$40 dollar speakers and a 20 buck amplifier, both the must have items from 89. I remember reading about these in Playboy at a hefty price tag so when I saw them @ my local goodwill, I had to have them, I put them on pass through rca's on my stereo amplifier Megan's mom left behind and pulled an input off the back of the Vizio for remote volume control. This system is just plain stupid. Turned up (once) I can watch the glass move in my apartment and can hear everything crystal clear from about 200 feet with the door closed. Thank goodness all my neighbors work during the week and Frank is near deaf (not my doing). Megan took a pic of me heading to work and through some dirt bike googles of our back yard. I have only been commuting to work, so no new bike pics. Hence the pic of dinner, not a vegan...

Brand new tires and ratchet straps. Let it be known I live no where near the store even though its a bustling metropolis of bars and churches. Thanks to McBro for the putting the rubber where it meets the road. I owe you. These pics are a months income... I should finish school.

For some reason I have been having troubles posting. In the past few weeks I have really stretched the limits of motorcycling in general. I have been using the beemer for everything and Bali has nothing on me this week. I took home a boat load of groceries, diapers, a bicycle and a tv home on the bike. I hit up some yard sales and use it everyday for short and long runs. This particular bike does everything so well. Its feeling loose with the miles so I baby it a bit, but it still hauls and I mean literally, very well. Work has kept me busy so the few trips I have taken have all been related. I take the long way when possible. I keep my magazines for some reason, I think my mom could tell me why, and I am always perusing them in some fashion. One of my favorite writers is Peter Egan from Cycle World magazine (and others). I like to find ways this individual that lives life in the margins we wish we all could resembles me. I wasn't surprised to find that he and his wife took this very bike 4000ish miles into Canada and back to Wisconsin without a real hiccup. He is a touch older in years, but I am catching up. His praise of the Buell Ulysses makes me second guess it, because I have inadvertently copied many of his moves, outside of successful writing. I wanted to share my first adventure in motorcycling, because it came up the other day. Growing up in the mid 90's gave me a good view at great bikes and my age and location placed me in the dirt bike tangent. My nephew had a yz250... I was in 7th grade and height impaired, it didn't stop me. This event galvanized my NEED for a similar system of self destruction(my nephew broke his arm twice on the bike). The begging began and my father busy with the farm turned the problem over to my brother for my Christmas present that year. This type of thing had happened once before after my closest brother in age had a groping party in our basement and showed the movie RAD, I believe I was the only person in the room in love. I asked for a Freestyle bike with a rotor and got a '72 sting ray chopper...in hindsight, I could have reacted better. This Christmas was to be like the others. My Mom sewed a thick cushion with a vinyl cover over a piece of plywood cut by my dad on the table saw. An old tote gote frame with a tiller briggs and stratton mounted and the work was done. My brother Karl is extremely insightful and his abilities of innovation are quite remarkable, seeing his hand 0n my "bike" made it real for me enuf and I sucked up the zero suspension bike with a cv clutch after only a few temper tantrums. The ever clever Karl had done up the primary side of the clutch with an 8" frying pan as a cover, a 4 vane water pump, large ball bearings and bailer springs. It worked good till I was full tilt and spun a ball bearing out and hit my calf. As soon as the bruising subsided I realized the bike now had a different launch pattern, almost tossing me into the flower garden. This is the moment when I started really learning piece by piece mechanics. I rebuilt the carb, cleaned the tank, removed and re installed the exhaust and played with the clutch and hand controls. I learned a little late about checking and changing the oil though and moved on to a Kawasaki enduro years later. Nothing can replace that old tote gote for me and the slow memories we had. 7 mph is actually really fast when your riding vertically up a hay stack when the throttle sticks though. I have had a few bikes over the years and I'm always looking at more, but for the first time in a while I have a little bit of that hardy go anywhere do anything ability that the first one had, and its a bit quicker too. Thanks to all my friends and family for supporting my bad habits as long as you have. Love you.

To a bromance that started quite a while ago. I really enjoy my one day off, but much of that is made possible by my friends and friends of friends where ideas come together and conversation is relaxed and smooth, usually further enhanced by spirits. The weather is hot, but bearable. Cigars in the pool. Classic cool. Stay tuned for tomorrows adventure, I cant remember enough of this trip to post some rhetoric, but the night time confessionals are the best. When the booze loosens the tongue and the feelings flow out of a bleeding heart, the noise goes away and peace fills the soul.

