OK So I'm Really Jealous Right Now

In about an hour and a half my youngest brother Kevin and my middle brother Scott leave on a cross country adventure, riding their bikes (motorcycles) cross country from PA to California. This is something that I wish I were doing with them, but circumstances and timing were just not right.

While we had a great time on our Wild Hogs II adventure this year, it is not the same as the idea of crossing the entire country on a motorcycle. I am so jealous that they are going to do it before me. Don't get me wrong.... I am happy for their opportunity and hope all goes well for them, but it will be hard to read their blog updates for the next couple of weeks as they make there way to CA and back. I spoke with Kevin last night and all is prepared. They have set themselves a tough schedule, planning on covering about 600 miles a day. Their first stop tonight should be somewhere west of Indianapolis, IN. They have found an online community for riders/travelers that helps them locate free or low cost overnight stays. They will be camping in someone's yard in IN who is willing to allow travelers a free place to camp. The second night they plan on staying on state lands in Kansas, again for free. The plan then is to stay with some old friends in Colorado. The whole idea is to make the trip as inexpensively as possible, paying for camping only when necessary. You can follow their trip on their blog at http://kcagno.blogspot.com .

Another Week Closer

I made it through another week of work. That's one week closer to retirement. I know that it's sad that I am counting down with at least 4 years 11 months and 8 days to go, but I have to say that I am getting the fever real bad. There was a time when I enjoyed my job and didn't mind going to work, but things have changed so much in recent years and I think probably I have changed too.

The atmosphere at the prison is just miserable. It is not the inmates that cause most of the grief, although they certainly contribute. It is the contentious nature of the administration and the fact that they seem to take a certain enjoyment out of making things harder for us. You feel that you have to watch your back on two fronts. You have always had to be aware of the inmates, but now you have to worry that someone in charge is going to pounce on you too. I have to say that my attitude has gotten very poor where the job is concerned. I have given nearly 20 years of my life to this county and all I care about any more is how long til I can get out.

I'm sure my current state of mind has been encouraged in part by having to come back from my motorcycle trip with my brothers and walk back into the pit again. For that week I can honestly say that I did not think about the place at all. It was all about the riding and fellowship. I was just not ready to come back to work yet. Unfortunately not returning is not yet an option. I know that many would say, "If your that unhappy why not leave?", but the sad fact is, I am trapped. I am 50 years old with 20 years invested and I can't just walk away now. If I stick it out for the next almost 5 years I will be able to retire and hopefully not have to work. But, even if I do find that I need to work, I will have the pension so that I can take a job that I enjoy rather than one that pays for my lifestyle.

I don't hate my job altogether. I actually enjoy many of the people I work with and even some of the inmates. Some inmates can be very entertaining. The problem is, I don't like going to work any more. There was a time when it was exciting and I enjoyed the whole game of it, and a game it is. The problem now is that the rules keep changing, and many of the players keep switching sides. I suppose that age and cynicism is catching up with me. When you do this thing long enough, you lose that young optimism that kept you moving forward. Maybe the answer is a strategic use of the very generous number of vacation days to keep from getting to the burnout point. There is also good news on the horizon (at least I like to think it is good news). The Warden will be leaving sometime in the near future. This will mean a change in the way things are done. I of course do not know if that will be a change for the better or not (don't even get me started on the subject of Obama "change"), but I am at a point right now where any change in how things are run would be welcome.

Well, it is officially my weekend now, so I will let this go and get busy with the many tasks that I need to get done. The most important is fixing the condensation line that draws the water out of my air handler for the air conditioning here in the house.

Have a great day everyone. I hope you have A/C where ever you are as there are heat advisories up for this entire area.

Wild Hogs II Day 5 (the trip home)

We started the day assessing the damage from the storms the night before. It seemed we all encountered some minor leakage in our tents in one form or another, but basically everything seemed in order. We started packing our wet gear and trying to remember where everything went or what might make a better way to haul everything. As bad as the weather was the night before, it was gorgeous this morning. We did continue to get "rained" on because of the residual rain on the trees above, but it wasn't bad.

Our plan called for hitting the road no later than 9 am. Scott had to be home no later than 6 and we felt that this would leave us plenty of time. Of course we were a few minutes late getting out of the campground. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds in town. We made one last check of our gear, then headed down the road at about 9:20 (a full 20 minutes behind schedule). On the first leg of the trip we made up 1/2 hour over the GPS prediction. This was easy to do because these were mountain roads where we could travel the turns etc well above what the GPS though we would.

The trip began smoothly enough. We found ourselves ahead of schedule when we hit the highway (I-88). We had about 120 miles to run due southwest to Binghamton where we would catch I-81 back to Harrisburg. What could be simpler?

We got on the highway with me leading the way. I fired up the i-Pod and was jammin to some tunes at about 75 mph, looking at the mountains and fighting against the strong headwinds. A few miles down the road I looked back and saw no other bikes behind me. I pulled over and waited a few minutes and then Scott pulled up. I asked what happened and he said that Jay had pulled over shortly after starting onto the highway. We was having trouble with his trunk which we affectionately refer to as the pet coffin. It seems he was leaning back and finding a comfortable position and something came loose. A few minutes later Jay and Scott pulled up. Jay made some repairs and we were ready to roll again. Well... there went the time we were ahead.

