A Canadian in Texas

Catching up.

2009-07-10T09:13:00.007-05:00

Busy, busy. OKC National HOG Rally was almost 2 weeks ago. I posted a bit about my trip on Route 66 but never posted anything about the Rally. Of course I had other things on my mind last weekend with installing attic ladder and cleaning out attic in 120F temps, having the alternator my truck go, and our hot water heater, as well as some landscaping in the slight rain on Sunday. Thankfully it did rain actually, as the temps stayed around 80F. By the way today is forecast to be at 103F and its 90F at 10 am already.

Anyway back to the trip. I took Friday afternoon off after all my meetings and hit the road about 1 pm for a 3.5 hour roll on up the highway to Oklahoma City. Except for the construction I made very good time and kept very well hydrated in the high temps. Hooked up with Darlene in her car at the dealership just outside the city, after we sorted out the wrong (former location) directions I gave her. Then we headed off to the rally site and hung out for a while and caught Le-Ann Rimes in concert. I'm not a fan, just don't know her music, not what I typically listen to, and was very pleasantly surprised. We headed back to the hotel and spent some time with our friends in a great room - special thanks to Carla and Tee.

Saturday morning after the HOG parade, a group of us took off to the other Dealership and then back to the rally site for a few hours. It really started heating up and by the time Kansas took the outdoor stage at 1PM it was getting pretty much unbearable. Which is too bad as they sounded awesome. A bit later we headed back to the hotel. The rally site was pretty good and we saw a lot of our friends from the Chapter, several of which who had ridden up that morning and were heading back in the afternoon. Call me crazy but 7+ hours riding in high temps... no thanks, glad we had a room.

After we got back to the hotel and spent some time in the pool we all went out to Bricktown, had a bite to eat and checked out Bikes and Bricks. It was pretty awesome and complemented the HOG rally very well.

Sunday morning we awoke to passing rain and cool temps. The group took off down 35 and I tool a solo route north to hit Route 66.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend activities.

Bricktown

Get your kicks on Route 66

2009-06-28T19:50:00.003-05:00

Returning home from Oklahoma City for the National HOG rally, I wanted to take in a bit of Route 66, since I was so close. I have been on a couple of other sections, Amarillo in TX, and Kingman, AZ. So, head north in Oklahoma to go to Texas....

Most of the landmarks are long since gone but there are a few sights still to see. I hit the route in Edmond OK and headed East to Stroud before heading south on 377. I will have to watch the movie Cars again to catch up on my Route 66 lore.

HOG OKC

2009-06-26T09:08:00.002-05:00

This weekend is the 26th annual National HOG rally. Last year we rode up to Milwaukee for the 25th, which coincided with the 105th anniversary of Harley-Davidson. Massive Party. This year the rally is much closer to home, in Oklahoma City. It will be a much smaller scale but is still shaping up to be a fairly significant rally. Lots of folks from the chapter appear to be going but for the most part everyone has made their own arrangements for lodging so I'm sure we will be running into everyone at the rally site and in Bricktown.

I'm heading up this afternoon, in the heat of the day, with temps in or near triple digits, oh joy.... But on that note I will be taking interstate to get there quickly. Theres a couple of dealerships in the area that are having some activities related to the rally so I may check them out on the way.

Oklahoma City is directly on the map with regards to Route 66 History. On my trip home on Sunday I hope to partake in some of this history with an extended route home.

Got my camera ready, hope to get some good and fun shots this weekend!

Wrap up

2009-06-21T10:10:00.008-05:00

So after riding the Dragon we stopped back in the Deal's Gap for a store and to check out all the t-shirts and writings on the ceiling. Almost ready to go, and the sky's opened up again, hard, for about 45 minutes, so we wait that out until it slows down enough to head back out. This time we are going to take a bit of a detour as we are in a dry county and the nearest beer for purchase is about 15-20 miles away, on Highway 28 in Fontana Village. The ride to the beer store was awesome as it was along the river and there was a thick fog rolling along the river, we kept riding in and out of this fog and stopped at a pull off just before the road crossed the river.

Back on the road and more rain starts up and finally lets up just before we get back to the room and the others. We hang out with the group, exchanging lies and eating pizza for the rest of the night.

The next morning Darlene and I head out on the southern path and do the Cherohala Skyway, some of the others get their first opportunity to to the Dragon and take the northern route headed home. Carla and Tee stick around for another day riding with Family.

Long day this one, we want to make Memphis and decide to go further. Our route turned out to be a wise choice after a leisurely start as we had a couple of light sprinkles along the way that barely got our windshields wet. We run into Michael and Loyce in Arkansas where we stopped for gas and possible hotel, we decide to go another hour or so, but Michael and Loyce stay put. After 590 miles and 13.5 hours on the road we stop for the night, the rest of the crew are about 30 miles further in Little Rock.

A few more ABC points along the way and we arrive home mid afternoon on Saturday, just in time to rest up for the return to work on Monday.

Finally!

2009-06-19T23:42:00.008-05:00

About time I get back to finishing my posting!!! If only I can remember the details...

So we left Charleston, and continued along the coast, stopping in Myrtle Beach. Carla had spent time here in her past. So we stopped for lunch and checked out the scene. Interestingly the recent rally has had some controversy so the locals were quite happy to see us.

After leaving Myrtle beach we continued onto Anderson SC. A bit of rain along the way, yet another rainsuit decision (good call....). We hooked up with Carla's famil and called it an early night as we were anxious to ride the tail of the Dragon the next day.

Darlene and I were on a mission so we headed off on our own while the rest of the crew checked out Terry's shop and hit the dealership. We had some great roads on the way into Robbinsville, NC,

and picked up some State markers for our ABCs and arrived dry at the Two Wheel Inn about 11:15 am. Got settled in, checked our bearings and fired up the bikes and pointed them to Deal's Gap. Whats this? Rain? Sure enough so we stop and suit up and ride through torrential rain into Deal's Gap. By the time we ride the 11 miles or so the rain eventually stops. We pick up our souvenirs and decide to have a shorter route, and do the Dragon twice since there rain forecast for the remainder of the day. Darlene of course makes yet another new friend.

and we get a shot of the "Tree of Shame"

So we do the Dragon, but have to do it very cautiously as the roads are wet, and yes it starts raining again as we are riding. Lots of Photographers, and the trick is to remember your training, look into where you are going, not at the photographers or that is where your bike will go...

more to come...

Road trip update part 2

2009-06-09T09:42:00.001-05:00

Pending..... haven't had time to summarize and select the right pictures, will hopefully do over the next couple of days...

Road Trip Memories

2009-06-03T15:13:00.012-05:00

So many pictures, so many memories, how does one summarize.... Haven't a clue.

Lets see, day 1 and 2, basically get to destination. Hmmm what happened, oh yeah, rain! But the best thing of course was our riding friends.

Day 2 - down for the night - Perry, GA

Day 3 - Hilton Head Island, rest stop and luggage repair.

Come day 4, we had 2 nights in Mount Pleasant, just east of Charleston, SC. Time to relax. We did a variety of things, some as groups and some as smaller groups. Activities included Boone Hall Plantation, carriage tour of Historic Charleston, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean at the Isle of Palms Beach, as well as the typical eating and drinking and other touring, in the appropriate orders of course.

Day 4 - Riding around Charleston.

Day 4 - Historic Charleston area sights.

Day 4 - Isle of Palms Beach

Halfway point, more to follow.....

States visited update

2009-06-02T12:54:00.003-05:00

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

Updated with the three states traveled to last week, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Starting to develop a couple of holes, notably Florida and Minnesota.

While on the road last week, I turned 50,000 on my odometer. Also picked up a Thunder Press magazine at one of the dealerships. There was an article in it on Dave Zien. Dave is a former senator from Wisconsin who helped our chapter ride over 2 million miles last year. He just officially retired his 1991 FXRT with 1,000,000 miles on it. Here is the article

Home Again!

2009-05-31T09:40:00.003-05:00

We got home yesterday after a long week in the saddle. Some quick notes about our trip. From door to door, 2810 miles over 8 days. Longest day was Friday, which was 590 miles which included the Cherohala Skyway and took us 13.5 hours on the road. The shortest day, well there was no short days! Something in the 300's I guess. Although, Thursday, when we did the Tail of the Dragon may have been under 300.

Including Texas, we rode through 9 states, and we rode in 3 we have not ridden before, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Our furthest point east was Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. We swam in the Atlantic Ocean at Isle of Palms beach, just east of Charleston, SC. The water was incredibly warm. I was very pleasantly surprised.

