Lost and Found

Miles today: 23.7 (905.3 so far)

Hours in the saddle: 1:09 (24:37 so far)

Theme music: Washing machine sounds

Well, these knees did reluctantly get up at 0600. The motel is filling up with more people coming to this event as evidenced by more offroad bikes in the parking lot this morning. One guy must be from a rough area tho since he chained his bike to a post with a pretty serious chain and lock. 

Kind of an eventful day today. Jaron lost his keys after we got there and couldn’t find them, so he’s using his spare and will keep checking in with lost and found. His good ear plugs were on his keychain, and his key for the gps holder, which fortunately is unlocked because he has to take it out to turn it on and off. And Julie has some emergency extra earplugs. So that’s not so bad. 

We lined up for our Covered Bridge ride at 7:40 and rolled out well after 8:30. A few of us were shrugging and shaking our heads, but everyone was patient. It’s a big event and they are doing a good job of running it. For each ride there are 2 or 3 waves which leave 10 min apart. The route leader groups riders w/ similar interests in to the waves (fast, masochist, laid back pace, etc). Then we play tetris to get the bikes in each wave together. Lists of riders are created and checked and different colored stickers go on headlights. This morning both our leader and sweep came around to meet each person individually which was cool. 

It rained last night and was drizzling this morning. Nobody parked in this puddle, but nobody tried to avoid it when pulling out for the group rides. I waited until I was sure I wouldn’t have to park in it before pulling up next to Jaron. 

We got the serious horse protocal briefing this morning. Kill your engine, pull over, take off your helmet and wait for the person in charge of the horse to tell you when to proceed. In fact, someone was turned away from our ride this morning because his dirt bike was too loud. On the website and in the welcome email it said that if you didn’t have stock exhaust and couldn’t quieten it down, you could get a refund. (The guy came back with a different bike, not sure if he rented a demo bike or if he really brought more than one.) 

This ride was advertised as easier and the leader told us that everyone would be staying in the same position in the pack throughout the day.  On our ride yesterday, we learned the “shuffle” system. The leader points while turning and the next rider stays there with a turn signal on and points in the direction of the turnoff. Then they rejoin the line ahead of the sweep. (The sweep is the last rider who works with the lead rider to keep track of everyone and sometimes also blocks traffic for the group). This way, no one misses a turn. I thought it was a pretty cool system and a way to change up your position in the pack. But today people were supposed to keep an eye on the person behind you and not make a turn if no one is behind you (the “breadcrumb” system). 

We were in the second wave of 10 riders and rolled out. Jaron & I were last because we wanted to make sure we ended up next to each other since they did not want people changing position. The guy in front of Julie pulled off and waved us to keep going. The sweep stopped with him and then they caught up. So, no one was in front of Julie. We were getting directions from behind, from the sweep as to where to turn, which was weird but it was working. We got to our first covered bridge and between the light rain, the weathered wood, and the lack of contrast on the bridge as to where the tire tracks were, Jaron took a tumble right behind me. So we all stopped and picked his bike up. One of the plastic aerodynamic fins on his helmet was cracked, and he said the smart thing to do was to just sit it out today. We were only a couple of miles from the motel so we just went back. 

Julie took advantage of the down day by doing 4 days’ worth of our laundry while Jaron took a break. We were otherwise going to need to do it on Sunday on our way out of town and were trying to figure out how that was going to work with our plans to go to Mount Washington and maybe camp if the weather was cooperative. The Laundry Room in Woodstock, VT is the nicest laundromat I’ve ever been to. It’s run by a very friendly couple. There’s wifi, a bathroom, couches, TV, and coffee. 

If you want to talk to locals, I think that laundromats are the great equalizer. Tourists are the only ones who go to some stores and restaurants, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a laundromat aimed at tourists. I had fun telling everyone about the rally and answering their questions while folding underarmour and hanging sportsbras. One of the owners used to ride dirt bikes and has a scooter, and he said they never did anything like what I described for the horse protocol. I noticed some hand weights and said I could have been lifting weights while waiting on my laundry. He said by this time next year they would have a gym downstairs and a taqueria in the back. Coolest laundromat ever. 

I picked up lunch on the way back from a pizza place Jaron had been lusting after. They had garlic listed as a topping. 😍 

Also, this is how you eat salad with no fork. 

While I was gone, Jaron checked his gear and found a hole in the gore tex pants in front of his shin (protected by his boots) from going down. It’s got a lifetime warranty and he looked in to it and their warranty claims require a police report. We didn’t get one since this was not a big deal. Well, Julie took his license, insurance, and registration to the local police station to see if she could file a report. They just gave me a form to fill out and mail in to the DMV. (Spoiler alert: I’m not going to mail it to the DMV. Jaron was wondering if it was worth it to do this at all if an accident was going to be on his driving record.) His boots are a different brand but he literally just got them 2 months ago. One of them has some pretty significant scratches on it and I guess we’ll see if it’s still waterproof or if we can get it fixed or look in to the warranty. 

In fact, it’s been a good day for warranties. Jaron got an email from Sena https://www.sena.com/ in reponse to a letter he sent along with 3 disfunctional units. Sena makes the intercoms we use in our helmets. He only got 6 mo out of one and was piiiiiissed. His letter listed off all the issues and told them to keep them if they couldn’t fix them, and that he really didn’t want to spend the money to change us over to their competitor. They are going to replace 2 of them. 😉

The down day also allowed time for a BDA (Battle Damage Assessment) on Julie’s bike. The belly pan is not significantly scratched, which is amazing. I guess that’s what it was designed for! The right upper crash bar is bent, which is what pulled the panel partway off. The panel is just aerodynamic or cosmetic and isn’t covering anything that can’t get rained on. I couldn’t push it back in to place enough to tape it because the bent crash bar is in the way, and I didn’t want to pull it off bc I would probably never get it back under the bent bar and then I’d have to carry it somewhere for the next 2 weeks. So, when we get home I’ll dremel off the broken connectors and glue it back on. And we can just replace the crash bars. It’s like a bumper. We could try to bend it back but then it wouldn’t be strong enough to do its job. Jaron removed his for his 12k mi service so we’ll just order replacements when we get home. So, that’s not so bad either. 

Jaron says hi and that his gear from head to toe all did what it was supposed to do. Also, he found his keys.