Greetings from Shanghai

Well it has been a while since I took any kind of scooter trip, however I just got back from a work related trip in China. So this blog isn't about any motorcycle rally or great ride I just took so if you don't want to hear about China you can leave now. ;)

Myself and some colleges went there to meet with some business partners about business stuff, I will not bore you with anymore work related details.
We went to Shanghai and Kunshan in China, when we landed it was raining and continued to do so for about four days. Needless to say it was a welcome relief to the 100+ degree heat here in Texas but I was still a little bummed out that I wouldn't be able to wonder around and explore as much as I wanted. We did however take a couple of hours that first Saturday we were there to go out for a walk in the rain. The area we stayed in was very industrial and there wasn't much to see that was in walking distance of our hotel.
That pretty much forces us to hang out in the hotel bar everynight and watch the "Shock Band" play.
The "Shock Band" was the best thing since sliced bread until we went to Shanghai and was able to go to more clubs and see other bands playing. They were a typical lounge band that played all the top 40 hits from years past and unfortunately the carpenters. After suffering through some bad songs we found their library of songs and started the requests. They played everyone of them too. The band was very accommodating with the request and soon they had the place rocking.
Over the week we met each of the members and talked with them. They are a great bunch of people. We found out that they are all from the Philippines and that one of the girls that was singing was filling in for another girl that was away on some personal business. Needless to say we all became good friends and we had a standing appointment to go down and cheer and holler during their performance.
This lasted all week, on our last night at this hotel before we went to Shanghai one of my colleges... lets call him Bill, went up on stage and sang with the band. He not only sang one song, he performed 3 lovely Sinatra tunes. As you can see from the picture the girls got a real kick out of this. After their set Bill was trying to talk them into a permanent position with the band. Although it was great fun for a one time performance I think the decision not to let Bill join the band was a wise one for their carriers ;)
The next morning we checked out and the went to our final meeting with another partner before the weekend.

Ahh Shanghai... rain, pollution, traffic. If anyone has ever been to Houston that pretty much sums up the type of weather they have in Shanghai. With the exception that Houston has less pollution than this town, and for good reason. In Houston there are about 2.5 million people. In Shanghai there are about 16 million people, and WE complain about traffic sheeesh. To get anywhere in Shanghai via taxi or car it takes FOREVER!!!! Even if your going up the street, you will probably get there faster if you walk.
After we got done with our meetings on Friday we checked into the hotel, got settled and then our guide took us to a shopping center where we were able to haggle and pickup a few souvoniers from our trip. After shopping we headed across the street to grab some food. We found a great bar that had some good western food, beer, foosball table and dart games. Our waitress was great! She played foosball, darts and hungout with us for part of the evening before things got too busy in there.

I will preface this next part of the story with this, before I left town I did a search for a Harley Davidson dealers in the Shanghai area, and I found one! Before I left town it was a personal objective for me to visit this dealer and get a t-shirt from there before I came back to the states.
Well the next morning we got up grabbed a taxi and headed out to the dealer. We arrived about 30 minutes before they opened, so we decided to go look at an "Ancient Chinese Village" that was in the area. It was about a mile away and figured this would be a good place to go to waist some time. Once we got there we were not disappointed it was a really neat tourist trap! Lots of cool architecture to look at and while we were there the Buddhist monks were chanting and praying. It was really neat to see that and hear it. After spending some time looking around the village and taking some pictures we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the HD dealer for me to complete my mission! A t-shirt for me and my wife and some Shanghai HD pins for my friends, Mission accomplished!

After we were done we decided to head all the way across town and go to Nanjing road and Peoples Square. We were told that a taxi ride would take about an hour to two hours but if we took the train it would only take about 30 minutes. The train station was only a few minutes away so we grabbed a taxi and went to the train station. The train is definitely the best and cheapest way to get from one side of town to the other. When we took our taxi from the hotel to the dealer it was 50RMB. To take the train from the dealer pasted the hotel to the Peoples Square it was only 4RMB. So if your ever in Shanghai learn the train system, it will save you loads of time and money when your getting around.
Once we got to Peoples Square I have to say I was a little overwhelmed with the number of people that were there, it was CRAZY! This road is completely blocked off from all motorized traffic cause there are so many people. One thing that was fun at first but then became annoying was all the people that would come up to you and ask if you wanted to buy a watch, DVD, t-shirts. They see a white person and mob you. I finally took one of the guys cards and then proceeded to try and start selling things back to those people I was trying to sell them my HD t-shirts that I just bought. I make you a good deal bro! HEHEHE. One of the vendors that started to try and sell me stuff heard me telling them I would make them a good deal on stuff I was selling they stopped and asked "Are you local?" I told them yeah so they would stop bugging me, it was funny.

