• Category Archives Biking

  • Motorcycle Accident (Not my own)

    Posted on by Wells 1 Comment

    So, a friend of mine got into a motorcycle accident yesterday… here is his description of the accident:

    So an update on what happend yesterday. I pretty much totaled my bike yesterday because the lady in front of me decided she wanted to slam on her brakes and when I tried to do the same I think I locked up one or both of my tires. I ended up highsiding into her trunk. I walked away from it for the most part. I ended up with a pretty bad concussion and a dislocated jaw, elbow, and shoulder along with a couple loose teeth and I bit a whole in part of my lip and a couple of bruised ribs along with some minor road rash on my knee and some miscellaneous bruises. all in all I’m just happy it wasn’t worse

    My take on this: Sounds to me that he locked up his rear tire, allowing the rear end of his bike to swing a bit before impact. Along with this, it sounds to me that he was following entirely too close, which is really not surprising. I know a lot of motorcyclists who get behind other vehicles entirely too closely, and I observe it in groups of motorcycles all the time. For whatever reason the whole two second rule never seems to get into their heads, and when it comes time to hit the brakes because the person in front has hit their brakes hard, disaster is the result.


    Biking

  • NanoWrimo

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So, I have decided to start doing NanoWrimo this month. What the heck… the worst that can happen is that I don’t finish or something. Meh.

    I have gotten a bit of an outline going, and I have a general concept in my head now of what I am sort of wanting to do, but don’t really have any solid goals yet. I will worry about that later. Basically, the first thing I did was grab a very basic outline of a plot summary concerning the mythic hero, and I will fill in the outline from there. The base words are there, I just need to go in for each plot point and define where I am going to go for each of those points. From there, I can then expand out into a real story and novel and see what happens.


    Biking Books Me

  • Road trip – Day Four

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    The final day.

    Woke up and got on the road, and very quickly found myself in Tallahassee. Tooled around there for a little while, but truthfully the Florida state capitol is not the biggest thing on my list of things to see. Continued out via US27, but got decidedly bored of that and took SR59 down to US98. Much more interesting ride down in that area.

    While riding down 98, came across a massive alligator in the middle of the road. It stretched entirely across a single lane of traffic, so figure in the 12 foot range. I just patiently waited for it to get off the road before proceeding, because it was a big one.

    Also saw a boar that had been hit lying on the side of the road. The different animals that I saw on this trip was pretty interesting.

    Got back on US27 in Perry, and kept on it until High Springs, at which point transferred over to 441 and headed home. Not too much going on for this trip, though I did stop at a bar in Alachua for lunch, where they had some incredible chicken strips. I will have to go back there sometime for that again.


    Biking 📎and tagged

  • Road trip – Day three

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    In the morning, went downstairs and had breakfast. Typical stuff for a buffet. Got on the bike and headed east on SR52 out to Buckhorn, then south on SR9 to Dawsonville. From there headed west on 53 out to Calhoun, where I tried to find a treehouse that apparently does not actually exist. Oh well.

    In Calhoun, I stopped at a motorcycle shop because I have been looking for a small leather fork bag for the front of the bike to hold small things like registration and such when I don’t have the saddlebags on the bike. I found one there, and talking to the owner found out a couple of things about long distance riders. I can tell I am not the type that really wants one of these giant Goldwings… they seem to promote the kind of rider that gets on the Interstate and then goes for hundreds of miles at a time. Just not my kind of riding I guess… I want to look at the countryside and stuff!

    Anyway, headed out of Calhoun south towards Rome, then out the other side and into Alabama. By this time, I was starting to not feel all that great, so it was about this time that I started to think about heading for home instead of my original plan to head over into Mississippi. I started heading south through Alabama, stopping here and there for rest breaks and lunch (ate lunch at Taco Bell… it was good.)

    Around 5pm or so I had gotten back across the Talledega mountains (and through Talledega itself) and was finally heading back into Georgia. Passed through Fort Benning, then met up with US27 and headed south until I got into Blakely. Looked for a place to stay for the night, but there was nothing there worth staying at. On the way out of town, just after I had cleaned the visor on my helmet, I rode underneath a tree and hit a couple of thousand little white bugs… instant white across the face, couldn’t see a thing. Had to stop again and clean the visor… again.

    Rolled into Bainbridge where there was a just recently bought out Super-8 that was still in good condition. Stayed there, tried to find a decent place to eat in town, but eventually settled for a burger joint.


    Biking

  • Road trip – Day Two

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Headed out of Madison north on US 441, finally stopping in Cornelia. There I got to see a large red apple sitting on a pedestal in the middle of town. This was also a crossroads of sorts for more railroad stuff, so I took some pictures of the interesting engines that they had sitting there as well. There were also two cute little statues near the apple that I took pictures of.

    Then I found lunch in a small diner whose location I can no longer find, but oddly enough I had actually been there before, two years ago when I made the opposite version of this trek.

