Like many of you, there are times when I ask myself “Why do I live here“?
Those times come mostly in the winter once that holidays are over and it starts getting really cold and snowy. It’s compounded when the local news is showing ice storms and power outages where I live and my friends that live in the south are talking about how great their H.O.G chapters are or how fun the Galveston Rally was.
With all the subtlety of former WWE champion and current UFC heavy-weight champion Brock Lesnar, my husband has been filling the DVR with shows like Road Trip: Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone, Motorcycle Mania: Sturgis and any other road trip programming he can find.
I fire up my computer and in the browser is a google maps trip plotted from here to the Black Hills and back. I find articles about the Fly & Ride program that just happen to be left out on the table for me to discover. Sigh.
Those of us who live up north and don’t have the luxury of riding all year round get our fix in throughout the winter by working on our bikes, whether it’s adding more chrome, perhaps a new paint job or plotting out our good weather riding.
As you know I own a 2004 Suzuki Volusia and over the winter my project list includes:
- a new air filter
- new exhaust pipes (I can’t decide which ones, though)
- maybe some additional lights
- new pegs
- maybe new grips
My husband, on the other hand, is focusing on where he wants to ride this year:
What’s the latest on the Myrtle Beach Rally?
Sorry, hon. That rally is a matter of history.
Do you think I can ride to Florida for a weekend and be back to work on Monday?
Umm…good luck.
Can we take a detour to Yellowstone on the way home from Sturgis?
Yes? I guess so…
How much vacation time does he think he has? How much vacation time does he think *I* have?
It’s only just January and I’m wondering how I’ll get through the rest of winter. I figure I’ll get to read a few books about motorcycles. Last year I read some of Sonny Barger’s books, but this year I’d like to focus on a few books by female authors. Sasha Mullens has a few books out that I’m interested in, if you know of any good reads let me know or send one my way and I’ll do a write up on it.
So how do you get through the winter? Are you like me, reading the catalogs and looking for just the right pipes and braided cables? Or maybe you scour the web looking for off-beat locations to ride to? Do you anxiously await your next biker magazine to show up in the mailbox? Something else?
What keeps your motor running through the long, cold winter?