Sunday, May 20, 2012

Turtles And Spring Cleaning

Today was Billie's day and we'll get to that. But first, yesterday was Heather and my first real land paddle of 2012. I don't know why we haven't been out sooner. The weather certainly hasn't been the problem. I'm guessing we've just been hiking more.

But yesterday the trails in Illinois were calling to us and we answered.

It seems it was turtle day. This is turtle #1.

This is turtle #2.

Turtle #3 was catching some sun on one end of this pond, while.....

Turtle #4 was doing much the same thing on the other edge of the pond.

In addition to turtles we saw deer, wild turkeys, and a white heron, but they all escaped the camera.  We think we may have spotted a bobcat as well, but aren't certain. Heather did get a photo, but it is of Loch Ness monster quality, so not very helpful or conclusive.

And, on the way back across the Mississippi River I took this photo of the Arch just for you (you know who you are).

Today was Billie's day.  Today Billie got her Spring bath. Chris over at Everyday Riding is on a seven week moto adventure which has already taken him to Alaska. He isn't fooling me. I'm thinking the real reason he took this trip was to postpone cleaning off the winter grime from his Ural. The stuff we spray on our bikes to keep them from becoming rust buckets does its job, but the Spring cleaning is no fun.

I'd like to think I've been busy and not practicing avoidance. That said, I will admit the springtime bath is not my favorite job.

This I can't blame on the ACF-50. This is caused by my lazy self not lifting my leg up enough when I mount Billie. Yep, those are boot scuff marks.

This is winter grime....

And, so is this.

It was much worse last spring. This winter was very mild and I had only a handful of "chemical days"--those days the road crews spray "ice melt" on the roads. Still, the grime builds up.

Gone are the smudges.

The chrome is shining

The grime is gone for now.
 
And, notice no rust on the wheels.

And here she is, ready to get dirty again.

14 comments:

  1. Wow, shiny! Billie looks brand new to me. Please feel free to visit and clean my scoot, too.

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    1. Sonja,
      I've had my fill of cleaning until next Spring, but thanks for offering :)

      And, did you like the photo of the Arch?
      ~k

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  2. Ooooh shiny. That is the one thing I still need to do to Max, spring cleaning.

    Oh well I still have a month of spring left.

    Thanks for the turtle pictures. I've never seen any around here. Maybe it isn't the right habitat for them.

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    1. Apparently this is the time of the year turtles are on the move. We hardly see them except during spring.

      It is nice to have the winter cleaned off Billie. Now to get some summer on her.

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  3. oh no! you caught me! lol. yea, the ural is still sitting there under the grime. I just put some stabil in the tank and left it on the charger. gotta swap to summer tires on it as well.

    thanks for the mention :)

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    Replies
    1. I did have a rather busy spring...getting ready for the trip and all :)

      You're welcome for the mention.

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  4. So was your land paddling expedition great? There is nothing better than a lovely clean bike! I hate it when my bike is dirty. Good cleaning job!

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    1. The land paddling was great. We had to cut it short. Heather forgot her gloves and her hands are soft. They were starting to hurt. Better stop early than making it into an ordeal.

      Actually on the clean bike thing, I'm more comfortable when the bike looks rather lived in.

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  5. Billie looks great! You are making me feel guilty though. Max needs some touching up also and I seem to constantly figure out a way to put it off.

    Jimbo

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    1. Funny you should mention figuring out ways to put it off. I'd been successfully managing that until Billie started to look like she needs new tires. I've got 9000mi on my Gazelles. So, I wanted to get the grime off before my tech guy got it. I kind of ended up with a have-to.

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  6. Whoa!! Way too shiny. You wanna attract bad juju? The very first time I EVER waxed my first car I got into an accident. Took me years to work up the ability to ever wax another car. Didn't want to jinx anything, ya know?

    That said...she shure is purty. ;)

    Nice turtle snaps. We have our share here, but I love hearing about the other critters you encountered!

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    1. I'm riding in fear fo the "bad juju". Hopefully, she will be dirty soon and I can exhale again.

      On the critters: I wished I'd got the shot of the deer. Just missed that one. Too, bad the photo Heather took of the mystery beast didn't turn out.

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