Riding weather is finally here, well almost!

There are times when I envy those who live in a climate that allows them to ride year round, especially in the darkest days of winter, when I've about had enough of the grey skies and frigid temperatures. But then, the weather finally breaks and it's time to ride again and I think we're the lucky ones.

Yea, I know, when there's 3 feet of snow on the ground and the wind is howling at 20 MPH and the wind chill is some minus a billion degrees, we sure don't feel very lucky, but stay with me here.

We're lucky because every year around this time we rediscover the joy of motorcycling again. Sure, we've got over 50,000 miles on our 2003 Goldwing, and my husband has been riding his whole life, so it's not even close to "new" but for me, that first really nice day of spring, when we roll the bike out of the garage, go through the annual ritual of finding all of our gear (somehow it never gets put away in the same place every year!) throw on the jacket and helmet and ease on out of the driveway, it's all new again and there's a renewed excitement to riding.

The sounds, the smells, the freedom of riding in the open air is an awesome feeling. I just think if we could ride 365 days a year, we may be tempted to take riding for granted and miss that one moment of every year that I look forward to most. It's a rite of spring. The robins come back, the tulips start to bloom, the snow melts away and the bike comes out of hibernation ready to provide another season of riding pleasure.

Here's to another great riding season. Hope to see you on the road.