FEELING ALMOST LIKE A HOOMAN AGAIN

My Harley Stud and I decided that instead of doing something productive like working around the house today, we would take a ride on the bike and get some fresh air. Sometimes you’ve got to just ignore all that needs to be done and get away for a few hours or else you just might drop your basket. So off we went on his little two wheeled fun-mobile.

We stopped and bought a couple of subs and some water (Did I mention that Dr. Black Cloud said no more Diet Coke for MHS? EEK. The poor man is having withdrawals.) and rode to this park where we sat in the shade and ate our lunch while we enjoyed the view. There were a bunch of pelicans begging for scraps, fish guts or anything else they could get. Little boys fishing, big boys fishing, lovers on benches and lots of boats in the water were all there for our amusement.

If you look carefully, you can see the lighthouse in the distance. I always feel more at ease when I can see the lighthouse. Like an old man at sea, it guides me home. It is my beacon of hope, a reminder of light and love and all things good. It nourishes my soul.

The weekend is almost over. I plan to relax for all that is left of it. Reruns for dinner combined with a fresh salad, a loaf of bread and some wine. MHS is mowing the yard, which is usually my chore. I’m in the middle of a book that I can’t seem to put down.

God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world. Even if it’s just for tonight.

Hugs,

Smart Mouth Broad

THE MAKING OF A BIKER CHICK - On the Road in Wyoming

My last biker chick post was out of sequence so that I could tell my tales of adventure on the Bear Tooth Pass for the Spin Cycle. We now join the regularly scheduled program already in progress:

We left Deadwood, SD just after breakfast heading for Cody, Wyoming. The following photographs were taken along the way. Please accept my apologies in advance for any blurring as most were taken from the back of a moving motorcycle. You can click on the photograph to enlarge them for detail.

Wyoming is a beautiful state and I should know because we road from one end to the other: East, West, North and South. We enjoyed breath-taking views, spotted all sorts of wildlife and I often found myself wishing that I could live in a place like this some day.

It seemed the terrain would change with each turn. These grassy areas look like velvet in the distance.

My Harley Stud is a manly man. A real tough guy. He actually stopped the bike and made me take this picture because he said it looked like the background in the Disney movie, Cars. And there you have it: Radiator Springs

If you haven't seen Cars, it's only one of the best Disney movies ever.

Looking down. *gulp*

Look at the tree growing right out of the rock.

The sign says that the bridge is for vehicles and pedestrians only. Other activities are prohibited. I wonder what they had in mind?

The Saint lost a tennis bracelet and I lost a diamond earring along this road somewhere. I know, I know...............why were we wearing good jewelry on a motorcyle trip? A girl's gotta look good while she's flying down the highway, you know.

Anyway, if you spot either in the pictures, let me know. We'll go back.

Are you beginning to have wanderlust? I am. *pout*

Velvet mountainsides again.


A butt break for the weary riders. But what's this? They don't look so weary. Look at the Saint's hair. How does she do it? You can't see me because I'm behind the camera but let me tell you my helmet hair is not pretty. Look at her! She looks great! Grrrr.
Oh and the handsome devils there, they look alright too.
Notice the Biker Nazi is being the Biker Nazi.

I've done a little house-keeping here at the SMB site. I've cleaned up my side-bar, updated my blogroll, added and deleted a few tidbits. Check it out. If you are new here and would like to read previous "The Making of a Biker Chick" posts, I've gathered them all together in the side-bar for your convenience. I'm cool like that. *wink*

If I am reading and commenting on your blog and you don't see it listed in my blogroll, please accept my apologies for the oversight. Let me know and I will add you PDQ. (or when I get around to it)

CONVERSATION WITH A BIKER NAZI

I mentioned a few days ago that The Biker Nazi's family, The Saint, Son #1 and Son #2, headed for home without him on Jan. 2^nd. LEAVING.HIM.HERE.WITH.ME! In all honesty, I have enjoyed his stay but to tell him that would just hurt too much. You see if you haven't heard already, my whole relationship with The Biker Nazi is based on seeing who can antagonize the other the most. We've been friends (and I use the term loosely here) for as long as I can remember. He is MHS's best friend. He was best man in our wedding. I love him to death but treat him like he is the bug in the middle of the faceshield on my helmet. Always in my way. Always an annoyance. It's how we've always been. What can I say? It works.