We rolled on down the road still fighting the headwinds all the way. At one point there was this huge bump coming onto a bridge. Normally you would expect a bit of a bump transitioning from the road to a bridge, but this thing was a full blown speed bump. I hit it first. It rattled my teeth a bit, but the bike and gear seemed to be fine. Jay was second and his trunk came loose again. We pulled over and fixed it again. Now the time we had made up was gone. Still, there was nothing to sweat. We were still predicted to make it home be 5:30 and there was lots of open road for us to make up time. You can make up about 10 minutes an hour out there because if you are going less than 75 you WILL get run over.

We stopped for lunch and gas in Binghamton NY. Everyone was very disappointed in their gas mileage due to the strong headwinds. I found it amusing listening to Scott lament that he only got 47 mpg when I was down to 26. (I usually can average about 35 on the highway) We allowed ourselves about 45 min. for this stop and we stayed on schedule. I took the time to eat and transfer every one's pics from their cameras to my laptop. I will post them as soon as I get them organized and get the time. I also took the opportunity to "Skype" with my daughter Brittany.

From there we were on the road again. The plan was for two more stops, one for bathroom/stretch break and one for gas. We ran to Wilkes-Barre PA and realized that it was only about 100 miles home from there. We decided to just combine the stops as one and top off the tanks for the home stretch. We were feeling very optimistic about our travel time and arrival.

We headed on down I-81 maintaining our preferred pace of 75 and then it all came to a screeching halt. Around Hazelton, mile marker 156 to be more precise traffic came to a dead standstill. The highway was down to 1 lane due to a construction zone and people drive like idiots. There were plenty of signs in advance but, everyone seemed to think they should wait til the end to get into the proper lane. Scott who needed to go to Lititz broke off from us at the Dorrance exit there to take 309 and get home that way. We decided to see if we couldn't get the GPS to find us an alternate. It did. We re-routed to come out about 4 miles below the bottle neck. unfortunately for us, the jam ran about 10 miles. We lost and hour total. This was not critical for us, as we had no deadline, but it was annoying and hot just the same. Once we broke free of the mess, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way home. I pulled into my driveway at about 6:20. I was happy to find that the A/C which was not working when I left for the trip was now repaired and working well.

While everything did not go completely as planned on this adventure, (which is funny because we don't actually plan much) it was a great trip none the less. We had a great time, saw some awesome country, met great people, and enjoyed some the best riding we could have found anywhere. Thoughts are already turning to possible destinations next year. We of course missed our brother Mark this year and hope that he will be able to go along next year.

Wild Hogs II Day 4

Wild Hogs II Day 4 7/17/2010

After our long ride to Boston and back on Friday, we decided that it would be good to take it easy for a day knowing that we have the long ride home tomorrow. We slept in. I did not get up until 0630 which is an hour later than any other morning this week. When we did get up we just kind of hung out around the camp site for a couple of hours relaxing and discussing the weeks events and what we should do today. We decided breakfast would be in order and a Boston Creme donut from Dunkin Donuts was calling Scotts name, so we decided that would be the place. About 0900 we headed into town. At breakfast we discussed the possibilities for the day. We decided that we would like to re-trace some of the riding we had done earlier in the week that we had really found enjoyable. We stopped at a couple of stores in the area to see if we could pick up a few things we needed, then got down to some riding.

We made another run up Mt. Greylock, very much enjoying the twisties all the way up. We came down the opposite side which is just as enjoyable as North Adams side. On the way up we kept passing runners coming down the mountain. They were wearing numbers like they were in a race. When we got up the mountain we asked what was going on and were told that it was the "Mass. Dash" a charity relay marathon going from the North Adams, over Mt. Greylock and all the way to Boston, 150 miles in all. The team members run in about 8 mile legs. They expected most of the teams to make it across the state to Boston in about 36 hours. this run had to pass over countless mountains on their way east. It was a truly amazing undertaking.

By the time we made our way back to North Adams it was lunch time. We decided that Pappa Ginos would work. It was a restaurant in the same chain that we ate at in Boston. After lunch we took a ride around town, looking at the various old houses and buildings. It is so very cool riding around these classic New England towns with their many colonial and victorian style buildings and the classic style church buildings.

After touring town we headed west on Rt. 2, the Mohawk Trail. This is the road we traveled most of the way to Boston on Friday. We enjoyed the first 30 miles or so of it so much that we just had to run it again. This time we weren't on a deadline or in a hurry so we made a few stops along the way. One place that we stopped was along a river. This river is a classic example of many of the mountain streams in that area. It was very rocky and ran rather swiftly in places. Scott and Jay decided to wade in for a bit. Kevin and I sat on the bank and just watched and teased them. It was a beautiful place. From there we headed farther down the road to the "Cold River". This river is very popular for tubing and rafting as well as swimming. We went to the river bank and watched the rafters and tubers float by as well as watching people diving off a huge rock on the bank of the river. We also explored a very old family cemetery there along the river bank. The family had the last name of Hawk. The graves were all every old. One we found was from 1808. We also saw runners from the "Mass. Dash" passing through a check point there. We talked to a couple of team members that we saw there and realized that they were some of the same people that we had seen at Mt. Greylock earlier that morning.

