The warm weather we had for most of last week had us spoiled. we were able to take after work motorcycle rides almost every night!
Friday we called motorcycling buddies Ron and Sandy Mendenhall to see if they wanted to join us for a ride. They said "sure, lets go!".
Sandy and Ron live south of Crawfordsville in a pretty house they built out in the country. When we arrived they were sitting in their driveway waiting on us.
I followed Ron as we pulled out and headed west towards Rockville Indiana. We enjoyed the 45 minute ride in spite of the fact they were having problems with their headsets and couldn't communicate with us over the CB radio.
We stopped for dinner at the 36 Saloon. Rudee and I fit right in with the crowd after parking our Harley and walking in with our leather coats and chaps on :-).
The place is decorated with stuffed animals and our table sat in the shadow of a big Buffalo which reminded us of all the fun we had on vacation in South Dakota.
After dinner we mounted up on the bikes again. Ron made a quick adjustment to their headsets and they were back in business and could talk to us again!
We took a different route home and almost had some venison to serve up for Thanksgiving. We were on SR 59 out in the middle of nowhere and I saw a large shape right next to the road. Ron must have seen it about the same time because as I was pushing the transmit button on the CB to warn him he was already hitting the brakes. We both got the bikes whoa'd down before getting close to the deer but he sure took his time getting out of our way. We were almost next to him when he finally turned and ran into the field next to the road. Looked to be about a 6 pointer but I would rather not get close enough again to actually count the "points" :-).
Saturday was supposed to be the big change in the weather. I had already made arrangements to store our bike at our good friend Grumpy's shop earlier in the week so I figured this morning would be about the best time to take it over since it was supposed to get cold and rainy. I loaded up our empty LP tanks into the Dakota and Rudee followed me to Thorntown. We parked the bike at Grumpy's and visited for a few minutes before saying goodbye to the Harley and heading to Colfax to get the LP tanks filled.
The rain started so we decided to drive to Avon and visit my Mom. When we arrived she had a big bruise on her head and told us she had fallen the night before. Luckily nothing was broken. She doesn't remember what caused her to fall but at least this time was not as bad as a few months ago when she fell and broke her wrist and cut her arm pretty bad.
We spent about an hour at my Mom's apartment before heading out to meet Rudee's sister and niece at O'Charley's for an early supper before heading home for the night.
Sunday we spent the day being lazy. We watched the Colts game on TV and enjoyed seeing them get another win. They have had a lot of injuries this year and we have trouble figuring out who some of the players are. I think about 1/2 of today's starters were working at the drive up at Mc Donalds last week end :-)
Sunday evening we did venture out to Pizza Hut in Lebanon to meet some of our "biker buds". We were having a planning session for this years Winter Rendezvous. The rally is in January and we want to build another float so we need to get started.
There were lots of good ideas and it sounds like we have a "plan". I'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Indian summer!!
We are getting settled in to our winter site here at the KOA. Sunday I was able to get the skirting attached and hooked up the 100lb LP tank we use in the winter. The tank belongs to the KOA and they let us borrow it which saves having to fill our smaller bottles so often.
The last couple of days have been super nice. The temps have risen into the low 70's and we have been out on the bike the last 3 evenings. Tuesday we rode to Lafayette and met Steve and Trish at Hooters. Wednesday was our regular dinner ride and we had 10 bikes in our group as we rode to Frankfort for dinner. This evening we rode to Brownburg to get our mail and met up with Rob and Jany Runion. They invited us to ride with them to Zionsville and try out a new Italian restaurant. They had a Pizza and Rudee and I tried the lasagna. We all enjoyed our meals but thought they were a little over priced.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day and then they are predicting that the temps will fall back to a more "normal" level and it's supposed to start raining for the week end :-(. Looks like maybe we'll get another evening ride in before putting the bike up for what could be a long winters rest. I'll keep you posted.
The last couple of days have been super nice. The temps have risen into the low 70's and we have been out on the bike the last 3 evenings. Tuesday we rode to Lafayette and met Steve and Trish at Hooters. Wednesday was our regular dinner ride and we had 10 bikes in our group as we rode to Frankfort for dinner. This evening we rode to Brownburg to get our mail and met up with Rob and Jany Runion. They invited us to ride with them to Zionsville and try out a new Italian restaurant. They had a Pizza and Rudee and I tried the lasagna. We all enjoyed our meals but thought they were a little over priced.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day and then they are predicting that the temps will fall back to a more "normal" level and it's supposed to start raining for the week end :-(. Looks like maybe we'll get another evening ride in before putting the bike up for what could be a long winters rest. I'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Heading south for the winter!
We have been with out our internet for several days due to our phone line being disconnected. Now before you all start "chipping in" and sending me your hard earned $$ it was not because we didn't pay the bill :-). We had it disconnected so we could move south before winter arrives!
We hope going further south the winter will not be as harsh. Sounds like a good plan right?
We picked Sunday Oct. 31st as our launch date so Rudee had arranged to have the phone line shut down at our site. We got a late start on packing up and when I went to start the Freightliner it just grunted and groaned and would hardly turn over ..... Rats!! I quickly ran extension cords (it took 3 to reach the nearest post!!) and hooked up the battery charger. I knew it would take several hours to charge the batteries enough to get that big old Cat engine to come to life again so I told Rudee we had better wait until Monday to get going.
The weather has been getting very cool to downright cold and our furnace has been getting a work out. So far the temperatures have not dropped to far below that magical freezing mark but it wont be long before 32 will be a huge warm up :-(.
Monday I tried starting the truck again and it roared to life! I quickly got busy and got the outside ready for traveling. I then had to go and get the inside done as well. Rudee was at our daughters house helping her out. She had a surgical procedure done last week and needed a hand with the grand kids.
After getting everything ready and the slides pulled in I started out on the long move south. Putting the truck in reverse I backed the 5th wheel about 200' South from site #4 through site #13 and into site #22, our new home :-).
It took me a little time to position the rig because in the winter I use a 3" PVC pipe in place of the conventional type of sewer hose. The PVC pipe holds up better in the cold and I can position it at a good enough angle so the water drains and avoid any freezing problems. I re-used the same pipe from last year but had to get the rig in as close to the same position or it wouldn't work. I did a lot of climbing in and out just to move 4" forward and then 2" backwards and so forth. I finally got everything lined up and then had to level the rig. I needed boards on one side so by placing the boards beside the wheels I could pull forward, move the boards to where the tires were sitting before I moved and then just back onto them. This kept me in the same spot for the sewer pipe :-).
Once I got nice and level I unhitched and finished hooking up all the other utilities. I switched the white hose out for our heated Pirit hose ( http://www.pirithose.com/ ) and plugged it in. We are now ready for winter :-). Well not totally ready, we still have to attach all the skirting and will probably tackle that job this week end.
We are sure looking forward to the day when we can actually make our move to warmer weather in the winter but have no regrets of selling the house and moving into the 5th wheel, it's great!
We don't have any plans for the upcoming week. Maybe we will have just a lazy week end around our camp site here at the south end of the KOA! I'll keep you posted.
We hope going further south the winter will not be as harsh. Sounds like a good plan right?
We picked Sunday Oct. 31st as our launch date so Rudee had arranged to have the phone line shut down at our site. We got a late start on packing up and when I went to start the Freightliner it just grunted and groaned and would hardly turn over ..... Rats!! I quickly ran extension cords (it took 3 to reach the nearest post!!) and hooked up the battery charger. I knew it would take several hours to charge the batteries enough to get that big old Cat engine to come to life again so I told Rudee we had better wait until Monday to get going.
The weather has been getting very cool to downright cold and our furnace has been getting a work out. So far the temperatures have not dropped to far below that magical freezing mark but it wont be long before 32 will be a huge warm up :-(.
Monday I tried starting the truck again and it roared to life! I quickly got busy and got the outside ready for traveling. I then had to go and get the inside done as well. Rudee was at our daughters house helping her out. She had a surgical procedure done last week and needed a hand with the grand kids.
After getting everything ready and the slides pulled in I started out on the long move south. Putting the truck in reverse I backed the 5th wheel about 200' South from site #4 through site #13 and into site #22, our new home :-).
It took me a little time to position the rig because in the winter I use a 3" PVC pipe in place of the conventional type of sewer hose. The PVC pipe holds up better in the cold and I can position it at a good enough angle so the water drains and avoid any freezing problems. I re-used the same pipe from last year but had to get the rig in as close to the same position or it wouldn't work. I did a lot of climbing in and out just to move 4" forward and then 2" backwards and so forth. I finally got everything lined up and then had to level the rig. I needed boards on one side so by placing the boards beside the wheels I could pull forward, move the boards to where the tires were sitting before I moved and then just back onto them. This kept me in the same spot for the sewer pipe :-).
Once I got nice and level I unhitched and finished hooking up all the other utilities. I switched the white hose out for our heated Pirit hose ( http://www.pirithose.com/ ) and plugged it in. We are now ready for winter :-). Well not totally ready, we still have to attach all the skirting and will probably tackle that job this week end.
We are sure looking forward to the day when we can actually make our move to warmer weather in the winter but have no regrets of selling the house and moving into the 5th wheel, it's great!
We don't have any plans for the upcoming week. Maybe we will have just a lazy week end around our camp site here at the south end of the KOA! I'll keep you posted.
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