Sometimes short, but always sweet

The last few days I have been itching to get on the bike. Every where we've gone since Saturday, my son has been with Dave on the bike, and I've been following in my car with the windows rolled down trying to pretend like I was having as much fun as they were. So today when Dave's friend asked if we wanted to ride over to Moss Landing for lunch I said, "Heck yeah!"

I knew it was going to be a short trip because I had to go back to work later in the day but I really just needed to get out for a bit and relax. The weather was perfect for a ride, not too hot, but warm enough, and no wind.

When we got to Moss Landing harbor we spotted some sea otters hanging out so we sat and watched them for awhile. Man, what a life. I was getting lazy just watching them. They were so cute, and didn't seem to mind that they had an audience for their afternoon nap.

After taking some pictures of the otters and boats we headed across the street to Phil's Snack Shack for lunch. It was a cool little place with a nice outdoor eating area right next to a swamp. Okay, I know that sounds weird, but it was really cool. We sat and ate our lunch, which was delicious, and goofed off for a little bit.

I would have loved to stay there all afternoon, but I had to get back to work so we headed home. The ride home was nice and easy. It was a short ride, but sweet as always.

The only good thing about having to go back to work was that I had to drive to Monterey, too bad it was in a car, but I got to stop at the beach for a few minutes which was cool. I also got to drive up into the hills and see some great views. So all in all, even though it was a work day, it turned out pretty good. Sometimes I forget that where I live is such a beautiful place, I'm glad that there are days like today to remind me.

That was weird!

This has nothing to do with anything, just something I saw yesterday that I thought was weird and for some reason haven't been able to get it out of my head. I was stopped at a light and the guy in front of me was in a Hybrid Honda Civic. He looked like a Bill Gates type, now for the weird part..his license plate frame said "Prostitution is not legal, but it pays for this car." Huh? The whole picture seemed odd to me and I'm still trying to figure it all out. Am I missing something?

Motorcycle Madness

Several weeks ago, Dave mentioned he wanted to go to Santa Maria for Motorcycle Madness. We decided we wouldn't be able to go for the whole weekend, but a day trip would work. The timing of the event was perfect, it fell on a weekend that my son would be away and I didn't have to work. We talked to the boys and asked who wanted to go, of course they were all in. It would be me and Dave, Cowboy, Bones, Wolf, and Dale.

As the day got closer things were falling into place. The weather had been awesome, and temps were expected to stay up in triple digits through the weekend. Dave finally bought a sissy bar and new pegs for me, so the ride was sure to be a lot more comfortable. And thanks to advice from my blogger buddies, I found some pretty comfortable underwear. :)

Around the middle of the week Cowboy decided not to go, he has a pretty long trip coming up so he had things to do to get ready for that. About that time a friend of Dave's told him he had discount tickets for the event if we wanted them. Rather than just taking the tickets, Dave asked if he wanted to ride with us. One lost, one gained.

Saturday finally came, and I woke up with the same excited feeling I used to get when I was a kid and we would wake up before the sun to go on a road trip. Bones called and said he was out, not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the fact that his wife's birthday is Monday and he didn't want to be in the doghouse.

We met the guys at 6:30. It was already a beautiful day, which is unusual for us, our mornings are usually cold and foggy no matter what. It was going to be a great day to ride.






The ride down was great. Perfect weather, nice views. The best part was riding through Pismo Beach. The ocean looked beautiful, and smelt awesome. We made a couple of stops on the way down, for the usual stuff. A little over three hours and we were in Santa Maria.


Motorcycle Madness, I was looking forward to some madness. Unfortunately, it was in short supply. The rally was not what I expected. It was very tame, I was hoping to get some outrageous material to share with all of you. It actually was a very family friendly environment, the only rally that I have been to where I would feel okay taking my eight year old. There were lots of vendors, some nice bikes, and a pretty decent band. But that was about it. Oh, then there was the "barley nothings lingerie fashion show". We were looking forward to it, but it was a bust, and not the good kind.

With that said, I am a firm believer that you make your own fun, and I was there to have fun. I met Michelle Smith from American Thunder, and got a picture with her. I offered to take Dave's pic with her, but he said no. She was very nice, even though I accidentally grabbed her butt, not once, but twice. Then we just walked around and checked out the bikes, bought a couple of T-shirts, and ate lunch on the grass listening to the band.


When we were getting ready to leave, we walked by the Army recruiting tent. There were three guys sitting there in uniform who looked hot, bored and lonely. We decided to go and say hello. I asked if they would mind taking a picture with me, they kind of looked at me like I was crazy, but said ok. There were three, but one jumped out of the picture at the last minute. Still trying to figure that one out.

