Blogger Chick - Sick

Just wanted to let you know that I'm around, but I've been under the weather for a week and a half. I caught that awful flu bug and did it knock me off my feet. Last weekend I was in bed from Friday evening thru Tuesday morning and even then I almost called in sick. I felt so lucky I had MLK day off. I'm starting to recover, but then my hubby's dad died. So this blogging chick is busy at the moment. I promise it will only be for a little while. Give me about a week to recover from all this bad karma.

Hoping Your Part of the World is Better then Mine,
Biker Betty

Round Robin Challenge: Railroad

Many of you know me and photo challenges, I Love THEM!!! I found this one thru a link over at Nekked Lizard Adventures. This person is a Coloradian like myself. From there was the link to the Round Robin. Thought I'd have to try this. It's new to me. Gina at Gina’s Spacecame up with the idea for this challenge. Great idea Gina :)

Who doesn't like trains? I don't have any recent photos, but this was was taken two summers ago (2006) when I was doing the Mountain Shadow Riders motorcycle scavenger hunt. I didn't win this contest, but I was one of the upper four people. It was so much fun. The above photo was taken on the road between Cripple Creek and Victor. Talk about a beautiful drive. That train looks like Thomas the Tank Engine (which I loved to watch when my eldest was 4 years old). It's actually the Victor Narrow Gage Line. I have not had a chance to ride it, but it sure looks like fun.

The above is a sample of the views in store with the Victor train. Far out on the horizon is a bunch of the famous Colorado 14ers.

For the same scaventer hunt I also got a photo of the diner car of the train that goes to another famous Colorado tourist location: The Royal Gorge. As a family we went there in our car many years ago and really enjoyed ourselves.

So hop on the train and visit others participating in this challenge.

Biker Betty :)

I'm Not Vain, Am I ?!?

I hope Jovi doesn't mind that I borrowed this photo from her blog. Till I checked her blog, I didn't realize she caught a shot of me riding as we (the Mountain Shadow Riders) were all getting ready to leave for our ride and lunch that I talked about in the previous post. Jovi got a few nice shots of our ride that day. Go on over and see.

Now that it is winter I have had to put away my purple Joe Rocketmesh motorcycle jacket and pull out my much needed and warmer red Fieldsheer motorcycle jacket. The purple helmet clashes with the red jacket, sigh. I do still have the red helmet, but it just doesn't fit as nice as my ICON purple helmet.

Women's FXRG® Midweight Leather Jacket

The above is the jacket I would love to get some day, but the sticker shock of $560 is a bit high. I'm pretty sure the price has gone up since the last time I longingly looked at it a year ago at our local Pikes Peak Harley Davidson store. It has pockets in the liner to put insertable hot packets that you use for camping. If I had just bought something like this when I was first looking, I wouldn't need to be buying another jacket. I also like this jacket because it has the all-important armor in it that I always look for in a motorcycle jacket.

I bought the above motorcycle jacket so that I would be seen on the road. It has worked. It is a sharp looking jacket. I stand out with all my riding buddies who all wear the black leather jackets, but now it is dingy and very dirty. I dare you to click on the photo to see the dirt/grease spots on the neck, front and arms!! On the cleaning lable it says "Gently sponge outer jacket with a non-biological detergent." Do you really think that's going to clean this?!?!?

It would be easy to keep a leather jacket clean and it's way more durable. It is hard for me to find the leather jacket for me, as I require armor in mine. There are so many leather jackets out there without the armor. It's like wearing a helmet, it's the individual choice. I'm really impressed with the HD jacket and all that was designed in it. So we will see If it works into the future budget now that I'm working full-time.

But for now, I wear a purple helmet with the red jacket. It's not a pretty sight, but it keeps me pretty warm and riding. When it comes down to it, that's what is most important. What kind of jacket do your wear? Is there armor? Are you color coordinated, lol?

Wishing you adventures in your part of the world,

Biker Betty :)

Mountain Shadow Riders 1st Ride 2008

Admittedly, it wasn't a long ride. We seem to be between snow storms at the moment. It was a beautiful day and pretty warm when we started off, but the wind was outrageous. A high wind warning was issued for our city and surrounding areas. We met at a designated spot and at noon rode to Chili's for lunch.

Here's one of our bloggers - Jovi who was on the ride. You can see by her hair how windy it is. Another fellow blogger, that many of you know, Christine was also there, but I didn't get her pic.

I never get my picture (ha!!)

It was a great afternoon with friends and good food. We had a pretty large crowd and lots of laughs. We had four new ladies come out on their motorcycles to see what the Mountain Shadow Riders was about and they told me they had lots of fun. As many regulars know, the Mountain Shadow Riders is a chapter of Women On Wheels. After lunch there was a plan to ride to Penrose, but there was no interest with the high winds. It was noticably colder going home. The wind was bad, but manageable. I have been in worse winds. It was another good day of riding, even if it was short. In this case it was quality, not quantity.

Wishing You Winter Adventures,

Biker Betty :)

Yea, Warm Weather to Ride !!!

