Same ol same ol

Not much new to report I'm afraid........
except of course, the freak'n AWESOME gift my wife gave me for my birthday!!
(I turned fifty four months ago but we were too busy for any kind of celebration at the time so instead, Rosi organized a party two weeks ago.) And my wife, bless her soul, saw something in a magazine almost five years ago that was advertised as the perfect "guy" gift; a half-day flight school experience at Fighter Combat International. http://www.fightercombat.com/air-combat/advanced-air-combat-mission/

It's a half-day experience that includes ground school, an hour in the air and a debriefing after - and the best part? I get to actually fly mock combat missions against other students! I get to fly! How cool is that!

But that's still a few months away. In the interim I'm working full-time on a project for a Toronto education company that will keep me busy through to September. It's not all work though: in less than two weeks I finally get to leave on the road trip I've been planning with Brad since we got back from Phoenix. On Friday, Aug 13th (yikes!) I'm meeting Brad in Wenatchee and from there we're heading out on a 12-day road trip that should take us in a big clock-wise circle through Yellowstone and then Utah, Nevada and Northern California. I'm giving a presentation at the Horizon's meeting in Petrollia California and then we're riding back home via the Oregon and Washington coasts on the Pacific Coast Highway.

I've got all my gear ready and most of the prep is done so not much to report from that perspective. I'll be taking my laptop so I can update the blog and download a few pictures along the way - plus Brad gave me a new helmet cam so I can add a few video clips as well.

That's it for now - more to follow once I hit the road in less than two weeks!
Cheers

Exciting Update

Hola Mi Amigos Y Mi Familia
I can't believe it - it's been > two months since my last update! Part of the reason is we've just been so freak'n busy.

Since getting back at Easter I've accepted a large government contract and another contract with a company in Toronto, both to write curriculum for text books. One is an education program the government is mandating for mortgage brokers wanting to renew their licenses and the other is a rewrite of a training program for loans officers at credit unions nationally. The only down side is this is starting to look an awful lot like work! Instead of leisurely spending my summer riding my motorcycle I'll be working full time right through until the end of September. Oh well, it beats the heck out of the alternative.

On the personal side we debated for the last year or so about selling our home and buying someplace newer and larger. Well, after months of debate and consternation we decided to stay. We love the area and we want to start thinking seriously about buying a place in Mexico so it doesn't make sense to take on a mortgage at this point. But that doesn't mean the status quo. No, we decided if we're going to stay we'd do a lot of reno's and updates we should have thought of earlier. I'm not posting any pictures here because you've all been through it yourself so you know - it's a LOT of work. It's been pretty much all encompassing for the last six weeks and I figure we have another month to go, but it'll look great when it's finally done.

But here's the news I'm most excited about. Credit unions in Canada are actually financial co-operatives, even though a lot have forgotten their roots. As co-operatives, their true mandate is helping their memberships by providing services they couldn't otherwise get from traditional banks. In Canada, the umbrella organization for co-operatives is the Canadian Co-operative Association, whose mandate, aside from being the trade organization for co-operatives, is fighting third-world poverty through the co-operative movement worldwide.

As part of this mandate the Association recruits credit union senior management from Canada to travel to third world countries to assist credit unions there with things like governance, management and micro-finance projects. One of these projects is in Mongolia and I've been accepted into the program. I'll be travelling to Mongolia for three weeks this October, to assist credit unions there get their programs up and running. It all boils down to giving them a hand up, not a hand out and I'm really pleased and excited about the opportunity to be part of the program. I go over this year and again for three weeks next year and in between I'll have speaking engagements and will continue to work with my Mongolian counterparts via webinars and virtual classrooms.

Other than that it's pretty much been same ol same ol - although, I'm afraid there hasn't been much riding. That will have to wait until I ride to California with Brad for the Horizons rally. We're going to ride for ten days and swing south east to Yellowstone and then west to California before heading up the Pacific Coast Highway to finish the trip. And for that, I'm MOST definitely excited.

Cheers!

You talk'n to me?

Yesterday I looked the motorcycle gods right in the eye, struck an insolent pose, and snarled, "you talk'n to me? That's right, me - the go anywhere/anytime motorcycle king!"

Badges? We don't need no stink'n badges! Or, in this case, a wimpy U-Haul truck to avoid a few mountain passes. We got up early yesterday to a hard cold overcast sky but no fresh snow and bare roads. It was minus 7 when we rolled out VERY carefully at 7:30 and the first three hours were some of the most exciting, most beautiful but coldest riding either of us have ever done. We took our time and went slow as we climbed over two high passes with bare windswept roads all the way. Slowing down also really increases your gas mileage which is a VERY good thing when the gas stations at both the way points along the way were closed because of it being Easter Sunday! Anyway, after we dropped down out of the highest mountains it was some great riding through the rest of northern Nevada, a brief foray into Idaho and then much of eastern Oregon.

One final note; in the ongoing battle between gas pumps and windshields the gas pump won round one. I put my side stand down at a VERY remote out of the way, one-pump station, and didn't realize how soft the gravel was. The bike fell to the left and the windshield gave way well before the gas pump. Grrrr....

Oh well, a lesson learned.

