Thanksgiving Ride

Thanksgiving Day (after) Quarantine Ride

Hope everyone had as Great of a Thanksgiving week as I did!  I was fortunate enough to have visitors with motorcycles and firearms show up for the week. This may have been the Best Week Ever!!!

Buck of SBB suspension fame showed up with his wife Marcie and a newly acquired KTM 300 xcw. I got a smile on my face that didn’t go away until they left. There was also MJ’s lifelong friend, Matt, from Montana with his CRF 450 X fully decked out and set up to do rides worthy of taking him out on a tour.  Then the Circus rolled into town, Big Bob Gates, his grandson Cameron and the legendary Baja race coordinator Doug Smith. This crew brought along a KTM, KX and Husky in the arsenal.

Buck got his feet wet by going on the legendary ‘Taco Ride’ that takes place on Monday. I know you are thinking ‘Taco Tuesday’ is what everyone says. Three reasons why it is on Monday.  First because the bar/restaurant we ride to has taco specials on Monday.  Second, who in the heck wants to do it like every other knucklehead they know!  Third, because Tuesday is Range day and I am not giving up my shooting day!

Buck rode with Recon, Cory and myself. Cory was in the right place at the right time because Buck rebuilt his shock the day before in my garage with parts he brought on the road. Cory’s shock had NEVER seen any love and it was a 2008 YZ 250.  Glad I wasn’t riding that before the rebuild.  Cory got setup and adjusting by SBB suspension tuner Buck on our ride. Hard to put a price on that!  Recon and I both ride bikes with big tanks on our KTM 500’s and can go for tacos and back without fuel. But in the Girlz bike category 250/300 2 strokes you gotta carry oil so we can stop and get fuel to make the complete trip.

We had a great ride out and back with only a couple small mishaps. On our way home I noticed Cory was beginning to make a few mistakes. It seems the younger generation gets tired a bit sooner than the Geezers!  So about mile 75 we talked it over and decided to take a less meandering route to avoid any potential injuries. Everyone got home fine and there was talk, by Recon of course, of meeting for Milk Shakes around 6pm. Recon, Buck and I did meet up for milkshakes but it seemed Cory decided he didn’t want one that bad. He texts and thanked us for the invite but he was going to stay home.  The Geezers all enjoyed the payoff!

The Tuesday shooting day was a lot of fun, we shoot paper targets and some steel gongs with side arms to add variety to our day. It started out as any normal shooting day until Marcie got a little instruction and accelerated her fire arms proficiency dramatically.  All of a sudden she was a female Rambo and needed more bullets!!!  She was actually hitting the target and handling the pistol in a much more efficient and controlled manner. The look on her face was priceless, when she saw what she could do after being taught how to do it correctly.  She was back stuffing magazines for the next round every time she ran them empty. I think Buck shot a couple times but backed up every time Marcie was ready to shoot. I am pretty sure he was afraid of being punched if he got in her way!  She loved my small Glock and it seems they went to a local gun shop to shop for more ammo.  Buck may have a monster on his hands!

The day after Thanksgiving the Circus rolled into town, a bit late, but it was a long drive from So. Cal.  After all the visitors met each other and the B.S. session concluded we got on the trail about noon. I was trying to decide how many miles we could cover with the remaining daylight. Some of the loops are big and take a few hours to complete. With our group of 6 riders the average speed would be lower. I rolled the dice and went out a bit further, heck 4 of us had lights to get home. What could go wrong?

We rode and had a great time. Swapped bikes a couple times to evaluate, did a little trail side wrenching and we saw a few sights; the cabin is a cool stop when no one is there. It is a rebuilt cabin tucked away in a canyon but since it was a holiday weekend we found it was overrun with a group of Polaris RZR drivers. Must have been 12 to 15 of them each having 2 to 4 people per vehicle. Too busy so we looked, took a few photos and moved on. It was late in the afternoon anyway. On a side note, the RZR vehicles create a chop or washboard in all the sand washes that can knock your teeth loose. Sometimes these go for many miles at a time. To get some perspective, Big Bob says after riding some of these washes, “This is so much fun I think I will schedule a colonoscopy when I get home”.  I don’t think he liked that part.

So we headed out and took another route back that eventually brought us closer to a hiway and a bit of 2 stroke gas that I had stashed around 6am that morning. As the tour guide I wanted to make sure everyone would make it.  It was late in the day and Bob who is 78 yrs. old by the way listened closely when I gave our options at that point.  Continue to ride the trail and finish at about dark or hop on the highway and beeline it back to town in about 14 miles. Bob instantly made an executive decision and said we were going on the highway, lol.  No one objected and we did just that, half of our bikes are plated so we just put the non-plated bikes in the middle. When the first three of us rolled into town we noticed the other three missing. We waited a few minutes and were just turning around when Recon, Doug and Bob come rolling in. It seems Bob’s KTM had run out of gas just a couple miles outside of town and he had to lean the bike over to get the last bit of gas to make it. Perfect!  Bob was out of gas too but he made it.

