Storms!

After a late start, this spring is turning out to be quite a wet one. Not so much constant rain but when it rains, it rains big! This past Wednesday was no exception. Within the past 2 weeks we had a major rain with signficant flooding in Denton, up to 8 inches of rain. In Mckinney we had quite a bit but not that much. Now Wednesday, we had tornadic conditions but thankfully no tornadoes, just 60-80 mph gusts! Fortunately we had not damage although others in the neighborhood weren't so lucky.

The creek at Winniford park was a full as I have ever seen it, and probably more so. Lots of tree limbs down in the area and some were pretty big. We lost power for over an hour. I don't know the last time we had lost power for even that long.

Lavon Lake is still a bit low, but is near full, which is pretty amazing. Late last summer it was 18 feet low, nearing Stage 4 drought conditions. We are still under Stage 3 for some reason. Even as recently as 3 months ago we were still about 15 feet low. I haven't ridden by the lake in a few weeks, I am sure it looks very different now, like a lake, not a pasture!

Pass the Pigs

This Saturday is our annual primary fund-raiser. Its for Cumberland Children's home, which is actaully a new recipient, and is much closer to the dealership and within the community. Hopefully we will have great weather and a great turnout. The ride is over 100 miles long in the North Texas area. It will be an all day event and I think we must have well over 40 volunteers assisting.

My primary role will be as a photographer and will be setting up a photo "booth" for bike portraits. Will be interesting to see how this all comes off!

EDS Bike Show

Tuesday was the rescheduled EDS bike show. It probably worked out better as it got a bit more visibility, and allowed for some additional perks including a (brief) appearance by the Teutuls of OCC and American Chopper fame. There were a total off 69 bikes entered, of all shapes and sizes incliding a bicycle, a moped, several racing bikes including a drag bike, jap bikes, American V-twins, a trike and even a Honda Rune.

Unfortunately as previously there was rain scheduled and even more so this time, it actually came, in buckets! We had rainfall of up to 8 inches in the North Texas area, I think in Plano/Mckinney we had multiple inches as well. Of course as soon as the show ended the skys opened up, with severe weather. I got ready and left as soon as I could, but it was not soon enough and got thoroughly soaked on my way home. In fact my feet were wet before I even left the parking lot. I don't have a lot of experience in the rain, but that was probably as hard a rain as any I have driven in, even in a car.

Wildflower Ride

Well this weekend was the Wildflower Ride. I must say, if you were to be plopped down in Texas, at this time of the year, in this part of the country, you would never want to leave! What a great trip, beautiful sites, sounds and smells.

We took off Friday morning, all told I believe we had 62 bikes depart, I don't know what the final count was. It was a unique KSU, as we had a friendly police officer block traffic so all 5 pods could leave at the same time. With the additional 50 or so miles from Mckinney, we put on about 380 miles that day, with a couple of nice detours and the Willow City Loop. We rode some of the best rides in the Hill Country on Friday and this weekend, without a doubt.

Saturday was a bit more of the same, our group was the laid back group, a shorter ride perhaps but a lot of fun. We went and had BBQ at Coopers in Llano, which was phenomonal.

Friday night's meal was at the Auslander Restaurant in Fredericksburg and Saturday was BBQ (hams, hots, sausages) back at the hotel. Both nights were a lot of fun.

On Sunday Marv led us home, heading out in wet conditions. We had some unfortunate occurances however. After a relatively problem free weekend, we had two bikes go down. We passed Kim and Glen on the side of the road, thinking Kim may be having some discomfort as Glen waved everybody on, however she was (unknown at the time) nursing a broken hand and waiting for Luke to come and rescue Old Blue. In the end the news all around was a lot better than it could have been.

I have to double check my mileage but I think it was around 850 miles total.

NASCAR

Well, the weekend is over, everyone has recovered. NASCAR is over and on to the next track. What a blast! Dale and Peter left this am. They arrived Wednesday of last week and we went to the Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday. We rented an RV and stayed next to Darlene's boss' family. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of liquor! The weather was fairly typical of this time of year, with a cold front keeping temperatures down a bit.

We caught some Busch qualifying on Thursday, some NASCAR practice on Friday and then the weather got severe! Tornado warnings, everyone that was in the facility, including us, had to huddle in the bathrooms. A tornado touched down in Haltom City, which is about 15 miles south of the track. All other events for the evening, including NASCAR qualifying and the DALE movie were cancelled. The cold weather and mud unfortunately kept the wildlife at bay as well...

Saturday was the Busch race, it was a good race, good seats. Sat night Peter was a passenger in a race car and he was very excited.

Sunday we had Pit Pavilion passes, so we had some goodies and a pit pass. we were in the pits for almost 2 hours and I got tons of pictures. They closed the pits 1 hour before the start of the race, we went back to truck, got beer and got to race after the Nat anthem, but before the green flag! Talk about cutting it close.

The race was very exciting, Peter got ticked cause Jr, got taken out of the race by a wreck initiated by Tony Stewart.

Of course the truck was parked where we left it in the morning, which was great for the mornings events but not in relation to our seat. After a short delay where we knew we would not be able to move the truck, we walked the half mile to the RV. We ate, and eventually went back to get the truck. Oh, the weather on Sunday was fantastic. We overdressed of course as it warmed up more than expected.

all in all a very fun and exciting weekend.

New Home

Well, we got moved on the weekend. Easter Weekend. Actually ended up having lots of help, was a bit concerned as a lot of folks were unavailable. We had 2 large uhauls, did the first 2 loads in 2 hours, the next two took a bit longer, misc stuff, odd shaped, we didn't pack as well etc. Sunday went back and spent almost 5 hours fininsing up the remainder of stuff and cleaning old house.

Living out of boxes, working from home this week till Dale and Peter arrive then we'll be taking some vacation and heading to Nascar.

Next weekend is the wildflower ride, I guess by the middle of
May we may be relatively unpacked!

Going through riding withdrawals though!

PTP Preride

This past Saturday we did the Pass The Pigs route to make sure and prepare for where the piglets will be setting up. The route is around 130 mile. Its basically from Corinth, to Celina, to Krum, to Lewisville, and pretty much all good FM roads.

Tomorrow is Friday and there is a bike show scheduled at EDS, hopefully the weather will cooperate. The bike show is part of the annual Byron Nelson festivities and this year, EDS had teamed with Orange County Choppers to build a theme bike, actually 3 of them. One goes to the winner of the tournament, one goes to the highest bidder at auction and the third as an EDS travelling icon for lack of better term.

Also have been progressing on the move, getting ready everything seems to be falling into place, although the pool is going to take some more work.

