Take me out to the ball game ...

Last weekend, while working in Richmond, Virginia, a couple of other employees/friends and I rode up to Baltimore to see the Orioles lose to the Minneapolis Twins 3 to 4.

This is the second professional game I have ever been to.  The first being in Saint Louis to see them and the Diamondbacks play.  There, we were up high in one of the boxes and felt somewhat detached from the game.  In Baltimore, it was an entirely different perspective, being down low near the third base.  I am told that the Baltimore stadium is the first stadium built in the retro fashion, instead  of a stadium that can be used for a variety of events.

I bought the peanuts but forgot the Crackerjacks.

 Swing and a miss!

Double play!

Base hit!

Home again

Doing a fast exit from Waverly, Tennessee, I am home without and temporarily out of an assignment for which grateful.

This gives me a little time to catch up on a few things, so with the help from Gary, my brother-in-law, we put the boat port/garage in good order, hung a couple of shelves and sorted things out so we could at least walk through it without stumbling over a box or crate of motorcycle parts left over from the move back in August.

The best part was installing a pair of external oil coolers on Boudreaux.  Hopefully, this will keep it from completely melting down in the event of a really warm ride this summer.

Those things accomplished, I had a little time to do some much needed chrome polishing. 

It probably won't be long before I'll be exchanging the Harley for a Boeing so I'll probably be on it as much as possible for the next few days.

The Honda Guy

Since I've been in Waverly, Tennessee, most days have been rather disagreeable. My feet feel like they haven't thawed since I was home a couple weeks ago.  It's either been raining and cold or snowing and cold, except for the 2 or 3 days this past weekend that was in the 60s and rained in biblical proportions.

Today, as I broke for lunch at McDonalds, they had spread salt on the sidewalk to prevent slipping.  In the parking spot next to the door was a Honda motorcycle which I had seen in that same spot countless number of times.  Thinking to myself, this guy is tough if he's riding in 20 degree weather with ice, snow and rain.  You have to admire him.

Going inside, I made my order at the counter to the young lady and put up with the usual questions.

"Welcome to McDonalds, Sir! How can I help you?"

"I'd like a Grilled Chicken Caesar salad and a medium iced tea."

"And what kind of dressing would you like on that, sir?"

"Uh......................Caesar?"

Paying her the $7.01 for the salad and drink, I looked around.  There he was.  The lone Honda rider sitting at a table hammering away on his laptop with his helmet on one chair and a thick jacket draped over another.

Retrieving my salad and drink from the counter, I maneuvered myself to another table in sight of Mr. Honda Man.

I noticed 3 or 4 other patrons who had walked in, some wearing Harley-Davidson caps and shirts, none of which were on motorcycles but proudly displayed their affection for  Harley-Davidsons while unapologetically riding in their warm pick-up trucks with Harley stickers on the back glass.

Now, we have the one lone Honda guy, riding to Mickey D's in the cold and wet with Harley guys riding in trucks and cars.  What do you think that tells you about Harley riders?

It tells me they are not dumb enough to be riding in 28° weather on slick roads and smart enough to stay warm when possible. That's what it tells me.

Wasting away in Middle Tennessee

Having a break from the 20 and 30° temperatures and now in the mid sixties, brought lots of rain along the I-40 corridor in middle Tennessee.  Being literally 40 miles from a town of any proportions that would have any restaurant of acclaim, I stopped in at the Hot Spot Barbeque for dinner.

If you get past the idea that you're stuck out in the middle of nothing, you begin to look around at the curiosities and odd little things that the locals do.  Here at the Hot Spot, you're confronted with a collection of corny gun and Harley Davidson signs (although there is no evidence this is a biker place), handwritten menus on the walls, plastic table cloths and..........9 pound turnips.

At first I thought it was fake but the owner soon confirmed it was the real deal  The 11 pound sweet potato behind was an added benefit.  I was amused and almost brought to tears at times as the locals bantered with the owner and kidded the two 70ish something waitresses about wearing sexier clothing.  Can you imagine Granny Clampett wearing skinny jeans?  Me neither.

Saturday, I had to get out of the hotel so I took a ride through Bucksnort, heading south through small back roads that sometimes became dirt roads where deer, turkey and rabbits abound.   I think I saw 6 deer in various places, 5 of which did not have a tire track across their bodies.

Looking down at my instrument gauge, I saw that I had a very low tire so I began to seek out a service station with an air pump.  Stopping at a small convenience store near Ethridge, I was amazed to see an Amish looking buggy pulling up.  Sure enough, two young men dressed in traditional Amish attire got out and went into the store.  Later, after checking the internet,  I found out there is a small enclave of Amish in middle Tennessee.  As one website says, it's in no danger of out populating Lancaster, Pennsylvania or Holmes County, Ohio but there is a presence as well as a few in Alabama and maybe even in Oklahoma.





Amish with a southern accent.  Who knew?

