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What are the Fockers up to? |
It so happens that I love motorcycles so much, that I decided to give AFM motorcycle racing a try. AFM has a NRS (New Racer School) program where you take classes throughout the day on Saturday and if you pass the exam, you get a one day license. Of course I passed the exam and was able to race.
Paddock dog!
The Feel Like A Pro Group
It was an amazing experience!
We request SeaCliff State Beach twice per year. You have to book this place 6 months in advance to get a spot, but it is oh so perfect here. As you can see below. The pictures will tell all..
Can it get much better than this?
Some front porch sittin’
This beachin’ it wears these puppies out..
Some fine dining on the veranda.
Until our next trip in September….
This time I came to the school without Scott. The school was at Laguna Seca in Monterey. This is the same track that they hold the famous MotoGP. I was pretty excited. I left mid afternoon on Friday and drove down getting in at dusk. I was late getting in but they did not have my name listed at the booth at the front where you check in so I had to walk the camp spots to find mine. Once I found it, I got the motorhome situated and took a little putt-putt around to see where I needed to be at the crack of dawn.
6:30am came early but I was ready. The sun was coming up and I surely needed a few rays as it was a brisk morning. The bikes looked beautiful and ready for me! This was Level 3 & 4 of the super bike school as I have done Level 1 & 2 in Las Vegas last year.
Loved coach Johnny! Not only was he a great coach but he was persistent and helpful whenever I had an issue I wanted to work on.
The corkscrew!
Coming through the corkscrew
Level 3 was more about body positioning and how it can affect your cornering. It is all about the angles 🙂 I learned so much that day and I must have done one hell of a job because Johnny gave me a Superbike token that is rarely given out.
For Level 4, I unfortunately was not able to have Johnny again as he was doing the video bike on Sunday, but I still had an awesome coach, Pete. Level 4 is scoped towards what you feel you need to work on. During the classroom portion, you would tell them what you felt you could work on, then you would go over it with the instructor and then you would go on the track with your on track instructor and work it out. Pete was very thorough in helping me get down the few things I wanted to work on.
Pete following me through the corkscrew
At the end of the day, Pete walks up to me and says “I would give you another token because you did so well, but Johnny already gave you one.” I said, “I surely wouldn’t complain if you gave me another one”. All in all, this was a complete success and I feel so confident and controlled on a bike. Can’t wait to get my new S1000RR 🙂
Thank you Scott for this awesome gift!
It was just a typical Saturday the day before Scott’s birthday. We were just hanging out around the house, Scott ran to into town and we were going to have some homemade lunch. It was close to 2pm and I knew with my surprise that I had planned, that we needed to leave no later than 2pm. After we had some lunch, he started to make iced tea and I had to halt him and tell him he couldn’t make it and that he needed to go get in the car. He thought I was kidding, so I had to be stern. Needless, I had already had the car packed while he ran into town this morning.
He doesn’t like surprises and does not like to not know what is going on. Once we got in the car, he kept bugging me. “Which way are we going,” “are we going east or west.” I finally had to tell him “this is a surprise!” So we headed east and at this point he had an idea that we were going to Tahoe. He just had no idea what we were doing.
For the month prior to Scott’s birthday, I was in touch with his good friend Phil and we planned a Tahoe get together with all of Scott’s friends from his bartending days. Scott had NO IDEA.
We arrived in Tahoe at about 3:45 to the Coldwater Brewery. Phil was to meet us about 4 and that was going to be the first surprise of the day. Scott and I sat at the bar for a bit and Phil showed up. We hung out for a bit and next comes Scott’s old roommate and long time friend Frank. This was an emotional moment for all of us as Scott had not seen Frank in 20 years. Truly a great moment. Over the course of a few hours, many other old friends showed up for the party. Here is a few photos of the crew.
We ending up hanging out for awhile and had some dinner with everyone at Coldwater and then we decided to meet up at the Lucky Beaver with a few friends for some drinks.
Scott didn’t know but I had planned for us to stay in Tahoe that night as I had another surprise for him on his actual birthday. He had talked in the past about always wanting to ride in a glider. So what better birthday present than to make a memory out of it. We got up Sunday morning, had some breakfast and headed down Kingsbury towards Minden. He again did not know what was going on. I had booked this glider ride for him at SoaringNV. I booked him the “Tahoe Wild Ride.” This ride was for him to go up with the pilot and he was to experience loops, rolls, and an inverted flight. Once we arrive at the airport, he decides that he would rather me go with him. If I was going to go with him, we would have to do a regular flight as the Wild Ride is only for 1 person. So he talked me into it (I would say it wasn’t a pleasant experience for me). Let’s just say, I am glad they had puke bags readily available and I will never eat chorizo again 🙁
Below are a few pictures of the gliding experience.
