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?FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2012 file photo, TV personality Maria Menounos arrives before the 84th Academy Awards in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Menounos will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition, premiering March 19. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2012 file photo, TV personality Maria Menounos arrives before the 84th Academy Awards in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Menounos will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition, premiering March 19. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2012 file photo, British singer, Katherine Jenkins performs at the New Oxford Theatre, Oxford. Jenkins will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition, premiering March 19. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short, file)
FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2008 file photo, Cuban actor William Levy is shown during the filming of an episode of the "Cuidado con el Angel" or "Careful with the Angel" sopa opera at Televisa Network studios in Mexico City. Levy will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition, premiering March 19. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, file)
FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2011 file photo, actor Jack Wagner arrives for the Shooting Stars Benefit in London. Wagner will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition, premiering March 19. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short, file)
FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2012 file photo, former tennis player Martina Navratilova, arrives for the Laureus World Sports Awards in London. Navratilova will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition, premiering March 19. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Urkel, the Empress of Soul and one of the Green Bay Packers are waltzing onto "Dancing With the Stars."
"Family Matters" actor Jaleel White, singer Gladys Knight and National Football League player Donald Driver will be among the 12 celebrity contestants on the next season of the ABC dancing competition. Other famous faces participating in the 14th edition include "The View" co-host Sherri Shepherd, singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw, "Little House on the Prairie" actress Melissa Gilbert and Disney Channel star Roshon Fegan.
The new cast, which also includes tennis player Martina Navratilova, "Melrose Place" actor Jack Wagner, telenovela star William Levy, operatic singer Katherine Jenkins and "Extra" co-host Maria Menounos, was announced Tuesday on "Good Morning America." The contestants will dance their first routines with their professional partners March 19 and March 26, and the first couple will be eliminated March 27.
Last season, actor J.R. Martinez and professional partner Karina Smirnoff took home the mirrorball trophy with reality TV star Rob Kardashian and partner Cheryl Burke coming in second place in front of former talk show host Ricki Lake and partner Derek Hough. Other previous champions include "Dirty Dancing" actress Jennifer Grey, Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger and gymnast Shawn Johnson.
___
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.
___
Online:
http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars
___
AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang/.
Associated PressNews Topics: Talk shows, Television programs, Dance, Celebrity, Entertainment, Arts and entertainment, Performing arts, Reality TV, Sports TV, Sports media, Sportsat the drive in jay z new song torrie wilson alabama lsu bcs national championship bcs championship bcs national championship 2012
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When the night falls, Ningbo takes on a charming atmosphere, enveloped in colorful neon lights. The night cruise ships on the Yong River slowly sail around this attractive city showing passengers a different image of the city. The night views of Lao Waitan in the Sanjiangkou area endow Ningbo with charms of a modern city but unlike the bustling big cities, the night scenery reveals a sense of peace and leisure.
Bars and clubs in Ningbo are springing up like mushrooms after rain all over the city. They wake up the nightlife of this peaceful city in the south of the Yangtze River.
Clubs & Bars
A8 Music Club Music in various styles, carefully prepared by the DJ, creates an upbeat, happy atmosphere.
Haishu location
Address: No.158, Kaiming Street, Haishu District
Open Hours: 20:00-02:00
Bus Route: 15
Beilun location
Address: No. 588, Huashan Road, Beilun District
Half Past Eight Club
Address: 12F, Gate of No.7, Tianyi Square
Open Hours: 19:30-04:00
Bus Route: 3,12,10,15,19,515,517,7,357
LBB Beer House
Hidden down a small alley right in the middle of Ningbo you will find LBB the longest running bar in Ningbo, from the outside it can only be identified by its traditional red moon door. Mainly frequented by foreign traders, musicians, artists and teachers of all ages.
Address: 14-1 Dahe Alley, Zhongshan East Road
Open Hours: Sun. - Thu.: 18:00-2:30; Fri. & Sat.: 18:00-4:30
Bourbon Street
Address: No.5, 68 Lane, Zhongma Road, Lao Waitan
Coco Banana Bar
Address: 1F, Sub-building Citic Ningbo International Hotel, No.1, Jiangdong North Road, Jiangdong District
Tea Houses:
Yihe Tea House
Address: No.17, Lao Waitan, Jiangbei District
Qingyuan Tea House
Tianyi location
Address: 4F, No.4 Gate, Tianyi Square, Zhongshan East Road, Haishu District'
Yuehu location
Address: No. 536, Zhenming Road, Haishu District
Taihe Tea House
Address: No. 25, Huaian Alley, Lingqiao Road, Haishu District
Caf?s:
Starbucks Caf? (Lao Waitan location)
Address: No.123, Waima Street
Dilai Caf?
Address: No. 768-788, Lingqiao Raod, Haishu District
Source: http://travel1680.blogspot.com/2012/02/ningbo-nightlife.html
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That date can only choose a suit, but the black-tie options are limitless. Whether you choose satin or beads, prolonged party dresses, remember that the black dress is for the formal party. 1. Select a style and trousers this her figure, highlighting its assets and minimizing the problem party dresses for women. 2. Search full-length gowns, lengths ranging across the knee are generally considered semiformal. 3. Consider the material and texture. Silk, satin, embroidery, pearls, rhinestones, velvet and metal are very suitable for formal attire. 4. Evaluate your options if you decide to use a set of two pieces. Link an upper area of accounts with a long duration, slim velvet skirt, or a silk organza blouse with a full satin skirt reaching the ankles. 5. Remember that your options are limitless Consider wearing spaghetti straps or a necklace of precious fretboard. Plunging back neckline or revealing forehead. And side vents or back Some events may call a more conservative fit with, so consider this when making your party dresses for women. 6. Choose colors that complement your complexion. Black will be color of the night only. Deep reds and plums, soft pastels and silver and gold can be seen every bit as impressive. Hair, makeup and accessories 1. Enjoy a manicure, a pedicure and choose, if you wear open shoes. 2. Match the lips and nail color. No lips or dramatic eyes more pronounced, but avoid the two together, as well as may seem over done. 3. Choose a hairstyle that is different from every day. Curl gel in place, or bar inside a romantic updo or ponytail stain. 4. Choose earrings that complement the colors and the settings on your computer pearls look fantastic with sets of accounts,. Diamonds or zirconia accent full of rhinestones and party dresses for women. 5. Hang a bracelet or two of your wrist when your arm a bracelet strip complement a short-sleeved blouse,. One gold or bandwidth of rhinestones will work efficiently with a strapless number. 6. A complement of light silk or satin dress with sandals or slippers mules. Colored velvet or satin pumps are very effective with heavier materials. 7. Select a small clutch minibag or the same material, color and finish of the family as his team. Black-tie events are no place for purses spacious. All you need is your compact lipstick, recommendations, ID and cash.
The collection of fashionable dresses of spring-summer surprises always displayed as an explosion of colors. Ringtones dominate and orange tiles that emulate the Martian surface, the energy of fuchsia, blue and turquoise sea, all used some stunning dresses which experts claim become an ode to femininity.
Highlights of the collection are perhaps their dresses below the knee, which have the air folk, and with striking necklines decorandos flyers and puffy sleeved blouses wide, representing an ethereal version of this architectural designs Dolman from previous seasons.
As for footwear, include the use of elegant gold sandals made in whitening strips with wedge edge, reminiscent of marked Egyptian.
We all know how important accessories to give the perfect touch that will our fashionable dresses. The trends in accessories for spring-summer takes its inspiration from many sources. From the ethnic or even tribal style, to literature to create very original handbags.
Abound giant wooden bracelets in bright colors, playing with the actual contrast and size.
Other trends in accessories that are consuming the bib necklaces, which are the most chic, turbans, the brimmed, a basic fashion, especially the variant takes wing molded in size XL.
As for bags, we must mention the famous handbag amazing book, has become a success.
Belts are another basic style. The knot has given approach to a thousand laps around the planet. No longer be inserted through the buckle, it is now tied to the actual belt itself.
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It was a day of firsts for the Nebraska baseball team (1-3, 0-0 Big Ten) on Friday, as sophomore Zach Hirsch picked up his first win and Head Coach Darin Erstad earned his first win as the Huskers' head coach in a 5-2 win over the Utah Utes. Hirsch and the rest of the pitching staff allowed more than one hit in an inning just once in the ball game, while the Husker offense pounded out five runs on 12 hits.
Hirsch, a native of St. Charles, Ill., gave the Huskers six strong innings in his second start of the season. The 6-4 lefty doubled his previous career high of three strikeouts with six on the afternoon and gave up just one earned run. Junior right-hander Travis Huber shut the door for the Huskers in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning to earn his first save as a Husker, after Dylan Vogt pitched 1.2 innings of shutout baseball.
Junior Richard Stock powered the Husker offense with a 3-for-4 performance, including a double, and one RBI. Rich Sanguinetti, Austin Darby and Cory Burleson each had two hits in the game, with Burleson also producing an RBI. The Huskers were aggressive on the base paths with four stolen bases, including two from Darby. Last season, the Huskers stole four or bases just twice with a five against both Nebraska-Kearny and Oklahoma State.
After catching a couple of bad breaks on the bases paths in the first three innings, the Huskers broke through in the bottom of the fourth with four runs on four hits. Sanguinetti and Darby started the inning with back-to-back singles, including a hit-and-run from Darby that moved Sanguinetti to third. Chad Christensen was up next and drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Stock followed with a two-RBI single for his second hit of the game after leading off the second with a double off the right field wall. Burleson kept the Huskers rolling with another single to drive in Christensen and gave NU runners at first and third with no out. Following a walk to Scheffert to again load the bases, the Utes got their first out of the inning on a force out of Stock at home. Nebraska scored another run during Bryan Peters' at bat off a wild pitch from Josh Chapman, before the Utes' right hander retied Peters and Ty Kildow to end the inning.
The Utes finally got to Hirsch in the top of the sixth to put a run on the board. Parker Morin started everything with a one-out single and Trey Nielsen followed with a walk before Jo Jo Sharrar knocked in Morin with a single to right field. Hirsch quickly put an end to the Utes' rally, as he got Ethan Leiter to ground into an inning-end 4-6-3 double play.
Nebraska got the run back in the bottom of the sixth by getting active on the bases. With runners at first and second following a double from Scheffert and an infield single from Blake Headley, Erstad dialed up a double steal and the Utes' third baseman was unable to field the throw, allowing Scheffert to score easily and put the Huskers up 5-1.
