Slablog

Check Out This Rear End

Phil Albritton — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:10:02 +0000

I got my new Michelin Anakee last week and haven’t even ridden on it yet to rough it in a little bit. I was inspecting it Saturday and noticed my rear brake pads were dangerously thin. So I got on the horn to BeemerBoneyard and ordered me a set for 3 day quick delivery. They came today and I installed my first set of rear brake pads since the bike was new. It has 24,486 miles on it now and I suppose my next costly maintenance item will be a new chain and sprockets in the foreseeable future.

Once I got the new pads installed I sat on my little paint bucket and proceeded to clean the drive chain with some kerosene. It now looks almost brand spanking new and tomorrow I’ll cover it with a nice chain lubricant for my weekend riding to North Carolina, Virginia and West “By God” Virginia.

My bags are almost packed. My maps are loaded. The bike is checked out. I’m ready to head north for a couple of days frolicking with my R1150R.NET buds.

News…and pics about that next week.

Georgia Mountain Rally 2012

Phil Albritton — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:57:03 +0000

I had almost given up on the GMR the last couple of years. Just haven’t enjoyed it as much as years past, but this time there was something different about it. Maybe it was because I didn’t have any volunteer responsibilities whatsoever! I just enjoyed it like a regular attendee. What a novelty!

I rode up to the Hiawassee Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds on Friday afternoon, just in time to suck down some chili for dinner before gathering around the campfire for the night for a solid 3 hours of imbibing some spirits, talking bikes, and generally laughing the whole time at various stupid jokes. It took a while to actually get the fire going but once it caught on, it held up until way in the night.

Saturday is traditionally the rally day that most folks go out and ride the great mountain roads in north Georgia. What a beautiful day it was too! I just kind of hung around the camping area and rally central, talking to friends, visiting the vendors, snarfing down lunch, ogling all the bikes and taking pictures.

All thoroughly enjoyable pastimes around beautiful Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee. The famous Ardys Kellerman was in attendance on Saturday. Ardys is 81 years young and has logged 1,000,000 miles on a BMW motorcycle! In 2008 Ardys rode 104,000 miles in that year alone! Quite an accomplishment for ANYONE, and Ardys is…well..not exactly 25 anymore, but quite a gal nonetheless!

Evening came and once again Bob Wooldridge of BMW of Atlanta headed up the steak dinner cookout behind the music hall.

I managed to cook my steak very nicely this year and even though I usually disdain beef, that steak was delicious. Can’t hurt much to eat one once a year now can it?

Visit to Winston-Salem

Phil Albritton — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:17:22 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I saddled up bright and early on a Saturday morning, and arriving at the intersection of I-285 and I-85 I managed to witness the sunrise directly in front of me upon entering the I-85 highway pointing Little Chubb’s nose toward South and, eventually, North Carolina.

The bike performed flawlessly, by the way, after resetting the computer motronic and performance of required routine maintenance a couple of weeks before. Riding continuously along the super slab was also much needed exercise of specific muscles which have been dormant for some time, creating soreness issues at the end of the weekend on Sunday. I rode the 350 miles up on Saturday morning and 350 miles back on Sunday afternoon. Not a big deal, but I’m just not used to it, so it was necessary.

My goal was Winston-Salem…and the reason was to meet a new friend.

It turned out to be a really nice, but busy, 24 hours while I was there. I got settled in upon my arrival and we went to a movie, then dinner, then a ride around town….And MAN! What a town! I love it! Winston-Salem is home to Wake Forest University and UNC College of Fine Arts. There seemed to be plenty of very cultural and “artsy” things to keep us occupied the whole time.

Sunday morning we went to breakfast then burnt a few of the calories on a little walk to a spot for some skyline photos after which we just enjoyed sitting in the shade talking and planning a second visit!

It was indeed a whirlwind trip and visit, but totally enjoyable and relaxing. I’m anxiously returning the first weekend in June and by then school will be out and I can travel on Friday and Monday, thus having more like a FULL weekend to hob-nob around Winston-Salem again and get to know each other a little better.

