Two Days and I'm back.

Of course you all knew I wasn't going  be able to sit there and watch the snow very long....  It did stop snowing by about 5 pm, and I went over to my son Ben's house to announce I would leave in the morning...  I drove in 4 wheel drive, but the plows were out on the major roads...

The next morning it seemed to clear for a little while and the sun came out...  So I loaded the Jeep and shut the house down...   I drove in 4 wheel drive until I got to a major highway where I shifted into high 2 wheel and bolted for the interstate...

The highway had a number of folks that had recently slid off into the median, and they were still standing next to their cars,  wondering what to do next...  The Jeep didn't falter or slide a bit...

Once headed South on the Turnpike I came upon a fellow standing in the median talking to another driver in the opposite lane...  Then rounding the corner, I found his semi truck laying over on its passenger side in the ditch..  The dirty side and wheels were facing me...  I'll bet that will call for a new pair of shorts....   But he seemed OK...  I pressed on...

As I got closer to Wichita, the sun went completely under and it was clear that their storm event was an Ice Storm with not nearly as much snow...  Drippy sloppy slushy mess as I stopped at a McDonalds for bathroom and a burger...

While the sun never did come back out, the highway became dryer the farther West I went.  We stopped in the rest area at Bloom, Ks, and Biscuit got her walk in..  She seems to like this place as its like a little park, but the smells cause her to be quick about the stop.

Onward, Guymon, Ok, and then Dalhart, Tx..  Where a 6 inch sub called my name.  It was dark by then, and I didn't realize that the snow on the ground had increased...   By Tucumcari, Nm, it was at least ten inches...  That's about 580 miles, so I got a motel room... I've stayed there so much, that all I had to do was tell the fellow my phone number and give him a credit card...

I was in that room for about 9 hours, and with a fresh shower and hot coffee biscuit and I were on the road again the next morning...  I 40 was covered in that white salt road deicer powder....  Some folks were managing so slip and slide in that stuff..  Several cars were again in the median with their drivers looking perplexed...  But the sun was out and for the most part the roads were clear.

Things were sloppy in Albuquerque, but I only stopped for gas...  In Gallup, I stopped for another 6 inch sub..  Once I made Holbrook, I stopped and broke the ice off of the Jeeps hood as the temperature was now above freezing for the first time...

With only 180 miles from there and still the middle of the afternoon, we headed South over the Mongollon rim...  There was some snow and wet roads up there, and I took a rock right in the middle of the windshield...  So that made the trip a little more costly...

It was 57 when I arrived here at the house, and I was back in a light sweat shirt..  But the people in Wal Mart last night had winter parka's on....  A matter of your perspective I'm sure..

Retired Rod

Storm sitting

Christmas is over and the dishes are done and put away.  I've eaten all the food in the fridge.  Even some of the old frozen dinners that should have been tossed out...

But what I am really doing is watching it snow out the back windows of the house...  The low pressure is traveling up the Mississippi River valley so we are on the back side of that low..  The warm rain is going up North toward Iowa and then freezing..   Its then coming back South around the low and dumping on us...

When I lived up in Iowa, the city people would get right out and start working on the roads the very moment it looked like snow...  Sometimes it would come down in bushel baskets so they always wanted to be ahead of that...

But here in KC its much different..  They never get much more than 6 inches and they really could care less if it gets cleaned.  Oh they get the major roads on the one mile grid, but the residential streets...........  not so much..  And I live on a dead end cul de sac..  So down it comes, coating everything white...  Its Ice underneath as it was freezing rain for the two days before.  I haven't started the jeep since the day before Christmas...

This storm is travelling Northward and Somewhat East thru Illinois...  Of course my itchy travel bug is nagging at me to get the He!! out of here for parts South and West...     "lets go!!!!"

But the pictures on the TV of all the cars sliding off of the roads thru Amarillo and parts West toward Albuquerque...  have me just parked....  You have a Jeep........ after all.....  What's your worry..   But what good is a Jeep in black ice...?  Do you want to drive 30 miles an hour all the way back to the Southwest?

I need to get up and do something...... but everything I do is aimed at packing my things out by the garage door...   Nervous...  Who me?

Retired Rod

Merry Christmas

As it is now almost midnight on Christmas Eve, I am safe in wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

All of my family is coming over here tomorrow and I am providing the dining room and many of the dinner and side dishes, but the main ham is being cooked at my oldest son's house....  Outside of cleaning up and getting ready, I have only been hanging out.

But I have also went thru another test at the Hospital form my ongoing Gerd disorder...  This test involved having a tube placed in my nose and forced down to the top of my stomach.  This probe was connected to a computer recorder that I wore in a harness over my shoulder.

Of course sleeping with this NG tube is a difficult task..  And the leaking of the stomach valve seems to be worse after I go completely asleep..  I'm not sure I ever did go to sleep during the test, but I know for sure that I was really ready to go get the tub removed the next day...  

Of course they haven't called with the results...  Maybe sometime in January.... LOL

Again, have a good Christmas..

Retired Rod

Now I have gone somewhere

As I was looking at the weather forecast on Thursday, I realized that it was going to get really cold over the weekend in Phoenix..  They were talking about Snow in the Rim area north on the way to Holbrook...   Snow...  

I wanted to be back here in Kansas today, (Tuesday) as the Romeo motorcycle group were having their Christmas lunch in a favorite barbecue in Belton, Missouri..   Since riding the bike was out of the question with my sore touchy, we took the old Chevy pickup.  Since most folks have now seen the truck, its old hat now..

There must have been 60 bikes and they counted 79 folks, so most all of the people did come on their motorcycle.   We filled the entire dining room.

So last Thursday I just tossed a bunch of clothes and Biscuit in the Jeep and started for home.  I stopped that night in Albuquerque..   With the dog, I stayed at a Motel 6..  It was one of the newly remodeled ones with the laminate floors..    No carpet..   It seemed cleaner, but the mattress was still thin and hard foam, and the bath towels are the size of hand towels..  Thin hand towels..

I didn't sleep much with my sore butt..  But look at the bright side, I was up early to get back on the road and beat the rainy, snowy, Western Kansas event.  Friday I drove all the way to Wichita.  My backside hurt all the way, and I did resort to some Alleve, even though it messes up my stomach and isn't compatible with by blood pressure med.

I Wichita, I stayed at a Rodeway Inn where I had to show the folks what Biscuit looked like and pay a cleaning fee.   She absolutely won't go potty in the house, but they don't know or trust that.   However much more that room cost, was well worth it..  We were on the road at 8 AM Saturday and into KC before noon.

So now I have set up housekeeping here again, complete with starting the heat pump which ran for most of the rest of the day.  We have had warmer temps here than in Mesa, but that came with a rain that flooded us out on Sunday.  The Minister at church Sunday, commented that it would have impressed Noah..

So now it is incumbent on me to try and get into the Christmas Spirit..  Any ideas?

Oh, Live Writer...  Since I usually use linux as an operating system, LW has never worked for me.   So I didn't know it was even gone.  But I do know how hard it can be when something that is a favorite is suddenly gone.   But I do hope everyone will continue to do a blog, as we miss you when your completely out of touch.....

