On the Arizona Road

We're camped in a dispersed camp spot a stones throw east of Cottonwood in the Verde Valley.

Sonja carried me up Hwy 260 past the town yesterday to turn off onto Arizona 89A and climb up into the Black Hills to the west.

*Climbing 89A toward Jerome, Arizona*

A few miles of Arizona two lane takes you to the one time copper mining town of Jerome.

Time it right and it'd be a good place for a late breakfast, lunch or you could put up for the night in the Jerome Hotel which sits just about the highest building on the hill.

Take care riding through the town. I was standing on the dirt, taking this pic of the town when an impatient scooter driver goosed his worn Honda to squirt around a slow car. Trouble is... he crossed the solid yellow two stripe die-rectly in front of the town's Black and White that lay hidden behind a collection of parked cars along the shoulder... OOPS

They've got a "noise ordinance" too... so keep your rpm down and you'll have no difficulties.

The streets are narrow and busy with cagers throwing doors open, tight corners and roads coming in from odd angles all over... don't be in a hurry... best to stop and take a stroll around anyhoo. ;)

Up above town as you leave going west rises the Black Hills and Mingus Mtn. A sweet ride.

In the summer there's a campground up on top. Keep going and you come down into Prescott and its storied whiskey row. 

I had to turn around at the top and roll back to camp for an appointment to do some 4 wheel tourista stuff in the afternoon with herself.

On the way back down... I tried to do some video hand holding my Nikon...

... uh... rolling along that winding road, twisting the throttle with one hand and gripping the camera with the other does NOT make for good video! :) I REALLY need to get that stolen helmet cam replaced!

Arizona 89A would be a fine road to film a ride over.

If you're riding from Phoenix to Flagstaff... I'd recommend you get off of that damned four lane slab. Cut over to the west on 169 at Cordes Junction. Turn right onto 69 at Dewey and roll up through Prescott. Find 89A and come over the mountain from the SW.

After you come down through Jerome and Cottonwood, stay on 89A up through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon and on to Flagstaff. A whole lot better ride than the tedium of an interstate.

Fact is, I'd stay in the area a few days. There's roads to ride, and sights to see for several day trips using Prescott, Jerome, Cottonwood,  or Sedona as a base.

If I'm ever able to wrangle the thing together... this is an area I'd really like to consider for a comfortable camp for drifting bikers...

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian

I Am a Free Ridin', Raider Lovin', RVin' Man

The Only Problem is... I took too long to realize... THIS... is the way I should have been living... a long, long time before now!

I live full time, and do my writing, in a fifth wheel. (The writing being a large and growing chunk of my income)

A good part of the time, my "home" is parked in National Forest Campgrounds, Corps. of Engineer camps, or BLM Campgrounds. The rest of the time... you'll find it tucked up in some dispersed camp, boondocked in Far Country.

*Raider Motorcycle in a RV Boondocking Camp!*

Now, I'm not old enough, yet, for the "Senility Discount" ... uh... I mean "Golden Age" passport ... but, I am the holder of a "Golden Access" card... due to the disability rating I have from the U.S. Army... something about my butt and the ground trying to occupy the same space at the same time...

... the ground won that argument... and... you might could say my spine got a lil' unexpected customizing. The result being that when we're wandering, I can get us into those campgrounds half price. I don't know that walking funny sometimes is worth the discount :) ... but I'll take it!

Still... the price of those dispersed camps, being FREE... are that much better... and keeps maybe five or nine bucks a day, in my pocket when we're bushed up somewhere on public ground. That and the solitude, back here in the woods, is something I value, as highly as my Raider... So, I tend to prefer those places, when I can find good ones.

I do have my standards though :) I pretty much require two or three things when I'm hunting up one of those "Dispersed Biker camps"

... First, since the internet makes access possible, to that large and growing part of my income, I need to have enough signal to run my air card... or at least have it fairly close by so I can run and do my "electronic chores" regularly.

