Wildflower weekend

Well, this weekend didn't turn out exactly as planned. Originally we were scheduled to head down to Boerne on Friday for a weekend of riding, wildflowers and general good times with a great group of folks. Yes, the annual Spring Wildflower Ride. I had been fighting a cold for a week and the weather was shaping up to be very, very wet. So Thursday evening we decided against making the trip and maybe taking a shorter day trip over the weekend if the weather held.

Friday opened up with a lot of rain, so it looks like we made a judicious decision. We have all ridden in the rain and certianly will ride in the rain again, but really didn't feel the need this weekend. The larger group did head down on Friday and apparently had at least 3 hours of torrential downpours and thunderstorms. The Radar looked like they may have had even more, as well as wet roads from all the rain. We were planning on riding a different route and if we had have gone, we probalby would have had about 6-8 hours of very heavy rain and severe thunderstorms.

Mid afternoon Friday I opened the garage to throw out some garbage and was greeted by this site at the end of my driveway, in my neighbors driveway.


So yeah, there were some bad storms....

Saturday we took it pretty easy and hung out with some friends and had some fun Wii Bowling. And plans were tentatively made for a ride on Sunday.

In the end there were only 4 of us who rode on Sunday. But it was a great ride. I had planned the route through some roads in North East Texas, some I had ridden before but a lot we had not. We did see quite a few wildflowers unfortunatley no places where we could pull off and get some good shots. In addition to the bluebonnets there were several other varities.

We also stopped for lunch at Loose Wheels, before heading to Carpenters Bluff Bridge. I have written about this bridge before, its just a cool old one lane bridge that crosses the Red River into Oklahoma. I wanted to get some shots and managed to get a couple that I like. After that we stayed on some FM roads for a few more miles at stopped at Big Slicks, another biker friendly establishment a bit closer to home.

Here's a couple of my favorite shots from today.

Ryan's history project

Ryan is working on a Texas History project. Personally I think he picked the hardest one to do, but anyway its a fun one and he gets to see some Texas countryside and learn a bit in the process.

In short, he has to find (a lot) of Texas Historical Markers, across several counties and put together some sort of presentation.

While we were out on the Panther Creek Easter Egg run on Saturday I found a rather unique "histerical" marker I thought he should include in his project.

Wildflower Ride prep

This coming weekend is our annual wildflower ride. This is always a good time with lots of great riding and hopefully great wildflowers in the area. This will be my third trip although Darlene has gone additional times. The first trip I took the fields and roadsides were full of Texas wildflowers. Last year they were pretty much devoid of wildflowers. This year are mixed results with Hill Country being somewhat sparce and East of 35 apparently being better but not as good a past years.

Also this year we have a new end point. Traditionally the destination has been Fredericksburg but this year we are trying Boerne. Its a bit further but I think it gives a few more opportunities for the Saturday rides.

Additionally it puts us in the area of something a bit more sinister.... The Devils Backbone, and Purgatory Road, near Wimberly TX.

We'll miss you

Race weekend picture dump

Some shots from the weekend. Never got a lot of great shots of the cars on the track as we were a bit low and pretty much all my shots have fence in them.

Race Recovery...

Its Monday after the Spring NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway. We've gone to the races pretty consistently over the years. We've missed a lot but generally we take in at least one race per year, although not always the main event. Texas has 2 Cup races per year. The past two years we have rented an RV and camped out with the other 10's of thousands of crazed fans and have been fortunate enough to hang out with some real race and camping veterans. This year, we decided to go on the cheap and we set up a tent on our friends RV site. It worked out very well. We went out Friday night, saw the Pat Green concert, saw the race on Saturday, hung out some more then went home Sunday before all the madness and the cold front.

Anyway you cut it though, its usually a wild and wooly weekend. Friday night was fun, we hung out at the RV after the concert and actually took it pretty easy. Saturday the weather was great and we spent the day down at the track, checking out the Nascar practice, the vendors and the race.

Saturday night, wow, its amazing was a bit of alcohol, nice weather and plastic trinkets will make some women do. Heck, some of them didn't even need the trinkets.... Like lots of other major events where there is camping facilities of this sort, car races, motorcycle rallies, etc, it can get pretty wild. I think its something that you really have to experience in person though as I don't think words can truly describe the scene.

Anyway, much thanks to Brenda and Charles, Brad and everyone else for their hospitality as always.

Picture dump will follow! Stay tuned.

Marking their territory

There's a saying that old Harley's don't leak oil, they just mark their spot. Well mine must be feeling threatened once again, and its not even old. Last year I had a small oil leak, at the shifter spline, which took way too long to repair. The other day after our ride to the LA State Rally, I noticed a small "puddle" under one of my saddle bags. I thought it was quite odd, I even checked to see if I had some unknown liquid in my bag that may have leaked. Nothing there, so I took the bag off and noticed oil on my left rear shock. Must have sprung a leak, that may explain why I could never seem to keep air in them either.

So I called the dealership, at first the service tech thought it may have been under extended warranty so I made an appointment and while doing so I found my warranty coverage. Oops, no such luck so I cancelled my appt and asked what the cost was for replacement. OEM shock was roughly $185. Ouch. Each. Ouch again.

