mrzip66

I was raised by wolves. Very kind, very nurturing wolves. I love riding to a town a just barely learned the name of on a Friday, making a decision at the intersection to get myself lost 1000 miles away from home on a Saturday, and trying to figure out how the hell I can get home on a Sunday. Just ride a place and see a thing.

Yucca Arizona Route 66

these are pictures I should probably post.

I ride route 66 at least several times a year, but theres a lot of alignments of the old road.   One I’ve always wanted to see was Yucca Arizona, which was route 66 from 1952-1978 or so when interstate 40 opened.

Ghost town feel here.   I took these with my brother on december 29 and never put them on the blog.

Ill probably never go back here.   Oatman is too irresistible to pass up and that whole road between topock and Kingman.    Even so, glad I finally got to see Yucca.

Yucca Arizona Route 66 Read More »

First ride 2010

Funny thing, it was a ride that before my bike blew I wouldn’t even consider a ride.   I think tho, to alot of my friends who ride it woulda been a ride they’d considered big.    Either way, It felt good to me.

Yesterday robyn and I headed out at 8 to go check out a house we’re thinking about renting.   Great big house, for the same price as what we pay here.    It may or may not happen.

Then, we rode to the dealership, grabbed 4 quarts of oil and a filter, then boogied off to our BACA chapter child ride for the month.   Child ride seemed like a good stretch to finish my break in on my engine:  some freeway, some highway, some around town.   We did that, and I went home and changed my oil.

Loco showed up right after and we rode to the firehouse, then over the  utah hill.    Had a few beers at the dam bar with a few friends, then I headed south.   Love my brothers, but damn…. I needed and still need some solo time in the saddle with my bike.

Old Highway 91, before 1-15

Man, I’m looking for something in life right now.   I’m looking for some peace to be honest.   I’m looking to find my way again, my inspiration.   I need a muse.  I know where it is:  its sitting in my garage right now.   I don’t know shit from shinola, but the last 20 years have taught me one thing:   great answers come from long rides.     Its been the reset button for my life.  It’s better than any religion or baptism that I’ve ever known.    It’s been true, and its been proven to me.   I love the open road.

I’m gonna put 500 miles on this bike so I know I can trust this engine, then I’m heading the hell out of town for a real ride.   I need one.    No doubt, I’ll come back a new man.

First ride 2010 Read More »

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Street Glide is Back on the Road

Picked her up yesterday around 2:30.    She feels faster.   Engine sounds tight.    Jerry did a good job.      Rode around last night with a huge smile and the stereo full blast.   Child ride this saturday, then I dump the oil.   Can’t wait.

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Motorcycle Therapy

I’m waiting any day now. my camera is ready, my bags are already packed, and my route is planned. I just don’t have my bike yet. Tomorrow? I hope? Friday? I honestly don’t know.

Maybe you don’t know what I’m talking about.   Maybe touring is not your idea of a good ride.  Thats cool.   To me, it *IS* riding.   Of an 15 hour a day, 3 day ride, this is what its like for me:

  1. first 2 hours, are nothing but stress like any other day.   wondering if I forgot anything, if I am gonna hit rain, if I’ve abandoned my family or if something is going wrong at work.
  2. next 2 hours I realize that I’m actually heading somewhere.   My senses come back.   My feet are up on the foot pegs, and I swear to god theres a tiny hole in my boots where my problems and my life stresses are dripping out.
  3. next 2 hours its dusk, and I’m getting excited.   It’s still a friday or a thursday night.   I’m feeling alive again.   I start to notice the evening stars and The smells of the road.  Music sounds better.   Starting to feel alive again.
  4. I hit my hotel room or pitch my tent, with a new point of view.   Tomorrow, the world is fucking mine.  MINE.   I’m gonna see what there is too see, and my watch isn’t worth looking at because time has slowed down and doesn’t matter.
  5. I wake up, with the cold air on my face, and the day at my feet.   Every decision now is a good one:  Do I eat at the local coffee shop, or quick mart?  There are no wrong answers.   everything is an experience now.    I have all day.   Tonight, I’ll be even further from home.   Load the bike, and get on with it.     Its all good.
  6. I ride all day.  I feel my wits and my senses come back.   I know, worse case scenario that If I have to I can not show up to work till tuesday morning, or make 1k miles on a ride home.   Maybe I’ll be back monday at noon.  It’s not going to screw up today.
  7. Toward saturday at around 4pm, I make more decisions about my day.   I’ll live by them.  I hit my camp by dusk, set my camp, drink a nip of scotch, call my wife and tell her my philosophy or description of my day.  by this point, I’m a new man and I miss her and my kids.   I’m looking foward to seeing her.
  8. sunday morning, I head home.   no matter how far away that is.

Cheap therapy for about 6 tanks of gas, a sleeping bag and a love of the open road.   You tell me what else can do this, and I’ll kiss your ass.   After 42 years of life, I haven’t found it.

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Route 66 2010

My blog has Veered way off course.  this is a road blog.  Time to get her back on track.

My bike will soon be back.    After a lunch trip to mesquite at a reasonable speed, I’m gonna change her oil at around 100 miles.   Then I’m gonna take her to vegas and back around the lake, put around the towns and freeways, then drop her oil again.

Then gentlemen, It’s on.   I’m a free man.   Every day, if not every hour I’ve been thinking about taking a solo ride to texas. This is just gonna be me, my bike, my wits and my random thoughts getting scattered along route 66. It’s getting filled back up with life in a big way. Its gonna be sleeping in a tent at night, riding all day, and looking forward to tomorrow for 4 days. Then looking forward to work on day 5. It’s like a full battery charge for me, and for my bike.