5 Down

Well, we are back, quite the ride. 450 miles on Saturday, we left the house at 6:15 am, and 528 miles back on Sunday. I guess that's pretty close to 1000 miles this weekend!

We got 5 Challenge points this weekend and they were in fact pretty challenging! Great weather Saturday, cloud cover and a bit windy Sunday but no rain and not cold. Although at this time of year the temp varies a bit, especially if you start when its still dark out. A couple of u-turns this weekend but not excessively so. Some great roads in East Texas.

Saturday in Nacogdoches there was a flower market or some such thing downtown right in front of the statue. We drove around a bit, then went for lunch. When we came back it had cleared out enough we were able to get all 11 bikes taken care of. We hit the harley dealer on the way out. They were having their chili cookoff so it was hoppin', lots of bikes around. Next stop the monument then on to Kemah.

Kemah was south east of Houston, and there must be only one way into the boardwalk. What a traffic nightmare. The last 5 miles of the trip probably took us 30-40 minutes. Lots of fun at the Aquarium Restaurant with the group.

Sunday morning off again at 7:30. This time we had 14 bikes. By the time we got to our 5 and final point of the trip, in Gruene, it was getting well into the day. Of course there was a festival going on in Gruene, so another exercise in creative photography was required. Holly, bless her heart, was able to coerce the sherrif that was directly traffic to accomodate us in from of the Dance Hall. It was around 3:00 in the afternoon, maybe a bit later and we still had many miles left to go. Five of us decided not to take the scenic route and to scoot up 35 instead....

What a nightmare, we probably lost about 90 minutes due to traffic. There was a major backlog south of Austin (surprise, surprise) then some more south of Waco, but the worst was about 10 miles south of the 35 split. That took forever to get through! Well we eventually got home about 8:30 pm.

Lone Star Challenge

This weekend a group will be riding to work on the Lone Star Challenge. We are planning to go, albeit on short notice.
I played around with Windows Live / Virtual Earth and have created a "collection" of the locations. So, I'm going to see if I can post the link here...

Lone Star Challenge - 2007

This weekend is the eastern leg and is supposedly 5 points, but not sure exactly which 5. Nacogdoches is one point for sure, 300 miles Saturday, 500 miles on Sunday. Light drinking Saturday night I guess!

Great Weekend

Well, the weather held up, and unfortunatley is still holding up, at least in this part of North Texas. Saturday was a great day, it actually got into the 80's and I don't think there was a cloud. Sunday was similiar, not quite as warm and it started to clould over a bit mid afternoon, but no rain.

Saturday we had 33 bikes on the lunch ride. Nice roads, funny how you head south to go north... We had a bit of a train delay in Justin, but were soon back on the road. We pretty much headed straight home after lunch do to house stuff, but ended up napping more than working!


Sunday Darlene was suffering from allergies from Saturday ride, so she did not go to the St Pattys day ride, but I did. Forgot to set clocks to DST so almost missed it! I ended up with a straight, I thought I may win the best hand but didn't want to stick around for the next 3 hours. I didn't get anything in the mail so I guess I didn't win.

The rain in around us but not quite hitting us. Hopefully today, its not far off and heading this way. Yesterday we were about 100 miles north of 4 inches. Lavon needs rain!

Wild Hogs!

If the weather holds up should be a great weekend. Tonight we are going to the movies! AE HOG is going to see Wild Hogs. So far we have over 70 folks going. Show is at 6, gonna have to boogie to get there on time.

Tomorrow is a lunch ride to Jacksboro. Hopefully on the way home we can work on some of our points, either ABCs or LOH Scavenger hunt.

Sunday is the Dallas HOG St Patrick's day ride. Unfortuately the weather is not looking too promising for Sunday.

Also have some work to do around the house and to start getting things ready. One month to go till close!

What to do...

We had our chapter meeting on Saturday. Lots of stuff going on. Plenty of scheduled rides and lots of activities in addition to those rides. Some of the events include club events, like the Lone Star Challenge and the LOH scavenger hunt. Additionally there are other chapter "tours" like "around the world in Texas", etc. Also would like to do the ABC's of Touring the HD HOG event. The problem is that a lot of these types of activities require short stops for pictures, which pretty much contradict the other riding activity, especially when travelling in a group. So I think the plan will be to partipate in those either on returns from destinations, especially if day trips or on weekends when we don't have a specific destination.

Got my 10K service done on Saturday as well. Switched to Synthetic oil. Have a new rear tire, so I should be good to go for a while now.

On Saturday night we went to the Rendevouz Reunion which is kind of the kick off for this years rendevouz ride, to the Black Hills. Hopefully we will be able to take that ride.

Milestone

Well this weekend my odometer clicked over 10,000 miles. Less than one year from purchase date, actually by that anniversary we will have had several other short trips as well as the wildflower ride. So it is quite likely I will have another 1K on by that time. Time for the big one, the 10K checkup. I'll get them to out Syn3 in it since that is all they carry at the dealership and also get them to give it a very thorough check. That is the last of my prepaid service so may as well get anything I can out of the way.

Saturday was the regional chili cookoff hosted by Texas HD in Bedford. What a day! The wind was unreal. Sustained winds in 30-40 mph, with gusts up go 60. I rode into the wind getting there, good thing since when I left to go home we were in the midst of a major dust storm. Probably the worst I'd seen here yet. Visibility was less than 3/4 miles. My bike and clothes got filthy riding home. Interesting experience in such strong winds, but not as bad as I expected.

Sunday was a lunch ride, short ride to Sanger. But afterwards we went for a bit of an tour. Went with Larry and Holly and a couple of others. They were booking it. Why? There was no need to get anywhere as fast as we could. Anyway we ended up breaking off from them and took a more liesurely pace, took 902 accross to 75. Good little road through a couple of small towns. It was fun. We ended up putting about 180 miles on Sunday, that was when I clicked over.

Spring Has Sprung!

Wow, what a gorgeous week! Another day forecast in upper 70's. Yesterday was the dinner ride, since the weather was so nice, we rode. Its the first dinner ride we have ridden our bikes in several weeks. Maybe even since November or December. We've taken our cars since then and each ride there has been few bikes, probably no more than 5 or 6 on average. Well you could tell it was the first nice day in a long time yesterday. We had 50 bikes on the ride and a total of 78(?) people I think at the restaurant. That's probably as big a dinner ride as I've been on.

Lots of new faces and some that we haven't seen in a while so that was all good, other than the fact that we probably overwhelmed the restaurant!

Also, Lindsey E was in town, so he joined us over at the restuarant. He had fun, not sure it was what he was expecting or prepared for... So I buy him 50-50 tickets, and he wins a prize! He'll be back in town next week and will likely come out to house to see the boys.

