cowpuc

Thanks Bob! There are places out there that surpass Royal palaces in their shear beauty and THAT particular area happens to be one of them.. I simply tried to give the area's open invitation for all to come and enjoy its regality due justice thru my words.. I am glad to hear it touched you like it did and that you said something. That means a lot my friend! Here's a heads up of what lies ahead as the Majestic Lady shares some more of her gracefulness!! Puc

A couple other folks, friends on here and even my neighbor have asked me about trailers too Bren.. Never could see how trailers would work for us (notice picture of the sign in my response to Bob in the post after this one),, BUT, to serve as a trailer for my story and to entice you into staying on the trail with us, here are some pics of trailers from our journey that might interest you... A couple of these shots include the Shuttlebugs (great folks and VR members) beautiful trailer that Mr. Shuttlebug made with his own two hands!! Hope this helps Brenner!!

Heyyyyy,, look what the Kat drug in,, get it,, Kat - drug,, ohhh never mind,, probably hurts to even smile right now.. SOOO glad to hear from you kiddo!! Hope the anestesia nausea wears off and you get back on your feet soon!! THANK YOU for touching base with us!! Thoughts and Prayers Up

This is UNREAL for the price!! I miss being me... There was a time when I would be grabbing a bank roll and headed cross country picking stuff like this so fast,,, why even the 1st Gen Ventures had a hard time keeping up with me!! Its at 9k with about 20 minutes of bid time left,, be really really interesting to see if it takes a huge hit at the end!! Good grief I love this stuff.. Harley Davidson Other | eBay

If your talking to me Cha, no,,, it got sold out from under him.. The guy only wanted 2 for it and it was gone before he could get to it.. Like I told em,, being all snowed in like we are up here - no need to panic,, LOTS of deals out there!!

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Tell ya one thing for a fact Dodger,,, it may be subzero outside but seeing a pic of that gorgeous vintage Mopar warms me up inside all the way into my soul!!!

He'd a really blowed his top had he a knowed who was really behind his demise :crackup:

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS UP KAT AND STORM RAVEN!! Godspeed young lady as your traveling thru the the whole process!! Best wishes for the results you and your family are looking for, heal quick so you and Raven can get that bike ride vacation time that you both deserve! Sneaking em in here for you too Cha!!

There Bren,, I put a little Holly Wood spin on this last section just for you!! Thanks for tuning in! Puc

We quickly discovered that Sage Hen Summit was not just a beautiful royal lady to simply be visually admired. She was also a wonderful hostess waiting with endless camping opportunities to any weary traveler with a tent who dared to travel the gravel road veins that fed into the paved road arteries as they brought human life into her out stretched arms.. We picked one of those veins, rode a few miles toward those heavenly Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distant sunset, pulled off on a small feeder capillary two track and claimed our spot for the night.. Other than a small disagreement between myself and the water jug that Tweeks carries on her right side,, the stay in our enchanted overlook was like paradise!!

Tweeks didn't even flinch as I stuck the heals of my riding boots into her sides asking her to turn on 6 as it separated from 95.. Maybe she could sense the California - Serra Nevada Mountain range that she loves riding so much in the winds that still blew across her nose. I was amazed at how little she seemed to care about the few remaining dark clouds that haunted the western sky.. The three of us CTFW'd into the great state California on 6, coin tossed at the intersection of 6 and 120 and the northerly bound desolate roadway of 120 won out.. There was a small filling station at that intersection where we filled up with fuel and grabbed some grub for the evening camp that was fast approaching.. We soon arrived at the Sagehen Summit where spectacular views of the snow capped mountains of Yosemite National Park could be seen waving to us like a majestic long lost friend, whose memories of touring days of the past burned in our three souls as if we had never left those mountains..

After gaining the confidence that this was the case, we set about looking for adventure within those four walls.. I had thought that Teenagerism had long ago left my aging body but as soon as my fingers noticed the graffiti on one of the walls, the digits on my right hand started to twitch and it wasn't long before I noticed they had picked up a piece of dry wall and were making marks on the walls.. I was very happy to see that, even though my fingers had suddenly been inhabited by their spirit of years past, they had matured in the nature of the messages they were now writing!! After a while, they seemed to have noticed that the wind had died down considerably and that quite possibly we were not going to have to spend the night here at this Ghost inhabited repair station.. Their final message was one that caught me off guard. They asked me to pass a message on to anyone having watched this movie - you might wanna write this down so you don't forget it! The location of the abandoned repair station is just a few miles west of Tonopah Nevada, it is located on west bound 6/95 just before 6 separates from 95 (it makes a "Y" where 95 goes northerly). My fingers would like to invite you, the readers of this malarkey, to stop at this abandoned repair shop, grab a piece of broken drywall, walk to the rear of the shop and find the spot where a picture of a bike named Tweeks, and sign that says "Cowpuc Loves Tippy" is seen below it. Leave a message, date and a nickname and my fingers promise they will "pen pal" back with you the next time they come thru!!

