Wednesday North Central ROMEO Lunch Ride for 1-27-16

[Richard]

Guys - My computer has pretty well just crapped out. I Had to buy my wife a brand new laptop and now her old one is what I'm left with. I'ts completely different than mine and not as user friendly. It's taken me the better part of today just to learn how to peck one digit at a time on this thing.
Somebody please take over the group fast or I may be committing hari kari very soon.

The weather channel says that Wednesday is supposed to be 51 degrees or more so I want to ride. I can pretty well guarantee that I won't be writing up a ride report however. Too time consuming!

Here's the deal....it's too late to call and give advance notice of our visit so let's go someplace larger than normal that we know will be open and can handle us. That's the plan!

Here's the time.............................................12:30 pm

Here's the place............................................EL LORITO
117 S. MAIN
HILLSBORO, KS.
620-947-0260

As always..........................ride careful, ride safe and I'll see you in Hillsboro. Richard
http://bit.ly/1uLkbOc
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Wahoo------------guys, I'm back in the real world. Wait....I've said that before and the world came crashing down on me so I shouldn't be smug!
Actually, I didn't do it at all. Joyce did! I admit, I really don't have a clue as to what I'm doing on this dumb thing. I just type away and then scream bloody murder when things don't work. Thank goodness for patient people around me that come to my rescue.
Now, you guys....see why I want someone to take over. Oh, I don't plan to quit cold turkey but I do need some time away before this thing causes me to have a stroke. The older I get the less stress I need in my life and this thing is jam packed full of STRESS!
It's not the searching out of the little places to go to that gives me stress. In fact I really enjoy the challenge of finding some new place we've never been to before. It's the contant fight on this computer and I know it's entirely my fault for being slow to learn and resistant to change. Both are symptoms my wife has been dealing with for lo these past 52 years.
Anyway...51 degrees yesterday felt like a breath of spring. At least a small sample of it.
I rode over by myself yesterday because this was the first chance I have had to ride behind my recently trimmed windshield.
A week or so ago, I rode my Vstar 1300 up to Salina and visited with a firm called Glass Services. I became familiar with this firm years ago when I had the Motel. A mirror sometimes got broken though nobody ever knew how, and this firm was always
available with stock on hand to custom cut another to get me going. Out of the clear blue one day, I stopped in to visit about trimming my 24inch winshield down to a height I could see over. They inspected the bike while I was there and thought it was something they could do and wouldn't mind trying if I would give them a waiver for damage since this was a new venture. I agreed but requested they be extremely careful. And they were!
Some background here....next to a Kawasaki 900 shield, this is probably the tallest shield ever mounted on a bike. One would have to be well over 6 foot tall to be able to even peek over the top. It's very undesireable in mist or rain and moreso on a dirty highway when it gets so cloudy everthing becomes invisible. I don't like the height and was determined to fix it!
I realize that when you cut something off, it's pretty much permanent. So, I measured and remeasured. I sat up straight like you see the motor officers do and took a measurement from that position thinking that I wouldn't be too far off.
We marked it up and I had them cut 2 inches from the top. I also liked the way my Gold Wing shield has a flat top rather than round. It seems to be relatively quiet with no buffeting. This is what we went for!
Wednesday was my first real test and it passed with flying colors as far as I was concerned. I'm looking through the top inch on a cruisers slouch. If I straighten up into a motor officers seating position I'm looking right over the top of the shield. Mission accomplished! Oh, buy the way, if you have never tried riding using the motor officers position, butt to the back of the seat, back arched and relaxed, hands loose on the grips....you can ride for hours which is indeed what they do, with absolutely no tension. Why don't I ride lime this all the time?
Anyway....I am so happy with the windshield that it has turned the just OK bike into a pure joy to ride. What does pure joy cost? $75.00.
Hey, I should mention that we had 18 folks for lunch that braved the ride over to Hillsboro and the top long distance riders with 65 miles were Mak and Nancy McGaughey from Hutchinson.
This was also the first time the ROMEO's had ventured to this neat little place. Prices were right. I had the special which was priced at $4.99. Can't beat that!
Naturally, the day cannot be called complete without ice cream so quite a number of us ventured over to Durham arriving just 20 minutes before they closed but they were very acommodating and some of us had pie, some had pie with ice cream, some had just ice cream but I had a huge frosted cinnamon roll. We all had a great time riding and being ROMEO's.

[Roadpounder]

sorry but I've been out of circulation for a while. Winter does that to me. I tend to go into hibernation. But this week the weather got my attention enough to get the bike out. Hillsboro was calling and it looked like it might even warm up enough to bring Leo. But alas the temperature didn't come up enough by departure time. So Leo had to stay home. But at least he wasn't alone as we have taken another member into our family. We adopted another Mini Dachshund. His name when we got him was "Lil Dude". But that seemed like something you call a dog when you don't know what to call him. So after careful consideration we renamed him Fritz. A good solid German name. It took him about 3 days to warm up to me. The first night I couldn't get within 10' of him and he would bolt. But gradually he started letting me pet him between growls. By the third day he jumped on my lap, and now he's a real lap lander. Now of course Leo has to weigh in on this issue, and jealousy rears it's ugly head, so I wind up with both of them on my lap and then I try to squeeze my computer in the middle which makes typing a real adventure. Thank goodness for spell check. If not for that this would look like hieroglyphics.

Wednesday morning rolled around and we joined up at Sleep Inn for the trip to Hillsboro. It started out a little cool, but temps started to come up by the time we got there. We arrived at the Main Street Cafe. A quaint little Mexican restaurant. I'm not particularly into Mexican food I proceeded on the assumption there would be something to tickle my fancy. Upon perusing the menu I hit upon chicken fried steak. It sounded good so took the plunge. It worked well and I didn't leave hungry. Afterward several of us charged off to Durham for ice cream and pie. I heard the pie was exceptionally good. I took the pie menu expecting to find the obligatory apple pie to satisfy my sweet tooth, when there it was, jumping off the page like a bolt from the heavens. The Holy Grail of fruit pies. Strawberry Rhubarb!! The waitress took my order and fluttered off as if on angelic wings. She returned shortly with treasure in hand. At first bite it was almost as though I could hear a chorus of angles sing. I was in desert paradise.

Friday we took further advantage of the weather and headed for Yoder and the Carriage House. We left the Sleep Inn at 10:30 But Duane stayed behind to wait for Gary who got a late start. We stopped in Buhler to check out a small bike shop there and a KLR650 they had. By the time we got to Yoder Duane and Gary were already there. We figured we'd give them time to catch up. When I ordered I figured I was about chickened out from all the chicken I have at home so I went for broke and ordered their ginormus steak. I've never been disappointed at the Carriage House, and I've definitely never left hungry. The food is excellent and plentiful. Several of us headed straight back to Salina. When I got home I pilled up to my mail box to collect my daily allotment of junk mail, then reached for my coat pocket to hit the button to open the garage door only to find the pocket unzipped and empty empty. GREAT!! I lost my remote for the garage door, Parking the bike I resigned myself to the fact that that steak just cost me another $35. I decided to drown my sorrows in a tall glass of iced tea. While I nuked a glass of water there came a knock at the door. Shorty and Duane where there. Duane and I parted ways in Lindsborg when he pulled into a gas station, so his visit was something of a surprise. On the way back Duane was in the lead, followed by me and then Bud. Apparently Bud had seen the remote fall from my pocket and picked it up and gave it to Duane who returned it to me. Tremendously relieved I could finally sit down and enjoy my glass of tea. All in all it was a good day.