Good Ride, But A Wet One

I say if you're never donning the rain gear on the side of the road in order to get where you're going without getting totally soaked, you don't ride enough. Either that, or you are an unprepared knucklehead that deserves to get wet. My Frogg Toggz raingear got deployed this afternoon for the ride home and kept me nice and dry. Don't get me wrong, I am not hard core enough to be venturing out in a rainstorm or doing a long distance road trip where a rainy travel day becomes necessary. But missing out on a whole day of riding because of the chance of isolated showers doesn't make much sense to me. I have plenty of storage space, so the raingear is always in my right saddlebag.

The ride started out like normal. I filled up with fuel before getting to our meet up spot. Hazy sun off and on and temps in the mid 70's made me ditch my sweatshirt once I got parked. The restaurant we normally get breakfast sammiches from is closed for vacation until tomorrow, so I had to settle for the microwave version from 7-11. The sammich wasn't terrible and the date thing is just a coinky-dink. The planned ride was to head for the northwest corner of the state to the town of Falls Village for a town wide car/truck/motorcycle show. It was KSU about 10:15 and there were 9 bikes hitting the road. This group tends to minimize interstate miles, so we did a short run on I-84 west to get across the river and onto RT.44 over Avon Mountain. A quick stop at the Cumberland Farms in Winsted for coffee and fuel and we were off to our final destination. I was thinking there would be no stops, but we're an older crowd, so...

Apparently, the town roads of Falls Village are where the show happens. Through traffic is blocked except for show vehicles and open to spectators on foot. We were allowed in on our bikes and parked at the post office which was closed for Sunday. Even though the skies were kinda gloomy, we viewed lots of show vehicles. Then it was time for lunch. The local VFW had a grill tent set up with hotdogs and hamburgers for cheap. That's when the sprinkles started off and on. Just enough to get things slightly wet, but after the 3rd round was when the guys without rain gear wanted to leave to try and get ahead of the rain. Shortly after they left the show cars started their exodus, and that's when my Goldwing bud and I also made our exit. I keep a good sized white towel in the left saddlebag for two reasons. First, as a cover for my seat when the sun is blazing. The seat is black and gets wicked hot and the white towel keeps it cool. Second, like today when I can quickly wipe it dry from rain. I let a Harley rider that was leaving the same time we were use it to dry his seat. Kinda guy I am.

We only got a few miles up on RT. 7 when it became obvious we were gonna need our rain gear. We pulled into a parking lot to put it on. I had my doubts whether it was necessary, but those doubts went away as we headed east on RT.44. Through Canaan, Norfolk, and Colebrook it was light steady rain. Then we hit Winsted where the rain got harder and was absolutely pouring just east of town. Not only was the rain a problem, but the temperature dropped into the 60's thanks to the rain. Another benefit of raingear. Some of the riders in our group only had shorts and t-shirts. Once we got into Canton that was pretty much the end of it. The rest of the ride was uneventful. As I got closer to home I got a hankering for ice cream, and got some at a place that sells locally made Shady Glen brand. There are plenty of places to get soft serve, but I am not a fan or 4 years old, and that's just not ice cream.