EMERALD COAST BIKEFEST

EMERALD COAST BIKEFEST APRIL 25 - 27

Well, it's almost time to load up and head south to Holt, FL for the Emerald Coast BikeFest. Harley and I have gone for the last four years and we usually have a great time. It takes us about three hours to get there, and once we're in the gate, we probably won't ride much till we go home. You see, I don't have my drinking and driving license yet, so I'll probably move around on my two feet or the golf cart. LOL!

During the day, you can look around at numerous vendor booths for leather, bike accessories, clothes, jewelry and all kinds of usual biker paraphernalia. Plenty of food and drink available also. I love watching the Drag Races and grudge matches. Not only do they have Pro Mod and Top Gas Drag Bikes, they will let any regular Joe and his street bike get on the track and see what he can do. They make you sign a waiver for liability reasons, but other than that, this is a good safe place to test your skills and speed. One of the guys that usually camps with our group, actually brings his Harley Road Glide he set up for racing and competes. It's fun to go over to the track an pull for someone you know.

Night time gets a little bit more rambunctious to say the least. The music gets cranked up, the bull riding begins and there's always the infamous wet t-shirt contest to draw the entire camping population to the stage area. I remember the first time I went, I probably had a "deer in the headlights" look on my face the whole time. I figured out real quick, if you get offended easily by dirty talk and bare skin, this is not the place for you. I actually get a kick out of all the different attire, or lack there of, I see while walking around the crowd. There's always at least one hot chick dressed in a bikini and assless chaps, that usually has a crowd of men with cameras behind her like rats following the pied piper (Joker, you'd feel right at home here, bro). LOL! If you got it flaunt it. Unfortunately, my flaunting days have passed me by along with my birthdays. I have to be careful though, beer makes me brave (or maybe stupid is a better word). There comes a point in your life where you don't want to be responsible for scaring the hell out of someone! I don't think everyone has gotten this message though. I'll admit, for every sexy one you see, there are at least three to make you want to shut your eyes! The odds aren't in your favor.

So, if any of you are going to be in this area, and are planning to check it out, drop me a line. It would be great to have a drink with you and toast to friendships, old and new. Here is the link so you can get all the info on camping, tickets, and whatever else you need to know. http://www.emeraldcoastbikefest.com/ Hope to see you there and don't forget to wear your party hat! Lady R

FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

Do you ever have one of those days, where you just feel good all over? Well, I'm having one of those days! I have many things to be thankful for!

I just spent these past couple days with a couple of great girlfriends. These two particular ladies are part of what I refer to as my "Posse", and my previous post of Feb. 2nd pretty much sums up how I feel about these two. Crazy Chick and The Earth Mother don't live close to me, so the time we spend together is usually what I call, nice quality time. Little Hanna Montana was with us. She belongs to Crazy Chick, and she is a pretty cool little friend. She's a great little dog sitter too.
We enjoyed a great lunch at one of my regular romps, Sinclair's on the Lake. (also written about in a previous post). Afterward, we took Hanna Montana to a place across the road called "The Children's Harbor". It's a pretty cool Campground, with a Light House, a Fog Bell Tower, and other interesting play structures. This facility provides a campground dedicated to children with cancer. This place is truly a Godsend.

I got to crank up and practice my Kareoke skills a little, and it was during this time, that we missed our absent friend, Red Light Roxanne. She can Kareoke like no one else! My songs of choice this time were, "The House of the Rising Sun", and of course, "Born to be Wild"! I sang like no one was listening, and that means loud! LOL! I'm glad my neighbors take their hearing aides out after 8:00. I think we were safe!

We had a weekend full of fun and adventure, and I will have great memories of our time together. After we said our goodbyes and gave repeated hugs in the driveway, we waved goodbye to each other as they turned their "Girls Fun Mobile" south and headed home.

Feeling a little sad that I don't live closer to my friends, as I came back into the house, I decided to see if I could cheer myself up by checking in on some blogger buddies. I got a pleasant surprise when I checked my first new comment. My little brother, Bucky, has found his way! I saw his comment on my most recent story, got so excited, and answered the comment immediately. Then I realized, as I went back in my post history, he left a little trail of messages in my comment section on several posts. For me, this is a great feeling, because I like feeling close to my family. We were pretty tight knit as we were growing up, and the fact that we all live in different places, we have to make an effort to keep in close touch.

So, when I decide to measure my worth, my friends and my family are without a doubt, what I am the most thankful for. I'm married to a good man who is still my sweetheart and my best friend. I think everything else is small stuff and replaceable. I FEEL GOOD! Lady R

ATLANTA'S TORNADO

For those out there who follow my posts, you may remember the March 16th entry, that described my experience in Atlanta's tornado. My sister in law, who is a big Kentucky Wildcats Fan and a lover of basketball, sent me this picture to tell me why the SEC game was canceled that night.
Here is an excerpt of what was written about this unique shot.

"As an EF-2 tornado swept across downtown Atlanta, one local photographer snapped the shot of a lifetime.

