My Letter to Steve Danes regarding his recent vote to sell public lands.

Mr Danes, I like many Montanans voted for you based on your pre election stances.
one of those stances was that you would not vote to sell off our Public Lands.
Recently you voted otherwise and betrayed the trust of tens of thousands of Montanans.
I find this Vote absolutely disgusting, you are a native Montanan yet you would seek to sell off our treasures as such?
I know this vote is supposedly to "balance the budget" but lets be real, the Senate continues to INCREASE Offense, I mean defense spending.
Perhaps its time for you to decide who you represent, the people of the State, or a large money entity.

Sincerely

Craig

My new adventure, taking on a Baby, the birth!

I will admit I have struggled with this up until this moment.

I have always been a free spirit, and mind you I have wanted a child to share my adventures with, but it still means I am refrained. My travels to foreign lands to date exotic women are officially over!

It was July of last year when I found out my Fiance was Pregnant, of course I found this out a couple weeks after purchasing a brand new motorcycle, uhgg.

Since then it has fast tracked my life, dragging my feet into marriage could no longer wait. While I do not necessarily believe that a piece of paper dictates love, by a legal aspect it has many benefits, I would not have my child be married to unwed parents, so we were married.

We would enjoy our last few months of freedom, as quickly as they could be enjoyed. A few motorcycle trips until Yellowstone, when the jarring ended the wifes riding days, until delivery.

Fast forward to Friday, the day I was hoping for. It was not only the Spring Equinox, but a Solar Eclipse as well!

The Shaman of my Wife village had predicted the 19th or 20th as the day the baby would come forth, and the nurse teaching our Lemaz classes on Wed had said "Friday would be a perfect day as I will be working"
Thursday was a bit of a let down, the wife was tired, none of that big pre energy burst pregnant women are supposed to get.
The midwife had no real good news in this regard "Could be tomorrow, could be next week, or the week after, just remember, the date we set forth is not the expiration date on a milk carton. She obviously does not know that I drink milk way past the expiration date.

Friday would come early for us, at just after 4 am the wife would get up to use the bathroom and "I think my water broke, or I cannot control my bladder, I better go check"
With that I got dressed, told her to do the same when she was finished and grabbed my jacket.
We would be out of the door in a staggering five minutes, it would be another minute for me to run into the house and get the puppy pad to save cleaning the seat off. Phone to the midwife, another call to the hospital and we were in route.

In just 45 minutes from the time her water broke we were 20 miles away in the Hospital, it was now quarter to five.

By 5:15 she was in the delivery room getting ready, so was I.

In a commanding voice I ordered breakfast for her and I and extra coffee for me.

I texted our friend Tommi that it was happening and got the "well I am still in bed, let me know when it is close"
I would reply "you are going to miss the Party" Which is nothing new for her, if there was someone who always showed up as the glasses were being picked up, it was Tommi.

Within another 45 minutes dilatation went from a five to a seven, the midwife showed up and proclaimed "It is any minute now, this will be quick"

Taking her advice I would finish my breakfast promptly and get another cup of coffee. Another text to Tommi telling her the Party was getting started and we were on our way. To her credit for once in her life Tommi would arrive within an hour that we called. The reader has no Idea how impressive that is, that is akin to a white rhino stopping a poaching assassination on his own.

The wife seemed to have a problem with the pain scale. The contractions were there on the computer but she would state "I only feel some cramping, nothing bad" She rated her pain as a two.

An hour and a half went by and the pushing would begin, the wife would now proclaim her pain level was at a four, the midwife side eyed her and commented "She is tough"

I sipped my coffee and held her hand, yea, she is *sip* Rank coffee, I need more sugar, "Nurse"!

I will admit that it got pretty intense, I have never had any desire to see a baby being born in person. I helped plenty of cows and sheep give birth so why on earth would I want to see this?

But there I was, my eyes looking down at the wonder that would soon come, after Tommi and I bantered about insignificant details getting the "Shut up" from both the nurse and my wife, of course we did not, it just is not possible.
Our banter kept the Wifes mind somewhat off the pain, the midwife soon learned our banter was actually entertaining and I think it lightened the room.

Soon after an hour and a half, one refill of coffee wich was now cold, it came.

I did not know what the sex was, this is something my wife had kept secret to me for the entire pregnancy, and even as she lay in the delivery room I was told yet again "you will find out soon"

I would, there would come my little angel, crying gently as she fell upon the Midwifes arms. The midwife would ask if I could see the sex and I did, I told the wife we have a little girl. Her eyes widened and she looked down saying "Are you sure?" Yes, honey, as sure as you can be its pretty obvious. Apparently for that last month she had tried so hard to convince me it was a boy, she believed it, or at least considered the possibly herself.

