Sunday, May 30, 2010

Ten Things

Ten things I love about being on the road

1) The smell of fresh cut grass

2) Speed limit signs that say 80

3) Butterflies that fly in front of me on the highway

4) Great low soaring birds who come really close to me

5) Trains running vertically along the roadway with me



6) Big smiles from people in cars

7) Beautiful mountains whose colors look like Starbucks Mocha Frapuccino
8) Signs that say 'whatever town we are staying in that night' 10 miles

9) The wind in my face

10) My riding partner giving me a wink and a big smile at a red light

Ten things I hate about being on the road

1) Stoopid Drivers texting while driving!
2) Tailgaters

3) Extreme Cold

4) Signs that say 'construction'

5) Big black bugs that want to kill themselves on my knuckles; ouch!

6) The smell of cow shit, howdy Amarillo, howdy Oxnard, California!

7) Having to stop for the "neccessaries"

8) Helmet off, helmet on, helmet off, helmet on,......

9) Well I can only think of eight and find myself wanting to add more to the 10 things I love.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A Famous Wrestler, A Railroad, A Cemetery, The Beatles, President Heads, and Mexican Food

We started out our day to go to Honda on 290 to get me a new lid. On the way just at the 290 fly over from the tollway the traffic stopped.  They were working on the road on 290. Great, a traffic jam on a Saturday. Oh, well, more time for music before we got there. However, my thighs and calfs were on fire before we got about the five miles that took us the 25 minutes to arrive. After being ignored in the Honda Dealer for about 30 minutes we finally asked for help on the helmet and they didn't have my size.  I mention the ignore part because I had been to the store on Tuesday and I had a salesman on my ass everytime I turned around.  Do you think that could be because I was by myself?

We decided to go and try out a new restaurant.  We had seen it the day we went to the art car parade and had met our friend Scott at Jax for lunch. Cyclone Anaya Mexican Restaurant is across the street from Jax's so we decided to go there. What we didn't know is that Cyclone Anaya is actually named after - Cyclone Anaya.  He was a well known wrestler and voted the Best Dressed Man in America. We sat in the booth right below Cyclones picture. That man was built!



Big Daddy finally commented that he thought I was fascinated by Cyclone because I couldn't stop staring and commenting on his big painting. Well, I will have to admit I was fascinated. I have never liked the look of wrestlers or body builders before. That just does not appeal to me. And by looking at Cyclone's photo I think I have pinned down the reason. Wrestlers of today shave all of their hair. Wrestlers of yesteryear left their hair in place. Cyclone had hair on his body. He actually looked like a man. I liked that. Another thing I think I figured out is that muscles made from sheer hard work look different than muscles made with the help of steroids. Cyclone's muscles looked real not fake. So sitting in the booth in a mexican restaurant I had an AHA moment, lol.

Fresh made guacamole and extra thick tamales!


After leaving lunch we didn't have a destination in mind.  We just started driving seeing where the bikes would take us.  I turned on Washington Avenue. We couldn't believe all of the new condos and apartments they have built since we've been there.  The old neighborhood is definately dissappering and a new one is appearing. Along the way we started talking about an old cemetery that we had looked at several years ago, Olivewood Cemetery. When we visited you could hardly get in there as it was so overgrown. It was really sad. A couple of years later I read where they had cleaned it up and I was so glad to read it.  Big Daddy said that he had read in the paper that they were looking for volunteers to help clean up again. Apparently it was becoming overgrown once again. So we decided to go and check it out. We ran into traffic again.  This was one long train!


The last time we visited there was not an Historical Marker. This was placed in 2006.
There are many graves back in this area all covered up by the overgrowth.  Some are quite huge monuments. There are butterflies everywhere in here.  At least the deceased are not totally alone and forgotten....


A visit from a beautiful girl!
Just trying to get a good picture of the tatts....
The people across the street had some pretty dogs. The puppy was adorable.  Big Daddy was standing in the street taking pictures. Their house was right behind the puppies.  There were about 10 people outisde.  Let's just say this is not in the greatest neighborhood and it's a dead end street. As we were standing by the bikes a younger guy took the pitt bull off the chain and started walking over to us and he said "So, you like pitt bulls?"  Oh, shit....Then he told us there was a dog in the dog house having puppies. He kept walking around us with the damn dog.  We kept chit-chatting.  None of the dogs had uttered a sound the whole time we were there.  Even the dogs on the chain had not barked when we drove up, walked by or anything. All of a sudden the dogs and some dogs across the street started barking wildly. Big Daddy said that the dog in the dog house must have had a pup and the other dogs knew it and that is why they started barking.  So weird.  I  was a bit glad to drive off from that scene.

We walked along the rails for a bit.



You, know, sometimes when you take a detour, it just seems it was meant to be.  And this day we took the detour of all detours.
When driving along the Pierce Elevated the last several months I had seen these huge President heads. I have wanted to go and see them but as time does it's passed and I've never researched it and found out how to go and seek them out.
When we got to the street I was faced with THIS SIGN
Big Daddy manevered the streets and found us the parking lot of the artist and I was able to take my pictures from there.  I'm glad because I was just ready to squeeze through the fence.