last ride...

...of the year...

took the last ride of the year today up to danville, va. a nice ride to close out the year.

this year, "santa" got me a(nother) gps for christmas. larger screen, which i need for my aging eyes - you won't believe the number of turns i missed because i couldn't see the turns on the small(er) screen. touch screen, making it easier, and probably more dangerous, to modify my route while traveling. the only thing left is to come up with a name for her.

yesterday was spent replacing the old cradle and wires with the new ones. it was surprisingly easier than i thought it would be. mostly because all i had to do was follow the wires/installation for the old one. the toughest part was removing the tank - which i had already done several times installing the led lights. on trip to the hardware store and before you knew it, i was done...

today i took advantage of the gps, plotting a route up to danville, va. i was contemplating a trip to one of the lighthouses on the coast, but decided didn't want to be gone quite that long. that'll be a trip for another day. danville seemed like the right kind of ride for today. long enough to get out and enjoy the weather, but not long enough to need the whole day.

the gps crapped out on me for the ride home. don't know what happened. i was eating lunch, plotting an alternate route home - through yanceyville. when i put it on the bike to leave - nothing. could not get it to turn on for anything. into the saddlebag it went and i was left to navigate home the old fashion way - road signs!!!

the ride was nice. chilly. but let's face it, you can't complain too much when you're riding on december 31st... it was good to be out, but nice to get home... a great way to close out the year...

check out the route on the ride map, in some shade of blue

peace

roxboro...

put about a hundred miles on the bike yesterday... had a chance to get out for a couple hours. i quickly plotted out a short loop that would take me on some new roads...

checked the outside temps before heading out - was about 60... forecast called for sunny skies - which didn't quite materialize. seemed i was always heading into darker clouds, wondering if it was going to start raining. i was prepared if it did...

ride was nice. saw some nice views of the leaves changing colors, but not as much as i would have thought. most of the trees were already looking bare. guess the drought had something to do with that...

did manage to see a deer cross the road in front of me - about two hundred yards. a single deer, crossing from right to left. then i start thinking, where there's one, there's more... as i approach, the deer stops in an open field, about thirty yards from the side of the road, and looks back. okay - i'm looking around for the rest of the pack... i'm slowing, looking everywhere as i pass the point where the deer crossed the road. i don't see anything but the deer run off. was glad not to see more deer. another reminder deers are rampant now and to be careful...

anyway, a couple pics from the ride. and a link to the ride map if you want to see the route - this one in orange...




one other interesting thing... or maybe it isn't that interesting... i noticed just inside the tree line where i stopped to take these pictures were a whole mess of rusted cans. about fifty of them. they looked about the size of the cans oil came in many years ago. i shuffled a half buried one with my foot and sure enough, that's what it was... the tell sign of the u-shaped opening in the front brought back memories of opening oil cans by shoving the funnel into the top of the can, piercing the lid. if i was lucky, i would get the funnel in straight. most of the time, though, i ended up getting oil everywhere!!

peace...

weekend riding...

put about two hundred miles on my bike this weekend - not a whole lot, but enough to consider it some riding... closing on on the 20k mark... have a little less than a thousand miles to get there. hoping to be able to do it before the end of the year.

couple of things i noticed riding this weekend. cold mornings are upon us. have to make sure i'm prepared to ride... saturday morning i bundled up enough to stay warm. sunday morning was a bit cooler than i expected - could have used the chaps... maybe i would have grabbed them if i checked the temps before heading out...

saturday evening, heading home, i was driving right into the sun - at dusk. the glare and the sun shining directly into my eyes made it very difficult to see. as i was riding, fighting the sun, i was thinking of road trips. thinking if/when i ever take one, i'll have to stay aware of which direction i'm heading and when the sun is rising/setting. it's definitely something to plan around. i thought about pulling over saturday evening and waiting until the sun was down further. but i was already moving and anxious to get home. so i kept riding...

sunday morning was a beautiful ride - other than being a little chilly... the sky was clear and full of stars. granted, you can't constantly watch the skies while you're riding, but a glance up every now and then to see the sky lit up brightly with so many stars doesn't hurt. i managed to see three shooting stars on my ride - that was pretty cool...

riding sunday morning, i kept looking, waiting, watching for deer to be along the side of the road or pop out in front of me. luckily i didn't see any deer, but a rabbit did run across the road about ten yards in front of me, startling me. as i watched it run across, i was thankful it wasn't a deer!!!

i did have a problem with people flashing their headlights at me sunday morning. i complained about this before... haven't noticed that problem in a while. then again, maybe i haven't ridden that much in the dark lately.... i try not to let it bother me. if someone just flashes me, i'll let it go. if they turn their brights on after that, i'll flash mine. sunday morning seemed to be the morning of flashers - again, the wrong kind!!! after about the about the fifth car, instead of flashing, someone just turned their brights on. that was enough - i just turned my high beam on. didn't take them long to turn them off!!! i did think about leaving mine on, but that wouldn't have been right...

overall, good weekend of riding - nice to be on the bike... with the weekend coming up and no 'real' plans yet, might be able to get out on a ride for a couple hours with my wife. guess that means i need to find something to do with the kids...

