Got back into town a week ago today. Where was I? Dale and I took our motorcycles and rode to the Smokey's in North Carolina. We have been doing this annually for the past several years (I have been doing this for over 10 years solo). There is a road there (U.S. 129) which is listed as one of the top ten motorcycle rides in the world. It is called the Tail of the Dragon and is 318 curves in 11 miles with roughly 1000 feet of elevation change through the southern Great Smokey's National Forest. Awesome ride although the word is out big time and it has become very crowded. To make things worse there are a lot of people there who think they can ride faster than they really can. This make for lots of accidents and deaths. The rumor mill says there is one to two deaths there every week during the riding season. If you ride like a sane person and remember that you are not on a race track, make room for those who are coming over the center line because they are riding too fast and remember that you are sharing this road with cars and trucks (sometimes Semi-Trucks) you can ride it pretty safely. Having said all of this, I truly expect I will stop going to ride this ride due to the over crowding and all the people who think this road is a race track. It is getting more dangerous every year and even though I ride a motorcycle, I do what I can to mitigate risk.

I will post more about our weekend in the Smokey's later as I have been keeping a diary during the lead up to this weekend and so on. The diary will follow in the next several days. For now, I will add a picture of me on the Tail of the Dragon taken by killboy.com

Birmingham, AL

My friend Dale posted some pics of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. He and I rode our motorcycles there over a 3 day weekend, the 6th through the 8th of August. We had a blast although it was hot (including heat index it was about 110 degrees every day). We rode blue highways there and back and really got to see t...he character of the places we were riding through. It was a trip well worth suffering the heat to take. This is one of the premier motorcycle museums in the world and well worth the visit for anyone into motorcycles.

Pics: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2070677&id=1528986072&fbid=1531827985507&ref=mf

And on to Charleston, SC

After visiting Asheville, NC on our vacation, we moved on to Charleston, South Carolina. This city is wonderful. Lots of historical stuff and welcoming people. We thought that Savannah, Georgia was our favorite southern city before visiting Charleston. Now Charleston is the winner. We even discussed what it would take ...to get us to move there (winning the lottery).
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=myuploads#!/album.php?id=1530695562&aid=2069813

Trip to East Coast

Michelle and I took a vacation last month. We visited Ashville, North Carolina so we could see the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands judged show. It filled two floors of the Asheville Convention Center and was awesome. Before a person could display there they had to be elected members of the Craft Guild. I bought a ...little hand made leather pouch to carry "possibles" in my pocket and Michelle bought a pair of ear rings. Together we bought a numbered print of cats to go in our dining room. This show will repeat in October and we plan on returning again then. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070677&id=1528986072&ref=mf#!/album.php?id=1530695562&aid=2069811

I am going to try to incorporate my twits and my facebook posts (at least most of the ones that matter to me) into my blog just to try to add some permanence to this and make a (sort of journal) out of this blog. Maybe I will be my best reader...

I am back

Took a break. What can I say but that this blog is for me and I don't feel compelled to write if I am not in the mood.

I went to the BMW dealer in Nashville this past Tuesday (No, not the car dealer. The motorcycle one.) Turns out that they are also a Piaggio dealer (I knew that), a Vespa dealer (I didn't know that) and a Ducati dealer (big surprise, I had no idea). After looking at the BMW's I went downstairs to see the Piaggio MP3's and I first waded into a sea of beautiful Ducati motorcycles. I drooled all the way to the back of the lower area where the Piaggio's were and found I was in for a surprise. The Piaggio scooters were also beautiful. I didn't know they had imported so many large displacement scooters into the USA. 250 and 500 cc scooters all around me. I am so glad I wasn't ready to spend lots of money. I didn't buy a new bike - I don't need one and I can't afford the burden of a motorcycle payment while Wes is still in college. But I can dream.

Peace,
Doug

After the break...

After a break here, I am back at the keyboard. In the interim, Michelle has had her surgery and is doing pretty good post op. She struggles some with food and eating but I feel confident that it will work itself out.

I have the driveway and sidewalks done finally. Now, today Wes and a friend are coming over to put a retaining wall in beside the driveway and topsoil behind it(might as well pay them as paying someone I don't know). We are also going to re-do the Zen Garden that I have right in the front of the house. It never was much more that some white rock before. Now it will be much much better (I hope!).

My back continues to hurt a lot. I am going to make an appointment with my neurosurgeon to see what is going on. I hope I don't have to have more back surgery.

Found my Bodi seed bracelet. I thought I had lost it, had been looking for it for over a month. This is a good thing.

I am going to stop here, Wes should be here within the next 10 minutes.

Peace,
Doug