The motorcycle is drivable! DH has it back from the shop. The sidecar dents still need to be fixed, but it is once again good to drive! Hooray!
I have a pirate name. Generated randomly from the ether. And it is, Drumroll please…
Bloody Left Eye Lisa
Let’s hear it for Pirate mania! That was courtesy of Blogthings Pirate Name Generator.
Stefanie had posted pictures of her peonies earlier. I finally am getting around to posting a few pictures of some of the flowers from earlier in the year. The drought has wreaked havok with the plants in my yard. The pepper plants and the hibiscus didn’t survive the water restrictions, unfortunately.
From the end of March, the dogwood blooms.
And a closeup of one of the blooms.
Then one of the azaleas from the same time.
Then an iris that I’ve got the orientation in the picture wrong. 
It really isn’t growing down, but you can still see the lovely color that it does have. That pictures is from the beginning of April.
Now the lavendar is growing sideways. The picture is from the first of June. 
All the blooms from these excepts for the lavendar are gone. The lavendar has a little bit of the blooms still on the stalks, but they are in sad shape. I have a picture of a very poor looking coneflower, but it isn’t in good shape at all.
Welcome to my yard.
what the previous weirdness was, I found the BLITEOTW site late Wednesday night. It was a blog site that started the zombipocalypse idea. The main idea of the thing was to have everybody who wanted to participate blog all day about zombies taking over their corner of the world. And as I have a bit of haunted house experience, that was just too fun and silly not to take up. I just hate that I didn’t find out about it until too late in the day to take real advantage of the entire meme. There are some really great blogs out there linked to the site with fantastic setups that are really great writing. They set up the situations very plausibly and keep up very real seeming situations. I need to find and post some of the links to the bloggers whose stories were the best.
So I’m a geekgirl. I’m also a crazy cat lady, having 3 of my own. Needless to say, I think I Can Has Cheezburger? is an amusing site. Given my own obession with like for the Princess Bride, I find this icon very funny.
On Saturday DH and I went riding on his motorcycle. It was perfect weather for it, bright blue skies, and warm. We had heard about a a place to go on the bike, and decided to visit.
We drove out from home east on Hwy 78 through Leeds to Highway 25. Then we turned south onto Highway 25 and followed it. And followed it, and followed it as it twisted and turned and climbed and fell. There are some nice views as it goes over Double Oak Mountain. We arrived and pulled into 29 Dreams. 29 Dreams is local (relatively) motorcycle resort that is located in Shelby County on Highway 25 just outside of Vandiver. It is a motorcycle only place, and a private club. The owner says that you can only come if you are on a bike. You are welcome as long as you are not a jerk.
There is a motorcycle shop at the front of the property. It is set up so that folks can trailer a bike there with no problem. There’s a paved drive at the entrance to the workshop area. Just beyond that is a gate. There are no cars except for staff and deliveries allowed beyond that gate. Behind and to the left of the shop is the store. There is a little barn styled building that has different motorcycle gear and accessories, as well as merchandise for 29 Dreams. About 10 yards into the property from the store is an outdoor eating area with picnic tables and umbrellas. You go down a couple 3 steps to an outdoor bar under a trellis, and pass more picnic tables with umbrellas, then a few more steps to the lodge. There is a wide porch outside with rocking chairs. Inside is another bar with a menu for food too!
DH is not a stereotypical biker. He drives an ‘06 Ural Troika – a motorcycle with a sidecar. And I’m not your stereotypical biker chick either, just ageekgirl. So it was interesting walking into an area that had probably between 80 and 100 motorcycles parked. With most folks in the area looking a bit more like the stereotypical biker than I’m used to, it was interesting to walk into the main lodge. In the sidecar, I can ride wearing my crocs if I wanted to, rather than have to wear sturdy footgear. I usually don’t ride in crocs, just because I prefer to be a bit prepared in case of emergency. I was wearing a Girl Genius tshirt, jeans and hiking boots. DH was wearing a church concert tshirt, jeans and his tanker boots. Neither of us were wearing anything with any motorcycle logo, and no leather outside of our boots. People there were a bit curious about us, but not rude. The folks working there at the lodge were very busy, but very helpful. We joined the club, and had a couple of drinks there at the lodge. We spoke with a fella who was there on his BMW bike. He is a member of the local BMW rider’s club, and talked about the things his club does. The club had gone camping for the weekend, but he decide not to take part this year. Another person came by with information about a rally in Selma, AL in May. It was a relaxed atmosphere.
We finished up and then after we got back on the bike we drove back to the cabins and camping area. It is a nice place. They have live bands on the weekends and their food is supposed to be very good. Some time we will go back out to have a bite to eat. So if you ride, go by and see for yourself!
The players pay $10.00 to play the game, and the spectators are asked for donations as well at the charity games. The money from the players and the spectator donations are kept separate and the winning team’s charity receives the larger of the collections, and the losing team’s charity receives the smaller of the collections. 
