did it again...

here it is, friday morning and i still need to pack for the weekend... i've gone through the course materials, so i think i'm ready in that regard. i still need to pack - i'm going to be on the phone all morning. at least only my one morning meeting requires me to be on the phone. i guess the other meetings i can listen in and pack at the same time. i really don't like doing this - it makes me feel uneasy... i don't get the confidence that i've packed everything...

i wanted to take the bike, but at this point, i think it would be too crazy trying to pack for the bike. you would think it's easier since there's actually less to pack. the problem is making sure you have everything you need. and with the variation in weather, i feel like i need to pack extra clothes for comfort. well, at this point, i'm not taking it, so it doesn't matter...

i'll report how the weekend goes when i get back...

one down...

...three more to go...

just completed my first weekend of ridercoach training... whew!! a recap and some of my observations...

well, it started friday... as i think i mentioned in an earlier post, i was totally unprepared - at least packing wise. as far as the course materials, i was pretty much set there. so i was rushing around on friday, juggling work related phone calls, packing and trying to make sure i didn't forget anything. i think i was done packing about the time i needed to load up the cage and take off. yes, i took the cage because of the forecasted weather.

expecting the trip to take anywhere from three and a half to four and a half hours, i left about 12:45pm. i figured worse case that would put me there are 5:15pm leaving me enough time to check into the hotel and get to class for the 6:00pm start.

i pulled into the hotel around 4:30pm. the place reminded me of a motel you'd see along a not so traveled road. not to say the building wasn't in good shape and didn't look nice, it did - for whatever reason, it just wasn't what i was expecting. so i check in, unload my stuff into the room and hang out until it time to leave for the class. as i'm transferring stuff to the room, a guy pulls up on his ultra classic. we eventually pass each other, so i ask him if he's taking the class - kind of a no-brainer as we're all staying at the same hotel and he's riding a motorcycle. he is indeed taking the class - introduces himself as skip. he tells me he rides the bike everywhere, he doesn't own a cage. his wife does and the only time he uses the cage is when it's snowy or there's ice on the road - can't say i blame him. i forget how long skip says he's had the bike, four or five years, and it's got 88,000 mile on it. now that's some riding.

so i head back to the room to kill some time... before long my roommate, wally, shows up. now wally can hold a conversation - we talked about all sorts of things. turns out wally writes for southern motorcycle times, won a 2005 883 sporty and is a warranty administrator for rockwell automation. we chat for a bit and then head to the community college for class...

we arrive at the college and realize there weren't any clear directions/instructions of where the class would be help. wally seemed to know the building we were supposed to be in. we walk in the building and start poking around the rooms. with the amount of heavy equipment and machines in the classrooms, they definitely teach mechanics around here. now i'm thinking to myself, i need to take some classes to learn to weld so that when i decide to build my own bike, i can do some welding on it. well, that's another day and most likely far, far away. right now i'm here for a motorcycle instructor class.

we finally find the classroom - of course it's the last one on the hall. a couple people we already in the room and it looked like the instructors were scrambling around to get things ready. after the rest of the students arrived, they started class. the instructors seemed a little unorganized, like they were winging it. i don't know if they wanted to come off that way or not, but they did. it seemed to start when they couldn't decide if they were supposed to have twelve or thirteen students in the class. this was a discussion they would hold on and off through the first night and into the next morning.

the rest of the night was spent as it would have been for a "normal" class, with the instructors adding advice on how you would teach the course. while there was some structure to what they were presenting, they seemed to be referring to the manual a lot. it just wasn't as polished as i would expect it to be. i don't know if it was intended or not. anyway, friday night was spent doing the first three lessons of the book.

saturday started with the range exercises. actually, it started with us having to get the bikes from storage to the range. not necessarily a big deal, but everyone wants certain bikes. and of course no one wants the bikes at the front. which makes it hard to get the rest of the bikes out. it's amazing to watch the amount of effort people will put into maneuvering a bike around another one in a confined space as opposed to just taking the other one!! so we get the bikes out of the storage area and start firing them up to take them to the range. let me just say they weren't the best bikes around. i don't think any of them have been spared from dropping. so we get them on the range, ride around a bit and then park them in the staging area.

