Returning the borrowed gi

When folks asked me what I was doing this weekend, I told them that I had an errand to run that was 350 miles away. I think they thought I was joking.

I get up reasonably early, suit up in riding gear, and take off north. (It is SO cool that these Joe Rocket pants finally fit me! Now I have gear for cool weather as well as my armored mesh gear for hot days!) A straight shot up Interstate 5 takes me to Hwy 152, which cuts west to the coast around Gilroy. My destination? The USSD studio in Palo Alto, just a few blocks from Stanford.

I arrive at the studio a bit past 12:30, unbungie my package from the back of the bike, and walk on in. A red belt (student instructor) greets me, and when I try to return the package to her, she doesn't know what it's about and calls over the studio director, Mr Flickenger. Long story short, turns out it was HIS gi that I had borrowed, not Mr Diaz'. Now I am REALLY embarrassed. I thank him profusely (hoping that I am not stammering too much) and bow a lot ... I think it probably looks funny, they aren't used to someone standing in the studio foyer in motorcycle gear bowing, LOL. Oh well, whaddayagonnado?

Then, I hop on the bike and head back home. I make the smartest detour in my life bypassing the construction jam on 152 eastbound ... go through Hollister and hop back on the main pass just after they are building a new bridge if you are taking this road any time this year. Otherwise, bumper-to-bumper traffic will cost you an hour or more.

I get back home about an hour past sunset, mission accomplished. Sure, I could have mailed the gi to Palo Alto. But then I wouldn't have an excuse to ride 700 miles for the hell of it :)

Green/brown test

I leave the house nice and early -- WAAAY too early -- to make sure I get to USSD headquarters on time. It's test day, I'm up for my green/brown stripe rank belt, and it'd be a disaster to be late!! What if there's traffic? I always give myself plenty of cushion for the 70-mile drive.

So I arrive just a bit past 8 am. It's when I am pulling my gear bag out of my trunk that I realise

TO.
MY.
HORROR.

that I have left part of my uniform at home. I am wearing the pants, but have left the gi jacket, clean and neatly hanging on its hanger, right there in the hallway where I won't forget to grab it before leaving. (Well so much for THAT theory.) There is no way to describe quite how the sinking sensation exactly feels. Sort of like a horror movie ... don't go up the stairs ... or that dream where no one notices you're naked.

There's nothing to do but go in, tell the instructors I have a problem, and ask them what to do. Mister Diaz comes to my rescue. He asks if I have my belt ("Yes, sir, I do") and then jokingly asks me if I'd like a red jacket. (Only 4th dan and above may wear red in my school.) Then he disappears into the back room and comes back with a gi top, and lets me borrow it. It's a heavy MAP gi, size six, and fits me perfectly. I thank him profusely, and proceed to sweat on it a lot for the next few hours. I got it chalked up pretty good too, when we were doing some knife defense drills.

I've been told to return the jacket to the Palo Alto studio. The instant I get home I fling it in the washing machine, then dry it, then safely bundle it up where the cat hair that covers everything else in my house won't get at it. I'm going to hand-deliver it rather then send it US Mail.

Apart from that adventure, the test went well & I passed :) With less than thirty students total, it went pretty quickly, and my group was out of there a little after one.

Sedalia anxiously waits

Well, good news for Guberburger fans: it looks like the Wheel Inn will reopen at a new location sometime next year! My sister emailed me a week or two ago to let me know, and then I googled to this link in the Sedalia Democrat today:

Wheel Inn, guberburger to return

Yeah, I'm going back.

WPFL Championship

I went down to San Diego CA (actually La Jolla) to enjoy the last game of the 2007 season, the WPFL championship, on Saturday night. Brrr! I made the somewhat unwise choice to ride the motorcycle down, and it was chilly! I also got rained on like heck for about three miles, just south of Camp Pendleton, but other than those minor discomforts, it wasn't a bad trip. The Motel 6 on Hotel Circle left a lot to be desired, but hey, that's what I get for going cheap.

