Paper, Rags and Swag

Some tidying up for the season.

Tour of Honor Certificate

10th place for me and 11th for MeAsWe in GLMC Grand Tour. There were a total of 118 participants. This thing is getting more and more competitive each year.

Some swag from the GLMC Tour

Motorcycle Calendar for 2012

My previous post for a calendar was for Scenic shots taken during 2012. In the past I have usually only made one calendar, essentially combining the scenic and pictures with motorcycles. This year I decided to create two calendars. MeAsWe is a calendar user and relies on keeping track of various dates with our calendars. Me, I create them purely to see what a collection of blowup pictures would look like and Cafe Press offers a reasonably priced solution with their over sized calendars (11X17). None of the photos were specific to a month and placement was essentially in the order they were on my computer, thus I never intended the picture to relate to the season or month.

Please click the photos to enlarge


The Cover
This ends up as the least looked at picture of the group. Once you hang the calendar up this gets turned over and the monthly ones are displayed. I essentially copy various sections out our our photos thru out the year and pasted them into a new canvas. The collage has a little bit of everything from the weird stuff we saw, the historical places, memorials for the Tour of Honor, BBQ joints for Smoke Chasing, towns for the USA Tour, and National Parks we visited.

This was shot in Jamestown, RI. The bridge in the background is the Clairborne Pell Bridge the drops you into the Newport RI. This was one of the first good riding days of 2012, March 18th. I remember I was in a private driveway / parking lot for condos overlooking Narragansett Bay. I had to be quite a sight since I was laying on the ground to take the pictures. Some folks did pull in, gave me a strange look, but never asked if everything was ok. Here you have an old guy, lying on the ground, squirming around. I could have been having a heart attack for cripes sake.

 

 

A targeted town for the GLMC USA Tour in South Carolina. This was a major branch off of our overall route. We picked up the Sheldon Old Church ruins, which was historical and neat. In Autryville which was another USA capture, there was some neat painted signs on the side of buildings that looked like they were from the 50's. 

 

An update on this photo. Cafe Press will not permit me to use this photo, since they feel it is violating Coca Cola's trademark. 

 

 

This was our turn around point in Fort Scott, KS. To complete one of the side dishes for Smoke Chasing 2012, you had to include the state of Kansas. The BBQ here was top notch and I would not hestitate coming back here for lunch again. 

 

 

Taken just outside of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. I am not sure this picture is going to turn out great in full size. We just liked it because of the dichotomy between the carriage and the FJR. It was a quick shot, since the carriage was moving. Right after this shot, we were almost taken out by a car who thought they were the only ones on the roads and was using up the whole road. It was quite the pucker moment.

 

 

 

 

This is the original bridge the crossed the New River at Canyon Rim in West Virginia. The trip down into the gorge is about 8 miles and well worth the trip. I don't have a clue how the trucks made it across the river with the twisty roads.

 



 

 

This is the fountain and entrance to Weston State Hospital, also known as the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. It is the largest hand cut stone building in the US and second only to the Kremlin in Russia. The hospital has been designated a National Historic Landmark and located in Weston, WV.

 

 

 

Taken in Hampton, NH on RT 1A. We had just finished breakfast.

 

 

 

Taken in Bucksport, ME on the Penobscot River. If you would turn yourself to the left you would have a great view of Fort Knox and the Penobscot Bridge.

 



 

 

We got up at 4:30am to catch the sunrise at Searsport, ME. My first attempt at a sunrise.

 

 

 

I call this Tina and a FJR. Out chasing USA towns, BBQ Joints and came across this waterfall in Fitchburg, MA

 

 

 

This was taken at my friends shop in Whitinsville, MA. I usually go here on Saturday mornings to talk cycles, politics, books and getting older. A kewl place to hang out. 

 

 

 

Taken at Stoggy Hollow General Store in Woodstock, CT.  It was a great ride for 75% of day. The last 25% poured buckets and the temps dropped quickly. 

 

 

 

This is in Skipwith, VA. I planned this top for the USA Tour. On MapSource this looked like a small diversion, you know an on and off the road. While we were not in a hurry, this proved to be more than a small on and off trip. Nice country thou. This is the replacement for the Salemburg Grill above.