... Second, while most others search for Shady camps... I need a sunny spot to keep my Solar Panels charging my batteries... so I don't have to run that generator!

... and third, though I do prefer to be "Back-O-beyond"... my Raider requires that I'm not TOO far off the pavement, and the road in ain't TOO awful and nasty... That Raider is an Awesome machine... but... a dirt bike she ain't! :)

Most times she rides into camp still up on the truck.

Makes her a lil' self conscious. She gets all twisted up, if she thinks folks are lookin' on her as a trailer queen! :) "I've rumbled up the Alcan! and wallowed through miles of mud, to get home, back in Nunn!" she squalls!

What can I say. When your house is on wheels...you have to make concessions when you move the "House". That bike may have to spend some time on the truck... but, a trailer Queen she ain't... and has the Hail dings to prove it! :)

This camp, She was on the ground already for the ride to Al's Motorcycle, down in Hamilton, for a fresh back tire... uh... maybe ya noticed the strong need for that in the picture? :)

Our scouting found us a real good camp, only a bit over a mile off the pavement... and the road a pretty clean logging road/access... so it'll work fine.

This is a pretty good way to live and Tour on a motorcycle. The Best... Was my mistake to NOT have done this a long, long time ago! It sure beats trying to chase the "Conventional" American Dream...

You don't have to be rich neither! The  low cost accomodations, living in an Old fiver, parked in Free dispersed camps, sure fits my poor boy budget...

... and having a warm dry camp, no matter what the weather is... is fine! :)

Though... if the weather would just become a lil' more accomodating for riding... and shut off the freakin' rain for a while, I wouldn't complain!

For a person who wants to "Live Motorcycle"... I can't think of a better way then parking your Motorcycle along side an RV that suits you. Gives you a warm, dry, always there, "base camp" from which to tour the area you're in...until the urge strikes to move your riding to a new Motorcycle Roads!
Think about it... Find a way to live Free... with ever more time to...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Finally! The first of my "New" Motorcycle Videos...

... and a lil' bit of an inauguration of my Motorcycle Vlogging effort...

It's nothin' fancy, for sure and for certain... and actually... it's not just one... I've got three uploaded!

I made about an hour and a half ride several days back... then it took me those several days... to fight my way through a software education... and when your brain is as soft as mine... that can be a painful experience!

Thing is... when most folks only want to watch a maybe a 5 minute video... or Motorcycle Vlog... I went and left the camera running... on the way over... and all the way back... so... considering that I can pretty much talk until the battery goes dead... It gave me plenty of material to practice up on editing with! :)

Now... I cut 'em off at 9 minutes or so... and I'm gonna work hard at tightening things up some more... but what can I say? I've got a lot to learn! :)

So... give a look see at some of what I've done... and feel free to send me some feedback... either right here... or... in comments on you tube... I still have to calculate how and where to fit the videos into the blog/site... but... for the time being, if you search for drifter50038 on you tube, you'll find everything I've kicked out to that point.

Now, again, All your comments are Highly regarded. Only way I can learn, is by folks tellin' me what they like... and what they don't... so give a fella a hand at learnin'... OK?

Just... be gentle... You know I'm a sensitive Ol' Buster. :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Motorcycle Video Making is a Tough Nut to Crack for Slow Witted Fellers!

 ... and this slow witted biker cowboy is still slippin' and slidin' up that steep learnin' curve!

I've worked out, or at least understand most of the hardware issues... the camera takes nice crisp pictures... and the only issue with sound is my leaky helmet... which should be relatively easy to fix when I replace it with a fresh one.

If you're not interested in talkin' while you film... the mic on the camera itself will work just fine... unless of course you intended to just overlay some tunes on the video... and then for you the microphone would be a total non issue...

So... hardware squared away... get out and play... and ran smack into the evil relatives of road gremlins... the nasty... psychotic... software goblins.

