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Thursday, February 22, 2007
Motorcycle Diary
I am gonna just start out by saying that this journal is all me. its about who i am and what i am. i wont hold back on my feelings and my gramer/spelling is not one of an english major. if i strike a nerve, piss you off, make you laugh, cry or make you want to tell me to go fuck myself, slap my face or even take a swing at me. then ok, you get it. well... not all of it. but enough that i moved you. this diary will be an on going story of my every day life as i live it. i'll try to keep up with daily entrys and i'll try to make it as clear and as understandable as possible. most of my stories will be about my motorcycle adventures. feel free to comment as often as ya want. i work better in front of a large audience.
2-23-07 (Granny's Birthday) i woke up tired this AM to the sound of my dog russeling around. she is 14 now and has a hard time holding her bladder. so i jump outta bed to save myself from having to clean up piss or worse, not see it and step in it sock footed. i get on the bike well after noon with no real plan. just gonna ride towards the mountains. maybe morganton, maybe asheville. i hate that its a 2 hour ride to get to any good twistys. Colorado cant come soon enough. so i am west bound 485 from charlotte to 85 south. i love that 1 sweeper at the 485/85 change over. i pulled 97mph. through it today passing a grayhound bus on the outside. i dont always ride like that. sometimes ya just wanna scare your self a bit. so its 85 south for ever till i hit 321 outta gastonia. then another long haul towards lincolnton. i get to lincolnton. now things start to pick up. its highway 27 for 2 miles tops. then on to 182. this is a dimond in the rough. (thanks mark) it winds and twist all through the NC foot fills. not telling ya any details. ya just gotta ride it. i take it all the way to 18 then to old18 i think, maybe its the other way around. anyhow....ya end up in morganton. time to gas up and shake it all off. about 100 miles sofar. now on to 181, roughly 30 miles more to the top where we turn around or keep going for an over nighter. (i miss those tuesday nighters) today on 181 it was different. i didnt have mark w/me. i had a new guy. an old man i had walked passed in the gas station. he ended up behind me all the way up the mountain. at first i thought he was fucking w/me. i pulled away, he would catch me, i would pass on a double. he would too. i even did 90mph on the straights. i was starting to think he might be working w/the cops to try and bust me. but no, turns out he is just a cool old dude with HIS NEW TOY. a new jeep cherokee with a super huge hemi v8 "THE BIGGEST ONE THEY MAKE" he says with a grin from ear to ear. he gets out at the top and comes over to meet me. he is like 80 years old and still plays like a teenager. "i just wanted to tell you that i had fun driving up here behind you just now." we shot the shit for a few and i headed home.not cause i wanted to but, cause i had to. i have to work tomorrow. the wind was crazy and hammered me all the way to the top. the temp had droped from 78 at home to around 45 at the top. so i was tired and headed back the same way i went up. mark missed a good ride today. END
3-16-07 (I am still there)
well in my head i am still there. i rode what is known as The Dragon on tuesday. its U.S.129. google map it for more visual details. the long and short of it.....318 curves jamed packed in to 11 miles. most people cant visualize what that may look like. to me it was like riding a rollercoasters rails on my motorcycle and having sex at the same time while trying not to fall off the cliffs and not get cliped by any cars that cant stay in their own lanes. this road is so curvy that tractor trailers cant drive it and hafta be towed out.
i worked monday. work didnt need me on tuesday and i was off wednesday. so i call mark to see if he wanted to ride. he says..."i already am" i was like "sweet!" "where can i meet ya?" he laughs and says "i'm at moms 45 minutes from the Dragon" "GOD DAMMIT!" i said. he invites me up.
