hppants
Well-known member
Over the years, I’ve had all kinds of bikes. However and thankfully, I’ve only had one wife – the best 27 years a guy could ever ask for. When I was a lot younger, Tammy would very rarely ride the bike with me. But for the past 5 years, she hasn’t been very interested at all. Wonderfully, that changed this morning.
My good friend MikeP1300 and his “sweetie” Pam are newlyweds. The 4 of us seem to gel well. Both Pam and Tammy are 20+ year veteran school teachers. Mike and I share common interest as well, especially riding and camping with the motorcycles. So it makes for a good double date.
After a little coaxing from Mike, Pam, and I, Tammy agreed to give a bike date a try. We bought her some new riding gear and enjoyed about 160 miles of nice adventure. It’s starting to get pretty sticky in South Louisiana, but we left early and enjoyed reasonable temperatures under a cloudy sky in the morning, giving way to the usual furnace blaster in the afternoon. No rain and very minimal traffic – good riding conditions especially for a newbie pillion.
Obviously, I took it REAL easy on the throttle all day, not wanting to startle my new riding buddy. We stopped often and when appropriate, I offered a few gentle tips to make our ride more enjoyable. But really it didn’t matter – she sat still and seemed comfortable all day. Holding my waist tight at first, soon, she was leaning back on the top box while listening to some tunes from my phone. She chose not to lean in the curves, staying predictably neutral making the turns easy for me. She did slide forward on my stock seat at times, though. I believe an after market seat is something I will need to look into.
The FJR is very easy to ride 2-up and quite frankly, it didn’t feel any different than a typical loaded camping trip.
On a personal note, I celebrated a little milestone on the ride. More on that later.
I hope you enjoy the pics.
We agreed to meet Pam and Mike at their house at 8:00 am. I got Tammy out in the driveway early, so we could make adjustments to her riding gear and go over a few ground rules. My babe is looking real pretty in pink.
We take the short ride over, enjoying the early morning cool breeze. Instantly, the girls start chatting about things while Mike gets his bike ready to go.
The only plan we made was to eat breakfast – this fits into my usual theme… Ride Places, Eat Things! Looks like the newlyweds are ready to go.
That makes 4 of us!
We take a short 25 mile ride through the countryside to the village of Arnaudville, Louisiana, where we stop for breakfast.
Excellent parking accommodations here!
Everyone ordered an egg sandwich.
Now here’s some good food porn, man.
We enjoyed nice conversation over breakfast. Afterward, we headed north on some very familiar rural curvy roads to the historic town of Washington, Louisiana. I pulled over and stopped at the Steamboat Warehouse restaurant.
https://www.steamboatwarehouse.com/home
I knew the place would be closed, but I wanted to drink some water and walk over to the Bayou Courtableau for a rest. This place used to be a warehouse for river boat wares and goods.
Around back, the herb garden is looking nice this morning.
It’s very comfortable under the shade of that magnolia tree.
After a short stop, we gear back up for more adventure. Howdy, Ms. Pam!
25 or 30 miles later, we find ourselves at this popular State park.
Mike paid for our entry fee and our breakfast – I must be doing something right!! We rode into the park and stopped at the Arboretum and Nature Center.
Looks like the school teachers might be planning a field trip or something.
During certain times of the year, the bottom land here floods. So the park service elevated the trail for us. The shade of the forest was very welcome, and we all enjoyed the walk.
We stumbled upon this little critter, enjoying his day as well.
Apparently, my wife married a Cajun Bigfoot!
Back on the bikes, we are now heading South in the direction of home. We stopped in the big metropolis of Church Point, Louisiana (population 4500) just in time for lunch.
The horses will have to bake in the sun this time.
Shrimp salads for all of us. Pam, Tammy, and I had grilled shrimp. Mike was living dangerously, so he opted for fried shrimp. Delicious.
Again, good conversation and even a little planning for an Ozark adventure later this year – me likey that!
After lunch, the heat is on so we make our way south to our home in Lafayette. I did make 1 very short unscheduled stop to document a milestone, a 50th celebration. My bike has taken me all over this great land on countless fantastic adventures, and she’s just getting started.
After that, it was just 10 miles to the house, where we retired to the comfort of our air conditioner.
Nothing is worth having if you can’t share it with the one you love. That was the best ride I’ve had in quite a while.
Stay thirsty, my friends.
My good friend MikeP1300 and his “sweetie” Pam are newlyweds. The 4 of us seem to gel well. Both Pam and Tammy are 20+ year veteran school teachers. Mike and I share common interest as well, especially riding and camping with the motorcycles. So it makes for a good double date.
After a little coaxing from Mike, Pam, and I, Tammy agreed to give a bike date a try. We bought her some new riding gear and enjoyed about 160 miles of nice adventure. It’s starting to get pretty sticky in South Louisiana, but we left early and enjoyed reasonable temperatures under a cloudy sky in the morning, giving way to the usual furnace blaster in the afternoon. No rain and very minimal traffic – good riding conditions especially for a newbie pillion.
Obviously, I took it REAL easy on the throttle all day, not wanting to startle my new riding buddy. We stopped often and when appropriate, I offered a few gentle tips to make our ride more enjoyable. But really it didn’t matter – she sat still and seemed comfortable all day. Holding my waist tight at first, soon, she was leaning back on the top box while listening to some tunes from my phone. She chose not to lean in the curves, staying predictably neutral making the turns easy for me. She did slide forward on my stock seat at times, though. I believe an after market seat is something I will need to look into.
The FJR is very easy to ride 2-up and quite frankly, it didn’t feel any different than a typical loaded camping trip.
On a personal note, I celebrated a little milestone on the ride. More on that later.
I hope you enjoy the pics.
We agreed to meet Pam and Mike at their house at 8:00 am. I got Tammy out in the driveway early, so we could make adjustments to her riding gear and go over a few ground rules. My babe is looking real pretty in pink.
We take the short ride over, enjoying the early morning cool breeze. Instantly, the girls start chatting about things while Mike gets his bike ready to go.
The only plan we made was to eat breakfast – this fits into my usual theme… Ride Places, Eat Things! Looks like the newlyweds are ready to go.
That makes 4 of us!
We take a short 25 mile ride through the countryside to the village of Arnaudville, Louisiana, where we stop for breakfast.
Excellent parking accommodations here!
Everyone ordered an egg sandwich.
Now here’s some good food porn, man.
We enjoyed nice conversation over breakfast. Afterward, we headed north on some very familiar rural curvy roads to the historic town of Washington, Louisiana. I pulled over and stopped at the Steamboat Warehouse restaurant.
https://www.steamboatwarehouse.com/home
I knew the place would be closed, but I wanted to drink some water and walk over to the Bayou Courtableau for a rest. This place used to be a warehouse for river boat wares and goods.
Around back, the herb garden is looking nice this morning.
It’s very comfortable under the shade of that magnolia tree.
After a short stop, we gear back up for more adventure. Howdy, Ms. Pam!
25 or 30 miles later, we find ourselves at this popular State park.
Mike paid for our entry fee and our breakfast – I must be doing something right!! We rode into the park and stopped at the Arboretum and Nature Center.
Looks like the school teachers might be planning a field trip or something.
During certain times of the year, the bottom land here floods. So the park service elevated the trail for us. The shade of the forest was very welcome, and we all enjoyed the walk.
We stumbled upon this little critter, enjoying his day as well.
Apparently, my wife married a Cajun Bigfoot!
Back on the bikes, we are now heading South in the direction of home. We stopped in the big metropolis of Church Point, Louisiana (population 4500) just in time for lunch.
The horses will have to bake in the sun this time.
Shrimp salads for all of us. Pam, Tammy, and I had grilled shrimp. Mike was living dangerously, so he opted for fried shrimp. Delicious.
Again, good conversation and even a little planning for an Ozark adventure later this year – me likey that!
After lunch, the heat is on so we make our way south to our home in Lafayette. I did make 1 very short unscheduled stop to document a milestone, a 50th celebration. My bike has taken me all over this great land on countless fantastic adventures, and she’s just getting started.
After that, it was just 10 miles to the house, where we retired to the comfort of our air conditioner.
Nothing is worth having if you can’t share it with the one you love. That was the best ride I’ve had in quite a while.
Stay thirsty, my friends.
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