My first foray into blogging occured elsewhere. I just noticed it still exists because someone clicked over to here from there and I stopped to read what I had written about a year ago.
I AM SO FREAKING PISSED THAT THERE IS SNOW ON THE GROUND
There are few things that elevate me into that trancendental state of......I can't even type everything I'm thinking its a tornado in here.
Deep breath.
I like to ride motorcycles. Maybe you knew that, maybe you didn't. It's difficult to describe the benefit I get from it, but here are some feelings:
solitude
meditation
therapy
synergy, man and machine
total concentration
doing something you're good at and doing it well
danger/adrenaline
edge of the envelope
silly, stupid grin
great acoustics in the helmet for us self-singers
wearing leather for a reason
the "chick factor" (not that I cash in on it, but its nice to notice ;P )
I suppose I could include the "from stop to warp drive in the time it takes to say Ho-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-leeeeeey Shiii-iiiiii-iiiii-t !!!!!!!" but its prolly included in more than one of the above.
Here are a couple of the posts I made once upon a time:
March 19, 2006
still too cold
Got in about a 45 minute ride but froze my tookus. It was 50 degrees when I left and 45 degrees with I got back to hot chocolate and vanilla rum. Still working out the winter cobwebs but confidence level is rising and did some hard riding. Hangman Valley Road is a great short trip-nice and curvy. That one decreasing radius turn still freaks me out but it feels great to hit the gas coming out of it and into the S-curves.
April 03, 2006
Idaho State Patrol
Put on about 100 miles today, went south of Couer d'Alene, ID on HWY 95 towards Worley. My radar detector paid for itself yet again. An ISP with a single KA band at about a half mile coming the other way. I'm not sure how fast I was going but I was in top gear which I only use when I'm dedicated to over 100 mph. Downshift, hit the brakes, the back end went a little squirrelly but I made it down to less than 60 pretty quick. I waved and he waved back. Sucker.
Lots of other bikes out today. What's the difference between a Harley and a Hoover? The position of the dirtbag! (courtesy of my harley bud)
May 32, 2006
I've been riding as much as possible, even to work and back in the rain. After it cost $50 to fill up my truck I decided a little moisture wouldn't keep me off two wheels.
Best ride so far: Friends were going to S. Dakota for a couple of weeks via Canada so I rode with them north thru Idaho to the border. Beautiful day, beautiful ride. They strictly adhere to the speed limit so for me it was a mellow, kicked back cruise. We took some of the smaller highways through Idaho and saw some tiny little towns I'd only barely heard of. Did pass thru Bonner's Ferry and Sandpoint which are a little "Californified" for me. When we reached the U.S./Canada border, we paused, wished each other safe trips and parted ways. With a devilish grin I stomped on the gasand headed south. Spent most of the next hour or so in the tripledigit MPH carving corners and dancing on my toes. Did have a bit of a scare once: I was hurriedly passing a group of cars because another group of cars were approaching in the other lane. I hastily dipped around them (105-115 mph I think?) but as the oncoming traffic went by, my radar detector exploded with a K-band alarm! My heart sank as I waved to the rear view mirror and flashed my brake lights. Yes, I did slow down, even pulled into a driveway a mile or two down but he (or she) never turned around. Guess I got a free pass on that one. A fellow biker perhaps? One can only speculate, either way I felt lucky. I kept the speed down to less than double the speed limit the rest of the way home.
Best ride coming up: Going back to Cali! Mid-August will see me spending a weekend in Manzanita, OR (on the coast) then south via hwy 1/101 into N. Cal where I plan to cut over on hwy 299 (great twisties!) which is south of the Redwood Nat'l Forest to hwy 395. I've heard 395 is a great road and I look forward to the mountains and scenery of the Sierra Nevadas. From there I'll head down to L.A. and San Diego. What I'm not really looking for, and hope I dont' see much of, is the scorching heat of the desert in August. I'm hoping the higher elevations of the mountains will provide some relief from that.
Back to 2007.
If you want to read about that trip to San Diego and see some cool pictures here are the links:
Oregon Coast/No Cal
Northern California
Yosemite
Leucadia
This post was removed
Heading home
Still heading home
Almost home
Oregon-last day
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Man, I'm itchy
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2 comments:
I don't have a bike and the one time I was on the back the driver went over 100 mph and scared the crap out of me (I was 14 or so).
I do, however, talk to motorcycle enthusiasts all the time with my job.
Harley owners seem to be the most interesting and most of them will only own Harley's.
It seems that Honda's run better but what do I know...
Rach- they only seem more interesting because they have to make up in personal character what they lack in motocajones. Just kidding-can't resist. Your intuition about the Hondas is true - they do run better, longer and with less maintenance. The people who own them are generally nicer too :P
I would not want to be on the back at tripledigits either, its much more fun on the front.
I here's a poke in the eye for the dumba$$ who tries to impress a kid by endangering her life. prick.
CMac
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