A Lifetime of Motorcycles

I was 14 years old living in Pampa, Texas when I got my first motorcycle, an Allstate Moped.  My brother, Gary, and I flogged that thing as only youngsters can until it wouldn't go another mile!  Dad was continually working on it to keep it running.

Over the years since then, I've had countless bikes including several Harleys, Hondas, and even a Moto Guzzi.  Today, I have four bikes: a '66 Harley Sportster, an '03 BMW, a Yamaha TW200, and the '74 Moto Guzzi Eldorado.  My favorite ride was a '63 Sportster which I rode when I was at Oklahoma State back in the late '60s.  It was, at the time, the fastest motorcycle in Stillwater!  The picture above is me with it in about 1969.

Louise and I had our first date on this motorcycle and I can still remember that night vividly.  Over the years, she rode behind me a lot of miles on a lot of trips.  Several years ago, we were in Houston, Texas, on a Harley Ultra Classic and it was extremely hot that day.  Also, the traffic was horrible, a standard condition in Houston. When we got back to the travel trailer that evening, Louise told me that she was through riding.  She has never ridden with me again.

I purchased the '66 Sportster about five years ago in an attempt to re-create the old days.  It cannot be done, as most people know, so now I need to sell the Sportster.  I've also decided that, like Louise, I'm about through riding.  I won't completely quit motorcycles but there won't be any more cross-country rides.

It has been a lot of fun but it is time to move on to something else.  Besides, I can use the money from the sale of the motorcycles to buy a new antenna tower!

A New Dog

Our friend, Amy, spotted a small brown dog about a week ago out on the highway.  Well, Amy is a real softie for animals so she spent four days trying to catch that dog and keep him from getting hit by a car.

She finally cornered him last Wednesday; in the process of capturing him, he chewed her hands up pretty good!  The first thing she did with him was to carry him down to Dr. Lasarsky, the local vet, to see what kind of shape the dog was in.  The vet allowed that he was about two years old, with no heartworms, but also had not eaten well recently.  Also, his coat was so bad that they needed to clip it all off to get rid of everything.

Amy left the dog there and they called back in a few hours to tell her that the dog was white, not brown, after they got him cleaned up.  Amy posted a picture of him on Facebook so Louise and I decided to go look at him.  Big mistake!  One look and we told Amy we wanted him.  Since we were leaving town for the weekend, we asked her if she would mind taking care of him til we got home and she said she would be happy to.

We cut our trip short a day and got home yesterday instead of today.  When we got home, we called Amy and she asked if she could keep him one more day - she has already fallen in love with that little dog!

We don't know what breed he is but we do know he will always be a somewhat small dog, probably around 10 pounds.  He appears to be part poodle and looks a lot like J.J., our other dog.  We are excited about having another dog around the house; he will be great company for J.J. and for us.

We are wrestling with a name.  Our first inclination was to call him "Jake" but that name is really too close to J.J.'s name and it might be confusing.  Right now, we are leaning toward "Boo".  I'll let you know.  The picture is of him on the porch with Terry, Amy's husband.

Changing My Address

Because Louise and I travel quite a bit, sometimes for extended periods, we have had problems with getting our mail forwarded.  We either had to get the Post Office to do it (which they don't like to do) or we had to beg someone to go get our mail, put it in an envelope, and send it to us.

Just before our last major outing to South Texas in December, our box rent became due at the Post Office and we decided to use that as a reason to make a change.  Our son, Dan, had owned a UPS Store in Sapulpa several years ago and we knew that they rented out private mailboxes.  We went down to the local UPS Store in Sand Springs, paid them a little money, and had a new address!

Part of our logic was that they would forward our mail to us on demand and, in fact, they did this very well.  While we were in South Texas, all I had to do was send them an email and they would gather up all our mail, put it in an envelope, and forward it to us, all for a very nominal charge.  Another part of our decision was that Louise would be in Prattville (Sand Springs) frequently to see the grand kids so it wouldn't be an inconvenience to pick up the mail when we were in town.  This part of the deal is also working quite well.

What I didn't consider was the work required to notify all the people who exchange mail with us that we have a new address!  I have spent a considerable amount of time in this effort since December and I believe that I'm about through with it.  And its not just the initial change; several of the companies we have dealings with (insurance companies, doctors, etc) haven't been able to get the address right on the first try so we have to do it over.

The other day, I sat down to get caught up on QSL cards and realized that I had about 500 cards with the wrong address on them.  For you non-hams, a QSL card is used to confirm a radio contact between two amateur radio operators.  Recently, there have become many ways to confirm a radio contact electronically but a lot of people still prefer the cards.

At any rate, I used a few of my old cards by printing stickers with our new address information, but this was a pain in the rear!  So, yesterday I decided to have some new cards printed.  The first task was to find a picture for the front of the card.  Because of copyright laws, I decided that I wanted a picture which I had taken so I wouldn't have to worry about someone challenging my right to use it.

When Louise and I were in Louisiana in March, I had taken a picture of an owl which turned out pretty fair so I decided to use it.  In case you are wondering where I'm going with this,  its all an excuse to show you my new QSL card!

The Fence

For those of you who don't know, the US Government has built a fence along many, many miles of the US-Mexican border.  Without getting into politics a bunch, here is what happened.  President Bush started it; President Obama stopped it.

The fence has many openings and gates to allow farmers and others access to the land which lays between the fence and the Rio Grande River.  At most of these openings, the gates were not constructed so just an opening exists.  As you drive along the highway next to the fence, you will notice a Border Patrol vehicle at almost every one of these!

Of course, illegal immigrants ("undocumented" if you are a lefty) are a big topic in the Rio Grande Valley.  From where we were parked in LaFeria, we could see the expressway and there were Border Patrol busses running down that expressway all day every day (taking the illegals back home, I presume).  Now we are going to send the illegals back further into Mexico so that they won't be threatened by the drug cartels along the border!

One last note: it has been reported that of the illegals apprehended in South Texas, about 70% of them are "OTM"s, or "Other Than Mexican".  This includes people from Honduras, Guatemala, and several countries in the Middle East.  The fact is that if you want to enter the US illegally, the easiest way to do it is to go to Mexico, then come across the border.

Motorhome Windshield Wiper Problems

As most of you know by now, Louise and I spent the winter in South Texas (to avoid winter in Oklahoma!).  Things went pretty well with the exception of the windshield wipers on the Holiday Rambler motorhome.

On the way down, the wipers quit working in the "up" position and I had to look around them to see the mirror for the entire trip down.  Fortunately, we didn't have any rain!  After a couple of weeks there, I decided to try to fix them.  I checked the usual things like fuses and connectors with no luck.  I then decided that the motor had quit and I ordered a new one for $220.  This decision was not based on my being able to test the current motor but on the fact that the motor had been replaced once already.  The manufacturing date on the motor was a year later than that of the motorhome!

As you might guess, the motor did not solve the problem.  I called Holiday Rambler to see if I should go through one of their dealers or a Ford dealer, since I was giving up.  The motorhome is based on a Ford F53 chassis.  The gentleman I talked to was very knowledgeable and told me to check the "wiper control module" before I took it anywhere.  That module is located on the firewall behind the brake and accelerator pedals and was very easy to take out.  One whiff and I could tell that the unit was fried!

After a quick trip to O'Reilly's Auto Parts and another outlay of $122, I had a new one.  When I plugged it it, sure enough, the wipers started working again.  The moral to the story?   Don't buy a new wiper motor till you check this part!  It fits all types of Ford products, including trucks, Taurus's, and others.

Louisiana's Lake Martin

Lake Martin is located about 15 miles east of Lafayette and is about 3 miles wide by 10 miles long. This little lake is filled with cypress trees and is teeming with wildlife, including many alligators and wading birds. We first became aware of it in 2004 when we hired a guide, Mr. Norbert LeBlanc, to take us on a tour of the lake. Mr. LeBlanc is quite a character and we had him take us on another tour of the lake in 2006 when Roy and Dianne Lovett were with us. Although we saw Mr. LeBlanc this year, we didn't go on one of his tours. 
Some pictures of the area and the wildlife follow.  First is a 'gator we saw lounging in the bar ditch across the road from the lake.  Next is an owl that Louise saw land in this tree.  I started walking toward it taking pictures and it never did fly!  We also saw numerous turtles sunning themselves on this warm spring morning.  The last shot shows some of the cypress trees in the swamp.  If you get a chance to go that way, this is an opportunity you should not pass up!

Geocaching

I mentioned geocaching in a post yesterday and realized that I hadn't discussed it in detail.

About seven years ago, Dan and Dorinda, our son and daughter-in-law, introduced us to this new hobby and we have done it, off and on, ever since. Basically, it involves using a GPS to locate hidden caches, or stored items. A website, geocaching.com, lists more than 1.5 million caches throughout the World. You can go to their website and find the coordinates of caches near your home or wherever you might be traveling.

Put the coordinates into your GPS and then follow it to the cache! The caches usually have a log for you to sign as well as trinkets to be traded. You can also use special apps on smart phones in lieu of a GPS. It is a great way to get outside and see things you might not have otherwise seen! It's also a good way to spend some great time with your children or grandchildren. Kids really seem to enjoy this hobby!

While Louise and I haven't been really serious about it, we do have about 80 finds in twelve different states. Some people have totals of over 1000 finds.

If you have some spare time, get out and give it a try!