It isn't Summer yet, The Sunday sort of Club ride

The Club headed north at around 9:30 this morning to show support for the Hartford Chapter at the Chili Cook off in Somers Ct.  Needless to say, (or needful to say, because I am saying it) When you have to work on Saturdays from 8AM to 2PM it's really difficult to make a 9:30Am A.O.B. (Ass on Bike). Wanting to show support though we came up with an alternative.

Out of work at 2 I headed home where I found a my garage doors open and Doug sitting on his bike waiting. We headed out and the weather was pretty nice, we crossed up through Ledyard on back roads onto 395 then 32 to Stafford Springs. We picked up 140 and the corners were fantastic although there was one spot where a left turn climbing a hill hid a pothole and at speed Doug says there was a hell of a spark show and he was looking for metal to be flying off the bike all over the place. All I can say is that in a full lean having the bike bottom out and go sideways always adds a bit of fun to a ride, a hand full of throttle straightens her out, then it was just a matter of making sure the oil pressure was maintaining and I hadn't cracked the case. Route 140 dumped us out on 83 and we arrived at the cook off in short order. Of course it was time for them to be taking up but we visited a bit anyway.

Doug and I were a tad hungry and there was a choice of a food truck with hotdogs and such, sticking around till after the awards for hotdogs and burgers or 

Seeing as we were both starving we each grabbed a dog of the truck then made a run down 83 and a LEFT on 31 and stopped at Reins. 

Having never been there before Doug rather enjoyed it, I had the Tongue (yes..tongue) with onions, Swiss cheese and Chopped Liver (yes...liver) on rye and potato salad.

We decided to pack half with us so we could have dessert, I also grabbed a take out order from the deli before we headed out. With the sun disappearing, we opted for clear or yellow lenses and we hit the road. We went north on 31, then took a back road down to 6, pulled into a gas station where I decided to add chaps. Doug decided to put everything on and become the Michelin Man. 

With the sun down there was a perceivable coolness to the air, as in I was freezing my ass off,  31 through Coventry (Note to self to make a run to Coyote Flaco) which took us to 32, south down through Willimantic, Windham and Franklin, onto route 2 to 395. By this time everything north of the chaps was frozen except the hands (heated grips) Doug was toasty except for frozen fingers. Across 2A to 12 and a stop at 8PM to warm up out of the wind. I added the Skunk at this point and we had a quick chat with a guy walking up the road from Wequetequock Cove who was carrying his helmet. Turns out that he had a bike until a few minutes earlier when he ran afoul of a badge and they took his bike, From there it was 214 to 117 and back roads home.

The temperature drop after the sun went down was a stark reminder that it may be warm during the day,but it isn't summer yet.

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