Day Trippin'

I realize I'd said I would head south on my Saturday day trip but after looking at the weather again on Friday afternoon and seeing that the wintry mix had moved further up (Maine), I figured this would be a good chance to head up to Vermont and check out some roads I've been meaning to check out, for ages.  Vermont isn't too far at all so I didn't see the need to head out in the darkness of Friday night and instead; waited until daybreak on Saturday morning.

Ahhh...looks like a balmy day for riding...

Let's get some miles on!!

I headed up 495 and picked up Rte 2 west.  When I got to the border of ? and ? (I forget the names of the towns), there's a bridge that I've passed over many times before and have always admired the light posts on either end.  I figured today would be a great day to stop and snap some pics;

There were a couple of plaques to take pics of, too.  First one was on the concrete base below the light post...

And the second one was on the bridge itself...

Can't walk out onto a bridge and not snap a pic of the amazing scenery below...

After continuing on for a while, I picked up 91 north and crossed over into Vermont, proper.  Taking the 2nd exit put me briefly onto Rte 9 at the same spot that we hit when cruising from Olean to Maine for Labor Day.  But I was going in the opposite direction, rather than heading towards Maine (unfortunately).

At any rate, about a half mile up from there, I turned on to a side road which was to bring me out to Rte 30.  However, just before I got to that intersection, I spotted an old dirt bridge on my left so of course I had to pull a U-turn and go back to check it out...

Wow - 1889!  That's pretty impressive. 

I took a bunch of pics, but you get the idea.  I think this one here is my favorite one from the day.

Too bad Matty wasn't with me, I imagine he would've loved this thing.  What he probably wouldn't have loved was the way the edges were pressing outward, at the tops of the walls.  I noticed it at first when I was standing on top of the bridge and looking over the side.  Once I was down inside of the tunnel, looking up at the ceiling revealed just how bad things are.  (This pic is looking directly up at the ceiling...whoa...that's one hell of a crack!)

Back out onto the road, I picked up Rte 30 north and saw some nice sights along the way.  Including a very long covered wooden bridge.  I could see that it was blocked off, but still had to pull in and see what the deal was with it.

Some history...

Ok, so I wonder why (specifically) this thing is closed off.  Hey now, look at the sag in that floor!  That's probably not very safe...

Holy crap - now that's what I call a fallen arch...

This is what it's supposed to look like...

Back to the road, and continued up 30 until I connected with Rte 100.  Ahhh "Scenic Byway"...I love these signs.

Cruising around some cool twisties, I was keeping a sidelong glance at the (almost dry) riverbed which was matching the road for twists and turns.  Just as I exited one of the corners, I spotted something out in the middle of the riverbed which warranted yet another U-turn.

After finding a spot to set the kickstand, I first felt an obligation to take a pic of the riverbed itself.

And then - hey look - it's a rock stack.  These things are pretty cool...

Ta da!  This is what I'd spotted from the road.  It was a very tall rock stack, sitting atop a huge boulder, out near the inner edge of the riverbed.

If you go back to the first picture of the riverbed and look at it again, you'll see the huge boulder with the stack on it.  It's located on the right side of the pic, roughly mid-way, top to bottom (of the pic).  It was tall enough to have caught my eye as I was rounding past it.

I placed my helmet next to it to give a rough idea of perspective.  This thing was pretty tall!

Back out to the roadways, I continued meandering down 100, around corners, up and down hills...and found I was soon riding in areas that had snow on the ground.  Granted; it's not much snow, but it's still snow!  And if you open up this pic and look at the background, that's a ski area (Mt Snow) and the wisps of white are their snow making equipment, working full blast.  Aaaarrrgghhh!!!  It's too early for this stuff!

Thankfully the road soon took me out of the snowy area and into...Hey...what was that I just saw flash by on the right?  Yep; another U-turn...look, it's Snoopy!  I found him!

(Which reminded me that I still need to see if I can find a place to mount my stuffed Snoopy on my new bike...)

Anyway, continuing on, I soon picked up Rte 9 and headed east, and before too long, I found myself atop a very familiar overlook...

Yup; Hogback Mountain.  Man it sure is different in the late Fall.  I went inside to see if I could get a Cherry Garcia ice cream.  It would have been great to send King a pic of me eating one of those, but no dice.  I guess there's not much market for ice cream when the temps are in the high 30's.

Here's a nice panoramic photo for you.  The view was very good and clear.  The skies were beautiful...not so much the dead brown landscape.  Bleah.  Winter is far too close...

