BRP ride with my Dad

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eclecticdawn	BRP ride with my Dad		Lead	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 06/30/08 8:47 PM	Tags : None What a whirlwind weekend with my Dad! We headed up to Roanoke on Friday to Mill Mountain and the Roanoke Star (where there was BIG lightning and a bit of rain, so we didn't stay long), then to Dixie Caverns (where it started to POUR). After our tour of the cave, we headed to Shoney's for lunch and then a swim in the Quality Inn hotel pool (just what I needed). We hooked up with VTXRob and his lovely gal for a wonderful Mexican dinner and visit at El Rodeo (there was enough food on my plate to feed a family of 5). On Saturday, we found the squiggly-est road out of Roanoke I've ever been on to head toward the Parkway. OMG!!! The road was 25 MPH, and some of the non-stop curves were posted 15 MPH, and even then I felt like I was pushing it! LOLOL WHAT A BLAST! We finally found our way back to the Parkway and were off to enjoy the ride, take pics at overlooks and head towards Tuggles Gap for lunch, then on to Mabry's Mill (absolutely picturesque and historical). It was a totally relaxing ride on the Parkway until a turkey hopped out into the left lane towards me at the same time a deer appeared on my right...I pumped on the brakes, the turkey hopped into the ditch...Dad never even saw the turkey when he STOPPED RIGHT NEXT TO IT! Then came the FUN part... Coming out of the mountains on the downhill twistys, we had a storm DUMP onto us, with no place to pull over and a Hummer on my butt (just shush, I know what comments you're pondering over that choice of words). Dad did fantastic riding on the twistys in the storm, especially considering he's only ridden in one light rain before. Once we hit the flatlands, we pulled over for a break from the insanity, but of course we had gotten past the storm by then! Dad had a great time meeting our riding group here, and of course, it was wonderful to be able to ride with my Pa for the first (and hopefully not last) time. He's all packed up and ready to begin his long trek home to Menasha, WI, tomorrow morning. He's surely been a trouper, considering he's riding with a dislocated toe and a torn tendon in the bottom of his foot - I'm so glad he's got floorboards. I got to ride his AERO750 today, and it was fun. That's the first time I ever rode a bike with floorboards, and since I've been wanting some ever since I got the T, Dad said he'd buy the right one for me if I could afford the left one! LOL! Ride home safe, Pa, we'll see you in September... Here's the video of our weekend excursion: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4-WMPfW2AF4 Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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eclecticdawn		#1	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 06/30/08 8:58 PM	Warning, the video is NOT for dialup users...I have lots of catch-up work to do tomorrow morning after Pa leaves, but I will try like heck to resize a few of the pics later in the day and post them here for those who can't view videos. Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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bamaTrider		#2	[url]	[-]
HSATF 1st Officer Posts: 3889 06/30/08 9:31 PM	Squiggly-est road?? mmmmmmmbwahahaha!!! That's a good one. Seriously, glad you could have this memorable time with your dad. Stan "We are different - yet we are the same" 2004 GL1800 Goldwing (Titanium) 1999 Ace Tourer (Silver over Black)
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eclecticdawn		#3	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 06/30/08 9:43 PM	That's the only word I could come up with to describe it - Dad said parts of it were more intense than his unintended Dragon ride! Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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alepel		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 8078 07/01/08 7:40 AM	Dawn.....hey for a girl.....naw don't want to go there do I? Just pulling your leg. That was one of the most entertaining videos of a motorcycle ride that I have ever seen. I found myself mesmerized by the music too. You've got to tell me what software you use to produce that video. Does it also enable the fonts on the screen titles? That was great. I also like how you intermix the video with stills. Really really great stuff. I would love to see your camera set up on the Tourer. How about a photo of the set up you have. You undoubtedly have a camera that compensates for bumps and road vibrations. You could see it in your face, how much you were enjoying yourself. You had to have had a great time with your Dad and I am certain he did as well with you. Too bad about all the rain, but you made light of it so I'm thinking it wasn't a big deal. I'm going to have to go back and check your website but I was mildly disappointed that you didn't have some good photos of your Dad's bike. The very little that I did see, was very very nice. I would like to see more a more detailed photo to see what all its got. Maybe you've got some better photos of it on your website. Thanks for sharing these moments with us. I for one enjoy them immensely. alepel "Ride with the Spirit always, and in all ways"....hombldr