Freshman Jeff Stovall took the mound in the top of the seventh for his first appearance as a Husker and started out well with a fly out. Utah then put the pressure on with a single and two walks to load the bases with one out. Erstad went to Vogt and the veteran from Omaha came to the rescue by getting the next two Utah batters out, but the Utes scored one run on Shaun Cooper's diving catch by Kildow on the left field warning track for the second out.
After blowing a pair of saves last Saturday and Sunday, Erstad brought in Huber to take a shot at the closer role. The College of Southern Idaho needed just 13 pitches to secure the win.
The Huskers will play their first double header of the 2012 season tomorrow when they meet the Utes for another game at 3 p.m., before facing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. NU is set to send sophomore Jon Keller to the mound in game one and junior Tom Lemke will start his first game of the season in the nightcap. Fans can listen to both games on the Husker Sports Network, Huskers.com or the Official Husker App.
Courtesy: Nebraska Media Relations
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Some individuals take home improvement very seriously. When they choose to improve upon their homes, they really go all out and knock down walls, add on rooms, and change the layout of their property. If you?re thinking of building any type of improvement at all but don?t have the know how required, read this article.
If you are taking on your project lonely, consider hiring a interior designer for a consultation. An hour with a professional can help clarify what you want to do and help steer you away from those projects that sound excellent in your head but would be a nightmare to complete.
If you have hired an outside service to aid you a home improvement project ? always inspect the finished work thoroughly ? before paying the final installment for the services. By conducting this inspection, you have a better chance of getting discrepancies and deficiencies in the contracted work corrected. Once you have paid in full, it is much harder to get these issues remedied!
When painting your walls, it is vital to make sure to properly tape off the trim. Paint has a tendency to run regardless of how careful you are when painting. Taping off the trim of a room can help to insure that you do not get paint on it. If paint does run onto the trim you may have to repaint it.
If you are thinking in this area repainting the exterior of your home and the unfilled paint is in excellent shape, pressure wash the outside of the home prior to putting on new primer. This will get any dirt and debris off the ancient paint and give the primer a excellent surface to bond with.
Upgrade your kitchen to improve home regard quickly. Kitchen improvements can be as simple as refreshing paint or wallpaper or as complex as installing new cabinetry, appliances or flooring. You can do most kitchen improvements yourself or contract with a professional for more hard bits and pieces. Investing in your kitchen makes your home more enjoyable for yourself and your family, and it also increases the home regard should you ever choose to sell your house.
Always select energy-efficient windows for home improvement projects. Modern windows conserve energy in a diversity of ways, from unique glass coatings to tight-sealing gaskets. The most efficient of modern double-glazed windows even have noble-gas-filled glazing cavities to prevent heat transmission. High-tech windows can help the homeowner realize significant savings on heating and cooling.
Always make sure to shut the water off for any kitchen or bathroom improvements. You should always know where the water shutoff valve is, and turn it off when working near water pipes or a water supply to make sure that you do not make a flood of water. Building sure to do this can prevent water hurt to your newly remodeled or simplified spaces.
The dominant weather conditions in your region should be taken into tab when you are taking into account which home improvement projects to take on. Regardless of how much you might want a specific new feature, sometimes it might be impractical because of the weather. For model, a complex backyard char-grill project would not be a very excellent thought in the Appeasing Northwest because of the high amounts of rain in that area.
If you want to do contracting, you need to make sure that you have the proper insurance before you start. There are a lot of people who choose to do home improvement jobs without being properly insured who then end up owing a lot of money when something goes incorrect that they did not even consider.
So, as you have seen, it is straight that home-improvement requires research, work, and try to start improving your home. It is also right that in order to see consequences that you have to keep at it. Keeping the aforementioned tips in mind, you are well on your way to being successful with it.
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Source: http://articlehub.in/2012/home-improvement-tips-that-wont-break-the-budget/
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Egyptian policemen sit in front of Egyptian employees of several pro-democracy groups charged with using foreign funds to foment unrest during their trial in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Egypt went forward with a trial Sunday that has plunged relations with the U.S. into the deepest crisis in decades, prosecuting 16 Americans and 27 other employees of pro-democracy groups. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptian policemen sit in front of Egyptian employees of several pro-democracy groups charged with using foreign funds to foment unrest during their trial in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Egypt went forward with a trial Sunday that has plunged relations with the U.S. into the deepest crisis in decades, prosecuting 16 Americans and 27 other employees of pro-democracy groups. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptian protesters chant anti-military ruling slogans during a trial of employees of pro-democracy groups charged with using foreign funds to foment unrest in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Egypt went forward with a trial Sunday that has plunged relations with the U.S. into the deepest crisis in decades, prosecuting 16 Americans and 27 other employees of pro-democracy groups. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptian policemen stand in front of Egyptian employees of several pro-democracy groups charged with using foreign funds to foment unrest during their trial in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Egypt went forward with a trial Sunday that has plunged relations with the U.S. into the deepest crisis in decades, prosecuting 16 Americans and 27 other employees of pro-democracy groups. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt went forward with a trial Sunday that has plunged relations with the U.S. into the deepest crisis in decades, prosecuting 16 Americans and 27 other employees of pro-democracy groups on charges they used foreign funds to foment unrest.
Behind the scenes, U.S. and Egyptian officials were said to be in intense discussions in an attempt to resolve the case. In a sign those negotiations may be bearing fruit, only Egyptian defendants attended the opening session and the judge gave no instructions to police to ensure the American defendants ? who were not in court Sunday ? attend the next hearing in two months.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has raised the dispute twice in person with Egypt's foreign minister ? once in London and once in Tunisia ? in recent days, according to a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the discussions.
Speaking to reporters in Morocco on Sunday, Clinton said American officials are evaluating the latest developments, adding that it's "a fluid situation and there are a lot of moving parts."
In Cairo, the opening hearing quickly descended into chaos as lawyers and journalists crammed into a small courtroom. After a brief session, presiding judge Mahmoud Mohammed Shoukry, who had to step out of the hearing at one point because of the crush of frantic lawyers and observers, adjourned the proceedings until April 26. The time will allow defense attorneys to familiarize themselves with the case and the details of behind the charges.
The investigation into the four U.S.-based nonprofits, which began in December with a raid by Egyptian security forces on the groups' offices, has put a severe strain on Washington's relationship with Egypt ? one of its most pivotal in the Middle East. U.S. officials have threatened to cut off a $1.5 billion annual aid package if the dispute is not resolved.
President Barack Obama has urged Egypt's military rulers to drop the investigation, and high-level officials, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey and Republican Sen. John McCain, have flown in to Cairo to seek a solution.
However, the U.S. cannot be seen as pushing too hard against Egypt's ruling military council, which is viewed as the best hope for a stable transition for a nation that is not just a regional heavyweight, but also the most populous in the Arab world and a lynchpin in Washington's Middle East policy.
There are 43 defendants in the case ? 16 Americans, 16 Egyptians, as well as Germans, Palestinians, Serbs and Jordanians.
At least thirteen of the Egyptians appeared in court for Saturday's hearing, standing in a metal cage, as is customary in Egyptian trials.
They listened as chief prosecutor Abdullah Yassin read out the charges before the court, and accused the defendants of engaging in "illegal activities," including political training and polling, that amount to "an infringement on the sovereignty of the state of Egypt."
Of the 16 Americans charged in the case, seven have been banned from leaving Egypt, among them Sam LaHood, son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. None of the Americans were in court Sunday.
The Americans work for the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and a group that trains journalists.
Rights groups have sharply criticized the investigation into the civil society groups and the charges, saying they are part of an orchestrated effort by Egyptian authorities to silence critics and cripple civil society groups critical of the military's handling of the country's transition to democracy since the ouster of longtime ruler and close U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak last year.
Egyptian officials counter by saying the trial has nothing to do with the government and is in the judiciary's hands.
Activists blame Mubarak-era laws governing civil society groups that have been used to go after groups critical of state policies.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.
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That is, dancing with the "stars" below from Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, WA; Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe, MI; St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, PA ; Indiana Regional Medical Center in Indiana, PA; Greystone Healthcare Management (27 locations); and Hilton Head Hospital in Hilton Head, SC.
On February 25th from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. thousands will be flash dancing for their health. Click here to find the location nearest you. If you've had a heart attack click here.
Which reminds me: my mother recently rented an apartment in an assisted living community. I asked her if she had her eye on any cute guys there. "Heavens, no!" she said. [Apparently 45 years of marriage to my father, a really good dancer, was enough for one lifetime.] "I'm not interested," she reiterated, "except to dance."
So get up and go. Or sit and watch the six featured video dances below (and then get up and go).
Evergreen Hospital's Heart Health Dance, Evergreen, Washington,
www.evergreenhospital.org
Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
St. Vincent's Hospital, Erie, PA
Indiana Regional Medical Center
Greystone Healthcare Management manages 27 skilled rehab facilities throughout Florida, Indiana and Ohio
Hilton Head Hospital's Heart Dance, Head, SC http://www.youtube.com/user/HeartMAA
Photos via Getty; video via YouTube
Heart attack survivors, please click here to take the Yale Heart Survey aimed at reducing the time victims delay before calling 9-1-1 or going to the hospital. If you haven't had a heart attack, click and forward to someone who has had one. . Thank you.
Disclosure: Suzanne O'Malley is a Sr. Research Associate for the non-profit NIH-funded Yale Heart Study. Applications are open to her creative & screenwriting weekends & summer classes at Yale Writers' Conference & Yale Summer Film Institute.
For more by Suzanne O'Malley, click here.
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Follow Suzanne O'Malley on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YaleHearts
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-omalley/pole-dancing_1_b_1300185.html
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Any time that you?re entertaining the purchase of commercial real estate property, you need to realize just how much goes in to evaluating that particular piece of property. Unless you?re approaching this the right way, you could end up spending a lot. Read this article for some great advice on commercial real estate.
When buying property it is useful to think about the future of the property. Naturally as time passes, the property you own will face wear and tear, and will need to be repaired. Be prepared to face any upkeep costs that may arise years after you make the purchase.
It is optimal to consult a real estate lawyer prior to acquiring commercial real estate. Understanding all the legal language and laws that are inherent in purchasing commercial real estate is essential. A real estate attorney will help you wade through the legal jargon and explain things to you in an easy to understand manner.
If investing in commercial properties, always be aware that there are many other properties available. You should never allow yourself to feel pressured into a sale because you feel it is a last-resort. Other properties always go up for sale, so keep away from becoming emotionally involved with your sales. Hop over to Solar Panel Grants for quality tips.
