Dense Fog and Starbucks

I had seen such good pictures of sunsets on various blogs recently. I thought that sometime this Labor Day weekend I would get up a little earlier and try to get some pictures of a sunrise. I had even scoped out a place a few miles outside of town that I thought might lead to a good picture or two.

Saturday morning, I was lazy and slept in.

Sunday, I was ready to go, but awoke to find that a dense fog had set in overnight. Wasn't expecting that. But I decided that maybe some fog pictures could be interesting as well, so off I went into the early morning.

Early on a Sunday morning there is almost no traffic, but in certain places the visibility was less than 100 yards. Streets were dry, but it was obvious that it wasn't real safe to ride very fast or very far. I decided not to ride out to the location I had picked to take the proposed sunrise pictures. There was little chance for a sunrise picture.

I had not gone a mile when my visor got wet and fogged up. I tried various things with my new helmet to help with the fogging problem. First I just kept the visor up. Then my eyeglasses got wet. I had a handkerchief with me and used it to wipe off my eyeglasses and visor, stopping every mile or so to do a wipe. Eventually I kept the visor open on the helmet at the first stop so that it was only barely open in front. That helped greatly with the fogging issues but didn't, of course, keep the visor from getting wet.

I have just ordered a finger wiper from Aerostich, but as Murphy's Laws always work out, it hadn't arrived yet. Oh well, you just do the best you can with the equipment you have. Note to self; get some of that anti-fog spray as well.

I decided that a long ride wasn't in the future this morning and decided to loop around and eventually end up at Starbucks where I knew my daughter was working this morning.

On the way to Starbucks, I passed through a tunnel that actually goes under an airplane runway at the Hawker Beechcraft airplane plant. I always thought it would be fun to take a picture under here, so here it is.

As I left the tunnel I felt obligated to beep my horn a couple of times. Isn't that a requirement for going through a tunnel?

I also made a small detour through a nice sleepy neighborhood where I thought I could get a picture or two.

There were some joggers here and I was able to catch one of them for a picture.

It was at this point that the batteries in my Canon gave out. So many times have I been someplace, encountered what I thought would make a good picture, and not had my good camera with me. Note to self; make sure you have some spare batteries with you as well!

When I eventually arrived at Starbucks I noticed a number of motorcycles in the parking lot. Very nice machines, all of them. I entered the store at the same time as one of the other riders and we laughed at each other about trying to be out in this weather. Stopping for coffee seemed to be the only sensible thing to do while we all waited for the fog to burn off, which was predicted by mid morning.

There were seven of us riders in there that morning. Two couples, two guys on sport bikes and me with my Taiwanese scooter. There were 2 other customers and 4 employees, therefore the riders outnumbered everybody else in the store. I didn't realize that this Starbucks was such a biker (rider) haven. I was the only one in what I would call full gear, but all had helmets and at least some protection.

Two of the guys riding with their wives, girlfriends, or whatever, had on some leather vests with a lot of sewn in patches on the back.

One large patch indicated membership in the Wichita Firefighters Motorcycle Club.

I chuckled at another patch that caught my eye. It merely said:

F*#k Off Enough Said

My daughter told me that his name was Clyde and a 'regular' customer. He indeed was a firefighter and a really nice guy. Apparently a lot of bikers go to this Starbucks on Sunday mornings and she has gotten to know some of them a bit. Some of them know she has a Vespa and they have discussed riding on various occasions.

My daughter recently turned in her 2 week notice at Starbucks. It seems that student teaching 5 days a week and then working at Starbucks on the weekends is getting to be a bit much for her. I don't blame her a bit. Everybody needs a day off now and then and she hasn't had one in over a month.

My only regret is that my chances for free or discounted Starbucks coffee is dwindling. This turned out to be one of those rides where I left the house with a definate purpose in mind, only to end up going in a completely different direction, a different purpose, and still having a great time!

Total miles: 8? Enjoyment level: High Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed