"Want to go for a three day bike about?"

Well any one that knows me knows you do not have to ask twice.  So when Wooly asked if I want to  go for a three day bike about. I  had my  saddlebags  packed in ten minutes.  Asking where we going he said "The Ozark mountains".  Now around here the Ozarks mountain's are the place to play, less then a day ride away to some curves twist and bankies. So getting a late start we take off head south and then back east to go play in the mountains.  The first day was really nothing to write about just 273 miles to Table rock lake where we would start our fun.   We stopped there for the night cause the rains was getting really close.  We stayed in a little mom and pop place, .nothing fancy but a clean place with very biker friendly owners...Mountain Country Inn, the owner rides and was very nice he suggested we eat at Gators across the street.  So bed and what we thought was dinner secured we ran to Walmart to get a new memory card for the go pro camera we got and had mounted to a helmet.  We bought too big of a  memory card and ended up going to another store  the next day.  So with no breakfast at the hotel I picked up some fruit, nuts  and muffins for breakfast.  We found a car wash and washed all the bugs off the bikes, not a easy task as they seem to be attached  to the Submarine.  And then it was back  to the hotel where we parked the bikes and walked across the street to grab some dinner.  Well we missed dinner, the  kitchen closed at 8:30 and we got there at 9.  Damn good thing I bought stuff for breakfast as it now became our dinner. And we got all this done  before the heavy stuff came down that night. But the moon was full and I thought what a great way to start a trip.

Next morning we have coffee what was left of breakfast and load up to go to Walmart #2 to get the right memory card.  I remember thinking how much  I love the smell of rain,  and how much I have missed that smell, and how long had it been since I had smelled that smell of the wet dirt, the earth being soaked.  It had been at least 10 years.  The drought probably had some thing to do with it...Any way  after getting the right card we was back on track to ride the Pigs Trail again...

This is about the most fun you can have on two wheels around this part of the country. After riding the twities to Eureka Springs  we stopped at the satellite store to get souvenirs.  They had nothing I really wanted so we decides to take a small side trip to Rodgers to go shop at the big H.D. store.   While looking for presents for people Wooly found a bike "I had to see!"... a $46,000 bike.  The bike was gorgeous but $46,000 and it was not even a C.V.O. ... Also it was too pretty of a bike to be mine.  With gold leaf paint.  A garage queen  to say the least nothing that I should have because it just would not be pretty when I chipped that paint going down some gravel road or through construction or what ever else  that would chip a paint job.  But while at the Pigs Trail Harley   I had put a notice on face book of where we was and got a text  from a friend that she was at work 10 minutes away.  We waited for hugs from Terri Jo and it was worth the wait even in the almost 100 degree heat.   It is always great to see good friends even if just for a quick hug and a happy face.

After hugs it was back on bikes and off for more fun and games... The twisty,curvy, banky fun and games that I love...

Oh here is where I should put in my new declaimer:
 " Hi my name is Gina and I am a curve-a-holic...  It has now been a few days since I last rode a curve.  I can feel my heart racing, my hands sweating and my blood vessels are about to burst!"

  We rode or should I say coasted though a couple of elk grazing on the side of the road, but some how did not have the motorcycle camera on for it.  (Big slap on the forehead) Stoped at this beautiful road side picnic area that was built into an out crop of mountain... GORGEOUS!!!

 Then I almost ran out of gas and we was in the middle of nowhere. I was coasting down the hills so I might make it to the next gas station...Finally gassed up and looking at radar noticed we was in trouble, bad thunderstorms was building up all around us.  I would like to say we made it but it would be a big lie.  We got poured on, riding a scenic by way going through mountains in the middle of nothing.  My very expensive riding glasses fogged up. I could not see so I was tucked down under my windshield with my glasses resting on my nose.  Not the thing to do this time as  they did not make the trip.  I lost them on a curve  circled back found them busted in the middle of the road. Was not even worth picking up.  Lense missing broken ear piece ...etc..   We finally pulled into a spot on the map that had not only a hotel it still had a subway open... 8pm soaked  and subway for dinner.... I still was filling lucky as we did make it there alive and with the only incident being my riding glasses... Still all in all a good day.

