Get Ready, This One Is Long.

     We  have a lot to discuss tonight, but I have to start out with an apology. I said that I would post pictures and such to my Instagram story on Saturday when I went to the Pow Wow. I didn't, and there is a very good reason why. When we arrived, it just didn't feel right to photograph or video what was going on. It became a very personal experience, and I became a little selfish and didn't want to share it with anyone other than the people that were there. I will however tell you about the day and what took place. We will get to that a little later. We have to go back to Friday and start at the beginning of the weekend for me.

     As I said, I spent the morning putting the new reflective rim tape on Saki. It took a little longer than I thought it would for a variety of reasons. I made the choice of taking the old rim tape off of Saki so that I could put the new tape on. That process was the most time consuming. I got the heat gun out, because I knew that heating it up, would loosen up the glue on the original tape. Well, it didn't work as well as I had hoped. The front tire wasn't that bad, but getting the strip started, was a pain. It would keep flaking and tearing when I would try to pull it. I wish I knew the reason why it did this, but I haven't got a clue. When I got towards the middle of the strip, it started to pull away pretty easy, and I got most of it off in one pull, but then I came to the other end, and it was like the start all over again.

     I started on the right side of the bike and worked my way around. Front to back and then back to front. The back tire now, that is a whole other story. The problem I had at the beginning of the right side front tire, were the entire back tire. It took me a good 20 minutes to get one side removed, and there was old sticky residue left everywhere. Both sides were the same. The left side had the bonus of having tons of grease from the chain all over it, so cleaning it took even more time.

     After about an hour, I finally had all the tape off of both tires. I went back to my original side of the front tire, and began cleaning it with rubbing alcohol. Real quick tip here. The directions called for cleaning it with rubbing alcohol, but I already knew about this. Rubbing alcohol is amazing for cleaning that last little bit of dirt off your bike The best part is, that it leaves no streaks behind or residue, because it dries so fast. After it was all clean, I was going to do each rim as I got to it, I began applying the new tape. It came in I'd say 8 in. curved sections. They are easy to put on, but you still need to slow things down and take your time, so that you get it on just right. The package said that there is enough strips for all four sides of the rims, with an extra strip left over. As I was looking at the single sheet of strips that they gave me, i was doubting that it was enough, but the package said so, so I was going to believe them. Worst case scenario is, I would have one side of the bike done, and have to order more.

     I got the first strip on, by placing it and removing it a few times to get it just right, Once I had it where I wanted it, I pressed it down real good, so that it would have it's final hold on it. With that done, I got the next strip ready. There is a small pattern on the tape, and I wanted to make sure that I lined the pattern up from strip to strip. I don't think that it would have made a difference in how it worked, but if you get up close to it, you would see it. I'm sure that you would really have to look, but I could see it, so other people could see it too. The front tire probably would have been easier to do, fi I had a front tire stand, but since I didn't, I had to reposition the bike in order to get the whole rim covered. It wasn't convenient but it worked.

      I changed me order a bit for putting the tape on. I did the entire front rim first. I was trusting the word of the packaging and throwing caution to the wind. There wold be enough tape, and that was that. For the left side, I had to put the kickstand on a block, so that the bike would stand up straight, otherwise I would have to do it with it leaning towards me. Once I was done with the front, I looked at the sheet again, and I had more than half of the strips left. I was going to make it.

     For the back tire. I propped the bike up with the rear tire stand, and that made life much easier. I didn't need to reposition the bike anymore, I could just spin the wheel. The cleaning process to much longer on the back, because of the left over glue residue from the old stickers, but I did get it all off. Form start to finish of this little, supposedly simple project, I would say that it took about an hour and 45 minutes. Much longer than I thought it would take, but well worth it. The finished product not only looks great at night, but it looks real good in the day. I have a day/night picture to show you what it looks like in both conditions.

Ok, so the night isn't really all that much night, it is more like dusk, and was taken at that lake that my tattoo artist told me about. I just missed the a good sunset, because I was there a little late, and clouds kind of ruined it as well, but you can see how well the reflective tape works. The picture makes it appear to look amber, but it is all red. I took a few pictures in the garage tonight, that really show how the red pops at night, but alas my phone is in low power mode, and it won't put those pictures in the cloud for me to draw from. I will post those shots on Tuesday night.

    I have one more picture from the lake to share with you. You can see a small sliver of the sun as it goes down. It doesn't show off the reflective nature of the new rim tape, because I didn't use the flash for this one, but I think it looks pretty good.

You get Saki, the lake, a little color from the sunset. What more could you ask for. I will get back there on a more clear day, and get a better picture of the sunset. This will do for now.

     I know that this is already getting long, and I haven't even gotten to the Pow Wow yet, but this ties into Saturday a bit. I was talking to the friend that I went to the Pow Wow with, and I was telling her some of my ideas and plans for this blog here. Theses plans just happen to involve Saki. The first one, and the easiest to implement, is that, I will travel on Saki to some place in the state, on the weekend to visit some sort of museum or historic landmark. I'm not sure how often this will happen. right now, I am thinking once a month for this. I already have the first destination picked out, and we were right next to it on Saturday. That would be the Navy SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce. I will ride there in a couple of weeks, take pictures and then talk about everything that is happening there. I think this will be a good chance to learn a little bit about things in my own state was well as pass that information on to you. As it gets closer, I will let you know, which weekend it will be.

    The second idea is going to be a little more difficult, and a whole lot more expensive. In the end though, this will tie in with the first idea. I've been thinking for some time, about getting a GoPro to mount on Saki. The idea I have, I would instead have to mount it on my helmet, and get a whole set up for motovlogging. If I do this, I will record the ride there, and have commentary to go along with it. Instead of posting it on YouTube, I would post it as a feature on here for you to enjoy. I would give a little information about where I am going that day, and you would also see some of the ride there and back. I think It could be kind of fun, but that will be quite a ways off in the future. Let me know what you think.

     Finally to Saturday. We left my house around 10 in the morning, and made the drive about an hour or so to Ft. Pierce. Actually I think it was in Port St. Lucie, but they are right next to one another, so it isn't really that big of a difference. When we arrived, there weren't that many cars in the parking lot. It started at 10 in the morning, so it was already a little more than an hour into the day. It only cost $5 to get in. Oh, I guess I should explain little what this actually was. It was a cultural gathering of Native American Tribes. There are vendors that sell handmade crafts. They have anything from jewelry to hand made weapons, to bags, and many more items. They also have traditional dancing going on throughout the day. The dancers have elaborate outfits made of feathers, cloth, leather, animal hides, bone, and other items. It is truly amazing to see. This is where I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to share it. It seemed like sharing it, was taking something away from it, and I didn't want to do that.

     I am a person that has no Native American blood coursing through my body. Because of this, I tend to feel like an outsider when I am at these types of events. Also, because of that, I feel very privileged to get the opportunity to see these types of events. That is what makes it so personal for me. It becomes less of a viewing of something, and more of an experience within something. I start to feel closer to the Earth and I understand what they mean when they say that we don't own the land, the land was put here to provide for all of us. When I was in Gallup, New Mexico, and watched the dances there, I wept openly from the experience, and I began feeling that way again as I watched on Saturday. I don't think I can even explain why, you would have to go to a Pow Wow yourself to see. If you here of any in your area, please to it, and see all that it has to offer.

     I did buy a necklace while I was there. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I will have that for you On Tuesday as well. It is a small stainless steel replica of the famous statue "End of the Trail". It depicts a tired cowboy on a tired horse as he reaches his final destination. It has a small purple stone set in the center of it. It was the only one like it at this one vendor, and I have to tell you about her. As we walked up, she commented to my friend, how much she liked her look. She had a real cool look going, and got many compliments throughout the day on it. After she said that, she said, "You look like you keep yourself in great shape.". My friend is in fantastic shape. She is very lean and tall. "I bet you've never eaten a single french fry." I just laughed a little at that, because it was funny. then I realized she was talking to me. I looked her in a little shock and said, "What?" "You've never eaten a french fry have you?" I was thinking that this lady was blind or crazy or possibly both.  "I've had way too many of them. That's the problem." She looked at me, probably the way I looked at her before. "No way", she said. I got to tell you, even though it was probably all a lie, it gave me quite a big ego boost.

     We were there for a good 5 hours or so, and decided that it was time to head back. Before we did though, my friend wanted to hit the beach. Neither one of us, had placed our feet in the water in some time, so we made a course for the beach which just so happened to be next to the Navy SEAL Museum. I knew that it was pretty close to where we were, so I suggested that we head there. That is really what gave me the idea for that being the first location that I will visit. We got to the beach after some delay because of a car accident on the draw bridge that happens to be the only way over to the beachside in that area. We decide to go sans shoes so that we could simply walk down to the water and place our toes in. It was cold and refreshing, and reminded me of those years that I used to surf, just about every day. I miss those days a bit. I did manage to get a picture for you. I took a panoramic of the water.

That is a Florida day at the beach right there. Blue skies with light feathery clouds, cool water, and a sandy beach. That is the reason it is so hard for me to leave this area. I truly love that I live in a tropical paradise. Yes it is a tropical paradise, I don't care what you say.

     Anyway, I'm sure you patience is running thin at this point, and hoping that this will end soon. I have one last thing to talk about, and I'm going to make it as quick as possible. I decided to start on an Ultimate Garage Build Project. What that means is, that I'm fixing up my garage to better serve Saki. You didn't really think that this could possibly have nothing to do with Saki did you? I started with getting some lighting in there. I only had one small light in the doorway entrance to the garage, and that amounted to next to nothing when it came to lighting up the place. I went out and got two 4 ft. shop lights, and put them up today, and it looks amazing. I have a little power switch coming tomorrow, that will allow me to turn the lights on and off from my phone. Isn't technology great? Here is what the garage looked like before and after the lights.

Big difference right? I have some plans for this project. I have to clean it up a bit, and get rid of some things in there to make room for better things. One of which is going to be a portable air conditioner. That way, I will not only be able to work on Saki at night, I can do it in the steamiest of months of summer. Other things that might happen, are a media center, so that I can sit out there and watch TV with Saki. See, I think Saki gets lonely at times out there by itself. I mean, just look at how happy Saki is in that picture with the lights on. I basically got the idea for this on Thursday night, when I really wanted to put the new rim tape on, but I couldn't because I had no good source of light to do it with. Now, I can work from sundown to sunrise if I wanted to. I have no plans to do that, but I can do it if I want to now. I want to create an area that I can hang all my gear up out there, so it will all be in one place. Right now, Have my riding pants, helmets, and gloves in one room, and all my jackets in a closet in another room. When this is done, it will be my ultimate motorcycle garage. If you have any ideas on what to do for the garage, let me know. I'm open to all ideas.

     With that, I'm going to finally call it a night. Peace in and goodnight.