Final Friday Off Ride

This past Friday was my last Friday off. I still only work half-day Fridays thru the end of the year, but once you go in it can be hard to get out. Plus, all too soon, it will be getting darker much earlier.

We had a wedding to go to at 5:30, so I had to be back earlier than usual. I had a hard time deciding where to ride, until the new phototag was posted. It was a Google-able business (custom bike shop) about an hour and 20 minutes from here. I set out early (8:00) trying to beat anyone else to it. And I did!

From there, I took it up to Kingston to some wood carvings along the way. Every time we go to the ferry, I think it would make a good tag. By putting it there instead of bringing it toward home, more people would be able to get into the game on Friday. It was a beautiful day!

That ride put me over 4000 miles of my own riding on the bike. With that, it was time for the bike's second oil change, and it's first since I've owned it. When I bought it, it had 861 miles on it and the dealer did the first maintenance on it. After Friday, it had 4906. I had ordered the service manual a couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of this "event". I wanted to do it myself.

I wouldn't even let P pick up the oil filter for me while he was at the bike shop. I had to go do it. Silly? Yes. Before I went to the store, and while I was alone at home, I set about removing the seat and lifting the gas tank so I could check the air filter. It's ridiculous how happy I was with myself for being able to do that alone. The air filter looked really clean, which is a good thing because it wasn't in stock at the dealer.

I waited until P was home before I started draining oil. The diagram in the book wasn't entirely clear. In the general area of the oil drain plug are two additional bolts. I picked the one I thought was for the oil, but had him verify. Yup. That's it. He's been wrenching so long, he can just look at a bolt and know what size wrench is needed. So he gathered tools for me and left me to it. I DID IT! lol. He also introduced me to a torque wrench, which I had heard of and seen but never used. So that was fun. :) It went really smooth and easy and was a lot of fun. Which will seem very dorky to those who have been doing this forever!

Yesterday I killed time on the bike while I waited for a prescription to be filled. It was the first time I ever had to use an escape route! I was on a stretch of road that was one lane in each direction. Suddenly, I saw a car coming at me in my lane. She was passing a line of cars, oblivious to me being right in front of her, oncoming. My headlights don't have an off switch. They are one when the bike is on. And she still couldn't see me. Or if she did, she didn't care.

Luckily, the shoulder of the road is really wide there. I was afraid if I tried to flash my lights or something at her, we would both head for the shoulder at the same time, instead of her getting back behind the cars she was passing (like she should have!). I got onto the shoulder and glared at her as she went by. Her hair was stark white, and she was looking in her rear view mirror and at the cars she was passing! I really don't think she ever saw me. Or if she did, she was completely content with me being on the shoulder of the road. I never got scared. I was immediately ANGRY.

Other than that, the bike seemed happy with its oil change...no leaks and oil level holding steady. :)