Philadelphia, again.

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Originally uploaded by tjayswift.

For some reason I can't stop singing either the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme or Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia" whenever I'm here...

Anyway, I'm just getting settled into my bad ass hotel room here at the Loews. For some reason, my reservation got mistakenly canceled, so they had to put me in the only room they had left- and it's the pimphouse suite. I joked to a friend today that I think this is the room they used to save for Rick James. My bed has purple satin pillows, for god's sakes. Bring on the crack whores- I've got an expense account....



I also have a pretty nice view. Here's a church, where I intend to take the aforementioned crack whores.



I decided last night at home that I wanted to eat the food that I'd miss the most this week. So we went to El Sazon, which might possibly have the best Chile Colorado I've had on the east side of mighty Mississippi....

Last night's dinner entertainment- Two (on-duty) police officers that Firefighter Jake knew came in and sat down on the opposite side of the restaurant. We decided to send them each a beer, which of course, they can't drink while on shift or in uniform. The look on their faces were priceless when our server brought them over, and then they figured it out, and came over and we all had a good laugh.



It's much fun to travel to all these big crazy cities, but I do truly love living in a slow, small southern town. There's just nothing quite like it....

I'll be sure and take plenty of pictures for y'all this week. Enjoy the Honda Hoot and associated traffic back at home.


-t

Head Still Spinning

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Originally uploaded by tjayswift.

This weekend was great- I was so busy I didn't even have time to make the post I had planned for Saturday. But never fear- I will catch you up momentarily.

Where to begin?? Thursday, I headed out on the bike to meet up with my incredibly attractive, intelligent, witty, and just all-around so sweet she hurts my teeth new riding partner Shelley, and we hit the Gap. The weather was optimal, and we ran into some of the boys from the East Tennessee Riders crew.



Friday's ride was just about as smooth, I brought the Gixxer out and we hit up Foothills Parkway and the fire tower, and tried out the food at a new place called Cartwright's in Townsend... the food was good, but the highlight of the event was this exchange between myself and our server:

Me: The catfish special sounds good. How is it prepared?

Server: Huh?

Me: How is the catfish prepared?

Server: I'm not quite sure what you mean by "prepared."

For real.

Saturday, we went on a fabulous ride down some roads that were totally new to me, and I had a total blast. We took 411 to 68, and headed all the way down through Cherokee National Forest and hung out on the Ocoee for a while at the Olympic site.



Got caught in the rain a bit on the Cherohala, but luckily it held off for us until the end.

Sunday night I saw one of the more interesting things in my recent memory. Headed up with my pals Liz, Jodi, and Neal-o to Elkmont to see the snychronous fireflies. It totally sounds like it'd be a boring way to spend an evening, but I'm telling you- it's extremely cool, and definitely worth the trip. I poked around in the moss beside the Little River for a few minutes and came across a glow worm. Hopefully Neal-o will get off his LAZY ASS and e-mail me the pictures that I SET UP FOR HIM.

Most of the long-exposure digital pics that I tried to take of the lightning bugs just weren't worth a crap, honestly. It's just too hard to capture, for me at least. Plus, you never know when they're gonna start flashing.

The moon was full, and I snapped this shot on the walk back to the parking lot. It was really hazy.



Last night I did some acoustic blues in my cowboy hat, drank a lot of Shiner Bock, and then jammed with my buddies Doug and Douger at the end of the night. I thought it was really funny when my bald friend Douger tripped and almost fell, and I told him, "Keep the shiny side up." He didn't laugh.



My greatest source of entertainment last night was trying to make the incredibly horny, nowhere near attractive, outrageously drunk new chick hit on every single guy I knew. It was great- "HEEEEY DRUNK CHICK!!! Come meet my sexy, single, very wealthy friend Doug!" And of course I whisper in her ear, "He told me earlier he thought you were really hot, but he's so shy with women. I think you're gonna have to open him up." Then I would sit back and laugh as the men would squirm and curse me under their breath until I found someone else to put her off on. She was just like a leech. It was all going well until someone decided to get me back by sending the drunk redneck elderly lady over to ask me out. To Shoney's.

I can't make this crap up, people.

My next post will most likely be from Philly again, and I won't forget my camera this time, okay?

Heading back to the Gap now- I'll be sure and take some pictures for y'all.

It's rainy season, I guess.

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Originally uploaded by tjayswift.

There hasn't been much good riding lately, although I've gotten in what I could. Saturday night I got a bunch of great long-exposure shots from Foothills Parkway. I'm loving the motion in the clouds, as well as the cool reflections off of the truck's hood.

On Saturday afternoon, we loaded up the bikes and headed on up to the Gap for the East Tennessee Riders get-together. Neal caught me playing Dukes of Hazzard with the truck.



