Still standing...

My posts have been fewer and further between lately, the number of rides have dwindled, the tick of the odometer has slowed. Between a quick trip to Seattle to meet friends and another weekend jaunt two weeks later to Tacoma for the ACE Cafe Summer Shakedown at the LeMay Museum, I've been busy auditing Team Oregon classrooms preparing for the next step to become a classroom instructor.

Having a little fun while gathering up cones on the range.

The Instructor Preparation class finally arrived Saturday and eight of us gathered in Portland for a day of training, peer teaching and to write the knowledge test. Everyone was very encouraging and supportive of each other and all of us did exceptionally well under the guidance of the two instructors, one instructor being the legend himself.

Now comes the hard part, it is one thing to speak in front of a classroom of your peers who are experiencing the same fears, nerves and mistakes you are and a classroom of actual students hanging on your every word. I'm not going to say I can't speak in front of groups of people, I am just not comfortable doing so, especially in a classroom setting. I proved to myself that I could do it this weekend, although not well, I just have to get familiar with it. One reason I signed up to teach classroom is to challenge myself and overcome my fear of public speaking.

An unexpected tumble

Another reason my odometer is ticking less is my daily commute has ceased to exist. I returned to work on Monday from the Summer Shakedown in Tacoma only to find out that my job was in jeopardy. Unfortunately I was laid off, we parted on good terms and I am excited, positve and looking forward to the future. However, with the unexpected tumble I have had to put all of our remaining plans this year on hold as I juggle my Team Oregon training and job hunting full time. I'll be following Bobskoot's and V-Star Lady's lead by taking my bicycle down out of the rafters and dusting it off, not just for exercise, but to stick a little closer to home and save a bit of gas. Money is going to be a tight for a little while, the lunches out will turn to picnic lunches, motorcycle rides may turn to bicycle rides and we may have to forgo motorcycle shows and events this winter.

Dust myself off and carry on

I'm glad that we were able to get away when we did and enjoy ourselves this summer, it was great to ride to Hell's Canyon for the iMBC2012 and to meet everyone. We also really enjoyed ourselves in Tacoma for the ACE Cafe event too, we took Friday off to visit the Experience Music Project Museum.

Of course, growing up listening to AC/DC we just had to check out this exhibit.

It's a long way to the top if you wanna Rock n' Roll

We also checked out the Rolling Stones exhibit and Jimi Hendrix exhibit as well as other interesting displays.

Goofing around in the sound lab

Eddy Van Halen's signature guitar

Then it was off to Bamboo Garden for dinner before turning in for the evening.

Gratuitous food porn

After spending too much money on hotels in Baker City and Enterprise, then seeing how much fun everyone else was having tenting it, we decided to rough it Friday night. We stayed at Saltwater State Park between Seattle and Tacoma in the suburb of Des Moines.

We consulted with a friend who is an avid outdoorsman, search and rescue guy, surfer dude, Ural rider and regular Bear Grylls type who happens to be a distributor for Liberty Mountain. I asked his advice for a big enough tent to sleep two with storage for gear, yet light and compact enough to haul on the motorcycle so he recommended the Peregrine Radama 3 tent.

The campsite was small

and directly under the flight path of Sea-Tac International Airport

We love the tent!

With two doors and two vestibules this thing is huge yet weighs less than 8 pounds including the protective fast floor. It was quick and easy to set up, unlike the two plus hours our camping neighbors took to set up their tent. Always practice at home first folks, right Jim? Your advice rang true the whole time we listened to the neighbors struggle, swear and fight the impending darkness.

Unfortunately, we didn't sleep well at all, between the neighbors yelling, a custom chopper rolling into camp in the middle of the night and low flying 747s overhead every two minutes (yes, we timed them). Nevertheless, it was an adventure and the tent was fantastic.

We rose early and bugged out before anyone else was up and went in search of a Starbucks for breakfast. We checked our email and texted Sonja and Roland before heading over to the hotel and LeMay museum for the afternoon. Brandy posted up our adventures on Saturday (linked above) but left the British car display for me to blog.

Although a narrow display down one of the walkways it was nice to see the British represent.

My mom had one of these when I was still too young to drive. I sure wish she still had it.

She does however, still own one of these....

but in a much nicer color "Flamingo Pink"

I hope that brings my blog up to date, now to catch up on all of yours, sorry to be so behind. Thanks for being patient, I'm still here and I'm still standing... just terribly busy as of late.



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