the instructors start talking about how to teach the range exercises, stressing, obviously, safety and coordination between the two coaches on the range. then they tell us to set up the cones for exercise one. it must have looked like a comedy of errors watching us try to figure out which were the right markings and where to put the cones. only being somewhat familiar with the range set up, it took us a while to get them all set up correctly. this would be repeated for almost every range exercise on saturday. but as the day went on, we got better at figuring out where the cones should go.

we start the first exercise, covering the controls on a bike and the differences between the bikes. something that is probably very important to know when you're actually teaching the class. we go all the way through exercise one and two. through the rest of the day, we would partially complete other exercises. we always performed the demo portion of the exercise and sometimes the actual exercise itself. of course we all know we can do the riding portion of the class, otherwise we wouldn't be here. however, when you have to perform the actual demo, it's a lot harder than it seems. i guess because you are showing how to perform an exercise, you want it to be the best it can, so you concentrate a lot harder, which actually makes it hard to perform the demo.

rain really only affected us once on saturday. it rained right after we broke for lunch, but since we were done, that wasn't much of a problem. in the afternoon, it rained again and we ended up leaving the range. i think if this had been a real class, we would have stayed on the range. but we went inside and finished all the book work. in the afternoon, we took turns teaching portions of the course. needless to say, we were unprepared so we did a lot hemming and hawing presenting the materials...

sunday was pretty much spent on the range with the exercises... we wrapped up in the classroom where they gave us assignments for the following week. this should be a lot of fun - now i have to try to find time to get the studying done...

okay - some of my observations from the weekend. the instructors seem very disorganized. they do seem to know their material, but it seems like they are just throwing it at us as they remember it or as questions are asked. as they are presenting the material, they jump and skip around a lot, so it makes it very hard to find continuity in what they are presenting. it would have been nice for them to provide a little more hands on guidance instead of letting us fumble around so much. i believe their thinking is we'll learn more by doing - which is true. but we're making so many mistakes and wasting too much time correcting the mistakes. if they would provide more guidance, we could learn a lot faster.

i can see some people already rising to the top and some sinking. i'm probably floating somewhere near the middle, closer to the top. i can't figure out why some of these people are in the class - money, ego?? i don't know, but they just don't seem to fit. and there are just some natural leaders in the class who will make good instructors. now we'll wait to the end and see how dead wrong i was about the observations i've made about the people.

seems i had some other stuff to add, but i guess this is long enough for now, huh??

ride on...

instructor training...

well, my motorcycle instructor training starts today... while i think i'm prepared for the class as far as reading the materials and completing the assignments, i'm totally unprepared as far as packing!!! i haven't even started to pack, and my morning is full of meetings. guess i'll have to hang on the phone and run around packing. i really don't like to be unprepared like this, but i did it to myself...

also wanted to ride the bike to class. but they're expecting severe thunderstorms this weekend. not sure it's worth trying to ride in the thunderstorms. while i'm bummed about it, there will be other weekends to ride out there. i think my wife will be relieved that i'm caging it instead of riding.

guess my next post(s) will report back on how the training is progressing... good luck to me...

doh!!!

long story short: my neighbor is (planning on) riding to sturgis with us... he is also planning on going to myrtle beach this spring. i'm not going to myrtle but my brother and his crew are. i figured since my neighbor and brother are both going to be in sturgis, the two groups could hook up and meet each other in sturgis...

at the beginning of this week, i sent an introduction e-mail to my brother and frank telling them to add my neighbor to the e-mail list of anything regarding sturgis. i also explained everyone would be in myrtle and they might try to hook up. my brother sends a nice e-mail response welcoming my neighbor. frank does the same, including his contact number as well. then frank sends an e-mail to the larger biker group telling them my neighbor is now in the mix. well, knowing the biker group as i do and not knowing my neighbor tooooo well, that could be a recipe for disaster. as it was!!! it didn't take long for someone to start slinging the mud. and of course it gets pretty crude...

at first i was a little shocked. but then it started to settle in, this is the way the group normally acts - it's going to get to this point sooner or later... and if people don't like it, they don't have to hang around...

well, i hadn't seen my neighbor all week and he didn't respond to any of the e-mails... so now i'm thinking he was offended and that will be the end of that...

i was sitting on the front porch tonight when i hear my neighbor call my name... i wave, get up and head over to talk to him... we meet in the street, shake hands and exchange pleasantries... then he brings up the e-mails - i'm waiting for his reaction... he laughs at it and says that he just hasn't had time to respond to them yet. he thought it was funny and is looking forward to meeting them in myrtle next month...

