I'm done with the tribute to Glenner the superstar farmer/father. I was wishing that I could hang around Paradox and help Glenn with building the overhangs on his new barn. But I had broken my own rule, and put myself on a schedule.
I promised my wife I would keep the trip as short as possible in order to get permission to go. See, it always better to just go for the forgiveness thing once you get back.
But no use kick or squaking. I had to leave the next morning. After a man hug with Glenn, I fired up the Goldy, which was itching to get back to the ride, and pulled out of the driveway. I pointed the bike toward the La Sal Canyon. La Sal Canyon is a short piece of the road toward Moab. It's pure moto heaven, even on an old Gold Wing.
Pics from Paradox to Mex Hat
MT Beale of the La Sal Mtns...better in the big size, click on Pic
I soon turn south toward Monument Valley. I had visions of spending a night camped on a big flat rock at Muley Point. Can you just imagine an air matt and a sleeping bag on that rock out there?
....but the timing just wouldn't permit wasting a half day to hit Muley in the evening. I skipped the route to Muley Point and the Mokie Dugway for a more direct route to Mexican Hat.
San Juan River near Mexican Hat...
You just can't make the ride thru southern Utah and northern AZ without seeing new things each time you go there. The sun hits the mountains and buttes at different angles than the last time, and it all new again. I saw new roads that went to the right and left. I wondered what was out each one of those. Hummmmm....next time I thought.
A tour bus spoiling the landscape.....oh well.
The weather was just right, in the high 80s. It was a little hot if you stopped for gas, but just right when underway. I gassed in Mexican Hat, and continued on. The next stop was the Indian Trading Post Cameron. I love the idea of an Indian trading post, but Cameron's is juist a Tourist trap of Indian good for sale. I'm not against a tourist trap, but, for me, there was nothing to see there.
Nice stuff though. An Indian rug in progress.....notice the high tech work stool. Some things are just to good to change.
Lots of Hand made Jewelery
I did howerever gas up as I intended to take the eastern entrance to the Grand Canyon South Rim as an alternate to the normal route thru Flagstaff. While I was at Cameron's I talked to several other bikers who were on a multi bike tour of the southwest. Seems like these guys were from all over the world. Pretty cool.
The east entrance to the GC has many scenic view points, and while on Indian land, plenty of Indian Jewelry plus Pottery, etc... The overall decission to make the jog into and out of the Grand Canyon was a bad one. I wanted to take a different route, but if you're not going to do the picture taking thing of the GC then the slow traffic at the Rim is a bit frustrating. Not to mention, if you have to pay to get into the park.....which I didn't because of my geezer pass.
I lost the better part of an hour with the GC detour, in my defence, I did take one picture... :) As an afterthough there are no bad motorides on a road with mega-multi turns. Life didn't actually suck out there.
I did see the thrill of the ride/hunt take place at a view point out there. As I walked to take my picture,
I noticed a late 30s gal stop a guy in moto gear. He and his friend were on FJR and Ducati touring bikes. The gal just asked the bike rider if her girl friend could have a ride as pillon with the guy on the FJR. While I was there the FJR guy transfered his camp gear to the gal's SUV. I over heard him say that she didn't get her girlfriend back if he didn't get his camp gear back. Colateral of sorts. Love, isn't it a beautiful thing......or how brazen can that girl be? :)
Back to my ride, I figured to make Kingman by evening, and sure enough, I pulled into my Favorite Kingman Motel at the Andy Devine exit on Route 66 near 6pm. $29.66 per night with Wifi. I completely forgot to call Frank Marbury there in Kingman, who had offered to put me up for free. Damn, I'm slipping :( Besides, I'd liked to have met Frank.
I interneted the night away. I finished the large 'Cup-O-Soup' that I'd bought in Cameron for dinner, and then went to bed in prep for the ride home tomorrow. To that end, I got up early, in the morning to beat the heat as the next 100 miles was a drop in altitude to the Co River at about 1500 ft. I crossed the river at 8am and did beat the heat. I was reunited with Ca gas prices ($3.50) in Needles.....and those damned EPA gas pump nozzles where you have to deal with their foreskins to make them work.
When I got to Needles, I considered myself to be on the last leg. I gassed for the last time in Barstow, and had a $1 burger for Brunch. The drone thru eastern LA traffic as I took 1-15 home gave me time to reflect on this ride...
I wondered if it would be the last time that I'd see many of the riders that I saw in Maine. I wonderered how many more good rides, like this, I'd make in the next 20 years.
Was there any chance I'd still be riding when I reach, if I reached, 90 yrs old like my good fiend OMB, Old Man Bud? Would my cancer return or something else get me.......at this point in my life I enjoy what fate gives me.
