Featured Article on EzineArticles.com

About a week or two ago and after much prodding and pushing I put together a cleaned up Tips-n-Tricks article on packing for an extended road trip.

After a bit of consternation - the art of self argument - "Do I want to or not" - I submitted it to E-Zine Articles. I received notice today that they have accepted the article and published it to their "Featured" page. I'm not sure what that means and I'm still waiting for it to show up on what I would interpret as the Featured Page, however I did just find it in the Automotive Section Here and I'm listed at the number two position... ok, I'll take that, for whatever it means.

I'm pretty excited about this in a "whatever that's kinda cool way". Having someone else think that my writing (about something I love) was good enough to share at the very least with other writers on their site is a nice "pat on the back" to get.

My understanding of the site is that it acts as a storehouse for articles that other E-zines, printed mags and whoever else wants can research, contact and publish the authors as long as the credits are given and the content remains unchanged. So for that possibility I'm excited.

Now, will this article just sit in the corner and gather dust - I'd say chances are yes - but if you're a motorcycle magazine or a travel magazine looking for something off of the beaten path it's there to be used.

Thinking about it now; if you are a Motorcycle Mag or a Travel Mag it would be easier to leave me a comment and I'd be glad to work something out directly ;)

Peace ~ Ride Safe

Dinner and a Drink

Once the dust from the day had settled and we had gotten to a motel we decided a beer and dinner would be the trick for the evening. We could relax and talk a bit about the "What Next" factor. My wife and I unpacked our bags, showered and got ready to be ferried to the restaurant for dinner.

The ride to dinner was just as it should have been cold and wet. The group had found a place to eat just a couple of blocks from the hotel we were in so the ride was short but the rain was heavy. Walking into the restaurant made me remember the Bob Seger song "Turn the Page"

"...Well you walk into a restaurant, strung out from the road,
You can feel the eyes upon you as your shaking off the cold
You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode.

Most times you cant hear em talk, other times you can.
Oh the same old cliche, is that a woman or a man
You always seem out numbered, you don't dare make a stand.

Here I am, on the road again.....

Very odd, WTF Utah, it's 1999 move on already.

We stood there waiting to be seated, bandanna'd up, chaps, leather vest, gloves and riding glasses... and the theme for the day just to top off the look... we were all rain soaked...

Table for six please and if you need to put two together.

And we'll have a beer.......

not here you won't.

.....Welcome to Utah

Motorcycle traveling

Budwiser Girls

At every rally there is always a lot to see; motorcycles, paintjobs, custom chrome... oh, and the Bud Girls. We decided that we would stop and get them to sign a poster for my oldest boy (17 at the time), his younger brothers were not happy that they didn't get their own copy :)


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Deadwood Day Ride

Deadwood Day Ride - Photo taken during the Sturgis Rally 2007




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Heading to Aladan

On the road to Aladan, WY. One of my favorite spots when we're at the Sturgis Rally.



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Fat Back

Wish I knew more about this motocycle other than it was fully custom - Photo was taken on Main Street in Sturgis, SD during the '07 Rally.




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'07 Screaming Eagle Stage 1 Performance Kit

screaming eagle Stage 1 kit added to 96ci '07 FLH.

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Death to an old friend

Finally the tow truck arrives, slowly but surely my bike is loaded on to the bed and strapped down. I asked the driver if I could ride in back next to the bike, I know it's an unreasonable request but I was always told that "you'll never know unless you ask", funny part is I think the driver considered it for a moment. My wife and I climbed into the cab of the truck and I don't remember the next 60 miles.

After an hour or so the truck pulled into a dealership in Price/Helper, Utah the bike was unloaded and I began talking with the mechanic. OK, it was more like begging to see if there was anyway he could get my ride fixed and get me on the road say within a day? The mechanic tried, he called all over Utah trying to find a casing but to no avail. After hours of his searching he broke the news to me. It would be a week before he could have the bike fixed. The rally would be over and my wife and I would be stuck in Utah waiting.

I huddled the group together and we talked about what to do now. There isn't an airport in Price so somehow we would have to get to Salt Lake City to fly home. Staying in Utah was not an option and we had already cost the group another day of travel time. We couldn't handicap them any longer and we certainly didn't want to ruin their trip. We had decided that the best option for us was to go home and come back to Utah in a week with a truck to haul my bike home.

Kathi, a lovely lady who is like a sister to my wife, and at times one of the wisest people that I have ever known came up to me and told me to stop talking bullshit this whole thing is about the journey it's never been about the destination. This is part of it and if there's a way to continue on we should find it. I became, somewhat inspired and slightly uplifted - I'm still in morning for my bike so don't expect a huge sigh here ok :)

Option after option was explored we looked in the darkest recesses that we could find trying to discover an option to salvage our trip that we hadn't thought of; we called the Harley Dealers and rental shops trying to get a bike to rent for a week. Now I don't know if you have ever tried to rent a motorcycle a day or two prior to the start of the Sturgis Rally but I might as well have been trying to capture lightning in a bottle. I talked to the owner about trading in my bike for one that he had on his showroom floor - not even one that I was remotely interested in other than it could get me to my destination. Understand this, my bike, the one with the hole in the engine, was a year old and had over $5,000 in accessories not to mention the price of the bike. It had under 5,000 miles on it and had been pampered beyond belief. The shop owner offered me $2K for the bike as a trade in. The freekin' paint job was worth 2K!! I politely explained all of this to him and he said that he was going to have to repair my bike in order to sell it - I offered to take care of the repairs (they were covered by my insurance), it was still a 2K offer from this idiot. I went and spoke to the mechanic, gave him authorization to fix my bike and told him I would be back in two weeks to pick it up. It would be a cold day in hell before I sold my bike to the crook that owned that shop.

Once again we huddled as a group. I had slowly shot down anything that looked like a reasonable option and we were running out of ideas. I don't remember who, but it was suggested that we get a room for the night, get something to eat and find a Harley dealer in Salt Lake City in the morning - I didn't wait, I started calling immediately; found a dealer in Orem, Utah made an appointment...


The group re-huddles.....

Motorcycle traveling

Readers Opinion

OK, I think I'm done changing the look of my blog - sorry to those of you who have seen the various iterations in design and thanks for your patience. I'd like to ask you to take a moment and drop me a comment about what you think about the new layout. This is my first time ever trying to, I don't know - do you call it programming?, work with CSS or anything more than basic HTML.

The sidebar photo is of my '07 Harley Davidson's engine - the bike is black so the bulk of the inset is black. The background is I-17 North on the road to Prescott, AZ. I'm not married to any of these changes just trying to get something a bit more than just the standard Blogger Template.

Please, let me know what you think.

Thanks

Ride Safe
Troy - Whiteline.

and it's starting to rain

....On top of it all we were in the middle of no-where and it's starting to rain...

Just prior to this trip I had decided to quit smoking for the umpteenth time, but like any deviant addict I had my stash, so as quickly as I could get off the bike I grabbed my cigars out of the pack and lit one up... ahhhh that was good... the bikes still "focked" but I enjoyed that cigar as much as I could, climbing back on the bike I go into one of my favorite resting positions - sitting backwards in my saddle, feet propped up on the backrest and my back against the tank, and I began to cry - not the boo-hoo kind but there were tears escaping the confines of my riding glasses, the group came together; first to check out the damage and offer the obligatory "DAMN! Dude you're lucky to be alive!", and then to offer some comfort in a very uncomfortable situation. No one knew quite how I was going to take this - my dear, loving, very close friends weren't quite sure what to do. They knew that while my wife and I were physically fine - I was an emotional mess, I have to admit that losing that bike - even 9 years later - still hurts.

This trip that we had planned for months - daily - the trip that we had poured everything into, built social events around, lived - breathed - and lusted after.... was, seemingly, over. The group still needed to address the elephant in the room.... so......

What do we do now!

We're in the middle of nowhere - surely we won't get cellphone coverage, and if we do who do we call? There was nothing to do but to try; between us we had five cell phones and five different cell carriers, it's worth a try. Now, who to call? I had, just on a whim, enrolled into a bike club just prior to our departure. Remembering that one of the services offered to club members was roadside service - very much like a AAA for motorcycles. So I called; the phone worked; the operator answered and a tow-truck was dispatched. We were told it would be about an hour before they arrived and they would haul us to the nearest dealer or authorized service shop at no charge...

and it was still raining...

Motorcycle traveling

International Splash for Trash

I really have some fairly strong feelings about posting anything on this blog that's not motorcycle related. I've done it one other time with my commentary on John McCain showing up at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally only because he was just sooooooo out of place and was just a dumb-ass for some of the comments made while he was there.

I would like to take the liberty again and post a link to my other blog (I know shameless blog promotion, 'sorry') Wynd Mills and won't repost the entire article here.

Along with a motorcycle enthusiast I am also an PADI AOW Scuba Diver, I know, again with the ... "Really? And you live in the Deserts of Arizona?!"... sigh... Yes, but the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez are only 4 hours away!

This weekend - September, 20th, is the annual International Cleanup Day, also known as the Splash for Trash that is sponsored by Project AWARE . Check it out and if you can come up with a couple of spare hours this weekend go out and take a nice walk along a lake, river or any shoreline and pickup a few bits of trash.

Thanks for listening :), now back to the job at hand... getting ready to chaperone a group of 6th grade boys at Science Camp for 3 days! I'm going to start drinking anytime now ;)

Peace



Scuba Diver,Splash for Trash

Curiosity and Other Distractions

I have been tweaking the style of my blog template lately which has taken a bit of time. I'm not quite happy yet but it will get there. I've also been working on a couple of other projects with my kid's hockey team; I know crazy right? Hockey in the deserts of Arizona, go figure. Anyway, I just wanted to put out a quick post to let you all know that I'm working on the next post in the series. The story really does get better - both interesting (first) and then, well, really better :)

Ride safe

Moab in the Mirror

Moab is in our rear view mirror, breakfast is starting to settle, we're all fuelled up and ready for the next 100 miles.  We catch I-70 West for the 30 miles or so that we need to take it, our cruise speed goes from 70-75 mph to around 85 so the miles click by in a blink.  The cooler air feels good in comparison to the oven we rode through yesterday although we are starting to ride with a bit of cloud cover and the threat of showers the weather seems to be holding out for now. 

The traffic on the Interstate isn't too bad, although I still hate riding the Interstates when I could be taking a back road.  Back roads always seem to offer just a bit more to look at and to think about as you ride through.  All of those thoughts that pop into your head, well at least mine, prompted by your senses; the smell of alfalfa - now where's the field; I wonder why they let that barn go, what's the story behind it? Is there a place we can get Ice Cream any where around?  On the Interstate it seems as if I spend my time thinking about everyone else on the road.  Before we know it the exit to 191/6 North is in front of us and we're heading north once again. 

It always feels good to know that we were ticking off the miles in the right direction.  Shortly after our exit on to 191/6 there's a fuel stop and since we've put some pretty decent miles on the group decides it's time to sync up with everyone.  After the quick stop, a little bit of joking around and we are off again, our next stop - Helper, Utah.  The plan is to fuel and then start the trek north-easterly towards Wyoming.  A mile or two down the road and it begins to rain, just a sprinkle to start with but soon turns into enough that we pull off to the side and get the leathers on, then it's back on the road.  The rains don't last long and don't slow our progress.  The road is wide open with very little traffic we may have seen a car or two so far.  Long open roads plus very little traffic is a motorcycle formula that only equals speed.  The posted limits are 55 and I'm certain that my speedometer hadn't seen that number in a while.  Over the rolling hills we went continuing to make time;  We (my wife and I) were riding second in formation out closest to the center line on the two lane highway when our day came to an abrupt halt. 

You see, along with all of the things that I love about riding back roads the one thing that I hate, as do all motorist, is that there is not the same level debris cleanup as there is on the Interstates.  At 70+ miles per hour I didn't see (until it was too late), and couldn't avoid the pot-metal piece of wheel rim that I was about to hit.  The rim was about 8 inches in lenght with a slight curve, it was also a very similar color of grey that nearly matched the pavement of the road.  When I did see it, I had just a split second to try to manuver around it, unfortunately I caught the edge of it and sent it upward in to my engine.  At the time I didn't know that it actually had pierced the engine casing, my focus was more on maintaining control of my bike which from the force of the impact had it's rear wheel lifted slightly off of the pavement as the metal passed underneth us.  Slightly shaken I began to slow and move to the right hand shoulder when the trail rider began blowing his horn and pointing right.  Immediately I pulled to the shoulder, stopped and got off of my bike only to find what little bit of oil that hadn't been blown out of my engine was now dripping to the pavement to add to the 40' oil slick I had left as my trail.  I checked to make sure my novice biker wife was ok, shaken, but ok.  I looked back down the road and my buddy who was trailing was slowly coming up next to us holding the piece of rim that we had hit. 

My heart sunk at the realization of a couple of things:  First and foremost; We were lucky to be alive, that could have easily thrown us.  and, My trip was now over - I had tools but nothing that would repair a 1 1/2 inch hole in an aluminum casing.  The bike that I worked so hard on, poured every spare penny into, and spent countless hours customizing for this trip was never going to make it's entrance into Sturgis.  On top of it all we were in the middle of no-where and it's starting to rain...

Motorcycle traveling