Just a quick post today! I’m busy, busy, busy! I had a deadline moved up 3 months and with a trip to San Francisco coming up this week I’m scrambling! I’m going to the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference this week and I’m super excited. I’ll be bringing my camera along and taking oodles of photos, you can expect more of that to come!
Would you believe that I cooked and shot 5 dishes this weekend? I think every single one of them had dill in it. I picked up my Bountiful Basket on Saturday and ended up with two giant bunches of dill. I’ve made Flounder Olympia, baby potatoes in a butter dill sauce, dill vinaigrette for salad, yogurt dill dip, asparagus and dill quiche with a potato crust and this dish. And I still have half of it left! Continue reading “Deviled Ham Stuffed Eggs” »
The last couple of weeks I’ve been recounting what I deemed as my first big girl ride. With little experience riding I rode the infamous Tail of the Dragon, a road with 318 curves in 11 short miles. It scared me to death, so much so that we decided to take a different route home, the Cherohola Skyway which ended up being just as challenging and took 3 hours! It was all exhilarating albeit a bit petrifying also. Now we head back to Illinois where McGyver says “11 curves in 318 miles”….I think I can handle that!
Last week I described our journey to the Tail and setting up camp (you can read about that here), today is the day that I ride the infamous Tail of the Dragon, ignorance is bliss. Had I known that it was such a challenging ride for a novice, I may not have done it. I put my big girl panties on and took the plunge. Let’s just say I took it at a comfortable pace for me and probably pissed off every biker behind me…
May 23, 2005
McGyver was of course up before me, got his shower and was getting coffee ready. After my shower and coffee we put on our leathers, cuz it get’s cool in them mountains.
WOW! The Tail was unbelievable – no kidding 318 curves in 11 miles – speed limit 30 mph- strictly enforced. I was scared but I made it through, this was a big challenge for me and I made it!
[am I on the wrong side of the road????]
We finished the run at a place called Deal’s Gap. Once the bikes were parked, McGyver asked me how I felt – I told him “I am still scared” – scared and exhilarated – what an awesome accomplishment for a novice rider.
We picked up a few souvenirs and McGyver asked me if I wanted to go back the same way – of course I said “HELL NO!” I just wasn’t ready to face the Tail again, so soon. After a little map checking we decided to head towards North Carolina and cut across the Cherohola Sky way, little did we know that this route would take almost 3 hours and more lives have been lost on the Skyway then the Dragon.
Once again, ignorance is bliss and so we took off. This has to be some the most beautiful countryside in the U.S. – with the exception of the Northwest.
We enjoyed our ride, watched various motorist (car and bike) do idiotic things [like drive on the wrong side of the road]and made our way back to the camp.
After the ride we thought we’d check out the Rally – I chose to ride behind hubby, I was mentally and physically exhausted from the ride, I never realized how much it could take out on a person. I had new respect for McGyver and what he went through when we drove through the Alps.
We arrived at the Rally site just in time to catch the wet T-shirt contest; T-shirt being the optional word here. Darn the luck, true to the mountain girl stereotype most of the girls should have kept their shirts on and dry but I didn’t hear a single guy complain…guess they like them all.
Afterwards we walked around the sight, bought some damn good BBQ, saw some really cool bikes, like the hubless bike built by AMEN cycles – speaking of which he came to the campground (the owner/builder) and we got a personalized poster. To: “Ronnie and Rhonda”. Lonnie (that’s McGyver’s real name) said that just proves that no one listens to him .
After knocking around a bit at the rally, which was sparse and had nearly been wiped out by severe rain storms, we decided to get dinner. We ended up at this local café – I forgot the name “The Pit Stop” or something, anyways they had the oldest guys in the world playing some bluegrass – and they were good!
Oh I forgot, we arranged to meet one of Lonnie’s LGF blog buddies (who lives in Knoxville) for dinner. So Ironfist followed us to this café. What a meal, home style cooking and lots of it. I got liver and onions, which I never get to have since I’m the only one who likes it, and mashed taters as good as my own.