Thursday Morning:  Day 1.  I’ll leave in the AM and head to holbrook.   A decent 500 mile day.

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I play on staying in a tent in the KOA there. If my brother Guy is around, I’d love to buy him a beer or two and shoot the shit. He’s the founder of Arizona B.A.C.A. and a a person that when I met him, I instantly liked. Holbrook I’ve always liked anyway, so if it doesn’t work out then I’ll be happier than a pig in shit there, staring up at the arizona stars.

Friday, Day 2. I’m gonna be up early and start heading to amarillo. Never been to texas, and thats a damn shame.

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All new territory for me after Gallup. Never ridden that far east on a bike. My eyes will be open for things I’ll want to come check out on the way back. It’ll probably haunt me for months if I miss em. Thats the beauty of riding: the ride is always perfect. What you miss is what you want to go back and see. I don’t know of another activity in the world that is that way. It truly is the journey. The destination is a huge bonus, so there is never a let down.

I may stop at the big texan steak house. I may go see my friend brian lovato who lives there. I may just pull in at midnight exhausted from exploring all day. Either way, I’m riding.

Saturday, Day 3: Gonna wake up early again, get some coffee in, and head west again towards new mexico and see an old alignment of route 66, and shit that I’ve probably missed on the way to amarillo. Explore a bit. If I am not on schedule I’m not gonna worry about it too much.

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Santa fe is an old alignment of route 66, and there’s some easy rider destinations in there as well. the parade scene, and a little north of there is the jail scene. I may do both, I may do neither. I’m not going to plan it, its a decision at the intersection. It’s all new to me, so I don’t care.

Sunday, Day 4: Grants New Mexico to St George Utah.

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617 miles my last day. Beautiful. god, I can’t wait.

It all starts next week when I get my bike back. Break her in, then she breaks me in. I’m counting the minutes in my head….

Route 66 2010 Read More »

Spring is in the air.

Dammit, I’m frustrated.

I knew from the 90 minutes I sat by the side of the freeway last december when I blew my engine, that I was going to spend at least 3 grand to get it rolling again.   A few weeks later I figured 4 grand.  then, when my flywheel was fucked I figured it would be $4,500.  I’d planned on raising that much.   I raised $1900 and gave it to jerry, which left 2600 bucks I had to come up with.     Jerry called me and told me my bike would be done thursday.   I rallied, did some hustling, sold some web sites and got 2500 bucks thursday.   Man, was I happy.  I made my goal.

Till i got there and found out I was 1,175 dollars short.   I’ll raise that too.   I’m waiting on one part to come in from Milwaukee, then I’ll be riding again.   Jerry is being very fair to me on a bike that needed everything but case halves, cylinders and heads.

Really, none of this matters.  Not your problem, It’s my problem.    I was hoping to be breaking my bike in again tonight.   Listening to the stereo, cruising over the utah hill tonight, dreaming of where I’d ride to this summer.   I’d change my oil for the initial break in, and ride a few hundred more miles and change it again.   Then, the US is my oyster.

My bike is important to me.   Man, Maybe too important to some people, but certainly not to me.   It’s my sanity — my reset button.   It’s my psychiatrist that asks for nothing more than a tank of gas and an unknown road to tell me exactly what I need to do to make my life, my BACA chapter, my family and my direction all come into harmony and be better.   You may not understand that.   If you don’t, you probably don’t ride.     4 hours into an unknown direction, things come into focus.   Clarity happens.    I learn to appreciate the thorns that I have bled to, the plant that I am keeping alive and the roses that smell so sweet once again.     I’ll ride another 10 hours away from home, and the way home I go home a better man.  A more patient husband, an understanding father.   Thats not drama, thats reality.    I absolutely understand that I need to ride.

The last 2 years I’ve given up so much.   I lost my home of  15 years.   I went months and months keeping my employees paid and me going home with nothing most weeks.   I’ve had repo men on my doorstep more than a few times.   I’ve defaulted on credit cards.    i’ve had phone calls from people I’ve owed money to.   I’ve had fridays I’ve barely made payroll.    My wife has not had grocery money.   I’ve sat home a failure, with my phone blowing up from bill collectors.    All with my bike in the garage, and 25 bucks for 2 tanks of gas, and I’ve risen and fought again on monday.

Now, my business is profitable again.   have a little money, and am using it to pay off the debt I’ve accrued to keep my business alive.   My business partner has stayed my best friend, who fights his fights as well, and many of mine.   But my bike is not in the garage, and I can’t enjoy any of it without it.   Next week, I will.   I’m going to take a few hundred dollars, ride to texas for the first time in my life, re-align my priorities, and come home with my ass on fire and my head clear.    Gotta get my rockability back.

Even my bike let me down at the perfect time of the year.    I can’t complain about a thing.

My wife is rock solid.  I’ve picked my friends well.   My business is healthy.   My family is good.    Once my bike is back, I’ll be complete.       Like I said, its not me being dramatic.   It’s a fact of my life.     I am a Biker.

Spring is in the air. Read More »

Holy Shit

Just called Jerry.   My bike is gonna be done thursday.   I’m not going to be able to sleep for 2 days.   I also gotta find a few thousand dollars.    I’ll find it.   You’ve never met a man more motivated.

First thing im gonna do is take the old girl to the firehouse for a beer.   It’s date night.

Holy Shit Read More »