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- Joined
- Mar 6, 2004
- Messages
- 13,314
- Reaction score
- 123
- Location
- Plantersville
- First Name
- Rebecca
- Last Name
- Reed
I woke up and hit snooze a few times, but made it to the first meeting point right on time. Fueled up and headed up the tollway feeder with Jack (linjy2) and Stuart (Thermalser). We hit almost every red light possible :angryfir: , but made it up to Denny's for breakfast. Low was already there and eating - I guess those lights had slowed us down more than we thought. We chow down with Steve (stevestom) and Paul (scratch), then discuss the route. We were originally heading west, but with Paul sitting this one out there isn't a ride leader that knows the roads in that direction. We decide to head north instead and run through the forest. Brian (bcbickers) and Shanon (sbaker) join up at Denny's before we roll out.
Steve decided to skip breakfast and hit the road early to avoid the pending afternoon weather. Good idea :scratch . We picked up Debbie (Snoopster) in Tomball and headed up Honea-Egypt and Egypt-Community. The traffic wasn't horrible, the sun was still shining, and the pace was tame. We made it up to Montgomery and pull into the gas station to clear our visors. The love bugs are attempting to take over the world and it seems it's our job is to turn as many of them into mush as possible. We are doing our best, but have to clean our visors regularly to be able to see. Up north through Anderson, clean the visors again, then around on FM 244(?) to FM3090. Over to Navasota, and we stop at La Casita for lunch.
It feels good to get into an air-conditioned, bug free environment
. We all sense the eyes on us in the restaurant as our bug-gut-encrusted selves walk through and take our seats at the back. Stuart gets a snapshot of the carnage on the helmets. Hopefully he’ll post his pics… 
Tip of the day: Don’t use Wet Wipes on your mirrored visor. It eats away at the finish. Apparently don’t use ammonia either. I learned that you should place a wet paper towel over the face of the helmet while you eat lunch and the bugs will come off quite easily. Thankfully, there’s plenty of room around to put our gear, and we settle in for lunch. We discuss SV’s plenty – after all, there are three in a group of seven riders. That’s got to be some record 
. Great conversation. Insight from riders new and old. Now… which route back home? There’s the long way, the short way, the fun way, the boring way, and the way that includes ice cream 
.
So of course the ice cream route wins… but Shanon and Brian are going to head back from here. The rest of us head back to Anderson and back down through the forest. Some rain along the way, which caused a puddle, which impaired visibility, which were all factors in Jack’s lowside
. He seems Ok – he and the bike are covered in mud. I assumed he had just slid off to the side, but apparently he rolled a few times. Debbie saw the whole thing as the next rider and managed not to fixate. Stuart and Debbie picked him up (Low and I had stopped and were far back from them) and they looked over the bike and rider for damage. Miraculously, not much to either 
. The frame slider did its job perfectly. Kept the tank protected, all the plastic in tact, no rashing that I could tell (although it would help to clean the bike to see for sure), a cracked signal up front, and a bent clutch cable thingy. His helmet has no rash, but the grass shifted his vent cover. He was wearing a leather jacket (even though he wanted the mesh in today’s heat ), but the water probably just hydroplaned him across the pavement and into the dirt.
He was sooooo close – King’s (and Blue Bell) were only a half-mile away. We get the bikes parked and decide to sit inside – the air conditioning and dry air awaiting us. Ice cream all around – and a wet rag to clean up some more. The clouds are dark to the south – but we have no idea which way they're going. Somehow, my idiot self decides it’s not worth the time to put the rain gear on, and it’s too hot out.
Debbie heads for home, and Stuart has a place to sit out the storm in Tomball, so he, Low, Jack and I start south towards Houston. Not five minutes down 149, and it’s raining. No, actually, it’s pouring. The rain drops sting as they hit, but are making me quite cool at the same time. My toes start getting squishy, rain is running down the inside of my visor, and I can’t see anything in front of me. This isn’t safe, but where can we stop? The first gas station we come across is at the end of 149 where it hits 249. We pull under the awning alongside a few other bikes, and try to figure this out. Where’s Stuart? Do we wait?
The police pull up and a guy riding a Hyabusa starts making his complaint. No, it had nothing to do with us. Seems he wasn’t being amicable with the clerk in the store. It’s a strange situation, but thankfully he seems calm. Stuart rolls on by with full rain gear on, but doesn’t see us under the awning. I put on my rain jacket, but the jeans are soaked so there’s no point putting on the pants. The jacket is mostly to keep me from getting pneumonia. We get word from a local that the storm is coming up from the south. He thinks that heading south now would be the best idea. We wipe our visors, zip up, and head out. It’s still raining, but not quite as hard. Hopefully we’ve passed the brunt of it. There’s some high water along the right lane, but the pickups out ahead gave plenty of warning by throwing a wall of water off the road. It’s dry on the left, so we manage to get through. Low breaks off at 2920 to stop at the Kawasaki dealer. Jack and I finally reach the tollway and head for home.
My boots are squishing, everything on me is dripping wet, and I’m cold – but I’m home. Dry clothes. Warm blanket. Nap…
‘Twas a great day of riding. Glad to see a new face and lots of familiar ones, and glad that everyone walked away in one piece. The rain cleaned off most of the bugs, so we won’t have to scrub our bikes like we thought. Thanks to all of you for putting up with me and the unknown route. (If anyone finds route directions in a Denny’s menu let me know. We never found them :rofl .)
