My day and thoughts: September 2008

Friday, September 12, 2008

and the panic bagan

Ike is a problem, not just for Texas but for all of us. Gas prices here has already jumped back to $4 a gallon with a 10 gallon limit! Me I found out the hard way. I needed gas for the truck. It was horrible! I get to the station and there are cars lined up everywhere. 12 pumps and lines around the block on each of them. 45 minutes in line and I get to the pump. Thankfully the 10 gallon limit was not in effect yet. As I am pumping I count the cars behind me, 23 cars in my lane, multiply that by 12 and that is a lot of cars!

We got the tire for the bike finally. We had to order the tire. It is a high mileage tire for a bike, up to 30000 miles vs maybe 10000 for a Dunlop tire for the same price!. It is a Metzeler ME 880 Marathon. We love it. This is the second time we have gotten this particular tire. I highly recommend it.

Can't seem to catch up with stuff after that wonderful/disastrous vacation. I will, it just takes time.

Tags: Metzeler tires

Friday, September 5, 2008

I'm back

For what it is worth, I am back. LOL

Let's see. Saturday. Beautiful day. The sun was shining I was ready and Pat was slow. LOL Packed once then repacked to a lighter bag. Then we were off!

From Blue Ridge vacation

On our way to the Blue Ridge Parkway. 5 days of camping out and riding the motorcycle. We did not make it as far as I hoped the first day. I forgot that Pat was a 5 miler. Go 5 miles and stop. I am just kidding. But I swear that man stopped so many times I was afraid we would not even make it to North Carolina the first day! It was a beautiful ride. We took the scenic route. LOL One of the first places we saw was the Occoe.

From Blue Ridge vacation

Great white water rafting there soI have been told. You would not get me in one of those rafts or a kayak! We saw where the Olympics held the white water events when it was in Atlanta.
Finally we arrived in North Carolina. We passed the road that leads to the Dragon's Tail, US 129. This is a trip we plan in the future. In Andrews, NC we pass a Harley Shop we just had to stop to see. How about that for a bike?

From Blue Ridge vacation

Daylight is quickly going and we have miles to go. We get to Bryson City just outside of Cherokee and decided to find a campsite.

From Blue Ridge vacation

There we set up camp and the fun began! LOL As we unpacked we found that 1 small bag had been left out. The one that held our utensils! Luckily that was not too big of a problem. We found a couple forks packed away but no can opener so no chili on the hot dogs. The campground was right on the river.

From Blue Ridge vacation

It was also right on the highway so the sounds of loud motorcycles roared until late at night.
The next morning dawned early. We were up before daylight and started getting breakfast fixed and breaking down camp. Remember I am with pokey. 4 hours later we are on our way. Finally we get on the Parkway!
The mountains are beautiful! I recommend going there at least once in your life. We got to the highest point on the Parkway and had to take our picture!

From Blue Ridge vacation

You cannot not take one there! It was at that stop that we saw a woman with her little dog tucked in too! On a motorcycle! There were lots of bikes and lots of mountains

From Blue Ridge vacation

In Asheville the fun began. Part of the Parkway was closed due to rock slides so we were detoured to the interstate for our next leg of the trip. We were headed to Linville Falls where we were going to stay for a day or 2. This section of the interstate is scary to me. We were going to ride down Black Mountain.

From Blue Ridge vacation

I hate that. It is a steep grade. Lots of wrecks have happened on that mountain.
As it was that was our last ride. Shortly after getting to the bottom Pat pulled over. We had a tire going flat. Sunday, a holiday weekend, on the side of an interstate. Not what I wanted to do! After an hour or so a police officer stopped. It seems someone called in a wreck with dead bodies! Stupid! At that time we were waiting on our ride. We knew we had a long wait! Luckily we had a deck of cards. Pat found out that I am a killer in Gin and poker! LOL What gets me is NO ONE stopped! Seven hours on the side of the road and no one stopped. Also no police other than that first one. I could not believe it. Seven hours and no troupers! The first cop was a city cop! I was disappointed in our fellow bikers. At least 200 went by and no one stopped.
So our trip was cut short and once again a major expense incurred. $300 in gas for the tow home. $200 for a new tire. Ugh . Might be last vacation for a long while!

Tags: Blue Ridge Parkway, motorcycle

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Open Id and adding comments

a Blogger user who wants to leave a comment, will be challenged with the AOL sign-in screen. On that page they will notice a tab for OpenID (the orange color tab on the far right). When the Blogger user clicks on the OpenID tab, they will be asked to enter their OpenID. For Blogger users their OpenID would be of the form YourBlogName.blogspot.com (for example, one of my test blogs on blogger is journalsopenid.blogspot.com). Once you enter this information, you will be taken to the Bloggger sign-in screen where your credentials will be validated. After successful validation, you will be be sent back to AOL where you will have to fill out a small form where you will be asked a couple of questions, one of which is your age (this is to comply with Child Protection laws). Upon filling out this form successfully (only a one time thing), you will go to the Comments page where you can leave a comment.

For this update, OpenID for comments is available for US journals only.

More on OpenID
For more on OpenID click here.

How do I get an OpenID?

Surprise! You may already have one. If you use any of the following services, you already have your own OpenID: