Spoke too soon!

Snow in Texas? In early December? You have to be kidding me....

Yes Virgina, it snowed in Texas. Actually the Panhandle and other parts of West Texas can get quite a bit of snow every year, not that it lasts that long. And the DFW area typically sees snow in some form or another a couple of times each winter, but that may as little as a couple of snow flurries, or actual accumulation.

So this week we have a cold front, with a slight potential for snow in some counties. Certainly didn't expect any this morning, but there it was, piling up on cars, lawns and rooftops. And to be sure, the skies have brightened up a bit and there is no visible evidence left, so if you missed it, you missed it. But here is what it looked like for all you non-believers!

Holiday season.

We are all over it this year! Decorations up, bulk of Christmas shopping done (that was actually easy since we aren't buying much this year!), and a great Thanksgiving!

Typically, the Christmas season is different down here in Texas than back home. T-shirt weather, toy runs with 50,000 motorcycles, green grass and trees with leaves still hanging on for dear life.

Work seems to have settled down a bit, as far as all the changes in the past year, we had a good fiscal year and folks seem to be in a bit better spirits. I still have quite a few vacation days to take so will take a couple of weeks over the Christmas break, but that may not be that easy, since my work office/computer is also my home office..... Discipline, that is it takes.

Anyway here's a shot of the front of the house. Of course after I took it we make some minor changes. Will update later but wanted to put something out there, so tis the Season!

Merry Christmas!

What up?

Well, I've been neglecting my poor blog. No particular reason, have been busy, not riding alot. But also, for some reason I cannot access Blogger from Firefox, and I can't figure it out. In fact this moment, I have Firefox open with some other tabs, and IE open to this page so I can post. Surely there is some explanation, I can access other google sites and have changed my password but no luck on this site and while I haven't spent a lot of time trying to resolve, I have spent some time and research.

Anyway, on to other things, all has settled down post cruise, we had a great get-together the other night with the crew to refresh our memories and share pictures.

I did a 250 mile ride the other day as well with a group from Dr. Pepper in support of their United Way campaign. The weather was cloudy and threatening rain but it held off except for a small shower around Greenville on the way home. I planned the route and must say I enjoyed it and it will be worth doing again, maybe on a Saturday instead of a Sunday though, so that there may be more restaurant options...

Work has been quite busy, with a couple of projects taking a lot of focus, but its also frustrating. Everyone is working remote and being pulled in multiple directions. Busy is good, as is productive, and things appear to be settling down in the HP Enterprise so perhaps that is a good thing overall. We have to take our vacation before the end of the year and I have several days left. Everyone does it seems so that is starting to have impact. Of course this week is Thanksgiving, which is for the most part a lost cause, well, except for today which was a bit nuts.

Its also the time of year to think about family. I am grateful for my immediate famiy and friends that I spend time with, but find myself missing my family back home. As things settle down a bit more around here, its been a crazy year, I need to plan a trip home.

In the meantime however, here's a couple of more pictures from the cruise that bring a smile to my face!

Say hello to my little friend....

A hermit crab, just under 2 inches, crawling along a window ledge at facility in Labadee, Haiti.

Rafting on the Martha Brae

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It's from our raft trip down the Martha Brae River in Jamaica. It was as peaceful as this picture looks.



These rafts are handmade by their captain owners. They are made from bamboo that grows along the river. The rafts last about 6 months at which time they are replaced with fresh bamboo. After about 3 months the bamboo starts to become waterlogged and by 6 they no longer float well.

Back on Dry Land

Back in the great state of Texas after a 7-day Cruise. We partook in the High Seas Rally, in the Western Caribbean, with 12 of our friends from AEHOG.. This is a 7 day cruise onboard the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. The rally has a completely separate agenda than the cruise although we were able to participate in any cruise activities we wanted to.

We arrived in Coco Beach Florida on Saturday in plenty of time to check out the beach and to attend the pre-cruise party, which had lots of great costumes, since it was Halloween night. Sunday we boarded the ship and sailed off on a big blue watery road. Monday was a full sailing day and we familiarized our selves with the ship, the places to eat (lots of them!) and the rally activities. Monday was fairly relaxed tih time spent on the deck relaxing.

After that we had stops at Labadee, Haiti; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; and finally Cozumel, Mexico. On Saturday we had a full sailing day. Friday and Saturday were a bit rough and wet, as we were about a day to a day and a half ahead of of a developing Hurricane Ida.

By Sunday it was time to come home. We had a lengthy day in the airport just waiting for our scheduled flight but got to hang out with our friends for most of the day as we all had different flight times for the most part. We got home late Sunday after an wonderful and memorable vacation.

I took over 1300 photos, so it will take a while to process and go through them all. There are plenty of duplicates, and bad shots (out of focus, no flash, etc) but will get some posted later this week to try to capture the essence of our trip.

Exercising

Whew, got my camera back. I had to make a tough choice, whether to get it repaired or to dish out for a new camera, especially when Canon just announced the new 7D. Well, like any new released product, it was a bit expensive, and in very short supply. It is getting great reviews and has 1080P HD video, but I just couldn't justify at this point. Another option would have been to upgrade to the 50D, but the new 7D has blinded me... The repair cost was almost at the limit, if I'd have had a bit more time, I may have chosen differently but needed to get a camera back in my hands and, worst case I have a body I will be able to use as a spare should I ever get to a point where I move to something other than a pure recreational hobby.

Anyway, I got the camera back earlier this week and need to run it through its paces. All settings are reset to factory and in shooting yesterday I realized that some of the settings I must have changed, so I fumbled my way around and eventually sorted out the focus point selection. Reminder to self, find manual...

Its autumn in Texas and the leaves are changing from green to brown... So, hit the woods I say. Get some of that awesome Texas color. Actually I wanted to get back down to a particular spot in Allen that has some interesting structure, and also after all the rains I was hoping that some mushrooms were sprouting up, they are always interesting subjects. Unfortunately, none have popped up yet.

So here's a few shots. I actually shot these in RAW, with my tripod. Its been awhile since I actually took time and tried to get some good shots. Obviously out of practice!

Grey Days

A series of grey days; rain, clouds, much cooler temperatures, and shades of NS, misty conditions.... What up with that? This is Texas after all. Mist, like fog only not so much. Of course when the sky does decide to open up, its much more typical. Here its almost mid October and we have well over six inches of rain has fallen already. If the leaves turned color in Texas, this would be a perfect fall. Actually if we continue to get rain, this may help the wildflowers in the spring after a dreadful past 2 years.

Anyway, a little rain and clouds never hurt anyone, we still got to ride this past weekend and I got quite a bit accomplished. And yes, for those wondering, my camera is still in the shop so no pics this posting either... Its driving me crazy!

Anyway, this past weekend was the LOH ride to Possum Kingdom. There were a lot of riding options this weekend, a lot. But with no camera, the ride to Jefferson for the Boo Benefit just didn't make sense. RC pre-ride to Hot Springs was an option but since we're not doing the fall leaf ride due to conflicts that didn't make a lot of sense either. OK State Rally in Ponca City, OK really wasn't that appealing and the route Tracey did for the LOH ride looked appealing and I figured that with the expected turnout they may need some Road Captains, so I tagged along with Darlene.

It was a great and fun ride. Mid morning departure, we actually had enough bikes for 4 pods, so I got to lead Pod 4. Primarly 407 and some other roads it was a great ride. The weather was quite cool, low 50's so got out full leathers, chaps and jacket, and actually it felt good to get all suited up. I tried my electrics on the way home but I must have a blown fuse as they didn't work which was fine as it wasn't really needed.

I rode with the group to a little "wet" spot of Graford, TX where we had lunch. Funny thing about Texas liquor laws. Here we are in this very small town, the lunch spot, a cafe, doesn't even have a sign, although there were lots of seats. One gas station, and three liquor stores. Not much else going on, practically a modern ghost town with a pretty barren main street and abandoned storefronts. But the burgers were huge and good!

From there the ladies carried on to the Resort at PK, where apparently the carrying on carried on well into the wee hours..... I took a more southernly route with Holly and Matt and Robin through Palo Pinto and along FM4 (awesome! thanks guys) to IH 20 and back home. I am quite sure I have ridden at least part of FM 4 previously but maybe not. Its also very near the Brazos river, and I saw some familiar spots from previous canoe trips with Ryan and Boy Scouts.

