Up the Elliot Hwy to Globe Creek

On Friday afternoon, I went to Globe Creek Camp which is located on the Elliot Highway north of Fairbanks. It was 33°F and sleeting when going over Wickersham Dome but otherwise, a nice ride. I did opt to dig out the heated liner and gloves for the first time. I'm still using the old First Gear riding gear but have received a tracking number from Aerostich. I'm looking forward to getting the Roadcrafter Light back. This is the first snow of the year for me.

I did attach the GoPro to the sidecar and filmed a time-lapse. I couldn't figure out any good places to stop for a picture on the way out as the weather was overcast and foggy. The lens ended up getting covered with snow on the trip out so here is the footage from the return trip. I left when the temperature started to drop again. The Ural started easily and I even used the kick starter partly to make sure I reassembled it properly a few weeks back.

Wet and Dreary

Another kinda dreary day around here. But as they say, if it's raining then it's not snowing. After riding to coffee this morning, enjoying the lack of the road construction we have been subjected to for the last month or so, I headed up to my office to do a mandatory training session. The First Gear jacket seems to be still  weather tight but the First Gear pants are past their prime. In other words, some dampness but I'm still basically dry upon arrival. The riding boots aren't working as well. Even with the seams sealed up with Shoe Goo, they still are letting water in from all of the cracks in the leather-ish material. It's probably time to get some new riding boots.

I thought about stopping somewhere to get a nice shot of the low clouds with the Ural in the foreground but every time I started to ride somewhere, the sky would open up. I just didn't feel like standing on the side of the road trying to dig out the phone. So here is a shot at home after getting back from the university this afternoon. Note that most of the leaves have fallen. There just haven't been very many dry days. The fallen leaves are soaked and will probably be there until next summer.

As you may notice, I still haven't taken off the sidecar windshield. This has been contributing to me getting soaked as it redirects the wind and rain right onto me from the right.

Post Fall

Fall has pretty much come and gone so now we are just waiting for the snow to arrive. It has been pretty dreary for the last week or so with just occasional bits of blue sky. The Ural has been plugging away but just running to College Coffeehouse in the morning followed by errands around town. No recreational riding. I'm still waiting for the Roadcrafter to get back from Aerostitch so riding in the rain isn't as nice as it could be. They estimated a minimum of three weeks which is right about now. I'm also still waiting for the trailer to get repaired after dropping it off about a month ago at a local RV shop. Maybe I should look at it as free storage.

This picture is of a friends Suzuki GSX-R that he has set up for moto-camping. He used to race the bike but rather than get rid of the bike, he added homemade aluminum racks to carry his gear. It's a nice setup though I'm not sure how comfortable it would be but that's just me. He loves the bike and that's all that really matters.

Getting Ready for an Event

I had a web conference for an I² working group this morning and those are much nicer to do in my office than at home. One of the many advantages of still being able to use my office. Also, quite a few Apple and app updates were released starting last Tuesday and I was able to take advantage of the fast Internet.

The conferences (Thursday and Friday) are partly preparation for an upcoming Internet² meeting in October. I will be recording audio and video of one of the workshops. After I offered to do this, I realized that my Macbook Pro no longer has any analog audio inputs. Just four USB-C ports. I had picked up the Focusrite Solo earlier but haven't needed it. Basically it's a two port mixer with a USB interface that will link in with audio editing software. I only plan to use two microphones, a lav for the speaker/presenter and a roaming wireless mic for questions. The mixer only has one XLR input with a microphone amp but since I'm using wireless mics, I have the option of using a line level input.

So far, I've tried Apple's Garageband and Pro Tools First and both work flawlessly. For this upcoming event, I'll probably just use Garageband as I don't have to figure out how to add the EQ and compressor plugins within Pro Tools First. The Pro Tools First app is way more flexible but is also much more complicated. Basically the same as the full app except you are limited to only sixteen mono or stereo tracks. I only need three. Two input and one output. Video will be done with three cameras. One of the presenter, one for the participants plus one more wide shot just in case. I won't be relying on the audio from any of the cameras.

Saturday Afternoon Update - After a couple of days of playing around with Pro Tools First, I've discovered some "limitations". There is no local storage of your projects as it has to be stored in the Avid Cloud to force compliance to their "no more than three projects" rule. This means that Internet access is required. Also, export to MP3 is not supported. But I really do like the flexibility and options for both live and post processing so I'll be keeping the software installed but probably won't use it for this event.