2016 Year In Review - Post Up Your Favorite Memories!

Keeping the now time-honored tradition..... Please post up your favorite memories of last year.


I rode about 15,500 miles in 2016, and I enjoyed every single one of them.

For MLK weekend, Mike and I went camping in Mississippi





I never knew there was a petrified forest there.





For Easter, Josh came down to see us, and we had a ball showing him our culture.









Josh gained over 5 pounds in 5 days. I consider that a sincere form of flattery!!



I took Josh to Poverty Point and Vicksburg to sniff around.





In May, Mike and I rode the Appalachian roller coaster for about 10 days and it was wonderful.





We caught up with the SEOR gang in West Virginia and they showed us a good time.









We took a nice walk in Virginia at Grayson Highlands.



On the way home, we stopped for a night at the Dragon to scrub the tires.



What a great trip!!



In July, my nephew Jacob and I rode to the shooting range, where I humbly showed him where the cow chews the cabbage!!



In September, I had a nice ride down to the gulf coast to do some fishing.



In late September, Nate and I rode to SFO. Turk and his wife were unbelievable hosts.



We had a nice time with old and new friends.



Josh brought me a surprise.



Damm good bunch of riders.





After SFO, a few of us rode up to the Little Grand Canyon in northern Alabama.



Then Josh, Mark, and I continued into the fantastic North Georgia mountains.







On Black Friday, I went riding and hiking.



And finally in late December, I had a nice day trip around Toledo Bend.





So it was a pretty good year. I kept the bike upright, except for that one time – LOL.

Looking forward to another one in 2017.

Stay thirsty, my friends….

Oh...so now I'm supposed to remember shtuff?

By the way...Great pictures, and I know a few of those folks.

Nice year, great pics...thanks for sharing!

--G

Nice pics, thx for sharing. I Want to go ride nowwww

My excuse for 2016, the four letter word beginning with "W". Work got in the way of riding more than I prefer...only got about 12,000 combined miles on the FJR & Tenere.

Early May - Short day trip to the Cascades with the PNW gang. North Cascades Highway had opened just a week prior and snow was still in abundance!



June, Red Lodge and BigJohn's gathering. Took the long way to get there with my bud Fontanaman via Yellowstone and [again] BearTooth Pass.





July, wheatonFJR and his lovely bride visit the PNW. Since the "W" was still getting in the way, only managed a couple short days around the 'hood and then a quick dash into Canada. Good times nonetheless!









August and September were consumed with work. I won't bore with the all the gory details, but installing a parallel-redundant 750kVA emergency generator and paralleling switchgear supporting a live data center is no longer my idea of fun. With that project complete...

October brought forth a long anticipated trip to NoCal and "Gathering of the Clans" in Redding.

Another trip with my bud Fontanaman. Awesome trip!!

To miss weather, we took a route through central Oregon.



So much for missing weather.







Lost Coast.





Skaggs Springs Rd.





Food porn!







Here's to 2017!



--G

Nice, thanks

Escape - you've had some nice trips. Hope 2017 is less work, more play!!!

Almost memory: hoped to hit 50,000 miles on my FJR in 2016, and a little disappointed that I didn't. Probably would have if I hadn't met Aunt Kelly, but I'm sitting on 46,500 with the Big Money Rally barely started .... so the milestone is not that far away.

Actual memories: San Diego, BMRx, two weekends in GA/TN/NC/SC with Aunt Kelly's biker gang of women, a nice-and-easy day ride (four hours) with a trio of Harley trikes, NAFO with a BB ride going out and an SS1K coming home, and visiting towns named Atlanta in ...

Kansas,

Nebraska,

Texas,

Louisiana,

Arkansas,

and Mississippi.

Atlantas in Delaware, and New York should be collected in 2017 with an SS1K return from Niagara Falls through Atlanta, Kentucky. Got a few more to bag in the Midwest; maybe one or two of those in 2017.

Visited states map as of January 2017:



(Hawaii was obtained in 1978-82, during a residency at Pearl Harbor.)

Uncle Hud- looks like you need to get north a bit!! To add to your Atlanta search- we've got an Atlanta in Ohio. And an Atlanta in Michigan.

And in Ohio- well, we've got it all. You should come up. Get that state colored in on your pretty little map.

Same to you Pants!!! Wanna try again for the SEOhio Ramble? (I mentioned something to Nate.......)

FJRfarrier posted: Uncle Hud- looks like you need to get north a bit!! To add to your Atlanta search- we've got an Atlanta in Ohio. And an Atlanta in Michigan.
And in Ohio- well, we've got it all. You should come up. Get that state colored in on your pretty little map.

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Anything "up north" is a summer project. My delicate fingers get cold when riding below 40F.

Midwest Atlantas are in ... IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH, and WI. The eastern half of those will get me to the Mackinac Bridge.

Julie - I'm afraid SEOR this year won't do. I've got a little ride to Yosemite that should start a week or two after SEOR.

So many rides, so little time.... (sigh)

BTW - your buddy Nate informs me that, since his little demo ride on the Farrier express, he is now actively looking at FJRs. I suppose if you can't beat 'em........

2016 was a good year on the work front, my first year at a new company - and it is a lot of challenging work. Becoming the top producer in your very first year, means work diminishes your riding chances. Fortunately for me, work didn't decimate them. The business I was bringing in for them, gave me some leverage in negotiating some time off, so I could maintain a modicum of sanity.

The sun still rose and set on my motorcycle. It would have been such a shame, had they been sequestered to the garage all year. Some of those highlights below..

January - Much more sunshine in 2016, than is being promised in 2017 so far.





April - Warped into the wonderland of Yosemite. Camping with my good friend Alberto (feeger), and sharing our campsite with some (so far) single serving friends from France and England.









July - The 4th weekend with some additional time off tacked on was a starburst of motorcycling activity, which rippled through the long gaps of nothingness.

Lassen and Shasta.











Crater Lake.







Bachelor and the Hood







St. Helens and Rainier.













August - Life began anew at 40. Floated to dizzying new heights.







Returned safely to Terra Firma.



..to where the land meets ocean.



September - A visit to the Glaciers before the big freeze or the big thaw, depending on whichever side of the fence you happen to fall. It was very wet, and very cold. My camera barely came out of it's waterproof enclosure, but just being here was totally worth it.

I haven't had any time to write any Ride Reports since August, these pictures aren't even up on the blog yet, still saving the best ones for the blog post, but here is a sneak peek at the other ones ..











December - One of my two favorite places in California. Big Sur. I had to mark my attendance at least once before the year was over. Haven't had the time to download the pictures off of the camera. Here is another sneak peek at a poor substitute from my mobile phone.



A very Happy new year 2017, and best wishes for the year, to all of my brothers and sisters here on the forum! In 2016, I met some forumites in person, that I hadn't met before. Here is to more in 2017!

Sam

Great pics!!

i won't bother with mine now....

Sam!

If those are the pictures that were not good for the Blog, I can't wait to see the ones that made the cut.

I have no idea if you can ride that motorcycle, Heck you could have pushed that bike into position. But those pictures are truly stunning. Great Work!

I will try to put my second rate pics up later. Inferior in quality, but enjoyable just the same.

Yes Sam, I'm borrowing your pictures again. Thanks my friend.

NTXFJR said:

Great pics!!i won't bother with mine now....

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Cav47 said:

Sam!
If those are the pictures that were not good for the Blog, I can't wait to see the ones that made the cut.

I have no idea if you can ride that motorcycle, Heck you could have pushed that bike into position. But those pictures are truly stunning. Great Work!

I will try to put my second rate pics up later. Inferior in quality, but enjoyable just the same.

Click to expand...

Niehart said:

Yes Sam, I'm borrowing your pictures again. Thanks my friend.

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Thanks thanks and thanks! But don't let the pictures discourage you, they are pasted for your enjoyment, so post up yours also and return the favor.

Stunning, awesome pics Sam. Thanks for sharing them with us!

Good riding with you in October!

--G

escapefjrtist said:

Stunning, awesome pics Sam. Thanks for sharing them with us!
Good riding with you in October!

--G

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It was great to see you two for GOTC also. It was good fun chasing hooligan Doug around, so much fun! There was no time for pictures at that break-neck pace.

Holy shit, Sam. Your photos are magnificent. Nice work, man.

I only have one good picture to retrospectively describe my 2016 riding year. I left NERDS early this year for this:



Yes... some things are more important than riding with your friends. But next year, no weddings!