Adventure Time Series: Exploration?

     Oh do I have a headache. Starring at this screen is not helping either, but I have a few things to tell you, so I'm going to just toughen up and get through this. I got the greatest key tag in the mail on Friday. I ordered it from Motoloot, that is the same place I got Melvin from. This one is perfect, and it is all about Saki.

What I tell you? Is that not Saki in a nutshells after all, Saki's full name, or  ahem, title is Saki the Kawasexy Ninja 650. Saki was excited, and that meant we needed to ride. First stop was the bank of course, and I am growing even more confused by that one particular bank teller there. I ended up at the window next to her because she was working the drive thru again. As I walked by her, she made a point to say hi and call me by name. Of course I realize that that all could be polite customer service, but I just get this feeling. Maybe that is because of my attraction to her, and a lot of wishful thinking. I don't know, it's just really confusing to me. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

     Friday's ride was all that involved. It was more of a clearing my head kind of thing, but something really good happened when I got home. I checked my email, and I had one from Harbor Freight. It was a brand new bundle of coupons. Guess what they had on sale? Yep, it was that workbench that I plan on getting for the, oh, get ready for this, because I changed the name, Ultimate Motorcycle Lounge. Sounds classy now right. anyway, that bench is only available online and not in the store, so I did order it even though I'm not quite ready for it. I still need to move some things, and get rid of other things. In the meantime, when it arrives, I'll leave it in the box so that I can stash it off to the side until I am ready for it. That being said, the Ultimate Motorcycle Lounge is coming along nicely.

     That brings us to Saturday, and Saturday was a day full of plans, but none of them set in stone, with the exception of the time I was supposed to meet my friend for the preliminary photoshoot for Saki. That meant I had a few hours to kill and ride. I headed out to my favorite twisty spot, and got about as lucky as you could get. As I was pulling onto the road, a Deputy Sheriff was just leaving. I'm not saying that I would be breaking any laws, but it's best that he wasn't there when I was. I needed to make one stop before hitting the twisties though. When you go down the road that leads to them, there is this little offshoot of a road. It's gated but looked like a great place for a picture. I had to make a stop. I'm in the search of the perfect shot, and that was along the lines of what I want in that perfect shot. In truth, my idea of the perfect shot, is a long desolate road that has a canopy of trees over it. I would park Saki across the middle of the road, and get the shot with the road edges framing Saki as they ran off into infinity. I have yet to find that road, but this seemed close. A little secret, I got quite a bit closer to that shot today. More on that later though.

Not too bad right. It almost has the look I want. The fence is in the way, but it adds a little something on it's own. Gives Saki that caged beast sort of appeal. If you saw it on Instagram I added a new hashtag that was, and I'm not going to do it in hashtag from here, cause that just makes it hard to figure out, but it was, not a garage beauty but a street beast. Saki is a road warrior, not a little thing that stays in the garage. I know too many people that have bikes but never ride them. I don't want to be like that, and neither does Saki.

     With that shot logged away in the phone, I set out to conquer some curves. I'm still working on ride position, and getting those lean angles over just a little more each time. I went through the curves a little faster than I did the last time I went through and it felt good. When I got to the end of that section of the road, I noticed another bike coming up behind me. He ended up turning around to hit it again, because he apparently didn't know abut the big looping turns just a little further down the road. I hit those and then took a long way back around down a road I hadn't been down before. I was half hoping that that guy was still riding the twisties, but he was nowhere in sight. I did mess up one turn going back through, and it was because I over though it. I slowed down too much going into it, and over shot it a bit. I should have maintained my speed a bit and hit a better entry angle. Live and learn though.

     After that, it was nearly time to meet up with my friend. I headed to the spot that we discussed. It is an old abandoned housing development that lost funding. They paved the roads around it, and even put in a few sidewalks, but there is only one house that got built, and it is a derelict now. It's a perfect spot for the shot, because nature is fighting to take it's rightful place back from the asphalt and concrete. The back road is heavily overgrown, and just adds a natural conflict of beauty. I turned into the neighborhood, and as I took the first corner heading to the back road, I saw a Deputy Sheriff patrol car hiding in the overgrowth of a split road. I couldn't turn back at this point, because I was obviously already in there, so I continued on by it. I rode at a casual pace all the way back around to the entrance, and then bolted out of there. A little ways down the road, I texted my friend telling him not to go there. I was too late, what I didn't know, is that he was right behind me. He went left when I went right out of the place. Our little secret spot has been compromised. We are still planning on using the spot, but we now need alternate locations, and are now scrambling trying to find some. That was part of what I was doing today. I'll get to that in just a bit.

     We finally met up, and decided we needed to go talk to one of the potential models. The one that he has been talking to about this whole things is giving him a vibe that she is going to be a no show, so we were going to see one and line her up as an alternative. This meant that we had to go to the strip club. I hadn't been to the strip club since I stopped drinking. This was going to be an adventure. We picked his wife up, and headed to the club. The new model was leaving soon because her shift was over, so we had to get there fast. We made it just in time, but she decided to stay longer anyway. She is quite beautiful. In her heals she is around 5 foot 9 inches. Perfect for the photoshoot. She will be able to keep her feet on the ground while sitting on the bike. She seemed rather excited about it as well. Melvin might even get in the pictures. I showed her the helmet with Melvin on it, and she fell in love. If we pull this shoot off, I'll try to get a picture of her wearing Melvin.