And there you go.  There weren't any other pic-worthy items on the rest of the trip home.  The temps had peaked slightly during the mid-day, but were now dropping again and the chill was beginning to work its way into my bones so I hammered the throttle and shot for home.

I wound up with a hair under 350 miles for the day.  Not bad for a November day trip with chilly temps.

Where should I take the bike this coming weekend?

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Sights, Sounds and Smells

Another alliterative title today, Dave.  What's up?  Well, let's find out...

The morning commutes have been getting chillier and chillier, as expected as the Fall slides by and Winter has begun to appear on the horizon.  Daylight savings has passed, bringing the accompanying morning blackness as well.  They say things happen in threes, so what's the third one?  Well that would be the woodland creatures (deer, mostly) foraging and looking to bulk up for the coming winter months.  And that means they're out and about now and visible more often.  Just yesterday morning I passed one on the side of the road, standing there as if patiently waiting for me to pass by before proceeding out into the roadway.  I'm sure I can't count on all of his brethren being as polite, so alertness will be key in the coming days and nights!

There's your "sights"...what about sounds and smells?

Sounds...well, I'm beginning to wonder if the new motorcycle is damaging my sense of hearing at all.  I don't blast the radio very often, and the pipes aren't that loud, so how can this be happening?  Believe it or not, I'm wondering if the new windshield design, which sends most of the passing air sliding over my shoulders and past my ears, is causing a higher-than-normal level of "white noise".  This causes me to have my radio louder than normal, but it doesn't sound louder.  However, whenever I shut the bike off, I'm finding that the radio is pretty loud.  What are the implications of all of this?  Well, the tinnitus that I've had since a young age is getting a lot louder lately.  I've gone had it for so long that I'm able to block it out most of the time, but lately I'm noticing it more and more.  I guess time will tell how this progresses and whether I decide to do anything about it.

And that takes care of "sounds".  Now, on to smells...

One of my favorite things at this time of year is cruising back roads in the chilly air and coming upon a house that has a wood stove burning.  I see the light gray smoke rising from the chimney and slowly wafting down around the yard and (hopefully) across the road.  When I see this, I know my olfactory sense is about to get a treat.  Sure enough, as I pass through the mix of smoke and air, my head is filled with the pleasant aromas of burning wood, which give rise to thoughts of gatherings around campfires and fireplaces.  Good times with good friends come to mind, and it makes me long for some of the times past, while also looking forward to great times still to come.

The weather folks are calling for a clear night tonight and a sunny day tomorrow.  I don't have any current plans until tomorrow night so I'm contemplating stretching the bike's legs on a good long ride.  I have no destination in mind - I'd contemplated heading north but with a wintry mix in that forecast, I think I'll head south, instead.  I may take off tonight and just ride until it's late, then find a place to stay.  Or, I may wait until tomorrow morning when there's daylight and the viewing will be better.  Either way, there'll be some throttle twistin' going on.

Riding season is dwindling and I want to get some more miles rolled up before the snows start arriving.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Halloween Hijinks

I headed over to Ed & Sue's for their annual Halloween event on Friday night.  They had set up decorations galore, had the fire going, and it was a great evening.  A bit chilly, but not too bad considering it was November Eve.

I brought my usual pumpkin + roll of TP + kerosene with me so that we could have a nice flaming pumpkin.  I also brought a couple of extra ingredients this year; boric acid and gas-line antifreeze.  Wheee!!!

Ok, first the decoration pics...

 

Trust me when I say that there were MANY more decorations than just these, and that they looked amazing in person.  It's tough to snap a decent pic when it's dark out.  (Yes, I even tried using my "night" setting.)

Ok, on to the pumpkin.  Ed and I scrounged around until we found a piece of plywood to lay down to protect the grass (we had marginal success on that), as well as a cinder block to place the pumpkin onto.

A simple face was carved, the kerosene-soaked TP was placed inside, and voila!  A flaming pumkin!

I added some more kerosene to increase the flames a bit and snapped a few pics. This one caught our eye - what the heck is that thing at the top, just to the right of the flames?  It looks like a flame fairy or something.  (I thought it looked like something jumping from the third rope in a wrestling match...)

Ok, on to the green flames; boric acid - HEET gas-line antifreeze, and ta daaaa!

I started getting a little carried away with this stuff and began just pouring it all over the pumpkin.  The problem with that, of course, is that being spread out so thin, it burned up very quickly....

...but was awesome!!

