cptslog

Fun in Paris

2011-08-31T18:23:00.005-05:00

Here is a couple of video's from a fun day at Charlie's house. I want to thank Charlie and Janie for a great time and more food than I've ate in years. I guess the campfire music was great , but I kinda fell asleep in my lawn chair and missed it. The first video is what you would see and the second is what I see.

I hope to put more on board video's on here later.

ITSA golf

2011-08-15T16:26:00.003-05:00

Sunday mite have been the first ITSA golf outing. PeeWee,Dustin,Barry and myself went to McCabe golf course for a little fun. Now PeeWee had not played for about 10 years. Dustin is fairly new to the game. Barry has only played 2 or 3 times this year and I just suck at golf. Ok first off how dumb are golfers or how dumb do golf cart manufacturers think we are.

Here is a picture of the pedals in the cart. DAAHH. Then I seen this sign that someone tried to mess with.

After reading this sign I now know why its important to label the foot pedals, but I wonder if these people can read if they cant spell? Here is a shot of each of us on the tee box.

A good time was had by all and I hope we can go again soon or have a ITSA tournament with a few more members. Go here for a short video of the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KxO0CZtDn0

ITSA at TTC

2011-07-24T06:28:00.004-05:00

This is a video of a hill climb at the Trials Training Center for the I.T.S.A. North American championship rounds 3 and 4. After the first loop it came a little shower which made for some interesting traction. Notice when Barry's back tire hits a wet tree root how his line is changed. Then Mennonite Mike comes right in behind him and watch the line he uses to tackle the hill. Lesson learned.

Bird in a tree

2011-07-21T16:50:00.002-05:00

When we was at Reelfoot lake we were lucky enough to see this bird catch a fish and fly right over our boat and land in its nest atop this tree.
I'm not sure of the species, but it was not a Bald Eagle. A truly beautiful sight. Note that the nest takes up the whole top of the tree.

Fathers day gift

2011-06-26T16:17:00.002-05:00

For Fathers day Troy and Barry took me to Reelfoot lake for 3 days of fishing , fun and drinking.We hadn't been to Reelfoot for about 10 years but , it hasn't changed a bit. One of the most amazing place's I've ever seen. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fishing or just nature.
Here we go through one of the many cut throughs.

Barry took this time to work on his Red tan.

We caught plenty of catfish.

Caught a few Bluegill.

This guy right here ...when I set the hook my rod snapped in half and I had to land him with just the butt end of the pole and some help with the net.

I just want to say that this was one of the best weekends I've ever had. Just me and the boys having a ball catching fish and spending some quality time together that seems to be harder and harder to come by with everybodys busy schedule these days. I have a lot more of this weekend to post but, this is all the space have. Thanks to Troy and Barry for a time that will never be forgotten.

2011-06-20T19:10:00.003-05:00

On Fathers day we went over to Barry's to do a little riding and a lot of drinking. This would be Cody's first ride amongest the tree's and some rock's , mud , ruts and what ever. I love to introduce new people young or old to the sport of Trials. It is so hard to explain , but fairly easy to show someone whats up. Plenty of rain the last couple of days made for some fun riding condtions.
Cody will be the third person to begain his career on the old KT. He rode well and has good body or weight distribution from riding skateboards I guess.

He also found out how slick a rock can be with little water on it or some mud on your tires.

Here is Cody and proud Moma Linda. With a little more seat time I think that Cody will be fine and bringing the old KT another championship. Oh ya , if he would have broke something she would have beat my ass.

Christmas

2010-12-27T08:04:00.005-06:00

On the 26th the kids were coming over for Christmas so we got up early to get everything ready. Once I got up I seen that we had a blizzard that night. So I got the 4-wheeler out and hooked up the blade and went to work at clearing the massive amounts of snow from the driveway so the kids could get their cars in and out. After laboring for hours removing the snow from the drive I had to take to the ice packed roads for a little fun.

I practiced my Nascar 200 mph spin at Daytona for a little while until I almost took out the neighbors mail box. Pretty cool to get a run in the grass and then hit the ice covered road and spin and slide for a 100 feet.

Then I thought I would slow it down a bit and get the motorcycle out. I still can't believe how much traction these tires get in the snow.

The kids showed up about noon and we watched some old home movies ,then a ball game broke out and a snowball fight. Before the day was over with I thought we was going to run out of snow. Hope that everyone had as great a time as we did.

No way

2010-12-21T17:59:00.005-06:00

I came home from work the other night and Linda met me when I came in as she always does. After our normal greetings; she gets all excited ..not that kind of excited. She tells me that while going through some of her things she has come across something pretty rare. Now, I'm hoping its money or some beer that we didn't know we had. This was not the case. She has found a book, but not just any book! A perfect copy of Little Black Sambo. There is not a scratch nor tear or even a finger print on this book. I was like- damn, I haven't seen one of those since I was ( don't know) 8 - 10 years old. Then I got to thinking. This was a kids book that we all read when we was growing up and didn't think a whole lot about it. However, there is no way this book could be published today. The title alone would send the nation into a tail spin of racism. I'm sure Ophra would do a show on it.
I don't know; I think we are a little sensitive about some of this stuff. Little Ebony African American just doesn't sound right. This is a picture of the actual book and it's still some good reading.

This post was fixed up by Linda White.

Griswalds

2010-12-01T18:08:00.003-06:00

For the first year since 1980 when I moved in this house I decided to put up some lights just like the Griswalds. Linda was going through her Christmas decor of lights and ornaments and found some outside lights. Well I said I could put them on the Spruce tree in front of the house. So 5 hours later after checking and changing bulbs , getting the lights untangled and dragging them all over the yard we came up with this beautiful display of Christmas spirit.
This was only 2 stings of lights. The people who put up lights all over the yard and house up on the roof I feel for you , but then again you could just put up 2 strings of lights and not fool with all that not to mention your electric bill. We will see how this goes and who knows what we will have next year. Oh ya "shitters full"

Got me.

2010-11-24T18:34:00.002-06:00

Went to the store to get a few things for Thanksgiving dinner and the first place we stopped was the deli to look at some pie's and cake's. Well Linda spies this chocolate ganache supreme cake. I never had one so I told her to get it if that is what she wanted. Then I thought I would be funny looking at the cake I could see that there was no room for letter's. So I told the nice lady I would take it if she would write Dick is the greatest motorcycle rider ever knowing she had no room for all these words. Well when I got home with the cake the joke was on me. One of these days I will learn to keep my mouth shut. Good job Linda!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone , hope you have a good one!!!

I'm Back

2010-11-16T18:28:00.005-06:00

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything , but a lot has gone on lately. So I'm back now so all my fans can keep up with me. Last week-end was the end and beginning of the trials season At Dickson. We had some great weather other than some light rain Saturday night. That put a damper on the music , but there was plenty of food and bullshit to go around. What a good time we had and it was good to see everyone since I've been missing in action for a while. Below is some pictures Linda took of me in a easy little B section that Jessie come up with . More to come soon , I promise.

Hey!!! You try it.

Pig roast 2

2010-05-30T12:00:00.012-05:00

With Troy in charge we started the pig roast at 6:00 Saturday morning. First thing to do is get the coals started. 20 pounds to start then you divide it up into 4 piles in each corner. Next , you get the guest of honor.
Here he comes strait from the bathtub where he had been marinating since Friday.

All dressed up and ready to go. We had to do the sunglasses.

All bolted together and on top of the pit.

Next you cover the pig with aluminum foil to hold the heat in. Its about 7:15 at this point.

Every hour or so you add a few coals to the corners to keep the heat going. Troy would lite the charcoal in a shovel and then put it in the corner that needed it the most.

10:30 and Barry said its time to flip. Remove the foil and flip it over. Cover the pig again and drink more beer.

Around 2:00 the pig is done. Take a sample to make sure and Hell ya.

Dig in boys. Now all you have to do is get the meat off the bone and a taste sample every now and then.

Not much left. The meat was very tender and easy to remove.

So after all was fed we played some horse shoes, volleyball and what ever.

Got to hand it to Troy this thing went about as smooth as any event I've ever seen. Going to do it again next year and I'll let you know when.

Pig roast 1

2010-05-10T19:07:00.006-05:00

On May 29th Troy is going to put on his first attempt at roasting a pig. Well one of the first things you have to do is build a pig pit to roast it on. So I done a little bartering and got us some metal and away we go. We built a frame out of stainless steel angle and covered it with stainless steel expanded metal. We built two of these so that we could put one on top and one on the bottom of the pig , bolt them together and be able to flip the pig.
After I got it welded together Troy wanted to do some welding on it since it was his pig pit. I was all for it ,knock your self out.

Did I mention that he only tried Tig welding one other time? So he set off at his attempt at welding this thing together. Barry on the left with his supervisors helmet on and Elton in the center watched as Troy proceeded on with his mission.

Once the welding was done the big test. How much weight will it hold? The first test was a pack of hot dogs. Looking good , no problems. Next test.

KT on board at 70 pounds and still looking good. We finally had over 200 pounds on it and it didn't even bow so I think we will be good for the pig roast. But for now we have to get the Trials out of the way at Fearless Charlies and then there will be some up dates on the pig roast. Ya'll come out now ya hear.