It is crucial that buyers interested in purchasing commercial real estate properties be aware of zoning ordinances, restrictions, environmental risks related to existing contracts, issues with current tenants, etc. These items could potentially impact the planned usage of the property. You must also be aware of the property classification because with classification comes rules.
Find a lender before you make an offer on a commercial property. Talk with your friends and other investors to create a short list of the best lenders in your area. Do a little research and select one that will meet your needs before you even begin the process of purchasing commercial real estate. Taking the extra time to get things lined up can help ensure that you qualify for a loan.
Practice calm and patience when you are looking into the real estate market. Do not go into an investment out of haste. You may soon regret it when the property does not fulfill your goals. It could take up to a year for the right investment to materialize in your market.
As this article has shown, commercial real estate can be a great investment, but the best chance to make a profit goes to those who are knowledgeable and prepared. If you follow the advice discussed above, you will have a head start towards benefitting from the challenges and opportunities presented by this exciting sector.
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Source: http://www.golfbase.net/exploring-plans-of-commercial-real-estate.html
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Personalised number plates are merely for enjoyable, appropriate? No extended genuine! Savvy business people have used personalised number plates for his or her business logos for years, but it is but now genuinely removing since a recognised strategy.
Businesses that operate a fast of service cars will typically use the attributes as well as shells of vehicles and trucks for business logos. But think about the cars influenced by simply company company directors as well as sales staff? These are usually nameless. Using personalised number plates, the company cars can also subtly improve your business branding. Better still, the plates can be transmitted every time the car is actually replaced, not like the fresh paint job on pickup trucks along with trucks.
License plates are extremely visible. Individuals tend to notice them, not merely when they are caught in traffic, but also in transferring. While it really is more challenging to consider in don?t forget a stringed of amounts, a personalised number plate using a recognizable term will always be quickly known as well as remembered. Whether it is a thing sharp along with exciting it will in addition provide a laugh to the deal with and also advertise a positive picture for your own company.
Finding the correct term or perhaps words for the business plates needs to have as much believed given to becoming some other marketing strategy. Companies together with a critical picture might favor only to employ the company initials, or perhaps the whole name when it is short, as well as sequential amounts for each car of the fleet, to boost their brand name and title reputation. Companies that like a light-hearted sense to their graphic can get all out using creativity and appearance for a quick short expression that will relates to their particular business together with humour. The best known illustration of these kind of in the UK tend to be a London water system business in which received alone a huge volume of free promotion having its hilarious plates BOG1 and LAV1.
Countries in which more time series of words are permitted without having numbers have got an advantage here. While British isles plates are usually confined to no more when compared with three words in a short period and must incorporate quantities, South Photography equipment, for illustration, allows up to seven characters. British isles number plates get spherical the limits by utilizing quantities to stand in for correspondence and also clever permutations can develop entire longer words. Nevertheless there?s a flexibility to personalised number plates in South Cameras. A dentist could make a decision on Start flossing or even Clean as well as Laugh, without having to be worried about finding numbers to replacement for words.
When your business has its own set of personalised number plates, it is way up to you to choose their particular logos possible can always be maximised. Of course by simply driving all around on normal everyday business automatically gives presence along with reputation, the more people notice the plates. Anyone can nevertheless kick-start the process by simply arranging a photo chance and interview using a the local press or even a national one for a greater business, making sure the car and number plates are usually featured in the photo. If the plates are generally humorous or quirky as well as fascinating enough, in which could be enough for an account in alone, on a tranquil news day.
To learn more, pay a visit to personalised number plates and private number plates
Source: http://www.articledesk.biz/personalised-number-plates-building-your-own-business-branding/
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AP - The mayor and police director of New Jersey's largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark's Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have allowed it.
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Didn't grab your tickets to Madonna's summer tour yet? Enjoy this fabulous video morsel from Brazil in the meantime: an inspired drag re-creation of the Material Girl's spectacular Super Bowl XLVI halftime performance.
From a glittery replica of Madge's Cleopatra-style headdress to the guest appearances by "Nicki Minaj," "M.I.A." and "LMFAO" -- not to mention the bevy of hunky gladiator dancers -- these drag queens certainly did their research.
(via Boy Culture)
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/madonna-super-bowl-halftime-drag-show_n_1294428.html
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It?s easy to wax nostalgic about old technology?to remember fondly our first Apple IIe or marvel at the old mainframes that ran on punched cards. But no one in their right mind would use those outdated, underpowered dinosaurs to run a contemporary business, let alone a modern weapons system, right?
Wrong!
While much of the tech world views a two-year-old smartphone as hopelessly obsolete, large swaths of our transportation and military infrastructure, some modern businesses, and even a few computer programmers rely daily on technology that hasn?t been updated for decades.
If you?ve recently bought a MetroCard for the New York City Subway or taken money from certain older ATMs, for instance, your transaction was made possible by IBM?s OS/2, an operating system that debuted 25 years ago and faded out soon after.
A recent federal review found that the U.S. Secret Service uses a mainframe computer system from the 1980s. That system apparently works only 60 percent of the time. Here?s hoping that uptime statistics are better for the ancient minicomputers used by the U.S. Department of Defense for the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system, Navy submarines, fighter jets, and other weapons programs. Those systems, according to the consultants who help keep them going, will likely be used until at least the middle of this century.
Here are a few stories of the computers that time forgot, and the people and institutions that stubbornly hold on to them.
Punch-Card Accounting
Sparkler Filters of Conroe, Texas, prides itself on being a leader in the world of chemical process filtration. If you buy an automatic nutsche filter from them, though, they?ll enter your transaction on a ?computer? that dates from 1948.
Sparkler?s IBM 402 is not a traditional computer, but an automated electromechanical tabulator that can be programmed (or more accurately, wired) to print out certain results based on values encoded into stacks of 80-column Hollerith-type punched cards.
Companies traditionally used the 402 for accounting, since the machine could take a long list of numbers, add them up, and print a detailed written report. In a sense, you could consider it a 3000-pound spreadsheet machine. That?s exactly how Sparkler Filters uses its IBM 402, which could very well be the last fully operational 402 on the planet. As it has for over half a century, the firm still runs all of its accounting work (payroll, sales, and inventory) through the IBM 402. The machine prints out reports on wide, tractor-fed paper.
Of course, before the data goes into the 402, it must first be encoded into stacks of cards. A large IBM 029 key-punch machine?which resembles a monstrous typewriter built into a desk?handles that task.
Carl Kracklauer, whose father founded Sparkler Filters in 1927, usually types the data onto the punch cards. The company sticks with the 402 because it?s a known entity: Staffers know how to use it, and they have over 60 years of company accounting records formatted for the device.
The key punch isn?t the only massive accessory in Sparkler?s arsenal. The 402 also links to an IBM 514 Reproducing Punch, which has been broken for three years. When it works properly, the 514 spits out punched ?summary cards,? which typically contain the output of the 402?s operation (such as sum totals) for later reuse. Sparkler stores all of its punched data cards?thousands and thousands of them?in stacks of boxes.
The company also possesses dozens of 402 programs in the form of IBM plugboards. Computer programming in the 1940s commonly involved arranging hundreds of individual wires in a way that would likely drive a modern software engineer insane. In the 402?s case, a spaghetti-like pattern of wires attached to hundreds of connectors on each plugboard determines the operation of the machine, and different plugboards can be pulled out and replaced as if they were interchangeable software disks. So you might insert one plugboard for handling, say, accounts receivable, and a different one for inventory management.
Sparkler?s 402 is a such a significant computing relic that the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, sent a delegation to the company last year to try and convince its executives to move to a more modern accounting system and donate the 402 to the museum. That will someday be an appropriate resting place for the 402, but as long as it still does its duty, the Texas company has no problem keeping its digital dinosaur living a little while longer.
Computers That Can?t Fail
When you see reports about the small, remote-controlled drones that the military uses to gather intelligence and target enemies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it?s easy to assume that all our weaponry is equally modern. Some significant weapons systems that our military depends on today, though, run on technology that dates back, in some instances, to the Vietnam War era.
The U.S. Navy?s ship-based radar systems and Britain?s Atomic Weapons Establishment, which maintains that country?s nuclear warheads, use PDP minicomputers manufactured in the 1970s by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Another user of the PDP is Airbus, the French jetliner manufacturer.
The PDP was among the second wave of mainframes called minicomputers because they were only the size of a couple of refrigerators instead of big enough to fill a room.
The F-15 and F-18 fighters, the Hawk missile systems, parts of the U.S. Navy submarine fleet, and Navy fighter test systems on aircraft carriers use DEC?s VAX minicomputers from the 1980s for various purposes, according to Lynda Jones of The Logical Company in Cottage Grove, Oregon, which helps keep these antiquated systems functioning.
Because of their critical nature, many of these systems will be in continuous service long into the future, perhaps to the middle of this century. For instance, the Minuteman ICBM program, which uses DEC VAX systems for testing, recently received funding that will keep it going until 2030.
?These legacy systems are integrated into multibillion dollar systems as control or test systems,? Jones says. Replacing these old systems with modern machines, she explains, would cost millions of dollars and could potentially disrupt national security.
As it turns out, replacing those systems with modern hardware designed to work like the antiquated components is a decidedly less risky venture. Jones? company is one of many that create systems to simulate older DEC minicomputers using newer, smaller, and less power-hungry electronic parts. The replacement computers emulate the exact functionality of the original hardware?and run the same vintage software?so it appears to the rest of the system as if nothing has changed.
That?s important because most of Logical?s customers are defense corporations refreshing old weapons technology under contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. ?There are thousands of DEC systems in use for military applications around the world,? says Jones, ?including PDPs from the 1970s, VAXes from the 1980s, and Alphas from the 1990s.?
The United States developed many fighter jet and missile systems during the Cold War era using DEC hardware for test and control functions, says Jones, because the company?s minicomputers were among the very first general-purpose machines that did not require water cooling and could be used in harsh environments.
The biggest problem with maintaining such ancient computer systems is that the original technicians who knew how to configure and maintain them have long since retired or passed away, so no one is left with the knowledge required to fix them if they break.
Even if someone does know how to fix them, finding replacement parts can be tricky. Stanley Quayle, a computer emulation consultant, has seen contractors desperate to find the parts they need. ?I have a prospective customer supporting a U.S. missile defense system that is buying parts on eBay,? says Quayle. ?Any parts they do find are as old or older than their system,? meaning they?re sometimes no more reliable than the pieces they replace.