The SoCal Scorpions (American Conference champs) were hosting the Houston Energy (winners of the National conference) for all the marbles. Both Houston and SoCal are good teams - the Energy won the first three WPFL titles, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and while the Scorpions have been to the playoffs many times, this is their first trip to the WPFL championship. I met up with Amy and Chandra, and we settled in for a good game.

It was an entertaining game, dominated by defense. The offense on both sides seemed to misfire quite a bit, which kept the scoring low. The Houston quarterback (Cantu) in particular was off-target all night long, unable to complete many passes. SoCal drove down the field a number of times only to stall out in the red zone. The frustration of the offensive game's stutters were offset by the BIG hitting of the defensive squads. Nothing brings a crowd to its feet like the ringing thud of a pancake block! At halftime, SoCal held a 14-7 lead.

I started to wander around the crowd, meeting up with some folks. I ran into the WFBTalk gals over in the opposite stands, just in time for their halftime show (LOL) and Robin nabbed me and put me on the air! I also got to meet a bunch of Empire State and Las Vegas players, sat and talked with Coach Josh from the Quake for a little bit, and generally mingled and schmoozed. I didn't get back to my seat next to Chandra until the end of the third quarter and the gals were wondering where the hell I had disappeared to.

The second half was fairly boring, with both offenses badly stalled out. Houston did have a chance, a possession in the waning minutes of the game, but couldn't capitalize. SoCal hung on for the 14-7 victory and a well-deserved championship. They've been a good team for a while now and it's nice to see them reach the top.

The big topic of discussion - what's going to happen to the WPFL now? A lot of teams are leaving for other leagues. No one knows if there's gonna be women's fall football in 2008.

Sunday, I bundled up and took the long way home through the mountains east of San Diego, stopping for apple pie (again, yum) in Julian. The previous days' storms had left snow and ice on the shoulders but the roads were perfectly clear, and it was quite a lovely day. Cold cold cold for riding. I gotta get some better winter gloves.

Tombstone AZ run

I wandered down to Tombstone AZ on a whim this weekend. Some of the AZ gals were getting together there for dinner, and I thought I'd tag along. Besides, I haven't spent too much time in southeast Arizona. Now, you have to understand, Tombstone AZ is a pretty long ways away from me, almost 600 miles, so I got up early in the morning and rode rode rode for most of the day. Boring interstate miles are still more fun than not riding ;) I pull into town somewhere around 4:30, and by the time I get parked and get my camera out, there are re-enactors milling around on the main street, and soon they go into a whole routine, playing out the actions of the Earps and the Clantons and the leadup to the Gunfight at the OK Corral. It's essentially a running shouting match that walks the entire length of Tombstone ... all four blocks of it. Of course by the time they are down by the Corral, that's where you have to pay admission to see the re-enactment of the gunfight itself. I decline. :)

To me, the whole thing had a kind of funtime Disneyland feel to it, until I remembered that the street I was walking is the actual site of the event. Wyatt and Doc and the Clanton gang trod here, these dusty alleys, where I now stand. This gives it a sort of different attitude, I'm not exactly sure why.

After the pre-Gunfight show, I run into Worm and Debbie, and we shop until it's time to meet everyone else for dinner. This is easier said than done, since Tombstone shops close up seriously early. Only a few are open for us to browse, most of them having locked up around 5:00.

Dinner is at the Longhorn Restaurant (a famous landmark, but next time I am going to Big Nose Kate's) and is quite good. Turbo and Dan are there, and I get to meet Twiggy and DynaCat, who both live in this part of Arizona. Afterwards, we retire to the cute little hotel that Turbo's found, and we stay up late talking in the courtyard with a bunch of other motorcyclists. Ahh, life is good! In the morning, I get up, pack my ittybitty bag, and head back 600 miles home after this nice visit with friends.

And that's my trip to Tombstone AZ, "the Town Too Tough To Die." :)

Femmoto 2007

Off to Femmoto, the women's demo/track day in Las Vegas NV. This was my second year at the event, so I knew what to expect this time around. I wasn't able and/or willing to take time off work, so I bombed across the desert late Friday and checked into the Ramada close to the speedway after 9 pm. A little traffic, a little cold, but not too bad.