More than once, Russ came up in our conversations.  After all, he'd introduced us to "copper wood" and we're pretty sure he would have gotten quite a kick out of our version of the green flames.

Here's an action segment for your viewing pleasure (please forgive the sideways angle).  I wanted to get a vid of the green flames shooting up so I asked Ed to do the dumping.  He got a little too close and the flames shot up inside the little container of mixed fluid, and you can hear a bit of a "whoosh" right near the beginning, but since the container was just about empty, and wasn't capped, there was no injury, just an accelerated heartbeat on the poor kid.  :-D

When all was said and done and the flames had burned out, my poor pumpkin looked rather disgruntled.  Actually, he looks like a pissed off Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, lol.

For next year, I'll need to make some changes; maybe I'll soak the TP in the boric acid + HEET, rather than the kerosene.  I also want to see about making different colors in addition to the green.

It was another great and fun night, spent with great friends.  Hopefully you all had a fun and safe evening as well!

Halloween Decorations

I tossed a few decorations onto the bike in celebration of the day;

Of course; nobody saw them on the ride in this morning; pretty hard to see things at 5:30 in the morning when it's pitch black out.  But they'll be plenty visible for the ride home this afternoon.  I'll have the usual skull mask on, as well.

Once I get home, I'll swap the bike for the Jeep and head over to Ed & Sue's house.  Why swap for the Jeep?  Because I've got too much stuff that I'm bringing with me.  Stuff like kerosene...antifreeze...boric acid...  You know; the normal everyday stuff for Halloween.

No, I'm not making a bomb.  But I am hoping to make something...

Stay tuned...

A Sad Indication...

I had a text from McCarthy yesterday, asking me a favor.  Of course I said yes - I mean hell; the guy helps me out at any/every opportunity he can.  But it doesn't mean I was happy about it.

What was the favor, and why wasn't I happy about it?

Here's why...

For those that don't recognize what's in the pic; that's Michael and his son's bikes, in my basement.  No, I don't mind at all that they're in the basement, what I'm not happy about is that they're officially in storage now.  It's just another indication that riding season is winding down.

Another indication is the really, REALLY cold rain that I got caught in last night.  At least it was a short ride home, though.

Daylight savings is this weekend.  Now it won't just be dark when I ride in, it'll also be dark when I ride home.  Bleah.  I need to start thinking of a plan where I move to the South for the wintertimes.

Ride Hard, Move South

Where the hell have you all been?

Yeah; just kidding.  I'm the one who's been distant again.  Nothing personal, just been pretty crazy busy.  Let's get you caught up with what's been going down...

I had my work Halloween party on Friday.  Between being burned out from the budget, as well as some big changes to the party itself, I really wasn't "feeling it" this year.  But, as the time got closer, I realized that if I didn't at least try something, I'd be kicking myself.  So, I hunted around on-line for some ideas, found something I thought would work pretty well, and then did some searching on You-Tube for tutorials on how to pull it off.  What was the costume?  It was Harvey Dent, aka; Two-Face, from the Batman series.

So there you go; a picture of what the costume is supposed to look like.  And here is how mine came out...

Not awesome, but not terrible, either.  I was voted into the prize-winning group again, but wound up in last (10th) place.  Oh well, I'll take it.

Saturday night was our Post's annual Halloween party and I did the same costume up again.  I figured what the hell, I had extra makeup left over so I might as well use it up.

Here are some pics of the decorations for the hall...

There were a lot of great costumes and funny costumes, as I'm sure you've seen on FaceBook.  Everyone had a great time and we raised over $500 for the annual Kid's Christmas Party, so it was a win-win for everyone.

Last night I met up with Aaron and Chrissy, Ed and Susan, and we went to Barrett's Haunted Mansion.  They're doing a special "bite and fright" promotion where you get dinner (at their on-site restaurant) and admission to both haunted attractions, for only $30.  That includes tip and tax, too!  Considering that admission alone costs $24, that's a pretty great deal to get a meal, too.

The weekend was a very Halloween-themed one, and a lot of fun.  The only downside is that riding weather is winding down.  It was a very chilly ride home last night at midnight!

This coming Friday is Halloween proper and Ed & Susan are hosting their annual driveway frightfest.  The weather looks hopefully-promising, so with any luck; there'll be a great turnout of kids, and costumes.

Hopefully everyone is having a great Halloween season!!

