Where did you ride today?

Daboo said:
Damascus House is over in rural Bothel, WA. Only about 6 or 7 miles from my home, but this morning, it seemed farther away. Especially since I had to try two different routes to get there.

It is a long term "treatment" house for men (and women in a separate facility) who are drug addicts or alcoholics. You have to be clean and sober when you show up, and stay that way for your stay. Minimum stay is 6 months for the men with options to stay longer. The program is biblically based. Their goal is to have them grow in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Since they have to stay clean and sober the entire time they are there, or leave, it also helps them kick their drug habits.

I go there on Wednesday mornings to teach the men the Bible for an hour or so. Other people volunteer to teach at other times. And during the day time, they also do work projects to help support the program, usually like yard work.

We have people come from all over. Even one guy from Africa. If you're interested in more info, let me know and I can share the info in a PM.

BTW, we still don't have power. It was a fun challenge this morning. Trying to pick my way through the branches and other debris, and evaluate everything as to whether it would cause a problem if I ran over it. There was also the challenge of coming to an intersection with 21 lanes coming from all directions with the power out. I got halfway across when two cars on my left decided to cross in my path. I followed the right-of-way rules I learned in the Philippines on a mission trip. It's called the "lug nut rule". He who has the most lug nuts has the right-of-way! :D

Chris
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Hey Chris, I should have been able break the code on the name, but I thought it was a town.

So....the road to Damascus was almost as life-changing for you as it was for Paul.) Glad you didn't get hit.

Uh....driving in the Philippines? Ha. That's a death wish.

Glad to hear you're involved in missions. We are, too. My grandfather was a missionary and the head of the Latin America division for a large denomination. We were blessed to be raised in a culture of giving.

The Damascus House sounds like it's doing a great job and serving an ever-growing need. We have several homes like that here in Kerrville and also an active prison ministry at our church. We have been supporting as many mission efforts as we can on our limited resources. The main one is the ABC Mission in Mission, TX that serves Mexico and was started by my wife's father-in-law many years ago. It is now run by her ex-husband and his brothers.

Well, I guess I've steered this thread away from "where did you ride today" more than I should have.

Hope you get power back on soon. I went through plenty of hurricanes and power outages when I lived in Florida and it's no fun to say the least.

Randy
 
I'll leave anything else for PMs, but I'll reply just this time for encouragement for others.

Horn usage? Every time I see a thread on which horn should I get, I think back on those mission trips. In the Philippines, it was used just as a polite way of saying, "I'm here.". No one used horns in Thailand, though the traffic was horrendous. They were the nicest mannered people I've ever seen behind the wheel of a vehicle. Tanzania and Kenya...well they didn't seem to use their horns much at all. Only in the US have I noticed horns being used, and it is invariably for vindictive revenge.

As for not getting hit...I think God sends angels to watch over me. The wreck on June 8th was the latest example of how I should've died. If you saw the pictures, you'd never believe anyone walked away from that. But I did...with God's grace. (or luck, if you don't believe in God)

At 11am, I was asked to go to a friend's home to talk with his 40 something year old son. He's a drug addict. Comes home once in awhile when things are seemingly bottomed out, then gets into an argument with his parents and walks out. I talked with him for awhile before he once again, walked out. Friday is a repeat of the bomb-cyclone event we just had. I wonder (and pray) if he'll come back again. I told him and his parents I'd talk with him any time.

It wasn't a one-sided situation. Just a thought for anyone reading this...I'd probably walk out on his mother too. She's a nice lady and well meaning. But gosh, she'd either drive someone crazy, or they'd learn to just blow her off. I'd tell her that, but I don't think she'd quit talking long enough to listen. :confused:

I did prison and jail ministry for 20+ years till the COVID lockdowns started. It seems like it has helped to prepare me for what I see today at the Damascus House. I'm floored, humbled, just blown away that anyone (God included) would ask me to do what I did today. If you'd asked me 40 or 50 years ago if my life would be like this, I'd say you were crazy. But as flawed as I am, it seems God uses me. Which is what I told the ER doc on June 8th when he said he's usually sewing up people's livers when they get into accidents like I had. And I just walked out of the hospital with no pain other than my foot from the foot surgery in March, months before.

We did just now get the power back on. My laptop battery was getting low. I was making plans to spend a few hours at the church (that has power) to recharge. My wife can tell you the number of hours and minutes we were out of power.) :D It's good prep for surviving a disaster. If I can't last 24-72 hours without power...can I survive weeks without power? Just like we do a dry run on packing for a trip, this can be a dry run for going through a week or a month without power. I'm teaching my Life Group tomorrow on the parallels of the Jewish wedding traditions and Christianity in the New Testament. I think it is fascinating.

Thinking back on that situation in the intersection, I just find times like that "fun" or "exhilarating". In a car, everyone treats you like one of them...another pylon on the race to get wherever they want to go. It seems people give me a "safe zone" on the bike for the most part. I suppose it is a little respect for probably being the only crazy motorcycle rider out a few hours after the storm we had.

Regarding the storm. First, I don't want to diminish what the people in North Carolina experienced. I went outside several times from about 4 pm to 6 pm. I have 200+ foot trees in my neighbour's yard (south side where the winds usually come from) (and mine too on the north side). Hardly a breeze it seemed. I went in to play pinochle online with my daughter and my 97 yr old FIL. My internet connection started getting shaky. Hmmm...that was unusual. Especially with the winds I saw in the tree branches out my front door. That happened a couple times, and at about 7pm, the house went dark. Pitch black. That's what a bomb cyclone does I guess. The barometric pressure just collapses. And the "problem" was that the winds were circulating around so what we got was an easterly wind, not the normal southerly wind. Those branches have fallen off, but not those from the east. I had poo-poohed off the weatherman's warnings about the storm because if seemed so miniscule. But this time he/she/it/they were/was right. I've seen worse...but not recently.

