He's Crazy and Dangerous

That's a title of Jimmy Buffet Song.

Here we are with all of our craziness intact.

The Dancing Fool


No show would be complete without....

The Dancing Queen.

I'm no fan of ABBA, but I am a fan of the Meryl Streep movie Mamma Mia.

Enjoy the craziness.

Getting ready for the trip

Testing the equipment.

I thought that it would be a good idea to test some of the stuff for the next trip.

A guy at Shultz loaned me a Go Pro camera for the trip.

Thank you Josh.

I wanted to try one out before I bought it, I would like to use it for snorkeling in Florida next year if it works.

So check out the video of my first dive.

First test of underwater camera.

I bought the mask, snorkel and swim fins.

The mask has a built in mount for the Go-Pro camera.

Man, I look bad enough on a good day, with this on I look even worse.

The camera and the waterproof case are so involved it would be real easy to forget the waterproof case when you go swimming!

Ciao Bella

Norm Cousteau

For the Gear-Heads

The New Machine Arrives!

I've been waiting to buy this machine since January; in early August, the timing was right.

The company knocked a few bucks off the price and offered free shipping.

A deal I couldn't refuse.

The machine was shipped to SSC, thank you SWS for that, I really appreciate it.

Girvan brought it to the house, and along with our neighbor, Charles, helped to man handle it into the shed.

Once in the shed, the next task was to get it onto the prepared bench.

For that task, my brother Jimmy came by to help.

So here it is on the bench.

However, concern was expressed at the stability of the bench

It was decided by an executive decision to add improved legs (I wish I could get some)

Two are bolted in place, with two more to do on Saturday.

It was just too hot this afternoon to do more.

There are some braces to fit between the legs on the way from Amazon.

I've carried out a couple of quick accuracy checks on the X and Y axes and they seem to be really good.

Pretty soon I should be ready for a cutting test.

I'll keep you posted.

Ciao Bella

Norm.

The Trip Home

Sometimes when you are driving on the freeway, you kind of get into auto-pilot mode.

You have the cruise control on, your tunes playing, just waiting for the next turn.

That turn may be several hundred miles ahead.

Then something happens that wakes you up out of that mode.

You see something like this!

Just a bit scary the first time you encounter it.

Comments?

Other than that, the only problem was the Cajon Pass, it now has cross over lanes which cause endless problems for those who are not sure what type of vehicle they are driving or cannot tell left from right.

How about the short format for BLOGS?

Is short but more frequent better?

Norm

Ciao Bella

A Fun Time

We spent three nights in Laughlin, and headed home today.

Even though it was very hot (118) when we arrived we did not get burned in either sense.

A lot of fun was had with Barb and Leon.

On Tuesday night we all celebrated Barb's birthday, yes what it is to be 21!

The lady in the background was celebrating her birthday too.

Only I think that she may have celebrated a bit too much.

 Put another candle on the birtday cake.

These pictures were taken in the Gourmet Room restaurant of the Riverside Hotel, a good restaurant it was too.

All too soon it was time for Barb and Leon to head for home.

Yes, Route 66 hats, Budweiser, and Harley shirts, what did you expect top hat and tails?

On Wednesday, Anne and I took a little river cruise on the boat from the Aquarius, it takes about 90 minutes, but only because it goes real slow. They sell more food and drinks that way.

On the return leg we saw the Jet Boat coming back from London Bridge.

This was the same boat we all took in September last year when Teresa, Ronnie, Barb, Leon, Anne and of course yours truly met up in Laughlin.

On Wednesday evening, we went to see a Neil Diamond Tribute performance.

I was begining to get worried when we got over an hour into it and they had not taken a break.

However, not too long after that it was over.

Talk about conducting Mahler!!!!!

We set off for home this morning after gassing up in Laughlin where the gas is about $1.50 a gallon less than it is in HB.

Naturally we took Goffs road on the way back, for those of you who have not had that pleasure,

let me say that is not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.

Ciao Bella

Norm

More Soon

Laughlin in August

Or to put it another way, Hell on Earth.

If you look at the temperature that is.

It was 118 degrees F when we rolled in on Monday.

For you folks on the other side of the pond, almost 48 degrees C.

The drive up was uneventful, we exited the freeway at Goffs Road and were doing well until the train tracks.  As we approached there was a train just finishing the crossing, I thought great, no problems here.

Wrong, right behind him was another even longer train.

Richard, you may remember this spot, it is where we joined old Route 66.

As you can see the train is running as normal with a temperature of 114.

Rail Track might want to check with these guys about high temperature operations.

It seems that if the tempratures get over 80 in the UK the trains have problems.

More soon.

Norm

Ciao Bella

Velocette

What a Day!

My brother Jimmy came over today to help me with the Velocette.

Working on the theory that two heads are better than one.....

The strength in the relationship lies in that neither one will discount an idea out of hand.

Just as well, as Jimmy came up with this idea that the ignition timing was off by 180 degrees.

It just so happens that he was right.

We took everything apart again, carburetor, ignition timing drive mechanism, CB points, the whole nine yards.

We put it all back together and the result is shown below. Check the link.

Success at last.

A wonderful day and good memories.

It is the best of feelings when you spend a day doing something that turns out well.

Thank you Jimmy.

Friday

From the BLOG about Friday.

It seems that some people may get the impression that I was less than happy to help my brother with this little project.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What better way to spend a day than with a kindred spirit, a guy you have known for a very long time and with whom you share some very serious history.

In fact he told me about some problems he had today with tools needed to get the Honda apart, so I'm looking at one of these tool kits for him.

They come directly from Italy.

Tool Kit

Check it out.

Helping Out A Friend

Never buy a pickup truck.

On Wednesday I was sitting in a bar in Orlando when I got a call from my brother Jimmy.

He asked if I could help him pick up a motorcycle, for two reasons, I agreed right away.

1) I've known him forever.

2) I am one beer down.

Then I start to get the add-ons to the story.

It does not run.

It has a flat rear tire.

No we can't put air air in it the valve stem is broken.

It is in the guy's driveway.

Down at the bottom of a fifty foot narrow approach.

No the truck won't fit down there.

It's in Alta Dena.

OK, I said,"I'm up for a challenge."

On Thursday, on the flight home from Orlando I kinda sorta hatched a plan that I thought might work.

I have a power winch on my bike lift, it has about 30 - 40 feet of cable.

On Friday, I got up and headed for the Depot for a 4x4 about 8 feet long.

After some sawing and drilling I mounted the winch to the 4x4.

Then with some heavy duty tie downs the 4x4 was attached to the truck.

Jimmy arrived and we headed for Alta Dena.

Here is the winch with the Rube Goldberg attachment to the truck.

Now here is my brother Jimmy with his new scoot, OK we have dragged it up the driveway but now for the tough part, get it up the ramps and onto the truck.

Mission accomplished!

Then it was just a drive back to Long Beach from Alta Dena on a Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM.

The bike is now safely deposited in Jimmy's garage.

What a fun day.

The next step is for him to get it running.

On the way up to pick up the bike, I was tempted to stop by this place for lessons.

But then I thought, Naw!

For those of you who don't know my brother Jimmy, or who thought that I was an only child, let me explain.

We are brothers, except that he was born in Texas and I was born in England, we had different fathers and different mothers, but apart from that we are brothers.

Of course his name is not Jimmy it's Rick, but we call each other Jimmah, with the Scottish pronunciation. 

Now Anne and I are preparing for the next trip!

More soon,

Norm.

Ciao Bella