| Author | Message | ||
     Lemonchili_x1 |
Hey folks, not quite sure how I did it, but I've managed to get a trip to a conference in Santa Clara approved  I'll be at the ConnectivityWeek conference 23rd to 26th May, then heading to LA for some meetings on friday and staying with Doerman (thank you!) over the weekend, which I now know is the Memorial Day weekend. It'll be a quick trip, but I'm *really* looking forward to it and hoping to catch up with a few Badwebbers in my travels  cheers, chili | ||
| Slaughter |
YOU MUST get in touch with Al Lighton and crew. It will be a good excuse for them to ride up. I PM'd you - and am sorry can't make it - long story. If you're in Santa Clara - you MUST make arrangements to test ride a ZERO - 30 miles away in Santa Cruz! | ||
| Glitch |
Wrong coast  | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Bummer I managed to plan the exact days when you're away Slaughter, but I will have to drop Al and Reindog and Eweaver a line and see if they'll be around . I will see if I can check out Zero, that would be uber cool (and kind of related to the conference in a way, hehehe), but days will be pretty full in Santa Clara. I'd like to go and visit JT&S too, if I get the chance. "Wrong coast " Sorry dude. I'll have to do a good job this time so I can score a trip to head office in Kennesaw next time! | ||
| Glitch |
Kennesaw? Head Office? That's really cool. There's lots of history there, and in surrounding areas, so even if you were here on business, we could visit, and take in a bit of site seeing! | ||
| Buellish |
Dave,we could take Chili on a charge up Kennesaw Mountain and then introduce him to the General! | ||
| Glitch |
I was thinking close to the same thing! | ||
| Whatever |
COOLIO... I wish I could be there... EVERYONE... whatever you do... DO NOT ASK REINDOG TO PARK YOUR BIKE...  | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
DO NOT ASK REINDOG TO PARK YOUR BIKE... Do I want to know???  How much does the Memorial Day Weekend effect things? I'd like to do some shopping on the saturday or sunday, will many places be closed? | ||
| Doerman |
Not at all.. Things are definitely open that weekend. We might also be able to take in a nice parade here and there! | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Sounds very cool! I'm thinking I might bring my helmet with me too and see if we get a chance for a ride somewhere | ||
| Doerman |
What size is your noggin again? You have a choice of S, M and L at your disposal. | ||
| Slaughter |
I have a fat head - if he needs XL helmet, get in touch. Goes for jacket, boots, gloves... stuff that is a pain to pack on the plane. | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Thanks guys I'm an L in most brands. It's a familiarity thing, if I have my helmet I feel more comfortable much faster on a bike I don't know. I'll see if it fits in the bag, if not it's no drama. 3 weeks to go, man this year is going fast! | ||
| Reindog |
Like FiremanJim, I am fine at 100 mph but suck out loud at 1-2 mph. Actually, I leaned to the Left which is a big mistake. Always lean to the Right. (Message edited by reindog on May 02, 2011) | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Tickets are booked, it's all go! I'd been hoping to use my Blackberry while in the US so I could keep track of work emails, but it seems the international roaming charges are very high... $0.50 flag fall for every data session initiation and $0.015 per Kb. There is a fixed plan for 10Mb but I'm not really sure how quickly I would use that  . | ||
| Whatever |
Chili... just bring a laptop... almost any coffee house has WiFi. No charge. But you probably knew that. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Chili, when I flew home my helmet (in the helmet bag it came with) was my "personal item" for carry on, and it was stuffed with other things likes gloves, camera, etc. Just and idea. | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
I'll be bringing the laptop, it would just be really convenient to be able to check the email on the phone and if something's urgent I can fire up the laptop and reply. Due to changes in schedules by others I have three projects starting commissioning the day after I get to the US  I've been trying to find out how much data I've been using on the phone in the last few months, and it seems there's no way to find out from the Blackberry or my provider... which begs the question, how do they know how much to charge me??? Mark - That's what I did when we came back last time and it worked really well. I'll have the laptop this time. Was the helmet your only carry on "bag"? | ||
| Xl1200r |
Was the helmet your only carry on "bag"? No. The seat bag I had with me (can be seen in the photos from that trip http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/681 7/580569.html?1279122576 ) was my carry on, the helmet was my personal item. You're allowed one of each (I think this rule exists so women can have a purse and a carry on without fuss). The only downside is if you get a small plane, they may make some people check their carry on (not their personal item) planeside, and it will depend on the airline on how they choose. I had to do this on my trip, but since my bag was just clothes there was nothing to break. I'd bet if you explained both items were fragile and expensive, and your laptop bag isn't massive, they'd let you be one of the ones to keep your stuff with you, but you may want to call or check to see what equippment you'll be flying on (I'm assuming you'll go through Sydney from Brisbane to get to LAX). If you're running a DASH-8 or a 737 (or the airbus equivalent) then you won't have a problem, but some of the small regional jets only have overhead storage on one side. (Message edited by xl1200r on May 11, 2011) | ||
| Brumbear |