So our last day we start out to finish our fun ...  I walk down to the only gas station convent store to get coffee for breakfast.  We strap are still soaking wet clothes to Wooly fender and off we go to finish our little 3 day bike about.  We road up through Peels Ferry a place I had been by a million times but never rode so today we  had to ride Peels Ferry...

 When we was almost to the other dock the tug boat came unhooked from the ferry and slammed into the side of us.  Glad I was on my bike when it happened because I think if I was not it might have been knocked over... We  finished our fun riding up through Mark Twain forest.  Up some back roads that started going into long sweeps before we finally had to turn back west and make our mad dash home...

My weekend escape to freedom

All that know me know I work a lot, and that is an understatement.  So the "cough cough" lady in charge of this hell hole I am working at through a fit and said that she was booked this weekend and there would be no working this weekend.  Yea, off on a little bike about for Wooly and me, okay this was not my first thought but we will leave out that part.  First Wooly was thinking the beach's, now most of my friends are beach lovers but when I can be to the mountains, playing on some twisities and curves  on the Submarine well the beach is not even something I would consider. So after  working all day, it was pack the bikes and off we go.  I planned a little back road trip to Boone NC where we could hook up with 221, Wooly insisted that we   had to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway again.  Now I could have argued we had rode this road many times on many bikes  but I really did not care, we was riding our bikes and I was finally happy.

Day 1: We left after 7 pm and I knew we would probably not make it to Boone that night, but any miles away from hell is miles away from hell...We only made 118 miles of the 180 to hook up with the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped in this little town Mookesville, bearly a mark on a map. I had been on the  look-out for deer for a while now as dusk turned to dark.  But now I was nervous, thinking what might happen,  I was now starved, I was a little tried and I was getting just a little bit bitchy from no food AND  I wanted a drink. We stopped in a little place called East Coast Wings and Things.  I had a salad and a glass of wine, Wooly had a patty melt and fries with a beer.  But the amazing part of this little nowhere spot was we got talking to the guy next to us at the bar... Talking wine that is and he asked us if we had ever heard of V. Suttui????  I was amazed that here set a guy from New Jersey in no where North Carolina that knew my favorite winery.  I also had to tell him I had a bottle of Gammy in my saddle bag, we laughed at that.  So if you ever doubt that it really is a small world don't!  There are people every where that will amaze you and surprise you, all you have to  do is just start a conversation.  And any one who knows me knows I will talk to just about anyone.  So even though we did not make to the Smokey's we got a way from our hell and was surprised by a total stranger... All in all a good day in my book.

Day 2 : Starts with coffee and packing back up the bikes and looking at the weather...Knowing we will get showers, not really caring just knowing, we b-lined the rest the way for the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We gassed up before we hit the parkway in Boone grab some healthy snacks, water, Gatorade and 2 glasses of wine sealed in these little cute glass shapes,  I just had to have them.   And off for sweeps and curves and some banks and some rain and some fog  and  finally some fun.   In this 304 miles we rode this day I change riding gear 5 times.  Yep it was that kind of day! I started in jacket, got cold quick once we started up the mountains with big trees and no sunshine so into leathers I went, when we gassed up in Boone.  After stopping at Mount Michell for some lunch it started pouring so I then added the rain gear.  By the way, the ride up to Mount Michell's restaurant and observatory was fun, it had some steeper banks, tighter curves and even though it was posted to go slower I did not, YEA HAW!!! But it was fun ride up there , the place had great food with an excellent view, highly recommend the stop.  And if you are smarter then me and the waitress tells you that is a lot of food, listen to her as I took two thirds of mine with me when I left.

After   waiting for the down pour to turn to just a rain  and riding back down Mount Michell to the Blue Ridge Parkway and riding farther south the sun came out and it heated up so fast that I once again decided to pull over to take some clothes off this time.  I don't remember the scenic view but I do remember 3 lady's who was all trying to get  a picture of all of them together.  I volunteered to take  the picture for them and found out it was one of theirs 70th birthday.  Also that these three lady's came from all over the country to help celebrate it by riding up the Blue Ridge Parkway together...The one lady who's birthday it was lived in North Carolina , one came from Arizona, one from Maryland.  I did not ask but either these lady's  where sisters or sorieity sister  because those our people who truly  love you that  will drop every thing in life and help a person celebrate in this  big way.

