Wildflower Pre-Ride

This past weekend there was lots of riding. Darlene and several LOH ladies took an overnight trip to Granbury for wine-tasting and other debauchery. Actually it ended up being quite a bit of debauchery as the ladies decided to turn it into a batchelorett party for Darlene as well....

My ride was to Fredericksburg as the official pre-ride for the annual Wildflower ride. Dave Barnes planned the ride and I thoroughly enjoyed the route. We had several road captains and road captains in training. I was wing for Paul (Whiff). We are expecting upwards of 100 bikes, I think last spring we had +60 and there are more active members this year. Lunch and gas stops have become challenging but I think we will be good to go.

As its still early in the year, I think the deer are still quite active. I was surprised at how much road-kill we came across and on FM500 we had a bit of a thrill as 3 deer crossed the road directly in front of our pod. With that group was another 3 or 4 behind the fence that stayed to our right and did not cross. On the way home I saw a couple of other deer and a turkey.

Overall the Sat night was pretty mellow as far as these things can go, which is not a bad thing. The actual ride will be quite different as it will be at a different hotel and we will have a barbeque there.

On the Saturday of the actual ride I am planning a route to do the Three Sisters, or the Twisted Sisters, or the 100 mile loop as it is sometimes called. Down into Leakey and Frio Canyon. Those roads are supposed to be some of the best roads in Texas.

Sunday I rode home with Glen and checked out a old Harley he was looking at in Hamilton TX. It was a 1965 police edition, the last year for the panhead and first year of the electra-glide. The bike has supposedly been dormat for 18 years and while it was in surprisingly good shape for that aspect, it does need quite a bit of work. The lady who owns it (dead husband's bike) is a bit misinformed to its value, especially in the state it is in. I believe Glen is interested in it, but does not want to offend the lady with a good offer if she is truly not aware of its value.

The guy who was selling the bike on the lady's behalf was an interesting character. Ken French I believe was his name. He used to ride in the 40's and 50's and had some great pictures of him and his crew. He also rebuilds old cars and had a couple of great ones in his garage.

Oh, about 670 miles. Getting time for oil change, may do that this coming weekend.

Going's on....

Whew, lots going on. This past weekend we didn't put on a lot of miles. Saturday was the Chapter meeting, and I had some concerns about the drive over. Thursday we had some more snow, can you believe that! Two significant snowfalls in one week, in Texas! But typically each lasted only about 1 day. I was concerned because there was 9 inches of snowfall in Denton on the Thursday, I figured there must still be some snow on the ground and certainly the roads would be wet from the melt if nothing else. Also it was about 22 degrees when we left Saturday morning, so any water on the road would likely be frozen.

We left early as Darlene needed some service on her bike, otherwise we may have considered taking the car. Anyway we stopped for gas close to the house and Darlene's hands were already cold. We switched up gloves and carried on. We took the south route, along 121 instead of 380 due to potential issues on the road. Not sure it was any better as once we started hitting intersections, we also started hitting ice. The worst one was probably the first one, we had a red light and on the other side was about 15 feet of ice that we had to drive over. Its very slippery.... We hit a few more patches along the way, but none as bad as that first one. By the time we got to the dealership, Darlene was pretty stressed out and relieved.

We hung out and didn't ride anywhere that day. Sunday was the ride to Windy's Catfish. I would have liked to have gone, but with my hockey game Sat night, and then the time change, plus the group shower and helping Corey with school, if I figured I better skip that ride.

So now this weekend coming up we should both be putting on a few miles. Darlene and quite a few of the girls are going to Granbury for an LOH overnighter, and planning on picking up a lonestar point on the way home on Sunday, adding about 500 additional miles to their trip! I am going on the wildflower pre-ride to Fredericksburg with several of the road captains and will likely put on about 800 miles or so. Will be time for oil change after that.

Wedding plans are in full swing, getting house in order, etc...

March break is next week for the boys.

Snow in Texas?

In March?
It was 80F on Sunday, a cold front came through and by Monday night it had dropped to freezing, about 32F. We had some pretty significant storms Sunday night with the front and it continued to rain throughout Monday, by Monday night we had a change to snow. I took a few pictures Monday night, which are not easy to do as the flash lights up the flakes directly in front of the lens, but then got up to a beautiful sunny morning a took a few more pictures.





We had upwards of 5 inches of snow here in Mckinney, I think the only place with more reported snowfall was Sherman with 6 inches. It probably stopped snowing around 2 or 3 am so it started to compress as it was very fluffy snow. I think by the time I got outside this morning it was still about 3 inches thick.

Road Captain Training

This past Saturday was our road captain training class. We had a good group of 9 riders taking class. For me a lot of the stuff I had already had exposure to, either by riding with some of the RCs already, some of the early training I have already been exposed to this year, as well as a lot of the stuff that Darlene had told me based on her riding experiences and exposures from the other RCs while she was a newer member and learning a lot.

Its all about responsibility, with of course the primary responsibility being the safety of all the riders. Other key areas are communication to the riders and of course the planning of the rides with focus on both safety, and comfort.

In addition to these things, the RCs truly represent the chapter and are very visible. Its important to learn the who the members are, including their names, and to recognize that once in this position, people will expect you to always be "on", so to speak.

In the words of some, if people see you getting on your ride, organized ride or not, you will likely have other riders following you!

After the class, which lasted about 3 hours, several of us went on the pre-ride for the Fallen Eagles ride on April 5. The Fallen Eagles ride is a memorial ride for American Eagle members who have passed away, including most recent Karen Riley. This ride will be to the Hard 8 Barbeque in Stephenville. Unfortunately we will not be in attendance as Dale and Peter will be down and we will be attending the races that weekend.

