Last weekend's story
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So after heading up to Loudon last Thursday, I got it in my head that I should go to Vermont for the weekend as the weather forecast was better up there.
So I leave about 6PM from Waltham to head up to Burlington, VT.
I actually had to decide whether to ride or take the car. When I check the car has 1/8th of a tank of gas, the bike has 2/3rds of a tank. Bike it is, as I can get out of MA without having to stop to fill up. It's been my experience that on friday I want to get the hell out of MA as fast as possible to avoid sitting in traffic.
So I actually get out pretty quickly, not much traffic on 95 or 93. I hit reserve around Eastman, NH, 15 miles short of the VT border on 89.
Pulling into the gas station, I pull out my wallet. No ATM card. Oops. No credit cards either, left them at home. I have $32. Enough to go pretty far on a bike but not enough for a weekend. At this point I'm 100 miles from home, it's about 8PM or so and just getting dark, and it's starting to look like rain. I pull out the cell phone to see what I can do. No service. Interesting, that doesn't happen many places. I end up deciding to fill up and carry on, my parents were up in VT and I have tons of other relatives up there, I'll figure something out.
I get back on the bike and right as I hit Lebanon, NH, the skies open up. I pull under a bridge and put the boot covers on, and throw my leather gloves in the bag and pull out my synthetic ones that dry quickly. All is well, it's raining hard but I have the Cordura stuff on, I'm fine. Visibility is pretty decent as well.
So it rains for about 30 miles or so, then it's clear again, but lots of wet pavement. As I get higher up into the Mountains in VT it starts to be OK. Then around Montpelier I run into grated pavement. 12 miles it says. Ok, whatever, I can handle grated pavement. I slow down to about 60 or so. What do you know, the sky opens up again HARD. The rain is somehow getting into my helmet, even though everything is closed up tight. My synthetic gloves don't have gauntlets, and the rain is going up inside the sleeves of my jacket. This sucks. As it gets bad I'm down to about 45mph in the slow lane and the cars are whipping by me at 75 even though it is a construction zone. Oh well, it'll be over soon. Get to the end... there is no end. Just another sign, "Uneven pavement, next 12 miles". Great.
As I get about 10 miles from Burlington finally the rain starts to chill out. I'm freezing. I pull into a rest area and put the winter lining into my jacket. Yes it's August and I'm wearing pretty much the warmest setup I have right now. (No electrics anymore, I sold my jacket, dumb move)
Once I stick the winter lining in I get back on the road (after stares from people at the rest area) and start to warm up again. As I head into Burlington I get a big grin on my face cause I made it, and am happy about my bike handling it so well. This was definite "front cylinder on the SV cutting out" weather, and I didn't even need to put my raingear on.
Once I arrive I find some money pretty quickly. Cool. Saturday it's awesome out, but I don't really get to ride much. I took a ride into town to have lunch but then I end up going boating.
Sunday I help mow the lawn. Exciting. Then I do something really dumb. I borrow a Sunfish and go sailing. Not so dumb. Dumb part is not wearing a shirt. Really dumb.
When I get back I hop on the bike and head south. Time to go blast around in the Mountains. I end up heading to a certain awesome twisty road that Nikon mentioned his friend crashing on a couple weeks ago. Take a good 5-6 runs up it. Notice the road absolutely has a coating of dust on it. Is it salt? In August? It seems like it might be. I end up lowering my tire pressure and taking a few more runs, and talking to some locals. Faster bikes, stickier tires, and local knowledge. I can just barely keep up with them up the mountain.
As I come down out of the mountain what do I see. Yep, more rain.The rain is coming up from the south, I get on the highway and BLAST north back to the good weather. I somehow get convinced to stay and go home Monday to avoid the remnants of the hurricane. Dumb move.
Monday I get up real early and have a non eventful ride till I hit the NH border, at which point the rain keeps getting worse and worse. Still haven't stuck my raingear on though, my current gear is awesomely waterproof.As I hit the tollbooth it starts coming down so hard I get a puddle of water built up between my legs and the tank. So much water builds up it goes up under my jacket and then spills inside my pants. Freezing cold. I pull over and dump what looks like a liter of water out of my jacket. Now I'm freezing so I do put the rain gear on, and blast home.
End up getting to work REALLY late.
Oh well... it was still better than taking the car.
Ben
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