I signed up for the Experience Rider Course being held by the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program which is being held at Appalachian Harley Davidson in Mechaniscburg, PA on May 17th from 8am to 2pm. Two fellow co-workers also signed up so it will be nice to take the course with people I know and to meet new people.
Pennsylvania seems to have an excellent motorcycle program. Getting a motorcycle permit through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was quite simple if you study the book (which most motorcycle shops should be able to provide). Then, by signing up for the Basic Rider Course which is held FREE of charge (also by PAMSP), you will learn a lot in the class room, and even more on the bikes as you take the ridden part of the class. And at the end of the class you are given the riding test which is made up of all the obstacles you had already been trained on. If you pass, you have your license. If you fail, well, you need to take it again.
Additionally, they offer the Experienced Rider Course which should help you with your skills as you have some road miles under the belt. This also is free of charge. I’ve been road riding for just about a year now so I thought I would take advantage of this. You can never stop learning. And riding motorcycles has it’s risks. So I would like to be as safe as possible when I ride.
Have you ever heard someone say “Stranger things have happened.”? Well, I would like to live my life getting to the point when I can’t actually say “Stranger things have happened.”. What I mean is, I want to experience strange things. As of this point, I am 33 years old and I can still say these words because strange things have happened in my life. For instance, I believe the strangest thing that has ever occurred to me involves a stuffed groundhog (named Chuckles) found in a garden, a tall television antenna, and a game of volleyball in a stranger’s yard in the middle of the night using their security lights for lighting.
At this point I anticipate something strange to happen in which case I can’t actually say “Stranger things have happened.” because at that exact moment, the strangest things that has ever happened actually just occurred! This would be absolutely amazing. But from that time forward the level will have been raised for strange things. And then the anticipation for the next strangest thing to happen will begin. Yes, I look forward to this very much.
I watched this movie over the weekend. I’m a sucker for documentaries and such. It was very interesting.
I remember back around 2000 a co-worker told me his mom had leased an electric car. And I was always curious if these cars had heat and air-conditioning. Anyways, I didn’t hear too much in the news or advertising regarding electric cars.Now this movie sheds some light on the situation. Let’s look at a few things.
Infrastructure for fossil fuels: Fossil fuels are running out and fuel prices are steadily rising. We have this backbone already in place but hurricanes still take out refineries and oil rigs. Wars slow the import of fossil fuels. And there is the environmental impact on obtaining fossil fuels.
Infrastructure for hydrogen: Until there are as many hydrogen stations as gas stations in our country this just isn’t going to work. You would need to plan every trip around where you could fill up. And I believe the current process of creating hydrogen uses more fossil fuels than if we just used fossil fuels to begin with.
Infrastructure for electricity: It is already here. It’s in all of our homes and businesses. Now we could always work on the way our electricity is generated. Let’s try to get away from coal and move towards hydro, wind, and nuclear.
Some people say that the electric car can’t go far on a charge and is not very fast. This is not true. Look at the Tesla which gets 220 miles per charge and goes 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds! Just imagine what could be done if all of the big motor companies were working on developing electric cars and were not being funded by the oil companies.
The automobile companies like to say that there is no demand for electric cars. But maybe that’s because there is no advertising drive done for such a vehicle. That’s what happened to the electric cars of a few years ago. They didn’t advertise them and then said that there was no demand. But that is exactly what advertising does. It build demand for a product. If the auto companies really wanted to sell these vehicles all they needed to do is market them. In fact, after the auto companies pulled their existing electric cars from their leases, they sent them to be destroyed. Protesters stood outside these lots and raised over 1 million dollars to purchase the remaining 70 cars. But they were denied. In fact, they had a waiting list with several thousand people who wanted them.
Something I learned and didn’t really think about until after watching this movie is how this would effect the parts industry. It would certainly hurt the parts carriers as electric cars did not use air filters, oil filters, motor oil, and other maintenance parts that the average car uses. This makes any maintenance on electric cars minimal and umm… clean to work on!
Imagine a world where super-efficient cars are desirable, affordable and everywhere… where gasoline no longer makes history, but is history…
On a related note. The X Prize Foundation has recently announced the Progressive Automotive X Prize with $10 million dollars to be won. This contest will award $10 million dollars to the first team to bring a car to market that gets 100 miles per gallon. So far none of the large auto makers have shown any interest.
Before Leopard was released to the public, Apple advertised a wireless backup option for Time Machine from the get-go. Last Oct., however, Apple not only mysteriously killed the feature but (if you don’t mind us getting historical) rubbed out every past reference of the feature like it was Hatshepsut’s name on an obelisk. In cruder terms, Apple went 18th Dynasty Egypt on its ass.
Losing someone close to you can be very difficult. But a sadness has hit me with the passing of a fellow adventure rider.Trying to get the Winter with just a little riding I find myself living the adventure through others by reading their reports and looking at their photos on the Adventure Rider forums.
Well, a few weeks ago I was following the Seattle to Argentina on a KLR650 post by OZYMANDIAS (Clayton). Clayton studied some books and made some preparations to take on this amazing trip. And the Adventure Rider community was waiting in anticipation to see his travels as he heads off in May, 2007.
Clayton made it to Mexico on May, 31st where a few hours outside Acapulco he was involved in an accident when a donkey ran out in the road in front of him. This left Clayton paralyzed from the chest down. He made it from the hospital in Mexico into the United States for long term treatment and rehab. In his own words he admits how difficult it is to deal with, knowing that he will never walk again. He was completely honest about this.
As the thread goes on we see how Clayton continues to heal from his injuries and begins law school in Nashville, Tennessee in August, 2007. This is when I became very proud of Clayton. Seeing this person who I’ve never met before go from riding from North America to South America, being injured and losing his ability to walk, yet heal enough to go on to law school! Things seem like there are going about as good as they could without seeing him stand up and start walking again.
This weekend I wanted to get my fix of ride reports and saw this forum post up at the top. I hit the last page and noticed something very wrong must have happened. I saw the words RIP. As I skim backwards through the posts I stumble across page 13 from February, 25th where a fellow rider posted that Clayton took his own life. Even though we may see a smile on someone’s face we may not be able to see the pain that is deep inside. Clayton, if you were still around I would have loved to meet you. God bless you.