The boyz got back to the trailer and loaded up for the long drive home. This was their first visit to come ride with me. I have gone over to ride in their neck of the woods on many occasions and know full well how long the trip seems when going home. The rolling circus got all the bikes loaded and said their good byes. Away they went.  I wonder if they will ever come back?              I mean after the Colonoscopy!

The next day was an easy day with only one rider showing up.  Matt is from Butte, Montana and quite an accomplished rider. He rides a very well maintained and prepped Honda 450x. He should, in so much as Matt had a motorcycle shop, ‘Two Wheelz’, in Butte for a number of years. He has been in the motorcycle business a long time.  It shows in his riding and prep.  We meandered out on two track and some single track for a few hours and had a great ride. A lot of fun and pretty uneventful. With Matt’s ability and only two of us I was able to take him on some of the stuff I can’t take most people or groups. It would require camping gear and lots of spare parts if I try that! I had a great time and we wrapped up with, can you believe this, “33” miles when I hit the pavement to ride home. I smiled and laughed when I saw that. This might be the Best Day Ever!  I dropped Matt off at MJ’s and after a bit of a B.S. session headed home. When I got home I checked and realized, Holy Schmokers, these guys had kept me busy all week and it was time for an oil change! I got to work and the Mighty KTM is all serviced up and ready to go! New oil and air filter. Anybody want to ride?

#33

‘When is old enough to know better supposed to kick in?’

#33 Mountain Climbing!

Trail ride with #33 to the top of the mountain!

2020 COVID TOUR

                                                                                   2020 COVID TOUR

It seems the Summer of 2020 will go down in a lot of people’s minds as the summer they would rather forget.  With the introduction of the Wuhan Flu better known now as COVID-19. It is something I certainly would like to forget.  It will have a lasting impression on how quickly things can change in our lives.

We started out our summer tour a bit late because of the Garage Mahal build with the time it took just to collect all of my things that were in storage and get them relocated. I had stuff in my old garage, courtesy of DJ Schul, some of it was at MJ’s house in a shed and a fair amount was over in Recon’s garage.  Thanks boyz for your patience.  Once most of it was collected up and brought to the Garage Mahal it was time to hit the road as it was getting very hot.  Too hot to ride, that is a definite indication it is time to look for cooler riding spots!  So once the mountain bikes, motorcycles and required armament were packed up it was time to roll.

The first stop was in Emmet, Idaho to see a long time buddy, Todd “Shade” Martin.  Shade had gotten married and retired since I had seen him or ridden with him probably more than 12 years ago. His wife’s name is Dawn and they have now relocated to Emmet on a large property with a newly constructed house. Beautiful place with great views in an awesome small town. The most outstanding feature I noticed when I drove up was a Huge detached garage! Beautiful!  Oh and the house was nice too, lol. The second best feature is that he had graded off and graveled an RV parking spot next to the garage.  I think he needs a sign to designate it “Shade Tree RV Park”. Once we secured our reservations we commenced to fixin’ and wrenchin’.  It seems Shade had not ridden his mountain bike in those 12 years since I last saw him.  He had a couple of little 4 wheelers that needed to run so we worked on those and got them going. He is planning on grandkids showing up and they will need entertaining.

While there I had a chance to explore the local motorcycle riding area, many local back roads and the local shooting range. Shade and I went to the range a couple of times to work on our shooting skills.  I went exploring the local riding area and had a great time on my 500 XCW. Strange thing occurred in that I broke a bead on the rear tire and had it come off the rim. That was a first, but I was fortunate it happened before I got too far out and could call for a spare rear wheel. Yes, I do take spare wheels with me on the road!  Also on this ride I came across an eagle that seemed to have a broken wing as it crossed in front of me on a singletrack trail. I stopped to take a look and could tell his wing was broken by the way he moved and could not fly away. I sat and watched him for a while and took a couple pictures of him.  I thought about it and was a bit sad when it dawned on me there was nothing I could do to help.

We also found out that Bruce Young of Hi Point Racing fame from Back in The Day was a resident of Emmet.  He lives there now with his wife Cheryl, whom we had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with.  It was great to see Bruce after all these years.  As luck would have it Shades house is about a mile up the road from Bruce. Wow, talk about coincidence.  We met up with Bruce at a car show in the city park. It was quite the show for such a small town. There were literally hundreds of cars in town and the park was wall to wall cars in the park.  Nothing quite like a small town car show, everyone goes.  I believe the town of Emmet would be one of my top 3 choices of places to live. Fantastic community.

