15 degrees in the morning and a frozen motorcycle. Choke, brake levers, none would even move, the bike will not even roll, most likely the final drive and transmission oil are frozen. Better to leave it as is and let the warmth of the day, if any, takes its course. We had rented a car the day before, mother will not ride in the sidecar of course, and that was a gift that was for the day! For both of us, as even with the cold temperatures, the sun was out uplifting the spirits a bit. Destination was the Georgia Congress Center where the Annual  Motorcycle Show was taking place. We started that way the day before, nasty and almost surreal weather, forecast of much snow and freezing afterwards made me turn around, I was not going to take a chance getting stuck downtown or hurrying throughout the displays after paying $21 to get in!!! Beautiful downtown Atlanta, not at its best.

I need to mention here, before I forget, that the "comments" are again working. The comments background being of white and black alternate colors, the lettering on the white background was just not showing. Our helpful and dedicated to the web site Webmaster, Brian, took care of it. Thank you Brian, as also "thank you" for everything else that is here, without you this would not exist as it is… even if you have taught me some things which I have learned.

What a difference a day makes, but what you are not seeing or feeling is the cold, see the snow? The temps never went above freezing and as I write this, still all is frozen, barely thawing slowly as the sun rays hit the ice. The forecast shows that the freezing part is about over, checking Tybee Island where we will be Saturday, well, not that much better… Next year’s plans?… Baja… you bet!!! Hot sunny beaches… warm air flowing… sunny skies… Back to reality here.

Real nice building… heated!!!… entered building B, show in building A and it did not take long at all to start seeing familiar faces! Spirit?… I had to leave him in the car, everyone likes covered parking, I would have liked uncovered that day so the sun could at least warm up the car, I would go out and check on him often, running the heater to warm things up again. This was a great occasion to see new bikes and some more familiar faces which we had not seen in 15 months or so. It brought back memories of past purchases. Ducatis… other BMW’s… all the custom and after market additions, mainly shocks, bags, lights of course, mounts for GPS and radar detector… you name it. My desires are not what they use to be. Of course it is fun to admire the new… and also the old, displayed throughout the show, but I am so happy with what we have, a tool now, versus a toy, that this show made me see it all so differently. I admire the Art Work, regardless of the brand or type of motorcycle. Two wheels is two wheels and as the many ice cream flavors available, they were more than enough different tastes displayed, including the custom built ones.

To me, well, there is no "I like it or not". Of course this motorcycle would have no use in our Life, but, I think about the hours spent building it, painting it, the originality of it and yes, I would have liked meeting the builder! The custom bikes where so long that the camera could not focus on the entire machine! And this was the way throughout the show… including some new Ducatis… so incredibly fast while standing still… some restored two wheelers… some modified fast machines… another custom bike down below…

And they run with their powerful engines. What an incredible imagination, I would have liked to see our rig next to it… two such different entity’s, but with the same desire to ride on two wheels. Ducatis of course always steal my heart. I use to own two of them… finely tuned they ran and handled like a "Swiss clock". I had not seen their new models, not the kind of ride you will see in the desert. I was happy to see them go back to their older style, just a bit modernized and definitely more streamlined. It is a work out on the body… but… what machines!!!

More bikes and the Show on the next Blog… Vincent… Husqvarna… but you also need to take a look at the new M3 that has not even been released yet… A friend of mine that works for BMW NA, drove one to the show, was telling me about it, I happened to be parked right next to it! His job… riding and driving the performance courses… all day!!! You call that working?

For those who have not been able to attend the Show, hope you have enjoyed this Part I… Till next time…

I have been getting messages regarding Spirit’s picture being used as a screen saver… I love it! I am sure he does too… How about "contributing" to the site in return?

Are you holding off for the T Shirts and mouse pads? It will be another month before those two items are available… in the meantime…

"Spirited Doggie Treats" and "Art Cards"…. Dogs cannot live of Love and food alone… they need treats, they like treats… we know! Put Spirit to work!

We are always under deep appreciation toward the readers that have send in a contribution helping this website’s expenditures. For those who have not, continue enjoying the site, pictures, recipes, and if you feel it’s worth $1 a month, the contribution button is above, snail mail is below…

Ara Gureghian   853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd #245   Naples, Fl 34108

You be well…. Ara & Spirit

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.