On a more motorcyclist note: I get a new rear tire this week from Ken’s Tires down the street, and new rubber will make me ride a little safer and easier for a while longer. Another Anakee dual-sport will do the trick!

Two Of My Favorite Things….To Do

Phil Albritton — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:39:31 +0000

I managed to finally get the 24K maintenance finished on “Little Chubb” and all the stars aligned just perfectly yesterday making it almost impossible to stay at home. The weather was beautiful! I had a handful of Letterboxing clues tucked away in my bag and figured what nicer way to pursue a few boxes than to hop on my trusty steed and ride there.

It was noon before I realized I had to do it or never forgive myself.

By 2 o’clock I had found 4 more Letterboxes up at Poole’s Mill Creek Bridge, and was hitting the asphalt again to locate the Amicalola River Bridge on Highway 53 west of Dawsonville. I have to tell you I have been down these roads dozens of times over the last 9 years and never once thought about stopping to walk around in the woods. That activity, along with searching for small rubber stamps in said woods, has become my second most enjoyable activity….outside the house. Giggle anytime you feel the urge! I don’t care.

Poole’s Mill Park is the home of one of the most beautiful covered bridges in Georgia and had no clue it was right there all the time, straddling Setting Down Creek off Highway 369. What an enjoyable place. There were folks there wading and kids swimming among the rocks and cool pools of water as I meandered among them trying to look inconspicuous looking for a tree with a POSTED sign on it. Little Chubb rested quietly in the parking lot’

The ride to Dawsonville proper was cool and twisty. Just the way I like it. Amicalola Bridge was not hard to find at all. It’s a big bridge and it goes over the Amicalola River right at a place called “The Edge Of The World”.

The name seems to have come from the Indians, who after discovering the falls there that cascaded out of sight, thought it really was the EDGE of the world. But it wasn’t. It was just a really nice place on the Amicalola where many water falls existed.

I was just a little pooped by the time I got down to the river, and located the long wooden walkway, that I looked at my watch and decided I needed to go eat somewhere. I thought I would save these Letterboxes at this place for a morning visit when I am refreshed and have more time to wander down to the Edge Of The World.

Maintenance 24,000 Mile Style

Phil Albritton — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:38:38 +0000

I haven’t ridden this bike enough the last few months to rack up many miles and the odometer has been setting right on 23K+ for quite some time. I decided since I have 23, 400 and some change on it, I should take the time before peak riding season and get this done, instead of waiting until it has the actual 24,000 miles.

Last weekend was the open house at the BMW dealership and I took that opportunity to get the necessary parts I need, in addition to visiting with some friends and ogling the new bikes for a few hours. The valve cover gasket set you see below is the old gaskets and bolts. The new set cost a healthy $68, minus my 10% discount and a $25 cut after I drew that ticket out of the box at the open house. My lucky day! I also picked up a set of plugs. Air filter was already on the shelf at home from when they did some work on a recall and it gave me a new filter. At the time, I had JUST replaced the air filter myself, so they gave me the recall filter for the next change out…which is now.

All the valve measurements were still right in the middle of the accepted range on both intake and exhaust. The most time consuming and difficult part of that task was removing and replacing the actual cover. It required that about 50 pounds of plastic and screws be taken off the bike to access it, and then I still had to disconnect the clutch line and move it over out of the way. The design is absolutely genius, if you want to discourage the novice from tinkering with it. But this novice was not deterred.

Once I had all the plastic parts off I had the thought that I might like to give them a custom spray paint job. I began checking on paints and procedures on line and quickly came to the conclusion that it is a job best delayed until the winter months role around again….or maybe never.

I got the rear side panels pulled off without removing the luggage racks, but to get them back on was another story. This took most of my morning today. In the process I discovered several rusty bolts, so it was a good thing I had to remove that rack set up. It’s all back together now and I will turn my attention to the remainder of the maintenance items: oil change, clutch cable adjustment, brake fluid flush, coolant check, and various and sundry things like chain and sprocket check, tires, lights, etc.

I noticed that I will soon need another set of tires. The rear one is worn down pretty good. No real long trips planned this year, so I will wait until the last minute on that, unless I pick up a nail or something.

Now, time for a late lunch.

Kitchen Remodeling Gone Wild

Phil Albritton — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:15:06 +0000

A couple of years ago, I noticed the ceramic tile around the rear french door exit was beginning to crack! As I am prone to do, I put off checking it out until the tiles actually started to sink in around that area and More tiles cracked. I began by lifting the cracked ones to find rotted wood. It was then I discovered that water had been hitting the door during rains and running down unobserved into the house at the edge of the tiles. Thus began the tedious job of breaking up the tiles and removing them. Long story short; I took off all the tiles in the dining room and kitchen, then took up the plywood substrate that was erroneously used beneath the tiles, on top of the subfloor. Once I got that far I had to cut out a big strip of subfloor that was affected by the rotting. All this was done while a blue tarp hung over the outside door to keep water from continuing to intrude. Once the subfloor was removed, I found some support joists has also rotted. This was repaired, and the subfloor replaced. Once I had this done, I managed to con a few handy fellows into helping me build a tin roof over the deck so the rain would no longer hit the door, and provide me with a nice shaded respite on my rear deck. The cover is awesome!

Once I got that cover done, I looked around the dining and kitchen areas and thought I’d like to take off the ridiculous paneling on the 3 walls of the kitchen….and while I was at it, I may as well update my kitchen a little and replace the kitchen faucets at the sink. After thinking about those faucets for a while, I thought it might be nice as long as I have the faucet set out, I should remove the outdated formica counter top. Then I decided to also just go ahead and take out the old worn out base cabinets and replace them with new cabinets, but this time build up the cabinet base with 3/4″ wood so it would be the same height as the tile floor when that eventually was redone.

So I tore out the sink. I pulled off the old counter top and removed the cabinets. I then pulled off that old ugly paneling. I built up the base for the new cabinets, and replaced the base cabinets. That alone took several weeks! In the meantime I purchased on Amazon a new faucet set and a new disposal unit. My original plan was to reuse the same sink that came out. I’ve since canned that idea and have a new double sink from Home Depot leaning against the wall, waiting for that glorious day when it can go back into the hole in the counter top.

At this writing, I have the plywood and Hardie Backer substrate attached to the top of the cabinets, and have proceeded to glue down the ceramic tiles for my counter top. What seems like an eternity, I have been washing my dishes in the bathroom sink as I need to, and have begun to wonder if I EVER will have a full working kitchen again.

I have to admit, the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming when I see the new tiles stuck down on the counters and run my hand over the nice shiny, slick surface and realize that except for the assistance putting up the deck cover, I’ve pretty much done all this by myself. Sure it has taken me almost 2 years since discovering that cracked tile, but one thing leads to another…and another…and another, until hopefully one day it will all be over and I can go riding or Letterboxing again without feeling guilty.

Georgia (among other things) On My Mind

Phil Albritton — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:00:44 +0000

You gotta love Georgia this time of year. One day we have tornadoes ripping through the area spoiling a perfectly warm day in early Spring, then the next day you look outside and peach blossoms are “fluffing” out, the sun is shining, it’s 50 degrees and beautiful! What the hell?!?

Yet another year has passed and I have not trimmed this big old peach tree at my back deck. One day real soon I need to go get me one of those electric chainsaws and trim that baby back. Maybe then I would have some actual peaches making it to picking time. Of course I’ll have to slay all the squirrels in the back 40 as well. They LOVE the unripened peaches.

Moving things around the house today. Doing some “Spring” cleaning, and getting ready for a new roomie moving in next month.

I’m really in a funk about riding lately. I can’t quite put my finger on the cause either. Maybe when it warms up a bit more I can get out and get some 2 wheel practice in again.

All Day Letterboxing

Phil Albritton — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:21:39 +0000

With the continuing problems I’ve been having with my feet, I have not been able to get out walking around much to do Letterboxing like have wanted to do. What can I say? It’s a LOT of fun! And I’ve missed it terribly.

Then the date rolled around for an actual Letterboxing ”Event” on February 11th over in Gwinnett County near the big Mall of Georgia. The “Make A Friend” mini event. I signed up to attend and even though I’ve been out of commission the last few weeks, I wanted to go and meet some of the people whose “boxes” I have been seeing around here. And what a treat! It was nice to meet the inimitable Isabeau, who organized this thing, and even though I felt hopelessly lost in the midst of all these people, it was a pleasure to mingle with them and exchange stamps for a couple of hours. The famous Cherokee Rose was there as well as Big Red and Hawkeye. All very well known Letterboxers and carvers in this community. I met Aunt Bee, who kind of “held my hand” as it were, as I tried to figure out what to do amidst all the stamps flying back and forth and people coming and going from the little coffee shop, making it a constant exchange of people the whole two hours I was there.

Associated with an event like this is also a whole BUNCH of new Letterboxes that have been planted especially for the event at nearby local parks and trails. On that day…weekend..I still was not doing much walking like that needed to Letterbox, so I didn’t do any boxing except finding what was available right there inside the shop where we congregated. Once I got back home and started looking on line at all the available boxes in that area I came up with a plan. I listed, and printed clue sheets for as many Letterboxes I could find in the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center, which is right there near the Mall of Georgia. It turned out to be 19.

My plan was to go over there the first nice day on my winter break from school, and that happened yesterday! I was determined to find them all, if it took me all day.

I took my camera this time, and had a big bottle of water, with a package of peanut butter crackers to see me through til lunch time. The box clue sheets were stapled together in groups by trail/location in the park….well, as close as I could come from reading the clues. Then I marched off into the woods at 10AM.

What a BIG, BEAUTIFUL place to hang out for the day! I found myself famished by 11:30 and stopped to eat my crackers and rest. Moving on, I experienced an “RC” (which was a critical part of several clues) albeit without the accompanying Moon Pie. I got my left foot soaked crossing a stream, and I’m afraid I touched some poison ivy on a big old tree before realizing it was there. I’ll know in a week or so if it “got” me.

I saw many old stumps, and fallen logs along the trails, and as the day wore on my stack of little slips of paper with clues got smaller and smaller as I took each one as I found it, ripped it off the staple and slipped it into my pocket.

The hills began to get more difficult to climb as the day wore on and my water ran out an hour before I was done. The very last box of the day required an extra long walk down an unmarked trail and WAY back in the woods behind the Creekside Trail.

My legs suddenly turned to ‘jello’ and I had to stop every minute or so to keep them from cramping. Once I found the box, it invigorated me enough to get out of the woods and back to my truck where I had a nice ‘warm’ bottle of lemonade waiting. That was the best tasting warm lemonade I ever had! LOL

I was so hungry, I pulled into the first Sonny’s BBQ joint I saw, and had me a pulled pork plate. That was about 3:30 and I think I ate it in about 2 minutes, took off for home and crashed after a good hot shower and some strawberry shortcake dessert.

What a day! Today I’m suffering for it, but it feels SO good to be sore and logging 18 ‘Finds’ for the day. One solitary box eluded me from all the ones I took with me.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Phil Albritton — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:15:11 +0000

Yeah, well, at 62 I gotta say I don’t see a whole hell of a lot to be “Happy” about being 62 years old. The first 15 years of my life…my childhood, if you will…seemed to take an eternity. The memories of those 15 years could fill a rather good sized book. The last 15 years, adversely, have gone by in the blink of one of my eyes. Those first 15 years ended gloriously in January of 1966. A few months prior to that I acquired my first motorcycle. It was a 1965 Honda 50 Sport like the one below, only white. Or maybe it was a 90. Like Reagan famously said, “I can’t recall.”

It took me places I could never go on foot and it was that little bike that made me fall in love forever with the open road and the wind blowing in my face. It lasted for a while before I wanted a bigger one, and I bequeathed it to my little brother for his paper route. I moved on to a 2 stroke Suzuki 150, and proceeded to burn up that engine, not once, but twice. After the second time, my Dad refused to help me pay for a new engine, so it was sold as scrap so my unemployed Dad could pay the electric bill sometime in 1967 or 68. Once again I invoke the “I don’t recall.” amendment.

Several bikes have come and gone since then. Several years have passed as well.

Today I sit here clicking away on my little laptop keyboard, hoping this birthday ends happily, as everyone wishes, and contemplating tearing out my kitchen lower cabinets and counter top. It’s not a big job, but I don’t think I can do it alone. I could if I wasn’t 62! Ha! But I’m not whining or complaining, mind you. The alternative to getting older is well, I don’t want to mention it but it requires that I would have to be fitted with that old dirt shirt. So, in that regard I AM happy to be 62. Time marches on, and I think it is the only thing that gets faster as one moves along the road of life.

My current motorcycle rests patiently in the garage, newly bedecked with a really nice $235 tank bag which I can’t wait to try out on a tour soon. Yes, Little Chubb, sets in the garage with almost a full tank of gas, fully charged battery, more than “slightly worn” tires, and most of the bugs and crud washed off her from the last little jaunt. She is soon to be rolled into the basement farting room and dismantled to a certain point so I can do the painstaking task of checking and adjusting the valve lash on the two cylinders. Yes, I have almost 24,000 miles on the little girl.

Okay, that’s enough for today. I’ll proceed now to see if I can make my 62nd year on this planet a productive one.

Official End Of Year 2011 Post

Phil Albritton — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:22:05 +0000

I’ve been sitting around here today nursing my sore feet and I suddenly realized I have not made my “End Of Year” post for 2011.

It certainly has been an odd year for me. I’ve been 61 all this year and I don’t feel a day over 58 or so. I’ve been in my little house here on Cousins Road alone now for the second year and I am thinking seriously about getting some roomies of some kind. Lot of benefits to having roomies.

Our traditional 2 week Holiday vacation began back a week before Christmas this year and I managed to miss my brother’s little soire on the 17th because of that. I really could have gone, but I was just so exhausted from work at that time I only wanted to rest here and sleep for a couple of days. I telephoned my Dad and got off the hook by promising that I’d drive down the next week and spend the actual Christmas weekend with him and my brothers and sister.

It turned out to be a wet time for the most part, but Christmas Eve day was rather nice and I took that opportunity to drive the old man around the countryside doing some Letterboxing in and near Monroeville, Alabama. We visited Perdue Hill and the old home place of Colonel William Travis of Alamo fame. He resided there as a young lawyer with his first wife, had a little family, joined the Masons, joined the militia and published a newspaper before running off to Texas in early 1831. His wife came out to Texas later and secured a divorce so she could remarry a fellow named Cloud. Her name was Rosanna. Both of them died of yellow fever in 1848. And as we know, Travis died of lead poisoning at the Alamo about 12 years earlier in 1836.

We drove on into Monroeville and found a couple of Letterboxes there before we stopped for a snack and cool drink at the local Hardee’s. After our break we headed back over on Hwy 84 to Evergreen and then hit Hwy 31 to Flomaton where we stopped in to visit some more family and my sister before she headed off to work the night shift at the Atmore prison.

I left there Sunday morning and drove back to Atlanta in rain again most of the way. This week, however has been very pleasant. The nights have become cool with highs this week in the mid to high 50s and sunshine in abundance.

I spent Monday night watching, and being entertained by, three of my grandchildren over in Lawrenceville. My daughter and her husband wanted to get away alone for a couple of days to celebrate their anniversary, I believe. It was fun but tiring and I was glad to get back home here for the remainder of this week off.

I did a little more Letterboxing yesterday by hiking up Kennesaw Mountain a few miles, then today returned to the podiatrist for the first of my foot injections to treat the blasted Morton’s Neuroma in my toes and feet. Right now I’m nursing those toes because the alcohol injections made them feel…well, kind of strange. I’m really hoping this treatment works. The other alternative is outpatient surgery on the feet, and I would rather not have to do that this year.

So here I sit with another year just about all gone, and hoping the new year will bring new hope and prosperity to all. In a couple of weeks I will turn 62 and that really does put me in a different bracket. I plan to get me one of those $10 National Park Passes and ride a lot more this year, seeing all the National Parks and Historic Sites I never saw because they cost so much when I approach one on the road. Summer vacation will hopefully bring a lot more riding and getting to visit many old friends and get to know a lot of new ones this year.