Más Mexicali Cantina

Courthouse Clock Tower from the Terrace

Despite our previous misadventure with dinner in West Chester we took a ride out there on Friday night to eat at the Más Mexicali Cantina on State Street.  We took the MG on our regular West Chester route, up Goshen/Strasburg to the Pike and then straight into town on Gay Street.  All the parking spots in the downtown area were full so we had to find alternative parking in a structure on the corner of Walnut and Chestnut.  This arrangement worked out pretty well because, as long as one doesn't stay for more than three hours, it's cheaper to park here than in the open lots.

Dinner at the Cantina was good, not the best Mexican I've ever had but not bad at all.  We sat on the terrace which is a happening spot for the younger crowd but since the weather was so good it was a shame to sit inside.  After dinner we took a walk to Gemelli for gelato, great as always and then a short passeggiata through the downtown area.

On the way back we took a short ride around the University area and then headed out Market to the Pike.  I overshot Strasburg but got on it from Ellis and then did the reverse ride home.  I am really loving the rides in the early evenings.  The weather has been great at this time of day, even when it has gotten hotter during the day, and it is really an enjoyable experience.  

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Oreo Cows

Oreo Cow Farm

Shortly after I got back from my Bullet ride after the concert at the Easttown Library on Sunday afternoon we took the MG out for a spin.  We decided to go try a new place to eat first, Fat Jack's BBQ in Malvern.

We headed out Earles Lane toward Goshen and within a couple of blocks from the house we saw a white Tesla going in the opposite direction.  I am convinced that this has to be the same Tesla I've seen twice before on Earles Lane because it is too much of a coincidence but without getting the plate it would be impossible to confirm.  The fact that PA does not require plates in front makes confirming this even more difficult.

Once on 252 we took Newtown Rd to Sugartown rather than stay on 252 just to make the ride a little more enjoyable because of the country lane feel of Newtown Rd as opposed to the more highway feel of 252.  At the corner of Sugartown and 252 where Sugartown turns into Darby Rd a dark (could have been green, black, or blue) Tesla turned onto Darby in front of us.  We stayed on Darby to Devon and took that left to Warren.  At Warren we took the right and followed it out to Old Lancaster and then Old Lincoln to 30.  We then continued on 30 until we got to Fat Jack's.

Fat Jack's in not much from the outside being set up in the far corner of a strip mall.  However, the food is amazing.  We had South Carolina mustard sauce BBQ (which for some weird reason they call Georgia style) and burned ends.  It was really delicious with very generous portions.  We both had the sandwiches which came with real fries and coleslaw.  I'm not a big fan of slaw but this was very good and it did not drown out the BBQ, being just a small enough portion to give flavor and crunch without overwhelming.  The place was clean and decorated with funky signs and posters, including a scaled down reproduction of the Spanish version poster for Barbarella.  Random but very cool.

Belted Galloway/Oreo cows

From there we headed back on the reverse route to Warren but once there we stayed on all the way out to Providence and took the left on Sugartown to Goshen.  At Goshen we took the right and headed out towards Strasburg Rd.  When we reached Duttons Mill we noticed some Belted Galloway cows in the pasture on the right.  We have never seen these cows here before.  There's another farm all the way where 926 dog legs on Newark Rd that has Belted Galloways but there's no good place to get off the road to take pictures.  So I took a right on Duttons Mill and, of course, I had some Yankee with his tail on fire immediately on top of me so I couldn't pull off.  No worries, we made the block back to Sugartown and Goshen and this time I was able to pull off on a bit of grass by the cows to take some pictures.

After the pics we just turned around on the road and headed back up Goshen/Strasburg to West Chester.  Once in West Chester we drove around town and into the campus of West Chester University.  The campus is in an urban setting but has some interesting older building some dating back to the turn of the last century.  From there we headed back to downtown and stopped at our favorite gelato place, Gemelli, for chocolate espresso and salted caramel gelato.  Just excellent!

On the way back we took a right at Five Points Rd and followed that down to Westtown Rd.  We had never been in either of these roads before.  Five Points is fairly straight and suburban but once on Westtown the road turns more country and with twists just like most country lanes in the area.  Westtown eventually leads out to 926 for our loop back through Garretts Mill and Goshen.  This is a good route to know as another way to get in and out of West Chester without having to use the Pike.

Another great ride at the perfect time of day.  Great weather and temp and no issues from the car.  Can't ask for better.  Nothing but rain yesterday and today so no riding, not even commuting on the Bullet, for the last two days.