......but I do avoide buying green Bananas. LOL
It was good to get a hug from Dee on my return..........
When I got off the bike, I had a voice mail on my cell phone. It was a message from a friend...His wife's breast cancer that she'd fought for the past year had shown up in her lungs now. The good news was that it's treatable, but the lesson is....get out there and ride now.....there are no guarantees.
Thanks for listening.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Glenner from Co.
Once I get to the Rockies, I consider myself almost home. I was a couple hundred miles ahead of schedule. I had the time to visit one more old friend on the other side of Co in Paradox.
The ride thru Texas Creek in the Arkansas River canyon and on to Gunnison, then thru Montrose, Ridgeway and Naturita was beautiful as always. I pulled into Glenn's place at about 5 pm
That's about all the moto content to this edition of my report.
Here's the Paradox post office...or actually it's the Bedrock PO. Does this tell you anything about the size of Paradox......or why you don't know where it is. :rofl Probably only 60 miles from Moab.
This farmer Glenn of Paradox. I'm the other one....
Glenn deserves the utmost respect. I met him 35 yrs ago. He was a painting contractor for 20 years in Ca, but he'd come from Co to settle there after the Navy.
He got in on the real estate boom in Ca, and sold out for a fist full of fifties. Then he bought 160 acres in Paradox to grow hay.
That doesn't mean Glenner was rich and a gentleman rancher when he got back to Co. Glenn worked for everything that he's got., and he's still doing things that astound me.
So lets go thru what this one man show goes thru with the help of his Lovely wife, Enid.
Glenn took me out on a daily irrigation run with his '79 4X4 luv truck. It runs perfectly. That Luv truck was a Baja 1000 pre run truck soon after it was purchased from Chevy. Here's one of several irrigation lines.....
...and here's the large Barn that he built single handedly over the last year. More on that later.
Here's a series of pieces of equipment that he has bought used at auction somewhere or other over the last 15 years. He keeps them all running himself since any kind of service facility is at least 100 miles away in Grand Junction or Montrose.
Now back to his new barn. Here's an end view. Those roof pieces are about 20 foot each side. The material cam in 30 ft pieces which he cut to length. A bunch of work.
Now after last winters snow he finds that he needs overhang of about 10 feet on the front and the back.
So now as we speak Glenn is busy putting those 10 ft pieces back on that barn. With that in mind, Glenn walked into his small town bank and announced in a loud voice that, "Foresight is like foreskin and he didn't have any".
He also said that no one broke even a smiles. He ended up leaving the bank very red faced and is too embarrassed to go back. Enid gave him that wifie look of incredulity, when he told her, and said, "Why on earth would you say such a thing, Glenn?" :freaky :rofl
Anyway, Glenn and Enid greeted me like a good friend. I liked that. I got the grand tour of the place and after dinner We went to the sitting room to dredge up old memories, and I got to hear all about his recent trip to Alaska in his Mtr Home.
In the fore ground of the above pictures are some new parts for his restored '39 Plymouth Coupe...Hummm, or is that a Dodge.
He also keeps Enid's buick, his Dodge pickup, and his Jeep running.
I have no idea how he keeps all that he has going, all together. Along with Zim and Jason, Glenner is my hero.
Before I went to bed I managed to get Glenn signed up on Picasa Photos. The computer world is Glenner's short suit, but he's moving right along, and believe it or not they have DSL in Paradox....and even had it before Zim got it up there in Maine. :wink:
I got to bed at about 11:30.....damn, I had to be off early in the morning.
The ride thru Texas Creek in the Arkansas River canyon and on to Gunnison, then thru Montrose, Ridgeway and Naturita was beautiful as always. I pulled into Glenn's place at about 5 pm
That's about all the moto content to this edition of my report.
Here's the Paradox post office...or actually it's the Bedrock PO. Does this tell you anything about the size of Paradox......or why you don't know where it is. :rofl Probably only 60 miles from Moab.
This farmer Glenn of Paradox. I'm the other one....
Glenn deserves the utmost respect. I met him 35 yrs ago. He was a painting contractor for 20 years in Ca, but he'd come from Co to settle there after the Navy.
He got in on the real estate boom in Ca, and sold out for a fist full of fifties. Then he bought 160 acres in Paradox to grow hay.
That doesn't mean Glenner was rich and a gentleman rancher when he got back to Co. Glenn worked for everything that he's got., and he's still doing things that astound me.
So lets go thru what this one man show goes thru with the help of his Lovely wife, Enid.