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eclecticdawn		#5	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 8:07 AM	Good morning, Alain...yeah, I do alright for a girl. BWAHAHA! (I hope you don't think I was really offended by your remark in that other thread - I just had to bust your chops about it) The camera mount: While my husband was in TX last week, I went off to Lowe's and bought a few PVC pipe bits, a course threaded bolt, a few rubber washers, a couple of hose clamps and a chunk of clear hose...$6 later and a single cut with my Dremel cut-off wheel, and I had a nifty camera mount! My hubby was sooo proud of me for making the contraption myself (he is the SUPREME fabricator, so I was beaming when I got his stamp of approval). I still need to make a sleeve for it so the white pipe doesn't reflect off the windshield so much (and aesthetically, the piping looks like doo-doo on my bike - LOL). Right now, I have my little stuffed Patrick starfish attached to the contraption to "hide" it (he's my fav character from SpongeBob Squarepants). Yeah, I'm just a big kid, but even the big burly bikers at the Smokeout biker event loved him! Funniest thing in the world to see a big biker burst out into the Spongebob Squarepants theme when he saw Patrick on my bike! I will take some pics of the contraption and post them in this thread later, along with some of the trip pics and better shots of Dad's bike. I'm still working on putting together one of those trip pages for my website about this trip - I've just gotten so far behind on stuff while Pa was here. Riding with him was more important than sitting at the computer! I just have a Panasonic (Lumix) DMC-FX07 small camera, but she takes nice pics. I think having the rubber washers under the cam really help cut down on the vibration in the videos. As far as putting the videos together, I just use Windows Movie Maker. I had my computer 3 years before I realized the program came with the computer!! It's easy as pie to use, just drop and drag, and yes, all the fonts on your computer can be used for the titles. There's lots of different effects for video and photo transitions, and various title effects. Ride on over and I'll give you a freebie lesson in movie making! (Alain, I'm sending you a PM regarding some info we've discussed earlier, too. Good stuff!) Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts Last Edited By: eclecticdawn 07/01/08 11:54 AM. Edited 1 time.
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alepel		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 8078 07/01/08 8:42 AM	Dawn....I really learn so much from talking to you. I checked and found out that I have Microsoft Movie Maker also. Who Knew!?! Now I'm like a kid with a new toy. Got to try this out for myself. Yeah Movies! Great.....I need another reason to stay glued to my computer like I need another hole in my head. My wife put the first one there after she realized how much time I spend on this danged thing. I don't know why it came as a surprise to me but I did a google search on your video camera and I was surprised to find that it was actually a digital camera that takes videos. I mean I knew about such things. Afterall I worked for Eastman Kodak for 37 years. But in my frame of mind when I think of videos I think video camcorders not digital cameras. I think that I would like to try making a video with my digital camera and see how it works out. I'll just have to buy a large enough SD card to do it. By the way I failed to mention this to you before but the photosgraphs of the Mill were good. Are you going to produce some better prints of this. Some of the photo compositions were really artful. I might suggest using a black and white format for some of them. alepel "Ride with the Spirit always, and in all ways"....hombldr
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danbgt		#7	[url]	[-]
HSATF 1st Officer Posts: 1943 07/01/08 8:44 AM	Excellent. I love the BRP. Take it from the other perspective. Us dad's love riding with our kids!!!!! -Dan
