Like my braces?
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Rubbing Elbows at RTJ
Using her connections from Doc Harry's and Glory Days Grill, Tracy got a 4-day gig working the President's Cup held at Robert Trent Jones golf club in Lake Manassas. Yesterday, she either met or saw Sonny Jurgenson, John Riggins, Steve Buckhantz, Frank Herzog, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods. The second day, she shook hands with former President Bill Clinton and was in the same room as former first lady Barbara Bush. The cult of the celebrity is running strong in Bristow.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
The Tale of the Dragon
This past week I took a 4-day weekend to make my first trek to the Appalachian Mountains to ride the Dragon in Deals Gap, NC, one of the most famous motorcycle roads in the country. My Dad, Uncle Mike, and my cousin Ché had been planning the trip for a few months now, but the planning was done and it was time to ride.
Tracy suggested that I borrow Ricky's bike trailer to cut some of the seat time off the trip, and in retrospect, that proved to be very good advice. Last Wednesday night, I drove over to Ricky's house and picked up the trailer. I have never towed anything with the Sequoia since we bought it, and despite my misgivings, the trailer connected to the hitch and all the lights worked!
I had planned to pack the bike up Wednesday night and leave by 7:00AM on Thursday, but I got back from Ricky's well after 11:00PM and since I was already nervous about packing up the bike by myself, I decided to wait until daylight. As it was, it took me over an hour to pack the bike, with Tracy's help the next morning, and just as I was about to leave the Furniture truck drove up. Tracy and I had picked out a few pieces of furniture over the Labor Day weekend and delivery was promised between 8:30AM, and 12:30PM on Thursday. In a rare display of efficiency, the delivery arrived at 8:15AM. The Entertainment center we bought presented more than a few problems in getting down to our basement, but in the end it fit. It sounds like an exaggeration, if the large side pieces of the entertainment center had been 1cm larger in any dimension, it woudn't have fit. This short delay prevented me from leaving until after 9:00AM, and I left for Raleigh slightly behind schedule.
The schedule was for me to arrive in Raleigh between 11:00AM and 1:00PM, and I didn't get there until 1:30PM. I got to Ché's house, unpacked the bike, parked the trailer and the truck, and grabbed a bit of lunch. We watched the MotoGP movie, 'Faster' to hype ourselves up a little before we left for our 4-hour trip to Asheville. The first night of this grand adventure would be spent at the Days Inn in Asheville where we would meet up with Ché's sister Dawa. Dawa works for AmeriCorps in Asheville.
The trip did not start well. Just before I left for VIR a few weeks ago, I had my bike serviced, and in the course of my 600 mile service, they 'fixed' my clutch for me. The fix radically changed the friction point and I had a hell of a time lauching the bike. I stalled in three times before we stopped for gas. This picture was taken at our first gas stop and at this point Dad adjusted the clutch for me and all was right in the world. That's me talking on the Phone to Tracy since this was our first stop that day. The bikes from left to right are Uncle Mike's R1, Uncle Mike's FZ1 that Dad was riding, Ché's R1, and last my R1. It's hard to tell from this picture, but Uncle Mike was wearing his Yamaha colors proudly during the entire trip. There was little doubt about what brand of bike he was riding.
Nothing much happened on the trip to Asheville, except that it took 5 rather than 4 hours to get there. We met Dawa and her boyfriend that night for dinner at The Bier Garden in downtown Asheville. We had a good time and spent several hours in the restaurant catching up.
The next morning our first stop was at Dawa's house so that we could take a group photo. Dawa got out her new scooter, or the 'hog' as Ché called it and we lined them up for this shot. You may have noticed that Dad isn't in any of these shots because he was the one taking all the pictures. We left Dawa's and almost immeadiately ran into rain, which we waited out under cover at some convenience store along Highway 74. We were there for about 90 minutes before we ventured out again, headed for Maggie Valley. We were under cover from the rain with about 7 other bikes, and they told us about a rally in Maggie Valley as well as a motorcycle musuem that looked like a good place to stop. With all the rain, getting to the Dragon as fast as we could served no purpose.
We stopped the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum and spent a couple of hours looking over the old bikes. The most memorable thing for me was seeing a 1919 'Fat Boy' Harley that really did not look any different than today's model.