Today was an excellent day to ride to work. The high today was 58 degree F. and I pulled out my bike and rode to work. Hello everyone - I don't know where the time has gone. Seems like it was just yesterday it was summer. I've got my second wind with my full-time job as a library assistant in a high school and I've had such a bug to get back into blogging again :) I miss not visiting all my blogging buddies and the chats. I could not believe how tired I was the first couple of months I started this job. There was so much work to do. The person before me had stopped working before school let out for the summer and she was just dead space till she got "promoted" to another school. Yep, she did get a promotion. I'm very glad I got this job. I love it and the people I work with are very nice. I love working with the teens. It's so different then elementary school where I did part-time work for 5 years.

This last weekend I opened the garage and tried to start my Yamaha. It has been so cold for many weeks and I hadn't touched it all that time. I would look longingly at it when I walked by it to put recycles in the bins. It was halfway warm last weekend and I decided that if the roads and weather weren't going to cooperate - well I was going to at least start it up just to keep the battery charged. It took some coaxing for about a minute. I was real careful to not flood the engine. I was finally rewarded when it kicked over for a split second, lol. Finally I did get it to start and let it for for about 20 minutes. I had to keep the throttle on twice as long as I usually do. While listening to it run I cleaned it up, checked tires, and made sure there wasn't anything loose and that there was not leaks. My husband and I don't winterize our bikes, as we ride when we can in the winter. This winter hasn't been allowing for much riding. Also, in previous years when I wasn't working full-time, I would get it out and ride a while during the day when it was warmer. Now I have to leave for work at 6:25am and it's just plain to cooollddd!!! By the time I get home I'm too busy to ride, sigh.

One reason I was checking my bike was that the Mountain Shadow Riders have our New Years Day ride coming up tomorrow and I wanted to be sure my bike would start. My husband pulled out his bike and it wouldn't start. When he hooked up the charger to his bike, it wouldn't take a charge and he ended up having to order a battery that he just got in. He bought a gel battery and is pretty excited to try it out. He ordered it Monday and it just arrived. He put it in and his Suzuki Intruder 1500 started right up.

Tomorrow I get to ride with fellow riders. It's going to be in town and we plan on riding to a restuarant for lunch. They are already predicting snow for late Sunday and again later next week, sigh. At least it's going to be nice for tomorrow. Suppose to be close to 60 degrees F. Wooo Hooo, motorcycle ride here I come !!!!

Wishing you warm winter travels,

Biker Betty

Great Day Today

This morning I get up to 54 degrees F. It is a bit cooler, but still manageable with my summer mesh jacket. I can tell the sun is slowly starting to rise later as the days go by. I didn't need my darker sunglasses this morning.

When I got off work it had warmed up to 78 degrees F. and very sunny. I kept my liner in my jacket, as I was too lazy to take it out - knowing I needed it back in in the morning. The rest of this week is suppose to be pretty warm in the afternoons. Mornings are cooler these days.

Before leaving the school today I was putting overdue notices in teacher's boxes to give to kids. I'm still surprising staff with my riding gear. A teacher walks into the office while I was busy and she exclaims her surprise that I ride. The secretary laughs, as she knows, and says they didn't realize they hired a wild woman onto the staff, lol. So far all the responses from the staff have been positive and they love that I ride. I get lots of support and fun comments from them. They are surprised that I ride when it's overcast and rain is forcasted.

I will say that if it's raining real hard when it's time to go to work I will most likely wimp out and take the van. I don't worry about the afternoon rain. I just don't want yucky hair when I get to work. Hey, I'm a girl and this girl does want to look halfway decent during the day, lol. My long hair sticks out from under the helmet and what a mess when it gets wet :(

On that note, I must get to bed. I'm having to get up at 4:50am and that time comes too early.

Wishing you great rides,

Biker Betty :)

Beat the Weather Yesterday

Yesterday when I rode to work it was 58 degrees F and overcast. The ride to work wasn't too bad and there was a beautiful sunrise to enjoy. I tried to catch it in the above photo, but it didn't show much. As I rode down the road the red got more brilliant and bold, but I didn't have enough time to stop and snap a photo. I didn't leave enough margin of time to travel to work, sigh.

Boy, did I luck out with the weather. A teacher comes walking into the library in the early afternoon and declares it raining. She knows I ride to work and thinks it probably the end of the world for me, lol. I said that rain is no problem, as I have rain gear if I need it. By the time I get off work at 3pm the rain has stopped and just about everything is dry. As I walk up to my V-Star I see some signs of the previous rain, as there were water droplets not yet dried on my bags and parts of my motorcycle. There's a little pool of water on my odometer.

Guess what? After I get home and go to put my Star in the garage it starts to rain. Luck is with me today. It warmed up to 64 degrees F for the ride home. I wasn't sweating with the liner in my jacket this afternoon. There was a slight cool breeze.

A cool thing happened on the way home. At one of the stop lights a teenager hung out the passenger window of the car she was riding and yelled "Awesome bike - way to go!!" and she gave me the thumbs up. I gave her a great big smile and wave. Who knows, maybe she will be a future rider?