Nice afternoon EH

Well I took the afternoon off as it was sooo nice outside.

I have a new, to me, off road bike and it needed to taste some dirt and gravel roads.
Having done enough to get permission from the senior partner in the business, namely She who shall be obeyed, I proceed to go play with my new toy.


So where to go ? Well with something new lets go to familiar place and try to stay safe as I already know the terrain.
As you see above I found the gravel and had some fun at slower than usual speeds which as it turned out was beneficial because of the recent heavy rain we have had. There was lot of BIG puddle jumping to do and not being endowed with flippers and fins I decided not to go swimming.

The first part went well and confidence was building, OK time for a late lunch, pancakes sounded good and they were!
Next the question was where to go on the way home. Well an old railway line with the tracks removed was reasonable place to start.

Looks kind of tame but hey there is a water crossing halfway and its not for the novice, also there are a number of lakes and nice places to enjoy along the way. Just because its relatively straight don't become complaisant you have to keep your eyes peeled for holes filled with the wet stuff or you can finish up on your rear end with a bent bike.

Now at the end of this little part of the afternoon tour I turn left to head more directly to home and on the way I came across a rather large group of wild Turkeys but by the time I had stopped dismounted and got the camera out most had scurried of into the bush.
All was not lost as I turned a little and saw this rather nice Barn.
Right! so back on the bike which by the way has performed wonderfully in fact by now I really felt it was mine at last and not just borrowed from the previous owner.
I was sure now I could handle most of the roads I had been on before so took the next turn on my way home via New Road. I may have mentioned it before as it is far from new and is probably and old road first traveled by pairs of Oxen bringing adventurers to "The New World".

By now the afternoon was getting shorter and I needed a drink and a snack, and as luck would have it I was right by Clayton lake weir. Well to my surprise as I stopped a rather large old Heron was fishing at the sluice but once again by the time I got of the bike, well you know the rest :-))

With my apple and water bottle I settled down to watch the lake and see what activity there might be, in a couple of minutes the peace was disturbed by some guys fishing in boats as they searched another part of the lake to find where the fish were hiding.

So I enjoyed a little more sunshine and putting my helmet and gloves back on made for home.
Time like this is hard to find in a busy life but it can sure stand still when you do find it.

Hope you enjoyed the afternoon as much as I did and all thanks to My Angel for letting me have the afternoon off to go play with my 650KLR, oh yes and someone for organizing the great weather.

See you all next time.

Life goes on, doesn't it?

So I find myself lost and confused temporarily. I found out ,since the last post , that Nick has passed on. No! we have not lost him, just his mortal side.

Each time we lose a dear friend or family member,( sometimes one and the same) we get a little closer to understanding our own state on this place we call earth.

I look to all the knowledge I have of different cultural ways to deal with this loss and come up with a consistent method, "Celebration of life". We all know within ourselves that when our time comes to depart our wish will be that everyone can celebrate our time together.

N0w I will enjoy the memories of all the good times I had with or because of Nick, I say because, as there were things we shared and did together making it possible for me to go onto other things in my life, and will continue to do so.

In saying farewell, I will try to be a better person to all the other people in my life so that when my time comes they will smile on things we did together.

Oh yes and please go fly a kite , as Nick and I did many times together, remembering all the children we helped to fly theirs too.

Return of the Wanderer & Women are Angels

Well I am back!
We are now heading into the late summer and so far I have not had much kite surfing since spring.
However I have had other fun, oh yes and a birthday but more of that later.

I was supposed to visit my good friend Nick and his wonderful other half Carolyn on the west coast, that will have to be delayed a while as Nick has had to deal with a difficult test of his tenacity for life. Luckily from the sound of things all is going according to plan with the support of his personal angel (Carolyn) and the medical staff helping him through this difficult time.

So my motorcycle has been put to good use and instead of the west coast it has carried me to equally delightful places in the mid west of the USA.
Of course none of this would have been possible without my own angel, she who shall be obeyed :-))
While I was gone for more than three weeks my angel ran the home and business enabling my eyes to delight upon the wide variety of landscapes my trusty steed happened to arrive at.

With some encouragement from others in my motorcycle group I departed for three rallies in South Dakota and Wyoming with a side trip to Moab between no2 and no3. I shared each part of the trip with a friends, some from home and some made en voyage.

Having traveled in the general area of the mid & south west before (not on a motorcycle though) I thought I had an idea of what to expect but I am always surprised at how wrong one can be on ideas about travel.
Not having done a long trip (10,667 Kilometers) of this nature for many years the changing view around every corner or over every rise made it quite tricky to pay attention to my driving safely.
I will not try to cover the trip in any detail or we would be here for the duration! but I will say the beginning of the journey in Ontario allowed me to re visit familiar locations and oh yes pick up some books on Photography at a used book store I had not planned on stopping at (thanks David) , they were cumbersome so I had to have them mailed home. But wait this was only my first day out what would the rest of the trip bring.

How about this for starters, early morning in Oacoma

And then it was time for Canyon country to begin!

Spearfish Canyon, a very pretty place to see.

Then there is the variety of the floral side to nature.
No idea what this is but they grow under very dry and difficult conditions, like us sometimes.

Even underground I found amazing stuff, no I did not take the bike down a mine but visited one that turned out to be dry as far as financial content was concerned so it has been a tourist item since the thirties.

