More from the Ocean Shores trip

Steve and the bikes waiting for the ferry to Kingston

On the road by the ocean

Just adding a pic to keep things up to date. This is from our trip to Ocean Shores. Details to follow.

We're not dead!!!

Yeah, well, I sorta slacked on the posting as the summer progressed.
I fully plan on posting about all our trips this year as soon as it warms up, and the sun comes out.

The Mountain Loop Highway

It was Saturday, the forecast....hot....real hot.....and time for a ride to the mountains!

Doug, Steve, and I headed out around 10:30 or so for a trip out the the Mountain Loop Highway, a road that heads out of Granite Falls and up into the Cascades. It follows the Stillaguamish River and is a route that used to be a train route that headed to Monte Cristo back when there was hopes for finding a fortune in gold up in them thar hills. Ok, enough history...let's ride!

The Verlot Info Center and espresso....ok no espresso :(

After leaving Granite Falls, the first stop was at the Verlot Info Center. You can purchase Parks passes here plus get some other info.

We left Verlot and headed up the road a while until we started following the Stillaguamish River. After a few miles, we found a great spot to stop and get some pics of the bikes.

Me looking cool and Doug striking a pose?

We motored further along, hitting some sweet winding roads for another 10 miles or so, going thru some cool microclimates where it went from hot to cold then back again...pretty refreshing and then eventually we hit the "end of the road."

That's snow blocking the way and piled along the road behind the bikes

We walked past the gate and into the snow, briefly and the decided to head back. I want to come back later in the summer when this road is open all the way....should make for a great ride. So on the way back, we stopped again for some more pics. There was a pulloff right by the river that made for a nice background.



That's the Stillaguamish River in the background

Cruising further back down the road, we decided to stop for a late lunch. We stopped at the Mountain View Inn, a pretty laid back looking place and an obvious stopping point for bikers on the highway. We walked in and it was pretty empty inside, but about 10 minutes later, we heard the rumble of Harley's outside. One of the waitresses looked outside and said "oh boy.....here they come.." Around 30 or so bikers came walking in, looking like the typical Harley biker types. The place suddenly got ral crowded. I made a comment to Steve.."I wonder how these guys all met...hmm....probable all work at the same accounting firm!" HAHAHAHA I kill myself sometimes...ok...sorry that was lame. Anyway......pics of the place and some of the bikes...






We'll definitely come back to this place. After eating, it was time to head for home as Steve had to get home to setup for a neighborhood BBQ at his house. We zoomed down the highway, out to Highway 9 and then back towards home. Another ride in the books.....

First ride to work

Last Thursday, Doug and I made our first trip down I-5 to work. We also had Steve along with us as he was heading to his Magnolia office for the day. It was foggy and there was a light mist that clung to our windshields, but overall, the trip was pretty uneventful.


Heading home was another story. We have some pretty steep hills to climb getting out of the city and decided to take Highway 99 out of the city instead. Big mistake! It took way too long, with the constant starting and stopping, plus it was frigging hot so it sucked being stopped. We finally decided to cut over and hop onto I-5 and took that the rest of the way home. Much better!

Good ol' Mike giving me the Good morning greeting

Friday we made the trip down I-5 once again. It was again uneventful.

I think Drew really needs that coffee...

That's Jim, my manager...we call Doug "Mini Jim"

And finally, we rode home on I-5 and we lived happily ever after....

Quest for Mototrcycle Insurance

Motorcycle insurance is not required in Washington. What you don't hear is something that I just learned in my MSF Motorcycle Safety class which is that if you do not have insurance and you are in an at fault accident, you can be required to post a $5,000 bond immediately. And if you don't the court can take necessary action to make you, including freezing your accounts.

After hearing that and knowing that accidents can happen first hand, I went on a quest to find the best insurance.

I of course did what every person would do. I called my insurance agent and they quoted me 300+ for the year. Not knowing anything about Motorcycle insurance I almost signed up but I didn't have my VIN cause I was at work. Later that day Jason told me that he go a quote from Progressive because his insurance didn't insure motorcycles and Progressive gave him a much better quote than my State Farm agent gave me. Of which I have only been with them for 15 years carrying a perfect record. So I started shopping.

In my research, Progressive kept coming back up. So I went to their site and they have a great tool that gives you a quick quote, has links to explain everything you are looking at, and provides 800 numbers to get help if you need it.

When I ran my quote and it was under 180 giving me more coverage than my agent offered. I then called my state Farm Agent and was told that the quote I had was the best they could do and they recommended that I buy from Progressive. hmmmm.

Later Jason ran a quote at Geico and it was in the 500+ range and their quoting tool took forever.

A friend of mine from my Safety class told me that her friend that works for Allstate said that sometimes they can match Progressive.

So needless to say I chose Progressive. And when I called them. I like dealing with people if I can. I asked why they were so much cheaper. He let me know that they are ranked #1 for motorcycle insurance, probably because of their pricing. I then tried to stump him and asked how they rank with auto and he said they are #3 with State Farm leading that pack.

A couple of things to think about.

Your insurance is ranked on several factors. Mainly your credit score, then driving record, then age and gender, then the size and style of the bike. Then smaller items like if you are married or own a home.

Some agencies allow the policy to be suspended if the policy is not needed. (this is good for fair weather riders) State Farm allowed this.

Progressive will not. They said their pricing is good because they know it will be in effect for a full year.

State Farm only considers your age, gender, and size of engine where Progressive takes more granular approach and rewards for making better choices.

