A little slice of hillbilly heaven!

[ A classic tale of the road leading us to a destination.. I had picked a state park campground on a lake that was roughly 300 miles from where we last camped, but once nearby, we were redirected by some locals to the "A OK Marina".. "just ask if they have any open cabins.."..   truly a slice of hillbilly heaven.. it was a gorgeous lake-front spot with a simple cabin & was seemed like permanent-trailer residences surrounding us. .. A good score and definitely beat sleeping in wet tents! ]

Rain rain go away, we need at least three more dry days! Tstorms through the night.. Almost washed away our camp! Should quit soon.. Then we've got some westward miles to make up..

 [ We opted for a KOA campground as we were both feeling the need for a shower.. little did we know we'd get more of a shower than we bargained for! During the night, the sky opened up on us.. I can remember what seems like an eternity of laying in my tent through the night listening to the pitter patter of rain drops falling on the rain fly..   we woke up to a pause in the rain & made our way to a shelter.. temporarily abandoning  our campsite.. when the sky opened up once again.. a torrential downpour harder than I can remember seeing in recent history.. the campground with almost instantly transformed to a network of rivers & ponds, with picnic tables up to the benches in water.  We waited it out & returned to camp to find one of these little ponds encroaching on our site.. Matthew & I worked feverishly to break camp & get ourselves packed for the road.   In the end it worked out pretty well aside from carrying around some soaking wet camping gear for the next few days.. (my gear is still drying set up in the back yard!) ]

Somewhere along the way...

[.. I still can't remember where this was exactly, but I believe it to be somewhere in the White Mountains.. gorgeous views, fun roads, & that wonderful cool mountain air!]

A little off road adventure for the dude n i... Lots of fun and only one tip over! We've scored some nice camps along the way, and headed into canada tomorrow, aye!

[ We stopped at a motorcycle shop in Berlin (NH?) & got some trail tips from the owner.. he pointed us in the right direction & the dude & I set off for some dirt riding!  Nothing very technical or difficult as they were primarily logging roads, but nonetheless fun and a good first experience for Matthew.. ]

One of the top three scariest things i've done.. This is the summit of mt washington in new hampshire! Sweet.

 [There's a day or so of Vermont & New Hampshire missing in between these posts, but Wednesday brought a few hours of off-roading adventure (& Matthew's first dirt experience), then a white-knuckle ascent to the summit of Mt Washington.. a narrow, steep, winding, & 20% dirt road to about 6,500 ft in elevation... great experience with plenty of incredible views!]

Over 1000 miles since home.. Good morning adirondack park!

[.. The aforementioned lakeside campsite in Adirondack..]

Beautiful day of riding.. Welcome to new york!

[ From Jill's we headed northeast through Rickets Glen State Park, the northern side of the Catskills, & finally into Adirondack Park..  A good day of riding with a lakeside campsite waiting for us at the end.. ]

..Packed & ready to roll! Sunday morning can quickly and it was time to hit the road! From here, we headed to my good friend Jill's place in Bloomsburg, PA.. a good 350 mile day through some back roads of Ohio, WV & PA... and a little construction & detours around Pittsburg.. sorry we got there so late, Jill!

Ah.. Vintage!

[Once again, an awesome reunion of friends & good times.. a little vintage racing, lots of dirt flying around, plenty of sunshine, & motorcycle mayhem!]

The Great White North

 Ok, so I'm not talking about Alaska quite yet, and the northeast probably isn't very white at this time of year, but I'm headed into some unchartered territory in a few days.  Once again, it's that time of year to visit Mid Ohio Sports Car Course for the AMA Vintage Cycle days, and yet again, Matthew and I have planned an epic journey immediately following the vintage racing mayhem that is Vintage Days.. 

 Without an exact route planned, we'll head northeast & feel our way around.. The idea is to potentially ride through much of New England and possibly continue north into Quebec, then circle back through Ontario & along the northern side of the great lakes to complete a loop. We'll see how things go.. we like to leave it up the road to decide our destinations.. after all, it's not the destinations we're after.... 

 This ride promises a whole new level of motorcycling, though. I'm still riding my GS, and Matthew on his new-to-him KTM 950 Adventure, and that will enable us to turn off on some off-road adventures if we so choose.. and I certainly hope that we choose.. 

 We have both also upgraded our motorcycling lives with some new technology that should make the experiences a little more enjoyable..  helmet-installed, radio transmitting communication systems & handlebar-mounted gps to name a couple..    

  I plan to utilize the helmet cam as much as possible as well as a voice activated recorder that has been integrated into my communication system.. so hopefully not only will there be video footage, but this time with some voice-over commentary!  

 I'm stoked, to say the least. It's been a hard-working few months, and I'm certainly ready to leave it all behind for a while & head out on the road in the place I love... the saddle of my GS. 

 While preparations began long ago, the next couple of days will be packed with the last minute stuff, so the next post you see will most likely be from the road! 

  I'll be blogging via cell phone from the road, and will get a little more in depth once I'm home and recovering..

 Stay tuned, you moto-psychotics! 

Maintenance Day

   Well,  that time has come around again to service my motorcycles. More specifically, the GS has quite a list of necessary maintenance every 6,000 miles, but an even longer list every 12,000 miles.. and that's right where am.. 36,000 miles. 

Besides a valve adjustment, setting the TPS (throttle position sensor), synchronizing the throttle bodies & an oil change, this go-around will also see the GS get new rear brake pads and new gear oil in the transmission as well as the final drive.. that's right 3 different oil changes! 

 It's a labor of love, though, and I certainly don't mind.. it's nice to freshen everything up once in a while.. tighten all the bolts & fix those little nagging things I've been meaning to do for weeks... and even though GS's look better dirty, hell, maybe I'll even wash it!

 I suppose I ought to get busy!