The ride was fun and was through a couple of interesting small towns. Total miles on Saturday was around 370 miles. Long day, left the house at 8 am and got home about 8:15 pm.

HOG 25th

Its time to start putting firmer plans in place for our big trip this year. The plan is to ride to Milwaukee in late August for the HOG 25th / Harley 105th anniversaries. We are not going on the rendezvous ride and doing this instead. I've done some initial route planning and have a pretty good plan, albeit a lengthy one with quite a few miles and for the most part staying off interstates.

Some of the highlights, which of course may evolve as we get closer and planning firms up.
Aug 23 - 31, which gives us an extra day, Labor Day, on the back end if we need it.
We want to be in Milwaukee area on Aug 27 as the events start early on the 28, and leave the party on Saturday the 30 so will miss that days activities.

Current route is 2640 miles, not counting incidental miles at stops, etc.
Six travel days, averaging over 400 miles per day, and 3 "rest" days. First day and two days on return are 500 mile days.
Natchez Trace from start to finish.

We will have 3 nights camping at Hog Haven in West Bend with several thousand of our closest friends.....

We plan on doing some ABC points, right now have opportunity for 15 states, although we have other opportunities for 3 of those states. May even get the rare and difficult city that begings with "X", which unfortunately is our easternmost point.

One travel option I am looking into is the Lake Express Ferry, a high speed ferry accross Lake Michigan that will allow us to avoid Chicago and lot of other populated areas on the south and southwestern shores of the lake. It may be very worth it, but unfortunately restricts us to a tight schedule on that day.

Lots of time left but there will also be a lot of riders heading in that direction from all points so will likely need to start making reservations sooner than later.

HOG 25th
Harley 105th

Regional Chili Contest

The weather was fantastic this weekend. A bit cool Saturday, but not too bad. Our road miles were quite minimal though. The regional Chili Competion was this Saturday, at the Allen dealership, so we had about 6 miles to travel to the dealership! We had 2 teams entered, out of 10 or 11. There were lots of folks in general, at least a couple of hundred bikes. A group rode in from the dealership and a few others showed up so we probably had representation of 20 or so members, maybe a few more.

Unfortunately our teams did not finish in the top, neither the judges choice or the peoples choices. Personally I think that the judges would have had a difficult choice to make. To be honest however I think were far fewer good chili's than bad chili's! Some interesting tastes and textures. From the "sawdust" filler of one, to another deperately needing some filler, or perhaps some paper towel to blot some of the fat (use lean meat people, or drain the fat!) My personal favorites tended to be the blandest samples as at least they did not contain any questionable or unknown flavors!

It makes you wonder how some of these recipes had won their club competition, but bear in mind that chili is typically different each time you make it. Just look at our "Too Hot To Handle" team. Mind you only one of the original team could attend this weekend. In my opinion, it was a bit too smokey flavored. A little too liberal with the fire roasted tomatoes.

Sunday was a beautiful day and was spend around the house, doing lots of chores, etc.

Pictures?

I haven't taken a picture in weeks. I probably should have taken one or two of downtown Granbury last weekend as it has a pretty cool historic downtown square. This weekend is the regional Chili cookoff at the Allen HD. We are supposed to have 2 teams entered so we will go down and check it out and show our support. Will get some pictures there.

Darlene will probably get a new back tire, she needs one, can go a few more miles but not too many. Her front time is getting a bit wore too. I'm nearing 5K, actually 4K on my oil so time to start getting supplies. Would like to try a K&N oil filter, they are roughly the same price as an HD filter but have a nut on the end for easier removal. I don't think there's a lot of difference between the two.

I am also past due on my truck for an oil change. Should probably do that this weekend. And of course all the vehicles need a good washing and waxing. That's not likely to happen anytime soon! It just takes too long with everything else we have on the go. I guess I should look at putting that cabinet up in our bathroom as well, maybe Friday night so it will free up a tiny bit of room in the garage.

Granbury Take 2

There was originally a lunch ride scheduled to Loose Wheels in Sherman, which is a biker friendly establishment, but unfortunately with the rains yesterday and the loose gravel parking lot, the ride was cancelled/postponed for the sake of safety. So we decided to head out to Granbury and pre-ride the revised route we planned.

This ended up being a better route we felt. Only real area of concern on this route was in Weatherford. Cool town, building (City Hall?) is smack in the middle of the road so there is a roundabout around it. Gotta love those roundabouts....
Then worse is the area around the mall/stores and I-20. Its on a hill, with a very rough road, and too much traffic for the roads.

We ate at the Nutt House hotel and restaurant. Had a very good buffet for only $9. For a Sunday Buffet. Took a very brief walk to check out the Devine Wine place as well. The girls will have a great time.

Ride home was pretty much a straight shot, took FM-51 (sweeping turns) back to I-20 them interstate the rest of the way.

It was a bit windy and cool but not cold. Didn't get a good count about 250 miles today.

Almost forgot, saw a couple of other Eagles on the route, totally unrelated. We saw Cowboy in his truck in Justin, very close to his home, and we saw Garred doing an ABC point in Northlake.

I am now a skilled rider....

Yesterday was the Riders Edge Skilled Riders Course. It was also the day the rains came.

I had to be at the dealership at 8 am so I woke up about 6:15 to get ready and head out. I woke up to a tremendous thunderstorm, including rain. Fortunatley it was a fast moving storm so by 7 am, the rain had tapered off somewhat. Radar showed that 380 was probably not a good idea so I took 121 and managed to get to the dealership on time as the rain was not so bad to impact my travel time. Only two crashes of lightening in the Colony area and one minor downpour.

