RogerTOWM

Politicians have been buying votes in this country for over two hundred years. At one time they would buy you a drink if you would vote for the right person. They used to offer the reward of jobs in the public sector for the right vote. (that is why we have civil service rules now.) So now we offer "free" things for votes. Weather it is free housing or food stamps or free phones.

Yes Texas has an 85 mph limit on a road or two, but that is not much higher then the speed limit on the rest of the roads. Even the farm to market roads are 70 mph. They are narrow roads that would be 55mph or less in kalifornia. There are also a lot of traffic fatalities here. You will see grill guards on most of the pickups because of deer strikes.On a county south of where I now live, I saw more dead deer them empty beer cans on the roadside. While going fast is fun it does have it's risks.

So did C-diddy and Roger set a date yet? I'll try and make the wedding. Beautiful country side there. I'm green with envy.

I check in for the first time in months and this is what I find? Thanks alot!

Happy Birthday Deb!

Sorry to hear about your injuries brother. Heal quick. Oh and your dad was right!

That road sign was one of our early attempts to mark the trails. The paint didn't last long (only about a year or two in the sun killed them)and the signs were to flimsy. The new signs are steel plate and last longer. The luckylady sign in the video is one of the newer style signs. Great video, makes me wish I had a dualsport with me.

Fixed this for you Trophy.

Happy birthday Bob.

So it was the warp drive like Roger said?

Cool, they make beer holders for dual-sports now! Just have to ride with Kevin, because he brings the beer. These mirrors appear to stick out a little further to the side. Is that correct? I’m rather wide (fat) and it is hard for me to see around my body with the other mirrors. It looks like these would have a little better vision to the rear. I like being able to see behind me, never know when a ranger wants to pull me over to check my DOT tires.

My Daughter's Decision: My daughter just walked into the living room and said "Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out of the window, take my TV, and stereo, and iPhone, and iPod, and my laptop. Please take all of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then sell my new car, take my front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Then disown me and never talk to me again.. And don’t forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to my brother." Well, she didn't put it quite like that.. she actually said... "Dad, I have decided to work for Obama's reelection campaign."

I read the link and while he appears to be oriented toward touring bikes (which can carry the kitchen sink) some of these things also apply to dual sport touring. The list is just a check list of possible items, not that you need to carry everything on the list (although Roger does carry the whole list in his flight vest). I have done some touring bike camping and a couple of dual sport (adventure) camping trips. He makes some good points. If you are going through towns to get fuel they will probably have a store where you can buy food as well. You don’t need to carry 15 days worth of food on you little girl 250 yamaha just because you are going on a 15 day ride. You can get by with just a couple of days worth and buy more in town when you fill up. I carry a freeze dried meal or MRE as an emergency ration and just buy my days worth of food each day. Pick food that will travel well. On a trip in Utah I once put a nice green banana in my front plate bag. It fit there well, didn’t take up much space and the potassium recharge would be good at lunch. Well the bag was nice and dark inside and the day got hot. When I dug out the banana and lunch I found my hard green banana had turned to soft black goo. Needless to say this is not the way to carry a banana. Tuna can now be found in packets instead of cans. These are easier to pack, don’t have hard edges to dig into you when you fall and are easy to pack out as trash. I take a package of tuna, a packet of mayonnaise and pita bread. Just open the tuna, drain the water, squeeze in the mayo, mix with a spoon, cut the pita bread in half, open it up, spoon in the tuna and I have a nice sandwich. Simple to carry, light and hardly any trash to pack back out. I can carry this in my flight vest and not even notice it. When I dump it (which I do a lot) the food helps pad my body and is not harmed by the fall. The important think about food is to keep it simple, light and use your head. Do you need a steak for dinner or can you get by with mac and cheese? I like oatmeal so I just heat up water in the morning for instant coffee and instant oatmeal. There is my breakfast. There are lots of different meals you can have if you use your imagination. You don’t have to go to the camping stores just walk down the grocery store aisles and think. Tents keep the bugs from biting you and give you some privacy for dressing and washing. Backpacking tents are light and pack small. Always get a tent rated for one more person then you plan on sleeping in it. If you are by yourself get a two person tent, with a close friend get a three person tent. Taking a close friend and Simon with you? Maybe a four person tent is best. These tents are small and don’t give you much room for stuff inside. Some one person tents I have seen will not even fit me inside. Waterproof tents will soak you with condensation by the morning. A tent with vents and a rain fly is much better. A tent with a large vestibule in the rain fly will let you keep your riding gear out of the weather. Always use a tarp or footprint under the tent. This will prevent you from putting holes in the bathtub floor of the tent. Tent “foot prints” are pricey. They are shaped to the bottom of the tent but just a might smaller. You can make one much cheaper by buying a small poly-tarp and then cutting it to size. You want it slightly smaller than the tent floor, if it sticks out past the tent bottom water could run off of the tent and puddle under the tent floor.

Happy birthday to all of Uncle Samuels Misguided Children!

They have been around forever! We use to go there (House of Honda) when I was a kid.

My dog would do that as well. We thought he was dreaming, running in his sleep. I found out it was a seizure. I should have known it because I have seen many seizures in humans. See how the dog appears disoriented and runs into the wall? That is not because he is sleepy. It is not uncommon for older dogs.

Great report Zina! Can I go with you guys if you do it again? The photo of your two boys sleeping should be your wall paper, sooooo cute!

Sweat rig Mimi! Did you keep the jeep as well?

Jon, it you really need to keep it clean you could still use a bike carrier off of the trailer hitch. Nice find.

Well, a hubby is the greatest thing to have for help out on the trail if you are lucky enough to find a good one. I don't think I want one of those so I take other things like the tools.

I hope he is starting a brewery!

No I don't have it posted any where right now.

Hey, that's my Mom!

Well you can't go to wrong by drinking orange kool-aid. They make some great bikes. Heck if you want a big bike the performs great buy my KTM990 Adventure. Poor thing nevers gets rode now a days.

Oh fine! Like I'm not fat enough already!!!!!