We finally reached the end of Nanjing road and headed to Yuyuan Gardens (pronounced U garden). This place was really neat, it was amazing how quiet the garden was compaired to the busy streets of Shanghai. This goes for all parks/gardens we went to visit, once you get into the garden it is like there is a cone of silence around you while your in there, it was nice. We walked around the garden a while and took lots of pictures. However the day was getting on and we were starting to tire. We all decided to run back to the hotel drop our purchases from that day and then head down to a place called the Bund.

From what everyone has told us this is the place to go at night to see a beautiful skyline of Shanghai, and after being there I have to say they were right it was worth the trip over there. There was a different light show going on for each building, and the boats that were on the water in front of the buildings also had their own lights and designs on them. After some pics, we were all getting hungry for some food. We were told that there were many good restaurants on the Bund. However, what was left off of the recommendation is that the restaurants were expensive as hell. Not, very good if your trying to watch your budget. We walked around down there for like an hour and we were now getting really hungry and we were all starting to get cranky.

Finally the walking ended and we found a taxi to take us to a club called Malones. If you go to Shanghai this place is a must see, must eat and must party at club. This is a western style bar with great food, a lot of expats spend their weekends and nights at this place. There were also a lot of local people there too. First order of business was to get some food and drink. Let me tell you the food was great and the drink was even better. Instead of buying individual drinks myself and two other friends of mine split a bottle of JD black label. I think the picture speaks for itself.
After dinner we went downstairs and listened to the band that was playing. They were AWESOME! they played all kinds of good rock-n-roll. I am sorry to say, the Shock Band has nothing on these guys, although I am grateful for the Shock Band getting me through the week.
The band that was playing at Malones was off the hook ya'll! It was our last night in Shanghai and we went out with a bang! We stayed there for couple of hours jamming with the band and just enjoying the time we had left. We headed back to the hotel around 1:30-2ish, one of my friends fell asleep in the taxi the other doesn't remember the ride home or who was in the cab with him, and I think our taxi driver was blind as a bat cause he held the card with the hotel address on it about an inch from his face to read it. I mentioned to my buddy that the day we spent in Shanghai was almost like going to a rally, we went to the HD dealer in the morning, went sight seeing during the day and drank and party with a live band at night. Only one thing missing was the bikes.
All in all it was an awesome trip and I can't wait to go back. More pics for my trip can be found here.

Pet Fest

Well, it's been a while since I have taken any kind of trip on the scooter, at least there hasn't been an epic ride like I have written about before, but there has been a few day trips worth noting.
Back at the beginning of the month my wife and I rode up to the Fort Hood Harley Davidson to attend a Pet Fest. They were taking donations to support the local animal shelter and since we are big softies when it comes to our four legged companions we couldn't resist.
It was a short ride up 195 and not much to report there, but the action inside the HD dealer is worth noting and sharing some pics about. Something that I noticed when when we got there that was unusual when you go to biker events and that was the lack of bikes. I guess everyone who normally rides had to bring the car this day in order to bring along their four legged friends. There was one exception to this rule though. There was a little chihuahua named Dirty Jack. His owner had a pouch that he road in that he strapped to his leg. This dog won the best in show, he rode from Texas all the way to DC to visit the Vietnam Wall. So not all dogs need to ride in a car ;)
They had a pet competition in several categories

• Best Swim trunks
• Best Bikini
• Smallest Dog
• Biggest Dog
• Best Trick
• Best kisser
  

The competition was fierce in all categories.
First up was Best swim trunks, I have to say that when I saw the winner of this category I laughed out loud. The dog that won was Zeus, a Great Dane with a g-string on... I think the saying cruel and unusual applies here. It's hard to say but this either totally humiliated the dog or it boosted his ego.
Thats right bitches get a good look at what a REAL dog looks like... HA!!


