Happy New Year!

A bit belated, perhaps, but with our best wishes!

A selfie…with the boss!

2014 is off to a great start for me.   We just kind of kicked back today, watched the Rose Parade in the morning, had a great Italian dinner last night, and we’re waiting to pick up my daughter at the airport a little later tonight.   Both of my daughters, my son-in-law, and my cousin Bobby’s daughter Hilary spent the Christmas break and New Year’s Eve in New Orleans.  I love that town (it’s an American gem…one of the greatest cities in the country), and judging by the photos the kids posted on Facebook, it looks like they had an awesome time.   They’re grown up now, and it’s cool seeing them having fun like this.  Life is good.

I’m enjoying the time off.   I spent a lot of time in the garage and I’m happy to report that nearly everything is working…got the air compressor fixed and all the tires on all the toys are as pumped up as I am.  Set up my 9mm reloader and I cranked out 500 rounds this afternoon, so I’m ready to go to the range and scare a few paper targets.   Got all my tools organized, found all the missing sockets, and everything is in its place.

The doc told me I need to exercise more, so the boss and I got out for a walk in the later afternoon.   We bumped into my good buddy Marty (he’s a walker, too), and he was pretty excited – he just bought a new 6-series Beemer.    Susie and I walked with Marty over to his place, and he gave us a ride in his new turbocharged toy.   Wowee!

Marty and the Teutonic turbo…an awesome ride!

Like a lot of folks, I’ve made my resolutions for 2014 and I aim to keep them.  There’s the aforementioned exercise – and I’ve got a good start on that (I’m going to walk, hit the gym, or ride my bike every day this year).    I’m going to get more seat time on the motorcycles this year (both the KLR and the Scooter).    We’ll be setting up a CSC company ride up in the mountains sometime this month (keep an eye on the blog).   The Baja Blaster is running great, and I’ll get out on it for a bit tomorrow.

The Baja Blaster…a bike that absolutely stands out in any setting!

Another resolution is the Mustang book.   I’ve been focused on other things, but the first quarter of 2014 is going to see a real focus on our book about the Mustang.   My good buddy Jimbo Cavanaugh gave me the  nudge I needed on this project, and we’re going to crank on this one.   I promise you…it will be great.   The Mustang story is one that deserves to be in a book…and I know a couple of guys who have some great Mustang photos!

J and I have been talking about the next Baja trip, and that’s most likely going to be in late March.  The gray whales are down there from January through early April, and March is a good time to see them.   By then they’ve grown used to the turistas like us going out in those small boats to see them, so they are a lot friendlier.   It doesn’t rain as much in Baja in March, either, so it should be good all the way around.   We’ll probably take our KLRs on this trip…but we’ll see…if we get enough interest from our CSC buddies, we might just do the trip on our California Scooters!

One last thing, folks…the response on the Bike in a Box program has been good, and Steve is going to continue it for just a bit longer.   If you want the ultimate project bike at a price that is just flat awesome, this is your ticket in!

The Bike in a Box…if you want a bike you can say you built, this is it!

That’s it for now, folks.  Enjoy the day and our best wishes for a healthy and happy 2014!