We decided to head back the way we came, taking another run at the great road that they call the Mohawk Trail. Along the way we stopped at some scenic overlooks and at a souvenir store where we enjoyed talking to the old man that owned it and buying a cool drink. On the way back to camp we decided to check out the Natural Bridge State Park in North Adams. We had passed the sign for it every day this week and thought we should investigate what it was, further.

It turns out that the "natural bridge" was a formation made by the erosion of the stream passing over the naturally occurring marble deposits on that mountain. The result was an actual bridge of stone that you could walk over. The entire park was very interesting. It had been a marble quarry from the 1800s to 1947 when the Mill was destroyed in a fire. They had built a dam from white marble to form a mill pond that was then used to supply water to power the plant. The marble dam is still there and absolutely beautiful. The formations down stream of the dam are amazing. Only God knows how long it took that water to cut the rock to make it look that way it does. Two very nice lady park rangers only charged us one parking fee to park our bikes. It was very nice of them as they are supposed to charge per vehicle. After viewing it all, it would have been well work the cost of $2.00 a piece to see it.

Finally we headed back to camp to decide what to do for our last supper on the trip. Nobody felt like going out to eat, so we made another run to the grocery store to cook up our own food over the fire. I ended up with chicken pot pie, Kevin had a "Hot Pocket" pizza sandwich, Jay had a couple of small round steaks, and Scott had a chicken breast cutlet. It all worked our very well and we enjoyed just relaxing around the fire and reviewing the week.

About 8:30 we started to hear thunder. The forecast called for a slight chance of a thunder storm. We checked the weather radar via our handy cell phones and there was a severe storm bearing down directly on us. You know how the intensity is shown with colors with red being the most intense? This first cell was just about all red. Behind it and moving our way were 4 or 5 other smaller cells which were converging to make one big one. We stuck out the first wave under our tarp lean-to over table. When we saw that the next was likely to be larger and longer, we decided it would probably be best to go ahead and move into the tents. Those storms raged until 2 or 3 am with extremely heavy rain and a lot of close thunder and lightning. Luckily it did not bring a lot of heavy wind. That could have been a real issue in the woods in a tent. Needless to say, none of us slept real well. Only time would show what the morning would bring, but one thing was certain. We would be packing up wet gear in the morning.

Wild Hogs II Day 3

Wild Hogs Day 3 Fri. 7/16/2010


It's amazing how early you can get up when you are camping. I was up again at about 0530 much to chagrin of my fellow hogs. This day was to be our trip to Boston and with the memory of our "off road" adventures of day 2 fresh in my mind I was hoping it would be less eventfull.

We pulled out of camp about 0830 which was about 1/2 hour later than planned, but Jay felt the need to wash his bike off from his mud hole experience, and I needed to bump start mine because I had run the battery down charging all my various electronic devices without the engine running. Jay actually took his bike up to the outdoor dishwashing station outside the bathrooms and washed his bike with the dish sprayer. I don't know if anyone got a picture of it, but if they did, I will certainly post it.

The trip to Boston was a good ride. It is about 147 miles from North Adams where we are camped to Boston. The first 40 miles is awesome riding on Rt. 2 (Mohawk Trail). It is great road with lots of sweeping turns that crosses 3 mountain peaks. It runs along rivers and lakes as well. We enjoyed this part of the ride immensely. Of course, once we got closer to Boston it was all highway riding. That wasn't too bad either except for the heat. It was cool when we left camp, in the mid 70's or so. By the time we got to Boston it was sweltering and very humid. The traffic wasn't too bad going in. The highways are all 3 or 4 lanes wide, so we pretty much picked a lane and went. The GPS performed flawlessly. We did not hit one unpaved road. I think it should be noted for anyone who may plan a trip to MA, that it would appear that speed limits are a mere suggestion, and not even a strong suggestion at that. There were many times where the speed limit was 45 and we were going closer to 60 and being passed by numerous cars and trucks. We did see a guy get pulled over. I can only imagine how fast he must have been going, because the troopers around here seem to be willing to allow 15 or 20 miles over the limit.