     Good news, I was able to visit the strip club and not drink anything other than Sprite. I still had fun, even though we were there on business rather than pleasure. We didn't stay long, we needed food. We tried a new place in the area. It's a wood fire pizza place, and the pizza was fantastic. Since I changed my eating habits around, two things that I haven't had in a while are pizza and a cheeseburger. Don't worry, even though I had a few slices of pizza, I didn't endanger my weight loss plan, and I will have a cheeseburger again. If you know me, you know that I am on the forever search for the perfect cheeseburger. So far, My Brother's Bar in Denver has the best that I've ever had. I ended up being the designated driver the rest of the night, which kind of sucked. I was more of a taxi service than anything. I did have a good time though. It was good to be out with friends. Since I've stopped drinking, I haven't had that experience, so it was good to get out and be around people. WE finished the night playing a few games of chess I hadn't played in possibly decades, so I got trounced pretty bad the first two games, but I made a valiant run at the third game. Still didn't win, but I made him work for it.

     That brings us to today. I got out as early as I could, which really wasn't all that early, but it was better than going out in the afternoon. I wanted to check out this park, that is in a location that seems pretty hidden away. I rode there and hit the park, and it was a bit of a bust. There were people at the boat ramp, but not at the little playground. It didn't really have a good spot to do a photoshoot anyway, but that didn't mean I couldn't stop and get a good picture of Saki, so I did.

These were taken on the road that lead into the park. It's that canopied road, but it isn't long at all, so I parked Saki on one side of the road, and walked to the other side to get the shot. Saki looks like it is hiding in the trees. I like it because all that plant life behind Saki, is what I grew up with. I played in woods just like that as a kid. It's great to see places like that around still. I left that area, and quickly ran into a guy that was on the side of the road with an Indian Motorcycle. It was a beautiful old bike. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that it was from the 40's or 50's. It had an old leaf spring front end, that made it look super cool. He was trying to get his bike started as I rode up. I asked if he needed any help. He said no, that it was just a stuck carb. He was going to keep trying to crank it over, but if he couldn't get it, he said he was less than mile from his house. He lived on the road we were on. I wished him good luck, and then set back off. I was looking for a new location for the photo shoot. Soon after that I rolled around a corner, and what did I see, but a road very similar to what I've been searching for. Not for the photoshoot, but for my perfect shot. I had only passed that guy on his bike, a bicyclist, and one car the entire time I'd been on the road. I quickly rode onto the wrong side of the road, and turned Saki to park right across the center line. This is what I got.

I think it works. It isn't the canopied road that I've been searching for, but it has the desired affect that I've been searching for. I'll still be looking for that one road. I know it's out there, but until then. I have the near perfect shot. I did post a version of this on Instagram today, but I saved this shot just for you. That brings me to something I've been wanting to tell you about. As you know, I've been taking quite a lot about this motovlogging thing. I've been setting up my old Youtube channel for when I can get it going. I've also been switching things over to the Counterfeit Squirrel brand. I know that sounds like such a corporate word, but it does have some value. That value is what I have been keeping to myself until now. I plan on having the channel to support this blog, and vice versa. They are going to feed one another. The blog will be here to tell you the story, and the channel will be there to give you a little added dimension to the story. Eventually I will monetize the channel. When I do, my plan is go give half of everything earned on there to a random charity. I will be doing this on a monthly basis, and the charity will be chosen by you. I will create a list of charities that I thing are in need the most, and each month, I will post that list, and take a vote on which one will receive the money. In a way, you will be donating the money to charity. I can guess your first question. Why not give all the money to the charity? That is a great question, and there is a reason why it will only be half. I plan on using the rest to cover cost that come up. For instance, the places I go to will usually have an entry fee. Then there is gas for Saki, and maintenance. I will also use what isn't given to upgrade equipment for the channel and for this blog. I want to give you the best experience I can, in the best way that I can. The better the equipment I get, the better quality videos and pictures you will see. I really think this is going to be fun, and I can't wait to take you along with me on these adventures.

     Before I call it a night, I got one last picture. Also, I almost forgot to tell you about Saki off-roading it today. On my exploration, I turned down a road, that turned into a dirt road. Saki was not pleased about this. Saki's suspension is not made for a rippled, loosed sand, and gravely road. I took it slow though, and made it back out without incident, but it was a little hairy there for a bit. Not to mention, I have been playing around with different air pressure in the tires, and I have it a little higher than normal right now, to test it out. That isn't a good idea if you want to take a sport bike in the dirt. Regardless everything is fine, and here is that final picture. If you do follow me on Instagram, you would have seen this one today as well. I posted it as part of a multiple picture set. Instagram has that now. It's where you can post multiple pictures in the same post. The person viewing them, simply has to swipe right to see each additional one. You can follow me here. Also, until I get the channel up and running, and even while I have it up and running, I will be posting Instagram Stories when I do the Adventure Time Series. You will get a day of summary of what is going on in advance of both the videos and the blogs. I do have a few more things to say about the Instagram page, but I'll save that for another time. Peace in and goodnight.