A short while later as we closed in on the mountainous area in what we thought might be the California border, a MASSIVE western storm appeared.. We have ridden thru a LOT of bad weather but this particular one was incredible.. The sky looked like it was gonna open up with an ocean of rain, the wind was about as close to sand blaster velocity as feasibly possible.. We passed a couple of Semi's and a few cars who had taken refuge just in being immobile on the side of the road.. I leaned down into the lap of Tweeks fairing, tucked my legs in and yelled back at Tip to form herself into me as tightly as she could and to hang on.. Tip yelled and asked why I wasn't stopping or slowing down,, I yelled back and told her that this looked like a bad one and they we were gonna need shelter.. I have felt Tweeks rub her foot pegs into pavement a number of times in places like the twisties of The Tail of the Dragon and am pretty familiar with the feel of the lean angles she is capable of, the cross winds were so strong against us that twice during that unbelievable ride I swear I felt her pegs scrape as the three of us fought to stay upright on the road.. I could smell the mountain rain in the wrath of the wind but for some reason it was only a sprinkle. Fortunately for Tip and I, the roadway remained remarkably dry in front of us as we fought the wind and the desert debris being blown against Tweeks body as we searched for cover.. In the distance I made out a building with a couple Semi's hiding behind it.. I felt Tweeks surge into the wind as she noticed the place of refuge about the same time I did,, I leaned down into her fairing and yelled - LET ER BUCK TWEEKS! The building turned out to be an abandoned repair facilities, with, belief it or not, a missing garage door on wall that was facing the direction of the runway we were about to land on!! Tweeks made a perfect landing as she lowered her nose gear right beside the floor lift located inside the building.. We were safe!! As we stood there in the door way of the shop where at one time, people had made a living working on vehicles, I told Tippy that of all the experiences I have had in my life while Ghost Towning - this is the first time I had ever been rescued by one. It rained just a little while we stood in the doorway and watched the big bad wolf huff and puff.. That old wolf gave it all he had and was able to blow a few pieces off the place but, it became clear that this joint was SOLID..

We finished up dumping the spare fuel into Tweeks and headed the direction that another road sign had said was the nearest town - a place called Tonopah.. As we headed west, we noticed what appeared to be a rocket of some sort mounted on pipe.. There was no way on God's green earth I could resist that one. We pulled in to find out whether or not the rocket was live and about to be launched. As we pulled into the spot where the around the back side of the rocket, a sign came into our view. We read what the sign said to see what, if any, kind of adventure this area held for us. Reading the words "Test Range" under what clearly was a military looking rocket of some sort actually spelled out a different message in our minds. Clearly that message was - "Puc and Tippy, from the air the red gas tank on Tweeks back makes a very vivid target".. We decided to seek our adventures elsewhere. We found Tonopah, the town that supposedly had fuel and food. We chatted with a group of teenagers from the area, who like many other folks were intrigued by the site of Tweeks, as we fueled her up.. We rode over and grabbed a Subway 12 inch sub of the day, walked outside, cobbled it down and got back on the road headed west..

I stood back in amazement at how sneaky Tippy was being trying to get someone's attention at the Area 51 Tourist Trap.. She walked around the building looking for a bell to ring, knocking on doors and tapping on windows.. I was more taken in by the Alien who's joints were clearly rusted up solid in the owners front yard. For a moment I thought I noticed his eyes following us as we walked up the hill toward the building.. I stopped and stared him down, looking directly into his eyes, I said that famous line from Independence Day - "Welcome To Earth",, than I added an iconic line of Murdoc's from "The A-Team" and said - "you great big ugly mud sucker". Right after I said that I thought I heard someone inside the tin body say "gooshago mulasko, gooshago mulasko" which,, in Alien lingo probably means "oil can,, oilll can".. Later, after Tip had given up on trying to break into the building and I was convinced that being able to contact Coff was a hopeless cause as neither the Tablet nor the phone showed any sign of life in their connector bar status things,, we chatted about how hot it was getting and decided to get back to CTFWing.. Area 51, The Extra Terrestrial Highway, Nellis Air Base present some really awesome motorcycle riding.. The endless rugged desert beauty is breath taking in a dangerous but surreal kind of way.. Tweeks, Tip and I have a standing agreement between us that we are gonna travel it again and we encourage all of you movie viewers to take full advantage of the opportunity to do the same if it presents itself to you.. If you do though,, even if your traveling in a car, take some extra water and maybe some extra fuel with you just in case you meet someone out there that didn't notice or believe the "NO GAS" signs.. When we return, I am gonna pack a can of WD-40 and set an Alien free!! The best way to tell how much fun a pair of bikers are having when they are out CTFWing is by how fast the time seems to go by for them,, in this case for us, it seemed like it had only been five minutes and we had covered the bulk of the Terrestrial and we were standing at a lonely intersection nursing Tweeks from her new 2 gallon bottle.. As we stood there enjoying the silence, we noticed a couple Antelope who had decided they didn't care for our presents and took off for where ever those Prong Horn's take off to when they are startled..

