Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wind Chill Chart

For all the nuts that ride their bikes in the cold weather, here is a wind chill chart to see just how cold it gets on your bike in the winter.

For example when I rode this morning and was traveling at 40 mph and it was around 20 degrees the wind chill was around -1. Just another brisk ride to start the day.




Until next time and remember, don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Pappy

Monday, December 15, 2008

Places Visited US Map

I have always seen people post a map of places they visited on many of their post. I finally found the site where you can create the map. If you have always wanted to show where you have visited, here is the site.

http://www.epgsoft.com/VisitedStatesMap/index.html

Below are the states Slick and I have visited so far. We have a lot of places to go as you can see:


Until next time and remember, don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Pappy

Pappy's Place

Pappy's Place is coming along. The new room now has a 67" TV, surround sound, 2 large recliners, computer, DVD player , Wii system and now a pool table/ping pong table. Thanks to may brother-in-law and my son, Jordan we recently completed the bathroom for the room. Soon, Slick and I plan to add a new bar and popcorn machine.

We have also added some decorations in the room. We have various photos of my motorcycle friends and family. I will be posting some pictures of my new hideaway soon. So keep checking back.

Until next time and remember, to never to be too busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Pappy

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Motorcycle Videos

I have started to collect some cool motorcycle videos and posting them on my new Pappy and Slick YouTube site. Check them out at:

http://www.youtube.com/PappyandSlick.

I will be updating the site with more in the future.


Until next time and remember, don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Pappy

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Great Event Being Held in Asheboro NC

If you get a chance, check out the month long event at the Cycle Center in Ashboro NC. It is the Honda Holidays Giveaway. From Nov 28 to Dec 20th the Cycle Center will give everyone a chance to win a Honda motorcycle each Saturday from Thanksgiving to Christmas. There will be a total of 4 bikes given away. You don't have to be present to win. There will be free hot dogs and drinks each Saturday.

Also there will be a food drive support a local food bank. 1 can = 1% off accessories up to 20 cans = 20% off accessories. The Cycle Center will be also a local drop off for Toys for Tots.

If you are not familiar with the Cycle Center, it is located at 520 Cox Ave. in Asheboro NC. Their phone number is 336-629-2092.


I plan to go there every Saturday to win a new bike. Plus, I like hot dogs.

Until next time and remember, don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Pappy

Monday, November 24, 2008

Weekend Getaway - Wheels Through Time

Slick and I had a great weekend, even though we didn't get to ride Big Red. The weather on Friday was pretty cold up in the mountains of NC and TN the roads were kind of crappy with some snow and ice. Even though the roads had some patchy ice and snow that did not stop us from taking a mini vacation to Pigeon Forge TN and the western part of NC. Basically, we just needed to get away; even though another reason was to fulfill a couple of yearly goals. One goals was to visit the Wheels Through Time Museum in Waynesville NC before they packed up and relocated to Arizona. The other reason was to take Slick to the I-40 flea market in Pigeon Forge. I had been promising her for years I would take here there. Well, I finally did. Here is how the trip went.

We left home around 8:30 am and headed toward Waynesville NC to the Wheels Through Time Museum. I had searched for the address off the Internet and I decided to use Google Maps to find the place. Google Maps had us heading in the wrong direction. It seems that there is a big difference in 62 Vintage Dr and 62 Vintage Lane. As we traveled the way the Google directions said, Slick mentioned that we would probably end up in someone’s drive way. Well, we did. The directions took us to somebody’s driveway up in the boonies. After laughing about that and dodging some ice and snow, I took out my good old reliable TeleNav on my cell phone and get us out of there. Thankfully, I had coverage around that area once we got out of the dude’s driveway.

