Lightning storm!!

Holy smokes!! Well, fortunately, not literally, but way too close for comfort.

We had an after work bbq yesterday in Boulder. Hubby came out as well. It was a beautiful and hot day, perfect for being in the yard with a burger and cold drink. It was a 4:00 - 7:00 deal but hubby and I hung around a little later to socialize with our friends who were hosting. About 8:00 or so, I thought I saw some lightning in the distance but it was one of those deals where I wasn't sure if that's what I saw or not. It wasn't dark yet and the sky was pretty clear over head. The time came when we decided to mosey on home - about 25 miles or so.

Hubby was in the car as he'd come from work. I was on the moto. As we are standing around saying our goodbye's I was certain now that there was lightning some where around us but still over us the sky was clear. We headed out and as we make the turn out of their neighborhood and face south the sky is a dark black blue color off to the west. Still, not raining, not close and not very much lightning and none hitting the ground. But, since that's the general direction we are headed, I pull over to put my rain gear on. Hubby says, well, we shouldn't dawdle.

Before leaving we'd settled on the most direct route home which is west and then south. After putting on the rain gear, I decided that was too close to the dark ominous clouds and instead took the south-easterly route. The first route takes us through some flat open space. The second would take us into town where there are taller buildings and more cars. I didn't think being the tallest thing on the road would work to my advantage. Plus, on the highway I can go about 75 mph and actually get home faster. So, off we went on highway 36.

We take our exit for home which is about 112th and Wadsworth. We need to go south to 64th and turn west (towards the storm and home). We could go west at any point really but by this time the storm is much closer. I want to stay as far away from it as I can. Now, the lightning is definitely hitting the ground to the west, my right. I push on now as we are just a few miles from home at this point. It isn't even raining yet but I can smell it. (Not good.) Then the sky lights up to my right. Not one huge bolt but the sky turns white. I duck instinctively. Or maybe it's fear. Anyway, I sort of tuck down on the bike without realizing it. After a while I tell myself to relax and focus. There are still cars around me and Wadsworth is a very busy road. It's now raining a little but not so much to worry about. I hardly even notice the rain.

Finally we reach 64th avenue and make the right turn. From here we are about a 2 mile drive through the neighborhood from home. It's a left, then a right, then a left, another right, left again right turn, right turn, left and home. At the first left, the sky turns white again, this time with thunder. I tuck down again and hit the throttle. I make the right turn but just before the next left, a HUGE bolt of lightning followed immediately by a LOUD clap of thunder. I ducked again and swear out loud and hit the throttle. At the corner I have to wait for a couple of turning cars. At this point I'm completely freaked out. Home is a few blocks away. I make that turn, stop at the next stop sign as it is a blind intersection, hit the throttle, blow through the next stop sign (its a 3 way and nothing is around), hit the throttle again, go two blocks, slowly realize it is now actually raining, slow to the next right, make the immediate left onto our street, and look for oncoming cars as I try to hit the garage door opener in my pocket. More thunder and lightning are surrounding me. I didn't get the opener to work so I pull into the driveway between our two large trees and the dead Bronco, open the garage door and duck in under it.

I must have left hubby in my dust because he didn't pull up until I'd shut off the bike and gotten off. I stood there for a bit while he walked up to me. He says, "That last one was probably 1000 feet from us!" I think I said carp or something, but mainly just stared at him. Then he looks at me and says, "Are you alright?" I said, "Yes." Then I said the F word really loudly.

We went inside and his daughter and her boyfriend were standing in the living room waiting for us. She'd text us about the storm but we were already on the road at that point. They said the house shook with that last one. I think I just said the F word again and just stood there shaking. I took my gear off and kind of shook off the events. Then all of a sudden, the sky opened up and rain came down as if we were living in the south. I think I said the F word again as we looked out the window at it.

After I calmed down a bit, I asked hubby what we should have done differently. He thought we did the best we could under the circumstances. We had no idea how bad it was or even that the storm was out there. We were so close to home, and it wasn't really raining, that he didn't think stopping was necessary. I felt the same way as we were traveling. I kept thinking, we're almost home. The problem was, and we didn't really know it, the storm was worse directly over our house. So the closer we got to home the closer we got to danger. But, I just kept thinking, we're almost home.

Thinking about it now, if I'd known how bad it really was, I would have stayed in Boulder or left the bike there at my friends' house. That was an option but one we didn't think necessary at the time under their clear skies.

I have never ever been so terrified. Even now, recounting the story, I feel like I seriously dodged it. Or maybe I am shaking because I had too much caffeine this morning. I think it might be a little of both. I drove to work today. Afternoon storms are forecast. They weren't yesterday.

Colfax Ride

This Saturday we rode Colfax Avenue. (Check out this cool interactive link! I wish I'd seen it before we went out on our ride.) I'd always wanted to do this just to say that I had. Now, it is crossed off the list and we don't have to do it ever again. It wasn't horrible by any stretch but it wasn't one of those nice comfortable rides with lots of great scenery either. It was quite stressful at times but not too bad overall. I guess what I'm trying to say is it could have been worse. :-)

We started out from Golden where we had some Starbucks and read the paper. It was going to be a leisurely ride. Our official starting point was Heritage Road and W. Colfax Ave. We headed east from there ending up at Powhaton Road in Aurora. The weather was great. Even though we got a late start, it wasn't too hot to be in the stop and go of Colfax. The traffic was pretty light as well. The only construction was a very short bit downtown. It was fun to ride by the capitol as if we were tourists just traveling through. Maybe knowing we didn't have to try to find a parking space was what made it more relaxing. LOL! About noon we stopped at a Wendy's at Colfax and Chambers. Next time, if we do something like this again, we'll have to plan it so we can stop at one of the diners along the route.

Once we got to Powhaton, we considered whether to keep going but decided to start heading back. Hubby had a party to go to later. So, we took a route back through Aurora, Cherry Creek, downtown Denver, Highlands, and home. It was a pretty great ride actually. Not as bad as I'm making it out to be. :-) We only nearly got run over a few times on Colfax by people not paying attention or in too much of a hurry to look for motorcycles. But that's nothing new. We make up for it by paying attention for them and being hyper-aware of our surroundings.

Here's a Google map of our route.

A weekend of motorcycling!!

First of all, happy birthday to my sister-in-law!! :-) We celebrated her bday on Saturday in Loveland. Hubby and I rode out on the motos making a quick stop at Colorado Euro Motorcycles in Loveland. A few days ago I stopped in Foothills BMW but they were out of the 2009 G650GS. I was hoping to sit on one with my gear on to see how it fit. Apparently, Foothills owns the store up north, so the guy called that shop to see what they had. They had a couple in the shop so I thought it would be fun to stop there on the way to sis-in-law's place. :-) They had two on the floor, both black, one lowered one stock. The stock one is too tall. I could only tippy toe it. The lowered one was perfect! I'm not totally flatfooted but very close. Certainly close enough to be comfortable. The lowered one also had heated grips and a center-stand. It was about $8500. So, I have lots of saving to do. It was so comfortable sitting on it. :-D I could so get used to that!!

When we got to sis-in-law's she said they'd left her bike out in case I wanted to take it for a spin. :-D I was thinking I shouldn't because what if I fell in love with it? That would be sad. But then I thought, if I don't, I'll certainly wish I had. So, later, after dinner, she and I traded bikes. She rode the Rebel and led me around the neighborhood, around some lakes near their place on some slow curvy roads. It was so much fun! And I did love it. The GS is (obviously) taller than the Rebel. I say obviously but riding it is really what makes the difference. It's one thing to sit in the dealership on the floor but it's another thing to see the world go by from the saddle.

The pegs are in a completely different place too - thus the difference between a cruiser and standard I suppose. It actually took me a little while to find them. Muscle memory wanted them to be some where else entirely. And they are smaller than the Rebel's too. That was a bit weird for a while. My boots felt really big. The brake and shift levers are smaller too. Sitting on it was very comfortable. The seat is comfy and just the right size. The cruiser seat on the Rebel doesn't allow for much movement but I can see where the GS would be better. My knees nestled comfortably on the "tank". The Rebel tank is quite small and I always feel like my knees are not where they are supposed to be or are flopping around.

