August 31, 2006

TO RALLY OR NOT TO RALLY, THAT IS THE QUESTION

It's almost Labor Day Weekend and I want to go for a long ride. For several days I've been thinking of riding to Watkins Glen, NY, to attend the annual BMW Finger Lakes Rally. But that darned Tropical Storm, Ernesto, appears to be heading to the same place.

It's not that I mind the rain. No, it's the 40 m.p.h. gusty winds that I don't like. Such weather produces two bad things for us motorcyclists: sideways rain and dangerous, blustery unpredictability.

The storm is heading up the coast as I write. Its outer bands of rain are already hitting Ithaca. There appears a slight weather gap that might allow a fast ride from the coast to the Rally tomorrow, but then everything will close in for two or three days of rain, clouds, and cool temperatures.

So I think of hotels, those lovely, warm and dry locations where one can enjoy the camaraderie of a Rally yet return to comfort and repose beyond the elements' slings and arrows.

Sadly my weather-watching hesitations have cost me. Every Watkins Glen B&B, Inn, hotel and motel seems booked (it is Labor Day Weekend after all). Orbitz tells me that I will have to relocate from the Rally to Ithaca in order to find a room.

I've never wanted to go to Ithaca. (If I'd wanted to go to Ithaca I would have attended Cornell University all those years ago when I was young and smart and I didn't even apply to Cornell because...........I never wanted to go to Ithaca).

I am thus left in a quandary. I've awaited "Ernesto the Damp's" change of course for two days. He has sorely disappointed me.

I am forced to abandon my hoped for Finger Lake Rally. But I shall continue to watch Big E's course. If he makes even the slightest move out to sea, I will tomorrow afternoon grab a ride to the West. Maybe I'll make it only to Burlington, Vermont.

I know a place there that makes marvelous Sangria. I could make an evening or two of that. I'll bring a good book and watch the vibrant street throng enjoy the dance of life as they walk, hand in hand, along Church Street. Their happiness will be contagious and will sing to me of all the sunshine that Ernesto could only foolishly hope to conquer.

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