The Mascot made it a bit further South today.

Big Kudos to Mike_M from Chesapeake - not only did he provide a new (and cool) "kit bag" for the Mascots transport, he also rode through some nasty weather this morning to keep the mascot on schedule. I'm sure Mike'll post of some of the photos of his ride - yet he made it to Raleigh early and in great spirits!

We (myself and 7 other riders) met Mike at Ray Price HD. We had a great visit, traded a lot of tips, handed off the Mascot, watched the dealer roll out their 2013 models, and then had a kick-a$$ lunch at a hole-in-the-wall gem of Italian cooking in Angier (just South of Raleigh).

That's whats cool about riding Harley's, you get to meet and hang out with some of the greatest Americans.

Mike - it was great to meet you and hang out for awhile, I'm sure we'll meet again in your territory one day soon.

Tomorrow it's on to Salisbury, NC, to meet with Midgitfire and hand off the Mascot for a ride to Georgia.

Scott

 

One more photo.... great Italian food.

 

I would love to say that the day the mascot moved dawned sunny and clear. I really would love to say that—unfortunately it wouldn’t be true.

First, cliffs notes for the reading impaired (and because I rambled on waaayyyy too long:
Moving the mascot from Chesapeake VA to Raleigh NC
Lightning
Rain
More rain
Hydroplaned minivan
More rain
Lighter rain
Arrive safely with dirty bike
Turnover goes well—large group with dynawideglider
Epilog (my ride back)

Because the mascot was traveling 200 miles, and the meeting time was set for about 10:00 am, the mascot needed to be on the road between 06:00—06:30am. When the alarm went off at five, I opened my eyes to see flashes of lightning lighting up my room. Wonderful! Guess the mascot should start moving closer to six than six thirty. Checked the weather map—there was a chance that I’d miss the worst of it by sticking to the route down 17 that I’d chosen.

Got ready, broke my boot lace. Checked length, rethreaded boot lace with a couple eyelets left out; threw on the rain pants before heading to the garage—figured that they took the longest to put on, so if I really needed them, I’d still be ready to go. I opened the garage door and (chorus of angels here) it wasn’t raining! The roads weren’t even wet! Hallelujah! Packed the bike, ensuring the mascot was safely ensconced in the tourpak, put the phone in the cradle & fired up Pandora. First song of the day: AC/DC, Thunderstruck—wow, great rockin’ song to start the day! Got on the road, headed for the gas station to top off. Starting the bike after filling up, song # 2 on Pandora: It’s Raining Again” by Supertramp. I should have paid attention to these omens I guess.

Riding down 17, saw an awesome sunrise—then looked at where I was headed. It sure was dark up ahead: The fact that it was the Great Dismal Swamp probably didn't help matters. About five minutes later, I got hit by a couple large drops of rain—time for the rain gear. No sooner had I gotten stopped and the rest of the rain gear out of the tour pack than it started to come down harder. Just got the jacket zipped up when the light rain shower turned into the first gully washer of the day! Oh well, places to be, things to see: Back on the road (thankfully there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic).




After thirty minutes of rain, the skies relented and just left me wet roads. A pickup truck pulled in behind me from a side road and seemed to be pretty happy staying behind me: Good thing for me, as I’d have really been catching the spray if he would have passed! Five more miles down the road and I see lightning flashing in the clouds ahead. Wonderful—a lightning storm to ride through! Don’t know where the lightning went, but when I hit the wall of water, that’s all there was. Lots and lots of water falling from the sky—pickup still staying behind me, possibly a fellow biker in his cage due to the rain? I wasn’t going to argue, since if the lightning came back, the pickup had more metal & was higher than I was: I was perfectly content to have a rolling lightning rod behind me!

Ran out of that rain shower in twenty minutes only to see blue flashing lights up ahead & lots of people standing around on the shoulder of the road. Looked like a minivan hydroplaned & ended up in the median. Cops were there, two other minivans on each side of the road (either they all saw it happen, or they were all traveling together), so I rolled on by and promised myself that I’d be careful.

