But I did do 450 miles on the 2001 Ninjette today.
Thanks to some incompetent government workers my contract has been put on a stop work order. Which basically means I get to either take some vacation or time off without pay. Since I still have a bunch of vacation to use I've been off for the last 3 days.
I've been on the Patriot Guard Rider e-mail list for several years, even before I started back riding last year. I've been wanting to ride with them, but my schedule and theirs have never worked out well.
Today that all changed.
A Marine, who happened to be about the same age as me, passed away back in February. He was cremated and his remains are scheduled to be in-urn-ed at Arlington National Cemetery tomorrow.
His family in New Jersey asked the Patriot Guard Riders to escort his remains to Arlington today. Kick Stands up time was set for 10 AM.
A quick look on Google maps said that Toms River, NJ was 3 1/2 hrs away. So I got up at 4:30 this morning. Left the house at 5 and rode to New Jersey. It was 60 degrees when I left the house. I just had my t-shirt, leather jacket and Kevlar jeans on. Felt like enough for the temperature. However about an hour into the trip as I got near Baltimore the temp dropped and it became very foggy and damp. Cold and damp are not a fun way to ride. I really should have had another layer on. I stopped on the toll road just before 6 am. Not much open. $10 for a cup of coffee and a bacon and egg croissant, but it got me warmed back up. And when I got back on the road the sun was coming up.
I made it up to Toms River with plenty of time to spare. Hitting reserve just before town. Gassed up, then, met up with the NJ area riders. All up we had 16 bikes, 4 local cops and 2 NJ Troopers leading us out of town.
Had a good ride down the Jersey Turnpike lead by the troopers. My speedometer was showing 90 MPH most of the way. I know that is way off, but I'm sure we were doing 75-80 MPH. We made one stop along the turnpike for gas and food. When we pulled back onto the turnpike the troopers had shut down the entire road for us.
As we hit the Delaware line the NJ Troopers dropped out and Delaware had 2 motorcycle troopers to escort us. I think it took us about 10 minutes to ride across Delaware. Maryland did not provide any escort so we rode on our own. A couple of the NJ riders dropped out and turned around to get back home.
We had a stop at the Maryland House, about 70 miles from DC. Took about a 30 minute break. The ride captain said, Hey Fish, I want you up front with me, since you know the DC area. So we took off riding side by side, but he kept dropping back. It took a little while for me to figure out that "Hey Fish, I want you up front with me, since you know the DC area." meant "Hey Fish you are leading us to the hotel in Arlington".
So for about 70 miles the little blue Ninjette lead the way for a dozen Harleys, one Victory Vision, a 1800 Honda VTX, and a car full of the Marine's family.
We made it to the Hotel in Arlington with only one mishap. I learned when leading a dozen Harley's I need to slow down on highway cloverleaf intersections or I will find myself riding alone for several miles as they catch up.
450 miles in a day on my Ninja 250 is a new record for me. Not in @
NevadaWolf mileage league. But a pretty long day for me.