Been out of town for a while. Are there any rides planned for tomorrow or is it
too hot?

Lilly's last night at Napoli's is Monday night. A couple of us are going to give
her a send off.

"Klaatu barada nikto"

 

Married couple in their 60's are visited by a fairy who grants them both a wish. "I want to travel round the world with my darling husband" says wife. Two tickets for a luxury cruise magically appear in her hand. Husband says: "Sorry but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me." Fairy waves wand and husband becomes 92. Moral of story - men who are ungrateful bastards should remember fairies are friggin' female

 

http://www.bikesportnews.com/album.cfm?album=6

Hopkins out, crash 3 broken fingers

The real Top Gear starts returns tomorrow night.

Get 'em while you can.

http://www.outbackfreesteaks.com

playing at AMC Dunvale :

http://tinyurl.com/42wqbvp

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6b54bZepoA&feature=player_embedded

--
Mike Haven
MPH Cycles
16510 Park Row
Houston, Texas 77084
www.mphcycles.com
281 647 6557

 

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6b54bZepoA&feature=player_embedded

--
Mike Haven
MPH Cycles
16510 Park Row
Houston, Texas 77084
www.mphcycles.com
281 647 6557

We ought to go and crash the "bike night" at the Cycle Gear on Thursday night.

My Aerial Survey
by Trey Duhon on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 8:26pm

It goes without saying... that no matter what I write... words will not describe
what it is like to see the burned areas from the air.  We took off from the
Soaring Club of Houston's grass strip just west of 362 and south of 2979 off of
Waller Gladisch road.



The plane lifted effortlessly into the sky.  We put the door/window down so I
would have a completely unimpeded view out of the right side.  We proceeded to
fly southwest of the burn area staying just south of 1488.  We went towards
Hegar and Kickapoo, then turned around and head back.   We could not get any
closer to the burn area because of a TFR - temporary flight restriction zone
that has been put in place over the burn areas, probably because of the air
drops and emergency helicopters and planes...  So we did not circle the burn
area or even go anywhere remotely close to the east, northeast, or north side,
because the TFR area would not allow us to.



So, most of what I got to see was looking northeast from the Fieldstore area, as
you can see from the pics.



What amazed me was what I saw.  After 5 days of fire, I really thought that the
entire area north of FM 1488 and south of Riley was going to be one large black
burned area.  That could not be further from the truth.  Although you could see
blackened areas spread out sporadically, what really amazed me was how much of
the area between 1488 and Riley is not burned...  which is scary...  because
what I saw told me that there is still alot of fuel in the area if any fire
sparks up.



I did not see any flames, but I saw alot of smoke, both from the 1488/Riley
area, and alot more smoke in the distance towards Montgomery County, in a
northeast direction.  You could tell that the smoke in those directions were
from very active fires.  That being said, there was still considerable smoke
coming from the the 1488/Riley road forest.  That area still has fires going in
it without a doubt..  It made me better understand official's concerns because
if the winds picks up, there are plenty of trees and brush left to burn and the
fire has plenty of places to go...



I am not expert, so what I'm about to say is just my opinion, but if I were to
estimate the percentage of blackened and burned areas in the 1488/Riley road
forest compared to the areas that looked unburned, I would say the burned areas
look like 25% of the total area there.  It really was an eye opener.



I could also see where the burn area approached Bowler near Kyle Road and how
close it came to the nursery there.  The scary thing there was that past Kyle Rd
was alot of trees... and there would have been a ton of fuel if the fire had
gotten much further north of that area...



The last interesting observation I had was the burned area just north of
Sheffield/1488.  You can see from the pictures just how intensely this area
burned... but what was really cool was that I could also see 3 red lines... 
retardant dropped by the DC-10.  One line was somewhat visible in the pics, as
it ran north/south on the west side of the fire (to keep it from moving towards
Bowler Rd), there was also an east/west line of retardant dropped on the north
side of the fire, and I saw one other line of retardant dropped just on the
north side of FM 1488 running east/west....  So those guys did a fantastic job
of boxing that fire in and keeping it from spreading in any direction.



Has anyone else noticed how much of a difference there has been since that DC-10
started making drops?  I think it has made a huge difference in this fight, and
I saw evidence of that from the air.



The flight last about 20 minutes or so and I would like to thank Ken Sorenson,
my pilot, who did an incredible job of explaining everything to me.  The Soaring
Club of Houston is a great group.  They are a non-profit 501(c)(3) that has an
education outreach program that works closely with the Civil Air Patrol.  I
would encourage everyone to get to know them.  They are also making a donation
to the Wildfire Relief effort.  Their website is www.scoh.org.



I hope this helps some folks understand what we are dealing with...  There is
still alot of stuff out there that can burn very easily... and by now we all
know it doesn't take much to get it started.



That's probably why Waller County officials have not yet lifted the mandatory
evacuation orders... all it would take would be a stiff breeze out of the south,
and the smoking areas could quickly turn into fires that could threaten the
Riley Road/Reeds Prairie Road again...



Be safe out there folks.

I'm looking to buy a BMW R11XXGS, fairly low mileage, but condition and price
are the main factors. (Bang for the buck factor)
If you have any neighbors with GS sitting in their barn collecting dust, please
let me know. Thanks, John Greenstreet