Glenn took me out on a daily irrigation run with his '79 4X4 luv truck. It runs perfectly. That Luv truck was a Baja 1000 pre run truck soon after it was purchased from Chevy. Here's one of several irrigation lines.....
...and here's the large Barn that he built single handedly over the last year. More on that later.
Here's a series of pieces of equipment that he has bought used at auction somewhere or other over the last 15 years. He keeps them all running himself since any kind of service facility is at least 100 miles away in Grand Junction or Montrose.
Now back to his new barn. Here's an end view. Those roof pieces are about 20 foot each side. The material cam in 30 ft pieces which he cut to length. A bunch of work.
Now after last winters snow he finds that he needs overhang of about 10 feet on the front and the back.
So now as we speak Glenn is busy putting those 10 ft pieces back on that barn. With that in mind, Glenn walked into his small town bank and announced in a loud voice that, "Foresight is like foreskin and he didn't have any".
He also said that no one broke even a smiles. He ended up leaving the bank very red faced and is too embarrassed to go back. Enid gave him that wifie look of incredulity, when he told her, and said, "Why on earth would you say such a thing, Glenn?" :freaky :rofl
Anyway, Glenn and Enid greeted me like a good friend. I liked that. I got the grand tour of the place and after dinner We went to the sitting room to dredge up old memories, and I got to hear all about his recent trip to Alaska in his Mtr Home.
In the fore ground of the above pictures are some new parts for his restored '39 Plymouth Coupe...Hummm, or is that a Dodge.
He also keeps Enid's buick, his Dodge pickup, and his Jeep running.
I have no idea how he keeps all that he has going, all together. Along with Zim and Jason, Glenner is my hero.
Before I went to bed I managed to get Glenn signed up on Picasa Photos. The computer world is Glenner's short suit, but he's moving right along, and believe it or not they have DSL in Paradox....and even had it before Zim got it up there in Maine. :wink:
I got to bed at about 11:30.....damn, I had to be off early in the morning.
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Great Plains
I left the rest stop in the morning at about 7:30. The weather throughout the trip so far had been rainless. That's hard to beat, but what really makes good weather on the Great Plains is a lack of wind. The biggest wind that I had encountered was under 10mph. But I still had Kansas and Colorado to cross. I kept my fingers crossed.
In general the skies looked good to the west, but there was a pesky dark cloud out there about 50 to 75 miles away. The hwy first headed toward the cloud, then it would change as to miss the cloud, then back again.
I stopped in Salina, Kansas for a buck burger lunch. The rain hit while I was inside watching the weather channel on the TV. It sure enough showed a thin rain band right over Salina. When I went back out to the bike, it had about a dozen raindrops on it, and there were only clear skies to the west.....and still no wind. I was leading a charmed life.
On and on I droned. I took this picture which represents the scenery from Illinois to Denver. :D
I'd done 775 miles yesterday, and had 600 to do today to catch up on my miles. I was due at LD Walkers home this evening on the eastern edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mtn range near Westcliffe Co.
There's not much to say about todays route. I got into a zone and ticked off the miles. I called LD from somewhere to warn him and his wife, Anne, that it looked like I'd be there about 6pm.
Some 15 miles before his place, I came around a corner to find a couple cars parked with their drivers, out on the road, looking up. Well, I'll be darned, there was a herd of big horned mtn sheep about 100 feet from the road.
I pulled off and watched for a while. There were 3 or 4 cute young one jumping from rock to rock. The rest were just nibbling on bushes and not at all concerned with us. I watched and took pictures for 5 minutes or so. I'd never seen a 15 strong group of goat in the states before.
LD lives in a nice house at 9300 ft that has deer all over the place. I saw 6 deer on the way to meet LD. It was good to see LD and Anne.....oh and to get off that bike for a while. :clap
I got cleaned up before dinner. Anne put out a roast beef dinner with sweet corn and a salad. I really appreciated that as my diet had consisted mostly of noodles and burgers and granola bars.
After dinner I hooked up to LD's wifi and caught up again....and later there was a nice bed with a feather blanket.
Did you hear the one about, how do you get down off an elephant? You don't get down off an elephant, you get down off a duck. :D
We all visited in the morning. I only had to do 250 miles to the eastern edge of Colorado today. I wanted to test ride a couple of LD's bike. He has a V65 Sabre, a couple KLR 250s, and a DR650. I wanted to ride his DR to compare with my own DR350.
That was a very clean Honda Sabre......I have a couple of those at home. Well not so clean, maybe. Don't get me wrong. The Gold Wing was doing an admirable job of taking me home while it got 40mpg...... but I missed the power of the big Sabre. LD's Sabre reminded me of what I was missing. :cry
So we took the bikes out for an hours ride. I really enjoyed riding his bikes that morning, but time was getting away from me. I needed to get on the road..... I had to tear myself away from these good friends. I was on the road by 11am on the way to Paradox Co.
