A Weekend of Riding Part One

June 5th was the 10th Annual Soup Run. Or, at least, it was the 10th. I get the annual thing screwed up sometimes.

Since I need to improve my endurance on the sr250, I decided I would ride that bike, and find a few other things to do. Port Washington, Wisconsin was having a Pirate Fest, with pirate attacks on the harbor, live music and fireworks, so that was my second destination for Saturday.

Saturday's forecast was for rain, but the sun was shining when I rolled the bike out of the garage to ride to the Soup Run.



I was packing a spare gas can and a few different pairs of gloves (for when it rained later). I also had a few personal items, in case I opted not to come home, though in the end I would.

The ride north was as boring as it is every year. I keep meaning to find a better way, but my natural desire to sleep as late as I can gets it the way, every year. I did have one small problem on the ride. Since I was running a bit late I was speeding a little (More on that later), which was causing a little more vibration than what is completely normal. This caused the pin holding my right sidecover to break (again, technically). I managed to hang onto the sidecover and the pin, though need to come up with a better repair plan.



When I got into the area, there were a large number of bike, all headed in the same direction. Most were of the large displacement v-twin variety, but other large displacement bikes were also there. They were all very large.

There's an sr250 in this picture, can you find it?



There was a pretty good turn out, though there were definitely fewer bikes than in years past.















Of course it is the Soup Run, so I went and got some soup.



After the soup there was some standing around and solving the worlds problems. Or at least complaining about them. I looked at more bikes. I did find a couple other 250s, a rebel and this thing -

Of course, I know the rider and the bike, and MP3. Pretty cool ride.

Everyone seemed to pick up and leave around 230pm or so, but I opted to stay longer. You know, until it started to really rain.



It was time to go, there were fireworks in the offing. So I hoped on the bike and headed east. I managed to avoid the rain, for the most part, until I actually reached Pirate Fest, and then it started to pour.

Pirate fest was something of a disappointment. Most of the vendors were closed, the pirate ship was tied to the dock looking damp, and everyone was hiding in tents. I was hoping for some food, but there wasn't anything that looked good, and the sit-down restaurants were packed.




I went for a walk down the beach, which looked pretty cool despite the rain.


It was on this walk that I heard they were thinking about canceling the fireworks. I decided I didn't want to wait for a couple hours in the rain (With no food, sadly), only to have the fireworks canceled, and then ride home in the dark and rain. So I got back on the bike and headed home.

The ride home was all interstate, but I kept the speeds down and it was actually pleasant. I got home around 830. There were plans to meet for coffee in the morning, and I had heard of a new cafe not far away.