Lorane Highway by Motorcycle

freaken awesome sunset ride
the peacocks were really squawking it up on fox hollow
more pics here...

I'm excited for it to get warmer so I can ride all over with my camera. It's easier to stop on the motorcycle and easier to find space to stop when you're not trying to park a car on the side of the road. I have several spots in mind that I want to get pictures.

It's really not motorcycle weather yet. At least not for me. It's kinda cold. The jacket is warm enough, but the fingers, they need something more. It was fun anyway though. 

note to self...

Do not ride motorcycle in winter if you will be coming home after dark in 35 degree weather. 

Freezing.

Not like normal freezing.  Like painful, painful freezing.  The rest of me was ok but my fingers felt like they were burning off; burning with cold. Very, very unpleasant.  I almost pulled over just to warm them up but it probably would have been futile so I just sped up in hopes of getting home quicker. My fingers have never been this cold, not even in snow.

I clearly do not have winter riding gloves.

I forgot I was riding the motorcycle

I went for a ride today. Later in the afternoon. I wouldn't have dared go for a ride when I got up. It was freaking 39 degrees out! What??? Where is summer going? I'm not ready to move on.

So I was riding up Chambers looking across this scooter in the left turn lane going the other way. There was a motorcycle going straight next to it. I notice right as they're passing me that they are giving me the wave.

Which led me to realize I was not driving the Lotus. Yeah, that sounds funny right. But I forgot. I'm so used to driving the Lotus that I just think I'm in it all the time. Not that I think I'm "in" it. I just picture them looking at me and seeing a Lotus. Wrong picture.

The same thing has happened when I'm driving the Bronco. I see people looking at me at a stop light or something and it takes me a sec to realize I'm in the Bronco - so what the heck are they looking at?

I was actually riding my scooter down Willamette a couple years back and saw a yellow Lotus going the other way. I wanted to wave but realized I was on the scooter and would just seem like a dork. Um, not that you people that do wave at my in the Lotus are dorks ;-) I usually simle or wave back at them. I just would have felt like one because I would have been thinking "fellow Lotus owner" and he would have been thinking, "kid on a scooter". So yeah, not really what I was trying to get across to him.

brilliant

Yesterday was hot, like 100 degrees, literally. Today was also hot, high of 96, but it wasn't like yesterday. Yesterday it was 90 degrees still at 9pm. Today it was about 80 degrees at the same time.

  

I've been riding my motorcycle to jiu-jitsu lately. I heard someone describe riding on hot days as, "like riding into a hair dryer". Funny but pretty true. Luckily I there's several different sections to my motorcycle jacket and I unzipped the outside layer before I left. So the ride over was actually pretty nice.

  

I had expected the gym to be pretty hot as well but I guess since it was Friday and maybe because of the Fair and maybe because it was HOT, there weren't a lot of people there. In fact there were 5. And all the fans were going so it was actually cooler in there than outside, which is most often not the case. The class was good and I did fairly good rolling with some of the bigger guys.

  

I got off the mat just in time to call back Jason, the tree guy, who'd literally just left a message. So my trees are now scheduled to be put in the ground. Which is very good. I can't wait to get them planted!

  

So I left NWMA and hopped on my bike. I was going to just ride home but then two things happened. First off I was hot and the breeze was nice, really nice when I started riding. Second I noticed the clouds in the sky and thought about the sunset. We've had some really intense colors in the sunset the last couple of days. So I thought, why not, I'll just go for a little cruise on the way home. I turned left instead of right and headed for Willamette.

  

I looped back up Jefferson and then up Charnelton in the College Hill area. You can get some good views up there because you're on a hill and can see out over the city. On the right I could see the sun like a giant orange disc on one side, just about to drop below the hills in the distance. And on the left was the moon!!!! Just as big, rising over the mountains.

  

I kept checking glancing up at the clouds all the way there. I could tell it was going to be a good one. I rode out Willamette, up the hills and out of the city and this is what I saw...

  

Is this insane or what?

  

Not bad for the iPhone right? Sunsets are always better in real life though. It was so amazing I just stopped on the side of the road to watch for a few minutes and snap a few pics. After that I thought it couldn't get any better but it did. The entire ride was amazing, from the moment I left the parking lot.

  

I got back on the bike and followed Willamette to Fox Hollow. Right past "Bill's Bench" I saw two, yes TWO peacocks hanging out on the side of the road. One of them walked a little to get out of the road. The other one flew up in a tree. Seeing peacocks fly up into a tree is so awesome. One of my favorite things I have ever seen.

  

After that I thought the show was probably over. I headed down the twists and turns of McBeth and when I came out of the woods, there was more. More colors! This time pastels. The sky went from yellow to lavendar to blue. I wasn't sure I was seeing it right so I had to lift up the windscreen on the helmet. Then I looked into my rear view mirror and there was the moon hovering boldly in the sky. It was crazy!

  

I caught Lorane Hwy from McBeth and looped back to Chambers. When you're on Lorane you're next to the hills so you can't see the sunset for a few minutes. So again, I thought the show was over. But nope! As soon as I hit chambers I could see it again. The sky glowed orange all the way home! It was like the horizon was on fire. Crazy beautiful.

  

Oh, and I saw several deer too.