Jane Fonda en Barbarella

Oreo cow

Farm

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West Chester Evening

Old Glory, West Chester City Hall

When Charlene got home from work last night we went out for a ride and dinner at West Chester.  We took the MG out and headed up Goshen towards Strasburg Rd and the West Chester Pike.  We left shortly after 18:15, the weather was still great but the temps had begun to drop below the 80s of the day.  Still nice enough to need nothing more than a t-shirt.

These damned hubcaps are going to drive me insane.  As we were headed up Goshen by the Liseter development my port-side front broke loose and rolled towards the walking path on the inbound side of the road.  We drove to the nearest turning point which happened to be Echo Valley Lane and turned around to pick it up.  Of course, it was nowhere to be seen.  I continued on to the Goshen Trail parking lot, almost at 252 to turn around because there was no other place and came back to the second entrance to Liseter development and parked there.  Charlene stayed with the car and I walked across to the trail to see if I would have better luck.

As I was scanning the side of the trail a jogger asked me if I was looking for a hubcap.  He said he had seen it face down on the trail but he couldn't remember where in relation to were we were at the time.  I still don't understand how that is possible but I fell in next to him because he thought it might be on the way he was going.  We ran for a little bit, maybe 100 yards, before he was wondering if it was behind us.  So I left him and turn around because I felt that we were already way past the point were the damned thing had come off.  I ran back to were I joined the jogger and continued on for another 50 yards or so and sure enough, there it was face down on the side of the trail.  I picked it up and ran back to the car.  I haven't run this much since I don't know when.

I put the hubcap back on and made extra sure that it was firmly seated before we drove off towards West Chester.  We followed the regular route straight up to downtown West Chester.  Once there we parked at the Wells Fargo parking lot, where they only charge $5.00 to park in the evenings, and went to the Side Bar for dinner.  We had brunch there last year on Father's Day and there was no wait to eat inside to it was a sure bet.  We both had salads which were really great so we can definitely put this place on the rotation.

After dinner we did the passeggiata through downtown which was full of people and very active.  We stopped for gelato, after all what is a passeggiata without gelato, at a place called Gemelli.  I was favorably impressed with the quality of their gelato.  We had gianduia and espresso which were really good mixed together.  After the passeggiata we cruised up Gay Street to New Street and came back down Market Street which eventually turns into the Pike.  On the way up Gay St we were stopped at a light when two young guys just came up to shake our hands and tell us how cool the car was.  I said it before, this thing is an attention magnet.  We came back home following the Pike all the way back to 252.

Other than the stupid mishap with the stupid hubcap it was a great ride.  It's nice to have headlights again and be able to go out after dark.  We want to make the Friday evening ride a thing for the summer so we are putting the West Chester downtown into that schedule because it is an easy ride, there are lots of restaurants, and it is conducive to the passeggiata.

West Chester

West Chester

 

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Riding to West Chester

The DK Diner in West Chester

 Yesterday afternoon we picked up the car from Gene's after they took care of the horn issue.  Harold, the mechanic at Gene's, said it was a simple issue of some wires having come disconnected when they installed the new horn button and he didn't charge me for the work.  I can imagine that if I had tried to fix it myself, it would have taken me three days and who knows how much aggravation.  So Gene's was the best answer.

After we picked up the car we took a ride up Goshen/Strasburg to the DK Diner on 3.  By the time we got there, around 15:00, the place was completely empty and we had it all to ourselves.  Lunch was good but I like their breakfast better.  We sat in a window booth and we could see the MG from there.  I was interesting to see several people pull over and walk around her trying to figure out what kind of car it was.

At the DK Diner in West Chester

After lunch, we stopped at the Wawa on Gay Street in West Chester to gas up.  I put 7.334 gallons in the tank, not filling it up because when close to completely full gas sloshes out of the top through the gas cap.  This is something that I will have to see about fixing soon.  Either by replacing the tank or seeing if it can be fixed.  At the gas stop, the odo read 2503 miles and the trip odometer was at 259.7.  I did not reset the trip odometer last time but I calculate that we ran the car for 189.2 since the last fill up.  From there we simply returned home using the same Goshen/Strasburg loop.  The weather was great, cool and breezy with temps in the low seventies.  At one point, shortly after leaving the Wawa, I lost my baseball cap because of the wind but I was able to make the block and come back to pick it up.  My EGA pin was destroyed, I suspect someone ran over the cap, but the cap it self did appear any worse for the wear.

This morning, on my way to work on the Bullet, I noticed that the odometer there was at 2222.2.  I need to gas up today because I am very close to the 200 mile range.