Cycle gear 69 bucks new helmet probably cheaper then sendin it | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Cycle gear 69 bucks new helmet probably cheaper then sendin it If I don't take mine Doerman has some spares that fit, but if I have mine I get used to my surroundings faster, if that makes sense. I find it always takes me a while to get used to a new helmet. The seat bag I had with me ... was my carry on, the helmet was my personal item Gotcha, thought that's what you meant. I will see later this week how everything fits in my bag and go from there. The last couple of weeks have gone so quick!  | ||
| Xl1200r |
I'm still jealous of your trip - friends of mine are now in Las Vegas after some time in CoCal... I can't wait to get back there sometime. I need to drop Asbjorn a line, haven't talked to him in a while. He'd be proud, I'm cooking more | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
I'm still jealous of your trip - friends of mine are now in Las Vegas after some time in CoCal... I can't wait to get back there sometime. You're not the only one who's jealous! We'll have to organise another trip some time to meet up somewhere... Las Vegas maybe??? Alright, ready to rock'n'roll... actually I haven't started packing and I'm still flat out at work, but it'll all be good I've sorted out the phone/email thing, I'm going to pick up a cheap "smartphone" ($30 to $70)Straight-Talk-Samsung-R355C-Prepaid-Full-QWERTY-Ke yboard-Cell-Phone and a 30 day unlimited talk/text/data card ($50) which is still cheaper than any deal my local provider can supply. It's a bit of an experiment about staying in touch with my projects while I'm away, it'll be interesting to see how it goes, and I'll have the handset for the next trip. I have a whole heap of reading I'd hoped to do before the trip which is now going to be something to help put me to sleep on the plane I wonder how long the laptop battery will last? | ||
| Xl1200r |
If you decide to come back for a transcontinental ride, I'd suggest starting in the east and working west. If I were to go the other way, I'd have a hard time fighting the urge to just turn around not much past Wyoming. | ||
| Doerman |
So Cilli... have you and the Vampress coordinated the shopping ahead of time? This is what's waiting for you even before you arrive at my house:  USPS, UPS, FedX have frequently visited my house the last few days. Maybe you and I have to do some luggage shopping this weekend?  | ||
| Doerman |
One more package arrived after I had taken that picture. No issues. We're close to Long Beach. Great container port!  | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Maybe you and I have to do some luggage shopping this weekend? Ohhhhh, far out... a container sounds about right . I can do some creative repacking, but I think you're right, I'm going to need another bag Well, the conference is finished and my brain is full of open systems, standards, data analysis modeling and "the cloud"... One more meeting tomorrow, then it's time for some chilling out with friends! | ||
| Motorcyclemike |
It's time to ride! | ||
| Vampress |
Hehehe..I may have done a little pre-emptive shopping for him to bring home Some of it is business and some for fun, but he's great at packing things, so we'll be fine. Once you get all that gear out of the boxes it looks a whole lot less-trust me! I have sent a BIG empty suitcase with him (well it will be once he sends out a few goody packages) and he has his super mega Buell bag too., We made sure he packed minimal clothes so there was more room for twinkies | ||
| Americanmadexb |
I love them spongy bastards! | ||
| Vampress |
Sounds like Chili is having a great time in L.A with Asbjorn and Melanie already. He has managed to get a business meeting and a little ride time in and some more shopping!!! Only a few more days and I'll have him back. We are missing him greatly. Any of you who wish to stow away in his luggage and come for a visit, it might be a tight squeeze, but feel free | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
"Sounds like Chili is having a great time in L.A with Asbjorn and Melanie already. He has managed to get a business meeting and a little ride time in and some more shopping!!!" Indeed I have The weather has been great (hey, it's California, of course it has), and it's been really cool just hanging out with Asbjorn and Melanie. My cheap phone has worked fine. It has no email app, but I setup work email to forward to hotmail and that was great a couple of times when I couldn't get to the laptop. Char is right though, there is WiFi everywhere, and a netbook or an iPad makes a whole heap of sense to me now, they're so easy to carry around. I had a meeting on friday with Sunbelt Controls which went well, really nice bunch of people. I learned a bit about what's different (and what's the same) about what we do in the US compared to home, and I learned about a couple of cool software products that I need to look into a bit more. Then we went cruising around (Asbjorn is a great GPS) looking at nerdy stuff, but I didn't go too crazy in the guitar store and just browsed in the cycling store. There was a trip to Walmart for my passport home (Twinkies!) too Saturday was very chilled out with a trip to Bartels where I spied a very cool flat track style custom with an XB motor, and then a very late breakfast by the beach.   Yesterday afternoon I disappeared up into the hills on Li'l Blue, and after we learned to talk the same language the XB9R and I got on really well, what an awesome, FUN bike.  It's been a great trip, but I'm looking forward to being *home* | ||
| Vampress |
And it's soooo good to have him home Big thanks to Asbjorn and Melanie from me, for looking after Chili while he was abroad and we are really hoping to get back there together sooner than later. Sounds like we have good reason to be back there next year... But we'll see how it all pans out. Passport check was all good on arrival...  and this appeared right over the airport as I was driving to pick him up!!  |
