The Woodside Store

Yesterday’s ride was another example of the disconnect that seems to be happening lately with regards to my planning rides and my ability to then execute those rides.

Before I talk about the ride itself, I’m going to get a little philosophical on you guys.  Stick around, though, I promise there are Ninja pictures later.

One of the things that I’m really working on with motorcycling lately is the concept of non-striving.  I’m a very goal- and results-driven person (hello, project management) and thus I tend to get very frustrated when I spend all week thinking about what ride I want to take on the weekend…and am then unable to do that ride for whatever reason.  If it’s an external reason (rain, say), I’m generally disappointed but OK — but if I have to change a ride plan because of my physical comfort level on that day, it’s a real bugaboo in my brain.

In an effort to help myself with this, I wrote myself a little note and stuck it in my tankbag.  The gist of the note is that riding isn’t a competition with myself and that I should ride the perfect ride for me on any given day — even if the day before, or the day after, I could have ridden 50 miles, if I wake up “today” and can only ride 20 miles, then 20 miles is today’s perfect ride.

Which brings us to yesterday’s ride…and here, have a Ninja pic so you click through under the cut.

So, all week I’d planned out this nice 30-mile route that would take me to The Little Store again for lunch, then over to Kings Mountain Road to visit Woodside Store (a local historical site), up Kings Mountain to Skyline, down Skyline to Hwy 92, down Hwy 92 into San Mateo, and then south to home.  It was going to be a gorgeous day and I was looking forward to getting up into the hills.

Peter came along with me to lunch and, while we were sitting and talking, I noticed my back was starting to hurt.  Not the muscle twitches that still happen pretty often, but the deeper, more invasive pain, that leads to my legs tingling.  I did a few stretches since sometimes I’ve just got something pinched and moving about helps…it helped a little, but, by the time we got ready to go, it was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to do 20 more miles of twisties.

Despite my note in my tankbag for exactly this situation, I still found myself getting frustrated.  Even if I intellectually know why I shouldn’t be upset, that doesn’t help me much when dammit, I want to ride up Kings Mountain Road.  I talked it over with Peter a bit and ultimately, I think I did a reasonably decent job of pulling it together and reminding myself that this would be my perfect ride for “today” and that it was still a gorgeous day and I was still out riding.

Anyway, thus ends our philosophy lesson and Carolyn’s attempts towards acceptance and non-striving in the motorcycle realm.

Finally!  Jeez. 😉 Here, have a cute picture of Peter on the DRZ at The Little Store.

The DRZ isn’t happy with us lately.  I think I need to bribe Andrew into looking at it for us.  Ever since the cross-country trip, something’s been upset in the fuel system and I’ve exhausted my technical ability trying to find it; we’ve even brought it into a shop and they couldn’t get it running 100% either.  Grumble.

Peter headed back towards home after lunch; I decided that, while the 30 mile ride wasn’t going to happen, I could still ride one mile up Kings Mountain to the Woodside Store.  And this I did.

The Woodside Store was a general store for the loggers in the area from 1854 until 1909.  Dr Tripp, the store’s proprietor, was the area’s dentist, shingles maker, vintner, and postmaster.  The Store here has been restored to its 1880s era and is supposedly open from 12pm – 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Doh!!

Here’s looking inside through a dirty window:

I wasn’t the only one confused about the hours; there was a couple wandering around taking pictures, and a small bus from a local retirement home drove up; the driver was clearly annoyed by the locked gates at the parking lot (not a lot of room on narrow Kings Mountain Road to turn even a small bus around).

I decided that the Store being randomly closed just meant that I would still be able to do my fully planned 30 mile ride some other time (lunch at The Little Store, on to Woodside Store, then up into the hills).

I rode about 1 mile up Kings Mountain Road just to whet my appetite for doing it again sometime. 😉 Kings Mountain is one of my favorite local roads — not too trafficked, nice curves, pretty scenery.

I took this pic on my way back down Kings Mountain:

I thought about cropping the mirror out but decided that I rather liked it in.

So that was my ride; I retraced my steps back to Woodside, down Cañada Road again (I’m apparently unable to go a weekend without riding Cañada Road) and back home.  It wound up being 22 miles, so not even that much shorter than my planned 30.

So far, next Saturday is looking cool but sunny; maybe I can try my original ride again then.