June - near La Grande, OR

I've managed the hardest thing about getting this blog back up. That's deleting the hundreds and hundreds of spam comments and other things that were left while I wasn't looking (which was too long, actually). It only took a bit of studying the blog program and I found a nice batch deleter. Whoopee.

I'm at Hilgard Junction State Park about 8 miles west of La Grande, Oregon. It's a nice little park and I'm the only host person onsite. And, there have been very few campers so far in the first week and a half. I'm storing up energy, ambition, and people patience. The next place I go is Cove Palisades park which is a boaters Mecca. I understand they need a lot of supervision and drink and party quite a bit. Maybe I better leave my whip with someone else.

La Grande is a nice town. It's big enough to have good shopping, a neat old downtown area, and it's right close by. I'm taking the motorhome in to a muffler shop there and having a couple of extra glass pack mufflers installed before the existing mufflers. They're too noisy and I was told that this would quiet the thing down quite a lot and not loose any power. It's a cheap fix for what I had done before with the exhaust. The Magnaflow mufflers and the three inch exhaust pipes I had put on back in Yakima, really did make it a lot more peppy, but now it sounds like a Harley Davidson. (That's right... I said it.) It just doesn't sound right considering it's pulling a nice quiet Goldwing - a real motorcycle. (Ya!)

Having the motorcycle along on its trailer is great. I still wish I could drive it on and off the trailer by myself, but so far I've found someone to help me load or unload everytime without having to wait long. The hardest part about using the trailer behind the motorhome is trying to back the darn thing. I can't see it when I do - and that big overhang behind the motorhome's rear wheels doesn't help at all. Actually though, I have discovered that if I put the bike's antennas back up, I can see them in my rearview mirror (back through the inside and out the rear window). I'm thinking about getting some kind of ribbon and clip that I can attach to the antennas so they're more visible.

I miss everybody back home (sort of). Cellphone reception is poor here also, so I leave the phone off most of the time. At least I don't get woke up durning the night with someone asking for somebody I don't know. I bought an outside antenna and a booster amplifier for the phone and the internet card. It works ok, and keeps me from watching the TV all the rest of the time I'm not outside driving my cart around trying to look important - or busy.

Ok! I have to make up some new picture galleries. I have lots to put up on the website. The connection is slow for uploading, but it seems reliable enough to just get it started and do something else.  Later.

Good ol' Brian