Well I'm still hanging around my property which I've decided to rename "Poverty Gulch" which seems to fit my new situation better than what I had named it before. I haven't left the property to go shopping or anything since I arrived a week ago. I had thought that I would be getting back to civilization every few days and be able to catch up with my blog before it got too far behind but so far that hasn't worked. It's been so peaceful out here and I've been so relaxed that I kind of hate the thought of driving into town. I know I'll have to go eventually but right now I'm in a mood to put it off.
I haven't made up my mind yet how long I want to stay here but I'm sure it's going to be at least another week. So far I haven't felt the least bit of motivation to go somewhere else, in fact I've been so relaxed that I haven't even started doing the things I wanted to do when I got here. The only downside to being here is that it's about 30 miles to a Walmart and I have no phone or Internet service. I am able to send and receive text messages sometimes, but not reliably, and that's been my only high tech contact with the outside world. When I do leave here I'll probably go back to 11 mile State Park for a night or two to fill up and empty my tanks. The state Park won't let you dump your tanks for free, in fact they charge $20 so you might as well just stay for the night and then dump. theboondork and
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Yesterday I met my new neighbor. The folks that owned the property on the west side of me just sold the property and I met the buyer yesterday. I only met the wife but her and her husband are supposed to come out Wednesday so I will get to talk to both of them. They seem like they're really nice folks and will make excellent neighbors.
It's been really hot and dry since I've been here but today it rained for a while and cooled things off a little. When I say it's been hot I don't mean the kind of hot where you need an air conditioner because it's only been about 80° is just the kind of hot where I have to open the windows and turn on the vent fans and that makes it comfortable in the trailer. I haven't done any shooting yet but I probably will in the next day or so. Mostly I've been riding the Yamaha WR450 around and trying to get used to it. I've been adjusting the suspension system for my weight which means I make an adjustment and ride around for a while to see how that feels and then make another adjustment. The bike still feels really tall to me and I haven't gotten used to that feeling yet so I've only been going up and down small hills and not doing anything that makes the bike feel unstable. theboondork I worked on the motorcycle loading ramp today, that's the aluminum channel on the right side of the carry rack . It originally only had one strip of nonskid down the middle, just like the aluminum channel on the other side. But that seemed a bit slippery to me so I put 2 more strips of nonskid on it. Putting the nonskid tape on it was easy but wire brushing and cleaning the aluminum so the tape would stick took the longest.
I rode the Yamaha WR450 around some more today. I'm still trying to get used to the thing because it still feels very tall to me. Now that I've riddin it some there's a few things that stand out that annoy me. One is that it's very hard to find neutral when I stop. In fact after the bike gets hot finding neutral when stopped is almost impossible so I've been shutting it off and then putting in a neutral. I think maybe that can be adjusted out but I'm not sure. Another thing is the throttle feels too sensitive and the bike seems to lunge forward with the slightest turn of the throttle. This is particularly annoying riding on rough ground because with me and the bike bouncing it's hard to hold the throttle steady. Maybe it needs a stiffer throttle spring. The last thing is I'm not very comfortable standing up on the motorcycle like you're supposed to do when going over rough ground. It feels like the foot pegs are too high and it doesn't look like there's a way to lower them enough to help. The handlebars are kind of okay but I wish they were about an inch higher, which is not that hard to do inless all of your cables won't reach any higher and you have to buy all new longer cables. Then raising the handlebars becomes more difficult and expensive. All in all the more I ride it the less stressful it is so I figure by the time I leave here I should be pretty comfortable with it. But I sure wish I could get on it more gracefully, the back of the seat and the rear fender that I have to throw my leg over to get on the bike is still almost as high as my waist. which means I have to kind of throw my leg up on the seat and then wiggle it around until it falls over the other side. I managed to get up there but I definitely don't look cool doing it. theboondork |
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