Two days of cloudy cold weather packed up, bundled up, and trundled up the mountain paths and out of western North Carolina just in time for spring, 2026, which arrived today with sunshine and temperatures that stretched to 72 degrees.

Tomorrow, the weather god, Freyr, promises even more sunny warmth. Word is he’ll push the mercury to 78 degrees under this March sun.

To celebrate Spring’s arrival, I took the Harley out of the basement and onto the mountain roads in Cherokee County, North Carolina, and Union County, Georgia.

But first, Hazel and I took the truck over the mountains to Franklin, North Carolina, to deliver samples of some of my body fluids so that the VA can test them for still more diseases and disorders that plague us elderly folk — and that’s all I’ll say about that.

Anyway, I took the photo above somewhere along the Georgia-North Carolina boundary on my much more pleasant motorcycle ride.

If you remember, back in 2024, Spring came on March 19 — a day or so early, the earliest in the U.S. since 1896.

You’ll recall from Elementary School that every year divisible by 4 is a leap year, in which a 29th day is added to February to account for the little white lie that we tell ourselves about our 365-day years. To be precise, of course, our years are not 365 days long, but 365.2422 days long. The Earth’s 574,395,530-mile annual orbit of the sun really takes a wee bit longer than 365 days.

The adjustment of days in 2024 — a leap year — led to the early Spring.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also add that you can always tell when Spring arrives in Murphy, N.C., because of the re-opening of the Sweet Tooth, an ice cream shop downtown on Andrews Street.

The popular shop closes every year for the winter on Labor Day.

Now put your books away and let’s go riding.