Today's the first day of Fall or Autumn or whatever season comes after summer. The late summer burst of warmth a week or so ago was a nice end to a mediocre summer. It's now chilly/cold, gray, windy, snotty, and very Seattle like. I'm still riding but am riding the "winter" bike (the BMW) more than the Duc now. The heated grips and full fairing make a big difference.  I'm going to switch out the short sport shield to the tall and wide touring shield for better protection from the elements today. I've also put my liner back in my coat, am wearing a turtle neck over my regular shirt and bought a new pair of waterproof cool weather gloves yesterday and it gets dark later in the morning and much earlier in the evening.  Yup, time to make sure we're ready for winter. Hopefully it won't be as nasty as last November and December, but I need to make sure we have all emergency gear ready just in case.

 

Yuck, I miss summer already.

 

My riding buddies are somewhere in southern Oregon or northern California this weekend exploring new unmarked roads that only the true two wheeled adventurer would go out of their way to find. I hope one of them has a GPS with enough storage for tracks for the last few days so we can attempt a repeat next spring.

 

Here's a few pics from Bong and the guys somewhere south of Hood River.

 

 

 

This is Mark's custom K1200S, I think this is at Crater Lake.

 

 

 

Apparently I spoke too soon, summer is back at least for a few more days. And what have I been doing with it? Well working of course . Last week cut the grass and painted most of our bedroom. This weekend, more errands and finish painting the bedroom we started last weekend. There's a killer ride to Mt St Helens tomorrow, but I don't think I can get away for the day. Bummer. This will probably be the last great weekend of the summer before Fall really hits and stays.  Hopefully I can get out somewhere for a couple of hours tomorrow so the entire day doesn't go to waste.

Funny how quickly the seasons are changing. It was just last week we had temps near 80 and it was still comfy to be wearing shorts.  With Labor Day last weekend we ushered in Fall and said goodbye to Summer. The mornings are now dark, brisk and foggy. The munchkins are out again at the bus stops and if I dont leave early enough I get stuck behind the frequent stops of the school bus. I actually wore my heated liner last weekend and used my heated grips. I removed the little sport shield from the BMW and remounted the larger touring screen to protect me from the elements. And I'm shopping around for some waterproof gloves as I know I'll be riding in the rain again soon. I think I'll be riding the BMW on a regular basis now and only taking my Duc out on special occassions for a while.  It was a great summer, can't wait for Spring '08!