McGyver got the meatloaf and it was okay – you know- just like it is at home. After Ironfist treated us to dinner, he went back home and we headed back to the rally see Steppenwolf. They put on a good show but we were wiped and decided to leave a little early – just as we were leaving Steppenwolf breaks into “Born to be wild”, could it have been more perfect?
As I was writing this post, I thought what an adventurous day…I’m exhausted just writing about it. Next week, it gets wrapped up with our ride back home.
I’d like to do a shout out to Killboy. com. Darryl hangs out at The Tail of the Dragon and takes photos of motorist riding this curvy challenging road. He sells his photos and gives you full rights to reprint and distribute as you like, his only request is that if you post them on the web, that he gets credit. Darryl, you deserve the credit.
It’s tough for biker’s to get action shots of themselves and I for one am grateful for Killboy.com, if any of you ever decide to tackle the Dragon, make sure you check out his site for snaps.
Just a side note, this morning before I was getting ready to post I went to the Post Office and picked up my mail, there was this months HOG magazine and in it was none other than a feature story about The Tail of the Dragon and the surrounding area, so I snapped an instagram shot just to prove it.
Before I go into the journal part of my trip, I’m going to share a little background. I got my motorcycle license at the end of the riding season in 2003. I took my 1998 Superglide, which I had bought from McGyver (it was the bike we fell in love on) out for my first spin and promptly dropped it in a cul de sac. McGyver was living in Germany at the time, so I decided maybe I better wait until I have someone experienced to ride with.
The following year I did a lot of riding, mostly just putting around the local area and a few adventures (some unintentional). The bottom line was, I was a inexperienced rider coming into 2005. Plus I had very little confidence since I seemed to drop my bike a wee bit more than I should have been…grrr those low slow left turns.
McGyver and I have been traveling from Washington State to Shiloh, Illinois. McGyver has finally returned from Germany, after a year’s separation from me. He purchased a brand new 2003 Road King while in Germany and had it shipped to Seattle. His dad kept it for him (and did the break in miles, plus some) until he was able to move to back to the states. If you’d like to catch up on the previous days, you can do it here, here, here, here and here.
McGyver and I have been traveling from Washington State to Shiloh, Illinois. McGyver has finally returned from Germany, after a year’s separation from me. He purchased a brand new 2003 Road King while in Germany and had it shipped to Seattle. His dad kept it for him (and did the break in miles, plus some) until he was able to move to back to the states. If you’d like to catch up on the previous days, you can do it here, here, here and here.
Thursday July 15, 2004
After a continental breakfast we hit the road at 0730 with 5, 616 miles. It was cloudy and cooler then the last few days – a welcome change. With the sun beaming through the clouds in that majestic and heavenly way in the east, a rainbow to the west and dark clouds straight ahead the day could promise anything.
The further south we traveled the clearer it got and the more it warmed up. After one of our rest stops, not 5 minutes down the road McGyver split his drawers. The zipper on his chaps busted open so we pulled over and I got them back on track and we took off again.
Can you believe about 15 minutes later the chaps busted out their zipper again. this time McGyver just took them off and threw them in the tour pack. When we got to the gas stop – in the garbage they went! With limited space there’s no room to tote around broken chaps.
We stopped at the Sioux Falls HD dealership after a quick lunch and McGyver got the service folks to give him some padding with sticky stuff to prevent anymore rubbing on the Road King. I picked up a new jean shirt. I’ve been wearing McGyver’s XL denim shirt and got tired of tucking it in all the way down to my knees every time I used the bathroom.
We headed on down the road into Iowa on I29. We discovered that Iowa has the worst roads in the U.S., with a sore ass already every bump and groove was a painful reminder of how long we’ve been on the bike.
