Solo

 

"The red cup or the StarWars guy, Han?"  Neither, but thanks for asking.  I got out for a solo ride today.  Joan was calling this a "chore day," wanting to get laundry and grocery shopping done.  She encouraged me to get out on the bike... I thought I heard something about "He's cranky when he doesn't get to ride..." or something like that.

She packed me a snack-type lunch and programmed the route we discussed into my phone.  She said, "If you get lost, call me."  I'm thinking: if I get lost, I will just lay down and let the buzzards eat me... but I'm not in Arizona, and I don't know if they even have buzzards around here... so I will just lay down and let the bears eat me.  I know they have bears, 'cause we saw one already.  But, I digress.  The route was the reverse of a ride we did last week: this time, out past the town of Cruso, up the twisty road from there to the Blue Ridge Parkway, ride that back to the exit for Maggie Valley, then back to the motorhome.  No, I'm not going to get lost, but it is an entertaining 2 1/2 to 3 hour ride.

I shot video with my DJI Action 4 and Mic2, and added the Insta360 X4 to the mix.  No, you won't see any video in this post, because 7 Action 4 vids and 3 X4 vids came out to over 100 gigabytes!  It took a couple hours just to process and download those 10 video clips, and it will take WAY longer than that to edit them into something usable.  I had started the editing process when my MacBook Pro said, "Warning, Will Robinson - Danger!  Danger!  You are running short on memory!  Abort!"  I don't know why it calls me Will Robinson?  But, you get 10 bonus points if you said, "From the 60s TV show Lost In Space."

So, instead of a video, here's a few photos: from Cruso Road...

And, from the Blue Ridge Parkway...

If you think you saw BLUE SKY in a couple of those photos, you are correct.  If you think it lasted until I got back to the coach, you are fooling yourself.  Yes, I got rained on for the last half hour or so.  Surprise!

On the bright side, the new rear tire did fine (and yes, I did check the tires before heading out and once along the way).  Nobody tried to take me off the road, but one car with Wisconsin plates did stop in the middle of the road on the Parkway.  No, I don't know why.

I did stop for gas on the way back to the coach: 91 mpg.  Pretty impressive for what I would call spirited riding.

From what I was told, Joan did not have as much fun as I did (something about people who leave their clothes in the dryer and don't come back for them... I would just toss 'em in the corner, but she is nicer than I am.  But, she did finish what I didn't eat from my snack lunch (chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A and some apple slices).  I took her out for an early supper at a Mexican restaurant.  She and Murphy had some outdoor time together while I downloaded video clips, then I took Murph for a walk.  Well, mostly a stand.

Tomorrow, we take the car back, so if there's any running we need to do, that will be the last opportunity to do it with an enclosed vehicle.  After that, we're back to being scooter commuters.  I am hoping Mother Nature will be kind.