I haven't had the opportunity to ride the river road, or go on a long motorcycle ride at all this year, things always got in the way on the beautiful days. After most of Hubs vacation has been cold, we finally got a break! It topped 70 at noon - perfect riding weather.
We spent our morning working on the dreaded garage. It's been the big project this week. As soon as we are done cleaning up in there we will start setting up for the garage sale next weekend. It's been a lot of work, but it's been good work. It feels good to finally unpack. I know that sound really odd given that we have lived here 6 or so years. We never finished unpacking because Hubs ended up having two hip replacements and almost dying on me in a nine month time frame. Then we simply got far too busy with everything around life.
The garage and most of the house for that matter are a total disaster right now. Stuff is in a state of coming, going or simply being found again everywhere. There are stacks of albums, not sure what to do with those yet. Mason jars everywhere (who knew I had that many jars - geeze), I could have seriously helped all my friends that were frantically looking for jars last summer by simply going into my garage - who knew. There are toys that are outgrown, home goods and tools, lamps and linens of every type. There are six big bags of clothing that we are donating to our sweet grand daughters school clothing drive - and that number could grow by the time I am finished in the morning. I am serious about this cleaning out thing. It's simply time.
But let's be real, all work and no play make Wifey and Hubs dull and gray. As the temperature rose and the blue skies beckoned it was time to head to the river road and Grafton. The first few miles after I haven't ridden for a bit definitely leave me feeling a bit rattled. Not because I don't trust Hubs, one hundred percent I trust Hubs, it's all the idiots on the road that are distracted driving that make me stressed.
And unfortunately the most direct way to the river road, involves quite a long stretch of highway, and of course it is the section that is the busiest all the time with lots of construction. By the time I saw that beautiful stretch of road along the river I could not wait to hit the winery. My nerves were shot. We are going to have to find a route that doesn't involve so much highway travel, but today didn't have enough warm hours for us to tackle that task.
It's Hubs' favorite ride. I can literally feel the stress of life lifting off of him as we putter along that fabulous road, sticking to 45 mph so that we can watch the eagles, enjoy the view, chatter about how high or low the river is, and point out oddities along the way.
If we had been able to leave earlier the ride would most likely have included a trip on the ferry and a ride through Brussels, but since the day had a late start and an early conclusion we stopped in Grafton at the winery for a break before heading back.
Hubs enjoyed a cigar and ice tea and I sipped my wine flight, trying to decide which ones I needed to bring home (don't believe the woman in the shop - the "Peach Bubbles" is definitely not tasty. We found the elusive pour spouts that I love so much, the ones that do it all - cork, aerate, pour, filter... pure perfection! I cannot prove what happened to the last one, but I sure hope the person that took it is enjoying it as much as I did.
All the while we people watched, eagle watched, chattered about a lot of nothing and simply enjoyed sitting in the sunshine and relaxing as we watched the river keep on moving past. Being a weekday there weren't a lot of motorcycles or boats - so it was a relatively quiet town for my favorite spot on the river. I could live there if the whole town didn't flood on a far too frequent basis.
There is something about that stretch of road. I used to think it was just the eagles, but heck we have as many around our backyard as they do up there. The eagles have decided the Meramec is just as awesome a place to raise their young as the Mississippi. It's pretty awesome to live by so many major rivers, such an interesting ecological landscape and the diversity of wildlife. I hear we even had a bear wandering around within 10 miles around where we live last week.
It was a beautiful day. My lips and face are a bit sunburned, Hubs' are too. The windburn is mixed in, but the sense of peace and freedom is incredible. I don't know how much longer either of us will be riding. My knees were highly annoyed and his hip was not thrilled with him. As much as we love riding together, I think we are both brutally aware that our riding days are numbered. We need to take advantage of it as much as possible.
The sky is dark now, sweet Hubs is drifting and I am not far behind. It's been a great day, full of the stuff memories are made of. Even if those memories are "what the hell was this mess we canned?" as we are tossing it in the trash - those mason jars are dead to me.
Tomorrow and Sunday are rapidly filling up, Monday morning will find Hubs back at work. It will be so still around here without him home. A dear friend of mine reminded me today to cherish every minute with the people important to you, he's been witness to far too much loss lately. I have to say... I agree. Treasure the moments, even the dull and boring ones - you never know when those moments will become memories.
Good one, as always. 381+
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