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(WARNING LONG READ and may not be that interesting)
So my brother in law is visiting this week and since we dont have any babysitters I thought it would be a good time to take my wife out, and with all she put up with me being outside hours on end wrenching we should take the bike.
The plan was to go to the drive-in out in mendon, though she was really convinced we could make it work with the bike. She did have faith though as I have packed some pretty insane loads of things in my shortbed truck before. Anyways minimal is best so I took two of them canvas camping chairs, the ones you get at wally world for 5 bucks, a blanket, a radio with fresh batteries, and bug spray. That should be enough, radio and bug spray went in the sissy bar bag. Then the chairs I stacked in there bags up against the sissy bar and wrapped the blanket over the front to pad it a bit then used an array of bungee cords to secure it on my custom sissy bar eye hooks.
When she saw the packing she laughed a bit and said guess where ready to go. At this point I really should have taken some pics... but it was an amusing site. My wife was wearing a black dress around the house almost like one of them french maid outfits, and to be safe put on some jeans under with her big black boots then her hot pink mesh riding jacket and silver helmet. I was in my usual skater attire, jeans, skate shoes (yea i know... boots), independent skate shirt, my black mesh coat, and black helmet. Combine that with my black gs 650 GL with skulls on the tank and the fully packed up rear of the bike.
Regardless we where comfortable, packed, and ready to go. We headed down the road only to have someone turn right on red directly infront of us at the first set of lights. I easily avoided him as I half expected it and laid down on my sad little horn..beep beep. At the next lights my wife asked to get off and share a piece of her mind with him (as he was in front of us) but said dont worry about it, you just got to expect people like him and leave room to avoid them. Now enters good old 128 south, or 95s depending who you ask, well at this time of night its legal to drive in the breakdown lane so merging off the ramp is a bit more challenging and if I wasnt already doing 45 mph in 4th and shifting up as I came around the corner I never would have got in. The highway was fine not to bad traffic and just the occasional person trying to merge with steady traffic in the brake down lane. It wasnt long till we got off the highway and the real ride started.
The plan was pretty simple, take 109 west till we crossed 495, then stop at a nice restaurant I know and continue to rt 16 where the drive in is. This part of the ride was real nice and my wife really started to enjoy the bike it has no power issues at all with 2 up riding, pulls strong and shifts smooth. The roads are not that curvy and not to hilly but its NE so its not flat either. I did eventually miss one right turn to stay on 109 (happens a lot around here, turn to "stay on" the road) but my wife corrected me at the next and it was easily fixed. We passed lots of other bikers and waved to them all, most waved back or at least gave a head nod.
After an hour or so riding a stop was definitely in order, but it came a bit unexpected for my wife. I saw the place I planned to take her and made my deceleration and turn a bit sooner than she expected, but aside from the helmets bumping all was good. The "Alamo" is a little Mexican restaurant that is in a house and is run by the parents of the kid from Malcolm in the Middle, think his char name is duie? the one with the big ears, anyways she loved it and both ate a bit more than our fill. We where doing good on time so sat and talked a bit, hard to do that with 3 kids around the house, and when ready got our gear on and headed out. Oh after a bathroom break she is a girl after all.
The next part of the ride was short in comparison but still enjoyable as the sun started setting. Soon we got to the drive in and where met by a nice older gentleman at the gate, he asked if we needed any chairs, but then saw we came prepared. Nice he would offer them if we didnt though, anyways off to find a parking spot. Mid week even in the summer its not so bad so even though it was close to show time we found a nice view and parked the bike. As we unpacked the stuff I got my first really excited "thats an awesome bike man" from a guy maybe 25ish, and of course all the kids loved it too.
The movies where not the best but still pretty decent but sitting in our chairs sharing a blanket and having the bike parted behind us is what made the night. It did get pretty cold and my wife resorted to putting my rain pants over her jeans, my riding jacket over that, and her jacket on, then the blanket. Myself, I was fine in my tee shirt and sharing the blanket to share some of my heat with her.
Before to long it was time to pack up and head out... the cars where all pretty much out the gates by the time I had the chairs folded up and strapped on again. Thats when i started up the bike to find the headlight had gone... I was a bit frustrated but it could be solved another time. I put the high beam on as that still worked and figured worse case i got a spare to swap out if needed.
The ride home was a bit chilly but we took the shorter 495 n to 90 west to 128 s highway route. After a great night we got in around 2 am in time to get a nice 4 hour nap before work.
Oh since i didnt take any pics here is the route at least.
A and D are roughly where we live, separate so they dont stack. Be is the restaurant, and C is the drive in.
So my brother in law is visiting this week and since we dont have any babysitters I thought it would be a good time to take my wife out, and with all she put up with me being outside hours on end wrenching we should take the bike.
The plan was to go to the drive-in out in mendon, though she was really convinced we could make it work with the bike. She did have faith though as I have packed some pretty insane loads of things in my shortbed truck before. Anyways minimal is best so I took two of them canvas camping chairs, the ones you get at wally world for 5 bucks, a blanket, a radio with fresh batteries, and bug spray. That should be enough, radio and bug spray went in the sissy bar bag. Then the chairs I stacked in there bags up against the sissy bar and wrapped the blanket over the front to pad it a bit then used an array of bungee cords to secure it on my custom sissy bar eye hooks.
When she saw the packing she laughed a bit and said guess where ready to go. At this point I really should have taken some pics... but it was an amusing site. My wife was wearing a black dress around the house almost like one of them french maid outfits, and to be safe put on some jeans under with her big black boots then her hot pink mesh riding jacket and silver helmet. I was in my usual skater attire, jeans, skate shoes (yea i know... boots), independent skate shirt, my black mesh coat, and black helmet. Combine that with my black gs 650 GL with skulls on the tank and the fully packed up rear of the bike.
Regardless we where comfortable, packed, and ready to go. We headed down the road only to have someone turn right on red directly infront of us at the first set of lights. I easily avoided him as I half expected it and laid down on my sad little horn..beep beep. At the next lights my wife asked to get off and share a piece of her mind with him (as he was in front of us) but said dont worry about it, you just got to expect people like him and leave room to avoid them. Now enters good old 128 south, or 95s depending who you ask, well at this time of night its legal to drive in the breakdown lane so merging off the ramp is a bit more challenging and if I wasnt already doing 45 mph in 4th and shifting up as I came around the corner I never would have got in. The highway was fine not to bad traffic and just the occasional person trying to merge with steady traffic in the brake down lane. It wasnt long till we got off the highway and the real ride started.
The plan was pretty simple, take 109 west till we crossed 495, then stop at a nice restaurant I know and continue to rt 16 where the drive in is. This part of the ride was real nice and my wife really started to enjoy the bike it has no power issues at all with 2 up riding, pulls strong and shifts smooth. The roads are not that curvy and not to hilly but its NE so its not flat either. I did eventually miss one right turn to stay on 109 (happens a lot around here, turn to "stay on" the road) but my wife corrected me at the next and it was easily fixed. We passed lots of other bikers and waved to them all, most waved back or at least gave a head nod.
After an hour or so riding a stop was definitely in order, but it came a bit unexpected for my wife. I saw the place I planned to take her and made my deceleration and turn a bit sooner than she expected, but aside from the helmets bumping all was good. The "Alamo" is a little Mexican restaurant that is in a house and is run by the parents of the kid from Malcolm in the Middle, think his char name is duie? the one with the big ears, anyways she loved it and both ate a bit more than our fill. We where doing good on time so sat and talked a bit, hard to do that with 3 kids around the house, and when ready got our gear on and headed out. Oh after a bathroom break she is a girl after all.
The next part of the ride was short in comparison but still enjoyable as the sun started setting. Soon we got to the drive in and where met by a nice older gentleman at the gate, he asked if we needed any chairs, but then saw we came prepared. Nice he would offer them if we didnt though, anyways off to find a parking spot. Mid week even in the summer its not so bad so even though it was close to show time we found a nice view and parked the bike. As we unpacked the stuff I got my first really excited "thats an awesome bike man" from a guy maybe 25ish, and of course all the kids loved it too.
The movies where not the best but still pretty decent but sitting in our chairs sharing a blanket and having the bike parted behind us is what made the night. It did get pretty cold and my wife resorted to putting my rain pants over her jeans, my riding jacket over that, and her jacket on, then the blanket. Myself, I was fine in my tee shirt and sharing the blanket to share some of my heat with her.
Before to long it was time to pack up and head out... the cars where all pretty much out the gates by the time I had the chairs folded up and strapped on again. Thats when i started up the bike to find the headlight had gone... I was a bit frustrated but it could be solved another time. I put the high beam on as that still worked and figured worse case i got a spare to swap out if needed.
The ride home was a bit chilly but we took the shorter 495 n to 90 west to 128 s highway route. After a great night we got in around 2 am in time to get a nice 4 hour nap before work.
Oh since i didnt take any pics here is the route at least.
A and D are roughly where we live, separate so they dont stack. Be is the restaurant, and C is the drive in.
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