In general the skies looked good to the west, but there was a pesky dark cloud out there about 50 to 75 miles away. The hwy first headed toward the cloud, then it would change as to miss the cloud, then back again.
I stopped in Salina, Kansas for a buck burger lunch. The rain hit while I was inside watching the weather channel on the TV. It sure enough showed a thin rain band right over Salina. When I went back out to the bike, it had about a dozen raindrops on it, and there were only clear skies to the west.....and still no wind. I was leading a charmed life.
On and on I droned. I took this picture which represents the scenery from Illinois to Denver. :D
I'd done 775 miles yesterday, and had 600 to do today to catch up on my miles. I was due at LD Walkers home this evening on the eastern edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mtn range near Westcliffe Co.
There's not much to say about todays route. I got into a zone and ticked off the miles. I called LD from somewhere to warn him and his wife, Anne, that it looked like I'd be there about 6pm.
Some 15 miles before his place, I came around a corner to find a couple cars parked with their drivers, out on the road, looking up. Well, I'll be darned, there was a herd of big horned mtn sheep about 100 feet from the road.
I pulled off and watched for a while. There were 3 or 4 cute young one jumping from rock to rock. The rest were just nibbling on bushes and not at all concerned with us. I watched and took pictures for 5 minutes or so. I'd never seen a 15 strong group of goat in the states before.
LD lives in a nice house at 9300 ft that has deer all over the place. I saw 6 deer on the way to meet LD. It was good to see LD and Anne.....oh and to get off that bike for a while. :clap
I got cleaned up before dinner. Anne put out a roast beef dinner with sweet corn and a salad. I really appreciated that as my diet had consisted mostly of noodles and burgers and granola bars.
After dinner I hooked up to LD's wifi and caught up again....and later there was a nice bed with a feather blanket.
Did you hear the one about, how do you get down off an elephant? You don't get down off an elephant, you get down off a duck. :D
We all visited in the morning. I only had to do 250 miles to the eastern edge of Colorado today. I wanted to test ride a couple of LD's bike. He has a V65 Sabre, a couple KLR 250s, and a DR650. I wanted to ride his DR to compare with my own DR350.
That was a very clean Honda Sabre......I have a couple of those at home. Well not so clean, maybe. Don't get me wrong. The Gold Wing was doing an admirable job of taking me home while it got 40mpg...... but I missed the power of the big Sabre. LD's Sabre reminded me of what I was missing. :cry
So we took the bikes out for an hours ride. I really enjoyed riding his bikes that morning, but time was getting away from me. I needed to get on the road..... I had to tear myself away from these good friends. I was on the road by 11am on the way to Paradox Co.
Making Up Time
Too soon the time to leave was at hand. Rani and I chatted for an hour in the morning after Mike went off to work. I got one last hug from Rani, and was on my way.
.....it was time to do some catching up to that 500 mile/day average.
I-70 took me out of Columbus quickly to the west. I could see 2 obstacles in front of me. St Louis and Kansas City. It was a nice weather day, and the Wing hummed along like an old song. Tank after tank ticked off the miles.
I followed the GPS without a hitch thru St Louis. It was nearly 300 more miles to KC.
By 5:30pm I was in KC. I think I'd gained an hour. That was almost 700 miles. I was getting tired. I followed the GPS as it was programed to Westcliffe Co. It was taking me to ALT 70.....hummmm.
I missed an exit in downtown KC, damn, but the GPS got me back on track. It's neat how that works. Then I notice that the ALT 70 that I'm on is soon to be a Toll Road. I didn't like the sound of that.
Sure enough a toll booth showed up and they gave me a ticket. So at the first chance I got off that freeway. I accused the toll girl of her being in cahoots with the GPS folks to get me on that toll road. She denied it....indicating that I was just stupid. She was probably right. :rofl
So I needed to take a nearby road across the edge of town to get the real I-70. That made me nervous as this route looked to be prime deer country. In fact, I did see a deer that crossed in front of me.
Plus I was traveling North into some very dark skies. It looked very rough up ahead, and there was sheet lighting every 5 seconds or so. I wondered a couple time if I shouldn't have just stayed on the toll road.
There were some dark clouds dipping low toward the ground. I wondered about tornadoes, but what do I know about such things. Still it did look mean.
I made it to free I-70 and headed west again. I guess the adrenaline of the situation had amped me up. I was considering an SS1000 as it seemed doable.