Once we found the WTT museum, we were not disappointed. There were only about 10 people there. It was the off season and there were no bikers there. Slick and I had a good time there. We got to see a lot of old vintage motorcycles and enjoy the history of the motorcycle. It is too bad the WTT museum will not be around after November. Thankfully, we got a chance to see it before they left. We also got a chance to purchase some cool WTT shirts, caps and accessories from the museum. If you haven't had a chance to see the museum, here are some pictures of it.























After the museum, we headed to Cherokee so Slick could get some gambling out of her system. She actually did pretty well. She won over $40.00. Once the “Gambler” was done breaking the casino, we headed through Cherokee toward Pigeon Forge TN on highway 441. There was a problem; part of the roads was closed due to ice and snow. So we had to do some back tracking on I-40 to get to Pigeon Forge. That was okay with us. We were enjoying just spending time together and seeing the mountains.

On Saturday morning we headed to the I-40 flea market in Pigeon Forge TN. Slick has been on me for years about taking her there. It was a nice place to buy a lot of cheap stuff. They even had a bunch of Harley stuff that was cheap (if you can imagine that). I actually had to call my brother-in-law, Kevin, to tell him about the low prices for the Harley stuff. Slick and I bought sunglasses, books, jewelry, some stuff to decorate my “Man Cave”, and cool leather motorcycle jacket for less than $50.00. When I got home I showed Jordan my new motorcycle jacket. He didn’t care for it. He said is looked like a jacket for some Indian biker. I think he was just jealous. So all-in-all, we racked up!

Overall the drive to the mountains and the weekend trip with Slick was nice. Except for the heavy traffic in Pigeon Forge, we had a great time. We got to buy some cheap stuff we don't really need, eat some good food, see the mountains and plan our next trip on Big Red.

Until next time and remember, don’t be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Pappy

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Liberty Road Ride

Saturday Slick and I, Jordan and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law took a little ride to a small town called Liberty. There is a short road there called Old Liberty road. It is a popular road for bikers because it has some pretty nice curves. The weather was great and the temps were in the 70's. Jordan was riding his VTX and my in-laws were on their new Harley.

Liberty road was a nice ride. The fall foliage was very nice and there was little traffic. I did shoot a video with my new Flip video with a camera that was mounted on my bike. The highlight of shooting the video was when some jerk pulled in front of me (turning left) and almost hit me. He was too busy looking at the gas station with cheap gas and failed to see our 3 bikes coming toward him. I am just glad that one of my good skills as a biker is being able to perform quick stops under pressure. Below is a link showing the jerk pulling in front of me going about 40 mph.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=46169869

Except for jerk pulling in front of me the ride was great. I will be posting the whole 22 minutes ride in the near future on the Internet. Then you can see the nice curves and the colorful trees.

Until next time and remember life begins at the end of the off ramp.

Pappy

Friday, October 31, 2008

Cold Weather is Coming

It's that time of year. Time to break out the warm clothing, gloves and pack away the half-helmet for a while. I rode Big Red to work this week. The morning temps were around 28 and of course frost on the cars. I actually didn't feel to much cold air when I worn my Gerbing heated gloves. The mornings I was too lazy to hook up the gloves I could tell the difference. I have to say that the heated gloves are one of the best investments I have made as far as riding gear.

Speaking of gear, Jordan and I now have Flip Video cameras so we can record videos on our bikes. Jordan actually used his on our trip to Deals Gap. Of course, I had to get one. It is too bad that we didn't have a mount so we could record our ride on the Tail of the Dragon. Oh well, we will go back there and we will video our next ride since we both bought mounts.

Right now I don't have any plans for any long trips. Slick and I still plan to take a trip to the outer banks of NC as soon as the winter is over. Until then, I will ride to work everyday and take in some short trips. The good thing about NC is the winterweather is not that long. But hey, I don't care, I am going to ride anyway.

Until next time and remember life begins at the end of the off ramp.

Pappy

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Tail of the Dragon Ride Photos

Below are some of the pictures of our ride at the Dragon's Tail at Deals Gap. I thought I would share them. Enjoy the pictures because we enjoyed the ride.















