Is it too early to be thinking about spring rides?

I know that it's barely fall, but I've started to think about spring rides already.
I'm thinking along the lines of riding to baseball games. The Springfield Cardinals play in the Texas League, a AA minor league organization. The northern division consists of the Cardinals, two Arkansas teams -- one in Little Rock, one in Fayetteville, and a team in Tulsa.

All of those are easy day trips. Tulsa and Little Rock are about 200 miles (one way) and Fayetteville is around 125. A midweek day game would be a perfect outing -- nice ride out, Springfield Cardinal baseball game, nice ride home!

The four teams in the southern division would pose more of a challenge. The Frisco team isn't too bad at around 400 miles (one way), but Midland and San Antonio come in at over 700 miles and Corpus Christi at around 850, making all of those overnight trips and long rides each day of travel.

However, I could add the Dodger's AAA team in Oklahoma City into the mix and pair that with a game in Midland TX. I'd have to count on my big sis taking me in for an overnight stay and I would still have an overnight in Midland and one day of 700+ miles.
The Cardinals pair the Corpus Christi team with San Antonio for a May road trip meaning I could see a game in CC on a Thursday and SA on Friday. It would still be two overnights and two long rides, but just one long trip instead of two.

For now it's just thinking about baseball and riding.
I did ride to St. Louis and back for a day game this season, but missed a trip to Kansas City.
Maybe next year.

There is still plenty of riding to do in 2017, just not much more in the way of baseball.

John <><

Can We Talk?

The internet is full of opinions on the peaceful demonstrations of black athletes during our National Anthem. Coaches, owners, fellow athletes, broadcasters, and of course -- politicians are weighing in on the means of the demonstration.

Unfortunately, I'm seeing very little actual  talk about the purpose of the demonstrations -- the unjust treatment of African-Americans by our police forces and justice systems.

Even though I am Asian-American by birth, I have spent my life within the white privileged society and wouldn't be considered anything else except by the strictest white nationalist sects of our society. I think that I am the least Asian looking of my siblings and many people are surprised to hear that I have an Asian mother.
I have no idea of what it is like to be a black man in the United States  (or any other minority, for that matter). For all practical purposes, I am a white, Christian male and have the privileges associated with that standing. I can live were I want (and can afford). I can go where I want without fear of being stopped due to racial profiling. I can shop where I want without raising great suspicion that I'm going to steal something. I'm not suspected of being lazy or of slopping at the government trough (although I am on a government pension). I live in a part of the country that is nearly uninhabited by minorities.

I say all of that to say that I recognize that I am a part of the problem -- at least up to the point that I allow the problem to continue without some sort of dialog and change.

We, as a society, have responded in a typical way. The instinctual response of any accused is to justify our actions or redirect the blame for our actions on the accuser. It takes great character to admit that we may have been wrong; that our action (or inaction) has caused someone harm. Such an admission means that we have to be the ones to change.
As long as we make the demonstration about something other than its initial purpose, we can insist that the victims of this injustice change their method of demonstration while we continue to allow the racially motivated injustices to continue.

There will have to come a time when law enforcement agencies and criminal justice systems have to acknowledge that the statistics are damning and a change is needed. We (the privileged) can be the motivating segment of society to get our elected government officials to listen to the complaints rather than to dismiss them or deflect them so that they go unaddressed.

Kneeling during the Anthem has never been about disrespecting the Flag, our nation, nor anyone that serves our society. It's time we stopped treating it as such and address the real issue.

John <><

Another Monday Morning...

Somewhere in northern Missouri, someone is asking a co-worker, "How was your weekend?"
And that co-worker is responding with, "I'm glad you asked that. You see we had a guest preacher at our church and he challenged us ... "

Yes, another pulpit challenge to tell people the simple message -- "God loves you. Jesus died for you."

I always put myself into the challenge, although I doubt that anyone will ask me how my weekend was. It's not because nobody cares (nobody really does), but because I probably won't have much contact with anyone during the day.
I also always invite churches to hold me as accountable as they hold each other, but they rarely do.
Somehow I suspect that I'll be getting a tweet or two asking for my story of sharing this simple message.