The following conversation was held across the dinner table a few evenings ago:

BN: "Smart Mouth, I think your cooking is going to make me fat."

Me: "Why are being so nice to me? What do you want?"

BN: (said to MHS) "Does she cook like this every night?"

MHS: nods and goes back to eating his meal.

Me: " I know that The Saint cooks for you every night. I don't know why you're making such a big deal."

BN: "All I know is your cooking makes me sleepy. Every time I eat here, I just want to lay myself down and take a nap."

Me: "That's the arsenic."

Today I made a plane reservation for The Biker Nazi to return home to Indiana. I think I'm going to miss the old goat. I mean, how can you not love a face like this:

THE MAKING OF A BIKER CHICK - The Badlands

I kind of left you hanging with Part I of this story. I was in the middle of having a heat stroke, threatening to shoot my husband and trying to put the thought processes together in my sun-fried brain that would enable me to find the nearest airport P.D.Q. Fortunately for all concerned it got much better from there. We rode into the Badlands on a wing and a prayer. I can't speak for the others but the prayer playing in my head was, "Please, God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far away!"

We didn't have a real itinerary or reservations for any over-night stay. Our plan was to ride like the wind and be free like birds. By the seat of our pants, if you will. We rode into a campground near the Badlands which rented cabins sometime late that same afternoon. They had no vacancy. I was trying hard not to panic. I quickly went from the free spirit, biker chick that I was trying to be to the actual mid-life pampered princess that I really am. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Free bird, schmee bird! I mean, planning is a critical part of any vacation, right?

The people at the campground were kind enough to recommend a nearby motel that included a cafe that was famous around them there parts. What is it about the west that makes me think I should talk like I'm in an old western movie? So, anyway, we made a call and two rooms were available. We thanked our new pardners at the OK Corral and rode off into the sunset. OK, the sun wasn't really setting but you get the idea.

We arrived at the Circle 10 Motel having nothing on our minds other than cooling off in any way possible. The Circle 10 at first sight is nothing to get excited about but it was everything we needed and more. It was clean, it was cool, there was a pool and there is a little cafe there that was definitely a diamond in the rough. The motel is run by a very friendly couple. Mr. C10 runs the motel and Mrs. C10 runs the cafe. We arrived there late afternoon. Upon check-in, Mr. C10 told us about the cafe. We barely listened as we were obscessed with cooling off our over-heated body parts.

We hit the pool immediately after unloading our STUFF into the rooms. Once we had a chance to cool off, our brains started working again. Mr. C10 walked through the pool area and we asked about the dinner menu? He said he didn't know if Mrs. C10 had decided yet. What? It was after 4pm and the cafe would be opening soon. It was hard to have any great expectations about the meal awaiting us but we were seriously in the middle of nowhere and didn't possess the energy to go foraging for food.

I'm so glad we stayed. I don't know how she did it. When you think that at 4pm there was no plan and at 6pm we were offered very impressive choices in a simply charming setting. I'm sorry to say that I didn't write it down (I wish I had been blogging then) and can't remember exactly now what the choices were. *sigh* I do however remember that I had a crisp salad and tilapia with rice sauted in a delicious lemon butter sauce. And.there.was.beer!

After dinner, we changed into some light riding gear sans helmets and took a short drive into the Badlands. It is quite breath-taking. I'm sure my pictures will not do it justice but here are a sampling of shots that I took along the way that evening and the next morning. Some are taken from the bike as we are crusing.

