2008 ABC's of Touring

Holy New Year's Eve Batman! Its time to submit the ABCs before the year is up. Yes in typical fashion, last minute activity. In fact we rode yesterday to finish up our HOG ABCs in order to submit with a post mark no later than today. Of course we had to find the time to ride to finish up, and these past several weeks were particularly challenging, but we did it.

Our furthest state north was Wisconsin, as far east as Ohio, and as far West as California (Texas is pretty far south....)




The story on the Nevada sign is that I took this great little highway (HWY 164, Joshuya Tree Highway) through the desert to get the California border. When I got there, the sign for California was gone, obviously a victim of theft. Across the road was the Nevada sign so I turned around and got that. I eventually did get the California sign on the interstate but its a much less interesting road. Oh, and of course, for these two state markers, I had forgotten my HOG Tales magazine at the hotel so couldn't submit those two.

Anyway, we met our goal, patches and pins all around, woo hoo!

Oh what the heck, here is California! Hmmm, pretty boring crop too!

2008 - A year in review

2008, as they all are, was an exciting and eventful year. On a global scale, a significant shift as evidenced in the economy and even just the prices of gas. I remember planning our trip to Milwaukee and budgeting $2.50 for a gallon of gas, and re-budgeting on an almost weekly budget as gas prices rose to over $4.00 just in time for our trip in August, and now, they are at roughly $1.50.

A presidential election year, and what a wild one at that. Full of firsts, a black man and a woman, fighting to be the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. For the Republican party, a 72 year old candidate, former POW, and for his vice president, an upstart woman governor for Alaska, Sara Palin. Looks like the US is finally catching up to other countries, with sex and racial equality....

Well personally, I had a lot going on this year as well. First and foremost of course, marrying (re-marrying) my lovely wife Darlene. We got married on March 29, a biker wedding of sorts. It was a great time. Lots of great friends, family and fun. I love you Darlene.

Work wise, also an interesting year, as we were bought by HP. During that process I took a new role and afterwords questioned my decision to a degree but overall feel comfortable with my role, my manager and the organization I am with during these times of corporate and economic change.

House wise, wow, where to start. One major accomplishment of course was our fence, and there was a lot of smaller accomplishments. Of course a continual list of projects in various states of completion. But its all good, actually it is all good. Some of them test opinions but in the end so far they have been successful and satisfying.

Motorcycle. Another eventful year. Some changes from early start, we had some fairly lofty goals for mileage this year, each hoping to ride 20K miles. Well with the house activity, the chapter activity, and being around more for the boys, we didn't hit our mileage goals, although the price of gas certainly made that happen a bit easier as well. I had over 18,000 miles and Darlene had over 11,000 miles. That included our 3200 mile round trip ride to Milwaukee for the 105th, and it included my 3100 mile round trip to Las Vegas. It did not include the 2 or 3 other trips that we typically do, including no trips to Arkansas this year, compared to typically 2 per year.

Family. Haven't been home in a couple of years, its hard with everything else going on. Still need to get our passports sorted out, and start looking forward to our status in the long term. Mom and Dad are still healthy, but are advancing in years, and Dad makes in interesting of course with fairly major surgery on his ankle. I call regularly but if there is one resolution I need to make it should probalby be a trip home this year.

Closer to home of course, the boys. In some ways growing up too fast and in others not growing up fast enough. Not little kids anymore. Even Marc is in high school. Corey is growing up. He has a good head on his shoulders, quite worldly given his age and truly lack of real world experience. He'll be getting his license this spring. OMG! I'm actually still taller than Ryan, not by much, Corey, well, just don't ask me again next month... Marc, he still has a ways to go, but definately sprouted a bit.



2009, what will it bring. I haven't made any resolutions in a couple of years. Maybe I should this year. Besides the one above which I don't want to mention again for fear of hexing it, I need to focus on health, particulary loss of about 15 lbs. and financial. That one should be a bit easier as the more major projects are behind us.

