… I know!… You don’t hear that much from me do you?
Friday night was just a regular old Friday. I think I basically just slept most of it away. Saturday… Now Saturday was a different story all together. I didn’t have a lot of plans for the morning and afternoon because the forecast was calling for rain. I woke up to the gloomy clouds and damp roads indicating at some point over night it had definately rained. The Weather Channel was still calling for a decent amount of showers through early afternoon so the only real thing I had thought of doing was WaterFire Sharon. Otherwise, whatever I did was ok.
I fed Tink and myself around 6:30 am. I then laid back down. My back doesn’t like rainy weather so I figured no sense starting my day off that early. Finally, I ran out of sleep and got up to get ready to do whatever came across my path. First on my agenda, though, was lunch at my usual Saturday haunt, Hogan’s Heroes. I had planned on taking the truck because of the forecast. When I walked out the door, I decided that the weather would be good enough to catch a couple miles on the bike. Back in to the house I went to pull on my riding boots. I backed the bike out of the barn and headed uptown to Hogan’s.
They saw me pulling in and had it already on cooking when I walked through the door. I don’t really like when they do that because some day I might like to change my mind. Today was not that day so all was good. I sat and surfed the net on my iPhone while waiting for it to finish. Nothing really caught my eye there either. I gave up the thought of walking around stores like I normally do. My next destination would more than likely be back to the house. I would make the final call after eating lunch.
I finished up lunch and walked out the door. The skies were clearing and there was a nice breeze. “Ok… I’ll take a short spin.” I said to myself. I pointed the bike north and headed out of Hermitage. I decided I would ride toward Greenville and on out across to Route 19 and back home. In the meantime, I was receiving texts from a friend about possibly hauling a motorcycle she was buying back to her place. I stopped at Greenville Walmart to walk around while she waited for the call to go pick up the bike. I left Walmart still intent on turning down Route 19, but something happened when I reached the turn off. I continued on straight. “I still don’t have a firm answer about needing to be home to get the truck so I’m going to ride out just a bit more.” my brain churned as I twisted the throttle to pull away from the stoplight. “Its just too nice of an afternoon to sit and wait.” I ended up at Goddard State Park (Lake Wilhelm). I parked the bike and plopped myself down on a bench at the marina with a snack and some water. I guess I probably sat there watching boats and enjoying the breeze for a half and hour or better. The call came that the bike would be ready for pickup later. I started the ride towards home, not having a specific time. I meandered back and ended up in Mercer about the time the next call came. All was working out pretty well.
I hit home with about 65 miles on the odometer for that ride. It turned out her bike would be delivered so I had some time to do a couple other things I had thought about while riding. My bike needed washed before the Fire Department’s Poker Run on Sunday. I got caught in the rain 3 times in the last couple weeks. Rain just makes a mess out of the back wheel and exhaust pipes. The hot chrome dries the mucky water almost instantly, leaving a greyish film. Yep. “I’ll wash the bike then head down to Sharon for WaterFire.” my brain informed me. I guess my brain and my back weren’t on speaking terms last evening. By the time I was done washing the bike, my back was screaming and tired. WaterFire was going to require a lot of walking… Not something my back was going to find very agreeable at all.
I cleaned up my cleaning supplies and sat down on the couch to relax a bit. My brain and back were now arguing about WaterFire. I really wanted to see WaterFire because I having done sound and technical work for several outdoor productions. This could be a really good thing for the Valley. We need a better arts presence around here. I knew from news reports and friends already down there that there was quite a large number of people there. My back begrudgingly gave in. A little after 9 pm, my brain directed my body to put on my shoes. Traffic would be terrible so I decided to take the truck instead of the freshly clean bike.
I used my knowledge of the area to slip in the back way. Hopefully, I could snag a close parking spot. Traffic was indeed terrible, both foot and vehicular. I made it into the Reyer’s Plaza lot. I drove to what I believed was the closest I could get. I lucked out. Several cars were backing out just as I was pulling up. I had a short walk over to the river which was already ablaze. My plan at this point was to walk a little then rest a little until I had seen about all I wanted to see or my back and leg screaming overrode my brain’s desire to take in the spectical. I actually made it up and across all three bridges. I didn’t get over to the dance floor or into 
Quaker Steak and Lube. I was running low on energy. I wanted a funnel cake so bad but the lines were terrible. I settled for a Gyro and an Iced Tea. Standing in line did me in. I took my food back to the truck, opened the tailgate and had an enjoyable little snack.
The parking lot was emptying out by this time. My thought was that by the time I was done eating, I could probably get out without much traffic problems. I was correct. I took plenty of Ibuprofen upon my return home. Sleep was really rough because I couldn’t lay in any one position very long or Mr. Angry Back would yell at me. I managed to find some comfort and felt fairly refreshed when I awoke to the alarm this morning. I proceeded to get ready to go on the ride today. I knew being already beat up was probably not going to make for a good day, especially with the route looking like it was going to be around 150 miles.
I got gas and aired up the bike tires then headed off to Kiwanis Park. Here is where the ride would kick off and end. I registered. The nice thing about this ride is that its with mostly local people that I know. Riders at Poker Runs often ride independantly or in small groups. Beth Watson was riding this ride as well. She and I ride alot together so there would be at least one person to run with.
Riders continued to pull in as I stood around waiting for someone to say “Let’s go.” I had noticed Beth over talking to some folks a few minutes before she popped up where I was standing with a goofy grin on her face. “I told everyone you would lead…” she giggled as she headed to her bike. Apparently, the fact that I ride with my phone/GPS mounted in clear view on my handlebars and that I was familiar with a couple of the locations made me a target for promotion to leader in a mechanized game of the follow-the-leader. I think I just shook my head and said “Thanks…” or something like that. I wasn’t THAT thrilled with leading riders I wasn’t familiar with. We mounted our trusty metal beasts and headed out. I think we had ten bikes or so in our initial group.