275 miles this trip. Sunday I had to do a pre-ride and put on a few more...

Still this temperature and sunny, a match made in paradise...

Sigh

Sigh.

Camera's broke.

Aarrgghhh!!!

Took it into the shop, thought it was the shutter, nope its the CPU.... Have to send it to Canon, 4 weeks....

Funny when you don't have something, its the only thing you want... The New Canon 7d (drool, drool) is out and available, of sorts... so of course I'm feeling inspired. The new 7D, besides being a kickass picture taking machine with tons of upgrades over my 20D, can also shoot HD (1080P) video.

Its reasonably priced, comparatively anyway, but is impossible to find as everyone is sold out. I've got my eye on one, but hopefully by the time I can afford it and I'm ready to pull the trigger the price will get even better.

Sigh...

Weekend miles

This past weekend was the TX State HOG Rally, held in San Marcos this year. Both Darlene and I have attended this rally pretty consistently since we have been riding so even though we had second thoughts due to a variety of reasons, we ended up going and did have a very good time. We rode down on Friday, staying east of IH35 for the most part and picking up some ABC points. I like SH77 and the many small towns along the route, like Rosebud and many others. We exited before La Grange, which is too bad as that is an interesting part of the ride. Rode through the pines in Bastrop and the wonderful BBQ capital of Texas, Lockhart.

This year's rally was quite subdued, we met up with several Eagles at the hotel and hung out. Gotta love Embassy Suites, the hospitality hours and great breakfasts that are included in rates. Saturday morning we got on the road at a relaxed pace. I had a route planned out that included the Devil's Backbone and Jim and Gary joined Darlene and I for our route. The Devil's Backbone section was far too short and while we had some great roads with little traffic, by the time we reached Boerne (pronounced bur-ni)we were not ready to head back. So off to Bandera for lunch at the Old Spanish Trail restaurant, based on the recommendation of the Bandera resident doing his laundry at the gas station we filled up in Boerne. Bandera was a hopping little town. We decided to go a bit further, to Medina, but we decided against doing the Three Sisters as it would have added an additional 2-3 hours to our day. On the way to Medina we passed the Rumble on the River rally which helped explain the many, many bikes we saw on the roads.

We popped back to the rally site and caught the Ride like a Pro show and picked up a dvd. Others that we know have the dvd and say its a great educational tool and really improves your driving skills.

Sunday we had a leisurely ride back home, time west of IH35, taking route 12 (very nice ride) from San Marcos all the way up through Dripping Springs then to Bee Cave before heading on 71 through some more great Hill Country vistas, eventually heading due north on US 281 to IH20 then home. Long day..., picked up a few more ABCs.

Total miles for the trip 875 miles....

Pass The Pig - 2009

Ahhhh, finally got some quality riding in...

Actually have had a couple of good weekends. Last weekend, the 19th, was our club's annual chapter fundraiser, Pass The Pigs. We held it later this year than normal due to conflicts with another local chapter's event. I guess in all it turned out quite well as we had one of the best turnouts we've had with I think it was over 170 bikes. This year we rode it as Darlene has been involved with it every year in the past and it was time for a change. We had had a week or more of rain leading up to it, so when the weekend hit and it was sunny, the bikes came out! It was a good ride in local FM roads, pleasant and stress free, unlike a recent run we were on that had too many miles on interstates and state highways around the metroplex. The one downer was that our chosen lunch spot, Lucy's on the Square, was in receivership, not sure the reason but it had recently been featured in Texas Monthly as one of the top 40 small town cafes and we have eaten there a time or two. We always have bike games after the run and they are always good for a couple of pictures...




Speaking about that other chapters event.... We do have bit of a friendly rivalry. We had a challenge, the other chapter was supposed to double our turnout to their event. We we had well over 40 bikes, I think we actually had 41 arrive in unison with some other members showing up on their own. Needless to say we won the chapter challenge. For our event, that same chapter shows up with around 23 registered riders, a far cry from double our showing. Maybe 1 over double, wait, that's 1/2...

Saturday night at the dirt track!

