Turkey

We went over to Cycle Gear today for a bike cover for the upcoming trip. We looked over and this turkey was wandering down the side of Summer Ave!


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Test

Just downloaded a new app to post blogs from the road. Here's the test.


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Location:Home

Houston, May 27-June 4, 2011

So, I rode the motorcycle down to Houston a couple of weeks ago to visit the folks. It started out rough. When I pulled in for the first gas stop, the left saddlebag was hanging by one bolt and the cords for the lights! Luckily, I had some bungee cords packed. So, I rigged it up for the rest of the ride down:

It stayed pretty solid for the rest of the ride down, but every few seconds I still was checking to make sure it was still there. The ride itself wasn't too bad. I only got uncomfortable about ten hours into it. I took a lot of back roads and state highways going down, so, it took about fourteen hours to get there. (It's normally 9.5 hrs in a car)

My time down there was very relaxing. I spent a lot of time in the pool. The three of us rode down to Brazos Bend State Park, which is about 45 minutes southwest of Houston.

Last fall, one of my parents' dogs died. This brought them down to one dog and two cats. Every time an animal passes away, they say they won't get another one, but it never works out that way. Because of Sheltie Sanctuary (website), they now have three dogs and two cats.



Missy



Sunshine



Molly (Who, incidentally, sleeps like this literally all the time)

While we were fixing my saddlebag, we decided it would be a good time to reinforce the bags with steel plates.

It took us several hours to cut the plates and drill the holes for the bolts, mainly because we were cutting the steel with a Dremmel (it kept overheating) and the batteries for the drill weren't holding a charge.

One bag done!

Repairs complete! I must say, they are really solid now.

The ride back to Memphis was fairly uneventful. I took the interstate back to save some time. I did have to stop at one point in the afternoon for about a half an hour because it was so hot it felt like I was riding in an oven. I could tell I was getting overheated, so I stopped and got re-hydrated. Overall it was a good trip and a nice test, since I'll be riding the bike to Denver for the 4th of July.

10000 Miles!

I'm a bit behind on this one. I rolled over to 10000 miles back on July 4th, which was 13 months to the day from the day I purchased it.

Arkansas Trip

Last week, I met my parents in Russellville, AR for four days of motorcycle riding. Below are the pics from the trip. We had a great time. Only got rained on once.

This is the route we took to Eureka Springs and then across to Fayetteville. We got rained on when we hit Fayetteville and a little on I-40 on the way back to the hotel, but otherwise, it was a good ride. Lots of twisty mountain roads, and of course the Pig Trail, which is Hwy 23. You can see it between letters D and E on the map.

This is the route we rode on Thursday. We took Hwy 7/Hwy 27 down to Mt. Ida, and then we took Hwy 270 across to Hot Springs, and then Hwy 7 north back to Russellville. This was another good ride. No rain this time!

This is the route I took to come back to Memphis. I heard from some other riders at our hotel that Hwy 123 was a really good ride, so I decided to start there. It turns out that Hwy 123 and Hwy 16 were excellent rides, and I'm glad I went that way, even though it added an hour or two to the overall ride. These roads didn't have a single straight-away longer than a couple of hundred feet for the whole distance from the beginning of Hwy 123 all the way to Clinton, AR. On the map, that's the second white dot after letter A all the way to letter B. A good 3 hours of twisties. Very fun! After Clinton, I went through Greers Ferry, AR, which was very picturesque. I wish there had been a good spot to pull over and get a photo, but I couldn't find a good spot where it was safe to stop. The roads stayed fairly twisty from there to Walnut Ridge, and then it was pretty straight, high speed roads all the way to Memphis.

Creek at a picnic area along the highway

Big Piney Creek on Hwy 123

Thorncrown Chapel near Eureka Springs

Rain!!!

Maintenance Update

So, I put my bike in the shop about a month ago for repairs after it was hit in a parking lot. Still, I wait for them to do the work. I won't be taking the bike back to a Kawasaki dealer for work again. It's been very frustrating waiting for them to get their act together. Just another reason to do my own maintenance...

Hit-and-Run

So last Sunday, I was out to lunch with my parents, who were in town for the weekend. We went to our favorite Mexican place, Casa Mexicana. As we were leaving, I noticed that something didn't look right on my motorcycle. Looking closer, I saw exactly what: someone had hit it in the parking lot and driven off!

All-in-all, it's about $700 worth of damage. The insurance is paying for a new fender, a new front fork, and a new reflector plate, minus my $250 deductible. It's quite frustrating, but at least I wasn't on the bike when it was hit...