Who We Are

After 2 years of write ups I thought it might be interesting to introduce who we are. After a particularly negative comment about Margaret on the Blue Ridge Parkway post it really hit me that people are forming opinions of us that could be incorrect.  The blog focuses on our riding activities but still leaves a blank when it comes to figuring out what kind of lifestyle we live outside of riding. When I was buying parts for my bike at our local dealership one of the parts counter guys said, "you're always in here buying stuff, what do you do for a living?" That question came from someone we know in person that we see at least weekly, so I figured anyone reading this blog might be wondering about us outside of the ride. So, here we are.....

Margaret and I have been married for 20 years but were together far before the "official" marriage took place. We have 3 kids. Our daughter recently graduated from college with a bachelors degree in marketing, our first son is a body builder and just finished his second year towards his physical education degree. Neither of them live at home and are fully independent. The youngest still lives with us and has finished his first year in college and for now has his sights directed at entering police academy after he acquires an associate degree.

Neither of us have careers as executives that make hundreds of thousands of dollars before ridiculously high bonuses are applied. Life just didn't play out that way for us and as a result we have had to work very hard to make ends meet and pay for what we have. It would be nice to have an abundance of cash flow that we could lavishly spend at will but we don't. We have struggled as blue collar middle class working Americans and fought through the mental and financial burdens during hard times. We know what its like to live from paycheck to paycheck and not have the income to pay bills at times. Through the grace of God, we persevered, paid things off and got out of debt. We slowly improved our skills in our trades and worked our way for many years into a better financial situation.

I went to college and studied Information Technology, passed the CCNA certification through Cisco and passed an MCP certification through Microsoft. For 15 years I installed fiber optic and network cable systems for companies and newly constructed buildings. Most of that work was done on construction sites and because of that I learned a great deal about project management, construction trades, and process. I became a project manager for a company for a few years in the design and installation of communication networks before ending up where I am now. Currently I am a construction project manager/ communication tech/ maintenance tech working for CBRE in a contract position for a division of a Fortune 500 company. I serve as the general contractor and project manager for all construction projects onsite. I am also responsible for all communications in regards to our Cisco switch and router network, VOIP, cabled infrastructure, and building maintenance such as plumbing, lighting, electrical, painting, HVAC, and most facilities oriented tasks. Like most people, I work long hard hours and most of it is physical labor related. It can be exhausting and I look forward to weekends to unwind by doing something riding related.

Margaret has a degree in the medical industry and worked for many years in sleep research. Eventually she turned her hobby of sewing into a business and now runs that full time. She has multiple online outlets for selling her items and teaches sewing classes outside of the home. An entire room of our house is dedicated to her work and it's loaded with embroidery machines, sergers, and sewing machines for a variety of sewing related needs. Most weeks her work load from online orders and fulfillment of stock for some companies she works with keeps her working all day and all week to complete so we can have time to ride our bikes. Often she is putting the final stitches on items just minutes before we head out on a ride. She also has a pattern line of little girls clothes that she designed which a company purchased this summer and is marketing for her for which she receives royalties from the sales.

We live very conservative, not frivolously spending money on our every whim and desire. We simply don't have the income to do so. If we want something, we save and pay cash for it not wanting to put ourselves into debt. We are both hard working and have had our up's and down's with employment as have many Americans. Through the hard times and good times we were careful financially and weighed our spending decisions carefully. We often wanted to try and fulfill the American Dream and move to a nicer house on a bit of land in a nice area, purchase nice new vehicles, and fill that home with eye candy. That was until we put the numbers to paper, calculated the interest, and was able to see the deep amount of debt it would have landed us in and how long it would take to crawl out of that debt, if ever. Life has a way of hitting people hard at just the wrong time, we understood that, and didn't want to get so deep into debt that if something happened it could ruin us for the rest of our lives. So we stayed in our older home that was built in 1963, paid it off years ago, and have slowly made home improvements on it especially in the areas of the things you don't see but take for granted, basically the engineering of the home. The plumbing is new, the electrical has nearly been completely replaced including the breaker panel, we had central heat and air installed, new roof, attic insulation, etc. Because of my profession in trades I was able to do most of it myself.

