I’m in Arizona for work and happened to have a weekend off so I took a trip up to Tombstone AZ. It’s honestly the only place that I’ve been where I could *feel* the history…Some pics below:

Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone AZ
Town of Tombstone AZ

Still not motorcycle related:

Mattamuskeet Wildlife Refuge. Really fun day!

Not motorcycle related but I uploaded a ton of pics from an outing to Yates Mill Pond.

Yates Mill Pond 12/28/09

One of the shortcomings of the house I’m in now is that there is no garage/shop. When we bought the house I really wasn’t thinking about that type of thing. I was just thinking what a good deal we were getting and how much land the house sits on.

Fast forward almost 3 years, I don’t regret buying the house. I love the area it’s in and I love having the land (most of the time anyway). But one thing I really, really want is a shop. Some place where I can work on my bike and not get frustrated and also do a bit of work on my jeep. I’d also like to get back into some leather working. I haven’t really done that since my days in the SCA. I need some hobbies..But the things I want to do require separate space to work in. I don’t plan on selling this house within the next 10 years so I think building a shop would be a good investment in the property.

I’m saving up to get one built. I have a long way to go. And not to mention trying to figure out how big of shop I want. Since I want to be able to work on the bike and jeep I think 2 bays would be plenty. One of them with a recessed motorcycle lift in the floor.

In case one of my 4 readers feel the need to spend a little money I won’t stop you from dropping a bit in my paypal account ..And don’t worry..You don’t need a paypal account to donate…I’ll even put something with your name on it on the new shop when it’s built…See…value for your money right there

I waste a lot of time watching TV…To much time…That ends now. I’m dvr’ing the shows that interest me. I need to be really tough on shows that I watch live and those that I dvr and watch later.. Right now the only show that will be under must watch will be Sons of Anarchy…And any show that goes under that list will be compared to SoA. Does show X make me feel the same way as Sons…Right now there is no other show out there that does..

Also, this blog is probably going to morph a bit over the coming weeks..So for all my readers (all 9 of you) things they are a changin …

Shows That I Must Watch:

1. Sons of Anarchy

Shows That Would Be Nice To Watch

1. Nip\Tuck
2. Star Wars: Clone Wars
3. Family Guy
4. Gangland
5. MythBusters
6. The Daily Show

Shows That I Can Do Without Or Get Through Netflix

1. Law and Order: SVU
2. South Park

If you don’t know that I’m a huge Sons of Anarchy fan then you should really crawl out of the hole you’ve been living in. On Tuesday nights at 10pm my world stops and I sit down to watch this wonderfully crafted masterpiece.

The creator/writer/producer is a man by the name of Kurt Sutter. If you been watching FX network for a while you may have heard of him as he was one of the writers for The Shield, which was formerly on FX.

In his latest blog post Mr. Sutter points to an article on why most network scripted show suck. In my opinion the article is dead on and Kurt’s comments are dead on as well…Jay Leno recently moved from the Tonight Show to another show, *exactly* the same as the Tonight Show. Where’s the innovation?

Another thing that fuels my passion for this show is that Kurt is a blogger. And he also has a twitter account and actively engages with the fans of SoA. I totally respect him for that. I can’t pretend to imagine what it’s like to be a writer/creator of a hit TV show but I’m pretty sure it takes a lot of time. I applaud him for making the time and giving back to his fans. I know it makes me want to do whatever I can to promote the show.

If you haven’t seen SoA yet it’s in its second season. I would *highly* recommend buying the first season on dvd. The cast commentary on the episodes and the extras make the set totally worth the price. I think they can also be purchased from iTunes so you can catch up with the current season.

Erik Buell announces the shutdown

I have to say I’m not really surprised by this…Seems HD has always hamstrung what “innovations” Buell could make..I think if they turned him loose and throw some money into developing a new engine they could have a have a bike to contend with the imports…But, that’s not going to happen now…Such a shame…Way to go MoCo..

Last week I decided that since I had some comp time I wanted to take a quick camping trip to the mountains..My plan was to hit the Tail Of The Dragon during the week in hopes it wouldn’t be that bus. For the uninitiated TOTD is an 11 mile stretch of road in the Smoky Mountains with 318 curves. You read that correctly, 318 curves in 11 miles. Simply crazy..More on that later.

I have a problem when I travel. I don’t “stop and smell the roses”. I have a bad habit of just riding until I get where I’m going without seeing any sights. I also tend to get up early and get going. I did get up early and since I had everything packed I decided to hit The Waffle House and grab some breakfast. There’s something so satisfying about watching other people in a rush to get to work and knowing that you don’t have to do that for a few days. I finish up and fill up and put the address to the camp site in my GPS and get going.

About 40 miles from the house I look over to the right and see 3 bikes waiting to turn the same direction I’m going. From the quick glance I saw that at least one of them had a Harley. I sigh to myself and get ready for the hassle that usually comes with pack riders. The blow past me after the light and I wave as I do for other riders and only one waved back…They peel off and turn at the next right and I see the GPS has me going right at the light. I’m pretty sure at this point I’m going to be behind these guys as some point.

Sure enough I turn at the light and I see 3 bikes pull out farther down the road. So fast forward to the next small town we get to and the trailing rider waves for me to pull up beside him. He’s on a Goldwing and I’ve had really good experiences with Gold Wing riders so I pull up to find out what’s up. He asks me where I’m headed and I find out they are all heading up to the TOTD as well. They pull over at a gas station and I pull over as well. We do the introductions and they ask if I want to ride with them.

