2016 Season 2 NOLA here we come

Day 1 April 14 2016

The rig is packed and ready to go.  No small feet.  Carolyn has been gathering necessaries for months now.  Stuff like toilet paper, plastic spoons, wine, tequila, more wine etc., etc.

The refrigerator has been turned on for 2 days and we bring the food and freezer stuff out.  Open the frig and it is warm as a puppy behind sitting in the driveway.  Lights are on, fan is running but no cold air.  So 15 buck worth of ice and some cheapy styrofoam coolers and we are good to go.  Tiffin will fix/replace it when we get down there.

10 AM the car is on the dolly and we are headed down the road.  First stop will be a one nighters at Walmart in Newburgh, NY.  Great reviews and perfect distance for us.  We get to Newburgh and decide to fill up the gas tank.  Scope the station out and I am sure we can make it in and out.  I turn left at the farthest pump and slowly inch forward while watching Carolyn in the mirror.  She signals a panic stop.  Long story short. The tow dolly left fender almost hits the concrete pump barrier.  No harm no foul but you have already guessed, it is near impossible to back up a loaded tow dolly so we offload the car, detach the dolly move the rig, fill it up, move the dolly, reattach it, load the car on and we are out of there about an hour latter.

Wall,art is only about a half mile away but we make a wrong turn out of the station and 10 miles later we find Walmart.  This is a supper store and there are 10 RVs already parked at the far end of the lot. No problem plenty of room for us.  We park it and are set for the night.  Turns out we are the only people there heading South the rest are Québécois heading north from there winter in Florida.  No English spoken here so it was a quiet night.

We were in bed by 8PM exhausted.  I slept till midnight and was than wide awake.  Carolyn slept till 5AM.

Day 2 April 15 2016

Coffee, Raisin Bran and off we go.  First stop Blue Beacon truck wash.  What a disappointment. The rig came out of there all streaked and water spotted.  Worse than when it went in.

Out of Blue Beacon we turned right.  That's what the GPS appeared to indicate.  You know that GPS dead zone when you have been parked and start to leave, the GPS needs to reorient itself but it can not do so until you are moving so you guess, left or right, yup we went right.  37 feet of RV and 14 feet of tow dolly and car.  Did I mention it takes a runway to turn this thing around and Devine intervention to back it up?  Tiny ass country roads and GPSes that insist we turn around.  Oh look a road to the left.  Same stuff EXCEPT! Another plot twist.  We are 1/2 mile on this road and Carolyn sees a big yellow sign 9 ft bridge 1 mile.  Holly puppy poop batman we are 13 feet tall.  Our heads are at 81/2 feet.  Caroly wants to know what my plan is.  I ain't got no stinkin plan.  We drive about a half mile more and things are getting scary.  Suddenly I see a street on the left, a houseing development.  We turn in and the sign says Not AThru Street.  We go real slow looking for a big driveway.  Nothing... Than we see it, a cul de sac.  What a beautiful sight.  Around we go.  We are alive , not beheaded, and going in the right direction.

200 hundred mile later we are in Lancaster PA. at a pretty little camp ground.  We settle in, fill the refrigerator with ice and we now have an ice box.

2 pm we head into Lancaster to find the Sherrif.  Why do we need the Sherrif you might ask?  Well the day before we left the Cape, Carolyn got her licenses to carry a firearm and si de we were in PA we thought we would try to get a PA license also.  At 3 pm which included 20 minutes of travel time, she walked out of the Sherrif office $20 dollars lighter, with a PA license to carry, good for 5 years.  You gotta love PA.

That's it, we are here for 2 nights.

Cross Country adventure RVing

On Tuesday 2/10/15 I will be flying to Sacramento with my friend Chris to pickup his , new to him, 2004 Class A Winnebago.  I do not at this time , know the model or length.  We are going to try to make it back to Cape Cod in 10 days.

The plan if you can call it that is to pickup the RV and head south in California toward Santa Monica.  Find Route 66 and do some of the iconic places in Arizona and New Mexico  than stay south until we must head north.  This will hopefully avoid some of the winter, big hopefully here.

I am along for company and driving.  I have never driven an RV and will admit that I am a bit intimidated.  Chris should be a good teacher.

So it looks like we will be leaving in a home in a snow storm, so what else is new here in February 2015.  It also looks like we might be landing in Sacramento in tremendous rain.

Blessing of the Bikes and New Bike for Carolyn

Riding season has begun.

