03/08/08 - Snow Day

Saturday was one of those days you normally wouldn’t ride a motorcycle, its blowing snow, high winds, about 28 degrees, why would anyone in their right mind ride a motorcycle. Well I guess that’s a question for another day, cause I did. The Alabaster chapter of the Southern Cruisers had a charity event and I being the grand poo-baa of the Trussville chapter felt it was my duty to attend. I started out about 7:15AM, I was supposed to meet some folks at the Chevron but I knew in my heart I’d be going solo on this one. Their just aren’t that many crazy bikers any more. I was waiting inside the gas station and my goldwing was parked out by the road. I took the goldwing because it was fitted with electric heating gear connections, something you generally want to have on snow days. While in the gas station it reached whiteout conditions, when I emerged my whole bike was covered in show as the windshield was acting like a big scoop. I brushed it off the seat and went forth on the rolling snow catcher down the highway. It started out ok but about the second bridge I crossed on I-459 I hit some ice. I caught a wicked cross wind as well and I was next to an 18 wheeler. At this point I was starting to think I’d made a mistake. I have had some bad experiences on the massive I-20 overpass on 459 before so I bailed on the interstate and took some back roads. There was a really icy bridge on that back road as well but the difference was there were no cars around bearing down on me. I could see the interstate from where I was and I saw numerous cars all smashed up and mangled on the far side of the afore mentioned I-20 overpass. At this point I was REALLY thinking this was stupid. But it was probably a better bet to press forward than to try and run that gauntlet back to Argo so I pressed on, which turned out to be a good move as I didn’t see any ice after that. It was cold, but my heated gear kept me plenty toasty and the ride turned out to be a wonderful dice run which included a stop at a winery for a wine tasting. All in all a very good day. I can now say I’ve ridden in snow, not as unusual as you would think for a yankee but for a southern boy this is a big deal