A Couple Of Geeks Do NERDS

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A handful of pictures from this bridge.

1887. Dang. That was so long ago that – heck! – maybe Bust wasn’t even born yet!! Yeah, that’s a looooong time ago, to be sure.

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Looking out from the inside.

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Carver was all over the building methods and materials. Since I don’t know squat about such things, I just nodded and said things like: “Uh-huh” and “That’s pretty cool” and “I’ll be damned.” I think he bought it.

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The bridge was closed. It looks like the reason why is because they’re re-doing some guard rails or something.

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OH THE HUMANITY!! Actually, I just think he had to pee, being old and whatnot.

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Yes, Carver, that’s water under the bridge. That’s what bridges do – they allow you to go OVER the water. (I think he’s a little slow sometimes.)

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We loaded back up and continued on our merry way this fine day.

A cool old barn.

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Of course.

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‘Tweren’t long before we were at our next bridge.

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I was able to climb down and get some kinda-artsy-fartsy shots.

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I really like this one.

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See – there I am, risking life and limb for a damn picture.

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One from the other side.

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I was trying to capture the way the water was swirling around the rocks (which was cool), and how crystal-clear the water was (note the rocks under the surface).

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Call me wrong, but I think Carver is enjoying himself. And Bust is looking for his virginity or something. Idjut.

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One this about thing particular route (and we were fore-warned): there is a fair amount of dirt / gravel roads. Once upon a time, for me, that woulda elicited a resounding “Oh hell no” but, well, after following Rayzerman around Quebec last year, and riding the Harley through the Going To The Sun Road construction last year, it really doesn’t bother me. Which was a good thing. Because….

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If it were raining, my attitude would be a polar opposite. But today, it was fine.

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Yep. Definitely not a problem today.

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I did remind myself, though: “Stay off the front brakes. Drag the rear brake. Just be smooth.”

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Here’s another bridge for ya.

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You get the idea.

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Where were we?!?? Oh, yeah!

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The Day Did Not Suck.

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Betchya they make syrup in there.

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One thing that seems to be universal across the country: road construction. This stretch of construction had traffic all f’d up in every direction. And it was getting hot out. We stopped in the shade and waited it out.

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This is one of those times when I wish lane splitting were legal somewhere other than just California. But, as always happens, we made our way through it and were on our way once more.

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Here’s another bridge.

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And another. I think.

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Coming into a town, a non-covered pedestrian bridge. I’d pay $20 to watch that walking-, talking-phobia Bungie walk over this.

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It was early-afternoon and we stopped for some lunch.

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Definitely a scenic area.

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Now, I can’t say for sure if I’d caught a touch of Bust’s “altitude sickness” or what, but being stopped in that construction, the heat kinda got to me. It was good to be off the bike and hydrating, but I couldn’t hardly eat more than ½ of my club sammich.

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Sooze’s sammich.

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Aaaaand we’re on our way once more.

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Get the theme for the ride this day yet?

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“Pull my finger” or “Careful – I just sharted right there” or something.

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Did I mention that this route had some dirt / gravel roads?

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State capital or something.

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What a letdown. It’s not even covered!

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This one is, though.

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And right after that one – another!

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And right after THAT one – yet another! These three bridges being in such close proximity that they stuck with us. About a week after we left the area, hurricane Irene stuck the region. We heard that one of these 3 bridges was damaged. Bummer.

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That Carver. Ever the eye to take a picture.

Sooze.

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Yours truly.

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A salute just for you, buddy!

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Did I mention some of the roads were dirt / gravel? There were some that took us up and down some pretty steep grades.

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No big deal.

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I wonder what stories this train depot could tell.

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One of the cool things about small towns are town squares.

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And … more dirt roads.

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Leading us to another bridge!

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My pals, Roofus and Doofus.

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And … well, you know.

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Caution? Steep winding mountain road? Sweet!

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Ah – but there’s a twist! It’s not a paved road!

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Forgot - you're a computer doofus, so grammatically-correct syntax is alien to you.

The only doofus in that pic is the one at the front right of the pic. He's not a doggie. Though I hear he pee's when gets excited.
Only when near doofus Canadians.

And EOM's only just over a week away... :p

:huh:

 
Yeah, it was dirt, and there were sections that had that loose gravel crap that is less than optimal for a 2-up FJR, but this section was no problem.

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Bust didn’t have any issues since he’s running a rear car tire so the bike can stay upright on its own, and Carver didn’t have any issues ‘cause he actually knows how to ride.

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Have I mentioned that The Day Did Not Suck?

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It didn’t.

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No, really. It didn’t.

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And, well, we stopped at another one of these.

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I’d say this one has been around a while.

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We wandered ‘round a bit, snapping pics and whatnot.

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As we were wandering about snapping our pics and whatnot, we heard … something. Between veiled insults to each other, Bust finally heard it right: it was a damn banjo! There we were, in somewhere-Vermont, checking out a covered bridge and we heard … a banjo! Turns out there was a B&B over where the sign says “Mill Rd. Private” and there was a kid sitting out back playing a banjo.

Only on the road.

Who is that in the window?

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Hiya, Sooze!

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Parked the bikes over there.

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Hi. I’m Larry. This is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.