Shane Durrance was on top of his condominium off Howell Mill Road when he saw the potential for a great photo of the downtown area. He took the photo just as 11Alive's Paul Ossmann was talking about tornado warnings in Atlanta.

Durrance, who is an acquaintance of Ossmann's, sent the photo to 11Alive and said he believed he'd missed catching the tornado on film. But after Ossmann reviewed the picture, he assured Durrance that he had indeed gotten the shot.

The picture shows a light-gray vertical strip of what looks like clouds connecting the cityscape to the larger clouds above. That is the actual tornado. Ossmann said it didn't look like the usual sort of funnel cloud because it was embedded in rainshowers at the time of the photograph. "

Pretty wicked photo, huh? I was in the Westin Tower during this mess, and after looking at this photo, I'm just thankful it wasn't a bigger storm! Lady R

KAWLIGA AND THE "LOST HIGHWAY"

For a die hard Rocker, I seem to have a lot of trivia in my head about country music. OLD country music. I guess I have Papa J and the Bear (my parents) to thank for that. I grew up in a household that the music of choice was Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Jim Reeves, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, ect, ect..., need I say more? I could recite with ease many of Hee Haw's one liners, and could always tell you what Grandpa had for supper that night. I must have had an underlying desire make a statement to my folks, because the first concert I ever went to at the age of 16 was Alice Cooper! SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!!

Montgomery has a lot of Hank Williams history attached to it. The Hank Williams Memorial "Lost Highway" is a 55 mile stretch of I65 between Montgomery and Greenville, dedicated to him. His grave site and museum located here, also attracts tourists year round.



One of our favorite places to ride is Lake Martin, which is about an hour northeast of Montgomery. Hank stayed in a cabin up in this area during the summer of '52, and it was then, he wrote "Kawliga" and "Your Cheatin' Heart". This is Kawliga Bridge. It crosses over a southern part of the lake. Back in the late 90's, Harley and I had a pontoon boat for three years. We spent a tremendous amount of time up here on the water. We camped, fished and enjoyed being able to get into some cool water anytime things got a little hot. We called it our "Party Barge". Woo Hoo!!

There is a really great little restaurant right on the lake called Sinclair's. In addition to vehicle parking from Hwy. 63, they have several boat slips out front, so you can pull up and enjoy some great food, while your boating on the lake.
The entrance to the restaurant is where their version of Kawliga , the Indian Chief is located. I remember, as little girl, feeling really bad for this poor guy when his black haired Indian Maiden was taken away to a far away place. What a heartbreaking story for an impressionable young girl. (Sniff!) Getting back to the food, they have great hamburgers, steaks, and their salads are meals in themselves! If your ever in this area, you won't be disappointed. Give them a try. We still come up this way often, only these days we're getting here on two wheels instead of on pontoons. This makes a great place to stop and have a stretch, eat lunch or just get something to drink, and move on. I just wanted to share some of our beautiful Alabama with you, and also to reiterate to anyone who cares, ROCK AND ROLL LIVES FOREVER!! Lady R

SWEET HOME ALABAMA

Hurray for the weekend! Today is Saturday, we have 74 degrees, sunshine, and Harley and I were actually ready to go riding early! I think both of us were in dyer need of some quality road therapy.

We headed north up Hwy. 231 for about 30 miles and turned northwest, onto a great little road we discovered on a previous weekend. These little county roads are fun to ride on because a lot of them are curvy. We carry a Topo map of Alabama so we can explore several different ways to get to the destinations we may aim for that day. This to me, is the fun part. I didn't realize how big this state is, until I started seeing it on a motorcycle. We ride almost every weekend and we have seen some very pretty roads.

Harley likes taking some of these curves faster than I do, but he has a great deal more riding experience than I have. I enjoy these curves as well, and I take them at a pace I'm comfortable with. When we come upon them, he usually gets a good bit ahead of me. This is one of these times. He stopped on the side of the road and caught this pic of me coming around the bend. Once I've caught back up to him, he likes to tease, "Where've you been?" I just give him a smile. He knows I stay pretty much within my comfort level, which changes every time I go. I feel an increase in my skill level every time we ride. We usually ride at least 150 to 200 miles every time we go out.

We turned East in Sylacauga and enjoyed the Southern portion of the Talladega National Forest for a few miles. We stopped for a break when we saw a safe pull off, and stretched our legs while we took in the scenery. Once we continued on our journey, we eventually turned south, which would bring us back to our beginning. Home, Sweet Home.



Riding this afternoon was really rejuvenating for me! I was absolutely having a great ride! I couldn't have wanted to spend this Saturday any other way. Ride on and ride safe! Lady R

I'LL GET YOU MY PRETTY AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO!

I think Atlanta has it out for me. Last weekend I got to enjoy snow while camping at the races. This weekend, another tooth fairy and I went back over to Atlanta for the big Hinman Dental convention and experienced an F2 tornado! Something tells me to stay the H*ll out of Atlanta for a while!

