The fancy hair was a nice touch, and provided a girly addition to the last-minute ladies ride.
The plan: Scout a route I'd made by connectiong squiggly lines on a map.
No, that's not the sun in the picture - it's Ana's "anaconda" Olympia Airglide mesh jacket in super-eye-burning-standing-on-the-sun-hi-viz yellow.
*Note to self: Turn off the "unpaved Ok" setting when playing with street routes
When we got to the first unpaved road, I looked back and Mollie gave me a quick nod - a look at Ana received a shrug of the shoulders and a quick nod of her own. Wow, these girls will follow me ANYWHERE!
The "road" was hard-packed and had very little gravel. The only difficult part was the mud - it was sparse but there were a few sections that were rutted and still filled with water between the ridges. Wet clay is SLIPPERY! What had I gotten us into?
Every time I got to a section I thought might prove difficult, I deployed the outriggers and just tried to pick a good line through the flattest section I could find. I slowed enough to let Mollie catch up so she could see the line I'd chosen (when others do this for me I know it helps, so I hope it worked for her).
Thing is, the "road" doesn't go where Garmin thinks it goes. It just kinda stops in the middle of someone's front yard.
The dirt slowly faded to grass and we were now riding on his lawn.
The clearing to the side appeard to be the remnants of said "road" but was blocked by a fallen tree and overgrowth that had to be at least a few years old. Now we turn around (again - we U-turned during the first ten miles due to my lack of ability to judge distance, space, or time) and head back - back through the mud puddles. yay.
Mollie's super-long legs and light(er than a Strom) F650GS had her turned around and heading back in no time. I went farther onto the grass to get something solid to put my feet on. Ana...
...almost got herself stuck. She struggled to get the bike moving in the soft dirt and grass but just as I got my kickstand down and my leg over the bike to lend a hand she freed herself with a strong, grunting push.
Back on 945 to detour around to where we wanted to be.
We got to another turn that landed us on a gravel road. This one was dry enough to not be muddy but wet enough that dust was minimal, and the rocks were small and manageable. These new-to-dirt gals were doing great!
I was really hoping
The Hen House would still be there - and still be in business. I found it on Garmin Mapsource, and then searched it on the web.
It was!
It’s small and cozy inside – just how I like it.
The food was excellent, and they had half or full portions on the menu.
(This is a half portion of grilled pork chop, mashed potatoes, corn, a roll, and salad with a drink - all for less than $7!)
This place can't hold too many people, otherwise I'd recommend it for a pie run.
Miss snake charmer herself surprised us by treating for lunch. Much apreciated Ana!
Millie laughed with us inside while placing her to-go order, then commented about how great it is to see women riding their own bikes. She was very proud of her newly-acquired racing accomplishments at her age - and for good reason! She seemed like a sweet woman and a tough cookie all rolled into one.
"Yikes! Gas is HOW MUCH?"
It's fun watching Mollie's helmet hair twirl around in the wind!
We followed Ana down the road a bit looking for a bridge she'd gotten a picture of on a previous ride. When it didn't appear within a few miles, she turned us around and said it must be the other direction. (Ok, so now my U's are negated by one U from Ana
)
Once we got to it, I recognized the bridge. I know I followed Deb through here at least once or twice, but I've never stopped for pics until today.
Have I mentioned what a GORGEOUS day it was? Puffy white clouds (that make me think of Becca) and ble skies all day.
As we wound around the lake, I decided that since we all liked taking pictures I'd try to get us over to something with a view. I picked a side road that went down less than a mile and looked like it would have waterfront property. None of the lots had been built on yet, so it made for a decent photo op.
I tried balancing my camera on a nearby electrical box, but was utdone by the resident photog hobbyist:
While she got set up, I went over to see what the shoreline looked like. I was spooked by voices of a few people hanging out in a boat down below, although it seemed pretty shallow over here.
I knew I'd routed us over the same road twice, but now I realized it was the gravel road and this time it would continue on.
(oops, I submitted too fast. more to come.)
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....What I had failed to mention to them this morning is that I had never been on dirt roads with the Strom, and other than some accidental encounters with gravel roads when I had the VTX (followed by a quick u-ey and back to the blacktop) I had pretty much NO experience in the matter. I kept going and thought that this would be as good a chance as any to learn, after all I have a dual-sport bike and was not riding alone. After I started relaxing I really started enjoying it, even though some wet, muddy spots raised the pucker factor a couple of notches on this trail-riding newby....
The only consolation was that five of the stops I made today were at motorcycle shops - five because I was trying to collect all the Chatterbox headsets and extension cables I needed for setting up two bikes with rider-passenger and bike-to-bike com systems. Still short one headset and one extension cable. 
It was Mothers Day... you're supposed to splurge 
