Saturday, March 31, 2012

I'm Not Getting Much Riding in Lately.

The weather has been kind of crappy lately, so I've been busy doing repairs around the house and have had to put riding on hold for a bit.

I did make some time to swap out the black grills on the Ninja for the OEM, Candy Lime green, Kawasaki ones I bought a while back. Maybe the black lower fairings need to be swapped out too.

Before.....

After.....

I've been seeing a lot of Bald Eagles around the area. I was lucky and had my camera with me and managed to snap a couple of pictures of this huge guy sitting in a pine tree. Click the pic for a better view!


Now that the snow is gone and the lakes and rivers are free of ice, I've been checking out the canoe landings along the Namekagon River. I want to get the kayaks in the river soon.


I also discovered the Cable Rod and Gun Club. It's set up for skeet, trap, 25 yd. pistol, 100 yd. rifle, 300 meter rifle, and 25-50 yd. small bore. I've been doing a little shooting. I'm so out of practice. I haven't picked up a firearm since I retired 18 months ago.

Club house.....

25-50 yd. small bore range.

300 meter range.....

Pistol range.....

Sunday, March 18, 2012

The Delta Diner.

A fellow Wisconsin motorcycle blogger, Doug, e-mailed me about my latest posts. He mentioned the Delta Diner. I had not been there yet and it was on my list of things to see. Much has been written about the diner by riders of the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail, AKA the T.W.A.T.
I went for a ride today with the intention of finding the diner. I found a great local road, Forrest Service Road 35. It runs north from Drummond, WI up to Delta, WI. Just a few hundred feet from FS-35 and County H is the Delta Diner. I stopped in the lot for a few pictures. There were a lot of bikes parked in front, and lots of people standing around. I didn't go inside, I'll wait until I can bring Nancy there.


I also checked out the National Forrest Service campground at Perch Lake, north of Drummond. It's a very nice place with a boat ramp and some camp sites on the water.


I also rode down towards Hayward to check on my sister's cabin. The snow has vanished in just a few days. The temps here have been in the mid to upper 70's lately. The Smith Lake Association has made fish cribs and placed them on the ice. When the ice melts, the cribs will sink and provide an environment for small fish to use as protection.


The ice is gone from the Namekagon River. It will soon be time to get out the kayaks.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Visitors in the Backyard.

When Nancy and I were living in Prescott, WI we lived in small neighborhood of about 95 homes. Now we're 5 miles east of Cable, WI in a small development. I can see 2 other homes, but they aren't occupied full time, they're summer homes. When the trees leaf out, I might not be able to see any homes.
Nancy enjoys nature and likes watching birds at the feeders and the antics of the squirrels. We mounted a corn holder to a tree in the back yard and the squirrels go crazy for it. We had seen deer tracks in the driveway and in the snow in the back yard, but they never made an appearance until today.


The night before, I was sitting in the kitchen and I heard one of the cats growl. He growled just like a dog would if you tried to take his bone from him. I looked out the patio door to see this about 10 feet from the house...

The cats are really enjoying their new home. There's so much to see outside. The cats will sit motionless for hours watching this....

Waiting For Spring Challenge

On Trobairitz' Tablet, she issued a challenge. Post a web cam picture. Seems easy enough, but it took me a while to figure out how to activate my computer's built in camera. Here I am.


Trobairitz' Tablet, spring challenge


OK, so the first pic was too serious??? Well how about these two...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Making it Legal

