I Refuse to Say Goodbye to Summer Yet

Yes I know, fall is nearly upon us, but I refuse to admint it yet. There are still a lot of good riding days left.

I know I haven't been very religous about blogging but, today was a very special day. As you can see from the pictures I had a very special guest join me on an adventure, and oh what a great adventure it was. Yep, that's my Dad on the four-wheeler.  You may know him as  Russ. 

If you follow my blog you'll know that the location is not that different from earlier posts. Yes I've been to the Stone House many times on my dirt bike. But having someone to share it with makes it fun all over again. Just like you have never been there before.

This first picture is shortly after we got underway.  A great view of the road that leads to the stone house. 

We stopped at the bottom of the hill to check out the granite bridge.  Dad is a huge rock wall fan, so I stopped by this bridge to look it over with him.  Turns out he has never seen it, so I'm really glad I stopped.  I've spent many warm summer days sitting under this bridge, admiring the work, thinking, I bet Dad loves this bridge. Well he's a fan now. 

The base of the bridge is actually granite, just like the walls.  In fact the whole bridge is built entirely of granite.  Pretty amazing really.

I told Dad that I thought it had been there since before I was born.  He thinks probably it was there before he was born too!   Could be.  It is pretty amazing.  I bet most people that drive that road don't even know it's there.  You really can't tell from above, you have to get out and walk down the hill to see it.  I'm not sure how I first found it.  Probably I just walked down to the brook.  Not only do I like rocks, but I like brooks too.

So the next photo was the height of our journey, literally.  We were in the highest blueberry field above the stone house.  What a view from there.  You can see in all directions (duh).  What I mean is you can see really far in all directions.

We spent quite a bit of time up here trying to pick out landmarks and make sense out of what everything was around us.  We are pretty sure we could pick out dodge hill, where we used to live.  We also think we spotted the mountain that Dad lives on now, Great Pond Mountain, Camden Hills, The famous ledges where the lovers leap story my Grandfather always used to tell us about, Mount Katahdin, and I know there was more.  We think we could see the ocean, and Brewer lake.  If we've got any of those wrong don't bother to tell me.  The point was the chance to stand there and share it, trying to figure stuff out. 

All in all, a great summer day.  A trip to remember for a long time.  I purposely left out the part where I crashed going up the hill.  For a minute there you thought I'd changed didn't you...well I haven't.  A few more battle scars in the ole dirt bike. I really just wanted to give dad something to remember! 

Stay tuned.  Where heading for the Trails to Rails project next.  I went there once this year and had a greand time.  Dad and I have decided we'll do it together next year. 

Making Your Desktop Picture Span Two Monitors

So I decided the other day that I wanted to set my desktop background image to one that spanned across both monitors, instead of being duplicated on each monitor. I've done this many times before with Windows XP. No big deal. Well, several hours and a few swear words later I finally got it working on my Vista computer. Thought I'd share my frustration in the hopes of helping someone else.

So I did the normal stuff you would do. I looked at my monitor resolution and took the height as is, and multiplied the width by 2 (cause I have two monitors and I want the picture to span them both). I used Photoshop Elements to create a picture I wanted using these dimensions. Then I used Explorer to locate my new picture file, right clicked on the picture and said, set as desktop picture. The new picture was placed on my desktop, but no matter how I tried it would not span across the two monitors correctly.

I struggled with this for hours it seems, but I was finally able to get it to work. The problem seems to be when you right-click a file and select set as desktop picture, some kind of conversion or optimization takes place, and the picture is no longer the right size. Instead, if I right click on the desktop, select Personalize, the Desktop Background, I end up at the Desktop Background dialog box. From there I have to use the Browse button to locate the properly sized image. Once the image has been selected I set the position to be tiled and bingo, the picture is properly displayed. Phew. What a struggle.

Bottom line, browse to the picture instead of right clicking on the picture to get this to work. Good luck.

It's Lonely at the Top

I don't know what it is about climbing things lately. For some unknown reason I keep ending up on the top of Mountains. It happened again on Sunday, the 17th of August. I hopped on my dirt bike and headed for the Stone House.

When I got there I see some work had been done. The big mud hole on the Bald Mountain Road entrance was in really good shape. That made it an easy job to get to the the blueberry fields above the Stone House.

