's trash is another man's treasure, right?  And even though we're selling this stuff for short money, it's amazing how quickly short change can add up.  (I believe this year we raised over $1,500, and that all goes toward offsetting the costs of the run.)

This year, though, I had an invite from Chrissy to go visit a new brewery that she and Aaron wanted to check out.  Matty joined us, as did another guy; a friend of Aaron and Chrissy's that they spotted on their way to the brewery.  He was on his way to work, but once he found out where they were headed, he scrapped that plan and tagged along.

I give you; Bog Iron Brewery!

That big guy on the left?  That's Jay.  He's the one who was on his way to work.

But he opted for the better plan of doing some sampling with us, instead.  7 beers on tap, 4 samples per flight...hmmm...one extra slot.  (So we filled it with a second pour of one that sounded good.)

Hey, this place has a mini version of that leg lamp from A Christmas Story!

Ta da!  Far and away, this was my favorite offering.  It's called "Joe" and was their stout.  It - was - delicious!!

Here's a listing of the beers they had available today.  As you can see from the high ABV's, they don't fcuk around!

A customer of theirs made this for them.  Took one of their bottles, ran a cord out the bottom edge and filled it with mini Christmas lights.  I liked the look of this so much, I'm gonna do it in my basement.

We didn't pay much attention to the various glasses stacked on this shelf...until one of the owners came up, retrieved his drinking vessel, had it filled and walked off with it.  Oh, his drinking vessel was a drinking horn!  (Ok, it wasn't an authentic one, it was made of plastic, but it was still cool.)

I asked the guy doing the pours how much they know to charge for filling up a customer's vessel, since they're all different sizes.  He said that when someone brings something in, they'll fill it with 16 ounces of water, mark the vessel, and then they'll know each time how full to pour it.  (Of course, I'm thinking about doing this, but then elevating the mark on the inside of the glass...)

We each selected the ones we liked and knocked a couple back before heading off in our own directions.  Jay was going to stick around as he'd texted his wife (also a beer drinking) and she was coming down to join him.  I was headed off to the Shayne's run yard sale, Matty was headed off to a cookout, and Aaron and Chrissy had a couple of errands to run and were then going to swing by the yard sale as well.

It was a great way to start a fun Saturday!


Now then, on to Sunday...

Each year, we do a pre-run of the Shayne's route to make sure there are no big construction issues or detours to take into account when doing the actual run.  Each year, we get about a handful of bikes and rip things up pretty well, all in the name of preparation.

This year, the stars must have aligned just right, for not only did the weather turn out to be gorgeous, but we have about 20 bikes!  This made it a bit interesting in trying to keep the whole column together (and more than once, there were more than a few bikes that took great liberties with the difference between a yellow light and a red light), but we all stayed safe and all had a great day.  Some pics...

I shoulda snapped a pic at the Post before we all headed off, but didn't, so here ya go; segmented groupings from our lunch stop;

These guys were smart and parked in the shade...

These guys were not smart, and lined up with me, in the sun...

And these guys were the smartest.  Shade, and closest to the door.

When we first pulled in to the parking lot, I had a bit of fear as there was only one car, and I wondered if they were even open.  But they were, and we soon had commandeered the bar.  The entire bar.  I think there were only two seats which we didn't fill, which meant that we were all facing each other across the bar, which meant we needed to utilize some Rendezvous shenanigans.

The bartenders thought we were a riot, which of course; we are.  The cook, though, was a bit overwhelmed and those of us who'd ordered last were left to drool as the rest of the crew munched down their lunches.  But the cook came through for us and before too (too) long, we, too, had happy bellies.  He came out after all our food was prepared (probably to get a break) and we all gave him a hearty thank you for putting up with us.

Cindy felt it necessary to respond to my Other Side Sux sign (you'll have to click on the pic to read it).

 

We still had the second half of the run to check out so we soon ambled back outside to the bikes.  Some folks had to head off and take care of other business so we said our goodbyes to those who were leaving, and the rest of us hammered back to the Post.

The route seems to be in really good shape this year, with only a couple of spots which are a bit rough.  Certainly nothing that we can't handle, so that's good news.  (The only not-great news is that we just heard back from the Sheriff's office and they won't be able to give us an escort this year.  We've got a couple of motorcycle cop buddies who are going to check with their local leadership to see if they can get approval to use a town's bike and then escort us on their own time.)

We tossed back a cold one inside and then a few of us headed off to the Road Captain's house.  He'd had a party the day before and had a cooler full of beer to get rid of.  Fortunately for him, we were up to the task.

That wrapped up what had been a very enjoyable weekend.  Too bad summer is winding down, I could use a lot more weekends like this!

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Coastal Ride, Sandwiched Between Two Slices Of Breakfast

It's just about budget season and you know what that means; short on time.  I've got the Labor Day trip coming up but I think that's going to be about it for bike trips for a while.  Oh wait, there is the guys' trip up to Bentley's in October...

Anyway, I've been up to some mischief as usual.  Nothing bad, just good natured and fun shenanigans.  It'll be easier to just load the pics and toss in some comments, so here ya go...