We had 9 riders show up, with 3 no-shows. All 9 of us were from the club. Paul Martin didn't make it and Holly didn't know the other two. I don't think there was a moment the whole day that it didn't rain, although for the most part it was relatively light. We actually got caught indoors in what was probably the heaviest shower during the class, except for perhaps at the end when we quickly finished up due to a storm cell that had lots of lightening.

The rain made for interesting challenges, starting up with having to wear bulky clothes do deal with both the cool temperatures and the rain. Then of course most of the training was slow riding, so googles and shields were fogging up. Cold, wet hands. Finally of course were riding conditions. Rain makes for slippery conditions. The course is new, a back parking lot that has seen little traffic except for riders edge classes, and the lot has painted lines, so those lines were very slippery, both underfoot and under tire.

Everybody passed and no one had any signicant issues with the conditions, a few brake lockups (myself included) and a few slippy slides on the lines. Also myself included. But scarier was off the course.

When we went for lunch (also in the rain...) I accellerated out of a turn on a yellow line and got a tiny bit sideways. And on the way home, on Mayhill, there was a very slippery spot coming into a stop sign that I had no traction at all. Quickly recovered with no issues, but just highlights the dangers for motorcyclists in wet weather.

Total rainfall for Mckinney, 3.61 inches, total rainfall in Denton, where I was, only 2 inches. Oh the rains stopped around supper time....

Advanced Rider Training

I am scheduled to take the Riders Edge - Advanced Riders Training this Saturday. Well the weather scheduled for this Saturday is probably the worst forecast we've had yet this year. Last update as of this am, forecast is 70% rain, although most of that in the wee hours of the morning with gradual tapering off through the later morning and day. And... High temps in the high 30s and low temps in the 30's.

Which means, aggressive driving in far from ideal weather conditions and wet roads, and bulky clothing to keep warm.

I have a query in to the instructors to see if they will cancel due to weather but not sure if they do or not. Could be an interesting day....

RCIT

Road Captain In Training. Kind of funny. Saturday's ride was one off my submitted rides for the Road Captain training. Got some very positive feedback so that was cool. It was 74 miles I think, just over 1.5 hours riding. We ended up at Yesterday's restaurant in Bridgeport. The restuarant did a great job seating and serving us but got messed up when it came time to get everyone their checks. No big deal it all got sorted out. We split a chicken fried chicken sandwich, and the chicken was most excellent.

The ride there was relatively uneventful. I saw a couple off deer bounding over the roadbank. Darlene's pod had a very tight turn and some brakes locking up, but everyone made out ok.

After lunch we did a partial pre-ride to Granbury for the LOH Spring Fling Ride. Its another relatively short ride, only 95 miles from the shop to the hotel. It will be all ladies and some of them don't have a lot of riding experience so I selected a route that kept them off the interstate for the most part. I guess it was ok. Fairly well populated areas with traffic, but for the most part, good spacing between lights and traffic stops and should be easy to keep pods together. Granbury has a pretty cool downtown square and it looks like it stays quite busy.

This weekend was pretty awesome weather wise and there was a lot of bikes and groups on the road.

Sunday was a honeydo day, got several items ticked off. Essentially finished the boys bathroom, hung the mirror and cabinet. Put the light in the powder room and got up on the roof and glued down some of the shingles that were lifting in the last big wind. I bought a bundle off shingles but since there was only technically one (partial) missing, I didn't open it yet and will likely return it. BBQ'd some steak for supper. Good day overall.

This Saturday is my advanced riders class. I'm looking forward to it. Its my first riders training since I got my license 25 years ago!

Oh, 310 miles on Saturday. I took my camera but never took it out of the bag so no pics.

Polar Bear Ride?

Tomorrow is our LOH Polar Bear Ride. Good thing its not the Snowperson ride. Its supposed to get up to 70F tomorrow. Those polar bears will be looking for cool frosties off. This ride is one of the routes we submitted for our road captain training. I will probably claim this one.

After this ride we will be doing the pre-ride for the LOH Spring Fling to Granbury. That is another ride we have submitted.

I figure we should put on 250 miles easily tomorrow, if not closer to 300.

The Easyriders Show is in downtown Dallas tomorrow. I had been thinking a bit about going but I don't necessarily know that its worth the price of admission. With the pre-ride that pretty much takes care of that as there is no way I'll even have time, which whould have been short at best anyway.

Sunday will be honey-do's and home repair. We had a bit of wind last week and I have to get on the roof to repair some shingles.

Viva Las Vegas

Shift Linkage

Well it finally happened. My shift linkage let go. It was actually a couple of weeks ago, we had just left the gas station on 380 and 377, on our way to the dealership for the Blanket Ride. I went to shift into second gear and no go, just a loose shifter peg.

We stopped, I told Darlene to keep going, since it was her ride and I rigged a couple of zipties and was back on the road in no time.



And wouldn't you know it, I had bought a set of heim joints from Paul Martin at the Christmas dance, and they were sitting on the shelf waiting to be installed. I coulda installed them over Christmas break with the rest of my add-ons I installed, but no, I decided to wait.

Actually the zipties worked surprisingly well. I have now installed, and lubed the new heim joints. Its a nice tight fit and it seems to shift better.