Almost forgot. Its getting into riding season again. We have t-storms forecast for weekend but if weather holds, the regional chili cookoff in Bedford, and a lunch ride on Sunday. woo-hoo!

Change in the Weather

Finally! Beautiful day, forecast to be a beautiful week. Even yesterday was nice and warm although very windy. Rode to work today. Temps got up to at least 78F, that's the temp now at 4:00. Forecast for 70's tomorrow and Thursday as well. Continued warm but thunderstorms at end of week. Will need to ride some more this week!

Waiting on my CB set, checked with Ryan has not come in yet, I thought it would be in by today.

Offer in on house, looking like a done deal.... fingers and toes crossed.

New Owners

Not much riding this past weekend, too much house stuff going on, with our house showing and looking for a new one. But I did go to the dealership Saturday morning and participate in the New Owners orientation. I took some pics have one to submit for the newsletter of the group.

It had warmed up a bit over the weekend and this week should be nice. The ride Saturday was quite windy. I took 720 to try to avoid some of the wind, but its hard to do. Although I am sure on 380 the wind would have been very severe in some stretches.

I wanted to ride today but have to go to Ft Worth for a meeting. Hopefully most of the remainder of the week I'll ride to work.

Events are starting to crop up on weekends, nothing significant for a while just some short day trips and things. Next weekend is the "regional" chili cook off so I may go down an cheer on the teams.

No rides...

No rides this weekend, too much to do. House is ready to go, now comes the fun part. We did meet up with some of the group on Sunday for an outing. Wine tasting then on to Mexican. Dinner ride this week, is Mexican. Hmmm, there is a trend here.... I'm not a big fan of Mexican, but this is Texas so I guess that is the popular fare. But also for reasonable prices Mexican is usually a good choice.

Weather this week doesn't look too condusive to riding either. Its raining today, supposed to be quite cold the next two days, below freezing at night, although forecast for Friday is looking pretty good! Maybe a ride to work.

Missed hockey last night as our thing went on too late for me to make it. No hockey this week, I think I need to do some other exercise activity...

LOH Granbury

Well this past weekend was "Girls Camping Weekend". The LOH went to Granbury TX, not too far a ride but just enough. The weather was fairly frigid on Saturday when they left, below freezing, but fortunately was warming up. On the board a lot of them were getting electric gear if they did not already have. I think a total of 9 girls rode bike and the remainder went down in cars. Interesting ride or so I've heard...

The girls had fun and all made it back safe.

I went for a short ride over to the dealership Saturday then a liesurely ride back home.

Working on prepping the house...

Oops almost forgot, it was Super Bowl Sunday as well, I watched the game, in bits and pieces, missed most of the commercials.

This week in Hockey...

Well, its one of those weeks. Three games back to back to back, Tuesday, Wednesday and tonight.

Tuesday was a great game, we ended up winning 7-6 in OT. After being on the ice the first shift when they scored 2 goals in the first 50 seconds (YIKES!) we managed to get back in the game and I actually scored the game winning goal from a slapshot in overtime! Whoo Hoo!!!

Last night was a D game, we won 5-2, I scored the first goal off a deflection in front of the net. That game was surprising rough against a chippy team, HFL.

Tonight however I don't know that we will fare as well. We are down 7-8 regulars, including our goalie. We have a couple of subs, but the team we are playing has some goal scorers. Several of us have played all three games as well. We will see.

A very Chili Weekend!

Saturday was the annual Chili cookoff at the dealership. While I didn't cook, I did taste and sample. There were 6 (I think) different chili's all of them were quite good, some better than others. My personal favorite was Renegade Roadkill Chili. Real meat as opposed to hamburg, but the overall taste and consistency was quite good as well. The festivities were fun and the presentation of the chilis was guite good and fun as well. But you know I think the leadup was a big part of it. There was a huge posting on the message board with lots of banter back and forth. Additionally there was lots of "private" banter in email and phone calls apparently between some of the contestants.

The ride home was an interesting one. There was a bit of rain overnight and when we left to go to the dealership it was quite nice. Of course while we were there, a cold front blew in. Reports of rain/hail were coming in. We booked it as soon as the festivities and awards were over. About halfway home on 380 rode right into the rain. It was windy, a good crosswind, cold, very wet and a bit of hail/sleet. We made it home ok, but it was a slow go. Ryan said it hailed about 5 minutes before we pulled into the house.

Sunday Darlene went to her Rider's Edge Advanced class at TMS. She left about 6:45 am, it was about 27F when she left. By 10 it was still only about 30. I think it warmed up to about 44. She did well, got her certification and made it home by 4. Long cold day, with lots of hard riding. She's pretty sore today.

This ain't my first rodeo...

Yesterday we were treated to the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo, courtesy of Robert (Cowboy) and his wife. We went with Larry and Holly as well. It was the afternoon show and was a lot of fun. This is one of the big rodeos. The seats we had were box seats, right beside the bucking chutes. I took a ton of pictures, several of which turned out pretty well I think. It was indoors so I shot at ISO 1600, unfortunately even at that speed the shutter speed was relatively low, hand hold in most cases, but there was a lot of motion on the arena floor. I'll post some pics after I process them a bit.

We were right against the arena, and although we kept relatively dirt free, one bucking bull did know Darlene's beer all over her as it smashed into the wall directly in front of us!

Winter Storm!

Well as typical, our latest winter storm was a bit of a bust. Actually thankfully we are in DFW, not Austin, who seems to have made out much worse. Austin never gets this kind of weather and they are not faring well. All in all we had a lot of rain, and by the time if froze, a lot had dried up. On Monday, MLK day so kids were home as were several businesses, it was a bit hazordous in the morning, but by mid day it was sunny, albeit still cold, and windy so the roads pretty well cleared. I worked from home and in the morning when I had a chance I went out and took a couple of pictures.

El Nino

Well no riding this weekend. The weather guys have been talking about an El Nino, courtesy of global warming and the effect it will have on Texas weather until about March of this year. We are supposed to get above normal rainfall. Which is a good thing since we have been below normal for some time. However one would think that global warming means warm....

This weekend we had the rain, quite a bit of it, but it is also cold, but fortunately not so cold that everything is frozen. Close, about 34 degrees. I think tonight may be worse though. Yesterday it stopped raining long enough the streets were able to dry somewhat, but today I think we will get rain longer, and its been cold for a couple of days. Likely that the roads will start to lose some of that retained heat they have had.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day but most people are working, myself included. Will be an interesting travel day no doubt!

Ride planning...