A few days later Shade and Dawn took us on a trip up the hill to an area above McCall that Shade goes to hunt. He took his side by side and we took our V-Strom. Shade trailered his side by side up and we rode the V-Strom.  We went up over a long climb on a mountain range that descended down a gnarly rocky road, that deteriorated enough that Shade stopped to turn around because he thought we wouldn’t be able to make it on the V-Strom.  We told him we could hang so we continued on down to where someone with too much money had started to build a Mansion.  The project was stopped and everything was just left, stacks of wood, out buildings, everything. What a colossal waste of money! By our estimates there was probably a quarter of a million dollars there left unfinished.  Shade had heard rumors/stories that it was the result of divorce.  I guess life changes………. The area was beautiful and the views at the top were very scenic. Thanks Shade!

We had a great time and were getting ready to head toward Orofino but unfortunately found out the road was closed due to a landslide on Rt. 95.  That meant the long way around and a much longer drive. Oh well, there was probably something we hadn’t seen going that way.  So we packed up and headed out to see just what that might be!

#33

‘Learn to listen, opportunity sometimes knocks very softly’

#33 Been MIA……Garage-Mahal

It’s been a while since I have had or taken the time to sit down and put pen to paper, so to speak.  I almost have a good excuse.  But whether it is valid or not is not really important.  The fact that I have an AWESOME NEW garage validates it for me!

Yup!  A new garage to work in and more storage space than I ever imagined I would have is the justification for being lazy on the keyboard.

This new work space is approximately 1150 square ft. in floor space. Two roll up doors for lighting and ventilation plus a man door for easy access. Oh, did I mention that it has heating, air conditioning and my own bathroom along with an extra deep sink in the work space for cleaning air filters with soap and water!  I may have to have a sign made up and hang it somewhere that says “Heaven!”  Because I am fairly certain this is what Heaven will be like should I ever get there.  A second choice might be a sign saying ‘Never Never Land’ because like Peter Pan I have no plans to grow up!

It took about 6 months to get through the construction process, all done by River Homes Construction owned by a man named Tom Stokley.   We did this project on a hand shake, no real contract with deadlines or exact dollar amount. I know you are thinking I am a knucklehead for not getting everything in writing. But from my first meeting with Tom and his up front estimate, timelines and explanation of his schedule it was apparent he did things correctly in his business.  Tom is an Honorable Man and it shows in his business.

Now that it is finished I have the coolest work space with TWO work stations, with work stands and toolboxes at each place. The built in stereo system is better than the one in my house!  But the satellite TV can be a bit troubling when I am trying to work, because I have to turn around when the moto comes on.  Such a distraction! Lol.

I thought this place is HUGE when I first got to walk through the finished project.  Then I started collecting my stored equipment and loading it into the Garage-Mahal.  All of a sudden I was running out of room and having to organize and arrange things so I could have some sort of symmetry to my chaos. Just when I think I am getting things under control my buddy Recon shows up and sees all my possessions or “Stuff” as he calls it.  He immediately labels me as a Hoarder!  I was crushed and I think he saw that he had hurt one of my two feelings.  So he revised it and called me an “organized hoarder”.  I felt sooooo much better!

I am slowly getting things put away and under control.  It helps that Recon and our buddy Mark Kaestner came over and showed me how to build a second story in the back part of the Garage-Mahal to increase my storage capabilities.  I ended up needing more space for my “Stuff”!  Who woulda thunk!!!  Apparently Recon.

So in order to live up to my organized hoarder label I have boxed, labeled and started a folder for things stored upstairs.  Thanks Recon for bringing out my insecurities.

I would like to point out though that Recon has not missed the opportunity to show up for the open buffet and moto/Supercross party each week even though he had to sit in the middle of all that ‘Stuff”.  We continue to invite Recon because he has a sweetheart of a wife that brings wine for the party.  We have had a great time using the large area for Supercross and snacks with our friends Montana John as well as Jason and Yani being invited to our race day get together.

So now that it is almost setup and organized I can concentrate on the summer road trip to escape the heat.  But mostly to visit and ride with friends in cooler places.  I always look forward to that.

Now that the garage is done I may have to think about upgrading my off road KTM.  After all, would you expect to see an old high mileage, scratched up KTM siting in the middle of such an elaborate shop?  Me neither!!!

I believe I will start shopping, see ya!

#33

‘We are advertised by our loving friends’

Trail Riding

Just a casual sight seeing ride in Moab with #33