Hosting a Few More

Back in December and January, Oilburner and I had the great fortune of hosting Rogey of All Things Rogey delight.  We had a great time getting to know Rogey in person, showing him parts of the US he hadn't visited before, and watching him take his first fledgling ride on US roads.  His concern was getting accustomed to the opposite road rules here, and if he could overcome them.  (Like I have any doubts.)

Well, today we are hosting a few more guests, but they will be staying a little longer.

We have a screened patio attached to the house.  For the most part, it has been extremely effective at what it was designed to do, keep bugs out.  In some cases it hasn't been so effective at keeping things in.  Case in point, the first time we had some friends over with greyhounds that had never encountered screens before.  One of their pups decided it would be easier to use the screen opening rather than an actual door.  I mean, they had to wait for the door to be opened, after all.  (Luckily the screen was old and ripped easily.  That instance has given us hours and hours of amusement.)

Over the years I have replace all but one of the screen panels.  Our lawn care folks are making it necessary to focus on getting that done, as they didn't care that their weed-eater shredded the bottom of it.  Tsk, tsk.  Replacing that screen hasn't been on my high priority list as it has been winter and we don't have too many little bugs yet.

We've had the occasional bird manage to get caught in the screen room over the years.  Not sure how they were able to get in.  Probably something to do with those replaced screens.  So we weren't too surprised to find another bird in the patio room the other day.  With the rip in the one screen, and the loose, ripped panels in the doors, the place is far from impregnable.

When we started comparing notes though, we realized we had each been seeing a bird on the patio, separately.  I opened my eyes and really "saw" the patio in all it's messy glory, outside of the yellowish green tinged everything was colored from the pollen, besides the 10 year old breaking down patio furniture, in addition to the "wonderful, useful" items that we had procrastinated in taking to Goodwill (and was now caked with pollen), besides the rolled up hammock standing on end...

Wait a second...  There's a birds nest tucked into the end of the hammock!  What the...?!?!

Some little birdy had taken it as great fortune with multiple passages into our screen room, and made a little nest that was home to a little egg.  We were concerned we had scared mommy bird away since we hadn't seen her in a couple days.  We didn't need to worry long when a look the next day revealed 5 eggs.  Hmmm...

Arriving home last night I was greeted with a little head popping out of the nest inquiring about my passing.  She seems very calm though with our comings and goings for now.  Lucky, since her little nest is about 6 inches from the hinged side of our back door.

Here's a poor picture.  I don't want to completely intrude.  :)

Easing Into Spring

Spring has come in.  Yay.  Blessedly beautiful weather and temperatures for a couple days does wonders for my personal outlook on life.

Last week showed us winter was still trying to hang on with evenings near freezing.  However, the temperatures warmed up and the rain cleared out to produce the iconic spring weekend.

Oilburner has been traveling for three weeks, and was happy to be away from work.  He actually hatched a little plan to take the travel trailer out and go camping.  I would hear nothing of it, since I wanted to go riding.

We had thought an overnight someplace might be the ticket.  But talked ourselves out of it late Friday night.  Instead, we decided to take a day ride on Saturday with a friend that we hadn't ridden with in a very long time.  That just left us with the necessary evil of deciding where we wanted to ride to.

Cherohala Skyway between Robbinsville, NC and Tellico Plains, TN is always a big hit.  However, there was a landslide on the parkway over the winter that had taken out a good portion of roadway.  Repairs had been underway enough that one lane was open.  But Cherohala Skyway in a day is an ambitious plan, and not necessary in my mind for a leisurely opening season ride.  So I talked the guys into a scenic mountain ride to stretch the proverbial legs.

Oilburner and I have taken a few rides in the lowlands of Georgia, but it has been a very long time since we have done much in the twisties.  It was a startling realization of how little we actually have ridden the last 6 months.  The GS had its 6K service just prior to the trip to Maine last year.  That put 4K miles onto the clock, and I haven't yet finished up the 2K to the next service.  The R1200R bike has only seen a couple thousand miles as well, since it hasn't gone in for a service either.  That really pointed out how little riding we have done.

Country road curves are one thing.  Getting back into the serious twisties is quite another, when you have been away awhile.  So I urge you all to do a little warm up and practice before just wiping the dust off the bikes and hopping into the thick of things.

