Charliesbloggin

New bike in the family

2011-04-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

So yea it has been a while since my last blog but that is life. My last posting about our ride to Harrison Idaho was basically the last time our motorcycles saw the light of day for several months. Well as the winter wore on Lisa decided it was time for an upgrade to a bigger cc bike. She looked for a few weeks at different metric cruisers and even sat on and listened to a really loud but bad-ass sounding HD Sportster 1200. I think if she had sold her Rebel and had the extra cash she would have rode that puppy home simply because of the exhaust note. It was a dark purple color and of course that is her favorite.

Honda Shadow A.C.E.

Yamaha V-Star Classic

Months went by and she kept looking at different models. She really liked the look and style of the Honda Shadow ACE and the Yamaha V-Star. Craigslist became a daily habit for her looking at different models of the two bikes and checking specs to see what the seat height was. Her Rebel had a 27" seat and that was perfect for her really. So after weeks of this she finally had the cash saved up and was looking to spend a modest amount of money around $3500 or so. Now that she had the money it was time to get serious.
So in February Lisa was flying to Palm Springs to see her daughter and father. It just so happens I was looking on craigslist the night before she left and found a beautiful V-Star classic in the color she wanted. I showed the pictures to Lisa and she was really excited. I called the owner and asked about the bike and of course he claimed to have 3 or 4 people looking at it the next day. I told him I would pay asking price if he held it for me and that I would be there late afternoon. The Yamaha was about 300 miles away and I had to make some arrangements to pick it up. I go a hold of my dad and he wanted to go with me to help out.
I got up the next day and dropped Lisa off at the airport and grabbed my dad and headed towards Seattle. We arrived and we really happy with the bike. Dark purple and had aftermarket bags and windscreen. The best part though was the Vance and Hines pipes. Nothing beats the sound of a piped V-Twin.
I paid the guy and rode the bike to a local motorcycle shop and used their ramp to load the bike in my truck. We had to go over a high pass otherwise I would have been glad to ride it home. Great weekend and lots of fun surprising Lisa with her new to her bike. Have not done much riding as the weather is not cooperating but the miles she has put on it have been a lot of fun.

All loaded up.

2002 Yamaha V-Star

-Charlie-

Harrison Idaho

2010-10-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

So early this spring Lisa bought her first road legal motorcycle. I made a quick post about her new purchase which is a 2006 Honda Rebel 250. It is black with some chrome and saddlebags bags and a windscreen. It had about 6000 miles on her and looked brand new. She has been riding as much as possible this year weather permitting as being a new rider is still a bit daunted by bad weather and quite simply just wants to ride when it is fairly nice out. She commutes to work quite often and has gotten well over 70mpg on the bike. This translates into almost two weeks of commutes on 2.2 gallons.

Last weekend Lisa was bound and determined to take a bit of a day trip since we were to have a nice day in October. She left the location up to me and I decided on going to Harrison Idaho. This town is about a mile square but is on the southeast tip of Lake Coeur D Alene where the sunsets are some of the most beautiful I have seen. They were having a small Octoberfest and thought it would be a fun ride to the little town. We headed out and rode the first 30 miles to the Coeur D Alene Casino and grabbed a quick drink and walked around the casino a bit. There were a lot of Harleys there as usual and I still find it funny the looks we get when she pulls up on that Honda and me on my KLR. We departed the casino and headed east into Heyburn State Park where the roads are windy and smooth. The speeds are reasonable and Lisa really showed how much better of a rider she has become over the summer. Smooth transitions between corners and nice throttle roll on coming out. The little Honda tops out around 70 or so and if there is a long hill maybe 65 so a few times it was interesting trying to get around some slow moving vehicles but she did really well. She has great vision while riding. I see her cover her brake when a car approaches an intersection and she always watches her mirrors closely when stopped.

So making our way to Harrison we stopped a few more times just to chat and enjoy north Idaho. When we got to Harrison it turned out to be a 80 mile jaunt and obviously 160 round trip. We had a nice meal in a local pub and soaked up the atmosphere of the day. I really can't remember a more beautiful day in October to share with a absolutely gorgeous woman on a motorcycle ride.

This was the longest ride to date for her and we plan many more. She is thinking maybe next year about moving up to a bigger bike and really piling on the miles or smiles as I like to say.

-Charlie-

Tech Day 2010

2010-06-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

May 15th was this years tech day held at a local riders (Rick) house in the Spokane Valley. We had about 13 KLRs show up and many of them took a turn in the garage for anything from minor repairs to valve checks and Doohickey replacements. The KLR has pretty much been the same motorcycle since 1987 and has only had one fairly major re-work beginning in 2008. The only real issue that the KLR has is what is called the Balancer Chain Adjuster or in the KLR world a "Doohickey" We had two of our riders crack open the case this year to replace the weak part from Kawasaki with the proven parts from Eagle Mike. When we got the side covers off of Kent's 2005 and removed the flywheel we noticed that the tensioner spring was completely gone. Sadly a common issue with this bike but we now had to try and find the spring before it ended up like this one from my bike.

We ended up completely removing the water pump and clutch side cover and digging the spring out of the oil passage screen where it was lodged in. This is a bit of work but seems to be a common place to find things lost in the engine. Obviously much better to do more work than have a trashed motor. Kent was a busy boy for most of the day as he also lubed his steering head bearings, and put bigger spacers above his fork springs to pre-load the springs more.

Norris made some really cool little kickstand pads that made the footprint of our kickstands a touch larger so when we park the heavy bikes on soft dirt or hot asphalt it spreads the weights out some so the kickstand won't sink and cause the behemoth to fall over. It may just look like a big dirt bike but mine weighs in at 430 pounds. For just a small disc under the kickstand it was a good improvement.

After many more wrenches turned we all decided it was time to go for a little bit of a ride. I mean what good is it to work on on your motorcycle all day and then just park it. We decided to head into Idaho a little ways and fuel up then head towards Mt. Spokane and ride the back roads and see if we could get to the top and drop out on a different road. We cruised all around and came upon some dead ends and typical kelly humps blocking the roads. We stirred up lots of dirt and had a really good time. It is so interesting riding with people of all different skill levels and set-ups on their bikes. Dual sport motorcycles offer a range of tires then can really effect how they perform on and off road. I have fairly aggressive knobbies on mine but it does surprisingly well on the street.

A beautiful day for a ride with good people and looking forward to the next one. These are a great group of guys with a whole bunch on knowledge to pass on to keep these great machines on the move and running for a long time to come.

Ride Safe

-Charlie-

Ahhh.....memories

2010-05-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

I am like a lot of people nowadays and have some sort of social networking. I can't stand Myspace and seem to not mind Facebook. I find I am able to hide some things I don't want to see and have a little fun with it here and there with silly quizzes. Anyway a few months ago an old friend of mine messaged me reminding me of high school days when we stayed up all night and drove to a city and listened to music by the lake. I mean to most people this may sound boring or mundane but at the time I/we had no idea what we were creating.

So I came across this message from my buddy again and decided to look up the one of the songs he mentioned that we were listening to at the time. I found it on I-tunes and just had to download it for the heck of it. When I played this song on the computer I found myself grinning from ear to ear so hard it almost hurt. Amazingly I knew the words from start to finish and as I listened to the song part of my grin was from the visions of memories jumping in my mind. The song for this story really makes no difference as it makes it more relatable to people. I have been a music nut since being a young child as my Dad listened to all sorts of genres and we never went anywhere without tunes. Once again....another memory. I have found now that I am in my late 30s that no matter what happens in your life, be it good, bad, or indifferent, you are always creating a memory. I mean always. I, like many people, love to sit around with friends and reminisce about times past. Sometimes we laugh so hard my face hurts the next day and am now realizing that the laughing will like all other events turn into another great memory.

