Glenn, What are you doing?




Glenn, What are you doing? I often ask myself that question. The short answer is: I'm figuring it out as I go. Among other activities, I've been busy this summer helping my dad be 90 years old and helping a step-grandchild be 25 years old. The latter doesn't really want my help/opinions, but I figure it can't hurt to show him what life-skills look like. As a result of all of the busyness, I haven't spent much time on my business -- blogging that is. I'm starting out with little knowledge, but hoping to pick it up as I go.

To unwind from the chaos of life, I'm going to wind my new Kawasaki KLR 650 Adventure with ABS up and down some twisty roads through the Inter-Mountain West to Oregon and back. Roughly speaking, from DFW, I'm going to search out back roads up to Southwest Colorado. From there, I'll point toward Salt Lake City, Boise, and on to Portland. I'm hoping to spend a day or two visiting my old friend from Lubbock. Oregon will be my 49th state -- only Alaska to conquer after that.

Coming home, I'm thinking I'll head south down the Pacific Coast. On the list is to see the Red Woods and ride across the Golden Gate bridge. I'm sure I'll think of more things to see as well. If I decide that I'm not biting off more than I chew, I'll probably head over to Arizona and stop by my Aunt and Uncle's house near Sedona before making a path the El Paso. El Paso is a terminal point for U.S. Highway 62. For reasons that I will skip over for now, I want to do an Adventure travel blog covering the entire length of 62. On second though, maybe I should put off El Paso Until next fall when I'll be 62 years old.

Okay. So, what I am doing right now is gearing up for the trip. That involves products. I haven't figured out the blogging platform/affiliated marketing thing yet; so for now, I'm just going to mention products that I should eventually turn into links in hopes of earning commission, ad revenue and such.

I did my first Oil Change @ 600 mile on the odometer. Products involved: HiFlo (www.hiflo.com) Filto Premium Oil Filter HF123 from Amazon (www.amazon.com). I bought a 3-Pack.  I used a new crush washer: 12mm Trackside copper Drain Plug Washers that I bought at Cycle Gear (www.cyclegear.com). To make the inside of the motor slick, I used a little over 2 quarts of Castrol Actevo 20w50 semi-synthetic motorcycle oil. The manual recommends 10w40, but allows for 20w50. It's too hot outside. So I went a little heavier. I was surprised to find this product reasonably priced on the shelf at the local Walmart (www.walmart.com). Lastly, I'm not sure how I ever managed to work on anything without a torque wrench over the years. I bought a 3/8 inch drive torque wrench and a tool kit with metric and American Standard (SAE) sockets at Harbor Freight (www.harborfreight.com)

I have more "gearing up" (motorcycling is full of great metephors) to do and products to mention; but right now, I'm figuring I need to go play in traffic (Rideshare Drive) for a while to help pay for my escapades. BTW: I had a chatty passenger yesterday. He was inquiring about the freedom that Rideshare affords me. So, I told him I was getting ready to ride to Oregon. He said: "You are my hero!". Then I dropped him off at watering hole. He tipped me 3 bucks, even though he's paying to put a couple of kids through college.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Friendly Wave

Image
US-380 somewhere in New Mexico. This road will get your left arm in shape from waving at the numerous motorcyclists that favor it. When one is riding a motorcycle out on the open road, nearly all motorcyclists wave to each other. I got to thinking, some ride Japanese, some ride American, some ride Bavarian, some ride Austrian, some ride British, some even ride motorcycles manufactured in India. Some are trikes, some are dual sports, some are choppers, some are land yachts. Passing each other on the road, nobody know what or if they follow politics. Nevertheless, they wave.  There are many tribes out on the road. I even waved to some that were cops on motorcycles, and they waved back. I saw a guy that seem stranded at the TX-70 exit off of I-40/Rt 66. I stopped to make sure he was okay. In Flagstaff, I got cold at sunset, so I stopped on the side of the road to put on an extra layer. While dawning my jacket and a set of glove liners, a guy stopped and asked if, I was okay. The World...
Read more

Why do we say "My stars" when they are nobody's stars.

Image
I meant to get a photo of a sign marking the site of the Trinity Atomic Bomb test. I missed it, so substituting this photo of the VLA (very large array) radio telescope. I might have missed the photo op, because I was busy thinking about Albert Einstein while I was riding across the West. As a result of Einstein's work, the military industrial complex thought to build weapons of mass destruction and a global positioning system GPS to aid in delivery of said weapons. Whether people know it or not, GPS works because someone understand relativity. Anyway, it should be troubling for one to think about the adversity war creates for civilization. To turn tumult toward tranquility, one has to focus on the positive aspects in Einstein's expansion of the understanding of physics. Although over-regulation and irrational fears slow development, clean safe nuclear power is possible and should become a major supplier to satisfy our growing need for electricity. It really is just sad that po...
Read more

What planet are you from?

Image
“- Young Ellie: Dad, do you think there's people on other planets? - Ted Arroway: I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.”    As usual I was running late. The VLA (very large array) radio telescope is about 50 miles west of Socorro, NM. In the movie "Contact" it was supposed to be part of SETI. It is not part of SETI; but if I wasn't late, I wanted to stop at the visitors center to ask if they made contact yet. Oh well, I got a pretty good image post sunset. When I'm in Arizona I usually take US 60 and AZ-260. It's a nice scenic route. Part of it was smokey today between Payson and Show Low. Fire somewhere south of the route. There was a lot more traffic today than I remember. Maybe it was travelers to home coming football games. I took an off-route excursion to Lakeside south of Show Low. There were a lot of people sitting in lawn chairs facing the road. I'm not sure why they weren't ch...
Read more