Wishing for warm, Spring days ...

Officially a "Steel Cowgirl"

This week has dawned cold and rainy for the most part.  This weekend was looking like a complete wash, but we stayed patient, bided our time, and squeezed out a rain free ride this afternoon!

Layering up for a ride on the cool side

My sister (in-law) gave me "tattoos" of 'Khaleesi', and my aunt (in-law) gave me a bell for my birthday.  David put on the tattoos and I put on the bell.  Technically, the bell really isn't low enough on the bike, but I don't believe a talisman is going to protect me anyway; my guardian angel ALWAYS rides with me, whether on a bike, a horse, or in a car.  I put the bell on because it's cute, and it's a kichy thing with motorcycles.

"Lady Rider"

Before hitting the open road, we jetted down to one of our favorite hole in the wall Mexican restaurants and ate some yummy food. 

Motorcycles, Mexican food, and no margaritas!

We weaved our way through Maryville traffic, cussing a few idiots out along the way.  It is SHAMEFUL the way people drive.  It truly should be a requirement for schools to teach DRIVER'S ED instead of freaking Geometry in high school.  The kids should have a comprehensive, semester long class on driving.  And adults should be required to go through it again every 5 years.

Indian girl for life!

David had his GoPro to record the Foothills Parkway.  We finally made our way out past the worst of the traffic made the right hand turn onto FHP.  LOVE that road, one of my favorites.  I never get tired of it.  David let me lead, and I smoothly shifted up through the gears, keeping my hands "soft" on the grips.  My eyes sought to seek out the curves of the asphalt ribbon, and Khaleesi leaned and floated through every corner without a single bobble.

Fontana Lake

I twisted the throttle off each curve and kept her up around 50 mph through the L shaped curves.  I always have to fight myself a little bit with wanting to be a granny through the turns, it's pushing yourself out of your comfort zone that gets you to stretch and grow as a rider.

"Gremlin" Bell

I only touched my brakes 3 times the entire trip.  The third time was as we pulled up to the stop sign at the end of the road.  David kept me in the lead as I turned down 129 and then zagged onto 72.  David directed me to a right hand side road that carved through our East Tennessee countryside and came through to 411 and then down to Greenback.

Tattoos are sexy

65 miles later, we thundered back into the garage.  There is talk of maybe "gutting" my catalytic converters in my pipes.  I'm not unhappy with the power of my bike; I WOULD like it louder b/c anything for cages (cars) to hear/see us better, the BETTER.  I don't really want to drop $500+ on a set of pipes just for sound.  I have a few things on my list that I want to do to upgrade her, and once those upgrades are complete, that's it.  Any additional money spent will simply be on maintenance and clothing (Ahem, helmets, gloves, and jackets).

Sexy siblings

This coming weekend we have rides planned Friday and Saturday, weather permitting.  My weather will is STRONG, so I'm hoping I can talk God into blessing us with sun to go along with the mid 60's temps.  Right now it's looking overcast with some rain, so we'll see!

Mufasa just celebrated his one year anniversary in the Bishop household!

Daytona bike week is happening this week.  Sure do wish we could pop on down for a few days.  In the mean time, I'll be stalking all the videos and fun things going on.  Maybe next year!

Love making my bike my OWN.

9030

I MIGHT hit my goal of 10K miles by my 1 year anniversary!  Was surprised on my eldest son's birthday (4-17-17) with my amazing Khaleesi :D  We've averaged about 1000 miles a month in the warmer months, and right now it's still very erratic, weather wise.  So ... at 9030 miles here on 3/4/18, it will be close.

We've passed this house about 3 times; this time we finally got a pic!  Silos built in!

Not a bad year for it being my first year!  Ridden in TN, GA, NC, SC, AL, and VA.  Named roads include the Tail of the Dragon, Rattler, Back of the Dragon, Devil's Triangle, The Snake, The Blue Ridge Parkway, Cherohala Skyway, and the Copperhead.  Thousands of other non-named roads that were just as awesome, or MORE awesome than the named roads!  I have absolutely ZERO complaints, except that I wish I'd hurry up and win the damn lottery so I can quit my job and ride my bike every day!

