Roy's BBQ Ride to Eat 2012

I just had the best weekend I have had in a very long time.  I went to Roy's BBQ in Hutchinson, KS for a Ride to Eat.  It was not the BBQ that made it a great weekend, and it was not the fact that I was on another "long" motorcycle trip that make it a great weekend.  It is because I got to spend the weekend on a trip with my daughter "Panda".  That's right folks the first ever daddy daughter trip was last weekend.  Panda has ridden with me many times over her 11 years of life.  All of which were local rides.  Heck, I use to drop her off at school on the Honda Magna I had when she was in Kindergarden.  However this was our first weekend trip and long ride.  I am VERY impressed with how well she did!  In three days we covered roughly 1050 miles with not one complaint from the pillion seat.

I was not planning to make Roy's this year as I can only really pull off one big trip a year and I plan to attend NatSTOC in Spearfish, SD this summer.  That trip is still on.  However, Panda was on spring break and I wanted some BBQ so we started planning the trip.  I was concerned about a few things:

1.  That is a lot of miles for an 11 year old.
2.  Lodging; I tend to camp to save money but riding two up would make it hard, if not impossible, to pack a tent and sleeping bags.
3.  That is a lot of miles for an 11 year old, we were going to have to take a lot of rest breaks.
4.  Communications between us while on the road.
5.  That is a lot of miles for an 11 year old.
6.  How am I going to pack everything a 11 year old pre-teen girl will want to take?

I decided we would get there when we get there and take as many breaks as needed.  I reached out to the Kansas ST folks looking for cheap lodging options.  I was offered a free place to stay approximately 50 miles from Hutchinson and had the offer from a Team Colorado member to split the cost of a room with her and her husband.  After talking with Panda we decided to split the cost of a room.

I wanted to make this trip all about Panda and involved her in all the planning.  She helped pick routes, decide on lodging, every decision was a joint decision.  Just planning the trip was a lot of fun.  We decided to ride with two of the Team Colorado folks on the way out and to ride alone on the return trip.

I got her helmet wired up with a ChatterBox headset so we could talk while under way.  Problem four solved.  We did have to make several adjustments during the trip to get her speakers in the correct place for the best sound and comfort but I have had to make slight adjustments with every headset I have ever used so that was no big deal.

I gave Panda one saddle bag liner and told her that was all the space she had for packing.  She was very concerned with the space limitation of this situation.  She has camped for years and put those skills to use.  When I got home from work on the Thursday before the trip the first thing she did was show me the bag.  She was very proud of herself for making it work, (I too was proud).  She was sad however that she had to make the hard decision to leave her teddy bear that she sleeps with behind.

Friday morning finally came and we got ready for our departure to meet the two Team Colorado folks we were going to be riding with, BakerBoy and Follow at the Flying J in Aurora.  We had a 7:10 am meeting time so it was an early start to Panda's day.  The whole family got out of bed to see us off.

We headed for the truck stop and was able to test out the ChatterBox for the first time while actually on the road.  It worked great!  We did learn later that at highway speeds Panda had a hard time understanding me due to wind noise.  Once the speakers got put in just the right place that issue went away.  Unfortunely it took most of the trip to get them just right.



We head from the truck stop with BakerBoy leading the way.  We decided to take 2 lane roads for our trip out.  I let our riding partners know that if Panda has an issue with the distances we would break off from the group and just meet the later at the hotel.  Turns out she had no issues, or at least none that she told me about.  I think I was ready for a break before she was.  Oh to be young again.  We rode along looking at the scenery and just chatting up a storm.  I gave her my camera attached to a lanyard and she sat on the back of the bike and took tons of photos.

We stopped for a break at about the 150 mile mark and then again for lunch about the 250 mile mark.  We made another stop at about the 400 mile mark.  We then pressed on to our first tourist stop which was about 60 miles away.  We stopped to see an Agave Americana, commonly known as the century plant, in Chase, KS.  This plant gets it's name because it only blooms once in a 100 year span and then dies.  The plant we were stopping to look at is 35 years old and is now blooming.  It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of these bloom.  There is a pretty good wiki on this type of plant here.

