Hopeful Signs

March 8th Snow
 

Looking out my front door to the street is still quite depressing. There is a lot of snow to melt though the next few days might do just that. Forecasted highs in the 40s and sunshine should make a dramatic difference within 2 or 3 days! By Sunday I hope to see nothing but dead grass instead of all the snow.
Lots of motorcycling activities to think and read about now. Advertisements, facebook posts, catalogs in the mail, dealer open houses, swap meets, and notifications from places such as the National Motorcycle Museum and AMA regarding upcoming events help get over the inability to ride yet.
I started the King in the garage today to once again circulate the oil and make sure everything is in working order. I'm ready to go as soon as the roads dry and the temperature gets a little higher. Maybe a St. Pat's Day parade next weekend, if the weather cooperates.
I'm making summer trip plans. One of them will be to celebrate the centennial of the Lincoln Highway - the first transcontinental road (actually a muddy dirt horse trail) laid out in 1913 by auto industry executives. They simply 'hooked' existing trails and farm roads together on paper so that a network of lanes extended across the continent. The executives knew that if people didn't have anyplace to drive their newfangled vehicles they had no reason to buy them!  The federal government didn't get into road building, design, or marking until the mid-1920s.
Kearney, Nebraska is hosting a big centennial celebration June 30 / July 1 which I plan to attend - hopefully to participate as a vendor as well as a ride destination. Kearney is on the Lincoln Highway - right in the middle of the country, 1,733 miles from Boston and the same number of miles from San Francisco.
I might also do the Rolling Thunder ride to Washington DC for Memorial Day again, since it's been several years since the last time I went.
This period of planning and anticipation is an important part of the riding year for me. I've always thought that thinking about and planning for an event is half of the fun. And it helps extend a short riding season.
Attended a Patriot Guard funeral service yesterday for a veteran who died and whose family requested our presence as an honor guard. It was a cold, cloudy, breezy day. One brave soul rode his bike but the rest of us drove our cages. I guess I'm just not that tough any more.
So once again, it's time to Think Spring.