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Friend Lorna told me about this crazy party at Susie's, open to anyone
that rides in a motorcycle. I was a little skeptical--why would you want
to spend time around a bunch of parked bikes when you could be riding--but
I supposed that I should go at least once.
I joined Lorna at her house Saturday morning and we headed out to Dexter to meet up with
more people. We had eight people in our group with some
experienced and very fast riders leading the way. We rode roads I'd never
even thought to look for before and others that I'd only seen once or
twice. While I didn't even want to try to keep up with the leaders,
I still rode faster that I normally do--it's reassuring to see a couple bikes
cut a certain line, give me a target and belief that I can do it too--and had
adrenaline-filled fun. We noodled our way out past Stockbridge, traveling over 60
miles of nice two-laners.
On the last part of our journey in we road up on M-52. 52 is normally a busy road
and now today it was packed with cycles. Just on the way in I saw bikes from Ohio and
Indiana. Right before our turn off highway I could see an ocean of motorcycles
in the middle of plowed fields. So much shiny goodness.
We turned into Susie's and managed to park. The whole thing was overwhelming. So
many people, so many bikes, and the constant rumble and whirr of motors.
From the far west of Susie's, looking east |
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| We parked in the middle, Rice Row |
Most of our bikes. Mine is 3rd from the left.
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We parked in the row to the left of the sign.
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| On the east side |
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Susie on her tractor.
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Susie on the road
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No parking on the farmer's field!
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Heh, Openbsd shirt.
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| On the road |
west to the highway
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looking west across Susie's
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looking east
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| Motorcycles that caught my eye |
BMW with spacious sidecar
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Glowy-Green Ninja
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Back when harleys were high tech.
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Round Homer decal below seat. I saw the matching helmet later. *grin*
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Nifty Norton
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Dunno, Old.
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Beautiful swing arm
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on a serious Ducati.
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Thats right, 3 wheels people, 3 wheels!
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| Let's go! |
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Mechanical Pause
After an hour or two of enjoying the party we mounted up and headed out. We headed west
for a while, our riding inspired by the beautiful 75 degree day.
At the end of a particularly awesome stretch of road, the majority of our group, me included,
came upon our insane leaders parked and off their bikes. This seemed like a we're cooler than
you move (we saw them enter the first corners of some wooded twisties and then were left
in the dust as we, SHOCK, slowed down for the curves) which ended up leaving us enjoying
manure scented breezes for 20 minutes. Mr. Better-than-a-'busa managed to overheat his
turbo and then didn't cool it before shutting down. The end effect was a bike that didn't
want to start.
We moo'ed at the cows and waved to passer-bys, though everybody tried to hide from the
harley riders that rode past. Some were embarrassed to find themselves being the ones
stuck on the side of the road.
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from the right: wird-wird-wird-wird-wird-wird goes the starter
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Forensic investigation finds a car smacked another going through the intersection
and the smackee ended up at our corner doing some digging and leaving their headlights
at the base of the electric fence.
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| Gardening |
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Instead of returning voicemail, I stopped by Gretchen's on the way back into town and watched
her finish her day of gardening. The four tomato plants I watched her transplant
will probably produce 8000 tomatoes in a couple months, if last season was any indication.
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