R1150RT-P, Off the Beatin' Path

    On my way to Church this morning, as I crossed over the Bozeman Pass, I was greeted by snow. While I enjoyed the view, I passed a truck with Georgia plates driving slow. I looked at the truck as I passed and noticed a small girl, leaning over the back of the front seat, her eyes were as big as pie plates. I wondered if this was the first time she saw snow. On the way home, I knew if I wanted to log some saddle time on my bike I'd have to head east; I would at least have dry smooth pavement.
     Sometimes I just can't take my own medicine. I headed east alright, but I made a left turn and headed north on the first dirt road that looked like it would get me lost. What a wonderful day for riding.

I went about 80 miles in loose gravel, packed gravel and dirt, until I came to this chunk of water.

I like this picture, you can see the road, straight ahead, about a mile away. I'm thinking about coming back during duck season.

This spot was overlooking a burned out area. It went on for miles.

After turning around at the water hazard, I decided to head south about 80 miles and decided to call it quits as the red dirt started to get too soft. Those are the Beartooth's in the background.

It's difficult to see how steep this really is, but I gained quite a bit of elevation in a relatively short distance. It was a beautiful day for a ride, and believe it or not, I had the roads all to myself.

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a.........Bear?

I headed out Saturday evening looking for bears. It's about the time they start coming out of their dens looking for food. As I was up in the hills, I paused to watch this guy. It's a Anise Swallowtail; Papilio zelicaon, to be exact. Quite the specimen! I put a good stalk on him and got to within 2 inches. I wasn't scared.

About 30 yards up the hillside, I came across the track. I shoul have put my foot in the picture or a dollar bill or something to give a reference for size. It wasn't small, I will say that. I followed his trail for a few hundred yards. I never saw the bear but I will go back. I wasn't scared here either. I had my butterfly net with me.

CH-47F Chinooks

     Friday, as I looked to the skies, I noticed 4, CH-47F Chinook helicopters making their way through the friendly skies. They were making their way to the Air Guard base in Helena. Making their way, down from Ladd Field in Fort Wainright, Alaska, they made their way around the crazy mountains and headed over the Bozeman pass. What a beautiful sight. I only had my phone camera, so the picture is not that good.
     If you want a better look I could recommend signing up for a 2 year minimum stint. If you would like to get your hands on one but don't necessarily care for the current Commander in Chief, the Canadian National Defense is selling all their CH-47F's as they end their tour in Afghanistan. They go for a cool 282 million.
Go ahead and say it like Dr.Evil "mill yin".

A Valuable Lesson

    

We hear it all the time; "You just learned a valuable lesson".  If you're the one saying that, you're more that likely wrong. What you are probably observing is someone being taught a lesson. It's up to them how valuable it is AND you have absolutely no idea whether or not they actually learned anything.
     Two of my favorite words are opportunity and reflect. They don't necessarily go hand in hand, but they are words with meaning. I look at everything as an opportunity. I take time to reflect on a regular basis. I can't help it. I'm just wired that way. I met a wonderful song writer this past weekend (Jeannie) and she spoke the same language. She said, "I wouldn't know how not to". How cool is that?
     All lessons come at a price, even if "your time" was the price. Wrapping your car around a pole while drunk, and walking away without a scratch, is a lesson. What if the lesson you learned was that you were invincible? Valuable? Maybe. The opportunity is there, if you set aside the proper time and effort and  reflect, you may get closer to the true lesson. Perhaps, you learned nothing. See what I'm saying? We all think you learned a valuable lesson, but we are wrong.
     What is a valuable lesson worth to you? Can you put a number to it? It's sort of a sliding scale. I would want to know what the lesson was first. Sometimes we get an incredible deal, sometimes we pay full price. For some folks, over paying takes a back seat to oblivion. Like paying $1000 to walk through a gate from here to there. That's it, nothing more. Hmm. I'm always curious to whether we get better or worse at learning lessons as we age. When a baby touches the hot oven, he gets a lesson. It hurts and there is lots of commotion. If the baby never touches the hot oven again he learned a lesson. Valuable to him? A baby has no context of value, but yes is the answer. As we get older, we ponder "risk verses reward". A prepaid lesson opportunity?
     The older we get, we tend to loose sight of the cost associated with learning. We assume everything outside if the class room should be free. If you learned a valuable lesson, how much would it be worth to you? For this, there are no coupons, no prepaid vouchers. When opportunity knocks, answer. When it's all said and done, reflect. If you have ever purchased bottled water, never complain about paying for a valuable lesson. There is no shame in it and and no such thing as being scammed.

