A Wonderful Ride
Six days, nine different states, and just over 2,000 miles.
We headed out on the BigYellowBike last Thursday morning, bound for Hendersonville, NC, to see some good friends and eat a little BBQ. The first day out, we left Michigan, heading southeast through Indiana and crossing the Ohio River near Cincinatti, Ohio. We made it as far as Manchester, Kentucky before stopping for the night.

Friday, Day Two: Kentucky to North Carolina
Friday morning we left Kentucky, and arrived at Gatlinburg, TN, around noon. There we met up with some of our friends from the GL1800riders board and rode over the Smokies to Cherokee, NC, for lunch.

Riding with WimpyHonda, TNCharlie, PidJones and friends on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Directline Parts sponsors our bike forum, and they threw a BBQ at their North Carolina warehouse for any forum members who wanted to attend. We got to see lots of old friends, and meet some new friends. And then, there was this guy...

Our friend Polecat, and some guy in a furry bear suit... Don't know what that was all about.

We had a wonderful time at the BBQ. We've missed the last two years, due to the birth of our grandson in '06 and his first birthday in '07. This year, Grandpa decreed that the second birthday would have to be celebrated another day, because we were not going to miss it again.

Saturday, Day Three: North Carolina to Alabama

We left our motel at 8:00 Saturday morning to ride with a group of our friends to Dillard, Georgia, to eat breakfast at the Dillard House. If you're in the area, you must try this place! Meals are served family-style, so take your big appetite with you.

From left: Glen "BusterCrabbe", Lowell "Snoopy", Scott "Shadowslayer", Boyd "Stroller", Jay "Jay1021", Marian (Jay's wife), Becky and Rich, Ross "5Ross", David "Sailor", and Ralph "Ralph2".

Snoopy's brother, Boyd














Snoopy and son, Scott

Ralph

Beautiful bikes...
We ate too much and talked a lot, but then it was time to say good-bye and begin the next leg of our trip. Our friends' destinations included South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. Jay & Marian and 5Ross rode with Rich & I through Georgia for a bit. We got in behind a group of riders on Harleys in the North Georgia mountains. One of them had some trouble, and his bike went down just before we rounded a curve. There were a few small parts scattered across the road and the bike was in the ditch, but the rider was up and walking by the time we got there. There were several bikes and a pickup truck stopped to help, so we went on our way. After a beautiful ride, Jay and Ross split off and started for Indiana, and Rich and I continued toward Alabama.

Rich plots our course on the iWay

Saturday evening we arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to spend a wonderful evening with good friends. We know John and William from our forum and chat room, and they came up to visit us last May. It was a great pleasure to meet their wives, Debbie and Nina, for the first time! Mr. William and Ms. Nina welcomed us into their lovely home for the night, fed us, entertained us, and treated us like family. We are truly blessed to know these folks.

Sunday, Day Four: Alabama to Tennessee
After a tasty sausage-and-biscuit breakfast, William presented us with two jars of Ms. Nina's homemade pear preserves. Nina left for church, and William set me on the back of his Valkyrie and rode off with me to Mississippi, with Rich following on the BigYellowBike. We then rode through Tuscumbia, past the birthplace of Helen Keller and through a park with a wondrous fountain synchronized to music before picking John up at his home in Florence.

From there, William and John took us here. This place, known only as "The Wall" is a place of sorrow and gladness, a memorial to a Native American woman called Te-lah-nay, built by her great-great-grandson, Tom Hendrix. This is a special place, deserving of much more than a note in my trip report, and I will write more about it on another day. Suffice it to say that this was one of the highlights of this trip, if not one of the most special places I have ever visited. There is a stone from our home in this wall that was carried by John in the saddlebags of his VTX after his visit to Michigan last May.
Mr. William on his Valkyrie

John and Rich at The Wall

William and John rode with us for a time along the Natchez Trace and into Tennessee, then left us to return home. I hated to see them ride off, but am looking forward to seeing them both again very, very soon.

Rich and I continued on our way, stopping in Clarksville, Tennessee, for the night. Rich plotted our route for the following day in our motel room.

Monday, Day Five: Tennessee to Indiana

A fairly uneventful day...good roads, great weather. We rode all day until we hit Indianapolis. Only three more hours to get home, but after a long day riding, we decided to stop for the night. As it was early, we decided to head into downtown Indy for a bit. We parked the bike on a side street, made a quick stop at Border's, then walked around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. We've rounded it many times on our trips to Indianapolis, but never stopped to look at it before. We walked for a bit, stopped for a drink at a sidewalk pub, then headed back to the motel.