We had our first chapter meeting yesterday and earlier this week the rides started appearing on the calendars.

Lone Star Challenge, I've already mapped out, interesting locations, including Terlingua, TX. So most definitely a Big Bend run, perhaps turn that into an Iron Butt?

Wildflower run is my birthday weekend. TX State is to Amarillo, AR State is in Hot Springs. Maybe do one of the national HOG runs. I guess there are other things that will help determine that trip.

Oh yeah, can't forget Nascar weekend this year, Dale and Peter will be coming down, we rented an RV to set up at the racetrack. Hopefully we can get next to Brenda's rig! That will be fun.

Lots of other rides, some day trips some overnight. Should be a great year.

Resolutions?

Its actually been a busy week. Work is going well, we went live on Tueday with no major problems. A new year is of course a time of new plans, goals and ambitions. No major resolutions this time around, just the usual. However I guess I have a couple I can list out.

Focus a bit more on my health, I need to exercise on a more regular basis. 1 hockey game a week just doesn't cut it anymore. Include in this one a bit healthier eating, mainly more salads, I would like to lose about 15 lbs, post holiday weight.

For a riding goal I'd like to put on 15,000 miles. I guess the best way to measure that is against the long flyer program. Considering that, I'm off to a good start, with about 1500 miles logged already, and its winter!

Like I said, nothing major, include the ususal which I won't bother listing here.

2007

Well, here I am again, a bit late in my posting. Big day on Jan 1 with the Brass Monkey Ride. We left the house about 9:30 am with the temperature at 37F. Its about 34 miles to the dealership and most of it highway. Fortunately we were well dressed and even more so, there was little wind! That Hwy 380 can be a bear in the wind. It was a beautiful sunny day though. Apparently the coldest Brass Monkey in the short history, and certainly quite a contrast to 2006 where it was in the low 80's. I heard the bike count was 70 bikes, all the regulars were there of course and a few folks I didn't recognize, but for the most part all relatively active members. We rode to Lake Park in Lewisville for smoked brisket that Choker had cooked, it was delicious. After that we went to Mike and Carols for dessert. It was a beautiful site in front of their house with all the shiny bikes parked in front of their house. A great ride and I got my inagural Brass Monkey patch.

New Year's Eve

Getting ready for the Brass Monkey ride tomorrow. Went for a ride, it got up to about 47F today....!!!! Brrr and windy, cold. We went about 80 miles around the lakes.

Happy New Year!!!


History: The Brass Monkey - In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it in the salt air environment. The solution to the rusting problem was to cast the monkey out of brass. Thus the "Brass Monkey." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature at sea dropped too far, the spacing between the indentations and the indentations themselves would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" And all this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?

AE HOG 5th Annual BRASS MONKEY RIDE!

Meet at AE H-D 10:30AM for a 11:00AM departure. Monday, January 1, 2007

Toy Runs

What a fantastic weekend. The weather was awesome. High 70's during the day both Saturday and Sunday.

I took Friday off and got a good jump on the little bit of Christmas shopping I have left.

Saturday I finally got around to washing my truck after far too long and did both bikes as well. Saturday afternoon we headed over to the dealership for the Cumberland Children's Home charity run. That is one of the dealerships primary sponsors. There was a very good turnout probably close to 100 bikes, maybe a few more. It was fun, we had cops to block intersections but there weren't that many so several of us took over so the police could run ahead to the next intersection to block. I took one on a turn, so I got to see all the bikes ride past. In addition to the angel tree and all the presents, the dealership had a bike raffle and raised $20,000 for the home.

Sunday was the Big Texas Toy Run, the 21st annual. We met up with everyone at Starbucks in Flower Mound. We probably had close to 30 bikes from our group although there were a couple of extra bikes as well. We rode down to Grapevine. This was the second year for Grapevine as a starting point, in addition to Dallas and Fort Worth. Grapevine was fun. Wilhoite's was open and packed. Lots of bikes, I read one report over 5000 at Grapevine. I can't wait to hear the final tally, estimates were +45,000 bikes in total. I took quite a few pictures and will post some later. The ride went very well.

After the ride a few of us headed to the Thunderhorse for a beer. It was quite the ride home on the highways after the run compared to the ride down. Busy highways during Christmas shopping season..... yes, as bad as you can imagine!

Sad Note

Additionally, a sad note. Darlene's Mom passed away this week after a lengthy bout with cancer. She passed away in her bed, which was her wish.

Holiday Season

Well, its the holiday season. That means busy, busy, busy. Work is quite busy, there is lots going on and I have vacation time still today with lots of work to finish. Shopping/decorating/eating.... all those things as well. This past Saturday night was the AE HOG annual Christmas Party. It was at the Radisson in Denton. We spent the night there, good thing! There were about 120-150 people there, a lot of fun. The band was good and easy to dance to. Food was good, people were great. I actually rented a tux! In all it was a lot of fun.

I need to finish up my shopping, we are pretty much done so I don't have a lot to do.

This weekend is more toy runs. Saturday is a club run to the Cumberland Childrens home, but its late, not sure if we will partipate or not. I may have a hockey game Saturday night as well. Sunday is the Big Texas Toy Run, that should be fun, likely between 30K and 45K bikes depending on the weather!
http://www.thebigtexastoyrun.com/

Lewisville Toy Run

This weekend ended up being a pretty full weekend. The boys were off to camp this weekend. Darlene had LOH cookie exchange Friday night and I ended going to Choker's for MNO where the girls ended up later. We got home sometime after midnight.

Saturday was the Lewisville Toy Run, leaving from American Eagle HD. Darlene must have picked up a stomach virus and as much as she tried and wanted wasn't able to go on the ride. I got to the dealership about an hour ahead of KSU so had lots of time to see everyone and take some pics. The ride was good, but pretty well straight down 35. I don't know how many bikes were registered as of yet, hope to find out. Last year there was something like 1200 bikes or so.





Saturday night I played hockey with the D team, late notice, big meal and lack of sleep Friday night, it pretty well wore me out, I was tired Sat night.

Sunday we wrapped most of the presents, certainly got a great head start on it. The boys got home in the early afternoon.

Ride pics

These pics are from Len who we rode back with from the Leaf ride in Arkansas. They pulled up alongside of us and snapped these.

Inspiration

Photo club was last night. It was a good meeting. Large group, probably the biggest yet. Dan Leffel presented, a series of images of his travels accross North America, mostly US, but included some of Peggy's Cove. I've always been quite impressed with his work, but to see his collection was incredible. He probably presented around 100 images and in the context there were probably only 3 or 4 edits that I would have made, although probably 90 of those shots are better than anything I have!