After a regrettable lunch at a roadside diner, we headed for Fontana. One note, the diner, as bad as it was, served something I had never had before. The previous evening, the Bier Garden offered something called Sweet Fries, which are french fries made out of sweet potatoes covered in sugar. The diner had these as well, and they were pretty good. We hit the mountains on the way to Fontana, and I got my first taste of the twisties that were to come. I thought that the road was extremely curvy and was more than enough to quciken the pulse, but I was assured that this was nothing compared to the Dragon and truer words were never spoken.
This is the cabin we stayed at in Fontana Village. Once we got there, we realized that there was no cell service in the area. As it turned out, we were unable to get a signal from any of our phones for the next 24 hours. We settled into the room, unpacked the bikes, and once we had rested for awhile, Ché, Uncle Mike, and I headed for the Dragon to get our first ride in before dark.
Without getting too much into it, I was rather unprepared for the experience that the Dragon offered. It turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. The only problem was that I had exceedingly high expectations based on rading about this on the web, and talking to others who have ridden it before. In this case, and this is rare for me, the high expectations were simply exceeded once I headed up the hill for what turned out to be the best 11 miles my bike has ever seen.
To put this into perspective, here is a map of the road. My first ride began at the bottom where 28 meets 129, and ended at the scenic overlook of Calderwood Dam. The speed limit is 30 miles per hour. It is a double yelloe line for the entire route, but it is a common courtesy for slower bikers to allow you by. My first run was held up by a Buell rider, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because once I got around him, I had open road and the fun really started. If you ride a motorcycle, you will understand what I mean when I say that there are good days and bad days when itcomes to aggressive riding. This turned out to be one of the good days, because I was mentally alert and it showed in my riding. I felt really good, rode fast, but within my limits, and leaned the Yamaha over farther than it had ever been before. The Dunlop 218s held up and the first run was in the books. The Dragon demands so much of your attention that I cannot remember seeing anything on the side of the road. I never got the bike past the mid 60's the entire ride, and the record runs for the route average just over 60 mph. Compare this to the Isle of Man where they average over 124 mph for that course and you might get an appreciation of the severity of the curves. There is nothing in Northen Virginia to compare to it.
This road is so twisty that Harleys have a hard time riding it, and it is the first road I have been on that I strongly felt that no car could keep up with me. If a Harley can't lean over enough to ride the road, the picture above shows you what happens when a semi tries to get through it. If that wasn't enough, here is the weekend report straight from the website:
FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY SEPT 16, 17, 18: Another busy weekend with good weather. Some rain on Friday but it cleared during the afternoon and stayed sunny the rest of the weekend. Saturday was as busy as we have seen. Sunday saw fewer bikes and cars, but there were a number of accidents. A Porsche went off the side and a FJR hit a pick-up head on. Another tired rider ran off the road late Sunday. No serious injuries in any of the accidents.
This is not a ride for the timid.
Here we are on Saturday outside the Dragon Grill.
As you can see, it had rained the night before, so we just ate and took at look at the tree of shame, which is a tree decorated with the parts of previous Dragon victims.
We did see a brand new Ducati 999 unloading off a truck, still wearing the 30 day tags! Talk about a breaking it in. From here we toured the Fontana Dam, which was a very interesting bit of history. From here we rode the Cherohala Skyway. One thing to note here is that the Dragon is so treacherous to cars that it is essentially unpatrolled. Not so for the Skyway, so we kept it legal for the entire trip. The Skyway took 34 years to complete, and runs along a mountain ridge fron NC to TN. At its highest point, it is more than 1 mile high and at this point we were literally riding through the clouds. Pretty cool, both figuratively and literally, as the temperature drop was pretty severe. After the Skyway, we rode back in cell phone range, checked in with wives and headed for the biggest knife store I have ever seen, the Great Smokey Mountain Knifeworks, where all the Clarks but me bought one of the new Kershaw speed-safe knives. I already have one from a trip to the store earlier this year during spring break.
After the knife store, we got stuck in Pigeon Forge for over an hour in traffic. If you have never sat on a 2004/2005 Yamaha R1 in traffic for this loing, consider yourself luck, because that SOB will literally burn your balls off. Uncle Mike nearly got heat stroke while waiting out the congestion, but we eventually got out of it and took a well needed breather.
The plan was to head back across the mountains and assault the Dragon from the North side. We rode the Foothills Parkway en route and the views on this road were as good or better than the Skyway. Breathtaking.
