If this becomes the norm… I’m ok with it

So yeah, I keep having really fun weekends.  If this is an omen of things to come, I think it’s awesome!  This is going to be along blog, so take this time to go to the bathroom, get some snacks, stretch, or whatever else you might need to do first.

So Friday I get home, and since it was beautiful, I instantly swapped out the car for my motorcycle.  I then went in to town to Dairy Queen to meet up with mom, Bob, and Linds and Avalynn for a quick lunch.  After that, we headed over to my sisser and bruver’s soon-to-be new house they just bought to check it out.  There’s some decisions still being made, but it could end up being my house too… at least a couple rooms in the basement.  Again, it’s not for certain yet, though.  Anyway, it is a pretty nice place.  Doesn’t really need any work done to it to be able to be lived in right away, which is good.

After I left there, I went to the DMV to pick up a duplicate registration for my bike since the first one has been indefinitely misplaced.  I was only there for maybe 20 minutes.  Fastest I’ve ever been in and out of the DMV!  From there I went through town to Martinsburg Motorsports so I could get my bike inspected.  I also had Chris, the mechanic, take a look at my horn since the previous weekend it went nuts and tried to kill me with sonic damage.  Yeah, I didn’t mention that in my last blog, but my horn decided it wanted to go on the fritz, and by fritz I mean turn on an NEVER TURN OFF.  I unplugged the damned thing as soon as I got to my destination (which happened to be the church parking lot full of people).  Luckily it wasn’t anything dire, so he fixed it in like five minutes.  I’m glad I stopped in there, though, because while I was there Chris asked me if I was coming to the Open House on Saturday.  I had just seen the banner advertising it right before I walked in to the shop, so he gave me the details.  Live band, free food and drinks, etc… typical open house stuff.  I told him I’d be out for sure!

After that I headed back home and hung out until Bruver and Sisser came over after they left the new house (which was being inspected).  I got to take Avalynn for a ride around the yard several times, and we even got some pics and a short video of it.  I’m so happy she’s changed her mind about motorcycles.  Up until a couple weekends ago, motorcycles scared her because some Harley ass holes rode by their house through the middle of town blasting exhaust from their de-tuned, backfiring engines through straight mufflerless pipes.  One evening I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride.  I expected her to change her mind once she saw us headed for my bike, but she didn’t.  She didn’t even make a fuss when I started up my bike (which is properly tuned and has a great set of Kerker 4-1 exhaust pipes).  Anyway, this time when we were headed to the bike she started giggling and said, “I love motorcycle”.  That really made me smile.  She had a blast riding around with me.  I think I might have had as much, if not more fun as she did!

I decided to hang out with my bruver and sisser at their house for the evening.  Instead of me riding the bike in, though, Linds had the great idea to let Bryon take it in since he hadn’t ridden yet this season.  I, of course, thought it was a great idea and happily handed over the keys.  He actually beat us back to the house, but only because we had to wait about 30 minutes to get a couple taco pizzas from Bob’s Carry-Out.  Best. Taco. Pizza. Ever.

Saturday morning I woke up early to head back to the DMV.  I finally got the duplicate copy of the title to my black bike, so I was able to get it transferred to my name, registered, and got a temporary tag for it.  It’s temporary because I went ahead and put in the paperwork for a personalized plate.  As long as it’s available, the plate for my black motorcycle will read, “OUTRDR”, or “Outrider” for those who need it expanded upon, named after the starship piloted by Dash Rendar in the Star Wars book Shadows of the Empire.

I left the DMV and headed over to my sis’s house to see what they were up to and if they wanted to go to the open house with me.  Turns out they were getting ready to head to the canal for an hour or so to do a little walking.  I was invited to go, so I hopped on the bike and followed them to our destination.  As a side note, whenever you plan on going on any sort of wilderness walk with a two-year-old, plan on spending about double the time you originally allotted.  Avalynn is a little trooper, though.  She ended up doing a lot of walking herself instead of riding on shoulders or in the stroller.  It was fun pointing out stuff to her, too.  She got to see some turtles and even got to hold a little toad (don’t worry, we sanitized her hands afterwards).

When we were done at the canal, I headed straight to the open house, followed shortly by Linds and Bryon and Avalynn.  We got some hotdogs and sodas and walked around showing Avalynn all the motorcycles.  The plan was for me to pick up my red bike which was still there at the shop so that Bryon and I could go for a ride together.  Chris gave me the key to it and said he had her all charged up and she was idling well earlier.  Well, guess what?  We didn’t get to take her out.  Sure enough she started up and idled fine, but when I started to ride her out to the parking lot to meet Bruver, she was squeeking something horrible.  Turns out the rear brake was stuck shut.  I pumped it a few times and tried to rock her back and forth, but to no avail.  I asked one of the other mechanics to take a look and he said that the rear brake caliper just needed knocked loose, so he wandered off to find a rubber mallet.  Well when that didn’t work, he ended up bleeding some fluid off of the brake line.  Long story short, the rear master cylinder needs a thorough cleaning, and thusly the bike was not ready to ride that afternoon.  I was PISSED.

