Motorcycle Goot, Bankroll not so Goot

I got some riding in this weekend which was awesome and some SNGs and ring games that were pretty bad. All in all, a good weekend! (The bike can really compensate! - no wiener jokes please)

I will not bore you with the poker beats (save the first one which was magnificent... my AA vs 73s) but the net result was a buy in at 3/6 LHE and $200 in SNGs. Ouch, a big dent, but not on the canvas yet. The usual, a few amazing river catches by my opponents and my good reads became big losses. I didn't tilt and spread the love around several sites (under the pretense that maybe my variance would be on the plus side on UB if it was on the downside on Full Tilt...it could work!) So, why was the weekend not a complete "bust"? Because it was warm enough to RIDE!

I rode almost everyday to work last week and had to use my Gerbing heated jacket liner and gloves only one day. On Saturday, I had a nice day planned. SteelerSteph was in the 'Burgh with her family so it was me, the dog, the cat, and the bike. I had a breakfast ride planned to Mansfield, OH and told a friend that I would then head on down to Columbus, OH to watch him participate in his Autocross racing. It was the first "Test & Tune" of the season and he was pretty excited. This guy lives for racing... getting up at 1AM to watch Formula One racing in Europe on the Speed channel, reading books like, "The Secrets of Speed: 2"... you get the idea. He is an interesting dude, a computer programmer here on a work visa for the past 6 years. He hails from Hungary and I can always count on him to offer a unique perspective on things. Although I have travelled outside of America a good bit in my life, when talking to Zsolt I have found that I still maintain a solidly Amer-centric point of view on most things. I try to keep up on my current events, it is a habit from my days in military intelligence. When talking about events or policies it is usually an enjoyable mental challenge to understand my friend's point of view. He is quite worldly and has had some pretty interesting life experiences.

The ride down to Mansfield was not an interesting life experience. I had been up late the night before (takes some time to lose half your roll) and even after I shut down the computer, I could not sleep so I cleared some of the list in my TIVO. I probably got to bed around 3 and had to be on the road by 0830. I begrudgingly got out of bed around 7:45 and got ready for the day.
1. Let Copper (the dog) out to pee. He is going to be alone for a good 8 hours today. Sorry buddy, the pavement is calling.
2. Check the weather. Sweet, no rain predicted. In the high thirties right now, migh hit 51 today.
3. Take care of hygene and make sure I get some Steelers gear on. My name is the same on the ST1100 boards, gotta make it easy to recognize STeelerJosh!
4. Lock up and hit the road. I gotta make some time up since I am leaving later than I hoped. No back road fun for me on the way down, gotta "slab" it.

Here is the bike: ready to hit the road.
I packed some shoes (I wear riding boots and they are not comfortable for a lot of standing around or walkingd), a camera, some bottle water, and some extra warm stuff in case the forecast was wrong. I set off at an illegal pace down I-71 that only increased until I finally rolled off the interstate. No cops, no problems!

I got the Cracker Barrel 5 minutes ahead of schedule and over half of the gang was already there (long distance riders like breakfast). The attendees had ridden in from as far South as Tenessee and Kentucky and as far North as Michigan. Ohio was well represented with riders coming in from all over the state. The parking lot looked like this when I got there with eventually 17 bikes cooling their engines while their owners caught up.

While most of the riders were on Honda ST's (1100's and the newer 1300's) there were two Gold Wings, a V-Strom, a BMW, an R-6 (don't know how that guy rode a sport bike all the way up from Kentucky) and a few others. All the guys are good guys. I caught up with many that I had not seen since last summer and met some new faces. It's true, "you meet the nicest people on a Honda..."

Breakfast eventually ended and headed further South with a 4 bike caravan. Uncle Phil was headed back to Tenesee and Jason and his brother Daniel (the R-6 rider) back to Kentucky. While it is neat to be in a pack sometimes, I prefer solo or pair riding to large group riding. The foursome was nice and we took turns leading until I peeled off in Columbus. The GPS took me right to Cooper Stadium and I was not really sure what to expect when I got there.

Getting late so I guess this will have to be a two parter. My first Autocross report is up next. Since I am in a motorcycling mood, here are two pictures from a great ride last year.

This is was on SkyLine Drive in Virgina. A slow but enjoyable ride through a great state park. There are lots of curves and you can get into a nice rythym. The scenery is spectacular

This was my GPS on a quick break on a ride in West Virgina. Damn that is a beautiful sight to behold. I like my women curvy and my roads curvier!