RickkciR

It was August 2016, the first time I'd ever done anything like this.   It was up in MN and there was a ridiculous build up to it all.  The goal was for 500 bikes, and it was held during an annual weekend event up there...   Well, when the time came they were lucky to get past 250 ( I think they got 264 or something like that) due to the rain and lack of interest.  The craziest part to me .. or maybe the right word was weakest ..  was that it was for a 4 mile around the block 'parade.'.   Yes, I realize this was all that was required but .. gotta' tell you .. .really? Well, in Aug 2017, they went for the next big one!   Shooting for 501!   Forget that ... they didn't even get close the previous year to the goal.  Well, this one was more interesting. No way in hell I was participating after the last fiasco, as many others felt.  Well, they got something like 273 or 274. Rumor has it ..  even the number is sketch...

Wrote about the preface to all this ... now.. I'm wearing it.   Man I was cringing.  I've heard the horror stories, know a lot of folks that use it and learned that a lot of folks do.  When I shared off that info, lotta' folks chimed in that THEY do as well.  I had no idea! Well, let it suffice to say that..... I can sleep through the night now.  I can sleep on my back again.  I don't wake up every few hours and turn over.   I don't get nudged in the night by my better half anymore.   I wake up feeling normal.  And I'm not walking around dragging ass slamming coffee.  Well, sometimes.. but it's not due to the before mentioned issues! The CPAP machine I got through insurance is extremely quiet.  Zero noise that I notice.  But.....  it's 'big'. When we headed to Galveston last week I packed it up and brought it down. Now, it's not really big perse', but I'm looking at it thinking... "I do NOT want to bri...

I've written about this before, but that was more in the context of large organized Rides.  That Blog post "Group Rides Pet Peeves" was written 4 years ago..   I still feel the same as then, but ... thinking more about smaller group rides...  4-20 folks... rolling down the road... I've found over the last decade or so, I usually end up front.  Most folks don't want to lead a ride, and I don't blame them.  There is a responsibility that goes along with that and many don't take it serious.  When I'm in the pack riding, I find myself watching and comparing as to how I lead a ride, how to improve my own 'lead' compared to the guy up front who may be doing it 'better', or seeing what they are doing that doesn't work for me and changing it up in the future for myself .... or worse...  getting pissed because I'm wishing I was somewhere else.. anywhere else.. than in the middle of a current gaggle fuck ( thank god that's rare...

Another great ride in the books! Minnesota.  I went to HS there.  Have friends and family there.  But, after my parents moved from there two decades ago, I rarely went back up.   I've always been a fan of summers there; all two months of it?  And, I have some awesome memories of some of the brutal winters.  But that was a different time in my life.  Was ..... Back in '12 I headed that way to ride my  Indian Motorcycle. Then again in '13 ..'14 .. drug my feet up there in '15 and '16 but made new friends every year and saw old ones.  Times were a changing, and '17 would be a variation.  That year I rode up to ride with the North Winds Iron Indian Riders chapter , and see some close friends.  This year, I would again, but with a several twists.  First, all the folks that normally travel to that area as I had from '12-'16 .. were no longer going.  That ship has sailed. Secondly, this year I did an 'official Iron Bu...

Iron Butt .....  a term I'd heard for many years though not always used in the correct context.   To me it'd always simply meant doing a 1000 mile trip on a bike.  At the same time, it sounded absurd to me.  I don't like doing 500 miles in my cage, much less 1000 in one pop.   Hell, until I rode my bike to Sturgis in '11, I'd never done even 500 in one day on a bike. However back in '11 I did 600 on day one, rolling through 110 deg heat; I thought that was crazy.  Then a few years later, 700+ miles to MN.  As the mileage numbers creep up, you start pushing a little harder. The bar is raised.   Hell, on two MN trips I felt I could have done the trip of 975 miles in one day but stopped once due to a bike break down and the other, due to critters at night possibilities. In '15 I found myself doing 1150 miles each way to/from Sturgis, 20 hours each.  Now in all fairness ...  that 1150 wasn't planned out either way.... and it hurt.   An...