Dang dude, could you please take ANY longer?? ;)

Today dawned clear and cool.  I procrastinated as long as I could until David finally gave in to my pitiful faces and we thundered out of our neighborhood around noon.  I was wearing 5 layers on top, 3 layers on bottom, face shield on the helmet closed.  My wonderful hubs kept us off Hwy 411 as much as possible, as it's just a long, boring, straight road.  We took side streets down to one of my favorite roads, Hwy 307 down into Athens.  It's just a curvy road through picturesque farm side, but there's not a lot around us like it!

We motored through Athens, Charleston, and down into Cleveland where we stopped for lunch.  After our refueling, we hit Hwy 64 in Ocoee that winds next to the river that is used liberally for rafting and kayaking.  The waters were swollen and loud, and we actually saw a few kayakers shredding the rapids!  I tell ya, those peeps are crazy!  You'll never catch my butt doing that ;)  Stand up paddle board on a calm lake, or kayak down a class 1 is my only speed, lol!

I'm grateful my bike practically drives herself because I was NOT looking through my curves, I was looking all around at everything!  We came up out of the river area, and followed Hwy 68, snaking our way up and over a mountain or 2.  David challenged me today; he lays into curves like they're nothing ... as he approaches a turn where he SHOULD be Slow, Look, Press, and Roll ... he SPEEDS, looks, presses, and rolls harder, lol!  I felt myself get a little bit tense; I was gritting my teeth as I twisted hard to catch up to him.  He got so far ahead of me, our radios lost each other, which does NOT happen often.  He did that last time on that road!  Apparently we have ridden that road before, but it's been long enough for me that it was like the very first time.  A fire was burning on the mountainside, and we actually went RIGHT past open flames, CRAZY!!

Pit stop!

68 took us into Tellico Plains, and the start of the Cherohala Skyway.  We touched the Skyway again, then turned off onto Hwy 360, which dumps us out on 411 up in Vonore.  I had adjusted my attitude, my expectations, and changed my style a little bit.  I moved my hand further up on the throttle, so that when I twisted it, I wasn't "breaking" my wrist, which makes me feel like I'm not working as hard.  360 has some LOOOOONG sweeping turns, and we flew through it 55/60 mph unless it was a "suggested speed" curve of 30 or less.  I'm pleased to say he did NOT run off and leave me this time, and I think just adjusting my hand position made a HUGE difference.  We took our side streets back to the house in just under 200 miles and 6 hours.

GREAT ride today, I thank God EVERY DAY for my husband, our bikes, and our ability to ride together.  It has been SO nice to not have to worry about upsetting the hubs over spending a weekend doing horse things.  Confession ... STILL not missing out!  When I get a spare dollar or two, all I can think about it is what I can buy for my motorcycle (cue laughing emoticon here).

Down by the water in Ocoee!

Hopefully more ride updates soon!  This upcoming week is going to be freaking cold again :(

Let's break it down ...

Including Sunday, FOUR RIDING DAYS this week!  Tuesday I left at 7:00 and went up and over Foothills Parkway before work.  It was a bit cool; I said BRRR!  Lol, it was a fabulous ride, NO complaints.

Foothills Parkway

Wednesday was rain, Thursday was RIDE!  It was a bit warmer; I finally broke out my mesh jacket (with the liner in it) and rode up 411 TO work, then came home Chapman Hwy to the backroads that dump me out on 321 almost to Walland.  This morning was same ride as yesterday, up 411 to work, but then afterwards David and I met up and we rode about 120 miles.

Ride #1; Cherokee, NC!

I rode 25 miles solo from work into Knoxville to meet up w/ David, and we headed out Northshore road into the "Hardin Valley" section of Knoxville.

Ride #2; Khaleesi and I tame Foothills before a way too long day at work

LOVE that area!  Great school system, nice houses, close to everything, and David had managed to find some AMAZING quiet, winding country roads with breathtaking mountain views.

