"You clean up real good!"

Don't worry! You're still at the right blog. Let me explain.

I had the need to don a suit and tie the other day. People who've always known me with riding gear and helmet hair as my prominent features were shocked. The inevitable comment was made.

"You clean up pretty good!"

The reason people were taken aback was that it's so seldom I ever appear as anything but "that motorcycle nut". Come to think of it, maybe that's why I feel so close to some of my fellow instructors. We all understand each other. No explanations needed.

However, the comment did get me thinking. No matter how hard and long the ride, eventually there's a need to take one of those things they call "the pause that refreshes". Sort of like in the picture above. Sophie and I had three hundred or so miles to go. It was time to stop for a bit.

I've been keeping this blog for about two and a half years. The first post was January 7, 2006. To get started I picked a template and started the journey. I've seen quite a few new blogs appear over that time. Each and every one of you are a great addition to the neighborhood. Once in a while I see a blog that gets tweaked in some way. Steve Williams at Scooter in the Sticks was one of the first I saw. Rick at Keep the Rubber Side Down worked his site over for a pretty neat look. Recently, Earl added a new gadget to his site Two Wheels and an Engine that tracks current activity on his blog links. By the way, when I checked for his url for this link, I noticed we're using similar templates. Don't worry, pretty soon mine will look far different than it does right now.

All during this time I left my site alone. My reasoning was that it was content more than presentation that was important. Besides, free time to explore on anything but two wheels just isn't there these days. For some reason, though, my mouse kept pointing to the dashboard of Blogger the other day. Maybe it was the sheer insanity of staring at a laptop doing reports to Corporate for hours on end. The time had finally come to pull off the road and make a refreshing pit stop. The next thing I knew I was deep into making some changes.

I looked at al the templates and finally picked a new template I liked. There would be frequent forays into other blogs to see if there was any duplication. For some reason I missed looking at Earl's place. There's only so many things to chose from so I'm amazed there's not more duplication. Anyway, I survived adding changes I made on the old site into the new template. It's a work in progress. Now that I've started it, I'm compelled to stay with it. My blog will have it's own unique look when I'm done. Hang with me, Earl! I might even play with gadgets!

Some fiddling with settings will be going on for a little while. Please bear with me during the process. Even better, if you've found something really cool I'd love it if you feel like sharing!

Miles and smiles,

Dan