I found I had one major hang up that is going to require some time and practice to get back over.  I've never really enjoyed tight left-hand twisties.  In the South that generally means beautiful views off into some valley...with only trees and rocks to obstruct any forward and downward movement.  I can envision all too well my bike and I sliding off the road and tumbling down the hillside.  (Right curves are much easier in my mind as I still have another "lane" on the other side of that yellow line in case the bike slips out.)  I know, stupid thought process.  But it is what it is.

I had been able to overcome that in the past and taken many a spirited ride through the mountains with various and sundry people trying to keep up.  Not so today.  Today I had reverted back to my "learning" days and had totally psyched myself out.  There were even a couple curves that I just stood the bike up and "walked" my way around. (I.E. no leaning.)

We stopped to discuss my issues and thought about some back aches that I have.  (I carry my work stress in my upper back and neck, and my left shoulder had been paining me.)  We wondered if I was being "tender" on my shoulder and not really performing the necessary moves to lean to the left.  I also figured that I was following our friend and his style was messing with my head.  It's normally just me and Chris, and we take turns leading.  That maybe our friends rhythm was messing me up since I wasn't looking through the curves at my exit/vanishing point.  I found myself fixating on his rear tire, or just behind it.

After lunch, we hit tighter twisties that didn't thrill me.  I had already warned them I was taking it easy and just riding within my comfort zone.  I would catch up at the next turn.  Oilburner worries though.  So when someone caught me up from behind I agonized over letting the Jeep pass, knowing Oilburner would be beside himself if a vehicle were the next thing to come upon him, rather than me.  Luckily I didn't have to worry too much as I was able to keep enough ahead of the Jeep that I didn't feel pressured.  And Oilburner had stopped a couple curves down the road.  He thought I was much further behind than I was, and he was worried.  (AAAWWWW!)

Having the guys out of my sight did wonders for me.  I wasn't having to watch Oilburner nail the corners (which I did yell at him for, knowing we both needed a little warm up before going whole hog into twisty mode), and I didn't have to watch our friend and his strange ways.  (He rides a Harley VROD, what can I saw about that huge rear tire...)  I was able to concentrate on technique and go my own speeds.

So all you out there that are dusting the bike off from its winter slumber, I urge you to take a little notice of fit and feel when climbing back on board.  Think that a little parking lot practice might be in order, with a few road drills coming in handy prior to hitting the roads as if you have never been away.  Muscle memory will account for a lot.  But a little warm up is always necessary.  :)

Happy Spring.  Safe Travels.  Hope to see you on the roads this year.

...and This Is Today

Yesterday was warm and sunny, with gentle breezes.

That was yesterday. This is today:

I'm at the little dot under all those colors, just above right of the top red dot.

We've had tornado warnings all morning. Warning means that one has been spotted, keep an eye out for more. After noon tornadoes hit north of here, overturning cars on the freeway. The freeway has been shut down and there has been at least one fatality so far. We're getting hit, and this one isn't a joke...unlike snow warnings in Atlanta.

**UPDATE:

THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR THE CONCERN!!

Luckily the storm seemed to peter out a little around the office. The weather sirens were going off in a nearby city. I could hear them through the walls at work. (One rich city has warning sirens here.) There was a time when the wind and rain stopped dramatically (read suddenly) and the sky went a strange color of orange, green, and black. Then it suddenly moved on and softer rains came in.

I stayed at work until 4. The worst of it had passed over, but the yellow and red bands were between work and home. I was going home anyway. Wait too late and I would probably be caught in horrible traffic. I meandered my way home with only rain to keep me company. Sometimes it was heavy, other times light. Made it home in 1 hour 30 minutes. Only slightly longer than average. :) All was well at home. The detention pond in the front yard was full. Rare occurence lately. It has probably been full twice in the last five years. (Quite a difference from when it was full four times a year the first couple years we lived here.)

Oilburner stayed late at work and made it home safely as well.

I'll count my blessings and keep the less fortunate close to my heart tonight. Thank you, friends, for thinking of us.

Did Someone Say Spring?

Yes.  I know.  I owe you all posts on a couple different trips.  But you are just going to have to wait a sec.  Everyone has gotten into the Spring Wishes as today was the Northern Hemisphere's Vernal Equinox. So I wish you all the same.

I know that some of you are still caught in the dire grips of winter with snow still on the ground, evidenced in RichardM's Ice Sculpture trip the other day.  Bobskoot is still scraping ice off of the windshield in the morning.  Trobairitz and Troubadour are luckily seeing signs, but are still being caught in rain showers.