Pork Fat Rules!

Well, I missed the big 40's party last night at the Zebra, but as I lay awake early this morning, I heard the pig calling me. My day actually started looking to the sky and being amazed by a flock of 20 Great White Pelicans. I love the way they soar in squadron formation, searching for thermals. At a certain point of almost every turn, they momentarily become invisible, only to magically reappear. But today would not be for the birds; pork was in the air. It was Sunshine's 40th birthday party "pig roast". True to fashion, something out of the ordinary was status quo. Ronga took the bull by the horns and put the pig in the box. What you see is a portable, pig cooking, box. After getting to the party late and standing around watching hot coals smoke away in the lid, I must admit I would have not been surprised to see Dave Blaine, sweating like a pig, pop out at the end, pork chop in hand. As luck would have it, there really was a pig inside. What else can I say but, YUM?

While I may have missed the music, I got to see the band, The Chicharones chicharones.com/ as they showed up for the cook out. What a great bunch of guys.
If you follow "The Dash" you know my motto, "Life's too long to surround yourself with rotten people or eat crappy food". The party kept me true to form. Great conversations, ranging from Rodgers and Hammerstein to hang gliding. I could talk all night. It was a fun day with an opportunity to hand around some old friends and meet some new ones. I realized I like cranberry chutney every bit as much as I like ice cream.
Happy Birthday Sunshine, The Dude Abides.

Scenic Weekend Ride, Montana

On the way to Virginia city.

     Saturday was a perfect day for riding; 400 miles went by without a hitch. From Livingston to Ennis for lunch was how the morning started out. The pass you go over, right before you drop down into Ennis is always a favorite place to stop. I always stop to take a picture, but I have never been able to capture the beauty of it all with a camera. My pal Jeff borrowed my R1150RTP for the day, his bike is currently under repair. Evidently the view was so breath taking, he became disoriented due to oxygen deprivation, he actually got turned around.
    After lunch and a quick stop (well, not so quick) at Shedhorn Sports ( www.shedhorn.com/), we gassed up the bikes and headed towards Virginia City www.virginiacitymt.com/, it's a cool old gold mining town. Once again, the twisty, rolling road that gets you there is tops.


My Beautiful Bride dressed for the Ride



As you exit Virginia City and ride right into Nevada City, you begin to see heaps of dirt and river rock heaped in big clumps, all along the small winding creek. If you've ever heard someone say their world has been turned completely upside down, here you will have a visual to go along with that phrase. Imagine getting ready for a week long ski trip with your friends. Now imagine you are all packed and waiting by the front door for them to pick you up. You are already behind schedule and need to make good time in order to make sure you get a room at the chalet for the week, as it's on a first come first serve basis. Picture your friends pulling up, honking the horn, yelling, "let's go!". Now, imagine you just realize you only have 1 glove. After giving your friends the one finger gesture that indicates, "wait a minute", (I know some of your friends would require an alternate, yet similar gesture in order to quit honking), you rush back to the closet where your winter gear is heaped up, and you begin to pull article of clothing, one after the other, and whip it over your head, backwards. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Right handful, then left handful, like a windmill spinning out of control. If you were in water right now, you would rival Michael Phelps at his Olympic calibre back stroke pace. Frantically, you pull piece after piece of winter gear from the pile, at an alarming rate, with the tenacity of a caffeine jacked honey badger, you send them whaling over one shoulder, then the next. Got the picture? Those heaps if dirt and rocks are what is left after miners, looking for gold were through. They did it just like that. It's a horrible mental picture, but the evidence remains.
     The back roads that winded their way home were beautiful, to say the least. It seemed like every time we passed through a small town, the temperature on their bank marquee showed, 72 degrees.