Retired Rod

Still here

I haven't gone anywhere, I'm still right here...   But about a week before Thanksgiving, I was working out in the garage hanging some tool racks on the walls with long screws into the wall studs...

The house in now several years old and the studs are now dried out  and hard to screw into..  To gain leverage, I had set a ladder up against the wall and was up a couple of steps, pushing on the drill.  You can see what's coming..  The ladder tipped over and I stepped backwards down to the floor all at once.

Of course there was a rake handle on the floor and I didn't catch myself at all..  Going down hard on my backside.  I got up and shook myself out and went on with the work...  But......

Or maybe I should say BUTT..  Cause in a couple of hours that was where the major league pain was located.   And as the days progressed, it hurt more and more..

Seems like I was better when I was standing up but sitting and going to bed.............   I tried to ride the motor cycle, but that only lasted between here and Wal Mart..  And I was in nasty pain on the way back.

In the mean time I had a new Sway bar come in for the Can Am and I laid on the garage floor with my jacks and stands installing that.  I took it really slow and thought surely I would be better in the morning...  I went once around the block to make sure it was installed correctly but came directly back....

The long and short of it, is that I have bruised or sprained my tail bone, and there isn't anything you can do but just wait for it to heal..  I've purchased a couple of different cushions here locally and off of Amazon and a big bottle of Tylenol..

Some of my buddies back in Kansas tell me it might be months before I can ride the bike....  I guess it can really take a long time to get back right...

So I have had nothing of interest to report here in Arizona other than lounging around on my side on the couch watching TV and reading the posts here on the internet...  I think it is slowly improving, but I went to church on Sunday and sat on the hard chairs which caused a re laps of pain for the rest of the day.

I'm hopeful to return to KC to see the grandkids for Christmas, but at this point I will just have to grin and bear it for the 20 plus hours it takes to get back there....

Retired Rod

Mr Murphy

As you might remember, my laptop didn't boot up when I arrived here in Arizona from Kansas..  I thought it was the hard drive, and would need the key code to reinstall windows 10..  So I set it aside as a project to be completed back in Kansas over Christmas vacation..

That left me with only the Microsoft Surface tablet...   Heck its a laptop almost....  Well not really..  That's were Mr Murphy came in..

I had gone riding with the Goldwing Club down South of Tucson and didn't get back until almost dark..  And when I came into the house, I found the Guitar amplifier howling loudly in a feedback loop..  And the clocks all blinking...

Obviously we had a power outage..  Biscuit was in the back bedroom under the bed, and its no telling how long she had to endure the noise of the guitar system..  When the power came back on the amp rebooted itself and went into a really loud crunchy mode as setting 00..  It then heard itself thru the pickups on the guitar and began the feedback howl..  Poor Biscuit...

The power bounce also knocked off the cable modem and router that is connected to the Cox feed here at the house...  I couldn't get connected with the Surface tablet...  And the magic jack phone didn't work either...

One by one, I rebooted stuff but couldn't get the tablet to log on..  After about an hour of messing with it, I decided that the wifi adapter in the surface had a scrambled driver program.

That is kind of an achilles heal.  Tablets have no hard drive or provision to load programs other than one USB port and the wifi connection to the internet.  So how do you fix the connection to the internet without the connection to the internet?

By now it was 8:30 so I made a really quick trip to Best Buy to purchase a USB wifi adapter.  I'd only need it for a few minutes to download another copy of the driver programs, but the adapter I had in Kansas City was a long ways away.

Arriving home, I cut open the package only to be confronted by an installation DISK.....!    Laptops and tablets don't come with DVD drives any more...

I was completely disconnected from the internet.......... fish out of water...  I was gasping for bits and bytes....  Well, I still had my phone... But I was going to need that Dell Laptop working...  I went to bed wondering if I was going to have to go purchase another laptop....

The next day, I began by researching the symptoms of the Dell...  Using the phone as my only connection to the net...  I couldn't bring up the rom bios in the Dell no matter what I tried...  Usually the bios will help you analyse the bad hard drive...  But the computer was beeping... But it was beeping 4 beeps and then a pause...  So I researched four beeps and found out that meant it didn't have any memory strips..

Disassembling the memory door and removing and cleaning the contacts and reseating the memory, I held my breath....  And it booted!!!! I was back on line!

Windows 10 though immediately  went into its update mode as it had been away from papa for weeks...  It took several hours to get it back functional...

I had to go buy thumb drives to copy the install disk onto the tablet's micro SD card, as it only had one USB port and it had to have the removable wifi adapter in order to install.  For a minute I thought I was going to need a USB hub too..

With the light on, on the netgear adapter, I connected to the internet and went into the windows settings control panel and updated the drivers for the onboard adapter.  It only took about 10 seconds........

I went from no working  computers, to both of them working, just like that..  Well the Dell is still working on another update........  lol  Seems to be the Microsoft way of things..

Please don't tell me to get an Apple product though, as I just can't get over them keeping their money in Ireland to avoid paying their taxes is the USA..  They only have $130 billion stored off shore......  While you and I pay our taxes...

Retired Rod

Bike Night

Bike night is held every first Friday of the month in downtown Mesa, Az.  They block off the streets on Main for two blocks, allowing only motorcycles in a Sturgis like tour of Main Street.  Vendors are set up hawking many wares..

Live music is set up in the streets for roped in Beer Gardens.  You tube is short.... LOL

Well OK for the local guys...

Probably 5,000 bikes.  All of them moving or parked along the street..  Even more were in the lots behind the buildings, where I parked as well.  I did drive up and down the street for a couple of passes, but didn't find anyone from the Goldwing club.

My shaky arms can't hold anything still, so long exposure times ruin any pictures I try to take.

They installed light rail thru the center of Mesa that comes from Phoenix thru Tempe..  They try to rope off the crowd with all the cones along the road..  Crossing guards are at all the cross walks and in the center of every block.  The electric trains make very little noise..  Only a couple of blocks farther is the end of the track.

There were so many cool bikes on display, but for my friend and riding partner Al, I took a picture of a scooter like his that was parked along the parade route...

Retired Rod

Up a Mountain and Broken Laptop

I haven't completely disappeared..  but my laptop went South on me....  Its a Dell and a fairly nice one but....  It didn't survive the trip to Arizona..  It won't boot up..  Looks like a hard drive crash...  And my software product code is somewhere back in Kansas...

I could go purchase a new hard drive but then I would have to buy another copy of windows 10...  That seems like money that doesn't need to be spent...   So I have been living with just this tablet computer...  It has nothing on it that didn't come with it..  Its a microsoft surface with 128 Gig.  Nice enough, but not as a production computer with out another backup machine..

I did get picasa downloaded and edited the header picture, but it is one I downloaded from the group photographer that went with us on our first ride up Mt Lemmon North of Tucson..  That went up to 9,000 feet and it was really cold up there...  I wasn't dressed for that and about froze..

That turned out to be a 325 mile day and I got home after dark...  Biscuit was really mad at me but didn't mess in the house...  It took her about a day to quit scolding me....