2222.2

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Another Pillion Ride to the DK Diner

Today was my wife's birthday so we took a ride out to the DK Diner in West Chester for breakfast.  We had not done a pillion ride in a while, since last month's ride to the Goose Creek Grill, so it was nice to get ride together for a change.  Yet another great day for a ride with temps in the low 80s and no noticeable humidity.  Because we left fairly early, around 09:00, there was virtually no traffic on Goshen and we were able to make a nice run without putting feet down between 252 and the Pike.

On the Ridley Creek Bridge

After breakfast we headed back on the same track but stopped at a couple of places to take some pictures.  First at the bridge over Ridley Creek and then over at Bartram's Covered Bridge.  We saw several groups of riders on Goshen, all going in the opposite direction.  This was a short run, just to get breakfast, but I always enjoy riding that route because of the scenery and the nice layout of the road.  The Bullet performed great but, as can be expected, does not move very fast with two people on board.  At full throttle, with good road conditions, it was only able to hit 65 mph on the speedo.  Allowing for the ambitiousness of the speedo, it was probably not moving faster than 60 mph.

Ridley Creek

Interior of Bartram's Covered Bridge

Clowning around

High Speed Low Drag - XD

Crum's Creek by Bartram's Covered Bridge

Last time we rode together we had trouble with the UClear HBC 100 plus communicators I bought in Idaho.  I tried contacting UClear but they never replied so I fooled around with the dammed things and they are working fine now.  Don't ask me what I did, I just pushed buttons until the things worked.  We used them today on this ride and they were just fine and felt better with the new buckets than they did in the old set.

On departure the odo read 1708.5 miles at 09:10 and on return 1731.1 at 10:55.

Route: Out Goshen/Strasburg to West Chester Pike into West Chester to the diner and back on the same route.

Departure

Return

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Wildlife Encounters

Friday's afternoon ride took me to West Chester via the Paoli Pike.  The original flight plan was to head up Goshen/Strasburg to get to the West Goshen Shopping Center on the Paoli Pike via the West Chester downtown.  That was the target because I need to go to the pet store there to buy treats for my new kitten, Lucifer.  When I reached the 252 and Goshen interception I made an on the fly decision to change the plan and take 252 to Darby Road, Devon Road, and the Paoli Pike to test traffic conditions in the early afternoon on the Pike.  As I headed up 252, I startled a red-tailed hawk that was on the grass at the right side of the road.  She took flight and at first attempted to fly across my path to the trees on my left but as soon as she was up, she veered right and came to perch at the top of a phone pole on my right.  The reason she was on the grass was that she had caught a snake which she took with her to the top of the pole.  If that was not a good omen from the shades of my ancestors, I don't know what is.

The rest of the ride out to the shopping center was without incident, traffic was light and moving at a good pace.  Traffic in the opposite direction was fairly light as well.  After stopping at the pet shop, I continued up the Pike into town and used the Wawa, right after the merge of the Pike with  Gay Street, as a turnaround and refueling point.  At that point the odo clocked 895 miles and tank required 2.597 gallons to fill up, still averaging 67 mpg.  Next refuel at 1095 miles.  While at the pump, a guy that had pulled up on a sports bike came over and asked me "what's that?"  We talked about Enfields for a while; he had never heard of them and was really interested in learning.  It was nice to chat with someone about the Bullet and it really confirmed that people will just walk up and ask about the thing.

The path back followed the usual run down Strasburg/Goshen and was nice as ever.  At a point shortly before reaching Bartram's Covered Bridge on Boot Road a big fat ground hog ran across the road from my left to my right.  I say him with enough time to react and slow down so there was no problem but it definitely was amusing to him waddle across the road.  Since I had slowed down almost to walking speeding, I decided to pull over on Boot Rd and get a shot of the Bullet with Lewis Run and the covered bridge in the background.  The bridge is not really visible because of the trees and the quality of the phone photos is not great but is not a bad shot overall.

I continued down Goshen all the way to it's end over Darby Creek at Darby Paoli Road.  Took a left after the creek and followed Darby Paoli to Godfrey for a run by my office.  I stopped in to check on somethings I had forgotten to do before leaving earlier in the day and the headed back home on my regular commute route.

It was a great ride, no problems from the Bullet, great to see wildlife up close without any negative effects, and to be able to put in some more easy miles on the odo.  At the end of the ride, the odo read 917.5.

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DK Diner in West Chester

At the DK Diner

This morning my wife and I headed out on the Bullet for a late breakfast at the DK Diner in West Chester.  I had a little trouble getting the bike started because it seemed to be struggling to catch.  Once the throttle was engaged and the engine started to rev things seemed to settle down.