I stopped to take this picture on the way home. It reminded me of a favorite riddle, although I'm not sure why.    Who's bigger, Mr Bigger, Mrs Bigger or Mr and Mrs Biggers baby?

Mr and Mrs Biggers baby is just a little Bigger.

Fight the Good Fight

Being a natural born fighter, I often find the phrase, "fight the good fight" resounding inside the inner workings of my skull. Whether your thinking:

Triumph - Fight the Good Fight

or Timothy 6:12, the message is clear and distinct. That being said; why do I find myself wondering why?
 I love the character John Travolta plays in the movie Michael. I love the fact that he is "wired to do battle". I love the matter of fact way he announces it. I sympathise with the fact that, "he wouldn't know how not to."

What's funny, is fighting battles for others. Why? I don't know. I never seem to stick around for ceremony. Sometimes I win the battle and it's a hollow or confusing one. My favorite part of

Good Morning Vietnam , is when Robin Williams character, Adrian Cronauer, says to the Vietnamese kid, "I fought like hell to get you into that bar, and you blew it up!" Watch that movie, it's a powerful part. Some days I feel like Archangel Michael and some days like Adrian Cronauer. Either way, I'm always gonna fight.I wouldn't know how not to.

Sticky Notes vs Post-it

I had fun this week preparing for a presentation I was slated to give to a peer group. I had the opportunity to utilize a new app on my iPad; .

Sticky Notes

  When preparing for a presentation, I'm usually just brainstorming or puking out ideas on to a tablet. Getting into character requires effort, albeit little at that. I do prefer an extremely fine point ink pen and a yellow legal pad. I keep it out on my desk and jot down every bullet point that pops into my head. That part is funny, because I always claim that all those little ideas and close quarter quips are already inside, just jumping at the chance to fire out on a fraction of a seconds notice.
  

Prior to my new

Sticky Notes

I would transfer every note off my legal pad, on to

Post-it® Labels | 3M.com.

If that wasn't old school enough, I would then begin placing them in chronological order, on my upright freezer door. The cool thing about that (no pun intended) was that I could stand in front of the freezer and practice my speech, while looking at my notes at eye level. The one drawback to that was, I once took them all down and put them on a sheet of paper, as sort of a cheat sheet, and somehow during one presentation, I blurted out," take hamburger out to thaw at 2:00. Dang those to do lists.
By leveraging technology, I can now just prop my iPad up in front of me and glance at the different color "virtual" post its, and it's like my very own TelePrompter.

Mosh Blog

Wow it's been a while since I've Blogged so it's time for a speed round.
     I'm currently advertising my blog on Delta Airlines. Check it out next time you fly the friendly skies.


When I talk about big racks and car washes, do you imagine the "car wash" scene from Cool Hand Luke (1967)?  How about bike wash at Sturgis? Well this is neither of those.

Tyler found this big elk rack up in the mountains. After lugging it, miles back down the mountain, we see him at the car wash, power washing the skull after boiling it all morning. Getting you brains blown out while at the car wash almost makes me think I'm back in Detroit! If you're squeamish, skip this part and move
ahead. Get it? Move a head. (I tried to clean that on up)

Here we see the Pork Loin sandwich from Dairy Queen. There is no trick photography. The bun is actual size. $4.75 will get you a sandwich you can share with a friend. In the evening, if it's real quite out, you can lay quietly in bed and listen to your arteries clog.