My ride to Chillicothe MO (The Home of Sliced Bread) was warm and uneventful. (My last ride to Chillicothe was when I lost all my stuff.) I arrived in town shortly after 3 PM with all of my gear intact. I unloaded the things for my magic show at the church and then went to the home of Steve and Pam Miller. The Millers were my host family for the weekend. They live in a grand old house, built in the 1880s. They are doing a lot of work to renovate and keep (and restore) the original character of the house. Perhaps it will be a bed and breakfast place in the future.
Oh! And speaking of breakfast, it looked like a magazine or TV show breakfast.
Coffee, OJ, stuffed French toast topped with blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream, and a side of patty sausage. Beautiful and delicious!

The Saturday evening magic show went well and I believe that a good time was had by all. The church put on a nice event for the neighborhood and community. The program began with a very good puppet show that was put on by a troupe from another local church. While being entertained, the kids (parents, too) enjoyed popcorn, nachos, cotton candy, and lemonade. There was a brief intermission and then the magic show.

I should mention that I believe many churches would pass on such an event simply due to the number of workers necessary to pull it off. The fellowship hall was very well decorated. There were lots of kitchen workers to prepare and distribute snacks. There were greeters and there were plenty of people to clean up and reset the hall for Sunday morning.
Just looking at (or anticipating) all of the popcorn and chips scattered on the floor would prevent many churches from doing this. But the clean up was fast and fun -- yes, I said fun -- as it looked like the people were genuinely enjoying their service to others!

Sunday morning was more of the same hospitality and joy. Pastor Rob is truly blessed to be serving a people that show their love for one another and the community around them. The young staff is energetic and tends to infuse their enthusiasm into the rest of the congregation. It is so much easier to preach to a church full of folks that are happy about serving and worshiping our God and Savior.

After church I changed into my riding gear, loaded up the bike, had lunch with the pastor and headed home. The day was warm (low 90s, 33-34c) and traffic was light. As I neared Springfield, the wind started to pick up and I could see rain ahead. I stopped to check the weather radar for the route and decided to push on. Later, I stopped again to put on my rain gear and did run into some rain before making it home. However, I was treated to a bright and magnificent rainbow as compensation for my short ride in the rain.

I doubt that I'll get much riding in for the remainder of September. I've a lawn to mow, groceries to buy, and other household chores to tend to. On Saturday, I get to celebrate with a friend as he gets married.

It has been a grand month.
I hope that yours has also been a fun adventure.
Finish it well.
Tell somebody -- God loves you. Jesus died for you.

John <><

Road Trip; the little guy

I was blessed to be able to be the first member of the Hill side of the family to greet our newest member.

I left my lunch meeting in Virginia and headed westward toward Fletcher NC, adding NC as the 15th state to enter on my journey. Jessica missed our family reunion this summer since she was late in her pregnancy and leave management for a young family can be an issue. Originally, I wasn't sure if a stop to see them would work out and I really was concerned about adding to an already overwhelming situation.

When I arrived late in the evening, Jason was out picking up some things for dinner. Jess came out to greet me and introduce me to the dogs. Bella was not a happy dog.
Before making my way to the back gate, Jess had me remove my jacket, gloves and cap. Apparently, Bella already has issues with strange men and those things don't help.

I was the first unfamiliar person to come to the house since baby Jacob arrived and Bella was going to do her best to make sure that I was okay. It took her quite a while to relax. Jason's arrival helped, but even then she positioned herself on the floor between me and who ever was holding the baby.

I got the home tour, enjoyed dinner and our visit, but also worried about being an intrusion as they make adjustments in their new world of life with an infant.

Although they offered their couch, I knew that a less than a week old baby was enough and opted for a nearby motel. Jess' mom was there and using the guest room, so one more person and a nervous dog was an unnecessary burden.

I enjoyed our visit but also wanted to leave when Jacob started his post dinner nap. I know that sleep time can be a precious thing for new parents and wanted them to be able to take advantage of his sleep time to get some of their own.

It had been a good day.
And the next day was the ride to the Dragon!

John <><

Here's a pic of me with Jason, Jessica and Jacob.

Road Trip; more people

After meeting with Bill in the DC area of NoVa, I traveled south until Fredricksburg where I overnighted at a cheap motel. I was able to sleep in a bit before traveling to meet an old friend from my days of being active with our controllers' union.

For my entire career, Adell Humphreys was the lady that kept NATCA running smoothly. Even while the officers of the organization changed, Adell was always there to maintain the office and acclimate new officers to their posts. It's true that she worked for NATCA and she has recently referred to me as one of her 15,000 bosses. But her leadership in guiding the office staff never went unnoticed by those of us that were privileged to work with her.

