The Topic of Conversation Lately

Oddly there has been much conversation about my motorcycle lately. I can't very well have a blog name of 'Easy Rider' and be without can I? 

I've heard everything from "but your a girl" to "it's a big city" as to why I shouldn't take my motorcycle with me. While I have thought much about it myself, it's amazing how much other people have thought about it too.

The great company I work for will pay to ship my bike, so of course I'll take it. My thought on this initially is it will be great for a commute, it's literally like 300 days of sunshine year round and if nothing else, it might be a better market to sell it out there. 

This brings us to the question where will I keep it? Not having a house in this case will be a downfall. Several people have said it will get stolen (ok well I have insurance, and also hope I find a place in a neighborhood that won't steal my bike) I'm hoping to find an apartment or condo with a garage then that problem is solved.

Will I ride it much at first? Well honestly probably not, I'd like to get the lay of the land before I venture out on the bike (which I will do at some point) but how freakin sweet would it be to ride a motorcycle across the Hoover Dam or around the Grand Canyon?!

My bike is just one of those things no matter what, even though I've contemplated it, I just can't bring myself to get rid of it. It means so much more to me than just a mode of transportation. There is something uniquely interesting about a girl who can ride a motorcycle and it's just become part of my identity. I hope it can be used as a mode of introduction as well, there are about four or five Harley dealers in the great Phoenix area all with HOG chapters, which would be a good way to meet new people. 

40°F + 60mph = 24°F... Which is Cold

Tonight was the first HOG meeting where the weather was halfway decent enough to ride, which of course meant leaving the car at home this morning... and remember I've been working some OT. Which means that in order to get to work this morning by 7 I had to leave at 6, the temperature this morning when I left was 40°F when you add in the fact that you are totally exposed to the elements at 60mph it apparently felt like 24°F this morning when I rode in, further confirming the fact that I need to purchase a few heavier things to keep me warm.

I don't have a whole lot else going on, just been working and working some more. Work is still stressful, more stupid things show up daily. As I mentioned tonight was another HOG meeting, I thought there would be more people who would ride and I didn't want to look like the whimp but turns out I was among the minority for this round. It's always fun to have boys be jealous of a girl's bike. Each month I try to sit with someone different to learn their names and expand my acquaintance list.

I also did something tonight that I have never done and to be a little honest it made me a little bit nervous, ok well two things I've never done. First thing, the group usually meets at the dealership and then rides over together to wherever dinner is. So I dropped by and there was only one person who was riding over. So tonight was my first time riding in kind of a group event. The second thing tonight was driving actually through traffic through Btown. I have an easy route to work when I ride and never have a need to weave through town with all the stop lights and traffic and blah blah blah. But tonight I weaved through the big city traffic pretty easy, I was pretty proud of myself, sometimes you doubt yourself for no reason. Gotta have a little bit of faith in yourself sometimes.

Point of this post? No point really other than to let you know I was cold this morning and that I sometimes surprise myself. Holla!

More Warm Weather Please, Hold the Wind

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous, minus the crazy wind today. It makes me very ready for the warmness to stick around. I finally got around to installing my latest bike purchase this weekend, my solo bag (the thing with the buckles) I'm really hoping the 10 day forecast stays looking the way it does for Wednesday. If it holds up it will be the first month it's been nice enough to ride to this month's HOG meeting. When the weather turns nicer the dinner meetings get a little farther away and the group rides together to the final destination.

I've got a few other things planned coming up too so I'm really hoping the weather will stay nice. Later this month the Btown HD dealer has their Spring open house and annual Blessing of the bikes sponsored by the Christian Motorcyclists Association. I've been before as a passenger and there are so many bikes, I'm really excited to get to go this year on my own bike.