And Friday is supposed to be a repeat. Same thing, only different.

I ride because of the fun...and the challenge in a world without challenges. What will I find on Friday???

Chris
 
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Beautiful day to ride. Ran out to Hasenwinkel Road in Comfort, TX and took that bumpy cowtrail with all the cattle guards to nearly the end. Turned right on Bear Creek and took that to Grape Creek Road and then to Old No. 9. All bumpy narrow cowtrails with better payment in some places than others. Squeezed by the few cars and trucks coming my direction. Luckily, I didn't meet any on the single lane bridges which pop up now and then. No cows in the road today, but had some goats, sheep and deer crossing the road, a dog that wanted to catch me, plus the flocks of vultures feeding on deer remains.

These photos are typical of the roads except there are a lot of hills and valleys I can't take photos of on the bike. Sorry the photos are so washed out. At least I finally took some!

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W0QNX said:
I was able to pull my boot on over the fat leg and foot so it was time for a ride. Not far but it was exciting at first then just tingly like.

I was a twitter all over and I don't even have an XXX account.
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Congrats! I've been there, done that. Even a short ride is better than no ride.
 
I didn't go far today. There was a Small Craft Advisory posted by the weather service. I figured that applied to motorcycles as well. :D

It's always fun to imagine what the driver behind me does when I come to a stop. The bike is standing upright, then jerks to the right (or left) because of the wind gusts. And then when I got to the parking lot at Costco, this father with his young son gave me one of those astonished looks and exclamations. Like "You rode that in this weather?!?!?"

Coming home was an eye opener. Came around a slight bend and there's this formerly 100+ foot tall tree, broken about a third of the way up. Part of it was laying in the lane blocking the entire lane. It wasn't across, it was laying lengthwise in the lane and filling the entire lane. The biggest portion was upside down leaning against a telephone pole.

Some people are just now getting their power back on.

Chris
 
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Esti1300 said:
Short ride today to the Quebec border and back in 4°C overcast weather, collected a town for the A-Z game and then, after lunch, rode to my winter storage location to drop off the motorcycle for it’s long winter slumber. I feel alone and empty… :confused:
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Those are the worst rides of the season. If we have a warm winter day and the roads are clear, are you able to get it out of storage for a ride?
 
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Rode this back to Ocala where my wife is staying and working for the winter. Bought it today from a super nice guy outside of Orlando. It is a '13 RT and very minty. While not my first choice it was a good bike from the kind of guy you want to buy a bike from. My wife figures if I have a bike here I will spend more time here with her than at home in the frozen tundra.
 
I haven't rode a Honda ST bike since that one test ride five weeks ago. But I did get some motivation to buy a newer bike (and a sport touring model) when my 1996 Honda Shadow broke down two weeks ago along the road. It turns out it melted the three yellow wire connector between the stator and the regulator - rectifier. I know I need to do a soldering job and I need to put some extensions on those wires so it's really going to be six soldering jobs I have not started that yet.

Today I'm going back to negotiate with the owner of that 2007 Honda ST 1300 with only 39,000 miles on the clock.
I might end up buying that one, and then I'll sell my Shadow 1100 as soon as possible after it's repaired, and after I've put a thousand more miles on it to make sure the repair is satisfactory.
 
Daboo said:
The local BMW dealer (Seattle BMW Motorcycles) has started something new...a Moto Mystery Ride series. ...

... with a small obstacle course and cones in the parking lot. A chance to practice your skills and get to know others.
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Actually THE LAST time I was on a motorcycle it was not my own --mine was down due to a melted stator wire connection.

But I had already promised a friend that I would help him do practice drills in an empty church parking lot, so I took my cage out there with a bunch of traffic cones and sidewalk chalk.

After an hour of supervising his practice session taking photos and videos and showing them to him between runs,
he wanted to take a break from the drills and suggested I use his bike to run through some of them.

It was a big bigger than I'm used to, his 2007 Kawasaki Vulcan nomad 1600 .

I certainly could not have passed the motorcycle skills test even after several attempts in a row-- I got better at not knocking over the cones or riding outside of the boundaries of the chalk lines, but I still would've got enough points against me to fail the State test.

(Good thing I've had my class 'M' motorcycle license for 30 years, and I'll happily admit that I took the test on a 275 pound glorified dirtbike ---a Yamaha Enduro DT250 model that could turn on a dime.)

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Donk said:
Rode this back to Ocala where my wife is staying and working for the winter. Bought it today from a super nice guy outside of Orlando. .... My wife figures if I have a bike here I will spend more time here with her than at home in the frozen tundra.
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I know a guy from church who has two homes-- one in the Midwest and one here in the Atlanta Georgia area. He used to have only one motorcycle... a little 250 that he kept out on the family farm out west.

Well then he bought a Honda Shadow to keep at the family farm out west, but he missed riding so much that he bought a second motorcycle just to keep at his Atlanta home as well. Got a 650 cc conventional bike for Georgia.

Finally, he likes to visit the home of one of his adult children up in North Carolina, I believe, so he trailered the 250 cc bike out there and left it at his kid's house -- so when he visits there he could also ride something locally, even though it's a rather small bike.
 
Sadlsor said:
The Dos Equis is still one of Honda's best looking bikes of all time, with performance to match.
And of course, you know me, so you know i can say that with no bias whatsoever.
But i don't get that yellow polypropylene rope holding it up in your garage... is the sidestand not working...?
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For sure. It's a "look back" bike. You can't help but look back at it as you walk away. Chrome wheels really take it up a level, too. I'm glad mine is silver. I heard that's the fastest one.)
 
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