March 22

OK
first rule of thumb when you live in VT, never believe the weather man. That nice little rip I had planned yesterday with mid 50's and sunny skies........yeah that turned into a very cold hundy mile survival ride. The DUC has an air temp gauge, I must admit when I took off around 2:00 it read 50 degrees. That was the last time I ever saw anything close to 50. Headed east on Rt. 4 towards the mts. With just a bit of elevation it was now 44, as I crested Killington I saw 35 (brrrr), headed north on Rt. 100 I rode a long time and it was stuck on 37.

This was the average temp for the majority of this little test. Full leathers helped but they weren't designed for snowmobiling conditions. My hands were blocks after 20 miles. The roads were actually in very good shape for this early. Not much sand and the frost heaves were minimal. A few close calls with johnny law but no incidents. The passport did it's job nicely.

For those of you that don't know, as of October 20,2008 I now hold a new record. Quickest time for getting pulled over by State Troopers in two different states. I was issued a citation for exceeding the speed limit (if you can believe that) in VT. After taking my spanking like a man, I get back under way and approx. 12 minutes later I saw red lights in my mirrors and this time it was NY johnny. The officer just happened to be a biker so he let me totally slide. Ya gotta love getting pulled over by a State Trooper and he ends up checkin' out your ride and tellin' you how bad ass it is. We need more bikers as State Troopers!

Could have been a really expensive day but I ended up making just one nice healthy donation to our great state of VT. No I'm not revealing how fast I was going.......
I did slow down a little after that. I love that bike, but one problem: it hates going the speed limit.
L8r
Mark