Ridin'Ard (The h is silent)

Today we went to pick up Jaron's bike from the shop (regular maintenance). My lady rider friend Amy came with us to get out of the house. I rode pillion on Sheila on the outbound leg and we successfully retrieved Pedro, Jaron's KTM 1290 which now has properly adjusted valves. The high today was projected to be 60 but cloudy, and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. This weekend will likely be the last good riding weather of the year.  From there we went to Hoffman's Ice Cream & Deli. I got ice cream, Jaron got deli, and Amy got both. Then we parted ways and all headed home.  Jaron & I stopped in a school parking lot to change glasses as the sun went down. Julie was being indecisive about where to park because of the way the lot was sloped and laid out, so we did some random loops until I parked diagonally across 3 spaces facing uphill. I got off my bike to open the trunk and get my glasses and saw that Jaron was still noodling around the parking lot -- still looki...

On our way out of Jackson, MO we saw a field of grazing camels!! ?? Also, a pet crematory and a deer processing place.  We finally found a place w/o cell service along our route and talked with some locals at a gas station which fortunately had premium. Unfortunately the downside of KTMs is that they take premium, and in the boonies where the good roads are, sometimes gas stations only have 87. There is a brand of nice gas stations around here that only has 87.  I might finally be hitting my stride on this bike. I have not been losing Jaron ahead of me today and we have been in all the twisties.  We passed a Dairy Shack in Eminence, MO at the base of a scenic highway thru Mark Twain National Forest and decided that would be a good lunch stop.  We found an empty picnic table and piled our jackets and heated liners on half of it.  What a great find! They have pickle chips! And house-made cherry limeade.  We went north on 19 on the Ozark River scenic highway (...

(Yes)Today was a pretty chill riding day. Probably another almost 300 miles. Given that it was cold last night, we started out in extra layers and utilized our heated jackets and handgrips.  This morning, Jaron raised my bike's preload to the highest setting. We've been working our way up. It handled noticeably awful at 6 clicks out of 10 on the way to Winchester and much better at 8. Yesterday I rode on 9 and noticed that it handled still better. Suspension is important!  So this is a lowered KTM 790. My thought when I did my test ride was that it felt like I was riding on a cloud.  Hard to beat that! I've been thinking of names. I tried out Falkor (the luck dragon) but that didn't stick. Trying to think of something...playful? As my suspension felt normal again, Jaron asked if it was feeling fluffy like a cloud yet. So Fluffy seems to be sticking, reservedly, like a nickname in lieu of a name until a proper name reveals itself. I mean, I had Sheila for almost 2 years ...

Powered by the Holy trinity of Motel 6, Waffle House, & Sheetz in Winchestor, we set our early and covered about 300 miles. We saw a lot of pretty leaves changing color on our trip thru West Virginia along the trusty route 50. Always a great ride thru there.  We had a picnic outside of Subway for lunch in Grafton, WV. Jaron was offered a footlong for 81 cents more, and I said actually that'd be great because I'm getting the same thing (black forest ham icyc). $5 for two sandwiches? Sounds great. Then Jaron asked if they could break his hundred dollar bill. 🤣 (He has had it since his last trip to the casino in Jan, and we need change for self-pay campsites.) Then we camped at Burr Oaks Cove campground, which was perfect. We almost had the place to ourselves. There was a teeny tiny but of drizzle but it passed pretty quickly. So we still met one of our criteria and put the tent up in the rain, despite it being daylight.  Jaron scrounged locally for firewood.  So we had...

I promise, I will catch y'all up on the last year. It's been a busy year!  Had a rough start out today.  I guess it's a good thing that I went ahead and got the 50/50 tires. We're not going to (intentionally) do anything serious on this trip.  And this is my custom kickstand for my lowered bike. When I got home at 9:30 last night, the first thing Jaron said was that it was a goddamn work of art.  And this was me getting comfy while they made it!  I gotta say, Solid Performance near Philadelphia [will update w/ links] really came thru so that I could take my new bike on this trip. Remember that deposit I put down in late August 2019? Between international and import delays, plus me breaking my shoulder this year (long story), it took 13 months total to get my lowered KTM 790 Adventure. I mean, a couple of those were because I broke my shoulder.  But, I finally got it. (Mine is the smaller one on the right)  We had a late start today since I was gone all...