Tree hugger

2010-03-31T19:54:00.002-05:00

I never thought of myself as a tree hugger , but in this case I guess I am. Saturday I went out to Troy's to help cut down some tree's to expand his drive-way. Five hickory's and a cedar tree. It never fails that I am always the one that has to climb the ladder. This tree was leaning towards the house and the wind was blowing towards the house to. Troy's ass was pretty tight about cutting this thing and not tearing the house up. This was the last tree and I had been in the cooler a few times so what the hell did I care.
That liquid courage will make you do some dumb shit sometimes. After I got the rope tied off and got back on the ground I dropped that thing like a bad habit. If I would have dropped it on the house or fell off the ladder this would have been a lot better blog. Sorry...

Green acers is the place to be....Farm livin is the life for me...Land speadin out so far and wide and it just go's on from there.

Monroe N.C.

2010-03-21T09:08:00.003-05:00

Just back from Monroe N.C. where we rode the second and third rounds of the ITSA South- East regional. We had a great time even though mother nature gave us about a foot of rain Friday night to make all the sections nice and slick. While the rain was falling I hosted a party in the van that looked like I was trying to smuggle a bunch of Mexicans across the border. The trials was pretty easy , but we managed to have a good time anyway.
Charlie about to eat a tree.

Owner Cowboy Joe having a little trouble getting over a small stick.

Barry styling over a log. Show off !!!

Ass on the seat and both feet on the ground. Never good.

PeeWee doing a double foot plant with a fakey. By now I hope you have figured out that it really wasn't easy. The only injury was when Jessco slammed his hand into a tree ,but didn't break anything other than some skin. Can't wait to go back.

Just for fun

2010-02-21T19:52:00.003-06:00

Saturday we got invited out to the Ranch and we we're glad of it. Finally a nice day with temps in the low 60's. I couldn't wait to get out and ride even though I knew it was going to be muddy and slick. I was not disappointed as I had to pick the KT up more than I would have liked. A great time and good to see some of the crew.
Barry coming out of the creek.

Mike P. getting out of the creek where he just took a swim on his last attempt.

Jessco looking good as only he can.

Still some snow in spots , but that just made it that much more fun. Lets do it again !!!

Snow fun

2010-01-31T08:47:00.008-06:00

Since we don't get a lot of snow you have to get out and try some things that you don't normally get to do. Golfing for instance. It didn't work out to good , but the 1/2 inch of ice on top of the snow allowed for some good roll.
Jereme and Brooklyne tried out the 4 wheeler in the yard and I used it to check out the road conditions.

I thought it might be a good idea to try the motorcycle thing. Its hard to tell , but I'm riding down 2 railroad ties.

Ooooops its pretty slick.

Ok so that didn't work out. No one was injured in these photos.

KT out dodging motorcycles and four wheelers and chasing golf balls. He had a little trouble finding traction on the icy surface.

After all that a fire sure feels good.

What a day.

Break in

2010-01-24T08:00:00.006-06:00

Time to break in OL Blue's new motor. Run it through a few heat cycles and let it cool off to get the rings set. We started by going out behind Barry's house and ride a new hump of dirt we had found. After the rains we had the past few days this proved to be a bad choice. So we set out to find something a little more manageable and this is where we ran into a Marshal from the T.W.R.A.. I seen him at the end of a trail we were on and instead of running we rode right up to him. He motioned me over to him and informed us that there was a dog Field trials going on and we wouldn't be able to ride back there while this was going on. He was cool about us fucking up there trial and we talked to him for a minute and went back to Barry's house for a team meeting.
After the meeting or drinking we decided to setup a section right behind Barry's house to get in some much needed practice.

Ol Blue preformed to Barry's satisfaction now he has to get used to the new power.

Still plenty of mud and water to ride through even on level ground , but we had a new rider with us. Snappy works with Barry and said he would like to try riding a trials bike. So we put him on my spare bike and let him put it through its paces. Snap rode well and showed some pretty good skills. I don't know if we hooked him or not , but I think he had a good time. We are always looking for new riders to grow the sport.

It sure felt good to get out and ride after sitting on my ass the last few months. Got a lot of rust to get rid of so hopefully the weather will help us out before we head to North Carolina in March.

Ol Blue

2010-01-17T08:12:00.003-06:00

Friday Barry got the call from B&J Racing that his motor was done and ready to go back in the frame. Barry broke the shifter shaft back in September so he decided that this would be a good time to go through the whole motor. Now this is like having heart surgery you what to go to the best doctor you can find. So I told him that when I had the same problem that I took my bike to Bob Ginder at B&J Racing. This proved to be the right decision. With his surgeon like moves Bob cut , smoothed , massaged the rod , piston , head and cylinder in a way that only he can.
We showed up at the Ranch about 10:30 Saturday morning and visited the skeleton of what is Barry's TY 250 still sitting on the rack that had been its home for 4 months. The new power plant was sitting there just waiting for a couple of interns to install it in the frame that it was so home sick for. We worked quickly to install the motor and try to find all the parts and bolts we had removed months ago. The only set back was getting all the dog food out of the exhaust pipe that the mice had hidden there for future use.

About 2 and a half hours later Ol Blue was ready to come off of life support and breath on its own. With the anticipation high Barry wheeled her out side and give her a kick. On the second kick she come alive. The joy could be felt coming from Barry's smiling face all over the Ranch. A quick ride around the shop the Guru applied one final touch with his screwdriver and she looked like a new born colt running and bucking around the Ranch. Now we just need a couple of days to ride and get some of the rust off of the rider and we are good to go. Thanks to Bob and PeeWee this old bike will live another 30 years.

Birthday

2010-01-05T16:30:00.004-06:00

Saturday , Ryan turned 8. It doesn't see like it was that long ago flying out to Denver to see him but , when they say they grow up fast they were right. The day had a football theme to it as him and his friends played a touch football game in the freezing cold and then came in to warm up with some pizza and cake.
He had plenty of help with the presents believe me. Happy Birthday Buddie..

Oh ya , this is 2 Red heads on a 4 wheeler in the freezing cold. Guess which one is the biggest kid?

Come on Summer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School days

2009-12-12T16:42:00.003-06:00

Since I'm not working I get to do some things other wise I wouldn't be able to do. So Friday I got to go to school and watch Ryan receive the student of the month award in his class.

I had a good time. He was very proud and I am very proud of him.

Therapy

2009-12-08T08:36:00.004-06:00

While I'm waiting for my shoulder to heal I'm stretching and moving it as much as I can. Sitting around and not moving it just makes this process a lot longer. There is some pain involved , but well worth it as far as I'm concerned. When I went back to the doctor he got on my ass for not wearing my sling for 10 days. I only wore it for 2 days and that was all I could stand. So I started my own therapy program. It involves my Honda 50 ,one of the 4 wheelers and Barrys bike. Last September Barry had a problem with his bike while we were getting ready for a Trial. The shifter pin broke out of the case. If you look close at the picture you can see the break in the lower center of the picture below.

Now this isn't a big deal to fix . Just beat it back into place and put some weld around it on both sides and your all fixed up. Oh did I mention that this is on the inside of the motor so you have to completely disassemble the motor to get to it. Thanks to the nice folks at B&J Racing we got it tore apart so it could be welded.

A little weld in all the right spots and we are on our way to recovery.

Here is the finished product ready for a little cleaning and reassembly. I want to thank Bob and PeeWee for letting me come out and work on Barrys bike and just hang out. I've learned a few things and got to work my shoulder. Thanks guys this is truly some of the best therapy a man could get. Now it time to head out in the garage and do some work on the Honda 50.

End of the year

2009-11-17T18:25:00.004-06:00

Well a year ends and another begins. This was the last year for the Septer trials team to ride the novice line. We both moved up to the Intermediate line and we found out that there was plenty of ass whippings to go around. That's alright though we still have a good time hanging with the guys.
We did have one of the best campfires that I can remember with chimney logs that put out amazing heat . Thanks Charlie.

With our #1 plates in hand we can only look to improve over the next couple of years , but we will be riding with our buds. For now I will get my surgery behind me and start working on next year.

Weekend fun

2009-11-08T17:36:00.003-06:00

A beautiful weekend made for a lot of fun setting up for the last event of the year. You can see the pile of firewood we cut for the campfire on Friday night and Saturday night. The guitars are being tuned and the sections have been groomed. We are hoping that the weather will hold out till next weekend.
Here is a short video of Dustin playing on my bike. I'm hoping that my bike remembers this and helps me out in the future.

The end

2009-11-01T06:05:00.003-06:00

Last week was the last time this year that we are able to play golf after work.
With the leaves turning and time going back there just isn't enough day light to play. We will get in a couple of rounds on the weekend if we can find a nice day. Oh well we still have bowling.

2009-10-10T18:21:00.003-05:00

Today Barry and I went to a British Car Club show in Franklin Tn. Temperatures in the 50's it was a little cool , but a lot of fun anyway. Now I don't know a thing about British cars , but I learned quite a bit today. We were invited to the show by the Adcock crew pictured below from r to l PeeWee , Vickie and Sam. It just happened to be Sam,s birthday.
Sam has an MG-b that he shows and drives. No trailer queens here.

Some of the cars in the club. I wish I could remember what they are , but it was more than my memory could keep up with. A very cool bunch of guys and gals. More than willing to talk to you if you knew anything or not. We did see some of the coolest turning signals ever. I'll have to go back and maybe take notes next time.

OOOOOPS some asshole got in the way !!!!

Titan's on a suck-a-thon

2009-09-21T16:24:00.002-05:00

Just in case you didn't know the Titan's are doing the best to get the number one pick this year.Two games into the season and they are 0 and 2. Loosing the first game to the Steelers by 3 after missing 2 field goals that should have been chip shots!!! Then yesterday they were up 21 to 7 and self destructed loosing 31 to 34 to Houston because we can't seem to cover any of the wide receivers or put pressure on the quarterback. This is how bad it is.
This is Scotty. He sits two seats over from me at the games. This picture was taken in the first quarter and Scotty is sound a sleep. Now I could have taken this picture in the second , third , or fourth quarter and it would still look the same. Other than sometimes his tongue was hanging out and snot was dripping off the end of his nose. Now come on guys ... he paid 50 bucks for that seat and wasn't awake more than two minutes the whole game. Surely you can do better than that. The only good thing to come out of this was Scotty wasn't spilling his 7 dollar beer all day.
Goooooo TITANS.

2009-09-14T17:06:00.002-05:00

The past 2 weeks a small crew of us have been putting in the 50 sections that will make up the final piece of the North American Championship. We think that we've done a adequate job as to get everyones attention.
I would like to thank Barry for the wonderful breakfast each morning....Hell of a job..
Thanks to Pee Wee for the chili the first weekend and for the burgers the next. Just so you will know we payed dearly for the chili....

Hopefully the weather will be as good for the Trial as it was for the last 2 weeks. Great riding weather and camping!!!!

In the picture we can see that PeeWee either had a little trouble or he was putting on his chain like we used to do with our bicycles back in the day.

He was trying to go over that root to the left and it put him and his bike on their head. No one was injured , but it sure was funny. Oh by the way that root is not in any of the sections....go figure. Hope to see everyone there , I know I can't wait.

Old Fort golf

2009-08-25T19:32:00.003-05:00

We ain't had no golfin in a while on this here blog , so here you go. We took a break from Smyrna and went to Old Fort In Murfreesboro today.This course is in great shape as it always is. The greens are fast as lightning though. The pro's love that , but I would rather be able to hit the ball. In the picture is David Sawyer hitting out of a fairway bunker on number 2. This hole has 4 bunkers and he managed to get into 3 of them. Now Dave hit his drive about 40 yards farther than the rest of us and I think got a hell of a penalty for a good drive. He still managed to double the hole which I thought was damn good.

After all that Dave still kicked our ass. He ended up with a 45 , I had a 49 , Henry shot 50 and Charles had a 52. An 8 on number 4 took me out of contention , other than that I played alright.

Bowling starts next Monday , I wonder what that will be like.

More Coyote creek

2009-08-20T19:21:00.003-05:00

As promised Here is a short video of how not to cross a log. Now just so you will know Murray was the one who set this section up and swore it would be OK.

No riders , spectators , animals , logs , testicles or motorcycles were injured in this video. No alcohol , drugs , stupidity , brain farts or flat tires were involved at the time of this video. Please try this at home in case it don't work and a bunch of people see you get a Nubbie nomination.

Murray was fine and was only worried if Bob got a picture of the crash , but didn't know I got the video. Good job Murray on setting up a hell of a Trials.

Coyote Creek Trials

2009-08-17T17:21:00.003-05:00

Barry and I just returned from the trials at Coyote Creek trials center in Monroe Nc. This was the first time that they held a ITSA twin shock trials on their property. Its not easy to lay out sections for the first time and make everyone happy and this was no exception. Some of the sections were a little harder than they should have been , but that is to be expected. We have also been to trials that were way to easy which really sucks. But having said that most of the competitors had a great time and no one was killed. Myself I thought it was great. Very challenging , but still fun. In the picture below is land owners (in Blue shirt) is Joe , wife Teresa and daughter Meredeth.
Some of the greatest people I've met in a long time. Very gracious hosts and just fun folks.

In this picture is our buddy Murry Gray who was the Trials master for his first time. I want to thank them for the great time and the entertainment factor. There will be some video to follow of these 2 riders that will explain the entertainment factor. Great week end. Almost illegal.

Good hook

2009-07-28T18:03:00.005-05:00

We've all seen this picture , a tractor at full throttle with the front wheels in the air dirt flying. pretty cool .
Well how about this. A 20,000 dollar motor everything clean and in place looking good and looking like it could do about a thousand miles an hour. Sweet. This so called tractor has 5 of these motors that consumes about 55 gallons of fuel per pass.

But sometimes things don't go as planned and you end up with a pile of junk.

No less than 3 of the rods went through the side of the block. You can see that one of the pistons is a little twisted in a hole that only has a few thousands of clearance. This poor motor is now only good for scrap metal , but was so pretty just before it decided to take a dump. Now not all was lost the owner just took it off and run with just 4 motors. Now when you do this you give up about 3000 H.P. that will put you in a pretty bad spot. The money you can win will not pay for even one of these motors , but these guys love this so they just carry on. Alot of fun and Happy birthday Troy.

Weekend at Barry's

2009-07-19T18:23:00.005-05:00

Today I went over to Barry's new house for a day of just about everything. When I got there in the morning Barry was working on building a work bench. So I helped him with that for a little while as we watched the British Open. Well you can only work so long and then you need to play a little while.
So off we went to the woods behind his house for a riding practice session in a cool creek we found a week ago. Plenty of rocks and steep banks that proved to be quite a challenge. This is Barry in the creek trying to make a tight turn in the rocks. I had a good time in here till I got a little to cocky and hit the big rock on the right and went over the bars. Let me tell you them there rocks are hard.

So we went back to the house , picked up some fishing poles and some beer and headed back out to do some fishing. We found this spot last week riding around and just had to try it. Not much of a Bass hole , but we did catch a couple of catfish.

Here is Barry with his catch. Only a pound and a half bigger than my fish. But what the hell its his house!! Barry has moved up the list of best places to live coming in at 4. The top 3 are R.Q. , Charlie Nash , Jessie Wallace. If you think you need to be in the top 5 let me know and I will bring my bike and fishing pole and go from there. Thanks Tansy for the BBQ. Sorry you missed it.

Wild hair

2009-06-17T19:14:00.004-05:00

Last Sunday Barry and I got wild hair to go fishin. So off we went. Storms forcasted for the afternoon , but the morning was great.. So we hooked up the boat and headed to the lake. The fishin was a little slow , but we did run up on this odd group of Duck's. They didn't seem to mind us casting right in front of them or the sight of the boat. After we past them the White duck went one way and the other ducks went the other. I guess they couldn't agree on where to go for lunch.
Later on we had done some looking around and I decided it was time to pass the torch so I told Barry to take the controls and I would sit in the back and fish , drink and bitch. Hey it's pretty cool in the back.

And now something completely different. This is a wild hare that lives under the bushes in front of my house. A young rabbit that is only seen when you run the mower to close or in the morning and just before dark.

Now he looks like any other rabbit I've ever seen , but I watched him one afternoon chase a mocking bird out of the yard not once , but twice. I couldn't believe it. Pretty funny.

L.E.O.R.

2009-06-11T19:31:00.006-05:00

Last weekend we were at Little Egypt Off Road in Maion Ill. for the first 2 rounds of the North American Championship. Great place , great weather , great campfire , great friends. We had a good time and witnessed some firsts. Barry pulled in a section that was occupied by a snake that really didn't mind him being there , but it tore Barry up. We also came across a snake in the parking lot that didn't seem to mind the rest of the group , but when I road up he kinda chased the Kawaski around for a bit. Oh well everybody can't be a fan. And last but not least Jerry Hawk with his first win on Sunday. Below are some pictures of the crew in a c section that Barry mentioned in his blog. This is the 5th turn of the section that proved to be the worst.

Jerry Hawk Sunday's winner

Brad Baker

Look at this face!!

Fun in the mud

2009-05-17T14:10:00.004-05:00

A few pictures from the Trial at Trent's in Goodlettsville Tn. yesterday. With all the rain that we have had lately we knew it would be a little slick and more rain forecast for later that afternoon we thought we could get it in. So that said the weather started out sunny and hot and we were ready to go.
This is Mennonite Mike warming up and looking good. Notice the water.

Fearless Charlie in a D section and you can see a bit of mud on the tires.

Then just as we thought that all was well the bottom fell out. So we had a long session of bull-shitting and drink a few beverage's. You can see the rain coming off the canopy. This proved to be a disaster for most of the sections. But that doesn't mean we didn't ride anymore , we ain't that smart.

Here you can see Historic Expert winner Jesco Wallace having a little trouble in a section after the rains came. Notice the water running in the ditch that wasn't there earlier or not that deep anyway. But just like a bunch of kids if there is a puddle they will get in it and old men are no different. We had a great time anyway. Mother nature can't stop our fun.

