It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

9:30 AM is the starting time and where else would we start a ride from than Starbucks?  The weather forecast is forty-eight degrees with fog.  Looks like I’ll still be wearing the heated vest even if I don’t plug it in.  Only a few geese in the fields as we head out and no fog, unlike last weekend when there were hundreds of Canadian geese in the fields and the fog hung near the tree tops. 

There are eight bikes and fourteen riders as we took the scenic route down Chuckanut Drive heading south and west.  Past the Longhorn saloon in Edison and our usual stop at the Shell station at the intersection at highway 20.  We wound our way to Anacortes and took a road around the Tesoro refinery next to Padilla bay.  We had never been on this road before and later learned that several in our group had not ridden it either.

We drove into Anacortes, headed towards the ferry and turned off to circle back in a southerly route towards Deception Pass.  Now we were turned around heading north and east, dropping off the main highway to take back roads around Simik Bay heading west towards La Conner.  Conway was our second stop of the morning before heading south to Stanwood, Warm Beach, past Lake Goodwin to the Roadhouse restaurant for lunch.  The trees lining some of the roadways arched over the road forming a beautiful green canopy allowing only filtered sunlight through the leaves.

Cold iced drinks and a range of burgers, salads, and sandwiches had us all feeling satisfied and ready to ride.  After all it had been three and a half hours since we left Starbucks and the breakfast we consumed before leaving home and the coffee had worn off.  The table always gets a bit (only a bit) quieter when food arrives.

Our destination was Sound Harley Davidson to check out the new bikes, clothes, and accessories.  When we walked into the store we were greeted by one of the employees and she asked how we were.  I said, “Great it only took us three hours to get here,” and she laughed and said “great ride.”  After shopping, it was time to peel off some layers as we headed east to Arlington to gas up the bikes and then north up highway 9 towards home.  The afternoon sun felt wonderful seeping through our jackets, the trike was rocking to Jerry Lee Lewis singing Great Balls of Fire; the twists and turns in the road is what riding is all about, and the friends you are riding with.

As we approached the turnoff to Lake Whatcom three bikes peeled off for a quicker route to their homes.  A quick stop at the Acme Store and the remaining group continued north and west.  Two more bikes left us at Smith road and one more at Hannigan Road.  We followed Dave and Lorie back into Ferndale and then turned off to follow our detour home and avoid the very rough and bumpy stretch of Mountain View Road.

Thanks Dave and Lorie for the invitation and planning and thank you to our friends who made this an enjoyable day, Bill, Marla, Dave, Dawn, Rick, Marina, Dave, Rita, Maynard, and Kirsten.

Larry & Billie