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?  :)

Teaser Post

OK.  I'm still making my attempt at a first pass over the photos.  Slow going...  And the video looks like it will suck due to condensation inside the GoPro housing.  Oilburner and I haven't been having much luck with GoPro's lately.

I am posting this short little video of the driveway of the Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at.  This driveway was DAUNTING!  You can't tell in this direction, but the other side is a very steep drop off, with single lane twists, turns and roller coasters.

Time Stamp 41s...that is the roof of a three story house on the left...

But you just have to listen at time stamp 56s.



Can you guess what it is??

Ack!!

Plans were laid.  Routes were uploaded to the Garmin's.  Reservations at a cute little B&B procured.

We were going to do Cherohala Skyway and The Dragon the "proper" way.  In the past we have always rushed through the miles and the day to make it round trip home again.  This time we were going to slow the day down, stop and smell the spring flowers, run Cherohala one day, stay at a little bed and breakfast centrally located, run the Dragon the next, and actually hit a new road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  A road that we have wanted to do for years and haven't been able to.

It just wasn't meant to be...

A not-so-little landslide on the Dragon.  No one was hurt, but it will be closing the most sought after road in the area for a couple of weeks.

This isn't a heartbreak for us.  After all, we have ridden this a couple times.  It's just that it was the shortest route to get us around and over to the Smokies and headed back home in the proper sequence.  Now we have to navigate the Smokies south to north...then find an easy way to head south again.

It went from something like this:

View Larger Map

To maybe something like this:


View Larger Map

Or maybe we will wile away the day and ride through Cades Cove:


View Larger Map

I don't know.  If we spent our time in Cades Cove, we just might have to head back and hit the last few miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway again.  Wow.  Life would be rough.  :)

I hope that your weekend will allow for some good riding plans that pan out.

Spring Has Sprung

I was working on another post when I discovered Trobairitz's challenge.  If it were NIGHT outside I would prove that spring has already begun visiting the South.  The Tulip trees are blooming.

I purchased some indoor Tulip bulbs to cheer up my office space.

And I managed to snap a couple of photos from the webcam at home.

My Witness Protection picture

A little too much bubbly?

Cousin It comes to visit. 

Did this qualify?  ;)

Ego Boost

Yeah...I haven't been able to spend much one on one time with any bike recently. So the excitement started to increase as I contemplated riding over to a new adventure riding meetup group dinner. Of course, I left work an hour late. And I also had to go to the market for necessities. So I arrived home at 7. Threw the groceries in the kitchen. Put the perishables in the appropriate fridgerated compartment. Left the remainder strewn all over the floor and counters. Slipped my sweaty feet into leather boots. Threw my jacket over my shoulder, grabbed my helmet and ran to the garage.

It is an adventure riding group. I have to take the GS. It is the adventure bike after all. Unfortunately the tank is absolutely empty.

Get the bike out of the garage, close the house and hop on the bike. The new gas station around the corner seems like the perfect stop.

Hop on the freeway at 7:20 and enjoy a spirited ride to arrive someplace 20 minutes away...in 10 minutes. ;)

Didn't quit make it on time, but no matter...the ride was enjoyable.

I consider losing a little face as I have to make a couple of circuits of the parking lot as others watch on. I just can't decide where to attempt to squeeze the bike in. But it isn't worth feeling chagrined about. I've got one HOT bike. And all eyes are on us. Hehe

I don't know. I just can't help but feeling a huge ego boost when I am one of only three girls in a sea of 20 guys...and the only rider. Oh yeah, baby.

And I didn't even get stuck in the garage when I arrived home to stable the steed. :)

Carburetors and Fuel Petcocks

So what happens when someone has become spoiled on his state of the art, fuel injected, luxury liner on two wheels and is put on a 1986 Honda duel sport?  He completely forgets about carburetors and fuel petcocks that need to be turned into the proper position...

I figured he had stalled the machine when he didn't follow me through the right hand turn out of the parking lot.  But I could see his frustration level skyrocketing when it died again a quarter mile down the road at the next light.  His furious kick starting wasn't having effect.  Luckily there wasn't anyone on the road behind us.  I just pulled over and headed for the gas station.  He was there jumping up and down on that kick start lever to save his life.

I was curious to see if he would pull it over to the gas station and just kick it over on its side.  (He had spent all day Saturday trying to kick start that darn machine.  You would think the fact that it wasn't getting any spark would have saved him tons of kicking.)

It didn't take him long to realize that the fuel petcock was in the "Off" position.  Well...it didn't take him much longer...hehe

Just goes to show that you have to relearn some things on those older vehicles that you used to be proficient on.  :)

Four's a Herd

If two is company.  And three is a crowd.  What is four? 

Apparently, a nice start to a herd...

The poor little thing is relegated to the patio for a couple days until we can make some space in the garage.

Oilburner and I have been wondering lately just how two of us are going to go adventure riding?  I realize that he is ok with taking his RT(A) on some dirt roads.  I'm sure he would be capable of taking it through some pretty interesting areas.  But whenever I think about some of the places I am interested in exploring, I don't want to ask him to take the RT(A) down those roads.  I'd be too afraid of what might happen...

He's just been too darn jealous.

We knew we would end up getting something that would allow us both to get out and dirty.  We've always just wondering what it might be.  I figured it would be some old, beat up thing that would allow me to learn to ride the dirt.  And so it is. 

I still think that 600cc is large for off-roading.  At least to learn on.  But the important thing is that the cc's will allow us to ride the bike to the trail instead of trailering it there.  So what I think is going to happen will be Oilburner riding this on the highways and byways to reach the dirt...and then we can switch bikes.  I'll ride on the comfort of the GS saddled, cushy shocked shiny luxury liner.  :)

Some of you have been posting some of your pictures of the "basket case" bikes.  And we are wondering if this will be one of them.  Luckily the thing runs great.  Oilburner is torn between just getting it out and riding or taking it apart and cleaning all the little pieces and prettying her up again.  I'm more of the camp of just riding it right now and having some fun.  Clean it up next winter.  Maybe. 

Oh yeah.  Oilburner wants to make sure that I point out that I got the brand new, pretty, shiny big GS and he gets stuck with this old, dirty, rusty bucket o' bolts.  I told him that you all would only say "that is as it should be".  :)