by Barb
Where to begin....
My new Victory Vegas 8 Ball, aka Pearl, is a little tall. Even wearing my Doc Martin's with 3 inch heels, both feet can only be flat to the ground if my right leg is against the exhaust. I typically put just my left foot on the ground and keep the right one on the peg. So, just a week before the trip I decided to see if I could lower my bike some. I wanted to ensure good footing knowing that I'll fatigue some over the course of riding 6 to 8 hours a day for fourteen days. I went searching online and found lowering links that would bring me 1 1/2 inches closer to the ground. I ordered the lowering links with 2nd day air delivery! I was so excited!! I took the bike to dealer for the links to be installed on Thursday. The next day I rode to Thunder in the Mountains with my friend John and found that the bag bracket was hitting the belt guard. John gave her a test ride and said that he was hearing another noise. Upon inspection, he also noted a line on the tire. So, I took Pearl back to the dealer the next day to have them take a look underneath to be certain that nothing else was hitting. I expressed concern that the bike would be damaged and of course the warranty wouldn't cover the damage, plus I was leaving on Monday morning for my big trip. They took a look and gave me the go. No need to swap back to the original link........let me just put it this way and you can watch the video.. a big shout out to Menneto Powersports in Clifton Park NY
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Pennsylvania Grand Canyon
by Mandi
Pennsylvania is so beautiful. So beautiful in fact that a gaggle of bikers we met were all from Canada and frequent the region frequently if I may be redundant. The Grand Canyon is a slice of beauty no doubt if you are ever traveling Route 6 through the northern portion of Pa. east of Wellsboro it is a worth while stop. Perhaps they shouldn't call it the Grand Canyon though. It's kind of like calling the Allegheny River the Nile of Pennsylvania...but the view is gorgeous in its Appalachian Mountain tradition.
Pennsylvania is so beautiful. So beautiful in fact that a gaggle of bikers we met were all from Canada and frequent the region frequently if I may be redundant. The Grand Canyon is a slice of beauty no doubt if you are ever traveling Route 6 through the northern portion of Pa. east of Wellsboro it is a worth while stop. Perhaps they shouldn't call it the Grand Canyon though. It's kind of like calling the Allegheny River the Nile of Pennsylvania...but the view is gorgeous in its Appalachian Mountain tradition.
Delicacy for a home girl.
By Mandi
This entry is dedicated to Diane!
Invented by the Pennsylvania Dutch, scrapple is the trimmings of pork mixed with corn meal and flour and formed into shapes. Not the Spam Lamb like shape reminiscent of the one in that M.A.S.H. episode (ya know the one where they don't have an Easter lamb?) but more like bricks. Delicious bricks of pure Pennsylvania spicy meat heaven.
This entry is dedicated to Diane!
Invented by the Pennsylvania Dutch, scrapple is the trimmings of pork mixed with corn meal and flour and formed into shapes. Not the Spam Lamb like shape reminiscent of the one in that M.A.S.H. episode (ya know the one where they don't have an Easter lamb?) but more like bricks. Delicious bricks of pure Pennsylvania spicy meat heaven.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Well-arranged!
by Mandi
Barb and I are having a long day. We decided to alter our route for reasons of punchiness and timing. So we dragged into the Atlas Motor Lodge 2 miles from Poughkeepsie NY on 9-w at about 8:30 PM. This place should be on momandpopmotels.com site just a cool vibe here, very clean and reasonably priced at 63.00ish a night. Ok, we pulled in really late because we have been absorbing Rt. 6 and forgetting really how far our target goal is (Maine). So more to come on all trip adjustments in the AM with some multimedia of our quick adventure to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. GCP represent! We need to crash and I have had a chaotic trip plagued with a bit of absent mindedness. But luck has seemed close behind thankfully due to the help of nice people who understood it all. So I will say good night with the fortune cookie note I received. Simply stated.
"Well-arranged time is the surest sign of a well-arranged mind."
That one is going in the tank bag.
But please tell me this, what is well arranged time? And is a well arranged mind overrated?
Barb and I are having a long day. We decided to alter our route for reasons of punchiness and timing. So we dragged into the Atlas Motor Lodge 2 miles from Poughkeepsie NY on 9-w at about 8:30 PM. This place should be on momandpopmotels.com site just a cool vibe here, very clean and reasonably priced at 63.00ish a night. Ok, we pulled in really late because we have been absorbing Rt. 6 and forgetting really how far our target goal is (Maine). So more to come on all trip adjustments in the AM with some multimedia of our quick adventure to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. GCP represent! We need to crash and I have had a chaotic trip plagued with a bit of absent mindedness. But luck has seemed close behind thankfully due to the help of nice people who understood it all. So I will say good night with the fortune cookie note I received. Simply stated.