Mom's 85th

2009-04-23T18:45:00.008-05:00

On Easter Sunday April 12th we all managed to get together for Mom's 85th birthday in Iowa. Not an easy task when you are scattered all over the United States , but with the guidance of Lori we pulled it off.
In the front row l to r is Mom and Coke. The back row l to r is the 1st to the last. I don't want to say anything about oldest or anything like that cause some people might get a little pissed. OK Dolly is the oldest then Dave , Mike , Deane ,Rick , Richard , Rhonda and Lori as the Beaver. If you get that your at least 50 years old.

Here is Mom with just a few of the Grandkids , Great Grandkids and Great Great Grandkids.

L to R Barry , David , Jeff and Troy

L to R Rick getting his ass chewed on the phone and Mike.

Deane and Sue ( I'm not a barber anymore )

One of my favorite girls an icon to me is Cathy. I hope I spelled that right. Not only will she let her sister Sue walk around with a head of lettuce stuck to her tooth and not tell her , but she works for Miller Lite Beer. How sweet is that!!!!

The last photo is a mirror that Rick made for me. Now I don't know if you ever tried to take a picture of a mirror , but it's not as easy as you might think.

I do like the reflection of the bikes in it and the lower left hand corner is my dogs back. Thanks Rick.

Paris in the spring

2009-04-10T08:35:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we had the pleasure of going to Fearless Charlie's in Paris for what Barry and I are calling the Super bowl of the I.T.S.A. trials series. Something for everyone , riding , fishing , camping , music and food from sister Wanda and the Boy scouts. A new twist was a Trials rodeo. Great weather and plenty of door prizes. Go here for more from Jesco.
But what may have been one of the biggest events was the Mennonite Mike sighting wearing a hat. This is as rare as seeing Bigfoot.

I would also like to wish Hockey Boy a Happy birthday. No ass whippings were handed out.

Golfin

2009-03-24T19:30:00.004-05:00

Today the boy's and I took a day off to play golf. Now it might look like we are in Iowa , but we were at Champions Run in Rockvale Tn. It was a good time , but the wind was blowing about 25 or 30 mph. The scores are not important , but the video tells it all. Can't wait to go back.

Lets go to the Park

2009-03-12T17:03:00.006-05:00

Last weekend Trent Park was nice enough to invite us out to his place to do some riding. You could tell that we have all been sitting around waiting for the weather to break. Well when you do that the rust sits in to.
Here the Guru navigates a uphill corner as only he can do.

Jesco makes an off camber corner his bitch as Bob and Malcolm take notes. When Barry tried this corner the spectator's were sent running for their lives.

This ditch was no problem for Caulkboy. All in all a great day a good work out and some good food by Trent's wife. Thanks to the Park family for the good time. For those of you who get video's here is a 2 minute clip of Dustin ( Hockey Boy ) Ginder showing us how it's done. He is so much fun to watch and a good dude.

Great weekend

2009-02-09T16:34:00.006-06:00

Man.. what a great weekend to get out and play. Cabin fever was about to kill me and then comes a weekend with no rain and temps in the 70s. Barry and I loaded up the bikes and went to Dickson for some much needed practice , but we didn't know that the ground would be thawing and the moisture would make the day quite challenging and entertaining.
There was plenty of leg flopping , tire sliding , ass busting to go around. Barry tries a slick root that handed everyone there ass all day. The next picture is PeeWee over the same root.

The only difference is...HEY...HEY..WHAT... THE...

He tries to take out the camera man.

So Sunday we decided to do something a little safer so we played golf. From left to right is Charles , Barry and Henry. Barry shot 97...I shot 99...Henry shot 106..and Charles shot 123. Not bad for the first time out this year.

The Beast even brought lunch.

From there we stopped by Jenny and Nate's for a visit. Barry and Ryan shot a few hoops and Jenny and I just talked. Natalie was very busy with a cartoon on tv. Can't wait to do it again.

Bowling balls

2009-02-03T16:12:00.003-06:00

In my last Blog I mentioned that my bowling ball was in the shop and PeeWee had a good question. Why would you put a bowling ball in the shop ? Well it would be hard to answer in my comments so I'm going to tell ya in this blog.
Back a few years ago all of your bowling lanes were wood and the balls were plastic or rubber except for Fred and Barney and I'm not sure they were real. Now a lot of the bowling lanes are made of synthetic man made materials that are a lot harder ,but stay more consistent. The plastic balls don't grip to this surface very well so it makes it hard to get the ball to hook and with less grip the ball will slide through the pins with less pin reaction and lower scores. BOOOO!!
So to combat this problem they made the ball softer to get more grip on the lanes. More grip less deflection more pin action higher scores. YAAAAH!! Now for the second problem. Softer balls means that you have to do some maintenance on the balls every so often. My Red and Black ball has a reactive resin cover and the Blue ball has a urethane cover. Now since they are softer than the lanes the balls actually get flat spots in them and where the ball tracks it picks up oil and it soaks into the cover. This makes the ball act like a plastic ball siding through the pins with less pin reaction and lower scores. BOOOOO!! So you take it to the pro shop and they will resurface the ball to make it just like new again. OK all that being said it don't mean shit if the operater can't hit his mark , jerks the ball to the left , drops the damn thing, forgets to let go of the ball etc. etc. etc. So now everything should be clear as mud. So if anyone ask you can tell them no you can't tune a fish but you can tune a bowling ball. YOU HEARD ME!!

Getting ready

2009-02-01T17:01:00.003-06:00

Getting ready for the up coming season the KT needed a little clutch work. So I took it apart Friday night for some surgery on Saturday. Doctor PeeWee was nice enough to take time out from putting his bike together to do a little work on the clutch plates. This will give me a smoother clutch and not so much herky jerky.

We did manage to get both bikes back together and running and Sunday we got Barry's bike back together and running with his new electronic ignition. Thanks to the easy to follow instructions from B&J Racing. I think we all have cabin fever pretty bad and can't wait for the season to start. April can't get here fast enough for me.

Oh ya , I had to put my bowling ball in the shop to.

Sorry its been so long

2009-01-13T17:50:00.002-06:00

Not a lot going on so I have been saving this one just for a time like this. Everyone knows this is the Goodyear blimp. We have seen it at sporting events our whole lives. Well here's my problem.
Back during the hurricane season we were playing golf at our local course in Smyrna Tn. that is next to the airport. We got to the 4th hole and we could see the blimp tied to the runway. I found out later that the blimp was moved from Florida to Tennessee because of the threat of the hurricane. Now this thing is based 700 or 900 miles from here. I'm no blimp expert , but could you not just let the air out of this thing and put it in a box in the hanger until the storm blows over. How much does it cost to fill the damn thing up and how much does it cost to fly it at 30mph from Florida to Tennessee. Not to mention that a crew comes with it. I'm sure they get payed well for this. If your garbage can blows over when there is bad weather you either tie it to something or you go get it from your neighbors yard or you could put it in the garage. But you wouldn't drive it to a spot 2 or 3 states away till the storm blew over. If they needed a bunch of hot air to fill it up all they had to do is harness the air of the presidential campaign. I may be wrong , I don't know.

Wish list

2008-12-13T18:21:00.001-06:00

Oh please Santa...

Hot laps

2008-12-07T18:36:00.004-06:00

On Saturday Troy and I got the go-karts out for a shake down to see if the chains would stay on and the clutches didn't slip and so on. We also tried to wear the grass off the track. As you can see in the picture below that Troy was tearing it up , but we still got a ways to go.
Since it was only 30 some degree's our track time was limited. You get all pumped up while your on the thing though and forget about the temperature for a little while. I found that a full face helmet with a shield sure keeps the old head warm. The track is pretty smooth right now and stayed kinda wet in the far corner which made it a drivers track. You had to hit your lines or else you would spin and get hit. Below is a clip of Troy putting the Purple kart through it,s paces. Can't wait to get all 4 out at the same time....

nail in the coffin

2008-11-30T16:31:00.003-06:00

This was the nail in the coffin. Troy and I put the finishing touches on his cart to get it ready for the next get together.
A new back sprocket , chain and back bumper was in order. Now all things are ready and ready to go for a hell of a fun day.

Troy is pretty tough in this old cart , but I think me and old Red will tear the new paint off that back bumper if need be. I might be 51 years old , but damn this is fun.

Gettin ready

2008-11-25T15:16:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Jessie and PeeWee came out to Troy's to ride motorcycles and when Jessie found out that we had gocarts he insisted that we have a gocart ride. I told him that I needed to do some work on them , but I would make it happen.
The 5 carts that we have have left just needed a little maintenance to get them going. The Yellow one pictured needed the most with a engine change and a new seat mounted. After a bit of welding and drill some holes she's ready to go. So it won't be long before we'll be tearing up the track again. Should be interesting.

Almost over

2008-11-05T18:28:00.002-06:00

I guess this was a sign that the season was almost over.
A couple of weeks ago the Beast hit his ball into the grave yard on the 11th hole at Smyrna golf course. This had to be a sign that the time was going to change and it would be to dark to play after work the rest of the year. I have hit near the grave , but this was the first time I had seen a ball actually go in there. It would have been great since it was also almost Halloween if a hand would have came out and held the ball or threw it back at us when we tried to retrieve it. Oh well we'll save that one for the movies. This same grave came into play on June the 1st , 2006 if you want to look at the archives. I'm glad the bowling lanes don't have any graves on them.