    After lunch continued down the road, then headed over to Highlands, NC for a bit of mountain road riding. Ended up eventually in Franklin, where I met up with a couple of folks who had been doing some long-haul riding as well. Talked to them for a little while, then continued heading west towards Deal’s Gap, despite knowing that it was closed due to a landslide. Headed west on 28 until it reached 74, then took 74. At that intersection, I met up with the same group that somehow had managed to pass me without my seeing them do it. Not exactly sure how that happened, as we had followed the same route. They commented on my bike there, as they had not seen a Triumph Thunderbird before.

    There was another old codger there on a Valkyrie 2000, and he also commented with the added comment that Triumph had to go to a three cylinder design in order to beat out the Valkyrie in size. Something bothered me about this comment, but it has taken a while for me to boil down just what it was that bothered me about it. I think the thing about it was that he considered displacement of the machine to be the end-all of what was important about the ride, which is really the furthest thing from the truth. I feel that what is important is that you are comfortable with the ride for what you are trying to do. Obviously you would not feel comfortable riding a large cruiser on a dirt track, but it is the application that is what matters.

    Trying to find my way into the area of Deal’s Gap turned out to be a real pain, and eventually I gave up and started heading down to where I wanted to spend the night, at Amicalola Falls. Got there, got a room, and had dinner to a wonderful sunset.

    Never even turned on the television here. I had internet, and connected to Jango in order to get some music piping into the room that I wanted, and I was done for the night.


    Biking

  • Road trip – Day One

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Good day riding… weather was gorgeous, and the roads relatively clear. Took US441 north all the way to Homerville, GA, then headed east to Waycross, where I visited the Heritage Center. Some very interesting things in there, and I took a number of pictures of the train that they have there.

    From there I headed off to Douglas, GA in search of Captain Muffler Man…. didn’t find him, but I did find a nice place to eat at Hanna’s Cafe. I had the roasted prime rib sandwich with homefries, and was quite satisfied with it.

    From Douglas I headed north on US441 again to McRae, GA, where I got to see a replica of the Statue of Liberty in the town center, along with a replica of the Liberty Bell.

    Moving on I headed out on US23 to Eastman, GA, passing a great scrap metal yard where the guy had taken a bunch of scrap metal and made different things with it. After that was a view of the world’s first Stuckey’s in Eastman.

    Next thing was heading north and making my way to Madison, GA to see Bruce Weiner’s Microcar Museum, but by the time I arrived in Madison it was too late to go see it, so I found a place to stay instead.

    Ate dinner at Pacho’s Mexican Grill, whose food is pretty decent though the service is a bit slow. I had the beef fajita, which was quite decent and had some really nice cilantro flavoring to it. They also have a salsa with their chips that is quite good. It is a mild sauce, and has a touch of chipotle in it, but not so much that the smokiness of chipotle overwhelms everything else. Yummy!


    Biking 📎and tagged

  • Lunch at Mexico Lindo in Lake City

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So, I was on a ride… hrm… this actually was a longer ride than usual, and requires that I start at the beginning.

    So, Friday evening I decided that I was going to go to a gun show at the American Legion post in Trenton, because I had never been to a gun show and it somewhat interested me. Get up nice and early and start heading out there. On the way an older classic plated car pulls out right in front of me, to which I had to brake pretty heavily. You would think that the owner of a classic vehicle would be more concerned with what they are doing and not pull out in front of traffic like that. Kept heading down the road, and eventually reached Trenton only to find that the main street of Trenton is completely blocked off for an arts and crafts festival.

    So I park the bike and take a walk around. Lots of quilts and stuff floating around, which I took a couple of pictures of. The pictures are in the camera still, so they won’t get posted here at the moment.

    Turns out the car that pulled out in front of me earlier was heading for this show as well, to be an exhibit in the street. I considered accosting the driver, but decided to pass on it… if they get into an accident, serves their own damned fault!

    So, finish with walking around and get on the bike to start heading out, only to find that in order to start heading towards Bell, where the Legion hall is actually at (despite the name), I have to go through a bunch of side streets and stuff because the main street is blocked off and there is no easy way around. Oh well… not that big a deal on the Intruder.

    Get to the hall, and pay my entrance fee. Looked at the guns for a while, but it just didn’t interest me all that much. Left pretty quickly after that and started to realize that I was getting hungry, and I really didn’t want anything back in Trenton, so I kept heading north on SR 129 until I got to Branford, which had…. NOTHING. Little po-dunk town with a gas station and nothing else.

    Eventually I got to Live Oak, which I know has food. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything that I really wanted at the time. I am somewhat picky when it comes to barbecue, and I really wasn’t in the mood for it in the first place. They also had a mexican place there that did look somewhat interesting, but I also wasn’t in the mood for that. I was really looking for a bistro, somewhat fancy, and it just wasn’t happening. I guess I need to learn to lower my standards a bit. There was a diner there that I checked out, but walking in it felt too commercial, so I walked out of there after perusing the menu and confirming my suspicions that it would be your typical american fair.