Here is his web site
Bold Light Photography

Then of course, it was contest time. It was open category. Carol Kropscott was the judge due to unavoidable issues with the original and alternate judges. Carol was a former PPC member who moved to Kansas. I remember Carol so it was good to hear her. She's a great woman and very involved with Photography. But she takes her judging very seriously.

I had two entries, one which she critiqued appropriately, and I knew when I submitted, but she also had good comments, more than I expected. The second one did much better. Overall there were some 60 odd entries, in three categories. I compete in Advanced. Images, Images, my first image, more images, more images, scores getting up, I'm getting excited, into Honorables mentions, then third place, woo hoo I'm in the points. My Masterpiece Theater earned 14 points for 2nd place!

Turkey Day

It was a great long weekend, the kids were out of school all week, Ryan worked quite a bit. I deep fryed a turkey and we had a huge meal at home. Just the family. The Cowboys won, Romo is on a roll as is the team.

Friday we did a bit of shopping, yes its Black Friday but we didn't head out with the crowds, we went out after we woke up and for the most part finished our shopping. The weather was great all weekend, Saturday was mostly yardwork, I primed the door on the shed, and we cleaned up some of the trees and shrubs out front. We put up the lights but didn't put any on the roof. I don't have a ladder that will reach and don't feel comfortable on that roof! When we finished we went for a 10 minute ride on the bikes, that was the extent of our riding this weekend.

Oops almost forgot, a new addition to the family. Darlene picked her up on Wednesday. Another kitten, this one has a bit of a tiger color, actually her name is Tigger. Baby Girl is finally starting to "play" with her....

Bike Show

This past Saturday was a pretty full day. Darlene did some LOH stuff then did a lot of Christmas shopping. I hooked up with Mike to do a charity run.
This run was for the Pythian Children's Home, which is a non-profit home for children of incarcerated parents. Its a pretty cool place in Weatherford that currently houses 40+ kids and they rely on charity and donations to stay operational. The Cross Timbers Church in Argyle is a big supporter. Interestingly the church has a fairly large biker community that organizes this run.

The ride itself was about 60 miles, some good roads. I didn't take any pictures of that ride. There were about 100 bikes so it was a good size. I now know why Darlene doesn't necessarily like going on some of these toy runs. While it was organized it was a bit haphazard. Some of the folks don't appear to have ridden or ridden often in organized group rides. Additionally there was a trike in front of me for a while, note to self, don't get behind trikes, they take up too much of the road and view! The weather was perfect. There were about 8 road captains who would block intersections then race up to get back into position for the next intersection they had to block. It worked, but is scary in its own way. Close to the end of the run we had to make a very sharp uphill right hand turn. Apparently behind me there was a Sportster that went down, then a woman on a larger Harley went down trying to avoid. Not sure of the extent of the damage, she apparently hurt her knee, but overall no significant damage to body or bike. The group then spends some time with the kids but I had other plans so after hanging out for a bit I headed to Ft Worth.

The Cycle World International Motorcycle show was taking place in Ft Worth at the convention center. Lots of people checking it out. It was the first big bike show I have been to and overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. The bikes were very cool, the sphere of death (or whatever its called) was very impressive and there were lots of folks enjoying the show. I saw Mini T and Don and Martha at the show as well.

Had a bit of a scare though. I checked my jacket at the gear check and when I went to leave they couldn't find my jacket. Its my FRXG jacket, so I was starting to freak out. It was later in the afternoon and there was a lot of people who had already left. Finally there was a jacket spotted without a tag, it was mine, Whew!!!

190 miles round trip that day. Oh yeah, on Friday I got my rear tire replaced, only 8400 miles, I need to change some of my riding habits, more front brake, less rear and less engine braking. I think the engine braking is what really sped up tire wear. Of course the Texas heat probably contributed a bit as well...

I can see for miles and miles...

Ahhh, nothing’ could be finer. Just got back from a fantastic ride this weekend. We went to Arkansas for the annual AE Hog Fall Foliage ride. We left Friday morning, overnighted in Mena, AR, then off to Hot Springs, AR for Saturday night. The weather was good but cool, almost cold, but we had a few low clouds Friday during the ride over the mountains.

I am quickly falling in love with the roads of Arkansas. We had about 40 bikes and 60 folks from the club. It was eventful in many ways…

The colors were awesome, the timing was near perfect.

We headed north on 377 into OK, onto Hwy 70. From there, hmm, I have the route map somewhere but I know we did the Queen Wilimena ride, (SR1/SR88) which is recognized as one of the top ten rides in the US. I can’t wait to do it again.

Saturday morning was cool but not as cold as expected and we took off to Hot Springs via Mount Magazine, we paused for a group photo, but one pod was missing….

As far as events, first the bike incidents, idiot pickup driver at service station to rolled unattended into two bikes, then the flying saddle bag cover, next was the oil cooler leak which took about 1.5 hours to resolve, causing some delays, then Jerry’s battery, then Don P’s battery, next was Mark’s lost key/hotwire, then Lee again after the saddle bag, experiencing a flat tire while driving home. No injuries, nothing too serious.

Party events…. The “fire” at the Mena hotel with Bobby coming to attention, the overloaded elevator at the Arlington in Hot Springs and of course the hot tub at the Arlington…. I am sure there are others but those are the ones that stick out.

In total approx 800 miles round trip. Awesome…

Pics.. Hmmm I wonder if I can link to the AE Hog gallery when they get posted.

Club Leaf Ride Pics

Busy, Busy, Busy

Holy Crap! I'm behind. Had a busy weekend but I'll have to post more later. Lets see, Craftsman truck race, AEHOG chapter meeting, Teddy Bear run.......

This weekend, actually tomorrow, AEHOG fall leaf ride to Arkansas! Woo Hoo!

Happy Halloween

Wow, its been a busy week and I’m behind!

Let’s see Wed Oct 25 was the AEHOG Halloween costume party. I went as an embattled hockey player and Darlene went as a sexy referee! We rode our bikes, although it had rained earlier in the day and the official dinner ride was cancelled. Great turnout at the restaurant although the folks that rode on bikes were in short supply! Great costumes overall and I took lots of pictures.