Love talking bikes with my patients at work

I had never been on the majority of the roads we took today.  The temps this morning were chilly enough that my windshield/face shield/mirrors were fogging up from my breath.  Like yesterday, I was wearing just a thin "tech" layer under my mesh jacket with the liner ... BRRR!  This afternoon, however, I came out of everything except my T shirt and the jacket with OUT the liner.

Ride #3; just back and forth to work, but I didn't go home the way I came!

We twisted the throttles out towards Oak Ridge and hit an arm of "The Devil's Triangle".  We rode that SEVERAL months ago, and neither of us particularly enjoyed it.  Quite frankly, it scared me a little.  Of course, I have WAY more miles under my belt now (close to 9000), and the arm of it we did today was easy peasy.

Began and ended my day today in the dark

We ended up rolling up to a cool little log cabin restaurant called "The Golden Girls Restaurant" and enjoyed a fish dinner in Clinton.  I enjoy the few times the hubs and I can steal away together.

He rode in a T shirt up until the sun went down!

Ended up motoring along Clinton Hwy, and hit Northshore again to literally come full circle.  FABULOUS ride, had a blast!

Ride #4; about 160ish miles counting going to work and then driving out to meet up

Here is our Tail of the Dragon Video.  I was pretty pleased; my ride looks smooth and controlled.  In some stretches, I felt stiff and tense, but I try to always shake out my arms so I don't make any stupid mistakes.  It was slower than David usually leads out on, but he NEVER pressured me to ride any faster; LOVE that man!

Get ready to ride the Dragon with us!

Jen and David ride the Tail of the Dragon

Let's discuss song selection.

1.  "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons.  There is something about this song that just makes me dance and sing along EVERY time.  I just love it!

2.  "Happy Dance" by one of my favorite Christian bands, Mercy Me.  This song selection is TOTALLY self explanatory; riding is 148% my "happy dance"!!

3.  "Invincible" by Christian hard rockers Skillet.  This song is like my "fight song".  Jesus Christ is my co-rider, and He gave me the skills and the desire to ride motorcycles; when I'm flying along a curvy road, I absolutely feel INVINCIBLE.

4.  "I am Free" by my MOST favorite Christian artist, Jeremy Camp.  This song is the epitome of how I feel.  Unencumbered, unburdened, and like I can just fly.  One of the facebook comments on this video is that "It looks like she's riding to Heaven".  Gave me chills.

5.  "Stars" again by Skillet.  This song doesn't much pertain to motorcycles, and is more obviously a Christian based song, but it is just awesome.  Reminds me to pray continuously as my family is out and about not just riding, but also driving in our cars.

6.  "Lifer" again by Mercy Me.  This song is also pretty overtly Christian, but I can relate it to motorcycles because now that I'm hooked, I'm a LIFER on the bikes!

7.  "Try Everything" by Home Free.  This song is actually originally by Shakira off the Zootopia soundtrack, but I like this version better, so this is the one David put on.  SO appropriate because I like to think I'll "try anything" once!  Sometimes it's a fail, but sometimes it's a win!  Considering I dropped my bike 4 times in my MSF course, this song is SO appropriate to close out the video!

Anyway!  Sorry for the novel (as per usual).  Hope you enjoy the pics and the video!  Not much riding to be had this upcoming week with rain and colder temps back in the picture.

Happy birthday to me :)

