The weather for the ride on an October evening couldn’t have been better. Sunny skies, and temperatures at that perfect level where a leather jacket is preferred not only because of the protection that it provides, but because it keeps you just a little bit warmer.
The vanguard of other riders started to show up just after 5:00 PM, and more riders continued to trickle in all the way up to our planned departure time. What a great mix of motorcycles from the big sport touring bikes that we’re all accustomed to seeing to a little Yamaha XT 250 who’s rider is trying to squeeze out all the summer fuel in order to properly winterize! One of the great things about the Ford Motorcycle Club is that we don’t discriminate based on motorcycle size, brand, or style. I have to admit, every time I heard the “Braaap” of that single cylinder over the intercom it made me smile! Sure sounded like the rider was having a great time.
It’s the end of our riding season, and we’re severely limited by the amount of daylight left for dinner rides. That posed a bit of a challenge as I was planning the ride. With only about 45 minutes between the scheduled ride start and sunset, a short route is necessary, and we left for CJ’s Brewery right on time for a route that Google said was going to take about and hour and four minutes. Many of the roads were heavy with traffic, and we were stopped and separated by lights a few times. Kudos to the riders behind me for doing their best to keep the group together as much as possible. Still, we were separated on multiple occasions, and I had to get creative on some of the spots where we pulled over to wait for the rest of the group to catch up. One such pull-off early on the ride (Hines Drive) turned out to be dirt, gravel, and a few deep holes – making the short delay a bit difficult to navigate for everyone. Another had us in a parking lot, and yet another had us pulling a quick U-turn in a neighborhood in order to be ready for the riders catching up.
Part of the route ran along the east side of Walled Lake, and the sun just getting ready to touch the horizon held promise of a beautiful sunset. It wasn’t quite there yet – and I was hoping that we would see the grandeur of a Michigan sunset over Orchard Lake later in the ride.
Luck wasn’t with us, however. The sun set as we were on a less-than-exciting stretch of Pontiac Trail and as we approached Orchard Lake, sunset had turned to twilight and was quickly approaching full-dark. In an effort to expedite our arrival at CJ’s, I made the quick decision to cut out the Indian Lake Trail portion of the ride which would loop us around Orchard Lake and back in the “right” direction. Instead, we checked out Old Orchard Trail, which is a beautiful road – bordered by trees that we couldn’t see very well and leading us past Orchard Lake Country Club where a few golfers were losing their balls in the failing light as they tried to finish their eighteen holes.
The “shortcut” worked as intended and we arrived at CJ’s Brewery right on time. Some socializing in the parking lot, as is common, eventually ended with several groups heading to the restaurant and being seated immediately in CJ’s back room.
Beverages were drunk, and – with a group this big – several conversations were going on at once. With another party in the room, there wasn’t much cross-talk and it got pretty noisy at several points. My proverbial hat’s off to the servers for the evening. I thought we were taken care of pretty well and the kitchen did a great job of preparing our meals and delivering them hot.
We only have one more scheduled ride this season. Here’s to hoping the weather will hold out for a few more days and provide us with a few more beautiful opportunities to ride!
Route: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1naUKsOly25vpxBm6c1PRXjlEtNk&usp=sharing