 After some more twist and turns and some stops here and there I found myself loving this ride...Okay I always love this kind of ride but Zenning with the ride and  I looked in my mirror to see the Wooly man was falling far back, I slowed down for him to catch back up and he says lets pull over so we stooped at Pisgah Inn and Country store.  There we meet a very young couple who he had just got his first bike... First Harley that is, and  a street glide at that... And he was proud, I don't blame him I am proud of the Submarine and she has chips and scratches and all kinds of beauty scares from rides and some drops and 1 crash.  We would keep running into this couple till we hit Waynesville... That is where they was stopping, we was just gassing up stopping grabbing some things at the liquor store and heading the rest the way south.  At the Waynesville gas stopped we must of had the biker gods looking down on us because  after we paid for gas went to the rest room and got some thing to drink we went back to the bikes still under the gas station awning and it started to pour.  I mean a heavy down pour, again... Well shit back to rain gear we go! After letting the poring rain settle to just rain we take back off for the Parkway even though we was warned by a local that we would be better to hit the main highway as the parkway would be dangerous now.   Well being our normal we started we will finish it self we did not listen.  We got back on the parkway and let we tell you it was Smokey like I have never seen it... We could not see 10 feet in front of us, the smokies was doing her thing alright and we was caught in it.  We finally made it to Cherokee safe and sound and all in one piece with out no damages or incidental happenings.  Let me tell you that town has charged a lot since last time we was there.  The little casino is big, bigger then I would have imagine a casino would be there in the beautiful hills.  I am sure that if you are a gabling smoking person this place would be great  but I am neither so I had  no interest in going there.  Instead we relax with the glasses of wine I got before we started the Parkway. Or as Map man says "WOSB"(wine outa saddle bags)  ... Munched on some left over lunch and relax for a minute.  But about 10 pm we decide it was time for food and took the shuttle to the casino for dinner, not some thing I recommend.  The food was.... not even good nutrition but it did make our growling stomachs quite growling... back to the hotel and out for the count I went.

Day 3 started with sleeping in, some thing I love but seldom get to do, coffee and Kahlua and sunshine.  Wooly was moving slower then me  this morning as I was packed and had already went to move the Submarine into the sunshine to warm her up  (the avaunt temperature was only 20 degrees) when I forgot the fob and she decided to tell me and a few neighbors about it.   Any way I was doing my stretches when this elderly happy looking couple walked by.  I wished the lady a Happy Mothers day, it was Mothers day after all.  She told me she was never a mother  but instead she was a step mother... So I wished her a Happy Gigi Ha ha day, then proceeded to tell her about Dew and that in Japanese they did not have a word for step mother but instead gigi means almost.  She seemed to enjoy that thought almost as much as I do.  I have even had people I barely knew or meet tell me that gigi haha fit me to a t,  that I am a silly kind of gal and I am,  I am also proud  of the fact that life has not taken the silly from me.  The ride home after heading north up the parkway to Waynesville was boring to say the least a four lane super slab with no thrills.  We did stop at Tillys H.D. in Salisbury N.C.  where I found a shirt I liked and I bought it only because it  was made in the USA... I am on a mission to only buy American made stuff, I mean if I have to support an economy  I might as will support mine.

Monday I woke excited to think where will the Submarine would  take me today???  Then I realised that I was back at hell/work and that my freedom and joy of riding two  wheels through back roads and curves and sweeps and what ever mother nature and the world throw at me was over.   I guess we can not enjoy all of our time on earth and that for a poor working slob like me work is as important part of life.   But waking and knowing my fun would be gone away from me again.  That I was no longer aloud the leisure of sleeping late, the thrill of taking on  what ever mother nature throw at me, that  I did not have the pleasure of enjoying and triumphing over all things good bad and indifferent, of meeting new people who I would never cross paths with again...Well I guess  that is why Mondays really suck!