i am up at 7am the next morning (tuesday) and heading west bound 4 hours.(no hawks the whole time) FOUR HOURS of SLAB! nothing but straight lines all the way there. not to mention but i missed the highway 74 exit by 30 miles and hadda turn around. so i get there FINALLY! mark meets me on the side of the road just off an exit ramp. an hour and a half later we get to the dragon. i am tired as hell and have not had much to eat. i grab a snickers bar and a red bull from the gas station. we sit and chat with other folks that are there for the same reason. and its off we go. still tired and kinda outta it i head up the Dragon. i flip on my chatterbox and mark is already calling out the road hazards to look out for. "um sorry dude,i missed that" / "i said, look out for the dried cement splatter spots, ya hit those and it will send ya off the side of the mountain" ok....i can feel my heart in my throte as the red bull starts to kick in. FUCK IT! this is my ride. so i took my time getting up this curvy bitch. i was doing maybe 30mph. i got passed by 12 guys and a girl too. i meet up with mark at the top where the over look is. i sat for a bit leting it all sink in. it was like 70 outside. this was the day to be here if you were ever gonna. so back down we went. mark stops at a spot to take some photos. i musta took 10 passes. each one geting faster and faster. mark got some great pics of me. then we switched. my turn to shot photos. mark looks like a pornstar in the corners. i got some really great pics of all the action. so after all the fun of play'n hang ten speed racer style/austin powers photo shoot (YEAH BABY! GERRRR!) we headed down the back side of the dragon towards the Fontana Dam. AHhhh! the view of the north carolina mountains and the pink, orange and blue sky behind them is like nothing i have seen anywhere else. it was a calm ride down at the bottom. smooth long sweepers that ran with the rivers edge. (still no hawks) seeing a hawk is a me thing. an inside story. long and short of it.....if i see my hawk it usually means a good and safe ride. now try to pass that one by mark. so i didnt see the hawk, i sum it up as a (not needed today) all is well. as the sun dips down behind the mountains the temp starts to drop a bit. thats our Q! we set off towards marks moms. we have a little over an hours ride back. after the dragon ya merge in to U.S. 28 its kinda like a warm up for the dragon. then it opens up to high rolling hills and a few long sweepers. you can see down the road a few miles in spots. well i am kinda ancy so i drop down in to 4th gear and rip back on the throttle. i hit 102mph in no time and hold it for a second or two. mark gives chase. we do this back and forth a while. as soon as we get our fix we see a STATE TROOPER! i hear mark say "SHHHHhhhit" in his sarcasitc tone. i look down and i'm doing 70ish mark is right behind me. no biggie! just 70. its gotta be like a 65mph zone. NOPE! 55mph. we watch for brake lights and the quick turnAround. Nadda, nothing,zilch! we didnt like it. so as soon as he was outta sight we dipped in to a side road to hide out. mark couldnt see it but i had a grin from ear to ear. its like playing cops and robbers. after we waited 5 minutes we decided to move on. that shit was funny. hell, he was probly on his was home. after all, it was after 5pm and he works for the state. so we make it to marks moms. she has supper ready and waiting. i love this woman. super nice and dam she can cook. everything was alsome. mark said "try the baked beans, you will love em!" i had a plate full already so i'll hafta come back to them after i make room. man i am stuffed! now the beans.....oh my god! i have never had anything like this before. they had a viniger kinda flavor tucked in just behind the brown sugar. WOW! so i went back for more. i had too. i dont get a moms home cooking that often. after supper we previewed our photos from the ride and watch adult swimm on marks ipod. what a long day! END
5-14-2007 (all is quiet in my apartment compartment)
Well, it seems as though i have lost my riding partner and long time friend Mark H. Lots has happened over the last few weeks. I'm not gonna go into it all of that. So i have been riding alone alot these days. i dont mind it much. i just point and shoot. i ride where ever the roads take me. Last week was my last 4 days in a row off from work. i had planed on going up with mark to the Dragon. since the falling out between us, that was a no go. so i woke up monday late morning, had a big breakfast, put the bike in the back of the truck and off i went. i left around 12pm west bound for the Dragon. 4 hours later i get there. unload my bike, put the leather gear on, drink a redbull and off i went. i rode from the time i got there till the sun went down.
SEE WORD PROBLEM BLOG ABOVE.
6-17-07 (Mark's on his first trip up to the BRP)
So after 2 weeks of planing, my old high school friend mark and i got a ride together. we took a day trip up to the BRP. it was his first time out of the city on the road and into the hills. i was just as nervous for him as he was. well maybe not as much as he was. he took his time. on the straights and even more so in twistys. this was a good thing. unlike most of the squids that live in the city that are stunters. doing wheelies, shit like that. you know, i'd love to take any of those fucks into the mountains and leave them there. like on the hill side maybe, up top shaking in their ghetto fab leathers. cause those boys look good and if ya look good ya must ride good right? thats how things work on the ever popular MTv. So i got off on a tangent......mark and i had a blast! we took a left onto the parkway from 181 heading away from Asheville. i had never gone that way. with in a few miles we come up on the linn cove viaduct. these bridges were cool. at times they would head upwards into the sky and hook a hard left back into the mountain side. this gave it a ramp like feeling. like we were gonna just fly off into the nothingness and crash hundreds of feet below.........