Once we arrived in Boston we went to the Naval Shipyards. This is the home of the famed USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). We had every intention of taking the tour until we saw the line standing outside under a tent in the heat. The ship is currently undergoing a major renovation and was missing one of it's top masts as well as all of it's yard arms. They were busy rigging 2 of the 3 masts. You had to walk through a security station with an x-ray machine and metal detector. Of course I had my pocket knife on me and there was no way I was getting through security with it. I would have been content to just stand in the air conditioned security office for an hour or two while the others went in, but they kept looking at the line standing outside and we all decided that we really didn't need to board the ship that badly. We did walk down the pier and visit a WWII destroyer the USS Cassin Young. We enjoyed that and it was even free. We did drop donation in the box. At that point the debate arose over where to eat. We had not eaten breakfast that morning other than a small snack of stuff we had around camp. It was decided that everyone could go for pizza. Scott broke out the i-phone and used one of his handy-dandy apps to find us a place called Pappa Ginos. We had a good lunch and sat around for a while in the A/C talking. At that point we decided that it was just too hot to wander around Boston seeing the rest of the sites. That's the thing about touring on a bike. If it's unbearably hot or cold it is difficult to enjoy just rambling around. We decided to head back for camp and make an early day of it. We found our way out of Boston via the trusty GPS. It actually was able to route us around the major traffic that was already starting to clog the highway. We made it back about 2/3 of way to camp when we ran into a major rain storm. I have ridden a lot of rain, but this was probably the hardest I have been in. We rode in the rain for about 1/2 hour which got us soaked to the skin (we decided not to don rain suits because it was so hot). Once we ran out of the rain, it was an enjoyable ride back to North Adams. We stopped at the store and bought hot dogs, hot sausages, buns and a bagal and cheese for Kevin (he doesn't eat meat). Back at camp we started a fire and cooked up the food and talked around the fire. Scott and Kevin turned in early (about 9:30), but Jay and I stayed up til about 11:30. All in all it was a good day. Any day on the bike is a good day.

Tomorrow...we shall see.

Wild Hogs II Day 2

Wild Hogs II Day 2 Thurs. 7/15/2010

I was up with the sun this morning. It turned out to be a beautiful day, but a big adventure that we did not foresee.

Breakfast with Ronald

When everyone was up and about we agreed that we would go into town to McDonalds for some breakfast and to see if we could access the internet through their WiFi. As it turned out we were not able to get access and the PHD candidates working there had no idea what was wrong. Anyway... as we were leaving a guy walked by and commmented on what a nice day it was for a ride. He noticed that we were from out of state and asked where we were going today. We told him that we really hadn't decided and he made a number of suggestions starting with a trip up to the top of Mount Greylock the highest point in Massachusetts. He also suggested a run up to Bennington VT. A town with a lot of history and some amazing very old homes and painted moose everywhere (for those from the Harrisburg area, they were akin to our cows all over town).

Mountain Climbing

We chose to first make the run up Mt. Greylock. We climbed to the summit at 3491 ft. on amazingly good road. It was a narrow twisting road, but freshly paved and it was hard not to want to run way past the posted speed limit. It actually brought back thoughts of running on the "tail of the dragon" last year on our trip. Upon arrival at the top, we were greeted with spectacular views that made you feel that you were on the very top of the world. While we enjoyed the views last year on Skyline Drive, they all tended to be very similar. The view in each direction on the mountain was different. There was a large beacon monument on the very summit that very much resembled a lighthouse. We were able to climb to the top where the view was even more amazing. Then we visited the lodge there. The entire summit "reservation" had been built by the CCC in the 1930's and had a rustic charm. The day was a bit hazy so the pics did not come out as good as we had hoped, but we vowed to make the trek again this week if we got one of those famed crystal clear days where you can see forever.

Bennington VT (a beautiful little town)

We made our run back down the mountain enjoying the twistys all the way down, then it was off to Vermont. Bennington is an old historic new england town. We found a Subway for lunch, then headed to the visitor center to see what there was to see. A very nice lady there suggested we might like to visit their covered bridges and a large war monument. She also gave us information on the Hemmings Motor News classic car display. This all seemed like a good idea at the time, so we headed out. This is the point where the day started to take an interesting turn which would only get more interesting.

Covered Bridges (a bridge to nowhere)

On our way to see the covered bridges we ran into construction. Now these 3 bridges were within 4 miles of each other along the same creek or river (whatever it was). One was inaccessable due to construction. The next we did find and ride across, and the third we never did find. From there we were in search of the monument. One interesting note... while sitting waiting for our turn at a contruction zone, we were talking and joking with the flag women. Along came a truck, driving through from the opposite direction. The driver pulled up and handed her a gatorade. Naturally we held out our hands as he came by, and he gave Jay and I his last two bottles. This was not a road worker. It was just some citizen who was feeling bad for the construction workers out in the hot sun. The girl said people do it all the time. One thing we have said this whole trip is that these people seem to be the friendliest people in the country.

Monument (the road to nowhere)

When we found ourselves in the country on a hilltop where we could see the thing a couple of miles away, but had no idea how to get there since the roads we were on were not on the map, I programmed the trusty GPS to get us there. Now up to this point, the GPS had worked flawlessly in getting us to our various destinations. That was about to change. The first thing we ran into was a road that would not qualify as a road where we come from. It reminded me of the packed sand roads at the shore when you get off the beaten path. Once we found ourselves on a proper road, it took us to a road that no longer went "through" but rather just ended in a path in the woods (more stories of that sort of thing to come). Then there were the numerous construction closings. This probably should have been an indication of something ominous, but we just rode on. We did eventually make it to the monument. The neighborhood in which it is centered is spectacular with huge New England colonial style houses. The monument itself was a big oblisk somewhat like the Washington Monument only not as big.

Hemmings Motor News Classic Cars (finally something gone right)

We made the short run to the Hemmings Motor News Classic Car Display. This was well worth seeing. They had a great selection and variety of classic cars of all makes and descriptions. The collection is not huge, but well worth the time and best of all it is free. They also have a store with all sorts of car stuff that was interesting to look at. This was probably the most interesting thing we saw in Bennington.


The "Scenic Route" (has anyone seen the movie Wrong Turn?)

We decided that we would leave Bennington and take the "scenic" route back to camp. We programed the GPS to take us back avoiding highways. What we did not understand about this was that in Vermont and Massachusetts a road can be a road in name only. This was where the day was about to get very interesting. We started out great. Nice roads winding through the mountains with sweeping turns and great views. Then it happened. We started up the next road and all of the sudden the pavement turned to dirt and gravel. Now when this happened in Bennington we only had to travel about 1/2 mile. This would not be the case. We found ourselves winding through the mountains on dirt and gravel that got down to as narrow as 6'. At one point Jay and I forded a mud hole that turned out to be much deeper than we thought. I got through with only a severe butt pucker when I started to sink my 900 lb. bike into the mud. Jay, having seen me have to gun it like a mud bogger to get through decided that speed would be the ticket to a safe crossing. This was not the answer. While he did make it across, he came very close to dumping it and his bike is absolutely covered in Vermont mud. Kevin and Scott being the best educated of the group learned from our examples and just went around it. We trekked on over mountain and field. At one point I'm pretty sure I saw "John Boy's Meadow" (Walton's reference). When we passed from VT back into MA the line was marked by an old sign that was falling over that simply said "State Line". At one point Jay and Scott were accosted by to large German Shepherd who was apparently an Olympic runner in a past life. I stopped to see what was taking them so long to catch up and in my mirror I saw them round the bend with this dog keeping pace and them yelling to me to "GO GO GO". We finally got back to civilization and were reduced to asking a local for directions to get us back to camp (the GPS was back on track, but we were afraid to believe it. We ended up taking what was supposed to be about an hour ride back to more like 3 hours. But, it is certainly a day we won't soon forget. A word of advice to you. If you plan to visit New England and you want to use your GPS to get around, don't set it to avoid highways unless you are on an ATV.

A Quiet Ending to an Exciting Day

We finally discovered a hot spot at the Staples in town and were able to upload day one's blog. We hope to be able to find one along the way tomorrow. We returned to camp and had a great fire. We roasted marshmallows and reviewed the day. We laughed a lot and vowed that we would not avoid highways on our ride to Boston tomorrow.

Wild Hogs II Day 1

I woke up around 0600 to heavy rain and the realization that I had not yet packed my bike. I spent the next hour and a half hurriedly finding places for all the stuff that I might need but probably won't. In the end I did cut some stuff out and was able to find a home for all the things that I “needed” to take along.

We were approximately an hour late leaving due in part to the rain and mostly to my brother Jay arriving late. We saw rain a good part of the day arriving in Newburgh NY the home of

Orange County Choppers of American Chopper TV fame around 2 pm. We spent some time looking around and taking pictures like a group of Asian tourists. The place is nice but totally commercial and over priced on just about everything in the shop.

By contrast, we went about 5 miles up the road to stop in at V-Force Customs. That is the shop that Vinnie DiMartino and Cody Connelly opened after leaving OCC. It was very cool. Vinnie was sitting right there at the counter and talked to us right away when we walked in. We were given the royal tour of the shop where Cody was diligently working on a bike and Vinnie posed with us for a picture. They thanked us for coming and invited us to stop by anytime.

After leaving V-Force Customs we headed into historic Montgomery NY. It was a neat little town. We then stopped to figure out how to get to our next destination (Clarksburg State Park, MA). We decided that we would take Rt. 209 N. Of course, we then took 208 North. After wandering the state of New York we broke down and asked directions to someplace to eat. Either Kevin misunderstood the directions or the guy at the gas station thought it would be funny to send us on a wild goose chase. Where we did end up was at the entrance to the New York State Thruway (I-87). We decided to go ahead and pay the toll and head up that way. We stopped to eat at the service plaza on the thruway where it was advertised that they had WiFi service. Unfortunately we could identify the network but could get no internet. I hope we will find a place today for me to upload this and some photos.

It appeared that the rain had stopped so I broke out the GPS to find our way to the campground. It took us about another hour and a half to make the campground, arriving at about 7:25 pm about a half hour before the last check-in deadline. We got camp set up before dark with the usual keystone kops efficiency. We were finally able to get a fire started even though everything was soaked from the heavy rains earlier in the day. We turned in around 11:30.

T-Minus One Day and Counting

Well, here we are with about 26 hours until the start of Wild Hogs II, a New England adventure. I really have to get packed and loaded today. I don't want to have to be doing that stuff tomorrow morning. The weather doesn't look promising for tomorrow, but that seems par for the course. We got poured on on day one last year, but had good weather the rest of the trip. I checked the long range forecast for that area and we are golden from Thurs. on.

