2016....looking back Part #2...Terlingua and Big Bend Texas

As the winter dragged on from 2015 into 2016 one thing was quite evident...this winter was much warmer and less snow filled that the previous bitter and snow filled 14/15 season.  Still it dragged on and I looked forward to getting the TW down south to warmer weather and some good riding in.   March 2015 it was Moab, Utah, with a gang of 3 dozen...this year it would be just five of us.  Nick and I would haul our TW 200s to Big Bend National Park in south Texas...we would  be joined by our Dual Sport Adventure partner out of rural Auburn, Indiana, "Borneo" soon to become "Judge Borneo"...having retired his law practice and at the time running for a local Judgeship{which he would win and takes office January 1st}...Ebbanflood Jim from the outer banks of New York, who was with us in Moab as well, and a new guy to our group, but certainly not to motorcycles...Fort Wayne Gary, the owner of the local Harley dealership in that Indiana City....those 3 would be coming separate and riding larger bikes....

So the first Saturday in March, Nick and I loaded up his Ford 4 x 4 pick up and headed south....no stops overnight, just gas and pee breaks, we would arrive in the infamous Chili Town of Terlingua, Texas, on the north side of Big Bend.

After 30 hours or so of almost non stop driving, we decided a motel and a few beers and a nice long hand rolled cigar smoke would be good before heading into the Park the next day....so Sunday night we crashed at the Chisos Mining Motel in 'Downtown" Terlingua...

We drank a few, smoked a good cigar or two, and finally got a decent nights sleep, before heading into Big Bend the next morning, where we would camp and ride for the next week....except for one night with the other 3 at the Chisos Mountain Lodge{You can see the view, called "The Window"...one of the shots I took from the Restaurant walk way at the top of this post}.

All in all the 8 or 9 days went well...no accidents, plenty of riding, and frankly a few rides I didn't complete, which is why I will return this February and March, well at least that this the current plan.

More photos of the week at Big Bend Below.....

We would return the following week to Ohio, where flooding rains had caused a mess at my place and others....but knowing there was nothing that could be done if I had been home, I was glad to be gone for those 10 days or so....

Back to reality and part #3 coming up next.....

2016 in Review....Part #1

This will be my 11th and likely last series of 2016 postings{this is likely to go 3 or maybe 4 entries}...since I started this blog back in July of 2007 I have posted as many as 264 times {2008}per year and that dropped to 53 last year, and frankly blogs had started to die off....I have fought to keep this one, but even my interests had changed to social media outlets like Facebook....despite the fact I despise some of the stuff there and especially despise the owner, Mark Suckenberg...a left wing turd to the Nth degree...I hate the fact that I may be contributing to his massive and not earned wealth...but WTF?  Until somebody on the Right Side comes up with a equal or better outlet...Facebook will remain my main place to get political and other items off my chest....I will however keep plugging away on this Blog, however un~frequent it may be.

Looking Back at 2016...

As 2015 turned to January of the New Year...I spent my usual Bowl Bash at my best friend Rick Pearson's place in NE Indiana....beer{too much} food {way too much} and TV football{yeah, too much of that as well}...the Winter of 2015-16 proved to be one of the more mild and snowless seasons in many years...I only got the Snow Machine out twice...and even then not for more than 3 inches of the white stuff...I, frankly, just wanted to make sure the machine was working in fine fashion.

Nick and I did get the Dual Sport Yamahas' out on one too cold to ride day in January...maybe 30-33 degrees as we rode the back roads to Sidney, Ohio...froze our asses off...real stupid for two old farts:

February was mostly officiating Basketball, much like January and December....I figured out long ago that Basketball was my least favorite sport to officiate...a distant 3rd behind Baseball{by far my fav} and Football...probably comes from the fact that although I was a damn good baseball player, could play football{not that well} but I really sucked at roundball....

Anyway as we froze, we started making plans for another TW Dual Sport Adventure Ride....2016 would not be as intense as 2015 when we hit Moab, Utah{March}, the Great Lakes{July/Aught} and West Virginia and Southeast Ohio{early November}...This March we wanted to stay warm...or at least I wanted to ride in warmer weather...we had lucked out the year before...I wanted to "Luck Out" again in 2016.

