Motorcycle Ride 8/14/08

Man, oh man, what a day yesterday was. It all started right towards the end of our stay at Lake Roosevelt. Kevin told me that he and Mike wanted to go on a bike ride and they wanted me to come along. The only problem is that I don't have a bike. Soooooo, Kevin and I rented a ride. Well, I rented it and Kevin is chipping in to help pay for it. Wednesday, after getting home, and having a couple of minutes to rest, I made a phone call and put in my reservation for the next day.

Check out the next couple of pictures. It is a 2008 HD Heritage Softtail Classic. All 97 CI of a nice sounding engine. 6 speeds.

The next picture shows me sitting on it at home. Jennie brought Kevin and I to the motorcycle shop, because he needed a helmet, and the only way to "get" a helmet for him was to register him as my rider for the day. After getting home, we HAD to get some pictures.

This is Kevin sitting on the bike.

And, believe it or not, here is a picture of Jennie sitting on it. She even let me take her for a short spin around the neighborhood on it.

Here is a picture of the three bikes that were ridden on our short ride. On the left is a Honda Nighthawk. In the middle is a Honda Interceptor. Both of these bikes belong to my friend Mike. Kevin's ride was the Nighthawk and Mike's was the interceptor. And of course, don't forget the HD on the right. That, to refresh your memory, was my ride.

After meeting Mike at his house, we headed north on Hwy 9 to just north of Clearview. We swung into another friends place and he got so jealous that he decided to come along with us. The only problem he had was that he doesn't own a motorcycle. So....he decided to put the top down on his 'vette and follow us!! We then headed southeast on a very nice cycle road that ended up at the Woodinville/Duval Road. We turned left into Duval and turned right onto Hwy 203. In Carnation, we all stopped at a gas station and bought something to drink. Below, you can see that we have the 'vette blocked in.


After a quick refreshment, we continued on Hwy 203 to just past Fall City, where we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls. That place is always beautiful, as can be seen by the next two pictures.

Below is a picture of the other riders. On the far left is Bob J. Next to him is his wife's daughter Emily. Then comes Mike and then, last, but not least, is Kevin. I tried to frame the picture so that the falls is between Emily and Mike. Turned out pretty good, even if I have to say so myself.

I then asked Bob to take a picture of the "Three Amigos". Myself on the left, then Mike, then Kevin.

After visiting the falls, we returned to Fall City and grabbed a bite to eat. From there, we headed back, using Hwy 202 to head back through Redmond and then back to Mike's place. Kevin stayed on the Nighthawk and we headed home.

All in all, it was a very nice day for a bike ride. I will definitely do it again.

The rest of Lake Roosevelt

Ah, what a day today was. But, before I get into what happened today, I have to get everyone caught up on our vacation, including pictures. I had a bit of problem, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, with the internet connection not being the best at the campground. I finally had to give up on trying to keep my blog updated and ended up just checking my e-mail and such. Several times, while doing that, I would get some sort of error message saying something to the effect that the connection to the satellite was lost. So, we are home now and it is time to finish updating this thing.





Back now to the 6th. Marie and Henry arrived safely on the 5th. On the 6th, Marie wanted to go waterskiing, so, below, you will see a picture of Marie on two boards, skimming across the water with the greatest of ease. Note the look of complete relaxation. "Oh yeah, this is the life."

Meanwhile, back at the beach, what is happening? Not much, as can be seen in the following picture. We are back from giving Marie the waterski ride of her life. Jennie and my friends wife, Becky, are completely oblivious as to what is happening on the boat. They are just lazing around in the water, without a care in the world. But....something must be holding their attention, they both seem to be looking in the same direction. What gives with that?

Okay, later in the day, Marie decides that waterskiing is just too boring for her to do any more. Time for a new challenge, THE AIRCHAIR!!! Ah, ok, now things need a little explanation here. "I gotta do what? You mean this thing actually has a seatbelt? What happens if I fall? You mean, you really mean, that I am NOT supposed to separate myself from this thing if I fall? You mean this whole contraption stays with me? OoooKaaaaayyyyy, if you say so."

