We Have Survived!!

I know you have probably been worried.  I mean the blizzard conditions threatening the south (Atlanta) have probably made global media.  Wanted to let you know that we have survived.  The storm has caused a huge run on the staples: milk, bread, and eggs.  Don’t even try going to the market, you’ll be forced to go for the egg white liquid or try the vinegar and baking soda option.  (I would not recommend trying to scramble that vinegar and backing soda solution…don’t ask me how I know.)  We are holed up with makings for chili, tacos, and lots of snacks.

Now I’m going to warn you that the pictures below may be a little disturbing.  They are filled with vicious amounts of ice and snow.  This literally stops Atlanta in its tracks.  I can finally say I am able to run with the big boys in Portland (both Maine and Oregon), Denver and Fairbanks.  Hey Richard, do you think I can qualify for the Polar Bear Club??

Catsup

Happy New Year!!

My wish for everyone is a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.  I fervently hope that 2017 will be full of food, friends, family, adventure, new sights, and new sounds.

So hear is a little catsup from me and Oilburner:

New Years weekend was spent camping.  We took the mini-bikes in hopes of getting out.  But the allure of the sofa or camp chair and a good book and knitting were overpowering.

Christmas Day dawned beautiful, clear and WARM!  We were hitting the low 70’s in mid Georgia and just had to take advantage of it. We met up with a friend that recently acquired a 2015 GSW in Electric Blue.  Yum.  We met up in Senoia, GA.  For those of you Walking Dead fans this city was known as Woodbury. We didn’t have a destination so enjoyed a few miles through Pine Mountain park with some great overlooks.

And I am teaching myself knitting.  I’ve knitted the cap and mitts.  Working on the scarf now.  It’s the garter stitch at this moment.  The book I bought has 12 projects that will teach me garter, stockinette, ribbing, and seed.  I’m ready to try something other than garter, but having fun seeing things completed. 

Testing new posting application

 

This is a test.

This is only a test.

If this were a real emergency you would be asked to get on your motorcycle and come save my ass.

When Your Ride Needs Juice

Ecuador information will be forthcoming, but in the meantime...a teaser. 

The GS was laid up and half apart in an attempt to ready her for the Multiple Sclerosis ride.  So what to do when we want to ride?  Take out the R!

Since Oilburner hasn't ridden her to work this year, the R12R has been a little neglected.  Unfortunately she wasn't on a battery tender and had to be jumped. That didn't put a damper on our day, we merely packed the jumper cables and took off.  I had my hopes that the ride would put the juice back into her and things would be fine.

Hopes but not expectations. 

We didn't have a firm destination.  Thought we would head south to Monticello and see what restaurants remained. Taking tons of backroads that we had never seen, we meandered around and yimmed and yawed.  Hunger was taking over and we spotted a Firehouse Sub that would fill the void. 

Filled the voids in our tummies, but not the belly of my beast.  She wouldn't start. Barely turned over.  Time to get that cable out, but decided to perform that quick surgery on a level area, rather than the slope we were on.  I let her coast backwards.  Gave a couple bunny hops to start our way across the parking lot, and decided to try and bump start her.  A couple more mph and it might have worked.  There just wasn't enough oomph.  However, whatever the move did, it gave her enough of something that she fired up quickly.  Wasn't going to dare shut her down though.

But we needed fuel...  :(  The gas station next door was one of many that were suffering from the pipeline issues, and was out of fuel.  We'd get fuel elsewhere, but turned the bikes back north to hit the dealership and get a new battery. We calculated it out, and figured the battery had to be 6-7 years old. It had done us well.

Nothing exciting to report.  Good day, decent ride, new battery, saw the techs I hadn't seen in awhile.  Couple dollars poorer, but the R is worth it.  It was great riding her again. 

Is this a better clue?

By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

Looking forward to something

As (thankfully) you listened and put up with my last ruminations, we were trying to figure out how to take a vacation.  We desperately need time away to clear our heads and try to get ourselves back together.  We've tried to figure out a block of time that wouldn't inconvenience work.  (Why is work more important that my mental health?!?!)  We thought we had come up with a good 3 week period.  But then there was a shakeup at my work.  End of year separations, people not promoted that felt they deserved it, lost motivation, emergency family situations necessitating leaves of absence.  I wasn't sure I could pull it off.  Oilburner's boss was giving him a guilt trip.  Telling him he could have the time off in October...oh but wait...you'll be on an audit then...so that won't work.  Sigh.

We considered our options.  Would we go back up to Maine and possibly hit Labrador this year?  Should we do something unexpected and go to the Pacific Northwest?  Rent some bikes and force ourselves on Trobairitz and  Troubadour?  Go visit Vancouver Island?  Or do something completely off script and go to Iceland?  New Zealand?  Ecuador?

Or were we going to give that up and just put our heads down and work and figure out the mental health thing later.

Trying to make the decision weighed heavily.  What to do, what to do.