46.9 miles...112 miles and 217 miles

Yea I know   you got to be thinking what the hell does that mean?  46.9 miles??? 112 miles??? 217 miles???  46.9 miles  was when I finally exhaled.  What you say?  Well let me tell you some very rambled jumbled thoughts.  I work a lot, most peoples 40 hour work week is part time to the hours and days I usually put in.  70 to 100 work weeks is normal for me.  And maybe I am getting a little older, a little grumpier  and just a bit tired because I do not get days off no more.  Maybe  it is my work life and no social life is finally getting to me.    Maybe because I have not had a day off  in 8 months... Oh hold on  I have had 8.5 days off.  And got in trouble for one of them. Yep repermatned like a child that  took a shit in the middle of a church.  I am not sure when all this all work and  no play thing came about but I use to have my Sunday afternoons off.  And almost always Wooly and I would go for a motorcycle ride.   We loved explore strange roads of places we had never been and may never see again.  When we did this no matter how much stress, pressure or shit that was thrown at us it would some how wash off us on our motorcycle rides.  We would find our Zen, our peace,  we would exhale before the madness began again and we would find our selves right back in the middle of all the problems  but more able to deal with it.

Sunday even though we should not have taken time off we did!  We was invited to go for a ride with a person who really did not know much about us.  A city inspector on the job we are on now. A man willing to take a complete stranger to explore  back roads with him and his buds.  It would be him his wife and their best friends.  Knowing that Wooly was at a boiling/breaking point and to be honest not really giving a fuck if I was fired or not we went.   We only had meet this gentleman in a work enviorment ... No wait   that is not right  one day we accidentally meet at the local Harley dealers one day when we went to get Wooly a new wallet.  We had no idea that there was a big to do there but Wooly needed a new wallet and not even  having taken any time to celebrated our anniversary we decided that  we could/would take a long lunch for a gift that was needed.  

Any way we was to meet at a gas station and then meet the best friends at a flower shop.  Wooly and I take off,  we was running a little late at this moment and we almost run out of gas so we had to stop which made us  later.   Being us we hauled some ass down the interstate to make  some time and try to  make the hook up.  We exited off interstate and went the wrong way putting us even later but we finally  made the hooked up.  We chatted and bit and off we went for the hook up with the best friends.  And finally off for a ride on some back roads that we will probably never get to ride again.

Now normally no matter how stressed/mad/upset I might be I find myself exhaling around 10 to 15 miles.  Nope I was way over do to for my peace,  my Zen and I remember well when I finally exhaled.  I remember we had just made a right hand turn was riding past a little lake with a water mill that some one had gotten out of  their car to cross the fence to get their picture of the beautiful piece of land.  That was when I finally exhaled, I looked down at the trip meter just so I could see when it was 46.9 miles  and that deep exhale of stress finally leaving me.

  Now I was not  totally lost in just the ride as my mind was still racing around the job site trying to mentally picture what was happening what should have been happening and what was not happening... It was 112 miles before my grin and mind finally  went to Zen and peace.  Yes I looked at the trip meter to see when this moment happened also.  We was just going into a S sweep with a down bank on the first part and an up wards embank on the second.  I remember hollering " GO FAST" to no one in particular but every one in general as I was ready to race through the sweeps and Zen with the Submarine and the road.  Normally it is very quick after exhaling but no, to much of all the bad and no time to Zen in along time had built the bad up inside me.  The stress the lack of sleep the bull shit of what we do and believe me there have been alot of bull shit for a long time.  I do not know when I usually find my Zen but 112 miles wow that just seems like a long time to smile/grin  way to long to find  Zen.

The ride was only 217 miles long but to me it was not about the ride it was about the Zen.  Finding a total stranger to invite you into their life's now a day is rare I think.  Maybe not so much for people who live and work in the same spot, who run into the same circles but for a complete gypsy stranger to be invited along.  The ride was full of miles and smiles and stories of  all kind of things.  Family, friends, motorcycles, kids,  hopes and dreams.  Heart to heart talks of life with what started as strangers that who would have ever guessed we would meet.  We may have came into this group as strangers but by the time the 217 miles was ridden, the dinner eaten and the hugs given on leaving, we left a new great friend who may not ever know how much their kindness did for a stranger/friend.

Not about bikes!