Breakfast Club.  This had been a Sunday ritual for some of the crew, and I even managed to show up once in a while.  Kate bartends at Alberto's on Sunday mornings and the guys would show up, have a couple of cold ones and then get some lunch.  The hours for this Breakfast Club were pretty strict; 10am - noon, only.  After that, we'd just head off I our own directions to get done what needed getting done.

Well, Kate had had enough of working there and talked about giving her notice.  We joked that if she did, we'd have to move Breakfast Club to her and Zig's house.  I don't think she believed us.  Well, she went ahead and gave her notice and we began putting a plan into place to move things to their house.  The one catch was that she and Zig weren't going to be home that weekend.  (I said this was a "catch", I didn't say it was a "problem".)  So of course we went there and set about creating the new chapter of Breakfast Club.

A couple of cold frosties, a grille, and folks that were willing to jump in and do the cooking.

In all fairness, Kevin was just moving some things around.  McCarthy was the usual grillmaster.  Which was important because we really stuffed the grille surface...

We knew we needed to tread lightly if we were to be allowed to continue the BC at their place, so McCarthy brought a bin, and we stored all our excess stuff in it.  Plates, cups, paper towels, utensils, cooking spray, etc. - they all went into the bin, which got tucked out of the way.  We wanted to leave no indication that we'd been there.  Nothing that might jeopardize our chances of coming back.

Well ok...maybe one indication...

That was a week and a half ago.  Jumping ahead to this past weekend, our Road Captain put together a coastal ride for us on Saturday.  We'd expected a good sized turnout but surprisingly; only had 4 bikes.  But it worked out great because a smaller group is easier to get around with.  And we got around!

We got a little bit of a late start as our Road Captain was stuck on a call (he's a fireman), so rather than the scenic route to breakfast, we hammered the highway...then waited in line, but finally got our feed on at the breakfast place.

From there, we did find the scenic way to a winery down in RI...

Bikes parked at the ready, front tires aimed toward the exit.  You never know when things are going to get ugly at a wine tasting.

Welcome to...damn...I forgot the name of the winery.  But it starts with a "G".

Blurry pic, but this was a huge converted barn, all done up nicely.  The loft above was full of antique horse carriages.  We were going to head up and check them out, but were quickly informed that tours weren't until later in the day.  Oh well.

A shot of the vineyard outside...

And a shot of the dirty bikers all gathered around the poor girl pouring the samples.  I retreated to the outskirts to take this pic, and all I could hear from the gathered throng was "Bigger pours!  Open more bottles!!"

Artie tries to prove he's got sophistication and class via proper pinky usage.

The dirty bikers scared the poor pour girl away, so Greg jumped in to take up the slack.

Ahh, Greenvale!  That was the name of the place.

Another shot of the vineyards...before we burned 'em to the ground!

As we were preparing to leave, there were a couple of bachelorette groups which showed up.  One of the gals had dropped a penis straw on the path, so Artie picked it up and tucked it into the back seat of Ed's bike.  Ed didn't notice until he was about to get on the bike...

...so he took it even further and tried to fasten it to the front of his bike...

No luck, though, so he left it in the front grille of the car parked behind us.

Off to the coast!

Heading up the Newport Bridge.

Action pic of Edie and Artie...

Closer to the bridge...yes, it really does ascend that quickly...

An action shot on the way up...

And an action shot on the way down...

We'd been on the road for quite a while at this point (maybe an hour?) and needed a cold refreshing beerverage to cool off with.  Maria had lined up just the place for us; Fish restaurant and bar.

My new favorite dark beer!  As soon as I saw "Engine Oil" on the menu, I knew I had to order it.  It didn't disappoint!

Dirty bikers!  It makes it easier on the arresting officers if we do a group mug shot.

From there, it was off to Beavertail park for more great scenery.

This shot makes me think of The Warriors scene on Coney Island, when they've reached the ocean.

From there, we headed off to (I forget the name of the place) but it was on the water, the scenery was amazing, and the drinks were cold...which was important because there'd been a strong chance of heavy rain all day, but man...that sun was beating the bag out of us!

 After we'd had our late lunch and cooled off adequately, it was time to head back home to the Post, for the event the Auxiliary was putting on.  I don't have any pics from that, but it was a great way to end what had been a great day.

And that's it, right?  Nope - that was all on Saturday.  The following morning brought the second edition of the new Breakfast Club!

Now all these years that the BC had been going on, there'd never been any eggs or other breakfast foods.  Alberto's doesn't serve breakfast!  So it was time to change that.  We brought all kinds of breakfast stuff and dove right in.  Oh, and Kate was there this time to join us!

Mmmmm....bacon!

And ham!  And sausages!!

And eggs, and cheese and toast!  And cold BL's!!

 Now that's a breakfast!

Oh yeah, can't forget the DD muffins!  And champagne and OJ, for mimosas!

 Man, I'm getting starving just thinking about how good that spread was.  I'd like to keep the breakfast theme going for a while, but the crew wants to do pizzas next week.  Yes; on the grille.

So there ya go.  I may not keep the updates coming on a regular basis, but there's always stuff going on.  Hopefully everyone out there is finding ways to be crazy and fun, too.

Ride Hard, Take Chances