    Headed east out of Live Oak heading towards Lake City, and of course skipped all of the fast food joints that were along the main drag near the interstate. Got into the main part of town, and went up and down the main street. There were two places in there that looked semi-interesting, but one of them was closed for the day (apparently only serves dinner) and the other looked like they weren’t serving either.

    By this time I was bloody hungry, and just about anything would do, which is why I then went to Mexico Lindo. It is in the south part of town, between route 41 and 441. I was the only one there when I walked in, and was greeted by a very nice little mexican girl.

    She initially came out with the standard chips and salsa. The chips were standard, but I found the salsa to be a bit too wet. Some sort of thickener needed to be added to it to make it actually stick to the chips a bit more.

    I ordered a burrito thing, and I took pictures that are still on my phone, but it appears that my phone is currently having issues sending anything anywhere, so that will have to wait. I found it to be quite tasty, with a sauce added to it that I could not quite identify. Somewhat salty (the sauce), with a sort of weak caper taste. Very interesting and a nice flavor.

    Only one other patron walked in while I was sitting there having my meal… a family who looked as if they had just come back from soccer practice or something.

    So, the meal was quite nice and I would recommend them again to others.


    Biking Food 📎and tagged

  • Another ride and food

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Went for a ride this morning, leaving around 10am. Headed out to the beaches via SR 100 and Palatka. Took 100 all the way down to Bunnell and US 1, then US 1 down to Ormond Beach. When US 1 crosses under I-95, there is a huge motorcycle superstore there at the intersection, and I stopped in there to take a look at things. The Harley shop had bupkis for me, and their saddlebags (which I am in need of new ones) frankly scare the daylights out of me. Why would you ever pay $800 USD for a set of saddle bags? I don’t care if they are made of leather… that is just too much.

    There was another place in the same complex that does after market stuff and stuff for metric bikes, and they had some decent bags there. I didn’t buy any, but I took note of the manufacturers of the bags that I liked, and I will probably just order them online instead.

    Kept going down US 1 and took the turn off to Ormond Beach, then headed north on A1A until I got to one of my favorite places to eat lunch… High Tides at Snack Jack. The food is decent there, and the view is incredible, overlooking the ocean the way it does. All cage parking is via valet, as they have a limited amount of room for parking and they know how to park vehicles better than the rest of us do, at least for their parking lot. Bikes on the other hand simply park in a small area they have designated.

    I just had the wings this time around, and they were quite good. Lots of meat on the bone, and the sauce was just spicy enough for my tastes, which means that a normal person would have been unhappy. It wasn’t drowned in the stuff, however, which is something that I have found a number of places do in order to make their wings “super hot” (as an aside, for those that have been to The Blog of Unnecessary Quotes, I believe I used those quotes quite appropriately.)

    Left there and headed further north into Flagler Beach, where I hit another of my favorite places to eat… the A1A Burrito Works. They don’t have a website, but they can be searched for on Google and an address found there. Ordered a large beef burrito with all the works, and it was incredible. Their burritos are different from those found at Burrito Bros. Taco Company, and I really can’t say that they are better or worse. The one key ingredient that made their burritos so darned good, I have to say, is the large amount of cilantro they put into it. That gave it a spiciness that was just heavenly.

    After finishing my burrito, I continued up the road until I reached another favorite stopping-off point, the Hammock Wine and Cheese Shoppe. They are normally closed on Mondays, but their front door was open so I took a peek inside. Turns out that they are remodeling the place a bit and moving some things around to make things easier to sell and stuff. They should be done by the end of the week, and on Saturday they will be having a wine tasting event as a grand re-opening of the place. I was able to make a purchase, since they were there and I gave them a much needed uplifting of attitudes. Bought a bottle of dessert wine, which I will have to try out… it is a red Muscat.

    By this time it was starting to get late, and I curtailed my plan to head all the way up into St. Augustine and then home, and instead just cut across to Palatka when I got to Crescent Beach. The ride home was uneventful.


    Biking Food 📎and tagged

  • Blue Highway Pizzeria

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Went to the Micanopy Blue Highway Pizzeria last Friday, and enjoyed every bit of it.

    Went there after work after going for about a 50 mile ride on the bike. I took the reverse 100 mile route, skipping a good portion of it since I really just wanted to eat something, but didn’t want to take the direct route to the pizzeria.

    Blue Highway was as good as always. Ordered my favorite there, a thin crust Hawaiian with onions. I know, it’s odd, but I enjoy it so much.

    Shoot… forgot to include a link to their website:  Blue Highway Pizzeria

    I have yet to try the one in Tioga Town Center. It seems to me that there is just no way that one could be as good as the one in Micanopy, which is the original.


    Biking Food