CHAPTER SEVEN: LAST TWO DAYS ERE THE RIDE NORTH

 Monday’s Miles: 13.4  Total Miles 1,367.5

 

(Disclaimer:  You may have noticed a slight delay getting this entry published.  There may or may not have been a slight User Malfunction.  I’m not pointing any fingers but it is POSSIBLE that either I might have done something or that the Ghost of August Past hit the keyboard but the original copy seems to have disappeared.  I have done my best to recreate what I had previously typed……but no guarantees)

 Today started out like virtually every other day.  I woke up and started on my morning routines and then, at the appropriate time, I would give Lisa her wake up call so that she can get ready for work.  It is funny, she really doesn’t need the wake up call.  However, we have made it part of the morning so that there WILL be a morning call.  We don’t talk long but there is a lot of thought going into the call and that is the important part.

I have no plans at all for the morning.  I looked out the window and it appears to be a really nice day.  I am sure that it is still a bit chillier than I prefer but it shouldn’t be too bad.  I will be sure to emphasize with others that it is COLD so they can make fun of me for being from Florida and think that this “comfortable” weather is COLD.

I don’t feel bad.  I have earned my Golden Snow Shoes (if there was such a thing) and have ridden in REALLY cold days.  When I actually lived in Michigan I rode almost every single day to work for 9 of the 12 months.  Trust me, there is NOT 9 months of “comfortable” weather in Michigan.  My thought process back then was that snow mobile enthusiasts would ride their machines for hours in some really raunchy conditions.  Of course, I was going to work so I didn’t have my friend, Jack Daniels, to help me keep warm.

Even while I was still working in Florida there would be a few mornings in the winter months when the temp would be below 40° but as long as it wasn’t raining (and it is rarely raining in the morning in Florida…….for the afternoon ride home I would not always be that lucky) I would zip to work on two wheels.  Granted, there were times when I would have been swearing and shaking my fist at Ma Nature…..but I would be too cold to do either of those things.

I was not planning on leaving today until shortly before noon.  I did leave a bit earlier and stopped at a CVS to pick up some supplies.  On the first Monday of most months a group of guys, most of whom I know from the Good Ole Daze, meet at a local sports bar, Buck Shots, for lunch.  I had that gathering in mind when I made my traveling plans.

After stopping and shopping at CVS I headed over to the strip center where Buck Shots is located.  I was a bit early so I went down to the end of the parking lot and looked like a true citizen of the 21^st Century by pulling out my phone and going over anything that might have happened in the world during the previous 5 minutes.  Just then OLD school classmate and fellow Vietnam vet, Bob, pulled up.  We chit-chatted for a brief minute and then headed to the restaurant at the other end of the parking lot.

Jim was already there with some others and we were shortly followed by Bill, Tom, Larry, and Becky.  We had a grand lunch touching on subjects of decades ago and on current affairs.  It was not just a trip down memory lane….although there was some of that…..nor was it a bitch session of the politics of today.  It was a great mix of friends and conversation.

From there I was to head over to Kirk’s house.  Kirk is a friend dating way back…..as do most of my friends from this area.  I hopped on the bike, started it, and began to back out of the parking spot.  It was a bit uphill and I was having to REALLY push with my feet when………YIKES……..my left foot hit a little patch of itty bitty gravel and slid out.  I’m sure that many of you motorcycle riders know happened then.  Most of the time you can catch it but sometimes you are putting everything you have into pushing that if your foot breaks loose you lose EVERYTHING on that side and there is virtually no way of stopping the bike from going down.  Generally speaking, when that happens the bike goes down relatively softly and there no damage of any kind and the ONLY thing that you are concerned about is hoping that no one saw you.  Of course, the downside of no one seeing it is that no one is there to help you stand the bike back up.  So, being the macho man that I am I kept my head down not looking.  You see, if I don’t look anyone in the eye that means that couldn’t have seen me.  Of course, now I have to lift the back up.  HOLY CRAP…..I did it.  That even kind of surprised me.  Keeping my head down so that no one could see me I shot out of the parking lot and headed toward Kirk’s.

I got to Kirk’s and spent a very, very pleasant three hours out on his deck with him, his wife, and daughters.  Then it was time to head for the hotel, give Lisa her “good night” call and then head for Dreamland.

 

 

Tuesday’s Miles: 13.7  Total Miles 1,381.2

 

Today wasn’t on the schedule to be an extremely busy day but it was going to be a day of getting together with friends old and new.  I did have some extra time this morning and I got myself busy typing the events of yesterday.  The plan was, and is, to put yesterday and today in the same published entry.  I will tell you that I typed out a masterpiece that was sure to win the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding non-fiction (for the most part).  Never have such wonderful words and phrases flowed from my fingertips.  Then in the flash of an eye, a mere nano second, faster than a speeding bullet & more powerful than a locomotive……the entire description of yesterday’s happenings were…………GONE.  YIKES!  Oh Curses!  Unfortunately, that level of literary excellence only comes once a lifetime.  The above words are the best I could come up with to recreate what I had written.

After shedding tears over my lost journal entry I needed to get busy and get myself ready for the day.  I was being picked up by a dear friend that I have known for….well, a long time.  Reeta was to pick me up at 11:30 and we were going to have lunch to catch up.  I had plenty of time.  It was 10:45.  No sweat…….and then I got a text from Reeta saying she just left the eye doctor and would 11:00 be too early.  Of course, I sent her a CALM text back telling her that would be perfect but behind the scenes I shifted from the Retiree’s 2^nd Gear into the Teenage Over Drive.  You will be happy to know that when she pulled up I was calmly waiting in the parking lot like I had been ready for a couple hours.

We did our greeting and she asked where I wanted to go eat.  I told her that I had not had a Coney Island yet and that I could not come to Michigan and not have Coney Islands.  So that is where we went.

The next 90 minutes or so was spent with me making a total mess with coney sauce and with the two of us catching up.  Because of covid we did not have lunch in August when I went through town.  After I got all the coney sauce off my face (it was permanently on my shirt….nothing I could do about that mess) she took me back to the hotel where we said goodbye and she drove away…………probably checking the car seat to make sure that hadn’t smeared coney sauce all over the place.

I had an hour or so before my next “appointment” and I thought that would be a perfect time to check and make sure that I didn’t have any holes in my eyelids.  I lay down on the bed and began my inspection.  It took about an hour and a half but I am happy to be able to report to you that my eyelids are without leaks.

I jumped on the bike and headed for the local VFW where I was to meet up with some guys.  Not only were these guys old neighborhood chums and/or classmates they were also all Vietnam vets.

It was a good group that consisted of myself, Bob, another Bob, Rick, Phil, Rod, Bill, Dale, and another Bill along with others that meandered by our table.  We talked school, neighborhood, the service, being OLD, girlfriends…old and new, motorcycles, cars, planes, and more.  I will tell you this……there was a LOT of laughter.  Bob M was kind enough to get me a VFW Challenge Coin.  It was great fun with some great guys.

I finished up there and stopped to fill up the bike knowing that tomorrow I will be heading north.  I got back to the hotel and I packed and loaded the bike so that I wouldn’t have to deal with it in the morning.  I ended the day with my call to Lisa after which I jumped in bed a happy man and I closed my eyes.  Since I had previously in the day checked the eyelids for holes I was able to go right to sleep.

 

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