Motorcycles and Meows.....

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Since Troubadour is out answering the call of the wild I figured I'd hang back and put up a new post. RickRick called and wanted to do an evening ride. I declined as my night vision is crap and I know they'll return after dark.

On a side note, on our ride on Sunday the 12th, I managed to get a picture or two of the TU.

I took the opportunity to take a few photos when everyone was foraging for wild blackberries by the side of the road. I love Oregon, where nature provides an after ride snack. Here is Troubadour enjoying the bounty of blackberries.

Here is a pic of the TU and the America together. We didn't park that close so it was hard to get them in the same shot.

Work has been pretty busy for me lately so we haven't been up to much during the week. This last weekend we didn't get out on the bikes due to the weather, but instead took the car up to Portland on Saturday and wandered around. Stopped at Cascade Moto Classics and looked at the Triumphs and Moto Guzzis. They sold the last of their Moto Guzzi V7 Classics so I wasn't able to sit on one. There is a white one that parks in front of the office every once in a while and teases me singing a siren's song. The gentleman at the shop said they are quite user friendly and low maintenance being shaft drive and all. Sure is a nice looking bike, but.... it's no Triumph. (which rumor has it is coming out with a 450 twin in the future)

Sunday we got a little adventurous and scraped the 'popcorn' texture off the ceiling of the spare room, painted it white and then painted the floor brown to match the rest of the house. Finished up by 3 pm. Troubadour also did a little mudding on the drywall in the walk in closet. Only one room left to go when this one is finished and that is our bedroom. We still need to finish the closet and paint the walls in the spare room, but all in good time.

And now for the meow part of my title. I haven't posted any pics of Basil in a while so I thought I'd see if we'd taken any lately. He is 6 years old and 16 lbs of bully. Growling at the neighbors and friends through the windows. He is a softy at heart though. Here is what I came up with.....

Tomorrow we welcome the official first day of Autumn here in our northern hemisphere. The leaves are already starting to change and have been for a few weeks. We've had some rain lately and the grass has once again turned green and will remain so until next summer. Luckily sunshine is in the forecast for the weekend so we may get in a 'fall colors' ride and stop to take some pictures.

- Au Revoir

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~ Albert Camus

All British Field Meet

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Last Saturday on September 4th, Troubadour and I decided to go to the All British Field Meet held at Portland International Raceway (PIR). This was to be our third venture to the outdoor show. This year had the best weather of all three. Not too hot, not too cold.

We started our day at coffee with the usual suspects. No surprises there. We didn't leave Corvallis until after 11, so we stopped at Sushi Kyo in Salem for lunch. Again no surprises. Are we that predictable? Maybe.....

After an uneventful drive we arrived, paid our admission fee, and started wandering. This year they were celebrating Land Rovers. And there were all shapes and sizes and many different years represented.

Having sufficiently perused the Land Rovers we wandered some more....

Notice the martini glasses on what appears to be the flip forward windshield/windscreen.....

We saw red ones.......

And blue ones......

And Triumph ones too.....

We saw ones with 3 wheels.....

And ones with 2 wheels...

This one may have had 1.21 gigawatts, but it was missing it's flux capacitor.....

We saw old ones.....

And new 'friendly' ones.....

That mini actually belongs to our good friend Bob that we rode to Eugene with a few weeks ago. He drives it up and enters it in the show every year. Saw his car but never did see Bob at the show.

We even saw cars with the flag on them.....

And I have to say one of the coolest things we saw was this dog. I cannot begin to tell you how big he was. The picture doesn't do him justice....

After looking at all of the cars and such in the show we decided we'd watch a bit of the vintage racing. Unfortunately within the first 2 laps a car blew a corner and sideswiped a stack of tires. Everyone had to stop and wait for the track to be clear so we decided to leave.

We saw this car in the pits on the way out and had to take a picture for our Canadian friends. We'd like to imagine Anne Murray was there racing.....

There were too many cars to include all in one post so I may do a follow up with random car pics at a later date.

Heading home late afternoon/early evening we stopped at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner as we'd heard good things about the place. They are a "Salad Bar Buffet Restaurant." Lots of vegetarian options and all we could eat. The food was delish, but we ate entirely too much.

The drive home on I-5 was uneventful, but we did see this rig we thought was interesting. Troubadour was driving so I whipped out the camera at a speed that would have made Bobskoot proud and took some pics....

Good news Bolty.....we figured out how you can take Ripley on your next adventure.

-Au Revoir

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." ~ Mark Twain

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Goodbye Augtober

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Hard to believe we've said goodbye to August and hello to September already. I've referred to August in my title as Augtober, as the weather we experienced the last few weeks was more like a hybrid of August and October. Warm one day, cold the next.