Of course I just couldn't find a nice place to park and walk 50 feet to the top. No, I had to go all the way. Which meant I had to tackle the bank you see here to make it. Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, miles from home and nobody really knew where I was. Although as it turns out, not my worst decision of the day.

After looking at this view for a while I headed back down the trail. I decided it would be a good idea to go towards Bucksport. A ways up the road I hit a trail that cross's over to the Diamond Match road. Seemed like a great idea, a side trip to the Diamond Match road. When I was about 15 I owned the Diamond Match road. Well not literally, I just mean I rode on it a lot, and knew it like the back of my hand. So off I went.

The caution sign should have made me reconsider, but I just kept on motoring. Didn't even slow down. I may have thought about it a little bit. I thought, hmmm wonder what that caution sign is there for? The trail was getting a little more challenging. It was narrower, grass covered with muddy tire ruts pulling you around. Fallen trees across the trail were starting to pick up a little, a minor annoyance. I figured that must be what the caution sign was about. And then I came to the stream.

Ah yes. The stream. Two choices here; go over a broken bridge, or to the left through a deep mud hole. Well, I wasn't wearing the proper footwear so of course I took the broken bridge. All I needed to do was get my front wheel across the span of missing boards. A little wheelie. I've done them tons of times. Just need to get the timing right, get the front wheel over, get my weight over the handlebars and let the back wheel bounce through. Done it a thousand times. Yeah when I was about 15.

So, for the sake of education for all of you out there that are still reading, when your front wheel doesn't quite make it across, and it falls in the hole, you stop quickly. OK. So now what to do. I'm stuck with my front wheel in a hole. No problem, I'll get off and power it through. So I give it a try, lots of throttle, bounce the front wheel.

Again, for your continued education, when you power a 400cc motorcycle on wood with the front wheel stuck, the back end will slide sideways. Yep, off the bridge. Hmmm. Now I have two wheels stuck.

Wait, don't go away yet. At this point I did start showing some smarts. Yes that's right, before continuing on I walked up the road to a dry spot and set down the bag I was carrying with $3000 worth of camera gear. Oh, did I forget to mention I was doing all of this with a camera bag dangling from my shoulder? Starting to look like a Darwin award opportunity isn't it? But I'm writing about it so that's out.

OK back to the story. After putting down my bag I went back and manhandled the bike, and got it through the ditch. By this time I'm exhausted, and thinking that an old fat guy like me may be just at about the limits of the old ticker. But I'm through the bad part right? Well that's what I thought, so I headed out again. Just ahead I ran into an incline. It must be at least 45, maybe 50 degrees uphill. That's no big deal, but it's washed out. It's nothing but big boulders and trees.

Of course when you hit one of these things you've got to think fast and make a decision. So what decision do I make? My 15 year old voice says "go for it, you can make it". Turns out I didn't. I made it about half way. I was bouncing all over the place, over rocks bigger then my wheels, over trees laying in the way. Bouncing from one side of the road to the other like a pro, dodging low hanging branches.

At first you pick you route. After a while you start getting bounced and you aren't picking the route any more, you're just trying to stay on board. Then I lost momentum, almost tipped over, caught myself with my foot, and stalled. I grabbed a bunch of brake and slid backwards 5 or 10 feet until a rock stopped me. Few. At least I'm stopped now.

Now I'm getting a little worried. It's getting dark. I don't know what more is ahead if I can even get going. I walk up the road a little to scope it out. All I can see is more washed out road going up. Can't tell what's on the other side. So I turn to head back to the bike. Oh no! I left the key on when I stalled. The headlight is on and those batteries don't last long. There's no kick start so I need that battery. I run back to the bike down the hill (bouncing and dragging the camera equipment) and turn off the light.

Now I need to make a decision. Up to who knows what over the top of the hill or back through where I'd already been stuck once. I decided back was the best plan. I'm not even sure if I could have made it up, but I knew I had made it through the stream once, so I should be able to do it again. So I started getting the bike turned around. That was a quite a chore, but I finally made it and headed down.

Going down was a lot easier. I got off the bike at the stream and walked it around. That worked out pretty good other then I wasn't sure how much more the old ticker could take. I worked through it, and made it back to the main trail. From there it was an easy trek home and a great story to tell (even though I don't come out looking to good in it).

One final note. After all of this, riding through tight spots with a camera dangling from my shoulder, I took no pictures. Now that is dumbest thing I did (or didn't do) all day.

Anyway, dirt bikes rock.