I try to head out to harolds cave creek coral when I can and my set appointment stands. Good times aside, the ride is smooth and winding through an awesome little retirement community of Palo Verde, near an entrance to Tanto national forest. This is just short vid of my regular commute, enjoy.

No more excuses. I finally called my provider and hooked up the internet at my house. I have no reason for not posting more and will create a new blog for the family as that is what I am constantly talking about and will segregate allroads to my motorcycle mayhem and random reasonable debauchery. I have picked up a .30 cal WWI rifle for about a hundred bucks and took it to the range, although firing corrosive rounds from 1984 Czechoslovakia it is true enough and fun. Makes the idea of WWI a lot more scary knowing this is the least valuable weapon outside of a knife, which screws onto the top making the whole thing a 10 foot stick. My Harolds outings have been a little difficult, but a very important time of my week. I have great friends. Every moment is an accident I happen to catch a pic on. So these shots are random as is the commentary. I have been spending lots of time at the house doing what I enjoy spending time with the family, but I still make a little time each week to do random things and have some fun me time. As I'm sure it is with everyone we are watching the pennies and this was an easy desision to make with the cost of starbucks drinks. By brewing at the house and eliminating redbox, this easily will be cheaper and more efficient. I will post a link to my new Family blog to eliminate dual entries so you can chose what info you want to hear. I can say this. Living solo for so long has had a dramatic effect on my ability to communicate and react, but this life is an on-going process and the rewards are ours to extract the enjoyment from. That being said I'm loving every minute of it. Thanks to all.

