Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Photo Hunt

~ This Saturday's Theme is Cooked/ing ~

Theme: Cooked/ing ** Become a Photo Hunter ** View Blogroll

Ahhh, here's one of my family's favorite dinners (minus the beer for the kids, lol). It has affectionately been named "Taco Mama." Tonight I didn't make the homemade flour tortilla shells that I quite often make, but I did make my own special taco sauce that we all love. Yummmm Yumm.

This photo hunt is being posted late as I slept in this morning and then I really needed to do some work in the front yard before the afternoon thunderstorms came in, shuttle my youngest son to a school activity, wash my filthy dirty motorcycle, and then cook dinner. I slept in because I stayed up till 2:30am this morning playing Clue and Phase 10 with my 18 year old son and some of his friends. My kids have wonderful friends. They are so amazed (well not anymore, because they now know me) that I love to play board games, card games and some video games with them. I just recently got to try Guitar Hero 2 for XBox 360. That is soooo much fun. My youngest son's friend brought it over and was so surprised when I wanted to try it.

Tomorrow I get up early because my husband and I will be doing the motorcycle run I talked about in the previous post. The weather man has predicted the best weather of the week for tomorrow, so hopefully it is. Anyway, we have our rain gear and are prepared.

Wishing you a great weekend,

Biker Betty :)

~ Ladies of Harley Annual Mother's Day Run ~

This last Saturday a few of us did the Pikes Peak Harley Owners Group #405 Ladies of Harley Annual Mother's day Run. Yes, I still own a Yamaha V-Star 650 shown at the top, lol. The PP Harley Owners Group here puts on some very fun rides and they welcome all motorcycles on most of their runs. I've done a few runs with this group now and they are very nice. I have enjoyed every run I've done, this one definitely included!!

In the morning, before the run, we first had the montly Mountain Shadow Riders meeting. The meeting was rather sparcely attended, as it was a beautiful day and I'm sure a few were already out on rides somewhere. The meeting business was quickly attended to, so those of us who wanted to do the Mother's Day Run could hopefully get there in time.

As it turned out, by the time we got to the Pikes Peak Harley dealership, the last group had left about 15-20 minutes earlier. There was Mickey, Travis, Taunya, and myself. We were told we could still catch up to the group if we wanted to. Well, it was a beautiful day and we had really wanted to do this run, so we got the route and bought our poker cards. Then Taunya realized she had ran out of time due to a birthday party she was attending in a few hours and we wouldn't be back in time. So sadly, she decided she needed to opt out.

So three of us set out, instead of four. Travis was kind enough to take the lead and head us down I-25 South, bypassing the Garden of the Gods that they had drove past. Our first destination was Pueblo and the Do Drop Inn. It took about an hour and it was a pretty nice ride, considering it was interstate driving. The interstate wasn't too busy and we made good time. We got there to find out the last group had already left. We chose not to have lunch here and were mounting our bikes when one of the people in the chaser group came out to us. She had saw Travis' poker card in his hand and wondered if we were a straggler group. Yep, that us - The Straggler Group - LOL. So we went back in and they were very nice. We chatted just a bit, got our second punch (the first was at the dealership), and hopped on our bikes for the next destination - Canon City.

We took off, with the Chaser Group behind us. We caught Hwy 50 west toward Canon City. This is a very nice road. There was hardly a wind and it was a beautiful ride. We were having a blast!!! About 30 minutes later we arrived in Canon City and our second stop - Cold Stone Creamery. We got our 3rd punch there. We also decided it was time to eat, as it was about 1pm. There was a place right next door and we went in and had lunch. The Coyote's Coffee Den who was one of our sponsors for our breast cancer run last year. As usual, the sandwiches were awesome.

After lunch we rode back to the springs and our next stop - Patsy's Candies. We rode back taking Hwy 50 to Hwy 115. We had the Chaser group behind us. They have two custom Harley's and it was fun riding with them. We were actually two groups, but for most of the ride we were one.

The above photo was our next to the last stop. Here we got our last punch at Patsy's Candies. We left with the Chaser group, but at the light they took a short cut back to the dealership and we took the more scenic route past Garden of the Gods. Just past Garden of the Gods Mickey had to peal off for previously planned activities. So Travis and myself ended the ride at the dealership.

Here we ended the ride in hopes that our poker cards had won. But, alas, that was not in the stars, lol. There was also a motorcycle competition for the women riders and Travis kept telling me I should enter it, lol. But I don't think a plain Yamaha V-Star 650 could compete with custom painted Harleys. The one that won was custom painted pink with white flames. She was part of the Chaser group and we had been admiring her motorcycle already. I should have got a picture, sorry folks.

So ended a wonderful ride. A huge Thank you to Travis for leading our fearless group. He's a support member of the Mountain Shadow Riders and, like all our support members, more like a member. Thank you Mickey. She had just bought her Honda Shadow and really enjoyed the ride. A year ago she and her husband got in a serious motorcycle accident when a semi did a sudden U-turn in front of them. We are grateful they are healed and able to now getting back on motorcycles. Taunya, we missed you and hope the birthday party went well. I arrived home just before the downpour that was threatening us since we got back in town.

My next planned run with this group my husband and I will be doing. We will be riding the annual 5 in 1 run that is a lot of fun. This is their 8th year doing this run and my 2nd time. They do 5 mountain passes in 1 day. And then this Sunday a few of us have plans to do the 19th Annual Colorado Springs Touring Club Poker Run to raise money for the El Paso County Search & Rescue. My husband and I did this run last year and wanted to definitely do it again this year. I just found out tonight that it is about 186 miles of beautiful riding. I also found out tonight that due to lots of snow this last winter the Search and Rescue are rather strapped for cash. They were kept very busy rescuing folks stranded by unexpected snowfall a couple of times. So I look forward to this event and hopefully it raises a lot of money for this worthy organization.

Wishing you wonderful journeys in your part of the world,

Biker Betty :)

~ This Saturday's Theme is Five ~

Theme: Five ** Become a Photo Hunter ** View Blogroll

WoooHooo I did it again!!! At first I just couldn't think of anything for this Saturday's theme. I was going thru my photos when I found my file of the Harley Davidson 5 in 1 run I did last July. Above are the batches (now on my vest) I got for going on the run. We did 5 mountain passes at 10,000 plus elevation in one day. I did a post on it after the run.

There was a LOT of people who went on this run. The above photo doesn't do justice for ALL the motorcycles that went on this run. They divided everyone into groups of about 18-22 motorcycles. There must have been at least 12 groups participating.

The above picture show my motorcycle with my bags. Most of us spent the night in Leadville that night. The run ended at a reststop about 1/2 hour away from Leadville. It would have been about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour ride back home and most elected to spend the night at Leadville. It was so much fun.

Here is my Yamaha V-Star 650 at Kenosha Pass. It was our first stop. Needless to say, I plan on doing this run again this summer. It is on my calendar already!!

Now I must get to bed. I need to get up early for the Mountain Shadow Riders montly meeting. It's going to be a quick meeting as many of us plan on doing the Pikes Peak Harley Owners Group #405 Ladies of Harley Annual Mother's Day Run. This will be my first year in this run. Last year I thought it was for Harley riders only, but I found out this year that it is open to all motorcycles. So I plan on sneaking my Yamaha in amongst all those Harleys *smile*.

Goodnight,

Biker Betty :)

~ Hello? Anybody Out There? ~

Wordless Wednesday

Here's a photo from last year's Mountain Shadow Riders photo scavanger hunt. I had to find a red telephone booth. I enjoyed some of the goofy stuff we had to find.

~ This Saturday's Theme is Childhood ~

Theme: Childhood ** Become a Photo Hunter ** View Blogroll

With the photo hunt theme "childhood," I needed to dig through my photos of when I was growing up. I actually had in mind a photo of when I was pretty young on a bicycle. I was pretty excited when I came across this photo I forgot I had.

This is the first time I was ever on a motorcycle. I'm in the white helmet riding the motorcycle by my dad, who is sitting on the tailgate of his truck. We are at Clear Lake, California and it's April 1970. I'm 11 years old.

It was a lot of fun going through old photos.

Words to the Wise: Don't show your kids your photos of when you were younger, say around 20 years old. They look at you, they look at the photo, they look at you and they look at the photo. Then they get this horrified look like some accident has happened to you, because they are wondering where's the pretty person of 20 years old. My eldest didn't mean to do that, but by golly, he sure did, lol. Then he stammers out, "This is YOU!!!?!?" Yep, I'm an old fart now, sigh.

Have a great Saturday,

Biker Betty :)

PS: In rereading this I discovered an error. I was 10 years old in the photo. It was written 11 on the back of the photo, but I couldn't have been in 1970. It was written there by my dad's girlfriend at the time.

~ Joe Rocket and Icon I love you ~

This is also a Wordless Wednesday Post

Pictures taken at Garden of the Gods, Colorado

For those interested, the info is below Mister Linky

For over a year I have been on the lookout for purple gear. Or even any gear made for women. More and more the motorcycle industry is recognizing that they need to meet the needs of women. There are many of us out there who ride and don't want to wear gthe unisex gear that fit us like a box. Over the last year I have been amazed at how the industry is stepping up to the plate in designing boots, jackets, helmets, gloves, etc for us and with safety in mind. I applaud them and really appreciate the slowly growing choice of gear to choose from for women.