Now for a name, I had been prepared for a boy, I admit it. I had previously had a dream saying it would be a girl, and to look at the "D and goddesses" for a name, which I did but had forgotten. As I held my angel in my arms I would proclaim without a doubt she would be named after the Hindu Goddess of Compassion, Daya.

She radiated beauty, and looked as if she would weekend any mans knees, for surely she already had mine.

I kissed my wifes forhead gently, and left her to give full attention to my angel :)

It was hard giving up seeing the rest of the world for this moment, hard to understand all my friends saying "I am telling you, a kid is worth it" She certainly is, and it is one of the most amazing experiences of my life, one I am happy I did not miss.

The Patterson/Gimlin Footage, let us put it to rest.

Arguably the most talked about Sasquatch film ever put forth to the public would be the Patterson/Gimlin film. The Film taken on October 20th 1966 shows a Documentary Film maker Patterson and his friend Gimlin riding horses up what appears to be a logging road.
They come around a bend and our Heroes Claim Bigfoot was a mere 25 feet away drinking from a creek, upon seeing them the creature begins to saunter off, and I mean saunter at the slowest possible manner while Patterson Grabs his Camera, runs across the creek and begins filming, all the while the most elusive creature in history, just continues to saunter away.

Ok so without dragging you thru all the same evidence which has already been debunked, let us look at the most obvious.

First the location, of all the places in the woods Bigfoot was just hanging out in a clear cut on a logging road? To be fair my sighting was not far from one so I will give this the benefit of the doubt.
However his reaction is not typical of any wild beast, Bigfoot simply stands up and walks away, emphasis on walk.
Now this is the most elusive creature in history, a man monkey that has obviously not wanted to be seen and it just saunters off, casually looking over its shoulder.
Why not run? this alone makes me skeptical, wild animals which are spooked will usually run even a short distance before looking back, they want to put distance between themselves and the threat which is understandable, in the video? Dear god no the man in the Suit walks the clearest path needed to keep from tripping.
And of course we have length of the film, it ends just before the elusive monkey man crashes thru the trees, or more appropriately stops and says "no way in hell am I gonna walk into that shit and screw up our 360 dollar suit"

Ok so the action of Bigfoot itself does not match the typical action of wild animals.

Now lets take the action of the horses, which IMO is the single biggest evidence against this film.

Now mind you I grew up Riding horses, in fact I think my first pictures were taken on the back of a horse.
My childhood was spent trying to recreate all those stupid cowboy movies, as I got older it moved into Breaking horses and of course using them for cutting cattle. Dad absolutely loved horses and like his father, thought the best way to see the wilderness was via horseback. His dream had always been to ride to every mountain lake in Montana, and we made a pretty damned good attempt at making his dream come true.
We spent hours upon hours riding into the middle of no where, spending the night, or nights then riding out.
With this expeience and the knowledge gained from my father, grandfather, cousin and uncle who were by every definition cowboys I can say without a doubt this entire Film was staged.
Horses are Herbivores, and of course have a strong survival instinct. One thing you notice while riding in the mountains especially in unfamiliar territory is how they act. Their senses are on edge, there noses constantly tasting the air and their eyes trying to penetrate the woods. Their ears rotate about trying to pick up any sound which could mean danger.
They, like man want to survive, so that is what they do.
Had these horses actually came suddenly upon a unknown scent it would have been nearly impossible to get them to continue forward, and let me say there were many times when I was on a horse that simply said no way am I going forward and nothing was to be seen.
If these horses had then seen a big brown bearish looking creature combined with a unknown scent they would have quit simply been gone.
I do not mean a simple horse Rearing, it would have done that, turned and said asta la bye bye, with whatever they were carrying scattered all over the road for dozens of yards, that is what they do short of a war horse as they after all want to live.

For me that is absolutely all I ever needed to see with this film, and with that tidbit of knowledge I think we can safely toss this fake film into the trash bin where it belongs.

I await real evidence, and as someone who was labeled a loon for my own sighting, I sincerely hope that someday it indeed does come forth.

I am troubled by the "Nazi were not so bad and America are like Nazi" BS, not even close.

Having traveled a good chunk of Europe I am here to say the 6 million baked in ovens was minor in comparison to what the rest of Europe or those in the Pacific faced overall.
About the best description I can give is from an aging Danish lady who was young during the war "It was horrible, if you were blonde and blue eyed girl you had two choices, you became their sex slave in their breeding camps or you died for resisting, it was horrible they were killing everyone in reality."
I woudl have one of the greatest moments of my life, and drink from a bottle of early times which she had shared with allied troops as they liberated Denmark.
Most older people in Europe at the time (this was 20 years ago) Would offer me a place to stay simply because I was American. They were very grateful and would of had nothing had the Allies not saved them.
Nearly every single castle in Europe was bombed, they have all been rebuilt. Most churches were as well.
In Italy you can still see bullet holes in the sides of the ageless buildings.
Overall the war was ten times more brutal than we were ever told, the same goes for hte Pacific theater against the Japanese where they would use civilians for Bayonet practices or Biological and chemical Experiments.
If you want a truly Haunting feeling, simply go and visit somewhere where civilians were massacred. For me the worst place I felt the most energy was Intramuros
In Manila Philippines,.
It was famous for taking Civilians and stacking them on top of each other Alive, in a small chamber then of course killing them, if they had not already died from suffocation.
The Philippinos HATED the Japanese for decades, remember Filipino women were sex slaves to the Japanese as well, after they were done the Japanese would kill them.
War was also far worse than Hollywood has ever put forth. My great Uncle drove ambulance and would get stuck in the bodies, he also recounted driving over people he thought were alive to get to people he knew were dead.
One of the best series of books to read and the most accurate of ww2 account is "Seven roads to hell" a screaming eagle in Bastonge. The first of the trilogy it is considered the most accurate because it was written by the soldier in England after he was waiting to come home, so all the details were fresh in his mind. The first two books are absolutely riveting and the third a bit boring but it ties things up.
The HBO Series band of brothers was based on the 101st airbone which is where he served and did a very poor job of conveying things IMO, if you saw the Series, it will give you an idea however what is in store.
The most accurate book to understand the SS is "Order of the deaths head" it is painstakingly detailed and covers the rise and fall of the SS. I will advise though this is advanced reading material, the print is small and the book incredibly large.
If you quit for even a week and try to pick it up again you will be lost, amazing book if you can stick with it however.

Why does the Yamaha Super Tenere not get the reviews of KTM & BMW Adventure?

When I purchased the Tenere I was seriously considering the BMW, the high maintenance and the final drive bullshit had me skeptical of the BMW, fuel pump problems were not thrilling either. The KTM had it's own problems as well which made it lose it's appeal.

Then I narrowed it down on parts availability and service, even the Tenere will break at some point, and what would parts availability be? A few days at best has been my experience. Both the Euro bikes are the typical weeks out on parts delivery, free lunch and coffee does not make up for downtime, be it extra maintenance or waiting for your parts.

So that pretty much was it, but there still was a low miles BMW for a good price which kind of made up for the extra costs, at least for awhile. I debated but stopped and took the Yami for a ride. Having not seen one in person it was stunning, up close, but so is the BMW. The kind salesman asked if I wanted to ride, and after a 3.5 hour drive you can bet your ass I wanted a ride.

He fired it up and the acropovic delivered a nice rumble, I smiled that is always a good start.

It was rainy and 40 degrees, there was no logical reason to ride, but I did, throttle response was perfect, nice low end real world grunt which made my HOG buddies drool. It handled nice and bagged to have the pegs screaming in protest as sparks lit up the evening air.
I rode to the end of e pavement and without a moments breath launched onto the dirt road ahead, it soaked up the bumps with ease and it's low center of Gravity made it seem lighter than the true DS in the garage.
I continued to tear it up and smashed thru some mud, TC came on preventing a real thrill, I stopped turned it off and off I went again, painting the fence posts brown as I went by.
Like everything good the dirt and mud came to an end and I was back on e Tarmac, the cold rain penetrated my LeVis and made me shiver, I thought of my wife in my nice warm idling truck and gave the Tenere some onion, it launched to 120 plenty quickly, the adrenaline warming my body.

I rode onto the parking lot grinning ear to ear, trying to think of a reason to not write a check.

I really did not have a reason, it performed to the expectations I wanted.

I made arrangements and the dealer would deliver half of the 3 and a half hour distance three days later.

I have no regrets, although tea and crumpets would have been nice, he did offer me a value meal at Wendy's. ::025::

I am good with my decision. What I am not good with is the Bias against the blue and the thought that because of that bias someday possibly making the Tenere drift from the market place infuriates me, that is not right.

People deserve honest real world journalism, they are not getting it. The bias keeps other companies pumping out bikes at a level not deserved to a naive public that ends up finding his hard earned cash milked from his pocket.

Nonsense.

So that my friend is why I take the stand I do, not because the Tenere is e best, but because it is e most realistic blue collar ride for the guy who wants to ride, and have the money to ride.