Assorted trip photos

Night shots on Las Vegas Strip. I have more but unfortunately most of the rest are blurry. double clicking on any of the images loads a higher resolution shot.






Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. Petroglyphs, critters and lots of cool rocks.









Highway 164 - Joshua Tree Highway - California / Arizona





Hoover Dam - Lake Mead





Kingman, Arizona - Route 66



Route 87 - Scottsdale to Payson, AZ




Route 260 Arizona, around McNary. Yes that white stuff is snow, I'm and 9100 ft. Especially considering that in 24 hours, the temp hits 110 in Scottsdale, just a couple of hundred miles away,




Pie Town, New Mexico - stopped for lunch.

Las Vegas Trip Report

Still sorting though pictures, will post several in the next day or two. Mileages listed below are approximate.

Day 1 – 435 miles, from home to Monahans, TX. I met everyone at the dealership and we were on the road just after 2 PM. Mini-T, Ray and Deb Caul, and Jerry and Dave Barnes. We started off in the rain and were under threat of rain most of the trip with periodic clearing. Rain gear came off after a couple of hours. It’s a good thing we stopped in Monahans, and not earlier as Midland had significant rain overnight.

Day 2 – 750 miles, from Monahans, TX to Glendale, AZ. This was a long one, my personal longest single day distance, previously was about 615 miles. While it was mostly interstate (including 80MPH limits in far west TX) we had a few stops. We did the two westernmost Lone Star Challenge Points, in Fort Stockton, and Horizon City. I have not ridden essentially all regions of Texas except for the farthest southern points. I also have no real desire to visit El Paso in the future. Just not a lot of comfort in that area. Close to the border, which unfortunately has a significant Mexican Drug war influence. The only relief was the time of day we went through, well under the light of the day! Long lunch as some small town Mexican restaurant as well.

Day 3 – 300 miles, from Glendale, AZ to Las Vegas NV. Very comfortable beds we had to get out of…. Took 60, then 93 out of Phoenix area, 93 is also called the Joshua Tree highway. Those things are pretty surrealistic for a foreigner. In fact on a lot of this trip I’m thinking no wonder they make “those” movies in these parts. Felt very Star Warsy. As well as all those bad horror movies, which are very easy to see the inspiration. You gotta be a different sort to live out it these climes. We also rode over the Hoover Dam which is very impressive, and apparently will not be an option in the future as they are building a bypass. Then…. Las Vegas Baby! It’s a much larger city than I expected, I guess I still think Dean Martin / Frank Sinatra when the city was smaller. We went to the Las Vegas HD dealership, very large place, picked up a couple of souvenirs then off to the Red Rock Resort and Spa. Its on the west end of the city and is a nice new facility. Darlene and the others arrived about 6:30 and we took a cab down to the strip to check it out.

Day 4 – 280 miles, Valley of Fire to Cali border loop. Day to myself as everyone is in class. Rode to the Valley of Fire State park. Even more surreal. Lots of critters too. Took lots of pics in the park. Then down to Searchlight and across to the California Border. Through another Joshua Tree “forest”? and over the border.. WTF, someone stole the California sign!!! Well at least I had to cross the border again so looped back on the interstate and got Cali. Oh yeah, 2 state signs, and I forgot my HOG tales book at the hotel. Oh well, I am sure I can make it work out.
We had the reception party, gambled a bit, neither of us were that interested in gambling, I don’t know if we even spent $20, then went to a bar and watched the nightclub act Zowie Bowie. They were pretty cool. Thought it was David Bowies son, but its not.

Day 5 – 325 miles, Las Vegas, NV to Scottsdale, AZ. Basically took the reverse route back from Las Vegas. Made a couple of stops including an old historic mining town in Chloride, AZ. Spent the night at Kris and Lindsey’s house. Thank you very much for the hospitality, food and margaritas! Phoenix metro area is pretty large, and not without traffic issues. Visited a couple of dealers.

Day 6 – 550 miles, Scottsdale, AZ to Roswell, NM. Early start, took 87 up to Payson, gorgeous highway. Then took a route along 60/260. Stopped to look at the snow… Elevation here was over 9100 feet. Into New Mexico, starting to need food and fuel. Had lunch in Pie Town and asked about gas. There was a power grid upgrade in the region, has been running over by about 3 hours, no electricity, next town has pumps but he wasn’t open today due to the upgrade… Uh oh. Next town after that also had pumps, and may have a generator to run…. Wrrrr, power comes on just before I finish up. Arrive in Magdalena at +180 miles on the odometer and no gas indicator light. Tempted to try to get to Socorro but didn’t want to push my luck. Wow, last 6 gallons at 45 mph, I’m impressed! Much better than the 37-38 we were getting pushing 80MPH on the first days. After this last stop the ride starts getting interesting again as finally there are big critters to watch out for. The antelope are crazy in these parts! First ones I see are on the shoulder and just about freaked me out, I went whizzing but and they barely even acknowledged me. Later one crosses the highway too close, in front of me. Also see lots, and lots of deer in the fields as well as more antelope, several turkeys and some Canada Geese.
Roswell on a Sunday night is dead, dead, dead…. Not that I needed any more excitement.