I am still working on a camera rig. The one I made last year was just too top heavy and kept swiveling around on me. I got some great pics on the road, but I had to keep straightening up the camera all the time. I have been working with a smaller lighter tripod head which I need to get attached to the clamp that will go on the handlebars. That has been the rub. I used a standard tripod head that attached with a screw mount last year, but this one does not mount the same way so I will be modifying it.

Today is my baby's birthday. Happy 21 Brittany! It seems so surreal that she could possibly be that old. The job hunting is going well for her. She had two interviews yesterday and has another tomorrow. So far she is hoping for the job she interviewed for yesterday morning. She felt things went very well and that she hit it off with the boss and the girl who would be training her. She wowed them with her computer skills and the boss talked to her for about 45 minutes. All good signs. It would be decent pay to start as well as immediate benefits, always a plus. Hopefully, she will hear back from them this week.

The air conditioning saga goes on... I am sitting hear at 6 am with all the doors and windows open and everything in the house that you touch feeling like it has been underwater for a month. The humidity must be around 100%. I got a call from the company yesterday stating that they had the one part they needed but not the other. The other would be in around Fri. unless we wanted it over-nighted. The warranty would cover standard shipping, but not the rush shipping. I told her I would pay the rush to get the part here. She called me back later in the day and said that the part would be here today, but she would not be able to schedule the repair until tomorrow because they could not guarantee the delivery time. The problem is... I will be gone at 8 am tomorrow, Brittany has an 11 am interview and Kim has a 12 noon dentist appointment and they wanted to come out at 12. So... I had them put it off til Thurs.. It really won't effect me since I won't be home, but Kim and Brittany will be without A/C until Thurs. and It looks like Kim will probably have to take a 1/2 day off work since she doesn't want Brittany here alone with the repair people.

I had better stop writing and start moving. There is much to be done today and I might as well get to it early since I'm up anyway. I ended up taking a vacation day last night and starting my vacation early. Scott (my middle brother) is supposed to stay with me tonight so he doesn't have to ride up from Lancaster tomorrow morning. That should be fun. He is usually a fun guy to spend some time with, and I'm sure he will have some fun messing with Brittany on her Birthday. My next entry may be from on the road. We shall see.

A New Day

Good morning all. It is the dawning of another day. I had a good weekend with my Guardian Knight brothers and sisters manning our table at the Susquehanna Valley Harley-Davidson Anniversary Celebration. We met a lot of good people and were able to promote Operation SOS and our ride. We also picked up about 3 potential members.

The down side to the weekend is that our air conditioning here at the house has not been working for the past week. I had a service tech in both Fri. and Sat. and they were unable to fix it for various reasons. I will have another back today, and hopefully we will have cool air again by tonight. Thank goodness for cool nights the past few days.

Today Brittany has two job interviews. One is downtown and we have not come up with a place for her to park so I will drop her off and pick her up. She has been diligently looking for work for the past few weeks and has a total of 3 interviews this week. I hope something pans out for her. She is kind of bummed that the job search is so hard, but I remember the old days when you had to pound the pavement and knock on doors. Now you submit applications and resumes via the internet. A couple of these jobs sound promising, but we shall see. She is newly graduated from Harrisburg Area Community College with an Associates Degree in Business Management with an emphasis on computer science. She is proficient in the entire Microsoft Office Suite as well as basic HTML and a basic knowledge of networking. She has a great work ethic and can type like the wind. She is extremely organized as well. Who ever is smart enough to hire her will get an employee who will be an asset to their work place. She is looking for an entry level position as an administrative assistant with aspirations to move into an Office Manager position in the future.

Well enough of the commercial. It strikes me that tomorrow is also her birthday. My baby girl is turning 21. That is amazing to me. It is hard to believe that the time has passed so quickly. It seems like only yesterday we were dealing with bullies on the playground and new bikes. Now she has her own car (and makes the payments) and is job hunting. It somehow seems wrong that she could be this mature already, but then again, at her age I was engaged and planning a wedding within a couple of months (yes I am still married to that same girl).

It is also now only 2 days to the Wild Hogs II trip. We leave on Wed. morning at 8 am. I am sooooo looking forward to this trip. There is something about the open road and no schedules that is so liberating and relaxing. It is also the fact that I will be hanging out with my brothers that make it even better. These are great guys that I had the privilege to grow up with. I know we won't be getting into any trouble and will just have a good time getting away. For the most part our wives are in favor of the trip as well. I know of one who is feeling a bit left out, but she will survive for a few days. I think it is more the prospect of being left with the kids for 5 days that concerns her. My daughter even set me up with Skype on my laptop so that if we can find a "hot spot" we will be able to video conference. Of course if we can find a connection I will also try to update with photos and comments here as well.

I have been working on getting the bike ready. I have replaced the front brakes and will replace the coolant and top off the brake reservoirs. I installed a power outlet so that I can charge my various equipment while on the trip. I have a power inverter that will allow me to charge the laptop since the battery life is not what it used to be, but I will also be able to charge the cell phone, GPS unit, i-Pod, and most important of all inflate my Aero-bed for sleeping. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I am old and it seems to me that if I can be comfortable via technology, why would I sleep on the ground?

