Saturday January 16th 2010

Days Inn, Spring Street Nashville

$50 motel rooms if you mention CMT/ABATE Motorcyclist Party call 615-254-1551

for more information on the party call 615-944-9797 or use my contact form for the email addresses to contact.

If you are already a member it is free, if not there is a $10 fee. This is also a dinner so bring a side dish. I guess it will be sort of a potluck. You can also join at the door if you want to become a member. It says this is also a BYOB.

Now that that is out of the way I guess some of you may be wondering what CMT/ABATE is huh? Well the acronym stands for Concerned Motorcyclist for Tennessee / A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments or (A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education) and many others. It is a Motorcycle Rights Organization. Sort of an organization designed to lobby for your rights as a rider. If you want more information about MRO’s or CMT ABATE head to the following links;

Motorcyclist Rights Organization

CMT/ABATE

If you are a biker, rider, motorcycle enthusiast, or whatever you may call yourself, it may be in your interest to belong to some group that is thinking about your rights.

Check them out,

36 Special

This is the time of year when bikers get together for charity runs or other motorcycle events such as toy runs. If you have any events you need to advertise let me know and I will try to post them. Get them to me fast though, I know there are a lot of them out there.

Keep on riding,
36 Special

Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel
This beer is a 5.0 ABV, hazy brown in color. It is brewed in Munich, Germany by Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu under the strict Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. That meant only certain ingredients could be used to make beer. The ingredients were water, barley, and hops. I am guessing that is why it doesn’t have the full bodied flavor that all of my favorite Belgian beers have.

Aroma 5/10
Appearance 7/10
Flavor 8/10
Palate 8/10
Overall 7/10

Aroma; To tell you the truth I probably should have given it lower than a five on aroma. It really was not an appetizing smell. Maybe it is just me today but when I opened the bottle the smell was almost like dishwater. Sure glad it tasted better.
Appearance; While there are plenty of beers that have that cloudy look this one just didn’t pull it off. Maybe if it would have been a little darker or lighter it would have looked better.
Flavor; The taste wasn’t bad. Kind of weak but all in all a very drinkable beer. I could see drinking this with spicy Italian food or maybe some pizza.
Palate; The finish on this beer was slightly bitter but nothing to detract from the flavor. As a matter of fact I think it actually added a little to it.

I might try this one again later. One things for sure, there will be none left tonight. This pint was gone before the article was done. Do you think they will let me take the cost of the beer I drink off of my taxes as a business expense?
Open Road Biker

The beginning of the ride for me was the Victory Monument in Yorktown. I hopped of the bike and took a shot of my bike with the tower in the background. The monument was commissioned in 1781 but construction didn’t start on it for another 100 years. Just on the other side of that monument is the York river. Not a bad view but it would have been better if they would keep it all trimmed up on the hill back there. Probably 150 yards to the left of my bike there was some of the buildings that made up Colonial Yorktown.

From there I rode down by the beach a little and on down the parkway just taking it easy and taking in the sites at an easy 35-40 mph. I tried to take each little parking cut off and read the signs telling me what interesting thing that certain spot was know for. At one spot (overlooking a pier for an old Naval Yard) I pulled to the side of the road and turned the 4-ways on so that I could snap a shot without getting off the bike and I happened to notice that one of my blinkers had went out (note to self, stop by walmart and pick up a bulb). Lucky no one pays attention to turn signals anyways huh.

I passed through Old Williamsburg and all of the people that work there to show a recreation of the life back in those times were closing up shop and heading out but hell I wasn’t planning on stopping anyways. Maybe next weekend when park passes are free I will stop in and be a tourist for a little while.

After passing through Williamsburg the James River decided to show up beside me and ride along to my left for a little while until the road dead ended a few miles from Jamestown. Not sure why but they had it blocked off so I turned around and went and took a few pictures of the James River and walked on the Shore just a little bit.

All in all it was a fairly nice little ride. I would almost consider moving the family here if I could get stationed at Ft. Eustis for a little while but the land is just a little too flat here for me and I am sure it would be a little expensive to live here full time. If you want to see more pictures of the ride just vist the Colonial Parkway album in the gallery. Until next time get out and ride, and enjoy it while there is still time.

Hobgoblin
This beer is a 5.2 ABV, dark ruby red with in color (maybe more of a light brown with a hint of red). It reminded me of a few of the dark Belgian beers I have tried with a great finish and almost no after taste. After drinking this one I purchased a six pack of bottles (this first one was a pint). This beer ended up being great with BBQ.

Aroma 9/10
Appearance 8/10
Flavor 10/10
Palate 9/10
Overall 9/10

Aroma; The smell of this beer made my mouth water. It has a slight peppery smell.
Appearance; For some reason this beer didn’t have a good head as you can see from the picture but it had plenty of carbonation. You should be able to see the bubbles rising in the glass.
Flavor; Upon first taste I knew this beer was a winner. It had great roasted malt flavors with a very mild bitterness. It may have had a hint of fruit but it didn’t shine through too much. Not sure why but it just seems to me to be a beer made to drink with red meats and BBQ.
Palate; The finish on this beer is very pleasant. No bitter beer face. It is almost as smooth as any other beverage you would choose to drink.

I will be trying to keep a bottle or two around for those steak dinners and when I have time to crank the grill up. Have you tried it before? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always drink responsibly and don’t drink and ride.
Open Road Biker

I have also had the opportunity to sample a few beers that are new to me here in the past couple of weeks so you can look forward to reading a beer reviews on Friday again.

Panhead Diaries has been widely read so far and while the third chapter is taking me a little while to write I should be able to get it on the site in a few weeks.

I would like to thank Kenny and Miss Arkie for holding the fort down the past few weeks. My transition from Afghanistan has taken me a little longer than I planned (you should see my honey do list!) but I should be completly back on track soon.

To all of the friends and family that had me in their thoughts and prayers while I was away; thanks. It is much appreciated.

Spring is here, get out and ride and enjoy the weather when it is good. Make sure you do some good maintenance first though and try and get a little refresher training in so you can renew or reinforce your good riding habits and skills.

Ride Safe,
36 Special

About two weeks ago we went to an event at the Local Harley Dealer Ship I met several women who ride their own motorcycles. This is a picture of two of the women that I met. They talked to me about some of the problems that women faced. But they also gave me some more courage to learn to ride. I was truly amazed at the amount of women at this event who rode their own bike. They also have rides out of Landers Harley Davidson that are just women. And then something else I found cool was they do things as a group of just women that are not on the bikes. That is so that women who do not know how to ride or do not want to learn, they just enjoy being passengers can spend time with other women who l love to ride. I did look at bikes while there to see which ones I thought I might be able to handle.

The other picture is of me and my friend Bobby Rice. Bobby was a legend in Arkansas. He was one of the best muscians around. He was our house band at the bar that my husband and I use to own. Plus he played at my wedding reception. This is the last picture that I will ever take of him. I have some videos that I am working on and would like to post when I have them put together. He played at the bike event and a couple days later we got a phone call that he had died. In his better days he rode bikes. At his funeral there were all kinds there, including the bikers that he used to ride with.