The following week we rode to Gila Bend on I 8 most of the way to Yuma...  The photographer wasn't along, so I have no photographic evidence..  Somehow my helmet wifi seems to run my phone down when its connected up...  I never have solved this problem..   Its been that way for a long time..

So that kills the phone for taking pictures, or using the maps feature to find my way home..  But after all these year coming to Arizona, I don't often get lost...  Well, except when we were in the North end of Tucson...

About half way down Mt Lemmon, there is a rest stop where the viewing point is built out over the mountain valley.  It makes kind of a dramatic picture...

I'll bet its kind of cold up there today, as it is only 63 degrees here in Mesa and the sun keeps going under the dramatic looking cloud cover..  It more than likely snowed up on the mountain..  The man in the Mt Lemmon restaurant was planning on closing for the season when we were there and that was almost three weeks ago..

I will have to determine if I can hook a wire from my camera to this tablet and download photos, as it will be Christmas before I can go find my product code  to try and fix the laptop...

Retired Rod

On into Mesa

As some of you may have wondered, I was planning on doing the three 400 mile days on the way down here arriving on Sunday night...  But the weather here in Phoenix was looking questionable for that Sunday night arrival...

That is what caused me to hold up in Holbrook at about 2 in the afternoon..  And it turned out that that was a wise decision.  They had a rain and wind event that afternoon and evening here..  I didn't need any part of that...

I was up early on Monday looking at the weather report, and they were forecasting more of the same for the end of Monday as well..  But it is only about three and a half hours from Holbrook, so that was the plan.. Get a move on..!

I had a quick breakfast and cleaned up the dishes and mopped the floor on the inside..  Then showered and went out to do the tanks and hoses..  I was on the road by 10 AM..  I had filled the diesel tank the day before so I headed right out to the South..

I go thru Heber and then Payson on the small roads as that saves major miles..  But you have the curvy mountain roads..  Your already at 5,000 feet in altitude at Holbrook, so you really don't notice the climb up over the rim.  But the trees become Ponderosa Pines, and stand as tall as in the Colorado mountains..  Once over the edge at 7,600 feet, its right down the hill on 6 to 8 % grades until you reach Payson at 5,000 again.

From there it is a yo yo of up and down hills and curves..   When you reach the town of Rye, your down to 3,000, but that's a ruse as you have to climb back over 4 again before descending toward the valley..  I makes the motorhome grunt and growl on those long hills.  You wear out from all the curves and downshifting as well.

The sky got growly too as the forecast of rain caused those pesky sprinkles that pass for a rainy day here in the desert.. I arrived before 2 PM local time.  This year nothing was broken during the trip, unlike other years..

I spent the rest of the day unloading....  in and out, over and over..  It was well after dark in the storage lot as I unhooked the Jeep..  Sleep came easy..........

Retired Rod

The latest doings and a road trip.

As I sit here, and read that I am missing in action, I realize that it has been  a while since I have posted a blog...  Life was boring but very busy this last couple of weeks....  Each fall, I start off changing oil in most of the toys for the winter...

So adding a collector car only added to that work..  It wouldn't be bad, but I don't know exactly what year the engine is in the old chevy...  We guessed about 2003 but the oil filter from that erra didn't fit..  Turns out a modern day filter from 2007 and newer screws right on..  I need to find the engine number on the block but don't know where to look..  The engine is so jammed into the old frame and fenders, it would be hard to see as well..

The motorhome was taken to Freightliner for its annual service.  That's expensive but it is next to impossible to service at my city lot home..  Not to mention the 4 gallons of used oil that come gushing out when you pull the plug..

I also hired the pontoon boat serviced, while we were in Huntsville, Alabama..  They did a tune up at the same time..  That was just in time for the labor day weekend..  It was much needed, as the engine was running sick..

I lost track, but I think everything was serviced...  Oh and the underground sprinkler system needed blown out.  But I had to wait for the Google fiber folks to fill in all the holes they dug putting in their new system..  I washed with the pressure washer in my driveway for the longest time to get rid of the mud..  They pieced the sod back together in my front yard... Are we having fun yet?

Well, anyway during all of this, I parked the MH in the driveway and began loading stuff for Arizona..  That was when I decided that the axles in the 48 chevy needed serious service..  The shop that sold me the car couldn't hear what I was complaining about, until we got going about 50 mph and turned off the engine and coasted in neutral..   Then it stood out plainly..  Of course I bought the car as is..  Since it is pieced together from used parts..

As it turned out, the bearings in the back wheels had ruined the axles..  And they had already had spacers put into them once before..  So I got to buy all new parts..  Ouch..

Once that car was back in storage and the clothes and stuff were in the rv, I left the house..  Enough with all this fun..      I wasn't overly prepared, and had fun driving across brown old Kansas thinking about all the stuff I should have  brought along.  I stopped at Wal mart in Emporia, KS to pick up the first cart full..  I had let the groceries run way down in order to not have so much to load.

Friday night was spent at Western Star RV park in Liberal, Ks. 390 miles.  Last night was at American RV in Albuquerque, 380 miles and tonight I am at the KOA in Holbrook, Az.  240 miles.  All three of these parks have been jammed with travelers..  The lady in Albuquerque, scolded me for no reservations, and put me on the very front corner of the lot.  That was about 100 feet from I 40 interstate..  I ran the fan in the AC, and left the TV on to try and cover up the noise, but was awake at 5 AM.  The time change made that an hour earlier, so it was 6 back home..

Its less than 200 miles from this park to my home in Mesa, and its down hill most of the way..  I'm hopeful to make it in the morning..  I haven't changed my watch to Arizona time yet either... One day at a time..

Retired Rod                                                                          

The Eclipse

For those that missed it... Me included..

This was taken by the Mesa Arizona GWRRA chapter D photographer, Chet Shupe..  Chet uses a Pentax DSLR that is as big as a house to carry around..  And he takes pictures with it while he rides a Honda Valkyrie...  He just holds it up and fires over the windshield..  Then he edits the pictures to be square and moving the subject to the middle...

I assume this was edited with the same software, but I have no idea what he uses...

Retired Rod

Its a Classic....!

Ok, since the cat seems to be out of the bag over on facebook, its time to introduce this little addition to the stable here in Kansas City....  As you can see it was for sale at a body shop along the frontage road that is visible from I 35 here in Olathe, Ks.

A week ago on Saturday, I was riding along on the motorcycle over in the old part of Olathe, when I came across this little gem sitting beside the interstate..    You can see the highway out in front of the truck.   I stopped to investigate...  Its a 1948...  And went on sale in October of 1947...  I was born in November of that same year...

As we ride all over Kansas, I am always looking at farm places to see what kind of old vehicles are out in the groves around farm places...  Hoping to find an Advanced Design Chevy pickup...  Advanced Design was the first post world war II pickup to be built once the war was over..  They started in June of 1947 and were made as 47s for four or five months, and then became 1948s.  They were made up thru 1954 when they were redesigned into a more modern vehicle called the task force..