May has a lot of events coming up too. It is also Women's rider month, and the Cpaign HD dealer is having a women's only ride to Arthur for lunch at Yoders and I'm looking forward to that too. And it's also the first Bike Night of the year at BDubs, last year every single time it would be great weather for weeks then the Wednesday of Bike Night rolled around and it would ALWAYS be storming and raining. I think there was maybe 1 night that it wasn't terrible weather, total bummer. So I really hope the weather will be nice for those days.

What Did You Do Today?

I have so far had an enjoyable Friday off from work!

The morning started with a trip to the County Sheriff's office to take a scholarship application for NiBo, gma tagged along too. Then we got back into town and headed to McDonald's for some lunch Mmmm fish sandwich.

Sidenote: McDonald's in a small town should never be as busy as our small town McD's was today, it was ridiculous. We found the only parking spot available..literally that packed and went inside because gpa is picky and had to have his fish sandwich specially prepared. We used to have a cool McD's, sure it was in need of an update or two but it was our own unique design it fit in, it was a rock n' roll theme. But then the bigshots in charge decided to update. We now have two lanes, yes TWO lanes to order you'd think that a town of 3200 people would be ok with one but guess not, now two chances for an incorrect order (and no disrespect to employees, just sayin it doesn't happen often) But now our McDonald's is all modernized with bright colors and a very modern design. It's weird to see old people sitting on bright yellow roundish ottoman style seats sipping their coffee.... but I digress.

After our 20 minute McDonald's experience we dropped mom's food off at City Hall (yeah I know people at the city, it has it's benefits as you'll recall our alley was plowed first) and as we were talking I saw several motorcycles go by and decided 46 degrees is warm enough to take a spin around town and that was precisely what I did, twice around town was enough it's still a bit chilly. Now I am even more ready for green grass, leaves on the trees and warmer weather.

Tonight we venture out for the high school musical production of Once Upon a Mattress featuring NiBo as the wizard. Gma and Gpa got a dress rehearsal preview this morning and said it's going to be good can't wait to see his acting debut. There is even magic involved, yes! Check back for first night reviews tomorrow!

Road Trip

Our original road trip plans were aborted after yesterday's morning rain. We had hoped to make it up to Starved Rock and check it out. Then we thought about postponing the Starved Rock trip until today, but again the weather really wasn't on our side aka cold and wind.

I have not yet upgraded my cold weather gear, because well I haven't really needed it. But today I wish I did have some chaps, that would have been really nice. Instead I had to improv which consisted of... long sleeve t-shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, and leather jacket. My track years paid off in the gift of long spandex which were worn under my jeans, thickest socks I own and boots. Full face helmet (which I always wear anyways, but especially useful on days like today), bandanna over my mouth and tucked in my sweatshirt (which ended up being a godsend anyway your neck can get very very cold) and my heaviest motorcycle gloves which will definitely need to be upgraded if I plan to adventure much more into the bone chilling cold. 1st annual Frozen Turkey ride anyone?! lol

So since we were too chickenbutt to brave the cold too much we decided a closer 50mi trip would be better suited for a cold day road trip. So we ventured off to Pontiac. There we checked out the Route 66 Museum which had lots donated items true to the Route 66 routes. Stories, pictures and memorabilia filled the cases. The building was also home to the local War Museum. It was one of the best collections and personal war stories I've seen for a small town. Everything there was donated and listed the person's name and story. Particularly interesting was all the uniforms with medals earned on display.

One story really stood out to me. A young man who stormed the beaches of Normandy was hit three times by a machine gun upon arrival, the third shot had ricocheted off his dogtags and St. Christopher medal (the dogtags with bullet hole were on display) as the young man lay wounded on the beach he was struck two more times by enemy sniper fire, one shot grazed his head. He was rescued and spent two years in the hospital and make a full recovery. The picture showed him when he came to visit the display as an old man. He lived to be 85 years old. It was an amazing story, I highly recommend checking it out.

We had a good time and a nice ride despite the cool weather. This was my longest trip thus far on the bike and I'm only getting started. Each time I venture farther and farther. Sadly it will soon be time to park it up for the winter, and dream of that first warm day to start the season all over again.

http://www.visitpontiac.org/

Bike Show!

