The Future is not Today

Having Liberty at the Elms

2012-01-28T11:54:00.001-08:00

At Christmas my kids got me a HD TV. I have been hmmming AND hawing about getting one. I figured I would wait until the Sanyo I got 10 plus years ago to give out before dumping cash on such a frivolous purchase. Well T (my daughter) decided for me, making the decision on how fast a refresh rate, which 1080 this and that and whether I needed to get a new amp with 5, 4 or 2 channels. With this gift it became necessary on upgrading to cable HD. By upgrading I lowered my monthly cost by getting more services than I need, namely a phone. I just know I didn't ask all the right questions and there is a catch some place that will show up on the bill. I don't have a contract (supposedly) and can change at my hearts whim. With that the cable box is a DVR and can record shows. I didn't think this would be a useful feature until one night I recorded a bunch of DDD's (Diners, Dives and Drive- Ins).

I promise this is all connected somehow.

One night I simply could not fall asleep and got up and decided to watch what I had recorded via the DVR. I came across the Liberty Elm Diner in Providence RI. I couldn't believe I have numerous books on diners, have done extensive research all over New England and have visited well over 100 diners over the past 7 years and this one I had never heard of. On P16 in Randy Garbin's book Diners of New England is a paragraph on the La Criolla Restaurant, which is notated as CLOSED. I checked my MapSource Master Diner file and low and behold it is marked as a waypoint.

Today being absolutely beautiful out in NE winter terms, I decided we should go pay a visit to Liberty Elm Diner. On our way down I pulled one of my treasure hunt actions in the middle of RT95 South to get a picture of this guy.

I have been meaning to grab this guy for years, plus it will fulfill a requirement for another waypoint category, surely something to risk your life for. Back into the flow of the traffic to Exit 17.

My recollection this place looked alot less for wear on DDD than in person. This place is a Worcester Lunch Car diner. Alot of the porcelain covered siding has taken a beating and rusting out. Kind of like an abandon car in some urban area. Randy Garbin notes in his book this place is "oft-changed diner in another struggling neighborhood sits on Elmwood Street, the city's oldest gateway boulevard to and from the south"

While I was outside taking pictures, I watched this Camry pull in and make this crunching sound. As the driver got out of the car I said it sounds like you just ran over some really bad. She walked around her car and said to me, "do you own this white car, because I just hit it" I answered "No it is not mine". What a way to ruin a breakfast for someone.

Inside the place had a well patronized look like all these diners do. We sat out back in a built on addition. You could tell the place had South American theme in its past. The room was painted with alot of bright colors on the walls, however I think this was in keeping with the current owners tastes. I did not take pictures of the back room.

Well I finally settled into the reason for coming here the food. Prominently displayed on a chalk board was the featured food on DDD, the Guy Turkey Sandwich. I asked our waiter what he recommended and immediately this was the one. I asked what did the locals eat and he leaned toward the Monte Cristo sandwich with egg. So that what I ordered. MeAsWe had the much healthier omelet with tomatoes and bacon. The menu has a wide range of items and not all of them are the typical breakfast and lunch fare.

The food.

The food was good, even better than average, but doesn't come close to touching the Crunchy French Toast of the Miss Worcester. I have a feeling I should have gone for the Turkey Sandwich. Each meal comes with one of those little umbrellas. It appears there is some kind of ritual you are suppose to do with them, but I failed to ask because it did not dawn on me until I began this writing. I did take a picture

Around the side and back the building has been painted with more than just a roller and brush.

Other objects takes me back to the hippie days of my youth. Just had the 'je ne sais quoi' air about them.

All in all not a bad way to spend a couple of hours in a New England winter. Heres the DDD segment and what Randy Garbins book look like. Oh I also found out this was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2012 Calendar

2012-01-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

At least this year we finished the 2012 calendar for Jan 1. Usually it is into the first couple of weeks when winter really sets in and it gives me something to do. All of the photos are from our trip out west in 2011. All of the pictures are clickable for viewing and enlarging in a new window.

January
Mount Ranier - Washington

Mount Rainer has to be the single most impressive and spectacular object I have seen on our journeys. This place is a must see.

February
Mount Shasta - California

This picture was taken from Lower Klamath Lake Rd. Since Mt Shasta is relatively isolated and is prominent due to its height, I have surmised it to be Mt Shasta. It seems we rode all around this area and never quite made it to the actual mountain.

March
Multinomah Falls - Historic Columbia River Highway - Oregon

This picture should be in portrait mode, however that does not do well for making calendars. This is only a small segment of the falls to show the bridge and falls as a backdrop.

April
Crown Point Vista House - Historic Columbia River Highway - Oregon

The Columbia River Highway is a great ride, with many views of the Columbia River. This picture was taken from Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.

