Predictably, so did the motorbikers! Four of us – Avi, Rakesh, John and yours truly rode to Norcross for a lunch at the Iron Horse Tavern. While in my old stomping grounds, of course, I had to meet my old buddies Tim and Nanette too! We missed you Marte!

Finished 5000 miles on the first motorbike of my life. That took about nine months…

Nearly 200 miles (300km) ride on a glorious, sunny but cool day.
Breakfast at Ellijay, short stop at Morganton, coffee break at the popular bikers’ place – Two Wheels in Suches (picture from there) and then back home.
The inset will show some additional adventure we had. Had to pull over by the highway due to a flat tire in one of the bikes.

We had reached our destination during our motorbike ride this morning and all of us pulled over for a coffee. The whole area (Dahlonega) is a very popular place for bikers – especially on a great sunny weekend day like today.

We were all having coffee and watching the other bikes and bikers when we saw this really cool thing happen. A bike pulled up to the traffic light and stopped.

THE RIDER HAD A DOG SITTING BEHIND HIM!!

The dog had a seat belt strapping him down to his seat. As we started excitedly pointing each other towards that bike, the dog casually turned around and looked at us.

IT HAD SUNGLASSES ON !!!

And then nonchalantly rode off with his rider as the signal turned green!

Haven’t seen something this cool in quite some time!!

Beautiful fall weather is here in Atlanta and the Georgia mountains. Great ride with Hima, John, Ashok and Anil.

Sharmila was out for five days. I could not take the motorcycle out. Well, I could have but was too scared to. The first thought that always went thru my mind was “What if something happens to me? Who is going to pick Nikita up from school?” 🙂

Well, she came back last night (actually early this morning – that too without her suitcase but that is a different story altogether). This morning took the bike out for a spin and came back home totally drenched in the rains.

But reached the 4000 mile mark, nonetheless!!

Nobody in our group was ready to bike today. Luckily, Avi’s tennis match was canceled – else I was going to have to ride all by myself.

Rode up to Helen and had lunch at a restaurant by the river. The real fun was on our way back. For about 5 miles, we got completely drenched by a good bit of rain. Unfortunately, we were on the highway by then and there were not too many places to pull over to. We just kept going.

The low visibility with the raindrops splattering on the helmet visor made sure our speeds were slower than normal. I, of course, was scared stiff of any hydroplaning. But what was really making me miserable was how cold it was feeling on the skin – drenched like a drain rat and then the wind hitting us continuously (we were riding at around 60 mph (100 kmph)).

We kept pulling thru – all the time I kept myself warm thinking of how I was going to jump into the hot tub once I reached home.

This being, Atlanta, I did not have to worry about any such thing. In about 5 miles, we hit broad sunlight. There was not a drop of water on the road. Back to hot and humid weather.

With speeds picking up and the sun beating down, the clothes were dry before we knew it.

That was a good trip, all in all. Gained a little more confidence in riding in the rain…