Living in Limbo

It seems that our whole lives have become about, hmmm.. I don't even know what they have become about. Waiting and cleaning I think.

Ever since The Accident, and event I keep promising to stop mentioning, we have always been waiting for, The Check. Be it a disability check or whatever. Currently we are waiting on. THE BIG CHECK...the retirement cash out that is our moving money and our bailout. We have invested everything in this move. Our financial and personal futures, our health our dreams, everything. And, it all depends on a little piece of paper from the state, which should arrive any day now, but who can say?

In the meantime, this is our last paid day in our house. The owner has agreed to let us stay on a pro-rated basis, but we have to let him show the house. I have to say as I write this at 7:30 AM on 5.31.08 that seems like a far-off goal.

If I could provide the olfactory sense with this blog I wouldn't have to tell you that we are battling a horrible cat urine-smell problem.

The once proud Road Show Central has been reduced to this...





And the once proud Road Show Beemer has been reduced to this...





Lest this post get derailed into a whining fest I do have to say I found some extraordinary beauty in our own little yard today.



I watched the purple and orange flowers in the front and back gardens today looking for the right light to photograph them and I was reminded of God as my attention was directed to the very real fact that they followed the sun all day long. I know that is not news to anybody, but when you really, really get in touch with that it is extraordinary and faith inspiring. God knows I need that right now, literally.

To New Mexico-Final Prepearations

Our house this week looks like the aftermath of WWWIII...even more than usual (ha ha).

What has been particularly freakish is the complete dismataling of the once proudsss Road Show Beemer.

Here she is during some of her glory days...





And here is what is left of her after today...

The Desert-One Last Time

I got about halfway through this cautionary tale and realized I was just telling a story and left out the caution part. I love the desert and I love riding in the desert. As a matter of fact I live in the desert. Even though it is one of those man-made non-deserts fed by the California Aqueduct and rolling irrigation.

However, Kern County has roughly the elevation of 400 feet and even if you roll in an easterly direction toward Barstow and Death Valley you are really not going to ever exceed an elevation of 2100 feet. At these elevations the basic rules of desert survival apply.

Find Shade

Put something
between you
and the hot
ground

Conserve your
sweat

If water is
scarce Don't
Eat

Allow 1 gallon of water per day per person
and do not wait until you are thirsty to
drink.


Now Here is the Kicker

Once you get into higher elevations the rules change. One of the major things that happens is at higher elevations the air thins out providing much less UV protection.
DO NOT wear shorts and and short sleeve shirt, you will get sunburned and you will become dehydrated by losing your sweat. Dress in loose, comfortable clothing that covers all your skin and wear a hat.

There is also this contraversial matter of whether or not one should take electrolyte supplements such as salt tablets when riding in these extreme conditions. I have heard it argued both ways but I know that after what happened to me in the high desert I am definately going to pack some salt tablets for the next trip.\

One final thing on this topic, I can tell you from personal experience that heat exhaustion or near heat exhaustion can make you very, very sleepy. Do not hesitate to check into the Iron Butt Motel should you need to.

I am working on a brochure to make available to those who want it, the cover will look something like this...



You have to imagine of course thata this is the front cover and that it is folded brochure style. I should have it done next week and if you have any suggestions please let me know.

Beginnings and Endings

Moving Road Show to Albuqureque, NM, not to mention the rest of our lives and stuff. One of the the things the Wrench Wench and I will miss the most is being near the Pacific Ocean. So much of our lives are wrapped up in that body of water, both before and after we knew each other.

For me one of the outstanding memories, at least in terms of "Past live" is taking acid at Pismo with Norm. Sometimes are friend Mardi would join us. At that time there was strerch of Pismo Beach where you could drive your care and people took great advantage of this. Two solid lines of gas guzzling eight banger would like the streets and create a terrible thuder all thoutgh the daylight hours. The problem was that Norm, onece he got into an hallucinagec state didn't pay too much attention to the cars once he started listening to the ubiquitous walkman.

Mardi and I pulled him out of traffic so many time as he wandered in on foot oblivious to the danger. Ahhh, but I digress down the slippery slope of euphoric recall.

Now jump forward about 20 or 30 years to yesterday. After going for a couple of shakedown cruises by myself the new BMWeermer, I guess we have decided on the name "Red" for her was ready for two up ride to our favorite place on the coast.

Probably for the last time.

Here she is at the famaous junction of SR33 and SR58, her first time there....I love this sign,





And as it ascends into the temblor range 58 is nothing if not tasty...