We finished the days run in St. Joseph, MO. Almost home – tomorrow my husband will finally be home for good.
McGyver and I have been traveling from Washington State to Shiloh, Illinois. McGyver has finally returned from Germany, after a year’s separation from me. He purchased a brand new 2003 Road King while in Germany and had it shipped to Seattle. His dad kept it for him (and did the break in miles, plus some) until he was able to move to back to the states. If you’d like to catch up on the previous days, you can do it here, here, and here.
Wednesday July 14, 2004
5,335 miles to start the day off. Last night we rolled into Minot just after 9:00 pm (10:00 CST). Jen met us at Denny’s and I hopped in the car with her to maximize our time together and five the ol’ bunners a break!
We hung out at her house and caught up. Lonnie hit the sack about 1:30 and 2 bottles of Muscato and a couple of beers later Jen and I rolled into bed about 3:30 or so. We hung out in the morning, did laundry, played with the two cutest boxers ever (Abby and Buster) then went to HD [the Harley dealership] in Minot.
McGyver got some oil for the bike. The Road King really needed the 5,000 mile check but HD was unable to accommodate us. Jen bought us each a shirt and then we had to hit the road. As much as we love to ride, it is really hard to leave good friends.
Our next long rest stop was in Jamestown, ND. We had to stop – couldn’t miss visiting the World’s Largest Buffalo.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
We checked out “Frontier Village”, took photos, visited the “Buffalo Museum”, bought some small souvenirs for the kids and to the Frontier Shop to eat some Buffalo. Found out that buffalo taste pretty good.
We finished the day in Fargo, ND. McGyver wanted to stop while there was still light. We stopped about 80 miles short of the plan so we’ll have to make that up. McGyver wanted to check out the right saddle bag, it was rubbing against the frame and some of the paint came off. It looks like it was mounted wrong. Since it’ll need to go back to the dealer for adjustments will just put some clear packing tape on it to protect it temporarily.
After relaxing, having a couple of drinks we’ll get some rest and get ready for an early start tomorrow.
Notes: The World Largest Buffalo was built in 1959 and it is 26 feet (7.9 m) tall, 46 feet (14 m) long and weighs 60 tons. If you ever go through Jamestown, ND it’s worth stopping to see.
Our ride continues, last week we stayed in Belgrade, Montana our next destination was my bestest friend in the whole wide world!
Tuesday July 13, 2004
Up at the butt crack of dawn, just like being at work…except I look forward to a day on the bike, packing, breakfast and we’re ready to hit the road. We left at 0745 with 4,714 miles. We are heading towards Billings, planning on it for our lunch stop.
Dad wanted to go to a steak buffet. It took us about 30 minutes to find the “steak buffet”, actually it was the Golden Corral. They only serve the steak buffet for dinner, oh well. The food was good and filling.
Based on Jen’s recommendations we altered our route plan and hope to save 120 mile and make Minot by tonight. Dad will be going his own way – off to drive through Yellowstone and down to Boise, Idaho to do some visiting.
Additional Comments: I didn’t talk about this in my Journal but my father in law had gone on and on abut this fabulous steak buffet, he’d never seen anything like that. Keep in mind he was in his mid-seventies and lived in a town of only a few hundred. He pumped up this steak buffet so much, you can only imagine McGyver’s and mines face when we saw that it was only the Golden Corral. The truth is that we don’t even care for buffets (with the exception of some Vegas ones) but we didn’t have the heart to tell him. We ate with great enthusiasm at lunch, it was more important to enjoy being with family than where we ate anyways.
Last week we started off our anniversary run, leaving from Washington State and heading to Illinois. McGyver and I had been separated for a year, this was our first ride together after way too long.
I’m continuing my revisit through my motorcycle journal, it started with our Honeymoon where we traveled for 10 days on McGyver’s 1998 Harley Davidson Super Glide. Fast forward a year and my journal takes us on our Anniversary Run.
May 23, 2005
.
