Warning lable:

Given the technologies of heated gear, GPS, communications, tracking, bike handling... more people are driving longer trips on less charted roads in a motorcycle season that is approaching 10 - 12 months...   

Remember, when all the gadgets die it's you with an engine and two wheels that need to make it back.

Photo Day. GA, FL

Took time to pull over a few times and shoot some rural color along two-lane roads...  Waycross, GA to Sanderson, FL.  Not many structures to be found that would allow random shooting...  Abandoned fuel station ($1.45 was last posted price.gal.)   

Wonder how many families had pulled in there on vacation?   Whose shoes were left behind?  Imagine the fish stories shared by good old boys over Saturday morning coffee.

Travel included visit to tourism location with an elevated structure completely cut off from dry land by high water.  Met another BMW 1200 driver, Phil Reedy, originally from Tower City, PA.  Now in Ormond Beach and welcoming me to visit next time in town.

A BMW Rider friend just shared her thoughts about asking each person met along the trail for their contact info...   Something that I often forget to do...   Most people are pleased that someone valued the meeting enough to ask...   Will try to keep that habit going.   Will be a good topic for another article.

Heading further south found Rt 93 heading to the left (East) that wasn't on my chart...   figuring that it had to come out somewhere north of the pond I hit the blinker and went exploring.   Pretty country but not much variety to see...  quite a few cows and lots of pine trees... and Baptist churches...

At the intersection which would head straight south to Sanderson i spotted the abandoned Chevron station.  This little location turned up quite a few interesting shots...   There are likely half dozen more that I haven't gotten to processing yet.

The red panel, just above, is from the rail car sitting in the parking lot of the Fargo Charter School.  Getting things in order with the paragraphs here is something my biographer can do in a few years...

More to follow.

Some days I find myself waking, breakfast, putting off any riding to later in the day and then opting for a beer and tan maintenance instead...   where does that dome from?  All these sand roads around me and I haven't gotten out there...  although riding alone isn't the same as with a partner.  Sometimes aloner is better.

Thinking about videos and how to package results from a day or weekend... Here's a photo shoot that I did for a guy in CA back in January.

 https://plus.google.com/108474721505505420021/posts/j6wQrW1Sqnb

 A photo friend of mine back in PA calls those Lifestyle Portraits.   Views of someone in their own element...  

Next project: put together a 2 to 4 minute video of someone... like yourself, with videos while riding, relaxing, with friends, doing adjustments and more riding...   I have a way that I like to collect audio separate from the video process.   Will share that later.  

Same idea for an event... like... let's see... the GA North Mt Rally...   Clips of people arriving, rides, food, campfire and tear-down...   audio clips separately.   Package it after the weekend...  

Anyway...  mind is working.   see blog post on ADHD.  

Now to find cup, tea and hotplate... and then I know this patch of mud that is aching for knobbies...

 

Camp hosting 101

So what's it like to be a camp host?  Sorta like being a homeowner of couple hundred acres with tons of relatives visiting every weekend.   There isn't much of a schedule, usually.   And the assignment list is, "Do everything that you see that needs doing."

My preference is to find assignments at locations that are small and have only one or two hosts.   One is better...   one less person to have an opinion on how the grass should be mowed, or whither the glass is clean.

To make it interesting some times one must be creative...   Going to the 'office' doesn't have to be the direct route:



~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When it comes to items found on in the park, there are several options...   I try to figure out why something was left behind and where it could be returned or put to use.

Take these squirt guns, for example...   found on picnic table after a busy weekend...   Not something that is

worth returning for, so we don't need to hold them for a week for possible claim.   In all likelyhood some dad had the kids and hit Walmart for entertainment toys on the way to the beach...  One of two things caused them to be left behind:

A)   Dad know mom isn't in to guns... "Let's leave them here for some other kids to enjoy.  You know that bitch of a mother won't let you in the house with them..."