This is not a kit vehicle, it has a 1948 vin id number and has been registered since then... But I don't know its history which might be interesting to try and find out...  The vin number has only 9 digits, as compared to the 17 digit numbers on modern vehicles...  This is a 3100 which is the half ton truck it was also a short bed..  And I have learned that there were some long bed models back then as well.

But there isn't much of the old truck left...  The actual frame and the cab you sit in with its old doors..  Some of the dash but not the instruments..  Mostly it has been redone..  Since some time in 2013 a fellow that lives in Merriam that I haven't met, has constructed what you see here...  He purchased a modern day wrecked chevy truck and has harvested the engine and transmission..  A 5.3 liter V8 and an automatic 4L60 Tranny..  That gave us power steering and power brakes.   The front axle is designed after a Ford Mustang II with rack and pinion steering..

Oh, and you have to love that vintage air conditioning unit there on the top of the motor...

After finding the truck on Saturday, I went back by in the car on Sunday only to find the truck gone from the lot....  My heart sank..........!  But maybe it just went to a car show or something.....  I reasoned to myself..  But at 9 AM on Monday it was back...  By 10:30, we were inside the shop leaning on the fender of another classic Ford that didn't have an engine yet, but was painted a beautiful plum purple..  I finally asked the guy what his bottom dollar would be if he had the money in the next couple of hours..........  He threw out a number, and I just shook his hand, saying Deal!!  Did I pay too much....  probably..  But remember he thinks he sold it too cheap...

I keep wondering if Loyce would have let me be so frivolous to buy such a thing on the spur of a moment...  But then I think the look on my grand kids face as they rode by their house says it all about whether they like it... Don't you....?

Retired Rod

More new shoes.........

Last winter I decided that my motorhome tires were out of date and the front ones weren't balanced any more either....    They still had some tread left but they were dated in 2007 and that is 8 years old...    But the things are expensive....

So I went over to the tire company in Mesa and bought two Toyo tires for the front axle..  Steer tires as they are called, but that was just to tide me over while I drove home....  And they did drive home much better than the old original equipment Goodyears..

So I priced some more Toyos last week and they were much cheaper here in Kansas than they were out in Mesa  about $350 a tire...  Mesa charged $450 or so...  I didn't find the original bill..  But then I didn't make up my mind and while I snoozed, the Toyos all sold out....  None in KC anywhere...  Snow birds getting ready to go South....

So what to do..  Double Coin are Chinese but some truckers are running them and think they get better mileage..  Cost more than Toyos.........  Looked up Hercules but didn't find very good reviews.. Again Chinese but stories about sidewall cracking at two years old...

The Coach came with G670 RV Goodyears, but the darned things are almost a grand a wheel..  So my tire guy said let's try some G661s which are Commercial Truck Tires and are back in the $600 a wheel price range...  They might ride a tad stiffer, but I'm the only one riding in there anyway..  Besides these were made in the USA...

When we were changing them out, they looked just like the tires we were taking off..  But I am certain the tire compounds are different...  But we never wear out the tires on motorhomes anyway, they rot out from sitting around.   By the way it took two of those blue jacks just to pick up one of the motorhome's wheels...

Well anyway, that is one of the Toyos leaning up against the building and we put the new Goodyears on the outside of the rears and hid the Toyos on the inside...  Then put the other two of the new Goodyears up front on the steer wheels....  So from just walking up to the coach it looks like they are all Goodyears..  Ha ha...  Surprise...

We used bags of balancing beads inside the tires rather than use wheel weights...  The little ceramic beads spin around inside the tires and find the right spot to balance things up..  When you start up they are in the bottom of the tire but spin out centrifically and find the right spot to balance things out..  That happens every time you start from a stop...  Neat..

I first used the beads in my motorcycle tires, and there you can really feel them working in the handle bars..  At first you might get a little bit of shake, but then like a miracle, its gone... Heavy wheel weights are easy to throw off of a truck wheel, but the beads can't get out of a tire...  Balanced for life..

I'm not sure your are supposed to put different tires on duallys like we did, but we'll know fairly quickly if they wear differently...

I drove about 10 miles on a divided highway North of Olathe and the new tires were smooth as glass...  But my bank account is screaming in pain though...

Retired Rod

Close of the Show, and the ride home.

Things here have been hectic, so I didn't get to write more about the wing ding convention until now...

Basically all we had left was the Saturday night final dinner. It was held in the Ice Arena that was part of the convention center there in Huntsville, Alabama...  It is a fairly new facility and hold lots of people....   The web site says 10,000 but that would be all of the arena seating for an event including the floor...

We were having a sit down banquet, so I have no idea how many folks were there, but I would guess somewhere around a 1500  sitting at round 10 person banquet tables...  I know the tickets were limited, and had to be purchased in advance...  Several folks said they couldn't get tickets..

It was a barbecue and was as good a rendition as could be expected from chafing dishes.  We all lined up in the hallways of the convention hall, and it was somewhat overwhelming as the line seemed several blocks long...  We only came a half hour before the event, and found ourselves way at the back of the line...

But when the doors opened, it went really quickly..  They had about 10 serving lines, but as luck would have it, since we were at the back of the line, most of the food had already been eaten....  I managed to get a couple of rolls and a gob of pulled pork with a really small ear of corn...  The salad was completely gone as were most of the condiments...

They were selling raffle tickets for the drawing....   Products were donated by JM headsets that were drawn randomly from a big barrel...  Some of the items were really pricey give aways... The money from the tickets was donated to a charity.

This picture was inside the arena as I waited to go thru the food line...  There was live entertainment that was overwhelmingly loud...  My cell phone doesn't do a good job with my very shaky arms holding it high above my head, so the focus is quite soft.

And with that, the party was over....   The vendors were open on Sunday, but we were out of there..

We rode from Huntsville across Northern Alabama and then up into Tennessee..  It was overly hot that afternoon, so we stopped often for drinks and air conditioning.  We stuck mostly to back two lane roads.  Having a sit down lunch at Chili's in Florence, Alabama...  From there we rode to  Savannah, Tennessee, and then to Dyersburg, Tennessee...   Stopping about 4:30 in the afternoon sun I was really glad to get off of the trike...   The heat index had to be in the 110 area... Sunday was 225 miles.

We again stopped at another Hampton Inn, but this one was an older property that was converted from a different motel...  It was more of a Motel format with interior doors..  The heat and humidity was causing low voltage in the electrical grid there in town, and we couldn't get our computer and cell phone devices to charge..  I had a meter in my top case and measured the voltage at barely 100 volts...  But as the night pressed on the ACs came back to full power and our items finally charged..

We were up at 5 on Monday, labor day...  Rolling by 6:30, we were out to beat the heat of the day..  Crossing the Mississippi river at about daybreak we headed off into rural Missouri on the small lettered roads...  We were in the boot heal and ran into several closed highways... We weren't really lost because we were heading North and West but you just couldn't get there from here..   Somehow we ended up in Poplar Bluff....  From there US 60 brought us across southern Missouri...