Until next time and remember life starts at the end of the off ramp.

Pappy

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Dragon and Cherohala Hwy Trip

Jordan, Kevin and Pappy

View Our Video

Well, I just got back from my planned trip to the Dragon’s Tail in TN and Cherohala Hwy. Jordan, Kevin (brother-in-law) and I took a nice little 670 miles trip and it turned out pretty well, except for some rain on the first day, the Holiday Inn in Cherokee was the worst I have ever stayed at, the service at the hotel was crappy, and Jordan lost $70.00 buck at the casino. Besides that, it was awesome!

Jordan and I started out on Saturday morning around 11:30. The original plan was to leave around 8:00. We decided to hold off on leaving early due to some pretty heavy rain in the local area. So we actually didn’t get to leave until 11:30. We headed west to meet Kevin off of interstate 40. Of course, it was raining, but not too bad. As we reached Kevin, we decide to fill up the bikes. Gas was a big issue on this trip. There were storages of gas all over the state and we knew that was going to be a big issue. The gas station where we met Kevin only allowed a $20.00 fill up. That was not a problem, since we have bikes. I think Jordan and I only put in about $8.00.

After we filled up the bikes, we headed west on Interstate 40 to Maggie Valley and the Wheels Through Time museum. Of course, we did not leave the gas station until 1:30 and we knew we were not going to make it before the museum closed. By the time we got to Maggie Valley and Cherokee the rain began, again. This time rain was pretty heavy and we decided to get more gas near Cherokee. So we stopped at a little store to fill up the bikes. I pulled into the station and as Jordan and Kevin followed me, there came about 12 other bikes. Some of those bikers needed gas; others just wanted out of the rain.
Early Morning in the Smokies

Taking a Quick Break

Country Roads Take Me Home

Kevin's New Harley

Speaking of rain, it was time for Kevin to put on his new fancy-mancy rain gear for the first time. Kevin had to find a dry place to put on his rain gear (it took him 10 minutes). Actually, his rain gear was a nice, biker sexy skin tight rubber suit he bought from somewhere. The funny thing was Kevin had a little problem getting the suit off when he did take it off. Another thing he had trouble getting off was his new gloves. His new gloves just happen to shrink up when they get wet. But Jordan and my favorite part was he was not wearing a full-faced helmet. Those of us that ride understand, half helmets aren’t that cool in the rain, unless you like to feel like sand is hitting you in the face and you can’t see. Of course, Jordan and I got a kick out of that. I think Kevin will be buying a new rain suit, gloves and a full-faced helmet soon. One bright spot is he did have some cool water-proof boots that worked well. It was too bad the rain suit got his pants wet. Oh the joy of riding in the rain.

As we left the gas station we headed to Cherokee to find our hotel and the casino. Slick had given Jordan $20.00 to blow and he brought $50.00 worth of quarters in a plastic bag with him. Of course, casinos don’t like real money. So Jordan had to get a players card. As we walked around the casino looked for that big pay out machine, we got to experience the sights and sounds of people putting all their hard earned money in the slot machines. My favorite part of the casino is the wonderful smell of smoke in the casino. Of course very few people win at casinos and others get nothing. I knew I could make some money up there if the casino was let me sell T-shirts that said “I Visited the Cherokee Casino and All I Got Was Cancer”. Anyway, Jordan was done gambling in about 15 minutes. Actually, it took him about that long to get his new players card.

Our next stop was the hotel. I screwed up and pulled into the wrong Holiday Inn. I was told our hotel was about 2 miles south. So after Kevin finally got his rain suit off over his new boots we headed to the correct hotel. And what a joy that hotel was. As I checked in I asked if they had gotten me a roll away bed for Kevin. Of course they didn’t. The room looked clean but looked like crap. I believe the hotel was not originally a Holiday Inn. After looking at our wonderful room we decided to get some chow in the restaurant in the hotel. The waitress tried to get us to get the buffet, but it didn’t look that great. So we ordered from the menu. Of course, all of the stuff on the menu was a little steep for us so we all ordered their $9.00 burger. The burger wasn’t that bad. The problem was even though we had 4 different people wait on us, they would not give us the check so we could leave. And get this, we were the only people in the dining area. After about 45 minutes, we were finally out of there and headed back to your penthouse and get view of the parking lot.