The run out Route 318 to Mercer was a challenge for me. You see… I ride this road everyday to work. It has twisty curves on it. If you ride a motorcycle, you know that ‘twisties’ are fun. I have learned the curves well enough that I usually take them at a pretty good clip. I had to hold myself back today as it was obvious that some of the bikes in our group weren’t keen on taking 90 degree corners in a lean with 2 riders on board. I kept a check in the mirror to keep folks up close. My goal was to try to follow the directions given to us and not exactly what my GPS showed. I did deviate in Mercer because the choice was to take the planned route around the courthouse and have to fight traffic or go straight across the way I go to work and eliminate a bunch of traffic completely. We went straight.
We hit the first stop still in our group. . The object of a Poker Run is to draw a card at each stop and come up with the best hand at the end of the ride. We found the place to draw our cards out on the patio. I drew a “3” … bleh… but its still early in the ride… Right? Three of our group took off early. The rest of the group lingered to chat. The plan was to grab lunch at our next stop, Allegheny Grille. The detour on Route 58 took us up and on to Interstate 80. I didn’t know one of our riders didn’t like interstate riding or I may have chosen a back road route off my GPS. Everyone made it across the 7 mile stretch without incident. At the bottom of the ramp, I’m pretty sure I confused a few folks. I took a right instead of the left that looked obvious. I knew that by doing this I could drop us right down at the stop sign at Allegheny Grille without going through the town of Emlenton. We drew our cards and then set out for lunch at Foxburg Pizza. I drew a “6” … Ka raaaap. The pizza was good though.
The next stop was a bar in Chicora that they had stopped at last year. My card here… a “7”. My event planning experience told me that I needed to ask a question at this stop that others may not have thought about… “Anyone need gas yet?” We were travelling with a variety of styles of bikes and they had travelled from different distances to get to the start of the ride. We were 80 miles into the ride. A couple of these guys could easily need fuel. They did. While we were taking a break there, Beth and I looked up gas stations. There were two right around the corner. When we pulled out, I chose the BP because it had more pumps. With the 1o bikes now in tow, we needed more pumps so we didn’t take all day. I myself decided I had enough gas to compete the run if my mileage estimates were correct. Next stop… Log Cabin Inn, Harmony. I started questioning my fuel mileage as we neared Harmony.
The Log Cabin Inn is located on Route 19. Just after making the turn off Route 68 onto 19, we ran across a patch of pavement that was recently stripped. My back had tolerated the 100 miles so far rather well. The shaking caused by the ridges in the road caused all the aching nerve endings from Saturday night to wake back up. My air seat I put on the bike works great for softening up and down bumps but it does little for side to side shaking… apparently.
The Log Cabin Inn is a nice place but their parking leaves alot to be desired for as busy as they get… and we weren’t the only Poker Run stopping there today. We shoehorned our bikes into parking spots and went in to draw our cards. I got a “4”. The only thing that is going to salvage this hand is a “5” at the final drawing back at the park. While the other folks did their thing, I ran back down the road a mile or two to a gas station we had passed. If I tried to make it back, it was going to be close. I forgot about a station that was on the way back that I stop at when I’m riding around Lake Arthur near McConnel’s Mill. We set out for home when I returned to the Log Cabin.
We were back down to seven bikes in our pack as we ran the closing leg of the ride. I lost sight of a bike or two in my mirror as we neared the turn in Leesburg. I turned and lost the rest of the group except Beth. I slowed my pace way down hoping that they got caught in traffic at the turn on to 208. Beth finally turned in to a driveway to double back and check on folks. I saw two of our group come over the hill just as she turned off. I continued my slow pace until they caught up. As we continued our way down 208, I caught sight of several more motorcycles behind a couple of cars. Way more than the three or four I had expected to see. It was another large pack of our riders that had caught up to us. I led the whole group the rest of the way back to the park. Just over half of the bikes in attendance were back by that point, including our group.
Somewhere along the line, the joke had been made that I was still in the running for the worst hand of the day. I drew my last card. Did I get my “5”? … Dejectedly, I reported my draw… a “2”. “2, 3, 4, 6, 7” Yep. That’s a pretty sucky Poker hand. Oh well, the riding had been a blast. The company had also been fun. I bought Dad a ticket to eat dinner and he came over. He lives a stone’s throw from the park. He and Mom used to walk through the woods to the park in days gone by. We ate dinner. He bought some Chinese Auction Tickets. I had $10 left from the money I brought for the day so I bought 50/50 tickets. Neither of us won anything from either of those.
There are certain drawings they have at most Poker Runs… “Best Hand”, “Worst Hand”, “Oldest Bike on the Run”… Things like that. I was talking to Rick White, the DJ who provides their audio gear and music for the event. He asked if I were to win which prize would I prefer and read off a few things. I’m not even sure I answered him. He knows me well enough to know that the Applebee’s or Walmart cards would be my pick of what he had. As I walked away, they called my name. I had the oldest bike on the run. Good ole Maggie saves the day!!! The 29 year old girl won us dinner at Applebee’s… maybe even a couple dinners. As things wound down, someone realized that they didn’t award “Best and Worst Hand” yet. Guess what?! I had the “WORST” hand of the group. I walked a way with a couple decent prizes. How about that! Who knew having the oldest bike (She certainly doesn’t look it.) and the worst Poker hand would pay off.
All-In-All a GREAT Weekend!! Good ride yesterday. Nice artistic experience last night. Good gathering and ride today and prizes too! Yep. This is one of the best weekends I’ve had in a while.
~Cappy