Tuesday, Day Six: Home again, home

Today was an easy ride through Northern Indiana and home. We stopped at Max Pitt's in Peru, Indiana and looked at a lot of motorcycles. We got home late in the afternoon, spent some time with our son, his girlfriend, and our grandson, went to supper with a friend, and that was the end of our wonderful trip. Good friends, good times, good riding.

Thank you to IWing and RonBien for the pictures I stole...Thank you, Hal, for the wonderful BBQ and the excuse to make this trip...Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nina, William, Debbie and John, for the wonderful hospitality.

We arrived back home on Tuesday afternoon, tired but happy and looking forward to our next ride. We'd never traveled on the bike in Georgia, before, and had never been in Alabama or Mississippi at all. Now our "States Visited" map looks like this:

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

We had a little rain....
Hurricane Ike pushed some precipitation up our way over the weekend. Reports are that we got 15 inches of rain.

It was this deep...

Ok, not really...this is my "Reporter in Floodwaters" picture. I was on my knees. :)

It was really only THIS deep.

It was cold, too.

Our little stream only had a couple of inches of water in it Friday. This was how it looked at midday Sunday. The river flowing from the top to the bottom of the picture is usually a grassy path leading into the marsh behind our house.
The stream has retreated back into its banks today, but there is still plenty of standing water in the yard. It was a lot of rain, but I'm glad I'm here and not in Texas this weekend!

Wow, time flies when you're having fun...(or not).


So, it's been awhile, eh? I don't know where the summer went, but here's some of what we did...

We moved from here:











to here:














We did a lot of this:














A group of our riding friends came to spend Memorial Day weekend with us at our new house:






















And Robby is now this big (he will be two years old in September):



















We went to help with the fifth-annual Dan Barr Memorial Golf Outing in Hubbard, Ohio.

I finished these for Ross:














and these for Joyce:














A friend sent one daughter off to Denmark to spend a year as an exchange student, and another daughter off to college.
We discovered a couple of great new BBQ joints.
We rode the BigYellowBike (a little).
My sister continues her fight against cancer, while a dear friend began his.
One brother visited from Canada, and the other announced his return home from Florida and Georgia.
We had company from Texas and Kentucky for the weekend of Rich's family reunion.
Rich and some friends replaced the front fork seals and springs in the BigYellowBike.

All in all, a very busy summer.

Tennessee for Lunch

We'd been looking forward to meeting up with new friends and old at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee all year. It would be Rich's third Tennessee Lunch Run, and my second. This winter was long, cold, and very, very snowy and the BigYellowBike had been hibernating ever since we returned from the Harrison Gathering. There was so much going on, though, that we really thought we were going to have to cancel.
Rich and I were incredibly stressed from the ongoing construction at our new home, among other things, and eager to see our riding friends. It was long past time for a ride! I had made our reservation months ago and all that was left to do was to pack up and go. At the very last minute, we decided we needed to get away. Rich changed the rear tire on the bike while I finished packing, and we headed out.
We met Ross and Steve (5ross and Polecat) and Wayne (BlueStreek) in Madison,IN, Thursday evening, then headed for Tennessee Friday morning.

John from Alabama on the left, Rick (the infamous YellowWolf) on the right.

Friday afternoon we made it safe and sound to Madisonville, TN, and had a great evening of BBQ and catching up with a great bunch of folks.





Saturday morning we headed out to the park in a light rain, but the sky soon opened up, the sun shone, and we stopped to take off our rain gear.


After a meet-and-greet time in the parking lot at the Inn and a great lunch buffet (more BBQ,because if you're in the South, you just HAVE to eat BBQ!), we stood around and chatted some more.

I won a prize...a new visor for my helmet, being presented to me here by Chris (ClosetChef), the sponsor of the Lunch Run.

Then the crowd broke up and we went off to ride the beautiful Tennessee and Kentucky roads. The highlight was a twisty mountain road where at times you could see four turns of the pavement below you. There was more rain, but when you're riding with good friends, a little precipitation is no problem.
Saturday night we stayed in Cave City, KY, then all split up Sunday morning to head for home. Our destinations included Michigan, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Kentucky. Thank you to the GL1800Riders forum, the RidersRally forum, and ClosetChef for bringing us all together for a few hours!

