A Family Tradition -- Happy New Year

Here we are again. This time we are on the downside of the Christmas holiday and only a few hours away from celebrating the new year.

We had a great Christmas week starting with the arrival of the New Jersey Gang last Wednesday. The weather continued unseasonably warm through most of the week as we enjoyed all the visiting, Christmas present sharing, Christmas Eve church services, and the Evringham night at the movies to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The weather was great, the visiting was great, the food was great, and the movie was great. 

But then those Canadians decided to share their weather with us. The winds turned cold, the clouds moved in, and then on Tuesday the snow arrived. We only received a few inches of snow and then some sleet and freezing rain ... but it was enough to bring us back to the reality of the season.

The weather improved a bit yesterday and Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily returned to the land of Wawa. A long travel day for them but they made it home safe and sound. We sure enjoyed having them for the week.

With 2016 only a few hours away I suppose it is time to bid 2015 adieu. 2015 was a bittersweet year. We lost several close family members this last year including my mom, my Aunt Vallie, Peggy's Aunt Velma, and several other close friends. 

It was a tough year in that aspect but we had plenty of good things happen as well ...

We started the year traveling south to Florida seeing some dear friends along the way in Tennessee (The Pattersons and Curps) and Georgia (The Jonses). Our short stay in Florida allowed us to visit more friends (The Swartzs, Balls, and Zellers. Then we were off to Alabama for some Gulf Shrimp and more visits (The Paynes, The Martins, and The Camerons). 

We continued our trek west with a sightseeing stop in New Orleans and stops in Texas to visit with more friends (The Kendalls and The Witwers).

We spent Super Bowl weekend in Tucson and then a week in Congress, AZ visiting with the Meachams, the McFalls, and a whole bunch of others at the Escapee North Ranch RV Park before moving on to our destination at my sister Marcie's place in Minden, NV. 

Some folks accuse me of eating my way across the USA when we travel ... but I think we just travel from friend to friend. Our 2015 Winter Trip West sure turned out that way!

After more visiting in Minden, and a bit of caregiving support for Nan ... we made our way home after a spending another week or so more in Arizona -- you guessed it - more visiting at North Ranch and a whole lot of busy attending the Escapee Escapade in Tucson.

We wandered our way back home via Alamagordo and Roswell, NM and then across I-40 back to Tennessee in the latter part of March. We finished up our trek back home to Maine -- where the snow was still here to greet us on the 1st of April!

We spent the spring and early summer in Maine ... just enjoying the nice weather, visiting with kids and grandkids, and playing with projects.

When Nan's health declined in July we loaded up Winne and made a beeline back to Minden. Back through the heartland (hotland) of the country along I-90/I-80. Although our trip west had its sad moments we were glad to have had the opportunity to visit with plenty of folks we don't see often enough.

We even got to see a couple of new (to us) National Parks on the way home.

We spent the fall recovering from our busy summer schedule but we did find time to spend time with the youngest grandchildren around doing fall chores and once again -- Mikee played with his motorcycle projects.

All that brings us to December 31st, 2015 at 10.25 PM ... only a few hours before the ball drops in Times Square.

I'm sure Peggy will wake me up when the time comes to let me know we made it to 2016.

It's a family tradition.

Waiting on Christmas (and may the force be with you)!

Here we sit. Three days before Christmas. Watching it rain.

It appears we will not have a white Christmas in southern Maine this year. Actually it's probably a 50-50 proposition in any year but it is pretty rare when we make it this far into the winter season with no measurable snowfall. What does that mean for the rest of the winter I wonder? 

Peggy and I (mostly Peggy) have finished up our Christmas gift shopping and we are working on finishing up the wrapping as I write this (ya'll can guess how much help I am at wrapping) and then we are pretty much ready for Santa to arrive. We still have a bunch of cards to get out ... but those have traditionally been "New Years" cards anyway!

Peggy and I received our Christmas present to ourselves last Friday when our new furniture was delivered. Peggy ordered a new couch and chair & a half a couple of months ago and they finally arrived. Just in time for Christmas and company - what planning!

We are anxiously awaiting arrival of the New Jersey Gang (Son Brian, DIL Nicky, and Granddaughters Alyssa and Emily). They should arrive sometime late Wednesday and will be sharing the Christmas Holiday with us for several days. We don't get to see them often enough so we are looking forward to the visit!