I recently bought the Joe Rocket - Womens Cleo 2.0 Jacket in purple. I was sooo excited when I saw this mesh jacket and how beautiful it is. It's reasonably priced and it has hard armor in the shoulders and elbows and a substantial armor plate for the back. It also comes with a liner that works pretty well in chilly weather. I was equally happy when it fit so well. Some of the women's jackets have designed their arms so they fit too tightly, but not the different women's Joe Rocket jackets I tried on.


So now I am set for the summer. This is a mesh jacket, which allows air flow thru it and it's significantly cooler for summer use. Because I love this jacket so much I wore it to work in 34 degree F. weather with my REI One jacket underneath and it kept me pretty warm.

Then I went looking for a matching helmet and found this ICON - Women's Hooligan Helmet. I love this helmet so much more then the red HJC LOOK CS-12. Mainly because I can now wear sunglasses with the helmet on and I love the violet color of the ICON. Whenever I tried to wear sunglasses with the HJC helmet they would pop up at a weird angle and I was constantly adjusting them, distracting me from the road. But that is no longer. My solution with the HJC helmet was to buy the tinted shield, but the plastic hinges broke a few times when changing out the different shields due to day/night changes. We were getting frustrated having to buy a new shield just because of stupid plastic hinges breaking.

My criteria when looking for motorcycle gear (in order of importance)

1. Safety - jackets must have armor, gloves must have decent protection

2. fit - It really must fit right and be comfortable

3. Looks - I look for something that I think looks nice for me as a woman

I was then able to find a very cool pair of ICON black/Purple gloves that fit nice and has good protection for the hand and fingers. They are for summer. For winter I will use my black leather gloves that I love and have already.

Now I need to find a winter jacket to go with my new helmet. If I have to, I will wear my red jacket with my violet helmet when the cold weather hits, but I sure hope not.

Introducing......

(drum roll please...)

Winky, Blinky, & Nod!!!

(from Left to Right)

Here are three of our many fine support members in the Mountain Shadow Riders. They, like our other support members, are quite the characters, lol. Of course, we love them all.

Blinky, bless his heart, was the first to get his nickname. I'm betting you can guess how. A couple of weeks ago he and his wife (one of our members) went on a group ride to New Mexico for lunch. (I would have loved to go on this ride, but I had obligations that day that I couldn't get out of. But I'm crying in public here and need to get back to why I'm writing this.) They all had a good ride and a few came home with nicknames, Blinky being one of them. He kept (you guessed it!) forgetting to turn off his turn signals. He'd go for miles with his blinker on and, as I hear, did it most of the day.

Then there is Nod. He has actually been wanting a nickname for a while. He actually had a "plan" to get his nickname, bless his heart. People would pay to suggest a nickname and "he" would choose the one he liked best, hehe. The first part of his plan wasn't bad. All money raised for this fine endeavor would be donated to our annual breast cancer awareness run in October. (We raised a record breaking $5,700 to donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at our run last October '06). So...

The members of the Mountain Shadow Riders were happy to oblige. But he wasn't going to get to pick his nickname and first we needed to be on a few rides with him to see what fit best, lol. I wasn't on the ride that finally sealed (errr.. chose) his fate. It's not all bad. They came by "Nod," because it's an anagram of his name - Don. Not so bad, ehhh?!?

Then there is my husband, Unsupported. Seems he sealed his fate (err... got chosen his nickname) on our last ride to Bent's Old Fort two weekend's back. (I will report on this ride soon). He got caught quite a few times by other members (and Blinky's wife - specifically) leaving one of his blinkers on, LOL!!! He'd go for miles, & miles, & miles . . . with that darn blinker on, bless his fun loving heart. Well "Blinky" was already recently taken. So Blinky's wife came up with "Winky." Partly because it went so well with Blinky and Nod. So Unsupported now has two nicknames.

Many members of our fine group either already had their nicknames from earlier days or they are acquiring them from things they say or do on our group rides. One of the ladies just recently was christened "McSpeedy" on the same New Mexico journey that Blinky took. Maybe I'm glad I didn't take that ride *chuckle*.

The Mountain Shadow Riders is a fun-loving, caring group of people and I'm honored to be a member of this group. I always look forward to future rides with them and we have many planned this summer, not to mention the riding contest we started in April.

Wishing you fun adventures,

Biker Betty :)