Memories are more powerful than we realize. They can bring back emotions from the day of an event almost exactly as they happened. I have experienced some things in my 36 years that I would not wish upon my greatest enemy but they are what have made me what I am today. I have also had some of the greatest experiences that when I think of them, I smile, laugh and even sometimes cry. In my short lifetime I have been around the world. I have crab fished in Alaska and been on every major island in the Aleutian Chain. I have been in the Air Force and launched the bad ass A-10 Thunderbolt against a dug in enemy. Almost died in a C-130 crash in Kuwait seeing many injured and dead changed me forever. I have worked for the Montana Fish and Game and compared fish counts with co-workers so we could race back to the good holes. Snowmobiling with friends in the winter and riding motorcycles on the same trails in the summer. I am proud of my 9 years work in law enforcement and the help I gave to many, many people in my community to get them on the good road. I may have only impacted a few out of the thousands but that is ok. Latest and greatest of course is my little family. They have become my center and my life revolves around them. I sure hope I am providing good memories for them as we move through life. My noggin is so full of memories with all the things I have seen and done and to be honest would not change a thing at all.

My most recent memory was just last weekend. This is actually what has prompted this “memories” posting. The family has recently acquired a little boat for fishing and my Dad, Mom and I went to a local lake to fish together for the first time in probably 20 years. The wind was blowing and it was a little cool but dang we had a good time. Catching fish was just a bonus as I know now and seeing my Mom bring in a really nice Rainbow Trout is absolutely priceless. She was grinning and so excited to get it in the boat while my Dad and I were trying to tell her all our little tips for landing it in about two seconds. Fishing is one of my best memories as a kid and it has now spanned almost 4 decades. I now have a little 11 year old buddy to fish with and now I know how my Dad felt all those years.

Older people always told me growing up to stop and think before I acted and it would keep me out of trouble. Sometimes thinking about it made me want to do it more. Looking back some of those dumb decisions have turned into the best memories of my life. So here’s to more memories…….

-Charlie-

The wave.

2010-04-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now but was not really sure how to approach it without pissing anyone off. I guess I just decided I don't care if it does or not. Basically the purpose of this blog is to simply ask why some people on motorcycles wave and others do not. I am sure it must have to do with what you are riding as to whether or not you get a wave. My personal view of it is that I wave because I am on two wheels and so are you. It is funny at times when I wave at people on certain types of bikes and they almost refuse to wave back. I don't know about anyone else but when I wave and get nothing back I feel a bit annoyed. I don't go out of my way to wave or anything just really a small acknowledgement that we are both on motorcycles. I won't wave if I am making a turn from an intersection but will give a nod. I wish when you got your endorsement they had some sort of section on "wave ettiquette". that way when I wave at a guy on a BMW and he for whatever reason looks the other way and ignores me I at least should have known better. I am not trying to pick on BMW riders at all. Harley riders or in more general terms "baggers" sometimes ignore me too. When I see someone on another dual sport some of them seem to get a little too excited at seeing another of their kind on the road. Sometimes I laugh out loud at this ritual.
I will admit there is one time of year that pretty much all bikers wave all the time. That is the first really nice day of the year when you see a hundred bikes on the road. I think the joy of finally getting the cover off the bike and the feeling of riding again makes everyone happy. No matter what you ride. Even the scooter riders get waved back too. I wave at the scooter guys myself but it is amusing to see baggers wave at them on the first nice day. About a month or two in to the riding season the waves begin to dissipitate. Must be that we are getting used to the novelty of two wheels again and loyalties become stronger.

What baggers usually mean when they wave to me.

As the season goes on I find it interesting at who still waves at me. BMW guys must see the KLR and think I am a wannabe or something. Baggers are just too cool. Scooter guys are just happy and wave all the time. Metric cruiser people seem to be stuck in the middle. Sport bike riders tend to wave quite often if they see me as they go buy. Mostly because they saw a flash of a motorcycle and figured they should wave just in case. Other dual sport riders like the DR and XL, KLX-s almost seem like they know they will get a wave from me and wave more vigorously than others. I am sure some of these people have opinions of me for what I ride and that is fine. KLR riders are generally known to be slightly frugal or whatever your favorite term is for penny pinchers. Like I said I wave at them all and love to see the salute back. Makes me feel some comradery with people I will never know. I am sure many will read this and say what an idiot but oh well not the first time. When you boil it all down we are doing the same thing just in a different style. I would love to have a GS Adventure but can't afford one I would love to ride a HD V-Rod or Fat Boy in all black or the side of me that would love a Ducati 900 Monster. Hell I even wish for a scooter too because they look like a lot of fun to ride. I tend to drop my left hand and point two fingers out. Seems to be the general way of doing it. Occasionally I see someone almost do a parade wave and I usually don't wave back because I am trying to figure out the point of it and realize they have passed. Everyone has their own way of doing it in their own style that is what is great about riding motorcycles. We are doing the same thing but in our own way. Let's keep the fun in motorcycling and remember we are all doing it because it makes us feel free. It is the one thing that puts me in complete control and gives me a grin every time. Like in a picture on Lady Riders blog you never see a motorcycle parked in front of a psychiatrists office. As a closing when I see someone on two wheels I know they are enjoying some of the same things I am no matter what their lifestyle. That is what makes us different in the same kind of way.

Two wheels rule!

-Charlie-

My Friend Flicka

2010-03-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

Many people think of the 1941 novel written by Mary O'Hara when they hear the name "Flicka". When I hear it, I think about a rescued German Shepherd that is the owner of a good friend of mine. The first time I ever met Flicka was back in 2001 in the early winter. She was in a kennel at a north Spokane Vet Clinic looking a bit thin and pretty sheepish. Not what I think of when I picture a German Shepherd. In my mind I can see a very statuesque strong breed that is very protective of family and friends. I went into the clinic every now and then and saw that this lonely Shepherd was there and did not seem to have an owner. When I did ask about her status I was told that it was the dog of a man who had passed away and the widow was elderly with no way to take care of her. Feeling heartbroke at the thought of such a beautiful animal living in a cage forever I contacted my friend. He had a German Shepherd before and I knew he was a huge dog lover. Especially partial to Shepherds. His previous dog was named Amadeus, and he was very full of himself. He was the very picture of a strong German Shepherd and he knew it. He played the alpha role very well. Amadeus lived for about 8 years and my friend was absolutely devestated when he passed away. I knew it had been a few years since the passing and thought maybe.....just maybe he would be open for a new to him Shepherd. When I approached him about it one day he actually told me that he recently decided it was time for him to find a new companion. My heart jumped at the thought of him meeting Flicka and hoping he would maybe change the name since I thought it was a name for horses. (More on the name later) I went and picked up Flicka the next day and arranged a meeting at my house between my friend and Flicka. I had the anticipation of feeling like I was setting up two good friends on a blind date and hoping like hell they had some chemistry. Funny thing though as I was on the way home I began to really fall in love with Flicka and went head over heels when I went through a local drive-through to get a shake and Flicka tried to take the window person's hand off for reaching inside my pickup to hand me my shake. Finally! There was the German Shepherd in her! I could not wait to get home and be there before my friend so I could have her all ready. There was a bit of snow out and I raced home and parked the truck and took her inside for a minute so I could get my camera for a picture. Soon after I took the picture above my buddy showed up and I swear it was not five minutes and they were like two long lost friends. Some people just have a way with dogs and my friend is one of those. Dogs can sense way more than we ever know and she could tell he was the right boy for her. We went to the clinic again to take care of paperwork and was given a large kennel and a jolly ball. The jolly ball is a large heavy plastic ball and we just could not see how a dog could play with it.

You can see in the picture on the right that she just loves to play jolly ball! When my friend got her home he called me a few days later and said that she was having accidents in the house. Now we figured that with her being about two years old she was housebroken and figured something might be wrong. We went and talked to the Vet and he said the elderly woman used to make her kennel up all night and sleep in it without going out at all. No wonder she looked so sheepish in the kennel at the clinic on my visits. So just to be careful the Dr. did a full make-up on her blood and it turns out that she is on the verge of kidney failure. My heart sank thinking of my buddy finding a new dog only to have to deal with this. He told me it was no big deal and he would do whatever needed to be done to make her comfortable and happy. I don't think many people would have done this. I bet most would have tried to return the dog to the clinic. Anyhow he was given a prescription dog food and some other meds and some instructions.

A few months later Flicka was brought back to the clinic and new blood work was done. Turns out she had a major turn around and had almost perfect blood this time around. Lots of excercise and good treatment totally helped Flicka. Amazingly she went from about 68 pounds to almost 90 pounds of solid muscle. Flicka looked like an athlete. She quit having accidents and is just adored in her new life and attention she recieves. When my buddy gets home he goes right to Flicka for his "Doggie Hugs" and some good pets as well as a rousing round of "jollie ball".

So this great friendship continues to this day only with a little sad news. Flicka is now about 11 years old and anyone who knows dog realizes that is pretty old for a large dog breed. Flicka is getting around much slower and you can almost hear her knees creek when she runs, but she still puts her heart in it. Jollie ball is still her favorite game as well as fetch when inside. She is now in the twilight of her life and is as much loved today as ever by her boy.

While doing some research for this posting it turns out Flicka is from an old German name of Farica. This name means "peaceful ruler". Another site says Flicka is a Swedish expression for "little girl" Both very fitting of her demeaner and grace. Now I have not mentioned my friends name in this posting for the reason that he is very private and this post is a bit on the personal side. He just needs to know that he has given a rescued dog all that could be asked for and to remember she will always be with him even after she passes. Take care my friend and be strong.

-Charlie-

Update: Due to Flicka and her arthritis issues my buddy actually re-built the stairs she uses to get into the yard. They went from a 3 step drop to about 8 steps that stretch out about 8 feet or so. No she can get up and down much easier. I hope someone does that for me when I get old.

Lisa got a road bike!

2010-03-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

So finally after months of looking a trying out different styles and seating positions and the like Lisa found the machine she had been looking for. She located a 2006 Honda Rebel 250 in Pullman (about 60 miles from us) on good ole Craigslist. I knew she was looking for a while and when she finally made it clear she was serious I started looking up blue book prices and gettin an idea what she would be paying. I noticed that these models ranged from $800 to about 3k depending on the year. Apparently not too much has changed with the bike and it seems they hold their value very well.
I was not too sure at first if the 250 would be ideal for her as she does not mind healthy acceleration in her car or on her 4-wheeler but when she knows what she wants........well she knows. I am leary occasionally on Craigslist due to the scams and mostly people thinking they had something that was worth much more than it was. After much looking and talking to the owner I was encouraged enough to hook up the trailer and head south. When we got there the owner had it parked out front. I watched Lisa's face as we pulled in and could see the excitement. I couldn't help it either as the Rebel looked fantastic. Like I said earlier it is a 2006 CMX250 Rebel. Black with lots of chrome and an aftermarket windscreen and it also has leather saddlebags. The bike only has 5900 miles and just looked great. It is the perfect size for her to get going on as she has never ridden a motorcycle before. I know in a few years she will want something bigger but for now she could not be happier.

Last Saturday she woke up at about 7:30 in the morning no thanks to Earl texting her notifying us of the beautiful day outside. We got up and Lisa went on her first ride on the road. We went all through the neighborhood, stopped and had a coffee and then visited my mom who could not believe how nice this bike is. I am so happy to see her excitement when she rides it and now she can understand why I will just "go for a ride" some days and be gone for hours.

-Charlie-

Rare February ride

2010-02-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

I just love wearing so much gear. Actually makes a KLR look kinda small when I am on it.

So it is not too often we can get out for anything but a quick errand ride up here in Spokane this time of year. One of my riding buddies posted up wanting to see if anyone was interested in a ride on Saturday. Well since I have been doing almost nothing due to my lay-off and the crappy financial situation I decided to take him up on the ride. We ended up riding about 190 miles round trip and since the KLR averages about 50mpg and I only bought a water and a sausage stick the whole trip cost me a whopping $16. Not too shabby for a full day of riding with a few friends. We rode up north to an area we want to camp in this summer and had a pretty good time. We came across some pretty gnarly roads and had to turn around once or twice but as usual it was worth it. Here are some pics of the ride.

A cave that we stopped at on the way home. Finally some sun!

A little snow never hurt anyone. Should have seen the campers faces when we rode by!

One of the roads we turned around on. Got a little too icy.

Ride safe.

-Charlie-

Video bump for Earl Thomas

2010-01-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

So in spite of Earl not posting anything more about our cabinet trip I am going to post a few teaser videos from the trip. The first one os from a washed out road that we forded in our scivvies in case we fell in and I got him posing like I was taking a picture.
The second video is with him using a "borrowed" bicycle pump to get air in his tire.

Can't wait until the weather gets more suitable for riding in the hills again. Been mild here in the high 30s and low 40s so it is ok for a little town riding to keep the itch to a minimum.

-Charlie-

Cabinets 2009 Part Deux

2009-08-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Berlin Flats Campground

When Earl and I were up for our ride in the Cabinets back in June we dropped down out of the hills and actually hit pavement for about 25 feet. Just long enough to hang a hard right back onto the gravel of forest service road 412. We stopped to check the map to see where we ended up. I saw a sign a short way down the road and realized that we were about 7 miles from the town of Prichard Idaho and a few miles from a U.S. Forest Service Work Camp. We decided to head away from civilization following our practice for the week and wanted to gain some altitude again. On our way up the road I saw several campgrounds and noticed a lot of good places to camp and adventure during the day. A few miles into our ride and at about 5500 feet Earl and I came across snow and mud that was impassable and we ended up taking a different route and dropping into Heron MT. I vowed that I would be back and follow the road where it was covered with snow.

Where this picture is taken is the cutoff that headed up in altitude to Earl's and my ending point from the snow. This time though I could not be as careless since I had my friend Casey on his bad ass little KX65 and his mom Lisa (my woman of course) on her Polaris 4-wheeler. We followed the road all the way to Gem Pass. This put us at another crossroads that went 3 ways. Up to the top of 2 peaks and another back down into a beautiful valley. As my exploratory nature took over we headed up a hill into a area that had been badly burned by fire within the last year. What an eerie and dismal place. This finally turned into a road/trail of nothing but slate stone and shale. Not the easiest thing to ride on. By this point we were cresting 6000 feet and and Casey's two stroke 65 was not a happy camper at all. It was either all or nothing on the throttle. I adjusted the carb a few times and it ran better as I made adjustments. By the time we got to the top of this mountain we felt on top of the world. We had a gorgeous lookout over Montana and Idaho as we were riding the border. We ended up on Idaho Peak at 6508 feet. I know many people get to higher places but man what a feeling to share this with my friends.

We hung out here for a while and decided to drop down a bit and have lunch in a grassy area a little lower down. We finished the days adventure by following a few smaller roads back down to good old 412 and went back to the campsite. We had a nice spot just about 50 yards or so from the North Fork of the Couer D' Alene river which was running pretty good for August too. There was only one other group in the whole campground and they were all the way on the other side. Peaceful and quiet and really nice. We got up the next day and decided to head out once again but elected to go a different route down FS151 up to Porcupine Pass and once again the Idaho/Montana border. We made our way up to about 5500 feet or so and found it easier to stay below there so Casey's bike would run a little better. Both Casey's bike and Lisa's Polaris had minor issues during the day but were taken care of pretty easily. We road up and around several passes and followed small canyon edges. Adventured up roads that were supposedly closed to wide open forest roads that Casey and I could race down and really make his 65 scream. I guess it looked pretty humorous seeing us take off from behind with my KLR being so tall and the 65 so much smaller. I am really impressed with the power of that little Kawasaki. Next one will be a 4-stroke though.

We ended up riding about 100 miles in two days and was impressed how well Casey did keeping up. There is a lot of difference between my KLR and his KX as far as putting on miles. Lisa being on the 4-wheeler just hung on and enjoyed the scenery. She even pounded through a mud puddle or two like and old pro. We will be back up in the area again for sure. This time we will be there a little longer and find more neat places to see. Anyone want to join in?

-Charlie-

Cabinets 2009

2009-07-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

East Fork of the Bull River

My friend Earl and I have this affinity for the Cabinet Mts in Idaho and Montana. They are fairly close to home and just absolutely beautiful. The picture above is at about 5500 feet up on Gem peak just below the lookout tower. We could not get to the top because of some snow but we did hike to the top anyway.

Our adventure started out in Spokane WA and we headed east to Sandpoint ID. Enjoying the scenery that part of the country offers we continued east further towards a little town in Montana called Noxon. We headed north on hwy 56 off hwy 200 to my friends cabin located a ways off the highway on the west side of Government Mt.

This is not a good picture of the cabin but it gives you the idea of what we were staying in. This cabin was built by a friend of mine over several years and it is very comfortable with all the amenities you could imagine. For the most part we cam back from riding the back roads and trails only to cook up some dogs on the fire and then crash on the cots in the loft resting up for the next day.

The first day of riding brought us all over the place with about 160 miles logged on everything from highway to forest service roads. We adventured to the top of every peak we could make our way to. Some of them still had snow and my favorite.......mud. Earls KLR is more oriented towards the street and has on Avon Grippsters. Those tires are about a 25% off road and 75% on road tire. Believe me it made for some amusing trail rides watching him go through snow and then mud and then snow all over again while the back end of his bike was whipping back and forth really fast. I started laughing so hard at one point he could hear me over the sound of the motorcycles and through helmets. We had to pull over and get it out of our system so we could continue. I have pretty aggressive knobbies and was having a blast tearing up the roads and trails.

After the first day of riding we convened at the cabin with out dogs and a nice cozy fire to relax by for the evening. We were sitting around the fire shooting a .22 and being the general noisy people we can be and in a short lull in the action we were amazed at how several deer approached the area around the cabin. I seem to recall about 5 of them and two were bucks. A 4 by 4 and a 3 by 3. Beautiful animals so close. One of the does actually walked all the way around the cabin munching on the soft grass for about an hour. All in all a relaxing evening.

The next day brought some really interesting adventure. It was the absolute best day of riding I have ever had. We rode the Idaho Montana border most of the day and came to Porcupine pass and dropped down into Idaho towards the town of Pritchard. We worked our way back up the hill and hit some snow about 5500 feet. It made for some interesting travel as we had to traverse this road with patches of snow with mud holes in between. We took most of the gear off the bikes and hiked it up to where we thought we would end up to load back up. I hopped my my bike and tore through the snow and mud grinning all the way. Now once again back to Earl and his less than knobby tires. We actually walked his bike through the woods a few times simply because it seemed safer to do with his KLR. Especially since his is an 08 and has a lot more fairing to damage. We worked through about 300 yards of this until we got to a point that we could not get any further no matter what. We back tracked about 100 yards and got on a road that lead towards the town of Heron MT. We got about 5 miles down the forest service road and as I cam around a corner Earl was stopped with a flat tire. Well we tried to be prepared and I had some slime and he had a CO2 pump for the air. OF all things he picked up a nail up there somehow. We pulled the nail, removed the stem, squeezed in the slime and used to CO2 pump. Up went the tire and we noticed that there were still leaks all over the tire. Uh Oh. We had 3 more cartridges so what we ended up doing was actually kind of fun. Well for me anyway. Earl rode as far as the air would remain in the tire and when I caught up I would lay on the road, hook up the CO2, pump the tire and Earl would tear off like he was on a NASCAR pit road. Needless to say we got about 2 miles from the town before we had to stop for fear of ruining the tire completely.

I am going to let Earl finish the flat tire part of this story as it becomes very amusing. Even a little bit of thievery involved. (there was a trade though)

The above picture is the next morning at the cabin where a convenient stump worked as a perfect bike stand. Earl had to ride my KLR about 90 miles to get his tire fixed.

There is so much I know I am forgetting to write about but all I know is I can't wait for next years adventure ride.

-Charlie-

You get what you deserve.

2009-05-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

So I am going to veer off the course of my usual posts here and throw in a curveball. This post is a little personal much like my posts about my accident from a few years ago but I have found that I am in a comfort zone and able to jot a few things down.
Back in 1995 I met this girl who at the time was 19. We hit it off and somehow, someway, I fell in love and quit working in Alaska to spend more time with this person. About 5 years went by and I married her and what do you know but about 7 years later I had enough of many issues and went my own way.
I am now with a woman whom after all this yammering is the subject of my post. She started out as a friend whom I eventually started dating and turns out we are quite the couple. I was in a relationship that was not healthy and now that I am in a good trusting and most of all respectfull relationship I have no idea how I managed so long before.
This woman I am with is named Lisa and she has turned out to be one of the best friends I have ever had. I am comfortable telling her anything and knowing that she is not judgemental or in the least bit condecending about what I choose to do. Makes things a lot easier as far as being myself. For those of you that are in a healthy relationship you will understand. For the unfortunate few that are not I am sorry. All I can say is your time will come. I have never met a more accepting person and this is not to say I am difficult just that no matter how you look at things there will be a difference in how things are looked at simply because we are different sexes. Being different is not a bad things as long as you respect each others views. I have found that is one of the keys to a good relationship. Respect each other and it will take you a long ways. Advice from a guy who has been there and done that more than he cares to admit.
As a closing to this little personal post I just want to say. If you found something that works for you.....then run with it and make the best of what you have. You just never know.

-Charlie-

P.S.
The silly woman at the bottom of my blog is the one who has made me so happy for the last year. Thanks babe for the pose.

What the heck is a Doohickey?

2009-05-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

So this past Saturday a local KLR rider hosted a tech day. My friend Earl Thomas was there with his camera as usual. Check it out here; http://thevampireduck.blogspot.com/2009/05/tech-day.html

I ride a 2002 KLR 650 and for the most part it is one of the most reliable motorcycles available and has pretty much been the same bike from 1987 until 2007. Says a lot for the design and capability of the machine. I read an old Cycle World article recently from I believe 1991 that said the KLR was good at everything but not great at one particular thing. Basically an all around good bike. I really can't disagree as I have challenged myself on the thing and it still leaves me grinning from ear to ear.

The one downfall that the Kawi has is the cam chain tension adjuster. AKA the Doohickey. For some reason Kawasaki used two pieces welded together to make this adjuster and a really weak spring to retain tension. For some reason the doohickey "also referred to as the Doo" tends to break and can cause severe damage to the cam chain and other parts. When this tech day came about I figured it would be a good day to get this done and make sure everything was ok on the bike. Needless to say when I open up the left side of the stator housing and got to the Doo it was broken.

If you look at the picture and see the cam shaped adjuster at the bottom of the case you can see where it is supposed to be a whole piece that goes around the shaft. Not good in my book. We used a magnet and searched and dug all over the case looking for the broken piece but was not able to locate it. The spring for the tensioner had descent tension still but I replaced it and the Doo with a very high quality part from Eagle Mike. (Thanks Mike) Got the bike back together and fired it up to immediately notice a little less noise from the cam chain. Good day all in all and even got a little over a hundred miles logged by days end. Thanks to all who helped!

My broken Doohickey

-Charlie-

Plate? What plate?

2009-04-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was out and about trying to find a few roads I had not been on with the KLR to explore and see what was around the next bend or up the next trail. I was running up and down a small back highway and just taking any dirt road or trail that I thought I could squeeze down and see where I ended up. I ended up coming across some trail that was off of a rail crossing and went down this odd trail that for some reason was paved with asphalt. It became obvious that it was an old rail bed by the look of all the crushed basalt next to the trail. The trail ended up going from dirt and asphalt a few times and I even slowed down to hit a few side trails until as usual around here I came across a no trespassing sign. A few miles into the trail I was going probably 50 mph or so and the trail turned in to dirt once again with a few whoops spaced apart so I could conveniently get in a rhythm and blip the throttle just right to get the front wheel up and cruise across. Being that I ride a KLR it is heavy and after a few times of these whoops I felt and heard the rear suspension bottom out. What I did not know at the time was that on one of the suspension bottomings the rear knobby tire came up and chewed a nice crescent shape out of the rear lower fender that my license plate is attached to. Needless to say I actually ran into a fish and game officer later who did not notice the plate missing but the sad thing is neither did I.

Two weeks go by and I am going out to do errands and low and behold no plate. I backtracked all over the place trying to locate my plate in hopes that I would not get pulled over in the mean time. No such luck on the plate. Oh well what's another ten bucks when I had such a good day of riding. If you look carefully at the bottom picture you can see where the tire took out the fender. The new plate is as high as possible while still being under the license plate light that is required in Washington State.

My chewed up inner fender

Maps - Yea I need one.

2009-04-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

So being that I have Mondays off I like to get out and have a little me time. I saw the sun was out and hopped on the KLR and headed out the Palouse highway towards Freeman. I have lived up here in Spokane for the most part about 30 years and have seen Mica peak in the distance forever. It is said in this neck of the woods that you never plant your garden until the snow is melted off Mica peak. Mica peak is 5205 feet high and it has the local Doppler radar radome atop it. I have wanted to find my way up for years and as I left home elected to try and find a way up. I don't carry any maps on my bike and my handheld Garmin Etrex Legend is on the fritz. I figured no matter what I would have a good time trying to find my way up. My first attempt was going through the town of Mica itself and as I rode up every side road heading towards the peak off the main route from town I never got more than a mile or two before the road turned into a private road with no trespassing signs. What a bummer. I worked my way around the whole west side of the mountain until I got to the south side and finally found a road that seemed like it was a little promising. I followed the road for about 5 miles until it finally turned into the usual switchback you see on these kinds of roads. Gravel turned to dirt and inevitably the dirt turned to mud from the snow run off due to our record setting snowfall. Well I have a fairly knobby tire on the bike and it tractored it's way up the hill well until I came to a spot where it apparently was a driveway. I backtracked a bit and saw a better spot to go up but will have to wait for the snow to subside a little further. Needless to say I will be getting a map and using my GPS next time but I will find a way up that hill yet this year. It is amazing what a few hours on your bike can do for your outlook on life. I love it.

New vs.Old?

2009-04-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ok so here is my opportunity to pretend that I am a big time magazine editor and have just gotten back from testing the newest model bikes and am sitting down to write out the article. My friend Earl and I met up and went for a nice little ride and he pulled over to ask if I wanted to trade rides for a few miles. I ride an 02 KLR650 and he has a 08 KLR650. Now for those that know these bikes they have been the same from 87-07 and the new 08 and up have new fairings, some cam and suspension tweeks. Like anything in this world we all make the things we own express our personallity a bit. My 02 is pretty close to stock it just has a few "farkles" ( KLR speak for mods) Different bars and grips and it is geared down a tooth on the front. I also have some fairly aggressive knobbies on it as well. Earls 08 looks like a beheamoth compared to mine especially since he has the aluminum panniers mounted. Other than that he has a tall windscreen for the cooler months and stock type rubber.
One of the first things I noticed as I climbed on his KLR was the more firm seat. Nice touch since I weigh 220. His bars are also further back and his grips must be a harder durometer rubber and a bit thinner. It also seemed to feel a bit lower as well. I am not sure if this is due to the fact he has his panniers full of things or that it is the result of Kawasaki lessening the suspension travel or the reduction in static sag dialed into the 08. So as I fire up the 08 all sounds and feels pretty much familiar until I go for the shifter. Diffferent placement and length. As we pull away the gearing difference is more than noticeable as I kill it like a 15 year old trying to drive his first stick car. We pull out on the highway and for the most part the power feels the same but it immedietely strikes me how much smoother it is with the Avon grippster tires on. We move along down the highway at 55 and the tall windscreen is a noticeable improvement as well as the larger fairings all together. I was also able to feel the wind pulling at the panniers behind my legs. For the most part I could tell I was riding the same motorcycle just with a few improvements. Overall I was actually looking forward to getting back on mine since it is comfortable to me and has a little more of a dirt bike feel with the small fairing and minimal wind protection. Just seems to be my style. I guess the only thing I may change on my KLR would be the seat for starters and then maybe find a way to get a little better light out of it. Good experience overall. Thanks Earl.

My new too me scoot

2009-03-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well since I have had this blog most of my posts have been about my job. I strayed a little from this in December when I decided to put down a very personal post about a tragic incident that happened back in 99. Well as the title states "Random Thoughts" I figure I will throw in a little two wheeled blog about a recent day.
Back in March of 2008 I got a call from my friend many of you know as Earl. He had a tone in his voice I recognized as excitement. He had just purchased a 2008 KLR 650 in green. I knew a little about the bikes and had more than once engaged in a conversation with him about what a good bike it would be to have. Well finally after wanting one for about 20 years he had one. When I finally got to see it I was amazed at how large it looked for a dual sport type bike. Anyway as I watch him get more into his adventures with his KLR and his continued "farkling" which is a term used a lot on KLR650.net for modifying your KLR I could not help myself but see what this dang bike was all about. So on Saturday March 7th I found me a 2002 model and picked it up. Kind of a humbling experience when you ask your friend(once again Earl) to ride your new pride and joy home for you because you are working and actually have no motorcycle endorsement. I guess the way I look at it is that I would want no one else to take that first ride on my new cycle. When we get to the house he tells me it must be re-geared because of highway rpm but the best part is he said it rode very well.
So as typical in March around here when you want it to be nice it freakin snows. It took about two more weeks for the weather to be descent enough to hop on and take a ride. So.........for the first time in knowing Earl for the last almost 20 years we got to take a ride together on our own bikes. We had talked about this for years but were never able to make it happen due to the many issues that life throws out there. Not that it was any sort of epic ride by any means but I got to share it with a good friend.
I guess to be honest I just want to tell everyone that I now have a KLR of my own and am absolutely taken by the riding experience and also that I am looking forward to many many rides with Earl. (also my dad who has a HD Road King and said he wants to ride with me but good luck keeping up) HA!

Healing Process (cont)

2009-03-13T10:26:00.001-07:00

So as we are in the ambulance speeding to God knows where in Kuwait City I refuse to lay down on a gurney for the trip. I was very uncomfortable at the time and did not want to feel even more so by getting into a bed while moving. Maybe I am stubborn but I refused. When we arrived at the hospital I could see the several other ambulances that had brought others from the crash as well. I was put into a wheelchair and wheeled into the ER and the uncomfortable feelings strengthened as I was being seriously watched by the Kuwaitis. We went to a waiting room and I was there for a while until they got me in for x-rays. After the x-rays I was seen by a Kuwaiti Dr. that had very and I mean very limited english. Not that I expect him to know english it is just frustrating. After a ten minute exam he tells me I have a contusion in my back and sends me away. I get up out of the chair and feel the pain shoot once again but in my head I say it is a bruise and go about my business of trying to find someone to get me to my base and around some people I knew. While walking down the hall I saw a few of the other accident victims and talked to two guys whom I knew had not been injured but were with a Captain who had collapsed. I am able to find a way to get a hold of one of my superiors and to be honest I don't remember much about the next few hours since they handed me some pills from a blister pack and said take every 4 hours. Anyway a few hours later I am at Al-Jaber Air Base and was put in front a Lt. Colonel. The time was somewhere around noon and I was told I needed to call home and talk to my family since the accident was getting ready to hit the news. I told them it was midnight at home and that they would be asleep and not see the accident until later. I was instructed once again to call and I did. When I called and as all you parents know that if you child calls in the middle of the night there is a problem. So my mom answers and I tell her kind of fast and vaguely that I was in an accident and I am ok. I explained I did not know what really happened at the time and that my back was hurt but at least I was alive. I told my mom that I would call my girlfriend the next morning and for her to wait until I did that before she talked to her. Anyway I get a little sleep and call the girlfriend a few hours later which might have been about 10am here in Washington. Finally later that day I get a notice from my Commander that he wanted to see me. I go see the Commander of the base and he talks to me for like ten minutes telling me what a hero I am and that the base is going to do everything they can to help me and the others from the accident. He offers to send me back to NC instead of stay there for the 90 days. I think about it for a few minutes and decide that I would like to be home for the tour. Later that day once again I get called and have to do a debrief meeting with all the other victims and we spent a few hours talking about what we saw and heard on the C-130. It was nice to talk to these people but I was not able to really talk like I wanted to. That did not happen until later when I was able to get through to my friend who is a pilot (Earl). I finally got some relief by being able to explain to him what happened and not speak in lay mans terms about flight terms. Anyway he was the only one as well that I was fully able to tell things to since he was a friend not family that I did not feel i needed to protect from the real situation and how bad it was. ( good friends can never be replaced ) Two days later I am notified that we are going back to the airport to have a small memorial for the deceased Airman and we get to the flight line and are told that our beloved A-10s are going to fly over and do a missing man formation. I am very excited until a Chaplain who is a Colonel comes to the podium where we are getting ready to honor fallen Airman and he says over a loud speaker to go ahead and "just hang out in a loose con flab". At this point I am literally saying "what the fuck"! This is how we are showing respect. It was at that moment I realized that since we were not shot down or that the accident was not caused by an enemy that this was no big deal to the Air Force. So as I am standing there in disbelief I here the distinct sound of the A-10 coming and as a lot of us did I snapped to attention and when the Warthog flew over and the missing man went skyward. ( those that have seen this understand) After the fly over the Colonel says a few words and thanked us for coming. What a sad, sad day. So a few days later I am put on in a truck and driven back to Kuwait City International with an Airman that broke his ankle. I was put in charge of him since I was ranking and when we got dropped off at the airport and walking out onto the tarmac to get on a KC-10 we had to walk right by the wreckage. Imagine a C-130 with no landing gear sitting on pallets and gaping holes in the sides. Not an easy thing to have all those thoughts flood back in such a short time. An image I will retain forever. So after a nightmare 20 hour flight back to Baltimore I end up renting a car to get us home. Felt great to get there but I was in such pain in the next few days I could not even drive to the Dr.
A few months later when Sgt. Bolin got back I spoke to him and he related a story of the crew members who were with the Captain that night. He was told that when the ambulance arrived at the hospital they wheeled the Capt. into the ER and when they got the a room the Dr.s pronounced him dead and walked away. Not once did they attempt to resuscitate him or restore his heart beat. He had only been out of consciousness for about 10 minutes and they spent no time working on him. I come to find out later that a para rescue team had been called from the base to assist us but were called back before they arrived. These crew members who were trained on CPR worked on the Capt for 15 minutes until they were ordered to leave the hospital. Sickening, this just makes me sick to think that happened.
As for the next 6 months I am doing physical therapy and going to a Dr. They give me the ole military pill of 800 Motrins and some Tylenol 3s to help me get by. I spent months asking for an MRI to really find out my issues. I eventually get to see a joint Dr. (can't recall what they are called) and he discovers my sacroiliac joint is dislocated. ( This is a cartilage joint in your pelvis) Some treatment later and I am finally getting some relief.
A few months after my accident I am watching the news when the USS Cole was bombed and a few days later was again watching the news when they showed the honor guard removing the bodies of the dead Navy and Marine guys and lost it. I was so angry that the treatment the people received from the Air Force because it turns out it was pilot error that caused the accident. I will never be able to forgive the Air Force for this. Every soldier deserves the respect due no matter how or why they passed.
So about 6 months later I am up with my time and I get my discharge and head home to Washington. I file for VA Disability and they send me in to finally get the MRI. Turns out I have bad disks at L-4 and 5 and S-1 and 2. Pretty low in my back but still pain full. Why did they not do this months ago? I will never know.
So now here I am about 10 years later and I am living with back pain daily but I am thankfully able to function pretty much normal but still have issues now and then. The thought crosses my mind on a daily basis and the anger over the pilot gets easier to deal with too. I recently met someone who put something out there to me one day when I was telling her how angry I was at the pilot for his error and that he got off almost scott free for killing people. She said I have every right to be angry but something to think about. She said to put myself in his shoes and imagine what he must have to live with and isn't that punishment? I can never thank her enough for giving me that point of view.(Thanks Lisa)
Also to my friend Earl who was always available to talk to about it like a true friend does. An empathetic ear is always nice.

Healing Process

2008-12-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Everything I have posted on this has pretty much been related to my work. It is a huge part of my life and for the foreseeable future I cannot see me doing anything else. Tonight is going to be a bit different. December 9th and 10th for me are some of the toughest days I deal with in my year. I am going to post something that is very, very personal but I feel it is needed to help me put it behind. So here goes.

November 19, 1996 my best friend (Earl) dropped me off at Spokane international airport to leave for Air Force basic training. I spent several months in training learning how to maintain and repair the A-10A Thunderbolt II. Known to most people as the "Warthog". My first base I was stationed at was Pope Air force base in North Carolina. My squadron was the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Wing. I was part of the famous "Flying Tigers" squadron.

I worked feverishly to be the best at my job and advanced fairly quickly. My squadron had a yearly rotation into Kuwait at a base called Ahmed Al-Jaber air base. I found out how much I appreciated the good ole U.S. of A. Needless to say I spent 3 months a year in the Saudi Arabian desert protecting the southern Iraq no fly zone that was sanctioned after the 1991 Gulf War. It was a lovely 20-23 hour flight around to almost exactly the other side of the world from my home in Washington State. I usually ended up working the swing shift to stay out of the 120 degree desert heat. I was really proud to be able to do my part for what I believed in.

Several rotations later and it is November 1999. My squadron flew out of Langley AFB on a C-141 to make our way to the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. Pretty much a typical boring flight for several hours landing in a cross wind on the island. We were there for a few days because of bad weather and when it came time to finally depart the island one of our A-10s had a maintenance issue and I and another Sgt stayed behind to repair the jet. The last thing my Lt. said to me was "when the plane is fixed find a way to Kuwait". What that meant was do what you have to do and find military transport into Kuwait and Al-Jaber AB. We were both kind of excited due to the fact we did not have to bother with so many other people and we were in a different country for part of the holiday season. We ended up fixing our aircraft two days later but were stuck with no flights out of the Azores until the 8th of December. Finally on the 8th we got a flight on a really comfy (by military standards) KC-10 Stratotanker. We flew into Sigonella NAS on the island of Sicily and stayed until the next day to hop a flight into Kuwait City. We arrived in Kuwait City as planned and called our Lt. to let him know the last leg was a 15 minute flight on a C-130 into Al-Jaber and would be there about 2200 hours (ten o'clock pm for the non-military types).

After a few hours in Kuwait City we finally began the loading process of lading into the C-130. I was in line with a few people and the weirdest feeling came over me and I stopped and let a few people ahead of me to wait for my friend. We loaded up on the plane and as usual the old Air Force motto "hurry up and wait" kicked in. We sat on the tarmac for quite a while before we took off. When we finally got airborne I was ready to get to the base and try and relax in the tent I knew I was assigned. A few minutes into the flight I was sitting in the very uncomfortable jump seats on the aircraft when I heard the hydraulics kick in and figured that it was the flaps going down on our approach. All of a sudden there was a jolt like I cannot describe with noises all around of screeching metal grinding noises. I was jarred so hard into my jump seat that it actually collapsed and the next thing I knew I was sitting directly on the floor of the airplane. There was a huge rush of air coming into the plane and several hoses that appeared to be hydraulic lines that had burst and were spraying about 2500 pounds of pressurized fluid all over the cargo hold of the plane. AS I tried to collect myself and get my bearings I looked over at my friend who was sitting almost opposite of me next to the right rear door of the aircraft. We shot each other the old O Shit look and I noticed at that time something in my lap. I grabbed the object and realized with shock that it was a schrader valve. (a vital piece of the landing gear) I held it up to my friend and at that moment noticed another Airman begin to slump over in his seat. He was about two places forward from my friend and next to a woman who noticed at the same time. The woman began to scream and several people moved to try and assist the Airman. So many things were happening all at once, and in a blur, but during about that same moment several steel pieces that had been strapped up higher on the aircraft gave way and began falling on our heads. People were getting hit by this shrapnel flying around the hold. Some people were trying to get the collapsed airman to the floor when on the opposite side of the plane a Captain collapsed, complaining that he could not feel his legs and he was having trouble breathing. Within moments another Airman was on his side screaming in pain that he could not move his legs. Absolute chaos was the order at that moment and people began yelling and screaming at all that was going on. Many people were doing all they could to help the 3 downed troops and all had to be given CPR. Once we were notified by the flight crew that we had struck the ground and were once again airborne many of us began to get upset that we had not returned to land and help the injured. Turns out we had to fly out over the Persian Gulf and dump the excess fuel and get rid of the chaff and flairs that we were carrying. 40 minutes later we were instructed to get prepared for a crash landing because it was discovered that our main landing gear had been destroyed and was laying 2800 feet shy of the runway at Al-Jaber. With the scene becoming more somber due to the reality setting in we all prepared for a harsh landing. We removed all the doors to the aircraft and strapped them down as well as pulling the escape hatches on the top and bottom of the aircraft. By this time I could hear the hydraulics screaming because all the fluid had been pumped out and the pilot was flying the plane on manual reversion. (very difficult) With all the doors open on the plane and a huge gash in the right side of the plane which I could see through we braced for a hard landing. As we approached I heard the engines slow and looked out to see us coming down to the runway. I was relieved to see foam and when we touched down it was actually the smoothest landing I had ever experienced. The pilot slammed the props into reverse and we came to a fast stop. At this point we evacuated the aircraft and made our way from the aircraft since we were afraid of fire due to the no gear landing. People began kissing the ground and hugging each other. Then all went silent as the 3 men were brought off the plane and loaded on to ambulances to go to the emergency room. The remaining ones were shuttled to the Airport hotel to figure out what to do next. (me included) When we got to the lobby we sat down and tried to fathom what the hell just happened to us. My buddy called to me to go get a drink and when I stood up my legs went out from under me with an extreme shooting pain going down the back of both my legs. My friend helped me up and got me to the medic that had arrived and put me on an ambulance to the hospital.