We arrived here in Kennewick at ~ 5:30 which means it was a ten-hour/800klm day. We're tired but happy, and wouldn't change anything at all. (OK, maybe I wouldn't mind a little warmer but hey, didn't I hear somewhere.....if it was easy, everyone would do it!)

500 klm and 6 hours of riding to go.......

Just one freak'n time is all I ask

As the old saying goes, if it was easy everyone would do it. Well, just once, just one freak'n time, I'd like it to be easy!

That's not to say it hasn't been fun - it has - great in fact - but easy? No.

Today was 750 hard klm under a cold slate gray sky, with gusty winds and a snow line MUCH lower than expected for early April. We rode through much of northern Nevada, which, by the way, gives a whole new meaning to depressed, despair and desolate. Some of what we saw would make for a great Stephen King novel except it's probably too desolate for even him. Las Vegas may be the play ground for the rich and famous but the rest of Nevada is decidedly for the down and out. There’s something about seeing someone down on their luck but still grimly clinging to the handle of a one-armed bandit in a roadside standalone casino, while the rest of the world is sitting down to breakfast, that makes you wonder if all the handwringers that claim gambling is the devils work may just be right after all. I don’t know the answer but I can tell you that it’s more than a little sad and a real eye opener.

As for the ride - we’re not sure. The sky closed in as we arrived here in Winnemucca and the temperature has dropped. As I type this the snow is falling pretty heavy and it’s only guess whether or not the passes will be open tomorrow. If the road is passable but just not good enough for a motorcycle we’ll probably have to go to plan B which is to rent a U-Haul and carry on.

More to follow….

On the road again........

Greetings from Indian Springs Nv. Today was a great day. A little cold at times but nothing too serious and nothing that we couldn't bundle up to compensate for. We did about 650klm in total and the only thing that held us back from more is how long it took to drive over Hoover Dam. Every family on spring vacation within 1,000 miles must have been there because it was absolutely wall-to-wall people and a loooooong snake of cars slowly making their way across the dam. It took us a good hour and a half to go from one side to the other but after that it was smooth sailing again.
No pictures, though. I'm too tired and the Internet connection is too slow.

Maybe tomorrow

Cheers
Dale

Here we go again!

Just a quick update.

Since coming home things have been VERY hectic. I've been out and back to Winnipeg twice to facilitate courses and I facilitated a webinar series over five days at home. And I'm now in Vancouver teaching another two-day course.

To add to that, Rosi and I have been debating for over a year about our house. On the one hand we've thought about selling and getting someplace a little bigger so I can have a better office and I'd like an actual garage instead of a car port, but on the other hand, I'm getting closer to retirement and taking on another mortgage at this stage just doesn't make sense - especially since there are a lot of aspects we really like about where we're at now. So,long story short, after much debate and consternation, we've decided to stay put. But staying doesn't mean accepting the status quo. No, we're going to put all the money we would have spent on legal fees and real estate commissions into renovating and re-decorating our place to make it more livable and more to our liking. We're pushing back a wall, completely gutting one bathroom and remodelling the other, replacing three windows and replacing every door, closet door and piece of trim and moulding in the place. We're also installing suntubes in the kitchen and hall, a new gas fireplace and replacing the kitchen counters. When we're done it'll feel like a new place and we should be happy for the foreseeable future.

(And DnT - we're buying a new bedroom suite and moving our existing Queen with the memory top mattress into the spare bedroom so the spare room will be MUCH more comfortable!!)

So all this, combined with the confirmed contracts I now have for April, has made things more than a little hectic.

But it's all worth it because - I get to ride again - WooHoo!!

I'm leaving tomorrow night to fly to Phoenix. I'm meeting Brad down there and we'll pull the bikes out of storage first thing Friday morning. If all goes well it should be a fairly easy four days back. I'll post pictures along the way and use my SPOT to send map references to friends and family.

Take care and wish us luck - it's close to 5,600 over the Sweetzer Summit and according to the highway webcams there's still a lot of snow in the surrounding hills. Yikes!

Cheers

All over but the cry'n

Well, here we are, back in AJ with nothing but memories and loads of pictures to remind us of a whirlwind trip through much of north/central Mexico. As usual it was too short and this time seemed even shorter because I had to work through much of it. Oh well, just like so many things, it's better to have a short ride than no ride at all.

In this case we saw saw some great scenery, met some fantastic people and visited even more of Mexico that we hadn't been to before. It was a little disappointing that we didn't make it to Veracruz as planned but sometimes life just gets in the way.

A few statistics for those so inclined
Total mileage - 4,745 klm
Days riding - 10
Ave klm per riding day - 475
Ave hotel cost (not including the time share week) - $57
Number of problems/issues - 0
Level of hassle crossing into and out of Mexico - Nil
Level of hassle crossing back into the US - Nil (I don't count the 90 minute wait in line as we inched along because what the heck, you can get that in Oroville or the peace arch on a busy day)
Number of Military checkpoints - one (down from at least six the year before)
Cost of Mexican toll highways - approx $350 - absolutely worth it!
Cost of fuel - approx $350 (mileage is drastically reduced at speeds over 100kph and is roughly cut in half by the time you hit 140)

So there you have it. Another Mexican adventure draws to a close although, as time goes on they seem less and less like "adventures" and more and more like returning "home"

Cheers