105 Trip Pics

I'm uploading my pictures to facebook. If you are on facebook and a friend, you already know that. If you aren't and are interested - you can follow this link and see them anyway!

105 Trip - Day 4 - Annawan, IL - 1512 miles

Only did 300 miles today, but took pretty much all day. Did some river road (Mississippi and Illinois rivers) and scenic rides. Very peaceful and cool. Again - heartland of America stuff. Totally enjoying it.

Ate lunch at Fast Eddies. It was as cool as the hype. Just one of those things you have to experience. If you are ever in the area, check it out! Food was great and the beer is claimed to be the coldest in the area - and it seemed to be. Had a Landshark beer! I'm trying new beers on this trip. :)

Tomorrow up early and try to make it to Milwaukee in time for Ted and Christi to drop luggage and get to the museum by noon. So I guess that's it for now!

105 Trip - Day 3 - Saint Louis - 1218 miles

Went to Xenia IL today to get the X. First stopped at the Arch and got some pics of it and some Mississippi river boats. Pretty cool. IL was pretty much corn and soy bean fields, for miles and miles, as far as the eye could see... But some rolling and lots of trees. I actually liked it.

I like going through small town America. Plenty of towns with population under 100. Pretty much all of them with "We support our Troops" banners, Knights of Columbus Halls, and flags. And the "grocery store, liquor store, gas station, snake bar, etc." combo. I don't know... for me, gives me a sense of community just going through there and seeing it. Hard working farmers, proud of who they are and in what they do. Good stuff.

Terry grew up in the region and we stopped at his High School and then coming back dropped in and said Hi to his mom for a few minutes. Cool stuff. :)

Stopped at a gas station that also had a restaurant, for a late lunch. The girl working took our order, cooked it (did a good job) and served it. And did a good job waiting on us the whole time. A fresh change from people at McDonalds who can't even get your order right - and that is all they do.

Anyway... that's the report for today. It was good. Tomorrow we head to Alton, IL (to stop at Fast Eddie's) and then up to our stop in northern IL before heading to Milwaukee on Thur.

105 Trip - Day 2 - Saint Louis - 981 miles

Day 2 - weather was great. Missouri going across Hwy 50 was really pretty. Rolling, windy, green. Stopped and got 9 or so ABC pictures. Took some photos of the route... best I could while driving at 65MPH. :) Got in to the dealer party at Gateway Harley, met up with Ted and Christi and hung out for quite a while - then to their house. They have their Toy Hauler all set up for us and it is great. Just hanging out, sipping a beer chatting.

Still a bit tired this morning - but not sore. Plan to go into IL today to 'X'enia - pick up about 4 more ABCs then back to their house where Christi is making some ribs. YUM!

105 Trip - Day 1

Left home at about 6:15, running a little late but got to Pueblo about 7:10 and we headed out. It was a good first day. I got tired in the afternoon and pretty sleepy, but once it cooled off I was fine. Got 11 ABC pictures today!

Stopped in Kinsley, KS for lunch. Asked a fireman doing the "boot for MDA" thing where was a good place to eat. He directed us to a Mexican place that was pretty good. Food wasn't very spicy, but alright and the quality was pretty good.

Had one car passing a lane of traffic, heading at us, and we had to slow down (and so did the lead car) to let him in w/o hitting us. :( - Other than that (and it wasn't close or anything), no mishaps or potential ones.

Radio is acting up. Didn't come on twice. Will have to have someone look at it later.

Dinner, after dark, in Emporia, KS, was at the S & S cafe. Little tiny, "Good Food - Open 24 hours" place. VERY LOCAL. Old time mid-west type salad bar... radishes, green onions, cucumbers and onions in vinegar! Young waitress - a little attitude. Chicken fried steak was homemade. Meat was good. Gravy was good. Hashbrowns "done crispy please" were PERFECT. This was definately my kind of Road Food place. Just what I wanted in all aspects - even the locals smoking (not too much smoke) wasn't bad. It all screamed road food diner, and the quality and taste was exactly what I was looking for.

