Well. Here I sit. Mid-Summer 2012. Just went through what, to the best of my memory has been the hottest days I have lived through in Alabama. Fairly consistent 100-109 days for over a week! Brother, that's HOT! Yeah, I know, it's hotter in other places, but combine 109 degree temperatures with Dixie's humidity, and you got a mess. Hot is Hot, but add in the moisture and it makes a connection to your body like you wouldn't believe. You sweat like a pig, but it doesn't do any good at keeping your body cool because at 100% humidity levels, it simply won't evaporate. We loose a lot of people and animals to the heat\humidity monster every summer in Dixie. About the only thing you can do to stay cool down here is plop your ass in a creek and just relax!
Now that works fine for "Non-Werkin" folks like me, but them working stiffs might have a hard time pulling that off on their lunch hour. Air Conditioning was a Godsend to the South! TECH FACT: Air conditioning not only cools the air but it also DEHUMIDIFIES it as well. Which is why there is always a stream of water running out of your house or car A\C when it's working properly. That's the moisture (humidity) that it has removed from the air it has cooled. Now, you can scream "Global Warming" all you want, but I think there is something going on with our sun, our orbit, our planet that is changing our environment year by year, day by day. And I don't think our GVMNT is telling all the details to us, the public. Think about rain for a minute... I'm 55, but I can remember back when I was 5-6 years old when it would rain for days. No, not thunderstorms like we have today, just a nice, soft, gentle soaking rain that caused no flooding, no sinkholes, no tornados, just life giving rain. That's NOT what we have today. Today's rain is a VIOLENT occurrence of Nature. Very seldom these days do we have "rain" without the issuance of a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or a tornado outbreak. So, judge for yourself, I personally think something has gone very screwy with our weather system.
No real updates on Project RoadPig. She's still out there, in the garage, waiting. For what? For me, to make up my mind exactly "what" I want to do with her. Matt has recently resurrected my love of motorcycle exploring with his new interest in what they now call "Adventure Riding", which is usually done by dicks on BMW motorcycles. He is chomping at the bit for a KTM 990. and I'll even admit myself I'd like to find a lovingly used Kawasaki KLR 650 to outfit myself. But when you look at the roots of adventure riding, Hell, I've been doing that all my life. Back in the early 1970's, Me on my Honda SL 175, Jim Monteith on his Kawasaki 125, Marty Gillum on his Suziki 90 (with Street\Trail transmission) and Jeff Love with his Yamaha 125 would go ANYWHERE and explore the shit out of it 24\7. Mines, Slate Dumps, US Steel slag pits, Fire towers in Bessemer, closed roads, abandoned neighborhoods, anywhere! And they were EVERYWHERE back in the 1970's.
Birmingport Road (The 'Port" of Birmingham, AL) was my living "Milestone". Every new bike, and later car, that I got as I was growing up, was immediately pointed towards Birmingport Road and I was off to break another record by going to the next street past where I had gone with my last bike. And there were a lot of them before I was 20. The last trip I can remember down Birmingport Road put me way the hell on the other side of Parrish, AL. Which when I look at it on a map today, doesn't really look that far from Ensley. But one intersection at a time, it took a while to make it to Parrish, AL.
The three guys I mentioned above, were pretty much my main riding "posse" and one of them could always be counted on to be up for, and ready to, RIDE! And I have had so many memorable rides with each of them over the years. All totaled, there were probably 25 of us kids that had motorcycles during our teenage years, maybe more. As the years went by, so did the bikes, until I finally started riding Harley's and I have never gone back to anything else. As the old saying amongst Harley Owners goes... "Once you ride a Harley, everything else, is just a toy..."! But hey, toys are fun too. And they have their place.
So I have been "toying" (pardon the pun) with the idea of resurrecting Project RoadPig into a "DualSport" Adventure Ride mount. And I see plenty of possibilities with the idea too. Most of the "factory" DualSport motorcycles are not much more than street bikes with a few basic "off-road" parts and pieces used in place of their street counterparts. I mean, come on, one of the Top-O-The-Line, drool for hours, ultimate Adventure Ride mounts is a freaking BMW! So that pretty well says it all, right? And the nice thing about the factory DualSports is they already look like some sort of Alien Hybrid Moon Cycle and it's hard as hell to even figure out which brand it is much less what exact model. So, PRP (Project RoadPig) has a usable engine size (550cc's), I can change the wheel sprockets for better gearing for lugging 300 pounds of camping\adventure gear, make some ugly but highly functional rack and crash bars that would rival anything a factory bike comes with, and paint the whole thing neon orange like the KTM's and I really doubt if anyone could figure out it was a stock 1976 Honda CB 550-4 underneath all that crap.