He had no idea that any of this was going to be taking place that weekend. I knew that I wanted to make this a memorable experience and what better way to celebrate his 52nd birthday than with his longtime friends. Happy Birthday Scott!
We set off on our yearly trip to Death Valley. Scott’s brother Dan cam along this trip. he hadn’t been on a motorcycle in 20+ years so we were going to give him a memory to remember forever!
We stayed at Panamint Springs Resort.
We decided it was time to see this oasis called “Darwin Falls.” Not many know about it as it is a little bit of a hike to it but it was just beautiful and nobody would ever expect this out in the middle of the desert. Dan decided to take a little swim.
After visiting Darwin Falls, we decided to take a trek over to the town of Darwin. We didn’t realize what we were getting ourselves into and the sandy road was pretty harsh. A few wooptie-do’s here and there but you just got to give it the gas! 🙂 Below are some photos of the small town of Darwin. It has a population of about 50 but it is very interesting and the town folk are quite friendly.
The next day, we decided this would be the long day of riding. We took off down Saline Valley Road, took some awesome pictures, ended up at Tea-Kettle Junction and then took a ride on some heavy gravel road to the RaceTrack.
We were on top of the world
Tea-Kettle Junction
The Racetrack. If you have not researched this, you need to. It is a dry lakebed with strange moving rocks. Taken from Google, it happens due to a rare combination of rain and wind conditions that enable the rocks to move. A rain of about 1/2 inch, will wet the surface of the playa, providing a firm but extremely slippery surface. Strong winds of 50 mph or more, may skid the large boulders along the slick mud.
So cool! Definitely was a Bucket List item that we can now check off the list.
After seeing the RaceTrack, we decided it was time to take on the treaturous Lippincot Mine Road. Let me tell you, this is one scary but fun as hell road. Fun times!
This happened ALOT!
This was a long, but amazing day! Dan was a rockstar for never riding a dirt bike before. We can’t wait for our next adventure to Death Valley! Until next time….
We planned Christmas 2014 with my dad, Tracy and the O’Bear family in Cottonwood. The biggest surprise of the weekend was that my nephew Paytton was able to come to California on leave from the Army for the Holidays. This was a huge surprise and an awesome Christmas present!
We arrived Friday evening at about 10:30pm to the whole family playing UNO. This went into the early hours of the next day. The rest of the weekend was spent playing games, eating, opening gifts and reminiscing. We had some great times playing games like UNO, Party Farkle, JackAss, Apples to Apples and once the little one went to bed, we broke out Cards Against Humanity. Lots of giggles and laughs through the night.
Below are photos taken throughout the weekend!
The dogs are always comfy in the motorhome!
Cayman showing he is in charge of the property
The twins, Keytton and Paytton
O’Bear Family Photo
Family Time
Paytton
Jazzy
Keytton
Jacey
Front porch sittin’ watching the fam play frisbee
Cayman getting some air
Keytton and I
Dinner is served
She isn’t spoiled or anything
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our Family to yours!
Every year, me and 5 of my girlfriends take a trip to a Festival. Last year was to Stagecoach in Indio, CA by Palm Springs. This year, I decided we should change it up a bit and head north to Brownsville, Oregon to the Willamette Country Music Festival.
And we are off….
Here are the 6 hooligans for this trip. Jessica, Ong, Stephanie, Dusty Poppy and Kayla.
I don’t believe we had enough adult beverages…
Our pad for the next 4 days…
We had some fantastic chefs for our trip. Stephanie was the head chef (THANK YOU STEPH). Ong made AMAZING egg rolls as you can see her slaving away in the kitchen.
The final product.. YUM. Lettuce wraps and egg rolls.
The skies of Willamette
On our way to the festival. Kayla Mae worked her magic to get us a ride from the RV to the shuttle. There was a lot of lap sittin’ going on.
This was the first night in Willamette. We unfortunately decided a little late to go check out what was going on at the festival. They shut down earlier than we had hoped to get ready for the next few days of debauchery.
The next morning.. Isn’t Stephanie a sexy bitch, sporting her sweatshirt and cowboy boots (you asked for this one to be posted Steph)
Steph decided to get dressed and make us mimosas… TASTY!