Both of our vehicles are paid off and we have no plans of trading them in for a "New" vehicle just to begin assuming payments again. Our philosophy regarding vehicles is pay them off, save the payment you would have made to make repairs as you need to. My Explorer is now 16 years old with 195K miles and it still runs great. Margaret's Explorer is 9 years old with 100K miles. I do all of the maintenance on both vehicles and most of the repairs unless its electrical. Could we get new vehicles? Yes, but it would again mean debt which we don't want. We have one credit card which has a zero balance that we carry for emergencies. Everything thing inside our home is paid for. We believe debt is enslavement. Your not free when someone else, a loan company, credit card company, or a banking institution owns the things in your life. I have heard many people talk about the things they have and "own" yet they are making payments on those things. How many people have you heard say they "own" their home but are still making payments on it? If your making payments on them, then you don't own them, someone else does until its paid off. Try not making anymore payments on those items and see how long you keep them. It's an older home but we own it and are not enslaved to a bank that can put us on the street by foreclosing on us if we miss a payment.

The only debt we have is our bikes which we are working hard to pay off early. Financing them was the only way we could both have the bikes we wanted. We could have purchased used metrics at a third of the price, but for this one desire, we went ahead and got the bikes we wanted. We figured since they were the only debt we had, if something bad happened financially we could always give them up and we would still have our vehicles.

We are conscience of our diet as to what we put into our bodies. We want to live as long as possible and we believe what we consume is a major factor in life longevity and prevention of continuous medical issues. We are somewhere between almost being vegetarians and vegans, eating meat only 1 meal a week and not having any dairy products or eggs. This post Healthy Living for Healthy Riding goes into much greater detail on this subject.

During the time the kids were still at home our focus was on making a living and raising them. Now that only one of them is still at home and he is pretty much independent we have more time to do things together. It can be difficult for some couples to adjust to the change in life outside of children. Once the focus of raising them is gone many couples seem to have a hard time with their relationship because of different interests. We were fortunate because we already had many common interests and eventually Margaret developed a desire to ride which has given us another activity that we can enjoy together.

This post was completely unrelated to riding and is out of the norm but it will give you some insight as to who we are and how we live. It just seemed the appropriate time to put it out there. I also hope it will be an encouragement to others that might be having a hard time as we have had and know they're not alone. This is who we are, just average people trying to make it and do the best we can through life.

Blue Ridge Parkway

We began planning this ride over 6 months ago with the purpose of riding the entire 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway from end to end. During that 6 months we slowly booked B&B's to stay at and payed for them in full. We also stopped eating out once a week and took what we would have spent and put it aside for the trip. We purchased touring packs for both bikes and smaller necessities for a long trip. This ride took us 3149.5 miles in 11 days through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Oklahoma before returning home to Fort Worth, TX. We managed to ride 3 scenic parkways during this trip which included the Cherohala Skyway that spans across both Tennessee and North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs across North Carolina and Virginia, and the Talimena Scenic Byway that runs between Arkansas and Oklahoma. We also rode the Diamondback Motorcycle Route (226A) at BRP mile post 334  in the Little Switzerland area. We rode the entire trip and had a lot of memorable experiences along the way which I will try to express in this post with write-ups, slide show, and video. One of the days during this ride marked our 20 year anniversary for which I am grateful to have spent with Margaret. I made accommodations at Bed & Breakfasts for most of the trip as a nice touch of appreciation and celebration for our marriage.

Day 1: Fort Worth, TX to Jackson, MS

Pretty much uneventful, cool, overcast, beautiful riding weather until just before the Mississippi border where a sudden thunderstorm hit and we were engulfed water. Lightning, high winds, and a torrential downpour completely soaked us. It came up so quickly and there was no place safe to pull over to put on our rain gear so we just rode through it. We stopped at the visitor center just across the Mississippi river bridge and took some pictures before heading into Jackson and settling in for the night.

Day 2: Jackson, MS to Chattanooga, TN

Pretty day but some of the worst city highway roads I have ever experienced. Birmingham, AL was like riding on a camel trail until we left the city limits. We would have been better off riding Enduro bikes instead of our Harley's. After that the road into Chattanooga was very beautiful and scenic even for an interstate. Upon arrival in Chattanooga we took time to visit Ruby Falls and tour the cave with the underground waterfall. This was nice because by mid afternoon it was getting a bit warm and spending a couple hours in the cave allowed us to stay out of the afternoon heat before heading to our hotel.

Day 3: Chattanooga to Asheville, NC

This was the start of our planned scenic ride and we began by riding the Cherohala Skyway. Along the way we met some riders from Ontario, Canada who were on their way back home via the BRP. They were a great group of people and we really enjoyed sharing stories and laughs with them. We took pictures of each other for lasting memories down the road. They were the first of a whole lot of memorable people we met throughout this ride. From the Skyway we moved on to Cherokee, NC which is the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway and began our 4 day 469 mile ride along the parkway. The BRP is a very interesting and unique 2 lane road. There are no stop signs, no traffic lights, no white lines to mark the edge of the road, no businesses, no gas, and a 45 mph speed limit. It was designed to be as minimally intrusive as a road can possibly be in order to highlight the natural beauty of the forest. Any service you may need has to be found by exiting the parkway and finding a town.

We rode the parkway from south to north and the ride began with a steep ascent as the road worked its way into the mountains. Scenic vista stop points were abundant and the views were magnificent and worth the stop. Mimosa and Magnolia trees were in full blossom as well as Rhododendrons, wild lilies and many varieties of wild flowers. The temperature decreased rapidly as we ascended to higher elevations to a very comfortable riding condition. That was until we rounded a sharp corner into the next valley where we stopped at the Waterrock Knob visitor center which is the southernmost visitor center on the BRP at mile marker 451. We were looking across the landscape at a huge dark cloud that was moving directly at us at an alarmingly high speed. The winds had accelerated and we could feel the moisture in the air. We quickly donned our rain gear in preparation for the storm. It moved in so fast we barely finished gearing up before the rain came down. We went onward for about 30 minutes in heavy rain until we passed through a tunnel into another valley. Coming out of the tunnel the rain ceased entirely and we were enveloped in a heavy fog. I could hardly see 10 feet in front of the bike and had to slow down to almost a crawl for safety. You couldn't even see the lights of oncoming vehicles until they were nearly on you it was so thick. After about another half hour of this condition we rounded a sharp corner that took us into another valley and the fog disappeared as the sun and clear sky opened into the valley below. This was how the entire first day on the BRP took place. Off and on between rain, fog, and sun. We met a few local riders that said you never know what the Blue Ridge would bring in terms of weather and what we were experiencing was the typical ride on the parkway. Another danger that I found out about on the parkway was other drivers. I rounded a sharp mountain curve at one point only to be staring at another rider coming head on at me in the middle of my lane. I quickly swerved and was able to prevent a head on collision. Fortunately the other rider either woke up or realized he was riding into oncoming traffic and moved back into his lane before Margaret had to encounter him. That shook me up a bit being so unexpected and we pulled over at a scenic vista so I could regain my composure. We closed out the day at A Bed of Roses B&B in Asheville, NC and had an enjoyable evening wandering the historic downtown area, eating dinner, and watching the various street performers throughout the area.

Day 4: Asheville, NC to Sparta, NC

We headed out a lot later than expected because our B&B breakfast didn't even start until 9 am which put us on the road at 10:30 am, about 3 hours later than expected. Our first stop along the BRP was Craggy Gardens. We had planned on visiting the gardens because they were supposed to be in full bloom at this time of the year. The first issue we had was rain and fog again. As we pulled up to Craggy Gardens a fog had settled in eliminating any scenic views from the area. The park ranger in the station told us for some reason the flowers failed to bloom this year. He said we were welcome to wander the gardens but we wouldn't see anything memorable. Since it was foggy and drizzling we decided not to stay and get wet just to see leaves without blooms. Our next stop was Crabtree Falls. We didn't realize what we had gotten ourselves into on this stop. We thought you just pull over, walk a couple hundred feet and see a waterfall. BAH! I wish. It was a strenuous hike down and back up a very steep mountain trail that you often had to fumble across shale, logs, and loose rocks. It was 1.5 miles to get there going down hill and 1.5 miles back up the mountain side to get back plus it was humid and warm. This stop set us back another 2 hours and were exhausted after the steep climb and still had a long ride ahead of us. We had planned on eating in Little Switzerland and riding the Diamondback Motorcycle Route next. When we arrived it was 3:30 pm and since all of Little Switzerland closed down from 3-5 pm so we couldn't even get a meal. We wanted to ride the Diamondback but it was raining hard again so we reluctantly skipped that ride. We still had about 100 miles to go to get to Glade Valley B&B in Sparta, NC and mileage doesn't add up quickly on the BRP. 5 hours behind our planned schedule we arrived at our B&B, hungry, tired, and still had to find a restaurant and wash clothes. It was almost 10 pm before we were able to settle in. This was disappointing because it was a beautiful log cabin B&B and we had wanted to wander their property and relax during the evening on the large wrap around porch. The day just didn't work out as planned.

