2023: A Girl, a Motorcycle, and a Gypsy Soul

Last weekend was Thanksgiving weekend. I have so much to be thankful for and try to remind myself of that often!!! My whole family lives up north - so I am the one to commute for holidays, which actually works out great, because I will never be asked to host a holiday!!!  That is a good thing - due to space, time, and distance, it would be a pain! So, with the travel piece in mind for Thursday, come Wednesday night it was time to make some decisions 'more on the poor side', related to beer, music, and a specific gender. Don't get me wrong, it was a blast, but lets just say Wednesday got a little out of hand! There were several 'signs' of what was to come, had I just put them all together I might have stayed home... < KIDDING > The amount of vehicles in the parking lot at the local liquor store should have been my first sign... And then, the stellar deal they had on beverages, along with my 'always in search of a deal' mentality.. should have...

Ah, the joys of living in MN. A few days in the 50's, a few days in the 20's, a little snow, a few days in the 30's... repeat. Until doom comes for real. Today was a surprise "nice" day (for here). 44 and some sun- neither of which we have eeen for weeks here in the icebox state. After having settled on the bike being done for the year, I had to unburrow her from the nook in the garage.. which was totally worth it! The. I was curious to see if she started as I hadn't hooked up the tender yet. One try and she came to life, a little sputtery but ready to roll. Air in the tire was good. Oil is good. iPod is charged. Game on! Just had to carefully get her out of the garage, over the ice patch, through the little bit of snow, and onward! Took full advantage of it and managed to ride 140 miles ~ not sure how that added up so quick as I just pursed around my area. Oddly, I only saw one other bike the whole time (plus my die hard friend Shelly was ripping aroun...

I have a one stall garage - 21x10x8. I have one car, one Victory XR, one Suzuki Boulevard, two bicycles, a tool chest and other random garage crap. And hella determination to make all of that fit into said one stall garage. "Yeah right," and "you know you can pay to store it right?" Yes, but I have slight commitment issues and by paying to store it somewhere I am trapped within their guidelines of when to drop off and pick up. And what if there's a super nice day within those months?!?! I just can't do it. I NEED them in my garage. I mean, I admit I did try to get the Suzuki into the house, cuz I am classy like that. But she's too wide. And my door frame area is a load bearing wall for the townhome so it just wasn't meant to be. Fine. But this WILL work!! The more I hear "yeah right you can't fit all that in there" the more hell bent I am to make it work. So over the course of the last 3 mos (as time allowed or when I was actually home ...

I used to only ride with others, thinking it was more fun. Which, sometimes it is more fun with people, but over the years, I have learned that the more people who ride with you, the longer you wait around and the longer every stop takes. Sometimes, I just want to ride. No plan, no destination, no goals, just ride. Find new roads to no where. See the countryside. Stop for photos of nature or roads or whatever. Stop at touristy places I otherwise just fly past. Solo riding has never bothered me and I Have never been more comfortable with doing it than I have in recent years. Its true what they say, if you wait for someone to do something with you, you may wait forever and never get around to it.  I slept in, looked outside, saw sunshine, looked at the temps in the 50's and that was that. I needed to go! I took a quick glance at the Roadside Attraction app I use to find somewhere 'new' to go. I've been to Taylors Falls area, most often for fireworks across the border, b...

After winning the pair of tires from SSB, I had planned on picking them up on \the bike.. but turns out I needed a new rear tire like yesterday. So badly, that I didnt dare ride my bike to the shop to get the tires... yeah, I knew it was wearing close, but holy balls... I let it go a little long this time. So now, I am self-induced grounded fro the bike until I get the tires and get the rear one on the bike :( In the meantime, I had an opportunity to head to Alexandria area to hang out and since it was nice weather,,,, naturally, the only way I would go is on the bike. But that wasnt an option. So after sitting in the garage, pondering what to do... Because at this point, I was pretty determined to go to Alex and play a little.. so I checked Suzi's (my '06 Suzuki Boulevard with 65k..) tires - added alttle air to the front, checked the oil, and packed some oil (she burns it a lot over 70-75mph these days) and off I went. Cruising right along 94 at freeway speeds - her pipe...