I have to admit that I always felt that my role in NATCA was pretty small and insignificant and am somewhat surprised that I have Adell and a few past officers as social media contacts. In any case, it has been more than a decade since I have been to any NATCA events so I was looking forward to this meeting.
I think Adell retired from her service to NATCA a little before I retired as a controller. Retirement is looking good on her. Like me, she has taken to motorcycle riding in retirement and is learning to enjoy the road on two wheels. She is engaged to be married and her guy, Stan, seems like a great guy. I was so pleased to get to meet him. I always enjoy talking cigars with someone that enjoys a good smoke and we exchanged a few cigars over lunch.

We met at a truck stop just off the highway and then rode our bikes to lunch.
Stan said, "John, we're taking to to lunch at a gas station!"

Some of the best places to eat are local dives.
This little BBQ place was busy for the lunch hour. Four state police cars were in the parking lot and several construction workers were there as well as a few local couples. I figured that they were taking me to one of their favorite places for a reason. I had a pulled pork sandwich with slaw and a little spicy sauce and was not disappointed! I don't remember the name of the place, but I'm sure one of them can help me by leaving it in the comments.
Once again, the conversation was easy and I think Stan and I did most of the talking with Adell just listening. I doubt an observer would have guessed that we just met.

I still had several hours of highway ahead of me, so they guided me back to the highway and we said our goodbyes. Stan gave me a good route to follow (was one of google's alternate routes) and I figured to take advantage of his experience over google (remember the ferry in Detroit?).

It was great to hit the road with a full belly and a light heart.

John <><

Road Trip, a few of the people I met

Several years ago, I was looking at some random blogs (something I haven't done in a long time) and ran across one that was written by a fellow air traffic controller. I started following his blog and found out that he is also a minister!

He was active in his NATCA (our controller's union) local (Boston Tower) and I had also been pretty active in NATCA. It turns out that Tom (TC) and I have been to several NATCA events, but never met each other. After retiring, Tom returned to full time ministry and now pastors the oldest Congregational church in the US. It was founded in 1623!
We have been friends on Faecbook and he has been one of several NATCA people that I was looking forward to meeting.

We did!
I managed to make it to Boston in time to experience the afternoon rush hour.
OH JOY!
When I left Steve's place in Vermont it was 56 degrees (13.3C) so I opted for a light shirt and left the lining in my jacket. By the time I reached Boston, the temp was mid 80s (30C) and I was regretting the lining -- especially with traffic moving slowly or not at all.

Imagine for yourself:
It's almost 90 degrees (32C)
You're in a long tunnel filled with cars and trucks adding engine exhaust to the heat of the day
You're wearing a lined motorcycle jacket, heavy denim jeans, and a helmet
You're sitting on a hot running engine
And YOU'RE NOT MOVING!

It was pretty brutal.

But I made my way to Weymouth on Boston's south side and met up with TC at his church office.
He took me out for a wonderful dinner of pan seared scallops and lobster risotto. We visited like old friends and it didn't feel at all like this was our first time to sit down and visit over a meal. He took me back to the church where I reloaded the bike and made my way on down the road another hour or so before stopping for the night.

The following day I was on the road to meet with yet another long time blogging friend in the DC area of northern Virginia. Bill has met a number of his blogging friends and added me to his growing list. I don't have as many followers and have cut down on the number of blogs I follow, but I have managed to meet a few of you and would love to meet more.
I met Bill at a little diner at the Springfield Mall -- Springfield VA, that is.

One might think that two guys that met for the first time would have a difficult time with conversation, but that just wasn't the case. It was an enjoyable respite from the road, especially when you consider that I also managed to hit DC for the evening traffic!

We managed to get our waiter to take the picture and it turned out much better than if I would have attempted another selfie shot.

Then it was back into traffic for another hour or so to move a little further down the road.

I'll post more from the road trip tomorrow. If you're a reader and want to meet, let me know. I'm sure that there is a highway that connects us and a future road trip to be planned.
(And if there is a major or minor league baseball team nearby the odds of a visit increase dramatically!)

John <><

Road Trip, Home

It's Monday morning and I am sitting in my home, drinking coffee from one of my favorite mugs.

I've been perusing Facebook and thinking that I should start writing about the adventures of my journey.
The thoughts that come to me this morning are that I am so blessed to be able to do such a ride. Even though Chris has no desire to ride, she is very supportive of my doing so and is willing to stay home while I take to the road.

