Bookmark and Share

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Sunny and Sixty degrees...let's ride.




Well the sun was shining on Saturday and we decided to take advantage of it and ride.  It was just
the two of us as friends were out of town or had family commitments because it was Easter weekend.

It was sixty degrees but we still layered up, as the wind chill riding down the road can creep on you fast.  Our grandson is not sure what to think of grandma and papa dressed in black leather and leaving him behind.  We rode out the back way from our home to Haxton Road, around Marine Drive, past the Lummi waterfront, through Fairhaven and down our favorite road south, Chuckanut Drive.

Chuckanut Drive was lined with empty vehicles because everyone was hiking in the warm (warm in Washington is a state of mind, some start wearing shorts when the sun comes out and it is forty degrees).  We cut over on Bow Hill Road, crossed over highway 5, and proceeded east on Prairie Hill Road.  Beautiful farm land but still too wet to plow fields.  Horses still wore their winter blankets as they raced across fields when they heard the sound of the pipes on our trike.

We headed up highway 9 to the Blue Mountain Grill for a late lunch.  There were two large groups of
other motorcyclist at the BMG and we would have sat outside, but all the tables were full.  We took a seat in the back corner by the windows and a view of Mt. Baker dressed in a thick white coat of snow and ice.

We took our usual route home and arrived in plenty of time to dye Easter eggs with the grandbaby.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

No rain two weekends in a row! That's news.



Saturday was looking a little sketchy for riding and we had a fundraiser to attend that evening so we stayed close to home and hoped that Sunday would bring sunshine and riding weather.
Saturday night after we returned home an email was waiting from VM (he is quick witted but not deadly) asking if anyone wanted to ride on Sunday and where to meet up.  That was all it took for us to say we were in.

Sunday morning we bundled up and rode to Starbucks on Bakerview to meet up with the group.  To our surprise the MGR (meet, greet, and ride group) was planning a ride for the day and this was their location to meet up also.  We were the first of our group to arrive so Larry ordered coffee and I went to say hello to Mike L., Pat and Pam, Lynn, and Bryan.  Before we left they had four more show up for their ride.

Shortly thereafter, Dave and Dawn, Lorie and Dave, and Bill and Marla arrived.  More greetings between the two groups, checking out each other’s bikes, discussions about the bike show at Skagit HD on Saturday, and then it was time for our group to depart.

Dave M. had us winding our way through Bellingham through the older neighborhoods, down to Squalicum harbor, around the waterfront, up to State St., through Fairhaven, and onto Chuckanut Drive.  We were hoping that heading south and west that we could stay out of range of those pesky dark rain clouds that were hovering just to the east of us.  Lorie wore her rain suit and that was going to be our rain protection (if someone does not wear raingear on a day like this, you can almost always bet on getting soaked).   Okay we did have a couple of sprinkles, and some small hail, but no downpour.

Down Chuckanut, through Edison and onto highway 20.   We made a quick stop to stretch our legs and then rode towards La Conner and the tulip fields before heading into Mount Vernon for a stop at Skagit HD.  People were stopped everywhere along the roads to view the tulips in reds, pinks, oranges, and the yellow daffodils.  They were slogging through the mud in their designer rubber boots to have their pictures taken in the tulips.  Nice, but seeing the flowers from the back of the bike was enough for us.

We stopped at the Train Wreck in Burlington for lunch and much to our surprise it was not full. Table for eight, something to drink, we placed our orders, and then we could sit back and tell stories.  It is good to spending time with friends that you can totally relax with and laughwith each other.

Where to next?  Highway 9 as we headed back to Whatcom County.  We rode north to Everson, then west to Birch Bay State Park to enjoy a pit stop and enjoy the sunshine and the beach views.  We all said our good-byes as we mounted up and headed home.  Bill and Marla peeled off first, and then to make sure we didn’t miss our turn, Lorie and Dave were kind enough to both point to our road and Dave and Dawn honked a good-bye.

Eagle Eye pointed out numerous eagles, perched and flying throughout the day, and we saw deer, lots of baby calf twins, sheep still wearing their winter coats, and lots of other bikers.  It was a good day.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Sunshine...where have you been?

It has been a wet winter and that would be okay if it rained Monday through Friday, but every weekend?  Now don’t get me wrong, I love to sit by a warm fire with a cup of coffee and relax, but sunshine on the bike, sitting behind my husband on the trike and riding with friends is just a beautiful day.Finally on Saturday the sun came out to play.  On the news Saturday night, the weatherman was saying it had been forty-two days in Seattle without sun.  Way too long.  Sunshine does not mean warm weather in Washington State.  Looks can be, and are, deceiving.  Everyone we knew had chores to do or other obligations, so Larry and I bundled up with layers and heated gear and headed out on the trike for an afternoon ride by ourselves.  Our daughter and grandson watched as we backed out of the driveway and I am not sure what the little guys thinks of his grandparents dressed all in black and riding on a big loud noisy trike. Hopefully by the end of summer, when the weather warms up and he has heard the sound of the HD pipes multiple times, he will be ready to take a ride down the end of the driveway and back.  A HD rider in the making.

We rode out Mountain View to Olson Road and then took Grandview to Birch Bay Drive, through the park and Birch Bay.  Larry rode on Friday by himself and said the park was swamped with people digging for clams, but today there was only a  handful of people on the beach with shovels and buckets and Birch Bay looked like a late Sunday afternoon in the fall when everyone goes home and the shops all close up and the resort community becomes a bedroom community again for the locals.
We rode around the shoreline enjoying the quiet time on our way past Semihamoo to Blaine.  We then
took the H Road to Lynden.  To anyone on a motorcycle on two wheels, be careful because just before you head up the hill out of Blaine on the H road, the city is doing road construction and the road
is pretty nasty right now.

We passed maybe only a handful of cars going west and nomotorcycles.  We saw deer but that was it
for wildlife sightings.  We stopped at Jake’s Western Grill in Lynden for a great lunch and then took Birch Bay Road to the Enterprise Road and Portal Way, slowly winding our way home.
It was a good day for a ride and I can’t wait for the next sunny day...but I hope it is not forty-two days away.
Related Posts with Thumbnails