Oh my goodness, what a day and what a ride!!!!!!!  Saturday, that is...
Yesterday morning, as i was still sitting here in my robe someone rode up in my driveway on, of all things, a motorcycle Threw on my duds and went out to see who it was and my whole day changed.... it was a friend of ours I hadn't seen in years. He had heard from his daughter that I had a bike, and he said he just had to see that. I told him about my plans for my ride today, and he offered to go along, which was a great blessing. He has a Softail (I told him it was a couch with wheels, rofl) My dh is off hunting and part of what was making me a bit uncomfortable was knowing I was going to have to do business at the bike shop not knowing very much about what I was there for, and didn't want to make the wrong choices (after all, HD does stand for 'high dollar' ). Our friend is knowledgeable about bike stuff as he's been riding for some time. I told him about where I was skill wise, and that I didn't want to do the interstate but I was ok with town riding. We went down the frontage road, as I had planned and when we got to a stop about 30 miles down the road, he asked if I wanted to take a break and yuppers, I did.... I think a gel seat is the next investment . He made sure I was going to be ok doing the 65 speed limit on our next stretch of road, reassuring me that if I was not comfortable doing that, we could go slower. During that stretch I would find myself doing 70 or so, surprisingly.
We didn't go to the shop I was planning on, instead he took me to the one I bought my bike at originally, which is about 15 miles farther. I bought the pillion seat, and not only that, but the salesguy offered to help my friend put it on my bike as it sat in the parking lot - another blessing, as I just figured we'd put it in his saddle bags and my dh would have to do it, or the shop would install it for only $60 (the seat only cost $100 and I had a 10% discount coupon too ). Anyway, it was tremendously hard to wipe the smile off my face at that point.
So, I didn't

On the trip back, he stretched my skill even more. He.... I don't even know how to say it.... took the interstate! Ya know, when you can't talk to someone who is 30 feet in front of you and it's waaaaaaaaaay too loud, it's hard to tell them NO! I quit my mental whining and throttled up and headed on out right behind him, lol After about 5 miles, he got in the lane beside me and gave me a big grin and a thumbs up, telling me later that I did a great job out there So, I think with our friend I was sent a lot of blessings - he made me stretch farther than I would have made myself, made sure that I was safe in my ride, was very patient with me, and I didn't have my youngest daughter tailing me (she works nights and it would have been really stressful if she did follow me all day), and I'm sure that some prayers went with me, I could feel it . This day was absolutely fantastic, I put 210 miles on, had only one slight scare (took a corner too fast, focused on the wrong spot, forced myself to refocus on my friend and where he was in the road ahead of me, and corrected safely). We rode for about 6 hours, on and off, and I didn't want the sun to go down because I was sure there was more road to cover, somewhere.....
What a day! It was nice not riding alone for once I can't wait till dh gets the DynaGlide he wants!
Sorry no pictures, though, just imagine riding across the prairie towards the mountains and that pretty much covers what I looked at for most of the ride

I forgot to tell one of the best parts! We had stopped for gas and a soda at a quick stop sort of place, a little boy of about 8 came over to me as I stood there in my leathers and my helmet (carried by the straps on my arm), and he said in an awed voice, "Do you drive a motorcycle?" I smilingly told him yes, it is the pretty red one right outside the door. He went over and looked, came back with a big smile on his face and said, "I think it's maroon."    I think he's a husband in training, he's already finding points to argue, rofl!