An afternoon ride... everything else will keep

October 17, 2009
Fort Collins, CO

We had every good intention of finishing the Hallowe'en decorating after Tim got off work. I had tinkered around with it outside and the longer I was out there, the prettier the day became.

Oh me... About the time he was due in, I gave up trying to be good and when he wheeled up to the drive, you could see him grin and shake his head as he realized I was standing there in motorcycle boots, ready to go.

Ten minutes later, we rode off to enjoy what was left of the afternoon. After all, it isn't Hallowe'en yet. Ha! We rode for about two hours and found a couple of country roads on the north end of town that were new to us. Our world has turned all golden brown since the hard freeze a few days ago. Corn and sunflower fields are gold and brown respectively, ripe for harvest. We saw many trucks carrying gnarly loads of turnips and sweet potatoes and crinkled our noses at the pungent aroma of onion fields as we rode by. Pumpkins, the few that survived the summer hail storms, much to my delight dotted fields in various shades of orange. And people were scouting the long rows at U-Pick-Em harvest farms, trying to find the perfect globe to adorn their porches.

The temperature drops fairly quick here, once the heat of the day has broken so much too soon we reluctantly aimed The Ride towards home, taking the long way around over the dam. We dropped off the bike and finished the day off with a meal and margaritas at our favorite Mexican Food restaurant in Fort Collins, Tortilla Marissa's. After that, we weren't much good for anything but watching Young Frankenstein for the umpteenth time.

Fortunately, the plans for the day weren't set in stone... nothing ever really is around here - at least, not since we got the Harley. The brief ride was well worth the sacrifice of whatever menial tasks didn't get done. As I said to Tim, when he mentioned it - not to worry, we had a great ride, we ended the day with a smile on our faces... everything else will keep...