Slowly coming together

The unpacking and assembling and organizing at the new house is becoming more complete each day. Yesterday I bought a digital converter box and antenna so at least now I get all the local commercial and public television stations. XM/Sirius satellite radio is set up in a couple places so I can listen throughout the house.

My office is set up in one of the rooms in the basement and the two guest rooms are now essentially set up.

Still a lot more to do but progressing.....

I went flying today

This morning my friend Piper Super Cub Pilot Bob called me to see what I was up to. Turns out I needed to run an errand (return the rental truck) but after that6 had no real plans, other than loads of unpacking.

So he asked if I wanted to go up in his 1964 Piper Super Cub aeroplane! Heck yeah! A beautiful clear, calm day here with a high near 60...perfect for flying. Luckily he also hangars the plane at Millard Airport, less than a mile from my house :)

So up we went, flying to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to deliver to some airplane engine parts to an airport over there. While there we got to see an awesome P-51 Mustang WWII warplane start and fly, as well as some other cool planes.

Anyway here is a link to all the pics on Photobucket (still uploading pics) and a few for you to see here on the blog below:

Made it to Omaha :-)

Well I made it. I sit here in the house I am renting, thanking a neighbor with unsecured wireless which is allowing me to type this blog entry.

Firstly I need to say a big THANK YOU to my friend Mike Caniglia, who flew down to Daytona and did 90% of the driving of the rental truck back to Omaha. Man you want to know what a good friend looks like, take a gander at Mike Caniglia. He is A # 1 !!!

Thanks also to my friends and family who helped me load, unload and unpack stuff...in no particular order as they all helped tremendously and I love them for it.....Carl Young, Mark Tolan, Mike Morhardt, my brothers Luke and Joe, my brother in law Robert, my sister Mara, my sister in law Marcia, Bruce Krause, my nieces Sophia and Cece and my nephews Andrew, Jonah, Aiden and Roman. I mean really and truly these are GREAT family and friends, the best a guy could ask for. Thank you!

Thanks also to friends who checked in on me during my trip back, via phone calls and text messages and emails. I am very grateful to have friends who care. There's not much more important in this life than that.

So now a lot of unpacking of boxes I just packed a few days ago lies ahead. Beds to be set up, computers and tvs and all that stuff I have in my garage to be sorted through.

Here are the first few pics of my messy house. It's sure to improve over time.

St Charles, MO

Today was a fairly long day of driving, starting in Valdosta, GA and ending in St Charles, MO, a little over 800 miles. We started at 5:45 a.m. and arrived at the hotel at around 6:30 p.m.

I don't really have any good pictures. I am just beat and looking forward to going to bed. Tomorrow a.m. we will hit the road early for the final 400 some odd mioes to west Omaha.

Here are a few pics. Sorry they are not very good. I will try to do better on the pics tomorrow.

Day 2 begins

About 5:30 a.m. as I type this. Getting ready to leave in a bit, north on I-75 to Atlanta, then Chattanooga onto I-24 I believe to Nashville, into Kentucky and eventually past St Louis on I-70 to St Charles for the evening. A long day ahead, 800+ miles.

Soreness from the last few days of moving stuff and falling like a doofus is starting to be felt. Can you say Advil? :)

Made it to Valdosta

We made it to the Hawthorn Suites about midnight. Really nice room. My bed is a plush, regal, queen sized bed. Fit for a king.

Mike has a fold out sofa bed, encrusted with food particles from some previous occupant who liked to snack in bed.

Tomorrow a.m we are off at 6 and will make it to St Charles, MO by days end.

Chris go boom

Trying to squeeze the last few odds and ends on to the truck this a.m. I lost my footing at the edge of the truck and slipped. Starting to fall I grabbed for the nearest object....which unfortunately happened to be the grill perched precariously at the edge of the truck bed.

So, down I went, about a 5 foot drop, followed by the grill crashing on top of me. Ouch. Pretty much I just suffered some bruises and rash from the road I fell upon. Not bad all things considered. The bright side was it did make me forget about my wrenched lower back....for a while :)

Movin' on

Well an auspicious start to the packing this morning as I wrenched my lower back about 45 minutes in and dealt with that all day long. Ugh.

Hey, how did that Guzzi get in the truck?! That's right, Evel Galardnievel zoomed down the street and rode it right up that treacherous ramp!

Done packing for the night. Just some odds and ends left for tomorrow, then clean the carpets and rest of house and on the road tomorrow night.

Now finally time for my first meal of the day...Dominos here I come!

...because I love you too much baby.....

Trip route coming together

The route for my trip north is coming together.

I plan to leave Wednesday evening and get to Valdosta, GA, where a nice Wyndham Suites motel will greet me for the evening.

Thursday is the long day, ~800 miles or a bit more, from Valdosta to St Charles, MO. There I will stay at an Embassy Suites.

Finally Friday will be about 450 miles, which should get me to Omaha in the early to mid afternoon.

Pics of Alfa 164L at its new home

Steve, the fella from Virginia that bought my 164L, posted these pics. Man the car looks AWESOME!

Pics link 1

Pics link 2

Last full day of packing

Today's focus has been the garage. My pack rat ways have yielded a good haul of junk and stuff in the garage.