(part two soon)

"Run Forest Run"

2008-11-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

As part of my duties I am required to perform field checks on the inmates on my house arrest program. It is really one of the duties that is on the more entertaining side. People have the oddest and craziest reactions to when an officer shows up at the house.

One nice summer day I was out with one of my female partners and I was near one of the houses of a guy we will call "John" for the sake of this story. At the time of this field check I was driving a dark green undercover Crown Victoria Interceptor. Now not having a light bar did help a bit but the spotlight, push bar and antennas gave it away. So as we roll up to Johns house the first thing I notice was all the empty beer cases. I first thing upon this observation is to grab my portable breath test machine and a spare tube. We walk up to the door and knock a few times until a female comes to the door. I ask to speak with John and they say he is out of town. I proceed to identify myself visually as well as verbally and they say he left town. Now these people on house arrest sign papers allowing us to search their house at anytime. I ask the female her name and she gives me the old "none ya" response. ( "none ya" meaning none of your business for those non smart ass types ). I then proceed to tell her I thought I must have met her brother last week. She did not find it funny but still moved out of the way of the door to allow a search. I looked for his house arrest equipment and it was as placed originally. He had a GPS unit and it was still in the house. Just as a side not I also have a receiver in my car that tells me the ankle monitor is in the area. Which it did indicate when I arrived. After a quick search of the house and no contact with John I decide it is time to call in some more support. I went around to the back of the house while my partner called for back-up and noticed the back door ajar. So as you can guess this guy had been drinking and when we showed up bolted out the back door as we came to the front. I just couldn't fathom why someone would risk so much for drinking. Needless to say we chased him around for several hours until we got word he was seen on a local reservation.

So a few weeks later and lots of work goes in to this escape artist. ( not that it was tough ) He gets caught riding around with some friends who were all drunk and high. Now John is looking at 35 months for escape all for drinking and might have lost 10 days of his good time. He was to be released in less than a week! I will never understand that kind of desperation.

Love can be a real "pain".

2008-08-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

I have found over the last few years of doing this job one thing that never ceases to amaze me is what people will do or tolerate in the name of love.

This little ditty here is about a girl I will call "Jill" for the time being.

Now Jill here is a girl who has a penchant for the "bad boys". She is not even interested unless you have had more than a few run-ins with the local boys in blue.

I have been dealing with Jill for several years now over various DUIs or driving with a suspended license. No big deal. Then there is her ex-husband. Notorious thief about town all the way up to the Fed level. Drives a BMW M3 yet appears to have no real job to speak of. Funny how that works.

Then there is the current boyfriend. Not a thief, but a guy who likes to party and fight with all the liquid courage he can muster. These two manage to find each other of all places in a DUI intensive supervision court. Kind of like a drug court to lessen the charges and jail time for habitual DUI people. Very intense program that takes dedication from the participants.

Enough history lets get to the good stuff. So Jill and this other guy take a liking to each other and as tends to happen they get together in the horizontal sort of fashion. So as you may guess Jill gets a surprise a few weeks later. (no need to elaborate). Jill and her man decide the "best" thing for them would be to abort the baby and continue on their lives.

Come 3 months later and Jill and her man have a few domestic issues and are forbidden by the courts to see each other. Jill actually initiated this too. She moves around to a few places including her own place and her grandparents house in a secured gated community. The boyfriend just keeps showing up and creating problems. So one night after sneaking around and hooking up for a quickie she feels guilty and leaves him. So about 1 am or so he decides he is not through with her and shows up and grand daddys place and knocks on her window. Jill being ever the smart one lets him in to "talk". Silly girl. After a quick smack in the face from him then a full weight knee to the groin he jumps out of the window and runs.

So here is where I come in. I get a call from our control dispatch that Jill is in the hospital from an assault and being that she is on house arrest I have to go check it out. I call a partner and we go to the hospital and get the story I just told. Turns out Jill is not angry with the boyfriend or wanting to press any charges. She explains that she feels guilty because of the abortion and loves him all the same. Talk about a jaw dropper. We have all heard of these incidents but until you see it for yourself it just does not hit home. This girls groin was swollen to the size of a grapefruit and doubled over for a week from the pain.

Needless to say as far as I know they are still together although he has done quite a bit of jail time due to the assault and other legal issues. Maybe one day she will see the light.

As a closing I just want to say I hope a few people who have dealt with a domestic violence issue can come around and realize nobody deserves that kind of treatment. Woman or man. Please find a way to overcome the fear. Check out the visual below. Some things may surprise you. I know they did me.

Until next time,

Charlie

It only takes one

2008-08-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

So as a small digression from speaking about defendants and the silly stuff they do I am going to take a second to talk about what are supposed to be the good guys.

Recently in my area we were fortunate enough to have a few motorcycle related events. One about 35 south of here in a small town and another the following weekend at our County fairgrounds. Well as you might guess for those two weekends and during that week there was a heavy law enforcement presence to help discourage some behavior inherent to any big event.

On one of the days during that week a close friend of mine was pulled over on a freeway exit and ticketed for doing 45 in a 40. Now if you know anything of the geography of the Hamilton I90 exit in Spokane you know that it is a very long bridge and many people frequently go much faster than 45 coming off the freeway to go down the hill. So just for the record my friend rides a KLR 650 (not exactly a rocket) with large bags and he wears enough safety gear to keep a GP rider safe in a 130 mph sweeper. Basically saying he is not a casual rider, but a professional motorcyclist that rides defensively and also has never had a ticket in his life. This blog is really not that he recieved a ticket but more of the treatment he recived during his interaction with the State Patrol Trooper.

So as he is exiting and coming around the corner, out from behind a tree and the corner steps a WSP Trooper pointing and shouting for him to pull over. My friend was a bit surprised by it all and hits the brake slightly locking up the rear brake and pulls over to the side of the exit ramp. The trooper approaches and my friend steps off the bike and asks whats wrong. The Trooper asks for the normal paperwork in a very rude manner and heads back to his own motorcycle. The trooper comes back a few minutes later and has him sign a ticket and hands it to him and begins to walk away. So my friend never having a ticket before has no clue what is next so he asks the trooper what to do with it. The trooper comes back and gets right up in his face and tells him to read it and he will figure it out. I know I am not totally accurate in all this but what I am getting at is the Trooper was way out of line as far as I am concerned.

So continuing on later that evening my same friend is riding down the road and comes to the freeway entrance ramp. Working his way in traffic puts on his blinker and goes a block and a woman waves at him to let him in ( not a usual thing here). Next thing he knows he sees a Trooper in a car hit the lights and pull in behind him and pull him over. So by this point with the frustration of the morning still fresh in his head he shuts off the KLR and awaits the Troopers approach. When the Trooper gets to him he is told he cut the woman off. My friend now on the defensive tries to explain that the woman waved him in and there was no way he cut her off. The Trooper looks him in the eye and says "well I guess she is not here to verify that is she."

So taking a second to soak that in, him telling me this already has me apologizing for the representation of my proffession BUT.........it gets better.

The Trooper never asks him for any paperwork and says get moving this is a high traffic dangerous area to be. ( um ...excuse me who pulled who over? ) My friend looks at the Trooper and asks him if he can take a second to cool off and relax from the anxiety of being pulled over again. The Trooper looks at him and said "get moving unless you want to cool off in the back of my car". So as most would do he fires up the bike and gets out into traffic and on the way home.