The early retirement (and good retirement package) that I enjoy from my service as an air traffic controller is not lost on me. I know that few people find themselves in my position at this age. We are not wealthy by any means, but we are doing quite well as middle class Americans.

Because I was traveling alone, I didn't do much sight seeing that couldn't be done from the road and on the seat of my motorcycle. I'm not disappointed about that, but it seems necessary to mention that this trip was more about the ride ... and the personal visits.

In the end, if I had to pick a favorite part of the journey, it would be the one thing that started the whole process -- visiting with my brother in Vermont.
Steve lives in a small, seasonal cabin on Lake Champlain. He lives where other people vacation or go to get away from their normal lives. He hikes and camps in the Adirondack Mountains, kayaks on the lake or on any of the mountain rivers and streams. He'll have to vacate his cabin in the winter (lake living is seasonal and some services like water and septic are off during the winter) and find another place to live for a few months. Last year, he wintered in a house on nearby Mt Philo.

As I was preparing to leave, Steve picked up a voice mail from a friend asking if he was going camping on the weekend and if they could tag along.
Yep -- when others are starting to think that it's getting a little chilly to escape to the lake, he's packing up for a primitive camp in the mountains!

I really enjoyed our visit. We talked about our kids and what great adults they've turned out to be. We talked about life, family, work, and whatever came to mind. We ate a pizza by the lake as the sun set over the mountains, hiked up Mt Philo, toured the Shelburne Museum, walked the lake walk in Burlington and visited some of the shops, and we took the kayaks out for a paddle on the lake. (I kind of got my fat ass stuck in the kayak!)  I ate Steve's vegan diet at his place and indulged in a burger at the Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington, and a roast beef sandwich at his friend's after our hike.
In spite of the activity, it was a relaxing couple of days.
Did I mention that it was my favorite part of the journey?

Because I'm not much of a selfie picture taking guy, I regret that I didn't snag a pic of the two of us. I didn't think of that until I was riding through the Green Mountains on my way out of Vermont. I also missed the early photo ops with Mom and Dad, Aaron and Jenny, and Jo and Gord.
Dang!
At least I was able to get a few pics with people after that.

I'll have more on the people, places and food in future posts.
Today, I'm going to enjoy being home.

John <><

Road Trip, Riding the Dragon

Today was a short mileage day, but a fun mileage day.
I checked off a motorcycle bucket list item and rode the Dragon.
Along the way I had some great conversations with shop owners and other riders.

As with the rest of the trip, I'll work on posting more about the ride when I get back home and have time to sort it out in my head. Until then, here are a few pics from the day.

John <><

Road Trip, Day 11 Changing plans

So one of the freedoms of no schedule is being able to change plans mid-trip.

I'm to the place that I can ride two pretty moderate days or three pretty easy days to wrap things up. I'll be honest -- I'm looking forward to being home. Living out of a suitcase when you're staying in one place for a week or so is one thing; changing locations everyday is a figurative pain in the butt.

I'm thinking of going two days and I think I'll stretch them a bit and swing to the south and add a few more states to the list. If I head south to Huntsville AL, I'll drive the eastern part of Tennessee, cut the corner of Georgia and then pick up Mississippi and Arkansas on the way home. I'll miss Kentucky (which was on my planned route), but gain the four other states.

So far I've managed to touch MO, IL, IN, MI, VT, NH, ME, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, DE, MD,VA and NC. I also managed DC in rush hour and traveled two Canadian provinces.

I guess if I'm going to do that, I should get going! I'll write about the journey when I'm sitting comfortably on my own sofa and sipping a cup of coffee.
Until then, here are a couple of pics from the people I visited with yesterday.

The lady that kept NATCA together for my entire career and her soon-to-be husband

My new great nephew

...oh yeah, and his parents!

More later.
Be safe and keep an eye out for old guys on motorcycles.

John <><

Road Trip, not an update

I know I should be keeping up with the daily reports, but freedom is a wonderful thing and I just haven't.
I had planned to over coffee this morning, but find that my laptop is dead and it's too nice to have coffee inside. I'm going to continue sitting outside and will have to update you when I have my laptop charged and am not thumb tapping on my phone.

Let's just say that I am enjoying the ride!
I've visited with family and friends. I've met some new people and seen some of the beauty of the land.

I'm sure today will be another grand day!
Be safe!

John <><