It rained 7 of the first 8 days.... We rode in some torrential rains, and for extended periods of time, I'm guessing 4 hours in a row day 1 and 5 hours in a row day 2. We ended cutting day 2 short. One day we had a brief 4 minute downpour, it was one of the few days we didn't wear rain gear. We even rode the Dragon in wet conditions, which is much less than favorable. On Friday coming home Darlene and I took a more southerly route and had a couple of light sprinkles, which we didn't even acknowledge, the northern group apparently had a lot more rain, and it couldn't be ignored.

Carla and Tee are still on the road as I write this, but they should have sun and heat today, and they have a long day planned.

No significant bike issues but a host of minor ones. Daryl - problem with lock which was rectified with some lubricant. Judy had a bad CB cord. Lois lost the rear shifter. My bike wouldn't start when we stopped for gas. We tried to bump start it, eventually determined it wasn't getting any gas, thanks to Daryl we disconnected the gas line, and in doing so must have dislodged a small piece of dirt, that did the trick as it started right up and worked fine after that. Carla needed a minor clutch cable adjustment. Darlene had the most significant problems, constantly blowing signal lights as we rode several times with flashers on in the rain. Some water seepage I guess. But the most significant issue was when Darlene snapped a post for one of her side bags. Fortunately we were touring Hilton Head and driving relatively slowly so we were able to stop before the bag fell completely off. Some creative sharing of luggage and we were back on the road, and ended up fedexing the bags home with some clothes the next day.

All in all a great trip with great friends.

More postings, trip details and pictures to follow.

Inspiration!

2009-05-21T09:50:00.003-05:00

Preparing for our trip east. All the way to the ocean. Some time in the mountains and hopefully Deals Gap should we appease the weather gods.

Inspiration

Riding Season preperations

2009-05-16T09:36:00.004-05:00

Technically its always riding season in Texas, except for those few days a year that there might be possibility of snow. But this year, once spring hit, the rains started and that has limited the riding a bit, we cancelled one long weekend trip and have only had a few short rides. I still ride regularly, usually taking my bike to work over my truck.

I have been doing my own basic maintenance for some time now and keep my service manual up to date with dates, but I generally take lousy records and the space to write notes is minimal. Besides if I write an extensive note, I'm likely not be be able to read it cause I have a tendency to write messy at times.

So since this is the spring, let me make a record of recent services so I can keep track and refer as needed.

Tires - both tires, front and rear - 44,800
Replaced leaking shock - approx 47,000
Battery - outlived its useful life - 47,500
Oil - all three holes - 48,130

This service also lubed steering head bearings and shifter shaft. A couple of weeks ago I lubed cables. What a difference that made, especially my clutch cable, like I put in a new easy pull clutch!

I still need to get it safety inspected this week. Also should probably check the cable routing, may have a disturbed something when I replaced the battery.

Targetting about 2700 miles week after next so good to have my bike ready to go and feeling comfortable about it.

Also did hurt to have my helpers working on my bike with me....

Bikes, Babes and Rods

2009-05-13T08:18:00.016-05:00

This past weekend was our chapter meeting and the dealerships 7th anniversary. So in typical fashion they have a bit of a party and bike show. They expanded it this year to include a car show and there were some pretty amazing cars that showed up. Considering the weather, cool and cloudy with chance of rain or storms, there was a very good turnout. I even feel a bit for the Sun-Bru girls who were doing the bike wash in barely there bikinis in 70F weather.

So in honor of the event here is a bit of a picture dump of the festivities.

Bikes

Babes - Limited selection 8^)

Rods

Miscellaneous

Mckinney Scenes

2009-05-05T23:44:00.002-05:00

Guitar pratice for Corey again, so time to kill in Mckinney. Had my camera went down to some of the old mill facilities. Got these shots.

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down...

2009-05-03T10:57:00.002-05:00

Not really. Although sometimes Monday's do.

You know that other saying as well, it never rains but it pours. Well in Texas you can take that quite literally. Typical Texas, much of the state is in a drought. Heading into April we are a bit below the norm. Well for a big chunk of the state, we ended April with a bit of a surplus. And May is starting off with a bang.

Here in Mckinney, we ended April with 5.8 inches of rain, and yesterday, we got 1.55 inches. All around us other communities received varying amounts of rainfall. One community a bit north of us received over 8 inches in a two day period over near the end of April.

But even so, there is beauty in all this rainfall. Everything is incredibly green, and quite lush.

Need to dry to get out and take a few photos as there is a lot of water out there.

Get on your bikes and ride!