We are planning a special day after Christmas family get together this year. No -- not a family gathering to open presents ... we will do that on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. No -- not a gathering to share good food and visiting ... that is always on the agenda. Nope -- this year we plan on gathering pretty much the whole gang for an Evringham Exclusive (by special invitation only) Premier Showing of "Star Wars VII - The Force Awakens" at the local Cinema. No particular reason why other than it just opened, the new local Cinema is one of those places where you can get dinner with your movie, and ... well ... just because! Ought to be a fun evening!

And for those of you who have been wondering ... I did manage to find the engine for my motorcycle project. Not only that .. I coerced my son Eric into helping me get it into the basement and onto the engine stand.

I have spent a few hours working on it over the past couple of weeks and have completed the "top end" rebuild (cleaned and rebuilt the carburetors, removed the cylinder head, cleaned the piston tops, valves, and combustion chambers, lapped the valves, replaced the valve seals and gaskets and reset the valve lash). All the internal components look fine so far - so once I finish checking a few more items I will finish the external cleaning, painting, and a bit of polishing and she will be ready for re-installation in the spring.

So that's about the story here for these Maineiacs Not So In Motion.

Merry Christmas to all !!

and may the force be with you!

4 into 2 into 1 into 4

Here we be - December 9th already. Only a couple of weeks until Christmas.

Peggy and I have made some progress getting ready for the Christmas season. The outside lights and the Christmas tree are up, and many of the presents have been gathered. We still have plenty to do to get totally into the season ... but we are making progress. No sense getting it all done at once I say ... getting ready is at least half the "experience" ... don't you agree?

Believe it or not, our part of Maine still has no snow. We did get a small amount overnight a few weeks ago -- but any that accumulated was gone by noon. My heating bill appreciates it -- but as long as we are going to be here for the Christmas season we might as well have some snow.

I did manage to present myself with an early Christmas present over the past few weeks ... .

You may recall that my Honda 350F project bike had an aftermarket 4 into 2 exhaust system when I purchased it this summer (4 cylinders going into 2 exhaust pipes/mufflers). Most surviving bikes of this model have been retrofitted with some sort of aftermarket exhaust system since the original pipes (originally in a 4 into 4 configuration) rusted out in short order and Honda hasn't manufactured replacements for many decades now.

I really didn't care for the looks (or sound) of the 4 into 2 system - so I purchased an aftermarket 4 into 1 system upon our return from our summer trip out west. The looks and sound from this replacement system was a nice improvement over the previous setup.

Then the internet happened ... .

While browsing a vintage Honda Motorcycle forum a few weeks ago I happened upon an entry from a Canadian fellow who mentioned that he had 3 of the 4 necessary original pipes - in very good condition -- and would be willing to part with them for a "reasonable" price. Well now ... one thing led to another ... I inquired ... he sent pictures .... I made a low offer ... he accepted ... and that's how I ended up being the proud owner of 3/4 of an exhaust system for a 1974 Honda CB350F!

The pipes arrived from Toronto a little over a week ago and they were in very nice condition with only a couple of small scratches. One pipe has been repaired in the past but the repair looks to have been done quite nicely. Considering these pipes are 40 years old and essentially unobtainable in any condition -- I was very pleased.

But now what? Nice looking pipes for cylinders 1, 3, and 4 aren't going to do me much good when I have nothing for cylinder #2!

Back to the internet ... .

It turns out that an outfit in the UK partnered with the original supplier of these pipes to Honda and had a small batch reproduced a few years ago. Not only that ... they had one #2 cylinder pipe in stock and would be willing to sell it to me for 1 large bucket of US Dollars.

I really had no choice now --- did I?

So --- Although the bike still has no engine installed, here is what she looks like with her new pipes.

Can't wait to hear it run!

Where did I put that engine?

Number 900

Wow - my blog hosting site tells me that this is my 900th post on this blog! Who would have thought that I would keep up with this experiment for that long. Actually, I started blogging on a different site before I changed over to this one ... but we will celebrate 900 anyway. I certainly write less frequently nowadays as compared to when I started, and less while we are not on-the-road, but I still like to provide an update on our doings once in a while for those few who check in.