Two Champions

2008-10-28T17:10:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was the final Trials of the year for the Midwest trials series. Held at Marion Ill. at the Little Egypt Off Road facility. Sorry about no pictures , but my camera battery was dead. Anyway we had a beautiful day to ride , but rain the day before made the hills and turns very interesting. Challenging sections is putting it lightly , but we managed to make it through the day. More importantly Barry managed to win the Historic novice championship in his first year of riding Trials. I won the Modern Twinshock Novice Championship for the second year. Pretty cool Saturday night , but that just makes the campfire better. A great weekend with one to go for the I.T.S.A championship on Nov. 15 & 16.

A week ago we were out at Troy's to practice a little. We had the pleasure of breaking in a new Trials rider. Mike is a biker and has come out to watch us several times and showed interest in riding with us some time. Well we finally got him out and riding my spare KT threw him to the gods of the woods. I think that he had a good time and he rode well for a first timer. Its a different world on one of these things , but still the best time you can have at walking speed as PeeWee would say.
Mike is a great guy and I hope he comes back offend. Picture by PeeWee.

On the other hand all the girls got their casts off and are doing well.

Oh Ya ..........HOW BOUT THEM TITANS!!!!!!

Cheers

2008-10-12T08:36:00.003-05:00

This weekend I got to see Natalie cheer for the 4 and 5 year old Rocket's flag football team. I wasn't sure how this was going to go cause she is only 3 and is a little hard headed when it comes to doing things. She really surprised me as she nailed every cheer. She was also one of the loudest of the squad. All in all it was very entertaining and I hope to make the game next weekend and catch the half time show. Jenny said Natalie can spell words like VICTORY while cheering , but don't think she can spell dog if you ask her. Oh well it was very cute.

Itsa bad week end

2008-10-05T06:44:00.003-05:00

While Barry and I were having the time of our life at the Ranch in Dickson last week end it seems that the younger Grand daughters were having a time of their own. Natalie got into a pulling match with a kid at the daycare and came out on the short end. The doctor said that she has pulled the growth plates in her wrist or the soft tissue. So a cast was put on for the next 2 weeks to let them heal. It doesn't seem to bother her much as she was going to cheerlead at a football game when she left Ryan's soccer game.
Brooklyn on the other hand was jumping on her trampoline , right in the middle and just sat down and started crying. Jereme ask what was wrong and she said her leg hurt. He took her in the house and put some ice on it , but her leg kept hurting so to the emergency room they go. The doctor said that it was broke right below the knee. So she will be out of commission for 6 weeks.

She is also doing well and I'm sure will be at 100% before we know it.

I.T.S.A. weekend

2008-10-02T18:40:00.005-05:00

I'm a little late , but I always am. This past weekend Barry and I went to Dickson for the ITSA 2 day national event. The weather was to die for with day time temps in the low 80,s and night time temps in the 50,s. Great for camping and riding. At every event we have a camp fire at night for some drinking , playing , singing and just having a good time.
Well thanks to my mother who gave me some corn cobs she had saved from feeding the squirrels at her home in Iowa we were able to get the fire going in record time.

With the fire at full tilt we were ready to start the festivities.

Joining the regular crew Jessie (left) Mennonite Mike (dah) and PeeWee (right) was Terry (Honda shirt) for his first Trials and camp fire. Terry added some new songs and played very well with the rest of the crew. The camp fire is a way to relax , meet new folks and sing along weather you can carry a tune or not. A lot of fun.

But the week end turned out to be all about Barry (Caulkboy) as he got his first win on Sunday by riding his ass off like I knew he could. Pictured with Margret at the camp fire on Saturday night , he got his alcohol blood level just right for the ride on Sunday. Hats off to Caulkboy for a hell of a ride.

Oh ya I got my ass handed to me both days by a Spec who borrowed 2 bikes to ride his first event ever. Oh well it was still a great time and thanks to Bob and the B&J crew for having us.

Still setting up

2008-09-17T19:16:00.003-05:00

Sunday Barry and I got to the ranch to help Bob with setting up the rest of the sections or as many as we could get done before it got drunk out. Just as we got there hurricane Ike came though and tried to spoil the day. We decided to work on some things in the shop for a hour or so to let Ike get the hell out of Dickson. The wait was brief so we headed off into the woods. Thank God because TC ( Tiger Cat ) worked on some orders and a couple other things PeeWee was supposed to do while we was at the shop and really worked him self to the point of exhaustion
One beer and TC was gone. After Ike left we did manage to get the rest of the sections up. Jessie and Charlie came over after the rain had quit and helped lay out some sections. You can't get enough help to set one of these things up , I'm telling ya! We didn't know if we would be able to get anything done with Ike in the area , but the weather turned out to be great once he left. Should be a great Trials as always at the Ranch. I only get involved in a small part of the Trial and I think that everyone should at least get that opportunity just to see what really goes on at one of these events.

Preperation

2008-09-01T17:18:00.003-05:00

Sunday Barry and I went over Dickson to the Ranch to help with laying out the 50 sections for the North American championship , I.T.S.A National and Midwest National Sep.27 & 28. It looked like we got about half of the sections set up which we thought was pretty good. It was pretty hot so a couple of breaks were in order for some water and some r and r.
In the picture we are not having a prayer session although it looks that way. The Guru was just getting us back in to the mode of making the sections easy enough for everyone to ride. Or else PeeWee farted again , I'm not sure. More to come.

Fearless Charlie's

2008-08-19T19:20:00.011-05:00

Last weekend may have been the best weekend that I have had in a long time. A Trials that was added due to a cancellation of another. Fearless Charlie took the challenge of having the event at the Nash family grounds. On short notice you can't expect much. It takes a lot to set one of these up. If you have never had a Trials on your land you have to carve a trail for a loop and then come up with 20 sections. This requires a lot of time and hard work.

Charlie and wife Janey took on the challenge and also took it to a higher level.

The fire department came out to water down the parking area to hold down the dust. Ryan also helped.

Charlie offered a hay ride for those who wanted to watch the sections on the other side of the property.

You know that there is going to be a camp fire. Music , fun , peach cobbler and marsh mellows.

Here Tony and I watch Charlie dab in a ditch section.

Here is Tony's attempt.

Here is mine. Looks like we were paying attention.

If it wasn't enough to take the Trials on short notice Charlie made the awards. Stainless steel cut out with his plasma cutter and welded to the base. I have to hand it to you Charlie you have done a out standing job. The family and I had a ball and we can't wait for the next one.

Who's the Man around here?

2008-08-10T18:33:00.003-05:00

What the Hell is going on here? I'm stuck behind a washer and dryer with a paint brush and all my I.T.S.A. buddies including Barry are out riding and setting up for the Trial next weekend in Paris Tn. at Fearless Charlie's.
This is a task that I started Two weeks ago and just needed to stay with it.

This project needed to be done a long time ago , but even though I can paint like a pro I hate it. Now I start putting down the hard wood floor.

But first we have to go to Fearless Charlie's for what might be the Trials of the year. The National Guard , the Boy scouts , hay rides to the sections it don't get any better than that that. Ya'll need to come out.

Hangin with friends

2008-08-06T20:16:00.002-05:00

Sunday I got the opportunity to take Bubba and his son Rapheal fishing. Rapheal will going back to Detroit for school soon so we wanted to get a fishing trip in before he went back. With the temps in the 90's it was kind of slow , but Rapheal managed to get hooked up a couple of times. That was all we went for so it turned out to be a good day on the lake.
I would like to take him back out for hopefully a little more action , but we'll see.

Tuesday with the temps in the high 90's we still played. Only 3 of us showed up, but we made the most of it anyway. The Beast and Dave tied with 49 and the Cpt. had a 47.

The weekend

2008-07-21T16:24:00.006-05:00

Saturday morning we got the weekend started by playing 9 holes at Smyrna National golf course. Bubba brought his son Rapheal for a little fun. Rapheal lives in Detroit and is visiting for the summer. I made him a club and gave him a practice ball so he could practice whenever we got to a Tee box.
Now Rapheal is 11 and a really nice kid. Bubba let him drive the cart , well I gave him his first club and I gave him his ball so the least I could do is run over his ass with the cart for his first wreck. He has so much to tell when he gets back to Detroit.

After that it was off to the Tractor pull at Chapel Hill Tn. The Super Pull of the South. What a good time! Above is pictured one of the 2 wheel drive trucks.

This is one of the Mini Modified Tractors that flipped over Friday night. Put it back together and about 280 feet lost the front wheel , never got out of the gas. Went 305 feet in a hell of an run. If you think you want one of these things you need your head examined

Now we move to the Big boys. 4 ,5 , 6 engines , who cares. These guys run this many motors at 2000 hp a piece. Wooo can you say hold on. It is the Super pull of the South.

Sunday Troy put me to work putting up some storm doors in 98 degree weather. Not a problem when your off Monday to play golf again. Henry , Dave , Larry and myself played 18 at Hermitage golf course. Now this is a golf course that is setup for the pro's. The L.P.G.A and the Seniors Tour have played here.