A quick aside here: I don’t ride in groups. It’s not something I really enjoy and the only guy I ride with is in MS.

I had a bit of a Seinfeld moment. My normal reaction would be to decline and keep going my own way. I decide that I’m going to do the opposite and accept their offer. Plus they’re going a different route than I had planned and it looked to have some pretty nice roads to it. The only condition I have is that I ride at the back of the pack. This still gives me the sense that I’m riding by myself but still keep up with the group if need be.  At the gas station I found out that the guys are from really close to where I live. One is from Dunn, Fayetteville, and Benson NC.

Off we go..I notice at stop lights and when we get gas that 2 of the guys like for the attention to be on them..Blipping their throttle, burning out at stop lights, etc. Not really my bag so I just ride my own ride and let them do their thing. During this I notice my bike is handling strange, or at least I think it’s the bike…I check it at every stop and I can’t see anything out of the ordinary so I begin to think it’s the way I have my gear loaded or just the way I’m riding in general. I have a ton of gear. Probably too much for just tent camping

Loaded down

So I keep at the back of the pack and focus on keeping clean lines through the curves which are getting quite frequent.

Originally I had planned for the trip out to be ~5 hours but most of that was going to be on the interstate.
View Larger Map

The route these guys had planned looked a lot more fun even though it would add an additional 4 hours to the trip.
View Larger Map

There were some really good roads but when we hit the Pisgah Forrest the roads just went ridiculously curvy. Just before getting to Brevard we stopped at Looking Glass Falls. I’ve always liked waterfalls and I didn’t realize that NC had so many.

Your's truely in front of the falls

By this point I’m getting pretty tired and I feel like I’m really having to muscle the bike in and out of turns more than usual. I tried moving things around and I still just couldn’t make it feel right and just chastise myself for bringing so much crap.

One thing I forgot about mountains, especially these mountains is it rains a lot..So the temp starts dropping as we go up and then I start feeling rain drops..Awesome I think to myself. I have a bike that’s handling weird because I packed too much, it’s raining on extremely curvy mountain roads that I’ve never been on. I slow my roll down quite a bit to make sure I don’t blow a curve and end up a greasy spot on the rocks below since there are no guard rails along most of the BRP. On the positive side I think to myself at least it’s not raining hard…5 miles down the road the rain gets heavier.

Shit…Well, no problem we pull over at an outlook and everyone pulls their rain gear out and puts it on. I’m thinking to myself no problem..I got this..It can’t get much worse right? Yea..Over the next ridge comes the fog..Fog so thick that when the bike in front of me goes in it literally vanishes from sight. So for those keeping tally…Rain + unfamiliar mountain roads + a bike that’s not handling well + cold + fog. That my friends is a recipe for suck. I start focusing on how much this is sucking that I suddenly find myself heading into, what looks to be an extremely tight downhill curve waaaaay to fast. My mind races as to what to do..Brakes? Down shift and brakes? Trail brake through the curve and hope for the best? I decide that I’m going to do my best to get the bike slowed down while she’s straight up and down and just lean the hell out of it and hope my tires stick. My left foot jams down twice on the gear shift and I use my right foot to press the rear brakes. I know that general teaching tells you to avoid using the rear brake but my brakes are linked. So when I engage the rear brakes one piston on the front brakes also engages. I know that if I touch the front brake I’ll probably lock up the front wheel and down I go. So I re-engage the clutch and feel/hear the engine bitching and moaning..The entire time my right foot is pressing fairly hard on the brakes. I’m extremely surprised that the rear wheel didn’t lock up. But I see the curve starting so I let go of the brake and roll off the throttle and I dig in for the lean. I know this one is going to be close and I hear the floor board start scraping pavement. I grit my teeth and see there is a bit more to the curve and I push the bike further into the lean. So far in fact that my floor board moves up so I have to lift my foot off so it can finish its travel. Much to my relief I see the curve finishing up and I bring the bike back up. Moral of that little story is to always focus on what’s going on..And an 800lb+ bike carries a lot more speed than you thinking into a down hile curve.

So after that curve I’m ready to stop and get off the bike for a minute and gather myself. We pull off at the next overlook and I see a sign saying we are at the highest point of the BRP.

Highest point on the BRP

By this point I’m wicked tired and judging from the map I still have a good 2-3 hours before I get to camp. It was getting close to dark so probably around 6:30-7pm and I’m really hoping I can get to the camp site tonight but setting up in the dark sucks. I break off from the guys after we get off the BRP and I head towards Robbinsville. It was raining pretty steady by now and I was cold, wet, tired and hungry but I really wanted to make it to camp tonight. But after another 15 miles I hit Bryson City NC and decide that I’m too tired to continue on and I got a hotel for the night. It was money I wasn’t ready to spend but the 50-60 mile stretch on the BRP really wore me out and I knew it wasn’t safe to continue…

To be continued….:-)

I made it back a couple of hours ago and had a freaking blast…It was a bumpy trip for a few reasons but you’ll have to wait for the ride report . Kate and I are taking the bike down to the USS North Carolina tomorrow so I won’t get anything up until after that…Plus I’m exhausted