It was SUCH an awesome weekend.  I wish I had 2 more days ... then 2 more days after that ... then 2 more ... you get the point.  Yesterday was raining and miserable, so we drug the teenager to the range and he FINALLY got to shoot for the first time.  Now ... my son has been into/out of a lot of things, and guns is one of them.  He has watched videos of how to clean them, load them, shoot them, what brands/models are for what ... he's definitely a Youtube expert on such things.  We rented a 9 mm Beretta cop issue.  He shot the first round beautifully, then the 2nd bullet jammed.  Instantly, I felt a small panic rise up inside me, but oh so calmly he ejected the bullet, lined up his next shot, and pulled the trigger.  That round fired off fine, but then the next bullet jammed.  Again, he super calmly ejected it, then shot again.  His entire "turn" went like that; fire, jam, fire, jam.  I took the gun for my turn, and same thing happened to me.  Head scratch, the range officer had no problem, and David had no problem, so I think the issue w/ Kody and I was that our wrists were moving too much.  We traded that one in for a "civillian" issue of the same gun, and had no more jamming issues.  I am so proud of Kody; he shot like he'd been doing it his whole life.  He loved it, thanked us profusely for taking him.

3 Muskateers

Today, we sent the baby with his grandparents for "their week" down in GA, and we headed off to Cherokee, NC!  We were eating at the Casino to celebrate all the fun February things; Valentine's Day, the 20 year anniversary of our engagement, and my birthday (which is next week) and the 1 year anniversary of owning Mufasa.   It just so happened that today was the first warm and non rainy day in a week, so of course we hopped on the bikes!  Khaleesi was purring like a kitten and rode as smooth as a baby's bottom.  Last week she got an oil change and a new front tire, both of which were sorely needed.

We hit 321 and rode through the National Park up and over the mountain to Cherokee.  It was a slower and uneventful ride as there really was a LOT of traffic out and about today.  We barely saw any bikes, it was 98% automobile traffic.  I swear all I have to do is look where I want to go, and Khaleesi takes me there.  Every curve felt like it was on rails, and the slower pace meant much of the ride I actually rode with one hand, b/c when I'm like that I can sit up straighter and relieve some of the pressure on my back.  All too soon we arrived at the casino and parked in the garage.  We locked our helmets and jackets to the bikes and went in to stuff our faces.

After rolling ourselves out of the casino, we decided to head back through Bryson City and down 129 to go home.  This way was a bit higher speed, as there was hardly any traffic!  I practiced holding different lines as we swept through turns at 60+ mph; it was exhilarating!  Once we got into Deal's Gap, both the resort and Killboy were closed off completely until next month; we took a super quick break, and David let me lead down the Dragon.  He was wearing his Go Pro for the first time, and he filmed me as we drove down it!  As per usual, my arms and upper back got a little tight.  I ALWAYS respect the Tail; I know there's plenty of highly experienced riders that have accidents on that road, and I never want my confidence to put me in a dangerous situation.  Thankful to God as usual, all was well and I SLAYED those 11 miles!  Despite consciously pulling my heels up in some of the steeper banked turns, I still dragged one on the ground, and as usual, that gave me a quick little scare!  It was cool watching myself drive it!  I'll post the video once we get it uploaded to Youtube.

Upon arriving home, found out my birthday present had arrived!  David bought me a Daymaker headlight for Khaleesi.  The Daymakers are the fancy LED type lights instead of the more yellowish halogen lights.  Took all of 10 minutes to install it!  Yipee!  I'm happy b/c the white light shows up a little better in the day light, and ANYTHING to make myself more visible makes me happy.  

Tuesday is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL.  It's also my later day at work.  I may just head on up and over Foothills Parkway on my way to work :D  So excited, it'll be my first day of the new year riding to work.  It's beginning to look a lot like riding season!!!

As often as you can!

Sooo sad it took me 38 years to figure out this fact!

2 rides since my last blog post, yay!  Last week we got out on Sunday.  It was a few miles longer than yesterday, but both were super fun.  Sunday we headed south again down 411 towards the Ocoee/Hiawasee river scenic park.  Um, we finally made it down there, and it wasn't JUST a dirt road ... it was a MUD road.  We were only on it for a few hundred feet, and during just that time we were slipping and sliding BIG TIME.

See the mud on that tire?  Um, no dirt roads today!

So, we turned back north and hit some new roads we haven't been on!  David and I really enjoyed talking back and forth, and we enjoyed discussing the landscape as we rode through it.  David is amazing at finding curvy roads, and the route we took was really fun.  I have no idea where we were; just down 411 South towards Ocoee, lol!  Didn't go near the Cherohala this time, but it was still a great ride.  About 100 miles.

