Ride With Tank

Hard to believe, but we got a couple of good rides in this weekend.  On Saturday Mark and I rode down to Calcutta and ate at the steak place on the Ohio River.  It was good to see his bike on the road again!  We had a great time even though we did get a little bit cold at times.  This was my first ride on 170 this year and I forgot what a nice road it is.  I think I might just add it to my favorite roads section.

Today Jim and I took a ride down to Cabelas.  It sure was a lot warmer than the ride Mark and I took yesterday!  We met up at the Chipotle Grill.  I have been hearing from a lot of people that the food there is great, and I was not disappointed.  Its a shame Mark was not around for this ride, it would have been good to get the three of us together for one last ride of the year.

Next weekend is Christmas and then New Years so the next date for a ride will be January 5.  The weather has been so excellent that I am counting on good weather for a ride on that date.  I just can not believe how lucky we have been with the weather so far this winter.  Of course, winter has actually not started yet, it is still officially a few days away.

Just in case Santy Claus reads my web page I am going to let him know what I want for Christmas. 

• Two new Continental Road Attacks

• New chain and sprockets

• A high paying job in Knoxville

• Freedom from all debt, current and future

• Drought over the eastern United States in 2007

• No temperatures over 87 or under 70 in 2007

• More vacation time

Well, the helmet stickers section has only been up for a day and already there is controversy.  I got the following email from Rick in Texas (not Yellow Wolf Rick)::

How’s about ol’ Rick (Yellow Wolf) for his run on the Gap? If Iron butt wont recognize it it at least should be up there where all can see.

                                                                                                    Thanks, Rick V      

So now I have to say that the first criteria for getting a helmet sticker is you have to be on a ridewithtank.com official ride. The Yellow Wolf thing was not a ridewithtank.com ride, so as such we cannot recognize it.  This puts me in a strange position.  Do I boycott myself?  It seems like I should.  I give a helmet sticker to a guy for riding on a cloudy day but I won’t give one for 1,000 miles in 24 hours on Deals Gap?  It does seem wrong.  Still, I have to stick to my guns.  If I gave a helmet sticker for the Deals Gap ride, next thing you know Nicky Hayden would be wondering why he did not get one.  If I gave him one Valentino would be upset because he won the championship way more times than Nicky.  No, I am sticking to my guns on this one.  No sticker for you!

I have started the helmet stickers section of the site that I have been promising for so long.  There is a link to it in the link bar at the top of the page.  I have witnessed thousands of acts of heroism on the rides, but these awards are only for those acts that really stand out from the others. 

I am working on a section called “Tanks Most Excellent Roads” where I am going to list my favorite roads complete with maps.  I have got a little start going, but it is going to take me a while to get this section complete because I am basically a lazy guy.  So many of you who read this page do it at work.  I sure wish I could screw off like that at work.  If I could, I would to a lot more updating.

I am currently working on a major update to the web site.  For a while there will be a lot of material that is missing from the site, but I will be replacing what is missing over the next couple of weeks.  I hope to have everything caught back up by Christmas.

Oh yes, one other thing.  Nothing much, just that I AM ON THE FRONT PAGE OF KILLBOY.COM!!!!!  That’s right.  Killboy.com.  Tank on the FRONT page.  The rumor that I wired a large amount of money into a Swiss bank account to make this happen is completely untrue.  The rumor that I did a little begging and groveling is one that I do not wish to speak about.  Click here to see me!