Gone, but revisioning the site. Updates coming. Promise.

Just a quick note, as I notice the blog has gotten some winter dust build-up. I’m in the process of rethinking and re-envisioning this blog, with some changes and additions coming soon. With the bike in storage, I’ve had some time to think about my motivation here, and what to do to make this blog what I really want it to be. More on this soon.

In the meantime, Chuck gleefully leaves messages on my voicemail, taunting me as to the longer riding season in Tennessee. As my bike weathers out the winter in a heated garage, Chuck’s is putting on the miles in decent temperatures. Sigh. I will relate my “coldest ride ever” story here soon, as my ride to my bike’s place of storage left me with chills I am only now recovering from. You know its cold when everyone who passes you only stares in astonishment, mouths agape, eyes wide, as if saying “Am I hallucinating? Is that really someone riding a motorcycle?” Yes it was. And yes, it was cold. And yes I wondered too what the hell I was doing.

Overall, its been a disappointing riding year. No big ride with Chuck. No breaking the Pennsylvania state line. Less miles than in any year since I’ve owned a bike. More than one friend who I hoped to ride with, but never did. Rain, job ambiguity, moving, more rain, and a string of obligations have left the bike gather more dust than a buffalo on a Death Valley stampede. What can I say. The year sucked. But enough of that. Trying to salvage a little riding time going into the autumn, I’ve started doing an “Owned Pennsylvania” tour, collecting county signs from the state’s 67 counties. The present map shows pics of the county signs, but I’ve also started working on maps linking pics of roadside attractions, pubs and other fun stuff. More on that later.

Now, on to snakes. Yesterday, seeing the first sun in quite a while, I decided to ride north to collect Clinton and Potter counties. I’ve riden these many times (indeed, the north-central region is unequivocally spectacular). On Route 144 from Snow Shoe to Renovo, I’ve seen many kinds of woodland creatures; deer, chipmunks, squirrels, turtles, field mice, groundhogs, pheasants and grouse by the roadside, crow and a low-flying hawk. What I have never seen was a rattlesnake. Until yesterday.

At first it registered as a stick or branch lying in the road. It wasn’t until I passed it I realized what it was. I doubled back to get this picture, trying to remember old first-aid lessons just in case. As I was standing there, feeling a bit like Marlin Perkins (I’d say Steve Irwin, but I grew up with Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, not the Crocodile Hunter), a car passed and slowed, and an amazed woman said to me “there’s a group of bikers stopped just up the road watching ANOTHER rattlesnake!” My initial feeling was “interesting coincidence”, but then I started wondering “do rattlesnakes migrate?” I mean, was I riding into some mass rattlesnake road-crossing? Luckily, I wasn’t. This fellow was big, the photo doesn’t do him justice. (Okay, maybe its a “her”). Still, it was a pretty cool thing to see.

For more about Pennsylvania rattlesnakes, check out the PA DCNR timber rattlesnake page.