Finally a nice warm day to ride!! Scattered clouds and temperatures in the mid 60's greeted a bunch of Cruisers at the Circle K.
When I pulled up, Road Queen, Professor, Paw, Ditch and Scotty where there with a bunch of of new faces. 2 were new members Chip and Nick, and potential new member David!
We made our introductions and started the pre-ride. I gave details concerning our route and destination, and Scotty helped me remember to go over ride formation and hand signals. Thanks Scottttyyyy!!
Road Queen was on the bike for the first time in a month, so Paw and Travis were going to do a shorter ride with her and then attend to some afternoon business. Bummer!
A Cru of 6 headed out to 40 and blasted up to 210, Shaw Hwy, 53 and 50 to our first rest stop at Buck's Corner. Chip had peeled off at 50 and now we were down to 5 riders. The new fellas are riders!
After admiring our bikes and getting some gas, we continued on toward Greenville. We had about 65 miles to our destination. We followed 11/241/11 to the new bypass for Greenville. That bypass is the SHHHTUFF! No stop and go, light to light thru Greenville anymore. We got off our exit and a quick left on "Barbeque Drive" brought us to B's BBQ.
The Roanoke River Trilogy was waiting for us at the outside seating area- Paul E. Allen, Pamela Waller Allen and Steve Pope. We parked and made introductions. Everyone made their way over to the take-out window and we sat down and socialized over some great BBQ.
After lunch, off to Ron Ayers with our RR First Officer Leading the way. A "spirited" ride got us to Ayers in minutes. Gawd I love Paul Allen's bike!! This is a great shop! Lawn equipment, Side-By-Sides, Metric Cruisers and Tourers, MotoCross, 4 wheelers, accessories, vintage bikes in the rafters, etc etc etc! We milled around looking at bikes and tried on helmets. Scott and Mike bought some canned goods. This place is cool. period.
Time to hit the road back to ILM. We said our goodbyes and followed our tracks back toward ILM. 50 miles into the return, Nick was running on fumes and we stopped to top off the tanks. We were good on time, so I felt it was my duty to show Nick and David Old Maple Hill Rd. They never heard of it or rode it. Now they will never forget it!!! I got throttle happy and lit it up. Nick, David and Scotty followed. Ditch took over tailgun... I rock and rolled these guys and they hung in very well! Nick can ride the HELL out of a 1990 Honda 1100 with blown fork seals!! David was right on him with his Suzuki M9o, followed by Scotto! We gathered at the end of OMH for giggling and stories of "almost getting into trouble on that one curve."
We finished off the ride on Shaw Hwy, 210 into Rocky Mount. Now I was on fumes. We gassed up, did the coronavirus fist bump, and took it on home with 263 klicks on the klock!
Thanks to Scotty for Tailgunning. Good to have new members Nick and Chip along today! David will be signing up soon....
rePete
First Officer
SCRC PC 162