Technically, the weekend started early for me. Had intended to spend Friday hanging out and getting a few errands done. However, shortly into the day I was feeling like crap and really wanting to do something I would probably regret. So mentally, I'm blocking out everything up until 5.
A good friend of mine, Shawn, is visiting his mom this week. I originally met him way back in the days of playing Vampire; The Masquerade. But, like most of the great people I know, I can't quite pinpoint exactly when I met him as it blends and feels like I've known him forever. (Tarry is kinda the exception, as I met him at an event that I can identify, but ask me when we started emailing... Errrr, I draw a blank). Anyway, so I went out to his Mom's place and we packed up to head out for a camping trip. First stop my house to pack the gear, then we grabbed gas and munchies before heading over to his Dad's for some socializing. I figured we'd camp in Dixie Valley to take advantage of the darkness and remoteness for some epic stargazing!
Those who don't really know me might think of me as remote, indifferent, withdrawn, whatever. But for some very few animal-type folks, I am one huge cuddle bear! And Shawn is certainly a fantastic pillow. Yay, I got to cuddle!! First time in a very long time, me was a happy wolf!
That night was chilly but my sleeping bag kept me warm and the dawn woke me up. We hung out at camp for a few hours just chilling before heading out to go visit the Den's waterfall, the earthquake faults along Fairview, the old settlement in Dixie Valley (including two of the tanks along the Tank Trail), the down to Grime's Point for a walk through of the petroglyphs. Home to get cleaned up to go hang out with friends at Bully's for the UFC fight. For some reason the fights were boring me and I found myself watching the baseball game on the next screen. Afterwards we went to CommRow where Shawn turned into a spider and crawled up the outside wall before we played around on the boulders. Made for a very long day when I finally got home around 1 or 2 ish.
Sunday I hung out with Puzzleman for a caching trip to Fernley but we got distracted and headed to Reno to go shopping at Scheels and REI. He got cocoon sunglasses and I seriously scored on a pair of Keen boots. Back home, few more caches, and then I just crashed. Tried loading some heavy music into the Zune to attempt to get tunes on my bike. I think I may give up on the Bluetooth idea and just either hooked up my phone to hear the various audio coming out of it (love the DriveSafe.ly app!) or just listen to the MP3 player I have.
Gots to save money!!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Long distance sighting
So, once again it's Father's Day weekend and my Dad and I are looking for somewhere to go play. Do we go to Lamoille Canyon and play in there, or to Fort Bidwell to see places we both grew up around (him for his childhood, me for my summers with the grandparents), or what? I also have this request from my friend up in Canada about their game that I have previously helped with.
Well, we decide on heading out to Ely to see if we can help him out again. Turns out the position was for a sighting spot to locate another object in the far distance and calculate how far point A to B was. We get there and there is one obvious object that it has to be. So we snap a lot of pictures and then drive closer along a segment of road labeled by Google to be the old Lincoln Highway. And what do you know there are signs along the road indicating just that! So we bop around out there and as we round a corner there appears a herd of ELK right up the hill. Oh WHY did I just turn my camera off!! First time we've seen elk in the wild.
After that we went over into Ely to check in and grab dinner before heading to Great Basin National Park. I needed my park passport stamped and they were having their annual Astronomy Festival that weekend. So we watched a movie on the loss of the night in urban areas before I wandered down to the telescopes. They had set them so far away from the parking lot and it was on a sloped road that Dad wasn't able to make the walk. DAMN! I looked at a few binary stars and clusters and Saturn before I started feeling weird from a numb hand. Back to the Jeep and on the road to Ely.
Something funny (in hindsight) happened too. I had texted my best friend my plans for the night and used the poor phrasing of "Hotel, dinner, then park" to explain. He understood it to be we'd park for the night, not going to the National Park (my bad). So when he texted later and got no response (ZERO signal out there) I ended up with a flood of messages once I got near Ely again. First a text or two, then an email, then a voicemail, then a threat of Pony Express, and failing all that smoke signals. Guess I will choose my wording better next time to not worry folks checking in on me.