The handlebar position is also (obviously) completely different from the Rebel. The GS has a more leaned over position, although not as dramatic as a sportbike. I think it is a bit more leaned over than hubby's CX, although, that may be because I'm shorter of torso. I definitely felt like I was leaning on my shoulders more. I'm sure that can be changed easily enough if needed. It was difficult to reach the turn signals while holding onto the clutch, or really just the grips. I remember that being something that felt abnormal in the Rebel at first too. It takes some coordination to hold the handlebars steady while working the clutch and reaching for the controls. Muscle memory again.

It was a fabulous ride! Thanks sister-in-law!

Saturday, hubby and I rode about 116 miles.

On Sunday we went out to meet some of hubby's work buddies. They were planning a group lunch ride to Estes Park, which is one of my most favorite places in Colorado. There were 13 of us in the group and 9 bikes. I was the only woman riding her own and also the smallest bike there (with hubby close behind on his CX500). There were lots of different bikes - a couple of touring Harleys, a Gold Wing, a Victory, a Suzuki TL1000, a Virago, my Rebel, and hubby's CX. It was a great group of folks, most of whom I met for the first time there. The Victory had some electrical problems that the guys were able to fix before we left. That took about 30 minutes or so. Then we were off. Here is the route:We rode about 163 miles. It was so much fun! We rode from our house to the meeting point down south in Littleton. from there we went northwest through Morrison, Red Rocks park, to Golden and highway 93, north to Coal Creek Canyon, and the Peak-to-Peak highway into Estes. We had lunch at Ed's Cantina, where I'd never eaten before. It was pretty ok. Not un-tasty. :-) Lunch is made all the better by good company. :-) After lunch, I led the group back to Boulder on highway 36. Well, most of the group. It's tough getting out of Estes on a weekend. Lots of tourists. So, we lost half the group getting out of town but were reunited between Lyons and Boulder. No worries, although I felt bad losing them since I was the leader. :-(

Here are some of the bikes we rode with.

It was a fabulous weekend spent with my hubby on the motos! We were sure tired after all that though. :-)

Been riding

It is hard to blog about riding when you are riding a lot. Weird. And mostly, my rides are just commuting to work. I really enjoy those rides but there isn't much to write about them. Getting from point A to point B and back again at the end of the day. All very important to the ride, but not so interesting to blog about. Oh well.

Hubby and I took a ride last Saturday. We were hoping to meet up with his sister in Lyons for some art fair thingy but her bike wouldn't cooperate. Bummer. She ended up pushing it back home a quarter mile. :-( But, as she mentioned, at least she didn't get stranded very far from home. Hubby and I did the ride through Lyons via highway 72 from Arvada to the junction of 72 and 119. We were planning to stay on 72 all the way to 7 but the weather decided otherwise. Just before we hit the junction, it started to rain. The kind of rain you can see before you get into it. No worries though. We pulled over and put our rain jackets on and continued on. But, we went right instead of left and headed toward Nederland. It was sort of by accident but probably a good thing because when we stopped to gear up, there was actually some hail or gropple falling as well as rain. And it was pretty chilly being wet and all. Once we got to Nederland, I pulled over again to put my rain pants on since I had my mesh Olympia's on. It was like air conditioning on my legs. Anyway, that ensured the rain would stop, which it did as we headed down the hill towards Boulder. We continued on to Lyons where we were able to call sister-in-law to find out her troubles. We didn't hang around too long as the clouds were coming in there as well. So, we went back to Boulder and had some lunch. It was a very good day! (Except for missing out on our riding buddy.) Here is a map of the route (more or less).