Washed my baby!  Looks as good as the day she came off the showroom floor

Yesterday, we headed into Townsend, ate lunch at a really good spot called the Dixieland Cafe, then took the backroads into Sevierville proper.  As a bit of a last minute thing, we decided to hit the gun range!  Never shot a gun in my LIFE.  One of my highschool friends growing up had a BB gun; that's the ONLY thing I've shot, and I didn't enjoy it much because it kicked me both in the collar bone and the eye.  I did ok at the range; shot a Ruger .22.  Very comfortable gun, but I was having a hard time with my aim; had to aim WAY low, and my shots were going probably 3 feet higher than I intended.  I alternated between 5 and 10 yards.  I just had no control over the "kick" of the gun, and it kept going high.  One of my 2018 "goals" is to take the gun safety course, get my concealed carry permit, and buy a gun!  Why?  Because it's my right as an American, and even though I've been fortunate enough to never be in an endangering situation, I want to be prepared if ever I am.

Baby figuring out how to load the ammo

Um ... dude in a different lane was shooting a CANNON!

And ... he's good at shooting too, just like everything else!

Hey!  I did it!

Had a good time; probably the gun I'll end up buying.

We left from there and came home back roads I've been down, but not often.  We managed to dodge the vast majority of the rain; I felt SO GOOD.  Khaleesi just is the most awesome bike in the world.  I NEVER feel like I'm fighting her.  Just look where I want to go, and around the corners she goes!  Wears Valley Road has one particularly gnarly uphill right hand switchback turn; I NAILED it unbelievable perfectly.  I don't think that corner has EVER felt so good :D  The roads were slightly damp, as there were spotty rain showers in the area.  Thundered back into the clean garage 85 miles and a few hours later.  Today; RAIN.  This week, COLD.  Next weekend, COLD.  So ... not sure when we'll get out again :( 

Had to do surgery on my horse chaps to get them to fit around my fat thighs :(

Different bandanna!

Thought this was a cool shot <3 nbsp="" td="">

Waaaay too little seat time!

The South has been hit by a COLD snap.  Northern FLORIDA has seen snow in the last few weeks.  I haven't started Khaleesi on any of the super cold days, but on the hand full we've reached 40, I've gone out there and fired her up.  Not one single issue thus far.  I took a SUPER short jaunt around Big Springs Road a day or 2 after Christmas.  It barely squeaked up to 40 degrees, so I layered up and went alone.  Hubs said I was crazy, he'd wait.

REALLY wanted to join in on one of the many New Year's Day rides, but the high was sub 20, so yeah.  No.

Today was SIXTY FIVE.  YESSSSSS!!!  I wanted to ride to work this morning, but with already getting up at 5, as long as I have to take care of the baby in the mornings, I can't ride to work.  Maybe the warm summer will change that, but for now, it's just too cold. 

Met the hubs, and we headed down 321 to some sweet little curvy back roads a mere 10 minutes from our house.  Went through the towns of Friendsville and Greenback, crossed over 411, took a road or 2 we'd never been down, then dead ended onto 129 just below the Dragon.  Took 129 back home.  SUCH a beautiful day, it was a perfect ride.

I felt a little out of sorts at the very beginning just because I had to shake the rust off.  Also, riding in new boots is always interesting.  My new HD boots have a grippier, knobby sole on them, so I was getting a little hung up on my foot peg.  I got them figured out though, got back to shifting a little more smoothly.  David and I got radios, and we were able to talk back and forth, which was awesome! 

I LOVE to say I was pretty much book perfect.  No wide swinging, no missed gears, curves on rails and I got on the gas once or twice.  SO grateful and happy to get to ride.  We were out for an hour and a half and clocked right at 60 miles.  Wish we could have gone longer, but the baby was at the sitter and dark was fast approaching. 

Not sure when the next ride will be, but y'all can guarantee to read about it here!