So... That's one possible scenario for PRP. It's literally 15 minutes to yank the motor on PRP, so I may wind up just trying to find some titled frames from junkyards and just build several different "style" bikes to suit my needs, seasons, moods, etc. That way I could do a "bobber" for scooting around town, a chopper for styling and longer runs, and believe it or not, I'd even like to do a retro "touring" version complete with a Vetter Windjammer full fairing and saddle bags too. And then there's Logan... I want to build him a bike with my own two hands before I leave this planet, but I really want it to be a Harley Sportster. The 1973 Harley Davidson Sportster XLCH 1000 was my first Harley, the 2005 Sportster 1200 Custom was Matt's first Harley, so I think it only fitting for a Sportster to be Logan's first Harley too. I'd like to build one for Caitlin, Anna and Maggie too. All identical. The Suggs Harleys! What??? What about Wes? Oh, I'd have to build two Sportsters for him, one for each leg! I'm working on that too, he's not getting left out, trust me! That about does it on the Bikes, ON TO THE BITCHES!
Not a lot new there. Had a new Grand Daughter, Maggie Harper Suggs, born to Matt and Val on April 20th 2012. Doing well, getting bigger and bigger. Developing such an adorable personality. Redheaded too like her Daddy. Gonna be a handful of heartbreaker there! Caitlin has a new job since I last updated here. She the Asst. General Manager for the Lee Branch Taziki's Greek restaurant. And is doing well too. Works her little butt off to the tune of about 70 hours a week. She bought her a 2005 Jeep Liberty so my BabyBird has finally flown the coop. More time on my hands for me, liberty and freedom for her, it's all good! Joy got a big job promotion and now works pretty much when she wants too. Still goes in at the butt crack of dawn (4am...yawn...), but not often any more. My Mom is still at Shady Pines at Cook Springs, wish she was closer so I could spend more time with her.
Logan starts Football this fall, playing for Moody. I wore the number 74 jersey the few games I actually played for Ensley High School (3 games to be exact...), Wes wore the number 74 jersey when he played for Gresham Middle School and for Shades Valley High School so I am tickled shitless that Logan Wesley Suggs has also been assigned the Number 74 jersey to play for Moody. Now what I don't know is if he is playing for the Moody Blue Devils or not, but either way, a double proud PawPaw I am! Anna was going to try Cheerleading but all the spots filled up before she got there so she's got to wait for next year. I think watching Logan play football, Wes watching his son play football, and Joy and I getting to watch our Grandson play football is SO FREAKING AWESOME that I am searching high and low to buy a motorhome so Joy and I have no excuses to miss any games. Yes, I'll drive to the ends of the earth and then sleep there just in order to watch my Grandson wear the Number 74 jersey and play football!
So, until the next time I'm feeling "typy"...
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Mid Summer 2012...
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
New Bikes, New Bitches -Bedlam follows...
As many of you know, Joy and I got us a new Apple iPad. The BIG one too. And I thought life would once would be grand. And to be perfectly honest, our iPad does 95% of what we used our laptops for (all 3 currently dead). And if all you want to do is look at what someone else is doing on the web, then your good to go unless it has FLASH content, then your just as screwed as a first time Prom date. Where the iPad fails me, is in trying to blog, or use some other type of social interhole. As long as text is what blows your skirt up, you can do that, but the iPad is as useful as a deaf blind mute if you want to upload pictures, anywhere. And that's why my blogs here have run into a brick wall. So, please bear with me while I dig through some dumpsters and see what I can come up with to remedy the problem.
NEW BIKES: Don't I frigging wish! Project RoadPig is STILL, just that, a project. She's kinda like that girl you saw at the park that was bending over to pick up a Frisbee. Nice, long, tan legs, great ass, long beautiful jet black hair, a figure that would make a tuning fork vibrate. And then she turned around and she's at least as old as my Grandmother! Dry heaves! Well, that's how me and The Pig are getting along. I know there's potential, I can see the lines that I want under the rust and the dust. And I know exactly what needs to be done, and I can do that. Not exactly the way I want to do it, but I can get it done. I just don't do it. And putting my finger on the demotivator is hard. Is it the money? The time? The effort? Fear of having it turn out like so many of these lame assed bikes wind up looking like? The tools? I really don't know what it is folks. But for now, Project RoadPig is Project NO Pig until I can relight my fire.