Dragon Redux: This time the Dragon almost bit back. Thinking back, it was not a good idea to hit the Dragon after a more than 250 mile through the Tennessee countryside. We were tired and my riding performance suffered because of it. There were several mistakes on my part and more a coupe of 'Oh Sh*#' moments. Talk to Ché and I about the blown turn on the North side of the Dragon before the overlook. The first time on the Dragon, the ride was spirited and time flew. The second, the ride was a little more exciting, in a bad way, and I kept thinking, 'Is this MF'er ever going to end?' When we got down to the bottom, Ché and I quickly abandoned earlier plans to make a third run.
We had dinner in the Fontana Village restaurant and called it a night. That evening, my forearms and hands hurt like never before and I wans't looking forward to a 6-hour ride back to Raleigh. As it turned out, the ride to Raleigh wasn't very exciting, i.e. Interstate Highway riding, but it was quick and we were back in Raleigh before 4PM.
In order to ensure that I didn't get home terribly late and taking into account that I had to report to work the next day, I loaded the bike and hit the road on the Sequoia. I have never been so glad to get in a car as I was that day. After the ride to Raleigh, the 4 hours back to Bristow were gravy.
A good time was had by all. Grandfather protected us and we made it home safe. The chicken strips got smaller, the lean angles lower, we have memories that will last a lifetime and somewhere in the mists of time another visit to the Dragon looms.
Tracy suggested that I borrow Ricky's bike trailer to cut some of the seat time off the trip, and in retrospect, that proved to be very good advice. Last Wednesday night, I drove over to Ricky's house and picked up the trailer. I have never towed anything with the Sequoia since we bought it, and despite my misgivings, the trailer connected to the hitch and all the lights worked!
I had planned to pack the bike up Wednesday night and leave by 7:00AM on Thursday, but I got back from Ricky's well after 11:00PM and since I was already nervous about packing up the bike by myself, I decided to wait until daylight. As it was, it took me over an hour to pack the bike, with Tracy's help the next morning, and just as I was about to leave the Furniture truck drove up. Tracy and I had picked out a few pieces of furniture over the Labor Day weekend and delivery was promised between 8:30AM, and 12:30PM on Thursday. In a rare display of efficiency, the delivery arrived at 8:15AM. The Entertainment center we bought presented more than a few problems in getting down to our basement, but in the end it fit. It sounds like an exaggeration, if the large side pieces of the entertainment center had been 1cm larger in any dimension, it woudn't have fit. This short delay prevented me from leaving until after 9:00AM, and I left for Raleigh slightly behind schedule.
The schedule was for me to arrive in Raleigh between 11:00AM and 1:00PM, and I didn't get there until 1:30PM. I got to Ché's house, unpacked the bike, parked the trailer and the truck, and grabbed a bit of lunch. We watched the MotoGP movie, 'Faster' to hype ourselves up a little before we left for our 4-hour trip to Asheville. The first night of this grand adventure would be spent at the Days Inn in Asheville where we would meet up with Ché's sister Dawa. Dawa works for AmeriCorps in Asheville.
The trip did not start well. Just before I left for VIR a few weeks ago, I had my bike serviced, and in the course of my 600 mile service, they 'fixed' my clutch for me. The fix radically changed the friction point and I had a hell of a time lauching the bike. I stalled in three times before we stopped for gas. This picture was taken at our first gas stop and at this point Dad adjusted the clutch for me and all was right in the world. That's me talking on the Phone to Tracy since this was our first stop that day. The bikes from left to right are Uncle Mike's R1, Uncle Mike's FZ1 that Dad was riding, Ché's R1, and last my R1. It's hard to tell from this picture, but Uncle Mike was wearing his Yamaha colors proudly during the entire trip. There was little doubt about what brand of bike he was riding.
Nothing much happened on the trip to Asheville, except that it took 5 rather than 4 hours to get there. We met Dawa and her boyfriend that night for dinner at The Bier Garden in downtown Asheville. We had a good time and spent several hours in the restaurant catching up.
The next morning our first stop was at Dawa's house so that we could take a group photo. Dawa got out her new scooter, or the 'hog' as Ché called it and we lined them up for this shot. You may have noticed that Dad isn't in any of these shots because he was the one taking all the pictures. We left Dawa's and almost immeadiately ran into rain, which we waited out under cover at some convenience store along Highway 74. We were there for about 90 minutes before we ventured out again, headed for Maggie Valley. We were under cover from the rain with about 7 other bikes, and they told us about a rally in Maggie Valley as well as a motorcycle musuem that looked like a good place to stop. With all the rain, getting to the Dragon as fast as we could served no purpose.We stopped the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum and spent a couple of hours looking over the old bikes. The most memorable thing for me was seeing a 1919 'Fat Boy' Harley that really did not look any different than today's model.
