Gummiente's Blog!

[blues2cruise]

This was a funny read.

[Gummiente]

Today was a sunny day, but the strong winds had chilled the air down to -21C and I was a little reluctant to head out for a ride in the cold. However, I needed to give the Ural a good run... and Hector, too, as he hasn't been on a ride for a few weeks now. Needless to say, he was very happy when asked "Do you want to go for a ride?" Talk about a command performance of the Happy Paws Dance!

There was 10cm of fresh snowfall from last night, but it looked like the salt trucks hadn't gone by yet as the road in front of the house was covered in snow but not slush. We headed through town and I was dismayed to see heavy, deep slush on the main roads. I'm going to go on a bit of a rant here, so bear with me... DOES ROAD SALT HAVE A F*CKING "BEST BEFORE" DATE OR SOMETHING??!! WHY THE F*CK DO THEY NEED TO POUND SO MUCH OF IT ONTO THE ROADS??!! Jee-ZUS, but I am getting so sick of the "salt the hell out of it now, let it melt into a goopy mess and we'll plow it tomorrow" mentality around here. The only thing I can figure is that there must be a large stockpile of salt saved up due to the unusually mild winter; now whenever it snows they fling it down at the rate of what I estimate to be one tablespoon for every friggin' snowflake. This just cannot be good for the environment and it definitely is not good for the Ural, as it is showing more rust spots this year than last. Every time I take it out now it comes home with a thicker white coat of road grunge. Oh, and you should see my riding gear... I hope I'm never stranded out in the countryside because the deer and cattle would surely use me as a bigass salt lick.

AN-Y-WAY, on to lighter stuff. We motored out to Hector's fave spot but I didn't let him out for a romp when we got there, as the crosswinds were very strong and cold on that road. He wouldn't have been able to hear his jingle ball, which is just as well because I'd forgotten to bring it along. There were large snowbanks on both sides of the road, too, so we couldn't even access the fields for walkies. Poor Hector was not happy when I told him to stay in the sidecar while I took this pic:



...and he seemed downright annoyed when I fired up the rig and we drove off afterwards. The winds had blown some pretty wicked snowdrifts across some of the less traveled roads and I had some fun by using the sidecar as a battering ram to blast through the thicker parts of them. I was going at a pretty slow pace, around 15-20kmh, which was a good thing because I misjudged the breadth of one of the bigger ones. It was so densely packed that it stopped the sidecar in its tracks and spun the bike around face first into it. I managed to stay on the bike, but poor Hector (who was thankfully lying down at the time) slid way up into the nose of the hack with the force of the impact and had to wiggle his butt back again. I had the knobby rear tire on, so all that was needed was to put the rig in reverse and back out, although it did take a bit of body English and weight transfer over the rear wheel to accomplish this. Lesson learned, I avoided the thicker parts of the snowdrifts the rest of the way.

We had to stick to the back roads as much as possible because all the main roads and highways were already under a few inches of slush and I didn't feel like having to endure another air filter cleaning session today. We eventually had no choice but to take HWY 2 back into town, so I kept the speed down to 80kmh and avoided the bigger puddles as best as I could. We took a short detour down Howe Island Ferry Road for the heck of it and stopped long enough for another photo:



Damn, but the winds were really cold and biting coming off that big old St Lawrence River! After only 65km we'd both had enough and headed back to town, stopping at The Beer Store and the Pioneer gas station before returning to the warmth of the house.[/img]

[Scoutmedic]

I just love seeing the pics of Hector. Thanks for sharing in the blog and on your site gummie. HOWEVER....

My wife now thinks I need a sidecar for my zuki for our dalmation...

[Gummiente]

My wife now thinks I need a sidecar for my zuki for our dalmation...

Well, you could always keep the Suzi and buy an Ural. By the time you add a sidecar and colour match it to your bike, you've only a couple grand short of a new $10k Ural Tourist.

Just tryin' to help.

[Scoutmedic]

Thanks for the advice but, then I'd actually have to drive one of those things....



Seriously though; the videos they were showing at the bike show were awesome and, they're not a bad looking ride.

[Gummiente]

I took Hector out on a ride today, stopping along the way at an ATV trail we'd visited earlier in the winter...


We spent some time wandering about and ended up going for a long walk down the trail towards Blue Mountain. We only saw one snowmobile the whole time and he was nice enough to slow down as he went by us. I held on to Hector just to be safe, anyway. As he roared off towards the road I watched to see if he would notice the Ural parked off to the side in the field and 100m from the pavement and, yep, his head snapped over to the left as he passed by it. I like messing with people's minds.

I decided to head down to our favourite haunt, the Rockport Lighthouse, for a coffee and to let Hector get warmed up, as he seemed to be a bit chilled by the time we were ready to go. It was snowing heavily now, so I took the tonneau cover out of the trunk and wrapped it around him for extra insulation before we took off. That turned out to be a good idea, because by the time we got there it was covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Had a heartbreaking moment as we passed through the hamlet of Escott on our way... my dreams of "Gummiente's Garage" have all come crashing down. The old public school that was to have been the location of my dream full service Ural dealership has been sold to a development company and they have a new sign on the lawn now...



Well, it was a good dream while it lasted. We carried on to the Lighthouse and I had an opportunity to update my "Rare Scenes From Winter" pic from late '05 when I parked in front of a snowmobile that was out front...



Great fun. Hector and I wandered inside and sat at the table in the back so as not to upset the other patrons (it IS a restaurant area, after all) but nobody seemed to mind. In fact, they all made a point to say something nice to Hector. I ordered a cheeseburger and chips with a French Vanilla cappuccino and asked for a separate hamburger patty for Hector. I love the owners of this place - not only does he bring out my platter, but there's a separate plate for Hector with a patty, some chips and a couple of pickle slices on it! Hector wasn't too happy about the pickles (they stuck to the floor and he couldn't lick them off), but the patty and chips disappeared in short order. With full bellies and warmed bodies, we headed back out for the final leg of the journey home. The crosswind coming off the St Lawrence was brutal and a couple times I felt it actually push the rig over to the right on the slushy, slippery roads. It faltered a bit but did not break traction and I was glad I'd put that knobby tire on a couple weeks back. We stopped at the Pioneer to top up the tank and as I was pumping the gas the cashier came out, shivering in the cold, with a Milk-Bone for Hector. That damn dog has all the luck.

[Gummiente]

Some of you may recall that my fiancee Angie is an accomplished artist. She recently decided to do a series of 10 motorcycle related paintings. Here's her second one, titled "Good To Go" (based on a photo she took last summer):

[Scoutmedic]

WOW! Very nice. I thought it WAS a picture at first glance. Sweet!

[Wrider]

Wow! That's cool!
Wrider

[Gummiente]

Here's the original photo: