Return-Path: Posted-Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 16:15:42 GMT Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles Path: taco!gatech!destroyer!uunet!walter!att!cbnewsm!garage.att.com!shz From: shz@garage.att.com (Keeper of the 'Tude) Subject: Wet, Tired and Home! Organization: Office of 'Tude Licensing Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 16:15:42 GMT Sender: news@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (NetNews Administrator) Nntp-Posting-Host: binky Lines: 45 Apparently-To: sasmjw@unx.sas.com Nothing beats riding long distances in the rain, except perhaps doing much of it at night. Several of us (Gonzalo, Marc Fusco, Tim Wright and this humble author) pulled out from the RCR sunday at 8:30, loaded up at Shoneys and then hit the road. Gonzalo split to do some Blue Ridge Parkway after a while and Tim, Marc and I plodded north on I-81. Around lunch time, one of the bikes (HD-FXSTC, BMW-K75 or Honda Shadow) developed problems and had to be left at the side of the road (did anyone see it near the 135 mile marker on I-81?) while we brought the unfortunate soul to look for help. After lunch, Marc and I continued our journey north on I-81 and ran into the beginning of 300-350 miles of rain. Marc (the brain :-( ) suggested that we take I-66 east to DC and then do I-95 back to NJ instead of staying on I-81 to I-78. We enjoyed traffic, unmarked pavement, uneven pavement, a sign that said "Loose Gravel" and more asshole cages than you could flip the bird at. I-95 sucks on a clean dry day but at night in the rain it is a real party! We looped around DC, did some kind of tunnel near Baltimore (the straight pipes sound great in tunnels...), saw all of these "Warning Motorcycles: open bridge joints" types of signs but missed the hazards, sat in traffic for 10 minutes somewhere in MD or DE (or on the bridge in between), saw Philly and eventually got home (at least *I* made it. Marc did you make it? What about you Tim? Was it the battery?) around 11:15pm about 630 miles from the Tee-Pee. The leather saddlebags had about an inch of water in the bottoms (good thing I plastic-bagged everything) so I air-dried them today riding to work. My leather (fork) toolbag didn't fare as well. The leather got so soft from those hours doing hundreds of miles of rain that several rivets pulled out. But then, I didn't like the way the bike handled with the tools on the fork anyway... Tired, dry (now) and over that terrible hangover. How many beers did I drink anyway? Thanks to Ed for running the whole thing, thanks to Tim for putting us up on the way down, thanks to everyone for singing "Happy Birthday" saturday night (it was my 32nd), thanks to Marc for taking the lead so I could veg-out, thanks to that asshole taxi on the beltway near DC for not killing us and thanks to my HD for not breaking down. - Roid