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eclecticdawn		#8	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 9:06 AM	Alain, hahaha, you better be careful if you get too many holes in your head the wind will whistle through your cranium like a flute! I will be editing some of those Mabry pics in sepia and putting them in my giftshop on my site (t-shirt, notecards, whatnot). It's the third time I've been to Mabry, and I could take a hundred pics everytime I go! It's so peaceful, and the sound of that water going over the wheel just fills my soul! Thank you for your comments about the photos. I just try to capture part of the mill as my mind views it - odd angles and closer views. I figured you'd have Movie Maker on your 'puter! Sounds like you were as shocked as I was when I discovered it on mine!! LOL! I only have a 1 gig card in my Panasonic, and I still had lots of space left on it even after all the vids and pics I took over the weekend (there's not even half of the stuff I took on that video). I had taken the pics and vids at pretty low res since they would be uploaded to the 'net, and it really saved me card space. Dan, I could ride the BRP every day and have a different experience every time! It is absolutely a joy to ride. And we've probably not even done half of it yet (we keep hitting the same section over and over). Pa just left and he was pretty choked up when he took off, I know this trip meant so very much to him, so I understand what you're saying. Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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eclecticdawn		#9	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 9:30 AM	Okee dokee...in no particular order, here are pics from the trip... Dad is all packed up and ready to leave WI on June 18th to head to his All-AERO rally in Townsend, TN. Then, Dad and me on the Parkway. John and Dad seem to be listing the same way as the rock - or maybe I just took the picture crooked! LOL Next, looking over Roanoke from Mill Mt. and the storm that was sending out some wicked lightning while we were riding up the mountain! As a pilot, Dad has flown over the Roanoke Star many times, but he'd never seen it from the ground, so we had to show it to him. It's huge! We decide we better get off the mountain with all the lightning and cross Roanoke to get to Dixie Caverns in Salem. The rain dumped on us right when we got there, so we took the tour. I love the "Wedding Bell" formation in the cave - everybody on the tour laughed when I grabbed John and kissed him under it while Dad snapped the pic. The backlit stalactites are so beautiful! I've been to much bigger caves, grander caves, but Dixie is special because it's so small and intimate, it feels like you are the first ones discovering the formations as you walk through. Mabry Mill on Saturday, John decides to nap while Dad and I wander around the grounds. John is lucky, he can fall asleep in 5 minutes ANYWHERE he decides to snooze! This pic is going on our "biker" wall - it just shows how relaxed our weekend was! Shots at Mabry Mill... After hitting MEGA rain coming out of the mountains, we needed a break. I wish I would have had my camera ready to take a photo of the water that Dad dumped out of his shoes!! So there ya go...just a few of the hundred+ pics we took! Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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eclecticdawn		#10	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 9:53 AM	Alain, here's the camera mount info: (1) 3/4" PVC "T", threaded on the top end (1) 3/4" PVC threaded cap (2) 3/4" PVC extensions, threaded (2) hose clamps (1) 1/4 x 1" hex bolt, w/nut, coarse thread rubber washers clear hose Cut the "T" in half, and slice down the length of one side of the clear tubing. Depending on how your bars are set up, you may need to slice off a tiny bit of each end of the "T" to make it seat properly on your bars. Slip the tubing over your handlebars to protect the bar from scratching and to keep the mount from slipping, then place the "T" over that and use the hose clamps to secure it to the bars. Screw in the extensions (I used threaded instead of gluing plain pipes so that I could adjust the mount "on the fly", as sometimes I like to catch video of things off to the side instead of just having the camera face forward all the time). Drill a 1/4" hole in the end cap, insert a rubber washer and the bolt, leaving the thread to stick out the end. Install the nut on the outside of the cap and tighten it down. screw the end cap to the top extension. I just slip a rubber washer over that outside nut before I attach the camera for the ride. I keep spare rubber washers with me, cuz sometimes they get a bit raggedy. **Also, you may only need ONE extension. I used 2 because I was getting a bit of the windshield hardware in my photos when I only had one extension. Here's Patrick hiding the mount until I get the sleeve made; and the actual mount (pretty hideous without a cover, but it's a HECK of a lot cheaper than spending $100+ on a camera mount and it works just FINE). Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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Fredrider		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 6136 07/01/08 11:21 AM	Dawn, I very much enjoyed how you chronicled your ride with your father. Thanks & well done! Fred
