Rock and Rolling Thunder...

It's midday on Thursday and I've got several hours of work-time still ahead of me. After that, I'll be in full "Road Trip" mode. Shoot home (gassing up along the way), get home, get packed, mount the flag assembly on the bike and get ready to rock and roll.

It's tough sleeping on a night before a road trip, but I'll do the best I can. Hell, I may even try to get to bed a bit early, since I'm looking to roll out of the driveway by 6am tomorrow morning. Hoping to get a jump on the holiday traffic I'm sure to encounter.

Here's wishing everyone a great long weekend. I'll have some pics and stories to post upon my return.

Until then, thank a vet and remember what this holiday is all about!

Ride Hard, Take Chances

9 down, 99 to go...

The 9th annual Cinco de Roasto event has come and gone. By all accounts and feedback received, everyone had a great time. Thanks to those that were part of the festivities, and to those that didn’t make it; you’ve got 363 days to prepare your schedules. No excuses next time!

Special thanks to the highway-hardened, long distance riders from NY who made the trek once again this year. How great is it that these guys are willing to rack up 1,000 miles, just to hang out with us for one day? How many folks would be willing to do this? And they do it each year, too!

Thanks to Patch and Kathy for coming down from NH once again. As always; great to see you guys!

Our special guest (Paul) made an even longer trek, coming up from Tennessee for the shindig. His original plan was to hang out until mid-Sunday and then hit the road, but since he wound up staying over last night, too, I’m guessing it’s safe to say that he had a fun weekend, just like the rest of us. (The extra night’s stayover had something to do with a charity run’s after-party yesterday, but that’s just minor details, LOL.)

But this year’s “longest distance traveled” award goes to Erin. Our good friend that we haven’t seen in years, and she made the trek out from Washington state! How sweet is that? And with any luck, we’ll see her again at next year’s bash, too.

See what this party is becoming? I used to say it was multi-state, but now I can say it’s trans-continental! So for those that haven’t made it yet, you gotta get here!

9 years down….99 years to go. Or more…

Next up; Rolling Thunder trip is in 4 days…

Preparations...

It's late on Friday afernoon. Folks that are scheduled to arrive soon are near the town borders and closing fast. There's only one way to prepare for this kind of assault...

Ice...


And beer...
I'm ready - Bring it on!!!

After Hours With Paul

NY has arrived, as has our mystery guest Paul. Add to that mix a healthy smidge of Greg, Patty, Dave, Rob, Bill, Tara and a myriad of other lesser known associates, and you have a evening full of fun and frivolity! We hit Clyde's for eats and treats (and by 'treats', I'm referring to the 12-oz kind), and some good old fashioned laughter. Actually; lots of laughter.

The night was whiled away in this fashion for many an hour until someone happened to glance at some sort of time retention device and realized...well...realized that it was getting late. Add that to the fact that tomorrow is a very long day, and what do you end up with? (Let's see...beer + beer + beer + beer (you get the idea) + not so much sleep, and what do you have? Uhm...I'm not sure, but it has something to do with being tired). Anhywho, the decision was made to pay our debts to the bar, and mosey on home.

But for this nite, 'Home' includes our good friend Paul. Although, I must say "good friend" with some trepidation. For you see, when Paul shows up, well...ok, I can't blame everything on him. But lets let the film do the talking, shall we? You'll see the sheer level of alcohol debauchery that he invokes...

Hmmm...ok, I guess the computer is tired, because I've tried to load the pics a few times now, but the pics just won't go through. Anywho, suffice to say that dastardaly Paul has forced me to have an additional two beers since I started writing this post. He's evil, I tell ya!

WHOA! The pics just loaded! Ok, so here you go...

I had taken a pic before this one, of just the SOCO and the wine bottle, but I'm not going to try and find/load that one now. Because it took almost an hour to load the pics that are here now. At any rate, here's the first pic I have to offer; a bottle of SOCO, as well as a bottle of wine. Both are courtesy of Paul. Oh, did I mention the SOCO is the 100 proof version? Yeah; there'll be no taking-it-easy on our livers this weekend.

The skull bottle that's on the right is a bottle of skull vodka that, since our buddy was with us, we might as well break out and do some shots of. Hey, it's harmless, right?

The next thing we knew, Hey! We have a bottle of tdequila rose! We should break THAT out and give it a taste. Paul, have you tried this stuff before? No? Sweet, let's do it!!

Now this all sounds like a light heartede, fun time. And it would have been...had it not been for the bud lights thrown into the mix along the way. No, seriously; there were bud lights flying all over the place. Here is a quick shot I managed to take that shows the sheer carnage I'm referring to!

And there you have it. I'm going to post this now, and the time stamp will probably say something silly like it was posted at midnight or something. But that's because it doesn't understand how things work when Paul is in town. Because when I say that it's much later than midnight, I mean it's much later! It's 2am! For real! It is two-ay-em in the morning! And we have to get up and prepare for a very long day tomorrow! So with that, I will say adieu.

By the way, Paul, who is sitting right here and had been feeding me beers as I hammer madly at this keyboard, has no idea what I've said about him.

Ha ha ha, I love Cinco de Pig Roasto weekend!!!!!

