I got a Go-Pro camera for my birthday this year and really hadn't used it yet. I do plan on using for some upcoming "You Are There" type videos on the Sky island Riders "Riding SoAZ" series.

I took it along with me on a one of the rides we did one the rally and included that footage in a rally montage I edited using the video and pics taken during our rally. The video has been posted on the various club sites, but I am posting here because some of the people who read this blog, do not read the others.

If you've seen it already, I apologize, if not, I hope you enjoy the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBjkN9ggmNE

Ride on,

Howard

Of Fractures and Fun

"Fractures and Fun." There's a couple of words that you don't hear together all that often. but they describe my life of the past 6 weeks.

First, the fracture part: On March 16, I was on the scooter, riding around behind Scoot Over, and. . . crashed. I don't know how or why. I presume that I hit a patch of grease of oil, but I just don't know. So, going 10-15mph, the scoot (Iron Buddy) went down on it's left side. I went over the front, broke my fall with my right hand/arm, rolled to my elbow, then over to my butt and up on my feet, grabbed the scooter and returned it to it's full upright position. All this happened in 5 seconds or less.

I immediately felt as if my right wrist was sprained. I helped unload a scooter from the back of the Scoot Over truck, then took the cowl off the Buddy's engine, replaced the spark plug cap and put the cowl back on. My wrist was really beginning to stiffen up. I decided that I had better head home before I couldn't ride.

By the time I got home, I was unable to take my gear off and had to have my wife help me. Naturally, I had to tell her what had happened. Being the good, caring wife that she is, she told me to go the Urgent Care as she was certain I had fractured my wrist. Being a nurse, I was rapidly coming to the same conclusion.

Long story short: I had fractured my right radius bone in two places. the first was at the wrist and the second was in the elbow. Additionally, judging by how much it hurt to move or breathe, I believe I fractured a rib on the right side as well. This put me in a sling and wrist immobilizer and out of work, for the better part of five weeks. The picture above is me, an hour or two after returning from Urgent Care. They splinted the arm, but the next day, the ortho doctor removed it.

The worst part of this was that i was supposed to ride in the Salton Sea Endurance Rally the following week. I had to cancel. Initially, I could only type with my left hand and so, didn't feel like posting anything about my little mishap.

So, where was the fun part? I don't know that I mentioned it, but we have been planning our second scooter rally, called "For A Few CC's more." The rally was this past weekend. My injury kept me off of work, but not out of rally planning. Thanks to my fracture, I was able to get out, find sponsors and plan rides in a lot more detail than last year.

I had debated on writing a separate entry just for the planning aspect of the rally, but I'll pass, since the rally is over. Suffice it to say, that we (4 of my loyal club mates and I) spent about 4 months planning the rally. The last month was hectic and required a lot of time, but we got it done. So, what did the rally involve?

We kicked it off with a ride. 9 scooters and a beautiful Triumph motorcycle participated. It was a bit windy, but it was sunshiny and about 90 degrees.

This ride crossed through some beautiful desert areas. We rode through Picture Rocks, then around behind the Tucson Mountains and returned to the Tucson area via Gates Pass.

This is the group stopped at a gas station for a couple minutes of rest and fuel for those who needed it. The ride was 52 miles and 2 hours long.

We finished the kick-off ride at Scoot Over, where we were holding our Meet & greet. Rally bags and t-shirts were passed out.

This is our shirt. Isn't it amazing. One of our local scooterists is a graphic artist. Everyone really liked the way the shirt came out.

Saturday started with an early ride, breakfast, then the most planned ride I've ever been associated with and I didn't even ride in it: the Tucson Oddities Ride. We selected a number of unusual locations around town, provided a pamphlet to tell everyone about the locations and took a long, urban ride. One of the spots was Valley of the Moon. I think I'm going to try and do a separate post with pics from all the locations.

Another part of the ride was Roller Coaster Road. I posted a video of it in an earlier post.

Our main venue for Saturday was Grace Community Church. One of our riders is a member there and they welcomed us warmly and gave us the run of the place. It's not a great pic, but they made a nice welcome sign for us, using our t-shirt design. We used their parking lot for our scooter "rodeo" and the inside for our spaghetti western dinner.

Our teeter-totter from last year was modified a bit, for safety. Most of the participants rode the rodeo course. Six even did the teeter-totter.

We also had slow drags. Above, Brandon and Damn Dirt Dave are pretty close. Dave won the slow drags and the rodeo.

Sunday was our ride up the Sky Island Scenic By-Way, aka Mt Lemmon. It is a beautiful ride. It is 26 miles and about 7000 feet to the top. The road twists, turns and climbs its way out of the desert and eventually into pine forest. At the top in the little community of Summer Haven. 18 bikes participated in this ride. I always have us ride up as a group. The ride down is done as individuals. I do this so that everyone can ride in their own comfort zone and skill level. I don't know if other groups ride mountains this way, but it makes sense to me. We meet up again at a coffee shop at the bottom.