I was cruising along when a rest stop came up that advertised free WIFI. I was ready for a stop anyway, and had been looking for a cheap motel along the last 50 miles. I was keeping my options open.
A man and his wife sitting at the rest stop asked me if it was cold out there. We talked a bit. He said there was a tornado watch in effect at the time. How about that?
I asked him what he was doing there. He said that he was out of work and going to spend the night there in his car. He said nit was legal to spend the night, but not legal to camp there. I can see a fine line between spending the night and camping.
So if you are a car you can sleep in your car, if you are a big truck you can sleep in the sleeper.....but what can you do if you're on a motorcycle? Well, I figured that meant that I could pull out my sleeping bag under drop cloth and have at it. Tent's would be more like camping.
Anyway that is what I did in an out of the way nook kinda out of sight. It was 9:30 somewhere when I hit the hay. Nobody bothered me all night, and I got up at dawn. No rain or tornadoes was the words of the night. I took a half hour on my netbook and caught up on things. Most everyone had reported home safely from the Maine event. That's always good to hear.
You'll notice a lack of pictures between Columbus and the Rockies. Although it's not too photogenic, I don't mind that 1500 miles. Americas Heartland is full of hard working folks, and what you see from the road is proof of that.
I just let my mind wander thru the 18 & 1900s out there, and I'm usually fascinated with what I find when the abandoned machinery bring the old days to my attention.
Did I tell you that my seat rolls made that Gold Wing's seat very livable. Yahoo!
.....it was time to do some catching up to that 500 mile/day average.
I-70 took me out of Columbus quickly to the west. I could see 2 obstacles in front of me. St Louis and Kansas City. It was a nice weather day, and the Wing hummed along like an old song. Tank after tank ticked off the miles.
I followed the GPS without a hitch thru St Louis. It was nearly 300 more miles to KC.
By 5:30pm I was in KC. I think I'd gained an hour. That was almost 700 miles. I was getting tired. I followed the GPS as it was programed to Westcliffe Co. It was taking me to ALT 70.....hummmm.
I missed an exit in downtown KC, damn, but the GPS got me back on track. It's neat how that works. Then I notice that the ALT 70 that I'm on is soon to be a Toll Road. I didn't like the sound of that.
Sure enough a toll booth showed up and they gave me a ticket. So at the first chance I got off that freeway. I accused the toll girl of her being in cahoots with the GPS folks to get me on that toll road. She denied it....indicating that I was just stupid. She was probably right. :rofl
So I needed to take a nearby road across the edge of town to get the real I-70. That made me nervous as this route looked to be prime deer country. In fact, I did see a deer that crossed in front of me.
Plus I was traveling North into some very dark skies. It looked very rough up ahead, and there was sheet lighting every 5 seconds or so. I wondered a couple time if I shouldn't have just stayed on the toll road.
There were some dark clouds dipping low toward the ground. I wondered about tornadoes, but what do I know about such things. Still it did look mean.
I made it to free I-70 and headed west again. I guess the adrenaline of the situation had amped me up. I was considering an SS1000 as it seemed doable.
I was cruising along when a rest stop came up that advertised free WIFI. I was ready for a stop anyway, and had been looking for a cheap motel along the last 50 miles. I was keeping my options open.
A man and his wife sitting at the rest stop asked me if it was cold out there. We talked a bit. He said there was a tornado watch in effect at the time. How about that?
I asked him what he was doing there. He said that he was out of work and going to spend the night there in his car. He said nit was legal to spend the night, but not legal to camp there. I can see a fine line between spending the night and camping.
So if you are a car you can sleep in your car, if you are a big truck you can sleep in the sleeper.....but what can you do if you're on a motorcycle? Well, I figured that meant that I could pull out my sleeping bag under drop cloth and have at it. Tent's would be more like camping.
Anyway that is what I did in an out of the way nook kinda out of sight. It was 9:30 somewhere when I hit the hay. Nobody bothered me all night, and I got up at dawn. No rain or tornadoes was the words of the night. I took a half hour on my netbook and caught up on things. Most everyone had reported home safely from the Maine event. That's always good to hear.
You'll notice a lack of pictures between Columbus and the Rockies. Although it's not too photogenic, I don't mind that 1500 miles. Americas Heartland is full of hard working folks, and what you see from the road is proof of that.
I just let my mind wander thru the 18 & 1900s out there, and I'm usually fascinated with what I find when the abandoned machinery bring the old days to my attention.
Did I tell you that my seat rolls made that Gold Wing's seat very livable. Yahoo!