Credit where credit's due

Earlier this fall, we have a quarterly photo contest at the chapter meeting. There was one photo entered that I really liked, I even asked the boys for their perspective on the entries. Out of the 4 males in the house, 3 of us, myself included liked one in particular. And the other liked it as well, just not the best.
Well, it didn't win, and no it wasn't one of my shots, I don't seem to have any luck with the quarterly contests.

However the photo was submitted by Matt Cairns and I'm not sure if it was Matt or his wife Robin who actually took the pictures. Anyway, I really wanted to see it in black and white so I asked if he could email it too me. Which he did and I finally got around to converting it. Unfortuately I really don't know a lot about b&w but I'm pretty happy with the results and printed an 8X12 to give to him. So I am going to post it here, its not my shot, its Matt Cairns but wanted to post it anyway.

Paris Bound

Paris, Texas that is. Disclaimer, this posting is about a week late. I hadn't downloaded any pictures so was conviently waiting on that. Last Saturday, Dec 20, we got a call from the group that they were going to ride to the Paris dealership for something to do, and for the sale. We had plans on going on the Big Texas Toy Run the following Day, but the weather was quickly changing our mind. Darlene had too much to do so I went with Carla and Tee, and Judy and Daryl.

It was relatively warm when we started mid morning, in fact, while waiting I took off my chaps and long sleeve shirt as it looked like the sun was going to break. I still had my heavy leather jacket. It quickly became obvious that it wasn't going to get any warmer however but I was fine for the ride to the dealership.

We actually spent about 90 minutes in the dealership, can you believe that! Anyway, we found a place for lunch and when we left the dealership at 2 PM the weather was starting to change and get colder. First on to the tower, then we searched out a local eating spot but when we got there, they were closed as they were moving to a new location that day, so we ventured over to Chili's. Had a bowl of chili there, imagine that.



Anyway, it was now about 3:30, and we still had an opportunity for some sites so decided to lead the group on a Red River Crossing, we crossed into Oklahoma heading north into the wind. The air temperature was now about 43F, and it felt every bit of it, if not more. On to Carpenter's Bluff bridge, then to a gas station in Denison for a brief warmup before heading home.

Big Texas Toy Run

The Big Texas Toy Run is scheduled for this Sunday. We are planning on going. Its a huge toy run, one of the biggest in the US. I think there have been as many as 40,000 bikes in some years.

Today is a beautiful day, with temperatures forecast to be in the low 70's today and tomorrow. But then.... Saturday night a cold front will be blowing in. Temps are expected to drop below freezing.

So for now, we are going to the toy run. Sunday morning may bring another story...

Photography

On Tuesday of this week, we woke up to freezing conditions and roads covered with ice. Schools were delayed 2 hours, then cancelled. I decided to work from home but ended up taking Ryan into work. The roads were surprisingly bad.

Anyway, during my travels I popped into the local Wolf Camera to get some digital reprints done for our Christmas cards. Two things surprised me. The first was how many people were there getting digital reprints, considering the road conditions, but more so, how many films were being processed. Yes films. I haven't shot a film since I bought my digital camera 3 years ago, and I thought I was late to the game.

There were several on the rack, enough for me to notice. I guess it just surprised me. If it was after Christmas I'd be less surprised as a lot of folks take snapshots over the holidays.

'Tis the Season

And its always a busy one. Places to go, people to see, and a boatload of stuff do do around the house from cleaning, decorating, cooking, gift wrapping, etc. Still have to find time to relax occasionally.

This past Saturday was our AEHOG Christmas Party. Always a lot of fun and this year we had premium jello shots smuggled in as the hotel clamped down on the TABC rules a bit.

One of the big announcements this year was the results of our effort to be the first HOG chapter to ride 2,000,000 miles in a year. North Texas HOG was the first or one of the first to ride 1 million a couple of years ago.