It's the Pits

The 9th annual Cinco de Pig Roasto will commence after one more 'sleep'. And as much fun as we've all had over the years, there is one integral member of the shindig that the years have not been kind to. Who might this be? None other than our dear and trusted friend; the fire pit. The metal is heat-stressed and corroded, and the cinder blocks have all but fallen to pieces. It was time.

After a brief moment of silence, the dismantling began. Here's a shot of the rack, after the old cinder blocks had been removed from around it.

Here; a pile of dead cinder blocks. We thank you for your cotributions over the years, fellas.

No time to wallow in our sadness, there were new recruits lined up and ready to assume the position!

Ta da! A new design (cinder block only) and a new roasting pit! We're rockin' and rollin' and ready to go. Here, co-conspirator McCarthy is caught in action. Well, kinda in action...

Bring on the pig!!

Cinco Countdown...

The 9th annual Pig Roast and Partay is 4 days away...and I'm just as ready for it as I am at this time, every year. The to-do list is a mile long, but no matter; some things will get done, others will not. And we'll still have as great a time as we always do.

Work has been a bear this week, and tomorrow will be more of the same. But I'm taking Thursday and Friday off to get the house wrapped up (as much as possible) before it's 'go' time.

Electrician/Cook Extraordinaire Michael may wind up coming over on Thursday to help do more work in the basement. Either way, there'll be some beerverages involved with the days' tasks. Friday will be more of the same, but even better; we've got co-conspiritors coming to town!

The NY crew shows up Friday night - as well as a long-lost buddy of ours (Paul) that's coming to town for the shindig. We'll all catch up, then it'll be out for beers and eats. Then; back home to get more stuff done...although, I'm not sure how much more work will get done as Paul will be hanging out, too. And you know that'll mean more beers into the wee hours. No matter, I'm always too wired about the party to get much sleep anyway. Saturday will be up early to meet the cooking crew and take 'em out for breakfast, then it's a long "party-hearty, Marty" day, putting the last person down sometime before 4am (hopefully). Sleep a few hours, then it's up and clean madly because we've got registration going on for a charity ride on Sunday. And of course, that will entail an after party (that I've heard is going to kick ass). Sunday evening will be early to bed (har har har, I kill myself!) - ok, that'll probably be a late one, too. Monday will be a major haze...

Every weekend should be like this!

To those who keep asking what they can bring; pack me an extra liver, will ya?

4 days...

Flag Mount Install

I had a sweet setup for mounting a flag when I had the fatboy up an drunning. Now that I'm on the EG, the back tour pack offered a new challenge. I did some looking on-line for ideas on how to mount flags and I managed to find info on a setup that works pretty well. Check it out...

The boxes arrived in short order, all made in USA. Sweet!
Shiny new parts! And COLOR instruction sheets! This company has it going on!

Step one; yank out the saddle bags to allow access to some bolts that need to be swapped out. (With the saddlebags out, I bet I could transport 30-packs with ease...)

Next; remove the lower bolts on the saddlebag rail frame, as well as the inner bolts for the inner (black) rails.

Some assembly required to get the mount base ready.

Here, the receivers for the base are mounted and ready. They look like gun barrels...

The base is installed into the receivers...

Left saddle bag installed back into the bike. Also, the receivers for the flag poles are installed onto the base, too.

Clean shot of the assembled base with the post receivers.

Now on to the snext stage; adding some structural integrity. Items needed are (4) 1/4-20 bolts with nylon nuts, a small section of tubing, some sections of aluminum flatstock, a bungee cord that has metal hooks, (4) eyebolts (with nuts), and (4) pipe straps.

Remove the hooks from the bungee cord, and twist the hooks so they're 90 degrees off from each other.

Slide tubing over one of the hooks...

Drill a hole in one end of the flatstock (a sophisticated metal shop is not required)...

Insert through the hole and tighten the hook closed.

Slide the protected hook over the rear fender rail...

Measure length needed, mark and cut. Also; fold the pipe straps around the post, as shown.

Repeat the process for the other side. Then create an additional support piece to run between the two posts.

A close-up of the folded pipe straps, and the flatstock bolted in place.

Next, measure for the flag grommets and install the eyebolts.

Final pic with flags installed.

Finished, and just in time; We did a memorial run yesterday, out in Worcester. It was for PFC Brian Moquin, who was KIA 4 years ago in Afghanistan. The turnout was great, the weather was beautiful, and a great time was had by all.

The flag setup worked well, but the one drawback was the poles I'd bought. They were a little flimsy and didn't handle higher speeds very well (they flexed and swayed a lot, including smacking into each other). I'll have to look into picking up sturdier posts. After that, I think I'll be good to go.

Another test is coming up in two weeks; I'm heading down to DC for Rolling Thunder '10. Gotta make sure this rig will handle 10+ hours of highway speeds!

Next up; the 9th annual Cinco de Pig Roast! 5 days!!!

Pacific Coast Scenery!

These pics don't begin to do justice to the amazing shoreline...

And here's me sticking my feet into the (FREEZING!) water. I've now officially had my toes in the oceans on both sides of the country. Sweet!