Pictured above is one of my drives stuck in a drain that if it would have been a 1/16th of bigger I never would have found it. Now everyone who has played golf always says " If I played on a course like that I could shoot good too". Well when you put 9000 sand traps and water on every hole it gets pretty damn interesting. I had 6 par's and a birdie and still shot 100. When I was on I was on , when I sucked , I really sucked. The best thing was , I was not at work. Get it?

While I was out

2008-07-18T19:12:00.006-05:00

Sorry about the delay , but computer problems are a bitch. While I was away the Septer clan made the trip to Iowa to see the flood damage and visit the family. We had not been to Iowa for 4 years so we was long over due for a visit. This first picture is Mom watching the Grandkids and Great Grandkids play ball in the front yard.
We also had the opportunity to go to the Iowa corn 250 Indy car race while we were there. A very nice track and a really good race.

The rest of the time we played golf. This was the first time Ryan got to hit the links with his first set of clubs.

Rick left and Deane right sporting their Cpt. Dick tee shirts.

All in all just a good time. Iowa is a fun place in the summer , but unless you have a snowmobile the winters suck. It was good to see everyone again and hope they come down to Tennessee to visit.

The last 2 weeks

2008-06-11T18:12:00.004-05:00

Here are the last 2 weeks of golf scores. As you can tell I have been having a rough time. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Last weekend Barry and I went to Marion Ill. for the 2 day North American Championship and ITSA trials. A very interesting 2 days I must admit. Probably the hardest trial I've ever rode and definitely Barry's hardest. We managed to make it through the weekend and had a great time. Sections that we looked at and said there is no way we are going to make it through here , we surprised our selves that we didn't really do to bad. If I had been riding against anyone I would have got my ass handed to me. Barry on the other hand rode the way he can and ended up second both days. All in all we were pretty happy with that. Sorry about no pics , but I didn't get my camera out of the bag all weekend

While I was away

2008-05-28T19:19:00.008-05:00

Just in case you thought I fell off the edge of the world here is whats been going on the last couple of weeks.
We went to Ryan's ball game. Shown here playing first base. He played excellent , but the team let us down loosing 13 to 17.

We had a skating party for Cassie's birthday ( happy 11th ) . Very few injury's . Followed by a campfire at Troy's. Some drinking I think.

Went fishing and only had one blowout on the boat trailer. Here Barry shows off just one of the many ( not mini ) fish of the day.

Here are the last Two weeks of golf scores. The Beast was on fire until he took an 8 on the last hole. Then if Dave could have dropped those 2 Sevens this week he could have shot a course record.

We also rode Two Trials , One at Cape Girardeau Mo. and one in Goodlettsville Tn. No reported injuries and one flat tire. On the motorcycle that is. Whew after all that I need a nap.

New addition

2008-05-09T18:37:00.004-05:00

Here is the latest addition to the Smithey family. Melanie Elaine. Born Monday at 8 lbs even, 18.25 inches long.
This is Brooklyn holding her new sister while watching Sponge Bob. Brooklyn will tell you right quick that Melanie does not have Red hair. Welcome Melanie and congratulations Jereme and Jennifer.

Golf 5/6

2008-05-07T18:42:00.002-05:00

Well Tuesday was a perfect day for a little time on the links. Temperatures in the high 70's no wind to speak of just gorgeous. Then there is the fact that you are human and you can screw up a great day with the human factor. All I can say about my score is " operator error " . No excuses! Had Dave been able to make a couple of putts that should have fell he would have shot the lights out. Did I mention that they aerated the greens the day before. If you have never played on greens that have been aerated your missing out. The Beast and Bubba with 2 par's each was also a hell of a job in the conditions it which we played. Hope you feel better Rick. Don't worry about practicing to much.
A little bowling note , the Seamen finished tied for 5th which paid $765. That should pay for our trip to Cape Girardeue Mo. this week end. The Trials starts at noon if ya'll want to come.

Commencement

2008-05-03T13:52:00.003-05:00

Today Nathan Provence graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.

Nate now has his masters degree in the arts of teaching. He had a grade average over 3.5 that should let him punch his meal ticket where ever he wants. I'm very proud of him and who knows someday he might teach me how to spell. Congratulations Nate.

Cuba Mo.

2008-04-21T13:06:00.005-05:00

This past week end Barry and I took the 400 mile drive to Cuba Mo. for the first round of the ITSA Midwest series trials. I have been wanting to go up there for awhile , but just couldn't pull it off. Man what a fun place for a Trials. A lot of shelf rocks, rolling rocks and just rocks. A great group of guys and fun to hang with. The weather was great , no rain with temps in the 70's. We had the pleasure of riding with the 3 gentlemen pictured below. Top to bottom is Mel , Dennis and Bob. I had to hand it to them for hanging in there all day because each one of them is at least 70 years old. There was no quit in these guys and I thought that was pretty cool.

One of the best moments was when Mel on his 3d loop first section went up a rock done a wheelie was off the bike turned around 360 degrees still doing a wheelie dropped the bike over the tape looked up at me and said "one". I would have liked to have giving him a one just for the entertainment factor. More to come later.

Golf

2008-04-09T20:21:00.004-05:00

Well Rick wanted to know how we were golfing since he got out for the first time last week. This was Barry's first time out and Larry hasn't been playing either. All in all it wasn't a bad day. Barry's drive on 18 was about 280 yards clearing 2 creeks , but the old putter let him down all day. The Beast would like to take off that 9 on 13 cause he played pretty good other than that.
Dale improved a little over last week , but Dave on the other hand shot 39 last week. He must have picked up all of his bad habits this week. Oh well.

The Seamen held their place at 4th in the bowling league , but gained on 3d place. Just 3 points back of 3d and 1 point ahead of 5th. So its pretty tight for now with 3 weeks to go.

Still bowlin

2008-04-01T18:41:00.002-05:00

The Seamen continued their voyage to the top Monday night. Sitting in 4th place we put a whoopin on Constantly. Their name was Off Constantly so if you beat them you could tell everyone that you beat Off Constantly. Anyway we did our best the first game , but ended up 2 pins short again for the win. This seems to piss us off because we came back the next 2 games to plant ourselves in the womb of victory. Phil was steady as she goes throwing from the port side with a 117 , 142 , 126. The Beast on the starboard side with the Cpt. had a 215 , 178 , 155. Barry also on the port side started a little slow , but found the mark and rose to the occasion with a 156 , 203 , 253 for his second 600 series. Being the Cpt. I had to lead the Seamen in the right direction and guide them to the point of attach. I took the helm and threw a 203 , 227 , 246 for a 676 series. When Constantly left the bowling center they looked like they blew a Seal !!

Sports

2008-03-13T19:23:00.003-05:00

Monday night the Seamen came prepared to whoop some ass and move on up the food chain. The only glitch in the night was the Cpt. In practice I threw 5 balls ....all strikes. I knew this was bad. So the first game I blame on me . We lost by 3 pins. Now Barry had a nice190 his first game. So he is 31 over his average and I'm 16 under mine. Phil and Henry are right at theirs. Thats when all hell broke loose. The Seamen came alive. We beat their ass by 193 pins the second game and 222 pins the third game.Heres the scores Cpt. 168 , 199 , 254. Henry 161 , 205 , 175. Phil 116 , 126 , 157. Barry 190 , 234 , 203.. This was Barry's first 600 series a 627. A good job by Phil who's average is 111.

On the other hand the sport where less is better we got to play golf for the first time this year. Temps in the 70's a slight 20 mph breeze, condtions were perfect. We tried to knock the rust off of our game , but we'll have to see. Hell I shot 53 the first 10 weeks into last season.

Oh ya , I might suck at these 2 sports but you can drink beer while your playing them. Thats what makes them great.

Practice , practice , practice

2008-03-03T06:46:00.007-06:00

Another day at the Ranch for some practice and just hang out with some friends of the I.T.S.A. family. Here Jessie masters the double log that kicked my ass and clutch lever all day. Brother Joe shows us that his head is not the only thing that he moves for weight distribution.

Caulkboy with his eyes focused on the turn ahead.

Trent on a nasty down hill showed us that he is ready to take on all comers this year.

Thanks everyone for the good time. What a great day and great company.

On a different note... from left to right is Rhonda , Mike and me. Today is Rhonda's birthday. Before you comment check this out . If you look at our faces you can tell that Rhonda is on our ass about something. Not really. Happy Birthday Rhonda.

A new section

2008-02-26T16:52:00.004-06:00

Caulkboy and myself went riding Sunday and as we always do we thought we needed something else to ride. You know more challenges for the up coming season. So we found this nasty little off camber turn and put a couple more nasty turns with it to entertain ourselves.
We even got the Sarge ( Nate ) to help clear the way. Nate didn't even stop working to watch the carnage that was taking place around him. Thanks for the help Nate.

Once you drop off in here you need to prepare for the worst. Here Caulkboy struggles to make the turn , but not this time. For more pictures go here.