This posting will start with a rousing HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY greeting! I hope you all are enjoying great weather with friends and family! This day has become all about big meals and football, and those traditions are fine, but sharing the day with those you love is the best part ... and always has been.

Today is a generally cloudy day here in Maine as a warm front is moving in to bring us some warmer temps up into the 50s! It has been pretty cold these last few days with lows in the teens to 20s so this little warm up will be nice. We got our first snow accumulation earlier in the week when we awoke to some white on the ground that was gone by noon ... so the season has started. I found the snow shovels the other day and moved them to their winter storage locations .... and moved the snowblower to its ready-to-be-accessed spot ... so I guess I am closer to being ready for the first big storm. 

The "holiday" season has really snuck up on me this year. It seems like just last month we were visiting folks in Arizona, and just last week that we got back from our summer trip that took us to the northwest. I guess that means we have been busy and active doing all kinds of interesting things. Well some of them have been interesting, some have just been normal chores, and some have been unplanned events filling the days of our lives. As my lovely and wise wife likes to say ... "It's all Good."

I have been spending a lot of time working on my bike restoration project lately. I have pretty much completed cleaning, painting, and plating all the parts that attach to the bike's frame. This part of the restoration is both the "fun" part because you get to see things start to go back together - and the hard/messy/tedious part spent cleaning each and every part, nut, bolt, and washer before carefully painting the painted parts and zinc plating and polishing each of the fasteners. 

And then there is the challenging times where you get to try and apply paint to places so small you need to use the eye of a needle!

But it will all be worth it when the completed project emerges in the spring.

For those of you following the 2015/2016 Honda 350F restoration project ... I have a big surprise planned that I hope to reveal in blog post 901. 

As for now ... it's on to giving thanks, eating turkey, and watching football!

Autumn Thoughts

Our weather continues its march towards winter as the nighttime lows get lower and the daytime highs are not quite as high as they used to be. But all-in-all it has been a pretty decent fall weatherwise. The leaves are pretty much done falling but we still have several weeks of leaf gathering to go before that chore will be complete for 2015.

In and around pre-winter yardwork Peggy and I have been busy attending high school soccer tournament games, visiting with young Miss Taylor and Miss Sophie a little here and there, and playing with our various projects.

The soccer season has finally drawn to a close with Kyla's Lady Bobcats earning a hard fought 1-0 win over the Ashland Hornets to once again reign as the Maine Class D Soccer champs! The Richmond High Girls Soccer program has been very successful over the past 10 or so years but they had to beat the team that beat them in the State Championship game last year and had amassed a 35-0 record over the last two years. Peggy and I made the 270 or so mile trip up to Presque Isle, Maine last Saturday to watch the game and stayed overnight in a local motel before driving home on Sunday. Wow -- it had been a long time since we had stayed in a motel ... when did they get so expensive!

The Honda restoration project has kept me busy the last week or so. I finally got the frame stripped of its old paint and then applied several coats of new gloss black. With that task complete I was anxious to start putting a few pieces back on the frame ... so I did.

I also helped get the stripes applied to the newly painted gas tank and then Glen finished up that paint project by applying the last coats of clear over the silver base coat and the blue stripes. After the tank had a few days to cure I re-installed the gas cap, added a new gas cap latch mechanism, and installed the rebuilt petcock. The tank and newly painted side covers are ready for installation!

Since all that was going so well I decided to install the re-built, re-painted, and re-polished front forks and associated "stuff."

Still a long ways to go .... but the progress is looking promising!

Do you realize that Thanksgiving is only 12 days away! I didn't!! Not only that ... Christmas is only 29 days after that! My goodness ... didn't this year just start a few months ago?? I guess time does in-fact fly when you are busy living your life. Before you know it the snow will be snowing, the walkways will need shoveling, and old man winter will be here in full force! It must be time to start thinking about heading south to warmer places!!

I know - I know .... Didn't we say we were going to stay put here in Maine this winter? I think we might have said that in August ... or maybe even in September. But thoughts of warm weather and grilled gulf shrimp started to creep-in in October and just thinking of snow, cold, and winter's darkness in November are taking their toll. I'm thinking a trip to Florida around the first of February might be in order.