There is quite a windy road from Mountain Grove thru the forest to Lebanon, Mo.   This is somewhat like the dragon in Deals Gap, North Carolina..  It isn't labeled as a motorcycle run as it goes thru Ft Leonard Wood Forrest, but seems to have just as many curves and hills..  Its more like 40 miles long not 11 like the dragon... We zoomed right thru this stretch  (fun)..  Never seeing too many cars or police anywhere...  I think there was one gas station and it was a ma and pa gravel drive place..  We had filled back at the Wal Mart in Mountain Grove..

Of course, since we had enjoyed wonderful sunny weather up to this point, the clouds threatened all the way to Lebanon...  And stopping at a Wendy's in Lebanon for a quick coffee and bathroom, gave the storm time to catch us... So now it was rain suits for the rest of the ride into Lake Ozark...

Lake Ozark, meant we could stop at the lake cabin and save a night of Motel...  Also the restaurants are now familiar and it seems like home...  Monday was 310 miles.

On Tuesday it was on home after the morning pancake inn breakfast...  And the rains never stopped until we were withing sight of KC...  Another 160 miles.  8 days on the road!   The hot days were taxing with exhaustion and we walked a million miles in the show...   All and all another adventure.

Retired Rod

More on the Rally

Thursday   The official start of the show...  There was a breakfast, but I never signed up for that as I am not much on listening to the key note speaker....   But folks were there way early, while I was back at that Hampton Inn soaking up scrambled eggs and sausages...   Hampton does a nice job with their included continental breakfast...

But when we did get downtown about 9 AM we found everything parked full....   Streets were cordoned off and small alley ways were set up that only motorcycles can get thru...   This was a convention center with an Ice arena and many large meeting rooms as well as a commercial show floor...

We were having  much fun looking at all the motorcycles...  There must have be 6 or 7 thousand of them...  The had blocked off the parking ramp so only bikes could get in...  It was quite full and I had to park outside the first day...   There were three floors of these bikes...

As far as you could see in the parking garage.....  Goldwings...

These utility trailers that look to be something else are cute and were quite the rage a few years ago..

I'm not certain how that opens up, but you can probably put a lot of stuff inside....  But the corners aren't square so it might present a challenge....

While cute, the corvette seemed too small to be practical...  That's my black trike parked next to the trailer...  I had put my helmet on the back rack, but when I came back I found it knocked down on the paint...  I hope it was just the wind...  

We went to the commercial vendor show every day for three days in a row....  Not that we bought that much, but we seemed to be looking at everything presented...  We dug thru racks of accessories looking for just the right half cover to go over my bike when it is parked outside of a motel...  And I tried on almost every helmet in the place looking for one that fits my big head......   No snickering...!

I appear to have taken a picture of myself taking a picture...  In the rear view mirror...  But this is the line up to go on the parade on Saturday Morning....  They counted the rows of bikes and said there were over 2500 on this street they blocked off...

Even behind where I was staged, they started to make another group....  This was mostly full by the time we started out....   We were four bikes wide but they sent us off single file.  It took quite a while to just get us rolling...  The police had every unit at every corner while we went thru town and then left for the mountain to the East of the town...  We wound around on the top of the mountain and then came back down thru the really oldest part of town...  There were really big stately homes that were in mint condition of repair...   Everywhere folks were out along the parade route  with their kids watching us go by and waving...  My arm was really sore when we got back to the parking garage...

This is kind of cheesy but its what you do in order not to have the atmosphere created by Sturgis type of rally...  For the most part the bikes were parked and people walked around during the event....  There was no endless driving up and down the main streets thru town like the Daytona or Sturgis events..  There were no big bars or drunken folks..  The evening events were dry...

On Thursday evening they had a bike light show...  It was after dark and folks did parade thru the pre arranged course with all their bikes lit up...   This is a big deal to some of there folks as they cover their bikes is lights.....  And now that we have LEDs, the bikes are covered in all colors on every inch..  These are hot sales items inside the commercial area....

I include this picture as it was taken in the commercial area of the show...  This is a new modern Indian motorcycle that has been triked by Roadsmith...  It seems we were so busy talking to everyone and looking at all the neat stuff that we didn't bother taking many pictures inside....  The pictures were taken by my friend Al with his Iphone...

The format of the commercial area is half for people that actually work on your bike and the other half of the floor is for vendors that sell smaller stuff or just display their trailers and stuff...  There are quite a few fair like vendors hawking pots and pans and massage chairs too...   Jewelry and T shirts and the ever proverbial wonder cleaner guys........

If you purchased something to be installed on your bike, you could bring it in for the vendor to work on....  This is controlled with armed guards... Well strong arm anyway..   Our ride leader from the Arizona club is one of the guards that polices this...  I found him outside behind the building with a walkie talkie..  Lining people up in the sun to wait their turn.

You buy your accessory, and get a pass with a specific time on it...  Then you go thru a gate with a guard house and show your pass about 15 minutes before your time...  Then you wait in the dreaded line up behind the building...  They call your vendor to see when he is ready...  Then when its time, your are admitted to the show floor at walking speed as you make you way thru the people in the aisles...  Everyone in the show knows how this works so they make way for the guys on bikes going to a specific booth...  Many of the booths are pen stripers so don't touch the paint is another common thing to be heard...

I wondered how this procedure would work, but it seemed orderly and to my knowledge no one was hit or hurt....  

This is getting too long so more tomorrow...

Retired Rod

Road Trip (Wing Ding)

A lot of folks were out and about for the Labor Day weekend....   I'm sure campgrounds were jamb packed...  But my motorhome sat at home...   Forlorn...  And no I didn't go to the lake of the Ozarks either...  Although the kids and grand kids did...

I am a member of the Goldwing Road Riders Assn and they have an annual convention, they call Wing Ding...  It was moved to Labor Day this year from the fourth of July...  So I convinced Al to go with me to Huntsville, Alabama...  Its 675 miles from us here in KC.....   Road Trip....!

We left here on Tuesday before the big weekend...  It was really early in the morning, before daylight, so we watched the sun come up as we were riding on the Missouri side of our state line here South of KC.  By mid morning we were gassing up in Springfield, Mo.

As the day progressed we were in Mountain Grove on highway 60 at a McDonalds for lunch.  But only rested and got coffee..  Onward as it became afternoon we arrived in West Plains, Mo in the South Eastern part of Missouri...  There we stopped at a Wendy's (of course) and did get lunch...

It was starting to get hotter, as it was now above 90 in the afternoon sun...  Next it was the twisties of the Northern Arkansas, Eastern Ozarks... We were still pumped up because it was our first day out so we raced thru the Arkansas Hills....  Al lot of it is 30 and 40 mph corners, but we didn't slow up much from the speed limit and traffic didn't cause much trouble either..

By about 4 PM we stopped at a Super 8 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that I had made a reservation for on Hotels.com...  Place was a dump...  We had ridden 378 miles...   The first room didn't have a working air conditioner, and we really needed that after the hot ride...  But the second room was on the North side of the building and did have a better AC...  We had a nice evening meal in a family restaurant next door and crashed for the night...