Tuesday morning, The day after Labor Day, was upon us. There were still a dozen straglers that had refused to leave the festivities. Most didn't want to get involved with the holiday traffic of the day before.
It soon became evident that Zim and Linda weren't going to adopt any of us, so plans to actually leave were made. Final goodbyes were said.
Special thanks goes out to Jason for getting me involved one more time. Jason has been a good friend to me ever since I met him. Thanks Jason.
And I can't say enough about Zim & Linda or Anna, the granddaughter.
I finished loading the Wing for travel, and hit the road at 9:30 am. There were rain clouds and damp pavement, but the day only improved from those conditions.
I had spent lots of time looking for out of the way roads in order to get to Burlington VT. But in the end, I took the most direct route, HWY 2. It was only a 300 mile ride to a rider friend's house there. Bob Hooper wasn't able to make the Zim ranch this year, so I figured to make a visit to him instead.
The bike was just zipping along, and the sun shined brightly. It was a great day. Along about noon I was getting hungary.
Now I'm a frugal guy when it come to a traveling budget, so I stopped at a small town's market, and bought a cantaloupe and a package of carrots. I found a shady spot in the back parking lot, and had a pleasant feast.
I boiled up some coffee with my Alcohol stove, and sat back and enjoyed the moment.
So back on the road. I continued on thru the lush New England countryside. I love the older building of the east. We don't have many areas in Calif with buildings older then 75 years. It refreshing back there.
.....but I do complain about not being able to see the lakes or rivers because the trees are in the way. :cry
My GPS took me right To Hooper's front door. This is my first trip with a GPS. I love my maps, but I can see that these GPSs are going to make a lazy man out of me. :clap
Soon Bob and Kathleen got home from work. It was good to see them again. Bob took me to Fatty's BBQ in college town Burlington. We caught up on old times, and I recounted all the reasons that he should retire soon. I think that he listened. Every day that you work is one day less for your own life......of course, I realize that some work is necessary. UGH.
Here's Bob & Kathleen's new home. It's a beauty.
The Hoopers had to work the next day so I wanted to be up early to continue my trip when they left for work. To that end I walked out the front door as it was getting light.....and met Kathleen coming back from her morning run. I swear that girl is going to live for ever. It just make me want to throw rocks at my own life style. Ha.
San Diego is 3500 miles from Maine, and I had a minor surgery appointment scheduled which left me 7 day to complete the trip.....or 500 miles a day. I was already 200 miles behind schedule......
The next stops was to see family in Columbus Oh. I didn't figure I could get there tonight, but I could get most of the way....if there were no surprises.
I motored on toward Columbus. The sky was troubled, but none the less beautiful
Somewhere along the way I finished my Cantaloupe and carrots.
Along about 7pm I pulled into a campground in Emlenton Pa. John, the Manager, was happy to put me up at a campsite for $20. Wow, I like national campgrounds or gorilla camping. $20 bucks for a campsite is high brow for me, but free camping in the East is a lot more difficult to find than out west.
I coughed up the big money and took advantage of the Wifi with my net book and caught up on some mail.
It turns out that Emlenton is about 30 miles from a good rider friend in Pittsburgh....but following a GPS I find that, while you may be on route, you don't really know where you are relative to the rest of the world. Damn, I could have scrounged a free night with Dave Ryder...no really, that's his real name.
My camp setup .........I call it 'sleeping bag under drop cloth'. :clap
John had told me to take a run thru town in the morning before I got underway. Small towns USA are alway charming when you take time to see them.
There's my freeway going over the Allegheny River
So today I was to meet my riding nephew, Mike, in Killbuck Oh. We had selected Killbuck as it was a couple hour ride from Columbus. I had found a picture of an IGA market on Google Maps, and we set the meeting place. The meetup was to take place at 11AM. I was five minutes late.
Killbuck IGA store....Looks just like the Google pic
That's Mike and his '09 EX500
I spent a wonderful evening with Mike and Rani. These guys are techies to the max. It gave me a glimpse of the future families. They are hooked at the waist to their I-phones.....in a good way. They are completely in touch, at all times, with the world thru those things.
They're trying to adopt European babies as well. What a great life they are leading. We had dinner at Olive Garden with my 2 beautiful sister cousins, Jean and Terri.
After dinner Mike and Rani took me to a sewing shop to get me some raw materials to make a seat improvement for the Gold Wing. Did I tell you that my motorcycle seat was killing me?
So I whipped up a couple rudementory Sweet Cheeks kind of seat supplements that worked pretty good. As far a moto seats go, it doesn't matter what you try, but the sin is, if you do nothing about the monkey butt.
Here's my try....
