Christmas 2009

I realize its been a while since Christmas but i've been out of town in West Virginia for the past 3 weeks so i have a lots of catching up. Here's me setting up my Christmas tree in the living room. Unfortunately this is as far as i got. No lights or ornaments. I didn't even have time to set up my double manger scene in the window with double baby Jesus...

Rochester Lights

If it wasn't zero degrees and windy it would have been fun walking and looking at the lights that hang from the buildings in downtown Rocheste...

Working in the Snow

Last week for work i went to Michigan's upper peninsula and Wisconsin to survey cell phone towers. It reached record low temps in some areas and lots of snow. I also saw 5 bald eagles over the entire trip. Here's the 48 sites that we surveyed. There were 8 of us that went on the trip. Crossing in to the U.P. A view of a cell phone tower from one of the cable wires I realized after the first day that the boots i usually wear to walk on the roads weren't going to cut it, even with the hotel's "boot" dryer. I ended up spending more then i planned on a pair of really nice winter boots that said they were good to -94 degrees. Fortunately...

The End of Kenny vs Spenny

Kenny vs Spenny is an amazing show. On December 23rd is it's season finale. The show is from Canada, it is one of the funniest shows ever where two friends compete each episode over an agreed on challenge. It started as a small, low budget show, but after season 5 was co-produced by the creators of South Park. It started to "jump the shark" a bit in the last two seasons though. Kenny, by far the funnier and brains of the two, began to move on to other things, like the show Testies, which is also very funny...and got canceled after 1 season. But this is quintessentially a GUY show. With episodes like:"Who Can Eat More Meat""First Guy...

Trip Spending

I just got my credit card statement from the bike trip. I stopped for gas a lot, good thing it was usually only five bucks:(click on image to enlarge)I seriously did not delete anything in between these days. All i bought was gas, motels, a crescent wrench and an orange pop. Well i might have paid cash for some stuff too, like camping sites and maybe food. And going across the country on only 64 gallons of gas isn't too bad eithe...

2,600 miles on a Honda - part 6

By this point in the trip i was basically planning where i was going the the next day, the night before in the tent. I'm not sure if i thought that i wouldn't make it this far or what. I probably thought "eh i'll figure it out when i get there." I reached another goal that day. I finally saw an armadillo. It was dead by the side of the road but it still counts. A couple of days earlier i saw two roadrunners, they were really cool how they ran, almost exactly like the cartoon with their heads pointed forward.US-412 was great, lots of hills and turns. I saw on the map that it comes close to Wirth, Arkansas but 50 miles was too far of a...

2,600 miles on a Honda - part 5

After two nights of camping, i was ready for a night in a motel, hopefully with a little time to work on the bike. By the time i got to Garth Brooks' home town of Yukon, Oklahoma i had ridden around 1000 miles. A little later the highway turned into a turnpike so i decided to take route 66. 10 miles down that road i came up to this really strange looking building. It had an awning that kinda reminded me of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars and had a giant metal pop bottle by the road. The place is called Pops, it's a gas station with several hundred kinds of pop from all over the US. So i filled up with gas and had a Fritz's orange...