Here comes Vacation!

Let's see, I missed posting on the weekend. Did quite a bit of work around the house, finished the boys bedroom. We went to the CS party Saturday with Marc, not too exciting, but fun nonetheless. Sat night I played hockey. The boys came home from their Colorado trip Sunday. Sounds like they had a great time and good weather to boot. Today is my last day at work before vacation. Flying everyone to Nova Scotia to visit family. Long trip through JFK airport in New York, a bit too long of a stopover, +3 hours. Boys better have their gameboys recharged!

Took my bike to work this week and scheduled service. Need my 2500 done, at 3000 miles. Have some problem with fuel - EFI. May be the problem injectors, or just a mapping issue. Also have a possible fork oil leak. Well I guess I'll find out after vacation!

Pro Sports

With all the other things this week, I almost forgot. Two seasons ended this week, and both my teams ended on a losing note...
First was the Stanley Cup. Well the Stars have been out for a long time so I guess it really wasn't my team but Carolina beat Edmonton for the Cup. Good for Carolina, but it sure would have been nice to have a Canadian team as champions! 8th place seed too.

Basketball, although I'm not that much of a fan the finals ended on a very disappointing note. Mavericks in the finals, first time. Up 2 games, go to Miami for 3 lose all three, then can't hold the lead at home in Game 6. I think its probably a representation of experience. Even though it was Miami's first time to the finals as well, you have Pat Riley the coach who has, how many rings? And Shaq, who has 4 rings himself, compared to Dallas, with Avery Johnson in his first full year as coach and I don't believe any finals experience on the team. Next year...

Counting Down

Well its been quite the week so far. The boys are hopefully having great weather, by now they should have gone white water rafting, completed half their mountain hike, summited the peak (if they hopefully chose to) and are on their way back down. Not sure of the weather, it appeared that they probably experienced some thunder and showers, will find out Sunday I guess.

Busy week, got some work done on the boys room, Marc's bed is made, almost finished. Two hockey games, a goal in the C-game loss Tuesday night, and 3 assists in the D game win last night. I think tonight the three of us should go see the new Garfield movie for Marc.

Work has been good, I have been attending a workshop on MCIS. Good workshop and I have learned a lot, actually getting a bit excited about my new role now that I am starting to understand what its about! Funny about that.

Counting down to what? Oh yeah, this time next week we should be pulling into the airport for vacation to Nova Scotia! I guess I'm starting to get a bit excited.

And when I get back I have to bring my bike in for 2500 mile service, its a bit overdue, but more importantly to get the fork checked for a leak and to get the injectors changed. Its starting to drive me nuts, the cold start and drivability problems....

Father's Day weekend.

Wow actually a very busy weekend. With Ryan and Corey going to Colorado for camp we had celebrated Father's Day last weekend. Got the boys off to camp Saturday morning and did some running around. The weather cleared and we had the AE run Saturday night to the Frisco Roughriders ball game. Marc was on my bike and we decided to go all the way to the dealership for basically an hour and a half ride instead of a 15 minute ride! Marc was a bit nervous but once we got to the dealership and he was able to relax a bit he relaxed quite a bit! We lost the ball game and had a light show on the way home. We stayed dry as the storm was behind us but others headed into it. Sunday we worked in the boys room and got Marc's bed pretty much ready to assemble.

Oh, sold the washer and dryer, lots of calls and will treat this as a learning experience! Lets see what else, Oilers won Sat night, Stanley cup goes to Game 7 tonight. Mavs lost again, a squeaker, so now they are down 3 games to 2 in the finals. Fortunately the last 2 games are in Dallas, LETS GO MAVS!

Hockey night in North Texas

Woo hoo, its back on. Our first game of the Summer Season. We ended up losing 4-3 but we played well, made some excellent passes and had a lot of fun. Low penalties, 2 for them, one for us. Couple of mistakes on lines changes cost us 2 goals. I did well, scored our first goal and got an assist. Massive slapshot the hit the goalie right in the palm of his glove hand the puck dropped and Shawn poked it in. Mavs lost game 3 of the finals, they are now up 2 games to 1. I just saw the last few minutes, they had a lead, a big lead actaully, and well blew it. Shaq actually hit two free throws in a row and Dirk missed one of his two that would have tied it with 3.4 seconds left. Actually if he'd scored the basked when he was fouled it would have been a 3 point opportunity for the probable win. Don't know what this will do, the Heat winning this game.

Father's Day?

Yes I know it wasn't Father’s Day, but Ryan and Corey will be gone next Sunday so we celebrated a week early. Actually spent most of the day indoors. It was Chef Corey’s big day, and that took most of the day preparing and cooking the big meal. Several courses, salad, appetizer, Pasta and orange shrimp, Grilled salmon with Cucumber salad and cherry cheesecake! It was all very good! We also made some more headway getting the house in order, but its been hard finding the time with all the other things that have been going on. Great day overall!

Aces High ride

On Saturday went to AE for new owners orientation, got some free breakfast and a few dealer freebies! After the noo, went on the Aces High poker run, the route was basically north and east to 75 of the dealership. Pretty flat but roads were anything but straight! Travelled with a fairly large group, Don R leading, Wayne in the pod and a couple of others. There were a couple of choppers, interesting to watch them manuever. Not difficult but just interesting. It was hot, not bad riding but back at the dealership it got hot. They had a big event, I gave blood since I missed the last time at work. Darlene worked the soda booth and we hung out for a little while, watched RSD play. Darlene tried her new camera, will have to see how it worked out. Put on about 180 miles total, time for 2500 mile service!

Dad's Surgery

Spoke with Mom today, Dad is home from his bladder surgery that took place on Tuesday. He was asleep but is apparently doing very well. Its been a rough spring on him. With the scar tissue that led to the infection, and subsequent pnuemonia, he's taking a bit of a beating. I think with the pnuemonia he spent almost 2 weeks in hospital, then about a week later he went in for his surgery. The Dr says he'll be driving soon so hopefully he won't be laid up for too long. But no garden this year, and his golf game has been shelved for the time being. He may get some games in later this summer. They haven't even opened up the Bear Cove house yet. We're heading there in 3 weeks, I guess we will spend most of the time in the city. That is fine, maybe a trip to Stewiake, the beaches, downtown. Well at least that first stress point is over for Dad, now all he has to do is deal with his tenant....

New Truck!

There's another driver in the house... Well he was already a driver, but now has his own vehicle. Yes Ryan has a car. Truck actually. Its a bit of a beater, but its his and its really to get him back and forth to school. 1990 Nissan truck, 152K miles. But you know, the motor seems very sound. And the rest of the truck isn't in bad shape either. The vinyl in the interior seems the worst for wear, probably due to breakdown in the sun. He was very exited, cool to see.

NOT ROT

Well this past weekend was AE's NOT ROT weekend, as an alternative to those who do not want to participate in the madness that is Republic of Texas (ROT) Rally. So we went in a decidedly different direction, to Amarillo TX, specifically Canyon TX. We left the dealership Saturday morning in two pods consisting of a total of about 22 bikes. It was about a 400 mile day for us, with a few stops along the way. Unfortunately the trip took a bit longer than expected so we ended up changing the itinerary along the way and we did not get to stop a Cadillac Ranch. I've been there before but really wanted to check it out again. Anyway we got to the hotel about 5:15 pm, in time to get cleaned up to go to Palo Duro State park for dinner and the play. The drive down the canyon road was awesome! The play was Epic Texas and was a preview as they were still in rehearsals but it was very well done in the outdoor theatre with the effects and cast. We got back to the hotel about 11:30 PM

Early to rise the next morning as some of us wanted to get the Dalhart Lone Star Challenge point. Well there were only three of us, Darlene and myself, led by Dave W. We took some back roads, and for me, a wildlife lover, it was great! I actually saw three antelope, which I have never seen before, more jackrabbits than I could count, some prarie dog towns, a lone coyote and a large flock of turkeys up on a ridge! We had breakfast and got our challenge point pictures in Dalhart then got on our way again. Sunday's ride was a long one as it was hot and my afternoon we were stopping every hour or sooner to refresh and get some shade. It reached 104 in one town! It was even so hot, I think we saw a mirage, a herd of camels in some texas oasis! Six hundred miles later we arrived, at about 7:30. If nothing else I learned the importance of resting and hydration. I felt pretty good overall after the ride and next day.

Graduation!

Saturday May 27, Ryan graduates from Mckinney High School. Long day! Ryan's ceremonies are held at Prestonwood Baptist Church. There are about 480 +/- in his class. It was very well organized. He had to be there for 8:30, for a 10:30 start. It was over around 1:00, we had lunch and then back home after some more running around. That night was the safe grad, a lock in. Darlene volunteered, they had a lot of fun, Ryan won some prizes and money, it was over at 5:30 am so I went to pick him up.

Mileage update

So, to try to bring my adventures up to date. In the month that I have owned my bike, I have put on 1300 miles.
My first "trip" was the AEHOG LOH ride on May 7 to Granbury and Hico. I think the trip was about 250 miles total. A fun ride through pretty nice roads in the top of Hill Country.

The next weekend, May 13, was the Pass The Pigs run/event. I think that was just a little over 100 miles total, starting at AE in Corinth and ending at the Thunderhorse in Lewisville for bike games. That was fun, but saw my first motorcycle accident, or at least the outcome of it, on the road, a group heading a different direction. Fortunately it was not a serious accident. We ended up not being able to stay for the bike games as Ryan had his prom and we wanted to make sure everything went well.


Jump ahead to May 19-21, the Texas State Rally. Left Friday morning with Holly and Larry, we took some great roads around Lake Texoma. Saw a little wildlife, some deer, a coyote. Had a great time at the Rally, had been to ROT a couple of years ago but did not truly experience as I only spent a few hours there. On Saturday morning, we collected on Dyess AFB for some photos followed by a parade through Abeline. There were over 2100 bikes in the parade, it was very cool. The bike games took place in the afternoon, I took lots of photos, will have to post some! That evening we watched Styx in concert. Actually I enjoyed that much more than I expected! I believe I have now seen Styx more times than any other band, and I'm not even a fan. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in Halifax. The drive home on Sunday was good, took 180 from Abeline to Weatherford, then highway home. Saw this really cool, gigantic elk head on the side of the road. Oh, almost forgot, on the ride down got first Lone Star point in Albany. Total miles on this trip was about 600, which put me over my 1K service point. Got my 1k service done this past Monday.