Sunday we dropped a bug off at the TB hotel near the high school and grabbed breakfast at the Hotel Nevada. Then off towards home, with a short detour of trying to see the Dry Creek Pony Express Station (private property). Once home, I got the bike out and rode into Carson to treat my Dad to a nice Father's Day dinner at the Olive Garden. Afterwards met up with my friend to chat for a bit before heading home again.
Got an email that we had correctly identified the object and now the team we are assisting is just bouncing up and down with excitement. I hope they win their contest, it'd be a neat ending to that story.
Well, we decide on heading out to Ely to see if we can help him out again. Turns out the position was for a sighting spot to locate another object in the far distance and calculate how far point A to B was. We get there and there is one obvious object that it has to be. So we snap a lot of pictures and then drive closer along a segment of road labeled by Google to be the old Lincoln Highway. And what do you know there are signs along the road indicating just that! So we bop around out there and as we round a corner there appears a herd of ELK right up the hill. Oh WHY did I just turn my camera off!! First time we've seen elk in the wild.
After that we went over into Ely to check in and grab dinner before heading to Great Basin National Park. I needed my park passport stamped and they were having their annual Astronomy Festival that weekend. So we watched a movie on the loss of the night in urban areas before I wandered down to the telescopes. They had set them so far away from the parking lot and it was on a sloped road that Dad wasn't able to make the walk. DAMN! I looked at a few binary stars and clusters and Saturn before I started feeling weird from a numb hand. Back to the Jeep and on the road to Ely.
Something funny (in hindsight) happened too. I had texted my best friend my plans for the night and used the poor phrasing of "Hotel, dinner, then park" to explain. He understood it to be we'd park for the night, not going to the National Park (my bad). So when he texted later and got no response (ZERO signal out there) I ended up with a flood of messages once I got near Ely again. First a text or two, then an email, then a voicemail, then a threat of Pony Express, and failing all that smoke signals. Guess I will choose my wording better next time to not worry folks checking in on me.
Sunday we dropped a bug off at the TB hotel near the high school and grabbed breakfast at the Hotel Nevada. Then off towards home, with a short detour of trying to see the Dry Creek Pony Express Station (private property). Once home, I got the bike out and rode into Carson to treat my Dad to a nice Father's Day dinner at the Olive Garden. Afterwards met up with my friend to chat for a bit before heading home again.
Got an email that we had correctly identified the object and now the team we are assisting is just bouncing up and down with excitement. I hope they win their contest, it'd be a neat ending to that story.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The big blue privacy invader
My stepdad has an account for their Harley, Sydney, used to post pics and trips.
Wow, I think after all this time I might agree that's a good use for Facebook. I mean, really, I had an account and hated it. All it was duplicates of Twitter and twitter can do the same thing I need it to without all the grilling as to who I am or what I do, etc.
But, to use it as a history and journal for my motorcycle adventures and changes? Now that would be a cool idea! Especially if I can get it looking like a travelogue (maps, pics, impressions, etc). So, yeah, I'll do that. Though since the account is new, I can't get the Timeline option for another month to fill in the older stuff. Hence, this entry to keep track of what I do until that feature becomes available.
(why am I agreeing to this FB account vs my own? I can make up BS about the bike and they'll have ZERO information on me. HA!)
May 12: Kurt loaned me his white Honda Ascot 500 (1980's bike) and Jim and Mom, Kurt, and I rode up Monitor Pass and back before having dinner in Markleeville just to get me back into the riding habit.
May 13: joined the Tahoe Blue Riders to cruise out to Quincy for lunch.
May 18: the itch got to bad, BOUGHT SEIRYU!! 1857 miles on her already, and one drop resulting in cracked and holey left fairing.
May 22: removed the MPG Growler exhaust and replaced the stock one. (Willing to sell the Growler!)