The other neat part of this rally is that we gave the money from the raffle to a local charity. This year it was donated to Ben's Bells. I was able to give them a check for $543.00. I had deliberately looked for a local organization that was small enough, that our gift would matter. I think it will.

Viva Vegas

For four days, from 2/25 - 2/28, I went to Las Vegas for the High Rollers Scooter Rally. It's the biggest rally I've ever attended. Picking a handful of photos for the blog from all the ones I took is the hard part.

It's more than 400 miles from Tucson to Vegas, so we decided to trailer some scooters up there. I got together with some friends from the GGR Scooter Club and we shared the trailer and a hotel room for the rally. The drive up was enjoyable as I got to spend some time getting to know some folks that I had never really talked to before.

In the trailer is Bald John, president of GGR. On the ramp is Smiley and that is his Rattler 110 being unloaded. John K. who rides with the Sky Island Riders and is a member of GGR was also along. At the base of the ramp is Grumpy. He's from GGR in California and mets us in Vegas.

In this pic is the reflection of the scooter parking area as seen from our hotel room at the Golden Gate Hotel located at the end of the "Fremont Street Experience."

This is the same parking lot from a different view point. This is taken Friday afternoon. There were a lot more scooters there on Saturday, but I was busy enjoying the festivities and didn't get back up into the parking garage.

There were a lot of scooters, but this was my favorite. It's a Heinkel Tourist and it's in beautiful shape. This is the scooter featured in the book "I See by my Outfit" by Peter S. Beagle.

Another view of the Heinkel.

There were scooters with weapons and gas masks. They are probably preparing for the zombie apocalypse, which a common concern amongst scooter folk, but I'm not sure why.

Some beautiful Lambrettas brought down from Washington state. They were telling us in the hotel that their truck broke down en route, so they sold it to the tow truck driver, rental a u-haul and drove the rest of the way. Now THAT'S dedication to a rally.

Friday night two of the attendee's got married! I can't remember their names, but they seemed like a nice couple. It was a great time.

Here's a pic of their scooter "limo."

Saturday morning was cold and blustery. John and I decided to find something indoors to do. We found the Pinball Hall of Fame! It really took me back to my childhood. If there was an arcade nearby, I would be there.

Another row of machines. All of them are functioning and are playable.

Saturday afternoon at the Golden Gate parking lot.

Sunday morning was a group ride out to Red Rock Canyon. I was riding in the middle of the pack. This, obviously, is a pic looking forward......

This is looking back. I think there were 30-40 scooters along on this ride. It was a blast.

At a fuel stop, there was a group of crotch rocket riders. They really enjoyed coming over and looking at all the scoots. We had one sidecar rig with us, with the obligatory dog. The bikers loved that.

red Rock Canyon is beautiful. It reminded me of Sedona, AZ or the mountains about Albuquerque, NM. Pictured is John K. accompanied by our two scooters: my black Stella and his red Stella Fireball.

For the most part, we road through the park in groups of 2 and 3. Quite a few of us did stop at this plateau for some pics.

Stella and I stopped for a couple of pics.

At one point, John and I saw these Bighorn Sheep. What a treat.

At the end of the ride through the park, we stopped to get the group back together. Naturally, there a little bit of screwing around while we waited.

Once the group was back together, we went screaming through town for the gymkhana and concourse. There were more scooters there, including this beautiful Honda Gyro.

Some of the scooters gathered at Fred's Bar.

A pic of a scooter going over the jump on the gymkhana.

I'm not really a fan of Las Vegas, but I love scooters and scooter people. That made the trip worthwhile. I'm not sure if I'll being going back again next year or not, but I did have a good time this year.

Below is a youtube video done by Scooter Space. It gives you a good idea of the flavor of the rally. You can see my Stella at 0:33 in the video.

U-Haul to U-Ston (Houston)

My oldest son moved to Houston a couple of months ago, but only took a car full of stuff. So, he flew back to Tucson, we rented a u-haul truck, loaded up his household good and drove it to Houston, actually, Kingwood, TX on the north side of Houston. It's about 1100 miles door to door.

If you've read my blog entry about the Iron Butt Ride, you know that I hate driving through El Paso. You can't by-pass it to the south, because of Mexico being in the way. I knew I could go through Las Cruces and go around that way, but that is probably an extra 100 miles. After a bit of research, I found Transmountain Road, aka Route 375. According to Google, it is 5 miles and 10 minutes further. Friends, I will NEVER, drive I-10 through El Paso again!

This is a view looking east from a little rest area on Transmountain. Fort Bliss is out there. I have several scooter friends in the Las Cruces, El Paso areas and wish we would have had time to seen them. We re-entered I-10 at N Americas Ave and resumed our eastward trek.