The ride home was great, although it did get a little too hot at some points. We made an unexpected stop in Atascadero to strip off some of our clothes before we died. It just happened that the exit we took led us right to a Harley dealership. Gary Bang's Harley. We went in and cooled down a bit and looked around. It was the nicest dealership I have been in, but the people were not nearly as friendly as at our local dealership.

We decided once we got home, we were going to go to Dave's shop to get a nice cold smoothie. Well, by the time we got there the temp had dropped about 30 degrees, so we decided on coffee. We were standing outside drinking our coffee and two bicycle cops came up and started talking to us. They were very cool and we had a great time visiting with them until they got a call that there was a bank robbery down the street. The one cop sped off, but the other one looked at us and said, "Yeah, that's funny, a bank robbery, the bank isn't even open right now." And off he rode.

We finally said our goodbyes to the guys and they headed home. I don't think either Dave or I were ready for the day to end, so he suggested dinner. We rode into the sunset to a romantic dinner at Taco Bell. It was delicious!

All in all the day was great. We took a ton of pictures, I'm sure Dave will be making a video for his blog, so I only included a few here. There were several times during the day that we commented how much more fun it would have been if all our crazy blogger friends could have been there with us! Anyone want to go to Sturgis?

How I know I have O.C.D.

For all of you who think I'm weird...I am now going to confirm it.
I honestly believe that everyone has some degree of obsessive compulsive disorder. While I was driving today I started thinking about all the little "systems" I have while in the car. And that led me to think about the things I do during my day that make some people look at me and scratch their head. I decided to make a list here for everyone to see that there is no shame in being weird. (of course from reading some of your posts and comments, I can see that some of you have no shame. lol)

In the car:

• Because of my job I am in the car for an average of 4 hours a day. I always try to have water and baby carrots with me to snack on. So lately I have a system of watching for speed limit signs and whenever I see one I eat a carrot, then take a drink of water, and then wait for the next speed limit sign before I will eat another one.
• The first thing I do when I get in the car is turn on the radio and find some music, it doesn't matter what kind of music, just music. I will listen to that station until either a commercial or a D.J. comes on, then I will wait for exactly 1 minute and if a new song hasn't started, I will scan to the next station that has music on it. I continue this the whole time I'm in the car.

At home:

• I use my cell phone for my alarm. Before I go to bed, I set the alarm, and then make sure it is enabled. Then immediately I check to make sure I set the right time, then I think "I better check in case I accidentally disabled it the last time I checked it." I repeat this over and over again for about 5 minutes, and then I get pissed at myself and say "screw it, if I'm late, I'm late."
• When I am watching T.V. the volume has to be in increments of 5...5,10,15,20. If it is on anything else it will drive my crazy and I will either fix the volume or turn off the T.V.
• Okay, this next one I have been able to break out of over the last couple of years...I used to think about what I was going to say, and figure out how many syllables it had all together. If it had an odd number of syllables, I would add or subtract words in my head to make it even.
• People hate to play card games with me because every time somebody draws or discards, I have to straighten the deck. Also, when playing cards, they say I take too long organizing my hand.
• All of my money in my wallet has to go from lowest to highest denomination, and it all has to be facing the same way, and right side up.
• In my fridge, and cupboards, every shelf is for a specific purpose..dairy has a shelf, meat, misc. liquids, etc. And in addition to having their own shelves, everything has to be facing with the label forward.

Out to eat:

• The first thing I do when I sit down at a table in a restaurant is make sure my silverware is straight and even on the napkin. I also make sure that everything on the table is straight.
• If I have more than one item on my plate, I will take a bite of each item, then take a drink, then continue in the exact same order for the rest of the meal.

Wow, I think there are a lot more, but after writing this I am thinking that I'm not weird....I'm freaking INSANE! Oh well, hope this makes the rest of you feel okay about any little quirks you may have. :)

My Dad, My Hero

I know that it is "Mother's Day" weekend, but with all of the talk about Military appreciation this month I have been thinking a lot about my dad. My dad is retired Army and I am, and always have been, proud to say that he served in Vietnam. Regardless of how anybody feels about it, he did what his country asked him to do, and I have nothing but respect for him. I have also been thinking a lot about Connie and her husband Josh, and their little girl. I just want to say that when that girl gets older she will be so proud of her parents for the sacrifices they have made.
In 1997 I had the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C. When I went to the wall it made such an impact on me, I couldn't stop crying. I think that is the moment in time that I saw my dad as more than just my father, that was the day I saw my father as a man, and as a hero. That night when I got back to my hotel I knew I had to do something to pay tribute to my dad, so I sat down and wrote him this poem. Now I would like to share it with all of you to show my appreciation to those of you who are serving, or have served, our country; as well as everyone who does their part here at home to support them.
My writing books are all in storage, so I had to do this from memory, hope I got it all.