For the best bikini contest there were several dogs that were dressed up for this. I can't for the life of me remember which one won the category but there were several that made a lasting impression.

The pet competition was a lot of fun.
The shelter that was there even brought some of their dogs up there and were available for adoption to good homes. There was even coverage from the local news media to support the pet fest. It warms the heart :)

I won't bore you with the rest of the details, however here is a link to the rest of the pictures we took that day. Enjoy!

HOG Rally 2008

Well, about two weeks have passed and we (wife and I) were on another scooter trip. This time it was to the HOG rally in Gruene Tx.
On Wed. my sister-n-law who just got a new sporty a few month back came into town so I could help her install a lowering kit on her bike, she is short and needed a little help reaching the ground.
After that was installed I finished packing my stuff and we loaded up the Bikes. Next morning we waited for my brother-n-law to call me so we could leave and meet them in Llano for some BBQ at coopers. It was a little out of the way but who cares when your riding.


After all the "hello's" and "how ya been"s we fueled up and headed south on 16 and over to Luchenbach Tx. IMHO, this is the best place in the world to waste time and relax. Walk into the back of the post office, get yourself a beer and take a seat on one of the many picnic tables and just enjoy the day.
After a few beers and some good conversation
we saddled up and took a nice scenic drive through the hill country over to New Braunfels to get checked into the hotel and unload the bikes.
Let me tell you this is where the fun started. When we were checking in found out that they had too many rooms reserved under my name and also under my brother-n-laws name which means since we didn't cancel the reservation with 24 hours notice we would have charged. Lucky for us after a conversation with the hotel manager the rooms were canceled and we were not charged for the extra rooms. However one of the couples in our group was not so lucky, they were not charged the group rate for the weekend like the rest of us and that was a big mess. They ended up leaving the next day and found another hotel in San Marcos just up the road.

After we all freshened up we headed over to the fair grounds to register for the rally and get our t-shirts, pins and patches. The t-shirt and rally pin comes free in your when you register, I asked the lady where the rally patches were and she pointed me down to the table where they were being sold. We got there and found out NO RALLY PATCHES!!!! WHAT THE F**** After much whining and complaining the person in charge of patches showed up and we were told that they only made 300 patches!!! Again, WTF!!! How is it possible that when a few thousand people preregister for a rally they only make enough product for 300 of them. Needless to say we were all very unhappy about that.

We walked around the rally grounds for a few hours and checked out some of the vendors and then headed over to the dealer ship to see what they had going on. I hate to say this, but the dealership had more cool things going on than the actual rally itself.


While we were there I found a light vendor at the dealer that installs LED lights on bikes and I have been wanting to get some LED's installed on the ol' geezer glide for a while so we had them installed by Trick Lights. These guys were out of Waco and did a really nice job. I found out later that these guys did my buddy's bike also and he was real happy with their work, so I was happy that I chose this vendor instead of the other one that was there. I found out that the other vendor Renegade lights does shitty work. They cause a short on 2 of my friends bikes.


Next morning we got up early and took off to do a dealer pin run. When they told me about this I wasn't all that thrilled to run to 4 different dealers to get a pin. Plus we were also told that there was a "limited number of pins" so there was no guarantee that we would even get a pin. Plus the route that we had to take took us down I-10 and the 410 loop in San Antonio during Friday morning rush hour and the traffic SUCKED!!! Once we got to the 2nd dealership I realized that the pins you collect from each dealer are like puzzle pieces and when you get all 4 pins it makes a larger pin of the Texas flag, which I thought was pretty cool and it made all the traffic on the interstate almost bearable.
That reminds me... My brother-n-law told me a joke.
Mexican word for the day "texas", "My friends always texas me with stupid jokes". HA! (BTW my B-I-L is mexican).

The pin run ended back at the Gruene dealer where we were the previous day. We got there and ran into my wifes child hood friend Teresa, or "bird" as she is known to our inner circle of friends. While some of the group ran over to grab some food we stayed there at the dealer to checkout some of the store and some of the other vendors. In addition to that we spent some money in the beer tent.