Stopped at an interesting Rest Area. This is a cool mural on the wall. Our plan was to drive as far as Ozona, TX (about 600 miles) and drive the rest of the way the 2nd day. 25-30 miles east of Fort Stockton, we got a blowout. We called U-haul and they sent a tire guy from Ozona (75 miles away) to come help. After a 3 hour delay, setting along side I-10 in the dark, we arrived at our hotel around 1130pm.

Thanks to Yelp!, I located the Cafe' Next Door and we had a very tasty breakfast for exceptionally good prices. ($4 for my 3-eggs ham and cheese omelet with taters and toast.)

We stopped for fuel and more coffee in the town of Junction. Fueled up next door to Coopers. I just had to take a picture of their sign. If I have to explain to you why it's funny, you shouldn't be hearing it, so please don't ask.

My son was born in San Antonio, but hasn't been there since he was 2 or 3 years old, so we decided to take some extra time and sightsee a bit. Naturally, we stopped at the Alamo.

We took a boat along the Riverwalk.

Stopped for lunch at Casa Rio, the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk. Foursquare folks gave it mixed reviews, but we decided to try it as much for it's locale as for the food. We weren't disappointed. The food was super, prices were very good and so was the service.

The worst part of San Antonio is driving the Texas Hill Country and not having a scooter. I didn't ride when we lived there, but I can see how there are many great rides there.

Here is the street where my son lives. After living in Arizona for a few years, seeing trees and water are quite the treat. I know it's humid, but it sure is pretty. We took a few back roads in the little bit of time I was there, but it sure looks like there are some good riding roads here as well. In town, not so much. The highways in Houston are a nightmare.

In the one full free day I was there, we decided to take a trip to La Porte, TX to see the San Jacinto Battleground. On the way, we saw a sign for the USS Texas museum and stopped there as well. I had never seen a REAL battleship before and had a blast.

Here's a view of the San Jacinto Memorial taken from the park area near the Texas. If you look carefully inside the globe, you can see the US and TX flag flying.

This is looking from the memorial, right back where the previous photo was taken. That globe and flag pole are are the end of the reflecting pool. You can see the Texas in the upper right hand corner.

This is me, enjoying my tour of the Texas. These are the aft turrets, each housing 2X14 inch guns. Because we were the only people on the ship, at the time, we got a "behind the scenes" tour and got to go behind many locked doors.

After our little excursion, we started home. We were feeling hungry and stopped at the "Crawfish Shack" for dinner. This is a fun place. All the table are outside with wood chip floors. I had a great time with Nathan and we both learned some fun stuff about Houston and Texas history.

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Houston

Remiss Resolutions

Okay, I have been a bad blogger and have not posted in 2 months. I have absolutely now excuse for the first month, although, I suppose I could try the old "Hey, it was the holiday season" ploy.

Nah, I'll just take responsibility for my lack of action.

Now, I do have a couple of good excuses for the second month. Here they are:

On the left is Lucius and on the right is Serenity. They are my grandtwins. My daughter and her husband moved in with my wife and I after finding out that they were having the twins. They were born on 1/12.

I expect that the picture above will be re-enacted multiple times over the coming years. Lucius shaking his fist and Serenity yawning at him. What do you think?

So, on to my 2011 scooter resolutions. Above is my current stable of scooters. The nearest is my newest bike, a SYM RV 250. I'm still getting used to it and have only put about 500 miles on it thus far. Behind that is the Genuine Stella. Just beyond that, partially covered is Iron Buddy.

Having added a 3rd scooter at the very end of 2010, I do not resolve to add another scooter to the current herd. I do love to ride so most of my resolutions will involve putting more miles on the scoots.

Today, 2/1, I went out and photographed the odometers of each bike. Above, Iron Buddy has 20,855 miles. I resolve to have more than 24k miles on I.B. by the end of the year.

I turned over 10k miles on the Stella on 1/12 and have added another 71 miles on her. I resolve to have 14.5k miles miles on her by 2011's end.

The '08 RV250 have a whopping 2,383 miles as of this morning. (I bought it with 1900 miles on the odo.) I resolve to have in excess of 7000 miles showing by the end of the year. I am, therefor, resolving to ride a minimum of (hmm, let's see carry the one, cross multiply, add the square root of pie..... ) 12,191 miles. That seem like a good distance to attempt.

Here's another pic of the RV250. They are pretty bikes. I'm getting 65mpg and have gotten it up to 80mph (indicated) with no difficulty at all. That gives me a 200 mile range and I can travel interstates without too much difficulty. All things considered, though, I still prefer my small wheeled scooters.

I also resolve to do my part to help this year's Sky Island Riders' rally to be our best yet. (It's only our second, so I'm not setting the bar too high.)

I further resolve to design and build a scooter theme rocking toy for the twins to ride when they are ready for it.

Ride on,

Howard