Jun 15, 2012 - Some Historical Sites

I wanted to include two of my favorite pictures of the church at Maughold that I somehow forgot to include in my previous post. The graveyard at the side of the church contains some of the oldest stones that are fully visible dated in the late 1700's. There are a number of stones in this area that are only partially visible as the largest part of the stones are now buried. The existing church was built sometime in the 11th to 12th centuries. Original chapels existed on this site from the Celtic Era in the 6th or 7th century. Maughold was...

Jun 10, 2012 - Beautiful Day, and Great Scenery

I hit the road at 8:30 and was able to ride the mountain course from Ramsey to Douglas. It was a clear, sunny ride through all the familiar landmarks. I will add pics and video clips of the amazing scenery in another post. The one picture I do have is from the parking garage roof for the Manx Museum in Douglas. If you look closely you can see the mist moving in off of the sea. I wanted to go through the museum before my sightseeing tour on Monday, but it was closed. So I headed off to see the rest of the island. The highlight of the day is...

Jun 10, 2012 - Scenery Teasers

Anne noticed that depression set in when all of my fellow TT-obsessed visitors left the island. It is like a ghost town. So she took me for a bit of sightseeing tonight and we took her two dogs for a great walk along the bay in Maughold (pronounced Mack-old). If you look very closely at a couple of the pictures you will see what looks like dark clouds on the horizon out at sea. That is actually England. There was a bit of a haze so it isn't really clear in the picture. One of the really cool things about this island is that it has sites...

Jun 9, 2012 - Another great day

It's late here so I'll keep this short. I woke up this morning about 7:00 to the alarm I set so I could get up and ride the mountain road before it was closed for the races. I headed out at about 7:40, and climbed the mountain only to find that it was so foggy that I could not see beyond 20 feet in front of me. Needless to say, it was a long trip to Douglas. Not to worry, I was on a mission to complete my autograph collection so I headed straight for the paddock. I would have my 5 favorites or die trying! I knew I would have to be there...

Jun 8, 2012 - Senior TT Race postponed until tomorrow

The races were canceled today due to weather, and will be run tomorrow. Rain again all day (at least so far at 4 PM), but I hope to get out to Douglass for the concluding fireworks show at 10:00. I feel bad for the fans heading home tomorrow, but I will enjoy the races much more if it's sunny. I did finally manage to get my video from Ballacrain edited to a palatable duration. It can be viewed at http://youtu.be/379gbtwmhBw. I was invited next door to visit with one of Anne's neighbors, Bob, Chrissy, and their two girls. What a great visit....

Jun 7, 2012 - I promised a dorky picture, and I am a man of my word

So there you have it. The first picture is of me in my stunning hi-viz yellow suit. Quite the stylish outfit eh? When you combine that with my white and red boots, or "foot prisons" as I call them, and my bright red helmet you have all the trappings of a true fashion hound. The third picture is taken from the ramp up to the refreshment stand at Ballacrain. In case I haven't mentioned it before, you can "spectate" (no, not expectorate) from a lot of places along the race route for free. The only place you have to pay is at the grandstand at...

Jun 6, 2012 - Fear and Loathing in Ballacrain

No pictures tonight. I do have a lot of video of the three races that I will edit down and post tomorrow. I got to Ballacrain at around 09:45 today so I could get a great seat on the stone wall before the roads were closed for the 10:45 race. The seat was so awesome that I decided to stay there for over 10 hours. The morning started out wet and rainy so naturally the races were all delayed. Instead of starting at 10:45, they didn't start until 3:30 so that the roads could dry. There is no way they are going to let these guys run if they are...

Jun 5, 2012 - Yesterday and Today

As I look at the pictures and captions that I posted last night, I think that they tell pretty much the whole story by themselves. I got to watch three races from Bray Hill, the Supersport (4 laps), Superstock (4 laps), and Electric Bike (1 lap) Races. Also got to watch the Sidecar Practice Lap. I still can't get over the mad speed at which these guys fly down Bray Hill. It's especially terrifying when one guy has caught up with the one in front, and they shoot over the hill on each others tail. We got to watch from a local family's front...

Jun 3, 2012 - What happened to my weather?

It rained today. It was cold. No joy on the mountain for us. Sadly, a 29 year old died on the course when he ran into the rear end of a "bin" or garbage truck on a blind curve. Pretty tragic. On a trivial note, I did get some t-shirt shopping done, and rode the Western leg of the course on my way back home tonight. It was cold and dark, but it wasn't wet any more. I lost my glasses so this will be very short. Hey! you don't have to be so happy about that. Goodnight.

Jun 2, 2012 - So where did the last 24 hours go?

I apologize for not having pictures from the trip over on the ferry, but my strange adventures between Manchester and Heysham Pier left me unable to dig out the camera. I picked up the bike around 3:00 pm and had to get into my track leathers right away. The paniers on the VFR are about the size of a shoebox so it was the only way I could avoid leaving half of my belongings behind. I thought I had everything sorted and jumped onto the bike. It was then that I realized it was an automatic/standard bike which means there is no clutch. You...

Jun 2, 2012 - Day 1 on the IoM

Again, I must apologize for the lack of photos. I need to upgrade my travel log account so I can upload more photos. I will do that once I get my wireless dongle and secure my connection so I can make financial transactions. The first picture that you see with this post (more about photo 2, "The special toilet", later)is of my two new friends, Dondra and Andy. Dondra's husband (who is very into remote control airplanes - not motorcycles)is best friends with Andy who loves biking (and is a very good sport bike pilot). Dondra is also a sport...

Dec 7, 2010 - Welcome to our journal!

Welcome to our "My Trip Journal"! This is Gemma and my first attempt at creating a post on this online journal, after having set up our itinerary and maps. We'll try to update this during our trip to record our memories and photos - depending on the availability of internet and bandwidth! We hope that the snowy weather in the UK will warm up this weekend so that we can get away on time... We looked up the forecast for Cambodia and Vietnam today and the temperatures range from 22 at night to 32 in the day time. Much better than the 0...