What do Germans have for Breakfast? (06/08/06 entry)

The weekend was a short one as is usually the case when you have a Monday holiday. You pay for the long weekend on the front end by having a short weekend on the tail end. Regardless, the weekend feels like it's slipping away and taking a piece of my sanity with it. To say the stress level on my current project is rising would be like saying the Titanic sprung a leak. All this means... I really need to ride. Not that there's ever a bad excuse for going for a long ride, but whenever I ride it's like everything slowly melts away. Every mile that passes seems to take with it some issue or concern tucked away in a corner of my mind somewhere. The harder you ride the more things get filed away for later consideration. Before long thoughts are focused on selecting the right entrance speed to the next curve and setting up for a good line that balances the fun factor with a reasonable margin of safety.

So back to last weekend... I'm needing that kind of fix. I had thought about trying to do one of my quick solo Sunday morning dashes where I get out before the sun comes up, but Saturday night I decided to join a group of riders that was planning to head out at 8:15 am. I only knew a couple of them but why not? After all if you mis-judge the whole fun vs safety equation, it's nice to know there is likely someone around to make sure you have some kind of help. The group meets at Trophy Club Dr and 114. Thanks to the new diet it seems like I'm always hungry so I was pretty relieved when I had some extra time and found a Whataburger right up the road and picked up some quick breakfast. I love being on the road on weekend mornings before most people are out and about. The crisp morning, the empty roads, it's perfect. As I get off the bike and start pulling off the helmet I realize I'm likely to get a few snickers from the early crowd as I walk in wearing my white power ranger outfit. Oh well, if I really paid attention to what other people thought, I probably wouldn't be riding anyway. Besides, that one piece leather suit isn't going to get broken in hanging in the closet. A cup of coffee, a mess of scrambled eggs, and some sausage quiets my noisy stomach and crosses off the last item on my morning checklist. I'm ready to ride

I get back to the convenience store where everyone is meeting and find a pack of bikes there. I pull in and before long there's a group of about 8 bikes and riders. I meet most of them, but I'm so bad with names that only a couple of them stick. Usually it's easy to connect a name with a bike, but since 5 of the bikes there are FJR's it's not going to help much this time. Anytime you ride with a new group or a group rides with a new rider, one of the initial challenges is figuring out a good riding order. You typcially want the faster more experienced riders towards the front and those that ride at a more moderate pace towards the rear. Fortunately with this group it seemed we found a pretty natural order and proceeded without any problems.

A group of about eight of us got underway at around 8:30. Final destination -- Muenster, Texas. I can't help but pronounce that name with a heavy slow drawl in my mind, but Muenster really is a cute little town worth working in to a visit if possible, especially if it's around their German-fest celebration. It seems Muenster was settled by German Catholic immigrants and Muenster has one of the prettiest churches around.

So back to the ride... Everything was pretty uneventful as we left the metroplex and worked our way north on small two lane backroads. About twenty minutes out, we came up on a couple of large slow moving trucks. I've got to give the lead rider props for being so patient and waiting for a good time to pass. Then once he had passed he stayed in the left lane to let us know the road was clear. Riding in about the 4th spot, I loved cracking that throttle open and feeling that big bike turn into a missle. In the blink of an eye I was past the truck and back on the brakes to get back in line. Surprisingly no one else following came with me. We cruised along for a few miles but still no one followed. We were going to double back when one of the riders in our pack said he knew the other guys and they like taking their time and might even take a different route so we shouldn't worry about them.

We rolled on and finally hit stretches of twisty road. The roller coasters up hills and down to bridges over creeks was fun, but there's nothing like slowly sliding off the seat in a lean and rolling through a fast sweeper. We had a blast for the next 30 minutes or so. I'm really glad I was following someone who rode at a quick pace and really knew the roads well. His visual cues really helped me anticipate road changes and helped me set good entrance speeds for turns with which I was unfamiliar. By the time we finally pulled into the restaurant in Muenster, I had done a pretty good job of scuffing my boots on both sides and shaving the chicken strips on the tires down to about a 1/4". Not bad for a big ole' bagger.

.Second breakfast was great. I only wish my tubby body wasn't on a diet so I could have had some of those wonderful looking pastries. Maybe next time... or maybe 15 pounds later. I really enjoyed visiting with those guys and when the 2nd group caught up with us, we found out that right as I was getting ready to make my pass, a patrol car pulled out and followed the trailing rider. He paced them for about 10 miles and that's when we got really separated. I couldn't help but flinch thinking that probably only a few seconds kept me from a speeding ticket. Sometimes lady luck smiles

After breakfast, I had to get cooking to get back home since I had started later than usual, so I super-slabbed it. When I rolled in the driveway, I really couldn't help but smile when I looked at the bike. The FJR felt like a 600cc sport bike in the twisties and never felt sluggish or unstable and on the road back, the ride was silky smooth and so comfortable. Maybe you can have your cake and eat it too. (can't wait for those 15 lbs to come off to put that to the test)