Lately I've been trying to get more involved in the motorcycling world. I joined the local HOG chapter (Harley Owners Group) and hope to get more involved with the chapter by participating in some group rides and volunteering. I have also been wanting to get my bike in some local bike shows.

Last weekend I participated in the 'Old Lady's town bike show. Unfortch, it had rained earlier in the day and I was the only bike that showed up. So I got a trophy by default... not as fun.

Today was my first big show. Neighboring small town has an "Old Fashioned 4th of July" celebration. It really is small town, there are tractors, old fashioned kids games (ring toss), they had a pizza eating contest, lots of cars for the car show and a motorcycle show! So I put the HD in the show in the Sportster category. It was a good turn out (to me) there was about 30 bikes registered for the show but they said they had more in the past.

The weather was gorgeous, albeit a little warm aka 100 degrees. There was only one other bike in my class so I was going to get at least something (they award top 3) but I was hoping for first. This was my first legit show so I didn't know how the judging would go. Well they scrutinized every inch (good thing I washed and waxed her this morning) and took a good 5-10 minutes on each bike. (Still not quite sure everything they took into consideration, I bet it was hard, lots of nice bikes)

Registration was from 12-2 with awards at 3. I got over there about 12:30ish.. weather still awesome but hot! Then 3:00 rolls around and it starts to cloud up, praying for the best I was soon let down. It POURED! sheets of rain coming down, everyone scrambled for the nearest tree in hopes to keep dry. It proceeded to downpour for the next 15-20 minutes solid. Then as fast as it came it was over.

With suspense (and eagerness to get home to dry clothes) looming it was finally time for the awards. 1st Place in my category! Some bike shows will have a special category for "ladies" bikes, but this one I was up against the big boys. It may sound a little weird and vain, but it was cool seeing strangers point and stare at my bike. I'm a girl in a typically boy sport and it was a good feeling, I felt legit. As I was walking up to get my award an old biker dude hollered "Girl, that's a bad ass bike"... I like it.

The bike show was sponsored by the county ABATE club (A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education) and they got me to join too.

"ABATE is not a club, gang, Harley group, and we do not have back patches. Anyone that is interested in preserving their right to ride is welcome. And while we are a non-profit organization we are not a charity. We currently have over 12,000 members and 60 chapters throughout the state."

Source: ABATE of Illinois

Joining these two groups I really hope to meet new people and experience new things. Being more active in the motorcycling community is something that I hope will take this from being a hobby to a passion.

If you've never rode your own or been on the back, you don't understand the feeling you get from being on a bike. For me it was a challenge at first and I'm still learning. I feel really accomplished for "being a girl" and having a bike. Women in motorcycling is growing but you'd me amazed the disbelief you can see in others when they see its a girl on this bike. But if I'm having a bad day you can take the bike out and free your mind. The wind and road truly is one of the best kinds of medicine.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes about motorcycling:

"I would rather be on my motorcycle thinking about God, than in church thinking about my motorcycle"

"Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul"

"Once you get a Harley, you don't even need a relationship."

"Never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly."

"Sometimes it takes a whole tankful of gas before you can think straight"

"You'll know she loves you if she offers to let you ride her bike. Don't do it and she'll love you even more."

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

I finally have my baby back!! I was able to somehow manage to get a screw in back tire thus resulting in my first flat tire on the bike :(

I was very very sad after I found out and had to wait for a payday to get it fixed, luckily I didn't have to get a whole new tire, they were able to put a tube in it to get me back on the road.

So yesterday, very excited I might add, I went and picked up my bike in Cpaign (Thanks dad for taking it down for me!). I had really missed it. So I got in a nice ride back to GC, then took her out later in the evening (Can I say PERFECT evening to ride!) did my small town drag and rode around town a bit. I am so happy now!

"Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul."