Big Mileage Weekend (by various means)

Very wild weekend, for the first time rode the motorcycle after coming from out of town. I spent my first week in Virginia, and spent the weekend in Concord, NC. Was great to see my wife Patty, my son Robby, and my two border collies Cassie and Mollie. It was a great visit, and I had a fantastic time.
We also were blessed with some good weather; blue skies and temperatures in the upper 50's. I was not the only motorcyclist out enjoying the weather either. Visited with my friend Keith (a riding buddy who sold his motorcycle, but we went on many great rides while he had one) and also while out saw this motorcycle.


The bike is a Ural, which has an interesting history. Ural Motorcycles started out as the BMW R-71 in WWII, the Russians reverse engineered the bike and called it the M-72. From 1941-1950 some 30,000 were built for the Soviet Army. The bikes are now made for the civilian market (mostly in Russia) but also also sold overseas (including the US). Over the years they have been greatly improved, and some 3.2 million have been built. I saw this motorcycle at a local business in Concord, NC (an Army surplus place on NC-3) while I stopped nearby for gasoline, and had to check it out.
At any case, while a short ride (family comes first on these trips), I did get out, and had a great time getting to roll down some roads in the area. Certainly, this commuting back home from Virginia is going to take some getting used to, but does look like it will be possible to pull this off. Great enjoyed the ride, and the visit home was wonderful!