Day 5: Sparta, NC to Roanoke, VA

This day was just a fantastic relaxing day. The weather was nice, cool, and we didn't encounter any rain or fog. We stopped at Mabry Mill to visit the historic water mill and take pictures and video. Later at a scenic pull over where there was an old fort structure a couple pulled up on their Goldwing Trike, saw my Fort Worth HOG patch and asked if we had rode or trailer-ed our bikes from Texas. They seemed to like it that we actually rode the entire way and asked if we had eaten lunch yet. We had not so they told us where a local farmers market and sandwich shop was a short distance down the road and they would meet us there for lunch. We had a very yummy lunch with them and a couple of men who also rode that worked locally at a hydro electric dam in the area. It's instances like these where people that ride just meet and share adventures and good times with each other like they've been friends for years. In the early afternoon we arrived at Rose Hill B&B and were able to relax in the afternoon on the front porch. One of the wonderful sights we had seen at all of the B&B's we stayed at was fire flies. We don't have those anymore in Fort Worth and it was nice to sit outside in the evening and watch for the flashes of light from them. Margaret wanted pictures and spent the better part of the evening trying to get a picture of them right at the moment they lit up. That didn't work out too well...

Day 6: Roanoke, VA to Waynesboro, VA

Another fantastic day without rain or fog. Just beautiful cruising through the mountains experiencing the sights the Blue Ridge has to offer. We stopped at one scenic vista and noticed some hikers with a dog. They were hiking the Appalachian Trail and had been on it for 2 months with another 3 months to go. To hike the Appalachian Trail is an incredible feat of stamina and endurance so I was quite interested in talking with them. They have a website that documents their adventures which I found very interesting reading. You can follow this link to find out more: Boots To Birks. After riding for another hour or so we pulled over to take a break, stretch, and drink some water. The scenic vista we stopped at just happened to have a couple people preparing to fly off the cliff on hang gliders. We stayed there to watch one of them take off and get pictures and video of it. Neither of us had ever seen this in real life so it was a new experience for us. We made our last stop at a restored historic farmstead where we explored the old homes and barns. Before heading out we met Chris (Doc) who we enjoyed talking with at length. Doc had completed 2 tours in Iraq as a medic for which I want to give my thanks for his service to our country. He was moving soon to begin a new life and career and just enjoying riding before heading out. Our best wishes go out to you Doc in your endeavors. Soon we arrived in Waynesboro, VA and arrived at Belle Hearth B&B. Our B&B was just a few blocks from the downtown area so we walked to a local restaurant where we ate dinner and I had a couple of Fat Tire beers to finish out the day. Afterwards we spent the remainder of the evening lounging on the porch of Belle Hearth and watched the rain as a storm came through.

Day 7: Waynesboro, VA to Spruce Pine, NC

Our riding plans had to be changed on this day after our experiences on the BRP. We had originally planned on riding 321 miles on the BRP back down to Spruce Pine where we had reservations at another B&B. Since we had so many setbacks due to weather and slower than expected traveling speeds on the BRP we took an interstate for part of the way. We figured even if we were able to maintain 40 mph, which was unlikely, it would take 8 hours of continuous riding on the BRP to get to our destination. Add in more time for lunch, possibly dinner, rest stops, and gas stops and we could easily be up to 10 or more hours which would be in ideal conditions and that was unlikely on the BRP. We took I-81, then I-77, then US-221 to Blowing Rock, NC where we hopped on the BRP. US-221 was an incredibly nice ride and had some great twisties and scenery on it as well. It was a good decision and turned out to be a fun ride as well. Seeing as we made up quite a few hours doing this we headed to Little Switzerland so we could eat lunch and try to ride the Diamondback Motorcycle Route again. The day was sunny and cool and we thought for sure it was going to work out. Within 10 minutes of getting on the BRP the sky darkened and we rode the 40 miles to Little Switzerland in the rain. We ate lunch there hoping the rain would stop which it didn't, so we rode the Diamondback in the rain so we could at least get to experience it. Afterwards we headed to Richmond Inn B&B in Spruce Pine which was only a few miles away and checked in early. Shortly after leaving the BRP and arriving at our B&B the rain ceased and the sun came out.

Day 8: Spruce Pine, NC to Nashville, TN

Took some very nice scenic and curvy back roads to get to I-40 which would take us to Nashville. We encountered some heavy rain once and had to pull off the interstate until it passed.

