20 in 20 & 20

Instead of 7 days since our last issue, it has been 20. This morning, while driving the 2.5 hours south to Boston airport, I saw it was 73 degrees, 73 MPH on the cruise control setting & speedo and I had driven 7.3 miles since filling up the tank and resetting my trip-meter. Those coincidences that entertain children still entertain me even though I turn 35 in 21 days.20 days since our last issue, 20 new subscribers and the 20th issue since I kicked off this blog 27 weeks ago on the 27th of January. I swear, the number play is going to out the door after this introductory section.Since the last update, I’ve added 150 new YouTube subscribers and a few new paying members here and on YouTube. That’s always mind blowing to me. My Husqvarna is back from the shop, as is my RAM 1500 and over the next 6 days, I have to:Inspect 4 Motoryclces (state inspection)Inspect 2 CarsInstall 2 license plates on the truckSpend $800 putting a 10 year ValueGuard Undercoating on my truck for rust-proofingPickup a trailerAttend 3 board meetingsSurvive this 4 day trip to Branson MO for a BMW MOA Board planning sessionLoad up the truck with 2 motorcycles…and by this day next week, drive 1,000 south to Asheville for the BMW RA Rally.Heather is helpful. She’s home getting everything ready for our first out of state motorcycle rally. Now that we have the truck, we can affix its permanent license plate which is “MOTOMVR” and put a bike in the back and another in a trailer and load up for a road trip. I have no issue driving the 1,000 miles south to Waynesville, NC for a rally but Heather won’t so a big reason for the truck is allowing her to join me at motorcycle events that are more than a couple of hours away. We want to do things together but she just doesn’t want to do a 1,000 mile day.The state of New Hampshire always celebrates my birthday by sending me a fat state registration bill. This year’s bill is higher than ever. 4 bikes, 2 cars and a trailer means my 2021 registration is $2300. It’s the cost of doing business, I guess. People mention how great it must be to not have sales tax but my property & auto registrations make me feel otherwise. The money has to come from somewhere to fund our volunteer fire department and one peacekeeper who works 9-5 :)I won’t bore you with the rust-proofing bits at length but it’s my first time doing a permanent rust proofing on a car/truck. I usually take every car to a shame every year for a $99 spray. This shop will guarantee 10 years of coating for $800 and that includes a free inspection every 2 years where they’ll do touch ups if there’s any cracking. Not bad…we’ll see if it holds up. It’s a LineX product and RAM 1500s..well the ones I see around here are rolling rust-farms after a couple of years.The BMW MOA is both more time than I expected it to be as a Secretary on their national board of directors but also less involved than I expected. I think that’ll change when I begin participation on committees and I may regret this naive statement after this weekend. In short, we’ve had one board meeting in Montana to induct new members (me and 2 others) and another session where I, as secretary, took notes during an open session with our members in person which was a lot of fun. We’ve had a Zoom meeting last week which was a normal board meeting and now I’m flying down to Branson where the MOA will hold a strategic planning session. My next in person session is in November in Ohio which I’ll probably drive to given it’s under 1,000 miles.There are some discussions, touch points, ‘noise’ if you will but good noise, not bickering or ineffective noise. Then we have an agenda and officers / committee chairs file reports and the board meeting flows smoothly. It’s a pretty well oiled machine and I’m surrounded by a lot of very smart and talented people that I can learn a lot from. I’m looking forward to this strategic session that starts tonight and I hope to get a lot out of it.After the BMW RA Rally next week, we’ll have put another 2,000 miles on the new truck (it’s at 4500 now) and then we return back to the south to the Performance Center in South Carolina (another 2,000 miles) for the GS Trophy Qualifier. Then a few local rallies that will require I load up our local club’s trailer and then drive out to Ohio in November and finally, Alabama in December for a month long ‘work form anywhere’ trip that my work approved of (part of their large global initiative where employees can work anywhere up to 90 calendar days per year).This update reads more like a personal blog but as for motorcycling, I’m glad to have the Husky 701 back. The issue was fuel related and it was covered under warranty. Brand new bike, these kind of things happen. I just wish the dealer was closer and that they had more availability.I’ve been getting out on the new MotoZ Tractionator RallZ tires on the R1200GS Adventure. GS Trophy is in 4 weeks so I need to keep training. My slow speed, full lock, right handers are still suffering where I drop the bike every once out of every ten 360 degree turns at next to stalling speeds. One of my riding buddies grew up doing dual sport hare scrambles and has offered to take me out to work out 180 degree full lock turns from a stop to make my way around barrels with these sort of ‘on a penny’ sort of turns. I hope he’s not wasting his time but it’s a skill I will use in the qualifier and I’m not good at it today.I’m writing this last section on Sunday waiting for my ride to the airport. It was a fantastic 4 days with the board of directors and, like a distant memory, I can’t believe I wrote above how little work there has been so far. It’s about to get a whole lot busier!I’d like to leave you all with a few photos from the last couple of weeks: