Driving Rain

Connecticut Polar Bears at The Cabin, Howell, NJ, from left: Pogy, Grumpy, Captain and Chris.
All-day rain and a fair distance had us in the car this Sunday.

Polar Bear Motorcycles Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, drive to The Cabin, Freehold, NJ, December 16, 2018

By: Chris Loynd, CT Blogger
Photos by: Grumpy; guest photo by PB Photographer Bernie Walsh

Our weatherman let us down. We ended up getting Sunday's promised forecast a day early on Saturday when it was of no use to us. As late as Friday, Saturday was supposed to have heavy, steady rain. Sunday was light and scattered showers in the morning and clearing in the afternoon. But on Saturday the pattern reversed.

The Connecticut Bears have the disadvantage of distance when weather is bad. It's one thing to ride in rain for an hour on local roads. It's quite another to ride interstates for three hours in rain. So Saturday afternoon we opted out of riding.

We had such fun a couple of weeks earlier we figured another ride in the car would be okay. Plus this Sunday's event is the toy drive for the children's hospital through the Valerie Fund. Since I knew we would now be going in a car -- and therefore storage was not the same issue as on a motorcycle -- I went a little crazy Saturday evening buying some extra toys. I also knew there would be fewer riders and therefore fewer toys.

Polar Bear Grand Tour Grand PooBah Bob Hartpence even sent a Saturday email offering two points for those who came in a car and donated a toy. The usual penalty for driving in a car is receiving just one point.

Point of order, by the way, we are allowed only two car rides for a single point each. So any future car rides this season will accrue no points at all for the CT Bears.

However what the distance takes away on rainy days it gives back far more on sunny ones. Our greater distance means we accrue more polar bear points on any given ride than our New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware based compatriots.

Sunday's weather was miserable. Fonz and Anonymous Ed contemplated riding, but I got a text from Fonz Sunday morning saying they decided discretion was the better part of valor.

Good choice guys. It rained steady, sometimes heavy, the whole day. We were all glad we went in the car.

Pogy's wife Kathy sent him out to the car with a plate of freshly-baked cookies when we picked him up in Norwalk.

Captain again offered his spacious Subaru and piloted it as we sat and joked and snacked on cookies.

Lunch at the cabin was very good. Pogy and I tried a crab and sherry soup that was reminiscent of the turtle soup we prize at Bahr's Landing, another Polar Bear destination. This time I did get my Philly Cheesesteak, as did Grumpy. Captain and Pogy both ordered a Lumberjack sandwich. Our waitress was attentive and happy to joke with us.

Our conversation was fun and funny and wide ranging. My tongue is swollen still from biting it for the last two hours of our ride as the conversation turned pointedly political. A liberal surrounded by conservatives, I mostly just listened.

Polar Bear Photographer Bernie Walsh caught the CT Bears upon arrival, from left: CT Blogger, Captain, Pogy, Grumpy and Barry Kirschner a representative from the Valerie Fund at the Children's Hospital where the toys headed to a Christmas party that afternoon.

Polar Bear Grand Tour Photographer Bernie Walsh.

The Cabin Again

CT Polar Bears, from left, Fonz, Captain, Anonymous Ed and Thumper.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, ride to The Cabin, again, Howell, N.J., January 28, 2018.

Editor's Note: Unfortunately one of our Polar Bear destinations, The Upstream Grill, closed before we could get there. So the Grand Tour ride coordinators found us berth at The Cabin, site of our pre-Christmas toy run, these many years.

By: Captain

Photos courtesy of Polar Bear Photographer Bernie Walsh

I arrived at the DD at 0815 for coffee. At 0900 Anonymous Ed showed up. He would be leading the ride today but alas his GPS would not accept the address, he even tried 3x. Pogy called at 0910 to wish us a safe ride as he was unable to come due to prior obligation.

We departed the DD at 0928 with me in the lead. Heading south we passed a rider sleeping on the shoulder of I-95 southbound, it was the Fonz. Continued south with Fonz as sweep and arrived at the Cabin at 1127. It rained all the way.