This is not a normal post for me and if you are expecting a tale of motorcycling gone wrong or a funny tale you should leave now.  This has nothing to do with motorcycle nor is it funny...  It might be the only time I write any thing dramatic in my life...

Every year about this time I revalue my life.  Not in terms of money, because that stuff comes and goes and even though it helps pay the bills and buys me tires for my bikes and nice wine, all things I like  it really has nothing to do with me as a person.  I have been poor and I have been middle class and to be honest some of my funnest memories to date was when I was barley scrapping by.  To think that some one would judge me because I wear jeans and a t-shirt says more about them then it does about who I really am as a person...  Nor would  I judge people by their pocket books.

 Also  I revaluemy life  not in terms of physical well being.  I mean I am still in good shape I am still healthy but getting older is just a symptom of out living the stupidity of my youth. Some thing I still love to visit from time to timeyouth that is not the stupidity.   I mean really as a nation or maybe it is a human thing we are obsessed with youth, me not so much, fine lines and gray hair are times marks that I have not only survived but grew  as a human. But it has to do with more about me as a person. Did my soul change?  Did the way I see the world change?  Did I become more closed off to people?  Did my very essence of  the human being that I have always been change?  And if so why?


I think this is the first year I can say yes too this question.  I did change my outlook on life.  My very essence as the person I have always been has changes.  Not dramatically but a little bit of my happy go lucky, care free, alway loving life personality died this past year.
What caused this, two things really.  Two things that looking back still is shaking my soul.  The first was  a eye opening, soul graping expencience.  The first was when my mom almost died on me.  Now I know most of us expect to bury our parents it is what we call "the natural order of things".  But to see her in the room, in that condition,  scared me in a way that I will never heal from.  I am my mothers daughter and I know full well that what happens to her could possibly be some thing I will face also.  I do not want to get into the ugly horrible memories  of every thing that happen nor do I care to explain them.  They will how ever remain one of the many things I keep secret  But to look back and know that the person who loved and still loves me, right, wrong  or in different, from birth to death the person who always has your back, could have, and almost did, and one day will leave me forever.  To face that little ugly bit of Truth, and know that there is not one damn thing I could ever do to stop it left me feeling helpless for the first time in my life.  Not a feeling I like, not a feeling I want to ever experience again.  People tell me all the time that god only gives you what you can handle.  I do not agree... I think he pushes you farther and father just to see who will go over the edge and who will teeter and who will fall.

The second thing was a death, well let me correct that a suicide in the family.  I always thought that kids where resilient.  They always bounce back, hell even thought this of my nephew, the one who killed himself.  I had seen him in tougher times and I seen him go through harder things.  I never thought that his life would end at 19 and by his own taking.  When I was younger, much
younger I made a hubris statement about suicide.   I guess Karma really does have to hit me with a 2x4 to drive home a lesson.After having some one in my life commit this act I was left not only shocked but also numb as to how does one kill themselves?  What makes a person feel this is the answer to life's problems?  And why???  No one living has answers to why and I know I never will.  I first went through what I guess a lot of people think.  Could I have stopped this?  Did I miss a clue to his true intents?   Maybe I felt a little more guilty and ashamed because he had spent the entire day with me and the Wooly man... AND I HAD NO CLUE!!!  I was shocked when we got that phone call late that night.  I was angry with myself as to why I did not see this coming, but most of all I was angry with myself for not saying I loved him that night. That last night that I ever seen him, that last time I had a chance to say I love you. That one last second of our time together. Simple words I know maybe he needed to hear them maybe I was to tired to say them.  MAYBE! MAYBE!MAYBE!  I know that saying I love you probably would not have changed any thing but I will forever be haunted by my lack of saying those words for the rest of my life.

On a side note today when I started writing this I texted my mom just to say I loved her.  And she asked about when she went crazy.  I would have never used those words knowing what all happened and what the neurologist said.  I would have never said any thing.  I would have taken that bit of imformation to my grave.  But some one else told her, not every thing, not the truth as they was never there and did not know the truth.  They just said what they thought... It pissed me off, not some thing I am proud of but a true feeling of mad.  Rage at some one else I love... How dare some one say this. Spill my secert and hurt the women who loved me for my entire life.  What right did they have?  How dare he???How dare anyone???