rubber_side_down: Slip Sliding Away

Discretion is the better part of valor, as they say. Sunday was a fine day, and to my delight, my wife suggested a motorcycle journey up to Snowshoe Brewing Co. in Arnold for a late lunch.
No beers for me, of course – drinking and riding a motorcycle is several degrees stupider than drinking and driving a car. But I digress.
Highway 4 is a great motorcycle trip, and didn’t disappoint Sunday. Everything was fine until several miles above Murphys. Snow showed up on the ground, and on the pavement in shaded areas. I continued, figuring we were only a few miles from Arnold. But then the pavement turned dark in those shaded areas. Either it was wet, or it was black ice.
I slowed to 40 miles per hour, and became paranoid about leaning the bike through corners. Will there be traction? Do I dare touch my brakes if I need to? I thought about the story in The Bee last week of the car that rolled over near Ceres after encountering black ice.
After a few minutes, I decided that the Snowshoe lunch wasn’t worth the risk, and turned around. We headed back to Murphys, where the pavement was dry and restaurants abound.
Our first stop was to buy a pair of thermal long johns for Sue, who had discovered that the ride was chillier than she thought it would be. Then we enjoyed a couple of cheeseburgers at Firewood restaurant, gassed up and headed back down the hill.
The sunset was lovely, and a bit of Irish whisky warmed us up after we got home.
A great ride, even if we didn’t get to our original destination.