Saturday evening Alfa Club fun

So tonight I took the Spider to Daytona Beach to meet up with members of the Central Florida Alfa Romeo Club. Little did I know it was more than just an Alfa club meetup but a huge block party full of all sorts of wickedly cool cars and other modes of transport :-)

CLICK ME TO SEE ALL THE PICS!

Great Saturday a.m.

I have had a great Saturday a.m. The weather is beautiful. I got some of my garage cleaned up and packed and I took delivery of a Ms PacMan game my friend Stal Caniglia had just won on eBay.

I had not been feeling too well the last couple days but feel better today, so tonight I get to go to the Central Florida Alfa Romeo meeting in Daytona Beach at my friend Ric's place, RML Automotive. I washed and waxed and generally spiffed up the Spider in preparation for this :) and am REALLY looking forward to it!

I also got my Guzzi Stelvio back today. As usual the fellas at Scooter Superstore of Daytona, Ryan and Fish, took great care of me and replaced the fork assembly on the bike. Good as new again! You can see in the photo below the metal part of the fork clamp which had completely sheared through. Enjoy the BBQ fellas!

Even better is how I got to the Scooter Superstore...my neighbor Gerry and I took his cool SMART car there...and I got to drive it! Woohoo that was fun! Thanks Gerry!

Alfa 164L made it home....

...but not without a little adventure! REad the email below I got today from Steve, the buyer from Virginia....

Chris,

Had a good trip saw Rose and Rick in Daytona and then Ralph Lee 164 owner friend in Orange Park (he wants the seats). Stopped at 9 pm in SC and up again at 4 am.

Stayed in Santee, SC and got home 10:30 this morning.

Almost lost car to a deer at 0830 this morning in broad daylight as it ran right to left in front of me. I braked hard, missed deer or deer missed me but not hard enough, as I nailed hunting dog's hind quarters that was chasing it in left corner of front bumper and popped/broke off head light washer nozzle and blistered some clear coat on bumper. Damn deer hunters and their pick up trucks with dog cages. Happened just a couple miles from VA state line once I left I-95 to get to here. God was with me is all I got to say.

Thanks again for the radio it keep me good company. I ship it out soon.

Steve

Farewell friend

Enjoy your new life in Virginia Beach...

Dutch rub

Well I had a fun time last Friday night for a few hours with some friends at Liam's pub. At times it got a bit boisterous but all in good fun.

I was even the victim of the infamous "dutch rub" aka "noogie" as perpetrated by my pal Mikey. Note Cap'n Jim off to the side enjoying the drubbing I am taking.

Things remembered

By nature I am a pack rat. I keep some things for years and years and years after I prolly should have rid myself of them. Not sure why really, but I think maybe I figure they will be useful to me again someday. Or maybe unearthing something special from underneath a pile of other things will bring a smile to my face, or a laugh or maybe even a tear or two.

Over the last few weeks as I have been slowly but surely packing things in preparation for my move, I have unearthed some of these things that were/are special to me. I guess in some cases the word unearthed is not really correct, because some things I kept and I knew exactly where I put them, but I had to keep them out of sight to keep them out of my mind.

So tonight is one of those nights especially where I am running across a lot of things with special meaning to me....and I am glad tonight that I am a pack rat :-)

Henceforth and Forthwith

Upon my return to the Great Plains, one of the first orders of business shall be to call upon my old brewing partner, Mike "The Enforcer" Morhardt (MM) with the goal of re-establishing ourselves as the preeminent home brewers in the central USA sector.

We shall embark upon this quest with a batch of SIMCOE HOP ALE.


Winter is a special time for brewers, with many breweries releasing IPAs and other strong and hoppy ales. This recipe is in that tradition with hearty portions of Simcoe flavor and aroma hops. Simcoe is a relatively new hop, good for both bittering and aroma and is the signature hop in this recipe. It is a nice alternative to the sometimes overused Cascade hop.

6 Lbs Gold liquid malt extract
3.3 Lbs Amber liquid malt extract
1/2 Lb British Crystal (55L)
1/2 Lb Aromatic Malt
1/2 Lb Munich 40 L
1 Lb British Pale Malt
1 oz Simcoe bittering hops
1 oz Simcoe flavor hops (boil 25 minutes)
1 oz Simcoe aroma hops (boil 5 minutes)
1 oz Simcoe aroma hops (add after you shut off heat)

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale or Whitbread Ale dry yeast.

Last Guzzi outing with Florida friends

This morning I hooked up with some of my Florida motorcycling friends, Andrew, Angela and Eddie for a final ride before I head back to the midwestern USA Thanksgiving week.

We headed out on some nice Florida backroads to the Osteen Diner for breakfast....mmmmm, blueberry pancakes n bacon! After breakfast we explored some more roads and did a nice big 90 minute loop, eventually getting back to where we started in the a.m.

Next was a nice ride along even more nice roads, some with good twists and turns, leading to the quaint little town of Mt Dora. There we saw some cool motorcycles, cars, and lots of neat shops. A delicious lunch followed and then finally the ride back home.

All in all a wonderful day in gorgeous Florida exploring many fun roads with great friends.

CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE PICS ON PHOTOBUCKET