2014 Daytime Halloween Run

I’ve been lax again, haven’t I?  Well, working 18 hour days kinda saps my energy for doing anything other than going home and getting some zzz’s.  But the good news is that (hopefully) the long days are over for this year and I can be somewhat responsible again with getting posts up here.  So with that said, I bring you…

The 2014 Daytime Halloween Run

The weather looked to be decent for this past Sunday’s Halloween run; a chilly start, but schedule to warm up quickly.  I set to decorating the bike with the usual myriad of Halloweeny items.  However, there was an added bonus this year; I’d been able to collect s bunch of old Halloween decorations from work which they were going to toss away.  Sweet!  Ok, I can’t get too carried away, but let’s see how I did…

First, a couple of mini skeletons on the crash bars, secured with zip ties…

 

Check out the hair on that second guy! 

I had a third little guy, but where to put him?  Ahhh, here’s a cool little spot for him to hang out…

With the quick detach luggage rack in place, I had the luxury of adding a couple extra things this year.  The skull must have been from some sort of full-sized body because it had a section of square steel tubing sticking out the bottom of it.  I drilled a hole it in, fitted an eyebolt and then secured the skull in place with more zip ties.  The vulture had wires coming out of the bottom of his legs, so I wound those around the luggage post and then used some mini bungee cords to hold him standing up.

 

The Haunted Hitchhiker made his customary appearance on the bike.  The wooden rack I rigged to his back fit down into the slot between the driver’s and passenger’s sections of the seat.  Then a couple of mini bungees to hold him in place and he was good to go…

 

Or was he?  His hands look pretty empty…

 

Ahh, much better; a spare crow wired and bungeed into place and now we’re all set!

 

That was as far as I wanted to go for decorations.  Much of this hadn’t been tested before and I didn’t know how well everything would travel, so I didn’t want to push my luck too much.

And that was it.  Now, just a matter of waiting to see who would show up for the pre-gaming.  I’d sent the word out over email earlier in the week, but since my phone was still non-operational, I had no way of knowing if anyone had texted or called to say they were coming.

Not one member of the usual crew showed up – which surprised me quite a bit.  Usually this thing has a good sized draw (Little did I know that this was a portent of the day to come).  At any rate, some of my new brothers from the Riders showed up and we hung out and had some good laughs before saddling up and heading over to this year’s rally point.

Arriving at said rally point, I was quite surprised to see that the turnout was far lower than other years.  What gives?  The weather is nice and sunny, the air is warming up well…huh.  Oh well, let’s get some raffle tickets and a beer and kick back for a bit.  Maybe there’ll be a last-minute rush of arrivals to bulk up the parking lot.

Nope.  When it came time to depart, the numbers were still quite dismal.  And this theme carried through for the run itself, too.  Not only did we have far fewer bikes than normal, we also had far fewer spectators along the route.  Sure there were still folks along just about the whole route, but it wasn’t the throngs and throngs that’re usually to be found.  Oh well, it was what it was.  And I did get a kick once again with all the kids pointing at my mask again this year.  I don’t know what it is about that thing, but kids (and some attractive ladies, too!) always point me out.  Maybe I should leave the mask at home one of these years and show them what a really scary face looks like.

When the run was over and we rolled back to the Canton Town Club, we found our numbers had dwindled even more.  Look at this pitiful showing…

 

Apparently a number of folks had peeled off along the way.  (Shrug)  No worries for me, just improves my odds at winning a raffle prize.

Let’s get some food!  Uhhhmmm…nope, not yet.  The food wasn’t even close to being ready.  What the?  Who the hell is running things around here?  It’s a cardinal rule that when a run is going on, the food is ready when the bikes return.  It’s not like they don’t know the route the bikes are going on, or don’t know how long the bikes will be gone for, or what time they can be reasonably be expected to return.  Whatever.  Let’s get a beer.

After about half an hour, the food was ready…and it was not worth the wait.  Pulled pork sandwich, potato salad, bag of Cheetos.  The pork was bland and essentially tasteless. The potato salad was watery.  The bag of Cheetos was the only tasty thing there.  Well, let’s see how I do with the raffles.

Do I even need to tell you how I did with the raffles?  All losing tickets again – for the whole table of us.  F it, we’d had enough and decided to salvage the day by heading back to our Post to watch the end of the Pats game.  That was a good game to watch so at least we had that going for us.

So there you go; the 2014 Daytime Halloween Run.  Man, this thing is really slipping.  It used to be an ENORMOUS run.  If this year is any indication of what’s to come, this thing doesn’t have many years left.  Which is too bad, because the funds raised always go to great causes.

Let’s hope it’ll return to its glory next year.

Ride Hard, Take Chances