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Hey Haji, we're just laying low lately, I guess, plus I haven't taken any pix recently worthy of posting up. Thanks for checking in, amigo.

Man I can't wait for Spring... Not much travel planned for work this year, so lots of riding!!!

Hope you are able to shovel a path for the bike and enjoy the great weather on Tuesday!

Hey Alex, we didn't get out that day; like you, we're very much looking forward to dry roads and warm temps again! Here's to an awesome riding season for us all.


Here are a few pix I just scrounged off my memory card, from the wildfire on Pilot Mountain back in November:

Six years and ten months ago, overlooking Isabella Lake, California. The bike's so new you can see your reflection in the brake rotors:

Party at the ThunderDome, with Dave Barr, MadDuck & Friends, April 2006:

Happy New Year my friend!, excellent photos and great to "hear" from you.

Getting plenty of miles in, but staying low as on a recent run up "the 16s" into VA my friend following me made a slow speed, low side in the sand covered, wet roads. Figured I would throw in the towel and let Mother Nature and her Black Ice minions rule the shadows and hoarfrost for a couple more months without further Virgin Tupperware sacrifices being offered,

I owe JB2 a letter and also hope to catch up with you guys during the season. stay safe and be well!

Cheers

Greetings, amigo. Hope your friend escaped without serious injury. The roads around here can surely be tricky in the winter. Lately we've had several bouts of truly insidious black ice, the just-looks-wet-but-slicker-than-snot kind, fortunately not while out riding, tho.

This is from our 50-year-winter several seasons ago. The Parkway was closed in these parts for over three months, but there's a dirt/gravel road we can use to get in and get out, and I hadn't ridden in so long I was willing to go to great lengths to do so.

The first shots are early in the season, not much snow, and it had warmed up enough to melt the "trail" I'd shoveled from the garage out to the street (which had been plowed):


The ground is a little "soupy" from having been frozen and then thawed, so I'm trying to crawl up the hill to the street without churning a rut up the yard.



Success!

This is much later in the winter, and the conditions were grim. But, I had a day off and I hate to waste 'em! Digging a trail out to the street took the better part of a day this time, chipping away at several storms' worth of rock-hard frozen snow, and it never warmed up above freezing, so although I was almost down to yard level, I was still dealing with trying to find purchase on top of a layer of compact snow and ice.

The solution was to crawl out to the street on two planks laid end to end. I'd inch up on top of one, Denise would grab the one I'd just cleared and drag it around to the front of the bike, I'd crawl up on it, she'd grab the one behind me and move it up front, and lather-rinse-repeat out to the street.


Warming up the RK, wondering what the heck we were doing.









Almost there.



Voila!

Welcome back!!

I've been scoot commuting minus a couple icy days but have not taken a joy ride in 2 months. Won't be long now though.

Hola, amigo.

Yeah, prolly a coupla months since my last joy ride, too. In past winters I've managed to dig out here and there and log some miles, but it's always such an effort, and the salt shite they use on the roads in this part of the world is brutal on the moto (my wheels are permanently etched from the rides depicted in the photo sequences above and below), so this winter I've chosen just to bide my time. I don't do "hurry up and wait" very well, though...

Hope to ride with you again soon.

WOW!! I have read every word, and savoured over every photograph dreaming of the time I can visit that incredible place you call home. I feel privileged to have travelled with you on your numerous journeys. From one traveller to another, thankyou! Certainly made me smile during the coldest, wettest winter in Sydney Australia,
Rob,

OK, I wont complain about our winters ever again!!!

Ferris hope all is well, your pictures where among the best on ADV. Missing my weekly great pics of bikes and trains.

Can you PLEASE share some more photo,

Sorry, photos...more than one. My Engrish not so good!

Hey Robcig and Papadew, sorry for the slow reply, I haven't been monitoring ADV for awhile but I got a ping from my buddy JB2 this afternoon that said a couple of inmates were needing their RR fix. :)

I've ridden as much as possible this summer, between w*rk and the weather - we HAVE to be setting some sort of record for rainfall here in SW Virginia this summer. It's been wet and wild, to be sure.

Haven't taken many photos, just haven't been in the mood and I really don't know why. Lately, when I see a photo op, nine times out of ten I simply motor on. Could be laziness, I suppose, or shooter's block, or whatever. I'm still ultra-passionate about riding, but the camera has been kinda forgotten lately.

That said, I knocked out about 270 miles this past Saturday with my friend Carlos, who was up visiting from the Kinston, North Carolina area, and actually broke out the camera and documented some of our foolishness. It was raining cats and dogs and elephants when we headed out, with thick fog to deal with on the Parkway, as well.

We had been scanning the radar for an hour or so, and finally could see a hole opening up to the southwest of us. We had originally planned about a 500-mile day which would take us up into Kentucky, but between the late start and the weather we ended up scaling back our itinerary by about 50%.

The immediate goal was to get to Independence, Virginia, where we predicted we'd finally see a respite from the rain, but we had to go the "long" way via Sparta, North Carolina to try to come around and in behind the worst of it.

It all worked pretty much according to plan, and by the time we finished fueling up in Independence the rain had stopped, although the roads were still extremely wet, and we had to be careful for washouts, downed trees, and such.

We were finally able to shed our raingear in Damascus, Virginia, and rather amazingly never had to suit up again for the remainder of the day, but only because we were watching the radar on Carlos' cell phone like hawks, and choosing our routing accordingly. We had some very close calls weather-wise during the day, and I'd guess that 70% or 80% of the pavement we strafed during the day was at least damp, if not outright wet, but man we had a ball!

I'll post up some pix here in a minute. There are some from early in the day, and some from much later on, but nothing from the middle, as we were having too much fun to slow down. Carlos showed me a new road (which shall remain unnamed), nearish Tazewell, Virginia, that absolutely knocked my socks off. It deserves to be ridden on something much more sporting than a Road King, and preferably the pavement would be clean and dry, but it rocked nonetheless, and was one of many highlights on the day.

OK, enough blathering, on with the shoe. Thanks for keeping the flame lit, fellas - it's much appreciated.

Ferris

Carlos 'n me, fixin' to get our wet on!

Photo by DNutz, the hostest with the mostest.