The Blue Knights put on a blessing of the bikes every May.  This is the Blessing for 2014.  It was so windy, the truck was 20 bikes past me and I was still getting wet.

This is a very well attended event with upwards of 1000+ motorcycles.

Carolyn was unable to attend this year as she has no bike.  Not to worry, we traded her LadyLava for Miss Amber Penelope.  Bombardier, the manufacturer calls the color Congac.

Blessing of the Bikes 2014 West Dennis Beach

So let me introduce Miss Amber Penelope.  She is a 2014 Canam Spyder RT Limited.  We pick her up this coming Friday and leave for Lancaster Pa. a few days later.  We need to get 3000 miles on her by September so that we can get the first oil change done.

Do you think Carolyn will let me ride her?  I'll let you know!

2014 Spyder RT Limited
Guess why she is smiling 

Today we RIDE

Carolyn reminded me that I had not 'blogged' in a few days, so here we go.

Yesterday was a perfect spring day (temp. In the 60s beautiful cloudless blue sky) so we went for a very short ride to the beach (Mashpee Town Beach) and took a couple of pictures.

Carolyn at Mashpee Town Beach April 13, 2014. First ride of 2014 Season

Today, a cloudy grey day in the 50s with intermittent sprinkles of rain and we rode about 120 miles. I used an app on my Android phone called 'Realtime Tracker'  by green alp.  I am testing it out for this years riding season and for the Ride for the Relay.

The link below is the track of our route today, actually it is our return route. The cell phone is in the top trunk and is able to track with no view of the sky.

http://www.greenalp.com/RealtimeTracker/index.php?guestmode=1&viewuser=mspiv

Try the link and let me know what you think.

WINTER IS OVER!

If you have been keeping up, you know that I have been trying to put the Goldwing back together after an air filter change.  No issues to speak of but lots of hardware and plastic to get off and than put back on.

Well yesterday I got it all put back on.

I still need to do an oil change and air up the tires but I could not resist, I fired it up and took it around the complex.  The 'ride' was all of 3 minutes long, but that 3 minutes ended winter for me.  So let it snow, I don't care .... WINTER IS OVER.

Today, if time permits, I will move the Spyder to the house garage,  change oil and air up the Goldwing, and maybe ride to the coffee social.

Ok gotta go work out.

Be Safe, Go Ride

Ready to ride?

So here it is April 1 and no joke, I am so ready to get the bike out.  So what does it take to get me ready to ride?  Well, I work out at a fitness club all winter, actually have done so for 26 months.  The first New Years resolution I have ever kept for more than 3days.  I also do a lot of arm chair riding, which consists of reading about riding, rides and techniques.  I like Ride like a Pro.  His techniques seem to suit my style.  YMMV.

What do I do to get the bikes ready?
We have two bikes a Goldwing and a Spyder.  The wing is a 2007 with 90,000 miles on it and the Spyder is a 2012 with 7500 miles on it.

 I do not maintain the Spyder, except for tire inflation, fluid level checks and wash and wax.

I do maintain the Goldwing.  So, it gets an oil change, air filter, tires and brake pads.  The tires and break pads will go on later in the season, the oil change will happen tomorrow.

The air filter on a Goldwing is another story.  It is buried so deep under the tupperware and the radio that it took me a couple of days to get to it.  I replaced the original filter with a reusable K&N filter which is good for 50,000 miles.  It better last that long so I can't forget what a pain it is to get too.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

Who are we?

We are Mike And Carolyn.

I am the handy one and Carolyn is the brains in this outfit.

Carolyn's First Ride to the ocean



Carolyn and Me on the Kangamangug Highway NH

In 1984 I interviewed for a job as a Field Service Engineer for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC).  That was my last job interview ever. DEC was acquired by Compaq (remember them) and they were acquired by HP.  TWENTY FOUR years latter I retired as a Software and Systems Deployment Manager.

Carolyn just retired from a 40 year career as a Speech and Language Pathologist.

We have 2 motorcycle, mine is a 2007 Goldwing and hers is a 2012 CanAm Spyder.  We do a lot of group riding and I teach a Goldwing Road Rides Association (GWRRA) Road Captain Course.

We do a lot of weekend trips around the North East, week long trips to rallies (Americade etc).

I have been cross country twice.  This is a charity fund raiser called Ride For The Relay (RFTR).

www.ridefortherelay.org