Randoms

Jake5/16/2005

Well, not much really going on…Just work and more work. I did order a new exhaust system for my bike yesterday. I put a pic of it here. I have really only seen these on custom choppers and not on any bikes around here.

So step one in the customizing is under way. I will post more pics once they are on…

My job is really getting to me some days. I don’t understand how some of these people don’t fall down more. When someone doesn’t know the difference between a monitor and the cpu something is not right. I am getting to do a little bit more with some document imaging stuff. Basically all the medical records we have are being scanned into a huuuuuuggggggeeee database. Currently we are up to one and a half terabytes I believe and steadly rising.

I started this post at 7:41am, it is now 1:24pm. I had to go to three different locations today…

Ok, so it is now Monday. I fully intended on posting this Friday so I will post it now even tho it is out of date…

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Thunderbeach Bike Rally

Jake5/1/2005

Well I just got back from Panama City about an hour ago, this is going to be a rather long post because it was a very interesting trip. So bear with me….

Thunderbeach is a yearly bike rally held in Panama City, Florida. A guy I work with and some friends of his were planning on going and I really wasn’t sure if I really wanted to make the trip down because I really didn’t know what to expect but on the other hand I really wanted to put my bike on the road and see how she handled.

So late Thursday I decided that I wanted to make the trip down. The guy from work left early Thursday so it was going to be a solo ride for me which would have been the longest ride I have done to date. So I leave from work early on Friday and get all my stuff packed and ready to go. I ended up leaving around 3pm which was laterer than I had intended but I would be riding in the dark no matter what so off I went.

I looked up the mileage on the internet and mapquest said it was 276 miles from Hattiesburg to Panama City and would take ~4 hours. I wanted to “iron butt” it down as far as I could (iron butt means riding as far as you can without stopping). I got on Hwy 98 East towards Mobile Alabama and switched to Hwy 63 to Moss Point and then got on I-10 towards Mobile. I did that because I really wanted to be able to wind it out so I could make up some time. I was really, really pleased with my bike and how she handled on I-10. I was keeping pace with traffic with very little strain on the engine.

I ended up stopping 3 times to fill up my tank and that is really the only times that I stopped. As I was riding on I-10 I was looking for exit 14 which is where I was supposed to turn according to the directions I was given. Apparently construction closed a few exits I found ten and then didn’t see another exit until exit 17. During all this I was driving along some pretty heavy construction of which was a temporary bridge that was nothing but steel grating. My bike was all over the place but I remembered that you should just let the bike move back and forth and keep a general straight line so that is what I did. Luckly traffic was slow enough that I was able to take it slow.

I continued down I-10 until I came to US-331 and drove down to Panama City. I rolled in about 9:30 and let me tell you I know why it’s called Thunderbeach. I have never seen such a collection of motorcycles. I pulled over and called the guy that was already down there and ended up meeting him and his friends. We cruised up and down the main drag passing so many different bikes and so many different people. I wasn’t feeling well at the time, which I think was from riding to much and pushing myself so hard. I have some family from my step mother’s side of the family who live about 30-45 minutes outside of Panama City so I headed out there to crash out for a while.

When I got there I jumped in their pool for a little while and during the course of this my cell phone got some pool water in it and suprisingly it didn’t care to much for it and died immediately. Now I have every single number that is important in this phone, and without it I only know 1 or 2 phone numbers off the top of my head. So I got a hair dryer and tried to dry the phone as best I could without melting anything. But the next morning (Saturday) the phone still wouldn’t come on. So about 9:30 I headed back out to the main drag to see if I could hook up with the guys and get some sights in.

I wasn’t able to find them and decided that there were just waaaaay to many people for my tastes and way to much going on. It took me almost an hour to go from one end of the main drag to the other and I never got out of first gear. I don’t like riding like this I have a leather jacket and a full face helmet and I get hot…So I decided to take Hwy 98 back towards Mississippi and enjoy some good riding. I road along the beach all the way to Destin and stopped there to take a breather and get something to eat. Now I had heard there was some weather heading towards me. I really didn’t think to much about it and headed out again thinking I could just pull over in some gas station or find a hotel. My goal was to make it to Pensacola and get a hotel there for the night…

Well for those of you not familiar with Hwy 98 going into Pensacola you cross over a bridge and you enter into Pensacola. Not really sure how long the bridge is but it’s pretty long, well on the apex of the bridge the sky opens up and it starts raining like someone is pouring a bucket of water out and it’s dark. And not dark like regular storm dark, dark like super bad-ass storm dark. Within minutes I am soaked to the bone and looking for a place to pull off and take cover. I get turned around and get lost in downtown Pensacola. I am not even worried about getting wet anymore because I couldn’t have gotten any wetter that I was already.

So I am bouncing around from gas station to gas station so I can clear my glasses so I could see. I had to put my face shield up because I forgot to rainx it. So as I am riding cussing and saying it couldn’t get any worse than this it started hailing. That’s right you read that correctly, it started Hailing. In Florida. In April. I found out the hard way that it was hailing by catching a piece of ice just under the right eye. The hail was about the size of a shelled peanut and let me tell you it hurt like hell…I also had taken my leather gloves off that I usually always ride with so my knuckles and my fingers were getting pummeled.

So I finally find a gas station that has an awning I can hide under for a while. I probably stayed there for 30-45 minutes hoping it would slack off some so I could find a hotel. I had no idea where I was but I saw a sign for 98w which is where I was supposed to be going. I say to hell with the rain and jump back on my bike and start looking for a hotel. After I had been to three hotels only to be told no vacancy the fourth one was the charm. Comfort Inn near NAS Corley had a room available. I jumped on it. And let me tell you that was the BEST room ever!!!

I got all my stuff dry and ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut and settled in. It was about 2pm when I finally got the room and felt settled in. I have a leather jacket that I wear while I ride and it was dripping wet so I turned on the room heater and started drying it. I crashed out about 3:30pm and woke up about 6pm and it was still raining and my cell phone was still dead

So not being able to sleep I was up till about 5am and finally got up about 7am to sunny skies and unseasonably cool temps. I started out this morning about 8am and took 98w all the way to Fairhope Alabama. I got on I-10 with about 20 or so other bikers and we rolled down to 98w again. I love the sound of a bunch of bikes riding together. It truely sounded like rolling thunder. I got home about noon and I currently fighting the urge to take a nap.

So I am going to rap this really looooong post and go clean my bike. If you made it to the end of this congratulations

All told I had 696 miles on my odometer…Very good run if you ask me…

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Riding

Jake3/18/2005

Well today was the first day I was able to actually take my bike out on the road. It was awesome!!!!! I had forgetten how much fun riding is and free you feel. Of course this was after the mind numbing terror of being on the road again :-). I only put ~30 miles on it today, but it sure felt like more. I also took some more pics with my mom’s camera. I will post those as soon as I get my laptop back…

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My Bike

Jake

Well, it’s official. I purchased a 2004 Suzuki Volusia on Wednesday of this week. So far I am extremely happy with it. Here are some interesting stats about it if you like motorcycles.

And now….the pictures

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