Yeah, its been a coupl weeks since my last entry, but I was on vacation!  My gf and I went to Alaska for a week. 

We arrived in Anchorage on Saturday night and had to go to a different hotel because the one I booked gave my room away.  I was mad, but they gave me 1 night free and the other two nights at a deep discount.  So we got to stay in a suite for 3 nights for $140.  Pretty sweet. 

Sunday we walked around downtown Anchorage about 6 times.  Its pretty small and mostly souvenier shops.  The food was great and the people are really nice.  Anchorage is a pretty town, and the mountains form an awesome background. 

Monday I booked a flight seeing tour, so my gf and I hopped on a small floatplane with some other tourists and we took off for the mountains.  We flew over a few glaciers and the most rugged mountains I'd ever seen.  There were lakes of deep blue water on the glaciers.  Our pilot informed us that pure water is blue.  We then flew by Columbia glacier and saw a chunk break off into the sound.  I saw some mountain goats way up on a peak.  We then flew over another peak and landed on a lake.  The pilot let us get out and walk around for about 15 minutes.  We then got back onboard and took off for Anchorage.  On the way back we saw sea lions, sea otters, and back in the river valley a family of moose.  It was a truely incredible experience.  I took 3 rolls of film on the flight.

Tuesday I picked up our rental car and we departed for Denali National Park.  It wasn't hard to find, there's like 4 roads in all of Alaska.  We stopped often and took pictures of the mountains, like McKinley, the tallest one in North America.  I had to fill up the gas tank in Cantwell, just south of Denali at $2.48 a gallon.  yeah, the mountains are the only things that are steep.  We got to the Princess Wilderness Lodge and checked in.  I thought the suite in Anchorage was nice, but this place blew it out of the water.  We had the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on.  That evening we drove into the park and hiked Half Moon lake trail.  My cellphone got a great signal so my gf called her brother to tell him how awesome it was.  That night we ate at the Summit Restaurant and I had 1 pound of Alaska King Crab.  Those legs were almost as long as my arm.

Wednesday we got up early and begain hiking up to the top of Mt. Healy.  It had snowed the night before so it was slow going as we knocked the snow off the trees that were blocking the trail.  It got pretty steep, and the snow got deeper near the top, so my gf stopped on the trail and I went ahead a few hundred feet.  I didn't want to leave her there so I turned back.  We got very close to the peak.  We then hiked back and went to see the Sled Dog demonstration.  You've never seen 30 happier dogs.  They love pulling the sled, and they love people.  After that my gf took the bus back to the visitor's center, and I hiked back.  I couldn't get enough of hiking through Denali.  And we were only at the beginning of the park.  That evening we walked around some more and I went and chilled in the hot tub.  It was like a movie, sitting in a hot tub, outside in Denali Alaska, with snow covered mountains only a couple miles away.  My gf didn't have a swimsuit so I sat alone most of the time.  I didn't want to leave but my feet and hands got real pruney.

Thursday we woke up late and checked out of the lodge.  Good thing, because the lodge closed a couple hours later for the season.  We drove back to Anchorage taking side roads to towns like Talkeetna when we could.  We stopped and hiked around Mirror lake, too.  Our flight didn't leave until just after midnight, so we walked around this crappy mall, then saw The Manchurian Candidate.  Pretty creepy movie.  After that we dropped off the rental car and headed back to Chicago.

I'm already planning my next trip to Alaska.  I want to rent a Harley and ride all over as far as I can go.

Last week I finally got to go to Strat's for Bike Night.  It was a great turnout.  Jay and I got there early and watched everyone else ride up.  There had to be sixty or so bikes that night.  A few of us then went on a ride through some frontage roads.  We hit this twisty part with gravel strewn across the road and my buddy bought it.  His bike slid out from under him and went into the opposite lane.  Thank goodness a car wasn't coming the other direction.  He's okay, just a sprained finger.  The right rear-set broke so he had to ride with his foot on the passenger peg.  Other than that the ride was kick ass.

On Saturday we had another ride out west.  Another rider went down.  This time it was his own fault.  He went into a corner too hot and stood it up... I hear he ended up high-siding the bike.  Not much damage, and he rode the rest of the day with us.  The roads were great and everyone else had fun.  We were so far west that it took me 2 hours just to get home.  That night Maureen made me beans and New Mexico chile.  The apartment smelled great and dinner was awesome.

This week we'll be doing the final prep work for our trip to Alaska.  I can't say how excited I am.  This will be my first vacation.  Yeah, I've taken time to visit family, but I've never just gone on a trip.  We're leaving this Saturday..... September 11th...ooooo.  I'll take lots of pictures and once I figure out how to post them I'll put them up here with other pics of stuff I do.

Not a whole lot happened this week.  Wednesday was a get-together with the CLSBers at Alfie's Inn.  The weather sucked so we caged it instead of riding.  It was a pretty good turnout, too. 

Work has been interesting as of late.  I'm watching Tropical Storm Gaston and Hurricane Frances pretty closely.  Gaston was pretty sudden and just made landfall according to the dopplar radar.  Frances is still pretty far away from anything, but is quite strong and could fuck up eastern Florida if her track doesn't change.

Last night Maureen took me to a Cougars game.  We got there early and had hotdogs and nachos.  They were the worst nachos ever.  A pile of stale chips and a cup of luke-warm, tasteless cheese substitute.  I didn't want to say how bad they were, but Maureen commented on them, so I was able to share my feelings.  Then the rain started to fall in earnest.  The game was rained out, so we went to Galyan's to look at camping and hiking stuff.  I found a backpack I would really like, but at $435 I need to make sure I'm gonna use it plenty.

This afternoon I plan on going for a ride with some of the CLSBers.  The weather looks pretty good, and i'm off in 2 more hours.

It was a good weekend.  Friday I changed the oil in my ZX-10R and picked up some cool Joe Rocket street pants.  Friday night I met up with the people from Chicagolandsportbikes at our fifty oval.  I was racing on my friend Jay's fiddy and lowsided in a corner.  Unfortuately, another friend, Troy, was right behind me.  He ran into my back and then over Jay's rear wheel.  That actually broke the rim.  I'm okay, though.  My new pants held up reasonable well.  I'll be wearing leathers again next time, though.  For the first time a cop pulled up to see what we were doing.  He thought it was pretty cool and used his radar gun to see how fast we got going on the little bikes.  I think Jay was clocked at 38 mph on Troy's bike.

Saturday was a group ride out west.  My buddies and I met for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  We ate, then headed out west to DeKalb to meet more riders.  At that meeting spot was a bikini car wash.  OMG those women were hot.  After hanging out for a few minutes we took off to the twisty back roads.  We stopped on a lightly traveled road so some of the riders to practice stuntin'.  I can't wheelie to save my life, but I did do a few speed runs to see how fast my new bike is.  Jay took it for a spin.  The first thing he said when he got back was, "that thing should be illegal its so fast."  So I took her out.  I was doing108mph in first gear at the redline.  On a seperate run I hit 165mph on the speedo... and the bike was still accelerating.  That was good enough for me.  I've never gone that fast before... what a rush.

We stopped for gas and one of the riders accidentally put diesel in his tank.  So we helped him remove the tank and dump it out.  Not 5 minutes after we began riding again the poor guy crashes.  He was okay, but we had to leave his bike, it was so messed up.

Saturday night some more riders and I went to a club called North Beach in Downer's Grove.  My girlfriend was my DD, so I drank.  It has been over a year since I had that much to drink.  But I had fun.  Sunday was spent laying on the couch recovering.  No headache, but I did feel woozy all day.

I need to get some pictures of my bikes up here.

This is the beginning of the adventure.