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

The MN Spring has proven to be mean this year... we get a 65 degree day followed by 40 and snow threats, so I haven't ridden as much as usual by this time of year, but I refuse to let Mother Nature hold me back any longer!  Me and bestie did a fun trip last weekend on a (so far) rare 63 degree day. We googled 'Quirky Things to see in MN' and found ourselves wandering randomly in Southern MN. It was a super fun day of riding and bringing out our inner young dorkiness!!! - The last operating Happy Chef restaurant just north of Mankato, MN We have never eaten here.. I am sure its lovely.. .but we were on a photo day mission so onward we went.. 3 miles down the road to North Mankato... it greeted us right off the main drag... and off we went! - Gooding around at the 10' tall steel Godzilla in Mankato, MN. Why 10' you might ask? Because the artists' studio had 10'8" ceiling... lol.  It's hard to see, but there is a brownish fence in the backgroun...

I am not much of a reading person - partly because if a book isn't exciting within 5 pages I lose interest and I quit reading, but if it DOES catch my interest, then I can't put it down.  So basically I will either be disappointed or addicted. Somewhere in the middle would be nice! I am going to try to be more active in the blogging world this motorcycle season.. thankfully my roommate has been learning wicked things about creating, editing, and coding web pages and has helped revamp my site to include social media links. Back to that book reading thing...I ordered three travel books written by folks who ride motorcycle crazy amounts like I do so I can get a sense of writing styles and all that technical jazz. The first book I started to read is Lois on the Loose - written by Lois Pryce who, 66 pages into the book, is already my hero. She had only been riding one year (or somewhere close) when she decided to quit her cubicle job and fly halfway around the world to ride solo acr...

Weekends are a funny thing - if I don't have anything going on, I feel lost. If I have a lot going on, I feel overwhelmed, even if it is all stuff I WANT to be doing. This weekend was a busy one - albeit a TON of fun!! Started with helping bestie move on Friday - we don't want to brag, but we could totally start our own moving company based on the amount of stuff we can maneuver into small spaces!  Saturday was a bit more moving in the morning, then off to DT Minneapolis for the Garth Brooks concert and pre-party with Trisha Yearwood. We got dropped off downtown and being it was an amazingly beautiful, sunny day in MN, we were happy to see that the Trisha Yearwood event was outdoors - under a tent, but still outdoors. The tent had food demo's by Trisha, along with free food samples, and a couple of free drinks. We had summer cocktails and some food, then wandered out to the local bar. Turns out we couldn't get back IN the Trisha tent - mistake number 1 - I had one littl...

It is so easy to think of all the negative things happening around us/in our life but when you really think of life, the little things are often positive things and they far outweigh all the negative most days. To challenge myself to always see the good in a person, a situation, an environment, and in every day, I researched gratitude challenges and put together a combo of the things that I found which I feel will help me focus on the GOOD. My goal is to fill in one box each day as a reminder to stop and 'smell the roses' and to think of little things that bring me joy which I don't otherwise think of as I run from one place to another. What ___________ are you most grateful for? New connection     put a smile on your face today       Talent Best moment in the last month About your body Movie Hobby Song Trait in yourself Part of winter ...