Sadly it's been weeks since I was able to get out and ride...life gets in the way sometimes! This weekend I WILL get out and ride!!!!!!

Sunday we went out to a little town a little over an hour away to play putt putt. My boyfriend laughs at me because I buy Groupons for things to do in towns that are an hour from us...things we could easily do closer to home. It's all about the ride.



It was an awesome ride, weather was fantastic. I didn't get any pictures of cool, roadside oddities (unless my boyfriend counts) because much of the ride was fairly populated and all of it was on highways.

I love playing putt putt with my boyfriend, it's the one thing I can always beat him at. Although, he attempted to slow me down...



I still beat him by 12 strokes this game! Woo Hoo.

Awesome day, awesome boyfriend, awesome ride. Looking for a repeat...

Another great ride wandering around on the back roads of central Texas.



Breakfast at Monument Cafe in Georgetown.
Dinner at Andice General Store in Andice.
Out at 9:30 AM, home at 5:30 PM.

Technique Highlights:
1. I started taking curves as slightly above the posted speed limit. Until now I've been very timid going into curves...leaning it over a bit more now.

2. I ALMOST redlined it ...got the tach up to 12.5. Speedo says I was doing 102...given annoying speedo errors I would say actual speed was about 92-94. Fastest I've ever gone while I was driving!

My boyfriend met a new friend at one of our stops...the pooch was very happy to see him, I'm a bit worried!

...

Bound and determined to get an entry in the picture game, I convinced my boyfriend we needed to drive 50 miles to the nearest drive-thru beer place.

Being Sunday in Texas it is, of course, closed but I got my picture in front of it at least. Hope it counts! I hold out hope that one of these days Texas will change it's antiquated laws and allow us heathens to sin on Sunday. Ok, we can buy beer and wine so we can sin a little...as long as we go to church first (beer and wine sales only after noon). I mean, if Kansas can change there laws and allow liquor stores to open on Sunday, there is hope for Texas!



It was a good ride today. We left a around 9:00 this morning, got my picture, had a burger then took the LOOOOONNNNNGGGG way home. Got home around 3:30 which is a little later than I would have liked only because the last hour or so of the ride was really...

and sometimes I can tell what he's trying to say to me .

Tonight we went for a ride to test out the new intercoms we bought. They work pretty well. He can hear me clearly, I can only hear him when we're going slow. He's going to try a different speaker, maybe it'll pick up less wind noise.

It was a great evening out on the bikes. We rode to Georgetown and got some dinner then home again. Drove past two different drive-thru beer places, both closed. Guess I'm not getting the latest picture game challenge...at least not tonight.

I was on my second solo ride this afternoon, cruising along on the back roads. Life was good. I scan the road ahead...a nice easy curve coming up, no prob...

Son of a BITCH...I've gotta sneeze! I'm thinking "please sneeze before the curve, please sneeze before the curve, please sneeze before the curve."

I back off on the throttle a little to give the sneeze a little extra time to build...AAAACCCHCHHHOOOO....

...and I lean gently into the nice, easy, sweeping curve and all is well.

I do have to add that there are a lot of dead things on the back roads and at 100+ degrees it doesn't take them long to build up a significant stench!

We went for a ride this evening. First stop was at the local theater to see if they had a marquee or poster for their upcoming musical (wanted to try to get in on the Picture Game thread). No such luck. They only had their current, non-musical, play advertised. Oh well, maybe I can get the next challenge .

From there we headed out on a short back road, met back up with a main road and stopped at Sonic for a milk shake (vanilla for me, peanut butter for the bf ).

From there, more back roads. It was my first time on curvy, very dark, back roads at night. I was a bit nervous but I just found a leisurely pace I was comfortable with and rode my ride. I even mostly kept up with the bf ...only fell behind on one set of curves. He stopped and waited for me, making sure all was well (I love my bf , he's so good to me) and then we went on our way.

It was an awesome evening.

So yesterday afternoon we headed north to have dinner with my boyfriend's parents. It's about 65 miles from home. I wanted to take the bikes so I mapped out a route that avoided the interstate and most traffic. I'm still a newbie after all.

So we're driving along... I have no speedometer . It's come unhooked at the top end. I tried to communicate my concern to my boyfriend at two different stop lights . I can see the end...and I can see it slipping farther and farther down. I start wondering where all that slack is ending up and is it going to end up in the front wheel or chain or someplace else I really don't want it to be.

So I stop at a gas station (I turn my blinker on well before the upcoming gas station in hopes that he'll notice I'm planning to turn, Mr. oblivious keeps on driving ). I find the cable hanging out the bottom, really probably not terribly safe and pretty close to the top end...

I love farkle!

This evening my boyfriend and I installed shiny, new, blue and black grips on Smurfette.

After much frustration , a hammer (wielded by my boyfriend) , serious concern for the well being of Smurfette (by me of course, he had a HAMMER) , a quick search of NinjetteWiki (him), a heat gun (me) and a little bit more hammer (him) ...voila...new grips.

Time to try them out...oops, the throttle doesn't return to neutral when I release it. Slight modification to the (oh so brilliant) design with a pocket knife...voila (again)...FUNCTIONAL new grips .

We went to Burnet for lunch today. Mapquest said the round trip would take 57.39 miles. What does Mapquest know? Wandering around on curvy back roads we managed to turn it into a 84.8 mile trip.

It's a good thing my boyfriend is a very patient man. Of course I stopped to take pictures and he would notice I wasn't behind him anymore, turn around and patiently wait while I took my pictures .

Nothing particularly interesting as far as road side oddities go. There was a neat old bridge...and a llama. Unfortunately the llama wasn't ON the bridge, that would have made for a much more interesting picture. I did get a picture of the giant oatmeal can in Oatmeal, Tx...it's pretty much the only thing in Oatmeal except once a year during Oatmeal Fest.

Next weekend I think I'll head out to Luling, Tx to see the water tower painted to look like a giant watermelon...