Here are some links to more pictures from the Lunch Run:
Galute
Robeth
Jim Morris
Mine

Sarah reminds me once again that I am falling behind.

It's been a busy month and more...family meltdowns, emptying the barns, a too-short but much-needed trip on the BigYellowBike, trying trying trying to finally get our new house done... Sheesh.

So for starters, here's a new picture of Robby. More to come soon...

LarrySocks
This is the last pair of Chat-Contest socks, going to Larry in Arizona. Regia yarn, cartridge-rib stitch pattern from "The Ultimate Sock Book".

I love these socks! The yarn knitted up in a sort of mossy-oak camouflage color.

Take a look at the gorgeous cutting boards in the picture...Larry built them for me as a house-warming gift, and they're just beautiful! I am so lucky to have such a talented friend.

They Fit!
These pictures of Baby J.D. and his mommy came from our friends in Texas. I'm so happy the socks and hat fit him. Gabi was having some trouble with early labor, and when I started knitting, I was afraid the baby would be a preemie and very tiny, so I made them small. Instead, he was born a very healthy 8 pounds + and is doing quite well, indeed.

Beautiful Mommy, handsome baby! :)

Texas-Bound and RalphSocks...

These little socks and matching hat will be on their way to Texas soon for our friends Suzi and Dale's brand-new grandson. Not-so-little J.D. weighed in at just over eight pounds on Thursday evening. I hope these will be big enough for him! Congratulations, Mai and Grandpa!

Regia yarn, basic baby socks and hat.

These socks are pair number four from the chat room contest I held in January. This pair goes to Ralph in South Carolina. KnitPicks Swish in worsted weight, using the same basic wide-rib sock pattern as the black socks shown previously.

Next up: the last pair of ChatContestSocks on the needles. This pair is in a cotton/wool blend for a recipient in Arizona.

Happy Feet!

Got me some new boots...my first-ever cowboy boots, and they're in BigYellowBike yellow. I love 'em!

Ditto....
I can't find my camera this morning, but if you scroll down to the January 1 post, that's what it looks like outside ....
They just called from work to tell me not to come in today because the roads are too bad. Guess I'll knit! : )

On the needles:
Baby hat for friends' impending grandbaby: nearly done.
Matching socks for above: finished.
Chatroom contest RalphSocks: about four inches down the legs.
My socks (formerly FrigNsocks, but I liked a different yarn better for his socks, and so did he): past the gusset decreases.
My socks (bright red): starting the gusset decreases.
Hat for the knitting class I'm teaching: stalled. I already finished one to show the class, and only started the second one for demonstration purposes.

About the knitting class:
I was approached by a local township library to teach a basic beginner's knitting class. I've never taught more than one person at a time, and was a little reluctant (ok, scared half to death!) to take it on, but it's going pretty well! We had ten women sign up, with several on the waiting list. Most had no knitting experience, and one or two were taught when they were little girls, but hadn't done any knitting in years.
I chose Lion Brand Bulky for the yarn and we're using a hat and scarf pattern that was printed on the ball band. It's a very easy hat, knit horizontally rather than vertically, and all in garter stitch. We're not worrying about gauge, and the knitters are using needles in sizes 10-11. By the end of the second class, two of the women had already finished their hats. One of them had a family tragedy during the past week. Her grandson was walking along the road with a friend when a driver ran off the road and hit and killed the boy's friend. I downloaded instructions for a prayer shawl, taught her the purl stitch, and got her started on a shawl for her daughter. Here are some links to start a prayer shawl ministry of your own.

Another pair of chat-room socks...

These have gone to Jerry in Detroit, the third-place winner. Two more pair to go, then it will be time for another contest!

This pair is just like Woody's, except for the heel flap. I used EOP for Jerry's and regular heel-stitch for Woody's...not that you could tell that from the picture. It's hard to photograph black.

This is KnitPicks Swish again. I wish they'd make this stuff in a fingering-weight yarn for socks. I love working with it, but it's just too heavy for socks for me.

The next pair of chat-contest socks will go to Ralph. I'm thinking blue Swish for him. First, though, I need to knit up a pair of little socks and a hat for our friends in Texas, Dale and Suzi, who are expecting their first grandbaby very, very soon. I'm using Regia sock yarn for those. Also on the needles are a pair of socks for me in Opal Bamboo, another pair in DK, bright red, and I really need to knit myself a pair of fingerless mitts to keep my hands warm while I chat...

Sarah, you really like my boring black socks? Thanks, sweetie! :)

FrigNsocks Finished!

I love the way these socks turned out. The stripes match up nearly perfectly. I hope they'll hold up well...this is the first time I've used this yarn. They will be on their way to Louisiana shortly.

Nearly finished are the number-three winner's socks...another pair of boring black socks in Swish. I will be starting the toe shaping tomorrow.

Socks in the mail, WisconSocks, FrigNsocks...
Finished Objects:
Polecat's socks in the mail to Ohio...Check!
Amber's Haley's Roses socks in the mail to Ohio...Check!
MrWoody's winning ChatRoom socks in the mail to Wisconsin...Check!

Sorry, no pictures of those...forgot to get out the camera before mailing. You can see Polecat's and Amber's socks in a previous post. MrWoody's socks were plain black, worsted weight in KnitPicks yummy 100% superwash merino Swish, knit 6, purl 3 rib...

On the needles: second-place chat room socks for our friend FrigNbored (John) in Louisiana in this lovely grayish-greenish-beigish cotton and wool blend from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions . This is very nice yarn to work with, soft, warm, and just enough color to keep them interesting without being too 'wild.' I wish the color would show up better in the photo. The dark stripes are forest green, and the background is a greenish beige. I like it!

The pattern: Cast on 72 stitches for each sock. Your stitch count may vary. This is based on a gauge of about 8-9 stitches per inch, minus 10% for negative ease, for a foot measuring ten inches around at the ball of the foot.

Work in K1, P1 rib for two inches or so, then switch to K7, P2 rib for 8 inches.

Work Eye-of-Partridge stitch over half the stitches for the heel flap, turn heel, pick up gussets, work gusset decreases until back to 72 stitches. Work round and round until the foot is 2 to 2-1/2 inches shorter than the length of the foot to the end of the longest toe. Work toe decreases, graft toes, and done!

The buying trip to Atlanta was great fun! We walked, walked, walked, bought, bought, bought, ate good food, and laughed together until we were too sore to laugh any more. Plus! two flights (and I LOVE to fly), and a little touch of slightly warmer weather. Now to figure out where we're going to put all the new stuff that will be coming into the stores soon...

Heading South This Week...

I am heading out early Tuesday morning for Atlanta to see what's new and cool in the retail world for the store where I work. I'll be visiting the Atlanta Gift Market with my bosses and a co-worker, and then will be home Saturday.

<--- Here are the latest nearly-finished-objects. The first is a pair of socks for our friend, "Polecat," who wanted orange socks to match his Pearl Orange GoldWing. The yarn is Garnstudio's Fabel in color 153, purchased from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions. This is a new yarn for me, and I like it very much, indeed! It has a nice feel and is quite soft. The balls were wound in opposite directions, so Polecat's socks are fraternal, not identical, twins...he'll like that, though! Nothing fancy here, just 6x3 rib on the leg and continuing down the top of the foot. These need just a few more rows of toe-shaping to finish them. I'm hoping to have them done before I leave tomorrow.

The second is a pair of Haley's Roses socks for Haley's mommy, Amber. I ran out of the white Opal yarn, and had to go stash-diving to find enough (I hope!) to finish them. See more about purchasing this pattern at the link above. ALL of the proceeds from its sale are donated to the Children's Neuroblastoma Research organization.

I will need a new project to help keep me sane in Atlanta this week, so I held a contest in my GL1800Riders chat room. I will be knitting a pair of boring black socks (his choice!) for the winner. Pictures to come in a week or so.

See you in a few days!

Oh, Sarah? We're another day closer to spring!

Winterscape...

The picture does not do the scene justice. This is a little marshy area I pass some days on the way to work. It was zero degrees F when I left for work this morning. The sun was bright, and sparkled like diamonds on the snow. Yes, the sky really was that blue!

I had to stop and take a photo of this pretty little bit of nature.

I find I enjoy winter more the older I get.

First Snow of 2008
This was what greeted us at the back door this morning. There was no snow there yesterday evening. I had to push back the snow with the storm door to let the dog out.

Happy New Year, one and all!

Merry Christmas!