7-15-07
When it rains.....
ok! it was a lovely sunday afternoon. i got outta work 3 hours early. i just wasnt feeling it and we were kinda slow. so i jumped at the chance to go for a ride. i called Pat at lunch and gave him a heads up. so at 2:30 i ran outta that place. called pat and it was on. by 3:30 we would be carving it up n the local twistys. ya gotta love the NC summers. ya never know when the weather is gonna flip on ya. it always looks like its gonna rain in the summer but rarely does. Pat and Jason show up around 3:45. i have known these guys for 4 years now, we use to ride bicycle trials together. they still do. i dont so much anymore. So we are off! heading out towards the hand cuffs. we get to 485/77 and the bottom falls out. so we turn around and head towards Pats side of town. more rain there. after an hour of trying to avoid the rain we decide to call it off. so i head back from Harrisburg. then all hell breaks loose! it starts to rain like im in a hurricane, cars are scattered all about the highway like a yard sale. theres 3inches of standing water in some spots. people are driving 30mph. me, in my leather. i wanna get home asap! so i am doing every bit of 85mph, spliting lanes and hoping i dont get hit by lightening. im riding mostly in the slow lane cause its further away from the cables in the median. i figure if i go down at all, i dont wanna be anywhere near them. the last guy on a bike to hit them got split into 5 pieces. all of a sudden! a car in the fast lane 12 feet in front of me gets side ways! he is hydroplaning. FUCK! he heads straight for the ditch. all of the water from his car creates this wave above my head that tubes me like a surfer. CRAZY! urban surfing. next thing i know i cant see a thing and i am getting pounded by this wave. i hold my line and squeez my knees to the gas tank. i shoot out of the tube like those lucky guys ya see in those surfer films. i get home finally and i must weigh an extra 30Lbs. my leather is soaked and i dump out 2 cups of water from my boots. what a ride. glad i am here to share it with ya.
END FOR NOW GOTTA GO TO WORK
Motorcycle Diary
I am gonna just start out by saying that this journal is all me. its about who i am and what i am. i wont hold back on my feelings and my gramer/spelling is not one of an english major. if i strike a nerve, piss you off, make you laugh, cry or make you want to tell me to go fuck myself, slap my face or even take a swing at me. then ok, you get it. well... not all of it. but enough that i moved you. this diary will be an on going story of my every day life as i live it. i'll try to keep up with daily entrys and i'll try to make it as clear and as understandable as possible. most of my stories will be about my motorcycle adventures. feel free to comment as often as ya want. i work better in front of a large audience.
2-23-07 (Granny's Birthday) i woke up tired this AM to the sound of my dog russeling around. she is 14 now and has a hard time holding her bladder. so i jump outta bed to save myself from having to clean up piss or worse, not see it and step in it sock footed. i get on the bike well after noon with no real plan. just gonna ride towards the mountains. maybe morganton, maybe asheville. i hate that its a 2 hour ride to get to any good twistys. Colorado cant come soon enough. so i am west bound 485 from charlotte to 85 south. i love that 1 sweeper at the 485/85 change over. i pulled 97mph. through it today passing a grayhound bus on the outside. i dont always ride like that. sometimes ya just wanna scare your self a bit. so its 85 south for ever till i hit 321 outta gastonia. then another long haul towards lincolnton. i get to lincolnton. now things start to pick up. its highway 27 for 2 miles tops. then on to 182. this is a dimond in the rough. (thanks mark) it winds and twist all through the NC foot fills. not telling ya any details. ya just gotta ride it. i take it all the way to 18 then to old18 i think, maybe its the other way around. anyhow....ya end up in morganton. time to gas up and shake it all off. about 100 miles sofar. now on to 181, roughly 30 miles more to the top where we turn around or keep going for an over nighter. (i miss those tuesday nighters) today on 181 it was different. i didnt have mark w/me. i had a new guy. an old man i had walked passed in the gas station. he ended up behind me all the way up the mountain. at first i thought he was fucking w/me. i pulled away, he would catch me, i would pass on a double. he would too. i even did 90mph on the straights. i was starting to think he might be working w/the cops to try and bust me. but no, turns out he is just a cool old dude with HIS NEW TOY. a new jeep cherokee with a super huge hemi v8 "THE BIGGEST ONE THEY MAKE" he says with a grin from ear to ear. he gets out at the top and comes over to meet me. he is like 80 years old and still plays like a teenager. "i just wanted to tell you that i had fun driving up here behind you just now." we shot the shit for a few and i headed home.not cause i wanted to but, cause i had to. i have to work tomorrow. the wind was crazy and hammered me all the way to the top. the temp had droped from 78 at home to around 45 at the top. so i was tired and headed back the same way i went up. mark missed a good ride today. END
3-16-07 (I am still there)
well in my head i am still there. i rode what is known as The Dragon on tuesday. its U.S.129. google map it for more visual details. the long and short of it.....318 curves jamed packed in to 11 miles. most people cant visualize what that may look like. to me it was like riding a rollercoasters rails on my motorcycle and having sex at the same time while trying not to fall off the cliffs and not get cliped by any cars that cant stay in their own lanes. this road is so curvy that tractor trailers cant drive it and hafta be towed out.