i tell you, these guys may act like assholes sometimes, but you couldn't find a better bunch of guys to be on your side...

long rides...

my wife and i went for a walk tonight. after our walk, we were in the front yard discussing what we wanted to do with the flower beds. along came one of our neighbors, out on his walk. we exchanged pleasantries and then he says to me i should be out riding the bike. of course it was a beautiful evening, a perfect one for a ride. just with everything going on and me wanting to spend time with the family, i wasn't going out for a ride tonight. then he says that if i don't get out riding, i'll never be in shape or prepared for the ride to sturgis. i took a little, okay, maybe a lot of offense to this. i know it's going to be a long ride and there are going to be some rough days, but he doesn't know anything about me or my riding habits. of course he's been to sturgis and ridden his bike all everywhere else - just ask him, he'll tell you. now i'm sure he's done his share of riding, but he's one of those guys that will ride his bike somewhere. or at least ride it until he gets tried. then he'll pull over and load his bike onto the trailer that his wife's been following him in. or he'll trailer his bike to the edge of some bike rally, unload it and ride in like he owns the place.

now i'm not going to get in big discussion about people trailering their bikes. i understand people do this and they have their reasons - i'm not against people trailering. what i don't like it people trailering their bikes, unloading then at the edge of town and riding in like they've been riding for days. if you're going to trailer - then trailer, fine. but trailer all the way in...

now i know i haven't made any all day, eight, nine, ten hour trips yet. but i think i've been on some longer rides and i don't think i've felt utterly exhausted when i was done. in fact, i can't remember really being too tired after a trip. i enjoy riding - i find it relaxing. i'm looking forward to the sturgis trip. i think the toughest part of the trip is going to be being away from my family.

how far would you go...

...to buy cheaper gas??

i was out riding the other day, passing gas stations and looking at the rising cost of gas... of course different stations had different prices, which got me to wondering how far people would drive to save money on gas...

now i'm all for saving money on gas. and i'll usually drive a little further to save a couple cents on the gallon. but there is a break point - a point at which it's just too far to drive to justify the savings. and everyone has a break point...

on my way back, i passed a station that was selling gas for $2.839 per gallon. less than a mile away, i passed another station selling gas for $2.819 per gallon - a two cent savings. would you drive the extra mile, possibly out of your way, to save two cents per gallon?? i think i would... about another mile away, two miles from the original station, another station was selling gas for $2.759 per gallon. now, would you drive an extra two miles to save eight cents a gallon?? again, i would. luckily for me, the station selling the cheapest gas is closest to my house...

soooo, how far would someone drive out of their way to save money on gas?? how far would you drive?? i realize it's dependent on a combination of the distance and the savings, but i wonder what the average break point is for people...

flame thrower...

was cruising around the web and came across roscoe's flame thrower. pretty cool video - the guy turned his pipes into flame throwers. looks like it would be fun to do... i guess i have a fondness for it because it's a road king classic with a leather tour-pak. don't see many of those. at least not as many as the orange screaming eagles, huh frank??

after watching the video, read the comment. it really is a shame that today's society doesn't take more responsibility for their own actions. roscoe's right, if he told someone how to do this and they hurt themselves, who do you think they'd turn to. quicker than roscoe could say "flame on," he'd be in court. probably along with harley davidson and everyone else that made the parts to enable the flame thrower. of course if roscoe hurts himself with it, who do you think he'll blame?? no one. well, maybe himself... it is too bad that as a society we don't take more responsibility for our own actions. we're always looking for a quick out - someone else to blame for our stupidity... come on people, grow up - have some courage to admit when we screw up and not try to blame everyone else in sight...

okay, enough about that - i need to get out on the bike and relax...

enjoy the video...

horny brothers...

got an e-mail the other day titled horny brothers. opened it up and found these two pics... they were taken at myrtle beach last year... we had a lot of fun... i'm sure i'll be getting some e-mails and phone calls from the guys while they're at myrtle beach.

ride to work day...

kinda hard for me since i work at home!!! i guess i could ride out the driveway, around the cul-de-sac and back up the driveway... if i did that, would i have to drive back at the end of the day??

