September 23, 2021

From Gerald R. Lucas

Wings & Things

Overcast skies greeted me this morning, a reflection of my mild hangover. Dumb. I had a coffee or three and some eggs, so I felt better in no time. Tom and I picked up this morning where we left off last night, and I left for Bradenton around 9:30 to get to my lunch date by noon.

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I had some time, so I took some photos by the bay and the Skyway Bridge. As is evident by the photo, the overcast day did not last long, but it actually allowed me to stay cooler a bit longer. By this time, it was warm, but clear and lovely. Riding over the Skyway on the BMW R 1200 GS was lovely, like floating into the future humming a Donald Fagen song.

Lunch was good. Kip and I met two friends from high school and caught up a little over fried macaroni and cheese, fries, and wings. While they were pretty good, I don’t think they were as good as they were back in the day, though I could be misremembering. Probably: nostalgia lenses are always rose-colored.

After lunch we took the long way home, down Longboat Key and Tamiami Trail. THe traffic made it a bit more arduous than it should have been, and the heat didn’t help either. Now, I’m chilling out and ready for dinner and a drink.

I rode just over 100 miles today. The GS is gonna take a break for a couple of days.