So decided to look online. Of course part numbers are not the easiest to find, which makes price checking even more difficult. Found that out, then checked the discounted dealers, still $150+.

Next best option, eBay. Now I'm an eBay virgin. So I find a couple of options for both "new" and used shocks, with used typically being pulloffs for an upgrade, so for the most part should be in good shape. There were some buy-now options for $100 for what looked like a pair so was considering that, but there were also a couple to bid on.

By the time I finally get around to bidding on this one set, there was 13 hours left and no bids, minimum bid of $5. So signed up, got a paypal account and off I went. Next morning, still only my bid, I'm getting excited. 30 minutes left, another bid. Crap have to increase my maximum, keep watching, getting a bit excited and anxious. Crap, maximum exceeded again, a third bidder. So about 2-3 minutes left to go, up my bid one more time and I win! $18.50 plus shipping. Not bad, hopefully they will be nearly new and I should get them either the end of this week or early next week!

Architecture and Morality

Bit of a music reference, album title from a band in the 80's, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD). Pretty good album, I liked it anyway, bit of synth-pop. Probably their biggest hit was Enola Gay.

Anyway, why the title. Well Corey had guitar lessons so not having a lot of time between drop-off and pick-up, but time to kill, I ventured downtown McKinney with my camera and fixed focus 50 mm lens. I've been wanting to start doing more with my photography of late so the only way to do it to just do it. Mckinney has a bit of a historical downtown, so hence the Architecture reference. Sorry that's it, no Morality reference. Although it is Texas, and Mckinney houses the Collin County Courts.

So I took a few shots of some of the buildings, but I must say my eye is definatly out of practice. Here are a couple of shots, nothing of note that's for sure, hopefully there will be improvement in coming shoots.

Tuesday isn't very busy downtown after supper but there was another photographer doing some fashion shots with a young male model. Looked like it may have been for one of the local community magazines or maybe a catalog.

Oo oo oo!!!!

Henry Rollins to appear on Sons of Anarchy!!!

Yeah Baby! Two of my favorite things. I've followed Henry Rollins for years, huge fan of everything he does. Have an original Black Flag album, Damaged, on vinyl, from SST records. Have tons of his music in MP3 form, some covers, some Rollins Band, a book, spoken word cd, I've seen him perform his spoken word three times locally here in Dallas. And on FX network Sons of Anarchy. Not a big TV guy, a few shows, Sopranos, other than that the primary regular shows are news and sports, but I did catch every episode of SoA in their first season.

I'm pumped and can't wait!

LA State Rally

This was the first time I have been to the Louisiana State HOG Rally and I must say I enjoyed it greatly. This year it was in Shreveport so it was almost too convenient to miss, just a short 200 miles. We left mid-afternoon Friday and took interstate the whole way, getting in around 6:30 pm. Thanks to Kim and Glen once again for putting up with us and sharing a room for the weekend.

We hung around Saturday, toured the rally site, went to the dealers and didn't do any rides this time around. Although there were a few to do including a Bonnie and Clyde ride that would have been pretty cool.

Relatively early night Saturday night and a good early trip home today got us in before noon for breakfast with the boys. The wind was picking up and we got a bit the last hour or so, but the first hour was awesome with a clear sky and low sunlight at our back.

We ran into several other Eagles and hung out at the concert Saturday night for a bit.

Two words of wisdom. Don't drink Margarita's in Styrofoam cups (I think the alcohol causes the petrochemicals to leach out and cause slight poisoning.... Really) and don't eat a Funnel Cake around Darlene.

Here's some shots from the weekend, including an awesome totally chromed bike and other sights.

Musica Musica

I have Sirius satellite radio in my Truck. For music I usually listen to Faction (think action sports - mix of rock, alternative, punk and hip-hop) and sometimes spin the dial. In mornings when I drive my truck instead of my bike to work I usually listen to Howard Stern. Tonight on the way home from my hockey game (yet another loss, although not nearly as heartbreaking as the loss last night 0.5 seconds left....) I was spinning and stopped on Boneyard. Boneyard is not my favorite station by any means as it was the replacement for the Punk Channel, which was my former favorite... Anyway, some song caught my attention so I stopped. Then the next song came on and it really caught me off guard. Not so much the song but the band. Can you believe it, it was April Wine. Maybe most of my Texas friends won't recognize, but any of you Canadians out there, who grew up in the 70's are familiar with April Wine. I would have been less surprised with Loverboy, but would have been totally blown away if it was Max Webster!

All things must pass however as I stopped to get gas, music had moved on to AC/DC and when I started up again, uggg, it was Def Leppard. Sorry, not a fan, spin the dial back to Faction, no good, couple more spins and land on Underground Garage, playing the very classic Velvet Underground - I'm waiting on my man. Redemption!

Completion

All these weekends working on renovations are finally starting to pay off. This weekend we put on about 2.5 gallons of paint in the main entranceway and hallway. And we finished the French doors! Well there may be a bit of finish work on the trim but essentially they are complete. So in honor I am going to post a couple of picture of some of the work we have finished.