Fonz and Anonymous got the table and I went to check-in. As we settled in for our meal who showed up but Thumper. He looked great and all grown up. We left about 1230 got gas then headed north on the GSP at warp speed. The rain stopped near the top and I was home at 1441.

CT Bears arriving, Captain, Anonymous Ed and Fonz.

Thumper astride a BMW. For those who are not regular blog followers, Thumper was one of Chris' motorcycle students and decided to join us last season. His job situation changed and we haven't seen much of him. He earned his nickname riding a single cylinder motorcycle that first season. He lives in Jersey now and we hope to see him at more rides.

Leader or Follower?

CT Polar Bears Pogy, left, and Captain, right, together again at The Cabin.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, ride to The Cabin, December 17, 2017.

By Pogy:

Today's ride was to the Cabin in Howell New Jersey. The Captain picked me up at 0950 in Darien (just the two of us today) Chris met The Captain at the DD but didn't ride. (Chris borrowed a bit of space in Captain's Gold Wing Tour Pack to carry Chris' unwrapped toy to the Cabin.)

 The ride down to NY was ok - a little concerned about black ice at the bottom of the GWB but little issue when we got there. I was lead today, went down the NJ tnpk to exit 11 and hooked into the Garden state.

I knew we needed to exit at 100A. Just as we approached the exit I saw The Captain take 100B and I'm thinking to myself he went wrong because we need to exit at 100A - DA!!!! As I rolled a few feet further the GPS informed me that the old "A" was now the New "B." Crap! He was right and I was wrong.

I knew at this point that I was going to take some lip from him when we got to the Cabin. So I got off and made my way back and to "B" and there he was waiting for me.

The rest of the ride to the Cabin was uneventful, until we got there. We no sooner got our helmets off and The Good Captain didn't let me down. After being harassed verbally, we kissed and hugged and had a nice lunch and were back in the saddle by 1300.

The ride back was great - we didn't hit any traffic - Not on the GS, 287 or 95, home by 1530.

This will be the last report of the year since we won't ride for the next two weeks due to Christmas and New Years. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

Pog

MORE . . .

Readers, if you are interested, Chris (a.k.a. CT Blogger) touched off an email exchange, initially about riding, when he scolded Captain for leaving his leader. But it soon took a political bent, as things tend to do these days.

Chris wrote:

We need to have a serious discussion about mutiny. Russ Curtis would have followed me up a tree if I was leading and headed that way. Isn’t it better to keep the group together?

Thanks for the support. Sorry I couldn’t make it,Chris

T2 threw gasoline on the fire:

Shocking, absolutely shocking departure in group riding protocol. That said we are living in a world where conventional protocols have been discarded and alternative facts rule the day.

Still I struggled with the news of today's CT PB's ride . Tortured and conflicted I contacted Kellyanne Conway and she advised that two participants doesn't qualify to make it a group ride, so all is good😊.


Have a good Christmas one and all.
T2 (marooned in Virginia)

Captain complained:

I'm surrounded by "Liberal Progressives"!

Token is like a gorilla fighter, jumps out takes a shot than back down the rabbit hole.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
John K. aka:Captain


T2 replied:

Well I have to pop out once in a while....now I don't get the Obama era circulating patriot emails or a chance to kick the tires over Sunday lunch. Talking of which I have not seen 'the sky is falling due to the national debt' emails. In fact I anticipate the term 'national debt' to be banned along with 'climate change', 'evidence based', 'science based' and so forth, unless it is accompanied by the term 'Democrat driven' either before or after use of the term. In the event you are confronted with a discussion about tax reform (aka. Trumpola - which I am loving by the way)  the term 'increased national debt' should be challenged and replaced with 'managed borrowing for national security reasons'. 

Don't disappoint me now.....

Back to the bunny warren.

T2

Oh, and it was the toy run. A very Happy Christmas

(in deference to our English buddy).

Why, Oh Why?

Connecticut Bears in Freehold, NJ. We decided to take the group picture inside because it was raining outside.
From left: Captain, Grumpy and CT Blogger.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, ride to Freehold, NJ, December 18, 2016.

