First ride of spring

It was a short ride, but a ride none the less. 

It started early in the morning when I took the FJR out from the back of the garage, dropped a battery into it, and it fired up instantly. Filled the tires with air and replaced a burned out tail light, let it warm up, and then parked it for a few hours as I ran errands. 


Then Chuck and I hiked up Barn Bluff for excellent views of Red Wing.

We even saw a fox!

Later in the afternoon we were to meet at Smokey Row Cafe for lunch. However, upon arriving there (a few minutes late, too), I attempted to park near Tim and Scot's cycles but noticed that a minivan with a handicap access ramp was right next to them - and Tim's bike was in the way. So was mine. Tim was nowhere to be seen. As I moving my own out of the way, the driver of the van, a young girl with lots of tattoos and clearly out of shape, came up to me and starting shouting that if her ramp knocks over some bikes, that's not her problem. WTF, are they assuming that since I am on a motorcycle, I can just go ahead and move a bunch of other motorcycles? Wasn't it abundantly clear that I had just arrived? I asked her if she could just back up the van ten feet and then load their passenger? While she was getting more belligerent, the older people (of which one was in the wheelchair) agreed with me that was not a problem .. but the young girl continued to be a jackass and refused to move the van, and we should not have parked there in the first place. 

You know what they say about arguing with idiots, and I don't want to be the type of macho jerk who links my ego to whether I "win" petty arguments, so I asked Chuck find Tim and ask him to move his bike (I was still doffing gear). While they were doing that, I suggested to the old folks that they put a sign on the side of the van requesting that drivers leave clearance for the wheelchair ramp.

One grilled yellowfin ahi tuna sandwich later (with aioli sauce), spirits unbowed, we had decided on a short ride around Lake Pepin. This past winter in Minnesota the road crews have been using beet juice to mix with salt instead of magnesium chloride, and I suspect they have thus used less sand too. On the western side of the Mississippi there wasn't much sand at all, but on the eastern side, we stayed on Hwy 35 as the side roads were clearly full of sand. Being late in the afternoon, and Great River Roasters not having opened yet, we stopped in Nelson for Ice Cream and then simply rode home.

For a lack of anything else to do, and an abundance of beer in my kegs, the obvious conclusion of the day was for the guys to ride home and get the Fair Marie to haul them back to my house where we viewed photos and videos from prior Walt Ride's (and making a good dent in my IPA keg too!).


 On a different note, Brian got for a ride on his new (to him) Buell, and went west. However, he encountered some water.