March 2016...Big Bend National Park, and Terlingua, Texas....

Plans came together to ride Big Bend along the Southern Texas/Mexican Border...we would meet up with Kurt the Judge, Fort Wayne Harley Guy Gary, and Jim from the New York Outer Banks of the Atlantic....they would either ride or in Jim's case ship their larger rides to Austin and then ride and hook up with Nick and me at Big Bend/Rio Grande Village Campsite.  Nick and I would load the TWs into the back of his Pick~Up and haul them the 1600 miles out of Celina.

Like the old fools we are, we drove straight through to Terlingua where we grabbed a motel and smoke cigars and downed beers before we got on the road south into the National Park the next morning...

Big Bend would be the first of only 2 "Major Rides" of 2016.....and photos from the Texas ride will be forthcoming in Part #2

Back Later>>>>

The Back Yard Harrier {Marsh} Hawk

For much of the last decade, a female Marsh Hawk has been visiting our back yard ..... I have posted photos before, including some where she dispatched and feasted on a wayward and unlucky Pigeon in our driveway....

She{I am assuming it the same one, size and markings are similar} came back a few weeks ago and has been around the back yard bird and Squirrel feeding area a couple of times over the past week...and I did manage to get a couple of decent shots off...with the camera that is:  The two most recent photos{yes it's the same bird she just has her feathers fluffed up in one} and bottom his the unlucky Pigeon as lunch in December 2013....

 

Tis' the Season....

I went through a stretch of a decade or more without getting a hint of a cold or virus during the winter or any season....that all changed during high school football officiating in 2015.  I came up with a cold, which turned into Bronchitis and because I refused to get it taken care of,  it lasted about 3 months...happens when you reach middle 60s....well that was the catalyst , and in the past 15 months I have had the virus 3 times, and I may, or hopefully not, becoming up on event #4.  At this point it "just a cold" and I still managed to get in my games at Delphos St. Johns last evening....we will see how it shakes out, but no more will I allow it to linger....off to the urgent care site I will go if it's not better in the next day or so, or worse yet, it gets worse!

With High School Basketball fully underway and the Christmas Holiday Season upon us times will be busy. Last weekend we went down to Lebanon, Ohio, for our annual Christmas Train excursion with youngest son Hal, his wife, and the Grandsons....


I continue to watch the post election news with a jaundiced view....the far left loons and their panic and hysteria over Trump's Victory is something else to behold....including the media, they are a group of Anti American Misfits, who should just pull the trigger on their miserable selves and be done with it, thus putting them out of their, and our,  misery....the Founding Fathers are, without a doubt, spinning in their graves watching this from the Great Beyond.

I would be remiss if I didn't recall that today, December 7th, is the 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, when the Japs, for reasons likely only known to them and FDR, targeted the tiny Island Base....I visited the Arizona Memorial when I was on R&R from Vietnam in April 1970....the nearly 29 years post Attack seems like a long time ago, back then...and now?  75 years....where have the days since April 1970 gone?

Back Later....

Photos:  top~Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941  Grandsons K~Man and Kam on the Lebanon to Cincinnati Christmas Train, and PRH in Hawaii on R&R April 1970

Pissing Off "The Haters" Ohio State Makes the CFB Final Four

Almost as much fun as having "Thee" Ohio State Buckeyes making the National Championship Playoffs for the 2nd time in three years{they won it all in 2014} is the gnashing of teeth by those that hate this team...

Guess that's why I root for Duke in Basketball and OSU in Football...sure as far as the latter, I'm from Ohio, son Sam graduated from OSU in 2012....but the loathing from those that despise both Duke Roundball and OSU Football is a sight to behold....I enjoy poking my fingers in the eyes, Social Media Speaking, of the "Haters"....

