million mile monday...

took a ride this morning to participate in hog's million mile monday. ended up contributing 120 miles towards the goal of one million miles. may not be much, but it's my part...

i decided to take my familiar loop around the kerr lake... i figured it would take a couple hours, give me a few miles without getting to crazy - after all, it is monday and i do have to work... if work wasn't a factor, who knows where i may have ended up!!!

when i took off this morning, it was overcast. left over from last night's storms and looking like the sky could open up at any time... i wasn't letting the threat of rain stop me - that's why i have rain gear in the saddlebag. the overcast sky actually made for some nice riding - temps were cooler and i didn't have to worry about the sun in my eyes.

stopped at the lake to get a few pics before heading on around and back home... as i rounded the north side of the lake, the sky cleared up and the sun came out, making for an awesome ride home.

it was a really nice ride this morning - great way to start the day. would like to make a habit out of it, but the need for exercise will probably outweigh the desire to ride everyday before work...

still coming - details of the trip to york, pa and the smoke out...

quick update...

things have been busy here and more details coming...

off the heels of my last post - the trip to york was indeed interesting and fun... more to come when i have a chance to get the pics uploaded.

last weekend was smoke out 9. wasn't sure what to expect, but turned out to be a great event. new and much better venue... again, will post more when i get the pics uploaded.

looking forward, have million mile monday coming up... it's hog's attempt to get as many members to ride and tally up a total of one million miles. not sure where i'll ride, but planning on doing some tooling around...

july brings up ride to work day... not sure if i'll ride or where i'll go... can't even remember if i went out last year...

seems like there's other stuff, but can't remember right now... stay tuned for updates...

road trip!!!

have a week off work and going to do some riding...

daughter and i leave tomorrow, ride up to manassas, spend the night. monday father-in-law, daughter, son and i ride up to york, spend the night. tuesday, take the harley factory tour, return to manassas. rest of the week will be spend squeezing in riding between son graduating, visiting and graduation parties. should be a very busy and fun week.

today, we get a call from father-in-law. he wants to know what time we're leaving so he can meet us on the road. i asking him where he wants to meet, thinking he'll probably pick waugh harley davidson. he says he wants to meet in some small town south of orange. i proceed to ask him if he wants to meet at a gas station, greasy spoon or what. no, he says he'll be on the side of the road, i should look for him. to help out, he'll call me when he parks himself on the side of the road. i explain that i won't be able to answer because i'll be riding. not a problem - he'll call wife, who'll be riding in the chase vehicle. i guess he figures she'll be able to communicate with me while we're cruising down the two lane road.

it ends up easier just to go along with him than to try to work out a more identifiable location to meet.

two things are already apparent on this trip:

• it's going to be very interesting


• it's going to be a lot of fun

stay tuned...

fallen officer ride...

son and i went on the fallen officer memorial ride this weekend. the ride is to generate money for the families of police officers killed in the line of duty... for the price of admission, we got lunch, a ride and a chance for a door prize. not sure of everything they were giving away, but son won a hooters wing party for ten!!! woohoo!!!

not sure what i was expecting, but a lot of bikes turned up for the ride... i would guesstimate close to three hundred bikes. they were expecting rain, but it was replaced by heat - probably the hottest day of the year so far. i would normally take the rain over the heat. considering the number of riders and the range of skill, the heat was definitely the better option...

the ride left ray price, went to the raleigh police department fallen officer memorial, the north carolina highway patrol fallen officer memorial and the wake county sheriff's office fallen officer memorial...

some snapshots from the ride...


raleigh police department memorial




nc highway patrol memorial



wake county sheriff's memorial


other sights...

world's largest...

once again, had the opportunity to ride with my wonderful wife... seems like we've been riding more together lately and i'm likin' it!! hopefully the trend continues...

memorial day we took a ride to see the world's largest frying pan. great day for a ride... my wife was a little leery about being on the bike for so long, especially after riding so long to wilmington... we decided to blast down interstate forty to get there and take a leisurely ride back...

we rode out there, not quite knowing what to expect or where to find it... turns out the waypoint i downloaded wasn't accurate and led us to a gas station. knowing that we had ridden the street a few weeks earlier and not seen it, i figured we'd better ask directions...

the attendant at the gas station answered my request for directions as if i must be some sort of knucklehead for having missed it - it's at the town square, down a couple blocks on the right...

we hop back on the bike, head down a couple blocks and sure enough, there it is!!







the site of the frying pan was originally a public school... years ago, the school burned down and the only building left is the cafeteria. apparently they use the cafeteria as a town house...


we walked around the town square, which outside of the 'town house' and frying pan, is an empty city block with tennis courts on the backside of the cafeteria and an odd shed-looking building in one corner.



of course we also had to pose for a couple touristy pictures...



i wasn't sure if i should be offended or not, so i thought i would thumb my nose at them...


again, it was a great day for a ride and even better that i got to spend it with my wife... i think that she was kind of humoring me (and probably laughing at me) for wanting to visit the frying pan. in the end, i think she appreciated it as well...

wonder if i'll be able to talk her into going to the world's largest chest of drawers, the world's largest ten commandments or the shell-shaped gas station...

check out the 2008 ride map to see the route - this one in purple...

bikes, beers, babes and beaches...

rode out to myrtle beach for a couple days during bike week. so much to do, so much to see, it was hard to cram into a couple days... but, i did my best...

ride out on monday was good. cooler weather made the ride more enjoyable. nothing special to report on the ride down - which is a good thing in this case. traffic was a lot lighter than i expected, especially for a monday on ninety-five. the majority of bikes i saw, which was that many to begin with, were heading away from myrtle. must have been the weekend warriors...

i made a quick stop for food and fuel in selma. plenty of fireworks stands in the area, particularly around the state lines. if i wasn't on the front end of my trip, i may have picked some up.




made it into town and, after riding around in the wrong area, finally made it to the place. everyone was already out and about, so i dumped my stuff and headed to the iron gate saloon...


















after the frivolity at iron gate, we headed over to td's sports bar. i guess some of the guys felt their bikes were too dirty...




crazy eric holding the truck back so it can do a burnout...


after a couple beverages, we headed back to the house... the house was nice, with a pool, a view of the sound on one side and a view of more houses on the other...








monday night we headed to suck bang blow, where eric decided to do a burnout...




tuesday was pretty much spent at the rat hole... crazy eric and i participated in some of the bike games while the rest of the crew sat back and watched...


























it wasn't until after trying my skills in the slow roll that i realized maybe it wasn't such a good idea. i've had to have my clutch adjusted several times already this year - this certainly didn't help. the next bike service was coming up soon. i figured i would have them look at doing something more than just adjusting the clutch this time. there had to be something wrong with it...

wednesday was spent riding home. the slipping clutch altered my route home. originally i was planning on taking back roads home. considering the state of the clutch, i decide it was probably best to just get home - quickly.

overall it was a good trip. short but fun... there weren't as many bikes and people compared to the last time i was there. it was kind of nice because i didn't feel like i was spending most of my time on the road, getting around...

and just in case you're interested, check out the 2008 ride map to see the route - this one in pink...