May
Mount St Helens - Washington

The ride to Mt St Helens is worth the trip. This is taken from the Johnson Observatory at the end of Hwy 504. The movie is spectacular, as well as the many personal stories about the eruption in 1980

June
Norris Geyser Basin - Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

This was our second trip to Yellowstone and we stopped here because the Norris Museum was a National Historic Landmark. This pool that sits right out back of the Norris Museum looks like a giant hot tub. It is appropiately named the Bathtub Spring

July
Shoshone Falls - Twin Falls Idaho

We were looking for the marker for Evil Knievel's jump across the Snake River and never found it. We were told the marker was on private property. Just outside of Twin Falls, where we had briefly stopped for a picture, a guy pulled up asking if we knew where the Falls were. Not finding the marker we side tracked to see the falls. Well worth it.

August
Jupiter - Golden Spike National Historic Site - Utah

This was suppose to be one of those grab and run stamp locations and we ended up spending something like 3 hours here. Who can resist up close encounters with old steam engines.

September
Hotel Nevada - Ely Nevada

One of the places we stayed on our trip. A nights stay is only $35 and you are warned about the varying temperatures when taking a shower. This place has character and well worth a stay for the experience. Parked outside is a long string of HD's with my FJR feeling very loney on the right.

October
Going to the Sun Road - Glacier National Park - Montana

In 2010 the whole purpose of our trip was to ride the Going to the Sun road. This year we got to the ride from end to end on the bike. The views are spectacular and this should be on everyone's list.

November
The Loneliest Road in America - US 50 - Nevada

Not only the loneliest but wind is a factor too. I do not remember any cars that passed us coming the other way for the whole trip.

December
Craters of the Moon - Idaho

I just liked this picture because the yellow line and the slight bump of a curve. Taken on the loop road at Craters of the Moon in Idaho.

The Cover
Hwy 341 - Road into Virgina City NV

Fast Refund FastLane

2011-11-23T07:15:00.000-08:00

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my FastLane account being charged while my bike was in transit to Salt Lake City. It also happened on the way back. Looking at my statements I figured I spend about $60+ on tolls that were in error. The hard part was how I get my money back.

Called FastLane and they told me to write a letter detailing my problem and enclose proof that my FJR was in transit during those days. I asked how should I send it or if they had an email account I could send my documents. The woman told me I could mail it or send via fax.

I wrote a letter, gave them my account, enclosed the FastLane statements and proof that the bike was in-transit. I then faxed it with out any persons name on it. I pinned the letter to the wall where I work as a reminder to check to see if I needed a follow-up letter in the future. I figured I would be writing again.

Sitting at work, my cell phone rings. I generally get very few calls on my phone. For some reason I decided to answer and it was FastLane telling me they had reviewed my account and reversed all of the tolls that were charged to me while the bike was in transit. They said I would see a $39 refund to my credit card and the rest of the credits would reside in my FastLane account.

We always hear how inefficient state workers are or how lazy they are. I do NOT prescribe to this philosophy and that phone call proves why I don’t . Government workers work just like the rest of us; they are given some work responsibilities to execute on a day in and day out basis and for the most part strive to do a good job.

FastLane job well done and Thank You.

Blowing In to Acadia

2011-10-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

Not wanting to sit around again this weekend, we decided to head for Acadia National Park for a stamp. A stamp you say, well this stamp shores up the Northeast corner of the US for the National Park Tour Silver Certificate. While we have til August next year to grab this, better now than letting time get the better of us. After all it is only 300 miles away.

We didn't leave early, but we did get under way by 9am. First stop was Giff's garage to check the air in the tires. Good thing because it has been 3 weeks since we really rode the FJR. Both tires we in the 30's.

Our charted course takes us to Portand, ME via Slabs. Having made this trip a million times (a slight exaggeration) and sun time being limited, wanting to ride up the coast after the traffic congrested areas and grab some historic places, the slabs seemed like a logical choice.

Being still Foliage Season (mayber), we called a couple of motels in Ellsworth to see if what the general availability would be. Priceline was no help to us this time. The Ellsworth Hotel was full, but they are only 59 and if you mention you saw them on the web you got 20 off. We ended up making reservations at Jaspers, just in case places were full. As it turned out we would have been fine. Having to go from city to city at the end of the day is no fun and we almost got stuck once in this area. Something about a lesson learned.

The weather was suppose to be sunny, but for the most part on Saturday, it was cloudy.

One very very sad note. I got a call from one of my kids to tell me they were taking my brother in law, John, off his ventilator. John have been fighting various cancers and heart problems for the last 10 years or so. He was placed in the hospital about a week ago. It was indicated then that this was his last go around. I did not go to see him, because I choose to remember John for who he was from the last time I saw him sitting at his dining room table versus him lying in a bed with tubes and machines hooked up to him. Then came the call Saturday night and I knew what it was for before I even picked it up. John died around 930pm Saturday. While I am saddened by his departure, I am glad the pain he was suffering is gone now.

Back to the trip, I didnt even bother to take the camera out until we got off the Maine Turnpike in Brunswick for our first photo op. The US Custom House in Bath Maine was built in 1858.

In Wiscasset we grabbed a few more pics.

Little Red Schoolhouse

US Customhouse

Now this is a first for me. Red's Eats with no lines. Reds always has a line that stretches to almost the bridge. All for their lobster roll. I am glad I am not into lobster roll, so I have not had to wait in line at Red's. You will find this place in the book 1000 Places To See Before You Die.

