Friday, August 31, 2007

Travel solo, girls! It's great!

Hey, women! I recommend traveling solo! Above are pictures of two fun camping trips.The rock over the creek was a marvelous place to sleep and very beautiful to wake up to!

After raising 3 daughters, caring for my mom 13 1/2 years, my hubby's aunt 1 1/2 years, and my disabled Viet Nam hubby, I can tell you for sure that I LOVE TRAVELING SOLO!!!! Life is so simple! I stop when I want, eat when I want, camp when I want, and don't have to be checking my rear view mirror to see if he got lost!

People always come up and say, "Are you alone??!! Aren't you scared??" I'm like,"Scared of what?" I have been doing this for 7 years all over the country with 100% great experiences. I have met 100% nice people. Motels will let me park right outside their office under the canopy with good light, and sometimes I just park in front of my room. The only problem I have when camping (which I do a lot of with my little one person tent) is this: I like to gather twigs and pine cones and have a tiny campfire just to watch the flames dance, then turn in when it gets dark. It never fails: some big guy will come and, quick as a whip, throw a big log or two on my fire and say, Here. You need some wood!" Then I'm up many hours 'till it burns down. ggrrrrr. Also, people often bring a chair and insist I sit in it. I love sitting Indian style on the ground! grrrr grrrr

I love the flexibility of listening to my weather radio and being able to load my gear and head out in a flash if necessary.

I have never carried a gun and feel no need for one. What you think, you create. If you have a gun consciousness, you will attract that. Surround yourself with white light, ride and walk confidently, and with your heart open.

The world is very loving, giving and kind. I am always flexible with my trip plan. Often times, I just head towards the beautiful mountains, and turn on roads that look like fun. I stop in some out of the way little general store with an old coot or two on the porch, sit and drink water, and listen to their stories. Many times, someone will come out of the store and insist I eat (for free) something delicious they just cooked up! people will say, "Oh, you must go here and see this or go there and see that." So i do, and am lead place to place just flying by the seat of my pants! I have experienced many beautiful and interesting places that I never knew existed, and would never have found if I just mapped a route and stuck to it! It is very rewarding to be flexible.

Once I was in the boonies and went in a store for water, came out, and dropped my bike key. I looked all over for the darned thing. This got ridiculous! I was in the way, so I rolled my bike up about 3 feet. I kept looking and looking and looking. I began to believe there were invisible gremlins at work! After a long while, a van full of Mexican men pulled up. The guys got out and came over. I explained with hand gestures and my small bit of Spanish my dilemma. One got on his back under the bike, Two tilted the bike, and there was my key in the chain! They got it out for me and would accept no $ for their help! My chain was fine, My key, to this day, is mangled, but works fine! It is a good reminder to carry a spare key. (I was on my 03 Honda 750 ACE Shadow named Cherry. (as she's a pretty cherry sparkley red!)

I love my solo grannie motorcycle trips and take them every chance I get! Being 60 (almost 61) is great!!!! I encourage all women to do the same!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Here are some great links

Women on Wheels (you can also download membership application here. if u do, please put my membership number, 12023, as i will get referral credit. thanx!) www.wemonwheels.org

Biker Ally Magazine (a great motorcycle magazine geared for women) www.bikerallymag.com

Chain Gang (forums for owners of F650 BMWs. they are chain driven one cylinder thumpers and great bikes!) www.f650.com

The Kickstand, a terrific motorcycle shop in Burgin, Ky, puts out a newsletter. http://www.thekickstandllc.com/newsletter/index.htm

Deal's Gap, a great motorcycle camp and motel (and my favorite!) at the end of the Dragon, right across the Tn. border in N.C. www.dealsgap.com

Steve Cheseborough, a wonderful accoustic guitarist who plays pre-world war II blues, the great early delta stuff, and has degrees from Oxford, Ms, and has published two books on the delta blues history. www.stevecheseborough.com http://cdbaby.com/cd/cheseborough1 http://cdbaby.com/cd/cheseborough2 www.myspace.com/stevecheseborough

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Lebanon is a great little town!

www.visitlebanonky.com

double click on articles or brochure

double click on articles, pictures, brochure, to make them bigger and readable.

Monday, August 27, 2007

two of my published articles

This article was published in the July 03 issue of Biker Alley.

This article was published in the July 07 issue of Women on Wheels magazine.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

ANN'S CHATEAU BROCHURE

You actually need to print this double sided and fold it in thirds to have a brochure, but u get the general idea here. LOL

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

marvelous august rain!

So needed and appreciated! Smells, sounds, looks, and feels soooooo goood! Even a little thunder and lightning! So very refreshing!

close call!

JUMP!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

miniature golf

javen and i had a blast at the mini golf course, and he is a film-maker! check this out! this a really cool course! javen is a cinematographer! he thought of and shot this video at a very cool miniature golf course!

airport today with javen!

this fellow made this experimental aircraft from a kit. 354 lbs. took 280 hours to build. flies about 600 ft in air. cool as heck! sara and i are going to a civil air partrol meeting mon. night at this bardstown airport and may join. the leader is retired air force pilot. he asked for korea and got alaska, and asked for viet nam and got alaska! has flow bush planes and all! really cool dude. u can join civil air partol at 12 yrs. old and uncle sam pays for u to fly! i can join too! maybe i'll get my license yet! i did solo 13 times in 1991!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

raywick, cow mailbox, jeff, raptors ride

this post is for blake, as he didn't ride with me today. met a cool dude, jeff, with the coolest simplest harley i have ever seen. jeff was in irac, and is gonna come visit blake! also saw a cool cow mailbox. then the raptor ride came through charlie's in raywick, so took some photos 'specially for blake!

Friday, August 17, 2007

sunset ride & makers mark (&charlie's)

It's been so hot here in Ky., record-breaking heat up to 100 degrees!!!

Finally this evening it got down to 85, and i took a short ride to get a good photo op on the big orange ball of a sunset. Well, I missed it, as I was in a valley when it happened, but I did take the pretty road to Makers Mark in Loretto, and decided to take pictures for ya awl! I helped restore that stonework in the late 70's. It's about 10 miles from our town home and 10 miles from our country cabin. Come visit and we'll take ya there!

Then I went by the local biker bar in Raywick , Charlie's, and good ole Carlos was seranading everyone. Sadly, most bikes around here are Harleys and cruisers but we are teaching them about BMW's! LOL! Stayed for 2 songs and headed home.

Charlie is the guy next to Carlos, and he makes the best burgers in the world! That's Gary with the crutches. He was born with cerabal palsy but it doesn't slow him down much. Love my moto lights. they sure light up the darkness. I also like that little button on the left handle that can flash the headlights! Of course, my headlight modulator doesn't work at night, so I only flashed one car that tried to pull out in front of me tonight. Usually there are 2 or 3 during the day, and the modulator really helps.

It was really neat riding home. There were pockets of hot air, then pockets of really cool air. I don't know how that happens, but it was really neat.

mysticalma

Life is short! Don't be afraid to live it!

Where Grampa Blake Plays

He just won't stay out of our trees! I know he is part monkey!

Added front pegs to Mustard

makes for comfy highway cruising!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

found 3 cool pictures to share!

herre is my mug shot with a butterfly admiring it, cherry winning 1st place in a bike show, and me and cherry ready to go camping!