On 58 West there is an interesting detour into the Soda Ladk/Carrizo plain national park wich admitteldy is not everyones cup of tea but interesting nevertheless.
http://Weckerleys.smugmug.com/photos/145185866_JFpeS-M-2.jpg
The Carrizo Plain, 100 airline miles (160 km) north of Los Angeles, California is an area by-passed by time.
Soda Lake, its centerpiece, is a glistening bed of white salt, set within a vast open grassland, rimmed by mountains.
The plain is home to diverse communities of wildlife and plant species, and is an area culturally important to Native Americans.
It is traversed by the San Andreas fault, which has carved valleys, created and moved mountains, and yet close up, is seen in a subtle alignment of ridges, ravines and normally dry ponds.

This is an interesting view of Soda Lake looking back towards the visitor center from high above the dirt road thal leads to an exposed section of the San Andreas itself



Since the Carrizo lies basically at the apex of the Temblor Range, once leaving their then it is a lovely, downward twisty spiral toward the ocean.

---------------------------------

Jump forward to arrival in Santa Margarita which is just to the east of the beach and a popular hangout. Stopped for breakfast at Tina's which is a popular hangout for bikers in the area, but we must have hit it wrong because we were the only ones in the joint.


Great food though!

--------------------------------

I have been tremoundosly paranoid up until recently that the inside, rear final drive bearing was going fail due to some kind of wrenching failure on my part, but I am finally beginning to trust it. And it another jump forward we have negotiated the small maze of freeway exchanges that actually get one headeded in the direction of Morro Bay.

Since we were on a very limited time budget we only got to hit some of the highlights.













1

Horizons Unlimited Packing Tips-RoadShow #73

Heads Up From Cartoon Thunder's Rupert Piston

Cartoonist Rupert Piston sent us an alarming article by Mark Simon from the Animation World News which should be of concern to anyone who creates intellectual property. Actually it should be of concern to anyone who is concerned with the workings of government.

This issues here are complicated, but as I understand it the guts of it are as follows.

In its current state US copyright law states that the creator of a work owns the copyright to that work the moment it is created. Registration with the copyright office is merely a formality that helps prove the origin of the work should there be a dispute.

The proposed change would take away that automatic right of ownership and rewrite the law so that a copyright could only be claimed through registration, which is pricey, or the work could be declared "0rphan" and anyone could register it. Obviously this favors wealthy corporate entities, not artists. I believe that is a fairly accurate telling of the guts of it. For the whole scoop read the Mark Simon article linked below.



Rupert Piston sent in this article regarding important legislation in copyright law.

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605&page=1



-----------------------------------------------------
Packing Tips from Horizons Unlimited's Grant Johnson




Main rule --- Take less than you think you need.

Bike is heavy

Have to pack and repack
Everybody sends back stuff


We travel with 2 pairs of pants

Zip – Off Legs
Wash them overnight dry in the morning
If you get wet just walk around and they will dry in 10 minutes
Take NO cotton when you travel


NEVER ride with jeans

Ride in proper synthetic riding pants

Armored
Leathers are good for crotch rockets if you fall off in a mudhole your are going to have to wear stuff with an inch of mold on it.
Electric Vest

Stuff Sacks

Everything goes in multi-colored stuff sacks
Everything color-coded helps with camp organization

Don't stuff everything too tight – want it to be able to be shaped into saddle-bags....do not want a bunch of tight cylinders

Just Riding and Untying Knots

For those of you who follow Road Show it is old news that I got a new-to-me bike. A really cool BMW 1100RS, a red one. Yeah!



Yesterday I went "just riding." Now that would seem like an obvious thing to say, but it has not been true for me for three years or so. It was always, riding for Friction Zone, riding for Road Show, riding for photography, etc etc.

Yesterday I rode three hundred miles, and did not look for pictures or material for the show or anything, I just rode. Wow.

It was like the old days. After a couple of hours things that had been muddled for months began to become clear. Sometimes that is uncomfortable because what comes clear is sometimes darkness.

At the center of my heart lies the root of all evil, the ISM. (Friends of Bill will know what I am talking about)

For example, I have become so angry. (Again if you follow the podcast you will know what I am talking about)

Also so self, centered: it took me at least 100 miles to realize that other people were involved in mothers day activities and I was out and about Doh!

I also realized how much I had been isolating. Got to see the Harley Dude!




Today we are working on getting ready to go to New Mexico and I am still grinding away on these burned feet, but I am able to get around much better so I can actually be helpful. Today I dealt with, out in the garage, the box of cords from hell that I have been carrying around for like 5 moves.

You know all those little adapters you carry around that used to go to something and you can't bear to throw it away because you might need it some day. Geez!

