North Cascade Day Ride

I got in a nice ride Saturday. Susan was sick but the weather was nice so I left her home in bed and went north on I5 to the North Cascade Highway (WA 20) and headed east. Just east of Mount Vernon I took a road that paralleled 20, the South Skagit Road. It goes along the south side of the Skagit River. It follows the river real close. I could see it most of the time when the trees weren't too thick. Nice road with very little traffic. That was over 20 miles I think. Then I crossed the river into Concrete. That's a town on highway 20 and I had lunch at Cascade Burgers. It was very good. I had a buffalo burger and onion rings. It's a place worth stopping at. I made a way point on my GPS so I could find it again. Not that it would be difficult. It's on the main road on the edge of town. I then continued east to Rockport and then to Marble Mount. There is a very good restaurant there called the Buffalo Run. You can get Elk burgers and steaks there. Susan and I ate lunch there the year before last on one of our three day trips. I made another way point because we are planning a Cascade loop ride for the last weekend in June and plan to have lunch there again. The stretch of highway 20 between Rockport and Marble Mount is really nice. Very good surface and nice curves, not tight ones those are further up toward the pass but it was still really nice to ride.

I gassed up and headed back to Rockport where I turned south to Darrington. That's a nice stretch of road also. It follows one of the branches of the river. At Darrington I took highway 530 west to I5 then on home. 530 is a good road but not a destination in itself like the cascade highway is. Except where the tree were thick I could see snow on the peaks and wild flowers starting to Bloom. The traffic was light most of the day until I got closer to Seattle on I5 but then I5 is not a good motorcycle road, just a means to get out of town.

I didn't take the camera so no picture to show. But if you look at our blog entries of 08 you should be able to find the ones we took then. I think the whole trip was some where over 200 miles. Really a nice day ride.

The weather next Saturday is promising to be just as nice. Of course who believes the weatherman's promises? We can only hope. Maybe Sue will be well enough then so we can both ride. We've got to get some training in before the big one in August.

Second Ride of the Season

It was a short ride, but we rode! This time Noman decided to accompany us. We three enjoyed it very much. We just went here and there, enjoying the day. We did go down by the sound and stopped by Richmond Beach Saltwater Park just to see the scenery. It's good to be out and about on the bikes after such a long winter.

But rain for the next 3 days, so there won't be much riding going on at our house.

hmm. We need to figure out what to do about the rain and Norman and his bed in the sidecar. hmmm

Name Change and A Ride!

Having been badgered about drifing from motorcycling, I decided it was time to change the name of the blog. After all, it will soon be too wet and cold for the likes of this old lady to be out riding. It's always too something around here. But the Big Wet is upon us altogether too soon.

Tomorrow, Ray, Norman and I are riding over to Pacific Beach. We'll ride the ferry across the Sound, go over the top of the Olympic Peninsula and catch Highway 101 around Forks and head down the coast. On the return trip we'll take a slightly different route.

It is a route full of hairpins, squigglies and twisties and it will be quite a challenge for a beginning sidecarist. But the Sidecar Dog should enjoy it because quite alot of the trip won't be speeds out of his comfort zone.

So this name may turn out to be temporary, or maybe not. Ya gotta keep up to find out!

Here's a picture of some fat lady and our huge tomato plants.



We had such good luck this year. The first tomatoes of the season were around a pound apiece. We've eaten alot of BLT's and I made a batch of tomato sauce. We have lots of tomatoes left!



Ray's T-Clocking and we're both checking our bike supplies. Some little stuff like the hand cream, wipes, kleenex, sunblock, hand sanitizer, bike lock, flashlight, plus some tools are stored in the 3 gloveboxes Mr. Burgman has. There's still room in the center one for my sunglasses.

Not sure yet what I'll do with my purse. My bike purse doesn't fit in any of the gloveboxes, so I'm not sure...perhaps under the seat.

I've put some stuff in a canvas bag and put it behind the sidecar seat with my rain gear.The gloves, glove liners, mini tp rolls for those woodsy unstocked porta potties, knit neck warmers, 2 chemical hand warmers and my microweight windbreaker are in the bag. Shield cleaner and microfiber cloth are in their own bag behind the seat in the "trunk" of the sidecar. My tail bag is going in the toe of the sidecar, along with Norman's travel bag and water. I think after we get the sidecar painted some year, I'll add a trunk rack for the luggages.

There's room under Mr. Burgman's seat for both my helmet and Ray's or my helmet and a jacket or two.

Trying to decide which jacket to wear. We live in such an odd weather area and going to the coast is nearly always much cooler. Hmmm. 80 degrees here, 65 degrees there. Which jacket? Solid jacket or mesh jacket? Windbreaker under mesh? Long or short sleeves? So many things to think about getting ready for a ride.

Whoopie! My van is finally fixed! It's been in the shop for a week waiting for a new transmission. Finally done! We can go get it! Yay!