So what is Atlanta seeing in times of Spring?

SEX!

Sex in the form of pollen everywhere!

For those of you with allergies this might be a little scary.  So sit with a box of tissues nearby.

First...this is our Pollen Count for March 20, 2012.

Let me emphasize...  nine thousand three hundred sixty-nine!!!  (See...getting sex in there...)

For those unfamiliar with allergies and pollen problems, a count of 400 is consider dangerous to allergy suffers.  So what exactly does a count of 9000 mean to them?!?!  Today and yesterday absolutely shattered the records set in 1999 of a mere 6000+.

Wanna know what is causing all of this?

Chinese Holly Grape

Violets

Muscari

Dogwood

Azalea

Azalea

Azalea

Dandelion.  Does anyone know a good recipe for Dandelion Wine?  ;)

Sweet Gum Tree

Dogwood

Gardenia

Still trying to find out what this is...

Golden Rain Tree

And this is the culprit that is turning EVERYTHING a lovely shade of yellow-green right now...

Pine

Sorry.  Couldn't convince him to write "Charlotte".

Evidence of pollen

Guarding the back yard.

Ants are active early this year.

I wish you a happy and healthy Spring (here in the Northern Hemisphere).  Hopefully with less inhalable evidence of the natural world proliferating.  But with lots of color and beauty surrounding you. 

Now tell me...where would you rather be?  :)

It Was a Goldilocks Kind of Day

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was...

Wait a minute!!  What am I saying?  It was the best of times!!  Today was going to be beautiful and we were hopping on the bikes for a very long ride.

Yeah, the day started chillier than expected.  Much chillier.  The thermometer read 33F (0.5C) at 7:30 AM.  Brrrrr!  Especially knowing that it would soon be nearing the 70F (21C) mark.  Bed was too warm and comfy to get up for that.  So we took our time waking up and getting out.  But get up we did and hit the road.  Road construction had us thinking up creative ways to get to the other side of Atlanta.  And a fuel stop turned into some good-natured ribbing.

In case you haven't been listening, I live in Georgia.  :)  And Georgia isn't flat.  So when stopping for fuel, or anyplace really, I will generally try to exit the facility so that I can turn right.  Just makes life easier and less dangerous.  Sometimes you do have to make those lefts, but I attempt to mitigate them.  And I also try to avoid having to start moving on an up hill.  Dry clutch and all that.  (You do believe me, right??)

The entire time we're fueling up I'm weighing my exit strategy options in my mind.  If we exit the one we came in we can turn right (safety) but will immediately need to turn left at the intersection to enter the freeway on ramp.  But if we use the other exit we are more likely to have a green light to directly enter the on ramp, but I will have to turn left out of the gas station AND start on an uphill.

With all these heavy decisions going through my head, I haven't mentioned any of this to Mr. Oilburner.  But I decided to try on my big girl panties and headed for the uphill exit.  All turns, stops, starts and lights are executed flawlessly.  As soon as we are out of the lot, not even through the intersection yet, Mr. Oilburner admits his wonderment at my choice of leaving the exit I did.  (Sometimes he knows me too well...)  I had to admit to him that it was an internal debate that I had struggled through.  He had a good laugh at my expense.  I'll get even...

Today we are headed towards Providence Canyon State Park.  It's one of those places that is just on the cusp of needing to be an overnighter if you go there, by any mode of transportation.  It is about 3 hours away, by slab.  But there is so much to see and do and hike and what-have-you that it makes for a stupendously log day if there is an automatic 6+ hour travel time.

Unfortunately, I have had this particular bee in my bonnet since autumn.  It's south and is very, very, warm in the summer and I wanted to get down there before it became too hot.  I was also hoping for some photo ops on the quiet back roads.

Awhile back I read on someone's blog (I wish I could remember who) about the camaraderie of motorbike riding "back in the days."  It was a thought provoking little piece of when there was a time when you, as a lone rider, could hook up with another rider on the road.  Swoop in to be the wing man, share a nod, the road and some miles.  When it was time to split up, a nod or a wave acknowledged the appreciation of this forged bond and it was back to singleness.

I had the thrill of being able to experience this today.  One of my times looking in the mirror I saw another bike behind Mr. Oilburner, falling right into formation.  I assumed he would be passing soon and didn't give it much thought.

He didn't pass...

There wasn't much traffic, but every so often I would switch lanes to pass someone.  I took our new friend into account and only changed lanes when he was clear.  I also tried to keep us moving and his tail clear of rushing cars.  He was in sync immediately, moving lanes as soon as I turned my signal on showing my intent.  And since he remained with us for 80 miles he must have enjoyed our pace.  Imagine a big, pretty Harley Dyna voluntarily filling in our little BMW pac.

For a very long time Mr. Oilburner and I speculated on his intentions.  Was someone all the way on the other side of the world, who knew where we were going and had access to Mr. Tell-Tale, my SPOT track, having us followed?  Was this guy following us to conk us on the heads at the next stop and steal one of our bikes?  Conspiracy theories abounded.  Especially when he stayed with us through a freeway change to a lesser traveled thoroughfare.  After the theorizing stopped we settled in for the camaraderie.  There was only a small pang of disappointment that he didn't follow us down the off-ramp to relieve our 100 mile saddle soreness.  It would have been nice to share stories over a soda.  I guess that is just part of the romance of the open road.

Ferocious little beast trying to steal my M&M's.

By this time we realized that we had left lunch on the kitchen counter.  We weren't thrilled with the prospect of going into town to get anything.  So we decided to see if the convenience store at this gas station had anything deli-like to offer.  Not much luck for anything that looked good, but we settled on a couple hot dogs and a box of wings.  It was only another 30 miles of empty back roads to our first destination, Florence Marina State Park.

Ah....so peaceful!!

Ok, faithful friends.  This is what middle Georgia looks like...

Ok...if you have looked at a map...that is actually Alabama over the waterway.  But the view behind me is fairly similar.  :)

We enjoyed the sounds of the birds, watching the squirrels and listening to the occasional boat on the water.  We took some time for a couple photo ops of the bikes under the Spanish Moss.  Since I wasn't willing to do the dirty deed of putting the bikes on grass where this is no parking...I let Mr. Oilburner be the one to garner any dirty looks.  Since there weren't many people about it wasn't an issue.

Providence Canyon is only 8 miles down the road.  And we are treated with the splendid sight of two C-17's crossing our path; huge and cumbersome on the ground but so powerful and graceful in the air.  Such a rare treat to see two in flight.

Arriving at Providence Canyon with full tummies on a warm and quiet day has us thinking of a nap.  Why not take advantage of it?  We find an empty parking lot and prop the bikes in the shade.  Ourselves as well.  Mr. Oilburner sets to sawing logs, but my mind is wandering.  I take a few pictures of the world from ground level.  I listen to the birds.  I hear the people walking along the paths.  The cars buzz by.  And the I hear the first "Plane of Summer."  The high and far off plane with that perfect drone marking SPRING for me. AAAAHHHH!!!  Mixed feelings that winter is going away and summer will be here too soon.  But right now is absolutely perfect.

It's nearing that time when we need to think of heading home.  I stroll along the canyon rim path for a few shots while Mr. Oilburner folds the blanket.  Honestly, how far can you hike in armored pants and riding boots?  I didn't travel far.

We decided on a more direct route home instead of back tracking the way we came.  Only more direct equals longer time as it will be along the back roads; a 4 hour tour compared to a 3 hour blur.  I start seeing signs for other landmarks that were also on my hit list.  But we are out of time for today.  Until we pass a sign for Plains, GA and I asked Mr. Oilburner if he wants to see The Peanut, one of those ludicrous weird landmarks that we enjoy collecting.  So we did.  :)

The back roads home were gorgeous.  We passed through smoky valleys filled with the aroma of burning wood.  We floated through quiet neighborhoods where the smell of back yard barbecues wafted on the breeze.  We passed through small towns where the sidewalks were being rolled up for the evening.  We waved to families sitting on front porches watching the cars speed by.  We exclaimed about hearing the Spring Peeper frogs in the swamp through our helmets and over the engine noise.  Nearing the major metropolis the slow life dwindles and we jumped on the freeway to make some time getting home.

We parked our steads in the garage a little before 9PM.  Luckily these steeds don't require feed and watering after their rub down.  Our trusty steeds had carried us 410 miles (660 KM) in the last 9 hours.  They received well deserved hugs and pets.  Then we left them in a dark garage for a little slumber.

More pictures from the day can be viewed at Flickr.

And our track: