Aug 30, 2005

journey v. destination

on the way home from my ride to the races, i was having the classic journey v. destination debate in my head...

for me, it always seems to be more about the journey. heck, i've been on rides where we didn't even get to our destination, but the ride was still great because of what we did end up seeing or doing...

after being at the races, seeing and doing all there was to do, i was wondering if this trip was different - was this one more about the destination and not the journey?? the ride out to vir was great, and the ride home was very pleasant. but i had such a great time at the races...

then i asked myself, would i have had as good of a time if i had gotten there by cage?? no came to my mind pretty quickly. okay, would i have had as good a time if i rode up there and come home without seeing the races?? maybe...

so, for me it seems the journey still edges out the destination. the destination can certainly enhance the journey, as it did in this case. but i think the journey always enhances the destination.

ride safe...

Aug 29, 2005

race day

what another great day riding... took off yesterday to see the suzuki big kahuna nationals at vir.

the day started with matt and i heading to north raleigh to meet the "brunch" group after a quick stop for gas. we met up with jim, dave, dana and steve. this was steve's first ride with us. we have plans to meet one more rider when we stop for breakfast in roxboro. since we're all here, we head out...

up six forks to new light, following bicycle 1 to 96 to oxford. a quick stop for gas in oxford and then on 158 to roxboro. we stop at burger king, for breakfast and meet up with mike - our last rider. after breakfast we head out of roxboro on 57 up to vir.

the ride up was great - nice cool weather. in fact, we had long sleeves shirts on to start the trip. i would much rather ride in cooler temps than warmer temps. after leaving roxboro, it had warmed up enough to ride with short sleeve shirt. during the last leg of the trip, the sky had turned cloudy and dark - i was wondering if we were going to get some rain. we didn't and once we arrived at vir, the sky cleared up again.

we were in for a little shock when we got to the gate - the ticket price was $50 per person. yikes!! so we're at the gate, sitting on our bikes, blocking traffic trying to decide if we're going in... i don't think any of us wanted to be the spoiler, so we forked over the money and headed in...

once we parked, we looked for the best place to watch the race. we scoped out a couple different places... this was the first time i had seen superbikes race and it was an experience. those bikes fly...









we also got to see a stunt show - talk about impressive... the skills these guys have to control the bikes the way they do - obviously these guy's have done this before - hahahaha...





unfortunately, we lost mike after the first stunt show - we tried to find him, called him, but no luck... we never caught up to him again...

after the last race, we made our way back to the bikes for the journey home... although they had attendants directing traffic out of the parking lot, getting out was still a mess. unfortunately steve got separated from us on the way out of the lot. not only that, we took the wrong exit out of the lot - not a big deal, just made our trip a little longer and put us in traffic longer. when we got on the road, we stopped to figure out what happened to steve. again, we didn't like getting separated, but at this point, there wasn't much we could do. we didn't know how far behind us he was, because we got separated in the parking lot, or how far ahead of us he might be because we took the long way out of the lot...

on the ride back, we stopped at an italian place in oxford for dinner. nice little quaint place... shortly after we sat down, we see steve riding by!!! he knew we were stopping for italian in oxford - and there's probably not more than one italian place in oxford!!





so, after an enjoyable dinner, we hit the road to head home... took a slightly different route back home, putting us on some smaller, twistier roads - always a nice treat.

arriving home was bittersweet. nice to be home, bummed the ride was over. but as always, it was a great day on the bike... we were gone a little longer, okay, a lot longer than i expected. again, my wife was wonderful about it - i am lucky to be married to her.

until the next ride...

Aug 15, 2005

roanoke

took a ride to roanoke this weekend... what a great ride, what a great weekend...

an informal reunion with college friends was the reason for riding to roanoke. it seems every couple of years we seem to get together - sometimes it's a happy occasion, other times it's sad... the last time we got together as a group was probably four years ago to celebrate a wedding... i guess we were due for a get together - this time it was possible because of the efforts of frank, russell and chief. i'm not sure who, but someone had the idea of getting robbin thompson. the robbin thompson band was a big part of our college lives - i can't remember how many times we saw him... i know it was a lot... as usual, it was great seeing the gang again - catching up on what's going on in everyone's lives... the only thing that could have made it better for me was to have my wife there - i really missed her...

okay, so i rode the bike to roanoke... i think i left around 9:30 in the morning... took some back roads up to danville, caught 58 to martinsville and 220 up to roanoke. it was a nice ride, the morning was a little cooler than i expected - which basically means i wasn't sweating like i was when i was packing my bike. i stopped outside of danville to fill up the tank, stretch my legs and call my wife. about 15 minutes later i was back on my way to roanoke. don't know why, but roanoke was closer than i thought - took me about three and a half hours total. the second half of the trip was a bit warmer - i started feeling the heat. still, i'd rather be on the bike than in a cage.

the trip back was good too... after having breakfast (thanks frank) with some of the gang, it was time to roll back home... i was thinking of taking the blue ridge parkway south into nc and then cutting east back home. but since my wife wasn't feeling great, i decided to cut a trail home... took the same route home - stopping on the other side of danville this time. it was a good trip except for the damn cage that wouldn't stay off my ass from roanoke to martinsville. i couldn't figure it out - there was hardly any traffic, this guy could have passed at any time (hell, we were on a four lane road - two lanes in each direction!!). no, he had to ride up on my ass, stay there for a bit. then he'd drop back to a reasonable distance for about thirty seconds and then back on my ass... i tried slowing down to force him to pass - did he?? no... i sped up, nope - must have had a rubber band on my ass keeping him close... it wasn't until i picked up 58 that he went in a difference direction... once he was gone - the rest of the trip was nice...

just a quick note to you cage drivers - please have some courtesy around bikes. give them some room - riding on their asses isn't going to make them ride faster. either pass them of back off - i don't care, but do something other than stay on their ass...

i've passed through a couple towns on this trip and an earlier one that i want to go back and visit with my wife - oxford, milton, hyco lake. although i didn't hit it this time, i'd also like to go back to yanceyville. it's amazing how much more you see when you're out on a bike than when you're in a cage... if you've ridden a bike before, you know what i'm talking about...

as always this trip would have been nicer if my wife was with me... i love her so much and miss her when i'm gone. no matter how great it is while i'm out riding, it's always better getting home and seeing her... one of these days we're going to take a trip together - i can't wait...