This could be a new chase object for me. Fort Edgecomb is just over the bridge from downtown Wiscasset. As soon as you get over the bridge, hang a right. It was built in 1808 1809.

Got to have at least one water shot while traveling up the coast

In Waldoboro we grabbed the Town Pound, the Theater and the Custom House. These are all on the National Register of Historic Places.

Had some coffee at this Moody's. Now this is suppose to be a Maine icon. I had one of the worse breakfasts I have ever had here. Today, I bought one of their cups for my Diner Cup Collection and the person handling the register was about as good as that breakfast I had here 5 years ago.

We blew right thru Rockland ME. In Camden, we grabbed this fellow creating some inspiration for someone.

We didn't stop and get a pic of the squirrel with the nuts, but did flic the button for Floyd.

Crossing the bridges over to Bucksport. The bridge behind the Penobscot bridge is on the National Register, the Waldo Hancock Bridge. If you ever get a chance, take a ride up to the observatory and visit Fort Knox. The observatory is the tallest public bridge observatory in the world.

Sun dropping, temps dropping and just wanting to get to our night destination we put the cameras away, I fought my need to keep stopping at places and we arrived at Jaspers about 6pm. Just shy of 300 miles, but set up in a great spot to hit Acadia tomorrow.

FastLane Gone Wild

2011-10-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I checked my FastLane account to see how much they have taken away from my account. As I was looking over the bill I see that I got charged 30.00 while I was in Indiana.

INDIANA ????

I haven't been there this year. WTF !!. So now I am thinking Sky, my son, used my car and went to the midwest.I asked MeAsWe where were we on the 3rd. MeAsWe said the bike was in transit on that date.

It dawned on me, the FastLane hockey puck was in my tank bag, which was in the Givi truck, which was on the back of the bike, which was on a tractor trailer.

Each time the driver went thru a toll KACHING, give the governor another 50 cent piece.

I checked August's bill and the same thing. I called FastLane and I have to send them documentation that my bike was intransit to make an adjustment.

Why is the FastLane so effective buried so deep, but seems to only work every other time when it is in the wide open.

A Ride

2011-09-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

It is not often that I ride to work because I don't particularly want to think about the traffic, the lights, the cars coming from the right and left, the school buses and I don't really have to worry about the weather either. Today my car is in the shop for new tires and brakes, so I took the bike to work. I have not ridden in about a week and half either.

First experience was starting up the FJR and hearing its purr. No coughing, no sputtering, just a nice constant purr. The first smile.

Pulling out of the driveway where I live can be a real challenge. First are the cars that park close to our entrance so they block the view of on coming cars. Second is the traffic. Most of the time there is enough of it, that you need to be cautious. This morning no car parked on our side of the street blocking any views, no traffic. I simply was able to pull out of the driveway and hit the road. The second smile.

Right turn onto Hartford Ave and I find myself accelerating and having to back off of the throttle. I am sure I was doing 50 in a most certainly a 35 and most probably a 25. The temperature is 63 and should be a bit cold, but it seems much warmer than than indicated. First stop sign no traffic and ease on thru the intersection. Hit the first traffic where RT 16 meets Hartford Ave. There is quite a bit and the line forms for getting thru the stop sign. For some reason it doesn't matter this morning. I have alot of patience and not in hurry to get any place.

Next foray is thru Bellingham making my way to I-495. A bit of traffic as usual, but no texters, sextexters, cell phoners, eye makeupers, combers that I see. Just people like me on the way to work and paying attention to the task at hand. No drama.

Right turn signal on, enter the entrance ramp to I495. One car in front of me, that is going slower than I want, but still making steady progress. We merge onto 495, my eyes looking forward, not looking to blast out into the second lane yet, after all I would have to look back and the car could all of a sudden brake. Eyes forward, we are comfortably merged and traveling the slow lane. I see my opening, in second gear, crank the throttle, 4, 5 , 6k 7k on the tach, slip into 3rd and move to the fast lane. Glance down and we are moving along at 90. There is nothing like the unbridaled power of a FJR. Smile number three for the morning.

Look down at the on board thermometer, its hoverng around 68. Almost perfect temperature for riding. Running in and out of lite fog, sun breaching the clouds and then covered back up, blurs of yellows, reds, auburns on the trees, fall is definitely in the air. Throttle back to a comfortable 70. Exits fly by, the road is smooth, traffic light and well dispersed. I start thinking of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. What a great day this would be to simply ride the road to somewhere and no where.

Pass I95 South then North, next exit is about 2 miles away and mine to take. Exit right, twist the throttle, shift to 4th. I could have downshifted without the clutch. Another blip and we are into 3rd. The exit is mine and mine alone. Shift my weight slightly to the right, drop my right elbow, push with the left hand and the bike falls right over into the decreasing turn. Throttle steady, engine purring, eyes looking thru the turn, no debris, no sand, just a smooth exit ramp. The ramp becomes a road and that road is straight marking the ride is almost over, well at least the good part. Smile number four.

As I pull into Subway for my Black Forest Ham, Egg and Cheese sandwich, I say to myself I really should ride to work more often. I am sure I had a smile on my face.

An Affair with Water - Final Standings

2011-09-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Just this past weekend GLMC announced the preliminary standings on their season long grand tour, An Affair with Water. Below are the top 20 riders for the GT. MeAsWe came in 11th. 3 more towns would have put her in the top 10. I finished 6th down 3 places from last year, however the point spreads between the top 10 were alot closer this year than last. As I suspected the number of town captured by the top people were also lower. Looking forward to our T Shirts and next years tour.

2011 Water Grand Tour
Rider # First Screen Last State/Prov Total RotY
1 207 John JohnF Frick OH 388 50
2 333 Debbie Korolchuk FL 347 49
3 329 Annette Korolchuk MN 283 48
4 287 Beth TBONE Madson MN 273 47
5 371 Mike MikeH Heitkamp IA 262 46
6 439 Bill Collins MA 230 45
7 467 Robin Edkin NY 207 44
8 466 Wayne Edkin NY 207 44
9 208 Jim Unplugged Weatherhead MN 205 43
10 382 Keith Carlson MN 201 42
11 457 Crystal Consolo MA 199 41
12 372 John JohnL Langan CA 176 40
13 214 Jeff LSGiant Kerkow MN 167 39
14 339 Dawn Williamson WI 149 38
15 385 Ingrid Wessel IL 143 37
16 332 Kevin Morris NJ 120 36
17 470 Jeff Perkins WI 116 35
18 61 Jayd Cruzin Lindom MN 115 34
19 363 Del Del Brisson MN 105 33
20 458 Jim Masters MN 95 32

Leaving George on the Lake

2011-09-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

With the temps turning very fall like, there was no rush to get up early and head for home, so we slept in til 8:30 again. Down to breakfast we said our good byes to the NERds. I figured if we got out of there by 10:30 we would get home at a respectable time and have plenty of time for some visits along the way. First stop was the Petrified Sea Gardens. We had passed these once before, but I noticed the sign had said they were closed. We rode up and down the street and did not see any sign of the gardens, however I did notice some road side signs that looked like information boards you see in the parks so we turned around and stopped for a look see.

Turns out the above was Lester's park and the Landmark is Ritchie's Park, however they are essentially right next to one another. The Landmark place has been closed for quite awhile and any signs of the entrance is long gone.

Next stop was the Canfield Casino and Congress Park in Saratoga Springs. We grabbed the Casino and I started to walk around. There was this statue by Daniel Chester French, who did the Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial sculpture. After all this time I must be learning something because some of these artist’s works are becoming familiar. Fred Olmstead had his touch on the design of the park. He did Central Park. We left the park and headed out. I knew I was leaving without a picture of Spit and Spat, so I turned around and went back for these guys. Also walked over to this sundial for some pictures.

The Casino and Spa

Daniel French Sculpture

Spit and Spat Fountain

The Sundial

Not too far away is Saratoga Spa State Park. A ride down the Avenue of the Pines lead us to Saratoga Spa State Park. The park became an attraction due to the mineral springs in the area and the medical benefits from drinking and bathing in the water. We grabbed some pictures of the mineral bath places

From here we headed south on 9. We had essentially grabbed all the places for the day I had scheduled. MeAsWe said she was hungry and we happened to pass this Fedoro Diner. A quick brake and turn we were in the parking lot. We were told there were only 3 Fodero Diners remaining and I thought this was not correct, but didn’t think it was worth arguing the point. I looked it up and there are more than 3 left, with the Agawam Diner in Rowley, MA one of them. We had a great breakfast accompanied by a classical guitar player, not your typical diner fare.

Back on the road I decided we would not head across Vermont, but slab it home before the temps and sunlight ran out. All in all it was a great weekend. It was more about being with the NERds than the riding this weekend, even thou we got to see some neat sights along the way.

Defiant at Fort Ticonderoga

2011-09-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today we slept in til about 8:30 and joined the NERds at breakfast downstairs at Wingate. Having slept in, everybody was just finishing and getting ready to take off on various prepared rides. While I felt like we might miss out on something, I wanted to grab some historic sites and be able to stop when and where we wanted, so riding solo has it benefits as well.

After breakfast MeAsWe was not feeling great, so I settled in with the TV set to a motorcycle theme. Paul Sr and Paul Jr we having a bike build off for Cadillac. I watched this for about 2 hours and then a reality prison show came on. I decided that MeAsWe had had enough rest and it was time to go out riding. She rolled off the bed and put her riding clothes on and we headed out for a short ride.

Headed up Route 9N for some of the locations EasyEd had put together as scenic places. Passed this place in Bolton and had too turn around to add to my collection of diners. This is a Worcester Lunch Car diner. You can tell by the barrel roof and porcelin sides.

Stopped for a scenic shot of Lake George

On the list was a must see Mount Defiance that overlooks Fort Ticonderoga. The road up to the mount lived up to its name; however we were more defiant than the road. Actually we had been warned about the road of potholes, but the warnings proved to be worse than the actual ride. From up here one had a beautiful view of the Lake Champlain.

