3 Day Weekend in Indiana

Last weekend, I drove up to Indiana Friday (my parents house) to meet Belinda and the kids who were finishing up a 2 week Midwest road trip visiting friends and family.  We had a very nice - but short trip.  While there, we visited mostly family, but I did get to stop at the Copper Bar in Terre Haute for a quick beer with my good friend Curt Owens.  I look forward to a longer visit in November around Thanksgiving.

Lake Lanier - out for a Sunday boat ride with my boss

A couple of Sunday's ago, I went for a boat ride with my boss Don Conroy.  He is a super great guy.  His family was out of town visiting relatives like mine so it was just the two of us wasting time riding around the lake on his 24' Sea Ray Weekender.  I must say, His boat is almost exactly the same configuration as the Wellcraft 236 Eclipse that Belinda and I owned for 8 years.  It made me remember the good times we had on that boat and really miss it. There are times I wish we had never gotten rid of it. 

Lake Lanier is a very large U.S. Corps of Engineers Lake that supplies all of the water to Atlanta, South GA, and many parts of North FL.  It's a beautiful recreational lake too.  Check out some of the homes in my pics - not too shabby.  We stopped at a little dive bar - actually, it's more of a biker bar that has a path through the woods and a rickety dock on the lake - just my kind of place.  We had a 1/2 pound "tavern" burger - man was that thing good.  Storms rolled in and we had to cut our sightseeing short, but it was still a very fun afternoon on the boat.

Bike Night in Buford, GA

There are a few bike nights around my local area.  I have only actually made it to 1.  It's usually pretty hard for me to find the time to ride during the week.  I did make it to Bike Night at the Pizza Pub in downtown Historic Buford, GA - a  Neat little "old" town nestled in suburbia close to the Gwinnett and the Mall of Georgia about 25 minutes from my house.  I didn't stay long - just took a few pics, grabbed a cold one, then left as I had some shopping to do.  Notice in the picture that it's almost all Harley's, which is typical of most Bike Nights I have attended.  I love being "different" and I usually draw some "looks" and "questions" from those riding the heavy iron.  All good of course - I have found that bikers don't discriminate.  The questions are usually "how heavy is that", "how is it down in the woods", many are surprised at how "pavement worthy" this bike is.  I am really happy with it after 1 year of ownership.  This one is going to be a long term "keeper" I think.

New Tires - North GA Mountain Run

Belinda went up to Ohio from VA with the kids to visit family after our vacation.  I went back to work.  I have been pretty busy with work.  However,  I have tried to get out and ride every day.  On Wednesday, I worked on my deck re-sealing project, then took off to Gainesville, GA at sunset.  Somewhere around Oakwood, GA I took a very large screw to the back tire.  Thanks Geico roadside assistance for getting me home.  I got new tires on the bike on Friday.  I went with 80% pavement / 20% off road tires as I have been spending most of my time on road.  I went for a ride this afternoon up in the mountains and I am very pleased with the new tires - except for the failure of my speedometer!

DC Vacation - relo to Keptopeke State Park Outer Banks VA

On Wednesday, we relocated down to the outer banks of Virginia and set up camp at Keptopeke State Park.  We really liked this park.  It was very clean, and the beach was awesome.  We spent a day at Busch Gardens Williamsburgh, then stayed at the park on Friday.

DC Vacation Part IV

After we toured the capitol, we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space, then the Smithsonian Natural History.

DC Vacation Part III

On Tuesday, we had a special treat.  Belinda arranged a tour of the Nations Capitol through our US Representative.  It was the highlight of our DC tour.

DC Vacation Part II

On Monday, we went down to the National Mall and walked the White House, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, got a little dehydrated, hit a McDonalds, then back to the campgrounds.

DC Family Vacation Part 1

We took off on July 3rd on our way to DC.  We had camping reservations at Prince William National Forest just outside of DC.  We made ok time with many stops.  It was HOT.  On day 1, went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum - Udvar Hazey Center at Dulles Airport.  Then, we had a nice dinner, then went downtown to the National Mall for the fireworks.  We loved the display at Dulles.  Then we found a parking spot in front of the Greece's Embassy building on Embassy row.  We then took the subway downtown.  The fireworks were very good but very short.  When we got back to the subway to get back to the car, it was a ZOO. Crazy.