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+ Week Rocket Science and other Riding Tales

Big fuckin' deal. It's built in Tejas. Whether it's Yellow, TX or Arlington. It doesn't really matter where in the state it's built and tested. What I'll give is its better track record than the Blackhawk during its first few years. The Osprey is an interesting design and all that. I don't think I'd want to be a passenger on that thing.

People in TX sure do get testy rather easily. I did notice it when I lived there.
 
ZoomerP said:
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There is a Buc-ees about 15 minutes from our house. When ever I go by it the place is packed with cars.
 
I took a short ride to the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge this evening. With clear skies I knew the sunset wouldn't be very impressive but I just felt like going for a ride.

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There's something therapeutic about riding down a gravel road.

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I thought the reflections of the trees in the water was cool.

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As I expected the sunset was not that impressive.

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DJ_MI said:
klaviator, how to you decide where you are going to ride to? Not a big trip or even a day trip but the kind of spontaneous ride that happens when you finish your chores early with 2 or 3 hours to spare before dinner.
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My most common rides are just commuting around town. I also do Sunset rides which are typically around 20-30 miles total. To get to any really decent riding I have to go 30 or more miles to get to the good roads so my rides are short local rides usually 30 miles or less or they are day rides of around 150-300 miles. I rarely do rides in between those. Pretty much every Saturday if the weather is OK I'll go on a day ride with friends unless I am out of town. From April - October I hope to do at least one out of town ride of 4 or more days every month. I already have a bunch of trips planned.
 
Sometimes I'll ride just to get a Tag. The Scooter tag game on ADVr is very active and often changes 2-3 times a day. The local forecast called for rain all day today and the next couple of days but as usual the weather guessers were wrong. It was mostly dry this morning with some very light sprinkles so I decided to go grab the scooter tag before it actually started raining. The Current tag was "paradise" and I only had to ride around 7 miles to go get it.

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Then I needed to find a new tag. I thought about using a radar speed sign but changed my mind when I saw this:

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I made the new tag a cluster of real estate signs.

I figured this would make people who lived in more expensive areas jealous:lol3
 
I looked to see what they were advertising in the first sign for Homes starting in the 250s. I found a couple under 250. 3br,2ba, 2 car garage for $234.900. When I first came to Huntsville 13 years ago they were advertising 3br,2 ba, 1 car Garage for around $95K. That was for new homes.
 
ZoomerP said:
I've seen the same. Predictions of another housing bubble ring true to me.
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I thought about starting a bubble thread in the non moto section which interestly I started a moto thread in.....

I want to ride Klaviator's routes. Some of these scenic routes extend close to where I grew up in the foothills. Which is now a booming market on all fronts.
 
ZoomerP said:
I've seen the same. Predictions of another housing bubble ring true to me.
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I don't know about the housing bubble. Housing prices here have dropped slightly from a year ago but the housing market here is still HOT. They are building new houses and apartment building everywhere as well as all kinds of commercial buildings. The problem with this is the traffic had gotten bad. My first few years in Huntsville were great for scooter riding around town because except for rush hour there wasn't much traffic. Now it's fairly heavy most of the time although not nearly as bad as the Atlanta area were we moved from. However, it isn't too far to get into middle Tennessee where there are plenty of back roads with very little traffic.

Right now if I leave my subdivision and head west I'm in farmland in less than a mile. In just a few miles I can be on dirt roads in the Wheeler Wildlife refuge. That farmland will eventually be turned into more subdivisions or commercial property which will suck but Wheeler will never be developed which is good.

It would be nice to live somewhere that I could be on great roads right out of my driveway but at least the cost of living here is low enough that I can afford a nice place to live and still have enough money left over to take trips to areas with really fantastic riding.

I have a number of trips already on my Calender for this year with more to come. Here's what i have so far.

April - Dual sporting the Free State. weekend of Camping and riding in the Bankhead Natl forest.

June - Bradfest III - 3 to 4 days of dual sport riding out of Mountain View Motorcycle campground in Elk Park, NC

July - Beat the Heat Scooter rally. 5 days of twisty road riding out of Maggie Valley NC

August - Pacific Coast Tour. 3 friends and myself will be hauling our scooters to CA for a 9 day ride in CA, OR, and WA.

Sep - Bradfest IV. Same as Bradfest III

OCT - Barber Vintage Motorcycle festival.

I plan on adding quite a bit to the schedule above with at least some short notice trips.
 
Mid 90's went to Feast in the East in Madison had Saturday dinner at some catfish place in the middle of farm land . Went back to Huntsville for the 2001 Iron Butt Rally and did not recognize the area can not image what it looks like now.
 
LDDave said:
Mid 90's went to Feast in the East in Madison had Saturday dinner at some catfish place in the middle of farm land . Went back to Huntsville for the 2001 Iron Butt Rally and did not recognize the area can not image what it looks like now.
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Unfortunately a lot of the country is like that. I lived in Pensacola, FL in the early 90s and went back in 22. I hardly recognized anything and was lost most of the time I was driving around town.
 
Phoenix metro is in a state of constant and rapid change. I leave for a year, two, or a few and come back to my old haunts. Everything has changed. Old buildings replaced by tech stuff, high rise and pricey condos, and there is a huge complex full of massive hangars filled with supercomputers and servers just north of Sky Harbor. It's located at 40th St and Loop 202. My late cousin was working on the engineering side of the electrical grid to that huge tech complex. It's a metadata storage site. Nowadays dumpy houses are going for around $650k. The better homes are no less than $800k.
 
I decided to head over to the Wheeler Wildlife refuge visitor center to pick up a National Park Pass which I expect to be using later this year. The visitor center is outside of Decatur and on the other side of the Tennessee River. I took a little detour to the Veterans Park in Priceville to take a few pics.

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The 2 aircraft on display here are both ones that I have flown. I flew a twin engine version of the famous "Huey".

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And I learned to fly in the T-34C.

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And just because it was there I got a pic of this anti aircraft gun.

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Then I rode to the visitor center and got my pass. It was a pretty good deal as it was FREE and will get me into any National Park as well as as free parking at National Forest sites.

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There were some walking trails around the visitor center so I checked one of them out but I'll have to come back sometime to walk them all.
 
Another pic of Wheeler at another location across the highway from the visitor center.

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That yellow sign at the upper right of the pic has a warning to watch out for alligators!

I stopped at a grocery store and then at Allsport to get a new spark plug cap for my Like 150. NGK stopped making the cap but I was able to order one of another brand.

I stopped for some more pics along the Tennessee River.


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After crossing the River I checked to see if the Seasonal gate to one of the Wheeler trails had been opened. It had!
 
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