Beads, Beads, Beads

A good time was had by all. All in all a fairly quick weekend, we put on just over 400 miles round trip, pretty much a straight shot there and back, mostly on secondary highways. That was my first time to Shreveport and while it looks like it could be a happening place, most of the action seems to be confined to the casinos. The square downtown were we ate, was pretty much dead, and this being a fairly major weekend for the city. In talking with some of the folks, the current mayor seems to have shut down most of the pedestrian activity in favor of the big money in the casinos. Which is really too bad, they is a nice downtown area.

We arrived in time to eat lunch, go back to hotel to check in, then head on down to the parade, which started at 4:30. It was a lot of fun with several floats, I think I had read somewhere 20+ floats were to run. This was the Krewe of Gemini parade. The sides of the road for spectators were all "reserved" by folks who got there earlier in the day and set up. There looked like there was lots of space available but it was hard to find a spot, we eventually found a spot and almost took it over with our group but fortunately we got a spot directly accross the street as well. Thanks to the folks who shared their spot!

The parade here is very family friendly and does not have the raunchiness and debauchery of New Orleans. While there was lots of jostling for beads, there was absolutely no flashing, etc, nor later in the evening. Apparently further down the parade route, it tends to get a bit more carried away, perhaps its out of the downtown, "tourist friendly" area.






The casinos were packed. And very smoky. I didn't even bet 1 quarter, it really doesn't appeal to me. Intersting sights though, watching the folks. But I got tired of it pretty quickly. Some of our crew had fun participating, from the slots, to blackjack to roulette. I don't know if anyone played craps or not.

We got home by noon on Sunday, we avoided the rain, or perhaps the rain avoided us. A couple of drops at the outset and some damp but not wet roads, sun breaking through as we pulled into the driveway.

Of course it was Superbowl weekend as well. We all watched the game to a big spread of junk food. Classic. Hooters wings, jerky, fries, chips, crackers, etc., etc., etc.
Giants won in what was actually a very exciting game!

Mardi Gras!

Well, maybe I will start getting a bit excited. This weekend we have an overnight road trip to Shreveport for the annual "Mardi Gras Upriver" ride. I've never been to a true Mardi Gras parade. On Saturday is the Krewe of Gemini parade. It about 240 miles but we are leaving at 8 am so should get there in time for the parade but won't have lots of time to spare.

Shreveport Mardi Gras is apparently not nearly as wild as New Orleans but is also apparently a very large event. Hopefully we'll be able to obtain some beads and maybe even get some opportunities to throw our own....

Other Notes... Superbowl weekend, Go Giants! We'll be back in plenty of time for the game and no doubt several hours of pregame activities.

Also, just posted, Hooters is having their 25th anniversary this year. They have their passport and associated wing parties. We have attended several wing parties over the past two years so it would be nice to be able to host one for a change. I thought it was limited to Texas Hooters but the rules state 25 stamps globally so with our trips that may make it easier.

Blanket Ride

This past Saturday we had a charity ride for the Denton State School. The Denton State School is a residential facility for people with mental and developmental disabilities. It is very close to the dealership and has over 600 residents. For this ride we collected blankets and the like for residents, many of whom are in wheelchairs.

We had 28 bikes for this January ride which was an excellent turnout as well as a couple of support vehicles. After our stop and donation, which we had a couple of exuberant and excited residents show up, we took a ride to the Prairie House restaurant. Darlene and I had configured the route, roughly 45 miles which was a nice ride north of the restaurant, along the lake. Got some positive feedback on the route, which submitting was part of our Road Captain training.

After lunch we popped over to Larry and Holly's to check out the "chapel". Then we went down to the new North Texas HD facility. Its a very large showroom with tons of parking. The upstairs lounge area was a bit small however.
We missed some of the festivities, but were in time to see Bubba Blackwell doing some stunts, which included doing wheelies on Buells and HDs, including a V-Rod and an Ultra Classic, yes, and Ultra Classic, with a passenger. After all that he jumped several bikes set up in the parking lot. Quite impressive overall.

Sad Day

Even with all the fun of the Chili cookoff, there were more serious matters to take care of. Yesterday evening was Karen Riley's funeral. Several of us rode from the dealership to the funeral home as one large pod, with our lights flashing. It was quite the sight. I would estimate there was at least 35 bikes.

We arrived in Lewisville and lined one side of the street. There was a tremendous turnout and the funeral was packed beyond capacity. It was a very nice service. When the floor was opened up, Bobby Mims probably best captured how everyone was feeling. Don looked like he was holding up well, I am sure that he had had several difficult times before this, and will continue to do so for some time.

Chili Cookoff

Cooking starts at 8 am. We have to pick up Buffy. Wake up at 5:30 am, out the door at 6:15 ish. I'm taking the bike, Darlene is taking the truck.... IT'S 25F!!!

A rather brisk ride if I do say so myself. about 45 minutes. Its also Karen's Funeral later today. Between the weather and the funeral, there are only three teams entered in the Chili cookoff.

It looks like we are taking the presentation most seriously as we have certainly decorated our booth more than the others. Chili's are cooking. The smells are in the are and the few spectators are in the building, buying baked goods and otherwise staying warm. About 11:15 its time to start getting into costume.... I come out first then the girls go get changed.

I do believe we have captured everyone's attention.

Lots of folks for chili, 2 teams including ours, run out. I used about 10 pounds of meat, that's less fat as I trimmed it all the night before. Our team did not even get to sample our own chili, we only got to sample Too Hot To Handle (12 lbs meat).

The results are in. Presentation award goes to PIMP Yo' CHILI! Woo Hoo! That is our team. Surprisingly we appear to have come in third in the official judges scoring, and did not win people's choice which only was awarded to first. Too How To Handle wins judges and people's choice. Oh well we will cheer the winners at the regionals.