or
B)   Dad knows that if he takes the kids home and mom finds out that he was using the AK-47 against the kids with 6-shooters, his ass is dead in the water...

~~~~~~~~~~
Under the category of "Needs done."    Upon arrival I visited my assigned beach to see what it wa
s like...   sort of like seaweed-central...   bushels of yuck washed ashore and no evidence of a caretaker...

Families are paying $50/day to use this camp area and I find ceiling lights burnt-out, beach unkept, fire pit overflowing with ashes...

Taking a couple days to spruce things up...   rake up the big stuff.   then rake the surface end-to-end a couple times...

Well, now... Lookie there!  trash and grass all gone.  Looking suitable for swimming. volleyball or cookout.  Nice job Jeff!

Hotplate uses.

Dipped strips of newspaper in melted candle wax to make  fire starter sheets.  Tried same with couple dryer sheets to see if it also repels mosquitos when added to camp fire.  

This is also probably a good way to set the cabin on file and get tagged for a meth-lab wannabe.

Breakfast is a one-pot meal with Onions, sausage, garlic and eggs.  Simmer each item until about ready and then add the next.

Warming toes and drying helmet after rain day also works.   I leave the plate plugged in overnight to keep the dampness out of the tent or cabin.  Don't try this at home.

Good morning, sleeping friend...  although you may be blinking to dawn by now...  Remembering hours of lovely conversation.

Woke to chirping birds and warm beer.   Walked cross beach to comfort station.  fried onions, sausage, garlic and eggs for breakfood.  One dish marvel.  burnt tip of thumb.  Looked a couple hundred of your photos.  Fun to look back through your eyes and your adventures and imagine the miles between.  Imagining miles to come.  Looking up your backside from 29 yards back to the tune of tar strips on old Rt 66.  Winding our way to a sunset moment.

Now to drag at least a small sebment of my mind back to camp and do a few constructive things here... light bulbs to change.   Towel dispensers to fill.   

Must stop to Ace Hardware today.   Looking at google maps to see if I can go 20 miles to town without following any roads with lines on them.  Will let you know now I do... gotta love google maps.

Enjoy your morning, Ms. C.

Jeff

My roll is society,,, My roll in my life...

Someone says to me, every couple weeks... "I wish I could life like you."   

My ex just text'd me last weekend... "Must be nice to be rich."   5 years ago our (then high school) daughter posted something about, "I know I'm rich, but I'm not arrogant..."

So what is it like to be rich?   Who defines "rich?"      I think I am rich on the starving-artist scale of poverty-to-published...   Every day is my own...   I kick myself when I waste one.   I get off on standing on picnic tables sweeping them so some unknown family can enjoy a picnic net weekend.  When was the last time your mom let you stand on the picnic table?   This is rich!

We all put in out years of contributing to the national gross profit.   Earn a "living" so our kids can enjoy life and start out on their own.   My contributing years were engineering/plant managing and then sales and marketing.  I sold for AutoTrader.com which sold pixels and search results so that dealers could sell cars so manufacturers could sell them the vehicles so that people in Detroit could sell their labor and buy cars...   Is that a food loop or a food chain?

Now I get my check on the 3rd and don't worry about much of anything.   

OK, so that's not entirely true.   Last night I worried about how hard it was raining and was I going to be uncomfortable.   Did I take all my electronics off of the picnic table so they don't get wet (no... drat).     Will my phone battery last until dawn.   How bad is the national debt?  (well,,, I just threw that one in there to be part of the main-stream... I really don't give a hoot...)

As long as the National Forest Service can afford to let Volunteers like me work for free I can make this work.   Worst thing that could happen is that I get laid off...   Not sure how that would work...   

So... back to the question "Live like you."  or living-the-dream...   So what's keeping you from doing it?  What is it that you can't walk away from?   Unfortunately 4 of my childhood friends decided that life had no options and they took their life and ended the journey prematurely.   That sort of sets one extreme end of the spectrum.  How can a problem be so huge that one would end their life over it?   

One management guru suggested that, "Any problem that you can buy your way out of is not a problem."   I did have a few of those...   Things like speeding tickets and taxes...   ex's.   Child support.  

What problem could you not just walk away from?   You can always consider the consequences and live with them...  Like bills...   All they can do is pester you...   How late in life does one need a credit rating, anyway...   It's not like your heirs can borrow about your great credit.   

So tomorrow... (I think the sun comes up in 90 minutes...) I unlock the gate to the beach at 8:00AM.  Fix potatoes, onions, garlic, sausage and eggs on my multi-purpose hotplate and tackle the challenges of being a free-lance photographer/journalist/camp host.  I need a photo of a toad and one of a frog... they have been begging for attention.  

