Yes, I read occasionally but when there isn't much new going on I forget to check in.
So rather than be part of the problem I'll just post some stuff (even if it isn't very interesting to most of you) just to get some activity here.
I rode to Oregon in June to a rally after which a friend and I were supposed to continue on up into the Canadian Rockies. He went to go
pee behind a redwood in Northern California and stepped on a log that collapsed under his weight and down he went and it tore his thigh muscle right off the bone.
Actually, it took some of the bone with it still attached to the muscle. End of trip.
He went home to Houston in someones pickup truck, but his bike ended up in Iowa since there was nobody headed back to Texas with room on their trailer. I decided to head for home
since the Canadian hotels would be costly without a room mate to pay half.
Photos here---->https://fartymarty.smugmug.com/2023-COG ... l/n-CgHM8J
Following that was a couple of hot F- ing months where I would open the front door to get the mail and then as the heat hit me I quickly shut it knowing I wasn't going anywhere on that day.
Finally went on a road trip on 6 wheels over Labor Day weekend to go pick up his bike in Iowa. Only a three day round trip through some of the most boring landscape the U.S. has to offer, but it was great just to be back on the
road again.
In late September I went back to several places that I had previously visited (once with FWMR) to a rally in Springerville AZ. On the way back I was going to try and stop to catch a photo on my odometer
showing 123456, but a buddies bike self destructing on I-10 just a few miles from his home in El Paso sort of cleared my mind of it and by the time I remembered, it had past and it was at 123474.
Photos--->https://fartymarty.smugmug.com/COG-Devi ... 3/n-mBCgDN
Video---> https://fartymarty.smugmug.com/Devils-H ... o/n-X9zvGL
In late October I was lucky in that there were two gatherings in Texas on sequential weekends. A COG rally in Alpine and a MSTA rally in Kerrville, and I joined them together for a 11 day trip for me.
I managed to log 2560 miles without leaving Texas.
Photos and a video---> https://fartymarty.smugmug.com/BBRTT-MSTA-HC/n-TWTGsL
On the way home from Kerrville it was 71 degrees overcast and dry in Fredericksburg, but by the time I got to LLano (38 miles) it was 42 and raining. I love heated gear.
At the MSTA rally drawing I won a T-shirt. I gave it back as it had a 20+ years ago historical significance to the club and I had only been a member for 7 years so I thought it should go to a member that was actually a member back
then. There were at least 5 there that wanted it so they went by seniority. There was also a 50/50 drawing for a children's charity' (I forget which one, maybe miracle network?) which I had purchase tickets for. It was $5 a ticket and a free one for every $20 spent. I purchased $20 worth and my free ticket had the number that was drawn. It could have been $345 in my pocket, but I took my $20 investment out of the stack of bills and said give the rest to the kids. They said that was generous of me
but I said not really, since I took my $20 back I hadn't given those poor kids anything from me, I just gave them everybody else's money. The night was not over, they had a final drawing for the grand prize which was a free three night stay at the Rally Hotel, the Y O hotel in Kerrville. Yep I won that too. I kept that one. People started looking askew at the poor girl doing the ticket drawing. I don't know her, but I felt a little sorry for her.
Anyway, that's all I've got. I hope somebody else posts something more interesting this month. Anybody? Anybody?