I had a great trip out to Texas and I can not get the pics to load right now. Wi-Fi is free @ starbucks so it shouldn't take long to figure out. I drove a moving van down loaded with the belongings of Ann, Megans mom. In the cab a furry cat named peter and I slowly made the way down. In the back was everything and the beemer. Although the truck drove heavy it was a good day to be on the road, Ann was following in her vehicle and was there for the assist as I ran out of gas on a hill in pouring rain. We split in Hempstead where her family is at. I really enjoyed spending the night in Hempstead. Great people, beautiful country and I could get the bike out of the back. I put it on a trickle charger as the battery is perdy much done. I headed out the next morning with thick black clouds to the south (my direction of travel), but thought I would beat the rain. Leaving all the rain gear Fred gave me packed tightly in my bags (except clothes, all my clothes got inadvertently left in Arizona in the re-packing around the bike) As I edged the point of the down pour I missed my exit for starbucks, had I made it I would have seen the text from Mcbro saying he was no longer in South Houston, but in Spring. I rode in the worst weather I have ever seen, standing water, the wake of a semi, my own wake, and rain drops that could be considered a bath in my only set of clothes. Pants and a hanes t-shirt. When I stopped under an overpass, just east of Pasadena, TX. I pulled my phone out of my helmet (the only dry area) and checked my messages. Turned around and rode the lakes of houston called freeways back to Spring. I was soaked to the bone when I turned into Mcbro's drive, but it was awesome, I wouldn't have changed a thing. That BMW is the best riding bike I have ever driven. At times the riding position is uncomfortable, you really sit up there on that thing and the pegs are a shade higher than my knees like, but once you hit the wet it works and on the road I put the seat all the way up with the screen and its perfect. The time at Mcbro's was the best in years. Rather than watch him work himself to death on the block party, we got to sit in the garage and talk, watch some movies, just chill. The fourth came and went with great food, good friends and interesting conversation. The kids did the fireworks this year and it went well. Megan and Evelyn stayed for the show, Joe her dad came over earlier with Nolan, her brother for a a bit. Time passed too quickly just hangin out. Mcbro and I went over the bike tuesday night and wired in a spare battery where the radio was and finally hooked up the relay to the fog lights (huge life saver). Without clothes and leaving additional stuff @ home made a streamlined beemer, light on its feet and letting the suspension do its job rather than jostling my joints. I hit the road around 11a, as a light rain began. I out ran the front around 2p and ditched the rain gear south of Austin. I settled in for the rythm of the ride. 6th and 4000 rpm, my new tire gliding over the asphalt surface and the engine just a whisper of growl from the exhaust pipe. The left side rocker could use an adjustment, but it only rattled a bit on start up as soon as oil pressure was up its tick would soften as the hydrolic lifters took up the slack. I did not have the money to change the oil before I left. This left a guilty feeling as the bike sucked up every mile without a whimper. Good bikes deserve good treatment. All fluids checked, but nothing changed and sipping the fuel, it still took about 120 dollars of fuel over the 1200 mile drive. Somewhere in the hills of east texas another storm front was waiting. Passing most traffic at my 90 mph pace with the foglights on, forming a pyramid of high power lights blasting a laser beam of light in front and my additional LED trailer tail lights and turn signals. With the mist of my wake being lite by the auxillary lights, it looked like tron on the freeway and I had no problem alerting passing cars of my presence. I'm sure my location this close to New Mexico had them checking the rear view for different reasons as the speed and amazing amount of light could only be from something extra terrestrial. At one point in Las Cruces, I was actually afraid I would be pulled over by police for having too many lights and wattage on the silver streaking beemer, but my bright yellow rain gear made it look like what I was, speeding cautiously, I was passed by 3 cops and was greeted by thumbs or nods. About an hour out as the sun started to crest, I pulled off into the desert to find a place to catch some rest before the swelter came. In the middle of no mans land I came upon 3 shoed horses. They just walked up to me, just past that a large steel open top cylinder filled with cool, green water near their trough. 50 yards past that a brand new border patrol truck with a young occupant. I greeted him with my intentions and given permission, put up the center stand on the loose soil and laid down on the rain gear, 3 hours later was shift change for the young man and my presence may not have been introduced. I was rousted by 4 men with guns in a suburban and a small chopper. Very cool alarm clock and this was the alert I needed to shoot 50 mph down the dirt road and hit the highway back to 90-100 mph all the way to Tucson traffic just as the sun started to hang in the middle. A stop for fuel in Casa Grande a gift from my girl back home as testament that she would like to see me again as my bank account had not been replenished by my employer yet and a good long inhalation of the circle K coolers put me into Fountain hills around 2pm the day after I left. I kissed Megan at Starbucks our tradition on my long runs and motored down the street two more blocks to our humble edifice, putting the beemer back on the center stand for what seemed like a week. Patting the gas cap and telling the beemer thank you for a safe trip goes against my Associates Degree in Automechanics, but it does explain the angel bell and St. Christopher emblems. There is always a lag. The adrenalin of the trip ending and the trip in general extends the next 24 hours, but for days later the slackness in attention and muscle tissue sets in. Everything becomes a dream, living your own life vicariously. I love my family and enjoyed seeing them the most, but a long day on the road, no matter the weather or conditions is enjoyable for the enduring challenges and changes needed to overcome it.

The move has gone great and now the commute takes minutes. It makes more time for family and day care is really just there if we need a date day or something. My hours have changed a little, but it works out great. Mona came by for a visit and we got to have breakfast together and coffee. OMG Zola is growing up just as fast. I feel older every day. Thanks for all the love and support. I mostly spend my time cleaning now and catching naps when I can, but give me a ring and see. I do have 4 days off a week.

I picked the best of the best and wanted to post one more time on the trip before I moved on. The pic of the beamer and I in the valley was about an hour out of El Paso and I needed to use the restroom, there where no services at this exit, but the expanse of nothing was nice. As the sun peaked up on Thursday morning 2 hours to Tucson I began to think of my responsibilities at home and hit the road early, making two great pic's in the process. About 6 days after I got back, it was time to head to Harolds. I had a great time and the burnout was short but smoked out the bar. You can see the headlight between Dirty and me in the pic. The routine has since picked up and all is normal again, but it looks like a good tune will do. I will be burn'n and turn'n on the morning of July 3rd to get to McBro's in time for the party. Megan, her bro and Evelyn will be flying down and spending time in the area as well as the party.

