I got a bit leery about sharing my thoughts online for a while there, still a bit hesitant at the moment, but I guess I'll go ahead and update.
As I type this I'm in a little town called Lodi in NY. I stopped in here to spend a couple days with my new friend before I head south for the winter. Lodi is on the shores of Seneca Lake, which is one of the Finger Lakes. It's a very scenic and ritzy area full of vineyards, hippies, and snobs. This was the most difficult place I've had to back my trailer into since leaving home, and a snob woman actually let her dogs out to get in the way of my 39 foot trailer as I was attempting to back it into a tiny dirt road. People amaze me sometimes. She said she wasn't going to be happy if I damaged her trees, then made the task more difficult. OK...
Lodi, NY. On the right is where I had to back in, then about 1/4 mile in reverse from there to my spot.
End rant though. For the most part the people I've been meeting since leaving Massachusetts have been great. So far, the Coshocton Ohio people seem to be the nicest as a whole. I'm in Ocala Florida now (I know, that changed quick) and I've been surprised at the people of this state. They're not overly friendly for the most part. There seems to be a bit more concern for who you can trust around here in my opinion, but I wouldn't hesitate to live here. Where I'm parked right now is kind of “in town”. I'm all the way at the back of a big quiet neighborhood so it's nice, but any way out of here is through some heavily traveled roads. I still like it though, and it gets a lot quieter not far up the road. The weather is great for late November, it was about 70 today and I was riding my street bike.
Anyhow, my house in Massachusetts sold after one day on the market and I was out June 5th. I spent about five days parked at my old neighbor's place in Massachusetts before I hit the road. I couldn't get my Buell to run right, so I began scouring Craigslist for another street bike. I was astonished to find my dream bike from the time I was 15, an 85 Honda VF1000R. It was cheap enough and I knew it was for me, so I got it. Long story short, there was a series of unfortunate oversights by both myself and the previous owner, and the same day I registered it and had it inspected, it lost a rod bearing. Now, these are not engines for most to attempt to open up and work on. I only know one person who knows how to work on them, and that's my older brother. We talked about it, and he said even if we had all the time in the world it would take months and we'd have to source unobtaineum parts, and he doesn't have near the time nor did I. He told me my best hope was to find a take out engine, and he wished me luck with that endeavor as we both knew the odds of finding a VF1000R engine was very unlikely.
I would guess the previous owner would have taken the bike back, but it was still worth what I paid even with the engine popped, so I kept it. Then I remembered he was talking about a parts bike his buddy had a few years earlier, so I called him back and asked if the parts bike was still around. He said he'd make a call and get right back to me. He called me right back with the good news that yes, the bike was still available, and the great news that it was cheap and also located in the very same town I lived in. Not only that, but the bike only has 3,400 miles on the clock. I went to pick it up expecting to find a heap, maybe an engine and a frame. I was surprised to find a complete bike with a clean, open title. I was thrilled and loaded it up to take home. This was great, but I didn't have time for an engine swap at that moment. I now had a total of three non-running motorcycles to put into storage.
Another thing I needed to address before I hit the road was the awful over-built ramp that was on the back of my toy hauler. The previous owner did burnouts on the original ramp with his full dress Harley and blew holes right in the ramp. His solution instead of replacing the ramp and not doing burnouts on it, was to build an 800 lb structural steel and heavy plywood ramp. It was so heavy that it required a winch to pull it up, which required a battery, which required a tender. It was ridiculous and heavy, and it bent my rear most axle (trailer has three axles) twice on potholes. I decided to commission a pair of long time friends who run a metal fab shop to build me a new door from aluminum to shed some weight. Well through a lack of communication, not on my end, it ended up getting built maybe 50-75 lbs lighter than the steel door for a paltry $2,300. I was like yeah.... nope. I wanted hundreds of lbs lighter. I tried to nicely explain to them that this was not what I asked them to build, and furthermore it was sheeted upside down so the rain would sheet right into the door and begin to rot the completely unnecessary 3/4” plywood that was on the exterior side of the door under the metal sheeting. It was built wrong! I was told there was “nothing they could do” to fix it. Oh really? With an entire metal fabrication shop at your disposal, two men with probably about 40 years total metal fab experience, torches, brakes, welders.... but you “can't”?