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alepel		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 8078 07/01/08 11:29 AM	Well Dawn....you couldn't get any simplier than that. I wouldn't have thought of PVC tubing. I'll tell you right now I'm making one of those mounts for my bike. Then its going to be.....ready gang? Movies...Movies...Movies Then I can play with that Microsoft Movie Maker too. Damn I like this forum! alepel "Ride with the Spirit always, and in all ways"....hombldr
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eclecticdawn		#13	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 11:53 AM	Thanks, Fred, I wanted to be sure to get the video done for Pa so I could give him a copy to take home with him. He loved it! Alain, I knew you'd get a kick out of that rig! I'll PM you my phone number so you can give me a holler if you have any questions about the movie maker - it's really quite simple once you get the hang of it. BTW...save, save, save frequently. If I use large photos in the videos, the program has a tendency to crash (at least on my old beast of a laptop). Nothing worse than arranging 20 - 30 photos, setting the fades and BLAMMO...crash...and you have to start ALL OVER! ARRGGHH! My camera takes .mov files, which Windows Movie Maker won't accept, so I found a nifty free proggie online to convert my .mov files to .mpg's. Works like a charm. Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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mktobob		#14	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2311 07/01/08 1:12 PM	Dawn....absolutely amazing...all of it. Your ride with your dad, the pictures, movie, camera mount...the entire package. I will say it again, you are an amazing person with all your talents. I just have one concern. Now Alain is all hyped up about ...Movies...Movies...Movies ! Bob
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eclecticdawn		#15	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 1:52 PM	Bob, I guess it all depends on what KIND of "Movies, Movies, Movies" Alain comes up with! Thank you for your very kind words, Bob. Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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Skip MMShadowT		#16	[url]	[-]
Posts: 5679 07/01/08 9:20 PM	Just awesome! Thanks for sharing your Dad's visit with us. I wish him a safe ride home. "We want to be free... Free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man!"
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eclecticdawn		#17	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/01/08 9:49 PM	Thank you, Skip. He did 400+ miles today, and he's feeling good. Now that he's made it through the mountains (almost made Lexington today), he'll make better time tomorrow. Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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Mountain Tourer		#18	[url]	[-]
HSATF Road Captain Posts: 391 07/03/08 1:43 AM Tail Gunner	Dawn, what a great, straight forward and simple setup. Hope you wouldn't mind if I try to copy it for myself. I love taking pics but never can get them when underway. That video got me all itching to go. Your music was right on to set the mood. I am glad you three had such a great weekend and thanks for sharing. Roger DARE TO BE DIFFERENT AND LIVE LIFE!
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eclecticdawn		#19	[url]	[-]
HSATF 2nd Officer Posts: 447 07/03/08 8:49 AM	Roger, you'll love the setup because it keeps the camera "at hand" - I obviously put mine on the left on my bars because it's a much shorter reach for my left hand (hand gets BACK on the bars quicker) and I can still see my speedometer. I got the idea from another website, and just tweaked it for my needs - I prefer to use the threaded pipes instead of gluing them so I can adjust the mount "on the fly". Oh, after I screw the camera to the mount, I slip the camera strap over the camera and the mount "just in case" the camera ends up on a suicide mission and leaps off the top of the mount! Here's the website with the original plan. **I've since made a sleeve for the mount so I don't get such a reflection in the shield from the white pipes, but I don't think there's much I can do about the reflection from my white tank. Those of you with dark tanks shouldn't get much reflection off the shield. Funny thing about adding music to my vids...I usually get all my video and photos put in the order I'd like, and THEN find some music that expresses the "feel" of the event...I playback the vid "as is", and it's very rare that I have to make any adjustments and the music somehow matches up with little things on the vid. For example, the sweeping music when we are going around the corner leaving Tuggles Gap...serendipitous! @ 4:40; 7:10 - 7:18 gives me goosebumps; and 8:23 "I'll be watching you" when the other bikers are waving to us - too cool! Those moments were not planned, the music just fell into place correctly. Good luck with the mounts, guys, and be sure to post them when you're done - perhaps you'll have some better tweakage ideas than I had! Live It, Love It, Paint It, Ride It! Eclectic Dawn Arts
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