More to follow.

When is a writer not a writer?

I started out thinking this was about me, but I guess it is pretty universal...   If I don't blog today am I still a blogger?   Or are those days the ones where thinking and living are creating the thoughts for another day.

This afternoon I remembered the Saturday in November that a camper named Joey kept telling me...   "The color is still getting better..."   .    I had already shot several nice sunset pics at El Mirage Dry Lake and I was about to sit back for a glass of wine and call it a day...   Joey, 50 or so camping parent, not a photographer, kept saying... "Wait two more munites!"   And every two minutes the colors became richer.   The sun dropped lower, the clouds moved and picked up the reds and oranges of the sunset...   and the photos kept getting better.

There is this tree over by the boat launch that has been nagging at me... bare of leaves, draped in spanish moss, alone in the water among lilly pads and grasses.  The moss is somewhere between silver and green.  Sometimes it's dark and with the lighting just right it is glowing white.   I walked down there this today several times to see what mood it was in.   Took a few initial shots... will continue.

Good project tree... as is another near the parking lot.








Later I waited for sunset...   Waited until I was afraid that I would miss it entirely and walked back to the pier.   I caught the last 5 minutes of the sunset and some nice Florida tree silhouettes.  Let me edit those shots and see what they yield... more to follow.

Why should I blog? - Answer is from my readers...

I sit here looking at 2" of water in front of the shed that I moved into at 2:00 AM this morning... Torrential downpour and tent was having some drip issues.   After I got up this morning I fied hot sausage, potato and egg breakfast on the hotplate sitting cross legged on my sleeping pad on the floor...   Then I headed to showers to freshen up and start chores.

Stay with me... this is leading to a good awakening...

Threw a few damp belongings into the dryer and took the mop with me to the adjacent shower room.   Cranking up the hot water I drug the mop around the room to clean up the tracks from weekend visitors.   Extra water from the shower made it easy to drench and clean well.

Finishing shower I dressed in warm duds right from the drier...  then the phone rang...

Ringgggg...    'Hello, This is Jeff.'

"Hey, Jeff, this is Bob Fallia.  Got a minute?"

Bob and I met last July at Hermy's BMW when we were both there for service.   Been following each other's blogs and adventures ever since.   

Bob, "Where on earth are you now?  Photos are great... wish you would write more...  You have such an opportunity to bee traveling and  enjoying the adventure...  "

We talked about travels and blogging...   He reminded me that a boring day in the FL rain was nicer than the same day in the Northeast for the past 4+ months of winter.  He looks to my stories to find encouragement for the warmer months to come.   

That thought is inspiring me to get off my duff and write more...   even some of the basic non-event days...   God gave me this opportunity for a reason... I should not ignore that gift...  let me re-gift my  opportunity in stories and photos... more to follow.

Personal family losses.

Good Morning!   Hope all is well with you guys. My sister Pam called Monday morning to tell me that My uncle Vern "Woodie" Woodard had passed away.  He had been in failing health for some time.  Hadn't seen him for many years.   Elta is his wife and Doug (retired military) and Cherie are his kids.  Both about my age. Last night she called again to let me know that Uncle Kenny had passed away in his sleep in his home in Sunnyvale, CA.   He was about 80 and on daily dialysis.  I saw him in February for lunch and a visit to his house with Uncle Fred.   Kenny was a fancy dresser and loved ballroom dancing.   We had a birthday party for him when I was visiting about 8 years ago and he showed up in suit and tie.   Last few years he had bad dementia but was very pleasant and talkative when I was there.   I don't remember who his kids are... Will ask Aunt Pam.   He had several dirt bikes in his garage... immaculate house keeper. I don't think any of us kids are heading to the ceremonies. Have a great week...   hugs. Jeff

Other places that I post.

If you don't already know my stuff, you can see day to day things on my Facebook page>   Kurtzinpa.    It's not all motorcycle travel specific, but it's usually more current than what I get posted here.

http://KurtzInPa.WhereAmIRiding.com  is a tracking site that follows my recent travels.   If the page is blank it just means that I haven't had the tracker turned on in a day or so.   If is is showing locations that are significant distances apart it is showing the last few locations where I had the tracker turned on just to mark a location.

Writers block

May 4th...  two weeks with nothing posted... where does the time go?

Was in Tellico Plains for March Moto Madness, visited friend in GA, now to FL for May assignment at Oceam Pond, Olustee Beach.

Photos and videos to post...  stories to be told...   Gotta get motivated.

Am working on voice -to-text tool which Google may offer.   Wired microphone and headset to helmet cam... still figuring that out.   Hoping to post something intelligible soon.

Happy day.  Jeff