Bald Mountain

I went on an adventure today. Yep. Climbed Bald Mountain. I went alone, and never saw another person. It was great. Beautiful Views.

It's been a long time since I've been there. I used to ride my motorcycle up there when I was a teenager. I didn't think I would recognize it, but although it has changed a lot, there's a lot that stayed the same too.

The most significant change is of course all the antenna's up there. I have no idea what they all are, but there are tons of them. One of them (the biggest one) belongs to United States Cellular, according to the signage. The rest I didn't check out that closely.

One thing I didn't expect to see was the old fire tower. It's still there. The bottom steps are gone, so you have to be a monkey to get up into it. I made a lame attempt and gave up. Since I was all alone I didn't think it would be a good idea to fall off it and break my leg.

I explored quite a bit at the top. I found some old concrete footings that I think might have been where the old chairlift stopped, but I can't be sure. It looks so different without snow. I thought that I could make out some of the old trails, but again I can't be sure. Really made me search the old memory banks. And it turns out I have lost quite a bit of that information. I was trying to remember the names of the trails and I just couldn't. If I was in the right place I didn't remember remember it being that steep. We must have been crazy to ski down that mountain. It seems like it is growing up a lot. If you didn't know what to look for I don't think you would ever guess there had been a ski mountain there.

Anyway, the walk up there brought back a lot of memories. Rick and I spent a lot of time on that mountain. I remember walking there with our skis, a two mile walk from our house in the dead of winter. I remember getting stuck on the chairlift. I remember the rope tow. I remember the tee bar. I remember the old Ski-doo snowmobiles the employees used to get around the mountain. I remember jet sticks, the coolest invention ever.

All in all it was a good hike. Great exercise. That is one steep hill. Good for the body, good for the mind.

Stuff

So I've done a lot of thinking since I was born. Here's something I just can't seem to get past. It seems I'm almost always in a state of wanting something I don't have. I know this realization is not going to go down as the most original thought in the world, but I still can't help thinking about it. It just bugs me why I'm like that. Was it the way I was raised? Is it because I'm an American? Am I just stupid (rhetorical, please don't answer)?

I get great joy out of watching my granddaughter push aside an expensive toy to play with the box it came in. Here I am a grandpa, supposedly setting an example and teaching my children but really, it's them that hold the valuable lessons, unspoiled by our society.

OK, now things are starting to come into focus. Fredrick the Field Mouse was always one of my favorite books. I've just now put together the fact that Fredrick was a mouse that was able to find great joy in the simplest things, like a day of sunshine. The same concept that keeps coming back to me time and time again.

Somehow I need to learn these lessons and learn to enjoy what is here and now. I should probably sell everything I own and move to a cabin in the woods, grow my own food, yada yada. But I want to continue blogging about it, so I'll need to keep my computer. In fact I may need a new one. Yeah one with huge batteries and satellite Internet so I can connect from anywhere in the world. Then I'll need a new motorcycle. One with storage space for hauling all the computer equipment. Of course if I get a new motorcycle I'll need new gear, a matching helmet, etc. Of course I'll want to document this all in pictures, so I'll probably need some more camera gear. Oh and of course I'll want Marsha to come with me, so she'll need a new 4-Wheeler, and . . .

I'm hopeless.

I'm Back

Yep. Time to start blogging again. It's been a while. Guess I haven't had much to say. But now I do.

Speaking of Motorcycles, I got another one. A 2008 Suzuki B-King. Loving it. My 10 day plate ran out, so I haven't ridden for a while, but I hope to get it registered this week. The weather hasn't been that great here, but hopefully that will be changing.

Anyway, I'm planning some adventures this summer, and I'm planning on blogging about them. Stay tuned.

Christmas Ride

Who says you can't ride Motorcycles in Maine in December? Not me. In fact here's a picture that proves I was riding, and that it was near Christmas. Look very close at the background and you will see Christmas decorations in the windows. This was taken on Center Street in Bangor. OK, it may not hold up in court, but why would I lie about something this important?

Seriously, it was a great day. When I got up around 6 it was already over 40 degrees out. There was a lot of frost, and it was windy, but I knew it would be a great day for a ride.

