I left home this morning on my Harley-Davidson® Road King® to go to the local Harley-Davidson Dealer's for the new members ride with the local HOG Chapter. There was cause to wonder how many of our Chapter hard core members might be willing to take on the soaring, already high 30's temperatures of the day. When I arrived I was very happy to see it was pretty much business as usual.
One of our members was standing behind the BBQ letting the weather gods know they hadn't made it too hot for him yet! With him there was about 20 other members including some newbies. About a dozen had turned up ready to ride, others had dropped in for a sausage sanga and a chat.
With the feeding and socialising done the ride briefing was delivered, clarifiying the route, which is one I'd not been on before so I was desperately hoping I didn't get left behind after East Maitland or I'd be relying on my GPS to get me home. Soon enough we were on our way.
I was looking forward to getting moving so the sweat would start drying off and cooling me down, but realised that wasn't going to happen when at the first set of lights my Road King kicked into rear cyclinder off cooling mode. Despite the heat though, spirits were high and as we started to wind our way through some scenic farmland the heat didn't matter, the ride and the scenery was all that was noticed.
We arrived at the destination, a country pub, very thirsty. Most of us parked out our motorcycles under the trees outside and made a rush for the thankfully air-conditioned public bar. The barmaid was very efficient, making two drinks (one water) for most of us in the first round and provided us with a few baskets of twisties to munch on, I guess they could be considered electrolyte replacements for the more diet conscious of us.
We chatted for an hour or so and then walked back out into the heat to get ready for the ride home. A couple of the members that knew the way back kindly let me follow them, others went another way but we still met up at one point on the way back.
Great ride guys, once again I have been shown what HOG spirit is about, and that taking an opportunity to ride our Harley-Davidsons and spend time with friends more important than dodging heat and waiting for a southerly.
Sadly I didn't grab any photos of this ride, camera was too hot to hold :-)