"Hey, waddya know, this whole thing floats. This might not be as bad as I thought. I think I got this thing licked already. Say what? you mean I gotta hang onto the rope and get towed behind the boat? You never mentioned that part before I agreed to try this. Oh well, since I am already strapped in, I guess I can give it a try. Ok, assume the relaxed pose."

"Hey, this isn't so bad, in fact "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.""

"Hey, this is easier then I thought. Look at me, I am actually skiing this thing on top of the water, and this is only my first time at it. I don't know what all the fuss was about, why all the instructions. I think these people around here just try to make it difficult, so maybe they can keep all this to themselves."

"Hey, WHAT THE HECK!!!!!! How.... what.....where am I going..... WHOA, STOP THIS THING, IT IS GOING UP IN THE AIR!!!! I NEVER AGREED TO THIS!!!!"

Meanwhile, once again, back on the beach, what is everyone else doing? Playing "King of the Hill" on a giant, inflatable Fun Island.

Ah, the end to a perfect day. Everyone is safe and sound and the boat is safely tied up again in the marina, ready for use on the morrow.


August 8, 2008

Ok, it is the next day now, and Marie wants to try something new again. "Hey, I want to try wakeboarding." Ok, Marie, here is what you do, get in the water, put your feet in the boots on the wakeboard, grap on to the handle and yell HIT IT!!! He He, let's all watch Marie as she flounders in the water, trying to get up on the slippery banana called a wakeboard. WHAT THE HEY, she got up on the very first try!!!! And here is a video to prove that she was up on the wakeboard. You will just have to take my word for it that she did get up on the first try, or ask her yourself if you don't believe me.

On Friday evening, we watched a lightning storm approach the campground, go over top of us, with quite a bit of rain attached to it, and then when the rain let up, we watched the storm head out away from us.

On Saturday, after Andrea showed up, Philip asked me if I would take them on a boat ride. I said sure, climb in. We took off and headed straight north, up a part of the lake called Sanpoil River. (Just a side note about this arm of Lake Roosevelt. When Grand Coulee Dam was under construction, the original town of Keller was located somewhere in this region. Since it was going to end up under water, the town had to relocate futher north.) About 8 miles up this arm, is another campground called Sanpoil Campground. Almost directly across the water from this campground, as we were just drifting and talking about the lake and the slight difference in terrain from further south, Philip spotted a young bear cub cruising the shoreline. We tracked him from the boat for about 20 minutes as he kinda kept an eye on us and also fed on huckleberries. At one time, he actually came right down to the water to get a drink of water. Very cool. It was a real bummer that none of us had a camera to take a picture or two of it. A few years ago, we saw another bear slightly south of this location and on the same side of the river as the campground. This one was fully grown and didn't stick around very long after we spotted it.

The next day, Jennie, Kevin and I went back up there to see if we could find it again. We didn't see it, but we did find a Bald Eagle nest up in a tree right on the shoreline. We couldn't tell for sure because we didn't see them, but we think there were some young eagles in the nest because we did hear a lot of "crying" whenever one of the parents was nearby. This time, we did have a camera, but because of where the nest was located, we couldn't get a real good view of it with the camera.

On Sunday, while sitting down on the beach, we had a deer walk right by us on the road, head towards the nearest bush and start browsing on it. Kinda cool, except that we see a lot, and I mean a lot, of deer in the area. One morning, I was withing about 20 feet of a deer while it was browsing on some bushes, right across the street from the campground.

On Wednesday morning, we packed everything up and bid good-bye to all our friends at the campground and headed home. We got home about 4:30, got most of the stuff out of the camper and called it a day. Tomorrow, I will post another blog about what happened today, so TTFN.