Wednesday....    We were off after a quick breakfast in the hotel's breakfast room at about 8:30 AM and rode straight for Memphis...  The road becomes 4 lane interstate once 63 merges with I 55 North of Memphis and we rode right thru the town on the perimeter bypass highways...  I 55 is jammed with traffic mostly trucks, so we were glad to have Memphis in our rear view mirrors...

The rest of the day we rode across Mississippi and Alabama... The traffic was fairly light and tolerable,  That is until we arrived at Decatur, Alabama...  There we ran into a traffic jam...   You cross the Tennessee river there, and it was solid construction zone on the South side of the bridge..  Traffic was at a standstill...   We had to take off our riding jackets because of the heat from the stopped vehicles..  It took about 45 minutes to get about 2 miles to and over the bridge...  Enduring  riding a motorcycle in the summer requires you to keep moving to allow the wind to cool you off, so getting trapped like that isn't fun...

Once in Huntsville, we found our way across town and back out a small highway to the South where I had reservations in a Hampton Inn... It was in a valley between two of the mountain ridges.  Everything was lush green and it was much cooler up in the mountains above town.. It was as nice, and the previous nights room was bad...  Think warm chocolate chip cookies on check in!   We made an additional 300 miles on Wednesday....

More in the next post....

Retired Rod

Riding all over and how well do you swallow...?

I'm still here, but haven't done much other than the motorcycle ride things every week...  Its always another small town at 60 or more miles away..  Tuesday is the Kansas City group which is centered on the big city here, but the Wednesday ride is centered around Topeka..  Then to make matters even more interesting, we have been going on Friday as well..

Friday is Southeastern Kansas, but often comes North back up here toward KC...  So, if it isn't insanely far we go there too...  Last Friday it was Madison, Kansas which was 125 miles south of here by Emporia..  But it was for a lunch so we met early and rode down...  250 mile day..

This week on Tuesday we went to Butler, Missouri...  Its on the Interstate headed for Joplin about 70 miles South of here...  They had a kind of Shepherd s  pie brunch made with eggs and hash brown potatoes...   Filling...!   Then yesterday, it was decided to go to Westmoreland, Kansas...  That was 125 miles away, North of Manhattan, Ks where Kansas State University is located.....    The special there was Spaghetti with meat sauce...   The sauce was hand made with fresh cut tomatoes from the local garden.   The cook said she started it very early in the morning....   Much better than the jar stuff I dump out....  Two pieces of garlic toast...

Then one of our guys wanted to ride up to his home town of Bailey...   That was within 9 miles of Nebraska...  But the day was sunny and the clouds were puffy, on a deep blue sky....   We ended up riding 310 miles that day....  It was after 5 PM when I got home....  Biscuit was with Ben at his house so I was free all day....

Needless to say the motorcycle stayed home today....  But that didn't mean I was able to...  I had a swallowing test at the hospital..  I wasn't looking forward to that much and my feelings turned out to be warranted...

They put in an NG tube in your nose that has sensors connected to the computer....  Then you swallow 1.5 ounces of saline water and they watch you throat as it pushes the liquid down....    10 times..!  

You have to inhale lidocane jell into your nose before they can put the tube in so you don't gag so much...    That's the same stuff you put on a sunburn...  Tastes rotten in the back of your throat.  Then when she put in the tube, I thought I was going to pass out....    No wonder they usually put that tube in during surgery while you are passed out...  Then when its over, they pull it out all at once while you blow air out your mouth...  It didn't make it feel any better, but I think it gives you something to concentrate on while the tube is coming out...

Needless to say, I have had a rather sore throat tonight...   Ice cream for supper..

So what's left of me is still here and not doing much more than planning to go to Arizona again this year..  But perhaps those plans will make another post...

Retired Rod

Windows 10 first experiences...

It's July 29th....   And that was the day that Microsoft promised Windows 10...  And as I was using this new tablet that I purchased, a Microsoft Surface, a few minutes after midnight eastern, it came up and asked if I wanted Windows 10...

Not knowing how to get it otherwise, I closed what I was reading and answered it Yeah sure...  The programs must have been downloaded already, because it started right off installing the files...  And in less than an hour I was running W 10..  Well that was easy peasy...  I didn't mess with it for very long as it was well past bed time.

Today was a motorcycle function, but it rained...  So we went in the car..  And of course it was dry when we got to the distant town, so we took loads of BS about being sissies...

That's another story...  But anyway tonight I tried to see if my laptop would also down load the software....  Nope, no go...  Wait your turn, like a nice fellow.....  Then I saw an article about jumping the line up in Yahoo...  And then Rick up in Vancouver Island had a write up with better instructions, on how to jump the line...  So off I went down loading as he instructed...

This time I had to wait while the software down loaded 3 gig...  And then install it..  I think it was already on my computer, but the software didn't recognize its presence and pulled it down again...  This time it took about an hour and a half from start to finish....  And I have an I7 processor, but I think your hard disk speed is more the limiting factor...

So within less than 24 hours, I have both microsoft computers updated to W 10.  So what am I typing this post on..?  The Linux desktop of course...  But I have messed around with the laptop here for a couple of hours, and I couldn't break the software...  W 10 seems intuitive, especially if you are coming from W8.1... All of that jumping back and forth from the W7 desktop and the W8 charms screen is gone!!

They have put back the start button in even a more robust fashion than W 7..   Clicking it brings up a start dialog box that contains the touch screen charms...  But you can run that with the mouse too...

So if your up in arms about going to W 10.....  Go ahead, its much more like W 7, but runs all the Apps that W 8 ran...  And has an App Store and all the stuff that Apple has got us accustomed to..

I didn't do a thing other than sit here and watch it install itself....

Retired Rod

Kansas heat, but not home bound.

Its been hot here...  Not hot by Arizona standards, but the Midwest humidity tends to make the normal mid 90s figures feel so much more hot...

Yesterday as I arrived home from the mornings motor cycle excursion, it was 94 on the dash of the motorcycle. But coming inside to look at the humidity recorded by my weather station, I found the reading to be 80 percent.....   So I looked on the heat index chart and found 129 degrees.... extreme danger, in vivid red color on the chart....

We had met for a Goldwing club breakfast in the small town of Louisburg, Kansas about 15 miles South of me here in Overland Park...  There might have been 40 or more of us at a long table, with everyone gabbing all at once....  But then we adjourned to the farm of one of our member's brother..

This farm is only an acreage of about 30 acres, with a tree lined lane and big white house...  The yard was green and the sweet corn crop stood beyond picnic tables under the trees...  In the back, rows and rows of vegetables were ripening in the 90 degree sun..  But that wasn't why we came...

Back behind the machine shed were neatly lined rows of Blackberry bushes...  About 5 acres of them..   Folks armed with white plastic ice cream buckets were madly picking the ripe berries for $5 a quart...  Of course the buckets held about a gallon or more..  So I dutifully joined the folks in the hot rows of bushes....

I picked about a quart, and couldn't take the heat any more....  But then I went over and got 6 ears of corn from the fellow on his quad ATV...  The ears were snapped off of the stocks and handed to me....   Would that be fresh?  So now you know why I was so intent to get back inside the air conditioning here at home....

