Vacation Days–Friday

I wasn’t needed Friday morning to help with Rally setup, so I headed out on one of my favorite rides in the area.  I rode through Buena Vista, a small town I first rode through on my way to my 2nd VMA-AMA Region 13 Rally way back in 1983, and headed south by southeast on US 501 along the James River until the road intersected with the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

The James River from the Blue Ridge Parkway

The ride south on the Parkway was everything anyone could ask for in a relaxing ride.  The day was partly cloudy and pleasantly cool.  The Blue Ridge was hazy as it is in late summer but overall the humidity wasn’t oppressive in the least.  And the Parkway was nearly empty, except for the occasional deer and a lone red fox. 

An Overlook on the Parkway

At Va Route 43 I dropped back down into the Shenandoah Valley had lunch in Buchanan at the Copper Top Restaurant & Lounge (ie biker bar).

I needed a break at this point – Route 43 is curvy in a very technical way & it has been awhile since I’ve done that kind of riding.   The burgers here are magnificent - made from local beef and come with Texas fries or onion rings plus your choice of fixings.

After lunch I headed back to the Rally site via Route 43, the Parkway, Route 53 & the South River Road.  I got there in time to help with getting stuff together.

The Fire Department’s Dunk Tank was popular. 

I was no longer the only camper.

When I was looking for a Tour Bike back in 1990, I very nearly bought a MotoGussi California – I bought my FatBoy because I figured it would be easier to get a Harley serviced. 

The Rally dinner was pulled pork BBQ, potato salad, coleslaw, backed beans, lemonade & sweet tea.  Hey, this is Virginia, did you honestly expect a summer picnic without sweet tea?

As day turned into night the Blue Moon of August rose over the Blue Ridge Mountains and this tired but happy blogger turned in too – but not until after midnight.

 

Vacation Days–Wednesday & Thursday

So after 3 months of getting 1 day off work a month or less, I finally had a whole week of VACATION.  Watch me do a Little Happy Dance complete with Whoop-de-Dos & WooHoos.  Of course this vacation started like most vacations with a whole basket load of little things to finish up before I could actually leave to do any Vacationing.  That’s just par for the course.

See the nice Harley & trailer full of camping gear.  (OK, so ya can’t see the camping gear but believe me its in there.)  The Harley needed having its insurance renewed before I could leave on a multi-day motorcycle trip, so Wednesday saw me trotting off to the insurance agent to arrange for another year of insurance.  Wednesday was also the day Our Prez Obama was speechify-ing in Charlottesville.  So the insurance thing went just fine & I went across the street to get cat food.  That went fine too but when I came up to the turn onto US29 North to head home there were traffic cones, police persons and men in expensive 3 piece suits with no smiles.  It seems I had just missed my window of opportunity and I had to wait for the Prez to be driven down US29 North first.  For an hour and 45 minutes we all waited.  The Prez is apparently not known for punctuality.  Finally a bunch of BMW & Harley motorcycles, 3 stretch limos, several more Harley motorcycles and 4 Va State police cars later we were all allowed to go about our business.  Oh well, my friend Gypsy Jane was at my place & good company makes all things pleasant.

So Thursday I succeeded in getting the routine house chores & the trip packing done but failed to get the lawn mower started & thus the lawn mowed.  Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.  So I’m on the road again, heading south to Vesuvius & a motorcycle rally organized by one of my NNMC friends.  Got there before dark & in fine fettle.  It didn’t even rain on me one little bit.

My Rally Camp

West Virginia Road Trip

Da Urchin is currently enjoying her first ever week long vacation from her current employer.  WooHoo!  So we planned to get together on my non-work weekend for some shopping, a day of motorcycle riding and maybe some fishing.  So Friday afternoon I rode over to her place, or rather close to her place because her place is on a twisty gravel road that isn’t Harley friendly.  It isn’t Ninja250 friendly either so her motorcycle is kept in a nearby storage facility.

The Harley at the Soft Serve stand awaiting Da Urchin

I texted her when I got to Front Royal & again from the Linden.  She texted me back that it was monsooning at her place & I might want to hold up inside somewhere.  I had clouds but no rain & I was less than 5 miles away from her place.  Go figure.  So we parked the Harley and ran some errands in Front Royal.  Dinner was at a pleasant Chinese buffet followed by an evening of chillin’ at her place watching DVDs. 