Friends of our race Modified Stock Cars. Their home track is Devil's Bowl in Mesquite. We went out to watch some races last year, and Saturday night we went out and got pit passes so we could hang out with them on the infield. There were also Sprint car races this weekend as well.

I brought my camera so I could try to get a few shots of Brad on the track. Its a tough gig! Great and pretty flexible positioning in the infield, could get dangerously close to the track, but unfortunately the racing is at night so you have to rely on high ISO and flash. I have a Canon EOS 20D, so it only goes to ISO 1600 and an older flash unit that is a bit underpowered.

I met Mike, who takes shots for Speedway Photography and he was a great guy, gave me some tips, and helped me out quite a bit.

This race was a bit different than last years race. The Devil's Bowl is in Mesquite. And its Redneck Heaven! Last year in the stands, well, its something to experience at least once. If you ever thought Nascar represented the best in all things redneck, then you've never been to the local dirt track! Mind you hanging with friends in the infield doesn't give you the same experience, but you do get much more of a feel of being the part.

I took close to 400 shots, lots and lots of duds. I haven't shot at a race in years, especially with this kind of vantage point, and never before at night. I think I got a few shots though and I think Brad and family will appreciate.

Here are a few.

Riding Weather

The weather lately has been great! Temps getting down into low 70's, even 60's at night, hovering around 90 during day. Easing up on A/C and is great to ride in.

These past 2 weekends we have gone on a couple of rides. Well at least I did. We had one of our annual summer rides, the Bug Run, the evening of Sat 22. Darlene didn't ride for safety reasons - group riding at night and she has some difficult with night vision, so I did this one on my own with the chapter. IT was a great night, not too hot, but typically the bugs were few and far between, in fact this was probably the cleanest my bike has been after one of these runs. Aside from not qualifying for any prizes, not having completely bug splattered bike is not a bad thing.... In fact our ride from Jefferson the other weekend was much worse, and with very large bugs....

Now this weekend past, our "adversaries" from down the road, the North Texas HOG chapter, had their rain-rescheduled chapter fundraiser, the Stacked Deck poker run.
We decided to show en force, for a bunch of reasons, but to primarly encourage like attendance at our fund raising run, Pass The Pigs, in September. Just a friendly competition between friends, so to speak, to see who has the best turnout at each others event.

The Stacked Deck run was a good ride of about 100 miles. Personally it was a little too much interstate for my liking, I prefer the less stressful and less traveled FM roads, but a good time was had by all, and based on the attendance I think NT has a successful event.

We ended up at the Cottage Lounge in Dallas off Northwest Highway, definitely a biker bar and apparently a place that is friendly to the Scorpions MC. Saw one other patch member from the Warlocks from Florida.

Anyway a couple of shots from these rides.

New Trick

Double click on the image to get the full effect!




No animals were harmed during the creation of this image, and yes, we are cat owners.

Ghost busting

Well I guess we scared the ghosts, or else slept through them. We weren't in one of the haunted rooms however, so who knows. Previously we had stayed in the Excelsior hotel, where there are also rumored to be ghosts, this past weekend was at the Jefferson Hotel. Actually I had more vibe from this one than the Excelsior, so maybe there were ghosts?

We rode separate from the group as we wanted to take advantage of the trip east to collect some ABC points. We did get several and the route I planned had some unexpected happenings. Well not so much happenings but a few of the roads... When I planned the route I usually avoid Country Roads (CR designation) as they are often dirt roads. So in my planning I went on a couple of named roads, thinking they were either FM or SH roads. Well these roads; Dahlia, Hollyhock and Periwinkle, were none of these, however they were paved. Technically. They were about 1 and a half lanes at the widest, no markings, and were through the East Texas forests. Rolling and curvy, and while not in the best shape, there were not significant issues. Just had to take care and exercise caution. In total we rode between 15 and 20 miles on these roads. I have to look back at the map and see the alternate routes on FM roads to see what options we would have had.

The one disappointment on the trip was that it appears that someone has made off with the Uncertain road sign so we were unable to collect "U" this weekend as Uncertain, TX does not have a post office or other government building.

Jefferson is a fun old town that really caters to both tourists and bikers. We had a great time with our friends and lots of laughs at Auntie Skinners Riverboat Club.