Steve decided to skip breakfast and hit the road early to avoid the pending afternoon weather. Good idea :scratch . We picked up Debbie (Snoopster) in Tomball and headed up Honea-Egypt and Egypt-Community. The traffic wasn't horrible, the sun was still shining, and the pace was tame. We made it up to Montgomery and pull into the gas station to clear our visors. The love bugs are attempting to take over the world and it seems it's our job is to turn as many of them into mush as possible. We are doing our best, but have to clean our visors regularly to be able to see. Up north through Anderson, clean the visors again, then around on FM 244(?) to FM3090. Over to Navasota, and we stop at La Casita for lunch.
It feels good to get into an air-conditioned, bug free environment
. We all sense the eyes on us in the restaurant as our bug-gut-encrusted selves walk through and take our seats at the back. Stuart gets a snapshot of the carnage on the helmets. Hopefully he’ll post his pics… Tip of the day: Don’t use Wet Wipes on your mirrored visor. It eats away at the finish. Apparently don’t use ammonia either. I learned that you should place a wet paper towel over the face of the helmet while you eat lunch and the bugs will come off quite easily. Thankfully, there’s plenty of room around to put our gear, and we settle in for lunch. We discuss SV’s plenty – after all, there are three in a group of seven riders. That’s got to be some record . Great conversation. Insight from riders new and old. Now… which route back home? There’s the long way, the short way, the fun way, the boring way, and the way that includes ice cream . So of course the ice cream route wins… but Shanon and Brian are going to head back from here. The rest of us head back to Anderson and back down through the forest. Some rain along the way, which caused a puddle, which impaired visibility, which were all factors in Jack’s lowside
. He seems Ok – he and the bike are covered in mud. I assumed he had just slid off to the side, but apparently he rolled a few times. Debbie saw the whole thing as the next rider and managed not to fixate. Stuart and Debbie picked him up (Low and I had stopped and were far back from them) and they looked over the bike and rider for damage. Miraculously, not much to either . The frame slider did its job perfectly. Kept the tank protected, all the plastic in tact, no rashing that I could tell (although it would help to clean the bike to see for sure), a cracked signal up front, and a bent clutch cable thingy. His helmet has no rash, but the grass shifted his vent cover. He was wearing a leather jacket (even though he wanted the mesh in today’s heat ), but the water probably just hydroplaned him across the pavement and into the dirt. He was sooooo close – King’s (and Blue Bell) were only a half-mile away. We get the bikes parked and decide to sit inside – the air conditioning and dry air awaiting us. Ice cream all around – and a wet rag to clean up some more. The clouds are dark to the south – but we have no idea which way they're going. Somehow, my idiot self decides it’s not worth the time to put the rain gear on, and it’s too hot out.
Debbie heads for home, and Stuart has a place to sit out the storm in Tomball, so he, Low, Jack and I start south towards Houston. Not five minutes down 149, and it’s raining. No, actually, it’s pouring. The rain drops sting as they hit, but are making me quite cool at the same time. My toes start getting squishy, rain is running down the inside of my visor, and I can’t see anything in front of me. This isn’t safe, but where can we stop? The first gas station we come across is at the end of 149 where it hits 249. We pull under the awning alongside a few other bikes, and try to figure this out. Where’s Stuart? Do we wait?
The police pull up and a guy riding a Hyabusa starts making his complaint. No, it had nothing to do with us. Seems he wasn’t being amicable with the clerk in the store. It’s a strange situation, but thankfully he seems calm. Stuart rolls on by with full rain gear on, but doesn’t see us under the awning. I put on my rain jacket, but the jeans are soaked so there’s no point putting on the pants. The jacket is mostly to keep me from getting pneumonia. We get word from a local that the storm is coming up from the south. He thinks that heading south now would be the best idea. We wipe our visors, zip up, and head out. It’s still raining, but not quite as hard. Hopefully we’ve passed the brunt of it. There’s some high water along the right lane, but the pickups out ahead gave plenty of warning by throwing a wall of water off the road. It’s dry on the left, so we manage to get through. Low breaks off at 2920 to stop at the Kawasaki dealer. Jack and I finally reach the tollway and head for home.
My boots are squishing, everything on me is dripping wet, and I’m cold – but I’m home. Dry clothes. Warm blanket. Nap…
‘Twas a great day of riding. Glad to see a new face and lots of familiar ones, and glad that everyone walked away in one piece. The rain cleaned off most of the bugs, so we won’t have to scrub our bikes like we thought. Thanks to all of you for putting up with me and the unknown route. (If anyone finds route directions in a Denny’s menu let me know. We never found them :rofl .)
now I’m debating weather to buy another mirrored shield or not. To tell the truth I was hoping for a small amount of rain on the way home to help wash off the bugs and guts… but not to the extent that we got…Parts of the rain ride home almost could have been considered fun but not when visibility was less then 20 feet. Unfortunately, now I’m fighting off a cold.. I guess 50 miles in the rain doesn’t do a body good at all. But thanks to my old friend Jack D. and his partners Lemon & Honey I will be kicking this other bug soon and be back on the road again. So when’s the next ride… :party