May 23: look! Got both the truck and bike into the garage!!
May 27: joined the Tahoe Blue Riders for a lunch trip to Downeyville.
May 31: got the title! Also cruised up 722 for some curves and an attempt at filming the ride.
June 1: ahh, baby got her first bath!
June 2: installed the frame sliders received during purchase. Almost look like highway pegs, but way to high and tiny.
June 4: installed a 12 volt plug under the passenger seat to power my phone and iPad.
June 8: rode into Carson and got pics of me and the bike for ninjette.org
June 9: joined Jim and Mom for a ride around the Lake to Tahoe City and then down into Washoe to visit a friend of theirs.
June 10: Dad agreed to stand on the side of the road and take pics of me cutting through the tight corner so I would have some great action shots!
Wow, I think after all this time I might agree that's a good use for Facebook. I mean, really, I had an account and hated it. All it was duplicates of Twitter and twitter can do the same thing I need it to without all the grilling as to who I am or what I do, etc.
But, to use it as a history and journal for my motorcycle adventures and changes? Now that would be a cool idea! Especially if I can get it looking like a travelogue (maps, pics, impressions, etc). So, yeah, I'll do that. Though since the account is new, I can't get the Timeline option for another month to fill in the older stuff. Hence, this entry to keep track of what I do until that feature becomes available.
(why am I agreeing to this FB account vs my own? I can make up BS about the bike and they'll have ZERO information on me. HA!)
May 12: Kurt loaned me his white Honda Ascot 500 (1980's bike) and Jim and Mom, Kurt, and I rode up Monitor Pass and back before having dinner in Markleeville just to get me back into the riding habit.
May 13: joined the Tahoe Blue Riders to cruise out to Quincy for lunch.
May 18: the itch got to bad, BOUGHT SEIRYU!! 1857 miles on her already, and one drop resulting in cracked and holey left fairing.
May 22: removed the MPG Growler exhaust and replaced the stock one. (Willing to sell the Growler!)
May 23: look! Got both the truck and bike into the garage!!
May 27: joined the Tahoe Blue Riders for a lunch trip to Downeyville.
May 31: got the title! Also cruised up 722 for some curves and an attempt at filming the ride.
June 1: ahh, baby got her first bath!
June 2: installed the frame sliders received during purchase. Almost look like highway pegs, but way to high and tiny.
June 4: installed a 12 volt plug under the passenger seat to power my phone and iPad.
June 8: rode into Carson and got pics of me and the bike for ninjette.org
June 9: joined Jim and Mom for a ride around the Lake to Tahoe City and then down into Washoe to visit a friend of theirs.
June 10: Dad agreed to stand on the side of the road and take pics of me cutting through the tight corner so I would have some great action shots!
Monday, June 11, 2012
A Lake Tahoe adventure
I love wind, really I do. It just never seems to stop and keeps letting you know that it is going to be here forever! :head desk: and take out the power just as I am working on a project! So, went home, headed to Radio Shack to grab some parts, and Dad and I installed a 12 volt plug onto the bike. I can plug my phone and iPad in now! Yippee!!
Tuesday I did get to see the transit of Venus. Both through Slooh.com and also through the solar shields we had bought for the eclipse earlier. Thursday was the Annual Meeting and Ice Cream Social at the Churchill County Museum, so I swung by there and listened to all the announcements and wandered through the aisles of artifacts. My kind of hang out.
Before I installed the plug, I wandered the internet looking to see what I needed to do. During the course of that, I signed up for ninjette.org, a forum for 250 owners. So now I am stumbling through there reading the different threads and seeing what's going on with other owners. One thread asked for the women riders to post their pics so I got a few taken of me and uploaded them. All the while playing Minecraft on my iPad. I know the blocks are limited on the pocket version, but while digging down for stone and looking for coal, I came upon Redstone, Gold, Diamond, and Iron Ore!! So Dad came up with the great idea of mining the hell out of the area and saving the game in hopes a future update will allow use of those blocks. Cool!!