We then did the last push to the hotel in Hutchinson, KS.  Panda's first 500 mile day was in the books.  I could not have been more impressed with her!  We lounged around at the hotel talking with the other riders that were there and went as a group to dinner at Applebees with the other Team Colorado folks in attendance.

Above is just a couple of the bikes that showed up.  There were 6 bike/7 people from Colorado who made the trip.

Saturday morning we got up and got ready for the BBQ run.  There were 44 bikes, 1 scooter, and one car (poor guy had a broken foot so he could not ride).  In attendance were riders from Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Illinois, Louisiana, and Missouri.

Let me tell you, the BBQ was well worth the trip.

After eating some good ol' BBQ Panda and I took off with Kansas local and fellow ham radio operator WØQNX to go tour the salt mines.  These are the same mines featured in an episode of "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe."  We spent much of the afternoon 650 feet below the Earth's surface.  It was a very cool experience.  Due to the constant temperatures and humidity levels they have turned much of the mined area into storage.  They keep some cool stuff down there to preserve it like the costumes from the original Batman and Superman movies and a newspaper reporting President Lincoln's death.

After the mine tour, we rode over to Youder for some pie.  It is not an ST trip without pie!

We then headed back to the hotel where we met up with the rest of the Colorado crowd and sat around in the parking lot shooting the breeze.

Sunday morning came and it was time to head home.  Took me a bit to get Panda up and moving but we got on the road at approximately 7 am central time.  We decided to run I70 back home and said out goodbyes to the rest of Team Colorado who were riding in a group back.

I70 is pretty uneventful in Kansas, except for the cross winds.  Panda did not like the cross winds at all.  There was a few times we were hit with a strong gust and her screams came over the intercom.  We worked our way back stopping every 100-150 miles.  We chatted like old friends and just enjoyed spending time together.  We also did our part to decrease the bug population.  Panda could not take looking at the world through bug guts anymore and had to clean her face shield at a gas stop.

We arrived home right at 3 PM mountain time.  Panda tells me she loved the trip and she is already looking forward to the next one.  Soooooooooo....

Being it was April Fools day I let her relax in front of the TV for about a half hour and informed her she had to get her gear back on because I left an important item at the hotel in Hutchinson.  We had to go back to get it.  She freaked out!!!  I took her to the garage as she was begging to be dropped off at Grandma's because she had no desire to ride that far again.  I messed with her for a little bit before I told he it was a joke.  She wants another trip just not that soon apparently!

Anyway, I will end this post by saying we have over a thousand miles of memories that will be with me for the rest of my life.  I am looking forward to another trip with her.  Below is a map showing our traveled route taken from my Spot Tracker pings.

Officer Safety: Ammunition cycling and failure to fire

Reposted from: Officer Safety: Ammunition cycling and failure to fire

If you carry a firearm, cop or not, this is good information to consider.


Repost...

Officer Safety: Ammunition cycling and failure to fire

February 17th, 2012

THE FOLLOWING TRAINING ADVISORY WAS FORWARDED FROM A POLICE DEPARTMENT IN GEORGIA IN 2011

In September of this year a PD officer was involved in a situation which quickly became a use of deadly force incident. When the officer made the decision to use deadly force, the chambered round in his duty pistol did not fire. Fortunately, the officer used good tactics, remembered his training and cleared the malfunction, successfully ending the encounter.

The misfired round, which had a full firing pin strike, was collected and was later sent to the manufacturer for analysis. Their analysis showed the following: “.the cause of the misfire was determined to be from the primer mix being knocked out of the primer when the round was cycled through the firearm multiple times”. We also sent an additional 2,000 rounds of the Winchester 9mm duty ammunition to the manufacturer. All 2,000 rounds were successfully fired.

