The Dragon Again...

Garrett Snuff Mill building in Yorklin, Delaware

... but this time from the opposite direction.  Instead of going at the Chester County Dragon from east to west Thursday's run flowed in the opposite direction.  From this angle the twisties don't come as early because you hit 926 first which is pretty straight and fairly flat.  However, once you clear Kennett Square on 82 the twists and turns come pretty fast and furious.  I'm not sure which direction I like best yet so more rides will have to be made in both directions before making a final decision.

The weather definitely cooperated for this kind of ride.  It has been a fairly mild summer with not much oppressive heat and humidity to be had and yesterday was not exception.  For a mid-morning ride in late July it was fairly cool and very clear.  The ride went off without incidents but I did get lost a couple of times.  The first time was on Mt. Cuba, east of Yorklin on Creek Road (82), where Mt. Cuba Rd splits off to the right from 82.  I barely caught the sign out of the corner of my eye and took the fork to the left.  This was the right decision but I wasn't sure so I turned around to retrace my steps.  There is not much room to turn around on that road so I had retrace quite a bit to find a drive way.  Once I got back to the fork, and slowed enough to catch the sign, I was on my way again.  A little later I missed the left turn at 100 and Adams Rd because I had forgotten that 100 makes a dogleg turn there and to continue ahead means transferring to 92.  Soon enough the road T'd out on a four lane divided road that I did not recognized so I pull a U turned and retraced to the intersection at 100, which in this direction is clearly marked.

I did make a stop in Yorklin, Delaware, by an abandoned industrial area to take some shots of the Bullet.  These abandoned buildings turned out to be the ruins of the Garrett Snuff Mills complex which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Next time I pull in this area I plan to take some time to photograph the buildings because there are some interesting ruins there.

Although I had gassed up the day before at the Shell on 30, by work, because the tank had almost run dry, I still stopped at the Sunoco on the intersection of Rt 1 and 100.  The day before, the odo had read 1437.2 at the gas station and the tank took 3.05 gallons to fill for a mileage of 66.8 mpg.  At the Sunoco, the odo read 1492.8 and the tank only took .77 gallons.  This time the mileage was 72.2 mpg confirming my suspicion that the start and stop of commuting does affect the mileage results.

On the way back I made a detour on Providence Rd to check on a storage unit and on the way out of the parking lot the Bullet cut out completely.  I was able to coast into a drive way, kill all the switches, get off the bike, kick the kickstand, and it started right up again.  I don't think it was operator failure, the bike just completely cut out.  It might have been that stupid kickstand switch but I don't know.  The break-in period is officially over and I have an appointment for the 1500 mile maintenance for next Thursday.  We'll see what they say.

At the end of the run the odo read 1515.5.  Break-in period over but I will keep with break-in restrictions until after maintenance next Thursday.