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I opened the refrigerator, grabbed a bottle of water and it suddenly hit me, it's colder outside than it is in this danged refrigerator. I glanced over at the fireplace, crackling and popping and wondered, why am I leaving my warm and comfortable home to join a group of like minded boneheads to ride motorcycles? It just doesn't make any sense. I looked at Hildia sitting by the fire sipping coffee and asked, "Well?" Hildia can say a lot without saying anything and her silence said it all. 'Don't worry 'bout me bro. Ah'm good!' Yeah right. She never even looked up from the paper. Well, at least somebody in this house has got some brains.
Hildia wasn't the only member showing some common sense this year as there was a glaring lack of interest for our ninth annual Polar Bear Ride. Yes it was cold. Thirty one degrees when I left the house and the thermometer wouldn't climb above thirty seven all day. But even at that it was still warmer than it was last year and last year we had eight bikes and thirteen folks make this ride. The lack of participation this year surprised me. Wasn't really that bad either. My fingers and toes got cold on the way to Kerrville but the sun came out and it was almost comfortable going home.
We had five bikes show up and that included one guest rider. Carla was the only female on the ride. She was sporting her fancy heated riding suit that included heated gloves and socks but due to some kind of mental lapse she didn't bother to wear the socks and her toes nearly froze. Hey Carla, in case Lou didn't explain it, heated socks were included with the suit for one reason and one reason only, to keep your toes warm. Heat good. Frostbite bad.
At Kerville, Big Bird, in his "heated" Dodge pickup, greeted us with a smile and a few smart aleck remarks about stupid people who ride in freezing weather. After dinner we sat around socializing for probably an hour. That's something we don't do enough of. Usually, after dinner, everybody jumps on the motorcycles and head for the barn like their pants are on fire but not this year. And even if our pants had been on fire we would have let
'em burn it was so cold.
As I said, the ride home was more comfortable and my extremities stayed at or near 98.5 and I rolled into the drive at 1:54 PM. As I dismounted it dawned on me that these Polar Bear Rides seem to end just as the comfort level becomes bearable. Something to think about before next years ride..
ROLL CALL: Rick Totty, Danny Parker, Lou & Carla Nathan, Terry Taylor, Yours Truly and guest rider, Tod Simpson.
A few meaningless and worthless stats: We rode 62 miles and averaged 41.4 MPH. Maximum speed was 64.9 MPH and we spent one hour, 29 minutes and twelve seconds in the saddle. How bout' that!
bj
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