|
(You can click any picture below to
enlarge it.) It's been a while since
Dr. Josh and I have gone for a motorcycle ride. Josh is
heading to California today to interview for a spot in a specialized
dental school, so we weren't able to do a long ride this weekend.
But, last night we were chatting on instant messenger and decided we would go for a ride
this morning. Angie, Josh's wife, said we could go as long
as we were home by 10:00... AM...
 "BEEP!
BEEP! BEEP!" I've had that alarm since 1984... You'd think
after 20 years I'd grow accustomed to it. No. I only hit
snooze once though. I was up out of bed at 6:09... got
dressed... loaded up my gear and headed over to Josh's house.
I got there around 6:55. Josh's KLR was already sitting out in
the driveway ready to go.
 As
usual on the majority of our adventures, we stopped and ate, and,
as usual, we stopped at McDonalds.
The usual Egg McMuffin and large Coke! Today's adventure was to take us from Josh's house in
Deer Park to Galveston, across the ferry to Bolivar then up
highway 124; it didn't happen like that... After
crossing one of the bridges on 146, we found a little place to stop.
Josh was on "picture patrol"--looking for anything to take pictures
of... I took the obligatory pictures of birds and boats.
  We
were surprised to see the mechanism on the tracks still working
even though the tracks hadn't been used in quite a while.
A short trek through the tall grass and through the ditch and we
headed out to catch the ferry over to Bolivar.
We continued on our journey the rest of the way down
146 to I-45.
Once we got on I-45, we crossed over the bridge to
Galveston and took 61st Street to Seawall. There was more
going on at 8:30 in the morning than I expected there to be.
Folks were out and about--fishing, running, cycling, swimming.
The temperature and humidity were both steadily increasing; I
cannot blame folks for getting out early and enjoying the slightly
cooler weather. We only had to wait for a bit at the
ferry before we were on our way to Bolivar:
Once on the ferry, I found myself again taking
obligatory photos... ferry photos this time:
When we got on the ferry, we decided as soon as we
arrived in Bolivar, we would stop at the first convenient store
and get something to drink. Well, we arrived... we got about
a mile down the road and quickly realized that if we were to
continue on our way we were going to get drenched.
We pulled over, at which point Josh informed me that
there was a 50% chance of rain. You know, it seems to me
that there is a 50% chance of rain everyday; either it will rain
or it won't--50/50. I guess this is why I am not a
weatherman. Looking at the watch gave us an
additional reason to turn around. Seems that Josh's timing for
the trip was slightly off... it was already 10:00.
We turned around and headed back to the ferry.
The ride back wasn't nearly as fun as the ride over, but it was
either a return ferry ride or a soaking; we chose the former
rather than the latter. Once we got off the ferry, we
stopped at the Shell station for the drink we talked about earlier,
and I decided to fill my bike up with gas. While sitting on
the curb enjoying my Coca Cola, this apparently homeless man walks
up to me and out of the blue says, "You know what a woman and a
motorcycle have in common?" A bit taken with the condition of
his teeth and the drool leaking from his mouth, I maintained
composure and answered, " I don't know, what?" "They'll both
end up hurting you; you just never know when." And he walked off.
I hope he wasn't a prophet...
 Taking
Main Street through Galveston Island provided some additional
excitement... We see this guy chasing this "hoopty"--some
1980 something import--the wrong
way down Main Street. The guy doing the chasing is on foot...
let's call him Guy A. Turns out the guy in the hoopty... Guy
B... hit Guy A's truck and was trying to get away.
While trying to get away, he nicked a tree. Josh and I whipped
around... hoping... praying... that Guy B would get out of the hoopty and make a break for it; he didn't. He did get out of
the car, but only to allow his girlfriend? to get in the driver's
seat. Apparently they were thinking they could switch drivers
and no one would notice... Einsteins. The cops showed
up pretty quickly and took charge of the scene.
We continued our journey home and pulled into Josh's
garage at 11:05... AM. As usual, it took us longer than expected.
Josh still had time to make his flight... as a matter of fact... his
flight was late anyway because of the storm.
I made it home and only got hit by one or two more
rain drops before I pulled into my garage. It didn't take
long before the bottom fell out. It's 7:00 PM now and it is
still raining... I see a nap in my immediate future.
Thanks for coming along with us. |
