Summer is over

[Rocky]

Well, it had to happen eventually.
Last Friday I closed up my lakeside cottages for the winter. The wind was howling across the lake and it was pretty cool as I unhooked the water works and drained all the water lines and hot water tanks.
Saturday, I woke up to a sunny and windy 6C (43F) - 3C(37F) inland. We had our annual outdoor fall swap meet on Saturday and everyone was wearing a winter jacket even though the temp got up top a scorching 11C(52F).
Today, Sunday, I again woke up to a sunny but windy 6C. It was 9C(48F) when I suited up and rode to breakfast on the Bonneville at 9:00 AM. Six others showed up on bikes so I wasn't alone, but all the rest were on four wheels.

I'll be putting all the bikes inside for safe keeping as on Thursday we're going on a road trip by car for 10-12 days. If it's still cool by the time we get back the bikes may just stay where they are, sigh!!!
Oh well, I usually pack it in by the end of October anyway. It's not worth it to hope for the occasional warmer day into November to take a ride even though many others do. When it's over, it's over and I have no regrets.

 

[The Seeker]

We had a beautiful weekend here in Pittsburgh although it got pretty cool at night. I had planned on taking a ride with a buddy to a local watering hole, but then my Daughter informed me that they were dropping the puck for the Pens vs Habs game at 7:00 instead of 4 PM as I thought. I should have gone anyhow instead of wasting my time watching my team lose.

 

[CarlS]

It has been unseasonably cool here all week. For Rocky, it would be summer. :y114: We have had lows from 56F to 61F and highs in the lower 80'sF. Perfect riding weather.

 

[Rocky]

Yes Carl, that's July and August for us :wink:
But just wait until January when we will have warmer days than in Florida like last year :ya2:

 

[CarlS]

Yes, that sucked!! :y114:

 

[DaveM]

I just wish our winter would move on as it seems to be hanging in :tongue:

 

[CarlS]

I hope our winter is better than last year. And we are in a drought. Rocky hogged all of the tropical storms this year and we did not get our rain fall. :ya2:

 

[DaveM]

Well we have not had the rain we should have over these last two month and our dams are nearly empty so I can see us running into big problems this summer with water :sad:

 

[Kirkus51]

I see what yer talking about today.. All it did was stay cloudy and cold with the occasional sprinkle of rain. Not that I'm gonna quit riding, but... will have to suit up.

 

[DaveB]

Strange that the weather in Port Elizabeth isn't behaving as it should- our summer rains started on cue last week. We hadn't had a single drop in more than five months. The jacarandas are in full bloom http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-za:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGLR&q=jacaranda+tree&revid=-1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=EFy0TKqVPIT78AaF-MH2CQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=6&ved=0CDsQsAQwBQ , the jasmin is in bloom and the countryside is turning green :happy:. Oh, & it's topping 90F in the shade most days....

DaveB.

 

[DaveM]

Dave we normally get a lot of rain in September but this year nothing really :tongue: I think we are heading for a big problem this summer if it does not rain soon. :sad:

 

[Rocky]

Dave B, I was delighted to see the Jacaranda trees.
The colour of my 1970 Tiger T100S was Jacaranda Purple from the factory. I have never seen a factory paint job so was interested to see the colour.
But since I'm not a fan of purple I had the bike painted Pacific blue and silver which is more to my tastes.

 

[gumpt1oo]

It's turned a bit nippy over here now. I had to scrape the ice off the car this morning, temp guage said -2degC!

 

[Dilligaf]

Upper 80's low 90's here but the Fall change is on the horizon.

 

[DaveM]

We don't have fall this side only autumn. I never did understand why you guys all fall over at a certain time of the year, it must keep 911 very busy picking up all the bodies :silent: :y24:


Autumn Western Cape, South Africa

 

[Dilligaf]

That is a great looking place. South Africa has so many California looking places.

 

[DaveB]

DaveM, that pic is sensational! :y115:

Dilligaf, I have had a short vacation in California, back in '95. I'd say that there are many physical similarities. The big difference is population density. Some claim that some of our smaller towns qualify as cities but I don't go along with that thinking. We've only got about a dozen sizeable cities in the whole country!

I live in Gauteng province (which includes Pretoria & Joburg) and it's by far and away the smallest & most densely populated province- approx 10.5 Million people living in 17,000 sq. km / 6,500 sq. miles.

The Eastern Cape, where DaveM lives, has approx 7 Million people living in 169,000 sq. km / 65,000 sq. miles. They're not exactly tripping over each other there!

If that's still too crowded, try neighbouring Namibia- at 824,000 sq. km / 318,000 sq. miles it's bigger than Spain & Italy combined yet only has a population of about 2 Million!

BTW, the jacarandas are native to Central & South America but they thrive in the northern inland parts of our country. The nickname for Pretoria is The Jacaranda City :happy:.

DaveB.

 

[Rocky]

Lovely pic, Dave.
The entire population of Canada is just over 34 million - less than the state of California.
The major cities are crowded and a rat race, but we have plenty of wide open spaces.
We have barely 900 thousand here in Nova Scotia. Once you're away from the population centers it's a joy to ride a motorcycle here. Lots of twisty coastal roads with little traffic.

 

[Dilligaf]

Dave B.

Thanks for the information, I found it interesting. Northern Cal is pretty much wide open with the exception of the San Francisco bay area. I visited southern Cal last month and had forgotten how totally over-crowded it was.

 

[DaveM]

Well the news has just issued storm warning for us for tomorrow. Heavy rain and wind so I wonder if we will now see our missing rain for this year. It has been raining today off and on so lets hope we are getting a bit into dams