2019 Summer Road Trip to See Family

High school reunion with Joe and Jen



On the river headed to Goetta Fest after meal at Hofbrauhaus

Family time :)

Beautiful Cincinnati night for Goetta Fest

Naked Truth (Joe's cousin is in the band)

Stacy and Rory during a breakfast visit

Crabs at Heather's in York PA for Diane's retirement party and Harlene's birthday!

Having a great time with Harlene :)

Some group photos at the end. Unfortunately we didn't do until a bunch of folks had already left.
 

Iron Maiden 2019

Drew and I saw Iron Maiden a few weeks ago on July 20th at an outdoor venue in Atlanta (Lakewood) which is the same place we saw Rob Zombie a few years ago. I thought Drew would really enjoy the big show of a Maiden show and it did not disappoint. I haven't seen them since I was in high school I think. I think I saw them on the Somewhere in Time tour and the Seventh Son tour. Well the stage show has only gotten bigger and better. It wasn't cheap... and the shirts were ridiculous but it was all worth it. This was the Legacy of the Beast tour. The stage changed almost every song! And included props like life size airplanes and a huge Icarus whose wings folded down at the end. And of course pyrotechnics!
I thought we had decent seats (we were under the covered parking) - but I guess I wasn't close enough to get decent pictures. But here is a few anyway. The show as on a weekend so Drew and I did our usual Waffle House afterwards and didn't get home until probably close to 1 am. The funny thing was we ate at a Waffle House near our house (far from the show) and we bumped into some other guys who were also chowing on some waffles after the Maiden show :)

Legacy of the Beast!

The day after with our shirts

Camping at Two Wheels of Suches

I decided to go on a short motorcycle camping trip last weekend and camped at Two Wheels of Suches (in Suches GA) which used to be called Two Wheels Only but is now under new ownership. This was my first time camping there but it sounds like they have made a lot of improvements. The lodge offers meals Friday night through Monday morning. I didn't eat there because I was only camping 1 night and brought food but it looked like they were doing a great business. Sounds like they also have a new or new refurbished bathhouse and expanded on the cabins. Maybe Diane and I can try a cabin next time.

Full moon over the lodge

 I got there early Friday an got a sweet spot for my tent right along one of the two creeks that run through the property. I also had a picnic table and fire ring close by. Lots of folks showed up by the end of the night. Maybe 15-20 tents? It was a perfect camping night. It was warm but not hot during the day and the temps dropped at night so that I actually had to put on a sweatshirt in my sleeping bag. My Jetboil worked perfectly in the morning to make me that lovely camping coffee (best part of camping!)...and I toasted some bread in my cast iron skillet with some butter.

My camping site

Shared this cool fire ring with a few new friends Friday night

A motorcycle selfie of sorts :)

I found out the day before the trip that one of my co-workers was going to be in the mountains for a running race on Saturday so we met on Friday night and did a couple of hikes off rt 180 (Wolfpen gap) including up Cossa mountain. We saw some beautiful ferns, flowers, millipedes and large snails.

Melissa holding a millipede

The folks who camped near me and shared a fire with were super nice. I met one guy Mel who does a lot of motorcycle camping on his BMW GS and I learned a lot from him. He inspired me to get some new smaller gear at REI (sleeping bag, chair...etc.)

On Saturday I broke camp after breakfast and then had a great ride over to Helen to meet Diane for lunch. She had to take Drew and Emily there for a German club trip. We had a nice lunch and beer right on the river as we watched people float by on their inner tubes.

Waiting in Helen for Diane

I definitely need to take advantage of Two Wheels more often.