 



 

 

The Final Eight

Yesterday was my last day of grabbin USA towns. Entries must be post marked by September 15th which is next Saturday and I know I will not get out on the bike for more towns.

My first stop was had nothing to do with the USA Tour. It was just a scenic spot. I was heading for Auburndale. Navteq and Garmin like to shave off seconds by routing you off main roads and onto back streets which just bring you back to main roads.As you can see below rather than take me to RT12, it had me turn on side street to get there. Most of the time these are a pain in the ass and you end up scratching your head and asking why is my GPS doing that.

Today it turned out to be a good thing. It was what I thought the perfect scenic place. A lot of country with a bit of urban thrown in. Off the bike, engine off (knew I was gonna be here awhile) and pull out the tripod from the Givi. I bought this cheapo tripod from Walmart, but it does fit in the Givi and I have used it quite abit, so I will not be returning it. Set the camera for bracketing and take one regular exposure, 1 underexposed and 1 overexposed and keep my fingers crossed for when I get home to process the pics. For those that want to know and care, I take pics in both JPG and RAW. (click the photos to enlarge)

For the rest of the day I looked and looked for another spot like McTaggarts Pond. It just didn't happen.

I was headed for a different Ashby, but this was along the way. I have learned if you come across a target that satisfies the parameters of the hunt, take it when you can, because you may just find yourself back tracking. Usually I end up having to repositioning the bike because the lean and the kickstand is just not right. This was way right. When I went to get the bike off the stand and in an upright position, it had a wee bit more lean than I thought. It took alot of oomph to get the 640+ pounds into a vertical position.

Hi ( or is that how ) to you too. One of them Muffler Guys in Shirley, MA on Great Road. ( N42 35.285 W71 39.646 )

The Ayer Motel has a sister motel in Agawam, MA. Must be a chain of them.

I have actually found myself in this town and at this location a couple of times. This is on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was a good site for the An Affair with Water tour last year.

I had my doubts this was going to be a hit. I was pleasantly surprised to find it just like it said it would be.

When I left this morning (well it was more like 12:30P ) I didn't load up any BBQ places. Sometimes you just come across them. This looks like a brand new place.

Been here a couple of times too.

For the last couple of years I have been tracking down these markers, kinda sorta. Not like my quest for the New Hampshire ones. That was before the days of the Grand Tours, which do fill alot of my riding time. This one is in Sudbury on Boston Post Road.

 

 



Coming into the home stretch with Saxonville. I remember this town from my early arrival in Massachusetts in 1979. This is a teeny tiny time, but has been with me since I moved here. I was originally targeting the Saxonville Cleaners. but it only had Saxon in the name.

 

 

This joint presented a real challenge for the Smoke Chasing Tour. The joint is suppose to have BBQ or Smoke in the name. Since it is a chain, it would be accepted, maybe. I left with this picture.

 

 

Having lived in this area and since I was in chase mode, Cochituate State Park is right around the corner and has a stamp for my Massachusetts Passport book.

 

 

 

The park was just closing and they had the gates across the entrance, so I still have to chase down this stamp. Not being satisfied with the Tennessee picture I headed back there for another picture.

 

 



I am way over thinking these targets. Headed off for the last stop, Southborough or Southboro. Official spelling is Southborough and they are a bit snobby about how it is spelled. After I took this picture I knew I was going to have to lighten it up abit so you could read Southborough. The USA Tour for me is done

 

 

Well almost. I pulled up on the sidewalk for this shot. Probably not the smartest thing I could have done.

 

 

 

At home I got busy downloading the days photos. Updated my Smoke Chasing Blog and then went to preparing the two DVD's to be mailed to Jack and Marlene. In the final count, I submitted 212 visited towns. We visited 70 towns during the double bonus week, so I have a total of 282 towns. MeAsWe has slightly less at 260. So the USA Flags have been retired for the year, but ready to be broken out for 2013 Double Point Week.