Two cannons placed by the British on the top of this mountain we enough to for the Americans to withdraw from both Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Independence. I want to know how they got the cannons up there with out being detected.

Fort Ticonderoga was a big disappointment due to the hefty entrance fee of $15. While maybe I understand the need to charge a fee, such a steep one kept us away. I did manage to get a couple of pictures from the barricade.

From here we headed for the infamous Tracey Rd NY County Road 6. The ride on CR7 to CR6 was just as nice. Tracey Rd was washed out in places from hurricane Irene, so we kept our speeds to a conservative pace. This is a short stretch of road, about 7 miles long. Tracey Rd dumps out onto RT 9 and headed back to the Wingate for dinner and called it a day.

Lake George on my Mind - Day One

2011-09-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

Today we headed for Lake George to spend the weekend with the NERds (New England Riders). EasyEd has put together a great weekend. Not only did he seek out accommodations for over 60 of us, but put together riding routes for multiple days.

We headed out about 8:30am and within 10 minutes of leaving home; we discovered our mesh gear was out of season. The temps were hovering around 50 degrees. As we headed up RT 146 to the Mass Pike the Laminar Lip on the FJR felt the effects of the cold weather and decided to take it owns course to the Adirondacks. Off it flew soaring like a kite, up up and away. We circled back on the highway 2 times but to no avail it will stay hidden on the sidelines on RT 146 between exit 5 and 6. Nice way to start the weekend.

First thing I noticed was I was not going to be able to leave my visor up. Too much air on the eyes. Second thing I noticed was the wind noise with the visor down. MeAsWe also noticed an increase in wind noise and she rides with her visor down all the time. Only consolation is, it is fall and this is the time of the year I usually do ride with the visor down because of the temps.

We blasted out of MA and headed for Kinderhook, NY to visit Martin Van Buren Historic Site, Lindenwald. This became our 8th president retirement home. By the standards of the Vanderbilts located further south on RT 9, it is pretty plain in comparison. We spoke with the park ranger for awhile, who remembered me from last year when I told him about the IBA National Park Tour. Good memory or great customer service. Either way I smiled.

We continued up 9H (which turns into 9) to the East Greenbush Diner. Lunch was OK, not great, but not bad nothing special. Even the building had nothing special about it, typical Greek diner.

From there we headed into Troy to capture a couple of National Landmarks. First was the Gurley Building, erected in 1862. This building was put up in less than 8 months as a result of the Great Troy Fire. Since the late 1800’s the name W. & L. E. Gurley has been synonymous worldwide with the design and manufacture of precision mathematical and engineering instruments.

One neat thing I found in the Nuvi was it's ability to store photos and display them in addition to its GPS abilities. I copied a bunch of the landmark photos from the web to help me identify some of the building we were looking for. Previously it was a wing and a prayer the address was right. Sometimes I printed pictures of the buildings before we left. This actually worked out quite good because it is quick and efficient.

Next stop was the Kate Mullaney House. Kate’s House is nationally significant as the residence of one of America's leading female labor leaders, the young Irish immigrant laundry worker who organized and led the all-female Collar Laundry Union in Troy, New York, in the 1860s. The neighborhood was not one to just hang around for a long period of time, so we grabbed a couple of pics and scooted.

Harmony Mills was a complete industrial complex built at the height of cotton mills between 1860 and 1880. What makes these sites neat is one gets to visit and then research the history behind the building. It gives you some insight what made this country great.

From Troy to Lake George is only around 55 miles if you go the fast way. We tend to not go the fast way and decided to visit Saratoga National Historic Park. This was to grab the stamp for the NP tour. The Battles of Saratoga was the first significant win over the British that lead France to recognize the US as a independent country.

One last stop before we finished for the day was Owl’s Nest, home to Edward Eggleston. Ed wrote Queer Stories for Boys and Girls. His house is a National Landmark. I still don’t really have a clue who he is, but being there and taking a picture accomplish my treasure hunt for National Landmarks. Plus the ride there was great.

Return of the Splat Squito

2011-09-09T10:54:00.001-07:00

Picked up the FJR from Allied Van Lines. Went over the bike and the only thing was a strap left a mark on the right muffler. Not a big mark, but a mark never the less. Boy the bike is really really REALLY dirty. And it has alot of bugs, guts and other things all over it. It is so dirty that I thought it was hiding the marks on the one of the mirrors from a tip over. Wrong mirror. Then I came across what I thought was a crack in the fairing. Turned out to be the edge of the 1300 decal. Not sure when I will get a chance to wash it, maybe right before I take it in for the grounding recall, which will be right before I put it away for the winter (oh oh i said that 6 letter word). It was good to ride the bike again after being away from it for about 2 weeks. Got a final mileage on our trip, 4,306. Not that many miles, but enough m to say we went somewhere.

I think by the time I took these photos alot of the critters dried up and just fell off. I did clear the top edge of the Laminar Lip and headlights on route thou.