I think all the chili's must have been good as we got some very positive feedback on ours. It was a very Texas Chili, meat and spices, while the winners was full of vegatables, onions, peppers and tomatoes. A bit more northern. Team 3, Fire in the Hole, made chili similiar to ours and was apparently quite similiar in taste.

Karen Riley

We lost a dear friend yesterday. Karen Riley passed away Jan 15 in the afternoon. She never recovered from her heart failure. She will be missed. Karen Riley

Don and Karen were planning on moving to Arizona this winter. That in itself would have been a loss, however for Harley riders and this group in general, that's just a good weekend ride. This however is a lot further. I know that she will continue to be with us however on our rides.

Pre-Ride

Today we pre-rode the Polar Bear ride that we submitted. It was a bit chilly, I think it was 40 or below for a good part of the ride. Fairly nice roads, I had been on part of 455 before but never that far west, or the other roads. One interesting turn we will have to make and we made a slight change on the last 5 miles or so that will make it a lot better to get into the restuarant.

On the way back we stopped in to see Karen Riley at the hospital. Karen is a friend of ours from AEHOG who is in Intensive Care after a heart stoppage on Thursday night. Don has put up a web site to keep everyone updated on status. Karen Riley

Also our wedding plans are starting to fall into place. We found a place for the party, but later tonight we found out that the band will not be available, so it may be back to the drawing board again!

OMG!

I won! I really shouldn't be that excited, afterall it was just a Harley Beanie at the dinner ride 50/50 draw. But it is a very rare occurance for me so what the heck!

We are getting ready for the Chapter Chili Challenge next weekend. I have my recipe, my spices and my meat. Last weekend we went to Pendary's in Ft Worth to get the spices. They didn't have them packaged for the original recipe I wanted to do so I decided to change recipes, no big deal although this one may be a bit hotter. The girls have been working on the theme. Shhhh, will have to wait to fine out what it is.

Everywhere, TX

Props to Mark Cooke who posted this on our AEHOG web site. How true this is and by the end of this year will have visited even more of the places referenced here.



This is awesome!

Is it Spring?

It was very mild this weekend! Well into the 70's both Saturday and Sunday, in fact on Saturday I wouldn't have been surprised if it didn't get close to 80 (just checked confirmed 80F at the airport)!

Saturday was the first chapter meeting of the year and the first one for the new officers. There was a very big turnout. Darlene held the LOH meeting in the main area, and it was packed, 30 women. Several of the guys were heading to San Diego following the chapter meeting, should be an interesting week for them. I don't know what kind of weather they were going to get, major storms in California which would pass by the time they get there but who knows what they will run into on the way.

Huge sales at AE on Saturday. As much as I sometimes struggle with buying some things, the prices were up to 70% off. I needed new boots, so $50 for a $140 list pair is pretty hard to pass up. We also got three jackets and some other things. Net was that all we bought was still only list for one of the jackets I bought. I'll have to keep my eye out for this next year, incredible bargains, that you don't (practically never) get at a Harley Davidson dealership.

For our ride on Saturday we had lunch with Mike and Carol then headed to Ft Worth to pick up our spices for the chili cookoff. On the way home we stopped to browse Rose's Costumes, wow, I've never seen so many costumes! We put on over 150 miles and got home for supper.

Lots of folks out riding all weekend, a lot of folks. Several from the chapter got started on their Lone Star points as well.

Sunday was a house work day, cleaning up all the Christmas stuff. Long day but its all done and we re-org'd as well. Good Stuff.

We are both planning on getting our Road Captains this year so are planning a couple of rides as required. So a bit of riding in the near future if the weather holds.

Little project

I've been wanting to do a little graphics project for some time and have started taking pictures for it. Yesterday at the Brass Monkey ride I took a lot of pictures to use and created my first draft at the animated gif. I want a lot more pictures and will probably have to reduce the sizes even further as when it was compiled it was over 1 mb in size. I'll try to post it here to see if it works. Also I think I will have to rethink my focal point. I had the whole back, but I may try to keep the chapter rocker as an anchor point.



Hmmmm, that didn;t work, there are 20 images in this animation, so will have to research more.... stay tuned.

Help file says Blogger does not support Animated gifs. However if you click on the image to open in a new window you can see the animation. Other option is to link to a different site, like Photobucket.

Ok, have created photobucket account, uploaded file, lets try this now.



Woo hoo it worked!!!

Happy New Year - 2008!

Today was a great day, the weather was beautiful. Chilly but not too cold, and sunny all day.

This morning we started with our annual Brass Monkey ride, leaving the dealership at 11:00 am. We had 76 bikes at the start and picked up another 3 or 4 on the way apparently. About 110 miles round trip for us. I think it was about 34 when we left this morning, and I don't know if it ever got over 50F today.



We had planned on having a polar bear swim today after we got back with the boys and their friends. We got home just before 3:00 pm but there wasn't many kids here. So about 4:30 it was time. The water wasn't too bad, then after we had our first jump, more kids show, 2nd jump, then some more!

Wii Play

Wow, I've got some serious catching up to do! Christmas as come and gone, well not quite gone, but its now New Years Eve. We had a good Christmas, the weather has been great. Ryan got his Wii and that has been a constant source of family entertainment. Its practically a workout though! I think I threw my shoulder out on the first serve I made in tennis. And boxing, what a workout! We've had a lot of fun with it so far though.

