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Carpenters, Painters, Crazy Drivers, and Windy Days 12/21/03

Tourmeister

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Huntsville
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Scott
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Friday
Howdy,

:tab So here it is, the middle of December and the temperature is supposed to be hitting the mid 60's on Sunday. No choice, gotta ride! John "Irondawg" Morin comes over Friday night. He's passing through on his way to Louisiana to pick up his new Zuki DRZ-350. We meet him for dinner at Outback and stuff ourselves silly.

:tab Saturday morning I hear him bustling around early and then he is gone. I drift back to sleep only to wake up when our "door bell from ****" (tm) goes off and rips me from my peaceful slumber about 10:00am. I open the door to find the carpenter here ready to work. He was supposed to be here last Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday... He never showed or called. Irritated as I am, I figure it is a now or never deal so I let him in so he can get to work on our bathroom cabinets.

:tab Later in the afternoon, Paul "Scratch" Massie shows up to help us with some painting. Painting looks like more fun than it is, especially when watching Trading Spaces on TLC :| John calls around noon-thirty to let us know he's picked up the DRZ and is back on the road headed to Huntsville, expect him by 5:30pm. It is 250 miles each way and he has been making great time. No sooner than I pour the paint and dip my roller, my freaking pager goes off and I have to work. Beth and Paul think this is awfully convenient for me... They wind up doing the primer coat themselves. :angel:

:tab The carpenter does his work on our cabinets to "fix" the doors and drawers so they will close properly. To do this he wound up pulling the face off the front of the cabinets and doing a new face. Unfortunately, the fix has left the cabinets looking worse than they were before he started :angryfir: It seems that this happens everytime one of the contractors shows up to do the finish work on our bathrooms. We are at the point now where we just want them out of the house and we will take care of the finish stuff. Very aggravating to say the least :x

:tab John calls again around 3:30pm. It seems there is an accident and he wants me to get out the map and help him navigate around so he can get moving again. As we are talking I hear sirens, screeching tires, a loud bang and John cursing up a storm! "I'll call you back... click". :shock: That was odd. :|

:tab John arrives in time for all of us to head out for dinner. Debbie "Snoopster" McMullen shows up and comes with us. Mexican food and Margaritas followed by crunchy sugary Sopapillas! It is a good thing I am not driving or I would be doing a hundred miles an hour with all that sugar in me!

:tab Once back at the house we do the second coat of paint while the women folk "supervise". Supervising consists of playing games on the computers. :roll: The smell of the paint is making me ill. We get it done and then goof off for the rest of the evening.

:tab Sunday morning we are up and running. It is beautiful outside but a little windy. The temp is already up near 60 and it is olny 10:30am. Debbie arrives and then we head out for King's Cafe with Debbie in the lead. John is getting the feel for the new bike. Paul is on Beth's VFR. She goes shopping instead of coming with us. We pass a lot of trucks with dirt bikes heading North back into the National forests to ride the trails. Once at Kings we find the place packed. There are bikes everywhere and more show up while we are seated, including a large group of guys from the HoustonSportbikeNetwork.com site.

:tab After Breakfast we head back up through the forest. John uses this as an opportunity to take his new bike offroading. He rides off the shoulder and into the grass. They guy in the truck behind us has to be wondering what is wrong with John hehe. Once back at the house. John loads up the bike and heads back to Austin. The day is so pretty that Paul, Deb and myself decide to keep riding. Besides, Debbie still needs to get some miles under her belt on her new bike.

:tab We head North up FM 247 to Midway, West through Madisonville to FM 978, North up FM 39 to Normangee and then out FM 3. FM 247 pretty much sucks. The pavement is just not real good, never has been, probably never will be :| FM 978 out of Madisonville has some real fun 30 mph corners on it and the pavement is nice and smooth. Paul is leading here and I am bringing up the rear. I can see Debbie fighting the crosswinds. Right around noon, a scattered but heavy cloud cover blew in and with it came strong winds.

:tab The scenery Northwest of Madisonville is rolling pastures and woods. Right now all of the pastures are a golden hue from the dead dry grass. The grass makes a neat contrast against the dark tree trunks. As we are heading up FM 3, I glance off to the left and what do I see? Double Humped Camels are strolling across a pasture!? Hmm... a little strange. We reach FM 977 and head East. I can see that Debbie is getting sore. This will have been her longest ride ever. Previously she has never ridden more than about 35 miles without a break. Today we are up around 120 miles so far with another 80 or so to go. FM 977 is just a whole bunch of fast fun sweepers for miles and miles with lots of pretty countryside, perfect for a new rider.

:tab We stop for a break when we reach Leona at I-45. Debbie has been working out with a trainer recently and it seems the soreness combined with the bike riding is catching up to her. I am feeling a bit sore as well. It is amazing how quickly the ability to ride long distances fades when it goes unused. The wind is also wearing us down. Constantly having to fight the bike to hold a line and to keep from weaving off the road makes the neck and shoulders tense. Nothing a nice Fudge Bomb can't cure though ;-)

:tab We cruise on over to FM 1119 and head South. The temperature has been in the low 70's for most of the afternoon. If only it weren't so dang windy!! We hit a few side roads for some more fast corners and then head South on FM 247 back to Huntsville. By the time we get to the house, we have done right at 200 miles. Deb is happy to have been able to ride so far in one day. It also helped her get into a groove better. She is progressing nicely. She has about 1300 miles on the GS now. We head down to Conroe for dinner at the Cracker Barrel and then Paul heads home. It was a great day of riding!

Adios,
 
Good weather, good roads, good riding and good friends - it just doesn't get any better than that!

Tell Beth again that I appreciate her loaning me the Blue Bomber for the day. 8)
 
And to think I sat on my duff all day thinking how nice it would be if someone would call and ask me to go riding with them. :|

Merry Christmas,

Kelly
 
I did a little riding Sunday too. Took the wife's America out because with her schedule it hadn't been run in over a month. That wind really took it out of me.

Y'all ever took the road north of Leona and stopped to see the tigers? They are in cages in what looks to be old stables. Pretty odd site the first time you go by.

I'm with you on the painting. I'd rather take an ***-whipping than paint.
 
Y'all ever took the road north of Leona and stopped to see the tigers? They are in cages in what looks to be old stables. Pretty odd site the first time you go by.

:tab Yeah, that is FM 977. It runs East from FM 3 through Leona at I-45 and on over to FM 1119. It is a really nice ride. They have both regular tigers and the white tigers in the cages. The place really looks run down. I'd hate to think those tigers never get out of those small dingy cages :| BORING. They also have monkeys of some sort there.

Kelly, I don't have your phone number :-P

Adios,
 
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