Motorcycle First Thursday–April 2014

Last night was the first Thursday in April, and that means hanging out at Dulono’s Pizza in Minneapolis with fun motorcycle people. In the morning, it looked like I might not be the only rider, but by lunch it was freezing rain and then heavy snow by 5pm. I think the weather scared away a number of folks, but all the fun ones managed to show up. I had a blast chatting inside!

When I came out, it was snowing even harder with about two-three inches of snow. I stopped off at Bob’s Java Hut for a few hours and it was closer to four-six inches by 10pm.

A few blocks after leaving the café, a guy in a completely snow covered car started yelling at me. He kept saying I was insane and awesome and wanted to take my picture. I gave him a thumbs-up. We were waiting at a red light; he in the left lane and me in the right. He jumped out of his car slipping and sliding and started snapping pictures while continuing to say how awesome I was. I waved while I was laughing at him under my helmet. He really cracked me up. He was way too excited. He made it back to his car just as the light turned green and we both pulled away.

The ride home was invigorating! The wind was blowing the snow so hard visibility was less than a 1/4 mile if not just a block. The three lanes of freeway were rutted into two and with the few vehicles out making their own lanes. The rear of the sidecar was wandering quite a lot swaying side to side while the rear tire was loosing traction with almost rhythmic frequency.

Slow and steady and I made it home without incident. Others were not so lucky, there were at least a dozen cars in the ditch. I should probably put my new tires on soon. It’s 40F again today, so hopefully the snow will melt by Monday. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride!