7 bikes and 10 riders joined us on this absolutely gorgeous day of riding racking up 237 miles and lots of smiles! Following our pre-ride safety briefing, we headed north on NC132 to Hwy 210 and up Shaw Hwy to Old Maple Hill Road (OMH). A few spirited Cruisers decided to break from the group to enjoy the freedom of running OMH on their own terms with the rest of us taking a more brisk but leisurely pace. We then headed in the direction of J-Ville via Hwy 53 and Hwy 258 where we met up with a few more peeps at the Which Wich (Comfort stop) in Richlands. Tracey’s friend, Michele joined us too and away we rode taking a variety of back roads. I was leading this ride on a wing and a prayer with several ad-lib adjustments (and U-turns) along the way making the ride interesting to say the least. Ha We finally popped out onto 17 just before Swansboro working our way north.
Our intended destination was originally Rucker John’s in Emerald Isle; however, when we arrived at 17 & 58, we noticed that the bridge over to Emerald Isle was backed up with holiday weekend traffic all the way to 17 so we changed to “Plan B”. We continued north another 20 minutes and ended up at one of our favorite places, the Ruddy Duck Tavern in Morehead City, NC. Service, food and company was awesome with some going out to enjoy the dock following lunch and our very own Irishman breaking out in song as we left. LOL We decided to return a little different than normal and traveled some of the roads in reverse, which proved to be a different experience and left a few Cruisers wondering where the heck we were. Michele must have been really relaxed on the ride back since she fell asleep on the back of my bike and bumped helmets. She is like the sixth woman to fall asleep on the back of my bike so I am starting to wonder…am I really that boring? Don’t answer that! Ha ha We all ended up back at the Which Wich to drop off a few peeps and say our goodbyes. The rest then continued to New River Harley so Perry could ask their Service Dept. a quick question and then pointed our bikes south and headed to Wilmington.
It was a beautiful day to ride with friends and thanks to all for joining us on our ride. Special thanks to Travis who performed flawlessly as our Tail Gunner and to my favorite Bike Ho (Deb - Road Queen), who jumped on no less than 5 different bikes (Bob, Travis, Perry, Tom & Phil) during our ride…I am thinking she was trying to break a record for sure. LOL
Ride safe and often with awesome friends…