Monday, February 22, 2010

Carolina Adventure World

My last post was about buying dirt bikes. So, naturally, this post is about riding the dirt bikes. Mike just couldn't wait until the weekend, so he went by himself to ride on Friday. He went to Carolina Adventure World in SC. We'd never been there before. He left me a funny (to me anyway) message on my phone Friday while I was at work. He said, "Well, I rode for about 20 minutes. Then got my bike stuck in the mud, couldn't get it out. Had to walk for probably 1 mile before I found someone on a 4-wheeler. He pulled me out. Then my bike wouldn't start. He pulled me (riding the bike) behind the 4-wheeler. Then we crashed...that hurt!!." Side note: I just saw a new E-Trade baby commercial...those are brilliant!!

Anyway, that wasn't such a successful outing. But it has been 6 years since we last rode. So, we both rode down on Sunday to give it a shot. All I can say is, I didn't kill myself. It wasn't for a lack of trying though. My bike and I did not get off to a good start. It was idling too high (reeving too high). That didn't do me any favors. Then, I forgot that I shouldn't use the clutch on the downhills because I don't get any engine brake. Long story short, I was going too fast downhill. I had a run-in with a tree. The tree won. I hit the handle bars pretty hard, but did learn that the chest protector is a valuable piece of safety equipment. I knocked the wind out of myself and my ribs hurt like hell. After Mike decided I was going to live, he had a jolly ole time mocking me. It wasn't so funny though when he couldn't get his bike running again. We had to leave his bike on the trail, take mine across a creek to get back to the road to the parking lot, and ride two-up back to the car.

After lunch, we went back to retrieve his bike. Luckily it started. He finally remembered the trick to keeping his running and we decided to give it another shot. I have to admit, going back out on the trail was not on the top of my list of things to do. However, Mike fixed the idling issue, I remembered not to use the clutch in the downhill, and finally (and most importantly), I went very, very slow!!!! There was more dropping of the bike, but that was much better than a sudden stop by way of a tree!! The trail was very very muddy and rutted out. It wasn't my favorite course. I made it harder on myself by going so slow. I had to really muscle the bike around a lot. Next time, yes, I'll risk life and limb again, I'll be more confident.

Today, my neck is really sore, my ribs are in pretty much constant pain, and my left thumb is sore and bruised. My ribs kinda feel like you have a swimmers cramp all the time. What could be more fun huh?? Take a look at the bikes after it was all said and done...

Oh yeah, but first, a good picture of Foggy I found on my camera.



Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentine's Weekend

Mike and I went to Atlanta for a romantic weekend. We had a candlelit dinner....YEAH RIGHT!!!

We went to Atlanta to pick up a dirt bike that Mike bought. Yup, that's right. We're back in the dirt bike riding business. I've got a bigger bike this time around (not bigger than Mike's, bigger than the bike I had a few years ago). I hope this doesn't cause my wrecks (there will be many) to result in any serious injuries (there will be non-serious injuries for sure). Should be fun!!

We had some snow on Friday night (see below) so the roads were a bit touch & go. We had two scary slides. But after about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, it was smooth sailing. Since we were going to Atlanta, we tried to make the best of it. We went to the Aquarium and World of Coke. After the World of Coke, we were walking back to the Marta Station and decided to stop and eat at the Mellow Mushroom. We didn't spend a lot of time in Atlanta, but we really had a nice time. It was a nice Valentine's weekend after all.

This was the backyard Saturday morning.

Road in front of the house. Kathy said she had 5 inches. We live 1 mile from her and had about 3 inches. We've had this discrepancy before. I know she showed a ruler but I still have my doubts...anyway.


It was tough to get good pics through the thick, really scratched plexi glass. But here's a few shoots. The Aquarium was really cool. It is advertised as the largest in the world.









We made a last minute decision to go to World of Coke. It was right across from the Aquarium. It was actually pretty neat.


At the end of the tour/museum, there were soda fountains set up for each area of the world. This picture is from the Africa station. There were 64 different sodas. We tried them all, except for the USA flavors. Some were good, some were pretty gross. By the end, I felt disgusting!!!

Just because I figured out how to use the video feature of my camera:

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Deer...Finally!!

After many attempts (we all remember the peanut butter nailed to a tree), we've finally gotten a glimpse of some deer in the yard. We've been putting cracked corn out and they've been eating it. Susan also got us some Deer Feed for Christmas and they really seem to like it.

Well, they actually came out during the day. Mike was home and had the dogs in the basement. The dogs had been in the basement most of the week because of the snow. So, the deer were probably feeling safe coming up to the fence during the day. I was not home to witness the visit but Mike was able to get some good pictures for me. There were three here at one time. He wasn't able to get all three in one picture though.

But first...a picture of a blue jay (I think) munching on some corn this morning.




OK, trust me, there are two deer in this picture.


I know you can see the deer in this picture.


Aren't they just adorable!!!