Chadds Ford on Easter Monday

Having the option to take Easter Monday off I stayed home and used the time for a nice long ride.  By 13:00 it was clear and the temps were in to low 60s so it was the perfect time to roll out.  I revisited the Bishop Hollow Road ride for the beginning of this jaunt.  This time I got ahead of the pull out by the llama farm and took it to take a picture of the llamas but they must have been taking their post lunch siestas because I could only see three way of at the top of a hill.  I got a shot but it was not too good.  Better luck next time.

The ride down Bishop Hollow is really becoming one of my favorites.  If the roads get fixed before winter, it will figure prominently in my rotation.  I thought about doing a turn around at Granite Run Mall but two things interfered with that.  The first was that it was too nice to have only a short ride and the second was that close to the end of Rose Tree, by 352, there was a huge road crew trimming trees and it was creating a huge back-up both ways.

Once on 352 I made the decision to run out all the way to Chadds Ford and turn around on the other side of Route 1.  I thought I would pull into the Chadds Ford Histerical Society and use their building as a back drop for some shots of the Bullet but when I got there the parking lot was full so I abandoned that plan.  I kept on 352 to 926 and took that to Creek Road for the turn around at the other side of 1.  The portion of 926 between 352 and Creek Rd. was just brimming with slow moving traffic.  It was a little disappointing but it's not like I could have moved very much faster with all the potholes on the road.  Shortly after crossing Westtown Road I noticed a huge Red Tailed Hawk flying in circles over a field on my right.  A great omen from the shades, I thanked them, and was happy to see her in the sky.

After turning on Creek Rd I fell in behind a guy in a red Jeep, with the top down, who was bound and determine to drive 10 miles under the limit.  Nothing to it, just kept going until after crossing 1 and returning to Creek Rd by the Sunoco Station across from Hank's.  The bit between 1 and 926 on the way back was awesome.  I had no one in front of me and was able to run the twists like the gods intend.  However, 926 back was no better than on the way so on reaching 352 I took the left towards West Chester Pike to come back on Strasburg-Goshen.

This is where things went bad.  Not too bad, but bad enough.  Good thing I had that good omen or who knows what could have happened.  As soon as I turned on Strasburg I began to give it the throttle to see how fast I could get it.  I got to 70 mph and then something happened.  The Bullet did not loose power but the drive became disengaged from the engine and, while the engine was still running and responding to throttle, their was no motioned transfer to the drive.  I pulled over and at the first place I could safely find.  After turning of the engine, she refused to kick over and went completely dead.  I know it wasn't the kick stand switch because that is a complete loss of power and this is not what happened.  I got out and fiddle with what ever wire I saw.  I'm sure that did not accomplished anything.  This took no more than 2 minutes then I went back to the ignition switch and this time the engine kicked over and caught.  I got back on and rode her out.  The rest of the ride down Goshen home was uneventful.  This should teach me not to push this thing when I don't have to.  In the future I will keep it to 60/65 mph and stop trying to be Speed Racer.

When I left the house the odo read 2790.8 and on the return 2838.  The route is good, just traffic conditions today were not optimal.  The issue with losing drive could have been a disaster but I am not going to fret over it.  I will not push it again and wait to see if it returns under different circumstances.