Last Friday, I attempted to register my new bike at the local Deputy Registrar. She got all of the information into the computer but it wouldn't let her finalize the paperwork. She called someone on the telephone and when she was done, she told me I should bring my paperwork to the DMV in Rice Lake, WI.
On Monday, Nancy and I drove the 67 miles to Rice Lake. The first stop was the WI DMV. I waited for almost an hour. When my number was called, I walked up to the counter and spoke with Garret. He was nice enough, but informed me that the VIN on the bike came back to a "dirt bike". I think he was thinking that I was trying to register some sort of conversion. Buy a dirt bike, stick a light on it and get plates for it.... I tried to convince him that it was a factory made, street legal, looks like a dirt bike, supermoto. Garret wasn't buying it. He told me that without seeing the "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards" sticker on it, there wasn't anything he could do.
I let the DMV thinking I had been scammed by buying some one-off conversion. I went across the street to the Yamaha dealer. I explained my situation to the parts guy and asked him if he could check the VIN and tell me what it started life as.... Was it a Wr250F? or an X? He went in the back and came back with a print out showing the sale date, warranty expiration date, original owners name, and model, a Wr250X!
I went back across the street to the DMV and talked to Garret again. It was a few minutes past closing time so he wasn't too helpful. He asked if I could bring the bike down tomorrow. He told me that he'd be there all day, and he could straighten out the problem.
So this morning, at 37 degrees, I bundled up and went for a ride. Down through Hayward, through Stone Lake, then back roads all the way to Rice Lake. I walked in to the DMV a little after 11:00. I told the receptionist that I needed to work with Garret on a problem from yesterday. She went in the back and got him. Garret and I walked outside. He compared the VIN to the old MN title, noticed the FMVSS sticker and seemed confused. We went inside and he called someone in Madison, WI at the main DMV. He read someone the VIN. After a few yes's and no's, he got off the phone and told me that the VIN was correct, and it was a Wr250X and that he'd be getting me plates and a title!!! Thank you Garret!

I rode home, put on the new plates and headed out!

First stop, The Great Divide. Click the pics for a bigger view.

I made a 44 mile loop around Lake Namekagon, up to Grand View, down to Drummond, to Cable, to home.

I was near Grand View when I spotted this gem.

By the time I got close to Cable, it was getting dark quickly.

I've put 257 miles on the bike since I brought it home last week. It really is a fun little bike to ride!

Friday, March 09, 2012

Bring on Spring.... The Girls are Home!!!

Since the move up north I have had an empty feeling every time I looked in the garage. Today I cured that. I rented a trailer from the local U-Haul dealer and brought the two big bikes home from the storage locker.

A full garage is a happy garage!!!


The trailer was pretty neat It had a built in wheel chock for the front tire.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Hi, My Name is Erik and I Have a Motorcycle Problem...

Or, we went shopping, and look what followed me home!

Early in the morning on Wednesday my sweetheart Nancy and I left the snow covered north woods of WI and headed for St. Paul, MN. Nancy had an 11:30 Dr's appointment. When her appointment was over, we went down to Hastings, MN to do a little shopping. Then up to Woodbury, MN to do some more. Around 6:00 in the evening, we stopped at our friends(and riding buddy) John and Wendie's home in St. Paul. The 4 of us went out for dinner. After dinner, we parted ways and Nancy and I started to head for home, but I made a small detour...

I have been shopping Craigslist for most of the winter, and Tuesday night I spotted a gem. I found a 2008 Yamaha Wr250x with only 1561 miles on it. It was priced right, $800 less than others I'd seen lately, and less than 1/2 the price of new. Tuesday night I e-mailed the owner and made arrangements to come see it on Wednesday evening. After dinner, I called the seller, got an address and found my way to his place.

I looked at the bike, started it up and let it run for a while. With only 1561 miles on it, it's really clean. It was too cold for a test ride with no riding gear so I purchased it on the spot. The guy's garage was spotless. He had a set of summer wheels and tires for his car up in a rack mounted on the garage wall. They were in zippered, protective cases. You could have eaten off his garage floor. A sport bike was sitting, covered, on front and rear stands along the other garage wall.

As we stood in his garage, I wondered how I'd get it home. He made a call to his friend and asked him to come over and help us. We went in the house, counted some cash, did some paperwork, and finished up about the time his friend arrived. The 3 of us loaded it up into the back of my pick up truck. I strapped it down, shook his hand and headed back home.

Now updated with daylight pictures.......