By: Chris Loynd, a.k.a. CT Blogger

Rain was forecast, and came. The day before we had almost six inches of snow in Connecticut. Our two hour ride, one way, was 90 percent interstate highway. Even though the temperature would warm to 50 degrees or more, at 60 mph that's still cold enough to require winter riding layers. On top of my gear I still need to wear my rain suit to stay dry. I was Michelin Man and then some. And as I was putting all that crap on Sunday morning I had one thought. "Why?"

Well it was a chance to spend a day on my motorcycle with my friends.

Yeah, it's maybe better on a sunny and warm day on some winding back roads. But Sunday offered none of those opportunities. Sunday offered highway riding in the rain . . . with my friends . . . on my motorcycle.

Like the tee-shirt says, "If I Have to Explain It, You Wouldn't Understand."

When I first started handling marketing for a local motorcycle dealership, Bridgeport Harley-Davidson, I had a reporter visiting and he kept asking the same question of everyone in the dealership. He kept getting the same answer from everyone, me, the owner, the general manager, the sales director, but was not satisfied. His questions was, "What's so special about riding a motorcycle?" Our answer was, "You just have to ride to know."

There's the responsiveness. You feel much closer to your machine than in a car. There's the camaraderie. A connection with others found in most every sport. There's the heritage. Harley-Davidson takes that to legendary levels. It is a feeling. It gets inside you.

We got lucky on the ride down to The Cabin in Freehold, N.J. No rain! Not even drizzle. Roads were even dry here and there.

In Connecticut we started out in fog due to our snow cover and unseasonably warm air. It's a phenomenon called an advection ground fog.

My first experience with advection fog is a pretty funny story. Many years ago, I was part of a traveling road show for soybean farmers. Our NYC ad agency created informative seminars for the American Soybean Association. We assembled a panel of experts of interest to soybean farmers: a commodities trader, a business finance guy and Dr. James Newman, eminent professor of meteorology from Purdue University.

It was an intense couple of weeks, town-to-town-to-town, different hotel every night, handholding the presenters, working the audience, handling logistics. We had just finished. It was Friday night, in a little Midwestern airport, and we were all anxious to be heading home.

We decided to have a celebratory drink as we waited for our plane. There was a little bar where you sat overlooking the runway through an enormous plate glass window. My more cosmopolitan compatriots were especially eager to get out of the sticks. They were not as comfortable in farm country as I was.

Here's an example. As we sat down MaryAnne ordered a Stolichnaya. The bartender said, "Huh?" I said, "MaryAnne, ask for a vodka rocks and hope they have Gilbey's." I settled for a Gordon's gin instead of my usual Tanqueray.

We sipped our drinks. We watched the planes come and go.  It was winter. Soybean farmers are too busy for seminars in the summer. There was a lot of snow pack. The runways were clear and dry though. And it was a freakishly warm day.

As we debated ordering a second round, Dr. Jim Newman joined us. "Go ahead and order another," he said, "You're not going anywhere tonight."

That was devastating news to my metropolitan companions. "Wha?"

Now this was before the internet and readily available forecasts on smart phones. We looked blankly at Dr. Jim and, being a professor, he was all too happy to explain, "You see, what we have here is an advective ground fog. As soon as the sun goes a little lower the snow will super cool the warm moist air above it and when it reaches dew point, a dense fog will start to form, hugging the ground."

I swear I saw fog forming as he spoke. It got thicker and thicker. It grew up from the ground. Our airport terminal bar was second story high and you could easily see over this rapidly forming fog blanket. I think you could have cleared the fog layer standing on a stepladder. From our second floor perch you could see for miles. But the runway itself was totally obscured.

No sooner did our second round of drinks arrive than the announcement came over the intercom, "All airport operations are suspended." The city girls' eyes bored into Professor Jim like it was his fault. He blithely babbled on about supersaturation.

Next thing we know an airline pilot joins us at the bar. "Why can't you take off?" MaryAnn scolded, "Heck the cockpit of the jet is sticking up above the fog. Once you're off the ground you have unrestricted visibility." The pilot explained a plane cannot take off unless it is able to turn around and land at the very same airport it just departed should anything go wrong. "You can't land if you can't see the runway," he said. Just then a FedEx plane landed, whump, right down into the fog, right in front of us. We all glared at the pilot. He read our minds. "Different rules for freight versus passenger planes," he said, "The freight pilot is allowed to risk his own life."