Just a bit of bowling news. Monday night the Seamen took down the first place team beating their asses all 3 games to be the first to do so this season. Caulkboy had a nice 223 and I had a 254 starting with 7 in a row. We have been on a bit of a streak lately to move from the bottom up to 6th place. The beast has probably been the most consistent bowler lately and we just take turns helping him. Nine weeks to go so we'll see what happens.

ITSA future

2008-02-06T17:53:00.000-06:00

Sorry about the delay , but I've been busy riding and trying to get my new welder up and running. Oh yah I had to go get a motorcycle on Sunday. I purchased a Suzuki jr 50 on ebay. I told Ryan that if he would learn to ride his bike without the training wheels that I would buy him a motorcycle. After we went to the moto-x a few weeks ago Jenny thought it was time to make the purchase. After waiding through a million choices I was told by the Guru that the JR 50 was the bike he used to train his son on. Now I drink alot, but if you ever seen Dustin ride you would do the same thing I did and go out and find a JR 50. Tuesday I findly got to start and ride it to see what was up. Soon after which Jenny and Ryan showed up to check out the new ride. He loved it , but he just wouln't have it until I put a number on it. Alright number on , lets ride. Well you have to practice a little. Three attempts and Three crashs , but thats OK because every time he was going to crash he bailed off that thing like a pro. So he already knows that Papa can buy another bike but not a new Ryan. The time he was on the bike he did well thuogh.
I've never been in the situation of trying to teach someone this young to ride before , but how cool is it to be able to ride with your kids and now with my Grandkids. I hope that Cassie and Erin want to ride to. This should be fun.

Extra

2008-01-25T19:04:00.001-06:00

I had to put this on. I just received this photo from Dave ( Julie's dad / Erin's Grandfather / Troy's Father-in-law / Mary's husband ) of Erin just after the ball went through the hoop. She is looking strait at us with a grin on her face that just kills. You go girlfriend. Thanks for the picture Dave since all of mine sucked.

Friday

2008-01-20T07:41:00.000-06:00

On Friday night the Septer and Provence group made our annual trip to the indoor moto-x races at the Calsonic Arena. The guys you see on TV are truly amazing , but a bunch of amateurs who think they should be on the pro circuit is far more entertaining to me. I know because I'm riding that roller coaster right now just a slower version.
We were going to ride Saturday but , with the temperature in the teens we thought better of it. So it was off to Erin's basketball game. Last year she was just one of the kids on the court but, Barry and I have been working with her and this year she is more aggressive and will shoot the ball when giving the chance. She did score the only 2 points for her team on this day. So where would they be if we wouldn't have worked with her?
After the game I went to the welding store in Woodbury Tn. to pick up a Tig welder. I will need this for a job I got coming up to weld shock bodies together for B&J racing. Pictured below is the happy salesman loading the welder for me in the bitter cold. He spent all morning trying to get the tractor started so by the time I got there he was a POPsicle.
There was no extra charge for any mice or dirtdobbers that may have made this their home while it was sitting in the showroom ( pictured in the back ).

Shoot um up

2008-01-13T09:12:00.000-06:00

Saturday we went out to Troy's for a little riding and to let Justin ( the son of Barry's friend ) shoot his new gun.I think Justin is 12 years old and this is the first time he has shot a gun.
OK , now we are going to have a test. Look close at this first picture and see if you can find any mistakes that mite have accrued in his first lesson. Now without cheating look at the second picture and I have pointed out most of the mistakes. Don't cheat , study the picture close.
Now scroll down.

1 The big Green circle is a stationary target , the best bet for a first time shooter.

2 The little green circle is a beer can thrown by Barry as a target.

3 The Pink lines and arrow is showing Barry standing in front of the shooter.

4 The Red x's are 2 more guns leaned against a tree with a chance to fall and kill us all.

5 The Red circles show a cooler full of beer and empty beer cans to be used as targets later. The only way to get empty targets is for the instructor's to drink them , right?

Probably the biggest mistake was to ask the Septer boys to teach him in the first place.

No one got hurt and luckly we were on the first half of the cooler and not the second.

Ryan's Birthday

2007-12-30T18:24:00.000-06:00

Ryan celebrating his 6th birthday. Kind of a football theme since we were waiting for the Colts and Titans game to see if the Titans go to the playoffs.
It just happens that Ryan got a Titans helmet and uniform along with other gifts. I think Nate and Jenny are going to sign him up for football this year so we need to start knocking him down to get him in shape. Ahh.... I'm not sure what Nadalie is trying to do , but we're just glad she's such a young girl.

Happy Birthday Ryan.

Christmas

2007-12-27T18:33:00.000-06:00

Sorry this is late . but I was having some computer problems. Other than that all went well. The pictures are of some of the controlled frenzy when the gifts are handed out.
Not too sure what pissed Barry off in this one , but someone must have said the wrong thing.

Everybody tries to find a corner so that they don't get their gifts mixed up with others.

First you open as many presents as you can and then you go back through to see what you got.

Of course some have some assembly required.

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year.

ITSA Live

2007-12-13T17:07:00.000-06:00

We finally got Barry's bike together and running. You can believe me when I say that he couldn't wait to take it for a spin. So we went to Troy's for a little trial run. It had been raining earlier in the week so the woods where nice and slick to ride in.
After trying the TY out on some of the flatter stuff we determined that all was well and would move on to bigger and better things.

That's when we found this bank. Not much you say ? This bank is probably a 30 degree bank with wet tree roots handing out of it. If you miss the turn on the right is a sink hole to catch you. In this picture Barry is about to have a sit down because his back tire is on a slick root and so is his front tire.

In this picture Peewee has his front tire in perfect position below the root to get turned up the bank. We spent about 2 hours trying to make this corner. Peewee went back to the house twice to get more beer. The combined group only made the corner 4 times without dabbing or falling. That's about 50 or 60 tries. We laughed at each other like little school girls the whole time. How much fun is that? ITSA ball.

More Birthdays

2007-12-11T18:12:00.000-06:00

OK , we got Birthdays coming out of our ears this month. First it was Patsy and then on the 9th it's Brooklyn. Shown below with a few gifts . A trip to Chuck-E-Cheese was also part of the festivities. This is her 4th Birthday , but seems like her 17th.
Then tomorrow is Nate's Birthday. He will be 29. We had a small party for him last weekend at his house. Shown here with the cake that Jenny made for him. I know the cake is a little flat chested , but that was planned.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn and Nate.

Half a century

2007-12-05T17:29:00.000-06:00

Thats right , Miss Patsy turned 50 Tuesday. A half century , look at the joy in her face!
All the Kids and grandkids came over for the big event. Jenny baked the cake that had Black homemade frosting on it that was to die for. It was good , but made your teeth and tongue blue. Nate thought he would have to take her to the hospital from patting herself on the back.

Now , you put 5 grandkids in a small house someone is going to get in trouble.

Guess who ? Nothing major and she got over it pretty fast.

Here is Nanna ( as she likes to be called ) with all the Girls.
L to R Brooklyn, Cassie, Natalie and Erin. Happy Birthday Gramma.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T16:34:00.000-06:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you didn't get enough wild Turkey well here is a little more. Its time to get the tree out of the shed and all those deals on lights and ornaments from last year.
Hope that ya'll survived Black Friday.

Here is a link to a video of Barry at the last trials taken by Murry Gray.

New season

2007-11-21T06:50:00.000-06:00

Last week end we got our new season started. What a good time. I got to ride with Barry both days so we could pick on each other and help when we can. Barry starts the season in 2nd place after having a terrible first loop , but rode his ass off the last 2 loops to take second place by one point.

We will now concentrate on getting his bike going. He has most of the parts we just need to get them put on.

Thursday

2007-11-09T19:26:00.000-06:00

Thursday Barry came over to work on putting some of the new parts on his bike. Still a lot to do he got the forks rebuilt ( new seals , new springs , new oil ) and put on the new fender and front tire.
Barry's trying to get his bike running for next years I.T.S.A. series. He's been riding my second bike and doing well , but you just like to have your own bike.

November 17 & 18 will be the end and beginning of the 07 and 08 season. The photo above taken by Barry is proof that just because your a champion on 2 wheels don't mean you can sit in something with 4 legs. Nothing but a good time is expected next week end.

p.s. If this is your chair it will be at the camper next week.

Holloween

2007-10-31T18:49:00.000-05:00

Just some of the scary monsters that showed up at the house tonight. Well hell this is all the scary monsters that showed up! This is all that showed up period! Thats ok though it keeps the law suits down.

It is funny how we used to try to be as scary as we could 40 years ago and now its kind of mellowed a bit. Here is a link to one of the best costumes I've seen in a while.

Just a note that last Saturday was the end of soccer season. Ryan thought it would be a good idea to go out with a bang so after sitting out the first quarter he scored 9 goals in a 9 to 1 win.

Hell of a job Ryan.

Weekend

2007-10-21T08:27:00.000-05:00

Early Friday morning a storm came through and must of had some pretty good winds with it cause this is what I found when I came home from work. The only damage was to the platform I had built in the tree to practice shooting my bow. You can see KT trying to figure out how to drag it off so I can throw it for him to fetch.
With just one more game next week you can see the toll it is taking on the star player of the Hammer Heads soccer team. After scoring 2 goals and blocking a goal Ryan takes a well deserved brake.