In discussions with the officer, we discovered that since he has small children at home, he unloads his duty weapon daily. His routine is to eject the chambered round to store the weapon. Prior to returning to duty he chambers the top round in his primary magazine, then takes the previously ejected round and puts in back in the magazine. Those two rounds were repeatedly cycled and had been since duty ammunition was issued in February or March of 2011, resulting in as many as 100 chambering and extracting cycles. This caused an internal failure of the primer, not discernible by external inspection.

This advisory is to inform all sworn personnel that repeated cycling of duty rounds is to be avoided. As a reminder, when loading the weapon, load from the magazine and do not drop the round directly into the chamber. If an officer’s only method of safe home storage is to unload the weapon, the Firearms Training Unit suggests that you unload an entire magazine and rotate those rounds. In addition, you should also rotate through all 3 duty magazines, so that all 52 duty rounds are cycled, not just a few rounds. A more practical method of home storage is probably to use a trigger lock or a locked storage box.

FURTHER GUIDANCE FROM ATF FIREARMS TECHNOLOGY BRANCH:

The primer compound separation is a risk of repeatedly chambering the same round. The more common issue is bullet setback, which increases the chamber pressures often resulting in more negative effects.

SOD RECOMMENDATION:

In addition to following the guidance provided above of constantly rotating duty ammunition that is removed during the unloading/reloading of the weapon, training ammunition utilized during firearm sustainment and weapon manipulation drills, should also be discarded if it has been inserted into the chamber more than twice. This practice lessens the likelihood of a failure to fire or more catastrophic results.

http://boloreport.com/officer-safety-ammunition-cycling-and-failure-to-fire/

Pack 501 2012 Pinewood Derby

So it is that time of year again.  Derby time!!!!!!  As the Cubmaster of Pack 501 I have spent the past two months preparing for the big show. 


So after months of hype and helping my 27 boys get ready for the big day it was finally here.  Setup started at 10:30 in the gym of High Point Academy.  Check in started at 12:00 and racing was suppose to start at 1:00.  Due to technical issues with the track talking to the computer racing did not start until almost 2:30.  Once racing started it was a great time!  Below are a few pics from the big race.

Check In

 Zach's Car

 

My Car

 Amanda's Car

Why we are the way we are...

If you every wonder why cops are the way they are, watch this video. 

If I Have to Explain…

If I Have to Explain…

This is a very well written article written by an internet fried of mine. I have more often than not been faced with having to explain my choice of transportation to people. Especially when I am out and about on my motorcycle in what most would consider "non-riding" weather. Most times I find myself at a loss of words on how to explain why I ride. Scott does a great job of shining some light on the situation.

Cheap PA system for Scout Meetings

For those of you that do not know I am the Cubmaster for a local Cubscout Pack.  What fun this job has been.  But after running my first big event a few years back, the Pinewood Derby, I could not talk the next three days.  I decided I needed voice amplification.

The next two events that I had I suckered a friend who use to own a karaoke business into coming to set up so I could have a microphone... HOW SWEET IT WAS!!!

Since then I have started collecting used and donated equipment so I did not have to bug my friend, good thing since he is now retired.

I ended up with a Radio Shack mixer, a set of Gem Sound wireless microphones, some el' cheapo wireless mics, and an aiwa stereo to use as a power amp.  Along with this I scored a nice 10" PA speaker.  I hit up Guitar Center and got all the cabling to make it work.  The stereo is not a nice professional power amp but for my purposes works more then fine.  Now I had a big pile of stuff to drag to a meeting and setup just so I could be heard.  Then I started to drag it all to my wife's bigger Girl Scout events.  Then to Christmas parties for some clubs I belong to.  I always seem to be missing a piece when I get to where I am going and I am always scared I was going to break something in transport.  But I had a big pile of cool stuff to play with that would take me an hour to setup once I got to where I was going.