on the serious side... i was reading through one of the motorcycle rags and saw an ad for ride to work day. i went to the ride to work day web site to find out more. i found out that ride to work day is always the third wednesday in july, which would make it july 19 this year... taken directly from their web site, the purpose is to demonstrate:

• the number of motorcyclists to the general public and to politicians


• that motorcyclists are from all occupations and all walks of life


• that motorcyclists can reduce traffic and parking congestion in large cities


• motorcycling is a social good

it all sounds good and i'm sure it helps raise awareness, but do we need a day designated to ride our bikes to work?? again, if i didn't work at home, i would ride to work as often as possible - it wouldn't take a purpose like 'ride to work day' to make me ride in. but maybe there are people out there that don't or normally wouldn't ride to work. my first instinct is to say these people aren't real riders, but that's probably not fair. they have their reasons not to ride every day and they're just as valid as my reasons to ride as often as possible. so this obviously is less an effort to get more people to ride to work and more an effort to raise awareness to non-riders and cage drivers.

anyway, i guess when the day gets closer, i'll have to schedule lunch with some buddies so that i can get out and ride. either that or just hop on the bike, ride down the driveway, around the cul-de-sac and back up the driveway. believe me, if it comes to that, i'll go a lot further!!!

ride on...

another hog meeting...

so i went to the local hog meeting last night. pretty good meeting - i like the events we do to raise money for the local charities...

but tonight, as i was looking around the room, i was noticing the way people dressed. typical harley wear - harley t-shirts, most for the local dealership, jeans, do-rags. that's not to say there weren't some people there that were dressed "nicely," there were. i'm just looking and thinking about the general clothing... then i started to wonder if these people dress this way all the time or do they get dressed up (or maybe down) for the meetings?? me, i pretty much dress the same way all the time - t-shirts or casual button shirts. about the only change in attire i'll make when i ride is to put jeans on instead of shorts. but i don't throw on my harley shirt just because i'm going to a meeting. if i have it on, i have it on. if not, i wear whatever to the meeting...

so now i'm left wondering what these people wear normally, when they're not at the meeting, or riding or hanging out at scooters... i can tell you think much - i won't be loosing any sleep over it!!!

ride on...

priorities...

i was on the phone with my wife, getting ready for a bike ride. well, not really a full blown ride, just taking my daughter to the doctor... my wife tells me she had talked to said daughter the night before and she didn't want to ride the bike. i thought that was odd as she always seemed to enjoy the ride before. anyway, i decide i'm taking the bike anyway.

as we're leaving the house, i ask her if she doesn't like riding the bike anymore. she said she does - she just didn't want to mess her hair up!!! of course i respond with a smart-ass comment saying "oh yeah, i forgot, we're going to the hair doctor..." she gives me this funny smirk...

we ride to the doctor's office - and what a beautiful day for a ride... as we're checking in, the receptionist asks if i rode and brought daughter on the bike. i say of course. the receptionist says it's a nice day for a ride and she likes motorcycles. i told her i enjoyed the ride in but my daughter didn't because of her hair. looking over to daughter, the receptionist tells her not to worry about her hair - riding a bike is worth having messy hair...

i guess people's priorities are different. i'd take a bike ride over messy hair any day... but i guess there are others that don't feel that way... it's all in your priorities...

sturgis 2006 - planned route

update 07/10/2006: unfortunately i won't be going to strugis this year. you can read more about the reasons...

this is the route we're planning to take to sturgis this year... for the first leg of my trip, i'll head north to manassas and meet up with the rest of the riders. as plans stand now, my neighbor and some of his buddies will be riding with me... for the last leg of the trip, knoxville - home, i'll break off from the pack and head back into youngsville...

really looking forward to this trip...

i decided to add "polylines" to the map to show a little cohesiveness between the points. it's not exactly what i was hoping to achieve - actual routes between points - but it's not as bad as i thought either...

new link...

you may (or may not) have noticed the frankgrimes.net link to the right... as some background, frank is one of the guys in the group my borther rides with. because of the distance between us, about the only chance i get to ride with them is on the longer, bike week type trips. anyway, frank tends to organize - or at least take over leadership - of the rides these guys go on... i think this is mostly because frank is very outspoken, likes to be heard and, let's face it, it's just easier to ingore him!! frank also likes to stir the pot and create mischief... his web site is the culmination of both these traits - organizing and creating mischief... take a look and you'll see he's starting to put details about the myrtle beach and sturgis trip... but he also likes to instigate trouble - take a look at his asshole biker friends page. luckily i'm not on there yet, but i can only figure it's a matter of time...

anyway, enjoy the site. i'm sure it will become more interesting as the bike trips get closer and take place...

i haven't been riding...

