My First Night Ride

Last night we rode to Kingston for dinner. We found this place last weekend, when we were rushing in the car to catch the ferry. My BF had been there before, when they first opened a couple of years ago, and remembered it being good. We had to eat way too fast in order to not miss the ferry, which was a shame because it was AMAZING.

This is a non-franchised burger joint, basically, though they do have more than burgers. When we stopped last weekend, I had a chicken wrap. I was expecting it to be a typical fast food wrap of lower quality. Just something to stuff in my face and make the hunger go away. To my surprise, it was AMAZING. The veggies were super fresh and crisp and the chicken was nice and fresh too. It also had bacon on it, which never detracts from anything! :)

Ever since, my BF has been saying, "I want another one of those burgers. We need to ride there." So last night we did. And I had a burger. A bacon cheeseburger with a fried egg on top. AMAZING. There is a burger joint in Seattle that has been featured on "Man vs. Food" and Oprah as one of the top ten burgers you must have before you die. Taking our burgers as seriously as we do (just kidding...this is a new found love, I guess), we tried Red Mill Burgers to see what all the fuss was about. And it was good. But not the best I've ever had.

The place in Kingston is called The Grub Hut. And as far as curb appeal goes, you wouldn't expect it to be good. I was a little scared, to be honest. But the food is really good, and yes, the burgers are AMAZING. So much so, I'm thinking of writing Man vs. Food and telling them they screwed up.

It's about an hour and 15 minutes to Kingston and we got to The Grub Hut at 7:00 p.m., ate, and left at 8:00 pm. We rode about halfway back and stopped for coffee. When we got back on the road it was DARK. Luckily, we had expected this and actually planned for it, swapping out our dark tinted visors for clear ones before leaving the house. (Shout out to my BF who had mine all switched up and ready to go when I got home from work, as well as having my bike out and warming up.)

Riding at night is...different. Spooky is too strong a word, but it's in the right neighborhood. The road we were on is in very good condition, at least compared to a lot of the roads I ride. So that made it easier to just watch for wayward items and deer. It was also a straight, boring US highway. A lot of curves would have made it much more difficult, for a first time night rider.

There were three of us who rode. Our friend who went with us didn't swap out his tinted visor. He moved himself to third position on the way home, I assumed so he could follow both of our lights. Riding in second position, I really liked it a lot better when my BF could use his bright lights. (I haven't talked to him about it yet, but I thought my brights would have been too much in his mirror on that side, so I didn't use them.) But traffic was heavy enough that he couldn't use his brights much, anyway.

It was a good ride. Out and back over the Hood Canal bridge again, with its grated deck (that I'm no longer 'afraid' of, YAY!), plenty of cars doing stupid things, one deer that looked at us and bobbed its head as if getting ready to leap into us (but thankfully turning the other way first), and my first night ride.

I'm going to go warm up my bike for my Friday ride now. :)