A wake up and the Run Starts

Tomorrow Run For The Wall 2010 starts. Central Route will be on I-15 and I-40 and Southern Route will be on I-15 and I-10. There will be about 300 bikes on each route. There will be a lot of cages riding along ahead and behind this year too. We are getting older. We cannot forget the reason for this run. It is for all the troops that did not come home from all wars, and those that need to heal after being placed in harms way. Thanks to all of you who will be standing out in all sorts of weather to cheer the packs on. Every one of you is part of the reason that we do what we do.
23 years ago there were not very many participants, and there are new folks every year. Thanks to all the FNG's that join in this year. Thanks to all the towns that will host and feed the riders on the run. Thanks to all the truckers that will patiently and professionally deal with the packs. For the 1% that won't, well thanks to you to. Thanks to Glen Jones of Sirius Radio for all of his support too.

Bounce

Not all truck drivers just drive

About a month ago I met a driver that works for the same company I do. He is a truck driver, but he is also a videographer. He made videos for a living before he decided to drive truck. His name is Marcell, and he has some very High Tech equipment. He told me that he has about 75 hours worth of video from on the road and that he wanted to interview some drivers to go with the video that he has filmed. I was not surprised when he told me that he was having trouble getting folks to talk to him, especially if he had his camera with him. I think I surprised him when I told him I would not mind talking to him. Well anyway we arranged a time for an interview, over the phone. I did this last night, and we talked for over an hour and half. He asked some great questions, and I gave him the answers that I had. It was interesting. He is trying to bring out a part of trucking that most people do not ever see. I wish him luck in his endeavor.

Bounce

Runs to the Run have started

Well it has started again. Actually it started last week. Some of my Run Family have already arrived in CA. Others will get there today. Bones and his wife almost got snowed in in CO, but luckily Bones has a friend with a tow truck that has helped him out. I hope he is out of the snow. Of course I wish I could have caught him on Friday, cause two cents is a great price for a Gold Wing. The amazing part is that Bones mentioned that his wife has not complained. I told him she is just tougher than he is.

Krazy Karl, and Black Hat should be in CA today or early tomorrow. Shutterbug has been there for a week, Trunks lives there, so he just has a day trip to LA.

At any rate I hope the truckers are reading all the signs, and paying attention to the fact that a lot of motorcycles are on the road, heading west in small groups, and larger groups. I also hope that the bikers pay attention and stay upright and visible. As for the four wheelers, or cages, I hope both truckers and bikers stay out of their way and avoid any confrontation with them. A confrontation between a cage and a bike always ends badly, as does a confrontation between a truck and a 4 wheeler.

Be safe everyone. I will be posting what I can about the run here. Also the Motorcycle muse has a blog this year, I will link that here as soon as I can get the address.

Bounce

Video bar

I had to remove the video bar, it would not hold the videos I wanted it too, and after several attempts I decided it was just easier to pull the darn thing. Sorry, I am just not technically adept enough to do what I want with it. I will be trying again later. Gotta go for now.

Bounce

Home at last

Yesterday I finally made it home after about four months on the road. Although happy to be here, there is a lot to do. Clyde is in the shop getting ready for my shortened Run For the Wall, and I have to pack, build a fence, get batteries for the big red truck, and on and on. Living at a small dog rescue is OK, but I will be using earplugs a lot. Rescuing puppies is a loud thing, but hopefully they will all be in forever homes soon, HOPEFULLY!

I have changed up the video bar a little, and there is one video about crossing the GW bridge from NJ to NY that has absolutely nothing to do with the Run, but I am just not smart enough to delete it. I sure hope the computer guy fixes my laptop soon, cause I miss writing here, and Clyde can not seem to channel on the home computer, might be he is afraid of all the puppies?


To all my friends on the Run I will see you again at Wentzville.

Ride safe and stay upright and visible. The weather is going to be great (yeah even if it isn't great we are going to do the mission.

It is May and there are a lot of west bound Motorcycles

Today is May 2nd. In the last week I have seen a lot of motorcycles headed west. Today I am in PA, and yesterday I was in West Virginia. I saw two large groups of Motorcycles headed west. At least thirty bikes in total. I saw five RFTW vests, and quite a few Legion Riders in these packs. I hope they all get where they are going safe. The Run starts in a few days. For my truck driving friends remember not all of these folks on motorcycles are thinking about what happens when they cut a truck off. They are not doing it because they do not like trucks, or because they do not respect trucks, they just do not know.

Krazy Karl will be talking to trucks on I-40 and I-70 for the Central Route. I hope he has some help before Wentzville, but I will be there to help him as much as I can from there on out. Karl if you read this remember sending someone ahead for the tricky transitions (especially the ones not covered by cops) worked well last year. In Arizona where I-17 and I-40 come together is one of those places.

OK enough for today. I still have not fixed my computer, but I have been able to post now and then by borrowing other folks lap tops. It is amazing how many truck drivers are on the net.
I will be trying to post information here about the progress of the Run, but will be limited in my knowledge.

Thanks for reading

Bounce

Lap top dies but bounce keeps writing, sort of

My lap top is dead. I hope to have it resurrected, or at least fixed soon, but I won't be posting much here until that happens. I am writing on paper (that sounds so last century doesn't it) and will be posting those thoughts as soon as the lap top is fixed or replaced.

I will be participating in Run for the Wall again this May, but cannot go all the way again this year. I hope to join the pack and my extended Family at Wentzville, MO. I will be trying to post information here about the Run and where to look for large groups of motorcycles. But only if the Lap Top is fixed. Amazing that I feel as though I have lost a limb or something because that piece of equipment is not working.

Clyde will be tuned, have his oil changed and all fuses repaired so that he is ready to haul me out and back for the mission again this year.


Bounce

Found by an old friend

Today I received a message from an Old friend from Germany. A short while ago I got a request from a lovely German girl to be her friend on Face Book. She looked familiar, but I did not recognize her last name. Well I clicked on yes, and today I was rewarded with a message from my friend and mechanic from my days at Spangdahlem Speedway.

It reminded me of the first time I met this man. He had a race car that was pretty well built, and a motor that was just awesome. He had adapted some rims from a Peugeot, or some other french car so that he could have smaller rims on the back of his car. The purpose of this was to make the gear ratios on a Volkswagen transmission much better for a 1/4 mile dirt track. During the heat race he broke a rim. I am not sure how or why but I ended up helping him fix his car for our main event race. He of course beat the pants off me and just about everyone else that day. He and his friend ALF were there every race, and did really well that year. He was running a single port 1500 CC VW engine that was probably hopped up to well over 1800 CC's. But hey there was no way to prove that without tearing the engine down, and that was a costly protest. When I realized I could not beat this guy I joined him. We built a lot of race cars together, and in the process built a great friendship. I have mentioned Lothar before on this page. Rich Tilley will remember him, mostly because he translated for us when a certain President of a Certain Motorcycle Club was planning on killing us because of the Harley Rich sold him. Rich told the guy the thing was junk, but somehow that did not translate as well as "Pan Head" did. Lothar saved our bacon there. He also was responsible for me racing on the German track at Wolfsfeld Germany, and getting me into the Eiffel Meisters race club. All were rewarding times, and very good memories. In fact as I remember Lothar also convinced me to allow the Eiffel Meisters to race as Spangdahlem Speedway. Not really sure how we got that done as it involved getting several thousand local nationals permission to come onto an active Air Base, but hey it worked.
It truly is a small world.

Finally for those who care I am sitting in Wyoming waiting for snow plows to clear the road (not holding my breath) so I can roll on to California for a delivery.

Bounce

Here is a Poll about DC's new Ride

Please vote frequently and nicely on this question. I will forward the results to DC. You can pick multiple answers too. Speak up and let the man know how you feel about his ride.

Clyde the Motorcycle....


Clyde to Bounce....I need new oil, and a my valves set.....not to mention a bath.

Spring will get here Eventually

Today I am waiting for roads to clear in Missouri. Boonville, MO to be exact. It is really cold, and there was a 6 inch snow storm last night. But I cannot blame the state as they are working to clean up the roads as much as they can. I just cannot drive on ice. I learned that lesson on Christmas Eve when I got stuck in of all places Fort Worth Texas on ice.


A quick shout out to Velcroe, she does a great job on the RFTW news letters.

I have a friend that does the Run, his nickname is DC. Not sure why but it fits, we call him Day Care, cause he is pretty young. This year he bought a new bike for the run. My first reaction to it was that he had grown up and bought an adult bike. Then of course he modified the darn thing, and now it looks just like his old bike, with hard bags instead of soft ones. He may even put the spikes on it and it will really be a reincarnation of his old bike. He did put Ape Hanger handle bars on it, so it sort of resembles Pato's bike now, minus the googly eyes (but of course that might be coming). DC is the guy that fixed Clyde after he got hit by the truck, and he is really a great guy. Some folks are giving him static over his "Retrofitting, and reverse engineering" of his new bike, but hey it looks pretty good.