Heart of the Country; backroads - good riding on a summer day.

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Yesterday was one of those absolutely gorgeous summer Saturdays where you just plain 'have' to get on the bike and go for a ride.

My Honda VTX1300S was quite dusty and had a few things that needed attention. I cleaned it up and put on some new mirrors and a new air filter Friday night.  Saturday morning by 9:00 AM I was ready for a car wash on 'Ruby'.

By the time I finished washing her and drying her with the hand towels, she began to take on a totally new appearance.  I hadn't given her a good bath in months.  I was shocked to see her begin to look almost like the new bike I purchased 3 years ago.

Ruby is now officially the longest I've ever owned and ridden the same bike.  In my years of riding I've always enjoyed trying out many different types of bikes.  I've owned:  Yamaha x2, Honda x 5, Harley Davidson Road King, BMW R1150rt, many scooters from Honda and Yamaha, a Kawasaki Concour, and I probably have missed one or two.

Well, here she was....nice and clean, and ready to ride!  We took off by 10AM and headed out to the coast toward a town called Ocean Shores.  Unfortunately we hit the morning fog bank about 45 minutes east of the coast.  Luckily, we know the back roads well enough that we didn't miss a second and immediately turned northeast and rode back away from the cloud bank toward Shelton, Washington on Hwy 3.

Going north from Shelton on 3, you travel about another 25 miles and come to a small town on the water called Allyn.  There is an awesome restaurant (Lennard K's) with a deck overlooking Puget Sound, and we love to eat there.   The menu was new, (bummer), we normally liked to order some sandwiches which were no longer on the menu.  However, the 'poppers' were awesome, and my blue cheese burger tasted great.  Joyce had a BLT (normally one of my first choices).

While we had lunch, the two couples next to us (who also had ridden their bikes to the restaurant), began to discuss an old Arlo Guthrie song about riding his motorcycle.  (you'll find it on the play list here).  I was able to help them remember a few lines of the song.  "I don't want a pickle; I just want to ride my motorcycle" - Arlo Guthrie - circa 1968.

After lunch, we proceeded north on 3 to Belfair, WA.  At Belfair we turned onto State Highway 106 that runs along the bottom of the Hood Canal thru Alderbrook...this is one of favorite rides anywhere.  Bill Gates ('the' Bill Gates, spent lots of summer days here where his parents still own a house on the water and where you can see them from time to time).  Normally there are very few cars and many motorcycles on this route.

The ride was almost perfect....sun shining, water glistening as we rode along its shore for miles....finally we stopped at the little store in Union, WA and had an ice cream cone (about 2:00 PM).  They have some locally made ice cream that is out of this world.

After riding back over to meet with hwy 101, we decided to continue on side roads up the Skokomish Valley.  This ride is only about 20 miles to its end at the foot of the snow capped Olympic Mountains, but its so beautiful we take it once or twice a year.  There is almost no traffic at all on this road, as it is a long way to a dead end.  It's a pity for those who turn around at the 'dead end' signs early on the road, as the valley runs thru some of the prettiest farm and ranch country you will ever see; with all of it surrounded by high mountains.

We often ride this road very slow so we can drink in the views and the smells....flowers here, cows there (I love the smell of cows, having spent my earliest years living in Nebraska)...the sky was so blue....the mountains so majestic...and the valley just perfect in its early summer attire.

We finished our ride about 5 hours after we began, returning home in time for a Saturday bbq with family.

What a way to spend a Saturday!  What did you do?