While trying to figure out what to do next, Bruver and I hung out and listened to the band, J-Factor.  Pretty rockin’ band, actually, for a couple of old guys.  Haha.  We also saw the biker group Bikers Against Child Abuse ride back in from the charity ride they had started at noon that day.  Not sure what the route was, but I know it was 100 miles.  I had never heard of the group before, but they were some really nice people.  Sadly, the group was also mentioned Sunday in an article when one of their members was killed by being struck by lightning while riding.  Weird.

Anyway, not wanting to let the afternoon go to waste, Bruver ended up hopping on the back of the bike and we headed out for a ride through Martinsburg to Shepherdstown, then to Harpers Ferry and Charlestown, then finally back to Martinsburg.  It wasn’t too long, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  Back at their house, the bill of fare was leftover taco pizza.  Best. Reheated. Taco. Pizza. Ever.  A nice night ride back home in the warm air completed my very busy, yet fulfilling day.

Sunday was another somewhat busy day for me, and was definitely long.  Church in the morning has become normal for me.  I, of course, rode in like I’ve been doing.  After the service, I was chatting with Lindsay about the Christian music concert that was happening that evening there at the church and giving her a hard time about not getting me a ticket.  Well, a friend of hers was standing nearby and asked me if I wanted one.  Turns out someone wasn’t able to go, so she was told to give away the ticket!  It would make for a very late night for me, but I hadn’t been to a concert in a very long time and thought it would be fun.

While Bruver was helping set up for the concert, Sisser, Avalynn, mom and I all went to lunch in Hagerstown and then to the Prime Outlets to pick up some summer outfits for Avalynn.  This, of course, meant that while nana and mommy were shopping, Avalynn got to ride around on Uncle Ryan’s shoulders.  We had a fun little time hanging out in the store just by ourselves.  We sat by the window and watched all the people go by while bouncing up and down in my arms and singing songs and such.  It was really cute. When we were done at the outlets, we headed back to mom’s so we could lay Avalynn down for a much-needed nap.  She was actually asleep before we got home.

Around 6:30, I hopped back on the bike and headed to the church for last performance in the “Make It Matter” tour.  The headlining artist was Natalie Grant.  Along with the tour was also Meredith Andrews and Chris Sligh (yes, the same Chris Sligh from American Idol a few years back).  Being the last performance in a tour, Natalie warned us that there very well may be some mischief being done during the concert.  Sure enough, during Meredith’s performance, Chris came out and did what he called “interpretive dance” across the stage.  She actually had to stop in the middle of the song to explain that Chris had issued a veiled threat before the concert began.  It was pretty funny, but it gets better.

Next up was Chris, who, if you couldn’t tell already, has a great sense of humor.  He’s got a bit of A.D.D., so he tends to ramble a bit during his performance.  Makes for some pretty funny stuff.  The first prank pulled on him was when he sat down at his keyboard and it wasn’t working.  He originally thought it was just a malfunction until a stage hand came out, pushed a key on the board, and a deep base note came out.  He thanked her, and she walked away.  Then he tried to play.  Again, nothing.  After going through this a few times, he joked that the stage hand should just stay up there with him on stage.  Well, when he turned back to the audience, she slipped in just behind his left shoulder and just stood there.  It took him a minute, but he finally noticed her.  “That was just a little bit creepy,” he said as she walked off.  Then he said he was paranoid so he turned the whole keyboard almost 90-degrees so he could see that side of the stage where she came from.  Anyway, he performed a few songs, then during a song he wrote called “Rock Star” in which he talks about how rock stars need money and can’t live off of bologna sandwiches, the entire tour group – singers, band, stage hands, everyone – came out and threw slices of bologna at him.  It was HILARIOUS!  He commented that it’s a good thing this was his last song, because now there was bologna smell all over the stage.

Natalie was awesome.  Not sure what to really say other than that.  She’s got a great voice, the band was thumping right along with her, the music was loud, it was awesome.  She talked about the driving force behind this tour.  She was watching one of those stupid CSI-type shows that I hate when the subject of human trafficking came up.  She had never heard of it, so like every other American does when they don’t know something, she googled it.  Well that was it for her.  She ended up traveling to India where she was able to see this happening right in the streets.  She formed an organization around helping the children who are/were victims of this modern day slavery.  Just by listening to her talk, I could tell she was really passionate about this, easily as much as I am about gun rights, so that’s saying something.

After the concert, I headed straight back home so I could load up and get back to base.  I was gonna take the bike back, but I’m having tires put on it this week.  It won’t be long, though.  You may be reading about me having the bike up here with me as soon as next weekend!  All in all, I had a great time with my family this weekend.  We’re in the process of planning a camping trip for next month, too!  I’m really excited about that!  I’ll get to push some of the MREs I have on some unsuspecting siblings.  Muahahahahaha…

Keep your powder dry.