An Affair with Water

2011-09-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, the long one, I labored thru (Labor Day) our photo's and put together 2 DVD's of pictures of towns we visited. MeAsWe submitted 199 towns and I submitted 230 towns. Based on last year we should be in the top 10, but ya just never know. I am counting on the economy, price of gas and other non related factors to boost our standing this year. Since MeAsWe was a competitor she had to be the one holding the rally towel in all our joint pictures.

We covered 17 states from California to Maine. Sounds impressive eh...we skipped a bunch between Pennsylvania and Wyoming. I am curious what next year brings. This year was a bit tougher than last year finding the water towns, plus you had to find the name on a building. It was much easier finding Tons and Burgs.

Wraps up one more national treasure hunt or grand tour.

As Pigs Fry

2011-09-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Smoke Chasing 2011 wrap up.

With our travels out West we were able to cover the 15 state requirement to become BBQ Pit Masters. The levels were to visit/eat at follows:

5 places in 3 states you become a Griller

3 places in 5 states you become a Smoker

1 place in 15 states you are a BBQ Pit Master

I have to say I was not a big fan or more accurately I would not go out of our way for BBQ, but I learned what I like and don't like this year. In the future, BBQ will have a place in my heart (or is that attack my heart) and will stop more often at the joints as we come across them. Oh, brisket is at the top of the list. I still don't know what good, great or wonderful BBQ is, but I do know what crap BBQ tastes like. Only 1 place had that distinction this year.

There was (or is that were) 400 entrants in the Inaugural Tour. Here's what we submitted. We did accomplish the Smoker level as well, just in case we didn't get to the BBQ Pit Master level.

MA Holy Smokes BBQ Delicatessen

NY Fireside BBQ and Grill (this was awful)

NH KC Rib Shack Bar-B-Que

CT Little Marks Big Barbecue

VT Curtis All American Bar B Q

RI United BBQ

ME Mainely Bar-B-Que and Company

NJ Jersey Shore BBQ & Catering

UT Kaiser's Barbecue

WY Bubba's Bar-B-Que

MT Beartooth Barbecue

WA The Lariat Bar-B-Que

OR Russell Street Bar-B-Que

CA Fat Daddy's Gourmet BBQ

NV Ritchie's BBQ

Who was the best...gotta go to KC's Rib Shack in Manchester NH. They be Smokin

Mopping up Salt at the Lake

2011-08-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Today's travel is to remain very light, we have to get the bike to Bailey's for shipping back to Massachusetts. This was a clean up day for things we didn't get the first day in Salt Lake City.

Right down the street from our hotel was this place. I thought it was pretty neat.

Off to Timpanogos Cave National Monument on UT 92. We were here last year, so this was a pure stamp grab, but I really enjoy the road leading up to this place. If you have a chance ride UT 92 also knows as Alpine Loop Road. You won't be disappointed.

We headed for Bingham Canyon Mine. This is world's largest open pit excavation and can be seen from outer space it is so large. If my daughter moves out here, I will be sure to go back to this place in the car.

We got to the gate and they would not let us go to the top because we were on a motorcycle. They feared stuff would fall on us and they might get sued. This was a pretty big disappointment. We headed off to two HD dealerships to buy tall shot glasses to add to my collection. Our last stop of the day was here. We killed 2 birds with 1 stone. A water town and a HD shot glass.

We headed to Bailey's, dropped off the bike and headed for a relaxing day at the hotel.

No animals were hurt, killed or maimed in the making of this trip. Phew !! Now to deal with Irene on the way home.

Wasted in Great Basin

2011-08-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

We had a great stay at the Hotel Nevada. At first this place will appear to be run down dive, the rooms small and the water pressure/temp variable, but I have to say our stay was great. They warn you about the water, taking a negative and turning it into a positive. Great marketing !! The rest is nostalgia to the max, well to at least 1929 when the place was built.

Back out on Route 50 heading for Great Basin National Park right on the border of Nevada and Utah. The road didn't change much from yesterday.

Some of the warning signs became more specific.

Temps were getting up there again

We visited this place right on the border, grabbed a stamp, sneaked in a brief nap, watched the video and got back on US 50 heading to Utah.

Once we hit Utah, there were some subtle changes. The road went from white to black for one.

The hills became more mountain like and rugged.

And the clouds became a bit more ominous

What didn't change was the wind. It was breezy at times. But things did get greener.

And there was more signs of life.

But there were relapses into the straight and narrow.

We found ourselves back in civilization and finished up the day with a water town, then headed for the hotel for the night.

Over Hill, Over Dale, We hit the Dusty Trail

2011-08-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

Before we left Reno I knew we had to ride to downtown and gets this picture.

Heading out of Reno for Ely, NV we hit Virginia City as our first stop. This was mainly for the historic picture capturing than anything else. Initial part of the ride had us climbing some mountains, which will become the norm for the day. RT 341 is the road into Virginia City. As we climbed the mountains I was humming the theme song to Bonanza.

As you peak the top of hills you see Virginia City.

And then you are there.

First impression was this was a pretty touristy type of town. We grabbed some of, what I felt were, the more significant buildings and we got out of Dodge.