I posted these a little close and the chronopictograph is incorrect. It was an awesome and somewhat epic trip for me. It was so awesome to see family again the trip itself paled, but was still very enjoyable. Somewhere west of Las Cruces I blew a fuse and should have put a relay on the driving lamps like Fred said, I hard wired them for 16 bucks after a failed relay repair $21 bucks didn't do the trick, the bmw sips fuel and the tires are cheaper than the last two bikes I have ridden. The ABS is working a little more intermittently, I believe a new battery may just help it out a bit. I helped a stranded motorcyclist get some fuel and he tipped me more than I paid for food all the way back. There is something surreal about chasing that mirror of a mirage in the distance for hours, the camera was just what I needed to focus on the details and actually made for a safer trip as I was always looking for something to take a picture of. The kick stand finally gave way just outside of Tucson while I was looking for a bush. Just as it kissed the ground and started to give I caught the bike in its momentum and caught it, but the kickstand had been failing for a while and I happened to be the guy who severely overloaded it one too many times, the center stand works flawlessly. The vids with the bike riding should be watched with the sound down as the condenser mic does not like wind too much. Looking for more rides and time in the future, but for now a little love would do the beemer justice for ticking like a swiss watch through the dirty south and into the dusty west. Love you and thank you all. Especially Fred and Linda, Thank you for your hospitality, love and time.

M4H01371.MP4

M4H01590.MP4

M4H01685.MP4

 

I have a really cool family. Fred and I have spent the last few days together just chilln and rebuilding a bike together, granted the bike didnt need much it was fun. The RT was a little tricky in spots and Freds Mcguyver came out a little, but we were having fun. While we were at the preventitive stuff we put in some spot and brake lights as well as some tunes. It turned out real good. Heading to baton rouge tomorrow and need to get some sleep.

Just checking out picasa 3, Out of all the things in Alabama to check out, I had to stop here. It was my inspiration for velcroing my stuff to the motorcycle.

Since landing it has been a nice mellow stop by the house. It's nice to just hang out and spend time with family. Fred and Linda have been so much fun to spend time with when we are out and just spending time together. Have you every tried to order food while holding a toothy smile? Fred and I share a similar interest in mechanical dis abilities, painfully knowledgeable, but lacking the full shop of tools and ability. Their home is lovely and the yard is sooo green with vegetation and grass.

On the first day I slept, in the morning we went to sbux and down by Mobile Bay, then over near Daphine to visit with her mom. Alabama is gorgeous. I took the bike for a little spin and found a nice leak coming from the oil cooler line, repaired it at home as Fred pulled in from work. I don't remember where we went for dinner, but it was a nice mexican restaurant. The serving portions were huge. Fred stayed up for a short tour of his place and fixed my computer before he turned in. Now it is time to do a shake down run and see how she goes.

I have been working lots of hours at the skilled nursing center in Fountain Hills, I really enjoy my position and what I do, but it meant that I had to drop the coffee shop from my repetwah. To all my faithful followers in bean land, I'm am sorry. I will miss my partners and the position there, but it is nice to have a day off once in a while. I have also been land locked in the hills since my motor blew in the Suburban. This happened at a bad time, but I dont want to junk out the truck or hang onto another cash killer. Stuck in another conundrum I have elected to do nothing about it daily and have left the problem in the driveway of a very good friend. Its a big block 454, th-400 auto lock 4x4 3/4 ton beast that I always dreamed of. The reality is every penny into it can never be extracted and the milage is so bad it makes Mad Max look like a Hallmark commerical. My answers are coming quick in the hands of friends and family and I will be rolling on the typical non-traditional stock shortly. I gotta say without Dirty, I couldn't have survived in AZ this long and with out my family..I couldn't have survived.

have been really busy, but for those in the know all is well and getting better. Follow along with me on my 8 day tour of the lower 48 the best way I know how, on a bike. I have just purchased a new camera for the trip and the gps thing is cool, but will have to wait for subseqent trips. I will be landing in Pensecola, Florida on tuesday night and spending the first 2-3 days with my brother Fred and his family in Alabama, then on to Baton Rouge, New Orleans and where every else I wonder to including McBro's in Texas. After a few days there, a blast up to Queen Creek, AZ to spend some time with Dale, Ryan, Jeremy and Brandon, back to Fountain hills wed to rest for work on Thursday. I am attempting to employ all the web based tools for those that choose to follow along and comment.
View "lower 48" in a larger map