motorcycles – Page 5 – ToadMama.com

September 24, 2016September 24, 2016

Easily Distracted

Did I ever tell you I have ADD? Well, I do. And that means I tend to be distracted easily.

Case in point, this morning. It’s Saturday, so I figured I’d start looking through the vacation pics.

I’m not sure yet how I’ll share them. By how, I mean chronologically, like, “on this day we did this…” or by categories, like maybe “painted houses.”

One of the highlights of the trip for me was visiting Oberammergau. It’s a small town in Bavaria, in Southern Germany, I’d first passed through on our very first trip to the region in 2010. We were on a motorcycle tour, spending nights in nearby Austria and days visiting various sights and enjoying local motorcycle roads.

Since we were with a group, I couldn’t stop. but I’d really, REALLY wanted to stop. It was the first time I’d seen houses like this…

Bavarian-style house adorned with flowers and paintings.

How cool is that?

According to this website about the town:

Luftl (Luftmalerei) fresco paintings are the characteristic decorations on houses in Alpine regions. They date back to the 18th century when wealthy merchants, farmers and craftsmen showed their wealth and status with colorful frescoes on the façade of their houses. The paintings often incorporated existing architectural structures, such as windows or doors, or took the form of medallions or scenes from the Bible, fairy tales or folk festivals.

Here’s another example…

Religious scene and painted window trim.

As this blog post about a neighboring town says,

The Bavarians have a long history of decorating the exteriors of their houses and businesses with both religious and historic paintings. …buildings…have unique murals on the outside walls of the buildings. Some depict an event or animals and other paintings make the buildings look like they have things (windows, statues, etc.) that really are not there.

I’d wanted BADLY to stop for a closer look, but couldn’t leave or delay my group, so on we went to a fantastic day of motorcycle riding and castle tours. But I never forgot.

That’s how we ended up in Oberammergau about two-thirds of the way through our trip. And why thoughts of places like Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg didn’t stir my anticipation nearly as much as Oberammergau.

We were only there briefly, but, don’t worry, I have more pics to share.

From there, we headed west and slightly north toward Schaffhausen, Switzerland, where we’d be meeting our friend, Tammi, in a day or so. Since we had time, we decided to visit a couple of King Ludwig’s castles in the area. Linderhof was first, then Neuschwanstein.

Hubby and I had seen both during that first trip to Austria. But Annelies and Yves hadn’t.

As it turns out, we took the exact same road from Linderhof to Neuschwanstein. And it wasn’t long before we started seeing this…

Yep, motorcycles. Zipping past us in our big-by-European-standards SUV.

It’s a good thing Annelies was driving. She’s much more conservative than me on roads like that.

It was a good road.

There was a pretty lake, too.

The coolest Deer Warning sign I have ever seen.

The deer are saying something like, “You’d think they would slow down now.” You know, since they’re showing their big, glowing, devilish and/or alien-like eyes!

This time, I was able to stop for a pic. 🙂

That drive brought back lots of good memories. It made we want to ride, too.

In fact, seeing these pics remind me just how much it made me want to ride.

And that is exactly why this post is ending here.

August 23, 2016

Backtracking, B&B Style

I’m behind again. I have given up trying to understand or explain why I haven’t been writing blog posts, so I figured I would just state the obvious and move on.

Back in April while Hubby and I were visiting Amy and family in Washington, we FINALLY got the chance to meet up with fellow moto bloggers Brandy (Trobairitz) and Brad (Troubadour). We’d been close a couple of times. I was thrilled that we finally got to meet. (I wrote about that meet-up elsewhere in a more-timely fashion.)

They live in Oregon, so Brandy chose a spot — Centralia, Washington — about halfway between their house and Amy’s neighborhood for us to have lunch.

They’re both just as nice in person as I knew they’d be. One day, hopefully, we will meet again and maybe ride together.

Hubby and I arrived a few minutes early so we poked around town a bit. Then, after a lovely lunch, the four of us strolled around town for a little while. Hubby and I were still in charge of the grand kids, so, sadly, we didn’t have an indefinite amount of time to linger.