Saturday morning up bright and early, out to the track to sign up for my rides. This year's dance card consisted of:
1) Kawasaki ZX-6R (last year's favorite ride)
2) Kawasaki ZX-10R (the liter version of the above)
3) Buell Ulysses
4) Aprilia RSV
5) Honda CBR

The first session was pretty cold and windy but it died down after that, making everyone happy. The rules for the novice groups were a lot stricter this year, no passing allowed on the track, which meant our first run around was much more like a stately parade than a race ... yawn! Not once did I get to open it up on the ZX-6R.

However, on the next go-round, the Femmoto staff riders managed to herd the inevitable slowpokes out of the way and I was able to get a few good laps in on the 10R. Ooooeeee, that bike is fun. When you get on the throttle on that one, it responds in a hurry. I was doing the dick showoff thing coming back to pit lane, revving the engine just to listen to it go VRRRRrrrr VRRRRRRrrr VRRRRRrrr and laughing the whole way.

The Ulysses was not much to my liking. Last year I rode a Buell Blast (250cc) which made me look like a circus bear on a bicycle & felt like a badly tuned lawn mower. So I thought I would try the larger Ulysses, which is 1200cc and is so tall I can barely tippy-toe it, and it still felt like a badly tuned lawn mower. Oh well. The Buells just aren't for me.

The Aprilia RSV is a 1000cc supersport, and seemed like a very nice bike. However, once I got on the ergos didn't fit me (riding position required me to tuck my legs up more than I think is comfortable ... not a good bike for fat chicks) and I didn't enjoy that session too much. I never felt like I was in the proper part of the powerband so it wasn't a responsive machine. Overall, an "ehhhh" ride.

Fifth and last, though, was the one bike I for-sure wanted to ride this year, and that's the Honda CRB. Ever since Honda came out with the redesigned CBR line for 2007 I've had a thing for these bikes, and I wanted to give one a bit of a workout to see if I liked it as much as I thought I did. The answer is HELL YES. I rode a 600cc, and it was comfortable and powerful and smooth as silk, a real joy to ride. It was my best ride of the day, too, I was lucky to get on the track just in front of the bottleneck (the inevitable slowpoke) so I had a mile of empty track in front of me & I could go as fast as I wanted without worrying about traffic ... it took me about three times around before I finally lapped and caught the back of the slow pack (I don't ride that fast, I don't have the skills for it) and let me tell you those three most FUN laps I did all day. Honda has those machines dialed in perfectly, and I now have a new favorite sportbike (the Kawi Ninja remains a close second.) I tell ya, if I had a spare $9,000, there'd be one of those in my garage. I can't ride it for a long time, but it sure is fun for play.

Green belt, part 2

It was an honor and a privilege to be able to participate this weekend in USSD events during the Shaolin Monk's visit to the USA. The Head Abbot of the Shaolin Temple came and spoke to us, and as I explain to friends, this is sort of equivalent to a visit from the Pope (or other head of any major religion.) It was pretty exciting.

The first half of Saturday was the USSD studen'ts workshops, were we were able to work with the monks themselves. It is AMAZING to watch these guys and their abilities - they make everything look easy, but that ease is earned through years and years of hard physical training. I can only hope to someday get that low in my stances :)

Saturday afternoon was part 2 of my belt test, and let me tell you, when they said the second half would be the easy one, I think I was misled :D Anyway, I made it through, with my knee grinding and my Achilles screaming, and didn't suck too badly I hope. I couldn't hear a word any of the instructors were saying at the front of the room, 'cause it was incredibly noisy, so I always seemed to be half a beat behind on whatever was being barked out. I was not the only one. At the end of the day I was grateful to be awarded my green belt - for this one, I've worked hard.

Sunday, we had a promotion ceremony - our new ranks recognized by Professor Matterra and Headmaster DeMasco, and our photo taken with the Head Abbot, monks, and ranking USSD instructors. This took awhile because we were brought to the stage in large groups. The green belts alone had over ninety people. Then, Sunday afternoon, we saw the Shaolin Monks in performance, where they do their martial arts demonstrations. It is a VERY cool show and if you ever get a chance to see it, you definitely need to go :)

2200 Miles For A Steak

It started on a kind of dare, but turned into an event: a couple of the east coast gals met a couple of the west coast gals for dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo.

I took Friday and Monday off work, and basically rode two days to get to Texas (catching up with Joker at the end of the first day in Gallup) and two days to get back home. Now that's my idea of a good RTE! (ride to eat)

Temps were beastly, but then again when aren't they in August. We prepare as best we can (I had my coolvest, of course) and ride early and drink gallons of water. I think the easterners had the worst of it; their temps were as high as ours but they aren't used to handling it. Plus, heavy rains closed I-40 and routed them out of Tennessee, stretching the return trip an extra day. Ai.

I have a new entry on the List Of Weird Foods I Have Tried: rattlesnake is on the menu at the Big Texan. It's a food I would order once but not twice ... it's mostly bones & not nearly worth all the effort. :D

Green belt, part 1

The Shaolin Monks are coming to America, a special event for USSD, and I will be testing for my next belt that weekend. However, in order to participate in the "monk test", students are being submitted to a pre-test, which is where you are really put through your paces.

So, today I drove down to a different dojo (this pre-test was held in Rolling Hills) and gritted my teeth though the thing. I know, I know, I complain that kempo gets harder and harder with every level (and it's supposed to) but JEEZ today's test just about killed me. Since there were so many people there, and such a limited amount of space, they moved us all outside and we ran around outside and did drills in the parking lot. Let me repeat that. We RAN. OUTSIDE. ON CONCRETE. IN THE BLAZING SUN. By rank, groups were called indoors at the end of their tests; we were brought in after about three hours.

I can not even begin to describe how much pain my knee has after running and jumping on hard surfaces in dojo shoes for three hours. I have taken my last, precious Vicodin which has cut down on the groaning and weeping a bit, thankfully.

At least I get two weeks recovery time before part two of the test.

What I Did This Summer (2007)

This is for my sister who says I never update my blog ;)

THE LIGHTNING RECAP OF MY 2007 SUMMER TRIP
June 23 through July 8

Fillmore UT - The County Courthouse and Territorial State House were half a block from my hotel.

Day 1: Leaving Los Angeles! The new bike's odometer reads 743 miles. It's a long hot day riding across the desert. I-15 carries me north to Fillmore, Utah (a fairly small town about 100 miles south of Provo.) My hotel has the world's worst bed, soft and saggy and a guaranteed backache the next morning.

Day 2: Yup, backache. Nicer weather now that I am a little further north and at a little more altitude than yesterday. I get screwed up and miss going through Provo Canyon (I got on 89 instead of 189) and end up going through Salt Lake City proper on I-80. Traffic isn't bad so I don't mind. I make it all the way into Nebraska, stopping in Kimball. I am treated to twenty miles of cold stinging rain at the very end of the ride - wow, the weather is REALLY different in this part of the country!

The first Pony Express station

Day 3: Today is hot and muggy. (I am born and raised in the southwest ... how do you all handle the humidity? Ugh!) I stop in Gothenburg NE and see the first Pony Express station. I finally get off the interstate and onto US-30, and watch for Lincoln Hwy sights. Stop for the night in Ames IA.

In the bleachers, the Field of Dreams

Day 4: Meander my way through Iowa, stopping off to visit the Field Of Dreams in Dyersville. I cross the Mississippi at Dubuque, get rained on like hell in Rockford IL, and work my way through Chicago traffic (since I don't know how to route myself away from the bad spots) before stopping for the night to visit with Tink in Dyer IN.

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Day 5: Off and on rain for my trip across Indiana and Ohio, all on US-30. Visit the NFL Hall Of Fame in Canton. Get caught in a local holiday parade in Minerva OH ... seriously, all these folks were in folding chairs on the sidewalks or their front stoops, and they were all waving at me, so I waved back. LOL. (I was about ten car lengths behind the last float. The 2 mph pace just about killed my clutch hand!) End up in Moon PA, just outside of Pittsburgh, for the night.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, in southwest Pennsylvania

Day 6: Visit Fallingwater, and run into Budgirl there, too funny! My intention had been to take the old Lincoln Hwy all the way to Jet's house near Philly, but when I find myself running hopelessly late, I hop on the Penn Turnpike and haul ass across the state. Saves time, costs me $14.75. Geez I hate toll roads.