Three days and only 1200 miles......that wasn't going to get me to my doctors appointment.....I'd have to pick the pace up a bit.
It soon became evident that Zim and Linda weren't going to adopt any of us, so plans to actually leave were made. Final goodbyes were said.
Special thanks goes out to Jason for getting me involved one more time. Jason has been a good friend to me ever since I met him. Thanks Jason.
And I can't say enough about Zim & Linda or Anna, the granddaughter.
I finished loading the Wing for travel, and hit the road at 9:30 am. There were rain clouds and damp pavement, but the day only improved from those conditions.
I had spent lots of time looking for out of the way roads in order to get to Burlington VT. But in the end, I took the most direct route, HWY 2. It was only a 300 mile ride to a rider friend's house there. Bob Hooper wasn't able to make the Zim ranch this year, so I figured to make a visit to him instead.
The bike was just zipping along, and the sun shined brightly. It was a great day. Along about noon I was getting hungary.
Now I'm a frugal guy when it come to a traveling budget, so I stopped at a small town's market, and bought a cantaloupe and a package of carrots. I found a shady spot in the back parking lot, and had a pleasant feast.
I boiled up some coffee with my Alcohol stove, and sat back and enjoyed the moment.
So back on the road. I continued on thru the lush New England countryside. I love the older building of the east. We don't have many areas in Calif with buildings older then 75 years. It refreshing back there.
.....but I do complain about not being able to see the lakes or rivers because the trees are in the way. :cry
My GPS took me right To Hooper's front door. This is my first trip with a GPS. I love my maps, but I can see that these GPSs are going to make a lazy man out of me. :clap
Soon Bob and Kathleen got home from work. It was good to see them again. Bob took me to Fatty's BBQ in college town Burlington. We caught up on old times, and I recounted all the reasons that he should retire soon. I think that he listened. Every day that you work is one day less for your own life......of course, I realize that some work is necessary. UGH.
Here's Bob & Kathleen's new home. It's a beauty.
The Hoopers had to work the next day so I wanted to be up early to continue my trip when they left for work. To that end I walked out the front door as it was getting light.....and met Kathleen coming back from her morning run. I swear that girl is going to live for ever. It just make me want to throw rocks at my own life style. Ha.
San Diego is 3500 miles from Maine, and I had a minor surgery appointment scheduled which left me 7 day to complete the trip.....or 500 miles a day. I was already 200 miles behind schedule......
The next stops was to see family in Columbus Oh. I didn't figure I could get there tonight, but I could get most of the way....if there were no surprises.
I motored on toward Columbus. The sky was troubled, but none the less beautiful
Somewhere along the way I finished my Cantaloupe and carrots.
Along about 7pm I pulled into a campground in Emlenton Pa. John, the Manager, was happy to put me up at a campsite for $20. Wow, I like national campgrounds or gorilla camping. $20 bucks for a campsite is high brow for me, but free camping in the East is a lot more difficult to find than out west.
I coughed up the big money and took advantage of the Wifi with my net book and caught up on some mail.
It turns out that Emlenton is about 30 miles from a good rider friend in Pittsburgh....but following a GPS I find that, while you may be on route, you don't really know where you are relative to the rest of the world. Damn, I could have scrounged a free night with Dave Ryder...no really, that's his real name.
My camp setup .........I call it 'sleeping bag under drop cloth'. :clap
John had told me to take a run thru town in the morning before I got underway. Small towns USA are alway charming when you take time to see them.
There's my freeway going over the Allegheny River
So today I was to meet my riding nephew, Mike, in Killbuck Oh. We had selected Killbuck as it was a couple hour ride from Columbus. I had found a picture of an IGA market on Google Maps, and we set the meeting place. The meetup was to take place at 11AM. I was five minutes late.
Killbuck IGA store....Looks just like the Google pic
That's Mike and his '09 EX500
I spent a wonderful evening with Mike and Rani. These guys are techies to the max. It gave me a glimpse of the future families. They are hooked at the waist to their I-phones.....in a good way. They are completely in touch, at all times, with the world thru those things.
They're trying to adopt European babies as well. What a great life they are leading. We had dinner at Olive Garden with my 2 beautiful sister cousins, Jean and Terri.
After dinner Mike and Rani took me to a sewing shop to get me some raw materials to make a seat improvement for the Gold Wing. Did I tell you that my motorcycle seat was killing me?
So I whipped up a couple rudementory Sweet Cheeks kind of seat supplements that worked pretty good. As far a moto seats go, it doesn't matter what you try, but the sin is, if you do nothing about the monkey butt.
Here's my try....
Three days and only 1200 miles......that wasn't going to get me to my doctors appointment.....I'd have to pick the pace up a bit.
