Here are a couple of videos of my riding buddies and I. The first video was done by my good friend Oliver and includes a lot of me on my new bike. The 2nd video is a real short clip showing some funny oops moments.

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I splurged a little and went out and bought a new 2012 KTM 500 xc-w. Its more powerful and lighter than my previous bikes, which were all “dual sport” kinds of things. This is a real dirtbike that’s had the minimum done to make it street legal. I took it off roading this weekend and it was amazing.

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Oliver and I took 2 weeks off work and hit Colorado and Utah. We started off on the front range in an off road area called Rampart Range, then headed west to the Taylor Park area. Did some single track and some cool passes, then hit the San Juans near Silverton. After a week in Colorado we moved over to Moab, Utah for an entirely different landscape.
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A quick 3 day October weekend trip with my buddy Oliver on motorcycles. We decided to do a little exploring in the national forests of Arkansas on this particular weekend. Great weather, great roads, and lots of fun, naturally. Again, I’ve focused on action shots here, I’m not sure if I am getting better at these, but I am learning.

You can read our ride report over at Adventure Rider here. It includes the full details of our trip, including maps and GPS files. It also has all of Oliver’s pictures as well. My name on the forum is “child”, Oliver is “enderthex”.
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Vacation on two wheels in the mountains of Colorado. My good friend Oliver and I decide a week of camping and mountain passes would be just what the doctor ordered. We stick mainly to mountain jeep roads in the San Juan Mountains near Silverton. I tried to carry my motorsports photo experience over to taking pictures while on the trail.
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When the girl friend tells you there’s a family gathering and she wants you to come, primal instinct kinda kicks in; you grimace and plan for the worst. When the girlfriend then tells you that the family gathering is in the Texas hill country and SHE suggests you take your motorcycle; you perk up a little, at least I do. I don’t think she had in mind the same route I did though. Once she learned that my route stretched a 4 hour car trip into an 8 hour bike trip she regretted the suggestion. Oh well! Too late now, hopes are up, let’s find some dirt!
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Just a quick day ride down to Lake Whitney and back, this ride was about 6 hours. The end destinations were 2 loops, both dirt, both swing by state parks. Actually, they probably weren’t even state parks, just parks, very basic. First was Nolan River Park; second, was Lake Whitney State Park. Just nice weather, no traffic, and big skys. The trip was pretty uneventful, lots of time to think to myself about this that and the other. OH! I did learn a lesson, PACK EVERYTHING ON YOUR BIKE. I had my camera bag on my back… 3 hours in and my shoulders and back were KILLING ME. I’ve since done longer rides with nothing but a camelbak on my person and what a difference!

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It all started with my friend Oliver and I doing a back road trip to Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas. It ended with me in Knoxville, Tennessee buying a KTM 640 Adventure and riding the Tail of the Dragon.
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So Thursday, November 6th my parents house decided it was too cool for school. It caught fire sometime before 3:30 in the afternoon, a neighbor called 911 and then my parents. Another neighbor (perhaps the same one) kicked in the back door and was greeted with super heated smoke. At this point there was already fire licking its way out of the roof in areas with smoke billowing from the eves. It is through this door that we believe a dog and perhaps a cat escaped. Sometime later when the firemen showed up and broke more windows and kicked in more doors 1 or 2 other cats escaped; another cat was rescued from inside. The last cat was unaccounted for until late that evening when making a pass through the house. All animals survived unharmed.

When I arrived the fire was out and the firemen were surveying for hotspots and unstable sections of house, as well as looking for the culprit. It wasn’t long before they found a charred fuse box on the exterior of the house servicing the AC unit; this little box had indeed started the fire. As far as my parents know, the box has never been messed with since the house was built by the previous owner years and years ago. An electrical lug appears to have been loose which caused arcing, over time this arching heated up the wire enough for the insulation to catch fire. This lead the fire into the wall and up into the attic where it quickly spread across the whole house.

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