Saturday we had planned to motorcycle, but there was a foster dog to pick up in Harmon West Virginia and the intermittent rain made it a poor motorcycle day.  So off we headed on our first road trip since Da Urchin was a college student.  First was a stop in Winchester for a new spinning reel from Gander Mountain and lunch at a Taco Bell.  Then it was on to Wild Wonderful West Virginia on roads with little green scenic rout makes on the map.

Lost River Scenic Overlook

The day stayed cool and overcast all day so the hills where hazy and sometimes mist shrouded.  There wasn’t much traffic and the drive was fun.

Part of the route was alone roads I’d driven over frequently when I lived in Silver Spring MD back in my 20’s – its on the way to a favorite backpacking location.  I remember the rocks but not the house or the sign.  Overall the area looked more prosperous than it had in the early 70’s.

We also stopped at Seneca Rocks to stretch our legs.  The open area around the Visitor Center was the Indian village location and archeological work is being done on the site.  The area is a popular one for motorcyclists mountain bikes, hikers, climbers and trout fishermen.  There’s a small climbing school here and 3 camping areas.  I keep meaning to ride here as a 2 day trip but haven’t managed it yet.

Not everything at Seneca Rocks is a going concern.

A short way down the rode we picked up the pooch.  He’s a very sweet dog.  Since Da Urchin had drove us there I drove us back.  We got home before dark a bit tired but we’d had a glorious day. 

Da Urchin with the Rescue

Sunday it was raining lightly when we got up and rained a whole lot harder while we were loading up the Harley for my ride home.  We had a Most Excellent breakfast at the Apple House waiting for P.S.the rain to diminish.  It didn’t diminish.  I checked in with work and found out I didn’t need to go in Sunday night (YeeHaw) so we went back to Da Urchin’s to let the storms move on a bit.  It continued to rain hard while we worked on replacing damaged screening in the frames for the front room.  We got 2 of her screens re-screened before the sun came out.  Not being foolish enough to let the sun go by un-used, we headed back to the bikes & I rode on home.  I had a glorious ride back on clear dry roads only to find out the weather closed back in at her place barely 20 minutes after I left. 

It was a wonderful weekend.  Thanks to Da Urchin.  Oh, the fishing?  It can wait - fishing rain muddied water in a downpour isn’t our idea of a good time. 

P.S.  My Faithful Readers have noted that I’ve been spending a goodly amount of time at Da Urchin’s Place either helping her move in or working on repairing tree-on-house damage.  This hasn’t meant my own place has been ignored. 

Remember this white pine limb on my roof?  After I got the rest of it off and the roof patched? 

Well its now a nice white pine limb on the ground where my chainsaw and my splitting maul can reduce it into nice fire ring length pieces to be burned of an evening in my backyard. 

Maintenance Issues

If ya own a vehicle ya gotta maintain that vehicle.  So My 22 year old Harley Davison 1st year Fatboy needed maintenance.  The speedometer lights weren’t working, the hi-lo beam headlight indicator was working backwards and the passing lamps weren’t working.  No speedo lights makes riding after dark interesting, the hi-low beam indicator was just annoying and the passing lamps must work for the Fatboy to pass its annual inspection.  Clearly it was time to go work on some electrics.

I had tried to sort things out when I was at the ALBA, but I couldn’t get the speedo trip meter reset knob screw off (its an itsy bitsy Phillips head screw inside the reset knob) which mean I couldn’t get the dash console off which means I couldn’t get the gas tanks off which means I couldn’t get to the electrics.  I did figure out how to fix the hi-lo indicator light but didn’t have the right tool in my travel tool kit to fix it.  Fixing motorcycles can be so much fun sometimes, relaxing even - and so frustrating the rest of the time. 

Harley Disassembled

So Monday was HD Day.  I have no idea why the reset screw was such a problem at the ALBA, it came right off like its supposed to in the driveway of my house.  The hi-low indicator was an easy fix also – I just reversed the non-ground wires at the switch and everything was fine.  It just took a small jewelers screwdriver to pop the wire fittings out.  The speedo lights were just as simple to fix – one bulb was burned out and the bulb sockets needed a light wire brushing from my Dremel to make the proper contact with the indicator bulb.  Poof – 2 problems down & 1 to go.