"Well-arranged time is the surest sign of a well-arranged mind."
That one is going in the tank bag.
But please tell me this, what is well arranged time? And is a well arranged mind overrated?
Monday, June 28, 2010
PA Route 6
By Mandi
Hey we are staying at a place where the sign reads "Potato City Country Inn" For hungry, thirsty, sleepy people. We figured it was reaching out to us so we stopped for the night. Oh and we saw a big ass bear.
Hey we are staying at a place where the sign reads "Potato City Country Inn" For hungry, thirsty, sleepy people. We figured it was reaching out to us so we stopped for the night. Oh and we saw a big ass bear.
Standing at the fuel pump, Mandi realized that her ATM card wasn't where it should be. She quickly came to the conclusion that she left it in the ATM machine when we stopped at the grocery store the day before. We rode hopefully to that store, chatting on the Fedex delivered SCALA rider intercom headset. Thankfully, the same good luck followed the seemingly endless comedy of errors that's plagued the first few days of her vacation....IT WAS THERE!
With the little hand on the one, we left the city a little later than expected, but joking and laughing wildly we sped away like mad women hoping to leave the bad luck behind us. And so we did..
And here we are, after a beautiful day of riding, more dry than wet, at the Potato place, watching the locals shoot pool.
Tomorrow we ride to Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon. Watch out Deb and Jason, I feel a book report coming on!!
With the little hand on the one, we left the city a little later than expected, but joking and laughing wildly we sped away like mad women hoping to leave the bad luck behind us. And so we did..
And here we are, after a beautiful day of riding, more dry than wet, at the Potato place, watching the locals shoot pool.
Tomorrow we ride to Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon. Watch out Deb and Jason, I feel a book report coming on!!
Why I love my hometown!
Here is my friend Doug's adventures with a knife I gave him years ago. This guy is a great writer and garden aficionado. So glad you found your knife buddy.
http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/10177/1068416-47.stm
http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/10177/1068416-47.stm
By Mandi
IN A HURRY!
While I was in in a hurry and making a hasty departure from Detroit on Thursday June 24, 2010 I forgot a very important piece of equipment that I had placed on my back-up helmet at home. That piece allows Barb and I to communicate via helmet to helmet. Thank goodness it was a Friday. Had a good friend of mine Rebecca, find the piece I needed she removed it from my other helmet with the help of an iPhone video we made and she FedExd the device to Pittsburgh in time for our launch. HOLLA OUT TO FEDEX!!!! HOLLA TO REBECCA!!!
IN A HURRY!
While I was in in a hurry and making a hasty departure from Detroit on Thursday June 24, 2010 I forgot a very important piece of equipment that I had placed on my back-up helmet at home. That piece allows Barb and I to communicate via helmet to helmet. Thank goodness it was a Friday. Had a good friend of mine Rebecca, find the piece I needed she removed it from my other helmet with the help of an iPhone video we made and she FedExd the device to Pittsburgh in time for our launch. HOLLA OUT TO FEDEX!!!! HOLLA TO REBECCA!!!
Bagels and Bongos
By Mandi
Bagels and Bongos!
Just drove in from Detroit.
Greetings from Pittsburgh, the location of the official launch of Black & Bleu (now Pearl) 2010 trip to and through New England. We are hoping to score on some fresh Maine lobster before BP oil finds it’s way up coast. But before I go on about our future I want to take you back a bit to our last year finale. Barb and I literally had to Kamikaze our way back it was a tight trip and seemingly a blur as I write this. However I do recall a pinnacle moment. I think it is one of those melt downs you experience on every long trip that requires a bit of grit. Barb and I had stopped on one of our delirious hammering afternoons in some state I don’t quite remember it wasn’t Kansas I can tell you that for sure but it wasn’t Texas either. Any way we stopped at a non descript gas station for yet another can of Amp energy elixir which by that time made up 90% of our bloodstream and hurts my teeth just thinking about it. We were both checking out cell messages and txts when Barb got this look on her face I will never forget of pure pained emotional surrender. Barb had stumbled upon a voice mail she had saved from her mom who passed away earlier in the year, Barb is actually her mother’s namesake. Barbara Nicholas the II. And they look so much alike. We both just hugged and cried. We cried from exhaustion, emotional fatigue and the bit of relief we needed from our most awesome trip. That was difficult to leave behind us, the beauty of Colorado in exchange for reality. So on that note I won’t give Barb too much shiite for buying a new motorcycle. I swear she goes through motorcycles like some women go through purses (I will let her tell you about it). And since I am not privy to any dynastic wealth that I know of, I am elated to have my Sportster running like the fine oiled machine it is (touch wood). I am at my mom and John’s who are now away for the weekend and I did the little treasure hunt around the house in their absence ( I know she is regretting leaving me here unattended and this entry is a true test to her keeping up with this blog). I was looking through junk in the attic found the bowling ball with my name engraved found Tana’s old diary (my sister) hey she had an entry written in pencil that I (Mandi) was finally good when the babysitter came, like, shaa as if I was ever not good when the babysitter came (can you hear the resentment in my tone?). Though we did go through a lot of babysitters, I can assure you I wasn’t the reason. Sorry, I digress. I also found my album collection vinyl that is…very cool. Beatles, Sex Pistols, Joan Armatrading, Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles and of course Bagles and Bongos. What the what? Bagels and Bongos? Not mine. Or some thrift shop dynamo perhaps! The best score however was a little block of wood. Something I must have devised as a last minute mother’s day gift circa 1979-80?. It has a spark plug (Champion n-3 for you bike nuts) from my old Yamaha TY-250 trials bike screwed into a block of wood kind of trophy like and a note scribbled in ballpoint pen with my shouty hand writing. “Voted No 1 Motorcycle Mama of the year” You should know she helped me to buy that bike when I was 12ish, a huge sacrifice back in the day. I know dad was disapproving (they were divorced) but he must have had some cheddar in there too. I felt that was a significant archaeological find and appropriate for this coming trip. I left it at my mothers place sitting at the kitchen table where she and John will find it after her get-a-way weekend. A spark of good juju.