We had a lovely lunch with B&B. Really. I’m sure the four of us could have some fun adventures together.

Maybe one day…

I think B&B were a bit unsettled when, as we were preparing to leave, I hurried back from the bathroom to get my camera.

It’s never a good feeling when someone is taking pictures in a bathroom. But the sink area was unlike anything I had ever seen.

Unusual Sink in the Women’s Bathroom at the Restaurant

If Hubby weren’t a plumbing guy, I may not have been so compelled to capture that photo. But he is a plumbing guy, so I HAD to.

June 1, 2016June 1, 2016

My Day in Victoria, BC, Canada

As we were planning our recent trip to visit family in Washington, one of the things I really, REALLY wanted to do was take a side trip to Victoria, BC. Not because I hadn’t been there before or because I just wanted to say I’d visited another country. I wanted to get to Victoria to meet Dar.

I’ve known Dar, aka Princess Scooterpie, for several years via her blog, and wanted to meet her in person. The last time I was in Victoria, I’d been traveling with three other people. We were on a tight schedule and I just didn’t feel right carving out time for myself. Of course, I’d regretted it, and I was determined not to make the same mistake twice. If you’d like to read about the meet-up with Dar and two other moto-blogger buddies (on a different day), you can do so here.

Victoria isn’t exactly in the same neighborhood, but it was close enough that I knew I could probably swing a visit, with proper planning and a little bit of luck. The planning part meant figuring out how to get from Auburn, where Amy and family live, to Victoria, which is sort of close on the map, but just happens to be on an island. And that meant the logistics — time and money — were a bit of a challenge. Luck came into play when there was a day with no grand kid sporting events, which meant I didn’t have to be in Washington for chauffeur service. I was free!

I had several choices, but finally settled on the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry from Seattle.

IMG_0325_Vic_Clip — Victoria Clipper Ferry

I only had to drive into Seattle for the ferry’s 8:30 a.m. sailing to Victoria, a 2.5-hour ride away. I love ferries. I especially love ferries that travel in and around Washington. It is such a beautiful place. And that day was absolutely gorgeous.

Oh, we saw Orcas en route, too. Not very well, but we did see their fins.

I was to meet Dar around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m. The ferry docked at about 11:00 a.m. That meant I had four or so hours to explore the lovely little city.

Supposedly, Victoria is Canada’s most-British city. I can’t say I know for sure as it’s the only city in Canada I have ever visited. Not counting a brief trip to Niagara Falls, which is not really a fair comparison.

British-like or not, it’s gorgeous. There are Victorian mansions and flowers galore, which I discovered as I ambled about, with no real plan beyond visiting the city park.

Here are some of the images I captured in Victoria that day.

3_IMG_0091 — Parliament Building (Victoria is the capital of British Columbia.)

9_IMG_0129 — Pretty lilacs with lichen-covered branches.

25_IMG_0303 (2) — Interesting Architecture

29_IMG_0328 (2) — Looking over the harbor.

30_IMG_0355 — Looking over the harbor from the opposite side.

IMG_0332_wall_map — Wall mural of Vancouver Island (Victoria is on the SE tip.)

I couldn’t decide which sunset image I liked best, so I decided to post three

I think #2 is my favorite. I like the colors.

As usual, I shared a ton of pics in this post. So many that I decided to share pictures captured in Beacon Hill Park in a separate post.

April 23, 2016

Do You See It?

I can’t help it. I see faces in the oddest places. And once I see one, I can never unsee it. Know what I mean?

She kind of reminds me of the shrunken head character in the movie Beetlejuice.

In other news… I am honored to be hosting my friend ScooterBob for the next few weeks.

I met a couple more moto-bloggers today, and also surprised them with a very special guest. You can read about it HERE if you like.

April 21, 2016

Whirlwind of Activity

Holy cow it’s been a crazy week. But GOOD crazy. Fabulous crazy, really.

