Lauren_TK
Well-known member
It was time to take Lady Feej on her first "long" interstate run. The route was simple: Take 405 South to I-5, and then continue South to Centralia. At Centralia we would eat cheeseburgers, and then head home. An easy round-trip distance of 190 miles.
We scoured the weather reports to help us determine if Saturday or Sunday would be the best day. We placed our bet on Saturday.
We were wrong.
As we started out, the weather was actually somewhat pleasant. At mile 80-ish of the trip, light spatters of water hit our visors. By Seattle standards, it couldn't even be called wet. We arrived in Centralia, and ordered our food. We ate. We watched the drops get bigger. As we headed North, the roads were still fairly dry.
However, by mile 110, conditions became distinctly soggy. At this point there was nothing for it but to soldier on. Through Tacoma, we encountered a traffic jam. Now we were not moving, and getting wet. My gloves soaked through at this time, and I was getting water in around my collar.
Again, there was nothing to do, but to keep moving North.
Eventually, we pulled into the garage. We had not yet reached the "drowned rat" stage of soakedness, but I would say we were easily at the "hit by a fire-hose" stage.
We shucked our gear, hung it to dry, and warmed our bones by the fire.
Sunday, the sun came out.
Lady Feej was very composed on the trip. She ran like a champ (as expected), and I was very comfortable in the saddle. Using the cruise control was a little disconcerting at first ("What? I can just let go of the throttle now? Witchcraft!"), but I (very) quickly got used to it. The shoulder posed no problem either.
Soon we'll try the back-roads-to-Centralia route.
We scoured the weather reports to help us determine if Saturday or Sunday would be the best day. We placed our bet on Saturday.
We were wrong.
As we started out, the weather was actually somewhat pleasant. At mile 80-ish of the trip, light spatters of water hit our visors. By Seattle standards, it couldn't even be called wet. We arrived in Centralia, and ordered our food. We ate. We watched the drops get bigger. As we headed North, the roads were still fairly dry.
However, by mile 110, conditions became distinctly soggy. At this point there was nothing for it but to soldier on. Through Tacoma, we encountered a traffic jam. Now we were not moving, and getting wet. My gloves soaked through at this time, and I was getting water in around my collar.
Again, there was nothing to do, but to keep moving North.
Eventually, we pulled into the garage. We had not yet reached the "drowned rat" stage of soakedness, but I would say we were easily at the "hit by a fire-hose" stage.
We shucked our gear, hung it to dry, and warmed our bones by the fire.
Sunday, the sun came out.
Lady Feej was very composed on the trip. She ran like a champ (as expected), and I was very comfortable in the saddle. Using the cruise control was a little disconcerting at first ("What? I can just let go of the throttle now? Witchcraft!"), but I (very) quickly got used to it. The shoulder posed no problem either.
Soon we'll try the back-roads-to-Centralia route.