Sometimes good karma pays off… this Thanksgiving was a great example!  Not only did I manage to fend off all of the invitations I received to spend the day cooped up inside stuffing myself, but the weather turned out be to absolutely gorgeous!

I took advantage of this confluence of luck to wipe the dust off my bike and get a few hours in the saddle. After considering various destinations, I decided to return to a stretch of road I first hit earlier in April this year on my first day ride of the season… Chuckanut Drive on the shores of the Bellingham and Samish Bays.

The bike has been sitting for a while since the weather hasn’t been that great and I’ve been way to busy to think about riding lately.  Still, it fired right up as it always has. Overnight temps dipped down to freezing and the forecast was calling for morning fog so I didn’t rush to get an early start.

I hop-scotched my way north ducking on and off of I-5 to avoid traffic and hit a few side roads on my way, then pealed off towards the coast on State Route 11 which becomes Chuckanut Drive.

The early stages of SR11 are relatively straight and flat, but I still enjoy riding through here because it’s mostly farm country. I really love all of the smells associated with farm land.  The earth, crops, even the cows. It’s nice to have *space* around you after being cooped up in a city so much.

Soon, you cross a small bridge and road heads north towards Bellingham and things get twisty and scenic really quickly.  The road through here is bordered by rocky cliffs riding above you on the inland side and more cliffs dropping off on the other side down to the bay waters below.

I rode through non-stop heading north, just enjoying a fairly relaxed pace and the lack of traffic.  Then I turned around and headed back south, stopping at a few places I noticed on the way up as potential spots for photos. At one pull-out I ran into Rick, another rider from Bellingham enjoying the great weather on his Kawasaki KLR-650. We picked out a nice warm spot in the sun along a rock wall and spent a while chatting about our bikes, riding and the general state of things.

Pretty soon we parted ways and I motored on home with the sun rapidly dipping towards the horizon and the temperatures starting to drop. Hard to imagine a much better way to spend a Thanksgiving in my opinion!