ROT Rally

Went to ROT on the weekend. Originally Darlene and I were supposed to go but we've been doing so much we changed our minds. Darlene wanted to stay home, spend some time with the boys, unpack and also save for the BHR trip. She's been there before, I truly have not, so I did go down, but just for one night.

Jiggy and I headed down bright and early Friday morning. We left Lewisville just after 7 am and headed straight down 35. That was one of the best trips I've ever taken down through Austin. We have virtually no traffic tie ups, and it was a workday morning! We arrived at the rally site, registered and parked by about 11:30 am.

We hung out for a while, checked out the vendors, the bikes, the grounds and all the people for a while then went to the hotel to get our room and get cleaned up. Afterwards we hung out on 6th street for supper and to check out the bikes and people.

We ventured over to congress to watch the parade, which took forever to start, and took even longer to end! In fact we left before it was over. We then hooked up with Stitch and a buddy of his for more debauchery. However it didn't get too crazy overall.

Saturday we got up when we got up, had breakfast and headed out for a ride at around 10:30. We went to Luckenbach, via some Ranch to Market roads, then on to the Willow City Loop. I left Jiggy at the road to Enchanted Rock then headed home. I got in around 8:30. It was a long day, stayed off interstate for the most part.

Total weekend miles 675. Time for new tires and oil change before our big trip.

Memphis - Home of Elvis and the Ancient Greeks

Cities - Talking Heads

Well we didn't see Elvis, however there was a Pyramid in Memphis, although that's Egypt, not Greece.

Great trip, 1160 miles for the weekend. We left 7 am on Saturday, leaving the rain behind in DFW which it apparently did all weekend. Pretty much a straight trip to Memphis, about 450 miles. Mostly interstate but it got us there. A little rest and we are on the trolley to Beale Street. What a great town and street. It was closed off to traffic and was like one giant bar. Big A$$ beers everywhere. We went to the Pig to eat and watched and listened to a couple of musicians. Then after that went to Pat O'Brians to listen to the piano guys and have three hurricanes come over us. It was a lot of fun, we headed back to the hotel around 10:30 as it had been a long day.

Oh, Celebrity sightings, the Bird Lady from American Idol...

Up and at'em early on Sunday, some of us more worse for wear than others. Our Fearless leader Paul was probably the worst. Off to Russellville, AR for the next night. It was a good ride. We all took it a little easier this night. Run road of the day was Hwy 7 from Harrison to Russellville, through small towns of Dogpatch as well as Booger Hollow and Chigger Hollow. They sure like the confederate flag in parts of Western Arkansas...

Monday morning everyone was refreshed and we continued on our way down Highway 7 through Hot Springs to IH 30 where we boogied our way back to Dallas. We hit rain just East of Greenville, but for the most part stayed dry as it was a brief shower. Home by 4:30. A long but very fun weekend.

TX State Rally

This past weekend was the Texas State HOG Rally in Amarillo. Darlene and I rode up Friday morning on our own and wanted to get the Turkey LoneStar Challenge Point. We were a bit late leaving and ran into rain on the way. We took a fairly leisurely route, 380 to 114, to 70. I guess we hit rain about an hour and a half in, for about 90 minutes as well. Fairly steady rain but the roads were pretty empty so we didn't get all road spray that can make riding a nightmare. By the time we hit 70 the rain had stopped. It was a very nice ride up 70, Turkey was a very small town, the side roads were dirt (red West Texas dirt!) and it looks like Bob Wills doesn't draw the tourists he used to.

After we left Turkey we continued north on 70 and rode through the eastern portion of the Palo Duro Canyon. With the overcast skys and the remaining dampness over all the ground, the colors in Canyon were georgous and very saturated. The red rocks were as brilliant as I have ever seen. Now I know what people mean when they refer to the red rocks. During peak sunlight hours those colors would have been so washed out.

Empty roads made for excellent travel speeds. We had a short race and got our scoots up to almost 100 mph. That's the first time I've ever gone over, or much over 85. I think I actually backed off about 99 mph, with the fairing I had pretty much stopped accelerating and figured that was about enough. I probably had some more in it, Darlene said she definately did, but we'll save that for another time. The bike was very stable, I was impressed.

A bit further, onto 287 where we hit rain again about 20 miles out of Amarillo. Onto the 40, we exited and went to the rally site to register. I guess we got there around 5:00. Then we went to the hotel and hooked up with some of the others for food and drink. Late evening welcoming committee for the hotel ensued...

Saturday I washed the grime off the bikes and we had a slow start to the morning. Went to the rally site in time to "volunteer" for the bike games. I took a boatload of pictures and Darlene participated in some of the games. We check out the vendors, went to Tripps to get our pin then on to Cadillac Ranch for the obligatory pics.

Saturday afternoon was quite interesting.... There was the Jaguars Club of Holland doing their US cross country / Route 66 tour. I think there was 60 some odd Jags, some quite old, most were actually, and they had shipped from Holland, were taking 3 weeks to traverse the US, with a support team along with them. Good group of folks.
But the wedding in the hotel... African American, very large wedding party. The hotel staff had blocked some of the routes to the elevator while the wedding was in progress. We grabbed a beer and watched while waiting to head out for supper. There were 6 or 7 ladies for the bride, and an equal number of groomsmen, as well as ring bearer and flower girl. One by one the girls came out from a room, and finally the bride came out... and boy did she come out! She was about 9 months pregnant! We weren't expecting that, and even though we weren't surprised we still almost choked on our beers! Even the audience members were a sight. There was one man, perhaps a family member, cream colored vest, white pants, two tone alligator shoes, and a white fedora. We were a ways from him but he had distinctive teeth, unfortunately we were not close enough to determine if he had gold teeth or a grill of some sort. And the woman, I don't recall exactly what she was wearing but she was white, had a short black (or red?) skirt and red shoes that had leather straps wrapped halfway up her calves.

Oh well.

Sunday we took off around 8 am, just 4 of us, Darlene, Jerry, Jiggy and me, we made very good time and got home by 3:30. Round trip was 826 miles.

Happy Mother's Day

Another busy weekend. Friday was the new owners ride. We went to Betty's Cafe in Aubrey. It was a great evening to ride. Small group, and pod 2 (our pod) arrived before pod 1.... Funny thing about wrong turns they can add a lot of time to your trip!

Saturday was the dealership's 5th anniversary and it was our chapter meeting. Very good turnout. The dealership had lots of activities including a bike competition. Lots of bikes were entered and some very cool ones! We hung out till early afternoon then headed home.





I loaded up the Garage attic in the afternoon. Man that's not easy work. I need to get one of those step/ladder thingys though. Its a bear just using a step ladder and we access so often that little piece of gyproc won't last.

Sunday was Mother's day. The boys (and I) made supper. It was pretty good, Ryan did the bar-b-Q, we cooked beer-can chicken and corn on the cob. The corn turned out very well. Corey and I made the tomato slices with buffalo mozzerella appetizers (yum!) and Glazed carrots. Marc made the garlic mashed potatoes and green beens, and of course, dessert - Cocoa Krispie squares, which were very good!

Behind!

Geez, I'm falling behind. I have pics to post from the storm, of which are practically occuring every night! we are getting lots or rain and some pretty severe weather, but not like the other night.

Pass The Pigs went well, we certainly achieved our objectives, unfortunatley we had rain. No bike games, no bike portraits. But all in all it was fun and successful.

This week, more rain. Busy at work with training and homework. Also 3, yes 3 hockey games. Its playoffs. We won the first round of D tonight and need to win tomorrow for C league, otherwise we are out in C.

Whew, quick update, will post pics, etc when I get a bit more time!

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.