i worked monday. work didnt need me on tuesday and i was off wednesday. so i call mark to see if he wanted to ride. he says..."i already am" i was like "sweet!" "where can i meet ya?" he laughs and says "i'm at moms 45 minutes from the Dragon" "GOD DAMMIT!" i said. he invites me up.
i am up at 7am the next morning (tuesday) and heading west bound 4 hours.(no hawks the whole time) FOUR HOURS of SLAB! nothing but straight lines all the way there. not to mention but i missed the highway 74 exit by 30 miles and hadda turn around. so i get there FINALLY! mark meets me on the side of the road just off an exit ramp. an hour and a half later we get to the dragon. i am tired as hell and have not had much to eat. i grab a snickers bar and a red bull from the gas station. we sit and chat with other folks that are there for the same reason. and its off we go. still tired and kinda outta it i head up the Dragon. i flip on my chatterbox and mark is already calling out the road hazards to look out for. "um sorry dude,i missed that" / "i said, look out for the dried cement splatter spots, ya hit those and it will send ya off the side of the mountain" ok....i can feel my heart in my throte as the red bull starts to kick in. FUCK IT! this is my ride. so i took my time getting up this curvy bitch. i was doing maybe 30mph. i got passed by 12 guys and a girl too. i meet up with mark at the top where the over look is. i sat for a bit leting it all sink in. it was like 70 outside. this was the day to be here if you were ever gonna. so back down we went. mark stops at a spot to take some photos. i musta took 10 passes. each one geting faster and faster. mark got some great pics of me. then we switched. my turn to shot photos. mark looks like a pornstar in the corners. i got some really great pics of all the action. so after all the fun of play'n hang ten speed racer style/austin powers photo shoot (YEAH BABY! GERRRR!) we headed down the back side of the dragon towards the Fontana Dam. AHhhh! the view of the north carolina mountains and the pink, orange and blue sky behind them is like nothing i have seen anywhere else. it was a calm ride down at the bottom. smooth long sweepers that ran with the rivers edge. (still no hawks) seeing a hawk is a me thing. an inside story. long and short of it.....if i see my hawk it usually means a good and safe ride. now try to pass that one by mark. so i didnt see the hawk, i sum it up as a (not needed today) all is well. as the sun dips down behind the mountains the temp starts to drop a bit. thats our Q! we set off towards marks moms. we have a little over an hours ride back. after the dragon ya merge in to U.S. 28 its kinda like a warm up for the dragon. then it opens up to high rolling hills and a few long sweepers. you can see down the road a few miles in spots. well i am kinda ancy so i drop down in to 4th gear and rip back on the throttle. i hit 102mph in no time and hold it for a second or two. mark gives chase. we do this back and forth a while. as soon as we get our fix we see a STATE TROOPER! i hear mark say "SHHHHhhhit" in his sarcasitc tone. i look down and i'm doing 70ish mark is right behind me. no biggie! just 70. its gotta be like a 65mph zone. NOPE! 55mph. we watch for brake lights and the quick turnAround. Nadda, nothing,zilch! we didnt like it. so as soon as he was outta sight we dipped in to a side road to hide out. mark couldnt see it but i had a grin from ear to ear. its like playing cops and robbers. after we waited 5 minutes we decided to move on. that shit was funny. hell, he was probly on his was home. after all, it was after 5pm and he works for the state. so we make it to marks moms. she has supper ready and waiting. i love this woman. super nice and dam she can cook. everything was alsome. mark said "try the baked beans, you will love em!" i had a plate full already so i'll hafta come back to them after i make room. man i am stuffed! now the beans.....oh my god! i have never had anything like this before. they had a viniger kinda flavor tucked in just behind the brown sugar. WOW! so i went back for more. i had too. i dont get a moms home cooking that often. after supper we previewed our photos from the ride and watch adult swimm on marks ipod. what a long day! END
