Johnny Panther Quests. Ecotours

Have you ever done "it" all night long? My last time was New Years Eve. With the Ice Racing Grand National Championships coming up at Soaring Eagle Casino, I thought it would only be appropriate to romance my "mistress of the ice" a little bit and make her feel extra special. What started out as a little afternoon delight, turned into a multiday festival of intimacy and currency(cash money-lol).

After getting down to the heart of the matter, "she" begged me to go deeper

You can't get much more "intimate" than this

Well maybe you can

I'd be lying if I said we hadn't been this far before

So will this week long stint of garage aerobics be enough to keep her(my mistress of the ice)happy? My wife always tells me it's the little things that make HER happy. Hopefully my practice in the garage will spill over into the house!

My mistress of the dirt, organ donor for my ice mistress. Uh oh, looks like somebody's gonna need some lovin'

The water that is... I could go on about life, the economy, and stuff. Now is the time of year when due dilligence, common sense, and following your gut are really important. Most of my water activities lately have involved riding in circles on the ice, on a motorcycle. Once in a while we get a thaw and are able to go Johnny Panthering. Envision an arctic expedition by boat, a small boat. Following are some images from some of last years adventures. It is a rare breed that wants to put a snowmobile suit on and go out in a boat. Luckily for me, Team Garage is made up of those types!

Gary "Toofast" Seibert and guests

The water is three feet deep in the parking lot!

In my element, this is what we do for fun!

We are only a 1/4 mile from Toofast's house. This creek is normally only six inches deep. This probably a once in a lifetime boat ride!
I wonder how many tourists in Frankenmuth or Birch Run would like to take a day off from shopping and go on a real adventure?

The Second Hay Bridge, this is normally six feet above the water.

Triple crowns = #31 Kenny Coolbeth, #21 Jared Mees, and #73 Scott Parker shaving the ice New Years Day 2010!

Last year New Years Day was pretty incredible. This year was even better. Many people showed up at a local lake to ride in circles, rub elbows, bench race, and watch some legends put on one heck of an exhibition.

Glossary of initials (becuase I'm lazy and don't want to keep typing their names!):
C.P. = Craig Pickett, Multi-time ice racing and motocross champion
S.P. = Scott Parker, Multi-time Harley Davidson Grand National Flat Track Champion
D.B. = Doug Beattie, A really fast guy from Canada with stinkin' cheater tires (joking)
B.S. = Bryan Smith, Pro Flat tracker
J.M. = Jared Mees, 2009 Grand National flat track CHAMPION!

(L to R) Josh Woods, Jared Mees, Pat Buchanan, Bryan Smith, and Craig Pickett.

Jay Springsteen showed up with his Gold wing again this year. Last year it was tempermental, this year it rocked all day long. He "monkied" around a little bit before climbing into the pilot's seat.

#42 B.S., #76 C.P., and #26 Steve Beattie (Doug's brother, he's got cheater tires too!) get after it lap after lap

B.S., C.P., and others were this close and flying all afternoon. For them, if you weren't leaning or rubbing on each other, you weren't riding hard enough!

Not that numbers matter, but there were twice as many people as last year. Of course it was ten degrees warmer too.

They dualed all day long, switching lines. B.S. and C.P. were rolling. Still images do not do justice to the speed they were carrying.

This is why C.P. is a multi-national champion!

C.P. and J.M. drift underneath Adam Badaglia (on Sully's support ride)

If Doug Beattie did one lap, he did one hundred! Aggressive and on the gas, I never saw him falter (stinkin' Canadian tires!)

C.P., J.M., and D.B. running it in hard and deep on the "road" course. A crappy photo of an incredible view.

Josh Woods had fun riding on the ice.

J. Harada doin' a little spectating

My mistress of the ice. Few knew the lovin' that went into her till the wee hours of the morning.

Many, including Bryan Smith(in camo) watched in awe as the professionals ran 'em in hard on the road course.

Scott Parker showed up on his couch with skis and within minutes found a surrogate ride. He still knows how to twist it and turn left!

#81 Brian Beyer leads B.S who's looking at S.P wheeliing, as C.P gets ready to pass all of them in the next turn!

Textbook C.P. Feet up, and two-wheelin'.

J.M., #81 Bryan Beyer, and S.P (inside) wind it up!

C.P., Springer and "monkey" roost off into the sunset...

I'll try to load some video to YouTube and FaceBook to hopefully give you a feel for how fast these guys were really rolling! We are making tracks into the new year....FAST

We had a pretty mellow evening planned for New Years Eve. A bon fire, a hot stove in the garage, sledding hill of death, and some flame throwing queso. I asked a friend to stop by after a funeral for one of our club members for a couple of beers. I was working on my son's bike, and honestly, it was kicking my butt, and head. Joe loves to wrench on things and soon we were up to our elbows trying to put a side cover on. No, we were not drunk! I am feeling you need a degree in rocket science to work on a 50! I joked we had enough time to try and put my "mistress of the ice" together. He said; "Let's do it!". He wasn't joking. We made a run to the store before it closed.

I felt punch drunk at around 1am. How could the motor come out of my motocross bike, but not fit into my ice bike? They were identical! At 2am Joe was fading fast. At 3am he was out, but my bike was nearly done. At 4:30 I woke him up and we headed inside. We were working too hard to drink much. But when we took a break, things caught up to us. I fell asleep around 5am New Years Day!

It's 3am, Joe's out. Luckily I have "Julie" (in the background) to keep me company as I finish things up

She's so close!

Joe even smiles when he's sleeping

Hey Joe wake up she's done!

Craig Pickett backs it on the "road course"

Well they're back to riding on the ice. My equipment is still broken from last year. I took the boys out to watch 'em shaking their stuff down for the new season. Craig Pickett is riding red, and leaving his multi-championship winning KX500 in the corner of the garage. His Honda handles like it's on rails, but he's still searching for more power. I recommended dylithium crystals, he didn't think that was funny.

J.W (#38), and Wheeler (#7), are about to get gobbled up and spit out by C.P. stalking them in the background. Craig said riding his 450 is like cheating compared to his KX500.

The next day I headed over to a "top secret" track way back in the woods. To me it is a lot like torture watching my friends ride and not being out there rubbing elbows with them. I'm sure it won't be long and I'll be out in the garage with bubble gum and duct tape trying to piece togther my "mistress of the ice". About two laps into this photo sequence there was a nasty little wreck resulting in two high speed, high sides. At that point was happy watching, and seriously considering happy hour. Though it's not motocross, there are still some pretty good shots of adrenaline to be had on the ice!

Travis Herriman (#45) about to put a nasty slide job on Doug Evans riding a "borrowed" Suzook