Shots From The Road

Always sad to see a great old house allowed to decay like this. This is the style of house I'd have if it were affordable to buy one in livable condition.

Shots From The Road

Give it a couple more years and it'll just be a big green mound.

Old Bikes

Antique bike show up in Gold Hill, NC this past weekend. Gold Hill is a neat little town with some interesting historic buildings, and a very nice park for this sort of gathering. Unfortunately, the gathering was fairly small, and these represent probably half of the antique bikes present:

Never seen an Indian police bike before, wouldn't mind having one.

Interesting engine arrangement; doesn't look particularly comfortable though.

Sharp-looking bike, but.....

seat technology has come long way; bet it would be tough riding for a full day on that.

Sweet; I'm partial to baggers myself. Handy having rain gear, 'cause sooner or later you're going to hit some serious weather.

Street Art

With our initial move over (into an apartment, until we can secure a house), it was time to take a break yesterday, and get out on the bike. Two hundred yards from our apartment, and we're on a two-lane black top with curves, hills, beautiful old home, decrepit old homes, farms, and historic downtowns in every directions.

The images above were taken in Mooresville, NC. There's been a resurgence of appreciation for old advertising in the local area, with some individuals repainting old damaged advertising ( as in barely visible, but still present on the building) to bring it back to as it would look when it was new. Pretty neat to see, since it can't really be restored, and would otherwise completely fade away or appear shoddy.

You've Got Future In Politics, Kid

Congratulations, leftists. I think your years of infiltrating the American education system are bearing fruit:

"Look, we're teenagers," added Murray. "We can't always like think for ourselves. We need the government to do it for us."

Let me says this now: it sucks that the young lady died. I wish she'd been able to get up from that accident, brush herself off, and think about what went wrong. It didn't happen that way, and now everyone else must pay.

A bit of advice, kids. Bad decisions by one individual doesn't mean the rest of us are willing to have others make our decisions. There's far too much of that already. And if you want to make an effective argument about how laws will uniformly result in compliance, I suggest you look at your social circle. I'm willing to bet cash there's a fair number of your peers smoking weed, drinking underage, not wearing seat belts, shoplifting, and sampling prescribed meds that aren't theirs. Because I was a teenager, as well as working 20+ years in hospitals and the military. I've seen how law oriented kids are.

Laws motivate those who are afraid of punishment, and there's a fair number of you that don't seem to respond to that. If you want people to wear helmets, I suggest you try persuasion. But that's harder, isn't it. Because people still have a choice, no matter how wrong you think they are. But in the spirit of reciprocity, here's a suggestion. How about we ban all teenagers from operating personal motor vehicles? Or any wheeled transportation device? That should make things safer, and since you can't think for yourselves, you don't really need any input on it, do you?

Does It Come With Special Sauce?

Courtesy of Cap'n Ken's, Lake Park, Iowa. Nothing like this on the menu first thing in the morning after staying up with a bunch of bikers swilling cheap beer 'til 0200. Me, I stuck with the biscuits and gravy that morning. I like my morning grease intake in a traditional form.

Random Luck

Funny what just pops up along the road sometimes.

It's All Relative

Addressed to me in the parking lot of the local Mega-Lo Market today by an older gentleman:

"I don't believe I've ever seen an air conditioner strapped to a motorcycle before"

Response:

"Once you've seen three Egyptians with three large suitcases riding together on a 125cc through Cairo, it's not that impressive".

(Nope, no picture of those three guys. It's hard to take a good picture at 0200 in the AM at 60 mph, and if I were on the receiving end of a camera flash at night in that situation I'd be seriously pissed off at the guy with camera. Bike picture, however, is one of the many locally owned Egyptian bikes out and about, most of which were about that size. If you owned a 600cc, you were King Stud of the local bike scene.

Shots From The Road

Springtime in Iowa. How could anyone want to live somewhere else, when you have vistas like this?


In all seriousness, midwestern small towns often embody values that I wish we'd see more often in our politicians. This monument may be small, but relative to the size of the town it's in, it wasn't cheap. Especially in terms of the names on it.


You can still find some old gas stations scattered here and there, although most of them have gone through a host of different purposes over the decades.

With a little luck and some time, I'm hoping to get some more riding time and pictures in before deploying. I'm definitely not a photographer, but there are many interesting (to me, anyway) things I run across on the bike; stopping to get a closer look makes the ride even more enjoyable.

Another Summer Gone.......

The cycles are are trailered for winter, all the wood is split and stacked, and the lawn mower is stored. Now the six month wait for the weather to be good enough to get the bikes back out starts.

There's been a number of years where I've ridden well into November, but those summers weren't short, cold, and wet like this one. I'm guessing this winter will be early and hard, so the riding season is pretty much over for me.

I gotta get a job further south.

Hawgstock Part III: Wierdness & Debauchery

From here on, it's strictly lewdness. Those that are offended by skin, go no further.








Yes, that is a waterslide. A naked waterslide. Only rally I've been to that has one. A waterslide, that is.
Before getting critical here, keep in mind: it's hard to take good photographs in the dark, when things are moving fast.






Pretty much sure I'll be going back next year. Anyone heading that way in 2010, shoot me a line.

Hawgstock Part 2: Bikes, trailers, etc.

You know you're a regular when you can have a permanent fence around your campsite:

Powered by Briggs & Stratton (literally):

An older style of artwork; reminded me of '70s van murals:

I'm guessing the name on the gas tank is fairly accurate:

Hawgstock Part I

We left for Winterset Thursday evening, dodging storm cells the entire way. As we arrived at 11:00 PM, no pictures were taken until Friday morning. Above, the road leading into the campsite.

You know it's going to be an interesting ride down the hill to the campsite when you're stopped to to let the gravel truck head down first:

Looking forward to the ride down the hill (mud and fresh gravel on slope....) One of our neighbors:
The shower stage. Not much too look at during the day, but it got interesting later......
Pretty much what the general area looks like:
And the lewdness begins. From this point on, those that are easily offended or at work, STOP HERE.

The Butt Contest. Be thankful I haven't put up all the images I have. This was open to both sexes, with men first. We'll just skip that. Secondly, I've foregone posting pics of the contestant who apparently thought it was a rectum contest. Repeatedly being flashed the brown eye by a malnourished middle-aged woman is damn near as bad as being in the crowd during the men's competition.



From there, it was a strength contest. This was actually interesting to watch; how long can a line of drunken bikers hold a gallon of water straight out in front of them? Pretty damn long, some of them:
Note the third guy from the left; Tom Savini's long-lost brother?


More later, and yes, it does get better.