Friday night I took Ryan, Corey and Jake to the LG Action Sports Championship at Reunion Arena. Marc went with other friends. We got there just before 6 and got to our seats about 6:30 or so I guess. Show started just before 7:00. BMX prelims were first up, these guys were great. Only one I recognized was Ryan Nyquist, but the young guy from Venezuela was incredible. Then was the Freestyle Motocross demos, these guys are pretty talented to be able to work in the confined areas they work in. I wanted to see the Skateboard Vert prelims and was not disappointed. Bob Burnquist took top qualifier, and other top and great skaters included Bucky Lasik, Andy MacDonald, Pierre Luc Gagnon (go Canada!) and some guy from Brazil, Sandro Dias that was really good. Also during warmups was the inline skaters – including Fabiola De Silva and then the street skaters after the bmx was done. Those guys were very good and fast! The show lasted till quite late about 10:40, then the Deftones came on to play, there were a lot of fans just to see the band. Unfortunately the arena was set up for the events and the sound was a bit muddy, especially with their style of music. Some interesting sights though!

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day, I took a bit of a ride, and then Sat night we went to Bill Davenport’s 50th birthday party. Waaayyy out north of Denton, great setup though. Very nice house and property, full band and tent set up outside. A lot of the AE crew was there but took off pretty early of course the party started at 6 and some of them were there pretty early. We along with Dave Barnes and Jerry stayed late I think we left well after 1:00 as we got home about 3 am. Thankfully it was fall back so it was only 2:00….

Sunday I tackled the shed door, got that pretty well all finished except for caulk and paint but I realized I forgot one piece of trim. Also replaced part of the floor and reinforced one of the joists that had pretty much rotted out. We also trimmed the fence gates. That pretty much took all day, or at least all afternoon.

Oh yeah, the Cowboys won huge Sunday night!!!

Rock and Roll

This past Saturday was the LOH sponsored Rock and Roll ride to Leonard Texas, just a bit east of here. We went to the dealership to ride with the group and I guess we put on a total of about 200 miles maybe a bit less, I never really paid that much attention to it. It was a good ride, not too large a group. The roll part of the ride was a short 2-3 mile stretch at the end. After that we finished up Darlene’s red book.

Darlene was supposed to have her Advanced Rider’s Edge course on Sunday. She left about 6:30 and had to go to Texas Motor Speedway. She didn’t make it as it was very cold and her bike does not operate well in cold weather. Ultimately she came back home as she was unable to get to the course.

Monday night was Plano Photography Club night. I had only one entry submitted, I got 12 points but was in the middle of the pack, I really wasn’t expecting a lot from it. The speaker was all about Scrapbooking, it was ok I guess. I submitted two in Open for October but again, not expecting much. Next month is S-curves, I really need to get something in for that. I have some ideas and am hoping our ride in Ark will produce something, but I have an idea for local and tested the road on the weekend, I think it will work!

Finally waxed my bike too, if only I could get at my truck. Also tried my new toys, the edger and blower/vacuum, worked well!

Busy Weekend

The kids have a long (5 day) weekend. So we went to the TX State Fair on Friday. Its been a couple of years at least. It was a great day, great weather. We spent all day there. While we didn’t eat any fried confections the food just doesn’t agree very well with me. This year in addition to the Fried PB&J there was Fried coke and some other things that elude me.

I got quite a few pictures will see what I can post up.

The bird exhibit was good with a hilarious part that was very well choreographed. In short an audience member was to feed a young bird. Well it just so happened that that particular species is one of the largest in the world with a 10 ft wingspan. Well she freaked and as she was backing up she tripped into the pond set up on the stage. Afterward when she was coming out from behind another large bird was onstage and ended up chasing her back stage again. Of course it was all set up, but we certainly didn’t know till the end!

Saturday started early with the Plano Photography Club outdoor model shoot. Unfortunately there was a bit of a shortage with the models and even photographers. Overall the shoot went well, I am pretty happy with the shots I got. I think though it was one of the least well organized model shoots I’ve been on. The location just got set 2 weeks prior, the numbers of models and photographers were not up to standards and once the sun came out, the location lost its “luster”. Additionally the food was not coordinated and club politics reared their ugly head….. This is the first time I have seen it, by the sounds of things its not new but I guess I just haven’t seen it yet. Names will remain nameless but a certain someone was exerting just a bit toooo much control….

After the shoot I rode down to the golf course to hopefully catch the Hell-Over(?) golf tourney, but just caught one group. It was a shotgun start and I would have had to wait around too long for the ending so I left.

Sunday we were met with rain, and a lot of it. All day. So we did some work around the house. I hung a new ceiling fan and Darlene hung some sheers. Some other stuff but just general house chores. Its still raining today. We are probably going to get a total of 3-5 inches overall, much needed rain!

Ahhh Paris...

Ahhh, Paris….

Paris, TX that is… there is a movie by the same name with Harry Dean Stanton. I know I saw it but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about.

Saturday we rode to Paris so I could get the Lonestar point. Also wanted to get a pin from the Harley Dealership. Its not that far from home, about 90 miles. We took a couple of back roads but pretty much stayed on State Highways. We stopped in Honey Grove TX for the Davey Crockett Day. Yes, Day, not Days. Friendly and historic little town.

Along the way we found a vintage airplane for Darlene’s red book. Pretty cool actually the whole trip had lots to see. We drove by an antique tractor graveyard too. But of course when we got to the dealership it was closed. I guess they close at 2PM on Saturdays to go riding or something.

We did get to the Eiffel Tower ok though and got my Lonestar point. Since it was so late we took the direct route home at that point.

Also I am now officially no longer in the "those who will" and now in the "those who have" dropped their bikes. Silly me, didn;t have my kickstand engaged under the tower. I guess if I'm going to drop it under the Eiffel Tower is as good a place as any.

Sunday we went downtown Dallas to get the last point I needed to get. Darlene didn’t have it either but already had 5. We stayed off the highways and stayed on some of the city streets. Now we know why we don’t go downtown often….

Sunday night we met up with the HOG group for a movie but since we had rode the last two days we decided to drive the car instead.

Almost forgot, Friday night we went to the Crosstown Showdown, Mckinney vs Mckinney North. We got beat. Bad.

Return from Penn

Well I’m on my way back from Pennsylvania. Left DFW bright and early Monday morning and got into the office about 2:30. I landed at the Pittsburg airport and drove about 1-1.5 hours to Greensburg. I stayed off the major highways, more or less and pretty much took Highway 30 right through. Very very pretty country, especially this time of year. Leaves hadn’t changed yet but weren’t far off, in fact I am sure they changed a bit while I was there and I was only there for 3 days! Pittsburg actually looked like I nice place to visit too, but I just pretty much drove through it and bypassed it.

The work trip was productive but I still have a lot a head of me to do. Need to prepare a presentation to be delivered to the CIO. I think we are doing all the right stuff, but the cultural impact may be insurmountable. I’ve got a couple of busy days ahead.