The rest of the guys called and said they were heading back to the hotel to hangout at the pool and cool off for a while. We jumped on the ol' iron horse and headed back to the hotel to meet everyone and relax for a while. While we were there a guy shows up with his kid and wife. He takes his little girl in the pool and they are swimming around having a good time and we start up a conversation with him and find out he is Bubba Blackwell.
So we sat and listen to this guy tell us stories of different rally's and stunt shows that he does for Harley and he runs to his hotel room and grabs some signed posters and we each got one. I thought that was pretty neat.


Next day we slept in a bit cause we were gonna meet my buddy Mike, his wife, and two buddy's at the dealer to go for a ride through the hill country. Man I wish it was that easy. After we ate we had to take a minor detour to get through the traffic, while on our little detour my buddy Kevin bottomed out his bike going over a speed bump and knocked the spring loose from his kickstand. Lucky for him the spring didn't fall off the bike. We were able to re-attach the spring and we finally got out of town and onto some good riding. We took a ride on the devils back bone and then down river road. By the time we got down with the devils back bone two of the riders had to head back to Austin for previous engagements.
We finished up river road and stopped at a bar for some drinks and to relax for a bit. To finish out the ride we headed back down to Borne to look around the dealership there and see if we could find that all important piece of chrome that was needed for the bikes. Plus, driving out there was a lot funner than going back into town and driving in traffic.

After we got back to the hotel that evening my wife and her sister decided they had enough and were gonna stay at the room. I went over to my buddies camp site on the comal river and listen to the beach boys perform. It was pretty fun, we sat and bs'ed for a while and had a few beers and then I headed back to the hotel.
Next morning we headed back home. The ride home was pretty uneventful except when we had to dodge two buzzards flying low across the road.

I have to say that although we were able to visit with all our friends and family, which was the highlight of the rally. I was pretty disappointed with the HOG rally this year. For one, they didn't have enough merchandise and two, all the vendors and activities were free.
What did I pay the $40 bucks for? The rides were not that great, maybe cause I have rode all over the hill country and it was really nothing new. I mentioned to my B-I-L that my rally days were numbered. IMHO once you been to one rally you've been to them all. However there are exceptions to that rule. If the rally you go to has lots of good riding and far enough away then it is probably worth your time. Heck my bad rally experience might be someone else's best rally ever! Some guy who drove in from west texas might have loved it cause he has never been there before or been on any of the great rides down there. Who knows, maybe that is why there are so many rallies. Each one is different for each person. I will say this, my wife enjoyed herself and is ready for the next motorcycle trip weather it is to a rally or just to a distant location that we haven't been to before.

Here are some more pics from the rally. Until next time, keep the rubber side down.

Big Bend 2008

Well, it all started with me needing to get out of town for a while and blow off some steam. So I decided another motorcycle trip was in order. I sent email out to my usual riding buddy's and from there the list grew. The original plan if there was one, was for me and a couple of friends to jump on the iron horses and ride out west to Big Bend and do some camping. Needless to say the list of riders more than doubled once the word got out where we were going.

The Plan: If there was a plan the extent of it was this, ride to Big Bend and camp along the way and then find a place to camp once we got there.


The Players: myself, Boots, Pelon, Shades, The Mule, Mike, NuNu, Steve H, SteveO, Robert C and Jason.

Since the group grew and there were several people that didn't know each other we decided to have a meet and greet a few days before we left on the trip. We met at Rudy's for some BBQ and good conversation. Only half of the people showed up so 2 days before the trip we still didn't know everyone before the trip started. Nevertheless the anticipation grew and we all started to get excited about leaving in a few days. I'm sure it was getting hard to sleep at night for some of us who were looking forward to this trip.
The next day (Thursday) the packing started and lists were checked twice, and final checks of the iron horse were done.


Beep beep beep... 5:45 Friday the alarm goes off and I am up and dressed. SteveO and Nunu were up and ready to ride. We took off together to meet the rest of the group at our designated meeting spot here in town. Everyone showed up on time, so we had a quick drivers meeting to discuss some rules of the road and general introductions for the rest of the riders we were off.


The first stop for us on our long journey was in Marble Falls at the Super Taco. Earlier we
filled our gas tanks now it was time to fill our belly's, and believe me there were some large belly's that needed to be filled.




After breakfast we gathered our stuff and since there was no plan we decided the next stop was to run on down to Hunt Tx and see Stonehenge II. Then after that it was over to Vanderpool to see the motorcycle museum.

