Let The Riding Season Begin! Texas, Coming Up!

I probably should have renamed this blog, Home Makeover, given the amount of time and focus the remodeling of my Florida house required. I don't think I've ever undertaken anything like it before, and certainly not intentionally. That said, I couldn't possibly be happier with the outcome, and I now wake up in a home of my own design in the place I always wanted to live. What's not to like, right? So now it's time to think about riding again. The work on the outside of the house can wait for Fall/Winter when Florida temperatures drop just a little.

There were two choices for a ride, actually, and a decision was required. I could putt up to Maggie Valley, NC, to meet Linda, Charlie, Sol, & friends for Thunder in the Smokies, or I could ride west to Texas to see Gypsy Father Time, Brad, Laura, Nathan, Rhonda, Mark, Colton, etc..... 

Yes, I could also have tried to do both, but making both stops put me on the road a lot longer than I wanted, at least for this ride. I'm saving the year's long-haul run (and my ass!) for later in the Summer when I ride to Sturgis, SD, again, this time from Florida. Decisions aren't always easy, mind ya. My friends are like my family, but many of us will be at Sturgis together, so I decided on Texas.

In either direction, weather is a factor. As I'm writing this, I'm hearing tornado reports from Arkansas and Oklahoma, and the week's forecast isn't the greatest due to a prediction of more rain and storms. The best route, then, seems to be way south, so I'll hug the Gulf most of the way while the nasty weather blows eastward, hopefully north of my path. I should have a reasonable chance of making it without getting soaked constantly, or without being whisked away in a tornado to Oz. Worst case is that I hole up in a little motel or parking garage until the crap blows over.

The route on the map is just a rough plan. I want to get back to the idea of NOT knowing what's around the next corner, or what's going on in the towns I stop in. I like trips where everything is a surprise, including the towns, restaurants, weather, and yep, the route itself. 

I plan to pick up a riding buddy in Fort Worth, and then head south to Austin to hook up with friends. On the way back, I'll spend a little extra time in Fort Worth to see family and pay my respects to departed family members....my Mom and Aunt Annie for sure.....before heading back toward Florida.

I'm going to ride the 2013 Harley Limited for the trip. The '08 Softail is good for road trips, to be sure, but I'm sorta getting used to having a windshield and not struggling with storage room, not to mention having a softer ride. Having a passenger along for part of the trip made the decision a no-brainer, especially for storage requirements! I can run for days on end with just one change of clothes, but I can't expect a girlie to do that!

My Limited is now a year and a half old, and it just turned 10,000 miles. I'm dropping it off for service tomorrow morning before I pull out. No sense getting on the road and having something go wrong, or at least not the sort of thing that can be detected during a major service check-up. I'll also get a second opinion on leaving the original tires on. They look great to me, but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking the obvious.

And so on. I'm taking my time, and I'll stop when something looks interesting or the road is wearing me out. I'll shoot for 500 miles a day, but less is OK too. It ain't a race, and for the very first time in my life, there's no job to get back to and no hard dates on the calendar to drive the schedule. I'll get back when I get back. I can't wait to get on the road!

Updates when I can....

Cowboy

Retirement, Redux

The Ormond Beach House, As I First Saw It. Yikes!

As mentioned in the last post, retirement kicked in for me, quite unplanned, on February 1, 2014. That's not to say that work stopped for me on that day, though. Far from it, actually. I had been down to Florida earlier in January to get the contractors started on some of the work, and when I arrived in Ormond Beach in early February with the first load of stuff, things kicked into high gear.

Of course, with all the work going on, there was no place to put anything, much less get a bedroom set up, so the early weeks were spent sleeping on a mattress on the floor, literally surrounded by boxes, to save from yet another hotel bill. Each morning, I got started early, pulling whatever strings needed to be pulled to keep the work going, plus do whatever I needed to do. I wanted to get the place livable by Bike Week in early March, and have 99.9% of the work done by mid-March when company was coming in from Texas.

This was no small feat given the fact that the entire interior of the house needed remodeling, including an entirely new kitchen. And I had to get almost all new furniture since the DC stuff just wasn't going to fly in a Florida home near the beach.

But I've never let a little thing like an impossible timeline stop me before, and I didn't let it stop me this time despite some frustration from not getting people to work on my schedule. What's up with that, anyway!!!??? I found out that even when you're writing the check, you still ain't the boss when it comes to contractors.

Let the games begin....

Shopping!

In mid-February, the furniture was delivered, and thankfully the floor was done by then so everything got piled in the center of the house where I was camped out on the mattress! Tight quarters, to say the least, and my coffee pot churned away on top of a cardboard box. I had bought a TV to keep me company at night, but with no cable, all I could get was Latino and religious channels, but with the hearing aids out, even that was tolerable!

