12-14-2015

I always end my stories of Motorcycle 'derring do' with the phrase “always seek the adventure.” Maybe this will help some folks to understand better the wildly exciting and event filled motorcycle lifestyle.

Today I was tinkering with a small project or two and realized that I needed a couple of things from the store. As none of it was all that pressing I put everything on hold and jumped on the bike for the short ride to town. Normally this is a quick ride, only seven miles, and I'm usually there way before I want to be. Today would be an exception as an unruly herd goats had other plans. I don't have goats. Haven't owned any since I was a teenager and then my dad actually owned them. I was just lucky enough to get to (try) keep up with them. So I have a certain understanding of what happened today. Goats are just prone to “go.” Destination is not a part of thing for a goat. Going is.

At about the halfway point in my ride I saw a small group of deer in the road ahead of me. Deer are everywhere down here so it wasn't anything to get all worked up over, I could see them. They just looked like they were trying to cross the road, not ambush a lowly biker. Rolling up on them I saw it was actually goats. A lot of goats! From the distance there didn't look like that many. Someones herd was lose.

The problem with goats is the way they see things. “Their in charge.” Coming to a stop the whole herd just massed up in the middle of the road and stood still. Drivers behind them finally started honking and flashing their head lights to try and get them to move. I honked my weak bike horn as well, no luck. These critters were staying put. After about five minutes I began to see this whole thing as funny, The other drivers, not so much.

After about 10 minutes of this little stand off one of the car drivers got out and tried to run em off the road. All he succeeded in doing was milling them around a bit. For whatever reason this bunch of unreconstructed goats were happy in the middle of the road. Now I know having grown up with all kinds of livestock that any of us could have just inched along and they would have moved. The car drivers evidently didn't know this and I thought the whole thing so funny I just wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Finally, one of the car drivers came running up to the others and they all listen to what he had to say as if it was a matter life and death. After they spoke one of them holler at me and said “ just sit tight, everything would be all over in a few minutes, we've called Animal Control.” I almost cracked up in his face when he told me this. Sure enough in a few minutes, with red and blue lights flashing, Animal Control arrived on the scene.

The Officer got out of his truck, checked his gig line, and proceeded over with a very pronounced manly swagger to deal with the problem. After a good five minutes of getting the herd to mill around again I could see in the Officers, a very young looking fellow, face he was lost. It finally got the better of me and I motioned the Cop over and explained that if he'd take his truck and slowly drive through the herd they would break up and it would all be over. He though about it for a second then got in his truck and pulled out. Little by little it pushed them off the road and they decided to go some place else. Goats are like that. They can tell when they aren't wanted.

After the crisis was dealt with the cop ask me how come I didn't drive into the herd and break things up? I couldn't resist and said “and miss the show these “adults” put on, up to and including calling you.” “Besides, I'm on a motorcycle.” After a couple seconds he laughed in spite of himself. My short trip to town had about an hour added to it. Got witness first hand how some folks in the city operate and I got to meet the local Constable. Not bad at all.

"always seek the adventure”

12-10-2015

Sometime back the annual Bikes, Blues and BBQ rally was held in my back yard. Since it's there and I don't have to ride halfway across the country, I usually attend and take pictures.

One of the things I look for and forward to is seeing the different styles of bikes. Old, new, crazy, ...etc. I like to find styles that I could see myself on. This year I found one such machine. If it were possible at this time I'd be on a machine such as this.

“always seek the adventure”

catch ya on the road

12-9-2015

Today was a good day for a ride, so I did.

I have been under the weather with the flu for the last couple of weeks and with the cooler temps and big case of lazy, I haven't been out. This wasn't so bad. The gummed up carburetors on my bike is another story.

Seems that sitting for a few days the “gas a nol” seems to have jellied and I couldn't get more than an idle out of the carburetor. I put fresh gas in and a heavy dose of Sea foam and began the long process of letting it eat through the gummed up jets. After an hour or so of starting and letting it idle while off and on trying to rev the engine I finally had some success. Enough that I could get it to pull itself. Cursing modern day technological advances I took off for a short ride. After three or four miles it seemed to have cleared out to the point I felt I could put on a few miles without worrying about it conking out on me. I made a short lazy loop of about twenty five miles on back roads and by the time I got back to the house it was running like it should.

I had had this problem often in Arkansas. Everyone agreed that it was due to the newer gas and where I was located. (northern Arkansas) It was widely rumored that we were getting a cull grade of gas because we were so far off the beaten path. Here in Texas where they are known for growing gas behind every bush I didn't expect this to happen, at least so quickly.

So, now it looks like I'll have to make more of an effort to buy sea foam and ride each day to keep everything moving smoothly. That itself is not a bad thing :-)

Days like today make me long for the 70's... I rode all over the seventies and don't once remember having gas issues, other that being critically low all the time, like this. 

always seek the adventure

catch ya on the road