Saturday I had planned on trying to go to Valhalla, the Renaissance Faire held annually at Camp Richardson. But when I texted Mom to see if she wanted to join me, I was asked instead if I wanted to join them riding around the lake to go see a friend of theirs. Sure, I'll go! We cruised along the west side of the lake, around Emerald Bay, over to Tahoe City, then on around towards Mount Rose where we stopped and had lunch. Then down into Washoe to visit their friend who is moving to Texas (and is also a new Cacher!). We chatted before continuing down into Carson to grab dinner. Later I hung out with Tarry for a bit just to chat and catch up.
Sunday, neither of us really had any plans so, after I got the swamp cooler reconnected for Dad, Puzzleman and I headed up to Tahoe to grab some caches along Highway 50, then a few in South Shore, before heading to a new park I heard about along the state line. Beautiful place with a great trail going from behind the casinos up to the Tahoe Rim Trail. The TRT has realigned the whole area around Kingsbury Ridge to get the hiking trail out of the neighborhoods. And so there is a mess of new trails all along Daggett Summit and the link through the Van Sickle Bi-State Park connects it to the basin. Overall great hike though a) I need to be able to breathe better and b) I really need to learn to drink water! Once we got back down to the valley I had enough time to ask Dad to go take pictur of me while I cut around one of the tight corners of the truck route to Virginia City. THAT WAS FUN!!
Home then to watch Thor, argue with my wifi, and crash hard after a long weekend. Love it!
Tuesday I did get to see the transit of Venus. Both through Slooh.com and also through the solar shields we had bought for the eclipse earlier. Thursday was the Annual Meeting and Ice Cream Social at the Churchill County Museum, so I swung by there and listened to all the announcements and wandered through the aisles of artifacts. My kind of hang out.
Before I installed the plug, I wandered the internet looking to see what I needed to do. During the course of that, I signed up for ninjette.org, a forum for 250 owners. So now I am stumbling through there reading the different threads and seeing what's going on with other owners. One thread asked for the women riders to post their pics so I got a few taken of me and uploaded them. All the while playing Minecraft on my iPad. I know the blocks are limited on the pocket version, but while digging down for stone and looking for coal, I came upon Redstone, Gold, Diamond, and Iron Ore!! So Dad came up with the great idea of mining the hell out of the area and saving the game in hopes a future update will allow use of those blocks. Cool!!
Saturday I had planned on trying to go to Valhalla, the Renaissance Faire held annually at Camp Richardson. But when I texted Mom to see if she wanted to join me, I was asked instead if I wanted to join them riding around the lake to go see a friend of theirs. Sure, I'll go! We cruised along the west side of the lake, around Emerald Bay, over to Tahoe City, then on around towards Mount Rose where we stopped and had lunch. Then down into Washoe to visit their friend who is moving to Texas (and is also a new Cacher!). We chatted before continuing down into Carson to grab dinner. Later I hung out with Tarry for a bit just to chat and catch up.
Sunday, neither of us really had any plans so, after I got the swamp cooler reconnected for Dad, Puzzleman and I headed up to Tahoe to grab some caches along Highway 50, then a few in South Shore, before heading to a new park I heard about along the state line. Beautiful place with a great trail going from behind the casinos up to the Tahoe Rim Trail. The TRT has realigned the whole area around Kingsbury Ridge to get the hiking trail out of the neighborhoods. And so there is a mess of new trails all along Daggett Summit and the link through the Van Sickle Bi-State Park connects it to the basin. Overall great hike though a) I need to be able to breathe better and b) I really need to learn to drink water! Once we got back down to the valley I had enough time to ask Dad to go take pictur of me while I cut around one of the tight corners of the truck route to Virginia City. THAT WAS FUN!!