2011 FATBOY: I got a chance to help an old schoolmate out last week by helping her and her son who is a new motorcycle rider, get his brand spanking new 2011 Harley Davidson FatBoy from their storage unit in Trussville, to the Oak Mountain Amphitheater parking lot (huge) in Pelham so he could get some basic riding time under his belt before he headed out to play in the traffic. He did real good with the bike and I have the utmost confidence that he'll treat her right, and in return, she'll take care of him too. I enjoyed the ride too. But then I enjoy any ride!
2005 TRIUMPH AMERICA: Now it's been a long, long, LONG, time since I've been a trumpet player. Rode Triumph 650 Bonneville's back in the day a lot, along with the occasional BSA Lightning and Norton Commando. So my ass knows what a good Triumph feels like underneath it. Had a short experience with an asshole and a Triumph Triple crotch rocket a few years back so I was aware that "Queenie" and the Triumph namesake was still turning out bikes. Then a friend bought one. All of my reports on his Triumph America are second hand stories and opinions as told to me by others. But betwixt all of the info I ever got on the Triumph America, it's ALL been GREAT! And that's rare. WELL... Guess who has a friend who just told me he's ready to sell his 2005 Triumph America? That's right. ME! And I'm seriously considering it too. The price is right, the bike is in great shape, I know it's history for the last 3 years and I know the owner has taken very good care of her too. So, if I can get my little green ducks to stand up and be counted, I might just be the new owner of a sweet Triumph America soon. After I made up my mind last night that I wanted to buy it, I couldn't sleep thinking about all the road trips I got planned. Keep your fingers crossed!
ROAD TRIPS: So, with the thoughts of a new bike in the barn rolling through my little head, I started thinking about the places I've always wanted to go. Here's a few of them...
Grapevine, Texas: Somebody stepped in a whole bucket of shit in Grapevine, TX. And their names were Bonnie and Clyde! Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had a good thing going back in their day. They were tired of the Government and the big businesses of the day sticking their noses in everybody's lives and robbing them blind. So, they robbed back. They were "America's
Sweetheart Hero Criminals" of the day. But, they didn't see that bucket of shit in Grapevine TX, and stepped in it with both feet. On a rural dirt road outside of Grapevine, TX, two motorcycle cops pulled up behind a car parked under the shade of a big old oak tree. As they approached the car on foot, they were ambushed and shot by the occupants of the car. As the Police Officer lie wounded in the middle of the dirt road, they were needlessly executed at point blank range for the shear fun of it. At least that's how the public saw it, and it was here, on a dirt road outside of Grapevine, TX that "opinion", turned against Bonnie and Clyde and set in motion, the soon to follow events that would result in their death. I want to stand in that road.
Gibbsland, LA: Another of my Bonnie and Clyde road trips, but the end of the road, for Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. It was here in Gibsland, LA that they were lied, lured and laid by the FBI. I want one of those bullets!
Trail of Tears: There's an annual Trail of Tears Motorcycle Ride already, but I march to the sound of a single drummer and prefer to go my own way, at my own pace. Some of my Indian Ancestors made that march, on foot, and I want to retrace that time and sleep where they slept, eat where they ate and walk a mile in their moccasins in hopes of connecting spiritually with my people. On my Mother's side of the family tree, I am 1/16th Cherokee Indian. On my Father's side, I get both Blackfeet and Apache Indian blood. I can feel them, often. And they are angry souls.
Civil War-Memphis to Rome GA Battle: Union Col William Straight, took Memphis, but Confederate Col Nathan Bedford Forest was sent to engage, defeat and arrest the intruder. The running battle across TN, MS, AL and GA ensued ending in Rome GA with the surrender and arrest of Col Straight. He was then taken as a Confederate Prisoner of War to the Confederate Prison in Selma, Al. I can't exactly retrace every footstep, but I gotta go.
Civil War Battlefield Tour: What a road trip this is gonna be! Can you imagine sleeping in the same exact spot where Confederate and Union Soldiers slept, fought and died 150 years ago? What about standing in the exact spot where the pile of amputated arms and legs were reported to be 15 feet high? Two armies walked onto the battlefields of that war, ONE Country walked off that battlefield, UNITED!
And these are just a SMALL sampling of road trips I've always wanted to do. But I got my road gear, packed, and ready to go, just got to get a good iron horse under my saddle and the adventures will begin...