Monday, October 26, 2009

Yo, Adrian

Workin' is for suckers!

KevAndDonna had some extra PTO to burn before the end of the year, and we put aside an unscheduled day for that bolt from the blue when the weather is supposed to be perfect for riding and we sit looking out the window. Even in the winter you get those surprise days, but as the corollary to Murphy's Law states, the odds that this will happen on a weekend is nowhere near as good as 2 of 7.

Last weekend, that day looked for all the world like the coming Thursday, and with the year-end craziness right around the corner, we put in our PTO first thing Monday. I will say at this time that the weather never did get as sunny as the forecast called for even that very morning. But we stayed dry. And Donna got to try out her new 'lectric gloves.

Philly is home to what is allegedly the largest rolling toy run in the country. Of all the things we've done, we've never been to that, so we were going to try like hell to get there on Sunday. This made it an easy decision to take an old horse-and-buggy road down to the COBL and take Donna on a cheesesteak tour while scoping out the rendezvous point for the run.

I will say at this time that I can take you to any number of places in the Lehigh Valley, including J's Steaks and Subs, and get you a better cheesesteak than you will get in the streets of Philly. But I had to prove this to Donna, and it's kinda fun to be elbow-to-elbow with a bunch of lunch-bucket types and have 'em trow da food at youse when it's ready. We were going to be in the neighborhood, so...

First stop was Tony Lukes, down near the stadiums, where you order and they take your name and give you a slip. And you wait. About 5 minutes in, they called for Adrian, and we wondered to each other if the dude just did that for posterity purposes, or if it was actually his name. There are a LOT of Italians in South Philly. Anyway, we got an American Wit, and it was no better than decent in our humble opinions. Next, we headed up 10th St. to Passyunk Ave., home of both Pat's and Geno's. Since we'd already split one cheesesteak, we just ordered a Provi Pizza Wit from Pat's and skipped Geno's. We did go over and look at his choppers, though.

On the way out, we did a flyby of Independence Hall, and tipped our cap to ol' Billy Penn on our way around City Hall. Up past the Art Museum (Rocky Balboa nowhwere to be found) and thru Fairmount Park to Donna's test for the day. Parking at Pat's, her foot slipped in the busted macadam and loose gravel and she almost dropped the bike right there in that sorry-assed torn-up street. But my girl's not just good looks, and had the strength and skill to save it. That' wasn't the real test. Now, in Fairmount Park, Lincoln Drive was milled, still wet from the runoff of days of rain, and packed with traffic. For a couple miles, it's a 20-mph speed limit thru some crazy blind hairpin turns in a city park. But none of those SUV drivers wanted anything to do with 20.
Of course, by now we know that Donna will prevail, and prevail she did. In a few more minutes, we were headed up 309 just in time to beat the evening rush. Fuggedaboudit.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Recuperating

We're back home, a little worse for wear, but all smiles nonetheless. And, my bike has proven itself to be fixed, so I guess I replaced the right part. Now I just need to figure out where my gas mileage went...

The weekend started off a little sketchy; we rode back to my apartment to get some stuff I forgot, and ended up riding into rain. Then, we barely kept ahead of it once we did turn around and get headed south.

It seems that every ride we go on, Donna ends up having to pass some kind of test. Dirt roads, nighttime rain, gale winds, whatever. I test her. This time, I pulled the secret cord and launched my helmet and rainsuit bag into her path 5 minutes after we took them off. She aced again (as usual) and so did the pickup truck behind her, but 10 minutes later we were again trying to ride out of rain. It worked, and we didn't end up putting them back on.

Saturday was a cloudy, rainy day, and we gave up on Chinconteague after getting no further than Ocean City H-D. We instead went to the Maryland end of Assateague Island and ended up in the middle of a bicycle race. We get ourselves into the weirdest stuff...
Friday night, Donna had her party hat on pretty good and I rode us home. Saturday night, we were within walking distance and it was me who was throwing them back pretty good. We hung out with the band between sets, and did some quality drinking. By Sunday morning, Donna was getting a pretty good cold or something (Please no Swine Flu!) and wasn't sounding too good. We were both pretty much glad to get home. By then it was getting pretty chilly, too, so we were glad to rinse the salt off the bikes and curl up under a blanket watching football.

Damn, we are good together.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Crabby

What a good call that was. We rode out of rain somewhere down the PA turnpike, and made it here to Ocean City, MD around 4. It was 80 degrees yesterday and should hit that again today. We rode home from the Purple Moose last night at 1 am, and it was still 75. Overnight is supposed to be in the 30s in Wellsboro, PA, where we initially planned to go.

We came here to settle a bet, the payoff of which was a dinner of steamed crabs. So after we checked in and cleaned up, we found a crabhouse and had a good time smashing the little buggers with our wooden hammers.

And also tonight, we're going to see my buddy Crabby play next door at Fager's Island. He's one of the old CDNOW crew, and Bigg Romeo is still Philly's Hottest Party Band! We saw a chance to take advantage of the synchronicity, and booked the last room in town a few blocks down the street. So it's a Crabfest all the way around for KevAndDonna this weekend.

We're having a great time with our bonus summer weekend here. We are just so good together, it really is pathetic. We're going to get on the bikes and head down to Chinconteague to see the ponies, and when we're tired of riding we're going to hit the boardwalk for a little before getting all cleaned up for our night out with Bigg Romeo.

Also, it's cruiser weekend here, and there are a million cool cars running up and down the main drag. People are lined up and down Coastal Hwy in lawn chairs, and every parking lot looks like a car show with paint shining and hoods up. Again, we lucked into something cool we had no way of expecting. Too cool. We won't even get around to the Oktoberfest festivities at the convention center and the boardwalk.

The backpack containing my laptop fell off the bike Thursday night, and then fell off the couch in the room when we got here. It does not work. So... this is being written from the hotel lobby. No pics here, and this will be the last post until we get home.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Wingin' It

Here we are again, doing what we do best. Getting on the bikes and making it up as we go along.

This weekend was planned 6 months ago as a final getaway in Wellsboro, PA with a couple people we know and a bunch we don't from the bikerornot.com network. Once the early weather forecast stopped swinging wildly from one extreme to another, it settled on cold and wet and began to deteriorate steadily from there. We said from the outset that we could handle one or the other, but a high of 50 and a POP of 75% counts as both. Sunday morning we would be clear, but with frost on the pumpkins. See ya.

So we have just now settled on Plan E, which couldn't be more opposite from the autumn chill ,brilliant fall foliage, and scenic beauty of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania that we'd been looking forward to all these months. But, it will be an unexpected bonus weekend of fun nonetheless. We know what it is, but you will have to check back to find out. It actually fills in a block that we'd been meaning to get to all summer; that's all we'll say.

Hell, the leaves will still be here next weekend, right?