Having procured the extra fuel that we were going to need while traveling 160 miles of the Extra Terrestrial Highway that crosses Nellis Air Force Base, my thoughts changed to another important matter, one that would result in the 3 of us missing an opportunity during this years ride that we all would have really enjoyed. If you have been watching this movie since the very beginning and have been paying attention (dont feel bad if you haven't, I cant stay awake during movies either), you may well remember "BikerJohn", one of this stories Texas Heroes.. Some of you professional movie critics may even remember me mentioning another VentureRider.org member's name mentioned within the context of my ramblings concerning BikerJohn. That other member is CMCoffey, now better known to me as just "Coff".. Coff's a genuine member of the United States Air Force and is stationed at Nellis. He is also the one who was gonna be sharing a camping spot with BikerJohn at the Rally in The Dalles Oregon that we were all gonna try and attend. Coff had contacted me thru Private Messaging (a really neat way of talking to each other on VentureRider without other people knowing what you are saying, hence the title "Private Messaging" or, in a military type of lingo this is referred to as a P.M. ). Shortly before leaving our home back in May to begin this madness, I read a final P.M. from Coff that simply stated, you - Tip and Tweeks are staying on our site at the "Loose Moose State Park" (not its real name, more about that later in the show), if you happen to travel anywhere near Nellis Air Base on your way out please call me".. We stood there inside the fuel station where we had purchased the fuel and gas jugs, staring at our little Trac-Phone that showed NO SERVICE!! Before going out and grabbing the Tablet and checking for Internet Service, I walked back up to the lady behind the counter and asked if they had an Internet Connection thingy we could borrow for a couple minutes to try and contact a friend on Nellis.. She said no, but she thought maybe the lady who owned the Area 51 display up the road may have one.. She gave us directions to the woman's establishment those directions had a familiar ring to them. I asked if a 20 foot tall silver Alien's metallic space suit had rusted up in her friends front yard with an Alien possibly still inside of it, kinda like what happened to the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz.. She laughed and said "That's the spot!!".. I told her we had passed the place on our way to the gas station (I didn't mention that I had stopped and gotten directions from an old guy in the parking lot - trying to maintain a certain element of dignity) and that it was closed.. The lady told us to just go up and ring the bell or rattle the door and the owner would let us in..

Glad you are enjoying the ride along Sky!! Thanks for the encouraging thoughts!!! Tell you what, I am having a BLAST sorting thru all these pics and putting all these memories into something other that a road diary - its like reliving the adventure all over again only this time - Tip, Tweeks and I get to travel with all our friends and family - it dont get no better than that!! Concerning riding without a weapon,, I used to pack all the time.. Even before my kids started riding with me, I would have a 357 hanging on the bars in the open while crossing the west.. When they started touring with me, I packed my 45 concealed. Other than Alaska and Hawaii, I have toured in all the states and some of Canada (Nova Scotia - Ontario - Alberta) and I have simply never even come close to having the need to shoot anything, especially a person. In all honesty,, I think there is something about an older couple, riding an old beat up bike covered in stickers that comes across in a very non-threatening way to most people.. The sticker idea all started out in an attempt to create conversation between other people and myself while touring, but it is turning into so much more than that.. I have observed on many occasions as Tweeks, Tip and I sit in lines of bikes waiting to pay a toll or enter a National Park and, without fail - the very people who sit in the toll booths rolling back their eyes at the bikers who have just paid their dues will treat us like we are,,,,,, special .. You get the point.. As far as Tweeks getting up there and having a lot of miles on her,, she's just barely over half my age so it probably aint her I really need to be worrying about:backinmyday:

I've been very patient and feel I have waited long enough for someone to ask this.. No one has so here we go.. A couple days ago Randy asked about setting up a timer on the anti dives on his bike.. I noticed right away that Flyintheointment was one of the participants in that discussion who seemed to have some prior experience with timers,, or,, making things happen at a preplanned time.. I also happened to notice that last night at exactly midnight (when the date flopped to Feb 1) that the What Washing started.. Now,, I am not trying to start anything here but I was wondering just how much of FLyingFool's knowledge about timers is involved with this latest disaster of the white kind happening precisely on Feb 1...

You are more than welcome Art, my pleasure. Glad you are finding enjoyment in riding along with Tip, Tweeks and I thru the madness!! And thank you for the encouraging words!! Puc

and why did Flyinfool have to incorporate a calendar into the timer on the White Wash special, and why did he have to draw that little circle around Feb 1..

Good for you Bob, glad to hear that all is doing better!! Been quite around here without your input, we knew that you were in the middle of the move but didnt know about your sister. So sorry to hear that news,, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family!! Are you back to riding this year? I knew you had your bike up for sale a while back but hadn't heard if you had sold it.. Welcome back!!!!! Puc

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Got that right ya hippy!! Thought I best get something up for these varmints to read cause I noticed a HUGE storm was coming thru betwixed yourn house n mine!! Give em all something to do to keep em from catching cabin fever!! Thinking of drinking a cold glass of butter milk now and hitting the hay for a couple hours!!

ROCK N ROLL BRO!! :thumbsup:THANKS!!