Sometime in late February, the carpet guys finally appeared with the carpet for the hall and bedrooms, and I was grateful to finally be able to set up the bedrooms and sleep in my own bed. By then, it had been a long time since I'd done that....almost a month! And unpacking some of the boxes could begin. Some of the kitchen work was done too, and I could begin to see a little light at the end of the tunnel!

On days when I wasn't working on the house, I did the necessary stuff to officially become a Florida resident, getting tags on the truck, bikes, and trailer for starters. Yay!

Late February and early March work also included two more trips back north for me, the F150, and my trailer. The second trip was to get the bikes and a truckload of stuff. The last trip was mostly the stuff out of the garage, which turned out to be quite a haul. I did the last trip up and back, including packing, in just 3 days. I had to get back in time for the beginning of Bike Week!

I managed to put an awful lot of miles on that F150 Harley truck, and I need to give it a break for a while. I once thought of counting up the number of trips back and forth I made since last October but decided I didn't want to know! Let it be known that that truck earned its keep, and it can damn sure pull a heavily loaded trailer down the interstate!

Though there were days in early March when I couldn't seem to get a damn thing accomplished, I kept pushing, and slowly I turned the last corner and down the homestretch. The appliances were put into place, I was able to do laundry, and I could finally sit in the living room and watch a little TV, no longer limited to being "saved" or watching Spanish soap operas, though I will miss those short dresses! Damn, what is it about those shows! Heck, maybe they were all about hookers...who knows.

I woke up one morning.....last Thursday, actually.....and realized that it was all done. There was the smell of fresh (and still drying) paint in the air, but no nails to hammer, and nothing to install. Granted, there were still a few unpacked boxes, but I could actually hide those in the garage which was finally emptied of construction materials. It wasn't a moment too soon. 

Before:

After:

The house turned out far better than I expected, and I'm totally happy with it. And despite cost overruns, I've still got my nifty shed on order, due in early April. I'll have a halfway decent place for workbenches, tools and the bikes. 

Retirement might actually begin for me now, assuming retirement means I won't be working my ass off any longer unless I choose to. I'm looking forward to a little downtime to get more acquainted with the new neighborhood, and I plan to put some miles on the Harleys to do just that!

Cowboy

Retirement

Me & Joker, Looking To See What's Around The Next Bend

So it's come to this. At the end of today, January 31, 2014, I'll be retired. That is simply fucking unbelievable. To my credit, I took today off so I could get an early start. Technically, the term is "working from home", but we all know what that really means, right? :-)

To my oldest friends and family, I don't think there's any argument that no one ever expected me to live this long. As a hard drinking....a VERY hard drinking biker.....the odds weren't good. Especially when you add in that I liked to fight, and bar fights were a hobby of mine back in the day. And no, I didn't always win. Winning depended a lot on how late in the night the fight took place. Later = Loser

I was often told it was just a matter of time until someone shot me, or that I'd hit something on the way home from a late night of partying. I have been shot at (they missed!), and a cop once assumed I was dead after a fight at the Rhapsody Club in Baltimore Highlands. And riding? I actually nodded out once, riding my Harley, after leaving Partners Bar in Curtis Bay, MD, and even that didn't get me! Lots of road rash, but the bike wasn't damaged too bad! But hey, it was all part of the game some of us played. Sadly, not all of us lived past those days. I miss my Bros, and the girls too, who didn't manage to get the brakes on before it was too late.

Obviously something had to change for Cowboy, and quick wasn't fast enough. I was attending a lot of funerals back then for still-young friends, and one day soon, the people remaining would be attending mine. That was becoming clear, even to me. So I started getting sober back in the early 80's, and while I wasn't an overnight success in AA, I kept going back. I'm now working on 15 years of consecutive sobriety, and if there's any single reason I'm still alive, riding Harleys cross-country, and writing this blog, it's certainly the fact that there isn't a can of Bud sitting here on the desk as I'm writing to you this morning.

I'm making the statement about my sobriety publicly now that I'm retired. No reason to worry too much about my own anonymity, at least not any longer.

All that drippy stuff said, it's time to look forward. Though I've made a lot of great friends in the Washington, DC area, it's time to get the fuck outa here. I hate the traffic, 95% of the pretentious people, and the fact that there ain't a biker bar in sight. "A biker bar?!?!?!" That would be just awful in the eyes of the populace.

What I really need is to get where I feel comfortable. Baltimore/Anne Arundel County just has too many skeletons in the closet for me, plus it's cold as hell there during the winter. Texas was attractive for several reasons, and not just for the cute ladies (lady?)! The Carolinas were also singing a siren song, but I'm single, live alone, and I'm not reclusive enough for a cabin in the woods, miles and miles from the nearest Hooters.

