Well...Ta-da?

I did it. I got mad at KiLleR (RIP), and grabbed an 09 Suzuki DL650 V-Strom. Now, Calvary there in the background isn't in the picture because I worship my new bike, the sky just looked cool as I was passing a church, and once I got it framed, I thought the crosses made for one sweet pic.

Anyway, all day today, since Sunday really, I agonized over getting rid of the KLR and spending money I don't really have for a brand new bike. I mean the KLR only stayed with me for a year (and 12,242 miles). It served me well, but I learned some things about my riding abilities and myself that made me want to get a more specific kind of bike. I was angry at KiLleR for various reasons, and beat myself up all day for making an emotional, irrational decision.

I am now to the point of rationalizing, but also realizing that I have been really doing an ongoing total cost of ownership analysis. I truly think that I will have spent just about the same amount of money over the life of either bike. The KLR was going to be an ongoing maintenance project, and research tells me that the Strom should not. The 09 is five years into it's current config, while the KLR was a brand new design in 08 when I got it. I had also still not completed many costly upgrades that are almost a necessity for the KLR. So far, from what I have found, the Strom should be a fire and forget type of buy for some time. I hope. And 61 horses vs. 34 helps too.

Anyway, there she is in all of her glory.

Romulus and Remus

So the old tale of Romulus and Remus is pretty entertaining...especially since there are about eleventy-hundred different versions.

Anyway, since the kiddos were hanging with their cousin Saturday, I decided to go for a ride. We had plans that evening, which helped me narrow my search for an interesting half-day ride. While hunting for good dirt roads, I discovered that Oklahoma has a town called Romulus. My interest was piqued, andit took quite a bit of zooming and panning, but I finally did find Remus as well, not far away. I figured the two had to exist together. Although the fate of the towns might have mimicked mythology a little.

Anyway, my GPS took me on all 2-lane highways all the way to Romulus. It appears that the great pains I took to be almost all dirt on the way there were dashed when I loaded the route on my Garmin, and it recalculated immediately. I'll have to turn that feature off.

Here is what I found of Romulus, OK:
The good news is, from Romulus, the GPS told me that Remus was down a dirt road or three. Now, by this point I was going to take the dirt road anyway, so that worked out. The roads down there are great, and it looks like there are lots of them. The area is hilly, and the roads are curvy; moreso than I would have thought for East Central OK. Very cool ride past Romulus.
The GPS told me at one point after a few miles on a windy dirt road that Remus was on my left. I looked, and it appears that Remus must be the name of the old guy putting diesel in his tractor. I prefer, however, to think that Romulus killed Remus in order to rule the valley.

I think I covered from about 880 to 1250 feet MSL on this short trip, which is more vertical change than I thought we had in central OK. At times I definitely felt on top of the (local) world, and others like I was walled in by trees, hills, etc. Really interesting ride, and I didn't even get a start on all the dirt roads down there. I had forgotten to eat all day (happens when I ride), so I bailed out and found 9a and headed back to town for grub.

Gratuitous Plug

If you need motorcycle gear, peep Motorcycle Superstore, yo. Their prices are good, they are always glad to swap sizes, etc...and maybe I'll win a contest for posting their link! Yeah baby!

The Perry Run

So I've been enjoying a couple of "photo tag" games on two of the bike forums I visit on the internet. The idea is, one guy rides somewhere, takes a picture of his bike in front of a landmark, then the first one to figure out where it is and take the same picture, except with HIS (or her) bike, gets to pick the next place and the cycle begins again.

As luck would have it, both games of tag had places within 50 miles or so of each other, so I decided to knock them both out in one run. I like to go ahead and get my choice of picture taken on the same day, so as not to make the next person wait. This meant that I needed to hit four geographically diverse landmarks. Didn't seem fair to swap the two, or post the same picture as the next tag on both sites.

So I left Choctaw about 2:30 on Sunday afternoon bound for Marshall, OK and Perry, OK. I also wanted to hit two other towns for my tags, but had no plans. I headed north up Hiwassee road to Route 66, which I took west to Midwest Blvd, and headed north to Waterloo Road. I figured that was far enough north to avoid city Sunday drivers and get over to Hwy 74 for the shot north to Marshall. Not the case. Apparently residents of northern OK county like to poke around as much as anyone. Anyway, I hit 74 and went north toward Crescent, but got sidetracked at Hwy 33 when my tummy reminded me that I had not eaten all day (cereal doesn't count, there's no meat in it).

I hoffed a polish sausage, and checked the GPS, which showed Okarche off in the distance to the West. I thought Eischen's Chicken would make a fitting tag, so I went West on 33. I never saw Okarche again on the GPS, but when I hit Kingfisher, I found my first promising tag picture.

A Chisolm Trail Memorial.

At this point, I wanted to get back to heading north, so I gave up on Okarche. Another day. So I headed up Hwy 81toward Hennessey and Hwy 51. Entering Hennesey, I found this little gem:

Where they have:

I didn't stick around to find out. My butt already hurt. So with two new tags out of the way, on to Marshall for the first of the two required "old" tags:

which is the Marshall Cafe.
Then on to Perry for this one:

Since Hwy 86 runs south to 51, I took it instead of hitting the I-35 superslab just yet to get home. When I stopped west of Stillwater for gas, right next to the station sat what I believe to be the Area 51 riding area:

 

 

From there is was a straight shot down I-35 and Sooner Road back home. Between this ride and Bobbie's first riding lesson today, it was a great day!