Congrats go out to my friend Charles and his wife on the birth of their son on Friday morning.

golf tournement

2007-10-14T07:27:00.000-05:00

Saturday Barry had us play in a scramble to help the Christiana little league. From left to right is me , Snappy , Big A and Barry. We turned in a score of 70, one under that didn't make the top 10 scores. I think a 61 won it. What I found interesting was each kid on the ball team was responsible for a golf team. It cost $280 per team , if you didn't get a golf team to play for you you had to pay the money yourself ( or mom and dad ). I sure am glad all of mine are done playing.
You want a big hitter that can get you off the tee box so you have a good chance at getting on the green and close to the pin. Well Barry done a good job of that all day until we got to the 5th hole. A dog leg right par 4 he managed to drive through the fairway and almost onto US highway 231.

Maybe next year we will keep score a little better.

Golf

2007-10-06T07:30:00.000-05:00

Friday we took Sir Charles out for his first attempt at the big course. A lot different than hitting on the driving range , but he done alright.

There is a lot going on your first time out , who hits first , where to stand when someone is hitting , why do I keep hitting right , what club to use. I think we all had a good time.

Here are some links to last weekends event.
click here

click here
click here

Dickson bowl

2007-09-23T17:28:00.000-05:00

Last week PeeWee took Me and the boys to the real bowling lanes in Dickson. Just 12 lanes and no bullshit this place was the bomb. This first picture is from wall to wall. The lanes were good and the place was just a hoot . A lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun not to have to put with a bunch of kids who want to play video games or bowl under Black lights and disco balls.

Here we have PeeWee with a good pitch. Sorry about the blurry pic , but when you put this much power on a ball its hard to capture the moment. I can't wait to go back.

Learning curve.

2007-09-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

Last weekend the boys and I joined PeeWee at the ranch for some practice and to lay out some sections for the 2 day National championship Trials on the 29th and 30th this month. This was Troys first time to ride the ranch so Barry was trying to explain to Troy that we brought him to this very spot his first time out and tried to kill him.

This time around Barry was a lot more comfortable after riding a trials and seeing the Ranch before. Troy done alright for the first time out. This place is not for the faint of heart.

This was also Barry's first time as well as Troy to go down the creek. This is a very important piece of the puzzle. If you can ride the creek you can win most trials anywhere else.

You can tell from this picture that Barry is having a ball. If you only could have been there the first time he rode this spot.

More scores

2007-09-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some more scores from the last week. Bowling didn't get any better as we got our ass handed to us again. We are thinking of firing the coach or the manager for a fresh look at drinking and having a good time.
Cpt....210...179...146
Beast..175...154...153
Phil...97...105...111
Caulkboy..136...143...170

Tuesday was a great day for golf. To bad we didn't take advantage of it. Score wise that is.

2 for Wednesday

2007-09-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

OK , here is all the boring scores from not only golf but, bowling also. Monday was the first night of bowling. Boy what a hell of a night it turned out to be. The Seamen had there ass handed to them, but we have 31 weeks to get back in to contention.
Cpt....136...192...146
Beast...170...147...140
Phil...119...111...92
Caulkboy...156...158...126

So then Tuesday we wait out a much needed rain that turns out to be a great day to play golf. It's been so dry that you could barely tell it rained. On the other hand you could barely tell we ever played golf before.
A weekend in Dickson for Barry's birthday so stay tuned.

Rock concert

2007-09-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

Barry and I had a little Rock-n-roll Saturday out to Troy's.

Golfin

2007-09-04T19:29:00.001-05:00

Here are the scores from Tues. We finally had a day under 100 degrees. Notice I didn't get any gooder.

On Saturday morning I played with my buddie Charles. This was his 2nd time out to play and I was with him his first time out to play , but I didn't have my camera the first time.

I hate to say it but he had a good time both days. Even playing with me! I think he's hooked and should be a pretty good golfer with a little more practice.

Supermoto

2007-09-03T19:21:00.001-05:00

Saturday night I went to the Supermoto race at the Fairgrounds in Nashville. If you ever get a chance to see these guys its worth the $20 ticket. This is a picture of the 1st turn. They would come in here at 100 mph slide sideways for about 150 feet to get woo'ed up for the 20 mph turn.
They run half the track on dirt and half on pavment. Cool race. Good time.

Soccer

2007-08-26T18:13:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year. That's right ...Soccer time. Here we see Ryan on a break away that he would score on. He had 2 other chances at goals but pulled up a little short. Great job Ryan.
Then we visited Cassie's game. Now you have to understand that the older kids play the more conventional style. Cassie playing defence today done a fine job.

Maybe the next games won't be at the same time ?

The ride home

2007-08-21T16:48:00.000-05:00

Well if you have looked at Caulkboys blog I'm sure you are wondering what this story is all about. Grab a beer and let me tell you all about it. We are coming home from Greeneville Sunday afternoon and we are talking about what went on at the Trials and what we could have done better and what not. Then I feel a vibration in the truck. When I looked in the mirror I see that a tire on the trailer has blown out. No big deal we are at an exit so we pull over take a leak and change the tire ( or tyre for you F1 fans ). We are back on the road in about 30 minutes. About 10 miles down the road I feel another vibration , the other trailer tire blows out. Shit!! Now what? I see a big open spot where I can get clear off the road and change the tire. Now I'm going to have to drop the trailer and go find someone to put a new one on bring it back put it on the trailer and head on home. Not so lucky , when I pulled over and got out to inspect the damage Barry notices that the truck tires are going flat also. We look and find a 3 inch gash in both of the right side tires. I didn't know what I run over but it took out all 3 tires on the right side.

Now we are in a pickle. 3 flats and one spare. What to do? I call my insurance company . They give me some numbers of towing company's. Sunday night at 7 .... no answer. We done this about 3 times before Barry said lets call the THP. I was not in favor of this since I've been drinking all day , but we were f#*%ed. So we give them a call and guess what , it takes 3 calls to get the right county since I didn't have a clue where we were at. I was glad to see the officer pull up.

So that leads to this picture. This is Trooper David Jones. This man was cool as hell. He got me a wrecker in about 20 minutes. He also messed with me like I mess with everybody I meet. I told him that I blew a tire and when I pulled over I run over a road sign that had been cut off , but they left the post sticking up about 4 inches out of the ground and when I pulled off the road I run over the post and took out both tires on the truck. Well the wrecker shows up and I tell the driver to take this thing to Smyrna cause there is no where open to get a tire changed. He said no problem. Now this guy weighs about 350 and his wife is with him and shes just about one bag of M&M's shy of her husband. We all pile into the cab and guess what happens to the 160 pound guy. Well I'm jambed in there like a sardine , but happy to be headed home. At one time I looked at the speedometer and we were going 85 mph. I'm thinking cool were going to get home faster than if I would be driving. Until we met up with THP PRICK. After getting a $200 ticket we were back on the road. Finally getting home the tow bill was $425 and the new tires came to $350 , but I won the trials after damn near killing my self doing a Superman down a hill. What a good week end. Thanks to Bob for stopping and checking on me.

Greeneville Trials

2007-08-20T17:55:00.000-05:00

Starting from the beginning. When you go to a Trial in the rugged woods with terrain that you can barely walk on you have to find a spot some what level to set up your tent. We thought that this spot next to the tennis court would be the ticket.
After a hard and hot day of setting up the sections it was time to sit around the camp fire and drink a few and play a few tunes. The camp fire ended up being a Colman lanturn due to the heat , but thats all right.

Here is Malcolm playing while one of 3 Great Danes gets into the music. The dogs were cool and had a great time hanging with a cool bunch of Trials riders.

OK here is the first picture of Barry in his first section at his first Trials. Sorry about the blurred photo's but I was as nervous as he was.

This hill was kicking his ass all day , but he did manage to get it on the last loop. I was pretty proud of the way that he rode because he had never been on any terrain like this. Steep hills , loose leaves , loose dirt , but handled it well. Check out his blog here for more imformation.

More golf

2007-08-16T19:58:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest golf scores for you to look at until we get back from Greeneville Tn. We played pretty good considering it was 110 degrees. We didn't have any crazy par's or funny off the tree in the hole par's. It was just a good old golf game.
I will have a full report from the Trial when we get back on Monday.

Virgen Trials

2007-08-13T20:01:00.000-05:00

This Sunday will not only mark the First Trails for the I.T.S.A. group at Geeneville Tn. , it will be the maiden voyage of Barry . Barry has practiced hard and I think is ready for the task at hand. We will be going to Greeneville Friday night so we can help setup Saturday. When you make a effort to help in laying out the Trial you tend to have a lot more fun because you have had a hand in what you have to ride.
I've been waiting a long time for this weekend and I'm sure I won't be disappointed. The only thing that is going to be better is going to be when Troy and Barry ride together.

It's hot

2007-08-09T17:38:00.001-05:00

What would you give for this right now?

PeeWee and I went fishin last Sunday and its so hot and dry that the only fish we caught had a tick on it. Now that's dry. The weather service has posted 107 degrees at Smyrna at this time. I don't think I've ever seen it that high.

Hardly football weather , but the Titans open this weekend against Washington. I wonder how many beers I will have to drink to stay hydrated?