Today the real fun started.  We spent the day riding the parkway from Fancy Gap to Asheville.  I’ve already posted plenty of parkway pictures, so I’m not even going [...]]]> Yesterday we rode from home to near Fancy Gap, Virginia.  It was a pretty uneventful ride, so that is all I have to say about it.

Today the real fun started.  We spent the day riding the parkway from Fancy Gap to Asheville.  I’ve already posted plenty of parkway pictures, so I’m not even going to bother this time.  The mountains are hundreds of millions years old, they have not changed much since last year.

Right now the Rhododendron are blooming so I took a picture.

My favorite spot on the parkway is Mt. Mitchell.  We enjoyed the sights there, and then enjoyed a delicious trout.

I really do love riding the parkway.  It really is the most pleasant and visually spectacular ride you can take on a motorcycle.  If I rode it 1,000 times I would still love it.

What I am not loving is all these “Adventure Riders” I am seeing out there.  Now I know that I ride an adventure bike myself, but I am not trying to convince anybody that I am an adventure rider.  I know some real adventure riders.  They are not like normal people.  They are hard core.

The adventure riders I am seeing everywhere are fakes.  Pretenders.  They ride around with gas cans strapped to their bikes.  They have all kinds of crap that the internet told them they needed bolted to their bikes.  They ride around standing on their foot pegs because they saw Ewan McGregor do it.  Their bikes and gear is spotless and shiny.  Nothing is scratched, their adventure clothes look like they were purchased that morning.  They smell like they showered very recently, and their hair is perfect.  Their odometers only need four digits.

Now I know most 0f these guys, if they read this, are going to get all upset and send me nasty emails.  They are gonna tell me how hard core they are, but I’m not going to believe it.  Real adventure riders would not give a flying crap what a clown like me thinks of them, so if you are reading this and getting pissed off you can consider yourself a pretender!

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There are some changes this year.  For one, not all of my adventures are going to be on two wheels.  We have adopted [...]]]> I’ll be the first to admit it.  I was pretty lazy last year.  I did not give the site very much attention last year, but I promise to do better this year.

There are some changes this year.  For one, not all of my adventures are going to be on two wheels.  We have adopted a convertible that will allow me to extend my season a bit.  It will give me a few more months of adventure each year, and has already made a trip to Atlantic City.  The really cool part is the car has a hard top, so with the top up it is just like a regular car, but when you press a button the top disappears!

Atlantic City was a great time!  It was cold and rainy most of the time, but that did not matter much because there was lots to do indoors!  Atlantic City seems pretty comfortable with public intoxication, so I got along pretty well there.

Foggy view from my room

So basically what I found out is that I enjoy drinking and gambling.  We stayed at the Trump Plaza, and Trump seems to hate me, but I got along well with his people.  They kept taking my money but they seemed to feel bad about it.  I don’t blame them, they were not taking my money, they were giving most of it to Trump.  I never found one single person who had ever met Trump before.  Not even anyone who has been in the same room with him.  Trump needs to come back to the ground floor once in a while to meet his people.

Trump also seems pretty fascinated with himself.  Everything said Trump.  Trump this, Trump that.  Trump, Trump, Trump.  The guy must really love himself.  I doubt he would be interested in staying in one of his rooms.  The room was too warm, had too little light, one light did not even work, and it looked like it was decorated by a prostitute from the 60′s.

The Boardwalk entrance

There are people on the Boardwalk who push carts that you can ride in.  I never rode in one, but I did have the pleasure of seeing a very drunken cart pusher abandon his card and rider.  He shouted some obscenities and stumbled into the casino.  Eventually, the cops showed up asking whose cart it was.  One of his buddies covered for him and said it was his and pused it up the Boardwalk.  The drunk guy came  out of the casino and saw this, then started screaming at him and went running/stumbling aftewr him.  This resulted in another large group of cops appearing, but I could not stay for the whole show because I was very cold and needed a vodka refill.

A typical Atlantic City cart

We also made a stop at Pats King of Steaks in Philadelphia to see what all that fuss was about.  There was a really long line, but it moved very fast due to their strict rules, and it was very tasty.

