The perfect location for the next sci-fi video game? Seaside Heights, NJ

With the late November weather cooperating, I woke up feeling somewhat obligated going for a BMW ride today.

Still jetlagged from just having returned from Berlin, it was easy to talk myself out of doing something more strenuous, like for example Mountain Biking or Kayaking. I am quite good at talking myself out of things, or at least waffling about it until it is too late to have a go, and while I can easily hesitate about a BMW ride in questionable weather condition, today the sun was shining, the leaves did not particularly seem slippery, and with Robyn still away in India and Nepal, the few hundred miles I need to put on the bike before the next service period tipped the scale. Besides I also wanted to test out my new Vstream replacement windshield on the highway.

The South Shore BMW rider group was doing a Polar Bear ride to Hopewell NJ today, but the meeting point takes me an hour to reach, and the ride would have taken all day… Besides I like riding by myself, I can stop to take pictures when I like, and ponder the smaller mysteries of the universe, such as the spontaneous materialization of extremely slow driving minivans, only during the sweepy best curvy segments of a route. I’m sure this only applies to Motorcycles, although I think cars are also affected, if the driver is running late.

So after planning a route to ride the sweepy route 527 west, before turning back east to Seaside Heights and a visit to Island Beach State Park, I set out around 10:30. I assumed entry to Island Beach would be free after labor day, the plan was to eat lunch there or in Asbury Park.

Baldrich the Beemer

I often marvel at the technology that allows me to take calls on my Zumo GPS (connected via bluetooth to my iPhone), but having somehow imagined suave on bike conversations, the actual subject matter of such on bike calls are pedestrian in nature and typically revolve around picking up milk, or doctor’s visits. Stopping to take a call from my Mother, I by chance discovered the Ocean County RC Modelers model airplane field. After a short and concise conversation I continued an hour later.

Seaside Heights is a summer town, by which I mean that in November, it is difficult to distinguish it from a post apocalyptic movie set. Stores, Delis, Gas Stations, entire Shopping Malls seem abandoned to such a degree that looting would appear pointless.

So imagine my surprise to discover that entry to Island Beach State Park still costs money! Apparently the reason is that, while Sandy Hook is operated by grumpy college students having to work during hot summer hours while their friends are having fun, Island Beach State Park is operated by the only current life forms in Seaside Heights, a cadre of endlessly cheerful and available retirees.

Thus, declining to pay the entry fee, and facing the questionable prospect of food discovered in the desolation of Seaside Heights or Lavalette, I decided to make a bee-line for home for a nice bowl of home-made mushroom bisque.

In short, a good time was had by all, and as usual I am posting the GPS data and ride pictures on EveryTrail

On a more practical note, I recently ordered a Ztechnik windscreen to replace the stock screen on the BMW R1200RT, and the design to reduce wind noise works marvelously. With the stock screen I was having problems with the wind activating the mike of my Autocom bike communication system, and so it was easy to tell that the new screen is a lot quieter, meaning I can listen to music, navigation and phone calls with reduced volume… Tested this in traffic at about 137kph during a few stretches of heading back home on the GSP. I can post comparison pictures of the V-Stream vs the stock BMW screen if anyone is interested.

Boxee is launching a… (wait for it) BOX!

Yeah!

I love Boxee, but instead of just watching it my Mac, it’s mind blowing  when hooked up to the large plasma in the living room!

So I have been running it on an Apple TV with a hack (anyone interested do a search for ATV Flash, from Firecore), which is great for the most part, but the hardware is just too slow for HD shows, which lag and jerk a fair bit, so I was super pleased to hear that Boxxee is launching it’s own “box”: According to Engadget:

Color us shocked and elated. Boxee, the white-hot startup that has risen from nothing to everywhere
thanks to its internet TV software portal, has just announced that a deal has been inked between it and an undisclosed “hardware partner.”
If you’ll recall, we actually heard that the outfit was mulling the production of its own set-top-box back in January, and now it looks like Roku, Apple TV and a host of other mini PCs will have yet another formidable rival vying for space underneath the tele.

Image via CrunchBase

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Port Jervis BMW Ride

I rode the RT from Atlantic Highlands to Port Jervis this last Sunday to experience the last of the fall color.

On the way already it became clear that Atlantic Highlands retains the fall colors later into the season than the rest of New Jersey, heading west and then north the leaves had mostly fallen, but there was enough of a color splash here and there to make up for it… I only stopped at times to snap a picture, but the weather was fantastic for late November, and the ride was fun.

I’m always torn between trying to join up with the “Jersey Shore BMW Riders”, but I’m a little intimidated at the prospect of riding in a group (and messing up somehow), but the biggest concern as a photographer is that when I see something interesting my ensuing behavior is predictably erratic: First I see something visually enticing out of the corner of my eye, then a debate ensues in my aging brain about wether to turn around and take a photograph or not, and finally I may or may not hit the brakes to the imagined dismay of my fortunately absent ride mates.

Besides, this is a two edge sword in another way: If I do turn around, the picture invariably will not be interesting, but if I don’t, I will scold myself over a lost “once in a lifetime” photo op for the rest of the ride. So you can appreciate that I tend to err on the side of worn down brakes and bad pictures…

Having once again planned the route with my trusty bikeroutetoaster.com app, I’ve also recently become aware of a great way to plan a route using google maps directly. In google maps I can modify a route easily to suite me by dragging it onto the roads I’d like to travel… However, the problem has been that once I have a suitable rout, there is no good way to get a google map route converted and downloaded to my (Garmin Zumo) GPS.  Well, now there is a fantastic tool that does just that: MaptoGPX.