It is amazing to me how such a big bike can get packed up so fast. I was test fitting gear yesterday, and there never seems to be enough room. There is no way I could take a passenger along. Of course, I realize that not all the gear is essential, but after all it is supposed to be vacation. Once I have everything loaded and ready to go, I will post a picture of the Beast all prepared for battle.

Well, I have been sitting here typing long enough. Time to call the A/C service and find out when they are coming out and get some other work done around here before it gets too hot today. I am of course debating the eternal question... Should I plan to go to work tonight, or burn a vacation day and call this week a wash. That remains to be seen.

Last Year's Wild Hogs Video Slideshow

My brother Kevin took all the pictures from our Wild Hogs Trip last year and created a video. I will attempt to post it here.

Taking My New Windshield Cam for a Ride

I am attempting to post a video taken on my new Windshield Cam. It is a pretty neat little camera. I will be taking it on the Wild Hogs Adventure this coming week. It's not the greatest resolution, but we shall see. They have an HD version that I might consider upgrading to if this one works out. It was evening and the light isn't the best. It has automatic white balance and I had too much sky which darkened everything else down. I will be interested in seeing how it does in full on daylight with a lower angle of view. I am considering a change in the mounting position as well. It is a GoPro Hero Wide standard definition camera with an 8 GB SD memory card which can record up to 4 hours of video. It's powered by 2 AAA Lithium Ion Batteries which are purported to run up to 3 hours on video. It runs about $100 at Costco (without memory card). It can be mounted to most any surface including a helmet and is waterproof to 180'.

OK, I took the camera out for another test run with a bit more success with the white balance. I also changed the position of the mount to allow a lower angle of view. I can see that I will have to make sure the mount is very tight as the noise from the mount moving was louder than the bike. Here are the results of run #2.

7 days to Wild Hogs II (the trip not a movie)

OK, another day down and a day closer to the trip. Quiet night at work last night. Those are always good.

For those who may not know the story behind our Wild Hogs trips, let me explain. I am the oldest of 5 boys. When we were growing up, we were together all the time and had the benefit of each others company as we moved from place to place. My Dad was a bit of a nomad and was unafraid to go where ever the next job led. In many ways it made us a close family. Once we were grown and had families of our own it seemed that we did not see much of each other even though we all live in the same general geographic area. When we do get together we always have a good time and pick up right where we left off. But, we have much lamented the fact that we don't get the opportunity to do things together anymore.

As it turns out, we all developed a love of riding motorcycle. For a few years we kicked around the idea of taking a trip together, but it seemed it never quite got past the talking stage. Then, last year (2009) one of the wives (not sure which one) suggested we stop talking about it and do it. That was the push we needed and the Wild Hogs trip was born. Obviously taken from the movie, it seemed a fitting name since like the characters in the movie, we more or less just picked a direction and rode. We did have some ideas of things we would like to see or do, but in general we did not have any hard and fast plans and we just "winged" it. As it turns out, that is a great way to travel, free and unencumbered by schedules or deadlines. About 2 days into our 4 day trip, we decided that we needed to make this an annual event.

The first day we went south from our home base of Harrisburg, PA to Skyline Drive in VA. We stayed the first night at High Meadow Campground on Skyline Drive at about 3300 feet elevation. Boy was it chilly that first night. From there we moved on to the Blue Ridge Parkway for many more miles of beautiful mountain riding. We finally left the mountains around Charlottesville VA spending our second night near Bristol TN. Our Third day, we ran route 129 from TN to Deals Gap NC where the last 11 mile stretch is known as the "tail of the dragon". The "tail" has 318 curves in 11 miles. this was a bikers dream. After a couple of passes we headed back north setting up camp in a little place known as Rural Retreat VA. A great name for a place to camp with great people who showed real southern hospitality. Then the next day back home.

That is how our version of the Wild Hogs trip was born. This year will be a little different as it will only be 4 of us. My brother Mark (next to the youngest) is not able to go this year. The plan for this year to is head north to New England. We will set up a base camp so as to avoid hauling all our gear every day, then make day trips to different areas. We added a day to the trip as well. We are all looking forward to it and even though Mark cannot go with us this year, I am sure he will be there in spirit. Hopefully, by next year he will be in a position to join us again. As with last year's trip, The start and end are set but aside from knowing where we will stay each night, (last year we did not know) we will wing it day by day. We will try to take lots of pics and update when we can. If I cannot get internet access I will have to update you when we get home.

Wild Hogs II

Only 1 week til we hit the road. I met with my brothers tonight to formulate a plan and we are ready to go. I am so ready for this trip. The only thing that sucks is that I have a week of work to go before we leave.

The plan is simple. We leave Wed. morning 7/14 at 8 am. We will make a stop in Newburg NY to visit the World Headquarters of OCC, then possibly a visit to V-Strong Choppers in nearby Montgomery. From there, on to Clarksburg State Park in North Western Mass. where we will set up base camp for the week. We plan to take day trips to include Boston, Lake Placid, Fort Ticonderoga, and others places. We will return on Sunday the 18th. We will, as always, just run where the road leads. It promises to be a great time.