...as much as i want...

i planned to take a trip up to northern virginia last week, but the weather had different plans. or the threat of the weather... the plan was to head up there tuesday night and ride back on wednesday. the weather down here was a little gloomy and overcast. i called my brother to check what the weather was like up there. he said they were calling for cold temps and snow tuesday night. now i don't mind riding in the cold, but when it comes to snow, you can count me parking the bike. so, there went that trip...

as it turned out, the trip up to northern virginia turned out to be the trip from hell, so it's probably good i wasn't on the bike. although if i was on the bike, some of the hellishness wouldn't have happened. it started a little over an hour into the trip when i got a flat tire. oh, let me back up a little bit... one of the reasons i wanted to take the bike up to virginia was because my car has developed wobble, which is extremely noticeable as slower speeds. i've been reserving use of the car for chores around town and have been dreading the day i have to take it on a longer trip - like this one. my confidence in the car hasn't been the greatest - in fact, it's been less than average. i delayed taking it to the shop to figure out what was wrong, because i didn't want to dump a bunch of money into it. anyway, here i am with a blown tire on the shoulder of i-85. in the back of my mind, i'm wondering if the wobble/vibration from the car damaged the tire and caused it to blow.

it was dusk and luckily i had an emergency light i used when changing the tire. when i looked at the tire, one side on it was completely bare, exposing the wire belts that are supposed to be on the inside but were, in this case, on the outside. all i could think of was how lucky i was to not lose control of the car when the tire blew.

so i change the tire and jockey to get back onto the interstate. you know, as you're changing the tire, no one passes... as soon as you want to get back out onto the road, everyone is there. after nervously and quickly pulling out between some cars, i realize the car doesn't seem to be shaking quite like it did before. unfortunately i was too intent on pulling back onto the interstate that i didn't bother to pay attention to how the car handled at the slower speed.

i start to wonder about the durability of the donut i just put on my car. i know it says that you're not supposed to drive over 50mph or over a certain length of time without stopping. now i'm driving 60, which is 10 over the tire's rating and 5 under the posted speed limit. now i'm worried about being a road hazard to other drivers - after all, i have become the driver i always yell at for going slow!! i start a debate with myself about whether i should attempt the rest of the trip to northern virginia on the donut, or attempt to find a place to replace the tire. i know there are truck stops along the way, but i don't want to get ripped off either. about twenty minutes later, i see a shopping center with a sears. figuring they have an auto center, i stop in... thankfully they were able to get me in immediately and replace the tire. after dropping $70 and spending 30 minutes, i was on my way again. as i'm driving away from sears, in the parking lot, at slow speed, i notice there is no wobble!!! damn, it was a bad tire that cause me all problems/worries to begin with. now my confidence in my car is fully restored and i have learned a valuable lesson - it's not just good enough to check the air pressure in your tires, you also need to check the tread. had i done that months ago, i would have saved a lot of worry and inconvenience with replace the tire in the middle of the trip.

now i've got the tire replaced and i'm on my way again. but that wouldn't be the end of my hassles on this trip. north of richmond, before fredericksburg, traffic comes to a near screeching halt. after close to an hour of inching forward but mostly standing still, traffic picks up again. as i finally got to speed, i passed an area with a lot of sand that's used to soak up gas and oil on the road. i'm guessing there was an accident the shut down the lanes.

the final bit of fun was the snow that started just north of fredericksburg. it wasn't bad, but enough to make drivers panic and make the driving stressful. the snow was light and wasn't sticking to the roads. by the time i got to manassas, the snow was starting to stick on the grass and parked cars.

looking back, i guess the trip wasn't so bad after all. i never really let the flat tire, the stopped traffic or the snow bother me. in fact, the blown tire was probably a blessing in disguise - i didn't think a flat tire would be such good news!!! i wasn't on a time schedule, so whenever i got there, i got there. and while i would rather be on my motorcycle, being in a car was probably better for this trip...


while i didn't take the bike on the trip up to virginia, i have been able to ride around town a little. as i mentioned before, not as much riding as i want to be doing, but some. and for now, i'll settle for that...

i've been riding...