Day 7: Ger lets me borrow his shop to change the oil and filter on the new beast, the only maintenance required on this trip. Set off for Lancaster PA to hook up with my pals there.

Gettysburgh, the Angle. Called the High Water Mark of the Confederacy, here the rebellion broke in blood.

Day 8: Jet, Bam, Ger and I head off for Gettysburgh early in the morning. This is a Holy Grail for Civil War geeks like me, and they graciously humor me and listen to me go on and on and ON about many details of the place. Nice riding, but the humidity is still killing me. Back in Lancaster, the RSBS Wigapalooza provides the evening's festivities :)

Takin' a ride in the Stearman ... what fun!

Day 9: Up early and heading out; we're off to the VanSant airport in Erwinna PA. Jet and I have got it in our heads to ride one of those barnstorming biplane rides so that's going to be the adventure for today! We sign up for the full-monty aerobatic flight and that's what we get: loops, barrel rolls, hammerheads, Immelmans, other stuff I forget what it's called, EVERYTHING. I love it. Jet turns a little green around the gills ;) We give her all the time she wants to recover before leisurely riding home again.

Lancaster PA is Amish Tourist Town!

Day 10: I bid a fond farewell to Jet, and start heading west again. I stop for a looksee at Valley Forge. I stop one last time in Lancaster PA for a slice of shoofly pie. I stop and spend a little more time in Gettysburgh, walking around on Little Round Top which we had hurried through on Saturday. I also stop in Bedford PA to take pictures of a famous building in the shape of a coffee pot. Then I realise I've been farting around most of the day and I am not even going to get out of PA if I don't beat feet, so I hop down to the interstate and end up making it to Wheeling WV for the night, a stone's throw from Ohio.

Day 11: It's a haul-ass day. I-70 carries me to Warrenton MO, 50 miles west of St Louis. 600 miles. It is STILL hot and humid.

Sunset in Missouri, and we're gonna set off LOTS of fireworks

Day 12: Today is the 4th of July, and I arrive at my sister's house in Warrensburg MO before noon, where we promptly go out and buy a massive amount of fireworks, and set 'em off that evening. Artillery is fun :)

Hey, go check out my sister's blog - she has a great writeup of my visit (much more detail than my lightning recap here, and more photos!)

Last chance for Guber Burgers.

Day 13: My one day off the bike. The family heads down to the Ozarks for a cave tour and a little sightseeing. One of my fondest wishes, to have a Guber Burger at the Wheel Inn before they close for good, is fulfilled. What? You've never heard of the Guber Burger? It's a burger topped with peanut butter, a surprisingly good combo. The Guber Burger has now passed into history as great road food sacrificed to the gods of progress, as the Wheel Inn was closed forever. Hwys 50 and 65 in Sedalia MO are being widened.

Day 14: Sadly I have to head on home to get back to work next Monday, so around midday I say goodbye to my sister & family, then haul ass west, making it to Limon CO an hour after full dark.

The hazy, hazy skies in Utah were my first tipoff something was wrong.

Day 15: I head through Denver and cross the Rockies via I-70. I get caught in the mess where the Utah brushfire has closed the interstates; they take us off and send us southbound on Hwy 89, which would be a lovely two-lane highway except for all the interstate traffic on it. Yuck! It's horribly smoky and I ride with a wetted-down handkerchief tied across my mouth and nose, which at least keeps the flying ashes out of my lungs. At last we are allowed back on to I-15 and I get as far as St George UT before getting a room for the night.

Day 16: On the road at sunup, trying to beat the worst of the killerheat across the desert. As it warms up I end up taking two water breaks for every gas stop, but it's working and holding the heatstroke at bay :) I roll into my driveway around 2 pm.

6621 miles and one helluva trip! So, where should I head next? ;)

Respectfully submitted,
Boo