Bishop Hollow Redoux

Ellis Preserve

After the debacle with the repair pits on Bishop Hollow/Ridley Creek Road last month a recon of the area had to be conducted.  Not having anyone to do that for me, I had to do it myself so Tuesday evening I took the Bullet out to check the road conditions.  The best plan of attack was to come at the route from the opposite direction, i.e. from 352 and Rose Tree, since that side of the road was in good repair and it did not appear like the work crews would be tearing it up.

With that in mind I headed out Goshen with the intention of catching Garrett Mill to 926 and 352.  However, traffic conditions on Goshen where great with virtually no one else on the road but me to I stayed on Goshen/Strasburg all the way out to 352.  From there I took Rose Tree Road and followed that out to Ridley Creek/Bishop Hollow.

Road conditions have improved dramatically since the last ride here.  The road crews have completed all their work and large stretches of the road are now completely resurfaced.  There are a couple of small holes here and there but nothing to create any problems.  It looks like they have been at both sides of the road and the resurfacing work has definitely improved the quality of this ride.  Time to comeback to it.

After finishing the run at the West Chester Pike I took a left there and went to the Ellis Preserve to do some figure eights and goof off in the parking lot.  By this time of the day, almost 20:00, the lot was mostly deserted so I had a chance to goof around to my heart's content.

I left the house at 18:59 with 4020.9 miles on the odo and returned at 19:59 with 4050.4 miles clocked.  Great ride all in all with the portion on Ridley Creek/Bishop Hollow yielding as much fun as the Dragon beyond Route 1, not as long but just as many twists and hills per yard.

Two Teslas today on the commute to work a black on this morning on Godfrey going in the opposite direction and a red one this afternoon on the way back from lunch turning left onto Spring Mill from 30 in front of me.  The exotic tally stands at 16 Teslas, 15 Ferraris, 11 Maseratis, 5 Bentleys, 3 Cobras, 3 McLarens,  2 Austin-Healeys, 2 Lambos, 2 Unknowns,1 Rolls Royce, and 1 DeLorean.

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Ellis Preserve, Old Cameras, and Llamas!

Saturday we had a friend visiting so the Bullet stayed in storage and the MG stayed in the garage for most of the day.  Early Saturday evening I took our friend for a short spin around the neighborhood.  He took some video on his phone which he promised to send to me so when I have that I will post it here.  It was a cool evening so we didn't go very far or stay out very long.

On Sunday morning, after I took our friend to the train station in Philly, we took a little spin up Goshen/Strasburg.  It was really cold and despite having the heater running full blast we decided to come back home without going any further.  

In the mid-afternoon, I took the MG to Ellis Preserve to try out an old Minolta XD-5 camera that I've had laying around for a while.  The pictures in this post are the result of that shoot.  The camera is over-exposing by at least one stop so I adjusted the levels in Photoshop to get the results you see here.  I like the camera so I will adjust the exposure settings and test it out again.  On the way out to the Preserve, I ran across a blue Maserati on Goshen for the exotic car tally.

The exotic car tally now stands at 6 Ferraris, 2 Lambos, 3 Maseratis, 1 unknown, 1 Cobra, 1 Bentley, 1 DeLorean, 1 Tesla, and 1 MGA.

Later that afternoon, after 18:00, my wife drove me out to the storage area so I could bring the Bullet home to have for the week's commute.  I was rather cold by then, so I just rode straight back home with out any side trips.  On Monday morning the temps were down to the mid 40s so the Bullet stayed home until the afternoon when I used it to go back home.

Llamas!

Today the temps were much higher, in the low 60s in the morning and up to the mid 70s in the afternoon, so the Bullet did the whole commute.  After supper, my wife and I took a ride on the MG down Church Rd to Sugartown and 252 to pick up the developed film at Ritz Camera.  On the way back on 252 we took a detour through Grubbs Mill out to Goshen.  It was early evening, the light was beginning to fade and the Harvest Moon was low and golden in the sky.  The ride was beautiful through those country roads.  We stopped in front of the llama farm because they were out feeding and I took a phone camera shot since I never seem to have a good camera handy when they are out.  

Tomorrow, I'm taking the MG in to Gene's.  I've fooled around with the horn, trying to get it fixed, but I haven't been too successful.  I hope they can get it fixed quickly.

To see the Montse Flickr set, click here.

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Wave

Still not feeling well but I did take a little time this afternoon to do a very short ride and check on my new bar end mirrors.  My plan was to go to Ellis Preserve and do some loops on the grounds.  I had readjusted my right mirror yesterday and that was fine but the left mirror was still a little low.  After a couple of loops I decided to head out on the road on go back home.  Instead on returning by the shortest route I went on West Chester Pike to Providence Rd. and from there to Goshen Rd. and home.  When I was on West Chester Pike I noticed a tan colored Mini Cooper hovering on my left.  I looked over my shoulder and noticed the driver, a young guy, giving me the thumbs up a smiling from ear to ear. I waved back and he sped off. Randy Kiss, the guy that sold me the Bullet, told me this would happen and he was right.  It was a really nice feeling.

I also signed up for the BRC2 put on by the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program on 29 June.  I try to take the course once a year to keep my skills up to date.

The ride was good, the sky was overcast and threatening rain but we had none forecast and none fell.  I hate that I haven't been able to ride much lately but as soon as I feel better I'm planning on a longer ride.  The Bullet had 235 on the odo when I left the house and 257 when I parked it.    

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