I cut those suckers up and saved only saved a motorcycle battery charger and a couple sets of earbuds.

More on Moving to New Mexico

There was a strong wind here yesterday, uncharacteristic for this time of year. I have to say that it matched my inner landscape perfectly; stormy. Having just come from the pharmacy for the first time since our prescription benefits ran out I was stunned by the prices even though I was prepared in advance for them.

Their is also a big empty space where the washer and dryer used to be. Such symbols of our parents middle-classness, now gone leave me with a vague ennui.

The worst part is the cat Koko....only three could move and we had four and he ended up being the odd man out. He went to a good home at my in-laws...but still...

The Latest From Misti Hurst and Friends

Press Release: For Immediate Release

Slednecks Teammates, Misti Hurst and Josh Galster Enjoy Successful AMA Supersport Finishes at Both Barber and Fontana.

April 28, 2008- Fontana, California, Slednecks Teammates Misti Hurst and Josh Galster, both coaches with the California Superbike School, raced their Kawasaki ZX6's to excellent finishes this weekend, with a 23rd and 18th finish respectfully.

Hurst, the only female rider on the grid for the past three AMA rounds, overcame several challenges over the weekend in order to qualify in 29th position. On Friday morning she crashed going into the tight turn 3 after losing the front, and on Friday afternoon, her team, headed this weekend by EDR Performance's Eric Dorn, replaced a blown shock with a completely new Ohlins.

The short 20-minute Saturday morning practice was spent trying to relearn and re-set up the bike on the unfamiliar track. Having only ridden at Fontana once before the race weekend, she faced a high learning curve to figure out the difficult circuit, get her suspension sorted, and get her times down enough to qualify. "I started the weekend running high 36's which I knew wasn't going to cut it. We worked pretty hard to get down to a 1:33.5 in qualifying." Said Hurst. "Eric was awesome help and made excellent choices in regards to the Dunlop tires we chose to run. My Kawasaki ran great and was very fast!"

During the race, Hurst got a good start after a red flag forced a re-start of the race. She worked her way up from 29th place to a solid 21st and was reeling in the guy in front of her when she tucked the front into turn 5 with only 2 laps remaining. "I was pretty frustrated at myself," she said, "I was doing so well!" Hurst finished with a 23rd place and is currently 35th overall in the Supersport Championship with 9 points.

One weekend earlier, Hurst raced the AMA Supersport at Barber Motorsports and moved up an impressive 11 spots from her 41st place qualifying position to finish an excellent 30th, despite the fact that it was also the first time she had ever raced at that track.

Teammate Josh Galster, a great candidate for the Rookie of the Year this season, finished an impressive 18th at California Speedway this weekend. Working his times down from low 1:33's to a 1:31.15 he qualified 22nd and was able to move up four positions in the race.

"I got a good start right off the bat, better than I normally get and was able to stay nice and consistent." said Galster. Skipping out of Thursday's promoter practice to save money, Josh spent Friday and Saturday practice working on his drives coming out of the corners and in getting the Kawasaki dialed in. "A huge thanks to Eric Dorn from EDR Performance for helping us out over the weekend, and to everyone else that supported us in the pits and in the stands." He said.

The weekend earlier at Barber Motorsports Park, Galster moved up an incredible 9 places from his qualifying position of 30th to finish 21st. He had his work cut out for him during the race, his first ever at the Barber circuit, after running of the track in turn one right off the start. "I went into turn one a little bit hot and ran slightly wide," He said, "Suddenly I was off the track in the grass. I could have finished top 20 I'm sure if I hadn't done that!"

Misti and Josh would like to thank all their sponsors for their support throughout the season, including but not limited to: Slednecks, Kawasaki, California Superbike School, EDR Performance, Etechphoto.com and AGV Sport.

See the Slednecks Racing Team, Misti Hurst and Josh Galster during the next round of the AMA Supersport at Infinneon Raceway May 16-18. For more information please visit www.mistihurst.com or www.slednecks.com


www.mistihurst.com
www.myspace.com/mistihurst

Misti Hurst Racing is proud to be sponsored by: Kawasaki, slednecks.com, superbikeschool.com, Etechphoto, edrperformance.com, Kawasaki, Leo Vince, AGV Sport, Arai Helmets, Flexi Glass, GPR Stabilizers, mspeedperformance.com, Dynojet, Elka, GP Suspension, Woodcraft, Go Motorboards, Mr. Quick Lube & Oil, Fitness World, bitchingear.ca, motorcyclelawyer.ca, serftosurf.com, and