Pennsylvania is really pretty cool. Its an older state, at least the parts I was in, the infrastructure is definitely older and outgrown. There seems to be a lot of local heritage though, its not all chains, at least not chains I’m familiar with in Texas.
Pretty archaic liquor laws though! They may even be worse than Nova Scotia! I went to get a six pack to take back to the hotel room, actually I only wanted 3 or 4 singles. Finally found a beer store, they only sell dozens, cases and kegs! Liquor stores, which are also rare only sell liquor and wine. No singles or sixes to be found. Oh apparently bars can sell six packs at “competitive” rates, or about $8 a six, no thank you!

Lots of Harley dealerships around or so it seems, just getting to them without a map is a bit of an exercise. The largest dealership I have been in was located just about 3 miles from my hotel, on the main strip. It was Z&M Cycles, also sold Hondas. It has a bit of interesting history, although like most dealerships now, it tows the corporate line and looks very much like a typical corporate store. But it definatley had the largest parking lot I have ever seen at a dealership! Got pins and a long sleeve shirt.

That night I took a trip to Cerini, which was in Haverstock. Much smaller dealership with a much more storied history. Opened in 1920. Also a relatively new location, but extremely friendly, seemingly still family run. Unfortunately no pins, they were backordered, wahhh. May have to email in future to see if I can get some.

On the trip back to the airport I figured I may be able to hit one or two more dealerships, Steel City and Heritage. Well gosh darnit, I took a wrong turn and got on the toolway, ended up having to travel 15 miles or so to the first exit, and of course I screwed up going through the toolbooth, no picking up a ticket. $$$$20 hit for that! But equally as bad, I lost about 40 minutes on my already tight schedule….

The roads don’t have the same speed limits as in Texas but fortunately I made good time. I got to Steel City at about 3:00 got some pins and back on the road. No time to dawdle, still miles to go to the airport and my flight is scheduled for 4:40. Starting to freak out a bit, unfamiliar roads, no idea of drive time. Certainly no time to check out Heritage… Maybe next trip.

Got to the airport with minutes to spare, well for me anyway! No lines got ticketed at 3:50. then still had to get through security and to the gate. Got to gate about 4:15, which would have been boarding but lo and behold the plane was delayed till 5:30…. All that freaking out and sweating for no reason. Well at least I got to go to the bar and have a couple of beers and some food.

In the air now. No ride this past weekend, craving….

Business Travel

Well it looks like I'll be heading to Greensburg, PA next week. As much as I don't like business travel, I am starting to get excited about it. Account received a consultant's report about our solution, uneducated in my opinion. So we have to craft a response. Some analysis, etc.

More Photo Results

Well Monday was another Plano Photography club meeting. Chase Rouse was the speaker, talking about minor outdoor portrait retouching. Good stuff. The contest was open, I had two electronic submissions. I think with the e-submissions there are more entries, which is not a bad thing. I thought I had submitted two good entries, Peggy's Cove Dories and Its Your More. Peggy's Cove Dories is the image I posted some time ago, I got an honorable mention for that. For the other, Its your Move, which I took in El Raterio park in Madrid, I got a third place. So that's judges points/mention on 3 of 4 entries in the last two contests I entered. That boosts my confidence a bit. This contest is for Patriotic. I really didn't have anything to enter but found a rally pic with a couple of flags. Not really expecting anything out of that one but will see!

Much Needed Rain?

I shouldn't complain, we've had great riding weather since I've got my bike.... But we had a nice ride planned for Saturday morning. The LOH sponsored ride to Dublin to tour the Dr. Pepper Plant, with the ride along Texas hwy 4. However, it was not to be. A line of violent thunderstorms stretching all the way across our path. Even though it was a fairly thin band, there was high winds, driving rain and lots of lightning. We were actually at the bottom tip and probably got the least impact as it stretched all across the US over the weekend and left quite a bit of devestation and flooding.

Anyway, after waiting about 90 minutes for the rain to pass we eventually decided we couldn't hit our commitments so we all just went to breakfast then went on our way. So on the ride home we worked on Darlene's scavenger hunt book, she doesn't have much time left to complete and over the weekend we knocked out a few. I think we got a couple of good ones, there are prizes for creativity/photo so we will see.

Oh, we finished the floor. The home theater is hooked back up, furniture where it needs to be and I can see more kitchen counter than I have ever been able to!

What's new?

Not much! Nothing too exciting going on, just the normal stuff. Weekend we just went to the dealer and spent money! I bought the FXRG jacket after all and some chaps. Had a 20% off coupon. Also bought some Kury grips and a manual. Hmmm, need to change those up before the ride this weekend. Sunday we did more flooring, its almost done! And it rained, and rained, and rained on Sunday, supposedly 2.5 inches, well needed rain at that.

No hockey yet, not emails about the new season, just a little prep work setting up rosters. I really need to get active, either walk or take up jogging, even if its only 20 minute jog. My shoulder is giving me grief, just a bit, not sure if its just rehab needed or what. I need to get it checked out.

Back to riding, need to focus on getting lonestar points completed and seeing what to do on Darlene's red book. Looks like we have a couple of free weekends coming up although no doubt they will fill up like they do.

Photo Results

Finally I got some results in a Photo Club entry, its been a long time. Whether it’s the judges, my pictures or the competition, actually the competition is incredible, I haven’t scored any awards in some time.

Well for this contest season they have just started accepting electronic submissions. Additionally they collapsed the intermediate and advanced categories into Advanced so there are more entries. But to be honest some of the Beginners’ photos are the best I have seen in the club. Obviously the real Masters in the club consistent produce the best shots but there is incredible and consistent talent throughout the membership!

Well the last meeting was the results for Sports. With all the football pics I shot last year I figured I had a couple, I narrowed it down to about 5 then finally to 2. I didn’t make the meeting but sent a note in for the results and just got them back today.

My Goal Line Stand pic got 11 points, not bad, with relatively favorable comments, excellent capture, but slightly tilted field (horizon).

My The Wait pic got 12 points, good exposure, composition, and more importantly an Honorable Mention! Woo Hoo! Its funny, this was one I wasn’t sure about entering, but myself and everyone I showed liked it.

Weekend Update

Well another relatively busy weekend. A couple of rides, it was the new owner dinner ride on Friday night. We just went to Carmelita’s at Highland Village, but took an alterative route on the east side of I-35. There were about 45 people in total, a pretty good turnout.

Saturday was the Chapter meeting and after that we rode to Sherman. We put on about 160 miles that day. I also got my 5K service done. The leather jackets are on sale at AE. Hmmmm, I am going to need one, there is a very nice one there but it’s a bit pricy. This weekend is the demo ride and open house with additional savings. If I can combine the tickets then I’ll probably get the FXRG jacket, it looked pretty sweet!