Now... I'm certain sure my gremlin bell kept 'em from climbing from the road up into the camera... but... I've been struggling just the same, trying to get the software in my laptop to recognize the .mov file format that comes from the camera.

The issue is strictly a thing twixt Microsoft XP and my stingy self, Not anything to do with the camera. If you've got the later windows 7... you're likely golden! I just don't want to spend any more dinero just now... and since I'm a little familiar with the windows movie maker program that's been on both my laptops, I just couldn't see a need...

The version in my lil' 10" acer can read it... but that lil' 'puter is so slow, trying to work video, that it's nigh on to useless... so... I'm trying to get my older Dell, with windows XP to do the job... and as is my habit... that damned Murphy is kickin' me in the slats!

Good thing I ain't got any hair... 'cause I woulda pulled it out!

Luckily, Andy at SportHiTech, where I bought my camera keeps sending me in the right directions to overcome my personal  "issues"... pretty good service after the sale... They've got my money already... but they still keep on kickin' out the service... didn't leave me twisting, and that's what counts... when it comes to choosing people to deal with ain't it? If you're looking for something give them a try. They've sure been goin' the extra mile for me.

anyhoo... he put me on to a video conversion Freeware program at Freemake.com that converts the format into one that my older version of movie maker should recognize... and since the price is FREE... it fits my budget! :) ... so far so good... a short test proved out... so... now I'm waiting on the conversion of a longer clip to try to start editing...

I'm not there yet... but I'm gaining!. I swear!

Keep watchin'... once I get all this shovelin' and tinkerin' out of the way... I should be able to actually start kickin' out some wind splittin' talkies! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Still Climbing the Motorcycle Video Learning Curve...

Made my second "Test Ride" yesterday... 'bout a 40 mile round trip... rolling to the Post office over in Dutch John Utah... to pick up our forwarded mail.

It's ugly... but I taped the visor on my Nolan Helmet, in a test to prove whether the excessive wind noise on the last test video I made was indeed, due to a helmet malfunction, or not... and... yup... it was...

*Nolan Helmet Taped to seal leaky Visor*

With the visor sealed up well... if ugly... and the microphone sensitivity on my Drift HD170 camera turned to it's lowest point...

... The audio quality turned out to be very good... 'leastways to my tin ears...

I mounted the microphone to the cheek piece on the right side... with it's lil' clamp...

That's a weak mount... I keep knocking it loose when I put the helmet on... so... I'll stitch in a small tab of fabric... to the cheek piece... to give that microphone clamp something it can more easily grip... and move the mic up and over a lil' more out of the way...

*Drift Innovation camera and Microphone mounting*

*Helmet camera and Microphone mounting*

The camera itself... is mounted on its Drift Innovation Helmet mount, using strong velcro... to the lower right side of the helmet... You can see the external microphone, just above it to the right.

Though the camera looks "bulky"... there is no weight to it at all... you don't feel a thing, either from it's weight or wind drag... You really don't know it's there...

With it's good field of view, mounted in this position, the picture shows everything from the the fuel tank forward... including a bit of the side of the helmet... a pretty nice; "Birds Eye view"... and, with the visor taped, the wind noise is pretty much gone...

I'd have an initial "test video" uploaded... but for the fact that where I'm parked now, the signal is so weak, I can juuuuuuust get a blog post made... uploading video is a no go... :)

It's been suggested that I try Roxio Creator to solve my "editing" issues with the XP laptop... I'm likely to pass on that. I checked it out... and it's "Format" looks a lot like Windows Movie maker... which is free... not the hundred bucks of buying the Roxio Program... 

Since I do have that functioning... on my lil' Acer (10" notebook) which has the windows 7 version that WILL FUNCTION, with the Drift Camera, I think I'll try to get along with that... until I can afford to upgrade my main laptop...

That... and the fact that it looks like I'm gonna need to replace a helmet a little sooner then expected... unless I get to liking the idea of riding around with duct tape all over my head! :) ... has me likely taking the "Cheap" way out... and making do...

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads