Sunday was a beautiful day to ride! I figured it was no coincidence that I caught this rider coming up the street while I was snapping a pic of the pretty Spring Azaleas. The weather was perfect and there were plenty of riders to wave to. This is a street I travel on every day, and it has been a real treat watching the transformation come to life. Ride on!
Dear Diary... a glimpse into the pages of a journal written my a woman rider.
SPRING HAS SPRUNG! My calender says today is the first day of Spring, and even though it's still a little chilly for some of you northerner's, it's what you've all been waiting for. I'm glad to know that you will finally be able to join me in getting in some of that long awaited road therapy.
With the arrival of Spring, however, also means the arrival of pollen (achoo!). We have a big Bradford Pear across the street from Tooth Factory, and even though it's very beautiful right now with all it's blooms, it likes to shower everything within a 50 yard radius with a fine green dust. I came out of my office the other day to go home, and I thought, "Yuk! Look at my bike!"
I tried to get a nice close up of the green dusty pollen all over every exposed surface of my Glide so you could see what I mean. Oh well, I guess that just mean I have to ride faster so I can blow it all off!
Well, today is St. Patrick's Day, a good excuse for Irish Whiskey and green beer! Seeings how I've got me a little bit o' Irish in me, I thought I would celebrate with a little Irish humor!
Then he allows the traffic to pass. He did this several times, and Gallagher is still standing on the sidewalk. After the cop has shouted 'Pedestrians' for the tenth time, Gallagher approaches him and says, 'Is it not about time ye let the Catholics across?' 
Spending a weekend in the infield at Atlanta Motor Speedway always promises to be two things. LOUD and FUN! We have a good group of friends that come together twice a year to experience some Nascar fun, and last weekend, we had the pleasure of enjoying warm temps and lots of sunshine. After suffering through many previous race weekends plagued with rain and even snow, this generous gift from Mother Nature was greatly appreciated!
Now, I've been a fan in the stands for many, many races at both, the Atlanta and Talladega Motor Speedways. You can spend a whole day, coming and going to enjoy the flag to flag coverage, but, when you experience a race from the infield, it's a weekend long event. Once you come into the track on Thursday or Friday, you usually don't leave again until Sunday afternoon.
The activities on the track seem to be constant, with practice laps, qualifying rounds, and different classes of races all weekend, leading up to the main event on Sunday. When your hunkered down in the infield, you can't see the track because your surrounded by large RVs and Campers of various sizes. Thus enters the necessity for the observation decks. Both Big Ed and the Lone Ranger have their Raptors rigged for optimum viewing. Even then, you'll have blind spots, but it's fun to watch from this vantage point. The trick is not to spin around so many times while your watching your favorite driver, that you get dizzy and fall off! Ooops!
As you can see, you make do with whatever you have, in order to achieve this. Here's the Woodall Family. They would all come, but they couldn't fit. LOL!
Not to mention the fact, that the grills are going almost non-stop, so there's never a shortage of food and drink.
Bill Elliott has been my favorite driver back before he ever won the Winston Million. He was the first driver to accomplish this, and it earned him the nick name "Million Dollar Bill" and he still holds the fastest stock car speed record of 212.229 mph. He's semi-retired now and runs a very limited schedule. He hasn't seen the Winner's circle in quite some time now, but that doesn't mean he's not still my favorite! Go Bill!
I know there are several of you out there that wonder what the fascination is with this sport. It's hard for some of you to understand the enjoyment of watching a bunch of overpriced, souped up stock cars turning left for 500 miles! Well, I've been a racing fan for as long as I can remember, and and considering most of my racing pals are also our riding buddies, it just gives us another excuse to get together and enjoy each other. The same can be said for our love for motorcycles. It's a passion you have, and you either get it or you don't.
I know how Rodney Dangerfield must have felt when he would complain about getting no respect. It's a real "pissed on" feeling, let me tell ya! I'm usually very happy with the fact that I'm a woman, but yesterday was another story. I would have given anything if I could have been a 6'8, 320 lb., scary looking dude with arms the size of most peoples legs! Why, you ask? Take a look at this!
I went to Lowe's after work to pick up some Round Up for Harley. I've been itching to ride for days and I was happy to run this errand for him so I could extend my commute home. As I was walking out of the store with my purchase, I noticed this truck hugging on my Glide. WTF! I could tell from across the parking lot there was some serious encroachment of her space going on. I looked to see if I would have any trouble backing her out of her spot, and even though I decided I would be okay, I was still pissed off. I realized I was dawdling with the chore of stowing my package and donning my helmet and gloves. I was wanting to see what jerk off decided he needed so much room. Maybe it's a good thing he didn't show up, because my mouth would have put me in serious jeopardy, I'm sure!
For the last week and a half, I've been struggling with a serious cold and cough, but no more! I'm alive and I can breathe again! Because I was so miserable (mostly all in the head!) I missed a pretty weekend for riding last week, as I slept through most of it, trying to get better. Well, you can imagine my excitement as I looked forward to this weekend so I could finally enjoy some much needed time on the road with my Glide. But wait... what's this? Is Mother Nature toying with me?
I must have made her mad and didn't realize it, as it seems she has a vendetta against me. Why you say? Well, lets see. I wake up Saturday morning to the screeching alarm of the weather radio going off, which sits right next to my head on the nightstand. WTF?!?! While the weather alert guy is telling me that my county is under... "a severe thunderstorm warning, capable of producing large hail and several tornadoes...", I hear the sirens outside going off too. GREAT! I stumble to the window to see for myself. Bummer. Looks pretty dismal. Oh well, storms pass, right? I'll just get my coffee and check the radar and we'll figure out when this storm will be out of here. The day is not lost. Yet.
Sunday morning I got up and started the coffee maker before I went over to look out the window. When I did, my eyes popped open in surprise! SNOW! Holy sh*t, it really snowed! I ran to the other window at the front of the house to make sure it was snowing out front too (I know, don't ask!). I guess I wasn't believing what I was seeing! My instant reaction was, "Yes! We had snow!" I ran into the bedroom to try and rouse Harley up so he could enjoy the snow too. After all, this is a rare treat for us living here in the South. For just a little while, I was lost in the euphoria of seeing the snow, that I forgot all about how this will interrupt yet another fine opportunity to ride the motorcycles and get in some much needed road therapy.
The realization of that did sink in after a while though, and I was pondering what the roads would be like. If you think riding around cages on a nice clear day is stressful enough, imagine yourself surrounded by a bunch of no-clue freaked out southern drivers in the snow. Yikes! Your talking about a challenge in the extreme! I feel like I've earned the right to find humor in this, because growing up in Iowa allowed me the realization that people drive in the snow all the time. No big deal. Here, on the other hand, things are different. We shut down.
So here I sit, on Sunday morning, bringing you this live report on Lady R's second "no riding weekend"! I guess I should be upset about it, but when I look out the window and see how pretty it is right now... it's hard to stay mad. After living in Alabama for as long as I have, I really do miss experiencing snow from time to time. With that in mind, I think I'll just sit back and relax, and take comfort in knowing my Glide waits patiently in the garage, for our next opportunity to rekindle our "roadmance". After all, it's not everyday we get white stuff in Alabama!