After a regrettable lunch at a roadside diner, we headed for Fontana. One note, the diner, as bad as it was, served something I had never had before. The previous evening, the Bier Garden offered something called Sweet Fries, which are french fries made out of sweet potatoes covered in sugar. The diner had these as well, and they were pretty good. We hit the mountains on the way to Fontana, and I got my first taste of the twisties that were to come. I thought that the road was extremely curvy and was more than enough to quciken the pulse, but I was assured that this was nothing compared to the Dragon and truer words were never spoken.
This is the cabin we stayed at in Fontana Village. Once we got there, we realized that there was no cell service in the area. As it turned out, we were unable to get a signal from any of our phones for the next 24 hours. We settled into the room, unpacked the bikes, and once we had rested for awhile, Ché, Uncle Mike, and I headed for the Dragon to get our first ride in before dark.Without getting too much into it, I was rather unprepared for the experience that the Dragon offered. It turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. The only problem was that I had exceedingly high expectations based on rading about this on the web, and talking to others who have ridden it before. In this case, and this is rare for me, the high expectations were simply exceeded once I headed up the hill for what turned out to be the best 11 miles my bike has ever seen.
To put this into perspective, here is a map of the road. My first ride began at the bottom where 28 meets 129, and ended at the scenic overlook of Calderwood Dam. The speed limit is 30 miles per hour. It is a double yelloe line for the entire route, but it is a common courtesy for slower bikers to allow you by. My first run was held up by a Buell rider, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because once I got around him, I had open road and the fun really started. If you ride a motorcycle, you will understand what I mean when I say that there are good days and bad days when itcomes to aggressive riding. This turned out to be one of the good days, because I was mentally alert and it showed in my riding. I felt really good, rode fast, but within my limits, and leaned the Yamaha over farther than it had ever been before. The Dunlop 218s held up and the first run was in the books. The Dragon demands so much of your attention that I cannot remember seeing anything on the side of the road. I never got the bike past the mid 60's the entire ride, and the record runs for the route average just over 60 mph. Compare this to the Isle of Man where they average over 124 mph for that course and you might get an appreciation of the severity of the curves. There is nothing in Northen Virginia to compare to it.
This road is so twisty that Harleys have a hard time riding it, and it is the first road I have been on that I strongly felt that no car could keep up with me. If a Harley can't lean over enough to ride the road, the picture above shows you what happens when a semi tries to get through it. If that wasn't enough, here is the weekend report straight from the website:FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY SEPT 16, 17, 18: Another busy weekend with good weather. Some rain on Friday but it cleared during the afternoon and stayed sunny the rest of the weekend. Saturday was as busy as we have seen. Sunday saw fewer bikes and cars, but there were a number of accidents. A Porsche went off the side and a FJR hit a pick-up head on. Another tired rider ran off the road late Sunday. No serious injuries in any of the accidents.
This is not a ride for the timid.
Here we are on Saturday outside the Dragon Grill.
As you can see, it had rained the night before, so we just ate and took at look at the tree of shame, which is a tree decorated with the parts of previous Dragon victims.
We did see a brand new Ducati 999 unloading off a truck, still wearing the 30 day tags! Talk about a breaking it in. From here we toured the Fontana Dam, which was a very interesting bit of history. From here we rode the Cherohala Skyway. One thing to note here is that the Dragon is so treacherous to cars that it is essentially unpatrolled. Not so for the Skyway, so we kept it legal for the entire trip. The Skyway took 34 years to complete, and runs along a mountain ridge fron NC to TN. At its highest point, it is more than 1 mile high and at this point we were literally riding through the clouds. Pretty cool, both figuratively and literally, as the temperature drop was pretty severe. After the Skyway, we rode back in cell phone range, checked in with wives and headed for the biggest knife store I have ever seen, the Great Smokey Mountain Knifeworks, where all the Clarks but me bought one of the new Kershaw speed-safe knives. I already have one from a trip to the store earlier this year during spring break.