Stonehenge in Hunt is a pretty neat stop along the way, some guy built a replica of the actual Stonehenge, he also has two replica's of the easter island heads there. It is just one of those cheesy road side stops that are fun to see along the way.

After Stonehenge we headed down to Vanderpool to see the Morotcycle museum. The guy who runs the museum is from Australia and he has a bunch of old bikes from all around. If you ever get down to the hill country this is well worth a trip to.

Now the plan was to head over to Bracketville to see Alamo City. The 1st part of the trip down there was a BLAST. There were lots of twisty windy roads.

Then all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere there was a stop light that we had to stop at to wait for a pilot car to take us a couple of miles down a dirt road.










Needless to say this did not please us but, we waited anyway. After about 5 minutes the pilot car showed up and took us down a dusty road which is NOT fun on a bike. Especially since your the one in a big cloud of dust.

After we got through all of that we got to Leaky and saw a sign for a Biker Rally. What the heck! we have no plan or time line lets check it out. We drove up to the rally and there wasn't much happening since it was early on Friday so we turned around and got back on track. After Leaky it was a loooooong boring drive down to Bracketville. We got there for some gas and a snack and then headed up to Alamo City.
The Alamo City is where John Wayne fimed the move "Alamo". I thought it was gonna be pretty neat to check this place out. Then we got there and found out that the admission was $10.
Huh? What do you mean $10? I can see the real Alamo for free!!! We all agreed it wasn't that important to see so we headed back on the road and the next stop was Del Rio where I told everyone we would get some dinner and take a break.


We got to Del Rio and saw a sign for Rudy's BBQ. SAWEET! We decided that is where we would find dinner and decide our next move. After getting some food in our belly's people were a lot happier and they didn't look at me like they wanted to kill me for not having a plan anymore. ;)

It was decided that we would stop at the Seminole Canyon state park which was just out side of Del Rio. Lucky for us Wal Mart was right next to Rudy's so we went over to pick up some supplies for the night. When I say supplies that is code for beer and munchies.
While most of us were inside getting "supplies" Mike stayed out to watch over the bikes. When we were coming out there was a guy out there giving Mike a hard time begging for money. He then proceeded to ask all of us for some money. Since we all didn't have any he proceeded to tell us he is from El Paso where the "King" is and to watch out cause it was dangerous there.
I thought that was funny. What I didn't find funny was Mike then told me he talked to a local about the park we were suppose to camp at that night and he didn't know if there was camping available.
DOH!!!! Maybe it would be safer for me to go to El Paso then to stay with the group.

Lucky for me when we got to the park there was camping and there were spots available for us to use. :) I was told later that I was lucky, I told them I had a Leprechaun in my pocket. This place was beautiful off in the distance you could see the Mountains and it was quiet and peaceful.

Once we found our sites and got our tents setup we hit the showers to clean the days road grime off. Well one of the guys didn't bring any camping shoes or flip-flops and so Boots McGee was born and he will never live down the name.


We all had a good laugh when we saw him walking up. I still laugh when I think about it.

Next morning we broke camp and headed on down the road.
It was only a couple of miles before I had the group pull over to take some pictures of the Peco's river. This spot along highway 90 was beautiful and it was worth the stop to take a few pictures.















After a few pictures we jumped back on the bikes and headed west. We only went about 7-8 miles down the road before we got to Langtry where we stopped in at a Texas travel stop and saw the old office of "Judge Roy Bean Law West of the Pecos".
IMHO, I thought this was one cool place to visit. I am a big fan of the old west, and I can't help but feel like a cowboy or desperado when I'm out there on the open road riding my iron horse. Some will think I am crazy, but those that ride know what I'm talking about. There is a certain feeling of freedom and excitement when your riding with the wind in your face and no deadlines or time table to keep. I guess that is what I enjoy the most about taking these trips.














After some photo's and a quick tour around the town we got back on the road and headed west to our next stop which was Sanderson. At this town we stopped in for some gas and some grub.

We got to this restaurant and told the lady how many and she had a panicked look on her face. I think when we pulled into town we actually doubled the population. She had to call in extra help to get us all fed. The food was great, fresh home cooked food!