I don't think the temp went much above 45, but with the wind the roads thawed and dryed up well before noon. I knew around 1 would be my best shot. So at one, off I went to Stevi's new house and visited with them. That reminds me, I can't wait to take Isabel for a motorcycle ride! (After her Dad takes her of course). So , I visited with Stevi and David for a few minutes then took off downtown. I was hoping Stevi would come downtown and take a picture of me riding by the Christmas tree, but she was very busy moving. Hopefully there will be a few more warm days before they take the tree down. Can you guess want I want to do for next years Christmas Card?

When all is said and done, I stole a little extra riding time in Maine. People always say "it's to cold to ride a motorcycle". And I always reply, you wouldn't hesitate to ride a snowmobile in weather like this? Snowmobilers have no problem dressing up and taking off for an entire day in much colder temperatures. As long as the roads are clear whats the problem? You do have to remember that riding in the cold weather is much different then riding in warm weather. Most noteably traction. Cold tires on cold pavement don't offer anywhere near the traction they do when it's warm. You have to be extra careful. Drop your speed a little and be very delicate with your cornering, starting and stopping.

The wind, thats another thing people talk about a lot. I often hear "Isn't it to windy to ride?". Here's what I have to say about that. If you hop on a motorcycle on a day when there is no wind, beofore you know it you are heading down the interstate with a 70 mile an hour wind hitting you right square in the face! Thats what it's all about! "In the Wind". So, if the wind is blowing a 40 mikes an hour (a pretty stiff wind), and you go with the wind at 70 miles an hour, then you are only getting hit with a 30 mile an hour wind. Of course if you go the other way it's 100, but let's not go there! Just turn around.

Have a nice day everyone.

Another Sunday Ride

Troy came with me this time. I met him at his house around noon and we set off for Castine, via Bucksport. We stopped and saw Dave and Ellie, they were just about to eat lunch on their boat docked at the Bucksport Bay. We were there just in time to watch an Oil Tanker come in and dock. Two tug boats guided it in. It was a lot of fun to watch. At first we didn't think it could fit under the bridge.

From there we left and headed towards Castine. I guess it was big ship day. We only stayed for a few minutes in Castine. Snapped a few pictures, then headed back for Bucksport. It was an awesome day. Must have been close to 80, but not humid, so it was very comfortable. I stopped on the way out of town to take a picture and almost lost part of my hundred dollar Harley Glasses, arrgggg! I rummaged around and found it, then we were on the road again.

We stopped at Crosbys Drive in restaurant and had some cheese burgers, then headed home.

A Sunday Ride

Marsha and I had a nice day on the Harley. We traveled 130 or 140 miles. I was coming up to my 1000 mile service appointment and I didn't have 1000 miles yet. We have had so much rain and so much stuff going on that I haven't been able to get to many miles. Things seem to be calming down now. So we took the day and followed the front wheel.

We went through a bunch of towns that neither Marsha or I had ever been to. Our first stop was in Exeter Maine. A first time experience. It's was a beautiful day. There was blue sky everywhere, with the exception of one big dark rain cloud. I tried to go in directions that took us away from the cloud but the more I tried it seemed like the closer we got to it. Almost like it was anticipating my moves and keeping one step ahead of me. We never did get hit by rain, but we could see puddles that let us know it had been there just before us. At our first stop we watched a bird taking a bath in one of the puddles.

Our next stop was at a store somewhere. I'm not even sure where, all I remember is a sign that pointed to St Albians. Instead of going in that direction we took a left and somehow ended up on Route 2 in Newport. We cut back up and went all the way to Parkman. In that area we found the coolest covered bridge. We stopped and took some pictures. After we left there we hit construction. The road was SO BAD it was unbelievable. I've been on motocross tracks that were smoother. We made it though. Then we headed back for home.

Somewhere, north of Corinth on 15 I think, we hit the coolest thing. A tractor grave yard. I don't know why I was so intrigued with it. Somehow it appealed to all my senses. It was full of old tractors that reminded me of my grandfathers Farmall Cub. I'm sure there must have been one here. The smell of fresh cut hay was in the air. It was really weird, a field full of junked out equipment, some new equipment, and somehow it was surrounded with this feeling of calm. Somehow I also got the feeling that it was an artistic gold mine too. I attempted to capture the moment with pictures. All I had was a little cheapo 2 meg Kodak and I tried my best to capture the feelings. I'm just not there yet. I can't make a picture feel. Maybe it's just because I was there.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at the Country restaurant in Corinth (East, West, South, one of those Corinths). Sure wasn't fancy. Just good food and friendly people (and Air conditioning).