Thanks Mom and John thanks Dad and Becky, thanks Annie and Lynn for the great hospitality and food for my send off. Love you all!!
Bagels and Bongos!
Just drove in from Detroit.
Greetings from Pittsburgh, the location of the official launch of Black & Bleu (now Pearl) 2010 trip to and through New England. We are hoping to score on some fresh Maine lobster before BP oil finds it’s way up coast. But before I go on about our future I want to take you back a bit to our last year finale. Barb and I literally had to Kamikaze our way back it was a tight trip and seemingly a blur as I write this. However I do recall a pinnacle moment. I think it is one of those melt downs you experience on every long trip that requires a bit of grit. Barb and I had stopped on one of our delirious hammering afternoons in some state I don’t quite remember it wasn’t Kansas I can tell you that for sure but it wasn’t Texas either. Any way we stopped at a non descript gas station for yet another can of Amp energy elixir which by that time made up 90% of our bloodstream and hurts my teeth just thinking about it. We were both checking out cell messages and txts when Barb got this look on her face I will never forget of pure pained emotional surrender. Barb had stumbled upon a voice mail she had saved from her mom who passed away earlier in the year, Barb is actually her mother’s namesake. Barbara Nicholas the II. And they look so much alike. We both just hugged and cried. We cried from exhaustion, emotional fatigue and the bit of relief we needed from our most awesome trip. That was difficult to leave behind us, the beauty of Colorado in exchange for reality. So on that note I won’t give Barb too much shiite for buying a new motorcycle. I swear she goes through motorcycles like some women go through purses (I will let her tell you about it). And since I am not privy to any dynastic wealth that I know of, I am elated to have my Sportster running like the fine oiled machine it is (touch wood). I am at my mom and John’s who are now away for the weekend and I did the little treasure hunt around the house in their absence ( I know she is regretting leaving me here unattended and this entry is a true test to her keeping up with this blog). I was looking through junk in the attic found the bowling ball with my name engraved found Tana’s old diary (my sister) hey she had an entry written in pencil that I (Mandi) was finally good when the babysitter came, like, shaa as if I was ever not good when the babysitter came (can you hear the resentment in my tone?). Though we did go through a lot of babysitters, I can assure you I wasn’t the reason. Sorry, I digress. I also found my album collection vinyl that is…very cool. Beatles, Sex Pistols, Joan Armatrading, Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles and of course Bagles and Bongos. What the what? Bagels and Bongos? Not mine. Or some thrift shop dynamo perhaps! The best score however was a little block of wood. Something I must have devised as a last minute mother’s day gift circa 1979-80?. It has a spark plug (Champion n-3 for you bike nuts) from my old Yamaha TY-250 trials bike screwed into a block of wood kind of trophy like and a note scribbled in ballpoint pen with my shouty hand writing. “Voted No 1 Motorcycle Mama of the year” You should know she helped me to buy that bike when I was 12ish, a huge sacrifice back in the day. I know dad was disapproving (they were divorced) but he must have had some cheddar in there too. I felt that was a significant archaeological find and appropriate for this coming trip. I left it at my mothers place sitting at the kitchen table where she and John will find it after her get-a-way weekend. A spark of good juju.
Thanks Mom and John thanks Dad and Becky, thanks Annie and Lynn for the great hospitality and food for my send off. Love you all!!
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