After breakfast we were on our last leg of the trip before we got to Fort Davis up in the Davis Mtns. We made a quick stop for fuel and headed up 118 to the Davis Mtn and Indian lodge state park. Again I lucked out cause they had plenty of room for all of us. This park is located in a valley between two peaks of the mountain. It was beautiful!! You can't plan stuff like this, you just can't!

We had plenty of day light left so we decided to head up 118 which is an AWESOME road to take the scoots on. It is nice and twisty. Plenty of turns to lean into. I also should mention that Dennis (The Mule) was able to disconnect his trailer and do some serious riding and enjoy the twisties.

The McDonalds Observatory is on 118 and we decided to stop and check out the view from the top. We stopped in at the visitor center and picked up patches and t-shirts. It was about dinner time and we were all getting hungry so we headed into town and ate some dinner and then picked up some supplies for the night.

After we got back to camp we decided to explore some of the camp grounds and Mark found a road that takes us to the top of one of the peaks in the park and so we lined the bikes up for a photo.

After the sun went down, it got COLD! We are not sure how cold but the water we had was frozen. I have to say on a personal note. Any time me and my Dad would go on camping trips when I was younger we would go in the fall or spring and every time without fail. It would FREEZE.

In the middle of the night we were visited by a heard of Havalina pigs. We saw them earlier in the evening and we made sure we put all the food and water up so they wouldn't get into it. However, that still didn't stop them. One of the guys left a bag of trail mix open in one of his bags and those pigs tore it up. They were up in the middle of the night trying to chase them off. Another guy had eaten some chips in his tent and there were some crumbs on the floor and the pigs tried to get the crumbs. He ended up punching one of the pigs but it didn't phase them at all. They finally gave up and left.

We were all up early trying to get warm, Jason was up earlier than everyone sitting in the bathroom cause that was the warmest spot in the camp ground.
Once we were up we headed up to the lodge to eat some breakfast and then we bundled up and headed to big bend.














After we got on the road and down out of the Mountains a little it warmed up fast. It is unbelievable how much the temperature changed from our campsite where my temp guage read 20 to just south of Alpine where it was 60.
We stopped in Study Butte for Gas and continued on to the Park Entrance, and of course we had to stop for the traditional photo op at the park entrance.

We drove around big bend the rest of the day, we went to the Chisos Mtns. and Santa Elena Canyon. It was really beautiful.
We headed back to Fort Davis, to eat dinner and then back to camp. I gotta tell this story cause everyone thought it was funny at the time.

We pulled into this restaurant there in Ft. Davis and we were all pretty hungry from the ride and walking around we did, plus we only ate meals twice a day we would snack for lunch. ANY WAYS we were all pretty hungry and the waiter brings salad and bread and takes the drink orders then finally on to the meal orders. Kevin (Pelon) decides that he wants meatloaf and a couple other guys order the same. Well when the meatloaf came out it was like a tiny sliver of meatloaf. I mean SMALL!!! The look on his face was priceless. In fact the waiter told him sorry dude, I'll get you some more when he saw the look on his face. He was expecting a fairly large piece of meatloaf but instead got a small tiny sliver of it. Needless to say we will not be going back to this particular restaurant.
After din din we headed to camp and finished off our supplies and sat around talking about different things we saw and about bikes and different guy stuff. It was male bonding at it's finest. We all headed to bed and this night we didn't get attacked by pigs, instead we heard fox's howling and barking.
Next morning it was time to pack up camp and head home. We got breakfast and got on the road. The trip home was uneventful just the way I like it.


We made a quick stop over in Fort Stockton to see Paisano Pete and then back on the road. One last stop in Llano for some BBQ at Coopers and then we headed home We left Fort Davis about 10am and reached Austin around 6pm.

All in all This was an awesome trip and I wouldn't change anything. Our Road Capitan and Tail gunner did an excellent job keeping the group together and making sure no one got left behind.
There was minimal damages, we lost one camera lens cover, one pair of shades were shattered on the road, one air bed punctured, and one bag was destroyed by pigs.
We all started out as mere acquaintances and we ended the trip as friends. I am looking forward to my next motorcycle adventure.
To view more pictures of the this trip check out our photo album. http://picasaweb.google.com/pjtj2k/BigBend2008