Motorcycle Views

2006 Americade Motorcycle Rally Blog - Day 2

By Walter Kern

This year I'm publishing highlights of Americade 2006, day by day in this blog. Americade is scheduled for June 5-10 this year. The blog will also include my preparation in getting ready to take the ride to Lake George, NY, my observations while there, the ride home, and getting back to normal -- before the next set of rides to the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) Wing Ding national rally in Nashville, TN and the BuRP rally in Maggie Valley, NC. (BuRP is a rally for Motorcycles forum members.)

The last few days before I go on a trip somewhere, I always switch from my desktop computer to my laptop computer. That's so I can be assured that I have everything I need to work on the Motorcycles site remotely. I'm pretty much assured that everywhere I go I'm going to find high-speed wireless access but I always have a backup dial-up way to get on the Internet just in case.

I had a carpenter installing all new interior doors in my house the last four days. I needed to get that done before Americade so that after Americade I could get a painter to come in and do some repair of cracks, paint a few rooms, and also paint the new doors. That all has to be done before we start off on our trip to Wing Ding and BuRP beginning June 30. Scheduling routine activities around motorcycle trips is daunting at times.

Today was my appointment with my arthritis doctor to hear about my blood test results and to get a few cortisone shots before I go to Americade. I had to leave the house under the control of the carpenter for awhile since Jane had gone off with girlfriends to a scrap-booking show 30 miles away. My doctor happens to be female and young. She looks younger than my own daughter but seems very knowledgeable. She is just too cute to be a doctor. Two weeks ago, I remembered her as a dirty blonde but today she had regular blonde hair. I asked her if she was a blonde when I saw her two weeks before. She said, that yes she was but maybe a little more blonde today. My tests were pretty much negative so the only thing remaining were the shots.

My right hand has a very painful finger. When I wake up in the morning, I have to spend a few minutes just squeezing my fingers together into a fist, under pain, before the one finger relaxes a bit and doesn't hurt as much. This is sometimes called a "trigger finger." It takes a shot of cortisone to take the pain away. That lasts maybe a few months. My objective now is to take the cortisone shots in the finger and in both shoulders to get me through the next three motorcycle rallies. The cute doctor sprayed my hand and two shoulders with some sort of cold liquid which is supposed to distract me from the pain of the shots. It worked and I made another appointment for three months so I would be in a good position for more shots before I had to go to the NJ State GWRRA Rally in September. I wonder what color hair the cute doctor will have then.

Tomorrow I plan to work on the site to complete my Pictures of the Week, and compile my newsletter. I'm also working with a new set of publishing tools that will allow me to do all my site work on the Internet from anywhere in the world. My User Reviews are stacking up and I'll be working to get many of them released as well. Hopefully, I won't be spending all my time at Americade working on my laptop.

Only two more days to go before we get on the trikes to travel to Americade.

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