Time to hit the hay soon. We made it over 1/2 way to Ted & Christi's on day one, so should get in early enough tomorrow to go to the dealer party. Plus did 11 ABCs today and only plan on 9 tomorrow... But some are standard letters so if I don't get them all, no big deal.

Oh - and one more thing. There is nothing like going down the road at 65 MPH, cool breeze rushing past you, worship music on the iPOD, across the plains of CO and KS, looking at the farms, green, streams, trees, etc. - to bring God's creation into focus and clarity.

Day 1 was a great start to the trip!

Harely 105 / HOG 25

Many of you know this, but perhaps not everyone...

In about 1 week I'm heading to the Harley 105 / HOG 25 celebration in Milwaukee. Originally Tina was going to go to; but she hasn't been feeling well lately and decided it would be too long of a trip. Because she was going to go; I planned the trip to be 3 weeks. Take a few days to get to St Louis where we'd meet up with some friends; spend a day there; then all of us head up to Milwaukee. Stopping about "a hundred miles out" somewhere on Wed (to avoid the high event hotel fees) then stay there Thur, Fri, Sat. Tina's Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward live in MI which is "so close", so we'd leave on Sun morning, take the ferry across a Great Lake, and then hang with them for a few days; then start the long ride back. Given Tina gets tired of riding after a few days, the plan was to do light riding for a couple of days; then spend a couple of days somewhere. Maybe stay in St Cloud, MN for a few days and just check the area out. Then go on to SD and check out Mount Rushmore, Sturgis, etc. Then finally head home. So all in all a 3 week trip. Lots of riding, but lots of breaks as well. So late last year I OKed that much time off at once with my boss and then have been double checking throughout the year.

So... I've got the time, and we discussed it and Tina still thinks I should go - so I'm going for it. However, now I'm going alone so the plans changed.

• I'm still taking the full 3 weeks, since I have it off anyway
  
• Terry, who is another Sheriff Architect, just bought a Harley this year, and has family in St Louis, is going with me.
  
• We are still meeting up with Ted and Christi in St Louis and hanging out there for a day or two. They are awesome and have a Toy-Hauler with double beds all set up and said the fridge would be stocked with beer and snacks and just show up when ever. Awesome. Also for the whole HOG "ABC Rally" thing I always do - there is a town with that starts with 'X' 2 hours away, so we are going to all go ride over there on Tue just for the fun of it, then head north as planned on Wed.
  
• Stop at Fast Eddie's; which I've mentioned before in this blog, on the way up.
  
• Then its the big event for 3 days. Lots of bands, lots of fun, lots of motorcycles... what could be cooler? :)
  
• Head to Aunt Pat's and Uncle Ward's as planned.
  
• While there get my bike serviced somewhere
  
• And from then on the plan is kind of up in the air. I've got about 12 days till I have to be back, and it would take maybe 4 to ride it! Even less if I pushed it. So I'm just heading down the road. I've got two different thoughts right now:
  • The plan was to come home through SD and I've got friends in WA, and haven't been "home" to MT forever - so maybe head up through MT to ID and then into Spokane.
    
  • Tif and Brian are going to be in MI about the same day I was planning on leaving Pat and Wards; but they will be down south in Detroit and maybe heading up to Sarnia for the day. So... I could meet them wherever along Lake Huron, then do some Canada traveling for a few days! Go into Sarnia and then up around the "outside" of Lake Huron and end up at Ste St Marie... And then maybe still head to MT.

So... I'm not sure at all the plan after Aunt Pat's... but that is kind of the plan. To hit the road and see where it takes me. I could also go up through Thunder Bay! Don't know. Basically there are a few goals:

• Not to be too planned
  
• Hit plenty of states, territories, counties, cities for the ABC Rally
  
• Cover lots of miles
  
• Go wherever it looks good
  
• Get home right before I have to go back to work.

If I hook up with Tif and Brian then that will add a bit more planning, but that is fine. So... lots of decisions to make in the next few days!

As noted on another post, I have set up Twitter. One of the main reasons I did that is that I can update my status via my cell phone, so while I'm on the road I can text msg where I'm at and anyone watching my facebook status or following me on Twitter will know what is going on. Pretty cool.

Plus I'll be taking plenty of ABC pictures, and hopefully other pictures as well, and I plan on uploading all of those to the computer and to facebook albums every night. That's all the plan... reality will probably be different, but hopefully close. :)

God is a supporter, not a controller

[Originally put this on Facebook, but decided to start entering all my notes on Blogger and let them get pushed to Facebook; so I have them in both places.]

Many people say that God is in control. Personally, I don't believe that God is in control. I don't think He can be, given we have free will. Free will isn't just a personal thing, its something that is true in all of those around us. And we interact with way too many people for God to be in control of our lives, given all those interactions.

I do believe however that He is there constantly watching and holding out His hand. And that He provides the comfort, joy (in the biblical sense) and support to help us get through whatever life throws at us. As well as the Holy Spirit guides us as much as we will listen; helping us to avoid some of those pitfalls.

So - although He isn't in control, He is there to help get us through life in the best way possible; if we'll just listen to His voice.

So many interfaces - but all connected

So I'm on Facebook now, which allows you to blog, but only your Friends on Facebook can see it; which is fine. I view it, at this point anyway, as a way to write short notes. But that is not its primary purpose. Anyway - I found that I can have Facebook automatically pull these entries; so that is kind of cool. Enter journal stuff here, recipes, etc. Stuff I want to easily go back and look at later. And then Facebook will automatically pull it to my Notes section. That way I don't have to figure out where I want to store this stuff. Just put it here and it will copy to Facebook. Excellent.

And then today I set up Twitter - which will update my Facebook status. So again, Facebook can pull from something else. Cool. So now I can use Twitter for what its good at, and folks can get updated that way; but I can also set Facebook to copy it; so that I don't have to update status in two places.

Cool stuff... :)

Meatballs!

Just finished making a double batch of Turkey Sausage Meatballs - which turns out to be 44 meatballs. Yum :)

You can always count on a biker

Shopping in the store with my biker gear on, and there was a couple ('H'usband and 'W'ife) about 5 feet away.

W: Can you grab (something I didn't hear)?
H: With my back I can't reach up and grab that off the back of that shelf.
I turn and see the woman standing on her toes and trying to reach something off the back of the top shelf.
M: wondering over What do you need?
W: Oh... That jar of mild peppers. Thank you sir.
M: I grin No problem
H: You can always count on a biker!
M: Yup

Do you think you can find it?

I said all I need
Is the air I breathe
And a place to rest
My head

Do you think you can find it?
Do you think you can find it?
Do you think you can find it?
Better than you had it.
--- All I Need OneRepublic

Walking across streets at the U of M

He slowed to turn right on Observatory, but had to wait for pedestrians to cross the slusy street. He was on campus now, and U of M students were renowned for their lackadaisical attitude toward cars. They lazily strolled through crosswalks, even on busy streets, immortal in their youth and confident that cars would slow for them. --- Infected, Scott Sigler

Yeah, well he pretty much got that right. It wasn't so much that you "lazily strolled through crosswalks". You didn't even pay attention to cross walks... some times it was quicker coming out of the diag and having to cross a street to just cut across, or coming in the back entrance of the main campus engineering lab - you just walked across the street wherever you needed to. And it wasn't so much that you were "immortal in your youth" as it was the fact that... Hey, this was *your* campus and *your* streets - and you tolerated the cars - I mean, hey, if they needed to come on campus fine, but it was your street and you could walk across it where you liked. It wasn't uncommon at all for students to step out in the street, not in a crosswalk, right in front of a car, just glance at the car, and walk across the street. Its more like the rolls were reversed. Rather than the road being for cars and the crosswalks being where pedestrians could cross when the cars let them; it was like the entire campus was for pedestrians and the roads were places where cars could go when the pedestrians let them.

I remember many things about Ann Arbor and the U of M. Reading this book (which was a good story, even if rather R for language) brought back a number of them; given it mentioned street names; etc. The above quote made me chuckle when I read it though - not because it reminded me of that aspect of the U of M; because that aspect is something I have never forgotten and pretty much remember whenever I walk across any street - funny how things stick with you; but because he captured it pretty well. "Lackadaisical" was a great way to express it.