They say that Autumn is the best month to look at all the color of changing leaves. Springtime ain't so bad. I put on quite the stalk, sneaking up on these two.

How is this for subliminal advertising? Harley Davidson on the back and mud flaps that say, "but honey". Hey sweetheart, can I buy a motorcycle? I like the way they have the small doors open so the Hogs can breath. It makes you begin to feel sorry for them, you know, trapped in the back of a truck like that.

I finally got out in the mountains this past weekend. I ended up watching antelope, moose, deer and these 12 elk, snuck right up next to me (30yds) and by the time I got my smart phone out, they were moving off. Who would have thought that elk were camera shy?

Catch a wave, Catch the idea

     I've had quite the interesting past few months. I have, once again, veered off the beaten path and ventured down the road less traveled. It's not exactly "Virgin" territory. What sets this journey apart from others, is the speed as well as the vehicle. I'm traveling faster than others would like and my choice of transportation doesn't look like theirs either. I've never been to this [specific] destination before and folks can't fathom the fact that I'm doing it with out a map or G.P.S.. When you rely of modern technology so heavily, you tend to discount woodsman ship, and self reliant navigational skills. How are you going to get there? You need to get maps from  AAA or go to MapQuest Maps - Driving Directions - Map. When I hear this, I begin to ask "why" at least 5 times.  I don't want to follow Ponce de Leon. He is "so yesterday".
     There is a documentary titled, Riding Giants. It is a remarkable story of an entire culture that, while continually being told that they could not do ................ they continually proved all naysayers wrong and at the same time, they continued to exceed, even their own expectations.

 ► 101:19► 101:19

Riding Giants Take time to watch the Documentary. It will inspire you to put on a new pair of glasses. You will look at the world in a whole new light. Learning life lessons, while "living life" is so foreign to people who have embraced the earliest memories from kindergarten and cling to the idea that we study in a class room or read to learn. Yes you can, but it doesn't end there. The people in this documentary are the epitome of champions. They questioned, on their own. They refused to take no for an answer. They saw no limits or boundaries. They watched, they learned and they embraced change. They didn't write "how to" books, that would have slowed down forward momentum.     In perspective, it's all about risk vs reward. Practical vs academia. Fact vs fiction. How it is vs how it REALLY is. Pure science vs applied science. How do people get roped in so deeply? Have you ever wondered why there are so many diet books? Diet books are a multi-million dollar per year business. Why do they make it harder than it has to be? It's simple math! If you take in more than you burn off, you will gain weight. Stick that in your corn "CARB" pipe, Mr.Atkins, and smoke it. Don't waste my time telling me about some stupid diet. Check your head! Why are you making it so hard? How did you get so bought in to this? "Intelligent" people continue to go down this road and it baffles me.      Yes, there is a fine line when one out weighs the other. You have to decide when your forward momentum is being compromised. Out of context, an act of congress will cause you to miss the boat. Fools rush in. Go big or go home. You pick the catchy phrase that suits you best. Watch the documentary and start looking for the surfers. They look like skilled visionaries with one thing in common; while others were talking, they were doing. It may seem like it's all about surfing; if that's what you're thinking, you missed it completely. Shut 'er down and go get your diet book. If Greg Knoll stays on the beach and buys into all the b.s., no one ever surfs Waimea Bay. Waimea Bay - Surf Report and HD Surf Cam | SURFLINE.COM If Jeff Clark never paddles out 45 minutes to the waves, Mavericks is just water. Mavericks Surf If Laird Hamilton waits for the next "How to" book to come out, we miss the best of the best.  Laird Hamilton - The greatest big wave surfer to have lived? - YouTube ► 3:24► 3:24 www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Pw7vKtqpo You +1'd this publicly. Undo Oct 26, 2006 - 3 min - Uploaded by benwaddamsLaird Hamilton compilation from the film 'Laird'. Please note: This is not my film. I have simply edited out my ...