The Apple IIe Warehouse
Lots of people fell in love with the Apple IIe when it was released in 1983. It supported a wide variety of software and hardware, it was reliable, and its seven internal expansion slots made it extremely flexible.
For Kevin Huffman, who owns and operates Huffman Industrial Warehouse in Eden, North Carolina, that love has never waned. His firm stores and ships out goods for companies that rent his warehouse space, and he regularly uses his vintage Apple IIe to track inventory and keep accounts.
Huffman got started with the Apple II line in college and later bought two identical Apple IIe systems from his brother-in-law in the mid-1980s, one of which he uses today. (He keeps the other unit as an emergency backup.)
Huffman?s Apple IIe setup is nothing fancy, but it is fully stocked. It?s equipped with 128 kilobytes of RAM, the standard 1MHz 6502 CPU, and AppleSoft BASIC in ROM. It contains five expansion cards: a printer card, two disk interface cards, a serial port card, and an 80-column video card. For peripherals, he uses an Apple DuoDisk unit, a 10-inch amber video monitor, and a trusty workhorse of a printer?a Star NP-10 that ?is still going strong at 26-plus years old,? he says.
Huffman runs an application suite on the Apple IIe called ?The Business Accountant,? first published by Manzanita Software in 1984. Of the six applications in the suite, he uses five: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, and Payroll. All of his data resides on the once-standard 5.25-inch floppy disks, but he?s not worried about data security: ?I back up the floppies with a program called Copy II+.?
Huffman uses a modern PC for word processing, email and Web browsing, but he?s reluctant to move away from his trusty Apple IIe for accounting work.
?I still use the machine because it is so simple to use, I know the software, and I can still update the tax tables manually.? He adds, ?The only glitch in the entire system is that it does not recognize the year 2000, so all my printed financial reports say 1912. But on the invoices, checks, and other forms, it prints in the 11/14/12 format.?
He?s even tried emulating the Apple IIe and his favorite software on a modern machine, but to him, the full experience matters. ?I thought about changing over to a more modern system, but there is nothing to be gained. As the old saying goes, ?If it ain?t broke, don?t fix it.??
The Color Computer Programming Assistant
Few vintage computers inspire as much active devotion as the Tandy Color Computer 3, first introduced in 1986. The CoCo 3 (as it is affectionately called by its fans) never sold as many units as home computers from Atari or Commodore, but that engendered an even stronger loyalty in its users.
The CoCo 3 marked the end of a well-received line of Color Computer products from RadioShack, which launched the first model in 1980. The third model in the series turned out to be an impressive swan song, adding support for 512KB of memory and implementing advanced graphics and sound enhancements?all while retaining backward compatibility with pre-CoCo 3 software.
It?s understandable, then, that some folks refuse to let go of their CoCo 3 units for either work or play. One such loyal user, John Kowalski, a former console game developer, still considers his CoCo 3 an indispensable tool.
?I turn it on, type in a quick program to do something I need done, and let it run to get the results,? says Kowalski. ?I think of it as my personal assistant?sometimes I program it to do tedious or repetitive tasks like automated document reformatting, and I can continue working while it works beside me.?
Kowalski began his journey in CoCo-land with a Color Computer 2 in 1984. He traded up to the CoCo 3 in 1986 and stuck with the platform through the years, performing various hardware upgrades (upping the system RAM to 2MB and overclocking the 6809 CPU to a blistering 3.5MHz) along the way.
When Kowalski was programming console video games at Crystal Dynamics in the mid-to-late 1990s, his vintage CoCo 3 played a prominent role. ?Every game I worked on had at least some data in it created on the CoCo,? he says. Titles like Namco Museum 50th Anniversary and Tron 2.0: Killer App benefited from the vintage machine, which Kowalski used as if it were a powerful programmable scientific calculator.
For an original title like Tron 2.0 for the Xbox, Kowalski used the CoCo 3 to test 3D techniques used in the game. ?Many of the data sets used by the 3D engine were generated on the CoCo, like the tables for calculating depth and perspective in the 3D view, and the data for fish-eye reduction of the view,? he says. ?The texture map graphics used in the game were also translated into program data by a conversion tool I wrote on the CoCo.?
If speed wasn?t an issue, Kowalski would quickly type up a program in the CoCo?s built-in BASIC interpreter. In the cases that involved large amounts of graphics or sound data, he would turn to assembly language.
The latter technique proved quite handy when working on Namco Museum or Atari Anniversary, which both contained reworkings of classic 1980s arcade games. Kowalski used the CoCo to extract, convert, and edit graphics data from the original arcade ROMs into formats a PlayStation 2 console could use. He also used the CoCo to translate vintage arcade source code and clean up sound samples used in the games.
With such an old machine, you might think it would be hard to export the working data to a more modern PC, but Kowalski has found no such problems. For years, he swapped standard 5.25-inch disks between his CoCo 3 and a Windows PC. Today, he simply connects a serial port between the CoCo and a PC, with the PC acting as a virtual disk drive emulator.
Kowalski says his current job designing electronics hardware doesn?t call for much data generation, so he doesn?t use the CoCo as frequently. But he hasn?t retired the classic machine; Kowalski keeps the 25-year-old PC on his main computer desk, ready to be called back into service at a moment?s notice.
Article source: http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=21E0FD44-DDC5-B182-29D273CDB18D7711
Source: http://learncomputerprogramming.net/if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it-ancient-computers-in-use-today-2/
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updated 3:29 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2012
LISBON, Portugal - Sporting Lisbon and U.S. national team defender Oguchi Onyewu needs knee surgery and will be sidelined for eight weeks.
The Portuguese club says medical scans performed Tuesday revealed a torn ligament and meniscus in Onyewu's right knee, an injury sustained in Sunday's 1-0 victory over Pacos Ferreira.
He injured his left knee on Oct. 14, 2009, tearing his patellar tendon during a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica. He returned to action the following May 25, in time for the 2010 World Cup, but struggled and did not fully regain his form until this season in Portugal.
Onyewu has five goals this season for Sporting, including four in the league. The club is fourth in the Portuguese league standings, 13 points behind first-place Benfica.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsManchester United's cash reserves fell by $158 million in six months partially to finance an investment in a roster failing to maintain the English champions' dominance.
Carlos Tevez has finally apologized to Manchester City following a five-month feud and withdrawn his appeal against a gross misconduct charge.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46470200/ns/sports-soccer/
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Hazel River Inn (1)
Image by D.Clow ? Maryland
Friday
Entry One
Flew out of work, the fleet flight of Friday before a holiday weekend. Everyone cracks a smile upon stepping out of the concrete and glass coffin of the corporate work week. The motorcycle is quickly gassed and loaded, I leave Washington DC at three-thirty, vowing not to check the time for the rest of the adventure. Adventure, the American adventure of the open road is what I seek. The road, my cameras, and escape.
Right turn off of 15th St. NW and I?m motoring past the Washington Monument and the White House. Harleys and clones are already lining the Mall for the annual Memorial remembrance that is Rolling Thunder. I?m soon over the bridge and on I-66 west. I plan on avoiding major highways when at all possible. Preferring scenic byways to drab highways. 66 is a necessary evil to flee the DC metro area as quickly as possible. At the start, 66 is a good quick run, for awhile anyway. Loads of Rolling Thunder riders are heading in 66 eastbound.
I keep the ubiquitous two fingers down to the side salute to fellow bikers out for extended stretches of time. In my experience, HD guys return the acknowledgement about 30-40% of the time. No big deal, some animosity exist though between different bike cultures. Motor-ism two-wheel stereotypes. However with the Rolling Thunder guys there is a noticeable increase in response, perhaps due to no longer just one biker acknowledging another, but a patriotic sharing of support and remembrance for those left behind, POW-MIA.
Traffic worsens further out 66 and I come up on a full HD dresser. Screaming Eagle back patch worked in with POW-MIA covers his vest and is topped by a ?Run for the Wall? patch. I keep back a pace and we adopt the natural offset positioning of multiple riders.
After some 66 backup, stop-and-go, we strike up a staccato conversation in the pauses of the traffic flow. Where you been, where you going, see the rain coming? I tell him I?m headed out to the mountains, Skyline Drive and West Virginia. He says he?s just in from there recently, was in DC for Rolling Thunder for the day and will be coming back in on Sunday again. His license plate is obscured by luggage, so I?m unsure of his port of origin.
Later on we part ways and my thoughts turn. Of my parents friends only my step-dad was drafted for Vietnam. Luckily, for us, he only went as far as Ft. Hood, TX, and came back with some good stories about army life and venturing into Mexico (at least the ones he?s shared with me). I think about all the life he?s lived since then, all his experiences and joys. Thinking about what all those who didn?t return gave up, lost, when they didn?t come home. The loss felt by those who loved them, families that have a name on the Wall.
Rain is sprinkling before Manassas. Enough to cool you off but not enough to get you worried yet, at least for a bit. Whooooo. Then come the big drops. I head off the ramp to gear up with the rain paraphernalia under the gas station pavilion. Finally get it all on and get strapped back up and out pops the sun and the rain stops. Too funny. Now I have wet clothes on under the raingear. Rain gear now keeping the wind out that would dry me. I motor on as more rain is promised on the horizon.
This brings up a point about rain. People always ask, ?What do you do when it rains and your on the motorcycle?. I reply simply, ?I get wet?. Duh. Rain riding has never bothered me. On the straight highways it?s no big deal. Just give more cushion to the cars in front of you. Drive like grandma on the exit ramps.
My turning point is finally reached. Off of 66 west and onto 647, Crest Hill Rd. at The Plains, VA. Crest Hill Road is my first slice of motorcycle heaven to be had this weekend. I?m delighted to find that the squiggly line I traced out on the map when planning this trip has translated so well in reality. The road is still wet from the passing rain clouds, and I give a small rabbit and then a chipmunk a near death experience. My first of many animal crossings this weekend. The road is fantastic. A mixture of hilltop road and tree lined canopies that create forest tunnels. Speed limit is 45mph, 55-60 feels comfortable on most parts. Keeping an eye out for a hilltop barn to photograph that I?ve seen in my minds eye, lit by the sun breaking through the clouds and backed by the mountain vista. No luck on any of the barns actual placement to fit the mental picture I have framed.
