Polar Bear Motorcycles: Tartan Army

Tilted Kilt Connecticut Polar Bear riders, from left in the back: Princess, Captain, Pogy, Fonz and Jim. Down front is this week's guest blogger Token-squared.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, ride to The Tilted Kilt, Monmouth Junction (or South Brunswick), NJ, December 20, 2015.

Editor's Note by Chris Loynd: Once again The Maritime Aquarium called me to duty, although I've no one to blame but myself. I cooked up this idea of a Pajama Party for "The Polar Express" movie now showing in our IMAX(r) Theater. It was great fun and a great success. We had a gourmet hot chocolate bar with handmade artisan hot chocolate by Chocopologie Cafe and Bistro, a selection of exotic toppings from Village Market in Wilton and selection of fresh bakery cookies from J&L Bakery. We enjoyed sold out theaters both mornings, so our success may cost me twice as many Polar Bear rides next year. My job was to greet visitors as "The Conductor" and I now appear on I don't know how many family albums, Facebook and Instagram posts. So once again I turn to Token2 for a report on Sunday's ride.

Polar Express Pajama Parties featured a gourmet hot chocolate bar and free photos with "The Conductor."

Polar Express conductor with Caitlin, the Aquarium's new events manager and hot chocolate server.

Tartan Army
By: Token2

Full sun made up for a bearish below freezing start to the ride south. Captain led Fonz and Pogy to the Westchester pick-up, where your author took up the lead with Princess settling in the cradle. Jim slotted in on the Cross County Parkway. The ride south turned into a rather scrappy affair as gaps in the formation occurred with frequency. The curse of cruise control; so unforgiving to the imperfections from a real hand on the throttle and the modest speed changes that result. Guzzi doesn’t fit cruise control to their adventure bikes and if they did I suspect it wouldn’t be pretty. Or self-cancelling turn signals for that matter....sorry!

I hanker for the old days of quality group riding but in recent times technology introduced partial group cruising to the CT Bear ride (yes, there is a difference). Perhaps that is just cruise control envy showing up or am I a closet Luddite?

The journey south was uneventful aside from a few crazed cagers, perhaps stressed by the rush to finish Christmas shopping. Our destination was a new addition for the 2105 schedule, the Tilted Kilt in Monmouth Junction.

The Early Departure Policy put us in the destination parking lot at 10.50am, even with a slow 65 mph dawdle down the turnpike. The doors of the restaurant opened at 11am and a table was acquired. As we settled in the unique ambiance became apparent and was enjoyed by most attendees.

As luck would have it, on the very occasion when slow food service would have been somewhat tolerable the Tartan Army of servers proved adept at delivering on the orders while still providing entertainment to the guests. The food was decent with the cleverly named ‘Mother Clucker Chicken Sandwich’ raising a few eyebrows. Captain continued his starvation diet; apparently with colder weather on the way he needs to slim down to permit another layer to be fitted under his riding gear….God forbid he would think about electric heat. Pogy reverted to form and chowed on hi-cal, which was a relief as I was thinking he looked unwell after his salad last week. The food arrived en masse.

As a frequent visitor to Scotland I can with absolute confidence state the Tilted Kilt is a very American take on Scottish hospitality. Oh by the way, for the sake of contrast, in Scotland a Tartan Army has abundant facial hair and is usually found in the vicinity of a soccer or rugby stadium. Anyway, by a majority vote the destination is considered a keeper. Princess may pen a dissenting opinion (but we don’t care). With the Tilted Kilt joining Hooters on the riding roster it only remains for Bob H. to sign up a Twin Peaks to complete a Polar Bear titillating trifecta. Alas, such a thing is unlikely given the nearest Twin Peaks is in North Carolina.

Jim it would seem is coming into a busy season with his theatrical career and will be engaged in performance of ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’. On further questioning he confirmed that he would be wearing a toga but refused to provide pictures, advising that tickets to the show remain available. We may not see him again for a bit (which maybe a good thing given the toga). Not forgetting of course to wish you a happy birthday James!

The return north commenced at about 12.15pm. Arriving at the top by 1.40pm we stopped for refreshment and further banter, except for Pogy who rolled on to Norwalk to attend to some personal business. Would it be wrong to suggest that the time he gained by splitting off the group allowed him to brief his S.O. on the events of the day before pictures were posted online? Yes, you are right, it would be wrong.

Princess bought the Dunkin beverages and treated us again to cookies, this time they travelled a shorter distance to our table and arrived in full protective package. She would like Paul to return to the group to relieve her of newbie bear teasing status. No such luck NYDIVA, not today anyway.

The group splintered again with Joanne and Jim heading off for a birthday celebration dinner in NY and the CT contingent made their way east.

So on the last full day of Fall another ride is in the books. The days will start getting longer for our next ride …OK, just a little bit, but it is a start. Happy Christmas.