Day 7 - 550 miles, Roswell, NM to HOME! Took advantage of the bed, and took a detour to Clovis to check out the dealership, well, since it was on the way to Earth, another LSC point. Ah yes, the wonderful sights and smells of the panhandle plains of Texas…. Actually wasn’t bad at all. I have a state trooper give me a friendly reminder (warning) of the speed limit in these parts so I guess it will take me a tad longer to get home. Hit the highest temps of the trip, 102-103 F in a couple of small towns. Finally got home around 7pm and after 7 days in the saddle my butt was just beginning to get sore.

All in all it was a great ride. I really didn’t get tired riding at any point, except for one 45 minute period after lunch on Day 2. Saw lots of sights, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Bike Pics

Before I get into my trip report, I wanted to post some of the pictures of the motorcycles that were at the bike show at the 6th anniversary party at the dealership the other day. I always like taking shots of the bikes, including some detail shots.

States visited map

I've had time to update my map, added three additional states, Arizona, Nevada and California.



create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Later this summer we will get some additional states as we head to Milwaukee.

Sorry for the image, its wider than my column, but so far I haven't visited any of the easternmost state so I guess that's ok.

3250 miles...

In 7 days, what a trip. Too late to write up today, may take a couple of days as there was so much to remember. I rode the last three days by myself, 4 days if you count my trip around Las Vegas, and took quite a few pictures. This one below is one of my favorite but I haven't had a chance to look at all of them in detail yet, so this is a teaser.



I believe this was on AZ State Highway 87 somewhere between Scottsdale and Payson.

Motorcycle Stunt Team

At the dealership on Saturday, they had a stunt team performing. They had a Buell and a Sportster, and were going wheelies and assorted tricks and burnouts to the point of blowing up their tires.

The stunt team was Illconduct.

Here are some shots.

Mother's Day Weekend

It was a busy weekend, started off quite warm on Friday and into Saturday. The boys spent quite a bit of time in the pool.

Saturday was the dealerships 6th anniversary so there was a big party planned. I had to get my rear tire changes (note - 33,800 miles) and a state inspection, before my trip to Vegas. No way that tire would have made that round trip. I got there quite early and it was not very busy so I got that turned around and went out and finished the PTP location shots. By the time I got back, the girls were setting up for the bake sale and food.

We stayed there till about 3:30, with all the festivities, the chapter raised quite a bit of money for Cumberland as there were a lot of folks dropping by. There were some nice bikes in the bike show and the stunt riders were pretty cool. Mostly wheelies, but they beat the crap out of those bikes!

Sunday we had the Mother's Day dinner ride to Hanks in Mckinney. It was one of my training rides and although we had a relatively small turnout (17 bikes) it was a good ride of about 72 miles with some twisty and sweeping sections.

Since the destination was in Mckinney, it was a quick ride home. We went out and did a little garden landscaping before the boys got wet again.

I took a lot of pics at the show and will post some later today. Tonight am getting ready for my Vegas trip. It will be long riding days....

Rally pics

This is the view outside our hotel room.



Some of the paint jobs were really cool.





Very small sampling of bikes, since it was a HOG rally most of bikes were Harley's.

TX State HOG Rally report

A great weekend. Relatively straight forward off-interstate (for the most part) routes both there and back. We picked up the Dime Box LSC point on the way down. Round trip miles was about 720 miles.

This time we decided to pretty much hang around and enjoy the rally and friends company. Saturday we really didn't do any riding, other than to the rally site, the dealership and to Gruene (pronounced green) for lunch.

We stayed at the Schlitterbahn resort, right on the Comal River. We got free tubes so Saturday afternoon a group of us took advantage of the river and did a couple of floats downstream and through the rapids. It was a lot of fun.

This was a great spot for a rally, good roads and lots of fun things. Great little towns including New Braunfels, the Wurstfest grounds and Gruene. As a takeoff point there are lots of great riding in very close proximity.

There was a very good turnout overall at the rally, we heard numbers of over 4000 pre-registered, and over 7000 final registrants. I think there were the typical administrative and organizational issues however, based on some feedback. First time rally for the organizers. We didn't participate in the bike games in fact we didn't even watch any of it, but the feedback was less than positive. Bands and venues were very good though.

I'll post pics seperately.