Crest Hill Road and Fodderstack Rd is a long stretch. I take shots of a church and other buildings along Zachary Taylor Highway. Fodderstack gives more of the same as Crest Hill, just a narrower road. The asphalt is of my favorite variety, freshly laid. Washington, VA is a tiny town of historic bed and breakfasts. Local wineries appear to be an attraction here too. Right after Washington the rain returns while I?m in route to Sperryville. Then it really starts to come down, a full on summer thunderstorm. Visibility is down. Road and parking lots soon resemble rivers. Rain drops of the monster variety explode on the pavement, and you know it hurts when they hit you.
I quick soaking circuit of Sperryville confirms there are no local hotels. I duck into a barn shaped restaurant to wait it out. My drenched gear takes on bar stool and I occupy another. There?s a few flying pigs about. The bartender get me a hefeweizen, and recommends the angus burger. Locally raised and grass fed, we exchange jokes about my passing the burgers relatives on the way in.
Don?t freak about the beer. I have a one only rule when riding. It was followed by a meal (best burger of the weekend!), several coffees, and this bar top journal entry.
Somewhere along Crest Hill road I decided to keep the cell off for the weekend. In addition no tv, newspapers, internet, or e-mail sound like a good idea. Of course I now am studiously avoid eye contact with the two beautiful plasma?s above the bar.
Entry Two
Hazel River Inn, Culpepper, VA, has the coolest street side seating in town.
The downpour let up at the Shady Farms bar in Sperryville and due to the deficiency in local lodging I quiz the bartender for options. Over the other side of the mountain, the opposite side of Skyline Dr via 211 is Luray with lots of motels, but I want to save the mountain for the morning. The waitress suggest Culpepper, there being a Holiday Inn etc.
Stepping outside the sun has broke through the clouds again. Enough for some shots of Shady Farms Restaurant and a bridge. Heading down 522, the Sperryville Pike, I keep an eye out for photo ops to catch the next morning as I?ll be rerouting back through. Following the mantra of Dale Borgeson about tour riding in the US, I aim to avoid large chain establishments, whether they are restaurants or hotels, and explore the mom-and-pop local variety businesses. I have a dive-ish roadside motel in mind, Culpepper comes through with the Sleepy Hollow Hotel.
Before check in I ride through downtown historic Culpepper. It?s a cool place. The Shady Farm bartender had recommended the Culpepper Thai restaurant. I see it but don?t visit, still full from the meal earlier. Cameron Street Coffee looks like a great place, located in an old warehouse. Unfortunately their closed for the night.
Shower and changed, room 102 at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel. I hop back on the bike, refreshed and dry and ride through the warm night air back downtown. The coffee at the Hazel River Inn comes with a sweet fudge confection on the side. The peach and blackberry cobbler with vanilla sauce is divine.
The reconfigured plan for this getaway is to shed. Shed worries about the job, career, housing, and relationships. My motorcycle is therapeutic. It?s 600cc?s of Zoloft on two wheels. The road lifts my spirits. This wasn?t supposed to be a solo run, and there are stretches of road where I feel the emptiness behind me.
The cobbler is finished and I can hear the sound of a band doing their sound check. The banging of the drum requires investigation.
Entry Three
I found Brown Bag Special in the cellar pub of the same restaurant I was in. On my way to the door the noise of the sound check floated up the stairs and directed my feet downward. Brown Bag Special opened the set, appropriately enough, with ?I drink alone?. The ol? man, Big Money, would have loved it. Drink alone started off a Big Money Blues trifecta to include ?The Breeze? and ?Mustang Sally?. Then they made the mistake a lot of bands make that have a great lead guitar player. They let him sing. The lead guitarist karaoke sucked his way through a Tom Petty hit. He was so off key in his singing it made you appreciate the guitar solo?s all the more for the relief they provided. Thankfully the regular singer soon resumed his duties and the night went on. More good stuff from the band.
Freebird
Folsom Prison Blues
Cheap Sun Glasses
?can?t you see, can?t you see, what that woman, what she?s done to me?
Off to bed now at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel with the ghost and shades of dead hookers and overdoses past.
150 miles today.
Saturday
Entry Four
Morning breaks on the Sleepy Hollow Hotel, a hot shower and I?m back on the bike. A quick stop downtown to shoot the Hazel Inn, then it?s back on the Sperryville Pike. More stops to capture some sights seen yesterday. Mr. & Mrs. Pump. The open mouth caricatures are an accurate representation of the current gas cost and the pumps eating your wallet.
I keep telling my daughter that her first car, college car, will be a hybrid. She thinks they are ugly. The bike isn?t so bad, averaging around 40mpg. At about 180 miles on the tripometer I start to look for a refill, although I?ve pushed it to 211 miles before.
A quick left in Sperryville on 211 and up into the mountain, Blue Ridge Mountains and Skyline Drive. Heading up the mountain I get the first bite of the twisties I?ve been craving. The fee at the gate to Skyline Drive is well worth the price. Great scenery and fantastic views. The only drawback is the 35mph speed limit that is well enforced by the park rangers.
I shoot some self-portraits at Pollock Knob overlook. They?re funny in that with all the scrambling and hurrying to be the camera timer, then trying to effect a relaxed pose. I?ve also broke out my old friend this trip, the Lubitel 166, a medium format, 120mm film, twin lens camera. I?m like Jay-Z with this camera, I have to get it in one take. There is no digital review after the click for instant gratification. As a fellow photographer it?s ?Point, Push, and Pray?. I?ll be interested to see the results. Not that I?ve left digital behind. Carrying both cameras, I?m an analog/digital double threat.
After the self-portraits and some dead tree shots I?m about to pack back on the bike and leave when I meet the preacher and his wife. He offers to shoot me with my camera and I return the favor with theirs. Conversation flows and in a ?small world? moment it turns out that he works for same Hazel family that owns the restaurant I was at last night for his Monday thru Friday job. I get a friendly ?God bless? and I?m heading south on Skyline Drive. I make several more stops and break out the cameras again at Big Meadow.
There is a gnarly dead tree in the middle of the meadow. It has burn damage at the base, either the result of some wild fire or perhaps a controlled burn done to maintain the field. I spot and shoot a few deer, they probably won?t turn out as they?re to far away for my lens on the D100. I shoot a bunch of shots of the tree with the D100 and then totally switch processes with the Lubitel. The picture setup with the Lubitel takes about a minute-and-a-half. Manual zoom, i.e., walking back and forth to get the framing I want. Light meter reading. Then dealing with the reversed optics of the look-down box camera. It is fun though, to switch it up, change the pace and the dynamics. Just one click though, hope I caught it.
It?s a long but enjoyable ride to the south end of Skyline Drive. Unless you really like slow cruising I would suggest picking which third of Skyline Drive you?d like include in your trip and leave the rest. I drop off the mountain and into Waynesboro. Finding Mad Anthony?s coffee shop for a late breakfast. I overhear that it?s around noon. The Italian Roast coffee is good, in fact, it would prove to be the best coffee of the trip.
One of the pleasures of traveling by motorcycle is that it?s an easy conversation starter. People ask you where your coming from, where you?re heading, ask about your bike, tell you?re about their bike or the one they wish they had. One of the peculiarities of these conversations is that if the person even remotely knows of anyone that has died on a motorcycle, they will be sure to share this fact along with details. These stories usually involve a deer, a car pulling out, or someone taking a corner to fast. The conversation goes something like this:
Stranger?nice bike?
You?thanks?
Stranger?my cousin Bob had a friend that hit a deer and died on his bike?
Short silence.
You?yeah, deer are dangerous, got to be careful?
I?m not exaggerating when I say I?ve held variations on this conversation many times. Luckily this isn?t the conversation I have with the owner of Mad Anthony?s. He?s a former sailboat instructor who now finds the same release and head clearing on his motorcycle that he used to get from his sailboat.
This brings to mind the same wave ? don?t way dynamic that occurs between sail boaters and power boaters, very similar to the sportbike & HD crowd.
The proprietor is a coffee guru, we discuss roasting (my Italian roast was just roasted Wednesday this week). We talk about the good and the evil of Starbucks. We?re both in agreement that they over roast their regular coffee, but I think their foo foo drinks are tasty. He has in his shop both the Bodum press and the Bodum vacuum coffee pot that I got my mom for x-mas. A shameless plug here, the Bodum vacuum coffee pot makes the best home coffee ever. It?s also an entertaining crowd pleaser, no joke.
Leaving Waynesboro the plan was 340 northward to 33, then into Harrisonburg, VA (home of the Valley Mall and JMU). 340 proved to be boring so I jumped on 256, Port Republic Road, for a better ride to Harrisonburg. I don?t know if the coffee wore off or if I was just worn out. I pull over at Westover Park, pick out a spot of grass, and take a good nap in the sun.
I had my motorcycle bug handed down to me by my step-dad. My kindergarten year of school we moved right at the end of the school year. Rather than switch schools at this inopportune time my Dad stuck me on the back of his Honda and rode me to school and back again for the last month or two. Even earlier than that I have a great photo of me in 1973-4 sitting on his chopper with him. Me in a diaper and him with his long hippy hair. The wild side of the Reverend indeed.
Refreshed from my nap it?s back on 33 westbound. Heading out of the Shenandoah Valley and Rockingham County is more glorious twisty roads and the George Washington National Forest. GW is a beautiful tree canopy lined road with a river off to one side. Franklin, WV is the destination, a return to the Star Hotel.
I stayed at the Star a few years prior when they first re-opened the historic Star Hotel. The owner, Steve Miller, is a great guy, friendly and conversational. I told him I?d be back again, but it?s been a few more years than I thought. Late lunch at the Star is pesto grilled chicken on ciabatta bread with roasted red peppers. Not the type of fare one might associate with West Virginia, but people have misperceptions about everywhere. Steve promises a prime rib later at dinner tonight to die for.
So that there is no misunderstanding, in as much as the Sleepy Hollow Hotel was a dive, the Star Hotel is a dream.
Dump the gear in the room back on the bike for some roaming around. I head back to explore a river road I passed on the way in, Rock Gap. It?s a gravel affair and I follow it back a little ways. Photo some river shots. Down further there is a large cliff face with some college aged kids de-gearing after a day of climbing. I?ll try to stop back in tomorrow and shoot some climbing action, as well as some fly fishing.
I pick up a bottle of Barefoot Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, and drop it off with Steve at the Star to keep for later. I?ll enjoy that bottle later tonight from the 3rd floor front porch. South out of town I head, into some very secondary roads. I shoot an old decrepit cabin that would be right up Bobby Sargent?s alley. I put it in the metal folder for a possible future model shoot location, along with the river spots I?ve seen.
There are a couple more stops on this little ride. Once for what appears to be a feral chicken, and then for middle of the road stare down with a young doe. She?s camera shy though and is off before I can get a shot. Sportbike probably isn?t the best conveyance for nature photography. The pavement stops and gravel begins, I motor on. Rick & I once spent a full day just about on gravel roads, crisscrossing the back country around Cumberland, MD. So I?m comfortable with the less than ideal riding surface. A few miles on the road dead ends at a pair of chicken houses (source of the feral chicken?s ancestors perhaps?) and I turn around and survey the valley I?ve just ridden through. I have to stop the bike and soak in the scene. A picturesque farm is nestled in the corner of the valley, up against the hills. I meet some inquisitive cows, along with the farmer and his wife.
It seems that when you are in WV and you pass a sign that says ?snow removal ends here? that the already suspect road conditions are going to quickly deteriorate and will soon resemble somewhat more of a logging road. I motor on through some back country, no houses, no farms, just mountains, steep roadside cliffs, and wicked gravel switchback curves. The part that gives you the willies are the downhill corners where the road grade is slanted to the outside of the curve and to the drop below. Yikes!
I creep along where a four wheeler would be much more functional. Although I still hit it a bit in the straights. Pavement arrives again and I?m unsure of my exact location. I follow the chicken farmers directions and soon discover myself back in Brandywine, intersecting the same stretch of 33 I rode on my way into Franklin.
Back at the Star Hotel it?s a shower and fresh clothes before heading down for dinner. Downstairs I find the prime rib to be as good as promised.
Entry Five
How beautifully staged is this. Barefoot on the 3rd floor patio, wine to ease the back and the ache in the knee.
205 miles today, the last 30 after check in, just to explore.
Sunday
Entry Six
Out early in the morning. I find no climbers at Rock Gap, unsure of the hours they keep. Out of Franklin on 33 west, looking for another squiggly line I had seen on a map. Bland Hill Road name is a misnomer. A single lane country road winding through German Valley. I got a few shots of German Valley from the 33 overlook before turning on Bland Hill. Now I find myself in the same location I had shot from above.
The road cuts through some open pasture land and I meet some cows standing in the road after rounding one bend. They?re pleasant enough, if in no particular hurry to cross, and don?t mind posing for a shot or two before meandering on. People talk about the danger of hitting a deer, a cow would really ruin your day! Off of Bland Hill and on down into the valley. I come up on the rock formation I had seen from the overlook previously. It?s not Seneca Rocks, but a formation of the same ilk. I get some more photos, then onto German Valley Road. I?m still staying at the Star, there is no real destination today. It?s relaxing to stop as much as I like.
German Valley Road puts me back on 33 west and not long after I?m ordering breakfast at the Valley View Restaurant. Dale Borgeson warns of places that advertise home cooking, but that?s about all you see in these parts. There are a fair number of cars here and that?s usually a good since the food will be alright. Hell, even the Army could make a good breakfast. It all works out and it?s a hell of a deal, for toast, two eggs, hash browns, bacon, and coffee.
From 33 I hit 28 and turn off on Smoke Hole Road, just because it?s there and looks interesting. Boy, what a find it is. Combining the curvy one lane country road with nice wide smooth pavement (gravel free in the corners). It?s great. Smoke Hole Road turns out to run from 28 across the Seneca Rocks National Forest to 220 on the other side. Going west-to-east it starts out all curves and hills, then ends by winding along the south branch of the Potomac. There are lots of fly fishermen here enjoying the catch-and-release section of the river.
Up 220 to Petersburg, I run into some Ducati guys at the gas station. We swap riding info and I?m soon on 42 north towards Mayville. Hanging a left when I see a sign for Dolly Sods. I?m back on secondary roads and I soon pass another prophetic ?no snow removal? signs. It?s gravel the rest of the way up the mountain til it breaks out on top at Dolly Sod.
I?m real happy with today?s roads, as both Smoke Hole Road and Dolly Sods were unplanned ?discovered adventures?. I do some rock scrabbling at Dolly Sod and enjoy the cliff top views. A fellow tourist snaps a shot for me an I hike out well past the distance that the casual tourist and families go. Shot some more shots of the rock formations with both the digital and film camera. Do some more self-portraits. I then sit down to relax in the sun with the cliff side breeze steadily blowing and update this journal.
Entry Seven
Well, fellow traveler, if you?ve made it this far I am duly impressed. I thank you for your perseverance. The rest of the day was spent riding without incident. Just more fantastic roads. You don?t have to be an explore on par with Lewis & Clark to find great rides in West Virginia. Just be curious in nature and unafraid to leave the beaten path. Drop off the numbered roads and take the route less traveled. Soon you?ll be in your own undiscovered country. Blah blah blah.
Out of Dolly Sod and I find myself on 32. Rough calculations put the dirt road travel around 25 miles for the day. While we are on stats, here?s today?s animal road count:
1 rooster
1 dead fox
2 cows
8 chipmunks
7 alive
1 dead
3 dead possums
1 squirrel
1 dead blob (undistinguishable)
No fearsome deer
1 dog
I guided myself today by a rather non-descript map put out by mountainhighlands.com
Leaving Dolly Sod on 32 puts me in Dry Fork and back on familiar 33 west to Elkins. I cruise around Elkins on the off chance I?ll run into a guy I know named Dallas. Now all you need to know about Dallas is the following:
I don?t know his last name
I once gave him a hair cut with dog grooming clippers
I know he works at a bike shop making choppers
You figure the odds of me finding him, near zero.
If your curious it wasn?t the first time I cut hair, albeit the first time using dog shears. In Korea I cut in the latrine for a cut or for a 6 pack. Everything was barter in the Army. We had a cook that would make you a great custom birthday cake for a case of beer or feed you food out of the back of the chow hall at 3am when you staggered in drunk from the ville for the promise of a future round to be bought. Korea stories could fill another journal.
Anyway, out of Elkins and south to Beverly. Scott, if your reading this you were on my mind as I went through town, never forgive, never forget.
So far I?ve only tried to write about the positive food experiences of the trip without throwing anyplace under the bus. C&J in Beverly however, served only barely functional burgers and the vanilla shake was of the worst chemical prefab variety. There are some things that I am stuck on, good vanilla ice cream is one. The others that I?m picky about are beer, whiskey, steak, cheese-steak, and coffee. It?s just so disappointing when something you usually enjoy turns out to be sub par.
After C&J it?s 250 east to 28, which heads back towards Seneca Rocks and Franklin. It?s a good haul through the Monongahela National Forest. A road of the scenic variety, with good twisties up the mountain and through the scenery. These type road have become quite a common occurrence here in WV. Back in Seneca Rocks and 33 east into Franklin. I never shoot Seneca Rocks, the light is never right, number one can tell you how I get about my light.
The Star?s restaurant is closed on Sunday, dagger, so I shower and head into Franklin by foot. About Franklin, WV. It?s a nice little town, quiet and sleepy. No bars other than the VFW that I could see. Everybody I?ve met and spoken too has be pleasant, friendly and conversational, both here in Franklin and elsewhere in WV. I?m sure there are a variety of characters much as anywhere, this is just my observation from the tourist level.
Following last night precedent I grab another vino from the Shell station. The Star being closed is a dilemma; I?m in need of a cork screw (having borrowed the restaurants the night before). I wander back down to the hotel, wine in hand, and past the hotel just a bit til I meet an old man sitting out front. I explain my situation, wine without access, and he says he?ll sell me a corkscrew. He goes in the house, shortly to return with the necessary implement in hand. I figure I have it for -4 or maybe rent it for a one time use for . That proves unnecessary however, he says just to take it, and keep it for any future need.
The sole booking for the hotel tonight, I?m like a wraith as I glide through the halls. On the front porch with my bottle of vino in hand. I have some cheap cigars I also picked up and there?s nothing to do but kick back and watch the sunset.
It?s been a great trip. Somewhat lonesome at times. The lack of someone to talk to surely let to the length of this journal. It was a trip to getaway, to reflect. There was no great revelation or anything, just time to get to know yourself. The road gives you time to think. I know who I am and I like being me. I know what?s missing.
I?m resolved to take more bike trips in the future. It?s definitely my preferred way to travel and vacation. Motorcycling is the way to go.
Tomorrow I have my route generally planned out, more scenic byways for a winding route home.
Miles today, 240.
Monday
Entry Seven
Just a short postscript. 20 miles east of Washington DC, on 66, the chain popped off the bike. It?s never easy.
motorcycle touring Memorial Day 06 (69)
Image by D.Clow ? Maryland
Friday
Entry One
Flew out of work, the fleet flight of Friday before a holiday weekend. Everyone cracks a smile upon stepping out of the concrete and glass coffin of the corporate work week. The motorcycle is quickly gassed and loaded, I leave Washington DC at three-thirty, vowing not to check the time for the rest of the adventure. Adventure, the American adventure of the open road is what I seek. The road, my cameras, and escape.
Right turn off of 15th St. NW and I?m motoring past the Washington Monument and the White House. Harleys and clones are already lining the Mall for the annual Memorial remembrance that is Rolling Thunder. I?m soon over the bridge and on I-66 west. I plan on avoiding major highways when at all possible. Preferring scenic byways to drab highways. 66 is a necessary evil to flee the DC metro area as quickly as possible. At the start, 66 is a good quick run, for awhile anyway. Loads of Rolling Thunder riders are heading in 66 eastbound.
I keep the ubiquitous two fingers down to the side salute to fellow bikers out for extended stretches of time. In my experience, HD guys return the acknowledgement about 30-40% of the time. No big deal, some animosity exist though between different bike cultures. Motor-ism two-wheel stereotypes. However with the Rolling Thunder guys there is a noticeable increase in response, perhaps due to no longer just one biker acknowledging another, but a patriotic sharing of support and remembrance for those left behind, POW-MIA.
Traffic worsens further out 66 and I come up on a full HD dresser. Screaming Eagle back patch worked in with POW-MIA covers his vest and is topped by a ?Run for the Wall? patch. I keep back a pace and we adopt the natural offset positioning of multiple riders.
After some 66 backup, stop-and-go, we strike up a staccato conversation in the pauses of the traffic flow. Where you been, where you going, see the rain coming? I tell him I?m headed out to the mountains, Skyline Drive and West Virginia. He says he?s just in from there recently, was in DC for Rolling Thunder for the day and will be coming back in on Sunday again. His license plate is obscured by luggage, so I?m unsure of his port of origin.