Weekend miles were about 360 miles. I think I'm just about due for my next oil change and need to start thinking about brake fluid and fork oil...

East Texas Ghosts

Jefferson, TX is an old "port" (riverport) city in Texas. It has a fairly colorful history and is reputed to be one fo the more haunted towns in Texas.

It is also a very popular destination for motorcyclists. In East Texas, you have to travel through the Piney Woods to get to it, and is located just west of the only natural lake in Texas, Caddo Lake.

WE have been to Jefferson in the past, its a nice little town. Since we also do our ABC's of Touring, how can you avoid getting Uncertain, TX as the U city, just a few miles east.

Fishing Trip

Its been a busy couple of weeks, last weekend we took an extended 5 day weekend and took a family vacation down to the Schlitterbahn Resort in New Braunfels. In addition to the waterpark we were on the river so we tubed down the Comal river multiple times. We took one of the boys friends with us as well.

This past weekend we had a little party on Saturday and invited a bunch of our friends. It was a great success and a lot of fun. Of course we managed to finish up some more projects just in time, most notably the downstairs powder room, well almost finished, the baseboard still needs to be caulked...

Sunday was a day of rest, literally. I did a couple of pre-rides, wanted to do the bug run but it looks very similiar to past years and would have taken another couple of hours in the heat. As it was I was on the bike about 2 hours or so and ready to hit the pool when I got back. Around supper I asked the boys if they wanted to go fishing and they were all game so we took off to drown some worms and hopefully catch some mighty panfish. Well we had some fun and some luck. Everybody caught some, and they were plentiful, which was good as they weren't very big!




Of course some were a bit bigger than others....

The end is near.....

Of my honey-do list that is. Well, before I get carried away, its doesn't really have an end, as its a perpetual list but it is reducing to a more manageable number of items now.

Landscaping - done, short retaining wall in front, soil/fill, sods - check
Attic ladder - installed and trim installed.
Antique (well old anyway) Stained glass windows - hung
Front porch lights - installed and caulked.
Back porch light - installed and caulked
Motion detector light at garage - installed and tested
Soaker hoses around front of house
countless bags/boxes of shredding, trash, goodwill, etc
Painting of trim

I know we did more stuff this weekend.....

Sportster case

B&W conversion of a shot taken in Bricktown during OKC National HOG Rally.

Catching up.

Busy, busy. OKC National HOG Rally was almost 2 weeks ago. I posted a bit about my trip on Route 66 but never posted anything about the Rally. Of course I had other things on my mind last weekend with installing attic ladder and cleaning out attic in 120F temps, having the alternator my truck go, and our hot water heater, as well as some landscaping in the slight rain on Sunday. Thankfully it did rain actually, as the temps stayed around 80F. By the way today is forecast to be at 103F and its 90F at 10 am already.

Anyway back to the trip. I took Friday afternoon off after all my meetings and hit the road about 1 pm for a 3.5 hour roll on up the highway to Oklahoma City. Except for the construction I made very good time and kept very well hydrated in the high temps. Hooked up with Darlene in her car at the dealership just outside the city, after we sorted out the wrong (former location) directions I gave her. Then we headed off to the rally site and hung out for a while and caught Le-Ann Rimes in concert. I'm not a fan, just don't know her music, not what I typically listen to, and was very pleasantly surprised. We headed back to the hotel and spent some time with our friends in a great room - special thanks to Carla and Tee.

Saturday morning after the HOG parade, a group of us took off to the other Dealership and then back to the rally site for a few hours. It really started heating up and by the time Kansas took the outdoor stage at 1PM it was getting pretty much unbearable. Which is too bad as they sounded awesome. A bit later we headed back to the hotel. The rally site was pretty good and we saw a lot of our friends from the Chapter, several of which who had ridden up that morning and were heading back in the afternoon. Call me crazy but 7+ hours riding in high temps... no thanks, glad we had a room.

After we got back to the hotel and spent some time in the pool we all went out to Bricktown, had a bite to eat and checked out Bikes and Bricks. It was pretty awesome and complemented the HOG rally very well.

Sunday morning we awoke to passing rain and cool temps. The group took off down 35 and I tool a solo route north to hit Route 66.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend activities.

Bricktown