Grand Marais Fisherman's Picnic Weekend

Been gone for a while.

Thursday last week, I was cleaning up some loose ends at work. I took Friday off, and headed up north to Grand Marais, MN with my wife.

We went there for our now annual Grand Marais Fisherman's Picnic weekend to meet a few of my wifes friends, who have now become my friends. The scenery there is stunning. I'd like to retire around the North Shore someday, and lucky for me, my wife is totally on board with this

plan. We stayed in a quaint cabin just outside of downtown. We ate, we drank, and shopped in town, enjoyed the festival, had a camp fire dinner with our friends, and parted ways the next morning. My wife and I spent the last day there together, and just enjoyed each other's company. We saw some incredible scenery and views as we headed along the Gunflint Trail. I was so into the beautiful views in front of me, I was just, well, dumfounded, and too lame to take any pictures. I take that back. I have a few on my camera phone. Now if I can just find time to figure out how to get them off!

I got another souvenier knife.

I love knives, especially when I can tie it into being a biker knife, that makes it even better.

I got back from our trip to start work the following day. I spent the last two days in a training class, and got absolutely nothing done as far as my real job goes. Now I'm really far behind the 8-ball. I really don't even have time to be posting this. I'd like to lay blame on my temp. who did absolutely nothing while I was away, but... Oh wait.... I don't have a temp. All the work just piles up while I'm gone. As a matter of fact, I was even assigned more work while I was on vacation! Bastards. Nothing like job security right???

Please excuse my absence as of late, and in near future. I have much catching up to do. I'll try to catch up on my regular blogs I read, and we'll talk to you all soon.

Peace,

Mr. Motorcycle

A moment of shame that I had to bear for something I did not do.

I was at the Dodge dealership getting my Charger worked on for some maintenance.

The service writer, the service technician and I were going over what I needed to have done to my car. We started B.S.- ing about riding motorcycles, because they saw the Harley sticker on my car.

They asked, "Do you ride?", and the answer was of course, "Yes."

I asked, "Do you guys ride?" They both replied, "Yes".

Long story short....
The service writer was on his way back to the service writer's booth area to do some paperwork to put me in a free laoner for a few hours while they worked on the Charger. The Tech. lowered my car down from being hoisted, so I could get some personal belongings out of the car. While lowering the car, he asks me, "Do you have a Harley?" I proudly say "Yes."
He then replies, "I've got a bike, but it's only a Kawasaki." I say, "Only a Kawasaki?, You say that like you are ashamed of it." He says, "No, but it ain't a Harley." I told him, "Who cares! If you're into Kawasaki's, then you are into Kawasakis. You don't need to apologize." He said, "That's nice to hear from someone who rides a Harley. Because about 8 out of ten times I wave to someone riding a Harley, they don't wave back." I said, "That's Bullshit that that happens. People shouldn't care what you are riding as long as you are out there having fun. That's what it's all about, not what you're riding. Most guys I ride with, including me, don't give a shit about what anyone else rides. I love Harleys, but that's just me. I wave to people riding scooters."

At that particular moment, I truly felt ashamed to be associated with a crowd that acts this way. It's not what I see, but then again, I'm sure it happens too. Isn't what we preach that bikers help ALL bikers, no matter what? It's like an unwritten code of biker ethics or creed in the biker world. It is what the brotherhood of bikers is about to me. So why wouldn't you recriprocate this feeling of brotherhood to ANY biker waving to you? Any wone who snubs a wave for the sole reason of what the other person is riding, or not riding, should be completely ASHAMED! I guess what I'm trying to say here, is that we all have preferences on what to ride, and what we think is the best. But none of that changes the person who is riding it. We are all equal, even if we don't think the motorcycles each of us chooses to ride are. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Do I think Harley Davidson is the best damn bike on this planet... You bet! But just 'Cause I love Harleys doesn't mean anyone else has to. I give an honest and sincere statement here when I say, I don't care what you ride.

Peace to ALL riders!

Mr. Motorcycle