After the knife store, we got stuck in Pigeon Forge for over an hour in traffic. If you have never sat on a 2004/2005 Yamaha R1 in traffic for this loing, consider yourself luck, because that SOB will literally burn your balls off. Uncle Mike nearly got heat stroke while waiting out the congestion, but we eventually got out of it and took a well needed breather.
The plan was to head back across the mountains and assault the Dragon from the North side. We rode the Foothills Parkway en route and the views on this road were as good or better than the Skyway. Breathtaking.
Dragon Redux: This time the Dragon almost bit back. Thinking back, it was not a good idea to hit the Dragon after a more than 250 mile through the Tennessee countryside. We were tired and my riding performance suffered because of it. There were several mistakes on my part and more a coupe of 'Oh Sh*#' moments. Talk to Ché and I about the blown turn on the North side of the Dragon before the overlook. The first time on the Dragon, the ride was spirited and time flew. The second, the ride was a little more exciting, in a bad way, and I kept thinking, 'Is this MF'er ever going to end?' When we got down to the bottom, Ché and I quickly abandoned earlier plans to make a third run.
We had dinner in the Fontana Village restaurant and called it a night. That evening, my forearms and hands hurt like never before and I wans't looking forward to a 6-hour ride back to Raleigh. As it turned out, the ride to Raleigh wasn't very exciting, i.e. Interstate Highway riding, but it was quick and we were back in Raleigh before 4PM.
In order to ensure that I didn't get home terribly late and taking into account that I had to report to work the next day, I loaded the bike and hit the road on the Sequoia. I have never been so glad to get in a car as I was that day. After the ride to Raleigh, the 4 hours back to Bristow were gravy.
A good time was had by all. Grandfather protected us and we made it home safe. The chicken strips got smaller, the lean angles lower, we have memories that will last a lifetime and somewhere in the mists of time another visit to the Dragon looms.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Happy Birthday!!
Happy Birthday to Austin Clark! Today he turned the big '11'. Grandpa Denny and Uncle Chuck were in town for a program retirement ceremony and took him out to dinner at the Osaka Japanese Steak House. He was able to enjoy the ceremonial lighting of the grill and even got to bang the birthday gong. I wasn't there, don't ask why, but a good time was had by all.
Tonight we are taking him and a few of his friends to his favorite restaurant: The Golden Corral. The Golden Corral is a buffet style restaurant that has a little bit of everything on the menu. Most importantly, they offer the Austin Clark special; self-serve soft ice cream with Gummi Bears.
So far the birthday celebrations have been a few presents this morning and a small birthday cupcake party at school courtesy of Tracy.
Happy Birthday Austin!!!
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
School Report
I was able to glean the following first day impressions from each of the kids:
Kara
Kara's teacher is mean because she will not allow any talking in the hallways.
Austin
Austin thinks his teacher is the nicest he has ever had. Let's see how long this impression lasts.
Kellie
Kellie thinks her language arts teacher, Mr. Parker is a homework nazi. She was required to write 3 papers as her first homework assignment.
Kara
Kara's teacher is mean because she will not allow any talking in the hallways.
Austin
Austin thinks his teacher is the nicest he has ever had. Let's see how long this impression lasts.
Kellie
Kellie thinks her language arts teacher, Mr. Parker is a homework nazi. She was required to write 3 papers as her first homework assignment.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
First Day of School!!
Today is the first day of school for our county. The supplies, new shoes, new clothes, and all of the other various items needed for the new school year have been bought.
Various degrees of enthusiasm for the big day were displayed by the kids. Kara was very excited to get back in classroom, but Austin wasn't exactly doing cartwheels. Kellie was somewhere in between. Kellie's big announcement today was that she is color coordinating her notebooks, pens, and pencils this year. Today's color was 'blue'.
Austin was selected as a member of the Safety Patrol as a crossing guard. He gets to wear a yellow belt as part of his duties, and wore it for the first time today.
Reports on the first day's activity to be posted tomorrow.
Various degrees of enthusiasm for the big day were displayed by the kids. Kara was very excited to get back in classroom, but Austin wasn't exactly doing cartwheels. Kellie was somewhere in between. Kellie's big announcement today was that she is color coordinating her notebooks, pens, and pencils this year. Today's color was 'blue'.
Austin was selected as a member of the Safety Patrol as a crossing guard. He gets to wear a yellow belt as part of his duties, and wore it for the first time today.
Reports on the first day's activity to be posted tomorrow.
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