No ride weekend....MSF motorcylce class time!

So this past weekend we did not get the chance to go for a long ride as Doug and myself headed down to Seattle for some motorcycle riding education. We took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) Basic Rider Course thru Pacific Northwest Motorcycle Safety. The class was scheduled for Thursday from 6-10pm, Sat 8am-6pm and Sun 8am-2:30pm.

Day 1 - Thursday:

We got there a little early as they warn you to not be late or you are out. There were supposed to be 12 people in the class, but one person never showed up. We met our instructor, Carey, who was pretty easy going and overall a nice guy with tons of motorcycle experience. This first day was entirely in the classroom, watching some videos and having some pretty good discussions about general motorcycle information. Real basic stuff.....yawn. Luckily we motored thru and got done early and they let us out about 8:45!

Day 2- Saturday:

This day was split into 2 parts. The first part, range time, where we got to actually ride the motorcycles, and then we were back in the classroom for some more information and then a knowledge exam.

Starting out on the range, we got to pick from a selection of cycles, most of which were 250's.

Here's a pic of the bike I chose.

The bikes were all lined up and the first thing we were instructed on was how to mount them, dismount them, start them, etc. Then we got to ride them! Well, sort of.....we got to sit on them and frigging push them back and forth across the range. My legs burned from the cycle aerobics, but hey, there was a point to this right??? (I'm still waiting for the point). After that, we started them and powerwalked them back and forth, then finally put our feet on the pegs and rode them! Hooray, riding a motorcycle at last...oh wait....I've already been riding...ok, well, I pretended it was my first time.

We then went thru a regimen of various exercises learning small skills and each one building on the next. By then end of the morning, we were all having fun riding our lawn mowers, er, small ass motorcycle around like champs.

Next, we headed into the classroom for some more education and then we took the knowledge test. Test....hahahahahahaha, it was pretty frigging easy, you'd have to be retarded to miss any questions. I got 100....Doug, well, he got 98....keep trying sunshine! LOL, sorry Doug, had to do it.

Ok, after the test, we were set free for the day. And it was only 2:30 or so!!!! Once we got home, Doug and I went for a ride on our real bikes to Joe's and then Home Depot. Nothing worth writing about, so I won't.

Day 3 - Sunday:

We got to the range a little early so we could do some warm up riding. We did laps around the course all following in line. It probably looked pretty funny to an outside observer. After that, it was time to start learning some more difficult maneuvers.

Enter the box. The box is about 18 feet wide by 40 feet long. We had to ride into the box, do a u-turn, then another u-turn, and exit the box. Sound easy...yeah right...you can't put your foot down or cross the lines. I couldn't do it. Noone I watched could do it. Dan the other instructor, he did it...I hate you Dan. (not really :) )

After the box, we went into some other exercises. Running over boards scattered around the course, turning, stopping real quick and my favorite, swerving to avoid the bus. I'm good at swerving and like it, so this part was fun. As the day wore on, we all started to gel as a class. I almost forgot, one of the girls (sorry, I forgot her name) fell during the box exercise and her and her husband decided to leave. The rest of us hung tough. Ingrid, riding her little Ducati scooter, starting getting more bold and was zipping all over the place She was actually pushing the person in front of her to go faster. (I made a bet after the class that a couple of months from now, we'll run into Ingrid riding her new Harley. LOL)

As the morning wore on, we ended up practicing the various parts of the skills test we were going to be taking later on. Everyone was doing ok, until, Kristin dumped her bike practicing the u-turns in the box. She walked it off, and then, 5 minutes later, we get told it is time to start the eval. We were a little concerned for Kristin since if you dump it at all during the eval, you FAIL. She looked ok, but only time would tell.

Into the eval: Part 1. U-turns in the box. I was next to last to go, and let me tell you, the anxiety of waiting sucked. In all the practices, I never was able to do this right. I watched rider after rider go, some pulling it off, some putting a foot down, some crossing the line. Kristin went, and she did it well. Good job, now it was my turn. I entered the box, tension mounting, I could hear the dramatic music. I shifted my ass to the right and started turning left, head up, look behind...no no. not down...dammit....too slow.....ok, now shift ass to the left....turn right...NOOOOO don't look at the line...dammit, well, since I was looking at the line, I saw myself cross it...oh well, 5 points lost, but off I went into the swerve test. Speed up, thru the cones....BUS! swerve right, back left.....ahhhh......perfectly done...and the crowd goes wild. err....well.....ok maybe not.

Next part. Speed up then stop in allotted distance. This one is easy. Just get up to about 15-20 mph then when you pass the green cones, stop as fast as you can. My turn, and off I went...up to speed, head up, pass the cones....easy on the brakes, shift into first, left foot down first. Carey has me push down on the shifter..yeah....I got it in first...so I did ok.

Last part.....the turns. You start off, get up to speed, make a right turn, then slow down and roll on the throttle as you enter the 130 degree turn, make the turn and down. Easy! I was nailing this all day long. Off I went, up to speed, make the right turn, speed up, brake....and......coast into the turn.....CRAP..what was I doing??? roll on the throttle, look thru the turn, ok.....did it. Test done. Park and get off the bike.

After all was done, Carey went off to compute our grades...and......we all passed! Everyone did it!

Great job to all!

For anyone who has never ridden a cycle, I HIGHLY recommend taking this course. It can take you from never ridden to feeling comfortable riding. I saw it happend to others in my class.