My first real group ride!

[Serendipity]

I joined the local Women in the Wind chapter a couple of months ago, but today was the first time I was able to join them for a group ride. I rode up to the meeting spot about 35 miles away with a chapter member who lives just about a mile from me and we rode up together, stopping first at the local Yamaha/Kawasaki/Honda/Suszuki dealer to pick up some gaskets for Dave's V. Then we met up with the other 6 girls and headed to a neat little restaurant on the beach called the New England Eatery. The first few miles of the trip was through very heavy but fast moving traffic that took some finesse to keep the group together through the turns/intersections. Funny how under kind of stressful situations you realize (even a mere newbie like myself) how automatic your riding becomes. I was pretty proud of myself.  ;D I'll tell you those first few miles of the ride were WAAAY more stressful than the Dragon. LOL

Anyhoo, we rode south down A1A (runs along the beach on the East Coast of FL) to the restaurant. Had some great NE Clam Chowder and Lobster Salad Sandwich. YUM!!! Then we continued south and went over the Wabasso Bridge/Causeway and headed north on US1. Once we got into Sebastian, Susan (my neighbor, of sorts) and I headed west on CR 512 towards home. Wonderful company and a pleasant, easy ride.

The girls all had bikes that were maybe 5 years old at most, mostly metric, at least 750s and above. Only the president rides a HD. Nobody had ever had the good fortune of being in the presence of a V before of course, but all were curious and very respectful of my old Lady. ;)

She ran like a champ of course....just goes to show like so many of you have mentioned, if you run them often they will be good to you. Ever since I have made it a point to at least warm her up in the hangar (with the doors open of course...no Dippity comments!LOL)  at least every other day she has been starting and running great. In fact, there was one point that I was particularly proud of her. Susan was in front, me just behind on the last leg of the trip, since we had to turn off for home well before the others...well, we are at a stop light in the right lane that is a "block" before our left turn for home, with a truck in the left lane. At the light, Susan (who is very experienced and rides a Vulcan 800) looks at me and says, "You and I are going to hit it." I nod, the light turns green and we're off to the races. I didn't want to be the weak link, so I poured it on, trying to get my shifting just right, as I know Susan has more power than me and I don't want to let her down.....well, let's just say I had to hit the brakes to keep from passing her, and maintain my "lane".
Hee, hee, hee. Well, she said, "hit it!!" LOL

Needless to say, that felt goooooood!

For my LROVers, I have to mention how fun it was to stop at the Dealer and shop with a girl....but for motorcycle stuff! Best of both worlds!!!  ;D I also thought it was funny how many smiles we got. Something about 8 women motoring down the road on the bikes seems to really tickle people. Pretty cool.

Patti