5-14-2007 (all is quiet in my apartment compartment)
Well, it seems as though i have lost my riding partner and long time friend Mark H. Lots has happened over the last few weeks. I'm not gonna go into it all of that. So i have been riding alone alot these days. i dont mind it much. i just point and shoot. i ride where ever the roads take me. Last week was my last 4 days in a row off from work. i had planed on going up with mark to the Dragon. since the falling out between us, that was a no go. so i woke up monday late morning, had a big breakfast, put the bike in the back of the truck and off i went. i left around 12pm west bound for the Dragon. 4 hours later i get there. unload my bike, put the leather gear on, drink a redbull and off i went. i rode from the time i got there till the sun went down.
SEE WORD PROBLEM BLOG ABOVE.
6-17-07 (Mark's on his first trip up to the BRP)
So after 2 weeks of planing, my old high school friend mark and i got a ride together. we took a day trip up to the BRP. it was his first time out of the city on the road and into the hills. i was just as nervous for him as he was. well maybe not as much as he was. he took his time. on the straights and even more so in twistys. this was a good thing. unlike most of the squids that live in the city that are stunters. doing wheelies, shit like that. you know, i'd love to take any of those fucks into the mountains and leave them there. like on the hill side maybe, up top shaking in their ghetto fab leathers. cause those boys look good and if ya look good ya must ride good right? thats how things work on the ever popular MTv. So i got off on a tangent......mark and i had a blast! we took a left onto the parkway from 181 heading away from Asheville. i had never gone that way. with in a few miles we come up on the linn cove viaduct. these bridges were cool. at times they would head upwards into the sky and hook a hard left back into the mountain side. this gave it a ramp like feeling. like we were gonna just fly off into the nothingness and crash hundreds of feet below.........
7-15-07
When it rains.....
ok! it was a lovely sunday afternoon. i got outta work 3 hours early. i just wasnt feeling it and we were kinda slow. so i jumped at the chance to go for a ride. i called Pat at lunch and gave him a heads up. so at 2:30 i ran outta that place. called pat and it was on. by 3:30 we would be carving it up n the local twistys. ya gotta love the NC summers. ya never know when the weather is gonna flip on ya. it always looks like its gonna rain in the summer but rarely does. Pat and Jason show up around 3:45. i have known these guys for 4 years now, we use to ride bicycle trials together. they still do. i dont so much anymore. So we are off! heading out towards the hand cuffs. we get to 485/77 and the bottom falls out. so we turn around and head towards Pats side of town. more rain there. after an hour of trying to avoid the rain we decide to call it off. so i head back from Harrisburg. then all hell breaks loose! it starts to rain like im in a hurricane, cars are scattered all about the highway like a yard sale. theres 3inches of standing water in some spots. people are driving 30mph. me, in my leather. i wanna get home asap! so i am doing every bit of 85mph, spliting lanes and hoping i dont get hit by lightening. im riding mostly in the slow lane cause its further away from the cables in the median. i figure if i go down at all, i dont wanna be anywhere near them. the last guy on a bike to hit them got split into 5 pieces. all of a sudden! a car in the fast lane 12 feet in front of me gets side ways! he is hydroplaning. FUCK! he heads straight for the ditch. all of the water from his car creates this wave above my head that tubes me like a surfer. CRAZY! urban surfing. next thing i know i cant see a thing and i am getting pounded by this wave. i hold my line and squeez my knees to the gas tank. i shoot out of the tube like those lucky guys ya see in those surfer films. i get home finally and i must weigh an extra 30Lbs. my leather is soaked and i dump out 2 cups of water from my boots. what a ride. glad i am here to share it with ya.
END FOR NOW GOTTA GO TO WORK
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