Wharf Rat Rally

Special shout out to my brother-in-law David who has a nightster. My sister just told me he's got some new pipes so I'm sure it sounds pretty badass now. Being in the forces he's always succeptible to being transferred and unfortunately it looks like at this point in his career his number has come up again. Hope all works out in that aspect.

Hopefully he will be in town though for this rally, and they can go check it out. This one looks particulary fun, and its well regarded. And best yet, its in my former back yard!

Wharf Rat Rally in Digby, Nova Scotia. Check it out guys, its Labor Day weekend. Hey, we'll be on our way back from Milwaukee that weekend!

This coming weekend we are heading to New Braunfels, home of the Schlitterbahn, for the Tx State HOG rally.

Later this month it will be the <3000 mile round trip to Vegas, Baby, Vegas!


One last word, special thoughts and prayers to my other sister who is getting a cornea transplant this week. Thinking of you Michelle!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last week was my 47th birthday, and it was Ryan's 20th. This weekend was a celebratory weekend! Friday night Ryan and Darlene went to the Frisco Roughriders games as guests of Dave and Busters, where they met us after the game. We played in the arcade for a while and had a lot of fun.

Saturday was a full day, we started the day with our chapter meeting then did the Mother's Day pre-ride. Good route if I do say so myself....

From that point on it was full on self-indulgence as Darlene treated me (and her) to a full body massage, then a pedicure. I haven't had a full massage in years and it felt good although the masseuse was a bit aggressive on my calves and forearms, but in all it was quite relaxing. As for my pedicure I had never had one before and it was a bit different especially with my rather ticklish feet.

After being pampered for a couple of hours we picked up the boys and headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for monster portions of food and cheesecake. Stuffed but in all a very good day, thanks Honey!

Sunday Ryan and I went to the Bryon Nelson tournament. It was good and relaxing but it was cold! It had rained overnight and a cold front blew in, I don't think it got above 60 the whole day. I capped off my weekend with our final game of the season. We smoked the other team 14-2, I had two goals and had several opportunities for another but couldn't capitalize.

Oh yes, the Stars won in San Jose, and are now up 2 games to 0 in the second round, all is good....

Eye of the Zombie...

That's not your typical flash red-eye. Nope, no siree. Corey took keep your eye on the frisbee a little too litterally...

Actually he was with friends at a pool and turned just in time to catch a frisbee with his face, right in his eye. I think he thought he was going to get a shiner, a black eye, but instead got a much nastier result. This is about 2 days after the peak, when it was really nasty looking. We did go to the doctor, no damage other than what is visible here. His eye is fine but it will take 4-6 weeks before his eye color returns to normal.

Wildflower trip report

Back home safe and sound, and tired. We put on 1050 miles over three days, each of them long days with lots of scenery, curves and hills. The wildflowers were virtually non-existant as the Texas Hill Country had a very dry winter and spring and that apparently does not make for good growing conditions. It was quite a contrast from last year.

However to make up for lack of wildflowers we tackled some of the best roads in Texas. It seems like every new road we ride in Texas becomes a favorite. The highlights of the trip were our Saturday trip, we rode Hwy 16 particularly the section from Kerrville to Medina. That stretch rivals some many of the other excellent roads I have ridden. Additionally we did the Three Sisters, the Twisted Sisters, or the 100-mile loop, however that ride is called. The roads in particular are RR335, RR336 and RR337. Most excellent roads that are both curvy and hilly. Some sections are challenging and all are beautiful and quite varied. In the heart of Tx Hill Country and bordering on the Texas High desert. For a relatively small area quite a bit of change in geography and geology. From lush ranch land to rocky and relatively barren countryside. Along the Guadalupe River which was very clear and inviting.

Big group this trip. I heard we had 53 bikes at KSU and several others joined us at the hotel. For Dinner Friday night we had a confirmed count of 88 folks, with three arriving later. Don't know what the total bike count was but would have been over 60.

The weather was phenomonal, including the relatively cloudy conditions on the trip home.

My ride "posse" on Saturday.



Trip shots

Darrek's tattoos

While Darrek was in town, I took a few shots of his tattoos. I am certainly no expert on tattoos as I have a grand total of none. Anyway, he has pretty much a full sleeve on his right arm and is working his way to a full sleeve on his left arm. I believe all his work has been done by the same artist back home and the designs are related by some common threads, again, I can't even try to explain the concept and relationships of his tattoos, but I believe its skulls and faces in trees, webs, lizards and scorpions.

He also got a tattoo on his calf to commemorate his trip to the states, an alien (get it) taking care of business.







Just as a reference, here is a three inch long gecko we captured in the back yard.

Ride prep

This coming weekend is the annual AEHOG Wildflower ride. We will be leaving early Friday for a three day weekend. I have pre-ridden so will very likely be an RC in some capacity this weekend, maybe leading or tailing most likely.

