Gophers and Cheese

Father's Day was Sunday and I treated myself to an afternoon ride after a wonderful breakfast with my wife and daughter at Psycho Suzi's .  I hadn't taken the Road King out for a while so it was nice.  I sometimes forget how ridiculously comfortable that bike is.  I rode north I-35, cut west on US-8 and headed a little past Taylors Falls on the St Croix Scenic Byway .  Then I headed back south and stopped briefly at P.D. Pappy's in Stillwater before heading home. Here's a shot of my Road King.

Lucky #13 arrived today.

I am beyond excited to share the new Gophers and Cheese logo at the top of the page.  I contacted Shawn Dickinson a few months ago to see if he would be interested in drawing something up.  I've never commissioned artwork before but I really couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. If you're not familiar with Shawn's work, I think it most closely resembles classic Looney Tunes cartoons, but with a hot rod style.  Here's just a small sampling of his work that I really like.  You can find lots more on his blog and you can buy his work in his store .      

These are some old photos of my father on his BSA, all dressed up.  A white suit and no front fender was a bold choice.  He doesn't have the BSA any longer but he still rides the 1976 Triumph Bonneville that he bought brand new. Happy Father's Day Pop!

Crap!!!  I had my dates mixed up due to an old event flyer still on the Viking Chapter's website that I re-posted earlier this week.  Had I double-checked my own Events Calendar on the right side of my own blog (or my accurate post back on 3/24 ), I would have noticed the Vintage Motorcycle Show was Friday & Saturday, not Saturday & Sunday.  I was planning to attend Sunday due to the much nicer weather forecast so I totally missed out.  Now I'll have to wait for 2014.  Dammit. My sincere apologies to anyone who got bad info from my post on Wednesday.

Same photos, different filters.  In case you're curious, these photos were taken with my iPhone 4 and the filters were applied using the BeFunky app.  The multi-photo one was created with the PicFrame app.  In all cases, I added the text later on my PC.

This past Saturday, I took a ride downtown, had coffee at Bob's , and then snapped some photos behind the Intermedia Arts building.  They change the artwork often and it's one of my very favorite places to take photos.

If you like old bikes, don't miss the Viking Chapter Antique Motorcycle Club Show & Swap Meet and the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club Show.  Both are held at the State Fairgrounds and if you go on Sunday, you can see both for one low price.   I've attended this event 4 of the last 5 years and highly recommend it.  Check out my Guide To Local Events page for links to past blog posts and pics. CORRECTION: Bad info! The show was the 14th and 15th. I had posted correct info in some places but grabbed the flyer above from the Viking Chapter website and they must not have updated it from 2012.  Dammit!

Overall, I think I spent close to 3 hours at First Thursday at Dulono's Pizza.  I do like getting there early and getting a parking spot in the main lot.  It is the best bike night in the Twin Cities by far and it keeps me coming back month after month. I noticed one of my favorite local bikes was parked across the street, this shovelhead with louvered tank. The bike next to it was cool too, though a little more understated. Back in the main lot there was a display for the upcoming VJMC show (this weekend, highly recommended).  While not Japanese, this Royal Enfield was certainly vintage. In keeping with the vintage British bikes, I saw this BSA at the Rockers Spring Social last month.  I really like the bike. Let's hope for better weather in July!

The lot across from Dulono's Pizza was full by this time too. Cool old Beemer. Ducati with race-style fairing. Another old Ducati, this one with hand-painted tank badges. I've never seen so many Ducatis in one place before. A couple of views from the other side of Lake Street. Here are some Sportsters! One more set of pics to go... Come back tomorrow!