Home then to watch Thor, argue with my wifi, and crash hard after a long weekend. Love it!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Two and Four wheel fun
Beginning to wonder if I should break this into two separate blogs? One for my adventures on the bike and another for general? I dunno, but we'll see how things progress in the coming months.
So Thursday I finally got the title to the Ninja. Yippee!! She's all mine! To celebrate, I rode straight out to highway 722 to play on the short segment of twisties and the oh so nice s-turn. Even managed to wedge my cell phone into the vest pocket and film a portion of the ride. Course, the long flat ride back to Fallon was bleh.
Friday after work I took the bike to get it washed from all the bugs and road grime that had built up on the plastic. Wanted her to look all shiney for her new installation. The prior owner had bought frame sliders and never got them installed. That was the Saturday project. Stripped off the front plastic body panels and carefully installed the tough bolts designed to support the bike in the event of a crash. The key bolt was actually a reinforced replacement of the one that held the engine in place. That was tricky. Later we went to go see Men in Black 3 (good movie and it's been HOW LONG since the first??). Later, I got a call from Puzzleman about some FTF chances up the hill. We raced up to see two rigs already at the site. Bern and Castledwellers were chatting, which is odd as they usually leave after finding it. So why we're we all reliving the grand FTF parties of years ago?
Bern had driven his front tire off the road and his truck was sitting on the front bumper. Oops. Good thing he knows someone with a tow truck! (his own, for those who don't know.)
Sunday, Puzzleman and I again met up but this time it was got go explore options for his new hide. We headed up Ash Canyon, looking at a few good possibilities. But when we reached the top, it was explore time as he'd never been up there and there was a new road leading to an overlook. We found the cache site and it had one hell of a view down into the canyon and valley below! Placed the cache and headed down again to grab lunch and maybe meet up with Dr. Boom. But timing didn't work out so instead we found a new area to play in where Puzzleman came up with an absolutely wicked evil idea for each stage of a devilish Multi. I love it and can't wait to see it come together.
Uneventful ride home after that. Highway 50 really needs some character other than being simply flat and straight, up down flat, up down flat. Snore!!
So Thursday I finally got the title to the Ninja. Yippee!! She's all mine! To celebrate, I rode straight out to highway 722 to play on the short segment of twisties and the oh so nice s-turn. Even managed to wedge my cell phone into the vest pocket and film a portion of the ride. Course, the long flat ride back to Fallon was bleh.
Friday after work I took the bike to get it washed from all the bugs and road grime that had built up on the plastic. Wanted her to look all shiney for her new installation. The prior owner had bought frame sliders and never got them installed. That was the Saturday project. Stripped off the front plastic body panels and carefully installed the tough bolts designed to support the bike in the event of a crash. The key bolt was actually a reinforced replacement of the one that held the engine in place. That was tricky. Later we went to go see Men in Black 3 (good movie and it's been HOW LONG since the first??). Later, I got a call from Puzzleman about some FTF chances up the hill. We raced up to see two rigs already at the site. Bern and Castledwellers were chatting, which is odd as they usually leave after finding it. So why we're we all reliving the grand FTF parties of years ago?
Bern had driven his front tire off the road and his truck was sitting on the front bumper. Oops. Good thing he knows someone with a tow truck! (his own, for those who don't know.)
Sunday, Puzzleman and I again met up but this time it was got go explore options for his new hide. We headed up Ash Canyon, looking at a few good possibilities. But when we reached the top, it was explore time as he'd never been up there and there was a new road leading to an overlook. We found the cache site and it had one hell of a view down into the canyon and valley below! Placed the cache and headed down again to grab lunch and maybe meet up with Dr. Boom. But timing didn't work out so instead we found a new area to play in where Puzzleman came up with an absolutely wicked evil idea for each stage of a devilish Multi. I love it and can't wait to see it come together.
Uneventful ride home after that. Highway 50 really needs some character other than being simply flat and straight, up down flat, up down flat. Snore!!
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