We spent yet another night eating hotel food and the next morning the sun's rays dissipated the fog in plenty of time for our Saturday morning flight to New York.

Last Sunday, our fog was thick on local roads but pretty thin up on the interstate. As the day went on, it disappeared completely. New Jersey did not have the snowpack Connecticut enjoyed.

Just three of us rode this Sunday. I took the lead, Captain was in the rocking chair and Grumpy swept. I teased Captain about me taking lead to ensure our speeds remained reasonable. Then at lunch Grumpy informed me I was just as guilty of "heading back to the barn" speed syndrome as anyone else. Well it is easier to criticize others in this blog than to face the man in the mirror. Fortunately I have my riding pals to keep me grounded. Cognitive dissonance being what it is, I was sure he was exaggerating all the same.

As we exited the restaurant our luck had run out. It was raining, not real hard, but steady. How's the saying go? "There's no bad weather, only poorly dressed adventurers." We were well-dressed for rain and rode in and out of it the rest of the way home. We never faced a downpour. So what is there really to complain about?

Well there were those times wet tar snakes tried to pull our bikes. It's a disconcerting feeling when the bike unexpectedly takes a quick skitter to one side or the other. One long snake tried to edge trap my front tire. The New Jersey Oranges were worst for rain and traffic.

I kept Grumpy's admonition in mind and kept a weather eye on my speedometer on our ride back up the Garden State Parkway. By golly, he's right. Here I am complaining about others when they have the lead, yet I could see that darn speed needle creeping up all on its own. Human nature is a powerful thing.

Starting out in the fog.

Arrival in Freehold, still mostly dry.

This was the toy run Sunday before Christmas to benefit a local New Jersey children's hospital.

Fortunately lots of bears came in cars despite the rain and there was plenty for the kiddies.

Uncharacteristically empty.

Festive Flight A.

Bob photo of the week.

Captain peruses the bill of fare . . .

. . . so does Chris.

Our friendly waitress.

Wet departure.

Join us after New Year's; it's fun!

Princess Treatment and Newbie Perspective

Howell, NJ Bears, from left: Princess, Captain, Mac, Paul, Pogy, Token2, posing in front of Paul's Yamaha SR400.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, ride to The Cabin, Howell (or Freehold), NJ, December 13, 2015.

Editor's note by Chris Loynd: The Maritime Aquarium holiday festivities kept me from a warm and maybe too "hot," ride on Sunday. (We had the 60-piece Westport Community Band playing inside the Aquarium this day. What was I thinking?) In this unique blog post we have an accounting by Token-squared and also hear from new rider Paul Bruneau. I must say I am a bit ashamed. I encouraged my motorcycle student to ride with us, but he chose a ride when I couldn't be there to mollify our crew. Apparently Captain was leading and riding by the pirate code: "Them that falls behind is left behind." Thankfully Paul survived. Hopefully on his next ride we can have someone up front willing to hold the horses just a bit. And don't worry about time to kick over that thumper, because you can start any motorcycle in the time it takes me to put on my gloves and arrange my kit. I thoroughly enjoyed the view of our crew in Paul's lens. It all makes for interesting reading. Enjoy!

The Princess Treatment

By: Token2

At 8.30am my call went out to The Captain. I had decided to abandon the old CTPB etiquette in favor of the more recent Princess Rules of Engagement. The call took the form of a complaint.

“Why hadn’t you called to confirm the time of my pick up?” I asked.

“Be there at 9.35, the Princess will be at the bus-stop as well,” came the retort.

“Would you like me to lead?”

“No, I will”

“Sweep?”

“No, Pogy has bagged that spot.”

"OK, see you at the bus-stop.” I didn’t.

A relaxing day in the cradle was upended by the three lane closure of I-684 South due to an accident, forcing me on a lengthy detour. My arrival at the bus-stop at 9.38am turned out to be a lonely affair, for the first time in 8 years I had missed the rolling pick-up. As we all know, the CT Bears wait for no man (or women, even a Princess)…I had now experienced the full Princess treatment. It sucks.

