It Was an Ordinary January Morning

One wakes up either feeling refreshed or as if one has been kicked in the head all night.  Which category you fall into depends on if you are sleeping alone in your king sized feather bed with angels fanning perfumed breezes over you.  Or if you are sharing that double bed you have had for 15 years with your significant other spooning your back and snoring directly into your ear.  A snore so rancorous that you could feel your brain jiggling within your skull.  And the only thing you could think that would ever end this droning chainsaw was to clamp his nose shut and twist it off.

I think I woke up in that second category.  Since Mr. Oilburner was still breathing I will assume that I hadn't hurt him terribly.  But my 2.5 hours on the sofa left me a little groggy.

We were late getting up due to the night time shenanigans.  Which meant I was going to have to rush to finish the homemade cinnamon rolls.  We were able to share one before darting to the bath to shower and don our riding gear.  But one whiff of the 49F degree, clean air made up for it all.  Bring a full breath into the lungs and wish that it were Spring and perpetually smelling of that crispness with a hint of warmth.

I debated about zipping into the Gerbings.  I actually had it on and zipped...squiggling around in my armored jacket before shrugging it all off and daring to go without.  I stuffed the heated gear into a saddle bad in case 20 miles to the meeting point proved that I needed it.

We had a pretty good idea of the intersection we were meeting Fearless.  But not exactly where at that intersection.  So we crawled through, looking 720 degrees around us to no avail.  We couldn't see him.  We pulled into a parking lot and I pulled my phone out.  I remembered that I hadn't turned by Bluetooth on, about 3 miles down the road.  Oh well.  But I now see that I have three missed calls and a voicemail or two.  It isn't like Fearless to be late.  And listening to the voicemail made my heart sink...

Our only questions, did we want to wait for him to catch up with us, or should we go a couple miles back down the road and meet him.  We opted to go find him, and this is the sight that greeted our eyes.

Don't fret!  Despite his bad-ass biker looks and his dirty 'Wing, he wasn't being hauled off.  Someone apparently had decided not to pull their head out of their tush and watch where they are actually driving and rear-ended Fearless.  No major damage, bike never went down, all's well.  The cops were there to keep the peace.  But what an illustrious start to our journey!

And where was our journey taking us?

Anyone watch My Cousin Vinny recently?  :)

We had been to Monticello and seen the courthouse before.  And we had tried to reach the Sac-O-Suds on two or three occasions.  But today we finally made it!  So it was only fitting that our day started out with Police, going to a location noted for a [movie] murder, and ended with a cop-filled checkpoint.

The Sac-O-Suds isn't quite in Hollywood shape anymore.  It is vacant, run down, vandalized, sliding from its foundation and for sale.  Well, I guess some Hollywood movie or another wouldn't mind using it in some explosives scene...but not today!

The trailer next door, cannot quite been seen through those trees, with leaves, and bushes.  But we didn't have to worry about dirty windows and crusty screens.  We weren't going to attempt to look inside.  This was one desolate little intersection where nothing was going on.  It was now just some down and out buildings, forgotten on some highway.  Only kept alive by those wanting to relive movie locations.

Fearless tempting the Guillotine

My curiosity allowed me to stick my camera toting arm into that, but nothing more.

Beyond the interior coming down, this building won't be long for the world as it ss slipping off its foundation in multiple directions.

After a few minutes re-enacting some of the most memorable scenes from the movie, dead on balls accurate and biological clock ticking, we headed towards Monticello for some sustenance.

The food is very good.  Made to order.  But the service is exceptionally slow.  Go there only if you plan on spending a good hour or more.  Still highly recommended.

We stopped for our obligatory courthouse shots.  You might recognize this from the movie as well.

Oh yeah.  Did I mention that I never did need that heated gear??  Forecasts pulled a mid-60's number out of their magic hat today.  But we basked in the perfection of this 74F degree weather with very low humidity.  I wasn't able to catch the 70+, but this proves it was a perfect day:


Read that 69.8F and weep!

AAAAHHHH!!!  It was gorgeous!

We started meandering home and found some forgotten byways that even we hadn't been on before.  We were the only thing moving on these sun coated lanes, riding next to fields of hay, sparkling lakes, forest plots, split rail fences and the occasional horseback rider.

Until we take a curve and discover 5 patrol cars strewn along the edge of the road.  On this forgotten little road, that probably saw 5 cars in an hour, 5 state patrol cars lolled on the verve, officers standing around and soaking up the perfect weather.  Perfect location for a checkpoint that wouldn't have them working too hard.  :)  I can dig that.  Our licenses in order, no interest to keep us around interrupting their tranquility, they booted us down the road.  (Darn it!  Didn't think to take a picture until a mile down the road.)


Anyone interested in renting the Bank of Jersey?

I sincerely hope some of you were able to experience some wonderful weather on a late January day.  Our rain is moving in, and the temperatures are dropping again.  I'm just so thankful for this great day seeded in between!

Oh yeah, more pictures on Flickr.