Still Here

Been going through some things... So haven't felt like posting, but I'm not sure if they delete blogs if you don't post once in a while.

Mostly been working, driving the Harley, and going down to Tif's. I did do a trip to Tucson by myself. One day down (13.5 hours, 840 miles), 2 days there, and one day back. Trip wasn't bad in a day. Also Tina and I went down last month. Kian is getting so big. Almost starting to walk.

We all go down for his birthday next month - not on the bike, since three of us are going. That will be fun. 1 years old!

We'll see how this goes

So last weekend I rode up to Denver and it was an awesome day. I looked at the 10 day forecast and all looked pretty good - all the way down to Tucson, so I decided to make a run to Tif's house this weekend. Take Friday off and see if I could make it down in one day. Something I've been wanting to try for a long time so I figured I'd go for it. Tina and I are going down first week of June, but we'd take 2 days to get there. I figured I'd try it by myself this weekend. Just to see if I could do it in a day. Weather was looking good, all except Friday which had some chance of rain, but wasn't looking too bad. This morning I checked and:

Snow showers in the morning. Highs in the mid 40s and lows in the mid 30s.

Hmm... not looking all that great - but I'll check other towns along the route. If I can just get out of town and south before anything hits I'll be fine. But we'll see...

iPod

Downloaded some new music last night and reset some of my playlists. Listening now as I work: White Rabbit, My Glorious, Sunday Bloody Sunday. Quite the mix. :)

Jaime is always listening to mid-60's to mid-70's songs lately and saying, "You know, when you really listen to those words, you think 'Wow, they must have been on drugs!'" - Yeah... I'll have to have her listen to White Rabbit. :)

Spring begins

Rode with Terry up to Freedom Harley in Denver - then back through Pine, Deckers and into town. I have my spring sunburn where I didn't quite get enough sunscreen... oh well, it will tan up. Well tan for me anyway. :)

It was a beautiful day. Actually took my liner out of my jacket, wore summer gloves, etc.

Boycot tAbsolute Vodka

From the Boycott Absolute Vodka website:

Sentiments that the Southwest United States rightfully belong to Mexico are so prevalent in Mexico and among illegal aliens that the Absolut Vodka company ran this ad on a billboard and in a Mexican magazine called Quien

The ad's message to the Mexican audience is "In an Absolut (ie Perfect) world, 1/3 of the US is returned to Mexican control.

American Idol - Song Writer

My cousin is a finalist in the American Idol Songwriter competition for this season. If you could do there and rate Only Love a 10 - that would be cool. :)

Thanks!

UCCS Dean's List

Looking at the Spring 2008 Dean's List (3.75-3.99 GPA) under 'W' you'll see:

WAECHTER, LAURA ANNE
WAGNER, JAIME MARIE

Yes... that is the Jaime Marie Wagner! My kid... on the Dean's list.

You rock smart kid!

Turkey Sausage Meatballs

Modified version of Rachel Ray's Roast Chicken Sausage Meatballs. Had this at Tif's and it was awesome, so Jaime and I made it last night. Quick, easy, and tastes great.

We didn't do the Mac & Cheese, just the Meatballs. We didn't use fennel, because Jaime doesn't like it. And we made probably 28 or small meatballs. I actually put olive oil on the bottom of a glass 13x9 pan, then some in a bowl and rolled the meatballs in them. I cooked them a little longer too. After about 20 minutes I drained the olive oil and grease into a cup, then spooned a bit back over each meatball and put them under the broiler for 4 minutes, to give them some good color.

Here is the list of ingredients, just in case the above link goes away. The mac & cheese with it is really good, as we had that at Tif's house.

1.25# Ground Turkey
Salt & Pepper
3 Rosemary Springs, stripped and finely chopped
3 Garlic cloves grated
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 C Ricotta Cheese
1/2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Egg
1/2 C Bread Crumbs

Mix ingredients. If too wet add some more bread crumbs (the above worked just great for me).

Coat w/ Olive Oil, lightl grease pan, bake at 450 for 17 minutes (I did 20 and then broiled for 4)