Harley Reassembled

Fixing the passing lamps was a great deal harder.  I had to take both gas tanks off to get to the electric connectors.  This meant draining the tanks, removing the carb gas line, the crossover gas line, the venting gas line and of course both gas tanks.  A bike sure looks forlorn without its gas tanks.  Two hours later I’d checked the relevant wires for conductivity and then detached and reattached the connectors several times. Voila!  The passing lamps now light with the headlight like they’re supposed to!  So I did a Little Happy Dance and put it all back together.  I even installed new gas lines all around, the current ones were looking a bit long in the tooth and they had already been removed to get the tanks off.

Oh How Nice – The Lights All Work

I even got it all done in time to go spend the late afternoon and evening in Fredericksburg with my friend Connie.  We had a wonderful time celebrating her birthday and catching up on our urchin’s doings.  Motorcycles aren’t the only things that take maintenance, so do friendships.  And it was grand good fun maintaining this one on Tuesday. 

P.S. Wednesday Morning I rode Quick Lane & got the Harley inspected.  WooHoo – I’m legal! 

A Laid Back Affair–August 9-12

It’s the 2nd weekend of August and time for the NNMC’s Annual ALBA Motorcycle Rally.

Here is me at ALBA just back from a ride in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. 

Another happy rider after a Saturday ride.

The Affair is pretty evenly split between Harley and BMW riders.

There were Fellas on Harleys

There were Ladies on BMWs

There were Old Riders on Old Bikes

There were New Passengers on New Bikes

This Fella & his BMW have travelled the gravel roads of Alaska

There was even a dual sport machine that rode in on its own personal van – with its own personal driver, I mean rider of course.

There was tire filling time.

And tire kicking time

And just hanging out time

Our Founder JP was there with his Amazing Door Prizes and irascible wit

My Camp just I got everything set up.

Oh it rained some, and there was a very annoying dog that barked all Friday night but all in all it  was A GREAT AFFAIR.

N.B. to all my friends – I don’t put much in the way of names in my blog – you all are my personal friends but the Interwebs is not a private place.  So Googling your name won’t bring up some photo or blog text I’ve posted.  Hugs to you all though.

Little Brown Bats as Summer People

So last May 18 to 22 Little Brown Bats started using the louvers in the eaves on the kitchen side of the house as their daytime roost of choice.  They had 16 to 20 babies (its kinda hard to get an exact count of critters 12 feet up and sleeping all snuggled together in an inch wide space) born during the month.

This little lady decided to sleep hanging outside the louvers so I was able to take her picture.  Most the bats were a bit darker than this one, although there was one that was a much lighter yellow-brown.

These interwebs shots will give an idea of what I could watch in the late evening and early morning hours around my house.    They would leave to go bug hunting starting around 7:30 pm, come and go all night as they tended their young and return for the day just before sunrise.

I would sit on my porch or stand next to my van and watch them leave for the night.  It was like watching a flight deck clear on an aircraft carrier.  The little ones started flights of their own at around 4 weeks of age.  They flew to the trees around my yard and then took short flights to other trees before going back to the louvers.  After a week to 10 days their flights were much longer but they weren’t as acrobatic as their mothers.  They also seemed to stay within easy sight of the roost.

The return flights to the roost were simply awesome to watch.  I’d go outside about an hour and a half before sunup and sit with a cup of coffee in my lawn chair.  The first bats would come from the trees around a 100 yards away to the northeast.  They were still in hunting mode and would do aerials over the yard catching bugs.  There might be 6 to 8 at a time flying over and around each other snatching up bugs.  Then first one than another would fly up to the louvers, hold on for a second and then fly off again for more bugs.  This would go on until just before actual sunrise, then they would land and move into the louvers to sleep. 

Another shot of the Hanging Out Bat

As July moved towards August it got harder and harder to tell the young bats from the mature bats.  By the end of July I could no longer see a clear size or flight style difference.  The morning come in flights just got better and better too.  By the end of July there were as many as 18 bats at once flying over my house and yard, doing the land and takeoff thing and then finally moving into the roost.  Then the numbers started to taper off.  My friend Jane was here by then and she got to enjoy 3 nights and morning of bat flights too but we saw small groups of 4 to 6 bats at once.

Then on the morning of August 2nd I got up to watch the morning flight and there was no morning flight.  Oh a half dozen bats flew out of the woods and over the house but no one came to the roost.  The bats were clearly in hunting mode and were flying over my house and yard like any other looking for bugs to catch.  The young had been weaned, reached adolescence and so the breeding colony had dispersed.  Now it was time to fatten up for the winter and that could best be done by spreading out over a much wider area.  Still I miss watching them en mass and checking on the colony.  I am planning on building a bat house over the winter and putting it in place come spring.