Michael Schenker Fest was awesome

One of my very favorite guitarists on tour with his original solo bassist and drummer and four of the six singers that span his nearly four decade career.  Yes,  four singers,  singing their signature songs and singing together on many others.  McAuley so smoothly and casually stepping into the stage light early to help Barden on the high part of Mad Axman - first appearance, well before his songs came up, then slipping off just as quietly.  Bonnet blowing me away with his vocal power at 71 years old.  White, the young gun in his 50s singing the "new" songs which I like very much.  It was like time traveling hearing That song, with the right voice,  and the right guitar,  the entire night.  They ended with five straight UFO classics.  Better than expected.

Horizons unlimited

Being pursued by a fox apparently.  Last weekend dream ride between the mills.  Beautiful industrial.  Scare away rodents near where people work I think.

Full on old man mode now, Consumer Cellular seems like a good idea, no apologies, fuck you.  Last year I installed metal filter style gutter covers on my newly installed gutters, $100 Amazon,  saved 900 over gutter installer,  and he only sold full cover style anyway.  I overkilled it by adding corner-stops and sometimes the pine needles build up.  They build up anyway in the front.

Got a giant telescoping pole (Costco) and solid wood heavy duty scrub brush (Amazon) plus plywood scraps and an indescribable understanding of joinery equals this.

Shiny square metal threads into a broom handle,   18 feet below

Accept

Sister Mother Daughter

Brother

Any man with a microphone can tell you what he loves the most

Powderhorn 24 2017 Start

The green dragon rode 100+ miles

Central ADV Rider Event CADVR 2017!

This gathering of dual-sport riders in it's tenth year seemed like something I wouldn't like, what with the socializing and the being polite to strangers and the beer at night and the coffee in the morning I don't think I would...   like...  well wait a minute.  So with my Harley-loving work buddy Chris who I convinced to buy a DR last year and add a few basics,  we rode to near Boulder Junction in Northern Wisconsin a week-ago Wednesday.  It rained Wednesday, it rained Thursday,  by Saturday it had dried pretty well.  I mostly rode road on Friday.  This picture is from Thursday,  my first day of real off road riding.  I thought I had ridden off road before,  and I had a little,  but not super-gnarly shit like this continuously for tens and tens of miles, transitioning to sandy wet two-track,  slippery roots,  fist-to-babyhead-sized steep hillclimbs...  Bananas...  Dropped it twice that day,  didn't drop it the rest of the week.  My E07 chevron tread pattern is not ideal for this,  next time full-on (highway-able) knobs.  The dry day was great,  all the same obstacles but less often water,  much higher speed,  riding that moto like a mountain bike pressing it into corner berms, scrambling across everything, sketching-out occasionally and not being afraid to use my feet.  It was a fucking great time,  I'm going back next year.

We learned about this event from an ex-coworker still within the company,  we had known George for years and saw him annually at the Habitat and Free Bikes events,  he like Steve-o has ridden a DR for many years.  Two weeks before CADVR he rode the continental divide between MT and CO,  planning to ride CO to Mexico next year.  So he's a hard-core guy.  He runs an aftermarket tank and seat and rear rack but otherwise bone stock.   Just like Steve.  George was our guide and mentor gently pushing us past our abilities by riding it calmly and waiting for us to catch up.  Our first-day lunch conversation helped a lot too.

The first night after we got settled in the private campground (electric and water in each site),  we walked back to the main tents and the beer cooler trailer to decide which tap handle we would pull as we liked first.  There was a gathering of guys around a wheel on a picnic table that were trying to pound the bearing out of a hub with a fat flathead screwdriver and a heavy hammer.  They discussed and suggested but only a couple attempted pounding.  Then a guy walks up with his portable welding unit and they heat the crap out of the hub.  Bearing pops right out next try.  These were the first minutes of the first night of the dreaded socializing.  I knew I was going to be ok.

The below picture happened first, on Saturday the first "dry day".  George our brave leader showed us a great recovery method when that happens.  We stopped behind him and went around.  Above is 15 miles later stopping to pee and empty boots.  The fact of the matter is you don't stop to take pictures ever so you get what you get.  George stopped to take the top picture after a big hole.

The curator and organizer of this event is a great guy and also a graphic designer by trade and the levels of super cool custom swag at this event were insane.  These are the stickers I purchased for a dollar each - with the exception of this year's two which were three bucks each :).  You should see the sweet vinyl(!) posters I have in the garage now.  You should see the t-shirts...

New condition recent eBay boots on the left,  purchased new from Aerostich on the right.  My feet were the only ones that stayed dry of everyone's.  Love 'em.

Chris and George