Some of us got up a little Later on Sunday. Bike work was wrapping up, and I had to get the Wing ready for the ride across country. I'd found time to take it on a couple local ride to the tune of 50 miles or so.
Outside of being kind of big, it seemed to run pretty well. The seat had some rips in it so I got the duck tape out and patched it up. One of the guys gave me an unused GPS mount that I installed.
A couple of the electro boys tried to get the Wings radio system going, but they said that the amp (whatever that is) seemed to be blown.....so no tunes. Of course, that would have been a first for me. I'm pretty content with my one thoughts anyway so no big loss.
Amazingly the old girl was in good operating condition. It was full of oil and even the air pump for the suspension worked as it should. All the boxes had locks and keys. It looked like the ride home would get a big thumbs up.
Sunday was spent making up lost time with friends, young and old alike. No telling if I'll ever see these guys again. That T Blum, from Past Cack/ ADV St1100 fame on the left, and Wall Street George on the right.
That's Art in the front and Ed Shea in the right Foreground. And of note is Bob Amadon, rhymes with Mastodon) in the girly pink tee shirt. Bob was our ace in the hole in Labor Days Harmony town fair 'Hammer throw' contest.
Speaking of the Hammer and Skillet throw at Harmony, Maine's Fair, Last year the Zim folks invaded the contest and took several place ribbons. The sabmag boys stormed back this year to take top honors with a 79' toss, and maybe six ribbons in all. It was a lot of fun.
Top honors Bob...
And the rest of the ribbon holders....not all our guys. Good clean fun.
Here's a picture of Jason's NX650 faking a hookup with the towns tractor pulling sled.
They had an antique Flywheel engine exhibit.... I still don't know how some of them work.
Some old tractors.........
And some antique chain saws. Some of those were bery interesting.
Click on pic for larger image...a couple times.
Tomorrow, Tueday the 7th, the fun would come to an end, and I would ride.
Outside of being kind of big, it seemed to run pretty well. The seat had some rips in it so I got the duck tape out and patched it up. One of the guys gave me an unused GPS mount that I installed.
A couple of the electro boys tried to get the Wings radio system going, but they said that the amp (whatever that is) seemed to be blown.....so no tunes. Of course, that would have been a first for me. I'm pretty content with my one thoughts anyway so no big loss.
Amazingly the old girl was in good operating condition. It was full of oil and even the air pump for the suspension worked as it should. All the boxes had locks and keys. It looked like the ride home would get a big thumbs up.
Sunday was spent making up lost time with friends, young and old alike. No telling if I'll ever see these guys again. That T Blum, from Past Cack/ ADV St1100 fame on the left, and Wall Street George on the right.
That's Art in the front and Ed Shea in the right Foreground. And of note is Bob Amadon, rhymes with Mastodon) in the girly pink tee shirt. Bob was our ace in the hole in Labor Days Harmony town fair 'Hammer throw' contest.
Speaking of the Hammer and Skillet throw at Harmony, Maine's Fair, Last year the Zim folks invaded the contest and took several place ribbons. The sabmag boys stormed back this year to take top honors with a 79' toss, and maybe six ribbons in all. It was a lot of fun.
Top honors Bob...
And the rest of the ribbon holders....not all our guys. Good clean fun.
Here's a picture of Jason's NX650 faking a hookup with the towns tractor pulling sled.
They had an antique Flywheel engine exhibit.... I still don't know how some of them work.
Some old tractors.........
And some antique chain saws. Some of those were bery interesting.
Click on pic for larger image...a couple times.
Tomorrow, Tueday the 7th, the fun would come to an end, and I would ride.
Hurricane Earl
So hurricane Earl showed up Friday night, but it cleared on Saturday, and this is what it looked like in years past, from an Old Carl Custer photo. These guys all know that Sat is steak and lobster night.
And another...These guys are from all over the states, and every type of bike. most of these guys have V4 heritage, but have moved on to newer bikes.
The camp fire doing double duty with the lobster pot. Zim's son Jeff is boiling up the girls for dinner. Another Custer photo
Linda got me tangled up with the Long Island Ice Teas after dinner. I'm going to hold that against her. :evil
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| From Drop Box |
And another...These guys are from all over the states, and every type of bike. most of these guys have V4 heritage, but have moved on to newer bikes.
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| From Drop Box |
The camp fire doing double duty with the lobster pot. Zim's son Jeff is boiling up the girls for dinner. Another Custer photo
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| From Drop Box |
Linda got me tangled up with the Long Island Ice Teas after dinner. I'm going to hold that against her. :evil
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