When we put away the motorcycle riding in about 1980 to raise our family we always planned to return after the kids were raised (AK – after kids). We had always assumed that we would return with a Goldwing. When the time came to purchase another bike and return to riding (in 1999) after looking at the available Goldwings we decided that they were just too bulky and didn’t handle the way we wanted – we wanted something a little more sporty. While we enjoyed several sport-touring/adventure bikesHonda had upgraded the Goldwing in 2001 with a bigger engine and a more sporting frame, etc. Since then we had it in the back of our mind that we would upgrade to a Goldwing but they were just too expensive.
Purchasing new Goldwing in Sacramento
Recently I started to watch the prices for used Goldwings and lo and behold they were actually affordable. In June we pulled the trigger and bought a clean 2002 Goldwing from a dealership in Sacramento. We are looking forward to our new era in motorcycling with the Goldwing.
First ride – Lassen Volcanic National ParkFirst ride – Lassen Volcanic National Park
On May 20, 2012 Northern California was treated to a rare chance to see a total solar eclipse. We live in the forest, surrounded by tall trees, so we invited ourselves to our neighbor’s house. They live on the edge of Rock Creek Canyon and have a wonderful view to the West.
*Click the itty bitty pics for big ‘uns
Totality
The event was predicted to peak at 6:27 PM and we were ready. I had ordered from Amazon six pairs of Solar viewing glasses and a solar lens cover for my camera. We packed my Mom and Dad over to our neighbor’s and set up the camera and donned the “designer” glasses – we looked like we were ready for a 3-d movie.
Stella and Mom are readyStella and my Dad are ready
Here is a timelapse video of all the eclipse pictures – sorta herky jerky but here it is
httpv://youtu.be/VDnR_fAxBBA
Here are all the photos taken at the eclipse viewing
I recently purchased an Agasio outdoor camera for the purpose of providing a weather cam for my weather station. One of the side benefits of this camera is the ability to gather the uploaded jpg snapshots into a timelapse video. I am using Blue Iris 3 software to capture the snapshots and SebecTec software to combine the snapshots into a timelapse video. It is set to make a timelapse every 6 hours of the last 6 hours and to make a timelapse of the last 24 hours every night at midnight. Some of them turn out to be pretty boring while others can be pretty interesting. Since these are updated hourly and daily, I have setup a page for saved timelapse videos.
At the end of April we took a motorcycle ride to the coast. We spent 2 nights at Shelter Cove and one night at Fort Bragg before riding home via Albion, Lords Land, Clear Lake.
I’ve recently acquired several video clips on my computer that I wished to share with others via YouTube. I have a GoPro Hero HD video camera that comes in a nice waterproof enclosure and can be mounted on the motorcycle to capture on video some of our motorcycle rides. I also acquired an Olympus E-PL1 camera that takes HD videos. We also have a Canon SD1200 camera that takes nice videos. With all these video sources I started to look for software that would allow me to edit and publish these in a format that might be enjoyable to our friends and family.
GoPro Hero HD
I tried Windows Movie Maker which is a free program that does basic editing and is actually very powerful. Being new to video editing I didn’t fully understand how to use it and became a little frustrated with it. I did edit and publish a couple of movies with it.
I started to look for a better program that wouldn’t be too expensive and ended up downloading a trial version of Corel VideoStudio Pro X3. It proved to be the software that I was looking for – powerful enough to create great videos and easy enough to use for a video editing neophyte like myself. As it turned out Corel was about to release an X4 version of the software and had a very attractive price on the X3 version so I snapped it up.
Below are some YouTube videos that I have published. Please remember that I am just learning and most of these are pretty crude. Some were uploaded in raw format and some were edited. I am trying very hard to not get too carried away with all the bells and whistles available with VideoPublisher and make it look too cheesy. In fact, I find that like in my previous programming and web page building that while I am pretty good at the technical end, I’m not much in the creative end.
Here are some samples, enjoy!
One of the first videos from the GoPro HD, I was just experimenting – no editing! It was a cloudy/foggy day so the lighting isn’t great.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr_Uk99dAls
Here is a video taken with the GoPro on Wildwood Road near Highway 36 in Northern California. This one I edited using Windows Movie Maker to take out some boring footage. I could now really doll it up and take out some more boring footage using VideoStudio – maybe one of these days.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQVrXw3qOXc
Here is a video of pictures made using VideoPublisher as a tribute to our dog Sparty that passed away a couple of years ago.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQIPa9ohV2k
Here’s some footage of our ride on Toomes Creek Road near Paskenta, California. Edited with VideoPublisher
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2FHcqEmAEU
Here is some footage of a drive out out our driveway and down Cohasset Road in the snow. Edited with VideoPublisher. Still pretty rough but I’m getting there.
Kirk Gibson rounding the bases after the historic home run
Even if you’re not a Dodger fan (ya must be crazy if you aren’t) ya hafta appreciate the famous 1988 World Series winning home run by Kirk Gibson. Here it is in Tommy Lasorda’s words, a must read for any baseball fan.
Our Daughter Becky was visiting from North Dakota and she brought her ferocious Dobernman (of the miniature variety), Swayze. Rocky didn’t know what to think of the killer beast and this little video was the result.
I’ve done 3 IBA (IronButt Association) rides. I post the trip reports here in case anyone is contemplating giving one of them a try they might get a few hints – I also post them to do a little bragging!
We occasionally do some Geocaching on our motorcycle rides.
Here’s some pictures from my Picasa account of a Geocache that we found in the hills behind Paskenta.
There it is!Over here!
We had gone on an impromptu ride after Church and Stella was wearing her high-heel shoes. She climbed with the rest of us to the top of the hill and we found the cache – Lotsa fun!
Everything you want to know and more about Geocaching can be found here.