My friend and I were having a great Friday evening after a rather interesting day of lectures! We enjoyed a nice meal at the Hard Rock Cafe, met up with some other Tooth Fairies from South Carolina, and we all decided to go up to the Sun Dial Lounge in the Westin Tower. The glass elevator that takes you up is on the outside of the building, so you get to watch the street level get smaller and smaller as you ascend to the top. This rotating restaurant and lounge is 72 stories up with glass all around you, giving you a beautiful view of Atlanta's downtown area. We noticed that it started to rain and we were seeing a lot of lightning in the area.

We were ooohing and ahhhing over the beautiful light show, when all of a sudden something kind of large flew past the window and caught my eye. Two of us said, "Did you just see something?" We started watching toward the window wondering about the rain, when suddenly, we could see SEVERAL things flying around beyond the window. These "things" we were seeing were about the size of cooler lids of various shapes and they were slamming against the window with violent force. We started hearing loud popping noises, as if there were small explosions of glass, or debris hitting the building. I realized in that instant, that while being 72 stories high in the sky, and being able to see this many objects flying in the air at one time, something is seriously wrong! I looked over at my friend, and she had already slide out of her chair, down to the floor trying to get as low as she could. She revealed to me later, that she was seeing the windows shaking. My thought was to get away from the glass. I think in an effort to keep MYSELF calm, I stared telling everyone in our party "Stay calm, don't panic, we need to get away from the glass!" We just started grabbing stuff, whether it was ours or not, and ran to the nearest cubby that was surrounded by walls. We found ourselves huddled at the entrance to the Men's Room, waiting until it calmed down enough to venture back out to the open area. The outside glass elevator was not in operation, and only ONE of the four internal elevators were working, to take every one back to ground level. It took us about 30 minutes to get our feet back on the ground.

When we started walking back to our hotel, which was only two blocks away, we saw the debris everywhere. Insulation hanging from trees like tinsel, large pieces of foam big enough to float on were scattered around here and there. It looked like a war zone.

This tall round structure is the Westin Tower. We can't believe our fortune that this building appears to only have suffered from some blown windows. The Georgia World Congress Center, where our meetings were being held, suffered much more structure damage. We ate lunch at the CNN Center the day before all this, and it has endured some major damage as well. The SEC Basketball Tournament was taking place in Atlanta this weekend also, and only brought more people in the path of this startling storm. We reflected later, the fact that we had no warning this was going to happen. The employees told us they did not know of any weather warnings for our area either, when we asked them about it.

During the aftermath, I witnessed several Motorcycle Cops moving about performing various duties, and I thought to myself the extreme riding conditions they were having to deal with. Not only did the rain continue to come and go, you had power lines down, large structure debris laying everywhere, and shrubbery from small trees adding to the numerous hazards to avoid. My salute goes out to them!

I experienced something this weekend that put a lot of things into a somewhat different perspective. I thanked God for putting his angel on my shoulder that night. I think I had a little help coming out of that one with nothing more than wide eyes and a good story. Lady R

CHILLED OUT IN HOT-LANTA!

Brrrrrrr! Camping in Atlanta this past weekend was a bit on the chilly side to say the least. We were fortunate enough to get a big surprise from Mother Nature. SNOW IN ATLANTA! I've been bragging lately on how beautiful our warm riding weather has been. Well, there's nothing like frozen kahoona's and buwanna's to humble a person.

Friday night was pretty chilly, but nothing unbearable. In fact, Polar Bear decided he was going to sleep under the stars in his sleeping bag, and he did! However, we woke up to a snowy, freezing cold, Saturday morning. He didn't sleep in long. The thin layer of wet stuff didn't last that long either, but Red Light Roxanne still managed to scoop up what she could and made miniature snow people. That afternoon, when the sun came out, we kept moving around to stay in the sun spots. It was definitely warmer than in the shade. We had four layers of clothes on and still had to wrap up in a blanket to keep warm. You can't see it in this picture, but Harley and I are watching the TV under the camper awning. Yes, it's tough roughing it!

Through it all, we still managed to enjoy some of our usual camping activities. We play cards, cook good food, and just enjoyed hanging out with some great friends. I was fortunate enough to hold my own for a while in a good game of Texas Hold'em. My buddies take their Poker VERY seriously, and it was an honor for me to even be allowed to sit at the same table with them! I learned a new dice game too called, Left, Right, Center. I won some $$ on my second game! Can't beat that with a stick!

As I said, the sun came out, the fans came in, and the races were held. This is our viewpoint from the observation deck on the Lone Ranger's hauler. It's usually very windy up top, but it's the only place you can see the track when your in the infield. Congratulations to all you Kyle Bush fans out there. He took the checkers twice this weekend when he won the truck race Friday night and then the Nascar Spring Cup: Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday. Matt Kenseth won the Busch race on Saturday. So, in summary, a good time was had by all, and we will look forward to our next adventure together. Maybe when we go back in the fall for the next race in Atlanta, we won't have to take our longjohns! Be chilly! Lady R