I went for a break-in ride which was for me not the bike. I haven't taken a ride since July 12th, 2008 and am feeling a little rusty. I thought I would take a nice easy route to shake the cobwebs and get the motions imprinted back in my brain. I hadn't been east much since we moved to Colorado Springs, all the action and scenery is west in the mountains. I knew east was pretty flat and the roads straight so I had an idea of what to expect. Colorado State Route 94 did not dispel my expectations .
I started off from the house cruising through the neighborhood being careful to obeying the speed limit. Still not familiar with the area I followed the Google Map directions down Powers Blvd to State Route 24 heading towards Limon. After a couple of miles of busy city traffic I hit 94 and headed east. After a few miles of some gentle turns I was headed toward Shriever Air Force Base and Ellicott. I literally saw the road stretched out before me and decided to set the top of the hill where the road came out of the valley as my goal.
The road was free of traffic on a Monday afternoon so I decided to blow the carbon out of the engine. I usually stay as close to the speed limit as possible but being as it was 65 and I could see about twenty miles of the road laid down in front of me I hit about 85. I know that doesn't seem like much coming from a bike capable of 130 plus but I would hate to hit a rabbit at triple digits. I passed through Ellicott quickly. It was a hard scrabble little community with some house trailers and modular homes at various angles here and there, like someone took a handful of blocks and scattered them on a table. The main business seemed to be a junk yard on the west edge of town.
I kept on going about five miles out of town to the top of that darned hill. It had a kind of siren call on me, I had to see what was on the other side. The picture above is what was there to greet me. My curiosity satisfied I turned around and headed home. The trip back was a little more enjoyable with Pike's Peak giving me aomething to look at besides scrub brush and fence line. It's top was peeking out of the layer of clouds at the base. It was a pretty site but hard to get a good picture of.
The ride would have ordinarily been a boring trip but it's been so long since I've been aboard either bike I was just happy to be riding. Plus this easy drive helped me boost me confidence up a little. I was afraid that I would be a lot rustier than it turns out I was. It was a great ride with perfect 58 degree weather and when I got home I had Moon, our dog waiting to greet me. Not a bad day even though I only went 60 miles. I'm looking forward to boosting that up tomorrow.
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