Heading out of town was more difficult for the GPS's than for us. One had us going in a different direction than the other. Looking at the roads I took the path of least resistance to US 50. Next stop was another historic landmark, Fort Churchill just outside Silver Springs. This was good grab for a water town as well.

Not alot out here other than ruins of the buildings for Fort Churchill, which was built to protect the early settlers and the Pony Express route. At some of these stops you have to use your imagination of what went on.

This was abit more out of the way than I anticipated, but on MapSource it was just so easy to incorporate into the route. Simple click, drag to the Waypoint and the route is amended.

At this point it is time to make time for Ely, NV on route 50, the loneliest road in America. You wouldn't want to break down on this road. There is not a whole lot of traffic on this road and only a handful of towns along the way. Keep an eye on your gas as well. You ride from mountain range to mountain range. Ride across the valley and climb over the mountain, drop down to the valley and ride to the next one.

The Valleys

The sign that indicates that this is a lonely road

The Hills

We hit some pretty high winds crossing Nevada. At one point there was a bit of rain, just enough to mix with the oil on the road, add a bunch of wind, forcing you to list the bike (in this case to the left) to add to the excitement. Some of the wind felt like it was going to blow the wheels right out from under you.

We pulled into Ely right around 6pm. I was so ready for a beer. We stayed at the Hotel Nevada which is a whole journey unto itself, and a good journey to boot. For 39.95 you get a room, a pretty good restaurant, fairly cheap drinks and gambling if you want. When we pulled up there must have been 25 HD's out in front and one FJR on the end. It looked so out of place.

The inside

I heard about these books, but I did not pick mine up until we hit Ely. Just as well, since all it could do was slow us down. I asked MeAsWe if she wanted to ride back to Reno to get our stamps and I got that look "Are you kiddin me?"

Not Less at Lassen

2011-08-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

We are getting down to the end of our trip. There are 2 or 3 more parks to visit while we are out West. I am sitting in our hotel in Redding, CA feeling kinda of knarly.

Heading a little more west to Whiskeytown National Recreational Area on Historic 99. Route 99 was the main highway that went from the border with Mexico to Blaine WA. It was like Route 66 that went north and south.

Whiskeytown was for a pure stamp stop in CA. Not that we needed it, but eventually it is my goal to have hit every park and this one is out of the way. Of note the Trinity Dam is one of the highest earth dams in the world.

We did pick up the Shasta Lake post office as a water town, and then headed for Lassen Volcanic National Park. Based on my brief reading in the prep stage this was a potential grab and run for the stamp. As all plans they are subject to change. Lassen Peak is the largest plug hole domed volcano in the world. There is one road thru Lassen and it is a beauty. Highest elevation the road reaches is 8600'. You feel like you are driving right to the top of the volcanoes. Snow abounds as well.

The Snow

Lassen Peak

We also got off the bike and took a walk looking for bears. Not sure what we would have done if we actually came across any. The walk did us some good, I think.

The flowers

From Lassen we headed for Reno. The roads leading out of Lassen were twisty, forested and interesting. Eventually they turned desert plains like. We followed this guy into Reno. A Hayabusa with twin Givi for side cases.

Locked up Nevada for Smoke Chasing 2011

Called it a night here

Not so Grand at the Grand Sierra

2011-08-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

Priceline snagged us the Grand Sierra in Reno, NV for the low price of 30.00. This was a 3 1/2 star hotel. Woo Hoo !!

As you walk in over to the right is this statue of the Pony Express.

I just checked, the Pony Express did pass thru Carson City, however it went south of Lake Tahoe and Reno, NV is north of both. I will let this one slide. It is still a neat statue.

I am almost positive there are quite a few hotels that can be had for this low low price in Reno.

First, not so grand thing, was the undisclosed Resort Fee. I am sure Priceline probably disclosed it someplace, however being on a small laptop with the small print makes it even smaller. It was only 10.00 plus the state's cut. We did get some things with fee, the most tangible was the 2 bottles of water. Both MeAsWe and I (or is that me) drank ours as soon as we got to the room.

The room was unbelievably comfortable, huge and downright luxurious. Shhh don't tell MeAsWe I took a picture while she was sleeping. The bed was really really comfy.

Included in the Resort Fee is Wi-Fi. Now some places, like Motel 6 charges 2.50 for the Wi-Fi connection.

So if you take the retail price of a bottle of water, say 1.89 X 2 or 3.78, add in the Wi-Fi fee of 2.50 thats 6.28 so the real Resort Fee is around 3.72.

What really gets me is there is NO Mr Coffee machine with those sometimes not so great packets of coffee, which are impossible to open first thing in the morning. I had to walk to get coffee.

California Here We Come - Musheads do Mushpot

2011-08-23T06:25:00.000-07:00

She'll be riding 1300 black ponies when she comes. Hey its early and that just popped into my head. Heading out of Klamath Falls into California the landscape changes dramatically, a couple of times. At first the roads are real straight, but then turn into gentle sweepers and finally into a road ya just gotta pay attention to. (not that one should not pay attention at all times)

The straights

Our first stop we came across unexpectedly, Camp Tulelake. I had this marked, however it was an estimate, because I could not find an exact spot from my research on the Internet. I did a separate posting HERE.

