Last year while attending the Midwest Motorcycle Rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, my son and I met a couple who live in a neighboring town to mine. I found it humorous that we live only a few miles apart, but had to travel up to La Crosse in order to meet. But now that we know each other, we have attempted to go riding together a few times and have even succeeded once or twice. Tonight was one of those times. My new riding acquaintance—we’ll call him Mr. B—invited me to join him and a small group of riders for a burger run to the Bristol Tap, a nice small town bar with a big burger that people seem to enjoy. I had never been there before, so I appreciated Mr. B’s invite.

Besides visiting the Bristol Tap for the first time, I also got to meet a few people from a meetup group that Mr. B rides with from time to time. It’s called Motorcycle Enthusiasts of the Western Suburbs or MEWS for short. Interesting mix of people and machines, which I appreciate. I like groups where riders of Harley, Honda, MotoGuzzi, Suzuki, Victory, etc. can all go down the road together without issue. Some dressed for the ride, some dressed for the slide, and some dressed for the weather, which was very hot and humid. Tonight I fell into that third category. Even my leather vest got stowed away before I met up with any of tonight’s riders.

It was fun hanging with and meeting new people. It took a little while for the food to arrive (real small town bars don’t have huge kitchens with an extensive cooking staff), but when it did arrive, it was very good. My burger had a genuine homemade quality to it—nothing fancy but very fresh—and it was generously sized.

After eating, drinking, and talking bikes for a while, people headed off in various directions, presumably for home  and hoping to get there before an impending storm arrived. I followed Mr. B down Illinois 126 for a while and then turned off at the appropriate time and place. As I got closer to home, I noticed distant flashes of lightning to the north that wre growing in frequency. As luck would have it, I arrived home before any rain fell. The distant flashes and flickers of lightning grew more frequent and less distant as I gathered my things from the bike and headed inside.

Just as it had been a great evening for a ride, it was also a good evening to be home again, safe and sound. Thanks for hanging with me.

Home before the storm.