Spreading The Good Word

There is a woman who rides an older black and teal (with matching seats) Honda Shadow in to work just about every day. I've chatted with her a couple of times and she seems pretty cool.

The other night as I was getting my helmet secured, she looked over the ET4 (her expression said, "how many bikes does this guy have?"), and asked me if I have a car I use when it rains.

A car? For something minor like rain?

It took me a second to gather my thoughts. I mean, obviously I've got a car. I just don't use it for getting around unless I absolutely have to.

Now, I don't give smart-assed answers to honest questions. So I told her about my magical rain gear (prevents water from coming within two blocks of me!), and that I don't let a little water stop me.

I'd guess she thought I was only a little bit crazy.

Tornado Warning? Let's Go Riding!

Those of you living in states with actual weather that changes from day to day might not know that Phoenix has been having some delightfully rainy, windy, stormy weather.*

Yesterday morning, it was actually raining outside. Naturally, I put on my terrible, awful, no-fun-at all rain gear. After 10 minutes of struggle to get into my rainsuit, the zipper on the jacket broke. Luckily, the velcro flap that goes over the zipper is strong, because there was no way I was taking it all off again after all that effort.

The ride in to the office was a bit wet, but not bad. The ride home, though... ho ho! Plenty of rain, and more importantly, lots of wind.

Riding across constant wind and rain, in my crazy opinion, is a heck of a lot of fun. You get to lean into the weather and it just feels so... purposeful. It's like being an explorer, only at the end of the trip is hot pizza and dry pants instead of hungry cannibals and scurvy.

So this morning, I rode in to work - of course - in the rain. And everyone in the office stopped by to ask how the ride was today and, more importantly, yesterday.

Here in Phoenix, people aren't accustomed to things like inclement weather. What could I have been thinking going out there with nothing but a polyester rainsuit and a helmet to protect me from the elements?

Well, between you and me, I was thinking "WHEEEE!"

Last night there was an honest-to-God tornado warning in my area. I didn't know about it, of course. We were advised to go to the basement. What basement? There are no basements in Phoenix. And besides, had I known there was a real tornado warning, I would have been compelled to go outside and watch!

I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Maybe it's a Minnesotan thing, but whenever there's a storm, Lady Luck and I will go outside and, sure enough, our neighbors from Minnesota are all out with us watching the sky.

Safe? Probably not. Wise? Certainly not.

Fun? Oh yeah.

So, if you need to find me during inclement weather... chances are I'll be out in it, loving every minute.


*I told Irondad thanks for bringing it, by the way

Any Day is a Good Day If You Have Your Motorcycle Under Ya!

I returned today from the doctor with my mother. It’s her Internal Med. Doctor… the one who co-ordinates the rest of the specialists in my mom’s life. This Doctor is the hub of Mom’s health care…and she’s a really nice, caring doctor. I enjoy seeing this one with mom.





Today however, we got some bad news. The pain and weakness Mom has been experiencing in her legs and lower back are from her discs compressing. Nothing to be done about it, Mom’s pre-existing medical conditions preclude ANY kind of surgery…not that I would allow her to go under the knife with her back…I’m sorry…but I don’t think the back is somewhere knives belong…they just don’t know enough.

So that means, when Mom is feeling really bad and needs to be somewhere…I will be there to be the driver…more than ever now…well…it’s why I came here to TN. and it will serve me well to remember that.







I woke up this morning to gray skies…by the time Mom and I got home around 11:45…the skies had blued up and sunshine was paid out for us common folk around here…nice to see. I didn’t get done at home until 12:30…by that time it was clouding up again…I don’t care…I have to get out and ride.






I climb into my chaps…pack my leather jacket into my “Bandit’s Bedroll” and head off to see Jeff at Kyrstal’s. I tell him I’m heading out for a few hours, most likely heading south west toward Pigeon Forge, I was hoping to catch up with Judy…a fellow blogger from the GA. Area I believe.











She was there for a morning meeting and a nice ride over the weekend back home. I missed her, and I didn’t get much farther than Greeneville again. It was already getting late by the time I hit Greeneville…so I turned down some roads in that area I hadn’t been down before…and it was grand. By the way…by this time, I had ridden in and out of some pretty cold rains…but I was to see even more on the long way home tour…







Time to see what’s up around here my friends…love these days of cool rains, (no, I don’t have a rain suit…) Come see what I saw today.







This is an old train station...in Chucky TN. I'm laughing...never would have thought Chucky would have a town named after him! (He don't but I need to find out more about why it's called "Chucky".)







You think this barn matches my bike?







An old bank in Chucky... I'm still giggling over that name!