A couple of posts ago, I said, “More adventures are on the horizon. Could it involve family, friends, a road trip, airplane rides, surprise visitor(s) , a voyage to another country, a boat ride? Or maybe all of the above? One never knows. I do know, however, that exciting times are definitely ahead.”

In my anniversary post, I meant to enlighten y’all a bit and reveal that we are in Washington, which is where that handsome, pancake-cooking grandson lives. But I forgot. Sorry!

I’m guessing if you follow my Instagram feed, you know — or have been guessing! — where I am. We are in Washington State. Our daughter, Amy, lives outside of Seattle with her husband, TJ, and three kids. Our daughter Shannon and her boyfriend, Chris, flew up from San Diego for the weekend. So we were just a son and daughter-in-law short of having a full house for our anniversary.

It was awesome having everyone together for the weekend.

PT_Trip — We drove this route counterclockwise.

Shannon and Chris left on Sunday evening. On Monday, while the kids were in school, Amy and I set off on a little road trip adventure, choosing to take the scenic route to Port Townsend (PT), a historic seaport town on the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula.

I gave Amy the option of a fast, medium, or slow, scenic ride, with me driving, of course. I was very happy when she chose the scenic route, which involved two ferries and a quick visit to Whidbey Island, one of my favorite locations in the state.

It was really, really nice spending the day with Amy. I don’t get to see her much, since we live on opposite sides of the country and all. 🙁

While we were off on our girls adventure, TJ and Hubby went to the Lemay car museum in Tacoma. Then they went to the Army base to see TJ’s boat (he’s a boat captain). The guys seem to have enjoyed their day as much as us girls did.

I’ll share pics and tell you more about PT later. But first, there’s some other excitement.

Amy and TJ had to go away for a few days, so we are in charge of the kids. Which means we need to be here to chauffeur them around to various activities, make sure they eat, bathe, go to bed on time, don’t kill each other, etc. Hubby and I are both working remotely from here, unless something else comes up.

Most evenings are pretty busy. Wednesday (yesterday) was one of the few days only one kid had any place to be (Brianna had lacrosse practice), so I decided to escape for an adventure.

I drove into Seattle and took the Victoria Clipper (a passenger-only ferry) up to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada for the day.

Victoria is a beautiful city. I took LOTS of pics. But want to know what the highlight of my day was?

Happy hour!

Not just because it was happy hour, but because of who I got to enjoy happy hour with!

Darlene, aka Princess Scooterpie! We’ve been following each other’s blogs for a few years now. I’d been to Victoria previously, but was traveling with friends so wasn’t able to squeeze in a visit. This time, I was very determined to meet this cool lady in the flesh.

She’s every bit as awesome as I knew she would be. Our time together FLEW by. Hopefully, next time we’ll get a couple of days together, instead of two, too-short hours.

I took a ton of pictures in Victoria. It really IS a beautiful city. I’ll share more when I get back home.

But guess what? Tomorrow — Friday — Hubby and I get to meet some more moto-blogger buddies. I really shouldn’t wish my time away, but I have been looking forward to this for quite some time.

I’ll leave you with this for now…

IMG_0388 (2) — Sunset over the Olympic Peninsula

I captured that pic from the back of the ferry as we headed back to Seattle. It was a beautiful end to a fabulous day.

March 21, 2016March 21, 2016

The Machida Connection

According to this world population clock (which must be completely accurate because it’s on the Internet), there are about 7.4 billion people living in the world today. Thank goodness they’re spread across the globe and not all concentrated on one continent.

Our world is a big place, but it’s small in some ways, too. There are threads that connect us to people, common ties that bind. Not just blood ties and physical connections, but common interests and beliefs that unite some of us in unique ways.

When I started this blog in 2008, it was primarily meant to serve as a place to document our travels. It’s morphed into something better, broader, and it’s enriched my life in ways I would not have thought possible eight years ago when I began this little endeavor.

