Is it that time?

[M & J Mason]

I got out for a 300 mile/480km ride on Wednesday.  There was a lull in 
cottage to house renovation, the heat wave had passed and Marilyn said she 
would look after the dog.  It was basically the first ride of the season on 
the v strom.  I'd ridden both the Triumph TR6C and the Honda XL farther than 
the Suzuki this year.
 I got out to Eganville and decided to checkout the Ruby road site of the 
tree incident of October 2010.  I was about 3 km short of the site of the 
accident when I discovered they were resurfacing the road and it is now 
loose gravel.  I got a little out of shape before I got the bike under 
control.  I decided I didn't need 18 km of fresh gravel and beach sand so I 
turned around and retraced  my path to come out on to the Brudenell Road 
about 4 miles west of  Ruby Road. I stopped at the Bay Cafe Bistro in 
Barry's Bay for lunch. It has excellent food.  But by changing the name from 
the Bay Diner they were able to jack the prices up 80% to nail the summer 
tourists and odd MC rider.
Only had one minor incident as I was coming into Madawaska.  I was in a left 
hand sweeper with cottages on the right side and the Madawaska river on the 
left.  I glanced a little too long at a bikini clad young maiden who was 
doing a nice job of decorating a dock on the river side.  I found myself 
riding the center line when I snapped out of my gaze.
This was supposed to be a short ride and I realized that my right knee and 
my butt were starting to bother me and I was 150 miles out at Wilberforce 
after the Peterson road.
I should have stopped at the Kawartha Dairy in Bancroft for their $5.00 
shake.   I don't know how good the fi' dolla shake Uma Thurman had in the 
movie " Pulp Fiction" was but Kawartha Dairy's is worth the $.  I didn't 
need 1/2 a gallon of shake in my stomach with 100 miles left to get home.
The bike ran flawlessly and it was a beautiful day.   Yesterday I noticed my 
back had a few kinks in it from the ride.  I took one of the kayaks out on 
the Ottawa river for a couple of hours checking out a few shoals that are 
showing up as the river level is dropping do to heat and no appreciable rain 
in the Georgia sized area 500 miles to the north of us where the source of 
the  Ottawa River and its tributaries are.  The kayaking helped.  Well 
actually the sunburn on my legs took the pain in my back off my mind.  Its 
sort of like putting a twitch (a piece of twisted rope) around a horse's 
nose to keep his mind occupied while you perform some kind of treatment 
(like sewing up an 8 inch gash in his chest with out pain killers). He will 
stand very still and calm.
Looks like we have a week of heat wave on its way so there won't be any 
riding for a while.

Jim
Notice with the increase in the cost of ammunition, a warning shot will not 
be forth coming.
Times are tough.