...just haven't been posting much... haven't been on any good long rides lately, so that's probably been affecting my post rate. well, that and work. work has been getting busy lately. but this isn't about my work, it's about my escape from work on my bike!!! unless of course i'm riding to some work related activity - like lunch or the dreaded account meetings...

most of my riding lately has just been around town. to/from the grocery store, the dealership, etc. started to take a longer trip last week, into virginia. but compounding events got in the way and ended the trip early... the plan was to ride down to the dealership to collect a rebate for spending too much money on a new jacket. then i was going up to virginia to pay for my in-laws county sticker. it's an easy hour drive, maybe hour and a half from my house to where i needed to get the sticker. the dealership, which is in the complete opposite direction, is about 45 minutes away. now i had to complete all this before 1:00pm because i had meetings for work. yikes, there i go mentioning work again!!!

to start all this off, i didn't get a good night's sleep because i was stressing over these meetings for work. my afternoon was going to be stacked with them - and i was leading several of them. as i'm not sleeping, i'm thinking being out on the bike is going to be real therapeutic - i'm going to need it... so the morning rolls around and starts off by me leaving late. strike one. i wanted to hit the dealership as soon as they opened so that i could get my bizness done and head up to virginia. my other problem was i didn't consider the time - i'd be riding to the dealership in rush hour traffic. strike two. i get to the dealership - longer than expected, but no longer than i should have expected had i been thinking about what i was doing - and get my rebate. no problems there.

now i head north to virginia. i start calculating the time - will i have time to make it there and back. probably so - it'll be tight, but i can probably do it. wouldn't you know it?? an accident!!! blocking the middle lane, so all the traffic has to divert into the other two lanes... first i can't figure out why it's taking so long to get around the accident. i mean i know it's going to take time, but this seemed ridiculously slow. especially considering there were police directing traffic. so i'm waiting to get around the accident, thinking about my time dwindling away. and my ride being cut short... strike three...

after finally getting around the accident, heading north and figuring the time in my head, i decided i didn't have time to make it there and back in time. i was disappointed, but it was probably the right decision. that last thing i need while i'm on my bike is to feel hurried, stressed or frustrated. i mean being out on the bike is a chance to get away from all that... i show up at home and my wife is wondering what i'm doing there. she asks why i didn't go to virginia. after realizing the time, she agreed that i wouldn't have time to make it...

so - the riding day ended sooner than expected. but i am planning a trip up to virginia next week. an overnight trip. maybe that one will go as expected... i'll let you know...

ride on...

msf motorcycle instructor

the reality is setting in... this is going to be a lot of work... the materials for my msf motorcycle instructor course have arrived. it's basically the rider handbook for the basic rider course, the range cards, course outline and teaching guides. we're also required to get a certified copy of our driving record before the course begins and have to get certified in cpr and first aid before we can teach. i have to take time to review all the material before i go to the first class. in addition, the instructors will be giving us pre-course assignments which we have to be prepared to discuss the first weekend. oh, did i mention the class is taught over four consecutive weekends??

yeah, this is going to be a lot of work. but i'm looking forward to it... i better start figuring out what i need to do to get a certified copy of my driving record and start looking for some cpr and first aid classes...

is it any wonder the nra has a bad name??

as i mentioned in an previous post, i was going to tell you about my run-in with the nra. okay, maybe not so much the nra itself, but some dood who's on a power-trip.

now let me start off by saying that i'm not against the nra. to be honest, i'm probably ambivalent about them - and it's probably my ignorance that makes me ambivalent about them. sure, i think people have the right to keep and bear arms. but i also believe a private individual doesn't need some high powered, automatic military weapon capable of wiping out six hundred people stashed under their bed.

now that we have that out of the way, let me explain how i came upon my encounter with ego-trip man. just for clarification, the dulles expo center has (at least) two buildings. this particular day, a bike show was going on in one building while a gun show was going on in the other. while i was at the bike show, i had to hit the atm machine. the atm in the building i was at was out of order. so i headed over to the other building - where the gun show was going on. i get to the other building and see they're selling tickets to get in. instead of just walking up to the entrance doors, i get in line to talk to the ticket guy. as i'm waiting my turn, i read a sign full of rules - no loaded weapons, no this, no that, no cameras. guess what?? i have my camera. it's finally my turn to talk to ticket guy. i explain that i just want to go in to use the atm, i don't plan on attending the show. he says no problem, just tell that to the people guarding the door. then i explain i have my camera and ask if he thinks that will be a problem. he says no, it won't be, just tell the people guarding the door. (btw, guarding the door is my phrase, not his.) so i head for the door. as i walk in, i scan the room for the atm. it's to the right, about 20 yards away. i tell someone that i just want to use the atm, i talked to ticket guy and he said it would be no problem. they say sure, go ahead. i then tell them that i have my camera and just wanted to let them know so that there wasn't any problem. oops... they say i have to talk to one of the other guys guarding the door. you guessed it, i have to talk to ego-trip man. he's busy flexing his power rifling through someone's gun. i'm sure he's making sure it's not loaded, that it meets the necessary requirements to be brought into the building. after he's done with the guy, i approach him, tell him i i'm only there to use the atm, i've talked to ticket guy, junior guard on the other side and was told to talk to him. i finish up by saying i have my camera. mistake. this puts his powers into overdrive. immediately he says i can't bring a camera into the building. i told him i was aware of that, but i just wanted to use the atm, i would be happy to remove the memory chip, the battery, leave the camera with him, whatever. i said i wasn’t there to attend the show, i just wanted to use the atm. like the dolt that he was, he just repeats i can't bring the camera into the building. i said i realized that. he responds by asking why we're having this conversation?? i said that i was thinking he might be reasonable and we might work out a compromise so that i could use the atm. nope, ego-trip man was too busy flexing his power. he tells me he's too busy to watch my camera and that cameras aren't allowed in. well, i wouldn't let it go, i just stood there "discussing" it with him. after a couple minutes, he finally decided it would be okay if i left my camera on the table where he was standing while i used the atm. the only thing i can figure is he realized i wasn't going away and there was probably a line of victims forming behind me. of course before i set my camera down, i removed the memory chip. i don't know why, probably a gesture to show that i was sincere in trying to be honest. i headed over to the atm, took out my money, picked up my camera and was out of there in less than two minutes - once i got past ego-trip man.

as i was walking away, all i could think about was how this incident just reinforces the notion that the nra are just a bunch of gun toting boneheads. here i was trying to be upfront and honest. ego-trip man had a bad attitude and he was only there to enforce the rules. i know, i know, rules are in place for a reason. but i wasn't interested in breaking the rules, i was interested in a compromise so that i could use the atm without breaking the rules. i could have just as easily, no, more easily walked into the building with my camera, not saying anything and gotten away with it. i was tempted to walk back to ego-trip man and tell him that i saw a couple people stuffing cameras in the pockets, trying to sneak them in. i'm sure they would have put the place in lock down. but, i had better things to do; i had a bike show to get back to.

bike show...

well, didn't do any riding this weekend but i did manage to attend the mid-atlantic cycle show at dulles expo center. mainly went to see russell mitchell from exile cycles. we got there early since we had other things to do during the day. it wasn't crowded, but i don't know if it would have gotten packed.

so we get there, wait a couple minutes for the doors to open, get in and head straight for the exile booth. i was planning on wandering around and "stumbling" on the booth, but my wife had another mission - find russell. what the heck, i'm not a hard one to convince... we deciced to start at one end of the building, scanning the aisles until we find him. as we're walking, our son, who loves motorcycles, wants to sit of every bike he sees and doesn't quite understand why he can't... so we're pulling him along heading to the end of the building to start our search...

as luck would have it, exile was in the first row... now the only problem with getting there early is that sometimes the builders aren't there yet - i'm figuring they like to party and stay out late... so we look at the bikes, loiter around and finally ask when russell might get there. they tell us he's on his way in. of course, as we're looking around, our son is desperately trying to climb on the bikes and we're doing what we can to keep him off. finally, one of the ladies working with exile says he can get on a bike. as he's climbing on russell's pure sex bike, a guy working for exile comes over and says he's got a better bike to put him on. he walks him over and helps him get on the trike. he was so thrilled to be on the trike.


well, before we knew it, russell showed up. he was busy getting some music cranked up. i missed the opportunity to see what was on his playlist, but it started with abba's dancing queen. not quite what i would have expected and it made me curious as to what else was on the playlist.

my wife wanted to get a couple exile shirts. i had to hit an atm to get some cash, which took a little longer than expected and was an adventure in itself - which will be the story of another post. anyway, while i was gone, i left her to talk to russell, which might have been a mistake since she thinks he's so hot. no need to worry though, when i (finally) got back, i found she hadn't even talked to him... anyway, we finally purchase some shirts, talk to russell, get some pictures and autographs.