Saturday night we lost our final playoff game, for the championship, Hangover’s D. It was a good series, tied first game into 7 skater shootout. Second game we won 1-0, final game we lost 3-2. Bob had me playing forward, felt out of place, I deflected the first goal off my body, well I didn’t deflect it, it deflected off me! And I scored our second goal as well, but it was too little too late with about 28 seconds left.

Sunday was more work on the flooring, and as of last night, all the flooring is complete, the wood laminate and the kitchen tile. Baseboard is down, just have to paint and put the quarter round down.
We had a bit of rain yesterday, much needed. This week won’t be so crazy.

Flooring!

Well it took all weekend but we pretty well got it all done Labor Day weekend. The weather wasn't great not sure if that helped or hindered the process as we had to put the bikes outside and I had to cut inside the garage. What a mess!
Still have a bit to do, the trim work to put back on, but that shouldn't take nearly as long. It looks good and will be good to get the room back in order. Darlene also started the kitchen floor and made great headway.

This weekend we should hopefully get it finished, have the new member ride Friday night and chapter meeting Saturday. Also will be taking my bike in for 5K service.

Arkansas State Rally

Back from the Rally. We didn’t spend much time at the rally site at all, but had great rides through the mountains of Arkansas. Originally we had tentatively planned on heading up on Thursday but waited till Friday. Just Darlene and I traveled up. I picked a route through Oklahoma, I thought it was pretty good, some good highways, a bit of scenery. I think Oklahoma may be a bit limited in that manner, but also wanted a pretty direct route. Driving into Ft Smith was a pretty typical older city, the end we came in on seemed to be pretty industrial but I think its just more characteristic of the city.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn city center which was a good spot for the main street cruising. Hung out a bit on Friday night to check out the scene.
Saturday morning we rode with Don and Martha, and Glen and Kim. We went up highway 71 to Fayetteville, a great twisty ride, and eventually caught up with the rain. We then did the Pig Trail, a truly great ride! And then Magazine Mountain. A bit of road work on the Magazine route but not enough to detract from the ride. I would have to say that these were definitely the best roads I have ridden in my short riding career. Just beautiful. Twisty roads, up and down hills, tree canopies….
Sunday the ride back we pretty much took the direct route back, and ran into a bit of rain. Just enough to put on our rain gear for about 45 minutes or so. We got back home about 2:30, total miles 810.

AE HOG Bug Run

Saturday night was the annual bug run. Basically you go on a night ride, get a small sticker (or more) and at the end of the run, the bugs get tallied for a variety of awards. As it has been for days and days, it was hot and dry, not exactly bug weather.
We met in Highland Village and we hit the road about 7:45 pm. It was a fairly large group, I think there was over 40 bikes, maybe more. The first pod out was quite large. We were second and there was a smaller pod went out behind us. It was quite a distance to our first checkpoint. I think by the first checkpoint I had about 3 bugs on my whole fairing and windshield, with absolutely none on the sticker!
Some of the ride was on FM 455 which is quite a crooked road, not nice curves but turns and turns and turns. But it was a good ride. I guess we got to our destination in Justin (Off the Trax) about 10:00 and lo and behold, Pod 3 had arrived before us, WTF? Well it turns out that Mike didn’t get the memo and did all 4 checkpoints, while the other 2 pods only did 3 checkpoints. No matter, we had a great ride, and still no bugs of any consequence!
The awards were given, no winners in this house, and the 50-50 was very large, I think it was over $170. We got home around 1 am. Late night and late ride. Darlene was practically falling asleep while riding! And no wonder we were up early for our yardsale that morning in the heat!

Coyotes

The other day coming into work, on Preston Road, just north of Hedgecoxe is a field with a tree line. Along the tree line were two coyotes watching a man walk along Preston after getting off the bus.

I'm surprised how often I see coyotes in the city, and during daylight hours.

Sliders Ride - Trip report

Well another good trip is in the books. It was an interesting trip in many aspects. Of course I cleaned my bike up a bit Friday night, and wouldn't you know it, Saturday morning opened up to rain and thunderstorms. We picked up the group in Mckinney, on the way. They were delayed by 15 minutes start hoping the rain would clear. We had rain or threat of rain till Greenville, were we stopped for fuel and probably about 10 minutes after we left Greenville we out-distanced the rain. A short stop on a farm to market road, for everyone to get out of rain-gear and we were back on our way again.

Mike Wylie was the lead road captain and he picked excellent roads. We had what could have been a very close call as we were negotiating a curve in the road, an oncoming pickup truck lost the rather large trailer he was hauling and somewhat miracously the trailer left the road and went into the ditch without crossing directly into our path as it occurred directly in the middle of our pod.

We ate at Krystal in Longview, hence the "Sliders" referece. I must say, I try to avoid fast food at the best of times, but I can honestly say I will not eat at another Krystal again unless its for a HOG ride. But, we did try to kick it up a notch with the wine that the Riley's brought along for the occasion!

Jefferson was an awesome town. We stayed at the Excelsior Hotel a wonderful old hotel that is supposedly haunted. It may have been but after the ride and the alcohol I don't think anyone would have woken up for a ghost, unless it was a very noisy one!


We were in no hurry Sunday morning and although we were downstairs by 8 am, pretty much everyone else was already gone. We went next door for breakfast as we did not realise we had to order in advance at the hotel. We were on our way by 9 am, on to Pittsburg for a LoneStar point. Oops missed the entrance, uturn and lo and behold some other HOG members, Paul and Michelle and Mike and Carol. So we hung out for a bit then travelled together the rest fo the way, mainly on FM 21 till we hit 30. Along the way we saw two vehicles off the road in the ditch, one apparently fairly recently!

An uneventful drive from there, we arrived home about 1:30. Bikes are very dirty from the rain Saturday morning, maybe I'll wash mine tonight. In total about 380 miles. A good trip, great roads and great people.

Sliders Ride

Well its been a few days, not that they have been uneventful, just normal day to day stuff. Kids are getting ready for school, first day on Monday. Ryan is enrolled in CCCC. Have been riding to work putting a few miles, etc. Still having cold start problems, need to push for the injector upgrade and to check the fork oil/steering head grease issue.

We got the floor in the game room all finished finally, including the trim. Haven't started the big room yet, not sure when but is should be soon. Maybe next week, I have no hockey so could make some headway in the evenings.

This weekend is the 3rd annual Sliders ride, we are heading east! Longview to eat sliders at Krystal then on to Jefferson to stay in a haunted bed and breakfast. It will be a hot ride, consecutive 100+ days with no relief in sight. Updates to follow...