It was a milestone day in the memory books this past weekend. My brother Bill came down from Fairport, NY to do a motorcycle event with me. For the last year we were talking about him coming down for a Bike event since the Skyride last year. I have to admit that Linda put the idea of him coming down in my head when I decided to do the Gabriel Hayes Memorial Ride. I called Bill to see if his schedule was clear and he was pretty enthusiastic about coming down. He brought his wife, Toni, so Linda would have someone to hang with while we did the ride. They arrived Friday night, we unloaded Bill's bike from his truck and spent a lively evening talking and laughing.
Saturday morning we geared up to go to the start of the ride.


Then we got ready to go.


It was a short ride to the start of the event, after we gassed up, and we wandered around looking at the other motorcycles waiting for the run to start. The route took us through Eastern Dutchess County on mostly State Highways. The scenery this time of year is quite impressive and when I could take my eyes off the road for a second it was nice to look at. There was about thirty bikes in the group with a State Trooper escort in the front and back of the pack. I had a good time exercising the Kawasaki and cleared out plenty of carbon from the engine.
The route was a nice sixty-four miles and by the end I was getting a little stiff in the saddle but had a very good time. Bill and I peeled off at the finish to get home for lunch with our wives. As we pulled up to the house Toni was cheering for us and we parked the bikes in the garage as they made all the usual cooling off noises. Sitting down for a lunch of Pepperoni bread was quite satisfying and we felt totally happy with the day. What was even more amazing about our ride was realizing that Bill and I hadn't ridden together in over forty years. It made everything even more special.
Bill and Toni stayed the night and we spent hours in discussion about families and general conversation into the evening. Sunday we loaded the bike back on the truck and they left around Noon. We promised to venture to Fairport sometime soon to return the visit. It was one of the best times we have had all Summer.