I shall leave this one to your imagination.

Time for some liquid refreshment I think, well we did have horse power :-))
A remnant of the old west? maybe!

There are still a lot of cowboys and cattle you may run into them as we almost did.

Altitude, something else to pay attention too, I did suffer a little but it was worth it.
And colours too, vibrant even the soil and rocks, every moment to be savoured.
But you cant stay away forever that would spoil it for the next time, besides had a birthday party to get home for. So I made tracks for the homestead and my angel.
Not only did I have my cake, and ate it too, very nice but I had some great friends to share it with.

So Nick you and I share more than one thing in life, we both have Angels to take care of us !

Well folks I could go on about things since the last posting but I have to go have supper.

On the Waterfront

OK so here we are again, somewhat delayed as usual by too much fun being had!

This time it been a week in Cape Hatteras playing with Kites and boards.
Safe to say there was enough wind every day to get out on the water although on two occasions it was decided to do a downwind run rather than the Walk Of Shame.
Myself and a group of good friends rent a large enough place on the Pamlico sound side of the Outer Banks or OBX at is referred to by those who go there.

This is the place :-))

And this is the upstairs lounge

So now a bit more, well the first thing one does on Holiday is to dip your toes in the ocean, right?

Or even take a dip

But I prefer to use a bit more energy and play a little harder, so here is my friend Jeff cruising on his 19Meter Arc by Peter Lynn Kites and I think on his Underground Board.

Now it just so happened that I had two new Synergy Arcs with me and off course Jeff could not keep his hands off the new 19 when I got it out of the bag so here is a video (from my aptly named ("Go Pro HERO Cam") with him on my D Kay Board and the new Synergy 19M

When I finally got the kite and board back I found out very quickly how much I liked the better performance over the older model I had been using and I am sure the more I get to use it and figure out the tuning the more I will get from this new toy, as long as I don't injure myself having too much FUN in the process!
Speaking of the down wind runs mentioned at the beginning of this scribing, on the Thursday the wind was supposed to only pick up by 4 ish in the afternoon so I took the opportunity to go to Ocracoke with my peaceful and long suffering wife. After a nice drive an AppleUgly (that's a whole other story) and a cup of tea we arrived at the ferry terminal and boarded the next ferry for a 40 minute ride plus another shorter drive on hwy 12 we spent a pleasant couple of hours in the town where Blackbeard once enjoyed a beverage or two before being caught as the Pirate he was and executed.
Returning to the house later that day and after a look on the ocean side it was decide to do a late afternoon run down wind , so with the gear loaded up we drive back upwind about 8 miles to Salvo beach on the sound side and after a bit of hard work due to the beach being sheltered from the wind we got the kites in the air and worked our way out into the sound.
All was well for a while, then the wind increased and I realized my 19M was getting me overpowered and I could have done with a bit more depower on my bar setup. Well it was getting dark due to the late start and so I dug in my heels as it were and worked my way trying to keep up with Jeff who had more down wind experience than I had, Matthew was being careful and keeping an eye on his son Trevor who was very new to kite surfing at this time, they were still back upwind of us and in the end did the sensible thing and went ashore to walk the last bit home.
I off course I thought I could manage OK at that time so continued, well to cut the story short I did manage to elude a wreck and a point of land just before the house in the dark but on ditching my kite at the house the safety line broke and Jeff with some inspiration from Josh on the beach was the hero of the hour and saved the kite from disappearing over the horizon.
So all is well that ends well especially in the hot tub with a beer or two followed by supper and bed to dream of it all over again till the morning।
My thanks to all at the house and especially our visitor Dave S from Arcusers who all made my time in OBX a VERY fun affair. There is way too much more I could mention but this is a blog not a diary or even a biography of the week away so for the unmentioned folks I hope you are not offended :-))
Oh yes and the food was great too !

Now I am home again and back at my workbench trying earn a crust for the next fun trip in July.
Although today I had some fun with another group of friends on two wheels but that will have to wait till next time.
So I hope this will satisfy one or two who have been chiding me about my lack of agility on the keyboard of late.
Till the next time then, your host of fun in the grey zone The Recycled Teenager.

Spring iz here The Bike iz riz, again!

So OK poetic licence but its been a long time coming this year, not to say I haven't been enjoying the winter sports but hey its time to change the season !

And so a couple of pictures to say what a nice day out with some friends.
The new Camera is proving to be enjoyable as I learn some more of its tricks each time I open the shutter.
It never ceases to amaze me whatever the weather what an incredible piece of the planet I live on.
As each day passes I count my pleasures and savour the visual feast for my eyes, having a capturing device allows me to enjoy it many times more. I hope these few images convey that feeling to the viewer. Enough to encourage you to open your own eyes to whats in front of our respective noses that which we miss all too often in the daily hustle of making it through till sleep.
I don't mean to preach at any one, just to convey my joy of life.
So enjoy with me!

New rubber for the new seasonCatch up you two :-))

So who's on first then?

This looks COLD, brrrrr

Well its time for that well earned sleep I spoke of!
Till the next time, happy dreams

The Great White North

Well the video will give you a clue as to my silence lately.
Just something else I manage to fit into my tight schedule of FUN FUN FUN

More soon I hope

And so you know what I look like :-))