I spent the afternoon making Blackberry freezer jam...  It will keep for a year in the freezer and it won't last anywhere near that long before its gobbled up....  Just for grins, I added some Jalapeno pepper juice buzzed by blender...  So I really have Blackberry Pepper Jam...  Oh and I made it sugar free too....

It has been a busy week of motorcycle events...   Tuesday we traveled to Tonganoxie, Kansas for a cafe on the main street.   This building had a rustic interior with corregated steel sheeting for walls....
Then on Wednesday we met a dozen or more riders at the Gardener, Kansas Mc Donalds for a trip out to Osage City..   That's about 70 miles West of my home here...  Somehow we ended up back in Lawrence for ice cream cones at a local Burger King....  That was almost a 200 mile day...

Then on Friday, I rode by myself down to Parker, Ks about 50 miles South of here...  That was for a 9 AM breakfast, so I left about 7:30.  It was cool that early, but the trip back with several friends was in the 90 s again...   I sat in the Mc Donalds here South of the house for about 2 hours drinking Iced Tea with one of the guys after that one...  It was hot.

Needless to say, the motorcycle has been parked today... The outside temp is 95 and I haven't bothered to look at the humidity or heat index, but the AC hasn't shut off for several hours.....  Life in the Kansas summertime..

Retired Rod

Checking In

Tom_Kathy_retired, says he hit rock bottom for subjects today..............  Heck I've been on rock bottom for subjects all month....

Its been hot here!!  To hot to enjoy the motorcycle rides...  But I went anyway...   But last week it rained and rained...  We passed on the rides when we were having those good old Kansas green sky storms....  We rode on Tuesday this week and it rained before we could get home...  But it was still 97..  The rain just cooled us off for a few minutes..

Then on Wednesday, it was Green Sky day right off the bat first thing in the morning...  We took the Jeep, and my friend Al didn't even want to ride in the car....  Yup, that's Kansas...  Then once we got out to the restaurant in Eudora, Kansas over by Lawrence where KU is located, it was bright sunshine and folks that came from the other direction wondered what was wrong with us...

We did ride the bikes over to the Goldwing Road Riders monthly meeting at a restaurant in Desoto, KS on Thursday evening.   That is mostly couples, and has a large number of Trikes....  But the club director rides a two wheel Honda Valkyrie bike and had to report that he ran into a dog on the interstate at 65 mph..

It killed the dog and totaled his bike, but it was 15 years old so it didn't take too much money to be a total...   He preaches All the Safety Equipment All the Time, and he had helmet and riding jacket with the pads and back brace and heavy leather pants on..    He was bruised and had a cut on his knee, but overall he came out fairly well.   I was sitting there thinking that the move to the trike was a good thing for me....   Your still out in the open, but it just has to be better....

Oh, and this dog fiasco happened at midnight, as he was coming home from work at one of the local casinos...  They presented him with a skid lid helmet with a large rawhide dog chew bone mounted on top......   He was good natured about it....

On Thursday afternoon, I went to one of the KU Med surgeons, to see about fixing my hiatal hernia at the top of my stomach..  The guy said I can do you!   That was after he poked and prodded around on my abdomen....   I just knew this guy could cut me in half in a heartbeat....  But he was jovial about it......  I have to go thru a bunch of tests first to see if the surgery will do me any good...  And the tests don't sound like much fun..........  Think colonoscopy, only from the top...

Well anyway, that's what is happening around here.....  Oh, and Biscuit had her daddy giving her a buzz cut with the electric shears this week...  Just put the #2 guard on the trimmer and mow her off...  I didn't do the face or tail, but her body is much cooler now...  She looks all weird but I will get her a real cut in another month or so....  She seems happy about loosing the fur as she couldn't hardly go out to do her potty runs with the heat....  Thank goodness for the AC...

Retired Rod

Fourth of July thoughts

Its the fourth of July and the kids are all out on the dock here at Lake Ozark...  So I will take advantage of this quiet moment to bang off a blog....

The water here at the lake is about 5 feet over the top of normal pool and the dam was built in 1929 and is quite old...  They have opened up the old fashioned spill way flood gates and the water is cascading over the top at break neck speed....  The lake was declared an idle speed lake Thursday by our Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon....

This had all the folks frumpy as they couldn't drive their boats at the normal wide open throttle...  When the water is up above many of the tops of sea walls, it is up on electrical wiring and dock anchors....  Wave action causes these things to wash out and deaths have occurred from electrical charges in the water....

Still folks that don't have a vested interest in the lake are complaining that it is just to protect a bunch of rich peoples docks....  But they would be the first to sue someone if they got electrocuted....

This morning, Saturday, they lifted the ban as the water is back down a couple of feet...  This is the Osage river, and the water behind the dam is 100 miles back up to the next (Truman) dam..  So how much water is 5 feet of river for over 100 miles...?  I can see the dam outside my glass door, so I have full effect of it here....

Most everything in the Kansas City home front has been city living as usual..  So I haven't bored you with the details...   But, I finally got carpet back in the living and dining rooms of my house...  That turned me into Mr Domestic as all the furniture needed to be moved back into its proper rooms..

Everything was covered with dry wall powder, so the cleaning necessary has been intensive..  In addition, I've had Doctors appointments and Dentist visits where I had a crown replaced..  I hate the numb mouth drooling that goes along with that one..

I've been to 4 lunches with the new trike, so most of the normal folks have now seen the grandpa kit on the back of the bike..   Everyone tells me they like it, but most would never ruin their bikes like that..  I have driven over a thousand miles since the conversion was completed so it is now commonplace...

But then last night, I was out on the Maxi Scooter that I keep here at the lake...  it is the old 650 Burgman Suzuki....  So I have to switch styles of bikes in my mind and lean on the corners, and don't forget to get that foot down when you stop...  Of course that comes naturally, most of the time, but I found myself pulling on the left lever at the stop light thinking it was the clutch...  Of course it is the rear brake, so a rather abrupt stop is the result.. OK as long as the car behind me doesn't run over me..

Thursday evening, there was a bike ride down to Ottawa, Kansas where there is a restaurant called Bar Be Cue Creations...  They take a creative approach with their bar be cue....  I ordered a stuffed baked Sweet potato..  You choose your meat, and I had pulled pork, but on top of that they put bar be cue sauce and a load of cheese...  With a big glob of sour cream on that..  The potato was a small football in size...  I was using the chipotle bar be cue sauce...  Casting fate to the wind..

My hiatal hernia made me pay later..  But it was really good on the way down...LOL!

Retired Rod    Enjoy the Fourth everyone!

News Flash !

Motor Cycle gains a Wheel !!

Does this make my butt look big?


Its a long story which started last fall when I bought and began to ride a Can Am front tricycle down in Arizona....  And then riding with the Goldwing Road Riders Association, where a lot of the members all have trikes...  And one thing leads to another..

Anyway, this is a Motor Trike conversion made in Troup, Texas...  I had it installed at Horizion Trike in Clarksville, Arkansas...     They are a major dealer, and did the install in about a day and a half....

Of course there was a weeks lead time as they are a car auto body place too and they had to paint the fiberglass body ahead of time...