Like I said my point of this blog was not the tickets or being pulled over. My real point is that I am a bit ashamed to even say that I am a Law Enforcement Officer. I want to sincerely apologize for all those that have been truly treated wrong by any law enforcement and to let you know that for the majority of us, we take a lot of pride in our duty.

Cleaning 4 You.

2008-07-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

I am sure anyone can agree that you get better at your job or hobby or interests simply from the time you spend doing them. Otherwise known as experience. I had an In-Law grandfather that had a ninth grade education but was one of the wisest men you could ever meet. He once said to me "You can't buy experience". I knew what that meant when he said it and it rings more true as I get along in my career and life. The more I do this work and learn things some thoughts become instincts which brings me to my next inmate incident of some mild humor this time.
I work with 2 other officers that do the same job as myself but have different days that we spend in the field checking on inmates. On one particular day I was working with a partner and was looking over some notes from an officer about the type of work a particular female had listed. This woman had a maid service called "Cleaning 4 You". I also had noticed that she had procurred her license for the business just about 1 week before being put on house arrest. This leads back to the experience thing. So in my mind she was simply creating a business to be out in the community doing work under the table which does happen frequently. Upon reading her profile that was set-up on her I noticed she was telling us her daily work location (which they have to call in daily)was also one of her personal references. She called in and claimed that she was going to be cleaning this persons house for the remainder of the week starting Tuesday. Now knowing what part of town this was in I was having a hard time remembering any house in the area that took 4 days to clean. I decided it was time to do a work field check on this individual.
So my partner and I arrive at the address of employment and go to the door to find our "client" as we put it sometimes. We knock on the door for about two minutes until a man comes to the door and I identfy myself and ask to speak to the client. ( I knew she was at the residence since my reciever had an ID on her monitor bracelet) When she came to the door I asked her to step outside to speak to me and stepped back from the door. At first glance I was astounded at the choice of clothing for someone to be cleaning in. Short skirt, spaghetti string top, and 3 inch heels. Not really the cleaning attire expected in this conservative little town. I spent a few minutes going over some issues with her pertaining to her business such as the contract with the home owner and how he was paying her as well as her form of transportation. ( no license of course) She went back in the house to find the "contract" and came back out with an older gentlemen who told me that they had a verbal contract. I am sure at this point most of you have an idea all sorts of red flags are flying over this situation. Not to mention she was visibly nervous, shaking and stammering a bit. I explained to her at this time I did not feel she was performing a legal service for this man and would not authorize her to work here anymore. She readily stated that was fine and asked if she could call for a ride home. I asked her what her rides name was and she said it was "Bart" but as always does not know his last name and has known him for 5 years. So as the huge red flag smacks me in the back of the head I decided to turn up the heat a notch and ask why she was dressed as such to clean houses. At that point she pulled up her top quite fast to reveal a swimsuit top and told me she had been cleaning the hot tub and wore a swimsuit so she could get wet without ruining other clothes. Yea I bet she was cleaning the tub alright. I decided I had enough by now and continued with some other normal field check issues such as asking her to provide a breath test to make sure there was no alcohol use. I bet you can never guess. Yep she blew a .089 BAC. So after all the hoopla she gets placed in custody for a nice ride back to the jail to explain to a Sergeant her write up, loose 30 days good time, and more than likely get more time from a new court hearing. So for the ones that get caught............is it really worth it?

Until next time.
Charlie

What's in a name?

2008-06-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

So part of my job is to have a short interview on a weekly basis with all the people on my caseload. They come in at a scheduled time on Wednesdays and I go over there schedule for leaving the house for such things as work, school, Dr's appointments and the like. They are also made aware that at the time of their appointment with me they are to always be prepared to provide a urinalysis sample and/or give a breathalyzer test if I feel the need. I find it amazing how some will come in basically with their eyeballs floating to do a UA and the ones who think that if they tell me they just went before coming out they will get out of it. Anyway, the people who hold out on you are pretty much the ones who you suspect right away of being dirty. Especially if they have come in and provided right away in the past. So a few weeks ago I put together my list of people I want to have UA'd and as they come in I will tell them and then if it a male I will fill out the proper papers and take them to the bathroom to make sure they are not using someone else's urine or dipping into the toilet water or something similar. The females on the other hand are sent to a different building where a female officer is to monitor the UA. I have this female on my caseload who divulged to me that she had a heroin addiction and was really struggling to stay sober. I made a few phone calls to try and find a local detox that had a bed available for an intensive in-patient treatment program. This woman also suffers from depression and severe social anxiety disorder so therefore takes meds accordingly. After a little bit of looking I found out no detox will take someone who is on those kind of meds until they have been off of them for at least a week. Seemed strange to me but I instructed her to call her Dr. to make sure she could do that so we could get her in treatment. Meanwhile I also told her she needed to remain clean and that she could expect a UA soon.
So the next week comes and I decided to wait one more week for a UA since I had done a house visit that weekend and she seemed to be doing well. The following week she comes in for her appointment and first thing she asks is if she has to provide a UA. I happened to be off that day for family reasons and had someone else taking care of things for me. Since she was not on a list again she went out to the port-a-potties we have for their use. (someone smeared crap on our walls once) The following day I got to work and another partner of mine said he was leaving for work that evening and decided to use the port-o-pottie instead of getting his keys again and going through the fun of all the doors to get to our bathroom. When he went in the stall he noticed the lid was up and he looked in as he was shutting it and noticed what appeared to be a condom in it. They had also just came and cleaned them that day as well. My partner gloves up reaches in and grabs the item in the bottom of the toilet. Needless to say for some reason he just wrapped it and put it in a secure place to look at in the morning.
The following morning he shows it too me and we carefully unwrap it to find it is a prescription pill bottle with urine in it and aluminum foil over the top taped on the sides all in a condom. I have seen this before and knew immediately how it works. She puts the clean urine in the bottle, puts the foil over the top and only tapes around edges. Puts the bottle in the condom leaving the top exposed with the foil and inserts it in her vagina. At the time of urine collection they place the cup under themselves the use a finger to pierce the foil and let the urine go into the cup. Being that it is in a body cavity it will maintain the right temperature to pass that part of the UA.
As I said it was on a prescription bottle and wouldn't you know it she forgot to peel the label with her name on it! Man did that make my job easy. A few hours later she was arrested at her home for intention to tamper with her UA. She provided a good UA later which did come back positive for heroin. It is amazing what someone will go through to no get in trouble sometimes. I guess the good news is she got a bed for detox and has all the free counseling she could use. Albeit not where she wanted but it will get her off the drugs until she gets out. She also had 30 days added to her time as well. Addiction is a powerful thing.

Until next time,
Charlie

Let the Blogging begin.

2008-06-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Well since this is my first blog ever I guess it may turn into a silly rambling that goes nowhere as my thoughts frequently do.
I have the feeling that most of my subjects are going to be related to my profession for the simple fact it pretty much rules my life and can be interesting too.
I am a probation officer for the Spokane County Sheriffs office in good ole Spokane WA. If anybody reading this has any experience in the criminal justice system or better yet what most probation officers do, you can almost throw that out the window.
I work with offenders that are mostly on EHM or Electronic Home Monitoring for those non acronym types out there. I also deal a bit with work release offenders and the other groups that are in inmate work crews and plain old jail birds too.
The best part of my job is that I do not spend all day in an office doing referrals to treatment centers and preparing for court hearings on violations and such. I am one of a few probation officers that spends time in the field or community monitoring inmates to make sure they are complying with their probation. I am fortunate enough to have a county vehicle that I drive to and from work daily due to the fact I have to be available at all times during my work week to respond 24/7 to violations. I am very well equipped in my job with the requisite firearm as well as a x-26 taser and OC spray. I regularly wear a protective vest and operate at all times of the day whether it is arresting an offender for use of alcohol to felony warrant service.
Unfortunately, all this stuff from the outside sounds exciting, and dangerous I find the most difficult part of the job is seeing people struggle with uncontrollable addiction. I have seen my share of broken homes and hearing children cry as one of their parents are arrested on yet another violation. I think some of the most disheartening scenes are on non-violation field checks when you knock on the door and when the child sees an officer they instantly burst into tears and beg you not to take their mommy or daddy to jail.
I have so many heart breaking stories to blog about I am excited to have an outlet. On the same note I also have some very rewarding things to write about.

Until next time.

Charlie