So I decided it was time to build a custom box to hold it all.  I got myself a sheet of plywood and started cutting.  My plan was to build something so I could just plug into the wall and the PA speaker and turn on the power.  I started by measuring all of my components and planning out how I wanted them arranged.  Then my 8 year old Zach and I started cutting up the wood assembling and painting.  I did not think to start taking photos until we were done painting. 

 

Once the paint was dry it was into the house for the final assembly.

First step was to put in the power strip.

 

 I then added the Gem Sound Microphone receiver.  This component was what the width of the box was based on.  I velcroed it in place.

 

On top of the microphone receiver I velcroed the mixer board and started running my cables.

 

Once the cables were ran I installed the stereo to push the sound to the speaker.  It can also be used to play music :)   I have cables ran from the mixer in various connectors to accommodate anything I want to hook into the system later ran into the compartment on the right.  I used cable clamps to secure the cables to the box to make it nice and neat.  You can see in the above photo I also installed the receivers for the el' cheapo mics.

 

Now it was time to install the top and the doors.

 Then handles to be able to lift the setup and latches to keep the door close.

The tests of the system shows it is easy to setup and use.  I am no longer worried that things are going to get broken and I know I will not loose my voice at the Pinewood derby on the 14th of this month.  Next step is to put some casters on as this thing is HEAVY!!!!!!

Moonshine Lunch Run 2011

Moonshine Lunch Run 2011
Moonshine, IL
The Home of The World Famous Moonburger
"If you don't make it to Moonshine,,, you ain't a Motorcycle Rider,,, you're just a Motorcycle Owner!!!

Once again  I plan to 1000 miles one way to eat a cheeseburger.  This event has been going on for the last six years.  It all started in 2005 when a farmer in Illinois invited a few friends to come to Moonshine (population 2) to have a hamburger with him.  In 2005 there were 30 bikes from 6 states that made the run.

This is not an advertised event and word is spread via the Internet on forums and by word of mouth.  The 6th annual lunch run had over 1000 bikes from all around the US and Canada and a ton Moonburgers  were sold!  (I am having trouble finding the official numbers.  So you may be thinking to yourself big deal a lot of people ride long trips on motorcycles.  Well yes they do however this lunch run takes place in April. Typically the weather is in the 30s with wind and snow.   It has been said that the MLR was a wacky idea, held in a wacky place at a wacky time with wacky weather.  Visit the MLR web page here.

So much like last year,  here is the plan I will leave Denver on April 6, 2011 and ride to Bonneville, MO where I will spend the night with some friends.  On the 7th I will head on to Moonshine.  I will spend the 8th-10th in Moonshine and head back to Bonneville and then on to Denver on the 11th.

This year's MLR will be special.  You see one of the biggest reason I wanted to attend was to meet Terry, the man who started it all.  Well on November 19, 2010 Terry Hammond passed away.  I will never get to meet the man, the myth, the legend behind the MLR.  Instead I will be riding 1000 miles one way to pay last respects to a man I never had the honor to meet in person.

R.I.P. Terry Hammond 11/05/57 -  11/19/10

So the time to leave finally came.  Like a kid waiting on Santa Clause to arrive I barely slept knowing that LeAnn was waiting in the garage for me to ride her.

(All packed and ready to go.)

I got out of bed bright and early and hit the road to make the 700 mile ride to Boonville, MO.  The ride was uneventful until I crossed into Kansas.  The first issue I encountered was missing the state line sign.  I always take a photo of the state line sign when I cross into a new state.  I stopped and considered my options.  I could go to the next exit and turn around and come back but with this being Kansas I did not know how far that would be.  I decided that since the sign was at a weigh station to just flip a u-turn and ride up the exit to the interstate and get the photo.  Issue one solved!

I continued on in Kansas dealing with strong cross winds.  Who would have thought that the winds would be this strong in Kansas?????  Yes I too have watched the Wizard of Oz.  I was not able to ride tank to tank like I normally do since I needed to stop every 50-100 miles to just get a break from the winds.  I pressed on and made it into Missouri.  Once again I was lied to by the weather man.  It was only suppose to be in the 60s my entire trip.  Riding in Missouri it was in the 90s and my mesh gear was home safe and sound in my garage.