Later on we part ways and my thoughts turn. Of my parents friends only my step-dad was drafted for Vietnam. Luckily, for us, he only went as far as Ft. Hood, TX, and came back with some good stories about army life and venturing into Mexico (at least the ones he?s shared with me). I think about all the life he?s lived since then, all his experiences and joys. Thinking about what all those who didn?t return gave up, lost, when they didn?t come home. The loss felt by those who loved them, families that have a name on the Wall.
Rain is sprinkling before Manassas. Enough to cool you off but not enough to get you worried yet, at least for a bit. Whooooo. Then come the big drops. I head off the ramp to gear up with the rain paraphernalia under the gas station pavilion. Finally get it all on and get strapped back up and out pops the sun and the rain stops. Too funny. Now I have wet clothes on under the raingear. Rain gear now keeping the wind out that would dry me. I motor on as more rain is promised on the horizon.
This brings up a point about rain. People always ask, ?What do you do when it rains and your on the motorcycle?. I reply simply, ?I get wet?. Duh. Rain riding has never bothered me. On the straight highways it?s no big deal. Just give more cushion to the cars in front of you. Drive like grandma on the exit ramps.
My turning point is finally reached. Off of 66 west and onto 647, Crest Hill Rd. at The Plains, VA. Crest Hill Road is my first slice of motorcycle heaven to be had this weekend. I?m delighted to find that the squiggly line I traced out on the map when planning this trip has translated so well in reality. The road is still wet from the passing rain clouds, and I give a small rabbit and then a chipmunk a near death experience. My first of many animal crossings this weekend. The road is fantastic. A mixture of hilltop road and tree lined canopies that create forest tunnels. Speed limit is 45mph, 55-60 feels comfortable on most parts. Keeping an eye out for a hilltop barn to photograph that I?ve seen in my minds eye, lit by the sun breaking through the clouds and backed by the mountain vista. No luck on any of the barns actual placement to fit the mental picture I have framed.
Crest Hill Road and Fodderstack Rd is a long stretch. I take shots of a church and other buildings along Zachary Taylor Highway. Fodderstack gives more of the same as Crest Hill, just a narrower road. The asphalt is of my favorite variety, freshly laid. Washington, VA is a tiny town of historic bed and breakfasts. Local wineries appear to be an attraction here too. Right after Washington the rain returns while I?m in route to Sperryville. Then it really starts to come down, a full on summer thunderstorm. Visibility is down. Road and parking lots soon resemble rivers. Rain drops of the monster variety explode on the pavement, and you know it hurts when they hit you.
I quick soaking circuit of Sperryville confirms there are no local hotels. I duck into a barn shaped restaurant to wait it out. My drenched gear takes on bar stool and I occupy another. There?s a few flying pigs about. The bartender get me a hefeweizen, and recommends the angus burger. Locally raised and grass fed, we exchange jokes about my passing the burgers relatives on the way in.
Don?t freak about the beer. I have a one only rule when riding. It was followed by a meal (best burger of the weekend!), several coffees, and this bar top journal entry.
Somewhere along Crest Hill road I decided to keep the cell off for the weekend. In addition no tv, newspapers, internet, or e-mail sound like a good idea. Of course I now am studiously avoid eye contact with the two beautiful plasma?s above the bar.
Entry Two
Hazel River Inn, Culpepper, VA, has the coolest street side seating in town.
The downpour let up at the Shady Farms bar in Sperryville and due to the deficiency in local lodging I quiz the bartender for options. Over the other side of the mountain, the opposite side of Skyline Dr via 211 is Luray with lots of motels, but I want to save the mountain for the morning. The waitress suggest Culpepper, there being a Holiday Inn etc.
Stepping outside the sun has broke through the clouds again. Enough for some shots of Shady Farms Restaurant and a bridge. Heading down 522, the Sperryville Pike, I keep an eye out for photo ops to catch the next morning as I?ll be rerouting back through. Following the mantra of Dale Borgeson about tour riding in the US, I aim to avoid large chain establishments, whether they are restaurants or hotels, and explore the mom-and-pop local variety businesses. I have a dive-ish roadside motel in mind, Culpepper comes through with the Sleepy Hollow Hotel.
Before check in I ride through downtown historic Culpepper. It?s a cool place. The Shady Farm bartender had recommended the Culpepper Thai restaurant. I see it but don?t visit, still full from the meal earlier. Cameron Street Coffee looks like a great place, located in an old warehouse. Unfortunately their closed for the night.
Shower and changed, room 102 at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel. I hop back on the bike, refreshed and dry and ride through the warm night air back downtown. The coffee at the Hazel River Inn comes with a sweet fudge confection on the side. The peach and blackberry cobbler with vanilla sauce is divine.
The reconfigured plan for this getaway is to shed. Shed worries about the job, career, housing, and relationships. My motorcycle is therapeutic. It?s 600cc?s of Zoloft on two wheels. The road lifts my spirits. This wasn?t supposed to be a solo run, and there are stretches of road where I feel the emptiness behind me.
The cobbler is finished and I can hear the sound of a band doing their sound check. The banging of the drum requires investigation.
Entry Three
I found Brown Bag Special in the cellar pub of the same restaurant I was in. On my way to the door the noise of the sound check floated up the stairs and directed my feet downward. Brown Bag Special opened the set, appropriately enough, with ?I drink alone?. The ol? man, Big Money, would have loved it. Drink alone started off a Big Money Blues trifecta to include ?The Breeze? and ?Mustang Sally?. Then they made the mistake a lot of bands make that have a great lead guitar player. They let him sing. The lead guitarist karaoke sucked his way through a Tom Petty hit. He was so off key in his singing it made you appreciate the guitar solo?s all the more for the relief they provided. Thankfully the regular singer soon resumed his duties and the night went on. More good stuff from the band.
Freebird
Folsom Prison Blues
Cheap Sun Glasses
?can?t you see, can?t you see, what that woman, what she?s done to me?
Off to bed now at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel with the ghost and shades of dead hookers and overdoses past.
150 miles today.
Saturday
Entry Four
Morning breaks on the Sleepy Hollow Hotel, a hot shower and I?m back on the bike. A quick stop downtown to shoot the Hazel Inn, then it?s back on the Sperryville Pike. More stops to capture some sights seen yesterday. Mr. & Mrs. Pump. The open mouth caricatures are an accurate representation of the current gas cost and the pumps eating your wallet.
I keep telling my daughter that her first car, college car, will be a hybrid. She thinks they are ugly. The bike isn?t so bad, averaging around 40mpg. At about 180 miles on the tripometer I start to look for a refill, although I?ve pushed it to 211 miles before.
A quick left in Sperryville on 211 and up into the mountain, Blue Ridge Mountains and Skyline Drive. Heading up the mountain I get the first bite of the twisties I?ve been craving. The fee at the gate to Skyline Drive is well worth the price. Great scenery and fantastic views. The only drawback is the 35mph speed limit that is well enforced by the park rangers.
I shoot some self-portraits at Pollock Knob overlook. They?re funny in that with all the scrambling and hurrying to be the camera timer, then trying to effect a relaxed pose. I?ve also broke out my old friend this trip, the Lubitel 166, a medium format, 120mm film, twin lens camera. I?m like Jay-Z with this camera, I have to get it in one take. There is no digital review after the click for instant gratification. As a fellow photographer it?s ?Point, Push, and Pray?. I?ll be interested to see the results. Not that I?ve left digital behind. Carrying both cameras, I?m an analog/digital double threat.
After the self-portraits and some dead tree shots I?m about to pack back on the bike and leave when I meet the preacher and his wife. He offers to shoot me with my camera and I return the favor with theirs. Conversation flows and in a ?small world? moment it turns out that he works for same Hazel family that owns the restaurant I was at last night for his Monday thru Friday job. I get a friendly ?God bless? and I?m heading south on Skyline Drive. I make several more stops and break out the cameras again at Big Meadow.
There is a gnarly dead tree in the middle of the meadow. It has burn damage at the base, either the result of some wild fire or perhaps a controlled burn done to maintain the field. I spot and shoot a few deer, they probably won?t turn out as they?re to far away for my lens on the D100. I shoot a bunch of shots of the tree with the D100 and then totally switch processes with the Lubitel. The picture setup with the Lubitel takes about a minute-and-a-half. Manual zoom, i.e., walking back and forth to get the framing I want. Light meter reading. Then dealing with the reversed optics of the look-down box camera. It is fun though, to switch it up, change the pace and the dynamics. Just one click though, hope I caught it.
It?s a long but enjoyable ride to the south end of Skyline Drive. Unless you really like slow cruising I would suggest picking which third of Skyline Drive you?d like include in your trip and leave the rest. I drop off the mountain and into Waynesboro. Finding Mad Anthony?s coffee shop for a late breakfast. I overhear that it?s around noon. The Italian Roast coffee is good, in fact, it would prove to be the best coffee of the trip.
One of the pleasures of traveling by motorcycle is that it?s an easy conversation starter. People ask you where your coming from, where you?re heading, ask about your bike, tell you?re about their bike or the one they wish they had. One of the peculiarities of these conversations is that if the person even remotely knows of anyone that has died on a motorcycle, they will be sure to share this fact along with details. These stories usually involve a deer, a car pulling out, or someone taking a corner to fast. The conversation goes something like this:
Stranger?nice bike?
You?thanks?
Stranger?my cousin Bob had a friend that hit a deer and died on his bike?
Short silence.
You?yeah, deer are dangerous, got to be careful?
I?m not exaggerating when I say I?ve held variations on this conversation many times. Luckily this isn?t the conversation I have with the owner of Mad Anthony?s. He?s a former sailboat instructor who now finds the same release and head clearing on his motorcycle that he used to get from his sailboat.
This brings to mind the same wave ? don?t way dynamic that occurs between sail boaters and power boaters, very similar to the sportbike & HD crowd.
The proprietor is a coffee guru, we discuss roasting (my Italian roast was just roasted Wednesday this week). We talk about the good and the evil of Starbucks. We?re both in agreement that they over roast their regular coffee, but I think their foo foo drinks are tasty. He has in his shop both the Bodum press and the Bodum vacuum coffee pot that I got my mom for x-mas. A shameless plug here, the Bodum vacuum coffee pot makes the best home coffee ever. It?s also an entertaining crowd pleaser, no joke.
Leaving Waynesboro the plan was 340 northward to 33, then into Harrisonburg, VA (home of the Valley Mall and JMU). 340 proved to be boring so I jumped on 256, Port Republic Road, for a better ride to Harrisonburg. I don?t know if the coffee wore off or if I was just worn out. I pull over at Westover Park, pick out a spot of grass, and take a good nap in the sun.
