Sol Power–BrammoBlog.com

Brammo Blog Ver 2.0 : Three weekends of unrelated rides=One blog post as I am lazy.

Again, mostly photos and few words. Always a win win.

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WEEKEND ONE

A few riders get together on the 3rd Sunday to do a monthly ride. This month is was one of my favorite rides. From Albuquerque down along the Rio Grande to Los Lunas. Only six of us this ride and the group was eclectic…Scooters, a BMW, my Electric and a 70cc Honda (updated to a 125cc engine).

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25 miles south of Albuquerque

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After a burger I bid adieu to the group and headed back to take some photos of the ride (I didn’t want to stop on the way down and slow down the group. I knew I could get some nice photos on the way home. Riding with a group, even a small group of 6, is always fun, but riding alone allows for more stops and the personal freedom to take any path I want.)

You know where the river is by seeing the trees–turning yellow as Cottonwoods do.

Panorama…click to embiggen

We almost never have LOW fire danger. The rains that flooded Colorado gave us enough rain to help us out greatly. We actually went from 4 inches below average….to average. Still, a needed influx of moisture.

The Rio Grande. This is actually a TON of water for this time of year. Usually it is a stream.

Still this would hardly be thought a river in on the East Coast…or Midwest…or Oregon.

Looks fairly impressive…but likely 2 to 4 feet deep at the most.

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After crossing the river I decided to take a slightly different route. Instead of jumping on the highway and blasting home I took a new road that runs beside the airport. Much to my delight I found both an “Airport Landing Viewing Area”…which was so-so, and a much more interesting Airplane Graveyard

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Gif should move??

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Broken aircraft!!

I will have to come back and explore some more. I’m fairly certain that the chance of my being arrested is not zero.

Oh well, the things we do….

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Some time in the last couple of weeks I hit 4000 miles on the bike. Not bad for 6 to 7 months of riding and having a commute of only 5 miles each way. I’ve more than doubled my commute-only miles.

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SECOND WEEKEND: Just a couple of photos.

Fall is lovely everywhere. Even in the high desert. Though most of these trees are not really native trees.

I love Love LOVE this wall of Ivy in Fall.

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THIRD WEEKEND:

Big ride this week was the Marigold Parade/Day of the Dead Parade in the south valley.

Loaded up and ready to “head” out. And yes that is a high tech storage device of laundry basket and bungee cords.

The motorcycle-scooter groups have ridden this parade many years in a row. We are usually near the front, but this years application was lost and we were put in the back–almost not allowed to ride. We were number 83. We were 8 last year. It is much more fun to be in the front because: When you get to the end you get to see all the other floats and marchers go by at the end, and you get to be in the middle of everything during set up. We are at the back and on a dirt lots a few hundred feet from all the crazy people on stilts and bad drum circles. Hmmm, maybe the back isn’t so bad.

My candy basket. I had a bunch more in the back and threw every bit of it.

Parade participants need to throw candy to the children lining the streets. A fun idea, but the kids are crazy for candy and I always wonder what will happen if I run one over. Nothing good likely. This year I didn’t have any issues, but a guy on a horse almost took out a kid running into the street for a piece of candy. My heart skipped a beat, and the guy on the horse just about crapped himself. The kid? Didn’t even notice and kept running for more candy. Definitely not the Rose Bowl Parade security team. Heck I was grabbed twice as I drove by…and my peripheral vision was ZERO so both times where quite startling. One guy wanted to take a selfie with me. I said ok. The other guy…around 40 years old, grabbed me as I was actually moving and wanted me to give him candy. I used some less than kind sock monkey language about grabbing my %$&#* arm, reached into my candy basket and held it out toward him and then threw it to the kids behind him. I don’t like when the adults take candy that is for the kids…and I really don’t like somebody grabbing my arm while I’m driving and have limited vision. Yes, I was only going Parade speed of 1-2 miles per hour…still, I didn’t like it and I hope the big sock monkey head muffled my voice enough that the kids didn’t hear what I said to the guy.

Parade group 81 was an amazing family.

Parade group 80 had Oscar. Oscar was great, but a bit bored waiting for the parade to start…like most of us.

A Selfie.

Group 81. The family portrait.

The rest of Group 80, Oscar’s group, showed up just in time.

This guy walked by while we waited.

This low-rider VW drove by. Great convertible flat top. I have never seen a low-rider/low-topper before.

Moved from the dirt to the road…about time to go.

A posed shot. Sadly no photos from the Parade. Hopefully I will find some on-line. No way I can ride, throw candy and take photos with this head on.

And back home…well not home. This is my brother’s house. The parade is on Sunday and that is the day we get together to watch football.

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And the head is put, Indiana Jones like, on a protective pillar to sit for future generations to find and wonder over. What was “man” like in 2013? From this headdress we assume he was clinically insane.

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Till next time….Gavin.

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
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Bonus.

I do the Day of the Dead paper-mache heads as it allows me to wear it to work for the sick kids (they love it), plus the parade (see above) and I can wear it for our family halloween party. Here I am in my Breaking Bad/Day of the Dead/Sock Monkey Head.

Three events helps to mitigate the hours put in making an oversized head.

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And here is a few bonus photos from this weekends Zoo trip.

I love riding the motorcycle to the Zoo as I get great parking. The down side is, unless I get there at the same time as somebody I know and can throw my helmet in their trunk, I have to carry my helmet around. I used this to my advantage yesterday as I was able to have a little photo op with the Zebras.

Of course the real reason I went to the Zoo was….

to see Addy and feed the ducks and “big fish”…

but also to see the new addition to the Zoo:

Daisy the baby elephant.

With Mom and big sister. She is hella cute. Skinny and FAST. Adorable.

Photo by Deanna Stevenson as all mine are in shadow. She is a much better photographer than I am. If only I could get her obsessed with taking photos of my motorcycle, well the photos would clearly improve.