Gully washer three was quick, hard, and to the point. Ten minutes of rain so hard it looked like fog. I lost my rolling lightning rod somewhere in the ten minutes when he turned off onto another side road. No lightning, so that’s ok. Road to myself, so not worrying about being run over! The weather gods must have realized I wasn’t going to quit at that point, since they turned off the spigot and reduced the water flow to a light rain/drizzle; just enough to keep the roads wet so I got lots of road spray into all the nooks & crannys on the bike and every car that passed threw some up onto my windshield & visor.

Came to a relatively open area so I stopped to take a picture. Dark rain clouds behind, dark rain clouds ahead, long wet road that I’m on. So much fun! By the way, I’ll take the half helmet with visor over the full face in a rainstorm any day! Closed the lower vents, closed the adjustable wings, didn’t have much air blowing up my front, and didn’t have the visor or my glasses fog up!




Twenty minutes out from Ray Price Harley in Raleigh NC, the water turned off completely so when I pulled up in front of the building, I was the only one in rain gear and the only one with a really dirty bike covered in road grime! On a positive note: Due to the lack of traffic, I made really good time! A little over three hours for 200 miles! In the rain!

Met up with Scott (dynawideglider) and crew: Going to have to let him fill in the names. I’ve got a couple, but just in case I don’t put the right name with the correct face (it’s happened before), I’ll let him fill in those blanks. Wandered around Ray Price for a while—it’s HUGE! Not to mention the charity ride they were coordinating in the morning, or the Experienced rider course they were conducting, or the charity ride they were doing in the afternoon—and unveiling the new 2013 models at noon! I really like the yellow/black Ultra Limited—unfortunately, the pic I took didn’t turn out so well. C’est la vie. Guess I’ll stick with my Ultra Classic (until that 2013 Road Glide they’re raffling off comes home with me!).




After the mascot handoff and some discussion about it (it's not a stuffed animal) regarding the age (there's some signatures from 2005), we all headed down the road another few miles to grab lunch at 2 Cousins Pizza in Angier—The Stromboli looked great; the onion rings were very tasty, and the Italian sausage sub with peppers & onions was GREAT! Much larger portions than I expected! Eating the other half for dinner while typing this! Kept checking the weather all through lunch—and it didn’t look too good. All the rain that I had run through on the way down seemed to be just hanging out in the Chesapeake area.

Finished up our late lunch—Thanks again guys: You didn’t have to pick up my tab, I’ve ridden much further just for the fun of it! Heck, offer me lunch at the end of a ride and I’ll go nearly anywhere! After much BS’ing, procrastinating because of the rain up north, and talk about yard work (mine’s still too wet to mow), I got back on the road a little after three with cool temps and gray skies. These cool temps and gray skies turned into cool misting rain off and on for the next hundred miles or so! Not enough to pull out the rain gear or warmer clothing (I’m a Yooper what’d you expect?) but the mist kept everything a bit chilly.




Broke out into what my wife says is a “Simpsons sky” due to its resemblance to the sky in the opening credits of “The Simpsons” right around Williamston NC, which eventually turned into clear skies overhead, with rain clouds—big anvil shaped rain clouds—on the Eastern, Northern, and Western horizon as soon as I turned north on 17. Kept my eye on those until I got home. Thankfully I didn’t have to go ten miles further up the road or I probably would have run right into the rain again!



All in all, a nice round trip. Mascot made it safely to the next stop on its way to California, it was nice meeting the guys (and gals) up from Fayetteville/FT Bragg, good company, good food, and my rain gear works well for me! The bike never once got squirrely even with all the rain: Always felt solidly planted--this is probably the longest I've ridden actually in the rain (previous was about 100 miles of rain). Have to do it again sometime—the ride, not the rain.

Cheers!

 

The other riders were Kara, Thedi, Patty, Bonnie, Tony, Greg, and Wayne.

All together with Mike, 2 Street Glides, 2 Ultras, and 2 Trikes.

Scott