I've been trying to think of what we've been up to since my last post and haven't come up with a lot.

On Saturday August 21st we rode to morning coffee and then Rick, Bob, Troubadour and I rode down to Eugene. We stopped at Discount Motorcycle Parts where I bought some more earplugs and a funky purple Buff. Always nice to have an extra to use when the other is in the wash. No one likes a dirty buff. From there we headed over to the Triumph Shop and talked to Rod for a few minutes and looked at their bikes. They don't have a lot in stock right now. They are trying to clear things out a bit before winter sets in. With the oohing and ahhing and drooling out of the way we went for lunch at Ring of Fire. It was a sort of eclectic Asian fusion kind of place. Not bad but I don't think we'd go back. A little on the pricey side. Spring rolls, calamari, tempura veggies and crispy tofu was consumed.

We planned on meandering the back roads on the way home. Bob left prior to our departure as he needed to take a more direct route home. He had a 'honey do' list with his name on it. We made our way through the streets of Eugene and ended up heading North out of town on River Road. We stopped at Lone Pine Farms in Junction City. Rick was on the hunt for some peaches. When we stopped a goat enclosure caught our attention. We had to go check them out.

Quite the elaborate set up.

I don't know why anyone would put rocks in their feeders but apparently enough people did that they had to put up a sign:

Sufficiently amused by the goats we headed inside. We didn't get 10 feet in the door when we looked up and spotted this nest built on a power bar that was mounted on an overhead beam. There were 4 'baby' birds the mother was trying to feed. They looked almost ready to fall out of the nest they were so big.

Rick finished his shopping and we continued home. Always a good day when spent riding with friends.

On Thursday the 26th I had a birthday so the boss took the office out for lunch (all four of us) and Troubadour was able to ride in and join us. We went to the Woodsman. A tasty Thai place in Philomath. We hadn't been there in quite a while. I can't tell you how old I am but I can give you a hint and say we won't have to celebrate my 40th until next year.

Saturday the 29th Rick, Troubadour and I took the car and went to coffee and then to Portland for the day. We went the back way and stopped at Cascade Moto Classics to pick up the gift certificate I won at the Demo Days Event. Couldn't find anything to buy so I'll save it for later.

From there we went to Jin Wah restaurant in Beaverton for dim sum. It was the third place in the Portland Metro area we've tried since January and it was the best of the three. We shared shrimp balls, shrimp dumplings, Chinese broccoli, salt and pepper squid, taro cakes and more. Tasty.

I am thinking that when we had dim Sum in Seattle they were either having a Sunday special or made an error on our bill as dim sum has been quite a bit more expensive here in Oregon.

We were too full when we left so RickRick directed us to Uwajimaya, an asian supermarket. Wow, it was awesome. Nothing like that around Corvallis. We bought some miso and yummy nori snacks. Good thing we were full or I am sure we would have bought more. We will definitely be back to shop.

We stopped by REI in downtown Portland to look for the Alite Monarch Butterfly chairs Bolty tipped us off that were on sale. They fold up to fit in saddlebags and other luggage. Troubadour and I managed to grab 2 of the last 3 that were in stock. A nice burgundy red color.

The picture doesn't do it justice. That left one chair for Rick. He didn't care for the vibrant purple color so had them call another store. After a brief stop to meet Rick's mom we went to REI in Clackamas where they were holding a blue chair for Rick. Good thing they were holding it, as they too only had purple ones left. Not a popular color I'm thinking. The chairs are super comfy for only having two legs. Your legs make up the front two legs of the chair when sitting.

We stopped for a cold yummy Starbucks and headed South towards home. By the time we got to Salem we were a little hungry and stopped at Sushi Kyo knowing we could just get a few things to eat and it wouldn't take too long. Again, we were too full so we decided to walk around ShopKo to get some after dinner exercise.

We managed to get home by 9 pm. A leisurely twelve-hour day. Not too bad. We slept really well that night. On Sunday Troubadour went and helped a friend change the tires on his motorcycle and I stayed home with the cat and puttered around. A nice relaxing day. Of course it was back to work on Monday.

Not much planned for the upcoming long weekend. I think cleaning the garage is on the agenda. The cool weather is coming and we need to make room for a ton of pellets to heat us through the winter. Sounds exciting doesn't it?

Hopefully we'll have time for a ride. I've got just over 1300 miles on the TU so far and would like to get some more practice in while it is still sunny. They are calling for sunshine and 78˚ on Saturday.

-Au Revoir

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?" ~ Satchel Paige

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