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Since Carver had not seen a covered bridge before today, I offered to use his camera and take pictures of him on his bike on the bridge. Preparing for the shots.

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And .. well … ah … let’s just say we got the shot for Carver, and Bust only almost got runned over.

That led us to be back on the bikes to enjoy more … road construction. Bust was pretty busted-up about it.

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While we were stopped in this cluster-fsck, the dude behind us pretty much ran off the road up beside us to ask Bust about his rear car tire. Guess that’s a new concept in Vermont.

Anyway.

Wasn’t long before we moseyed on…

Propane tank out front of the house? Check!

Satellite TV dish out front for the 56” plasma? Check!

Siding and the corner of the house? Siding?!? Bah. That’s way overrated.

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Saw this thing.

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Not long after, this thing. (See a theme yet?)

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More boring, rolling green stuff.

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A barn for Andrew.

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A closer shot of that same barn for Andrew.

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Water-crossing, FJR-style.

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And, alas, we were at our last one of these for the day.

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Story goes that this bridge is haunted. Dunno the story behind why, but that’s the story. As we were mucking about taking pictures, a gal in a cage who had pulled off to take pictures offered to use our cameras to take a group picture for us. That was very nice of her, and much appreciated. I was kind of expecting to see some ghostly apparition in the picture, but other than Bust’s ugly mug, there’s just us and a bridge.

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We weren’t far from the hotel, so off we went.

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Back at the hotel, we cleaned ourselves up and did what we do at FJR gatherings.

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You know.

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Bill’s got it right – double-fisted!

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See?

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Good times.

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Bust and Ed (not Fred).

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Fred (not Ed) saying something really important I’m sure. He’s very tall.

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Bungie made it back to the hotel, and didn’t even have to turn around!

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The NERDS gathered in the hotel restaurant for dinner. Prime rib food porn.

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Carver (AKA ‘Beer Thief’ according to our server, Gina) joined us.

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Mary Ellen came over to say hi. Thing is, she donned Bust’s shades. Knowing who owns those things … I hope her shots are up to date.

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Who? Hah? What?!

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After dinner it was back to the parking lot for … well, you know.

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Only a Canadian would actually that hat in public.

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Good times. Good people.

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Me ‘n Geezer sporting Deal’s Gap shirts. Of course, I’m the one making it look gooood…..

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Got a little Captain in ya? Or, in my case, Mary Ellen’s foot in my crotch?

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Yep. Good times. Left-to-right: your ruggedly handsome yet vulnerable narrator, my buddy Rayzerman, Fred (not Ed), and Ed (not Fred).

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For cryin’ out load, MEM – keep yer damn feet OUT of my damn crotch already!

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Pals. Bust, Carver, guess who, and Bungie.

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As the evening wound down, well, as the saying goes: a 2 at 10 is a 10 at 2. Looks like MEM found her 10 at 2. I doubt Dolly will ever be the same.

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And that puts a wrap on 8/18/2011.

More to come, though, folks and I’ll be better about posting updates, ‘cause we’ve got EOM coming up soon!

 
Truly epic RR BG!

Said selfishly, it's fun to see how others look at you and what they consider foto worthy? :rofl:

I'll be asking you for some source pix (higher res) and provide you a few too..

Great job bub, seriously!

 
Truly epic RR BG!

Said selfishly, it's fun to see how others look at you and what they consider foto worthy? :rofl:
Good times, Don. Good times indeed.

I'll be asking you for some source pix (higher res) and provide you a few too..
Great job bub, seriously!
You got it! If you like, I can just burn 'em all from our time at NERDS and send 'em to ya - there are a few that I'm not posting because they don't really add to the RR. Just send me your address and I'll git 'er done. No big deal.

And, thank you. But I'm just pontificating through a keyboard. If it weren't for Sooze the Pillion Papazzi, it'd just be me blathering away. It's a team thang.

 
Friday, 8/19/2011

Not having made any wild commitments to be on the road at the ass-crack of dawn, we took a now kinda-standard relaxed approach to the morning: got up when we felt like it, got some grub at the hotel restaurant, and moseyed outside to see what was going on and who was around.

He’s not checking out Carver’s ass. I think.

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We weren’t really sure which direction to go, and we wanted to be back in the early afternoon to take care of some chores (when you’re on the road, sometimes ya gotta forsake riding to do laundry), so we just decided to hook up with our buddy Ray who was leading a group on the 4 Gaps and a Notch ride.

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Rock on, eh?

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Our group. Since I hate to lead, and would rather keep folks I haven’t ridden with in front of me (and I had my GPS un-wigged out and had the route loaded so I probably wouldn’t get too lost), I volunteered to ride sweep.

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That weirdo from Michigan snuck in with us, but that’s OK. I figure it’s kinda like being the hot chick in high school with the fat friend. He’s the fat friend, but he’s our friend.

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It was not a crappy morning. We rolled outta the parking lot around 9:00 or so.

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This is a larger group than I’m accustomed to riding with, but I was fine with just sitting back and keeping the pace.

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There are times when I like to haul ass through the twisties. Then there are times like now, when it was nice to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

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This truck had held up the group up and the driver kindly pulled aside to let us by. I gave him a double-toot from the air horns and a thank-you wave as we headed back towards Smuggler’s Notch.

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Yeah, this day was not sucking.

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