Our chapter heavily promoted this event and aggressive targeted new members to join, which was needed if we even had a hope of achieving this incredible milestone. Earlier this summer we had a bit of a checkpoint and I think our efforts were in jeopardy but it was never communicated. In fact North Texas were also trying to achieve this milestone, and were far short, at roughly 1.2 million miles.

Anyway we have approx 400 members, of which a large portion partipated in the activity. But collecting all the miles in a timely manner was very difficult. At the deadline we still had about 60-80 members who had not reported. We extended the deadline for those members for an additional week or so, this was planned from the outset.

At the party, Lynn held everyone in suspense, teasing us at one point during the party with a faux announcement, that had us about 200,000 miles short.

Finally the official announcement 2,004,880 miles. Woo Hoo!!! Honestly, I had no idea if we would make it or not. Even if we collected from only 200 members. Actually we had results from 213 riders. That is just roughly 9,400 miles each on average, which is considerable miles for a "recreational" vehicle as most folks don't use the bikes as their primary transportation.

Darlene and I both contributed, with her having 11,072 miles and myself riding 18,688 miles. I was a bit short of my 20K goal, but considering the riding we did not do in the latter half of the year, it was still quite good. I think next year we will reduce our goals again rather significantly as we have a lot of projects to finish that we started last year, and our boys are at an influential age and its important that we are around to give them proper guidance. Hopefully gas will stay down in price though....

Also, special shout out to Senator Dave Zien. As the story goes, he had a issue with his motorcycle just a couple of miles from the dealership. From what I understand his visit to the dealership and his meetings with AEHOG members was so great, that he joined our club just so that he could contribute to our goal, and contribute he did to the tune of 55,897 miles.

Of course all these miles come at a cost. Fortunately for most of us its literally just financial. So also this past Saturday, I needed to put new rubber on my bike. Both front and rear, at 44.8K miles.

Lewisville Toy Run

The Toy Run was Saturday. The staging was in Lewisville this year, apparently back to where it had been in the past, although the past 2 years had been at American Eagle. The weather was great and it was a phenomonal turnout.

One of the things I like about events like this is the variety of bikes and riders. Nothing too extravegant this year, but there were some interesting bikes. This Yamaha chop, very nice and even more impressive is that it has an El Diablo Run sticker.




This chopped Ruckus was probably the most radical bike for sure. There was at least two other Ruckus' that I saw in addition to these but this was very cool.





And of course, paint jobs.....

Texas Cold Fronts

Winter in Texas can be interesting, with balmy shirt sleeve temperatures mid day, then a few hours later be huddled up in big puffy jackets (mind you this is TX so that about 40F or lower).

Depending on the season, these cold fronts can easily impact the weather by 20-40 degrees, and often bring on violent storms. Spring and summer typically have storms, fall and winter typically have wider temperature swings and wind, but sometimes we are lucky with the precipitation aspect.

This past Wednesday was a dinner ride that I was leading. I took my gear to work so I would go directly to the dealership. In the morning it was about 65 degrees and since I had my work stuff, I had to wear my gear and litterally sweated on the way to work. By 6 PM on the way to the dealership it was in the mid to low 40's with a very cold and brisk north wind. Yes, it was cold.

I remember one particular February cold front from a few years ago, it was 82F during the day, and within 6 hours the temperature dropped almost 60 degrees with a bad storm that covered the roads with ice. The cold temps lasted about 3 days. I was staying at a hotel in Dallas it actually got down to 8F during that week and pipes froze in the hotel lobby. The roads were a mess for about 3 days. I was still truly Canadian conditioned at that time so I was wondering what all the fuss was about.

This Saturday is the Lewisville Toy run and morning temps are forecast to be in the 30s although by afternoon it may, may get up to mid 50s. Should be fun. Winter riding is always fun cause you say hi to folks you know but don't recognize due to cold weather attire. I should get some good pics tomorrow!