Back In The Saddle Again

I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. so I slept in this morning.  I got a call asking if I wanted to join a group of friends on a motorcycle trip.  I hopped right up and got ready for my first real bike trip since last year.  Two guys picked me up and we traveled to Andover to pick up another friend.  We headed north and east through Ham Lake and Forest Lake and North Branch.  My bike runs good now that the carburetor was cleaned.  I have much less backfiring so maybe the carburetor always needed cleaning.  The only problem was that the speedometer cable wasn't reattached so I had no idea how fast I was going.  Since I wasn't the leader it really didn't matter and actually it was freeing not to have to watch my speed.  I felt a couple twinges of lack of power but I put that out of my mind.  I go into denial so easily.  But when the bike died denial doesn't work anymore.  Now I realized those twinges were my clue that I needed to turn the gas lever to reserve.  I pulled over and flipped the switch and we proceeded to the closest gas station where I filled up with fresh gas.  One of my friends attached the speedometer cable and now I could see how fast I was going.  We took the back road and came into Taylor's Falls from the north.  The view as we turned a corner and saw the St. Croix river valley was truly majestic.  Traffic in Taylor's Falls is always jammed because of an odd three way intersection.  As I idled in a traffic jam I saw a man sitting in a coffee shop reading a book.  He was on the second floor of an old house.  He was seated in a comfy chair in the turret with a great view of the town.  I thought to myself that looks like fun but I'm having more fun.  We crossed the border into Wisconsin.  We traveled through St. Croix Falls, Dresser and Osceola.  Back in Minnesota we stopped to rest in Marine on the St. Croix.  We took the awesome road #4 which has a tree canopy and tunnel under a railroad bridge.  We came out on Highway 61 through Hugo, Forest Lake, Columbus, Ham Lake, Andover, and back home in Ramsey.  Wow, a four hour ride makes me hungry, thirsty, exhausted and so very satisfied.  It felt great to be back in the saddle again.