All Motorcyclists Were Out Today

Today was an unusual day for being Jan.13. The sun came out and dried up the roads for the first time in a couple of weeks. The temps eventually got up in the low 50’s in the sun. Western Washington has been very cold and wet lately, which makes it difficult to ride a lot. This was the day I’d been waiting for.

I first got out my little Suzuki which hadn’t been ridden in a month. She turned over after the 4th try, and then had to be warmed up for nearly 10 minutes. I took off and did a loop that I sometimes do when I am just getting the bikes out for a while. I was 2/3 of the way home and the bike started sputtering and jerking. I had filled the gas tank quite a while back, but it had only been ridden 3 short times since then. So I thought that it probably didn’t need to go to reserve just quite yet. I came down to a stop sign on a 2 lane curvy wooded road. The bike died. So I put it on reserve, started it back up, and took off again. This time it rode like charm. I decided that I needed gas, so stopped on the way home and filled up. By then the bike was warm, full, and ready to hide in the back of the garage until another sunny day.

I came home and got out the Vulcan for a real ride. Once I got my husband rounded up and ready, we took off on a ride to Fall City. We rode into Woodinville, took the road to Duvall, and followed Fall City road all the way through Carnation, and into Fall City. These are all very small towns with rural areas in between, and there are little Pubs and Cafes in every town that bikers like to stop for a meal and a break. I think it would be safe to say that today every motorcycle owner living in Western Washington was out on the roads. Literally every 4th car was followed by one or more motorcycles. There were lots of groups out riding and everyone was waving and giving the biker ‘high five’. It was such a joy to be out and a beautiful day at that.

All along the ride I am passing up lovely photogenic scenes of rivers, farmland, snow-capped mountains, and Mount Rainier in all her glory. Could I get the husband to stop? Could I pull over along the gravel shoulder of the road in a split second while cars were following me? I saw about 20 shots and places in my mind that I will go back to and take photos. Today it was really all about the riding, so I didn’t mind not stopping. I did get a couple of shots from the roadside in Fall City, which happened to be across from a great little Bar & Grill that served a hamburger on a bun as big as your head! I know where we’ll be riding next summer when we get the urge for a great burger.

The round trip was about 100 miles. There were lovely, smooth and gently curving roads. Plenty of cars out on them, but we didn’t care. It was good just to be out and actually feel the warmth of the sun, and my face shield didn’t fog up once!