It is time ...

It is time for me to take some time for ME. Yes, it is vacation time! WOOHOO!

I work 3rd shift. It is 10PM, at the moment. My vacation starts at 0600.

8 hours.
640 minutes.
38400 seconds.

And already the phones in the support center are ringing non-stop.

ANYWAY, back to my vacation plans. (THIS is the REAL reason to have a blog, right? To brag about something? At least that is what MSM says. None of US could be journalists. I agree. Most bloggers I know and read have MORALS!) So, at 0600 (or as soon as I get off work) I will be jumping on my motorcycle and heading out of town. First leg is OKC to Indy. That is about 750 miles. On my 'new' bike. OH! I have not bragged about THAT, yet, have I?

The bike: The motorcycle is a part of my own personal stimulus program. My old bike, a '96 Honda Shadow ACE 1100, was a nice ride and the Shadows have long been a solid and stable platform. But at 160K+ miles on it, it was time to trade in. So the 'new' bike is a used '02 Honda VTX 1800. I've had CARS with smaller engines than this thing has. It is larger, longer, louder, stronger, faster, etc, etc, etc… And I'm loving it!

Anyway, I got up early today. The last week I've had these three piles growing in the living room. Things I MUST take, things it would be nice to take and the 'if possible' category. Today I managed to make a 4th pile and used that to load down the bike. All of this IS necessary, you see, because I'm going to camp for a few days in the Smokey Mountains. Appalachia. My personal 'motherland'. In particular, I'm heading to Deal's Gap (http://www.dealsgap.com) for a ride there. 318 curves in 11 miles. So, first a couple of days with my Dad in Indy, then a couple in the mountains and a couple of days getting back to OKC. That will pretty much take up my entire vacation. Close to 2500 miles, by map for the route. That is a lot of saddle time.

Saddle time like this is good for thinking! Solo thinking. Self identity, career, desires, self-image, etc. All those things to ensure I don't have that mid-life crisis and melt-down, before 60. I'm aiming for 60 to my 'mid-life' crisis.

But, anyway, Yes, I will be blogging and twitting (paganblacksmith) on the road. And I DO intend to upload photos from 'heaven on earth'. I've been fortunate to have been many places on this little dirty blue-green marble. But there is no place I've ever been like Appalachia.

More to follow in the next few days.


P.Blacksmith