Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Last night in my nice warm bed

Well, tonight is the last night before I am off. I am extremely excited but very nervous. Always wondering if I missed something, or if I took care of everything that I needed to before I leave. Hopefully, I can give the bike a quick once over and then spend the night out on the town with my lovely wife. It is a bummer that my trip is now solo, but it should be a good time still. I am going without any reservations at hotels or campsites along the way. This allows me to not feel pressured to make it too far or to stop too early if I feel like continuing on. All said and done I will have over 3500 miles if I make it all the way to Acadia National Park and then back to Americade after that. On the way back I am planning on coming through  Canada and having only left the country one time, that will be really neat on a motorcycle. Just have to remember kph ;) Wish me luck! I plan on posting up pictures along the way if I have signal and battery in my phone.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

The bike is ready

The v-strom is ready to go. New battery, plugs, cleaner air filter, oil/ filter changed, new tires, extra master links just in case, and now I just have to get everything packed. There is so much to pack and sift through. I will get it done eventually but not today. It has just been one of those days.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Going to be a long, but productive, evening...

Tonight I have to get my plugs, oil, and battery changed on my V-strom. After this evening I hope to have the bike ready to go out to Americade!! Hopefully I do not discover some previously unknown issue with the bike but better now than on the road I suppose! Hopefully the maintenance goes quickly so that I will have time to pack the bike as well. Wish me luck. Still wondering if I should have changed the air filter but I am planning on just blowing it off and throwing it back in the bike. Fingers crossed that I don't pay for being cheap later on.

I met with my riding buddy last night to finalize plans for the journey. It went well but we still have yet to pick a return route. We are thinking of doing it on the fly but I question the wisdom of this move. Either way, it will be an adventure and hopefully it is more fun than we could have dreamed. The weather looks a bit cool and a touch wet but overall it should be pleasant. That is what I am telling myself at least :) . I won't be posting much while we are out but hopefully I will have a ton to post up when I get back! Lobster here I come!! Only two more days of work!!!! It is coming up quick!!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The death of my computer....

For weeks my computer has had an unknown issue. Finally, a friend who is exceptionally computer savvy, helped attempt a diagnosis. We  didn't learn much but the computer is certainly on the way out. I just built this machine about two years ago and I can't believe that it didn't last a little bit longer than it has. It just randomly shuts down in the middle of tasks, even under a light work load. He thought that perhaps the dust build up on the heat sink was the issue or the slightly loose heat sink on the cpu was the root problem but we repaired both, replaced the thermal grease. Still no go. We took the video card apart and blew the dust out of all the other components as well. Nothing seemed to have an effect.

So, long story short, in the coming weeks it looks like I get to buy a new computer. Usually this would be cause for celebration except that we were already picking up a new one so that we could have one dedicated to the media center in the living room. That is right out the window. There are worse problems to have in life, but this is, none the less, extremely annoying. I am still hoping for an epiphany as the root issue so I can replace a component instead of the whole unit but the outlook is grim.

The timing is the real issue though. I have so much to do over the next few weeks that I really didn't need one more thing to worry about.

Update 1: Well, he ran a test on the memory and there were no errors found. He used a Ubuntu disk that way all the memory would be available for the test. I had my fingers crossed as this would have been the cheapest fix. We are on to more complex things now I guess. Bummer. Hopefully we find the issue.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

One more Day of Work...After Today

I have so much to do over the coming weeks to get ready for Americade. Basically, the only thing I have done, is get new tires on the V-strom. I have not even completely finished my route planning for the trip. I am hoping that I can manage to come up with something that is a good time while still covering decent mileage each day. The hard part is dealing with the fact that we have so far to go that we can't really afford to not be headed in the proper direction the whole time. I also have to reserve campgrounds and find them for the Rally itself. I tried to recruit one more rider but it looks like it is still a dynamic duo for the moment.

Friday is the big day around here and then we are back to work on Wednesday. After that I have only one weekend standing between Americade and myself!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Two more geocaches

So, last night my family and I went out and hid two more geocaches. It was a great time and we found a few on the way for them to log. Surprisingly, I thought I would able to get them back out the second the hides were published and get them the "first to find" award, I was mistaken. Within thirty minutes of them going live, one cache got two finds and the other got a single find. Guess I should be glad I didn't throw in the couple of items that I wanted to hide just for them to find.

It seems that I have a habit of only hiding new ones when other people are in town. Never a planned thing, it just sort of happens that way for some reason. It has been a really great week though, despite wishing that I had more time off work to hang out with them.



Monday, May 7, 2012

Monday...

Monday is even less fun after a great weekend. Especially a very busy one. There is just not enough time to get used to the idea of having to go back to work. I can't wait for our friends to show up this weekend! It is going to be really great to see them again.

I have a ton of photos and videos from my ride with my brother this weekend but I have not had a chance to edit them just yet. I am betting that they might not be up until sometime next week or late this week.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Weather....

Of course. The bike is packed I am ready to go. What wakes me up this morning instead of my alarm clock? Thunder. Bit of a bummer but the weather in Arkansas still looks good so I guess it is still a go. I am excited about the trip but less so about riding in the rain for extended periods again this weekend. It looks like it will be raining or, at least, wet on the way down and we have a 60% chance of rain on the return journey. Should be a good time though.

I was planning on sleeping in a hammock tonight but perhaps I will go upstairs and dig out my tent, just in case.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Arkansas Ride 4/26/12




















 










 














 All that riding and we finally arrived at the resort we were meeting family at. We were a bit early so Jess and I went for a little hike but shortly the family arrived and the fun continued!


























These were three of the local dining options that we frequented while we were out on our journey! I highly recommend Hubba Bubba Subz!!!! They were by the far the friendliest restaurant that I have ever been too and the food was wonderful! They were local dining striving to be the best that it can be and it was a wonderful experience to dine with them! Stringbeanz was delicious as well. Country time was a buffet and although good eating not my favorite place. The people were nice but nothing like the experiences that I had at the other two places. The one time that we went "chain" in Arkansas we were very disappointed. The KFC in Harrison Arkansas was the worst dining experience I have ever had. That place needs to be shut down, it was awful!!!













 If my wife asks, you never saw this photo :P