A toast to a great time. Maker’s Mark on the left, Milagro Tequila in the center and Fireball on the right.
Stephanie made some tasty pizzas. We were spoiled this trip.
Enjoying our pizzas and a little down time before the big event.
It’s time for some country music. Today we saw Montgomery Gentry and Gary Allan.
Rock on Kayla Mae
Gary Allan was amazing!
There is nothing like mimosas every morning. CHEERS!
And onto the next block of concerts. But first we must cheers to a great trip.
Ong and Dusty waiting for the concert to start. Today was Ashley Monroe, Craig Campbell, Thompson Square and Eric Church.
Stephanie and Poppy
The clan
It’t not a Country Music Festival without some glow.
Some Eric Church
Day 3. Poppy decided it was margarita time.
Today was Sara Evans and Blake Shelton. We were sad that this was our last day but nothing like closing out the concert with a little (or a lot) of Blake Shelton.
To the girls of this trip. It was a fantastic time. There was a lot of reminiscing, lots of dust and dirt, great music and lots of memories made. Until next time.
This whole trip was scheduled around getting solar put on the motorhome. As you can see from our previous blog post, we started out on Thursday, June 19th and headed up to Graeagle for the West Coast Meetup weekend. It is now Sunday, June 22. We rose early and packed up the motorhome and headed out. We headed towards Modoc County where there was beautiful scenery.
We arrived in Springfield, Oregon. This would be our view for the evening!
We decided to meet up with our friend Cesar from the Ducati.ms site for dinner. He had just ridden home to Eugene from the West Coast Meet.
The next day, we had to wake up pretty early as the solar place wanted to begin working on the motorhome. They said they would have the solar complete in 1 day, so we wanted to give them as much time as possible to work on it.
Here is the motorhome being prepped…
While the motorhome was being worked on, we decided to take a motorcycle ride for the day. We talked about making it to Sisters and we stopped for some lunch on the way.
We took off towards Sisters but realized it was getting late in the day and we may not make it back to the motorhome in time, so we decided to stop at the Dee Wright Observatory. Here are some stunning views from the observatory.
Our trek back towards Springfield, we had to stop for more beautiful scenic photos.
The motorhome was complete and it looked awesome. 640 watts of solar. Boon-docking time!
It was time to drive on down from Springfield to our next destination. We decided to stay at the Redwoods RV Resort for the night as we weren’t going to make it any farther south. It was a back in, eat, sleep and we were back on the road in the AM. Some beautiful scenery headed that way though.
Our next destination was Winchester Bay. Scott heard awesome things about this RV Park so we thought we would check out what the hype was all about. I have to tell you, it was one of the most well kept RV Park we have ever stayed in. So clean!
The views are beautiful as well.
We headed more south and thought we would meet up with Scott’s brother Dan.
Dan told us to take this “very scenic” route. It was stunning!
Dan took us on a nature walk… It was raining but fun!
We couldn’t stay too long as we needed to get going to head home. But again, the scenery along the Trinity River was awesome!
This morning we met the group for our planned ride on Quincy LaPorte road. This is premiere riding, world-class roads and views that go on forever.
One group shot and it will be time to saddle up and launch.
A stop for some adjustments:
The big town of LaPorte:
Everyone votes for a late afternoon break in Downieville.
On the deck in Downieville:
We got back shortly before sunset to the hotel where everyone enjoyed cocktails and pizza on the motel patio. Sadly this is also the evening we all say our goodbyes. For us, it is time to prepare the motorhome for our morning departure to continue north to Oregon.
Each year the Ducati motorcycle website I manage organizes a get together for the western USA. The venue choice this year is to return to the little town of Graeagle. Jess and I are staying at Clio’s Rivers Edge Campground which is very close to the hosting motel. The weather this year looks to be slightly cooler than last year and should be perfect for riding and socializing. We arrived last night, got parked and ready to enjoy the next few days. This morning the bikes were unloaded and ready for Jess and I to explore a little deeper into the area then we have in our past visits.
We started our day by riding north to Lake Davis and explored that area until the road became a dirt road. There was a sign that said “Taylorsville 27 miles”. We have had our share of dirt roads on the street bikes in the last year, generally without enjoyment so we decided to head south.
The drought has caused some very dry areas around Lake Davis:
Heading south to Sierra City and the Gold Lake region”
Our next stop was a hike to Frazier Falls. Again the drought has brought them to a trickle but still worth the walk.
After the hike it was time to get ready for cocktails, dinner and time with the group.
