The best gift took about 60 miles

Another Christmas has come and gone, only the backwash of milk left in the cup and a few cookie crumbs litter Santa's special plate. And what did the big man leave behind?

Aside from the very cool sale on Harley Apparel, the only other bike related gift was a set of chrome pegs hidden in a shoebox wrapped in colorful paper on christmas morning. Wisely the girlfriend left the price tag on and reciept in the box so I can go by the dealership sometime and decide on which style will look best on the Deuce.

A very sweet nephew made his Uncle a Harley Davidson mousepad, logo taken from the internet but don't tell HD;)

The gift I wasn't expecting came from an embarrassed riding buddy having to admit that the T-shirts I bought him for christmas were too small. It seems someone moved up a size and the conversation explaining this was worth it's weight in gold.


The bow didn't need to match
But the best present came Monday morning, a leisurely ride up the coast with not only my riding buddy, but the girlfriend on the back as well. We arrived at his house around eight am, by the time we gassed up and filled the tires to the right pressure we were all sailing up Federal Highway at 8.45am.

Maybe I'm just a wimp, or it could be the thin South Florida blood, but it was frickin' freezing this morning! I knew the high was only expected to be 71 degrees and even took the leather vest, optimistically hoping to wear it. Nope. Two layers of shirts and then the leather jacket zipped up to the neck, snapped shut and still chilly. Wasn't just me either as we only occassionally came across other riders while we made out way along the beach, heading north on Ocean Blvd.

We stopped off at Bostons in Delray Beach for a late breakfast, gaining a potential new rider in the one year old boy held in his mothers arms as he looked on admiring our bikes making motorcycle noise. At least I think it was the kid, my riding buddy can do some strange things sometimes. I offered the little boy the keys and to bring it back when he was done, but for some reason the parents passed on it.

A couple of omelettes and grits later (the gf had the grits, personally I don't understand peoples facination with them) we headed north again stopping off at the Boynton Beach Inlet before making it just past Palm Beach's beach and turning around to come back.


Boynton Beach Inlet

We had ridden thirty miles by the time we'd turned around and I knew that both my buddy and girlfriend's butts would be getting a little sore and thankfully fate smiled down on them, which in turn helped me since I wouldn't hear the complaining. How did fate help? Somehow we managed to hit every green light on the ride back. Not that there are that many, but for twenty miles our ride along the coast was at an average of thirty-five miles per hour making it one of the most memorable trips along that route.


From one toy to another
By the time we arrived at my buddy's house the calm ocean had convinced everyone to take a ride in his 33' Grady White, just to see if it was as smooth as it looked. His sons came over and we all headed out into an ocean with waves a bit bigger than they looked from shore but it really didn't matter after a couple of beers. A quick dash up the intercoastal blew the hat I'd borrowed from him off my head to be lost forever. Wouldn't be such a big deal except it was the same hat I brought back from the Harley dealership in England for him.

Oops.

I promised to get him another one, which is easier said than done. The dealership doesn't have a website and my mother lives about an hours drive away. Looks like I'll be calling Black Bear Harley in Newmarket to do some mailordering!


Hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas....and maybe even managed to get a ride in!