We laid out a course through winding back-country from Sioux Falls, through Brandon, to Luverne, stopping in Adrian to see her mom, out to Worthington to see her dad, and back.

We ran across a horse and buggy a few miles out of Brandon. That was the biggest excitement of the day.

Very lazy roads out there on Saturday. The temperatures were perfect. Started at around 65 and ended at around 80 F. With the jackets and gear it started a touch chilly at highway speeds, and ended just about exactly the right temp. We never worked up a sweat. It was just perfect.

At the first stop Mrs. NFB said exactly the words I knew I would hear, and words that justified my feeling I didn't need to explain why we needed to get passenger floorboards to replace the pegs. "My feet and legs are killing me. Other than that, I'm good. What can we do about it?"

"Remember when I told you about the floorboards for you?"

"And I told you not to waste money on them?"

"Right."

"Yeah, scratch that. Buy those right away, please."

"Done."

She wants to give the seat a few more weeks before she decides if she's happy with it or not. By the end of the trip I felt the same as I always feel after the first couple hours on the bicycle in the spring, so I'm thinking I'll probably be good after a few more rides to work up the endurance. She says she feels about like she did when we used to ride our bikes together on the weekends some, so she wants to give it more time before saying to get a better seat.

I'm game on that, as better seats are uber cashriffic.

We couldn't have asked for a better day for the maiden voyage. It was just all around perfect. Perfect weather, perfect traffic: almost none, great hilly, curvy roads with no tight corners but plenty of long, flowing corners around stands of trees and such, and just a whole lot of long, fun road.

Also, spending a bit more time in traffic on my own once we got back in town, I think I'm starting to understand why it's so relaxing to me. It's very immediate. All that shit about the work projects looming, the stuff I need to do at home, the things that bothered me last week, it all melts away and all I've got is, "is that van turning in front of me? Is that person walking across the street? Is that car staying in their lane? What's that SUV up there doing?" Constant analysis in the now makes all the worry-wort bullshit just disappear. Hence, relaxation. Now, I do the same thing in the car, but I think the added little bit of balance that goes on without much up-front thought eats just enough of the brain cycles to soak up any processor time I have for the stupid crap I shouldn't be thinking about in traffic anyway and it's just there, analyze, analyze, analyze.

I do have to wonder about some of the other motorcycle folks we saw on the road Saturday. We were bundled up pretty good and just a touch chilly when we took off and saw several couples and singles with just t-shirts and jeans. I gotta think they were freezing their bits off. I'll skip the safety lecture as I already covered that.

Successes:

• Mrs. NFB wants her comfort accessories.
• Full face helmets - brilliant! I got thunked in the face with a big bug hard enough to snap my head back a touch. Right in a spot that would have hit me in the face had it been any other type of helmet. Mid forehead area. Also, when passing a van, one rock-chip on the face shield. That would have stung. A lot.
• Mrs. NFB requests I spend an equal amount on my comfort on the bike. The only thing I want, risers to move the bars up one inch and back a little under two, costs less than half what her floorboards cost. I got play money and no intention of using it. Bonus points.

All in all, pretty good weekend. As we went to bed Sunday night, Mrs. NFB said to me, "this is the best weekend we've had in a long time. And our weekends are usually pretty good anyway."

I couldn't disagree with her.

The ride in to work this morning in the "rush hour" traffic wasn't horrible. Tonight shouldn't be bad either. I need to tighten up my mirrors a bit as the one of the left loosened up on the ride in. Outside of that, everything seems to be working pretty nicely.

Laterz. Got more catching up to do.