I set my sights on Florida many years ago, since my first trips down there in the 80's. Everyone's heard me talking about it. It was a place I escaped to, and where I felt as if I fit in...where I could be myself. I went kayaking, riding, and just hanging out during the winter, and mainly around Christmas. I met people a lot like me (scary, right?) and I found out the Daytona area was motorcycle-centric, suiting my tastes to the "T".

Every time I went down, it was harder and harder to leave, so after weighing all the other options, I finally bought a little house in Ormond Beach. There's a big-ass palm tree right in the middle of my front yard! I'm just 2 short blocks from Tropical Tattoo, 4 miles north of Boot Hill Saloon, and 6 miles south of Iron Horse Saloon. Yes, I'll wake up smack in the middle of Daytona Bike Week! If you're riding The Loop, you practically ride by my house. Since I'm only 2 1/2 blocks from the water, I'll get the dust off my kayaks and have the best of all worlds.

Ormond Beach, by the way, is Daytona's neighbor to the immediate north. That's where Destination Daytona/Rossmeyers's Harley is located. You can hear the cars running around Daytona Speedway from my back yard.

The house is undergoing cosmetic surgery as this is written, and in a few short weeks my bikes will be in the garage. Yes, a garage. It will be so fuckin' nice to just go into the garage and jump on one of them instead of the current 3 mile drive to my rented garage. And there's a spare bedroom and about a 1/4 acre of yard. Space!

Come summer, I'm heading out on a very long solo motorcycle ride around the United States to see it the way I've always wanted to. No calendar, no date to be back, no itinerary, and no one to debate with if I want to take an interesting side road along the way. The latest route I've looked at is about 10,000 miles long, with a long stop in Sturgis for the 2014 Black Hills Rally. After Sturgis, I'll head for California, ride the coast to San Diego, and then putt over to Texas. And finally, I'll make my way back to Ormond Beach via New Orleans. If I don't do anything else over the next few years, I'm doing this ride. It might take 6 weeks...it might take 2 months. Longer?? Who knows.

Like the picture at the top of this post suggests, I'll be riding and looking to see what's around the next bend. In retirement.

Now if I could stop waking up at 6:30, that would be a damn good start..........
Ride Safe
Cowboy

Good Times and Good Memories....

I won't drag this out into some drippy sob story, but there was a recent event worthy of mention on Southern Comfort: Joker, my '08 Nightster,  was sold earlier this week, and to a good home. Joker has had more than his share of the spotlight on Southern Comfort, so I figured the least I could do was give him a proper send-off.

I had a lot of damn fun putting Joker together, changing little bits and pieces along the way. Joker became of of those bikes that, when first looking at it, you know it's not a stock bike, but you also can't really tell what, exactly, has been changed. Just a lot of small things that ended up creating a pretty cool bike, even if I say so myself. Joker attracted attention everywhere I parked it. Heck, even when riding, I'd always get a thumbs-up or two. Never failed.

Even this blog got a boost in readership from the Joker modifications. There are lots and lots of links around the web to the 5 how-to articles in Southern Comfort that I wrote while doing the work, and at last count, almost 10,000 readers have checked out these Joker articles.

I'm the first one to admit that it was getting hard for me to ride that bike, so it began collecting a little dust. The lack of suspension travel and the excessive vibration got to be a little too much for me, and yes, that's because I'm getting older. I really have no idea how I EVER rode all those fucking rigid frame bikes back in the 60's and 70's. Joker at least had a little suspension, but I still paid for a longer ride for days afterward.

I rode that damn bike to Mountainfest in Morgantown, WV, a couple years ago, starting out from Alexandria, VA. I made it OK, but I was damn sure not looking forward to the ride home. And after riding it back, I vowed never to do it again! That was a long-ass 200 miles ride, and I was walking like a cripple when I got off!

I sorta figured I'd always keep Joker for a local bar-hopper, but an opportunity recently came along to maybe pick up a place to live down in Daytona, and when talking to the lenders and real estate people, it was made clear that a little extra cash in the bank wouldn't hurt my chances. A survey of my secret stashes didn't turn up much cash, so I had to take a hard look in the toy department, and of the bikes, truck, and trailers, Joker stood out as an easy way to raise some quick money. He was clean, cool, and ready to ride. No excuses necessary when showing him to a prospective buyer, so an ad was placed in Craigslist.

The very first guy to look at Joker bought him. Done deal. I hope Tim enjoys that bike as much as I did. He's a good guy, and I was glad to see someone like Tim get Joker. And it was also nice not to have to BS my way through the sale, masking the flaws. Hell, there weren't any.