I had my motorcycle bug handed down to me by my step-dad. My kindergarten year of school we moved right at the end of the school year. Rather than switch schools at this inopportune time my Dad stuck me on the back of his Honda and rode me to school and back again for the last month or two. Even earlier than that I have a great photo of me in 1973-4 sitting on his chopper with him. Me in a diaper and him with his long hippy hair. The wild side of the Reverend indeed.
Refreshed from my nap it?s back on 33 westbound. Heading out of the Shenandoah Valley and Rockingham County is more glorious twisty roads and the George Washington National Forest. GW is a beautiful tree canopy lined road with a river off to one side. Franklin, WV is the destination, a return to the Star Hotel.
I stayed at the Star a few years prior when they first re-opened the historic Star Hotel. The owner, Steve Miller, is a great guy, friendly and conversational. I told him I?d be back again, but it?s been a few more years than I thought. Late lunch at the Star is pesto grilled chicken on ciabatta bread with roasted red peppers. Not the type of fare one might associate with West Virginia, but people have misperceptions about everywhere. Steve promises a prime rib later at dinner tonight to die for.
So that there is no misunderstanding, in as much as the Sleepy Hollow Hotel was a dive, the Star Hotel is a dream.
Dump the gear in the room back on the bike for some roaming around. I head back to explore a river road I passed on the way in, Rock Gap. It?s a gravel affair and I follow it back a little ways. Photo some river shots. Down further there is a large cliff face with some college aged kids de-gearing after a day of climbing. I?ll try to stop back in tomorrow and shoot some climbing action, as well as some fly fishing.
I pick up a bottle of Barefoot Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, and drop it off with Steve at the Star to keep for later. I?ll enjoy that bottle later tonight from the 3rd floor front porch. South out of town I head, into some very secondary roads. I shoot an old decrepit cabin that would be right up Bobby Sargent?s alley. I put it in the metal folder for a possible future model shoot location, along with the river spots I?ve seen.
There are a couple more stops on this little ride. Once for what appears to be a feral chicken, and then for middle of the road stare down with a young doe. She?s camera shy though and is off before I can get a shot. Sportbike probably isn?t the best conveyance for nature photography. The pavement stops and gravel begins, I motor on. Rick & I once spent a full day just about on gravel roads, crisscrossing the back country around Cumberland, MD. So I?m comfortable with the less than ideal riding surface. A few miles on the road dead ends at a pair of chicken houses (source of the feral chicken?s ancestors perhaps?) and I turn around and survey the valley I?ve just ridden through. I have to stop the bike and soak in the scene. A picturesque farm is nestled in the corner of the valley, up against the hills. I meet some inquisitive cows, along with the farmer and his wife.
It seems that when you are in WV and you pass a sign that says ?snow removal ends here? that the already suspect road conditions are going to quickly deteriorate and will soon resemble somewhat more of a logging road. I motor on through some back country, no houses, no farms, just mountains, steep roadside cliffs, and wicked gravel switchback curves. The part that gives you the willies are the downhill corners where the road grade is slanted to the outside of the curve and to the drop below. Yikes!
I creep along where a four wheeler would be much more functional. Although I still hit it a bit in the straights. Pavement arrives again and I?m unsure of my exact location. I follow the chicken farmers directions and soon discover myself back in Brandywine, intersecting the same stretch of 33 I rode on my way into Franklin.
Back at the Star Hotel it?s a shower and fresh clothes before heading down for dinner. Downstairs I find the prime rib to be as good as promised.
Entry Five
How beautifully staged is this. Barefoot on the 3rd floor patio, wine to ease the back and the ache in the knee.
205 miles today, the last 30 after check in, just to explore.
Sunday
Entry Six
Out early in the morning. I find no climbers at Rock Gap, unsure of the hours they keep. Out of Franklin on 33 west, looking for another squiggly line I had seen on a map. Bland Hill Road name is a misnomer. A single lane country road winding through German Valley. I got a few shots of German Valley from the 33 overlook before turning on Bland Hill. Now I find myself in the same location I had shot from above.
The road cuts through some open pasture land and I meet some cows standing in the road after rounding one bend. They?re pleasant enough, if in no particular hurry to cross, and don?t mind posing for a shot or two before meandering on. People talk about the danger of hitting a deer, a cow would really ruin your day! Off of Bland Hill and on down into the valley. I come up on the rock formation I had seen from the overlook previously. It?s not Seneca Rocks, but a formation of the same ilk. I get some more photos, then onto German Valley Road. I?m still staying at the Star, there is no real destination today. It?s relaxing to stop as much as I like.
German Valley Road puts me back on 33 west and not long after I?m ordering breakfast at the Valley View Restaurant. Dale Borgeson warns of places that advertise home cooking, but that?s about all you see in these parts. There are a fair number of cars here and that?s usually a good since the food will be alright. Hell, even the Army could make a good breakfast. It all works out and it?s a hell of a deal, for toast, two eggs, hash browns, bacon, and coffee.
From 33 I hit 28 and turn off on Smoke Hole Road, just because it?s there and looks interesting. Boy, what a find it is. Combining the curvy one lane country road with nice wide smooth pavement (gravel free in the corners). It?s great. Smoke Hole Road turns out to run from 28 across the Seneca Rocks National Forest to 220 on the other side. Going west-to-east it starts out all curves and hills, then ends by winding along the south branch of the Potomac. There are lots of fly fishermen here enjoying the catch-and-release section of the river.
Up 220 to Petersburg, I run into some Ducati guys at the gas station. We swap riding info and I?m soon on 42 north towards Mayville. Hanging a left when I see a sign for Dolly Sods. I?m back on secondary roads and I soon pass another prophetic ?no snow removal? signs. It?s gravel the rest of the way up the mountain til it breaks out on top at Dolly Sod.
I?m real happy with today?s roads, as both Smoke Hole Road and Dolly Sods were unplanned ?discovered adventures?. I do some rock scrabbling at Dolly Sod and enjoy the cliff top views. A fellow tourist snaps a shot for me an I hike out well past the distance that the casual tourist and families go. Shot some more shots of the rock formations with both the digital and film camera. Do some more self-portraits. I then sit down to relax in the sun with the cliff side breeze steadily blowing and update this journal.
Entry Seven
Well, fellow traveler, if you?ve made it this far I am duly impressed. I thank you for your perseverance. The rest of the day was spent riding without incident. Just more fantastic roads. You don?t have to be an explore on par with Lewis & Clark to find great rides in West Virginia. Just be curious in nature and unafraid to leave the beaten path. Drop off the numbered roads and take the route less traveled. Soon you?ll be in your own undiscovered country. Blah blah blah.
Out of Dolly Sod and I find myself on 32. Rough calculations put the dirt road travel around 25 miles for the day. While we are on stats, here?s today?s animal road count:
1 rooster
1 dead fox
2 cows
8 chipmunks
7 alive
1 dead
3 dead possums
1 squirrel
1 dead blob (undistinguishable)
No fearsome deer
1 dog
I guided myself today by a rather non-descript map put out by mountainhighlands.com
Leaving Dolly Sod on 32 puts me in Dry Fork and back on familiar 33 west to Elkins. I cruise around Elkins on the off chance I?ll run into a guy I know named Dallas. Now all you need to know about Dallas is the following:
I don?t know his last name
I once gave him a hair cut with dog grooming clippers
I know he works at a bike shop making choppers
You figure the odds of me finding him, near zero.
If your curious it wasn?t the first time I cut hair, albeit the first time using dog shears. In Korea I cut in the latrine for a cut or for a 6 pack. Everything was barter in the Army. We had a cook that would make you a great custom birthday cake for a case of beer or feed you food out of the back of the chow hall at 3am when you staggered in drunk from the ville for the promise of a future round to be bought. Korea stories could fill another journal.
Anyway, out of Elkins and south to Beverly. Scott, if your reading this you were on my mind as I went through town, never forgive, never forget.
So far I?ve only tried to write about the positive food experiences of the trip without throwing anyplace under the bus. C&J in Beverly however, served only barely functional burgers and the vanilla shake was of the worst chemical prefab variety. There are some things that I am stuck on, good vanilla ice cream is one. The others that I?m picky about are beer, whiskey, steak, cheese-steak, and coffee. It?s just so disappointing when something you usually enjoy turns out to be sub par.
After C&J it?s 250 east to 28, which heads back towards Seneca Rocks and Franklin. It?s a good haul through the Monongahela National Forest. A road of the scenic variety, with good twisties up the mountain and through the scenery. These type road have become quite a common occurrence here in WV. Back in Seneca Rocks and 33 east into Franklin. I never shoot Seneca Rocks, the light is never right, number one can tell you how I get about my light.
The Star?s restaurant is closed on Sunday, dagger, so I shower and head into Franklin by foot. About Franklin, WV. It?s a nice little town, quiet and sleepy. No bars other than the VFW that I could see. Everybody I?ve met and spoken too has be pleasant, friendly and conversational, both here in Franklin and elsewhere in WV. I?m sure there are a variety of characters much as anywhere, this is just my observation from the tourist level.
Following last night precedent I grab another vino from the Shell station. The Star being closed is a dilemma; I?m in need of a cork screw (having borrowed the restaurants the night before). I wander back down to the hotel, wine in hand, and past the hotel just a bit til I meet an old man sitting out front. I explain my situation, wine without access, and he says he?ll sell me a corkscrew. He goes in the house, shortly to return with the necessary implement in hand. I figure I have it for -4 or maybe rent it for a one time use for . That proves unnecessary however, he says just to take it, and keep it for any future need.
The sole booking for the hotel tonight, I?m like a wraith as I glide through the halls. On the front porch with my bottle of vino in hand. I have some cheap cigars I also picked up and there?s nothing to do but kick back and watch the sunset.
It?s been a great trip. Somewhat lonesome at times. The lack of someone to talk to surely let to the length of this journal. It was a trip to getaway, to reflect. There was no great revelation or anything, just time to get to know yourself. The road gives you time to think. I know who I am and I like being me. I know what?s missing.
I?m resolved to take more bike trips in the future. It?s definitely my preferred way to travel and vacation. Motorcycling is the way to go.
Tomorrow I have my route generally planned out, more scenic byways for a winding route home.
Miles today, 240.
Monday
Entry Seven
Just a short postscript. 20 miles east of Washington DC, on 66, the chain popped off the bike. It?s never easy.
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Source: http://getting-back-your-ex.com/articles/cool-long-distance-relationship-ideas-pictures/
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