The second day of our trip was the best part. With the rain behind us we could start enjoying the best part of the trip; Deals Gap and the Cherohala Skyway. As most bikers know Deals Gap is where the Tail of the Dragon starts. The route is 11 miles long and has over 300 curves. It was an awesome ride. You do have to watch for idiots on other bikes. Luckily for us we didn’t run into any stupid bikers on the route. However, there were a lot of bikes all over the place. The curves on the Dragon were awesome. There are a lot of tight turns, but none of them were that difficult if you did the route safely. Kevin did awesome! The guy just got is first bike; a Harley, and did great. He has only been riding for about 3 weeks and tackled the Dragon. He did it like a pro. After the Dragon I told the guys that we can now officially wear our ‘I Survived the Dragon’ t-shirts we bought. Those that know me know how I feel about guys that get t-shirts and really haven’t been there and done that. That is just not right.



Just Arrived at Deals Gap


The Tree of Shame at Deals Gap


Filling Up...Again


Fontana Dame off of 129

Don't You Just Hate Tourist?

After Deals Gap, the 3 of us headed toward Cherohala Hwy. To get there we had a few options. One was to head west and take hwy 441 and then south. Instead we took a scenic route; route 360. It was a great decision. Route 360 is about 40 miles long and takes you directly to the Cherohala Hwy. 360 was the best scenic route I have been on. It was my type of route; county, scenic and very little traffic.

After exiting 360 we hit the Cherohala Hwy. I had heard a lot about it. It was great. We just needed to remember to fill up the bikes before we started on it. The hwy is about 50 miles long and there is no gas on the route. You either get gas before or after. With all the gas stations being out of gas we were not going to take any chances. The highway was a lot like the Blue Ridge Hwy or Skyline Drive. I think I actually like it better than either one of those.

Bikes Were Everywhere

Scenic Views Off Cherohala Skyline


One incident did cause us some concerns. Jordan’s bike was having an issue with the headlight. It would turn off after he cranked up the bike but would later come back on. That was a concern because we realized that Jordan and I were not going to make it back home before dark. That meant we had to start heading back early. By the way, I totally miscalculated the amount of time it would take us to do my original trip. So, we decided we would make plans for another trip.

Time for Some Lunch

Jordan Getting His Headlights Checked

As we exited the Cherohala Hwy, we head back east on hwy 74 toward Ashville NC and eventually on Interstate 40. We had been riding for about 2.5 hours. Once I got on Interstate 40 I was looking for a rest area, but I couldn’t remember where one was. So I kept riding, and riding, and riding. Finalize as we got into NC, I found one. It was about 20 miles from where we were going to stop anyway, so I kept riding. Of course, Kevin and Jordan were not too thrilled with the idea of all that riding without stopping. For some reason they kept complaining about their butts being sore. I don’t get that.

Once we did stop at where we originally met Kevin, we tried to get gas. This time the gas station was out of gas. That presented a problem because Jordan was getting pretty low. Fortunately, we found a station with gas the next exit down the highway. We were pretty lucky on getting more gas and most of all that Jordan’s headlight stayed on all the way back home in the dark.
All-in-all the trip was great. Yes it did rain a little and we didn’t get to see the museum, but hey; that is just another excuse to ride back up there. The weather turned out nice on Sunday and it was a very nice ending to a great trip. Jordan and I put on a total of 670 miles. We are looking forward to our next great trip.

Until next time and remember that life starts at the end of the off ramp.

Pappy