OK, the party's over

Over the past week, I've strained out a few days of vacation and really enjoyed myself.  It included a day at my grandson's school Grandparents Day, a motorcycle trip up to get my mother for Thanksgiving (she didn't ride the bike), a very nice Thanksgiving at my son's house and to top it off, a Sunday ride supposedly sponsored by the Harley dealership.  Well, it was on the website calendar.

My brother-in-law, Gary and I fired up Sunday morning and left the garage early in 32° temps.  Well bundled, we arrived at the and found another half-dozen bikes/bikers who had planned on doing the same thing.  However, there was no representative from Harley there so we discussed amongst ourselves what would be a proper ride.  Gary and I are not veterans of sponsored rides so we didn't interject much except to voice the opinion that we wanted to stay off the interstates as much as possible.  That was fairly unanimous.

There was this really vocal rider who was riding a pretty slick looking Road Glide and boasted that he had spent over a hundred grand at the dealership this year.  I understand a 110 cu Harley engine is a special and they cost out the yang to have one made, but heck, it didn't even have pontoons and a propeller.

Since he talked a lot and had a lot of gadgets, we decided to make him our leader.  A man spending 100 big ones on a motorcycle should have something to show for it.

We made a tour around Port Vincent, through French Settlement and across the Sunshine Bridge at Donaldsonville headed to Pierre Part.  Somehow, Dear Leader took the wrong turn and we found ourselves meandering the back streets of Napoleonville, touring a bunch of cane fields and eventually coming to a dead end at Lake Verrett at the Attakapas boat launch.

While it was fun laughing while Dear Leader whipped out his Magellan GPS trying to locate Pierre Part, it really wasn't that bad.  I knew where it was but I wasn't the leader and it wasn't in my job description.  After all, it wasn't about the destination, it was about the ride and it was good ....... plus, we got to see a lot of wildlife.

Abandoning our quest for Pierre Part, we made our way back over the Sunshine Bridge and located a restroom at a gas station.

After a few minutes a chatting, we shook hands, fired up and split in different directions.

My party is over and it's time to call in to the office to see what the friendly skies has in store for me.

West Michigan Autumn

West Michigan isn't really in it's autumn color peak just yet
but since I'm a short timer here, I thought I'd get out and see
what was available.

All of these are on the west coast of Lake Michigan from
Ludington on up onto the Mission Point Peninsula north of
Traverse City.

(click on the photos for increased size and resolution)

Ludington, Michigan Courthouse

Pumpkin Patch, near Manistee, Michigan

South of Onekama, Michigan

Highway 22 north of Onekama, Michigan

From Sleeping Bear Dunes

Motorcyclists on Hwy 22 north of Sleeping Bear Dunes

Vineyards, wineries and orchards - Mission Point Peninsula

Grapes yet harvested

Orange and gold

While I was out, I managed to find three more lighthouses.
The Mission Point lighthouse is a few hundred yards from
45th parallel.  It's the point halfway between the north pole
and the equator. These are just a fraction of lighthouses on
Lake Mission but time doesn't allow tracking them all down.

Old Mission Point Lighthouse

Point Betsie Lighthouse

Big Sable Point Lighthouse north of Ludington, Michigan

Redundant Sundown and Lighthouse photos

Yes, it's redundant but I'm still drawn to a pretty sundown, especially with something like this Ludington, Michigan lighthouse in it.

This one was taken with my HTC Android cell phone.

Same place but with the Badger Auto Ferry coming in from Wisconsin.

Yet another one

and finally, this one.

Birds and Bees Weekend

There's not much story to tell, other than riding around hoping to take pictures of smaller things this weekend.

The first part was Friday afternoon south of town at a local state park, where I was continually watching for rattlesnakes.  Thinking (maybe my imagination was going wild)  I heard a light rattle, I changed directions and in doing so, a large Jackrabbit hopped across the trail and scared me.  I believe I've seen deer that size in south Texas.  Anyway, the only slinking thing I positively saw was a couple of lizards.

In a small cluster of flowers, there were quite a bit of honey bees gathering pollen.

Saturday afternoon, I rode up into the mountains east of town near Sunspot.  Way out in the boondocks, I was attracted to a small waterfall near where a group of ATV enthusiasts were camping.  This time, I figured if I fell off the side of the thing, somebody might be able to rescue me.

The best part of the whole thing was a patch of gypsum weeds and thistles growing in the delta of the falls.  Dozens hummingbirds of a couple of different varieties battled for the choice flowers.  I was totally absorbed it it and shot birds until it was really too dark to be doing so.

All of these pictures were taken with a Nikon D7000 with a Tamron 60mm prime lens.  As for the bird pictures, I was not able to get very close so most of the pictures have been cropped from a larger shot, as much as 400%.

Here's a few.

 

 

 

I am not sure what this was.  It was much larger than the Hummers 

and looked quite a bit like a parakeet.

 

 

 This is not a bird but some kind of huge insect.

 

As I mentioned before, dark came much earlier than I wanted, so I left and drove slowly, being careful not to hit any of the several deer that stood on the edge of the road.

Beautiful sundowns as usual.