Oilburner cut the guilt trip and pushed for a 2 week vacation.  I bit the bullet and solidified the dates at my job.  Now to decide what to do.  We decided we want to do something completely unexpected, force us out of our lives and do something that would shake everything up.  Since Rogey was out of the country, we could wait on New Zealand.  We did a search on a motorcycle tour we have been researching the past couple of months.  We sent an email request.  We got an answer back.  And suddenly we are leaving deposits and booking international flights and trying to figure out how to pack our riding gear and get out of dodge in 8 days.

Wanna know where we are going?  I'll give you a clue...

Now this...this we are finally excited about.

 

One Hit Wonder?

Well...I've spilled my soul, written a first post after too long a time, haven't done much riding...what am I supposed to write about now?

I guess there are a few things to get off my chest...

I tend to keep things bottled up.  Unless, of course, you go by the handle of Oilburner.  Then you get to see the crazy come dancing forth in all its rainbow and unicorn glory.

I am basically a private person, not looking to air out the laundry.  I don't want to complain about my problems because everyone has problems.  Many that are worse than mine.  I also tend not to talk about my successes because I don't want to boast. So that makes me a very good listener, question asker, and shoulder to cry on or vent to, as well as being your biggest cheerleader.

This also means that I tend to get stuck in my own head.  Oilburner still gets to carry the brunt of that issue...

However, there are a couple of things that have been weighing heavily for awhile now that I need to get out. 

Bobskoot

Bobskoot...bobskoot....bobskoot

Trobaritz and All Things Rogey were of the basic sentiment "Bloody Hell Bob!"  Even two years later I'm still not ready.  He's gone too soon and too suddenly.  I am still very upset with him.  And may be one of the reasons I have avoided the blogs, as his name kept popping up with new posts as Skooterbob has made its travels.

Bob and I had been texting back and forth shortly before he left us.  He and Yvonne would be in Knoxville as Oilburner and I were heading north on our vacation.  I put forth the idea that Oilburner and I would adjust our route and swing by to meet for dinner.  It was only going to be 4-6 hours out of our way.  No big deal at the start of our vacation.  He declined.  As we had never met in real life he wanted to reserve our first meeting to his retirement trip the following year.  His reasoning was that he couldn't stand meeting for just a few hours over dinner.  He wanted to wait until we could spend lots of time together to talk, ride, and eat.  Days later and it was no longer an option.  We had been texting the night of his death because Oilburner and I had made it to Mike and BRWs.  I was sending him teaser pictures that we were taking the lodging accommodations he had occupied the year before.  He was appropriately jealous.

The next day Oilburner and I went to Nova Scotia and didn't have good data coverage.  So I didn't think too much about additional messages.  I started to question things when we returned to the US.  I pinged him a few times, figuring their vacation was going great.  But I started to get concerned when another week passed without any responses.  It was never like Bob to not respond.  But we all know how that turned out.

Anyway...I'm still having difficulty in letting go.  Therefore, one reason I withdrew from the blogs.  As much as I would like to host Scooterbob, I still don't think I am ready.

Around the same time we also went through a major personal upheaval by leaving our house of 13 years, to purchase a new home to share with my mother-in-law.  We were collapsing two households into one, with one lady being very unwilling to part with anything from a home she had lived in for 50 years.  I can't blame her, but I also can't condone keeping 25 year old towels riddled with holes.

I tried.  We tried.  We weren't prepared for her actual conditions, abilities, and needs.  We weren't prepared for the emotional and mental impact.  The toll this would take on communication, day-to-day living, interactions, everything.  We weren't prepared.  You would like to think you are, but you can never be prepared for this.  It was difficult to overcome.  And we spiraled down.  Everything we were used to in our lives had been downgraded and we were facing just existing and making it through each day.  Everything suffered.

Only now are we beginning to emerge.  Trying to get our heads back together and pull the strings of our lives back.  But now we have an entire new crop of questions.  Questions I am sure everyone asks themselves.

• What am I doing with my life?
• I don't like my job, but do I move on?  If yes, how and to where??
• Should we move to a place that will make us happier and healthier?
• Where would that be to balance winter and snow and motorcycle season?

We don't have any answers.  We are still trying to figure out even how to answer.  We are still mired in the mud that has sucked us down, and trying to figure out how to get out.  Any suggestions?  :)

This is all a very long-winded explanation of why I withdrew for the last two years.  I hope you can overlook this transgression.

I've still got my wanderlust.  I've picked up many motorcycle adventure tomes.  Even managed to read a couple of them when the veil lifted every so often.  I give serious thought to chucking all responsibilities and going on an adventure for a year.  Oilburner and I talk of this repeatedly and weigh the possibility versus the hit our responsible adults lives will take. We don't have any answers here either.  Rather depressing...

I'm really hoping to reconnect with you and life and everything that we found enjoyable.  Hoping that will give me the connections to start feeling responsible...