Since there's only one of me (a fact that is sometimes a comfort to women everywhere), there's no way for me to ride the two motorcycles I own at the same time. Well, that changed today.
Gary, who used to be my next door neighbor, who had moved away over a year ago to Missouri; was here for the day. He flies for Frontier Airlines and his daughter was visiting a friend in the neighborhood. Gary was at loose ends so he proposed to take me up on a repeated offer of mine from the past to go riding.
He shows up shortly after 9 AM and after lending him my old riding jacket and some gloves, we were off. Gary was on Brigitta and I was on Maria. It was really fascinating to me, to see how Brigitta looked in my side mirrors! She sounded pretty good to when Gary would pull up next to me at stoplights.
We went down on CO 83, aka Parker Road, past Parker and Franktown. I then took him up CO 11 where we found many patches of gravel which slowed us way down. Once we got into Castle Rock, I looked for a spot for a photo op with Castle Rock's namesake in the background:
Gary, with the girls
Me and the GirlsHere we are at Camel Rock, one of the more well known of rock formations:
Interesting, how shooting from basically the same location, we used different compositions
It's different, riding with someone else. Way different when he's on your motorcycle! Still, I got to see Brigitta as others see her, and I liked what I saw.
After Perry Park, we cruised through to Palmer Lake and had a quick lunch at Monument. We then crossed back over I-25 and headed east back towards Parker Road. The skies were darkening quickly and I could see a rain storm approaching from the west. We hurried north on CO 83 and got near home just short of 3:00 PM I believe.
One short stop to pick up a birthday cake to surprise my loving wife with and off we went for home. We got caught in a pretty good rain shower due to the cake stop but it was worth it to see the look on her face when I brought it out. I even managed to get three of her friends to show up to sing Happy Birthday to her.
Gary and I even worked in a late evening ride after the guests had departed. We saw perhaps six deer in the fields on either side of the county roads I'd selected. We only rode perhaps 50 miles during the evening ride but it was all good. This time Gary rode Maria and I was on Brigitta.
Again, it was weird seeing Maria in my side mirrors being ridden by someone else, but again I liked what I saw. I must figure out a way to safely take a picture of my bikes when ridden by someone else while I too am riding.
A good day of riding, a bit less than 200 miles total I'd say. Looks like Brigitta's odometer records more miles than Maria's odometer though. At the end of the first ride, Maria reported 8 miles less than Brigitta's total.....hmmmm.
3 comments:
My daughter has a Vespa 150 ET and not long after I bought my scooter we went for a ride together. Of course we had to switch bikes a couple of times. It was fun seeing someone else on my bike and vice versa. We didn't have the same scenery though. Looks like a great ride!
Dear Charlie6 (Dom):
I half expected you to reveal an aftermarket birthday cake carrier, that attaches onto the license plate bracket. I think you're a real sport to share your bike with a friend... I was about to say that I'd be leery about that, until I thought I'd let anyone in my club take it out for a spin.
Once again. I wished I lived in a neighborhood where I had something to compete with your mountain views. You are forcing me to become more creative with pictures... And it is hard to do in this locale. It would be hard to do in the Adirondacks, one of the wildest places on the east coast, where the mountains are beautiful, but not that dramatic.
I also like stepping out for an evening ride. The deer around here make one question the wisdom of that.
Fondest regards,
Jack "reep" Toad
Twisted Roads
cpa3485, yes it was a great ride...though I bet riding with your daughter in her own scoot was kind of special too.
Jack, yeah, I'd never lent a bike to anyone for a long ride but Gary knows what he's doing. He did take a bit of getting used to on the bigger 1150RT but mastered it just fine. And yes, we saw lots of deer.
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