We left on Tuesday with the Jeep and motorcycle trailer with the Goldwing inside...   But the trailer was too narrow for the big back end of the new bike...  My friend Al went along and drove the Jeep and trailer back home for me while I rode the Motorcycle...   We stayed two nights, and did some tourist stuff while they worked on the bike.....  It was all I could do to stay away from the shop and mother hen over them while they worked...

But we didn't come back until it was almost done, and by Thursday evening it was a done deal..  We rode it around at 5 PM and found it to be sound...  But it was also starting to rain as the outer bands of Tropical Depression Bill were enveloping Arkansas..

By morning, it was green and yellow on the weather map all around us and for many miles back up towards Kansas City....  Al was quite content to drive the Jeep.....!  So I dressed in a rain suit and hit the wet interstate...  By supper time, we were back here in Overland Park...  Once we were out of the worst of the rain, Al took over riding the bike and allowed me some rest and dry out time in the Jeep..

That was short lived, as the rain bands swarmed over the Kansas City area that night and we were drenched here too....  By then the bike was in the garage and we were back driving the Jeep...

I've been to a function with it today, Saturday, but most folks there didn't remember what I was riding last year, so it didn't stand out to them... But next week will be all the guys that I normally ride with... And I will take a lot of razzing for adding the "Grandpa Kit" to an otherwise nice motorcycle....

One fellow "Doug" who rides a Harley, asked me why I would ruin my bike that way.....  He thinks I am nuts...  But hey so many things to experience and so little time to get it done in!

Retired Rod

Victorian home

We have gone on several motorcycle rides in the last couple of weeks, but they were just riding to distant towns and eating lunch...

But a week ago Saturday we went to Cameron, Missouri again with a different club.  We ate in the same place, but I had a lunch instead of a breakfast...  But after the meal we went to a Victorian home there in town that was built in 1896...  The owner is Dixie, who owns a Dairy there in town, and she invited us in for stories and desert...   She told the stories and made the desert cake as well...

As an octogenarian, her stories we from times long ago... As she told tales of building the house and living there as a little girl...  Her father and mother bought the property sometime in the 20s...

The two Red Hot Cakes were waiting on the table for us.

Some of the men ended up sitting in the far sitting room...

She referred to her kitchen as modern....  And yes it had an electric stove and refrigerator.

Note the old wooden door Ice Box in the other corner...

We spent about an hour in her home and had pieces of the cake and a fruit punch with coconut extract in it...  And then we went outside, where Dixie climbed onto one of the motorcycle trikes...  And got her first official motorcycle ride...  It was a hoot...!  Of course they didn't go to far away and went really slow...

From there they went on to the Dairy where they gave out samples of ice cream and the like....  I was late and had to depart before that happened....  Still a fun day and something most people will never do....

Retired Rod

Wandering Aimlessly in the Deep Water..

Tuesday we had lunch in Polo, Missouri....   The restaurant is in the middle of the town and is called the Red Rooster...

Its kind of a nondescript building with white siding...   But we filled the place as usual...

I happened to be front and center in this picture, but it shows the inside of the cafe fairly well too.

From there we went off on a ride across most of Northwestern Missouri....  This was fine until we tried to cross the Platte River somewhere South of Ridgely on a county road with only a letter for a name...   With all the rain, the river was about 10 feet above its intended banks...  There was water as far as we could see and the road just disappeared into it..

We turned around and after riding back North to Edgerton we then went West to Dearborn..   Having had enough of the small roads, we got on I 29 and high tailed it back to KC...

The map says we only went 191 miles, but after wandering aimlessly all over West of Camden Point in the country, I had 227 miles on my trip odometer...


Retired Rod

Windows Live Writer

I found this on one of the Microsoft Forums where unhappy users were taking them to task....


We're working getting WLW updated/open sourced. 

---

Scott Hanselman

Scott's by line indicates he is on the Microsoft team.....

If they do open source this program, it would be like linux where the users are able to do the updates...  Open source also indicates that they have no interest in using or maintaining the program.....

Retired Rod

Ceiling repairs..

What a mess!

It will take years to clean up all the dry wall compound mess....

They will be back tomorrow afternoon to begin painting the new knock down ceiling again....  I say again, because this was done and painted last Friday, but the big boss man came and looked it over saying that you could still see the place where it was patched...  And to him that was unacceptable...

I had kind of steeled myself that it would look patched when they got done, but not the big boss...  He said it is either right or it isn't... And if you can tell we worked on it, then it isn't right....

Well OK then....  

Changing subjects...... I have used Linux for years and because Live Writer only works on Microsoft operating systems, haven't been able to run anything but blogger's software...  So this past weekend, I went out an bought a Windows machine thinking I would add 10 to it when that becomes available..  And I downloaded Microsoft Essentials Live writer as part of my setup....  Well so much for that idea...

I don't see mother Google going backwards on their file definitions and Microsoft hasn't updated the Essentials programs for the last three years..  I wonder if we are just stuck with no more writer... or who will blink first....  Need to send lots of complaints...  Send one every day, to both companies......!

Retired Rod

Memorial Day.....

Happy Memorial Day.... !

In memory of all fallen Veterans who passed defending our right to be free citizens.....


I am just back from a family Holiday at Lake Ozark...   Retired Rod

Bucksaw Resort Marina

We met at a Quicktrip in the far end of Overland Park, known as Stanley.   A patron there stopped me and thanked me for not shooting up the place.....  Referring to the recent tragedy in Waco....  I find that so disturbing, because the public paints all people on motorcycles with the same brush...  Enough said...

Our destination for today was Truman Lake South of Clinton, Missouri...  The Bucksaw Resort and Marina..  They have a restaurant on the floating dock along the shore...

We came in three or more waves of folks, and it was quite cool for the morning ride...  I saw 48 on the bike dashboard as I was riding to the meeting place..  We stopped a couple of times on the way down but still arrived about 10:30...  There was a big crowd of breakfast eaters that were just finishing up...

The lunch crew spread outside as the morning warmed up... But it never got above 68 all day...  They served Buffalo burgers as one of the main entrees, and they were fairly popular..

We left about 12:30 and took a tour up thru the center of Missouri finally arriving at Knob Noster, where the Whiteman Airforce Base is located....  As we were a couple of miles South of the airfield, a big flying wing overtook us over our right shoulder...  At first it looked like a gigantic bird, but it was trailing dirty jet exhaust...  A B2 Bomber....  They routinely fly missions on the other side of the world out of this remote base...

Out along the divided highway North of the base is a Mc Donalds...  This is where the afternoon coffee and ice cream stop was declared...   The group decided that they were going on North before heading back to KC since it was only overcast and not raining...   I needed to be back for Biscuit as it was already 3:30...

So I left them and headed right back into the city on highway 50..  It still took me about an hour to get home, and I have no idea when the rest of the group got back...  By 8 PM it was raining and continued well into the next day...

Google said it was 212 miles but I had 250 on the bike clock...  We left at 9 AM and returned at 4:30 Which was longer than Googles 4 hour travel time, but most of the rest of the time was in the restaurants....

Retired Rod