I got a couple of things for my bike which I have installed. I got a chrome windshield bar (?) thingy, the air temp and oil pressure gauges, and a heated jacket liner. Got those intstalled and they all work. I've taken 3 or 4 rides over the break and the jacket works nicely so far although it hasn't been "truly" tested if you know what I mean.

Tomorrow is the brass monkey ride. An annual Jan 1 ride with (hoped for) frigid temperatures so we can test everyone's mettle. Ride starts at 10:30, we'll need to leave here about 9:30 so it may be a bit chilly. Its supposed to get down to 29 tonight so by the time we leave it should have warmed up just above freezing.

Christmas Party

We had our Christmas Party on Saturday night, and a good time was had by all. Its always a lot of fun, the food was very good as was the band. Lots of dancing all night long. This years announcements didn't seem as cumbersome as last year, maybe cause I know everyone that much better, and also the facility was better, not sure how that could make a difference with regards to the proceedings but it may have.

The Big Texas Toy Run was Sunday. We had plans, I certainly would have liked to have gone, but we knew all along that timing was going to be an issue as we would have to drive all the way back to Mckinney from Denton, then back down to Grapevine. The temperature may have helped in our decision a bit as well as it was 28F with heavy frost when we got up. And obviously we did not get up too early!

Instead we took advantage of the time at home to clean out (part) of the storage unit and garage. We redesigned the office and Marc's room both to great improvements.

Chapter Charity Ride

This past weekend it was time for our Chapter "toy" run. The dealership and our chapter support the Cumberland Presbyterian Childrens Home in Denton. http://www.cpch.org/home/
The dealership had an angel tree for the home, and all of the angels were quickly snapped up. It was pretty amazing what these kids wanted, essentials. Our angel was for a young girl, I forget whether she was 15 or 17. We didn't know her story at the time but she wanted sheets, a hair dryer a couple of other things and the only remotely frivilous item was a lava lamp. We also got her a storage case, a blanket and a sock full of personal items.

Saturday was a pretty full day, in addition to the run, it was the annual activities meeting where ride suggestions were solicited. Darlene, currently in transition to her new role as LOH officer (Congrats Honey!) had a couple of suggestions. I had one, a scavenger hunt, so now I guess I really have to start thinking about it. Several good rides were suggested, including the regular annual rides (Wildflower, PTP, Fall Leaf, etc) It looks like it will be another very full year.

We then had a couple of hours to kill till the run, we wrapped a few presents at the dealer table, accepting dontations for Cumberland. Must still be too far till Christmas as there wasn't a lot of wrapping happening.

This was our second run for Cumberland. Last year was primarily chapter members and was a good run, well this year was phenomonal. I believe we had 76 or so bikes, a lot of our chapter, but an awesome turnout of non-chapter riders. Several of us acted as roadblocks (?) along the way, but we also had official escorts, several police officers and vehicles assisting with roadblocks as well as a fire truck at the beginning and end of the parade. Mini-T was great again as Santa. First in line and waving the whole way. He looked more comfortable this year, he certainly stayed in costume for a lot longer this year!




Oh yeah, about the home. Our angel was an orphaned child, actually she was there with her brother, and maybe her sister(?). Not sure if it was her sister or cousin. Fortunatley her Grandfather is close and volunteers at the home so there is lots of love there for her. Another heartbreak was the family who just arrived recently. This was after the angel tree was completed so everyone scrambled to assist this family. Apparently a family of abuse and violence, the mother finally left with her 8 children. These kids have not had a christmas present for 4 years. It was very touching and emotional for all, children getting clothes that they could truly call their own, shoes that fit. And that was typical for all the kids.

The home is a great organization and we have developed a very solid relationship with them. They truly appreciate our support and welcome us wholeheartedly.

On the way home we collected 2 more ABCs. I don't know if we will be able to get to 56 or not, we are about 3 shy, but they are counties and its a good 3-4 hour ride to capture those, we just don't have that much time to give between now and the end of the year. That's alright though, we will have 46+ so will get the awards we really wanted.

Christmas Lights

This weekend was a busy weekend. The boys went to Sky Ranch for the weekend like they have been doing every year and we went to watch Don Pliler's band. A lot of folks turned up and and one point it got really smokey.

Saturday was the Lewisville Toy Run. The weather was questionable and on the way to the dealership we actually had some light rain but it held off for the run. Pretty good turn out, numbers estimated as high as 1300 bikes but I don't think there was that many. I have started reducing my estimates after being so wrong so many times!






A lot of folks did the Lone Star Challenge this past year. We (well mainly Darlene) are doing the posters for the Christmas Party. You get awarded for either 5 or all 10 points. Well we have over 50 members who have completed at least 5, in fact there were very few who only did 5. If you think of that, in order to get all the points, at a minimum you would have had to have ridden over 2000 miles. So lets say 50 did all 10 points, that is over 100,000 miles towards our club goal of 2 million miles.

Sunday was another full day getting ready for Christmas at home. We started out the day wrapping presents and after the boys got home we put the lights outside. It was a beautiful day, then around 4:00 it started getting quite cold. This am was the coldest morning so far, 34F. I was thinking about riding this am, actually this week, but wimped out today. Hopefully the rest of the week if not at least part of it.

Tis the Season...

Toy Rides! This Saturday is the Lewisville Toy Run. It leaves from the dealership and its a pretty good sized run. The weather should hopefully hold out, but will likely be cloudy, with possibility of rain likely for later in the day.

The following weekend is our ride to Cumberland, which is our Chapter's charity.

The next weekend is our Chapter Christmas party, followed on Sunday with the Big Texas Toy Run. This is the big one!

There's lots of other toy runs, sometimes more than one per weekend but we won't be doing most of these.

Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day - aka Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow is thanksgiving, we are getting ready, will be frying a turkey and lots of other food that the boys will be cooking. Marc is going to make ratatoullie (?) courtesy of the animated movie. Actually Marc had taken quite a recent interest in cooking.

This past weekend was busy. We went to the dealership (by car!) to decorate the dealership tree Friday night, then went to Art and Lynne's wedding Saturday, at which I enjoyed the wine a bit more than I probably should have as it made me sleepy Saturday night. Sunday Ryan and I went to the museum for his Art class assignment. Got there on opening day of the Early Christian Art exhibition at the Kimball. Darlene and Buffy put a few miles on their bikes.

Tonight is dinner ride, its an unofficial one to Hooters to use some of the coupons. There is a lot of folks expected. However.... A cold front has blown in and we are expecting upwards of 40F temp drops. So Darlene will be wearing her electrics and I will just have to bulk up!

Go Cowboys!

States visited map

updated to include recent trips.



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Fall Leaf Ride

Another Fall Leaf Ride under our belt. Another great riding weekend. Great weather, a little fog on the outset but was dry. Of course the ride home yesterday was a bit windy, but also dry!
The colors were top notch this year, the leaves were a bit dry in some areas but when the sun came out those colors brightened up a bit.

Total of 880 miles this weekend, on our way to 2 MILLION MILES!!! We got a couple more ABCs points including Missouri, got an A county but missed the S county.




On the ride up we did part of the Talimina higway but somehow missed the group picture. Saturday was a ride up to Pig Trail HD, then 5 of us, Tee and Carla, Buffy, Darlene and myself took off. Through Eureka Springs, down 21, 16 and finally onto 23, the "Pig Trail" itself. Unfortunately it was getting dark along the Pig Trail as we were riding so probably didn't enjoy it as much as we could have but it made for a unique experience with the dusk conditions.

Sunday was pretty much a straight shot home, but it was windy! I am not sure of our count of motorcycles or participants. We supposedly had 50 rooms booked at the hotel. That typically translates to at least 1 bike per room.

This trip had 3 breakdowns that we know about, 2 flats and a stator so nothing serious, thankfully. Of course I had a personal loss, due to stupidity. I am now sans iPod as I left it on my bike Saturday night and lo and behold it was gone Sunday AM.

Weekend Report - late

oops have been meaning to post just got side-tracked I guess. Was a very busy weekend.

Friday night we went to the Nascar Craftsman Truck series race. We hung out with Brenda and Charles and crew. Lots of fun, very exciting race, lots of wrecks, actually from that perspective one of the better races we have seen. Apparently it stayed that way through the weekend, at least on Sunday. The start and end of the Craftsman race had back to back accidents, and pretty significant at that with a red flag late in the race.

Saturday was the chapter meeting, annual Long Flyer check in. I logged over 18400 miles and Darlene over 15000 miles in the last riding season. After the meeting and pictures, we went on a ride to get a couple of more ABCs points. Buffy rode with us and is apparently addicted now!


Sunday was the Teddy Bear ride from Mckinney to Plano, it was a great day for a ride, we had quite a few Eagles in attendance and overall there was approx 1500 bikes.







Oh this weekend is the Fall Leaf ride, the weather is looking good and has been changing slightly, is likely to be warm... may get some rain on return trip Sunday.

ABC's of Touring

Was this another lost weekend? Not really but didn't achieve a lot around the house as we focused on putting on miles and getting ABC points. We did a great job of both! We put on 660 miles this weekend, 454 on Saturday and 206 yesterday. I dont know for sure but we must have gotten around 30 points over the weekend.

We went to Uncertain, TX, then crossed over into Louisiana and up to Arkansas. Another new state for my chart. Saturday ended up being a 12 hour day due to all the stops. Its an timeconsuming process. I think we should both be able to get 46+ points. We are close and have till the end of the year.

Saturday night we got stuck on the highway for 30 minutes or so behind a major wreck on 121. I couldn't find any news reports but it probably involved a fatality. There were at least 3 vehicles involved and one was tore up very badly.

I also turned over 25K miles so I can apply for that milestone patch. woo hoo!

Weekend Miles

Its getting close to our club year end. We turn in our miles at the Nov 3 chapter meeting meeting. I have exceeded my personal milage goal, Darlene is wanting to hit 15K and right now she is about 800 miles shy. We put about 200 on this weekend, we went for a little ride late Saturday afternoon then had the progressive dinner ride on Sunday. Darlene didn't ride the first leg as she was helping Buffy at the first stop. It was a great weekend for riding, although a bit windy on Sunday.

Saturday did a bit more cleanup, laid some sod so we can hopefully pass the final pool inspection, finished the street side fence and planted the rest of the greenery we bought. Still trying to plan out the final layout of the backyard. We need a shed and its going to take up some room.

Sat night on our ride, I figured it was a good a time as any, since it seems there really is no better time than any other. All my planning was falling through, Darlene has been sick for well over a month. So, at least we were on the bikes and having fun with something we share. Of course even those plans had to be changed mid ride as we cut short our final destination although we really didn't have a destination. But anyway long story short, Darlene's ring finger is heavier and no longer barren as she said yes.

Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride

Doesn't it just seem so?

This weekend, Sunday actually, we are having a progressive dinner ride and poker run. Should be fun. I think we will have a good turn out, weather is supposed to be great and its a mid-day run. I just hope everyone's homes have plenty of facilities...