That's My Harley Stud's helmet in the lower left corner. He's always sticking his head in the way!

MHS and the Biker Nazi love to take pictures of their bikes. Personally I like people in my photographs. ...Men..?

The Saint standing dangerously close to the edge.

If you are interested in learning more about the Badlands and how they were formed, click here.

The trip got even better after this. Stay tuned for the next episode where we visit Mount Rushmore.

THE MAKING OF A BIKER CHICK

When My Harley Stud told me in February 2007 that he and the Biker Nazi wanted to take The Saint and me on a bike trip out west that summer I laughed. Until that time I had not been further than an hour's ride in any direction away from our home. These men are no dummies and they started working on me months in advance. The Biker Nazi and The Saint had owned their bike for much longer than we had ours and The Saint, while never going on a ride of this duration, had been on many shorter trips with the Biker Nazi and their friends including the Great Hunter and the Texan. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to take it and would ruin the trip for everyone else. I was nervous because I wasn't all that comfortable with the idea of riding a motorcycle everywhere I went for two weeks. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to pack all the necessities that I require on any trip long or short. I wondered if there was an exercise you can do to prepare your butt for such punishment? MHS assured me that we would take the GPS with us, I would be able to locate the nearest airport and he would take me there no questions asked any time I decided to bail.

So with the promise of a GPS and a ride to the airport of my choice as my insurance policy we began to plan for our trip out west. Now I may be dumb but I'm not stupid and there was no way I was riding a motorcycle from Florida to Indiana just to leave again on said motorcycle for an even longer trip westward bound. MHS loaded the bike into the truck and we drove to Indiana. Once there both MHS's bike and the Biker Nazi's bike were loaded onto a trailer because, let me repeat myself, these guys are pretty smart and they knew the shorter the actual ride, the better chance of success and peace in their homes. Because everybody knows that IF MAMA AINT HAPPY, AINT NOBODY HAPPY!

The morning after we arrived in Indiana, we set off early in the Biker Nazi's truck with the bikes in tow for Norfolk, Nebraska. We arrived in Norfolk by early evening where we were graciously hosted by friends of BN and TS, a family from our home town, the stunt man and his lovely wife and children. They have a beautiful home just outside of Norfolk. The guys got busy right away unloading the bikes from the trailer and getting everything ready for us to leave in the morning. The Saint and I had the pleasure of catching up with Mrs. Stuntman while being serenaded by the musical stylings of their 4 year old son on his toy guitar. Life is a Highway was the song of the day and quite appropriate if you ask me. The man knows his audience.

The next morning we set off with our bikes loaded up with supplies like two pack mules. Goodbyes and thank yous were given quickly to Mrs. Stuntman and the boys. The Stuntman had left early for work.

Our first stop after breakfast in town was to stop at the local country radio station where the Stuntman is the Operations Manager and morning DJ. We received a quick tour of the station. Then the Biker Nazi and MHS were interviewed on the air about our trip.

With no more excuses to put it off any longer great excitement, we set off on our journey. It was cool that morning and the ride was pleasant. BN had done this trip before and warned us that we should fill up with gas at every opportunity because we would be taking the back roads and there was no telling where the next filling station would be. I liked this idea initially because it meant more stops until I realized that it also meant the possibility of being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately that didn't happen.

It wasn't long before we made it out of Nebraska and into South Dakota. The morning coolness had disappeared. It was hot. I mean really hot. If you've never been on a bike before, usually the air moving past you will cool you regardless of the temperature. That rule doesn't apply when it's 114 degrees. Yes, that is what I said; one.hundred.and fourteen.degrees! It was like driving through a furnace. We would buy bottles of water at each stop. If we didn't drink the entire bottle before we left, they would be HOT by the next stop.

At one point when we hadn't stopped for awhile, I started having my own little mini-nervous breakdown. I was hot. I was tired of being on the bike. My butt hurt. I was thirsty. And with each turn that didn't find a gas station where I could get off the damn thing and rest, my mood worsened. MHS was leading and we finally came upon a gas station on the outskirts of a small town. It was really more of a pole barn with pumps in front. It didn't look very inviting. MHS continued on driving toward the town. I am telling you right now that if I had a gun at the time, I would have shot him, pushed him off and done a u-turn back to the station! He did eventually go back once he found that it was the only station in town. By that time, I was really mad at him. I may have been a bit irrational in my anger. I was finding it hard to concentrate and hard to breathe. I had a headache and may have been suffering from heat exhaustion although I've never checked the symptoms. All I knew was if that was an example of what I could expect on the trip, I would be exercising my right to find the nearest airport soon.

***Stay tuned for coming attactions: "THE MAKING OF A BIKER CHICK - The Badlands" coming soon to a blog near you.***

BUSINESS MEETINGS – Who’d a thunk it?

I'm a woman of the new millennium. I'm fairly techno-savvy. I can make my fingers fly on my laptop and produce the desired results most of the time. I can program my TiVo dvr with ease. I have a Blackberry which provides me with email, internet and my new fascination, Twitter, from anywhere in the world. The point I'm trying to make is that even though I'm up to speed with mainstream technology, the realization of how far we've come is not lost on me. When I think about where we were, technologically speaking, when I was a kid and where we are now; I am in AWE!

My father worked for and retired from General Motors. I can remember him telling me about a new office machine when I was a teenager. He was working with some visiting GM employees from Japan. He spoke of a machine that could copy an image and send it over telephone lines to be reproduced at the receiving end as an exact duplicate. Yes, we know that now as the fax machine. I was amazed. A few years later, after being told the arrival of D2 would be earlier than planned, we used that very same technology to get a letter from my physician quickly to my parents so they could change their flight plans without additional cost. Of course, I had to go to a friend's house that had a home-based business and fax it to my hometown telephone company. My mother road her bicycle to the telephone company to retrieve the letter. Oh, yes, we are very hi-tech in my family.

I often think that if my grandparents were alive today they would be amazed by all that technology has to offer. Like for instance, try explaining to someone who doesn't live in the today's world that you can go into a public restroom, run your hand under the faucet and water magically flows. Or that I can wave my hand in front of a paper towel holder and the darn thing says to itself, "Gee, Smart Mouth wants a paper towel, here, let me get that for you." Presto….paper towel. WOW!

While I have embraced modern technology, I have had to drag MHS kicking and screaming into this new techno world. A few years ago, a company where he worked bought all new computers and a new software program to run their business. It took months to get all the staff trained on the software and the transition was anything but well-received. There were several snags and the switch took much longer than expected. However the entire staff (except MHS) was thrilled to discover FreeCell. One day while passing his employer's office, MHS made the comment, "Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just buy everyone a deck of cards?" I guess I'm not the only smart mouth in the family. *wink*

Fast forward a few more years. MHS has a home-based business. He uses computers, online services, CNC technology and produces CAD drawings. He also has a cell phone to which he downloaded a weather program that we've all come to depend on for regular updates. (A blog story in itself) MHS's best friend, the Biker Nazi, also has his own business and relies heavily on his cell phone. The Biker Nazi has a real aversion to computers in general but slowly and surely is being dragged into the techno-world too. So it probably shouldn't have struck me as funny as it did…….. but it did. I was recently going over the photos on my laptop and trying to organize my photo albums. I came across several pictures that just made me smile because when I consider the subjects………..Who'd a thunk it!

MHS is a businessman who is outstanding in his field. HAHA. Get it?

But sometimes it takes longer and he has to sit. (This call doesn't look like it's going so well)

The Biker Nazi takes a call from a customer roadside in Wyoming

Thanks to mobile technology, we can even work while on vacation.

The Biker Nazi just can't get a break!