BigLenny

Bongo, What in hell's half acre are you tryin to do? Summer's not over down here in the south! Bring your stuff down here and lets keep riding. Heck, I'm typing this email while I'm wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt and sitting on my back yard deck. Right now is PRIME TIME RIDIN weather! There's a reason a buncha northerners retire down here. The summers are looooong, and the winters are short. Get yer trike back outta storage, drag your happy a$$ down to Big Lenny's house and we'll ride for another 6 weeks. LOL.

That "recluse" word. Hmmmm...... I've been thinking about that. You know, when we were all young, if someone was a recluse, they were people that stayed to themselves in a fierce way, often times only coming out of their house occasionally to go to required places and then even when they were in public, they wouldn't communicate much with folks. Nowadays, to be perceived as a "recluse" one only needs to be a shunner of social media. Often times I have had discussions with someone about a family member or acquaintance who doesn't have a Facebook, Twitter, or email account, and the term "kind of a recluse" comes up. The conversation usually goes like this: Me- "How is Jimmy doing, I haven't heard from him in long time? I'd like to get in touch with him and catch up" Friend- "Jimmy's doing okay, but he doesn't do Facebook or Twitter, or even a smart phone. He just has a regular old analog cell phone. Heck, he doesn't even have an email address. I guess he's kind of reclusive". It's crazy how society changes, and the meaning of words change right along with it.

Fixed that for ya.

SilverT, To be completely and totally honest with you, I would have to know you personally, and intimately know your back history with your family, to give you an accurate read on your situation. On the face value of your story, it appears to be kind of normal for ex families, and cousins and such that don't keep monthly contact with each other. And, if you add into the situation that your ex sister in law's son might be a recluse, well, there's a recipe for no news coming your way. Relationships with families, and especially ex families, can be really weird at times. Frustrating even. It sounds like you have the right heart, and you want a connection with the people and family from your past and home. But, they just might be lazy folk, that don't look at you the same way. My advice would be for you to ramp up your connection schedule with those folks. You take the initiative to touch base with all of them every few months or so. Every 3 years or so, puts you in the acquaintance segment in their minds, not the family segment. Big Lenny

Glad to hear you're happy with your bike! You said it has some quirks. What would you say are some quirks with this bike? Thanks, Big Lenny

Stopped by our local Kawasaki shop today. They had a 2016 brand new Vulcan Voyager with ABS on the showroom floor. Black and silver. Really pretty bike. The owner caught me sitting on it and said, "I'll make you a great deal on that bike to move it out the door. It lists for $17600.00, but I could sell that to you for around $13,400.00, maybe even closer to $13,000.00 even." I told him I'm not really sure I'm ready to trade just yet, but I might bring my wife back and test ride it. But, Inside my mind I was thinking, "what the heck?!" We all know this bike, and have discussed it fairly extensively on the site, and have had discussions about Kawasaki list pricing this machine really low compared to other full dressers in the market. We've had discussions about the windshield being thinner and flimsy, and the saddlebags and trunk being of lighter weight plastic, which is why Kawi could make the list price in the $17K range instead of the lower $20K's like the other full dressers in the market. BUT, being able to buy one of these bikes brand new for $13,000.00 makes one kind of go hmmmm. Thats cheap, considering the quality of Kawasaki products, and what you would get with this bike. I know these bikes have been known to have engine heat issues, but Kawasaki has addressed that on the 2012-current units with the fan blower kit unit installed just under the riders seat, and behind the rear cylinder (not sure if it helps that much). But that sure is a tempting price for a liquid cooled full dresser. Hmmmmmmm.

Last week Teresa and I rode to the Texas Hill Country and had a wonderful time. We had never been there before. We rode down Wednesday and stayed the night in Marble Falls. What a beautiful little town right on the lake. Then we spent Thursday riding around to several neat towns via some great roads. Towns like, Johnson City, Dripping Springs, Driftwood, Wimberley, Blanco, Luckenbach, Fredericksburg, etc. Filled our face at the famous Salt Lick BBQ joint. Man that place was good! Looked for Willie and Waylon and the boys in Luckenbach. Great German history in Fredericksburg, heck the whole hill country area is full of German immigrant history. Friday, we spent the day riding the 3 Twisted Sisters. Simply awesome! Reminded us of a miniature Colorado. Spent some time on the Frio River, and finished Friday night in Boerne (Pronounced Bernie). Grubbed some great Mexican food that night. Saturday we made our way to Gruene (Pronounced Green). Saw Gruene Hall, Texas' oldest dance hall. Where George Strait got his start. The hill country is full of wineries. They're every where. And even a very large olive farm. We saw over 100 deer Thursday and Friday. We saw over 70 Friday alone. We were sitting at an intersection in Medina, and 2 deer trotted right through the intersection. Crazy! We wanna go back. More pics to come. Big Lenny

Dude! Glad you're okay. But I gotta ask; what brand of riding jacket were you wearing??? That bad of a scrape isn't supposed to happen with a high quality jacket. I'd ditch the brand you're wearing. Hoping you heal fast. Big Lenny

Everybody remind Larry not eat too fast. Last year we had to take him to the local ER. LOL.