Wednesday I took the scenic route home. I was having a not so good day, feeling sorry for myself and my lack of time to maintain my attendance in the fitness boot camp. So, after the crappy work out, I thought I'd take the slow route home. As I was riding, I thought it would be nice if it rained a little. So, I took matters into my own hands. I pulled over when the first three drops hit my visor. I put my rain pants on and wen tout in search of the rain. :-) It was quite fun actually. It never did rain very hard at all. The tank barely got wet thanks to the windshield. But, it was good enough for me. I felt a lot better although, I started to feel guilty that I hadn't told my hubby where I was. He was out of town on east coast time so by the time I got home at 8pm, he was ready to get to sleep. (He's coming home today though.)

I've put lots of miles on my moto gear. I've noticed my mesh Olympia pants are starting to show some wear. The reflective piping is starting to fray a bit. Well, not fray but sort of chip away. I really like those pants. They are so comfy and fit very well. I wonder if I should invest in another pair just in case they stop making them. Maybe I should check with Mary at MotoGear Outlet about that. My jacket is in good shape. I finally cut out the nylon thread that had been poking my in my arm. Why I hadn't done that months ago I don't know. The boots are great too. Last Saturday was the first time I'd worn them in a good rain. I didn't even think about that. They are awesome! And I was able to break in my new Joe Rocket gloves in the rain as well. I'd warmed them up in the toaster oven to help stretch out the fingers. And then being in the rain helped too. Now they fit just fine. :-)

I'm hoping hubby and I will attend the Top Gun motorcycle competition on Sunday. I've always wanted to see that. That will be so cool! I'll try to remember to blog about it if I do. And take pictures.

Video of me!

This was from a ride hubby and I took a few weeks ago. This is a neighborhood west of C-470 on Ken Caryl. Pretty cool neighborhood with big fancy houses and some not as fancy. All were much bigger and fancier than our house, that's for sure. We'd planned to do a longer ride that day but had a couple of close calls and stopped for lunch. Then decided to just putt around this neighborhood because neither of us had been there before and it looked quite scenic. We can upon this giant red rock. There is a hiking trail and you can climb on the rock too. Hubby said he wanted a rock like that in our backyard. I agreed but as you can see, some one has already claimed it for their backyard! Nice!

the latest rides

March 15th I rode out to Mother Cabrini Shrine. Hubby must have been away or something because it was just me. Here are some photos.

This is a shot of Jesus on the top of the hill. A couple of years ago he was struck by lightning and it blew his fingers off. He's all fixed now though. The line of trees is a path of steps to get to the top. The stations of the cross are along the route. People come here for Easter to trek up and pray. At the top is a rock structure Mother Cabrini built when she founded this place. To the left of this view is a small grotto where you can sit and pray or reflect and light candles. There is also the spring Mother Cabrini discovered when she came to this place. She stuck her cane in the ground and found it and it has been flowing ever since. It is one of her three miracles.

Here is the Rebel parked near the interpretive sign.

And parked near the chapel. It wasn't terribly crowded but there were more than enough folks there for my taste. I was hoping for some quiet reflection time but oh well. Maybe next time.

I have ties to Mother Cabrini through my high school in New Orleans. Her feast day is also the same day as my birthday which was nice to have that day off from school for four years. :-)

But, anyway, back to the motorcycle part. Here is a Google map of the location.




It is a bit windy and that day there was a lot of gravel on the road because we'd had a good bit of snow. I happened to fall behind someone on a Triumph so I followed their line up the hill. Turned out to be a good plan. The curves are pretty sharp 10mph ones all the way up the hill. It isn't a very long way but it is narrow and cars like to take up as much space as they can. And there is wildlife up there too. But, it was a good trip.

I did have a bit of a close call backing out of my parking space. I pulled out but had to go around the lot to make my way out again. I managed to put myself behind an SUV that was about to back out. I was also on gravel so I couldn't speed away or even stop because the ground was so loose. And I couldn't find my horn for some reason either. Fortunately they took their time backing out and I was able to pull away. It was a bit scary for a second there. But all's well that ends well, and the lesson was learned.

More later......

Grrrr... grumpy me

So, the story in the previous post just got worse and worse and began my downward spiral into grumpiness.