The wildflower reports are not very promising this season, apparently due to a dry fall and winter. I think that is mostly west of I-35, which of course is right smack in Hill Country where we will be. All the more reason to venture out a bit on Saturday. Right now I have a 270 mile trip to the Three Sisters (335, 336, 337) which are reputed to be some of the best roads in Texas. This will include riding through Kerrville and Leakey. I'd like to stop at the Frio Canyon Motorcycle Shop. It will be a fairly long day, as the average speeds will likely only be about 40 mph as the roads are twisty and hilly.

Round trip we should put approx 1000 miles. We are predicting over 60 motorcycles this weekend, not everyone will make the same ride we will on Saturday, as there are many local opportunities including the Willow City Loop, Enchanted Rock and Luckenbach as local riding attractions.

I have to keep an eye on my primary fluid, it may be a good idea to change it as I have a slight leak and may be down a few cl or even an ounce or two. I think I may have a bad gasket. Its one I have never touched but one of the other guys in group had a similiar issue and had it replaced under warranty. Topping it up will not be a bad idea.

Crash!

Well our boy Ryan had a little fender bender yesterday on the way home from work. After leaving a red light the traffic apparetly stopped in front of him and he hit the vehicle in front of him. Fortunatley it was at low speed and he was on his brakes so no one was hurt. The other vehicle was a Honda Pilot (SUV) and when he hit the brakes, his truck dove a bit and went under the other drivers bumper. As a result the other drivers bumper took out his headlights, grill and bent but did not put any holes in the radiator. Unfortunately Ryan's truck is about 17 years old so its not worth a lot book value, parts are scarce so in all liklihood it will be written off. Oh yeah the driver side quarter panel took a bit of a nudge and jammed the drivers door. The bumper on the other vehicle had little damage, maybe some scratches and embedded glass from the headlights so it likely needs to be replaces as it was plastic covered. Not sure if there was any other damage. Its too bad, the engine is still in great shape and just had brakes, and some other work.

April 21 update:




As you can see the damage was not too bad, but for a vehicle that old its pretty much a write-off. We got hold of a small body shop and they were able to repair and get the truck roadworthy for a very reasonable cost. Ryan picked it up today and is back on the road.

Tornado update

Its official. A small tornado touched down in the southern part of McKinney and Allen. It was about 2/10ths of a mile wide and had winds of approx 90 mph. I would say that is the tornado that hit the KittyHawk airport in Mckinney (Allen?) the Allen Cineplex and hit the powerlines and houses on 720 that I took pictures of.

I took a drive up Alma on Friday, between McDermott and SH121, and there was a lot of damage. Well at least as far as I was concerned. I haven't seen that much immediate damage from tornadoes or hurricanes before so it sure looked like a lot to me with numerous fences down, including brick and steel poles, as well as broken windows and a lot of roofs torn up. But most impressive probably was the rather large trees that were reduced to splinters at their breaking points.

So there you have it, that was close enough, and strong enough for me. I have no desire to be caught in any storm of that or greater magnitude!

Tornado Alley

Its been a busy couple of weeks with lots going on and I haven't posted lately. Will try to give some updates soon on the race and other recent goings on, but the big news is the storms of late.

We are just coming out of several days of severe weather with us getting it the last two nights and most notably last night/this morning. This morning about 3:30 the storms starting getting close and then the power went out so we couldn't see their progress, before we knew it the sky was a constant lightning flash and the sirens were sounding. We rounded up the boys and the cats and took refuge in the bathroom, but fortunatley it quickly passed. We lost power for over two hours I think.

This morning I could hear the neighbors outside and sure enough a piece of our fence had blown over. I got that re-erected and shored up a post that had broken as well. I went for a little drive to see what kind of damage was locally as there was lots of damage all over the metroplex on the news.

It turns out we were quite lucky. A couple of broken tree limbs in the immediate neighborhood and very few to no shingles lost. On my drive however within a mile of the house was a strip that was hit very hard. Route 720, between SH-75 and Hardin. About 8-10 power poles were down, several snapped in half. Also several houses on the north side of 720 were almost stipped bare off shingles and tarpaper with several fence sections down.

Gentlemen, Start your Engines!

Its NASCAR weekend in Texas! Dale, Peter and Darrek are already out at the track alongside Charles and Brenda and Crew. We will be leaving shortly to head out. Darlene and I will only be attending the Busch race tomorrow, or whatever the series is called now, but Ryan will be staying the duration.

Also tomorrow is the Fallen Eagle Ride on behalf of Karen Riley and other former American Eagle members who have passed away. We will not be able to attend but I also wanted to post the online donation site for any visitors who may wish to donate.

American Heart Association

Wedded Bliss

The Hitch went off without a hitch!