Adios Joker. Ride Safe!
Cowboy


PS Here are the links to the other 5 Nightster/Joker posts in order, 1-5

http://cowboyken.blogspot.com/2011/05/nightster-projectbeginnings.html

http://cowboyken.blogspot.com/2011/05/nightster-part-ii-coil-and-parking.html

http://cowboyken.blogspot.com/2011/06/nightster-part-iii-speedometer.html

http://cowboyken.blogspot.com/2011/08/joker-machine-air-cleaner-installation.html

http://cowboyken.blogspot.com/2011/10/canyon-carvers-real-story-aka-joker.html

Welcome Back Cowboy!

After a lengthy sabbatical from blogging, I thought it was high time to dust off the keyboard and try to remember how to start a new post in Southern Comfort!

First off, I was somewhat startled to find that almost 64,000 people have visited the blog, with the most-read posts being those about Sturgis (surprise!), all the how-to articles for the Joker custom work, the Bagger Wobble articles, and amazingly, the post about #4, my Manco Thunderbird mini-bike. That last one actually is a shocker. Who knew? I guess peeps go to that one when Google-ing for info on that bike which, by the way, has just about doubled in value in just about a year. Cool. (Or maybe I just got it for a bargain-basement price. Either way, I'll take it.)

MANCO Thunderbird. Made in Indiana!

So I left off, back in July or May or ???, by telling y'all I'd bought an enclosed trailer, got rid of the 4Runner, and bought a truck that could pull the damn thing. It didn't hurt that the new truck was a 2008 105th Anniversary Harley Davidson F150 that just happens to match my 2008 Softail Custom Anniversary Edition. I had to buy it, right? Hell, it almost matches my trailer too!

I've been real happy with the truck, but I have had a little trouble. A hole in the radiator cost me $900, and a cracked exhaust manifold cost another 1800, with a set of plugs, filters, and a belt thrown in. Still it's one bitching truck, and has no trouble hauling the trailer.

And what else......Heck, there's been so much.

Well, I took off in August on the spur of the moment and headed south, ending up in Maggie Valley, NC, making sure to run Tail of the Dragon on the way. This time, though, I was on the new Limited, and I'm here to tell you, that ain't no XL1200N. I still managed to get 'er going, though, and I've got myself a citation just to prove it!

 "Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?"

 While in Maggie Valley, I hit Dale Walksler's Wheels Through Time museum, and wow, what an experience. I met Dale and his son, Matt, who were great, great people. The museum is simply beyond description. There's more antique US-made bike stuff there than I've ever seen, and all displayed in some remarkably cool ways....period displays. And Dale occasionally blasts through the aisle on one of the bikes. Fast too!

Matt and I talked at some length about the idea of setting up a small machine shop in the area to support bike builders and (I thought) restoration. Turns out that Dale and Matt rarely use the services of a shop. They will wait to find an original part as much as A YEAR before having one made, preferring only the real McCoy. He said they might only use a machined part once or twice a year, and only for parts that simply don't exist. In short, if I set up a shop in Maggie Valley, Dale and Matt won't be my biggest customers!

And sometime before 9/11, a few complete idiots organized something billed as a Million Muslim March ON 9/11! Really? Suffice it to say that word traveled fast within the biker community with people riding into DC from all over the US, and I was proud to ride with some veterans, meeting in the Virginia suburbs and riding in en masse to descend on the Capitol, looking high and low for the Million Muslim rally. Fuck them.

Turns out less than 20 of those assholes showed up, with more media coverage people and security folks than participants. Meanwhile, the biker community had thousands and thousands of riders show up, and on almost no notice. Some rode for days and days just to make the final ride into town. Again, fuck that bunch of assholes (They pissed me off. Can you tell?), along with the people that wouldn't give the bikers a permit to demonstrate. Needless to say, we did anyway.

Cowboy, Chuck, Rick, and Murph

Clubs, and even the police, called a truce for this run.

Lots and lots of bikes at our meet-up. Similar meet-ups were going on in locations surrounding Washington, DC.

We had to eat, right? Murph, Bobbie, Chuck, Rick and Cowboy at Hooters, Fairfax

In late September, I made a run up to Brooklyn, New York, for Indian Larry's Grease Monkey Block Party, and damn, what a great time that was. The cops had city blocks blocked off and a good time was had by all, and especially me. That was my first time riding in New York City, and once I got the hang of dodging yellow cabs, it was fun! Well, not so much fun that I'm doing it again next weekend, but certainly a whole new motorcycle riding experience for this kid.

And in....heck, I think October....some great friends of mind invited me up to a cookout. These people were around at the very beginning of Hells Creations MC getting started, and some I've known for a lot of years. It was just so great to see everyone. One of my great friends, Bob C, said he had some photos from way back when, and here's a few of those pix to close up this post. Thanks, Bob!

Enjoy
Cowboy

Spider & Cowboy, '72

Cowboy & his K Model Chopper

A line of bikes...My purple bike in the middle

Spider RIP