Funny because I was able to completely disassemble and rebuild the entire door on the ground, in the dirt, with hand tools, no ability to weld aluminum, and some help from Dave Little and another friend who popped in for a bit as well. I was able to invert the door, sheet it correctly, and make it light enough to get rid of the cumbersome winch setup. But they “couldn't”. It's a shame because if they had built me what I asked for, it would have been even lighter than I was able to make it, and it wouldn't have cost nearly as much. Instead I was built what the boss thought I should have, not what I asked for. I paid them what I deemed appropriate, and I was more than generous. Those two friendships ended after that, and they were not two I ever expected to lose, but the behavior was unacceptable to me. They handled the situation terribly. There's 3 sides to every story though...
Door sheeted upside-down-
Disassembly-
Completely unnecessary materials-
My 15 year old cat is with me. She was my #1 biggest concern about this whole thing, I was so worried about how she would transition to road life. Well the big story here is, there is no story. She's fine, she doesn't mind it at all. She rides in the trailer as we go up the road and knows I'm in the truck driving, she knows I'm close by. She really makes things a lot nicer. It's home wherever I go.
I spent almost a week parked at my old neighbor's in Massachusetts getting everything ship shape for the road, getting my storage in MA squared away, then I left Massachusetts for the first time with no plan on coming back any time soon. My first stop from there was Mik6's place in Oswego NY which is not a new trip to me. Along my way to his place, I was thinking to myself "There's no way I'm going to be able to afford to keep doing this." Long story short, I was wrong about that, but that's what I was thinking at that time.
After Mik6's I rolled into Coshocton, Ohio to see our good friend Kiser. My first thought was that I wouldn't really like Ohio, but I ended up loving Coshocton. Kiser and I obviously already knew one another, but not extremely well. Not long after I got there we became really good friends really fast. That was my first taste of real country, and I loved it. We spent a lot of time with Big Specht and Schlepp, and I also enjoy hanging out with Kiser's dad. I almost bought two separate houses there, but I had to restrain myself after people suggested I not settle down so fast. The way of life in Coshocton is awesome and the people are exceptionally nice there, and I'm not just saying that. It's a beautiful area with great people, and one of the houses I almost bought for $150k would have sold for $750k in Massachusetts.
So from Coshocton it was off to Trikefest in Laurel, Indiana for a week. Then back to Coshocton after Trikefest, back to Mik6's in NY, then up to Maine to meet the family for the 4th of July. I was planning on being with the family for about five days, but I left after only one because they p!ssed me off. From there I went to Fryeberg, Maine and parked at Dave Little's place for about a week. He's like three miles from the Saco river which is a stellar place to swim in the hot summers. I really enjoyed myself there. It was way better than being with the family. At that point I didn't have a motorcycle with me still, and I spent 4 th of July by myself listening to the fireworks and partying from nearby North Conway, NH. I am very familiar with North Conway, and as much fun as it sounded like I knew better than to try and navigate my dually over there during that. A bike would have been perfect right then, and it was then I realized I had to find another street bike. Bike stuff aside, Fryeburg was great, one of the best places I've parked yet. Dave is the man as well.
From Dave's in Fryeburg I popped in to jeffatc250r's place in Fitzwilliam, NH for a couple of short days. I couldn't stay there too long because I had to go buy another street bike, so back to my neighbor's in Massachusetts from there I went with only a few short days to find and register a motorcycle. I ended up buying a 99 Honda Superhawk VTR1000 that needed a little here and there but ultimately ran well. So at least I had a bike. Then back to Oswego NY from there, then back to Coshocton where I got the bike squared away. The forks were puking all over the front brakes, rear brake was smoked, the engine coughed and died a lot, the clutch actuation was wrong, one valve cover leaked, chain and sprockets were roached... Etc... I fixed it all in Kiser's bike barn and it's a decent buggy now, but it's not the best bike. I kind of bought a beater on purpose so it can get banged up and stuff, but I wish I had a dual sport. I've been looking into dual sports for sale, but there's not a ton available where I am in Florida. Not only that, but I'd sell the Superhawk if I got another bike, and people aren't buying a ton here. I'd either have to sell really low or not at all. At least it gets me out there though.
From Kiser's I wheeled over to Brazil, IN to visit old HoosierLogger Greg for a bit. I spent about five or six weeks there, it was fun. I did some exploring around there, I'd highly recommend the towns of Bridgeton and Mansfield for gawking. Lots of pretty country out that way. This whole country has tons of pretty places. I was pal-ing around with a nice young lady out there for a little while too, she was good company. Not the first of the summer and not the last though.
I don't recall the exact name of this place, but it was nice.
This was another place-
From Indiana I went back to Kiser's in Coshocton on my way back to Mik6's in NY for his fall ride. The ride went well and I hung out there for another five or six weeks. I like to park for at least a month at a time. I've really gotten used to traveling, and I love it. After Mik6's, I went to Lodi, NY. That's where I started this whole post. I got every last moment I could in NY, it was snowing when I left. As I was going southbound down the highway, they were salting the northbound lanes. As anyone from the rust belt knows, it's not the snow that gets you, it's the salt. I kept it rolling steady heading out of NY as fast as I could hoping to beat the southbound salt trucks, which I did. Now that's cutting it close.
I took my time getting to Ocala, where I am now. Everywhere I've been, I look at real estate. I get excited and have really enjoyed everywhere I've been, but let's not forget where I came from. NY is nice, but the politics really turn me off, as well as the taxes and tolls. NY is greedy and needs to separate from the city. There is so much country in NY, but the city seems to be the bane of the rest of the state, assuming they're the cause of the politics, taxes, and tolls. They say people are leaving NY in droves, and I will say that the area I spent the most time in has the highest amount of abandoned real estate (commercial and residential) I've seen out of all the places I've traveled. As I said, Coshocton has the best people. They also have affordable taxes and real estate, and a lot of beautiful women. The land is also beautiful, with plenty of hills, woods, and country. Oswego, NY has beautiful women too, but a lot of them are younger due to the big college in town. I've not been overly impressed with the women in Ocala, but I haven't been looking as hard lately.
My buddy who lives here in Ocala is another Massachusetts transplant. He bought here about three months ago and is thrilled to have company from up north. He's in the process of opening a car repair business here, and I've been keeping busy helping him set up. It's been pretty fun really. I just got my drive shaft back from the shop today, as the shaft in my truck was too long (I can relate) and dented. The long and short of it is that it vibrated a lot even after having been in the shop not long ago. I'm thrilled with how it looks now for $250 from the local shop here in Ocala. I'll install it tomorrow and see how it feels! After that I need to get my tires rotated and balanced on the truck. If it ain't smooth then... by golly!
Shortened and repaired shaft-
It was definitely too long-
The one and only place I actually paid to park since I left Massachusetts was Trikefest, and for that I have great friends to thank. Dave Little, Kiser, Mik6, Greg HoosierLogger, and jeffatc250r have all hosted me, and I try to do things for them while I'm there parked at their places to contribute something. I truly appreciate all of these guys, as well as the others who have offered me to park at but I haven't gotten there yet. This is a great lifestyle for me and I've been truly enjoying it. It was the right decision. I have really liked a lot of the different places I've been, but I have to remember not to stop unless I go absolutely bananas about a place or find an absurd deal. Most of the places I've been looking at are about 10 acres, and that's barely enough for me. I'll probably just keep going for a while and see what's out there. So far so good! I feel very alive. It kind of puts things into perspective for me. I feel like things wouldn't have ended well had I kept on the path I was when I was working. I didn't really understand how incredibly high strung I was for so many years, I couldn't even tell, and it was really dangerous. It was not something I realized the seriousness of, even when others tried to tell me. Everything does happen for a reason. I still live within certain parameters, but I've learned how to relax and actually live life, not just exist. I'm grateful for how things have turned out, and I appreciate the ability to do this. I'm glad I have made the decisions I did in life which have led me to this point, and I look forward to the future. That's a pretty stark contrast coming from where I was.