I could not have missed them by much …but it took until exit 11 on the NJ Turnpike to catch up. Captain was applying some mustard on the ride south. As I hooked up at the rear I was surprised to find a new guy at tail gunner, with Pogy one bike up. Hmmm….. Immediately upon catching them Captain signaled he was pulling off at the services just before the GSP exit. I thought he wanted to find out the reason for my tardiness. I was wrong, he needed a pee.

So it was that the group was introduced to Paul, the new guy, at the Thomas Edison Services. A recent convert to motorcycling, Paul passed the CT MSF course in September having been trained by a certain Mr. Christopher Loynd assisted by one Pogy Pogany. Obviously, Paul had a natural talent for two wheels as we all agreed (with the exception of Pogy) that his MSF instructors were really not that good. Paul rides a 2015 Yamaha SR400, which is a very smart choice of bike for entering the sport. However, a 400cc thumper gets a little breathless on take-off and inclines compared to the other bikes in the group and Pogy and Paul had agreed that he would ride at the rear on this occasion. This would allow Paul to get a sense of the pace of things, observe the dynamics of group riding and to “ride his ride” if necessary in order to be comfortable. For sure his headlight faded into the distance a few times, but he always caught up. It seemed to work well for all and Paul rode with a good head for a newbie with only about a 1,000 miles under his belt. Nice to have you along young man (Paul lowered the average age of the male riders by about 10 years) and we hope to see you again.

The southward journey continued at a good and very uniform clip. The day which had started in the low 50’s embraced the mid 60’s ahead of our arrival at The Cabin. Frankly it was too darned hot and we were all over dressed. It would hit the low 70’s on the way home, thank goodness the sun did not come out much!

Huge turnout, the place was packed. Jill, our delightfully mild mannered waitress, had to put up with the customary questions about ‘same day service’ when the food was a bit slow arriving. No names of the guilty will be mentioned. Jill was advised that there was such a thing as justifiable homicide and several of us would have backed her story. Of course all good natured banter, wasn’t it Captain and Pogy? Darn it, I mentioned names…oops.

Mac consumed his usual gold plated hot dog for $15 without complaint, well, perhaps just a little grunt. Captain and Pogy are on an identical anti-fat bastard diet and chose salads. The rest of us went for hi-cal sandwiches. The food was Cabin good.

The return north was uneventful and included a stop at the top. Joanna had brought some goodies from ‘Kiss my Cake’. Evidently, as the picture discloses, “Kiss my Cake” cookies don’t travel well, or a Harley gives a very bumpy ride or Joanne licked the filling out before putting them back in the box. In any event they were delicious and enjoyed by all.

Pogy asked Paul what RPM his machine runs at when doing 70mph. Paul’s response “I have no idea because I never did under *0!” (There was an eight somewhere in his reply). Great answer! If the ride south had mustard then the ride north was Habanero hot.

A fun day out which at times felt like we were in the southern not the northern hemisphere given it is December.

A First-Time Ride with the Polar Bears of Connecticut (and Long Island)

By: Paul Bruneau

I believe to grow any skill you have to alternate periods of practicing what you know with occasions to push yourself to the next level. My first group ride today, a record-setting warm December 13th with the Connecticut riders of the Polar Bear Grand Tour, was definitely a chance to push myself.

I knew I was in for a challenge when Pogy, who met me at the Darien I-95 service center, gave me the quick course in group riding with the CT Polar Bears. After explaining the hand signals and some introductory group dynamics he said, "Just leave a couple of bike lengths ahead of you so that you have time to react to anything." My first thought was, "I don't think I can count 'one-motorcycle-one, one-motorcycle-two' in a couple bike lengths." Having been only recently indoctrinated by Connecticut's MSF program (with Pogy himself as one of my excellent instructors -- the other being Chris who couldn't ride today due to work), I knew I would suffer from a conflict or two in this group ride! But he also gave me the excellent advice (also provided in the MSF course) to "ride my own ride" if I felt uncomfortable at any point.

