I Hate To Have To Do This

... But it has been forced upon me. I have had this blog for just over two years and I have now been forced to moderate the comments posted to my blog. Someone has repeatedly been posting very long religious comments on my blog. I delete it and they keep coming back. Is anyone else having this problem recently?

I am religious and everyone has their rights to what they believe or choose not to believe. They should start their own blog and post their ideas. These comments have absolutely nothing to do with my posts. They actually appear to be threatening in nature. So please bear with me and very sorry I had to do this.

Motorcycle Blog to Check Out

I have just today found a fellow motorcycle blogger that has listed his Top 100 Motorcycle blogs. Many of you are on it and there are a few that are new to me and I must go visit. Cristian - who lives in Bucharest, Romania - has a couple of Honda Nighthawks and hence the name of his blog Honda Motorycles blog. I just read one of his motorcyle travels and it is very interesting. He can ride for miles and miles and not come across another vehicle on the road!! WOW!

A few of you have already found him and chatted with him. I'm playing catch-up, as I have been out of the bloggy world for a few months. School is out and I'm finding more time to do the things I love. I do love working in a high school library, but my first year back was hard for me. I worked full-time till my first child was born and then I opted to stay at home and raise my kids and was lucky to be able to do it. I stayed at home for about 19 years, YIKES!!! Without my extra income we had to watch the pennies and couldn't do or buy what many did, but it was worth it. I can say that I'm glad to be back in the workforce and working with teens is fun.

During the time I was silent in my blog I was still out riding my motorcycle when I could. If there is one thing I love - it is riding my motorcycle!!! People at work and the students love it that their library assistant rides a motorcycle to work.

On that note: Let me wish everyone travels adventures,

Biker Betty :)

Dinner in the Next Town

Hello to all - I got back from dinner a little bit ago and what a fun time it was. The Mountain Shadow Riders had their monthly family dinner night tonight. I logged almost 60 miles just getting there and back. It was great seeing those who were able to make it. I've missed quite a few of their family dinner nights lately and really wanted to make this. It was partly selfish on my part, as we went to Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant up in Woodland Park. A few of you may have read in past posts how much I love riding up Highway 24 to Woodland Park (and beyond to Buena Vista - where the famous Collegiate Peaks are). Plus I loovvve this restaurant!!

So tonight it was to Woodland Park, CO and to one of my favorite restaurants there. The food was marvelous, as usual, and the place was packed. They recently relocated to a new location they had built and I understand they have been very busy since. We had eight people reserve for the dinner from our group, our organizer reserved ten at the restaurant and twelve showed up, lol. We kept playing musical chairs trying to fit everyone in, as they all din't show up at the same time. It all worked out and we had an enjoyable dinner. The people at Casa Grande were superb!!

At this dinner I was reminded that I hadn't posted since January and would I please post something. I will try and post more often, as I miss everyone and hearing from you. So Don, this post is dedicated to you. He reminds me when I have been delinquent in posting, lol. Don rides a motorcycle and has recently started his own blog. He is also very involved with ABATE in Colorado. As soon as I can I will put a link to him. He told me at the dinner, but I didn't have anything to write on and I tried to commit it to memory - but alas my retched memory has failed me :(

I must close for now.

Wishing you adventurous travels to wonderful restaurants,

Biker Betty

PS: The Mountain Shadow Riders has started our ride contest for this year. In a few days I will tell you all about it. It should be lots of fun!!

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 :)