October

Man October is half over and not a lot has changed. We completed the NM LOE Rally and all went well. The 60 riders had to endure Sun, Rain, Hail, Snow, and Wind. All the makings of a wonderful day in New Mexico. The weather was some of the most interesting I have seen in many years, some riders were reporting hail the size of golf balls and as deep as 5-6 inches on the roads. I'm pleased to report everyone made it home safe we did have a few riders drop out but no accidents and everyone seemed to have a great time in spite of the weather. We ended with 46 riders reaching finisher status and Jim Owen won the 2010 LOE. He did an excellent job figuring out the route. This rally is made so that a new person to Rallying can finish but usually it take a lot to finish in the top ten. Here are I snapped several pictures at the start and at the banquet afterwards.

October is also balloon fiesta time in Albuquerque and every year my son and I head out to the balloon park on the bike and watch them launch. Once they are up, we will chase them for a while. It's fun to watch them take off and land, they sometimes switch passengers and take off again if the winds cooperate. My son and I arrived at the field around 07:00 just as the first way of balloons were taking off. We walked around the field and watched several crews inflating balloons getting ready to take off. Here are a few pictures from the field.


Since the rally is done, I have been back putting a few miles on the Wing. I went for a ride with a friend in from Portland last weekend. I met him for breakfast a couple of weeks ago and we talked about getting together on a Friday for a ride. I called up a few friends and we all met for coffee and took off on a loop that stopped at my favorite lunch spot Los Ojo's. We laughed talked about what we had been doing. It had been so long since I had been out with them it was nice to catch up. The ride was pretty interesting, I'm still trying to get use to the Goldwing and how low it sits to the ground compared to the FJR1300. When I was on the FJR I really had to lean the bike to scrape in the corners but with the wing I seem to always be rubbing off some metal. You know its bad when the guy behind you is saying he has to back off because the sparks are hitting his windscreen and causing pitting. I'm sure it's not that bad but if the forest was in extreme fire danger, I might get stopped by the rangers. I really tried to keep the speed down I didn't want to run that hard but I still scrapped in several corners. We stopped in White Rock about 90 miles into the ride for gas and give everyone a rest. One of the riders is just getting back on the bike after a long illness so we didn't want to push too hard. After White Rock we stopped at the caldera, on the way I did have a close encounters with a couple of deer. I came into the corner as they just jumped out of the road. I can tell I'm still a little nervous since the Javelina incident. We also had several close calls with cars and one truck that seemed to like our lane more. This was the worse traffic I had seen on this stretch of road. You can usually wind it out and might see a car or two for the whole ride. Even with the close encounters, the ride to the caldera went will and I snapped a few pictures before we headed on the Los Ojo's for lunch.
Lunch was good as always and we took our time heading for home. It worked out to be a great ride and everyone seemed to have fun. We only saw a couple of law enforcement vehicles and they seem more interested in the people cutting wood in the forest.

When I returned home, my wife wasn't to happy (I didn't bring her home a burger from Los Ojo's). I figured the only way to get out of the dog house was to take her the next day. So off I went the next day back to Los Ojo's. What a bummer but you have to make the wife happy. Ended up to be a great ride, we ran into some friends out riding and had lunch with them. It made for a nice day. I ended up getting in 340 miles this weekend. Next week I'm going to wire in the GPS and replace the drive oil before heading out camping. We are taking off for Villanuevue State Park for a 4 day weekend, should be fun to get away and just relax.

Well a none riding week outside of back and forth to work. This weekend we grabbed the fifth wheel and headed camping with a few friends. It was great to kick back and do a little fly fishing with my son. A big win for him is that he completed his requirements for First Class in the Boy scouts and will have his Court of Honors in December. He is still focused on getting his Eagle rank and now the next step on his journey Star.

Well I'm still hoping to get the final drive oil changed and the wiring done for the GPS this week. I have been working this week on setting up a group ride to Chandler, Arizona. It looks like 5 bikes 6 riders, we are planning to have lunch at the Heart Attack Grill then turning and burning home. My wife is planning to attend so it will be her first SS1000, it should be interesting.

Well I was able to get the drive oil changed and the wiring done for the GPS, so now I'm ready for the SS1000 next Saturday. We lost one of the riders so we are down to four bikes. The weather seems to be holding up so we should be fairly decent. I think the low is only going to be in the low 40's, so that shouldn't be too bad. I have my wife packing for cold weather so I would rather she be to hot than to cold. I never been to the Heart Attack Grill so it should be fun.

Well until next week ride safe.