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Flashback Friday


 Repost From Last Year On A Post 5 Years Ago 



One Sunday about 4 or 5 years ago, Neighbor Tim asked if I wanted to ride along on a trip up to Southpark Mall in Moline.  Carrie needed to exchange something and it was a very nice day so off we went.  Fast forward to newly minted 2014 and it is February and cooooold.  It seems like a good time to recount that trip and think of warmer days in the not-so-distant-future when people up north will fire up their dormant iron horses and ride again.  Now, down here, we never put them away.  The good part of that is that...well, we never put them away.  The bad news is that we rack up the miles.  

 This will be a short Flashback, due mainly to the fact that nothing much happened on this trip.  We have had better trips probably, certainly more exciting ones than this trip.  But it was a trip nonetheless, and all trips on a bike are worth celebrating.  We left the mall having conducted the business and Tim suggested a run over to the Muscatine plant he was working at the time.  Since any destination is good on a bike, I said, "Let's go."

I remember the day being particularly warm and looking at the picture above, I notice this was manifest by two things:  I rolled my sleeves up, and took my helmet off.  This last little bit of friskiness is almost unheard of.  Wearing a helmet has become as rote as using my seat belt.  Both are involuntary instinctual things.   I am on my old Kawi 1500, a great bike that once started would go all day.  Getting it started was a bite sometimes.  All pieces of machinery have their own eccentricities, just like people.  My old Kawi was a workhorse once you were able to get her out into the field.  She had to be caressed and pampered when starting, but once there, she was problem-free.






We rode through places like Buffalo, Montpelier, and Fairport on Route 22 for you numbers guys.  Sex can have its drawbacks:  the next morning, ED, performance anxiety, premature embarrassment, venereal diseases and future dependents.  But, man, there ain't no drawbacks to a lazy run on a bike on great roads with friends.  Yes, it is better than sex.  I swear.

There were other bike trips with friends worth remembering, too.  Our last BFE ride, a trip to Tweety's for Bloody Mary's that ended up being a tary (tar) mess, a road flooded out somewhere outside Keithsburg, and many many others that I won't recount now.  Suffice to say they will be mentioned and highlighted in future Flashbacks if I can find the pictures.

Finally, as to the picture above, this was taken by Carrie just outside the gates of the Muscatine plant and yes, there is an ever so slight smile on my face.  I am riding on a motorcycle, I am seeing new things, and I am with friends.  That, my readers, is better than sex.


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