Don't you? 

After all ... that's only 11 weeks away!

Welcome to November

Well here we are ... all the way to November of 2015! I know it happened 1 day at a time but it sure happened fast! The beautiful fall foliage of New England is now all over the ground and most of it is in my yard. 

I did manage to get many of my pre-winter chores complete for the Evringham Fleet. The Winnebago is parked and winterized, the Chevelle and the Yamaha are in their storage spots, and the Honda has been completely disassembled. I still need to get the oil changed in the Fusion and the batteries in the Winnebago need to come home before the really cold weather arrives ... but the vehicles are pretty much ready for winter. Now it's time to find those snow shovels, get the pre-winter maintenance done on the snowblower and deal with 1.2 million leaves! Never a dull season here at the Maineiacs Not So In Motion Winter Cabin!!

In between taking care of pre-winter chores we have taken advantage of some opportunities to visit with kids and grandkids including attending a few high school soccer games to watch Kyla and those Richmond Lady Bobcats as they march towards yet another State Class D title match. This year the State Championship game will be held in Presque Isle, ME which is waay up north where the polar bears live. I wonder how they play on ice and in the snow? We may find out!

As mentioned above, I disassembled the Honda a few weeks ago in preparation for the "restoration" project to occur over the next few months. I was a little concerned how difficult it would be to get that engine removed from the frame - but it came out fine with a little planning and a tug here and there. 

I even managed to get it mounted on my engine stand for its future minor rebuild and beatification work.

The gas tank, side covers, and front fork covers are the only pieces that will require "color" painting on this bike and they were handed over to Glen (the paint guy) to work his magic a few weeks ago. He already has most of that work done except for applying the stripes on the tank using a decal kit I purchased on-line. Although this bike was originally painted Glory Blue Black Metallic as that was the only color available in the USA for the 1974 model, I have decided it should be resurrected in Custom Silver Metallic with Navy Blue stripes on the tank. The silver model was available in non US countries - so it's sorta correct! Here is a little teaser photo of what the final product will look like.

I have been working these past several days on the tedious task of preparing the frame for paint. After repairing a bad weld from a previous repair on the side stand bracket I have been stripping off the paint and a bit of rust before I prime and paint the frame back to its original black.

I have lots of parts to clean, polish, paint, and repair over the next few months. But that's the fun part!!

SO ... that's what's happening here in the cool and getting colder northeast. Watching the leaves fall, getting ready for the snow to fall, and looking forward to riding the Honda in the spring!

Oh Yeah ... also starting to think about when these Maineiacs might get back in Motion. Peggy is more that happy to stay here, watch the snow fall, and play with grandkids. Me too .... but I suspect both of us may be in a different frame of mind come the first of February. One thing I know for sure -- if we leave in February -- the direction will be south --- way south!

A Simple Man's Autumn Moment

Autumn has returned to New England in full force. The leaves are finally turning to red/orange/yellow/brown, the mornings are more than just a little chilly, and the afternoons vary from lovely to brrr!

Although Autumn in New England is probably my favorite time/place - it does bring on a flurry of activity to get ready for what's on-the-way. I started moving in that direction the other day by preparing Winne for winter layup. She is now parked on her wooden blocks with tires covered to minimize sun damage and the fresh water system has been emptied and blown out with air. I still have to add RV Antifreeze to the lines and drain traps and I will probably remove the batteries for storage/maintenance here at home in a few more weeks. I also added some fuel stabilizer to the Chevelle gas tank, filled her up with fuel, and took her for a short ride to get the fresh fuel/stabilizer up into the carburetors. Once I get some polish on the exterior she will also be ready for storage. I also need to get the Yamaha in storage and the Honda taken apart in preparation for its winter resurrection. Whew!! I'm tired already and none of that includes all the leaf raking and snow blower maintenance that awaits! How many more weeks until the snow flies?

Meanwhile -- we are keeping busy going to soccer games, working on streetrods, dealing with medical checkups, shopping for/buying new furniture, and all the other "stuff" that goes along with living our lives. I truly have no idea how I ever had time for a J*O*B!