2009-05-01T09:16:00.004-05:00

Sorry girls, I didn't know

International Women Riders Day

Unfortunately my bike is not going anywhere fast. I wanted to ride to work today, backed it out of the garage and hit the start button, click click then nothing. Oh well, it was a long time coming, I have been worried about my battery for several months, occasionally putting on the trickle charger, but I think it has finally given up the ghost. I ride all year long, and as such don't normally have to keep the charge up. Bless me Mr Davidson, but it has been almost 2 weeks since my last ride and my battery has finally failed me.

Actually, it may be a bit of a blessing as I have been waiting for this to happen for a while, and its prior to our Carolina's trip. So I picked up my fluids the other day, will pick up a batter this weekend, tires are good, I should be good to go!

I was such a skinny lad
never knew no good from bad
but I knew life before I left my nursery -

Random Photo

2009-04-24T11:46:00.003-05:00

Just a shot taken on a recent ride - small town Texas.

Wildflower weekend

2009-04-19T21:04:00.003-05:00

Well, this weekend didn't turn out exactly as planned. Originally we were scheduled to head down to Boerne on Friday for a weekend of riding, wildflowers and general good times with a great group of folks. Yes, the annual Spring Wildflower Ride. I had been fighting a cold for a week and the weather was shaping up to be very, very wet. So Thursday evening we decided against making the trip and maybe taking a shorter day trip over the weekend if the weather held.

Friday opened up with a lot of rain, so it looks like we made a judicious decision. We have all ridden in the rain and certianly will ride in the rain again, but really didn't feel the need this weekend. The larger group did head down on Friday and apparently had at least 3 hours of torrential downpours and thunderstorms. The Radar looked like they may have had even more, as well as wet roads from all the rain. We were planning on riding a different route and if we had have gone, we probalby would have had about 6-8 hours of very heavy rain and severe thunderstorms.

Mid afternoon Friday I opened the garage to throw out some garbage and was greeted by this site at the end of my driveway, in my neighbors driveway.

So yeah, there were some bad storms....

Saturday we took it pretty easy and hung out with some friends and had some fun Wii Bowling. And plans were tentatively made for a ride on Sunday.

In the end there were only 4 of us who rode on Sunday. But it was a great ride. I had planned the route through some roads in North East Texas, some I had ridden before but a lot we had not. We did see quite a few wildflowers unfortunatley no places where we could pull off and get some good shots. In addition to the bluebonnets there were several other varities.

We also stopped for lunch at Loose Wheels, before heading to Carpenters Bluff Bridge. I have written about this bridge before, its just a cool old one lane bridge that crosses the Red River into Oklahoma. I wanted to get some shots and managed to get a couple that I like. After that we stayed on some FM roads for a few more miles at stopped at Big Slicks, another biker friendly establishment a bit closer to home.

Here's a couple of my favorite shots from today.

Ryan's history project

2009-04-13T21:11:00.002-05:00

Ryan is working on a Texas History project. Personally I think he picked the hardest one to do, but anyway its a fun one and he gets to see some Texas countryside and learn a bit in the process.

In short, he has to find (a lot) of Texas Historical Markers, across several counties and put together some sort of presentation.

While we were out on the Panther Creek Easter Egg run on Saturday I found a rather unique "histerical" marker I thought he should include in his project.

Wildflower Ride prep

2009-04-13T17:15:00.002-05:00

This coming weekend is our annual wildflower ride. This is always a good time with lots of great riding and hopefully great wildflowers in the area. This will be my third trip although Darlene has gone additional times. The first trip I took the fields and roadsides were full of Texas wildflowers. Last year they were pretty much devoid of wildflowers. This year are mixed results with Hill Country being somewhat sparce and East of 35 apparently being better but not as good a past years.

Also this year we have a new end point. Traditionally the destination has been Fredericksburg but this year we are trying Boerne. Its a bit further but I think it gives a few more opportunities for the Saturday rides.

Additionally it puts us in the area of something a bit more sinister.... The Devils Backbone, and Purgatory Road, near Wimberly TX.

We'll miss you

2009-04-07T15:09:00.000-05:00

Race weekend picture dump

2009-04-07T14:34:00.005-05:00

Some shots from the weekend. Never got a lot of great shots of the cars on the track as we were a bit low and pretty much all my shots have fence in them.

Race Recovery...

2009-04-06T13:47:00.004-05:00

Its Monday after the Spring NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway. We've gone to the races pretty consistently over the years. We've missed a lot but generally we take in at least one race per year, although not always the main event. Texas has 2 Cup races per year. The past two years we have rented an RV and camped out with the other 10's of thousands of crazed fans and have been fortunate enough to hang out with some real race and camping veterans. This year, we decided to go on the cheap and we set up a tent on our friends RV site. It worked out very well. We went out Friday night, saw the Pat Green concert, saw the race on Saturday, hung out some more then went home Sunday before all the madness and the cold front.

