As 2011's death rattle can be herd in the not so far off distance, I found myself bored at work. Which lead to surfing and to the enlightenment that VFD has not been block by the IT Nazis. So, why not start a blog!

Let me start off by saying that 2011 was a year of highs and lows but ended on a good run of highs. Any of you who have me as a friend on Facebook may or may not remember that the first half of the year I was stuck working 7 days a week 70-90 hours a week. This does nothing good for any part of one's life, espeically if you are a salary employee like me. Then out of the blue a recruiter found a three year old resume of mine on Careerbuilder.com and called me for a job interview. Long story short, I took the job in August and life has been good again since. I am now the Materials Manager for Hearthside Foods in London, KY where we make all kinds of goodies from Oreos to Teddy Graham's and nearly every breakfast bar on the market. It's a pretty good gig!

My riding in 2011 was really limited due to the work schedule but I did manage three good trips this year. The first was a weekend get away with my girl to Deal's Gap. It was her first ever overnight trip on the bike and she did great! We had a very good trip and spent the weekend chasing waterfalls in NC. Good stuff.

The second trip was one of those where me and a fellow rider, Kenny (KCPhoto on VFRD) took off for four days with no real plans other than to ride The Back of the Dragon in VA, and make the rest up as we go. If you've never done a trip like that let me say you haven't lived! The Back of the Dragon, it's great and everyone should add it to your MUST list. Don't confuse it with The Tail of the Dragon which we found ourselves playing on two days later. HA! We road the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit and then some great roads in the Natahala forest and wound up in Franklin,NC where we would then run the "Cooler Run" down to Helen and back accross the Cherohala and Dragon to spend the night at the resort. They had a room so what the hell! The last day of the ride we hit the Devil's Triangle and some great riding in KY on our way home through the Danniel Boone forest.

The third trip was an impromtue adventure with one of my buddies who rides a big old Harely, Ryan. He had planned a trip to Deal's Gap to stay at the Pumpkin Center just north of the Gap on US129 and long story short several folks bailed on him and he had a cabin. So, turns out everyone bailed on him... So it was the two of us again with very little planning but that's cool. When riding with a cruiser it's a little different, but Ryan used to have an FZ1 so, he knows how to ride the curves and for two days we rode around the mountains of NC and TN at a relaxing but not boring pace. Very good trip!

I managed to get some pretty good recordings with my GoPro HD in 2011, but not nearly what I wanted. Guess I have that to look forward to in 2012. Also, getting them edited and published on the web like I want, but my dinosaur PC doen't play well with HD recording so editing is out until a new laptop arrives.

Finally, 2011 found me in the best relationship of my life and in September I popped the question and she said YES! So, nine years after my first attempt at marrige, I'm diving back in. Carri and I will we Feb. 18th in Gatlinburg. Guess it will be a little cool to make that a bike trip, but expect it will be great anyway!

Look for more blogs to come in 2012 and Happy New Year!