My Dad, My Hero

I can't say I understand what you went through over there
but after today I have a better idea
when I looked at the names on that beautiful wall
it didn't take long for the teardrops to fall
they taught us in school about Vietnam
they told us many were killed
but to read the names row by row
makes it all much more real
standing there something touched me deep in my soul
I couldn't explain it, but now I know
I saw children of soldiers copying names
and suddenly realized I wasn't the same
we were fortunate because you came home
a lot of their fathers were never known
now as I think back on all I've done wrong
I realize I've taken you for granted for far too long
now I want to tell you what I've always known
but couldn't see
Daddy, you always have been and always will be
a hero to me

Dave's Birthday Ride!!!!

I fell asleep last night looking forward to today. It's Dave's birthday and we (okay I) decided we needed to celebrate. So we thought a ride would be a great way to spend the day. Yeah! It's settled.


I woke up to fog and cold this morning. Bummer. I really wanted to ride to Big Sur. Shucks! Okay...I'm over it...time for plan B. I had to drive to Santa Cruz first thing to drop some kids off, so we decided Dave could just ride the bike up and meet me there and we could figure out what to do next. It might still be cold, but it wouldn't be as bad as riding the coast. As I was sitting there waiting for Dave (I said 9, he heard 9:30, but it's his birthday so I'll give him this one) I was thinking how cold it was and hoping the fog would burn off by the time he got there. Well it didn't. He told me it was pretty cold but I was determined that as long as he was okay with it I would be. We took off on Highway 1 and then up Highway 9 through the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was cold, but the fog was high up so there wasn't any mist, and thankfully there was no wind. I could hang for awhile.

The scenery was beautiful, redwoods everywhere. I tried to get some pictures but I don't think any of them could do the views any justice. By the time we got up to Ben Lomand I started to see some blue sky, and once we got to Boulder Creek there was nothing but sunshine.


After that point I really have no idea what roads or towns we went on or through, I was just really enjoying myself and taking in my environment. I love the way the mountains smell, and sound...okay the sound was the bike, but I still love it.
Dave informed me that we would be eating at the "world famous" Alice's restaurant.
Okay, sounds good, but I've never heard of it. I guess there was a song written about it. I seem to remember him saying something about it being a folk song? I'm not sure if at some point in our acquaintance he misinterpreted something and thought I listened to folk music.... Anyways, the slogan is "You can get anything you want at Alice's." Some of the wait staff were getting pretty friendly, so I think that maybe you really could get anything you wanted. Sorry, just an observation.


The food was excellent and the setting was peaceful and relaxing. After we ate we hung out for a little bit and then decided we'd better get headed back. The ride back to Santa Cruz was perfect. I have to say though that the road was the curviest I have ever traveled on a bike, there were a couple of times I got a little nervous. It isn't that I don't have confidence in Dave's maneuvering abilities, but the cars coming in the other direction freak me out, you never know when someone is going to take one of those corners too fast and end up in your lane. Plus there were quite a few bicyclists riding on the sides of the roads so cars were trying to go around them and that is always scary. But Dave got me back to Santa Cruz without incident.

All in all it was a great day. I'm glad Dave had a birthday. Is anybody having a birthday tomorrow we could celebrate? Aw, who cares let's celebrate anyways.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!!!!!!

Oh so bored!!

I really have nothing in particular to write about, but I'm bored so I wanted to write something. That is really a great opening line huh, really catches the attention of the reader and makes them want to finish. Ha Ha.
Well tomorrow is Dave's birthday...sorry babe. He doesn't really like to celebrate but I usually try to get him to at least get out and do something. We are going to try to go for a ride tomorrow if the weather is decent. The fog started rolling in pretty heavy tonight so I guess we'll just have to see what we wake up to in the morning. It will have to be somewhat of a short ride, due to my work schedule, but hey, a short ride is better than no ride at all. Maybe we will head down the coast to Big Sur and have lunch. There is this really cool restaurant I like called The River Inn. The service hasn't always been great, but the food is good and the location is amazing. It sits right on the river, hence the name, and is surrounded by all types of trees. They even have benches and chairs right in the river so after your meal you can go and relax with your feet in the water. It's fun to go in the water, but I am so clumsy I'm always worried that I'm going to fall and Dave will be fishing my butt out of the river. It isn't that deep but if I ever do fall in I am going to stay down and pretend like I passed out or something to try and alleviate some of the embarrassment.
Anyways, hopefully we will get to ride somewhere so I will have something fun to write about instead of this hopeless blabbering. :)
Be sure to stop by Dave's blog and wish him a happy birthday! (He is so going to kill me.)