Moments later I had the chance to ride my own ride as Pogy gave me the "roll 'em out" signal and I proceeded to attempt to kick-start (it has no electric starter) my Yamaha SR400 several times with the key in the "off" position. FINE-C flies right out the window when the pressure is on. Pogy correctly rolled out himself rather than getting left behind by the sub-group consisting of The Captain, Mac and Joanna.

The Captain, being the caring and understanding leader that he is, must have given us (me) some pity because I was able to catch up to the group within a mile or so. Pogy signaled for me to take the spot ahead of him so he could be the sweeper or "tail gunner" as he told me the position is called. But between my 400cc single-cylinder engine, and my own reluctance to use the "1/8 second rule" to determine following distance, I wasn't able to keep a sufficiently tight formation to prevent car drivers from wanting to merge into our group. Pogy, bless him, rode up and signaled me to fill in the gap, but I just wasn't able to. He ended up moving up himself to let me figure things out in the new position of "backup sweeper" which was not a bad solution -- it allowed me to observe how the group worked and also slinky along at the rear to suit my engine and my own riding distance.

Pogy also let me know at the service center that the group rides at 70 to 72 MPH which I found to be a bit of an understatement, at least as far as my speedometer was concerned. There was a time when the speed got a lot more comfortable for me, and that's about when I noticed a police car riding alongside us, but I'm sure that was a coincidence.

On we rode as I picked up little ways to improve, even from the back of the pack. It was very clear that I have to work on closing that gap! As we headed south through New Jersey toward the destination of The Cabin in Howell, NJ, I saw another biker in my mirror. As a studious reader of the Polar Bear Blog, I thought the new rider might be Token2 and indeed it was, joining us just seconds before we exited the expressway.

Soon we turned into The Cabin, parked, and then Pogy introduced me to the riders of our group, who each warmly welcomed me. We made our way in with gifts for the children's hospital in our hands. Either Pogy or the Captain (I'll let them battle that one out) got us a nice 6-seat table and then they both started to torture our poor waitress who was dealing with probably more tables than any human could manage. She had her revenge, though, as five of us received our meals while Pogy could only look on, plateless, in stunned disbelief (which lasted for about 10 minutes). Token2 took pity on him by handing over his pickle, which I gather is some kind of Polar Bear inside joke.

Lunch gave me a chance to ask the group questions like, "when did you star riding?" which is a great icebreaker in a group of bikers, I think. Mac told me he got a Honda in 1960. I didn't have the heart to tell him that was the year I was born! The Captain shared that he started riding in 1997 and Token2 added, "And he actually learned to ride about 4 years ago!" Tough crowd!

I talked about picking up my gently used 2015 bike in Ohio and trailering it back to Connecticut. Pogy said he was really glad that Yamaha reintroduced this small bike to the U.S. market after having last sold it here some 30 years ago, and that it made a great first bike. In his next breath though, he said, "and as you have learned today, you have to get rid of it as soon as you can." I think he owns stock in Honda.

I didn't make the group have to wait for me as we left the restaurant, but a moment later at the fuel stop, the attendant fouled up my card swipe forcing everyone to wonder where the heck I was. Joanna later begged me to ride with the group again next week, because with me there, she was no longer the one who was causing delays, which shielded her from the Captain's stern eye. He runs a tight ship!

And on the way back north there was no mercy left as the Captain led a hasty retreat (and I do mean hasty)! A few minutes after they disappeared over the horizon, I spotted good ol' Token2 sitting at the off ramp leading to the traditional Dunkin' Donuts stop, waving me in. And I'm glad he did because he bought everyone hot chocolate and Joanna shared delicious, if slightly mushed, macaroons.

Again departing, the group decided to take the Merritt Parkway after the Tappan Zee, and I thought I would be able to enjoy a casual ride over the hills, through the curves and under the bridges of the Merritt. And indeed, after the gang disappeared in front of me, I was able to! But in all seriousness, it was a great day for a nice ride with new friends.

Ancient and new riders, Mac, left, and Paul, right.

When will waitress abuse end?

Flight B Leader Joan.

Bob with what appears to be not one, but two, Princesses.

Macaroons mixed by Harley-Davidson.

Mac, Princess and Pogy at our "stop at the top".