Proof we were actually there

The line goes around the building, but it moves very fast!

The Rules

The object of our desire.

This weekend I will be making my first trip to the Gap, so I am really looking forward to that!  There will be Fiddy racing, pancakes, MotoGP, and who knows what else!

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This Friday Hostgator is having a spectacular sale on web hosing services!

They are offering 50% OFF EVERYTHING From 12:00AM CST to 5AM CST

They are offering 80% OFF EVERYTHING From 5AM to 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)

From 9AM [...]]]>

This Friday Hostgator is having a spectacular sale on web hosing services!

They are offering 50% OFF EVERYTHING From 12:00AM CST to 5AM CST

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That includes Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting AND even Dedicated Servers!

I have been using Hostgator for a long time now, and I have been very happy with their service, so if you have been thinking about setting up a site, now is the time!

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I started it with a true sunrise ride.  When I got to the overlook I found fog that filled the entire valley.

I have never seen it like this before, but it did not last long.  A very small breeze kicked up and started [...]]]> Today was the best day of my trip so far.

I started it with a true sunrise ride.  When I got to the overlook I found fog that filled the entire valley.

I have never seen it like this before, but it did not last long.  A very small breeze kicked up and started blowing the fog over the overlook.

Once my coffee was gone I went to Calderwood and saw the usual turkeys and deer.  As expected it was very foggy down there.

On the way back to the store I found another flock of turkeys along the road.  I slowly rolled up to them, and once I was close I hit my horn which caused them all to go crazy.  It was pure turkey chaos, and it was funny.

Robert spent most of the day playing with some motards and had a really great time.

By far my personal highlight of the day, and probably the week, was this guy:

I was lucky enough to get to see him wage an epic battle racing a Harley down the Gap.  The Harley passed him, then he turned on the speed!  He came close many times to passing him, but just never had quite enough room.  The Harley would pull away in the straights, then the bike would catch up in the turns.  Eventually, the bicycle guy just got too tired and gave it up.

I spent the next several miles stuck behind the same Harley.  I checked my mirrors as I entered Shadetree and the bicycle was right behind me, so I pulled over so the battle could continue!  This was more exciting than any MotoGP race I have ever seen.  Eventually, I remembered that I had a video camera mounted up, and I got the last minutes of the battle on video.

i

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Lots of people out and about!  There was a guy today who had race plastics.  His “friend” took electric tape and wrote “gay” on the front number plate.  He rode around all day without noticing and everyone got a good laugh out of it.  When he did notice he was [...]]]> Another great day of weather!

Lots of people out and about!  There was a guy today who had race plastics.  His “friend” took electric tape and wrote “gay” on the front number plate.  He rode around all day without noticing and everyone got a good laugh out of it.  When he did notice he was a really good sport about it, but I suspect there will be some retaliation.

Rumors of rain on the way were swirling around, but we decided on a night run to the overlook.  The weather up was nice and it was a great ride.  It started spitting an occasional drop of rain at the overlook so we decided to head back.  We didn’t get too far until we hit a downpour.  We got absolutely soaked.  My shoes were nearly dry and now they are soaking wet again!

I only took one good picture today, so here it is!

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Things dried out about half way through the day, so i went out and did a little bit of exploring around Fontana lake.

Once the road mostly dried [...]]]> It rained all night and when my alarm went off this morning it was still raining, so I sut off the alarm and went back to sleep.

Things dried out about half way through the day, so i went out and did a little bit of exploring around Fontana lake.

Once the road mostly dried out I made a few passes on the Gap.  I asked Pip how long the store would be open and she said till 7PM.  I figured I could make it to the overlook and back before then, so I headed north.  I returned to the store at 6:45 and they were closed!  I was low on gas, so I headed to Robbinsville.  On the way there I got smoked by a girl in an economy car.

I stopped at the church on 129 and got this awesome picture:

I also stopped at the pizza shop and got an awesome pizza, so all in all the early store closure worked out well for me.

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I got my first sunrise ride in, but I was not first on the Hill, the bear hunters were out and about long before I was.  I talked to one of the hunters at the overlook for a long time,  He was a nice guy and [...]]]> Today started out cloudy and foggy, but finally dry!