3rd annual rally in raleigh...

went to the rally in raleigh a couple weekends ago... was a lot of fun. nice to see the event getting bigger. this year it was as big as the first and second years put together. there was talk of closing even more streets next year if it was big enough this year. that would be nice to see...

we left the dealership and headed over to the rally - normally a three minute trip stretched to about fifteen with all the bikes and confusion getting in... i think the original plan was to ride down fayetteville street and snake around to moore square, where the opening ceremonies were taking place. however, people started parking on fayetteville street as soon as they got there, choking the road for everyone else that was following... seemed a little odd, but the ride to start the rally was lead by one of dale jr.'s race cars. guess if i was more of a nascar fan, there'd be more of an ooohhh and aaahhh factor.



lots to see and a lot to do at the rally this year. one of the first things to catch my eye, both because of the bike and he was parked next to me was this 1947 harley. well, it wasn't just a 1947, more like mostly a 1947. the guy was real proud to talk about his bike, the miles he's put on it and the work he's put into it to keep it on the road. he's had it coast-to-coast several times and hasn't had any problems with it. of course with the amount of work he has to put into the bike to keep it running, he might not consider it broken down were the rest of us might... anyway, as with any old harley work its weight in gold, after about ten minutes sitting, there was a pool of oil forming...





another bike that immediately caught my eye was "plan b" from widow maker custom design and repair. this is the guy the build the gold school bike i liked at the first rally... i talked to hank for a couple minutes, found out he had taken it down to the smoke out this year. love his work - will have to check out his shop some time...







also talked to a marine what served two tours in iraq... thank you very much, by the way... apparently he had a sportster and his dad decided to trade it in to show his appreciation for what his son was doing. his son didn't know anything about what his dad was doing. when he returned from his second tour, his dad told him they had a problem with his sportster to lure him into the dealership. at the dealership, packed with family and friends, his dad gave him the bike. as you can see, it's been customized as a tribute to the marines and the six fellow soldiers from his unit that never returned... very interesting guy to talk to - very humble, very giving. we spoke to him for quite a while. if we had more people in this world like him, it would be a much better place... if you look closely at the picture of the derby cover, you can see the names of his six buddies that never came home...




while wandering around the rally, saw the new victory vision...



ray price and his new rider were giving out autographs...


the hero bike from homes for the troops...



various pics from the bike show... i don't know that this first "bike" should have been in the show - it was more like a three wheel car than a motorcycle.but the judges will decided that, huh?? seems like skulls were the theme this year...






not sure if this guy entered the "bike" show... guess he's a cool cat, huh??



other pics from the rally...











i guess if i was going to join a motorcycle club, this would definitely be one of the patches...

'nother sunday ride...

decided to take a ride sunday afternoon... actually, hemmed and hawed long enough sunday morning, that i couldn't take a longer ride. was originally thinking of riding out to one of the lighthouses - by the time i figured out where i wanted to go, it was too late to head out and get back at a reasonable hour... so i decided to make the usual loop around the lake. that would give me a couple hours out and still get me home at a reasonable time...

also decided to take one of the kids with me. was thinking about how nice it would be to be able to take the whole family out riding - unfortunately that's not an option when there's one passenger seat on the bike. i was thinking even if my wife starts riding, we won't have enough seats. but, maybe by the time she starts riding, the oldest will have his own bike and he'll be able to ride with us... add in my father-in-law, brother and his crew and we'll have our own poker run!!!

so, with son on back, we head out... didn't get too far before making our first stop - at a neighbor's house. husband was mowing the lawn and wife was cleaning the gutters. it didn't take them long to decide they'd rather be riding.

off we went... i usually make a counter-clockwise loop around the lake. decided to mix it up a little and go clockwise... it's amazing how different the sites are in the other direction. i saw buildings i've passed many times before but never noticed. and even though i've ridden these particular roads many times, it was like a new ride this time.

we stopped at a new place my neighbor's discovered on their last trip out. on past rides, i've always wanted to stop in virgilina to see what's there - i've just never taken the time. well, this was going to be the time. we decided to stop and grab a bit to eat at gatrell's. not really sure how to describe the place... it seems to have an odd collection of items available - a restaurant/bar, a tack and feed store, looks like they also sell western wear. it definitely looks like it could be a fun place. they have live bands, the have a classic car event the first saturday of each month (as i recall) and they're already planning their christmas party - what's not too like??

we grabbed a quick bite to eat - the food was very good. then again, i had a hot dog - how can you screw that up?? everyone seemed to enjoy their food. i can definitely see myself coming back to this place...

after eat, we jumped back on the bikes and headed home - the long way of course. what a beautiful day for a ride. temps were perfect, skies were an awesome blue with big puffy white clouds. what a great day... most of all, it was particularly nice to ride along with my son. we had a good time and i look forward to more rides with him... i've been talking to him about taking a couple days and riding along the blue ridge parkway - maybe he'll take me up on the offer one day...

until next time...

patriot ride...

this year's rally in raleigh charity ride was the patriot ride for support our troops... without trying to turn this into a debate about whether the war is right or wrong, whether we should be there or not, whether you agree or not, the least we can do for the men and women is give them our support...

this year's ride was heading out to the nc national guard armory and checking out some helicopters. on the surface, the ride may not seem as "cool" as last year's ride to the beer distributor and the caterpillar plant. but i figured it was a small way i could help support our troops - as well as get out of a day's work and ride the bike!!!

the ride itself was fairly uneventful - mostly highway to and from the armory, but there is something cool about having a police escort and the right-of-way. and being in a pack of two hundred fifty plus bikes. i must have been in the middle somewhere because at times, as far as i could see in front and behind there was nothing but a sea of bikes. hell, i couldn't even see the limo leading the ride.

we get to the armory and they have this big spread of food for us... after eating, they give us a little "talk" on how our support helps the troops and other things we can do to help out... then it was off to see the helicopters. pretty neat seeing those us close - especially the blackhawk we've all heard so much about.

in the end, the ride was a lot better than i thought it would be. it may not have seemed to rank that high on the "cool" scale, but looking back, it really was a great ride. put me a little more in touch with what our troops do for us and what we can do to help thank and repay them... one of the ways is to get a license plate for your car...

anyway - on to some pictures from the ride...