I hope to take my laptop and find some hot spots from which I can update from the trip. We will see how that goes. Still some prep to do on the bike, but I am getting there. New front brakes installed, checked the tires, electrical and lights, must install the power outlet and start figuring out how to pack everything for optimum comfort. Should have no problem being ready on time.

Isn't It amazing?

Isn't it amazing that some of our poor misunderstood victims of an unfair society (sarcasm) can have the nerve to say the most vile and vulgar things to a member of the medical staff that has entered their cell block to see if they need any medical attention, then in the next breath say "I don't mean to disrespect or offend you, but..." What's wrong with these idiots? Even if their parents did not teach them basic respect, shouldn't they have picked something up along the way... or is society that screwed up that respect and some sense of right and wrong no longer exist?

These same people think that consequences should only come while they are committing some act of idiocy and should cease at the moment that they stop their behavior. No doubt the reason they are in prison and will continue to come back. Most feel that wrong is only wrong if you get caught. They also think it is unfair if consequences are brought to bear if you did not fully explain every possible outcome to an action, or that they must be told specifically and personally to "stop" doing something or it must not be wrong because they were not told to stop.

Dealing with inmates is often like dealing with little kids. Apparently they were never taught any of the basics of how to act in public. They are demanding and questioning, and I have to resist the urge almost daily to respond to their need to have an explanation for ever instruction with... "because I'm the Block Officer and it's my turn to be mean." (an adaptation of a saying I co-opted from my friend George who when asked why his daughter was not allowed to do something by a 7 year old neighbor girl, replied "Because I'm the Dad and it's my turn to be mean!").

Well enough about the dregs I put up with on the block. Overall we had a good night that was incident free. This is of course the best kind of night, made even better by the fact that it paid "holiday pay" (triple time).

I am getting even more excited about our trip next week. I am working on getting the bike ready. New front brake pads, oil change, check lights, install accessory outlet (to power cell phone, ipod, laptop), rig a camera mount for lots of pics, and of course clean it all up nice and shiny (at least we'll start the trip clean). We are meeting on Tues. night to make final plans for destinations, camp sites etc. It is going to be such a great getaway. I do hope we will be able to find hot spots where we will be able to log in to update and upload pics. Riding and sightseeing during the day, and camp fires, stories and bonding at night. 5 days on the road with only what you can carry on the bike. I LOVE these trips.

Next week is also my baby girl's 21st birthday. Another milestone reached. Boy, you really start to feel your age when it dawns on you that your daughter is the same age you were when you got married! I turned 21 in June of 1981 and was married in Aug. of that year.

I know she is all grown up, but my heart doesn't buy it. She is a great person... smart, responsible and beautiful. Regardless, I just can't help thinking of her as my little girl. I guess that is a Dad's right. This, as with all milestones like walking, talking, starting school, first boy friends, driving, graduating high school, and graduating college, is bittersweet. While I revel in her accomplishments, I also realize that each one brings her closer to the time when she will leave home and strike out on her own. That too, is what I want for her. But, sometimes I feel like I would like to keep her around for a long time. That of course is selfish and unrealistic, but grant a father a little self indulgence at least in his thoughts.

Well, enough for now! I must get some sleep. The work week has just begun and I must not be too tired to babysit the county's kids.

Gotta Start Somewhere

I writing this because everything has a starting point. Today is Sunday July 4, 2010. Happy Birthday to America. It has been a good weekend although I must return to work tonight for the 10 pm to 6 am shift. This is made easier by the lure of "holiday pay" (in my case about $75/hr).

We have enjoyed the company of our neighbors this weekend. We live in a development and know most all our immediate neighbors, and amazingly enough we all like each other. During most of the major summer holidays we get together to cook out and just have a good time. This weekend has been no exception.

I was also fortunate to be able to spend time with my brothers and sisters of the Guardian Knights. We are all family as well. Yesterday we went to visit a little boy named Collin who has a brain tumor and is currently undergoing Chemo-therapy. Collin is only 1 1/2 years old. A couple of our members bought a small electric powered motorcycle and a skull cap embroidered with his name. We took these items to his house to give to him. He was a little overwhelmed at first but seemed to take it all in stride. He loves the motorcycle and the cap. His mother reports that he wore the cap all afternoon and sat on his motorcycle starting it over and over. He has a very long road ahead and we wish him only the best. You can follow Collin's story and progress at http://littleprinceyfellow.blogspot.com/

After our visit with Collin we rode through the mountains ending with lunch at a little place known as the Stoney Creek Inn. We sat on the deck overlooking the waterfall and had some great fun and food. Then I returned home to more fun and fellowship with my neighbors.

I am greatly looking forward to my second annual "Wild Hogs" motorcycle trip with my brothers. Last year we headed south for 3 1/2 days riding Skyline Drive, The Blue Ridge Parkway and even made time to visit the Tail of the Dragon in Deals Gap NC. This year the plan is to head north to upstate New York and possibly new england. We will be missing my brother Mark on this trip as he sold his bike to take care of some family obligations. We hope he will be back to join us next year. I will attempt to blog along the way on the trip if I can find access. We will see what is available as we go along.