The good news is there is absolutely nothing wrong with the bike. The bad news is my memory is worse than I thought and ain't getting any better. After determining that my gas tank was actually empty, I thought, ok, I was just distracted by the extra miles and forgot to fill up on the way back home. But then, I found a receipt proving that I did fill up that day. So, we wondered what could it be. I posted on the Rebel board looking for advice which was promptly given. (I am so glad I have them!) Obviously my gas tank was empty so what could have happened? What indeed.....

What happened was, I rode more after filling up. And I forgot all about it. I filled up, proved by the receipt, on 1/19. I'd forgotten about my ride to Boulder to play hooky from work to watch the inauguration on the 20th. I rode quite a bit that day. But, it must have slipped my mind. Anyway, bike problem solved.

Lately I've been quite grumpy after driving my cage to work everyday. I find myself swearing at other drivers (which is normal really) but it puts me in a not so happy mood after arriving at my destination (work or home). Sigh. I need some warm weather so I can get some good vibes and good miles on the moto! It has been warm and sunny but really windy too. Really windy. Too windy to ride. For me anyway. Grrr. Maybe Sunday I can get a good ride in.

what a crappy crappy day at work

It all started yesterday. I won't bore you with the non-motorcycle related details but I went home in a bad mood. I had to find some one to vent to before even getting on the bike to go home. That took about half an hour but luckily I felt much better after venting. (Thanks boss for lending an ear!) Got home, had a nice dinner, but after spewing about my day again (just couldn't let it go) I was all wound up. So, I went to bed early. This morning, I was not moving with any sense of urgency to get to work. So, I decided to go to FedEx to pick up my package. That would make me feel better. I'd called them last night to make sure they'd hold it for me. I was told to call in the morning before going just in case. So, I called but it was too early for them to say definitively if it was still there. So, I thought, this is a good excuse to go to work late. So, I checked in with my officemate, who once again covered for my absence. (High five GH!) Not that there is anything so urgent that we do at work that I can't be a slacker once in a while. And anyway, she knew the saga of my bad day.

So, I made it to FedEx about 9:00 and was on the rode to work by 9:20.

I get to work after riding on I-70 from FedEx and then US36 into Boulder, ready to tackle the day. Well, not so much. A little more drama than I was ready for and then the servers go down. So, I actually couldn't do any work. This must be a sign. I'm outta there I tell GH. She agrees and tells me to ride safely.

My mood immediately lightens. I think I'll do that lunch ride I've been putting off. A scenic and slow ride from Boulder to Nederland and home again. That should clear my mind. I shut down the computer, grab my gear, say see ya tomorrow to GH and head out the door...

Only to see this! Will this crappiness never end!!??!!


I know from experience that the FedEx guy will be out shortly but it just summed up the past 24 hours so well I had to take a picture. And I had time because I certainly wasn't going anywhere.

A couple of minutes later I was on my way. I thought about stopping for gas as I had about half a tank. But, there were no gas stations conveniently located so I figured I'd fill up in Nederland (about 20 miles away).

The leaves are changing here so the view was awesome. I didn't stop for many photos though as it is a windy road with lots of gravel pull outs. I just didn't feel like tackling gravel on a slope. I got behind a speed limit driving car which was just fine by me. I wasn't in a hurry and hadn't been on this road before on the bike, so taking it slow was the way to go. Many other cars and bikes were not feeling the same and a few made some passes on double yellow curvy bits. Yikes. That made me uncomfortable to say the least. But, I went on without any trouble.

The bike started bucking a bit as if I was running out of gas so I switched to reserve. I'm not sure that was actually the reason and need to talk to hubby about that. Anyway, I got to town, filled up, and kept on to Hwy 72 which heads back to Arvada and home.

It was a very quick and sharp left onto 72! Took me by surprise a bit. This road is much curvier than 119. And I did manage to find a safe spot to pull over for some photos. It was a decent ride, more challenging than I anticipated. But, I was able to cross that off the to do list! Yay! I think I'll try to do the ride to Nederland and back to Boulder on lunch from now on. It will get me out of the office and clear my head. There are some nice photo ops on that road too but they were all on the opposite side from me today.