Staring off in the rain

After a wonderful send off breakfast with family and friends, Burgma, Beamerpop and I headed out!  The first part of the ride was great.  The weather was perfect and I was reminded of how beautiful Tennessee is riding up Mont Eagle.   Things got a little ugly as we entered Atlanta.  We hit some NASTY rain and had to pull off the road a few times, but would eventually catch back up to the storm.  We made it to about 90 miles north of Valdosta, GA.

Despite the rain it was a great first day and I started to get really excited about the rest of the trip.  I also got to use my new toy the CrampBuster.  A CrampBuster is considered a type of "cruise control" for motorcycles.  It's a piece of plastic that hooks on to your throttle and extends outward allowing you to control the throttle with the palm of your hand.  So far it's been nice but it does tend to slowly slip downward.  I find that I have to readjust it frequently.  This might be because I bought the wrong size (who knew there were different sizes!).  Although after the rain it seemed to work a little better.

My favorite moment of the day happened before the rain.  I had been having quite a wind problem.   Yes, yes, I realize that I'm riding a motorcycle and wind is inevitable.  However, for some reason the wind tends to blow my mesh jacket and vest up under my armpits and around my neck.  It's really annoying, not to mention uncomfortable.  I came up with the great idea of tucking my jacket and vest into my pants.  In order to do this and have the jacket/vest securely tucked in, the waist of my pants ends up nearly at the bottom of my ribs!  Needless to say it looks ridiculous.  Anyway, I explain my ingenious plan to Burgma at one of our gas station stops.  So as I am trying to simultaneously shove my padded mesh jacket down and pull my pants up, two men riding Harley's wearing jeans, sleeveless shirts, and half helmets (skull caps) roll into the gas station.  As if it wasn't bad enough that our bright green vests make us look completely uncool next to some Harley riders, I'm now trying to shove my vest as far down my pants as the will go!  Burgma noticing the situation leans over to me and says "We are obviously the NERD patrol."  As we both start to laugh we end up bonking our helmets/heads together to top if off.  Revenge of the Nerds on Motorcycles.