First Ride of the Season

I know...it's bad. What kinda biker has a "season"? One who has a car with a freaking heater thats what kind. After a pretty harsh winter by Midsouth standards, I was invited on a ride with some folks from my area. Ten riders in all, we set out from Covington TN headed for Shiloh.

It was pretty motley krewe. An Officer from the local American Legion Post, a Fireman, a Zen Biker Guru, a few Factory Workers, a Sucker Punch Sally's Sales Dude , a Staffing Specialist, a Civil Servant, a Squid and of course yours truly. The weather was great and the roads were clean and clear(mostly, see below). Of course when sharing the road with cages, things get interesting. We had a soccer mom in a SUV nearly run us over at an intersection. A kid in a mustang cut us off. Finally an over loaded dump truck driver decided to leave a trail of red clay and gravel on the road right in front of us. We all came through unscathed and got a quick reminder, cages don't see you and stuff falls out of trucks!

After about an hour and a half ride, we arived at Shiloh Military Park

After a quick tour of the Park it was time to get some grub. Mac, the organizer of this ride recommended the Catfish Hotel. It was great food with great service! There were two other large groups in addition to ours and a normal lunch crowd, but the staff had it all under controll.

All in all it was a great day. Met some new folks and had a great time. Looking forward to riding with this group again. If any of you who rode with us would like to have additional pictures posted, feel free to email me.

Next RIDE: From Covington, TN to Ft Pillow State Park on April, 17th 2010. There will be a Civil War Re-enactment sponsored by the History Channel. I'm gathering the details. Some are are listed on a separate post following this one. Take a look and let me know if your in!
UPDATE: Ange and I took the kids back to Shiloh for this weekend's re-enactment. Check out the photos:

Whats in a Name, The accidental biker and my life behind the bars

My ride name is Crash. It was an assigned name when I entered the world of motorcycles. Funny thing is its also the nick name I was given in high school and again during my time in the Navy. All three are decent stories, however lets start with the last time I had this brand assigned. It was February of 2007, the wife's Birthday was coming up and she had always had this dream of owning a motorcycle. I decided to see what I could do to make that dream come true. I went out and got her a brand new HD XL 883L. Now I had always had a passing interest in motorcycles, but this was her dream. My plan was that since her birthday was in March, I would get her one, then decide later on one of my own. Well that was the plan. So the bike turns out to be a great gift, she loves it and we are both going to take the safety course. With the course scheduled a month away the bike is sitting in the garage taunting me one lonely afternoon. So in normal male logic I think its no big deal, I've ridden before, so what if it was 15 years ago, it cant be that hard to get the hang of it again. Off I go for a ride around the neighborhood. Long story short...I wrecked it! NOT GOOD. However it was repairable and the wife handled it well, in fact she simply stated, I'll just get me a new one! So I ended up with a pewter pearl 883 with a little history.
Since the initial Crash, the road in the world of motorcycles hasn't been any less rocky. More like a Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times!" The wife and I are now divorced. I still have her birthday gift and I've put nearly 20K miles on it in the last two years. As for the ex wife..... she's married to the Harley Salesman! Crazy world.....Crazy world of the Crash.

Entry One

This is my first attempt at the wild world of blog'n. The pic above should give you a pretty good idea of my general attitude. That is if you can get past the obvious. Once you get past the "finger" there are a lot of good qualities portrayed in this pic of the "Man In Black". First thing I think of is "Rugged Individualism". A great quality in my opinion. A quality that has been possessed by many great Americans. A list of names would be as eclectic as the American populous. Names like ; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Belle Starr, Jessie James, Wyatt Earp, George S Patton, Ted Nugent , Bill Cosby, Richard Prior, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and Martha Stewart just to name a few. While the lives led by these people are drastically different, they all had one common core component of there very being. They believed in the sanctity of personal freedom, they believed that the individual is the smallest majority and will not be denied. These are the kind of people who side with their "gut feeling" and core belief's rather than the prevailing winds of popular thought. None of these people are/were prefect, in fact some were far from it, however they achieved greatness of a measurable quality in spite of their personal failures. It today's world, its easy to confuse the Individualist with the exhibitionist or provocateur. Maryln Manson, Madona, Jessie Jackson, David Duke, Al Sharpton, Shawn Hannity, Rossie O'donnel....you get the idea. Its the substance behind the "finger" that matters.

In the comming weeks I'll be sharing my thoughts on current events and personal experiences. My hope is to be entertaining, articulate or at least good for a laugh.

cyal8r
CRASH