(me doing my best russell impersonation)

here's our son trying to pick some money up. apparently russell thought it would be funny to glue some money to the ground and watch people pick it up. our son couldn't figure out why he couldn't get the money off the floor. russell was chuckling at him. he did manage to pry a penny up, which made him happy he didn't leave empty-handed...


after visiting exile, we checked out the rest of the show. stopped by d.c. cruisers to buy a raffle ticket for a mini bike. it would be really cool to win the mini bike - especially since they're only selling 100 tickets. but i'm not holding my breath... so we walked around the rest of the show. overall it was mediocre. it was smaller than i expected. not as many builders, but more vendors. not crowded, which was nice. after about two hours, we saw all that we were going to see, so we headed out...

here are a couple other pictures from the show...

ridercoach preparation...

found out earlier today that i've been selected to participate in the ridercoach preparation - which basically means the motorcycle instructor course. i'm excited and nervous. excited because this is something i've been wanting to do. nervous because it would be so embarrassing if i don't pass the course.

the course is going to be conducted over four consecutive weekends. that's a lot of learning... i realize there will be a lot of classroom time, but i hope there's even more bike time. i get the feeling my hopes will be dashed. oh well, i'll do my best in the course. and of course there's the part that comes after the training - teaching. i won't worry too much about that right now - i have to get through the training first!!!

speaking of training - i've been trying to brush up on my riding skills. back in december, i got a copy of a self-study motorcycle training program. part of the first lesson is to stop with only putting one foot down. and as soon as you start, to pick the foot up and not drag it. sooooo, lately as i've been riding around i've been practicing only putting on foot down when i come to a stop. surprisingly, it only took a couple tries before i started getting the hang of it. i feared that i would have problems balancing the bike when i was stopped - not so. i also notice the i can pretty much stop and put my left foot down all the time, keeping my right foot on the brake/floorboard. i would have thought that i would have used the right foot a bit more. i guess that means i have more control over the balance than i thought i had. the other thing i noticed about stopping with one foot down is that starting is easier. as soon as the bike starts moving, i put my foot onto the floorboard. and amazingly i take off rather easily... now i'm really looking forward to running through more of the lessons. the more comfortable i am on the bike, the more enjoyable it is to ride...

okay - that's all for now...

kerr lake...

finally got out and did some riding this weekend... wasn't out too long, just a couple hours. but, considering it's (supposed to be) winter, it was nice to get out. it was a little later in the day than i wanted to take off, so i did consider not going. however, my wife coaxed me into going - isn't she wonderful??

so i took a ride up to the kerr lake - virginia side. i was on a little bit of a (self imposed) time schedule, so i didn't explore the back roads up to the lake as much as i might have. weather was great - clear, sunny sky, temps in the 60s. there wasn't that much traffic, so it was a more peaceful ride. lot of time to look around, soak up the scenery, reflect on the thoughts that float around my head...

as i pass through the small towns with one two lane road running through them, i wonder what people did to thrive. what did they do for a living, for fun, to pass the time?? i can't be sure, but it seems like they had a much simpler life... i wonder if time has passed them by. or maybe progress... as i get closer to the lake, i notice more land for sale. more housing developments going in. it probably won't be long before the farm land, the countryside, the little corner markets are gone. replaced by housing developments. i notice there is a new development in north carolina just before the virginia boarder. it's only a matter of time...

anyway, i made it up to the lake and stopped by the dam to take some pictures...




and a couple of the bike...




on the way home, i noticed i was on the bicycle 1 route. i know bicycle 1 runs a little west of home - my question was how far out of the way was this route?? since i was interested in getting home quickly, i only followed it for a short bit. enough to find a shorter route to the lake as well as giving me another road to explore on a future ride...

overall, it was a great day for a ride... nice to be back out on the bike again...