Our quest for a Maine lobster is over

Our quest for a Maine lobster is over…Thanks to Becky’s Diner,

that’s right time for another Diner, Drive-in and Dive.

My wife and I happen to walk upon BECKY'S during our walk about at the Hobson Wharf in Portland Maine. We hit the Diner at an odd time, it was around 3:00pm. It’s a beautiful older building; I would call it barn like shape with Maine harbor flair.

You enter the front door into a small room filled bulliton boards cover in business cards and flyers,

not being from a cold climate I think this a buffer for the diner once the weather turns bitter cold. Once in, it is a classic diner, Chrome bar stools and a few booths along the other side not to mention the tin cellings;

old school stuff, not new stuff made to look old. It’s a seat yourself kind of place so we picked a booth and were greeted immediately by our lovely waitress. After a quick looked at the menu

my wife spotted it the main whole lobster…then it happened, we went to place the order; I order the fried clams and my wife YELLED out “I’ll have the whole lobster”. Huston we have another problem…well we might have if we were at any other place but Beck’s, let me explain, Becky’s does not start serving whole lobster until 4:00pm. I not sure if it was the look of disappointment in my wife’s face or just the outstanding service you get at Becky’s, trust me it was the service. Our waitress went out of her way to get a freshly cooked lobster delivered right to our table…success!!!!

They even brought out instruction on how to eat the monster, my wife studied them a few seconds and then dug in

all I can say is it was the best tasting lobster we had ever but in our mouth, I say OUR as I got a quick small bite when she was not looking, I wanted a second bite but was afraid of losing a hand….my clams were outstanding too,

it was one of the best meals of our entire 10 day trip.

After a GREAT MEAL, we were given our bill

that I gladly paid for a job well done. So if you are ever around Portland, Main head over to Becky’s Diner, you will not be sorry that you did.

Till next time
Big Al

Motorcycle product review: Kuakyn Hwy Pegs

Kuryakyn highway pegs

Wow what a product, sometimes you just don’t know what you’re missing until you have them on your bike. Let me explain, Thursday, July 30, 2009 (Wow that was a long time ago) I bought a cheap set of hwy pegs.

you can read that story here http://bigalscompound.blogspot.com/2009/07/motorcycle-product-review.html
Anyway skip ahead a few years and now I find myself ordering a set of Kuryakn hwy pegs from Amazon.com for my bike with an off set. Being 6’5” tall, I found myself always laying my feet on top of the old pegs to stretch my never ending legs out as these bars attach straight to the crash bars with no off set.

New pegs on top, old pegs below.

One note before I go into the insulation of the new pegs, the drag specialties pegs are some fine pegs for the money. I was looking at them. When I removed them, they looked almost as good as the day I bought them. Not a single rubber piece was missing and the chrome still looked nice except for a few scrapes here and there. My thought would be if you are a shorter rider and on a tight budget get yourself a set of drag specialties pegs and you won’t go wrong.

Now on to the Kuryakn hwy peg, easy insulation, you only need a few tools and about ten minutes of you time. I used one ¾” wrench and two different size Allen wrenches (sorry I don’t remember the size)

 the first difference I noticed was the pegs off set, you can turn the peg either way depending on your height, shorter people would turn them in and taller would turn them out like mine.

Just a few turn of the wrenches and your done, don’t forget to turn the pegs in a little to form a slight V shape with the crash bar

why you ask…well if you don’t when you hit hwy speed your foot will be catching a lot of air and it will tent to want to blow off the peg. I found this out the hard way when I install the last set.

Well I only put a few hundred miles on my bike since I put them on but I got to say you get what you pay for, the ride is great. Its one of the few things that I have added to my bike that has truly changed the ride for me, now my long legs from hell, have some place to go.

Almost forgot to mention, I picked the new pegs up from AMAZON for around 80.00 dollars. Truth is known I’m finding a lot of motorcycle parts on their site a lot cheaper than anywhere else, check them out you will be surprised with the amount of motorcycle parts they carry.

Till next time
Big Al

The Quest for Maine Lobster

Long way from home this time, in the great state of Maine, yep time for another Dinner, Drive-in and Dive.

Well what can I say; when in Maine you eat lobster and it just so happen that was our quest. My wife Signe

had her heart set on a great big Maine lobster, and was not taking NO for an answer. That how we ended up at The Porthole Restaurant located in Portland Harbor on the picturesque Casco Bay.



Extreme dive comes to mind but again in a good way, as you walk down alley/ road/ delivery entrance

to the front door that is on the side of the building.

Once in, things start to change as you are hit with unbelievable smells coming from the kitchen;

I was hungry already before I got to the table. Once at the table we were greeted by our waiter, super talkative young fellow, told us his whole life story while we were eating.


Inside is what you would imagine kind of a nautical theme with lots of old signs with prices from the long ago past,

I might mention. Ha-ha.

Anyway the tables were cool

and the service was great…TIME TO ORDER…Houston we have a problem!!! No lobster, well I should say no whole lobster, come to find out the Porthole does not sell a whole lobster, trust me you could get it a million other ways there but not a whole one. Guys I bet you know what that means if you have been married as long as I have and your wife wants a whole lobster…that's right you settle for an appetizer and move on to the next place.

We ended up getting some crab patties before moving on for our quest for lobster.

I got to admit most likely the best patties I have ever put in my mouth…my wife thought the same…but our quest for the whole lobster must go on and it did.


I would give the Porthole Restaurant a double thumbs up, great food, great atmosphere and fresh, fresh seafood. Wish I would have been in town another day to try some more things on the menu…maybe next time.

Biker friendly, I would say yes but maybe for a different reason than you might think…THE PARKING!!! To be honest parking anywhere at the harbor sucks, big time and it appears to me parking a bike near the door would save you a whole lot of walking.


Till next time


Big Al

Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine is here!

As Navin R. Johnson would say…

The new Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine is here! The new Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine is here! Page 19 - Big Al !

I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.

Click the link below, if you want to see me reaction when I got the  new magazine out of the mailbox yesterday...Steve Martin does it better. ha-ha

Steve Martin...In The Jerk
Three cheers for Mary Gang Baker (Pinky) for issue 2 of Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine, not sure how she did it but I think she outdid the first issue and that issue was great!!


Tech reviews…wow!


Ride reviews…great!!


Local reviews…outstanding!!!


Sunny daze on going story…marvelous!!!!

Restaurant Review… wonderful, amazing, stunning, spectacular, excellent, awe-inspiring, splendid, fabulous, cool, groovy, superb, breathtaking, fantastic, remarkable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It just so happen the food review was on one of my favorite places to eat
DARWELL'S CAFE
in Long beach, MS. Not to mention the review must have been written by a poet as the story flowed like a hot knife through butter…who was this great story teller anyway? IT WAS ME, THAT'S WHO!!! All the D’s I use to get in English class back in high school finely paid off. Ha-ha.

Ok all joking aside, my writing skill is more like a third grader on crack…all over the place. Ha-ha. Anyway it was an honor to have my story picked up by such a great magazine. Who knows maybe I’ll make issue 3…ok I know, now I’m just dreaming.

Time to do some surfing, on the web that is…you can pick up the latest copy of Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine at
PINKY'S MOTORCYCLE PASSION
 and don’t forget to tell her Big Al sent you.

One more thing, join Pinky at her magazine launch party, see below.

Camp Joy Marina, Saturday April 14th noon till close (new magazine launch)

Everyone get off you couch and get there, remember the date April 14th, sounds like a great time for all…I plan on bringing my crew (ok it's just going to be my wife Signe and me, but crew sounds more Bad Ass. Ha-ha.)

Till next time
Big Al

Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives…Oh MY!!! ... Hillbilly Hotdog

Saturday June 11, 2011

That’s right I said June, running a little late on my post. Ok I’ll get on with it; this is diner # 5 in my quest to visit all the diners from the TV show Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives. The location and the name you ask? West Virginia,

 Hillbilly Hot Dog. Now I know you’re asking yourself how in the world you ended up there since you live in Mississippi. Well I’m going to tell you, the wife and I had taken a road trip to Maine in June and driving about 150 miles out of the way to get to this dive just seemed like the thing to do. Ha-ha.

Well let me tell you my friends, the extra 150 miles proved to be worth every mile, it was to be one of the highlights of the trip. My first thought was it’s around 3:00pm in the afternoon; we were going to miss the lunch crowd, should have the place to ourselves.

WRONG!!!
Found the place with no problem, parking on the other hand…there is a slash gravel driveway, slash parking lot, slash picnic area that runs in front of the place,

after dodging a few parked cars we found a spot all the way at the end of the property. This sounds bad but its not, as you walk towards the place your eyes scan the property looking at all the stuff laid out everywhere…its almost like Hillbilly’s live there. As they say one man's junk is another man's treasure. I could have spent hours looking at the old stuff like….

Then comes your next challenge, trying to open their front door..

That’s all I’m going to say about that…but BEWARE!!!

Once inside the door of the what could only be called a shack, your eyes and mind go into overload mode…trying to take in all the stuff on the wall, ceiling, floors and anywhere else you could think of. Next you stand in line to give your order, and then you are greeted by the owner lady…great girl!

We placed our order…with a name like Hillbilly Hotdog…take a guess at what we ordered…yep a HOTDOG!!! But not just any hotdog…If you can think it, you can get it on a dog…

  I got a pizza hotdog

My wife got a dog with Cole slaw and onions…snore, snore

We split chilly cheese fries and onion rings.

The shack has attached school buses for extra seating…

We ended up at one of the school bus table

Only the finest of entertainment, check out the boom box, with duel cassette…now that’s class

What can I say about hillbilly’s hot dog? It one of those places that you become family with everyone in you bus real fast…ha-ha. The food, great for what it is…it’s a dressed up hotdog people but a good one. we loved the place and you will too, also a great place for bikers…bikers welcome and what a great ride to get to the place…can you say country.

 
Till next time

Big Al