Anyway you cut it though, its usually a wild and wooly weekend. Friday night was fun, we hung out at the RV after the concert and actually took it pretty easy. Saturday the weather was great and we spent the day down at the track, checking out the Nascar practice, the vendors and the race.

Saturday night, wow, its amazing was a bit of alcohol, nice weather and plastic trinkets will make some women do. Heck, some of them didn't even need the trinkets.... Like lots of other major events where there is camping facilities of this sort, car races, motorcycle rallies, etc, it can get pretty wild. I think its something that you really have to experience in person though as I don't think words can truly describe the scene.

Anyway, much thanks to Brenda and Charles, Brad and everyone else for their hospitality as always.

Picture dump will follow! Stay tuned.

Marking their territory

2009-04-01T15:30:00.002-05:00

There's a saying that old Harley's don't leak oil, they just mark their spot. Well mine must be feeling threatened once again, and its not even old. Last year I had a small oil leak, at the shifter spline, which took way too long to repair. The other day after our ride to the LA State Rally, I noticed a small "puddle" under one of my saddle bags. I thought it was quite odd, I even checked to see if I had some unknown liquid in my bag that may have leaked. Nothing there, so I took the bag off and noticed oil on my left rear shock. Must have sprung a leak, that may explain why I could never seem to keep air in them either.

So I called the dealership, at first the service tech thought it may have been under extended warranty so I made an appointment and while doing so I found my warranty coverage. Oops, no such luck so I cancelled my appt and asked what the cost was for replacement. OEM shock was roughly $185. Ouch. Each. Ouch again.

So decided to look online. Of course part numbers are not the easiest to find, which makes price checking even more difficult. Found that out, then checked the discounted dealers, still $150+.

Next best option, eBay. Now I'm an eBay virgin. So I find a couple of options for both "new" and used shocks, with used typically being pulloffs for an upgrade, so for the most part should be in good shape. There were some buy-now options for $100 for what looked like a pair so was considering that, but there were also a couple to bid on.

By the time I finally get around to bidding on this one set, there was 13 hours left and no bids, minimum bid of $5. So signed up, got a paypal account and off I went. Next morning, still only my bid, I'm getting excited. 30 minutes left, another bid. Crap have to increase my maximum, keep watching, getting a bit excited and anxious. Crap, maximum exceeded again, a third bidder. So about 2-3 minutes left to go, up my bid one more time and I win! $18.50 plus shipping. Not bad, hopefully they will be nearly new and I should get them either the end of this week or early next week!

Architecture and Morality

2009-04-01T15:23:00.003-05:00

Bit of a music reference, album title from a band in the 80's, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD). Pretty good album, I liked it anyway, bit of synth-pop. Probably their biggest hit was Enola Gay.

Anyway, why the title. Well Corey had guitar lessons so not having a lot of time between drop-off and pick-up, but time to kill, I ventured downtown McKinney with my camera and fixed focus 50 mm lens. I've been wanting to start doing more with my photography of late so the only way to do it to just do it. Mckinney has a bit of a historical downtown, so hence the Architecture reference. Sorry that's it, no Morality reference. Although it is Texas, and Mckinney houses the Collin County Courts.

So I took a few shots of some of the buildings, but I must say my eye is definatly out of practice. Here are a couple of shots, nothing of note that's for sure, hopefully there will be improvement in coming shoots.

Tuesday isn't very busy downtown after supper but there was another photographer doing some fashion shots with a young male model. Looked like it may have been for one of the local community magazines or maybe a catalog.

Oo oo oo!!!!

2009-03-25T20:31:00.003-05:00

Henry Rollins to appear on Sons of Anarchy!!!

Yeah Baby! Two of my favorite things. I've followed Henry Rollins for years, huge fan of everything he does. Have an original Black Flag album, Damaged, on vinyl, from SST records. Have tons of his music in MP3 form, some covers, some Rollins Band, a book, spoken word cd, I've seen him perform his spoken word three times locally here in Dallas. And on FX network Sons of Anarchy. Not a big TV guy, a few shows, Sopranos, other than that the primary regular shows are news and sports, but I did catch every episode of SoA in their first season.

I'm pumped and can't wait!