So who knew , you could still ride in the front of the Monorail with the pilot . . .

I did .

We went to Disneyland last weekend and stayed the night in the fancy Disney resort hotel . It was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time but Vaughn actually knew what was going on this time and he went out of his mind . We had one day of Disneyland and the second day at the California Adventure park . On the second day it was a rainy but we met some friends who were celebrating a birthday and we had a great time in the bad weather . It only rained for the first half of the day and it was actually super fun running from ride to ride , trying to find a ride that was long enough and inside enough to keep the rain off .

By about 3:00 it had dried up and all the rest of the birthday guests had arrived and we got to enjoy some cold but dry theme park good times .

That night we went to elecTRONica and saw robot dancing girls ( Vaughn's words ) and lots of neon lights and laser beams . So this was the last time we can take Vaughn to Disneyland for free , and we're thinking about annual passes for next time . I'm thinking now that he knows how much fun it is up there that he's going to be wanting to be going a lot more , and that will make it a little less painful in the wallet .

All said and done it was a little pricey , but the crazy memories that were revisited on me and the fun new memories that we made were worth it .

So yes , you can still ride in the nose of the Monorail . Amy had no idea and was impressed with my knowledge of the Monorail seating arrangements . . .



You can still find the exact physical center of the park , if you know where to look for it . . .



You can still drive around in a submarine . . .





And during the Christmas season , you can still wonder if the largest pile of gifts you've ever seen ( in your long 3 years of Christmases ) , contain anything that might belong to you . . .




Amy's boss bought us the room for her 15 years of working the sales department grind at Foundation Skate Co. Thanks Tod , it was a blast in no small part because of you . You're a good guy and a good friend . . . here's to many more !

Have a good weekend, or else......

A gift from a friend

I'll give you a hint , the numbers are proofs


more about this later . . .

I stole this picture from a different blog

And I don't generally like to take other people's pictures that are already posted and repost them , but this one made me stop and think for a second . I've been riding scooters & motorcycles almost all my life , in one form or another . I've gone on " long rides " and been far away from home and had to put my trust in my machine to start and run and get me back alive . . . but this is some other kind of shit .

Being from the west coast and riding out to the east coast on a stripped down , purposely minimized motorcycle with everything you need ( hopefully ) strapped to your back in case you brake down or have to stop for a quick repair , man that's fucking cool . I've never done anything like that .

Personally I can only imagine the feeling of waking up in the morning that far from home and feeling those first few moments when you're still mostly asleep when everything's still calm & perfect . You have no problems and the world is right , then slowly you start coming too and realize , oh shit today I have to ride back home . . . to the other side of the country ! You get geared up and have some breakfast , load up the bike and then one more time you throw your leg over the machine and jump down on the kicker , only to feel the motor roar to life just like it should .

The sun is out , but air is cold as fuck that early in the morning . You can see you breath , and your face is starting to get numb , you wish you had a few more pairs of gloves , or some extra pants to wear under the ones you have on already but you also know that soon enough the day will warm up and the scenery will change and the coast will start getting closer , but now it's time to get going .

Fucking - a , that's some neat shit . To be that far from home and the one thing that can get you back safely , that you built with your own hands , that if it decided to could ruin the whole rest of the trip on a whim by not working suddenly for some mysterious reason . . . to put your trust in a machine that requires so much care and maintenance and love and urgency and to get on and stomp that motor to life at the beginning of the homeward half of a ride like that . . . that's awesome .

This picture made me feel all that stuff .




Taken from Kemosabe and the Lodge , the link is over there in the links part of the blog .

succulents

Amy's new thing is succulents . Tiny little cactuses , kind of .

A friend of ours had to move out of her house and gave amy a whole shit load of these little guys and now she is succulent crazy , and trying to figure out where to put all of them . They don't really take up any room , but Vaughn loves to take them apart because well , they're fun to take apart . Try it sometime . You'll get yelled at by whoever owns it , but it's pretty cool regardless .

Anyhow , here's a few of Amy's succulents . Nice start for a monday I'd say .

sneak peak

My friend Jay is going to be selling a basket case shovelhead here in a minute through me , we just need to take some pictures of all the stuff and make it more enticing .

This is the motor though and as you can see , the air cleaner will be worth the price alone . Stay tuned and get your piggy banks ready . It's titled HD and has just about everything you'll need to get your knees in the breeze , except for the skill to put it all together .

That's up to you I guess .

what's going on here

7 of 9

That phrase means different things to different people . Just a few numbers in no real order or code , you would think . When you're talking to someone like me it means this . . .



Because I'm a dork and I'm a trekie and generally a nerd of sorts . I grew up and made it work for me , but for the most part I have the mental state of mind of a 16 year old boy . Go figure .

However , I have a friend who is a skateboarder and he made a limited run of skateboards that have his original graphic , just like his old pro model from the 80's . I guess he only made 9 of them and it was kind of top secret stuff . . . .



My wife works at Tum Yeto where they made them and she was there when they showed up and asked Doug if she could have one for me . Guess which number she picked .



Who's more of a nerd . . . the nerd , or the wife who marries the nerd ( and then naturally , over the course of our relationship has become a nerd herself . . . )

I love my life !

1983 FXRT...

If you have FXR fever let me say (as one who suffers from it) I feel your pain, it is a crippling ailment that has no cure, the only thing that helps is getting your knees in the breeze or to witness the FXR in all its glory. Me and the ol' lady took a ride down to our friends shop on Saturday, got a little rain but it was worth it when I walked in and saw this.... 83 FXRT with all the trimmings fairing, bags, trunk all the gauges and only 3174 on the odometer, truly a fine specimen. So next time it rains go ride around to your local shop it might just be worth it..

What did you do???

More good times & urban camping

Camping pretty much always rules . Even camping on a parking lot is fun if you have good friends and a huge beautiful ocean to trip out on while you're parked . We went down to Silver Strand state beach a few weekends ago and did some hobo style / gypsy camp / power parking .

We were about 20 feet from the beach and it was a real nice and quiet . A few families across from us were there for a birthday party for some kid so there was a medium amount of well mannered revelry going on . The only casualty was when Dave's son biffed it on his bike and bit his lip pretty hard . Luckily it was at the end of the bike ride / stroll and a few cookies and a couple hugs later and he was right as rain and ready to rock again .

If you've never been to the strand it's pretty amazing . The state beach is really calm and nice and on the bay side there's lots of great nature to check out if you're into leisurely strolls . After a bottle of cheap wine I was feeling pretty leisurely so off we went . A good view of Nasco and the shipyard as well as a bunch of destroyers and battleships & a few big carriers . Lots of paved trails and places to go and neat things to check out .

It was just a one nighter , we live pretty close to the beach so it was in & out . Over the bridge and into the strand . . . but it was really cool and left me wanting more . We need to get a few more mountain campouts now that the nights up there are starting to cool off , and maybe a desert trip in before it starts getting too cold . . .