What a fantastic weekend!
March 24th, 2009 • chatter
Aside from raining all last week and all day Saturday, the weekend turned out great. We go to go on our first poker run! It was the first annual Boca Raton American Cancer Society Ride For Strides poker run and it was a blast. Except the sore butts and sunburned skin, that is. The run was almost ruined by the weather except it was sunny and in the 70s all day Sunday with isolated showers. Those isolated showers came about an hour after we got home from the run and went all night. I don’t think that 8 hours of rain is “isolated” by any means.
There were not as many riders as expected but that was because of the rain. The turnout was still fairly good for a first year poker run that happened to coincide with a terrible week of weather. I believe around 100 bikes registered although, not all of them finished at the end. I know that some of the firefighters we rode with did not make it to the final stop. Hopefully they have it again next year and more people show up! Since it was a poker run, we played 6 hands of poker and had absolutely nothing. In fact, there was one good hand I believe, a four-of-a-kind. However, Jess did win the 50/50 raffle and won $70! That helped pay for groceries tonight, which was super awesome.
The ride itself was very nice, most of the travel was up and down A1A for some gorgeous scenery. We didn’t take many pictures because Jess did not feel so comfortable but there will be some up soon from the some of the stops. I did get to wear my new Fieldsheer mesh jacket and it worked WONDERFULLY. With a name like “High Temp Mesh Jacket”, you figure that a video review of the jacket would at least mention the fact that it’s extremely well ventilated but the one at Motorcycle Superstore leaves that little tidbit out. Despite the name, not all mesh jackets flow air properly. However, mine definitely does! Even tonight as I was riding home from school with my backpack on, I was very cool with my back a little warm because of the lack of air under the pack.
But tonight was a special night for me. It’s the first time I ever ran out of gas while on a ride. It was also the first time my battery died. Both on the side of I-95, not the safest place I want to wait for my girlfriend to bring me gas. Or have to jump my bike off. Running out of gas while on the way to get gas is ironic enough but then having my battery die because of keeping the lights on for safety is just sucky. At the point I realized that the battery was dead, I was ready for someone to just run into the bike and total it, I was so frustrated. Then the insurance I bought last week would have already paid itself off and I would have had a bigger bike! It was embarrassing but at least I know now when I need to get gas when running on the reserve and to never leave the running lights on for more than 20 minutes. I should probably get a new battery and fuel filter now that I’ve run the bike into the ground, essentially. I can’t believe it took me almost 90 minutes to get back home after leaving school tonight. I’ll know better next time!
Right now, I need to get to bed. Another fun day of work and school tomorrow.
That’s awesome that you did the ACS ride, way to go!