Originally, I had meant to pop in here and do one of these blog things on a fairly regular basis. Well, best laid plans of mice and men and all that. So I ended up getting pulled back to work full-time on a pretty big inventory project, and then in the middle of that flew out to Washington to help my Mom move. No complaints mind you, but all that has taken up my whole summer since I got back from the Isle of Man.
My plan all along had been to dig into the archives and add some photos from my previous trips; and to also get out and start using that fancy A.A. degree in Photography I went and got myself and put some of that work here as well. But, looks like fate stepped in, smacked me in the back of the head and said: “Nope”. I did manage to add some photos from my 1st trip to the U.K., and I’ll be adding more here in the next few weeks. I’ve also figured out how to add .gpx files one here for y’all to download. If you’re not familiar, .gpx files are what a GPS uses to follow routes. If you have a standalone GPS, i.e. Garmin, you can download these files then import them into the unit and there you go. If you use a TomTom, then you’ll need to convert them, sorry. I’ve uploaded the first couple of routes, and expect to upload a bunch more. Over the years, I’ve built a lot of routes as a Ride Captain in the Northern Virginia area, and have done a number of trips in the Mid-Atlantic/East Coast that I think some of you might like. And rather than have them sitting around and collect electronic dust, I want to share them with the community.
It’s also around this time that I usually send out my annual “How to attend the Isle of Man TT Races” email. However this year, instead of filling up everyone’s inbox with my 5 page diatribe, I’m going to put all that info on my Travel page and send out the link to it. Figure that’s a lot easier.
Hopefully, you have been able to get out and do some riding this summer. Me, not so much. Between the heat and my 4-hour/day work commute (yes - 4 hours!), I only managed to get a few rides in. Mostly local stuff - Bikes and Breakfast in Clifton VA and Poolesville MD; and Bikes and Coffee at Fulton Moto in Culpeper VA. If you can, stop by Fulton Moto sometime. Definitely worth the ride. Main reason I didn’t get much road time was the heat. Can’t remember a summer around here being that hot for that long. Worse was the A/C issues we had at the shop. By mid-afternoon, my brain would melt into a grey mushy substance and would barely remember the way home. It was rough there for a while. So now that it’s cooled off a bit and I finally decide to ride in, it’s in the mid-40’s when I leave for work. At least I got the chance to make sure my heated gear still worked. Oh, and it rained on the way home.
Yeah, that’s it for now. I’ll get some more photos and .gpx files up here pretty soon.
Oh, and while I’ve still got you here, you know what really Grinds My Gears? Cheerios. Yes, the cereal. Since when did they shrink to ½ size!?! Bought a “Large” size box the other week and when I poured a bowl, the damn things were tiny! WTF General Mills? You know, how about instead of a “Large” box of tiny Cheerios, you give us a “Normal” size box of regular size Cheerios, for like, the same price? Jerks!
As always, Ride Safe.
Matt