With Ohio State sitting home, due to the tie breaker set up in the Big Ten, the #2 Ranked Buckeyes were almost assured of a spot in the Final 4....but don't tell that to Penn State fans or the others that hate OSU Football.  They wanted that spot, because if the Nit Wit Lions won the B1G over Wisconsin{which they did in come from behind fashion} they, despite 2 early season loses, including a 49-10 ass kicking at Michigan, OSU's Arch Rival{who the Buckeyes defeated in two overtimes the week before} would have beaten Ohio State and won the Big Ten Title....Frankly good arguments...but no way that PSU's "Resume" was close to Ohio State's and the Selection Committee thought the same...thus here are the Final Four:

With Penn State on the outside at #5....and they get the Rose Bowl against USC...a game they might be capable of winning...a #4 slotted PSU team, IMO, would have had almost NO chance of beating #1 Alabama....neither does Washington.  On the other side, Ohio State and their opponent Clemson, both have a better match-up vs the defending Champions....OSU beat Bama in the 2014 Semis on their way to the crown....and this young team, while not yet as good as the 14 squad are certainly on that way....

In all honesty I think Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan, and even Oklahoma, are better than Washington....but you know the committee really doesn't want 2 teams from one conference vying for the title come January 9th plus the Sooners shot themselves in the foot early on by losing to Houston at a Texas site and at home to the Buckeyes....and you can't blame the committee, that would be a ratings disaster, having say Michigan and OSU in the Championship Game....well except for Big Ten Fans and those of us here in the Midwest.


In the meantime, for Penn State fans and other "Haters" ....Suck It Up Buttercups....the Committee has spoken and there is not a damn thing you can do, but bitch about it....

Now That the Election is Over.....

Sure there is still the Electoral College, and that moron, Jill the Fake Hebrew Stein,  working with the Nazi George Soros and his money to undermine the Election Results....but for the most part, we sit and wait to see how much damage the Kenyan Queen can do in his last 7 weeks in office...but for all intense purposes, Trump is putting together his post election team, and we will see if he can put his supporters at ease and deliver on his promise to "Make America Great Again".  I,  of course, have my doubts...but then again, I was a Ted Cruz supporter from the get-go, and although I am happy that Trump won....I am not a TrumpBot in Good Standing, by any means...time will tell if he can change the Polluted States of America that the Far and Near Left have created....

This morning on facebook{of all places} I got into a conversation about a vehicle accident we had nearly 50 years ago in Lima, Ohio, with my late brother Mike's 1964 Dodge...


....Bob Jones and PRH back in 1968


Mike was stationed in Thailand in the Air Force at the time, and let me use his Dodge for the year he was to be gone....and I did use and abuse it...being the 18 year old I was....with no sense or no sense of responsibility.  I rolled the vehicle on July 4, 1967, outside Bowling Green, Ohio, on an ill thought out trip to the Amusement Park, Cedar Point...spent the summer paying off the damage money, I had borrowed from mom...some $500. 

Late in the Summer my next door neighbor Bob Jones,  one of a handful of Childhood Best Friends I had, headed Lima to shop...what the Hell for?  I have no idea...this was nearly 50 years ago remember...we were just out of High School and less than a year from getting drafted[we both choose to join the military the next Summer of 68...him in the Navy, me the Air Force}. 

Driving down Cable Road, at a normal plus rate of speed, probably a bit fast but nothing overly so, I crossed a intersection in the

{Here is a 64 Dodge much like Brother Mikes}Dodge when some elderly lady{probably about my age now} pulled her Buick Special in front of the Dodge, and she and her Buick received the worst of it.<64 brother="" dodge="" font="" like="" mike="" much="" s="">


The Dodge, with the exception of a small dent on the driver side headlight ring had zero damage...the Buick was towed from the scene.  The lady tried to convince the cop that "He was driving to fast"....the officer responded...."The skid marks stay different, besides, you pulled out in front of him"

The story, not so remarkable...the wreck near Bowling Green, much more so....but I put out this information only to inform you that, some people have more than remarkable memories....

Bob Jones, 6 months my senior, must be one....he remember the car make and color, the women was driving, and the rest of the details....I had remembered the story, and had told my 92 year old mom the same story{without the clear details} that Bob wrote this morning, when Patricia and I took her to the Eye Doctor in Lima last week....and we passed the exact location...

The other point of this being....with winter fast approaching, basketball season officiating in full mode, and Dual Sport Motorcycle riding done for the year{likely until next March}...so I've tweaked the Blog and will do some more so, and hopefully will get back to posting on a {a least] Semi Regular Basis...it's been awhile, and frankly, despite the Holidays coming up, and time with Family, especially the Grandsons, on the way....I need to keep my mind much more active that it has been.....

So, here we go!

back later>>>