 We took our usual route up Goshen/Strasburg to the West Chester Pike and into West Chester.  The ride up Goshen/Strasburg was perfect, the llamas were out in the pasture and I thought for a second to pull over and get some pictures but I saw a pelotón of bicyclists assembling off Goshen under a tent and I did not want to get caught up in their madness.  The Parcae smiled on us and we hit every stop and light without opposition and were able to reach the Pike from 252 without putting our feet down once.

Charlene at the DK Diner

The DK Diner is on Gay Street before getting to downtown to it was an easy off right into the parking lot for a prime parking spot.  After breakfast we headed up Gay into downtown West Chester and then turned around on New Street to take Market Street out of town.  We took the Paoli Pike to the Chester County Book and Music Company and hung around there for a little while.  When we returned to the Bullet there was a gentleman in his pickup truck waiting to talk to us about the Bullet.  He was a flat track racer and had Triumphs and BSAs when he was still riding.  He had been born in West Chester and had grown up in the area but had eventually moved to San Francisco a lived there most of his adult life only returning to West Chester after retirement.  Besides motorcycles we talked about things California and because I grew up in Southern California (Anaheim, to be precise) we ended up talking about In-N-Out Burger.  You can't talk about California without talking about In-N-Out.  It was great to meet him and to talk about motorcycles and burgers, it really is hard to go out on a Bullet and not meet someone.

Enjoying breakfast

Enjoying breakfast

We headed back up the Pike towards West Chester to turn around towards West Chester Pike.  I didn't want to stay on the Paoli Pike because my rides on that road have not been enjoyable and I did not want my wife to have an unenjoyable ride.

From the West Chester Pike we got back on Strasburg and followed that down all the way to 252.  The light caught us there and when it turned back to green the Bullet gasped and died on the spot.  I tried to restart it and despite the engine priming and the electrical giving it the best it had it refused to ignite.  After the next light cycle, I trundled it off the thoroughfare and began again.  After several unsuccessful tries we both decided to trundle it across 252 to the parking lot of the Newtown Square Presbyterian Church.  This, of course, had to happen just as people were arriving for services and filling the parking lot.  We found a spot in the far end of the lot and I began trying to restart the Bullet again.  I tried with the kick start but despite several tries nothing improved.  Eventually, I could feel the engine trying to start at the bottom of the kick so I switched to the electronic ignition and it finally caught.  We went straight home from there and after dropping my wife off I did several starts and stops, a couple of loops around the neighborhood, and even as far as the hardware store on West Chester Pike and 252 without any other problems.  I have no idea what the issue could have been.  I will keep using the bike with the intention on taking it in to have it checked by next Saturday regardless of a repeat of the episode.

At the end of the day, the odo clocked 822.7 miles.

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Father's Day Brunch in West Chester

For father's day my wife and I headed out on the Bullet to West Chester for brunch in a downtown restaurant.  We didn't have anyplace special picked out we just wanted to go and find something there.  The quickest way would have been to head up West Chester Pike but the more fun and twisty ride is up the Goshen/Strasburg to West Chester Pike route.  We both love that route because of the scenery, the hills, and the twists and turns of the road.  No geese on the road today but as we crossed 252 we picked up a New Yorker in front of us who must have been leaf peeping in the wrong season, the guy could go no faster than 30 mph.  All that road is double yellow and with many blind turns so it's hard to pass someone.  Luckily there was a spot along the horse farms before the Providence Rd. intersection where it was clear enough to make a break for it.  Once we cleared him the ride was definitely more enjoyable.

The downtown area of West Chester runs between Gay St. and Market Street from about Bolmar St. to New St.  As you head into town on the Pike it turns into Gay St. and continues up through downtown as a one way street.  At some point, if you bear left, the next street over is Market which runs the other way back to West Chester Pike and the Paoli Pike turnoff.  We followed Gay all the way to New and made the turn to come back on Market settling on a parking lot near the corner of Gay and Walnut.  Leaving the Bullet there, we walked along Gay to find a place for Brunch.

We settled on the Side Bar because they had seating outside and a good looking menu.  The food was great and the weather was perfect for an outside brunch. While we were waiting for our food, a nice older gentleman approached us and compliment me on the Bullet.  We chatted about it for a little while and he was surprised to learn that they are still being made.  He though it was a vintage bike not something with just a little over 600 miles on it.

After brunch we headed back on the reverse route.  No New Yorkers this time and the road was free an clear.  At a couples of places, where I had a tailwind and a downhill slide, the Bullet reached and maintained a little over 60 mph on less than half throttle.  It's nice to know that even with two people on board it is still game. Much fun was had by all.  By the end of the ride we had clocked  a little over 661 miles on the odo.

Looking forward to Ride to Work tomorrow.

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