 

 

Todays ride

 

 

 

Thanks to the GLMC for sponsoring this years USA Grand Tour. A special thanks goes to Marlene and Jack Backer who has to review all the photos from everybody. It was a great year.

 

 

Spritzin the S's

Today is all about getting some last USA towns. Pretty boring stuff, but so far this season I have written something about all of my travels. MeAsWe has elected to stay home and do some stuff around the house and visit some friends.

Before I left I headed over to Giffs, to see if we could eliminate the head shake on the FJR. This seems to have occurred with the new Shinkos we installed about 2 weeks ago. I had this with the Connie no matter what type of tire I used. This was a known issue with the C10. I have used Shinkos on all my FJR's and I must be on my 4th or 5th set of them. The shake comes right around 39 to 43mph, is very pronounced on deceleration, but does exist ever so slightly under acceleration and constant throttle. It only happens when you take your hands off the handle bar, so the cure is pretty easy. Leave your hands on the handle bar. Giff rebalanced the tire and added .5 oz's of weight. Wheel appeared to be not out of round and did not have a wobble either. After he got in remounted, Giff's guess is the problem will still exist. It does. While he had the bike up on the table and calipers off, he replaced the front brake pads. He thought they might have another 7k in them, but I said change em out now.  By the time I got out of Giff's it was 12 or so.


First hit of the day is Slaterville. Not too far from where I live.

Since I was heading for the NER RI tag and needed a place to send folks I stopped at Bryant University for the entrance.

Hit A&W Rootbeer stand in Smithfield RI to capture the tag. Who could resist getting some grub while I was stopped. Hamburger didn't sound all the good, but hot dogs, did. They called em wieners, which just doesn't sound right. Choice of fries or onion rings. I opted for the rings.

A&W stands/drive-ins  roots are in California with the first stand opening in Sacremento in 1920 or so. This place was built in 1960 and joined about 2000 other similar locations in the country. Since then A&W joints have declined to around 400, many them connected to KFC or Long John Silver's. What I did not realize that they make the root beer on site on a daily basis. Some neat reading HERE. When I was a kid, it was Stewart's Root Beer stands, which were opened in the 20's as well.

 

 

Scituate RI is next on deck and then crossing the border to Sterling CT

 

 

 

On the way to then next USA town I passed this place. When I capture the CT Tag I will probably use this at the next GO TO place. Town Pounds were places to keep roaming livestock so the owners could come and claim them. You had to pay a fee to the pounder if you wanted your animal back. We have alot of these around New England. This is located at N41 42.182 W71 48.652 or the intersection of CT 14 and Providence Rd in Sterling.

Grabbed some Post Offices for Waymarking.com.

 

Next town is Sprague, CT. According to Wikipedia, Sprague is an up and coming ecotourism place to go. You look up ecotourism if you want to know. I was headed to the library, but this place came along and it works.

Time to make the turn north towards home. Grabbed Scotland on the way,

While I was heading up 395 I saw Attawaugan on one of the next exit signs. Sure enough the GPS indicated their was an Attawaugan Fire Station under the Community category. Off 395 and onto CT 12. I got to the fire station but not friggin signs on the building, what's with that. I drove around the building looking for something, a small sign by a door. Nothing. I turned around and headed for 395 and out of the corner of my eye, I STOPPED. I got a knack for picking this stuff up when treasure hunting. The photo has been enhanced to show the little sign.

We have a First letter Last Letter tag going on. You find  a place that begins with Last Letter of the last tag. OSJ put a picture of a Yolk but spelled it Yoke. I found the "E", who am I to argue how he wants to spell it. So go find a "T"

 

 

Blasted the rest of the way to Bonnie and Scotts place where MeAsWe was visiting and called it a day.

 

One thing I did different today, was ride in jeans versus my riding pants. During the summer months I use mesh riding gear which lets air in and around your legs and stuff. I was uncomfortable in jeans. They seemed to soak up the moisture in the air, which made the jeans stick to your body. YUCK. I will stick with my non stick riding gear. I have the same issue with riding with cotton T Shirts. 

 

 

Four hours or so covering right around 120 miles.