Apparently we have officially entered election season. With "only" about a year to go until America's next presidential election the "Rs" have had 2 debates, the "Ds" have had 1 debate, the pollsters & pundits are raking in the dough, and we still have over 12 months to go to figure out which of "America's Best and Brightest" we will choose to be our leader for the following 4 years. As you all know - I tend to follow all this activity and try to make sense of it all. At least "make sense" to my ignorant, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, non-sophisticated, gun loving, self. I really don't think I am any of those things - but the self-professed "journalists" seem to think I am. And those are just the "journalists!" Some of the actual candidates must think I'm just plain stupid - since they continue to tell me that up is down, wrong is right, and that "they" know what is best for me.

I am just a simple man. I still have hope that a Leader will show himself/herself among this group of contenders that are supposed to be America's Best and Brightest. Just in case somebody cares ... here is a list of attributes I'm looking for in our next President;

1. Will promote policies that minimize Federal Government incursion into my life.
2. Will not promise me anything that is not within the power of the President to deliver.
3. Will not promise me anything that drives up the national debt.
4. Will work WITH Congress to keep Americans safe.

See - I am but a simple man ... with lots of Autumn chores to complete.

See Ya ...

Ultravans, Lighthouses, & Streetrods ... oh my!

Time to get caught up once again ...

Our old friends Patty and Jerry Mello arrived as planned a week ago last Tuesday (that would be the 22nd of September). Their arrival was the finish of their 4,000 mile trip across the US in their 1968 Corvair Powered Ultravan. The Ultravan was a specialty made motorhome - manufactured in Kansas back in the late 1960s. They made 380 Ultravans - a unibody construction of mostly aircraft quality aluminum - but the front and part of the rear cap was fiberglass. The Mello's Ultrvan is powered by a 120 HP air cooled Corvair engine built by Jerry - who owns and maintains about every make and model of Corvair ever produced!

The Mellos "camped" in our driveway for several days as we played tourist and visited. Unfortunately I failed to get some pictures of the Ultravan in our driveway -- so the above pic that I "stole" from facebook will have to suffice.

Of course we had to have a lobsterfest  to welcome them ... 

and we had to visit Portland Head Light, Spring Point Light, and Bug Light ...

and more locally - "Land's End."

It was great seeing Patty and Jerry again ... talk all about the old times ... and the new times ... and maybe even some times in the future. Safe Travels on your homeward trip Mellos!

Since the weather was so nice last week I took advantage of a beautiful Sunday to attend a Vintage Motorcycle show down in Massachusetts. I decided to trailer the Yamaha down to this show to compete in the "Lightweight (up to 500cc) Japanese" Class. There were at least 20 bikes in my class and the little Yamaha took 2nd place. Not too shabby!

As you may know - I have spent a good deal of our "at home" time these past few years working on several Street Rods owned by a friend of mine. My friend Bill is a lobsterman who loves old streetrods, has at least 20 of them, but would rather collect them than work on them -- so I help him with mechanical stuff while another friend of mine helps with the body/paint items. While I was gone this summer Bill purchased 3 more projects. The first project on the list is a very nice 1937 Ford Streetrod with a 327 cu in Chevy Engine. The rear differential was making some noise so that was the first item on the list this week. It turns out that somebody forgot to put grease in the differential when they rebuilt it recently and as a result -- one of the pinion bearings was destroyed. I have been working on that fix this week and should get it done next week after the new gears arrive. Then it will be on to a more fun project ... replacing the stock intake manifold and carburetor with a brand new aluminum manifold and 3 2-barrel carburetor setup ... new capacitive discharge ignition system, and more polished aluminum engine goodies. I love it when I get to play with new go-fast and look-good parts that somebody else purchases!

I guess I'm getting closer and closer to being back to "normal" although many of you would question the sanity of my "normal."

Oh well ... it's better than listening to the news of all the successes of our President and his minions. Gay marriage vs religious freedom, unbridled illegal immigration, and moving towards global nuclear war ... how much better can it get? At the present rate of mismanaged crisis I forsee riots in the streets of the USA before the next presidential election. Dividing Americans into opposing camps is not the way forward folks! Yet we march down that path with eyes wide open -- worrying only about protecting our "free stuff" and trying to figure out how to get more.

But then I suppose I'm just an old geezer whose time is past and not "hip" to the new world.

Time to go work on that old Ford.