Bloggers are a unique bunch. We put ourselves out there on a regular basis, sharing snippets of our lives, pieces of our dreams, pictures of our fantasies, loved ones, and general surroundings, pathways into our hearts and minds. Some are more-revealing than others. Some are more eloquent and/or funnier, heartwarming, bolder, braver, literary, frank, obtuse, reserved… the list of adjectives could go on and on.

Not everyone “gets” the why behind wanting to maintain a web presence such as this. And not all bloggers blog for the same reason. Having this blog has connected me with a wide group of people collectively referred to as my MotoBlog Buddies. Most have blogs, too (see the links in the sidebar). Many are in North America, but there are some in Europe, Australia, New Zealand. I don’t think I know anyone in South America, but it’s hard to tell because not all people who read blogs like to leave comments.

This circle of motobloggers into which I have somehow been adopted is a diverse, fun group of people. I’m honored to be considered one of them. And glad I haven’t been ousted due to my recent lack of motorcycle content!

I have always enjoyed meeting new people. As long as I can remember, anyway. Getting a glimpse into their lives, learning what drives them, what worries them, what makes them happy or sad. Listening to their stories. Sharing their joys, and their pain. Seeing their pictures. Laughing with them. Crying with them, too.

Geographically speaking, my MotoBlog Buddies cover a pretty wide area. Yet we’re all connected through our blogs thanks to at least three common interests… motorcycling, storytelling, and photography.

Every now and then, the moon, stars, and/or some other cosmic forces align and some of us get the chance to meet in person. Yesterday was one of those days.

Richard_and_ToadMama — Richard (of Richard’s Page) Machida and Me

I’d been excited about the event for weeks, but didn’t want to mention it for fear of jinxing the plan.

Richard lives in Fairbanks, Alaska with his charming wife, Bridget, who I also got to meet yesterday. Hubby Mike came along, too. It was brief visit over lunch near the airport from which they departed yesterday afternoon. (They were in the area to visit Bridget’s Dad who is in an assisted living facility in Elizabethtown, PA, which, oddly enough, happens to be MY Dad’s hometown. More small world connections.)

As expected, they were both very nice people. Our “quick” lunch stretched into two hours! It felt like about 30 minutes, though. I probably talked too much, as usual, and asked too many questions. But there were so many info gaps in my mind to be filled.

I first “met” Richard when he served as troubleshooter for our mutual motoblogger friend, Bob (now deceased), who was having trouble posting comments to my blog. Bob was a frequent poster of comment here. Not being able to get his word in was painful for him. And frustrating for me. Richard helped, and I’ve sort of known Richard ever since. I got to know him a bit more during the month of February, since he participated in my do-a-post-every-day-in-February challenge (yes, I failed miserably).

Richard is a hardy guy. He rids his Ural rig (motorcycle with sidecar attached) year-round. In Fairbanks, Alaska! In the COLD, snow, and ice. That must be why he looks like he’s in his 40s even though he’s retired. (Bridget did say she’ll have to keep working forever to pay for all the Ural repairs. LOL.)

When Richard mentioned my lack of moto-related content lately, me saying “it’s Winter!” really sounded like a lame-ass excuse.

I’m still in a rut. But I am slowly, surely clawing my way out. Spring has arrived. That should help. And meeting folks like Richard and Bridget in person go a long way toward perking me up, too. AND, guess what? There are one or two more motoblogger meetups in my near future. Yes, I’m excited.

Years ago, I used to think of my blog followers as the people in my computer. Now I know better. These people are real, and they’re friends. Whether or not I meet them all in person, we still have that connection. We are still part of each others’ lives, even if we’re only connected virtually. We give each other an audience. Other people who care about the same sort of stuff enough to keep reading, keep following along (some through more than one medium), keep cheering each other on, even when we do stray from two-wheeled topics.

For more on yesterday’s meet-up, including spouse pics, check out Richard’s post.

Whether you are a motoblogger or not, I want you to know that I appreciate each and every one of you followers. Thanks for following. I look forward to sharing more adventures with you in the future.