New Tire

Had to get some work done on the bike on Saturday. There is a known issue with the front motor mount and I had to get it replaced under warranty as it was shredded. I noticed it before the AR trip but felt it would be ok for that trip, but I didn't want it to go much longer.
There was a lunch ride that day and I figured I could get the work done and join that. Of course the eagle-eyed service tech noticed my rear tire was soon due to be changed. I had been hoping to keep it on for a while longer and it did have some more miles, but I don't know if it would have been smart to go on the Leaf Ride in November with that tire so I got it changed. That took longer than I thought so I was unable to catch up to the group.
I did a little ride around looking for a good place for photos, I may have found one in downtown Pilot Point. I took a couple of shots will have to look at them. I wanted to stay a bit west for the sake of Fran and Marybeth for thier christmas pics but unless they have a recommendation I'll have to come up with something.

Riding season is drawing to a close (AE) so we are getting all our pics and mileage in order.

Beach Trip

The boys had Monday off from school, so we took a short family vacation down to Port Aransas this weekend. It ended up being quite an eventful trip!

Its about 420 miles so we left early Saturday morning and arrived about 2:30 pm after a short delay at the ferry. By the time we got settled and down to the beach it was after 4:00. We had just gotten into the water when Ryan let out a bit of a shriek with Marc beside him. I was in the water and about 12-15 feet away was a large fin! Ryan thought it was a shark and Marc didn't know what was going on, but it was quickly obvious that it was a 5-6ft porpoise just playing around feeding on the small fish. We hung out and watched the porpoise for a bit as it moved away. It never got that close again but was in the general area. A bit later we saw some other kids get even more freaked out as they all left the water as they were convinced it was a shark!
We also took a drive for several miles along the beach road as Darlene hadn't done that in Texas before.

The waves were ok but small. We were able to boogie board a bit and we picked up a couple of more boards for Sunday.

On Sunday we got up early and after breakfast and a short tour of Port A we headed to Mustang Island State Park. It was probably no later than 10 am when we got there and pretty much stayed there all day. We made some sand castles, ate some food, had the beach pretty much to ourselves. We had a couple of small jellyfish stings, maybe even just some seaweed. It was getting later in the day, we were going to start winding down sooner than later when Ryan freaked out and hopped out of the surf in absolute pain. He was in bad shape holding his foot up. We looked at there was quite a bit of blood and he said he walked on something and it stung him. The pain was getting worse so I ran him up to the ranger station and they said it was likely a stingray sting and to take him to ER so that was about 3:30.

Sure enough he had been stung by a sting ray, one of 1500-3000 such injuries per year. The doctor had treated 3 that day, all to "foreigners". Basically you have to immerse the wound in hot water, over 103F to neutralize or deactivate the toxins. We on the other hand had put ice on it! No wonder he was in so much pain.

I read a bit about stingrays today online, I didn't realize it was as painful as that.

Anyway yesterday was another 8 hour travel day home. Ryan is hobbling a bit as his wound is right on the bottom of his foot.

Great Weekend!

Well, survived another weekend! Actually I shouldn't kid about that but it was another full weekend. I left Friday at noon to help map out the Fall Leaf ride and got home Sunday afternoon with 985 miles on the odometer. Darlene had a busy weekend, besides trying to recover from her respitory problems, her and Ryan went to the football game Friday night then she went on the Girls weekend ride, the LOH LOH party. She beat me home by a couple of hours but didn't have as far to ride.

Our ride took some new roads for the Fall ride and I guess that is why they do the pre-rides. The fall ride is one of the larger chapter rides and we are expecting upwards of 60 bikes this year. New location, two nights in Ft Smith AR, instead of one night in Mena, and one night in Hot Springs.

First stop in OK was a problem, not enough gas pumps and certainly not enough toilets. The three gas stations in Tishamingo each only had one toilet, not even a mens and ladies rooms.

We lost Cowboy briefly at this stop, Ray Caul received a police escort back to our pod, and Marv somehow passed us as we went to the third station. Onwards to the lunch spot, where we had lunch last year, and lo and behold they had decided to shut the doors.... There was a sign announcing a new name, but no other information. Fortunately there was another restaurant in town that should be able to accomodate, however the parking was not great.

Talimina highway. Great weather, for a change.. and no traffic. Awesome ride. We only went half way then headed north on.... some state road. Finally got into Ft Smith around 8 pm then on to the restaurant. In bed by 10:30, or at least some of us were, myself included.

Morning came too early for some, but not all. Barnes had three routes mapped out, we decided on the mid lenght ride as that was the only one that went to the Pig Trail dealership.

More great roads, with terrible infrastructure for a large group. One stop even had an outhouse.... not gonna happen. Some some creative planning still to occur. Some ideas though, maybe multiple routes with warnings..

Only incident happened on this leg as Matt had a starter problem. He bump started and we got to the dealership. Very great service later, was only a bolt missing, that also provided the ground. We all met up with Rod Dean who none of us have seen since he left AE. He was very happy to see us all and we now have a lunch spot as the owner of the dealership commited to hooking us up for lunch, no doubt he will sell a few t-shirts!

Back to the hotel and a couple of miles before we arrived we had a chance to clean out the carbon so to speak. Bobby was riding the Joker bike and when he cracked the throttle, that thing barked and took off... nuff said right here but sufficiently high speeds were obtained.

This time I was in the some who decided to stay late. I got up at 8 am, on 4 hours sleep... Great ride home, did the other half of Talimina, not quite as good an experience as the trip up but fun nonetheless. And best of that, some great rides in north east Texas that I was unaware of.