We didn't really do a "group" photo or anything while I was there, so none of the pictures of the event are really worth showing here.... but we had a great time running the mini-bikes around the parking lot. And I only crashed once. I was able to pull a few decent stills from the video.



A new Lotus came out to play.



... and finally, here's another shot Neal took. He didn't think it was too cool, but I like it:



I'll be back up that way later this week. If anyone wants to meet up, holler at me.

-t

Damn, I'm getting lazy

dougndouger
Originally uploaded by tjayswift.

I had a good time playing some acoustic blues on Monday night with my buddies Doug and Douger. Made it back up to the Gap on Sunday and Wednesday, also heading back up tomorrow afternoon and Saturday for the easttnriders.com dinner and 50 races.

Sunday was relatively uneventful, with the exception of dragging a guy on a Ducati S4R out of the ditch TWICE. Wednesday we got rained on a bit, but I had a great run with a few friends.

It doesn't feel like I've done a damn bit of work this week- I've been sick, and my back's been killing me. Probably time to go see the chiropractor....

Until next time, here's a pic of me stunting on the pallet jack at work..



Looking forward to seeing some of you guys on Saturday.

-t

Back at the Gap

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Originally uploaded by tjayswift.

I know today's cover shot's been done about a thousand times- I just never get tired of it.

Took advantage of the opportunity to fly home a day early from Orlando, as we finished up our work a bit early. I took a bunch of artsy shots at Disney, but probably nothing any of you'd be interested in seeing...

Got my truck- it's not pretty, but it'll see plenty of use toting the dirtbikes around. YAY!!!!



I made it up to the Gap about 3PM or so- no law enforcement to be found, so that was good news. I got to put the DR through its paces for the first time up there, and it did pretty damn well. I passed a few of the guys from the SV rally- one stopped at the Overlook to ask me how I like the DR650. I didn't tell him it was a 350, figuring it might be bad for his ego.

A slight bit of drama unfolded when a guy from Florida tried to start a fight with a couple of the locals about passing, but it didn't get too out of hand. A National Park ranger ended up in pursuit of 3 locals, but it looked like by the time he got to the Crossroads, only one was still there. I hung around for a little while, but eventually I had to head home.

Caught up with my buddies from killboy.com for a bit. Thanks for the drink, Keith.

As it was getting dark, I caught a couple of decent sunset shots.



I headed back down via Happy Valley road to 336, which is an absolute blast on the dual sport. Motorcycle riding just doesn't get much better than this:



There were some wicked hues in the sky this evening- and this tree was begging to frame the shot for me. I love being home.



Still looking forward to the dinner meet and greet next weekend with the East Tennessee Riders. If you haven't yet checked out the forum, please do. It's a great place for local moto-information.

I'm planning on heading back up to the Gap tomorrow afternoon about the same time, and I'll be around til dark or so, depending on law enforcement. Hope to see some of y'all up there. Gotta get some rest now.

-t

Home again, gone again

I bode California farewell...



...and came back to the correct side of the Mississippi on Thursday night. Got to spend most of Friday with a good friend while getting new tires put on DR350. And let me say it rocks much ass on pavement with the new shoes.



I took her on up to my buddy Matt's house and bombed some gravel fire roads with him. Although he was definitely leaving me behind with full knobbies on his bike, I was still riding at a pretty good pace- the tires are a great compromise for my purposes....



Saturday night, I went out to the Old City with my buddy Jarrod, who proved his macking skills. There were more bachelorette parties than I think I've ever seen at one time before.

Sunday afternoon I went to Boogie on the Bridge in Greenback. Saw a bunch of great bands, including my buddies Doug and Doug from Blue Revolution. Big Dog, who is the highly talented cook at Brackins, proposed to his girfriend on stage.



... It's not every day you see a man on one knee with a ring in one hand, chugging a beer with the other. I believe it went something like, "Honey, you know I love you. Will you... (chug chug chug) ... be my wife?" Classic, indeed.

I was fortunate enough to get some of Big Dog's ribs with his own sauce. And they were scrumptious. My mouth is actually watering thinking about them right now. The major culinary surprise of the evening, though, was my buddy Neal-o's sister's chicken. Lord only knows how long it was marinated before it was grilled... it was by far the most tender, tastiest chicken I've EVER had. I'm not normally one to get all excited about food, but it really was that good, folks.

My personal lesson learned Sunday night- if you haven't tried that new 16oz, 6% alcohol energy drink called "Sparks", then don't. It's pure evil. And if you must, don't drink 6, whatever you do. It was like a night on crack.



Monday night, we had a barbeque fest at my friend Liz's house on the lake. It was a small get-together, as many of the invited guests had other things to do, be we had a good time nonetheless. Here Neal-o gets aquainted with Sirus and Kamir.



Now I'm in Orlando working after-hours doing some kiosk installs at the Magic Kingdom. I'll let y'all know how it goes.... Enjoy yourselves, wherever you are...

-t