A Cold Winter's Ride

Any excuse is good enough, I suppose. Christmas morning, I left Dutchtown at 5 AM on Boudreaux, headed 250 miles north to my mother's house. It was relatively cold but I had ridden in 38° weather before because it usually became a little warmer as the sun rose. This time, it was a tad different because the further north I got, the colder it became.
Cruising through Mangum, LA, I blinked when the LED sign at a bank announced 34°. I have to say though, it really wasn't that uncomfortable especially if your gear includes a t-shirt, two light sweaters, a hooded sweat suit jacket, thick leather motorcycle jacket, jeans, thick Doc Marten boots, regular socks, thermal socks, goggles, leather chaps, a neck warmer, stocking cap, cold weather ski gloves, cotton liner gloves and a lined helmet. In other words, I looked like the Michelin Man and felt like a sumo wrestler. Maneuverability could have been an issue if I had to make some quick moves. Even with the cold weather gear, the toes and fingers do get a little cold traveling at 65-75 mph for a couple of hours at a time.

The irony in all of this is 6 weeks and 3 thousand miles ago, I was riding 50° warmer. (Maui)

Why do that, you may ask. Well, ...hmm...I guess I just love riding that thing and will use the most flimsy excuse in the world just to get on it and ride.

Magnum P.I. I'm not

Feeling like Magnum P.I......not really...but hey, it's a theme. We've been here on Maui for a couple of weeks already, in the home of friends who are off gallivanting somewhere in Indonesia. When they left, they tossed us the keys to the truck, house and gave us the run of everything. So in a sense, I feel like Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I. from the television series 25 years ago, only this time instead of a really handsome hunk, you get me. Actually, I have more in common with the likes of Higgins than Magnum but we're digressing here.

Instead of an exotic sports car, Rachel handed over the keys to her Yamaha V Star. So after several days of diving, I took her motorcycle for a partial tour of Maui. I'm sure all the motorcycle gurus would absolutely freak out that I wore no helmet, gloves, leather jacket or steel toed boots but instead, sneakers, baseball cap and T shirt. A couple of the pictures were taken while on the move. Honest, officer. I wasn't texting.

It's been several years since I've owned a smaller motorcycle but the 650 cc engine did just fine with me. It took a little while to get used to not having that low end torque my Harley has and the Yamaha's ever so quite mufflers felt a little strange but it truly was a fun ride.

I'm a bit lazy, so all these pictures were taken with my Instinct cell phone camera and were uploaded to Photobucket as I rode around. Here are a few pictures on the south side of the island so they are not the quality I might have from my digital SLR.

Panoramic Upcountry view looking west toward Lanai.

The rest are on the road to Makena Landing and La Perouse Bay.

Okay, I realize I haven't added any pictures of Darlene, fish, bikinis or various serpents, but the soul intent of this post was for my third passion....motorcycles. SCUBA and photography being the other two.

After my ride, I came home and waited for Darlene to return from her favorite beach. When she arrived, she jumped on the back and we rode double down the beach road and around town for a spell. Ah, to be 21 again.
Out near Ahihi Preserve.

OK, that's about it for the motorcycle stuff. I'll post some diving and fish stuff in a later post.
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C R Albritton