(Welcome to Missouri)

I arrived at my stopping point at about 5:00 Central time.  I had been keeping in contact with my friend Shannon who I was going to be staying with for updated road conditions since I knew she lived on a gravel road.  She told me that the road was fine, not muddy, and just small gravel.  No big deal, right?  What she fail to mention was her driveway was large, loose rock and from the saddle appeared to go straight up.

After much consideration I decided that I could make it and hit the gas.  What is the worst that could happen?  I slipped around a bit and made it to the garage in the photo above.

I enjoyed my visit and a few cold ones with friends and headed out about 6:00 am on Thursday to make the last leg to Casey, IL.  

(Welcome to Illinois)

I arrive at the Hammond Farm around lunch time and get camp setup before kicking back and watching a little Caveman TV.

Thursday night I head over for a BBQ and fellowship in Casey.  Lots of bikes have already arrived in Casey for the big event.  I spend some time talking with some great people and enjoying some great food!  

I then head back to the farm for the night and enjoyed some my Caveman TV and some great conversation.  It was great to sit around with like minded people and relax.

 Little bit of rain Thursday night but so far the weather has been perfect for a motorcycle trip.  Friday comes and I hang around the farm until lunch.  I eat with some of the guys down  the road at "The Oilfield" restaurant.  After lunch Smash finally showed up.  Smash is from Golden, CO and a member of Team Colorado.  This dude is hard core, or insane I am not sure which one.  He did a SS1K (Saddle Sore 1000, 1000 miles in 24 hours).  He had some mechanical issues on the road but made the trip in 23 hours.  In the company I was in a SS1K is no big deal.  This guy did this one on a 600 Ninja, not a ST or Goldwing like most of us do!

Right after Smash showed up we head over to Richards Farm for the Banquet.  That was a spread!  You name it they had it on the buffet! If you left hungry it was your own fault.  Lots of good conversations and the ability to see some old friends from around the country and meet some new ones, while putting faces to many names of guys and gals I have one talked to on the Internet.  I also was able to meet up with the rest of Team Colorado for dinner. 
Saturday morning started with Moonshine weather.  It poured rain.  We all holed up in the barn until the worst of the storm past and the put on the rain gear and headed to the Comfort Inn to meet up and head to get a Moonburger.

We ride out to Moonshine where I get my breakfast burger.  Yep ate my Moonburger at 8:00 in the morning.  You have to get in line early for a Moonburger.  This is the first time that I got a true feel for how many people showed up for the main event.  There was bikes parked as far as the eye could see and even as I was leaving tons more rolling in.  You really have to attend to understand how huge this event is.  And let me tell you the burger was well worth the trip.


(Waiting in line for my Moonburger, photo by Follow)




(Team Colorado at the Moonshine Store)


(New sticker on the bike)

After lunch I went back to the farm and packed up camp and took off back west back to Mid-Mo.  Sunday I rode around my old stomping grounds and visited Kemper Military School.  When I left there in 1997 I did so with the plan to never look back.  I did not know at the time how much that school was a part of me and who I am today.  The school closed down a few years ago and is in very sad shape.  It really saddens me to see how much the school has been allowed to sit and rot.

While in Missouri I enjoyed being able to visit old friends and I went to lunch with Ma and Pa Bosma.

Monday I saddled up for the 700 mile trip back home.  In the middle of Kansas I ran into Smash again and rode to Colorado with him.

We stopped at the Colorado state line for a photo opportunity.

(Welcome home, photo by Smash)

While taking our photos another ST pulled up.  We were greeted by Larry (RealST) and his riding partner Lexie.  We all rode into Denver together for the end of an great trip.



(Smash on the left me on the right photo by RealST)


(Me, photo by RealST)