I'm off to Leatherwood; finally!!!! Man, what a day. I thought packing without all my tent and camping gear, since we've rented a mighty fine mountain Leatherwood cabin for the week, would reduce all the crap I normally take when going to an endurance ride. Haha, fat chance. Looks like we just changed stuff. I did not realize that a mountain trip required a complete change in wardrobe; not for me, but for the ladies. Hiking boots, thermal sub-zero jackets; possessions that I thought we did not own. Turns out we didn't until a month or so ago. It's amazing what you can order from those mail order catalog companies, cause I know this stuff didn't come out of any Florida mall I've been to lately. I checked out my truck this morning and noticed my left front tire was rubbed bald on the inside. Isn't that just friggen special? I knew I should have checked this earlier in the month, but I just assumed all was well; Michelin tires last forever, right? Yea, sure they do. Well, Discount Tire here we go. And two hours and 550 bucks later, I got a brand new set of Pirellis. Let's see, the cabin's 900, gas will be around 200 round trip, my booze bill will probably be another 100 or so higher than usual, cold weather clothing was 600, the extra sheets my wife purchased for those queen size beds in Leatherwood (we have King or double at home) was another 100, those new boots for hiking for the wife and kid came to 155, the money I had to pay my probation officer (bribe) to let me leave the state was 250; man, enough already. I figure Leatherwood's gonna run me like 500 bucks a day. But, hey, am I complaining? No way Jose! My Grandmother was born in North Carolina in a place called Canton (it's a big city now, but I don't think it was when she lived there) so here I go, retracing my ROOTS. Kunta Kinteee Bramhall you can call me this week. Grandma died right after 9/11 and I'm not so sure it was coincidental. I think she just figured it's time to go, that this is when she decided, "I've dealt with enough crap in my life; I'm not dealing with this." Grandma lived though the depression, Roosevelt (both of them), Coolidge, Kennedy, and tricky-Dickie Nixon. She never understood why I adored Clinton like I did, but that's another story. Anyway, I miss her dearly, and if I can find her house (I'm sure it's tore down), or just the land where she first lived, I will. And then it's off to find Cold Mountain, which is just south of Canton. Oh, well, I digress as usual, even though I'm not sure what the point of this post is anyway, except to say I'll be off Ridecamp for 8 or 9 days and I hope ya'll don't miss me too much. I'm off to do the one thing that I love more than any other, and I know I'm not alone. I know most of ya'll feel the same way. And it's why I bother to write, as poor as that is. And it's why I get up in the morning. And it's why I hope to see some of ya there this week-end. Live to ride and ride to live. It's the only way. cya, Howard (did I mention my moonshine bill is another hundred? lol)
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