Day 9: Nashville, TN to Dickson, TN

We had planned on going to Hot Springs but shortly after leaving Nashville we were confronted with a huge black storm front looming before us. It was wicked looking so we pulled off the interstate into Dickson, TN and had breakfast at a local restaurant. Our waiter found out we were heading through Memphis and said "Whoa! Memphis is getting flooded right now, those people are swimming!" That was enough for us to cancel the rest of riding for the day and get a room. There were quite a few hotels in the area and the Best Western allowed us to check in before noon and we stayed in Dickson until the next morning until the storm subsided.

Day 10: Dickson, TN to Hot Springs, AR

Sure enough just as the weather channel from the hotel room was reporting, Memphis had been hit hard. As we neared the city and far past it the fields and rivers were flooded. Sometimes it seemed as if we were on a bridge going across a lake area there was so much water. Many houses along the interstate had water up to the foundations and crops were under water. It was good decision to have stayed in Dickson instead of trying to ride through that monster storm. The skies had cleared and it was a pretty day for the entire ride to Hot Springs.

Day 11: Hot Springs, AR to Fort Worth, TX

One of the reasons we chose to go out of the way to get home was to avoid any rush hour traffic we might encounter going through DFW. I ride through it daily and wanted no part of putting Margaret through that mess. Instead we decided to ride the Talimena Byway again from Arkansas into Oklahoma and then back into Texas on the same back roads we took on our Memorial Day weekend ride to the Talimena. The distance was longer but the scenery and roads were beautiful and we didn't encounter any traffic congestion. When we came out of the mountains into Oklahoma the sun began baking us. For the last 10 days we had been riding in cool, overcast, sunny but not hot, fog, or rain and we didn't experience any hot temperatures. Now however we were back in our home area and the sun was scorching our flesh. We both got a bit of sunburn from the final afternoon riding from Oklahoma back home.

Final Thoughts:

Overall the trip was an extraordinary experience and we are both happy and proud to have made it. Spectacular views, wonderful encounters with riders, good food, great lodging, and nice roads made this a trip of a lifetime for both of us. The only downside to the ride was the weather, which is unpredictable under any circumstance. It's also more difficult for us to have a good understanding of the weather conditions since we live in a region that has a completely different year round climate than that of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was just frustrating because it seemed that every time we accessed the BRP it would rain and soon after we pulled off the BRP the rain would cease. The positive feature about that though is we were able to experience and take media of sun, clouds, rain, and fog along the BRP. Outside of snow and ice, we saw it. I would encourage every rider to make this trip at least once because it will bring a lifetime of memories in so many good ways.

Cherohala Skyway & Blue Ridge Parkway Slideshow

Blue Ridge Bound & Cherohala Skyway

Blue Ridge Parkway Part I

Blue Ridge Parkway Part II

This Lady Rides- A Lady Riders Perspective

Margaret has been riding for a little over a year now. She has done quite well on picking up on riding but often she makes comments about things she would like to get better at or apprehensions or concerns she has about being on the road. I take some of the fears she has for granted because I have ridden so long and it can be difficult to relate to her concerns for that reason.

Our Chapter has quite a few ladies that ride and even more that have mentioned they would like to or have at least thought about doing more than just sitting on the back of their partners bike. We have new riders that we feel sure have questions and concerns about riding and may be reluctant to express those apprehensions. We have also met a lot of woman on our trips that will approach Margaret when they see her roll up on her bike and ask questions about how she got started riding. Because Margaret took the step to ride, overcame fears, and is still developing as a rider, we thought it might be a good idea for her to start her own blog that focuses on riding from a ladies perspective, and a lady that hasn't ridden very long.

While we were on our vacation ride recently on the Blue Ridge Parkway we began brainstorming ideas for her blog and details on how it might help ladies that have an interest in riding. She finally settled on her new blog name: This Lady Rides and purchased the domain name. Shortly after returning home from our trip she dived right in to creating her blog. Some of the write-ups at this point are from my blog since we shared in the trips but she's already begun to add her own perspective to riding and will continue to do so as she rides more.

So if your a new rider, lady rider, want to ride, thinking about riding, already riding, or even a lady that's been riding a long time then I want to encourage you to visit her site and check for new updates regularly. She has a different perspective of riding and riding related activities and it will be interesting to see how her site develops.

Again here is her site: This Lady Rides

As for this blog it will most likely be another week before a new update is posted. Having returned from our 11 day trip to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway, Cherohala Skyway, and Talimena Byway I am overrun with media. Almost 800 pictures and 500 video media clips have me a bit overwhelmed at the moment. I just don't know at this point how to compile all that data into a blog post that is interesting but reasonable in length and media.