I got my first sunrise ride in, but I was not first on the Hill, the bear hunters were out and about long before I was.  I talked to one of the hunters at the overlook for a long time,  He was a nice guy and I learned a few things about the area that I never knew.

Once my coffee was gone I took my first ride of the year into Calderwood and saw all the usual turkeys and deer.

I did a little back and forth and then settled down for a while to watch the show with Craig, one of the Zee Photo photographers.  I did a little more back and forth then took a little rest.  A few guys I knew rolled in so I did some more back and forth with them. After they left I rode into Robbinsville to get pizza, but the pizza shop was closed.

All in all it was a pretty ordinary day for me on the hill, but an ordinary day here is about the best day I can imagine.

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Mark and the guys showed up some time after I went to sleep.  Somehow they managed to avoid the rain!

Absolutely nothing happened today except for rain.  Things were so slow they closed the store at 5PM.  I managed one ride to Fontana and one ride to [...]]]> As expected, today was another day of rain.

Mark and the guys showed up some time after I went to sleep.  Somehow they managed to avoid the rain!

Absolutely nothing happened today except for rain.  Things were so slow they closed the store at 5PM.  I managed one ride to Fontana and one ride to the overlook.  I also took a few pictures.

Casey bought this to help pass the time.

Dan got a do.

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I happened to be in the stands yesterday and I was one the closest spectators to the accident.  I was on the end of the South Vista, at the far end of the west side, sitting on [...]]]> Yesterday, during the MD250H warmup lap, there was a terrible accident that took the life of Peter Lenz.

I happened to be in the stands yesterday and I was one the closest spectators to the accident.  I was on the end of the South Vista, at the far end of the west side, sitting on the bottom row.  There were no reports at the track about his condition, so when I retured to my motel I found out via the internet that he had passed.

Today there are thousands of web sites with the story, but they all say the same thing, and some of what they say does not fit with what I saw, so I felt it was important to tell people what I saw.

I did not actually see Peter crash.  I saw his bike sliding riderless and then saw him on the ground.  He was in the front of a large group of motorcycles just exiting turn 4.  He began to try to get off the track, but saw that there was too much traffic so he sat there with his back to the traffic and held up his hands waving so he could be seen.  I was holding my breath hoping he would not get hit and most of the pack made it past him and it looked like everything was going to be fine.  The problem was, as time went on each oncoming rider was coming closer and closer to him, which gave the guys further back less time to react.  One bike dodged him, but there was no way for the bike behind him to swerve, and he hit Peter hard.  It was the most terrible thing I have ever seen, and I knew immediately that he was severely injured.

The corner workers got to him almost instantly.

They really did not give him any type of treatment.  They appeared to be talking to him, but I never saw Peter move.  The announcers had no idea the crash had happened, and were wondering out loud why they were delaying the start.  They also announced several times that Peter had not returned to the grid.  We kept waiting and waiting for an ambulance to show up.  A golf cart arrived, but it still appeared as if the officials had no idea there had been a crash.  Finally, the corner workers decided to put Peter on a stretcher and transport him with the golf cart.  As they were about to load the stretcher onto the golf cart, an ambulance finally showed up.  I cannot say with any certainty how long it took for the ambulance to arrive, but I estimate about 10 minutes.  The ambulance then left through the tunnel at the main gate to head for the hospital.

All the stories I have seen reported that CPR was started immediately, but I did not see any CPR until he was being loaded into the ambulance.  I am not saying it would have made any difference, but I felt the ambulance delay was totally unacceptable.

I also question why he was transported in an ambulance.  The MotoGP guys go out via helicopter any time they leave the track.  This wreck was so severe it should have left no doubt in anybodys mind that the injuries would be life threatening.  An ambulance ride through streets clogged with traffic for a MotoGP race seems like a very poor choice for somebody with life threatening injuries.

It appeared to me as if there was a severe lack of communication which lead to delays in getting medical treatment to the injured rider.  It felt like we were the only people who knew anything had happened.  The outcome could very well have been the same no matter how quick the response, but I believe these questions need to be answered.  Hopefully they will be answered by the investigation.

RIP Peter.

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