Turkeys and Motorcycles

Dad and I took our first ride of any considerable distance yestarday morning (about 180 miles). We started in Tyrone GA and headed south to Luthersville and ate breakfast at the County Line Cafe - which is one of those little joints that only the locals go to... or better yet, the only place the locals HAVE to choose from. It was a good country breakfast and quite reasonable. Then we headed on to Greenville and started to get into some pretty thick fog which was kinda neat. It sure helped keep the temperatures down. Once we got to Greenville, we were supposed to head east to Hogansville but I suggested we continue on south to Warm Springs. Since I had read a book about FDR last semester I was interested in going through there. Once there we headed over Pine Mountain and no sooner did we get up in elevation a hundred feet or so, the fog broke and we could see blue sky. After stopping for a gaggle of about 15 wild turkeys to cross the road, we headed up through some twisty roads and over the moutain and coincidentally stopped at the same scenic overlook that Little and I sort of had our first kiss at (sort of... long story, though a pretty silly one). Then we came down through the village of Pine Mountain and headed back towards Greenville. It was starting to warm up a bit and by this time it was about 10am or so. At Greenville we headed towards Hogansville. It's a neat little town with a really cool old 40-50s style theater along the main street. Reminds me of Leave it to Beaver. We stopped and I called a buddy of mine who bought an old cotton warehouse downtown and has turned it into a garage, playroom, apartment. Unfortunately he was not at home so we pressed on to Newnan. Hit some road construction along the way and it was really starting to get a little toasty. In Newnan, we stopped and window shopped a bit at the motorcycle shop that Dad bought his helmet from a while back. From there we headed back through Palmetto and then on into Tyrone from whence we'd come.

It was a fun trip. My butt was starting to burn a little towards the end. I don't know how these guys do 1000 miles in 24 hours... INSANE!

Since we had all taken our Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Basic Rider Course this past week, I was anxious to get on the bike and try some of what I had learned. Getting used to the bike took some time as we'd been on little 300lb Honda Nighthawk 250cc's in the class, instead of my big 1000cc 600lb beast! But, by the end of the ride, it felt normal again.

Looking forward to riding more as the weather cools down. I am really enjoying this and I think it will be fun to take some longer trips.

Emeril's and Motorcycles

Me, Little and her family ate at Emeril's on Saturday. While it was not on the menu, we asked the Chef to do a "Taste of Emeril" which is kind of a freelance thing. It consisted of 5 courses plus desert and it was spectacular. We had grilled antelope loin and duck enchiladas with a chocolate mole sauce (among other things) that was pretty incredible. I have a wonderful glass of Shyrah too. It was a great experience... as it always is.

Sunday morning I got to take a nice ride on my motorcycle. It was quite cool out (relatively speaking) and I had a very nice time. I sure enjoy it!

My motorcyle WAS perfect! :(

The story:
So, for those of you just joining us, me and three coworkers all got Connies about 3 weeks ago. Due to final exams and other stuff I did not get a chance to get on mine until this past weekend, though the other guys have been riding quite a bit.

My first time out went well this past weekend. I did some slow speed parking lot work and then tooled around on some back roads for about 45 miles. A pleasant, though somewhat intimidating experience. I felt my confidence was improving with every intersection, which is good as I naturally approach things with quite a bit of apprehension.

So today after work I went for another ride. A bit more traffic due to the time of day and whatnot, but everything went great. Got over to my girlfriend's place and parked it in the parking lot and put Charlotte on her sidestand. I was pretty hot... it's Atlanta during a ridiculous heat wave.

I was trying to get my helmet in the Givi trunk (it's a big helmet, XXL - I have a big skull to hold my larger than normal brain). Couldn't get the thing to latch right. Pushed a little too hard on the trunk and over she went. Like slow motion... I tried to stop her *snort* Yeah! Right! Then she hit the ground with a crunch. I was moving to pick her up before the sound of metal clinking around on the ground (the sickening sound of broken pieces) stopped. I just knew the entire apartment building was looking at the pretty new motorcycle and the strikingly handsome chap getting off her in the parking lot. I almost heard the collective *gasp* as they all watched her topple followed immediately after with a *chuckling* "Man, she WAS perfect! What a BOZO!" Using Skert's technique (thanks Skert!) and my significant mass, I got her up off the ground pretty quick.

The damage:
Scuffed right mirror. A nice little scrape on the pipe. A broken side bag antler and a badly scraped up Connie bag. Some scuffing on the black body trim and a scuffed foot peg. I guess it could have been worse. She could have hit the car in the other parking space... or worse, I could have been on her in traffic.

The lessons:
1. Lock the front wheel towards the left (same side as the side stand). This keeps the center of gravity lower (yeah... I had it locked the other way). Especially when you are on a slight (ever so slight) incline to the right.

2. Put the side stand down AFTER you have stood up off the seat. This allows the suspension to fully extend into the up position, putting additional weight on the side stand and your "three points of contact". I didn't do this either... I put the stand down while my significant mass was fully on the seat, fully compressing the rear suspension. I'm not sure I can explain this right, but I think it had something to do with it.

3. GET MURPH'S TIP OVER BARS! Nuff said!

4. Lastly, when you are hot and frustrated by some mechanical anomoly, rather than hotter and more frustrated, walk away, cool off and come back and look at it when you are not so hot and frustrated.

She was perfect too. As clean as a showroom model. Out of all four Connies that we bought, she was the cleanest (sorry guys, a baby is never as pretty as she is to her parents). Not a single scratch, spec of dirt, smudge of road grime... nothing! She had been meticulously maintained. 15k miles and she didn't look at mile over 500.

Now she's got some battle damage. Problem is that it wasn't much of a battle. Not even a skirmish. Kind of like going through combat only to get wounded in a training accident after the war... "What a BOZO!"

So, thanks for reading. I'd like to think I'm not the only Bozo out there, but somehow at this moment, I feel really alone!

I am now a motorcycle operator. Up until now, I have been a "motorcycle owner", as I had picked up the bike 3 weeks ago but had not gotten ride it yet. And I choose the word "operator" as I don't really consider what I am doing to be "riding". To me, "riding" means that you exhibit some level of proficiency with it. Right now I am trying not to get killed or kill myself.

I've finally got it back from dad's garage and I'm looking at it in the driveway right now (sure is pretty). Dad and I took about a 25 mile ride yesterday. I felt better on it this morning than I did yesterday but I think part of that is that I knew the roads that I was on this morning. Certainl level of comfort from knowing what is around the next bend.

Despite the high pucker factor, it was a BLAST! I actually laughed out loud in my helmet this morning on the way over. Nice and cool, sun rising through the haze, my pony tail beating the snot out of me... GREAT FUN.

So, keep us all in your prayers. Then, go buy a motorcycle!

So I finally have a helmet. It took several weeks. I have an unuasually large head (a "grosse kopf" for you germans out there) and it took some effort to find one to fit. I guess when you have such a large and useless brain as I have, you need a large skull to hold it in. It's yellow (see the picture) which says "Look at ME!" which kind of mirrors my personality, no? I am hoping it will be very visible to other drivers as well.

I took my last final exam for the this semester last night. Pretty sure I got an A on the final. A B on the final still gives me an A, so I am 99.99% positive that I have a 4.0 gpa for the semester. Not bad for an old fart with no short term memory.

I found more than 800 bucks on the sidewalk leaving class last night, in an envelope. I turned it in... what was I thinking? Went to trivia afterwards. It was nice to hang out some for a change. I don't have class on thursday nights next semester so I should be able to make it more often.

So, it's a good day today :)