Here are a couple of shots as we were moving in.
Entranceway, which shows the landing, the "arch" into the living room, and the three teirs on the stairwell.





Some in progress shots. Note archway had been completed by this time, and you can see that the wall on the top tier of the stairwell has been extended to the ceiling.




Here is the finished French Door view. The paint colors are a bit off in these pictures, a mix of many different lighting, including natural, incandescent and flash, sorry about that.




Here is our game room "kitchenor" (hint - Bachelor). We don't really have a before shot but its at the top of the steps built in behind the extended wall where the third tier of the stairwell was.



I don't have a before shot of Ryan's bathroom, but this is the boys bathroom when we moved in which is basically a mirror image.


And the after shots.




We have had several other projects, some small, some not so small, and many more still on the list. Here is the early shots of our backyard, before pool and fence, when there were trees where the pool is.





And a very recent backyard shot which shows the pool, the fence and the shed.

Brrrrr....

What a crazy, if not typical bout of Texas weather. Last weekend was working outside in shorts, temps over 80F, I actually had to put the A/C on for a couple of short spells to cool off the house so everyone could sleep comfortably. We've practically been in a drought so far in 2009, then as of yesterday, the temperature drops to below 40 for the high and we get about 3.5 inches of much needed rain in 24 hours. I had to switch the thermostat back to heat as it cooled off so much. Forecast for the next couple of days is continued cold and wet, then back to seasonal temps.

Last weekend was our chapter meeting and we had a huge turnout. We were awarding our long flyer patches in commemoration of our chapter riding in excess of 2 million miles in 2008. Here is a copy of the patch.



We had a rather large support group from the Panther Creek Chapter in Allen come out and recognize us on this milestone.

Also a bit of excitement, one of our good friends, Doug "Mini-T" Hull is in contention for a spot on the next season of America's Biggest Loser. For those unfamiliar with the show its essentially a televised weight loss competition. Doug is in the third stage of "auditions" and was taking a video of his activities and his support group, which is of course his extended family. So for the video Darlene panned the rather boisterous group of about 100 or so. I think it certainly will provide the impact desired.

New Photography project

I think going to take on a new project, just to make sure I do this thing I've had in the back of my mind for a long time. I don't know the best way to describe but it has to do with hulking masses of abandoned and discarded mechanical equipment. This facination goes back many, many years. I guess in part back to the the old Ford graveyard on my uncles property. They always drove Ford vehicles and when they died or otherwise ended their useful life, they old cars and trucks ended up at the bottom of the field. As a kid it was cool look around, play in the vehicles (not always safe since we were shooting out lights and windows with pellet guns, etc) but see the different innovations, like pushbutton transmissions, etc.

Over the years I've taken pictures of these sites, but not to extent I would like to. Typically my shots have been more focused on individual items than "collections", but in our travels I have seen some interesting collections. And these collections appear to serve many purposes. Some are artistic, like Cadillac Ranch, some are commercial, like the wide variety of salvage yards that dot the countryside, and even then there is a subset within this commercial category. A great example of that subset is Earl Mann's Bug Shop in Ardmore, OK. I visited that yard several years ago (pre-digital) and it was great, countless VW's and in various states of dis-repair with grass growing up through them, etc. Great place for photos.

Some of the other collections appear to be just that. Some may have some commercial enterprise just by default, but the origin tends to be either like my uncle, a dumping ground for useless equipment, or perhaps a personal taste or passion by the owner and the start of a collection that has grown out of control. There is one collecition of rusted tractors, mostly smaller tractors, in a yard just west of Paris, TX that is really the inspiration for this project. I have ridden by it many times, each time thinking I need to go back and shoot.

I have seen a variety of these "boneyard" including boats, bicycles, motorcycles, tractors, lawnmowers, and lots that aren't that specific although those are as interesting to me as a specific collection.

Greg Windsor posted a couple of pictures recently of a Combine boneyard (near Canyon, TX) that I have to track down at some point. But for now, here is a teaser of Cadillac Ranch.

Day After Chili

Well I must be more competitive than I thought. We came in 2nd place. Still very, very good, but I admit I was actually quite disappointed. I was really hoping to win so that we could bring the trophy back to American Eagle so we could host next year.

It was another long day, long week actually, two hockey games and still had to prepare the meat and get supplies and packed. Up fairly early Saturday and off to Bedford. It was very windy and the setup was different than the last time in Bedford, so we were quite exposed. Luckily all the canopies held and the flame never blew out till it was almost done.

The judges came back for a second sampling, so I have a feeling the competition was close. We got some very positive feedback from the tasters so overall I feel pretty good, we were recognized, but still.

Oh well, back to normal today, more home projects. Finishing details. Cut and installed trim on the french doors, hung the piece of crown moulding and did some caulking, including Ryan's bathroom. Stuff is nearing completion.

Chili-axing...

Its the big event tomorrow. The southwest regional chili cook off... Support your local HOG chapter. Spices are mixed, meat is, well lets just say we're waiting for our next job to come in...




Also on Sunday, the Krewe of Barkus will be having their parade in downtown Mckinney. Check it out.