I agree completely.

You're right SilvrT. I jumped the gun. So, I'll just keep waiting.........waiting..........waiting.............

Waiting.........waiting.........waiting........................................

You're gonna LOVE IT!. It's one of my all time favorite roads we've ever ridden. It would be real cool if you could come in from Telco Plains, TN and ride the Charahola Skyway over to Robbinsville, then head over from there to Cherokee where the Blue Ridge Parkway starts. The Charahola Skyway is not to be missed. It's my favorite road in that area.

I was reading online that there was over 150 motorcycle manufacturers in the early 1900's. WWI eliminated a large number of them, and the great depression finished the job of narrowing the lot down to the two major ones, Indian and Harley.

Hey Don! You timed it just right! the Hot Springs Rally is this weekend! Your finna get over ran with bikers. There'll 25k-30K bikes in downtown Hot Springs. Really antique bike show on the lawn down by the bath houses too.

My wife and I watched the first episode last night. We both enjoyed it. Super interesting stuff. I told my wife that watching this might make me want to go buy a Harley. She informed me if I did do it, don't be expecting her to start wearing tube tops, high healed riding boots, and a$$less chaps. Hmmmmmm.

I LOVE this bike! Right after I purchased my RSTD in 2007, or local Triumph dealer (which has since closed) got a couple of these Rocket 3 Tours in. I test rode one and fell in love. Extremely smooth with boat loads of torque. But, I had just purchased my RSTD a couple months before, so that kinda kept me from buying one. The other thing that kept me from biting was, it doesn't have a cruise control. If that bike would of had a cruise on it, I might've traded right there on the spot. I remember thinking Triumph must be buying their saddlebags from the same supplier Yamaha does. There are vidoes on YouTube of somebody doing wheelies with the Rocket 3 Tour. That motor is stout.

Hot Springs is 35 minutes from me. Go ahead and buy that sucker, Don!

The one and only time (so far); We parked the bike overnight right at the front door of a Hampton Inn. The next morning my wife and I loaded everything up, I warmed the bike up, we got on the bike and confirmed we were both ready to go. I let the clutch out, we went about a foot and BAM! I had forgotten to remove the disk brake lock and it dumped us faster than we could react. RIGHT AT THE FRONT DOOR. Lol. We were both laying on the ground laughing our tails off while the hotel manager and some customers came running out asking us if we needed help. Embarrassing to say the least.

Ajax will take care of those toes.

Yes, they are separated by a dam. Lol. And at the other end of Lake Hamilton, a dam separates it from Lake Catherine. 3 lakes in a row. Lake Hamilton is way smaller than Ouachita, but crazy busy with boat traffic on the weekends and holidays. While you're on Lake Hamilton, go grab a meal at Fishermans Wharf. I recommend the Pecan Encrusted Talapia/Coconut Shrimp combo plate. Be sure to get their special brocolli salad as side.

Aaahhh. Beautiful lake about 40 minutes from my house. As a matter of fact, my sales territory goes all around lake Ouachita. Ouachita is right next to the city of Hot Springs, which has some crazy neat history of being Americas first Las Vegas type place way back in the 1920's-40's. Hot Springs had over 50 casinos before games of chance were outlawed. Now that city has Oaklawn Park, a 100 year old horse track/casino that is one of the most prestigious tracks in the nation. It's a shame you aren't taking your bike; that part of the state is dripping with great motorcycle roads. We ride out that way on a regular basis. Used to be a major baseball spring training area with a lot of the teams coming there. If you get a chance, go to down town Hot Springs and check out the bath houses, and go up in the tower that overlooks the city. Their is also the gangster museum there, due to the fact that it was a favorite entertainment hideout for the famous gangsters. A large area of Hot Springs is actually a National Park. The historic downtown area, and mountains that surround it. This weekend being Labor Day weekend, there will be a boat load of bikes in and around downtown Hot Springs. If you guys are going to be there all next week, I'd like to catch up with you and meet you face to face. It'd be an honor to meet our fearless leader. Big Lenny

Hey Don, Great to hear you're coming to visit our beautiful state! What lake are you going to be at? Big Lenny

Not that I know of. And......why do you ask?

Yep