Just down the road is the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped here purely for the Blue Goose Passport stamp.

Grabbed Tulelake City Hall as a water town

Main sight today is Lava Beds. I thought this was gonna be a grab and run, but as usual I was wrong

We came in from the south. The roads has some sizable pot holes and places where the tarmac has simply disappeared. Not a problem if you are paying attention. Plenty of free roamimg cattle as well, but they were mostly looking for shade.

A view of the landscape from the Visitor Center

On the way in both of us were getting the case of the sleepies. Rising temperatures and straight roads. Stopped and had a Red Bull (goes against my medication) and when we arrived at Lava Beds we took a little snooze outside on the benches. Invigorated we decided we should take in one of their caves. You have to answer some questions and get a permit first. This free, they just wannaa make sure you won't kill off the bats in the cave.

We did Mushpot, a beginner cave for our first spelunking experience.

Found our way out of there. Not too hard, come to the end, turn around and go back. There are some caves out here that are not that easy. They have one that you nearly crawl thru and is over a mile. We decided that was for Batman and Robin.

Done with Lava Beds we head for Redding CA our end spot for the day. Off in the distance we keep seeing 2 mountains with snow on them. I assume one was Mt Shasta, the other I don't have a clue.

Grabbed a couple more water towns and decided to skip Shasta Lake as a water town. Temps were well into the 100's at this point and taking a toll on us.

Descending some mountains that got pretty twisty we came across a state cop sitting by a sign "Accident Ahead". We were stopped here for about 15 minutes and then allowed to pass. We we rounded the corner, there was a logging truck with his load dragging behind him. You could see the skidmarks all over the highway. My guess if we had not stopped for our water pictures we would have gotten to see this first hand. Just as well we didn't experience it. MeAsWe forgot to take pictures as we passed.

Last stop of the day before heading to the motel was Fat Daddy's BBQ in Redding for dinner and nailing CA as a Smoke Chasing 2011 state.

This place has dollar bills thumbtacked all over the place.

My dinner, it was very tasty.

Tomorrow we head for Reno, NV. Dang our trip is coming to an end. Only 4 days of riding left. We got a 3.5 star hotel for $30 via Priceline. We probably paid too much.

Tulelake(s)

2011-08-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

In Tulelake there is a National Park Headquarters for WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument. If I am not mistaken this is the only place for this stamp that is not located in Hawaii. The most notable site in Hawaii is the USS Arizona Memorial.

During WWII, Executive Order 9066 essentially ordered our military to gather up 120,000 of our citizens to be concentrated in 1 of 10 camps based on their ancestry. It was a black and bleak spot on our history.

There was 2 sites in the Tulelake area. The first one was a CCC camp called Camp Tulelake that housed and imprisoned those Japanese citizens that refused to answer 2 questionn or answered the 2 questions in the negative. It became known as the NO NO Camp. Location of this site is N41 58.161 W121 33.931 or Hill Rd. It is about 1.7 miles from the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge VC.

The second site was the Tule Lake War Relocation Center located in Newell, CA. Visually there is nothing really to see at this site, it is historical siginificance of the site that is important. It is located at N41 53.122 W121 22.477. It is located on CA139 neat the airport and marked with a historical marker.

Of the 10 camps established during WWII, Tulelake Relocation Center was the largest and most controversial. It DID NOT close until after WWII had ended.

Our first visit to one of these camps was out in the middle of Arkansas. Our first blog entry can be found at ROHWER

More info on Tulelake can be found at WIKIPEDIA or TULELAKE.ORG

Taking on Guilt at Crater Lake

2011-08-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today will start out as a lazy day, continue as a lazy day and end as a lazy day. We have a semi fully agenda but we are gonna blow it off and take a rest. We have been on the road for 11 days pushing and pushing and I failed to incorporate a rest day, so we're gonna make one.

Crater Lake is only 60 miles away. This is the only thing we're gonna see today, since I have been looking forward to it since the planning stages. Of course I say this is the only thing but I tend not to stick to my word once on the bike.

First stop is to grab Klamath Falls for An Affair with Water. While this is a great example, it is technically not attached to the building and it must be on the building. It is oh so close thou.

Right up the street is a great example of Art Deco or is it Art Noveau. I will figure that out when I get home for waymarking.com

We head out on RT 97, but Garmin soon has us taking off on some other road that turns out to show us some farm lands. The signs do point to Crate Lake this way, so I feel we are not on a goose chase.

We arrive

The road up to the crater has plenty of swichbacks as you rise in elevation. I did not think we were up that high, but the 2720 showed us over 7000'. MeAsWe was really slacking on the photo taking, but here are a few

First stop is the VC and this place. It is the superintendent house and is a National Landmark.

We took in the video, but I was dropping in and out with small naps. We traveled a couple more miles to the top to see the lake. The lake is spectacular. We listened to the ranger's discussion and found out it is one of the deepest, cleanest lakes in the world.

Here's where the guilt trip comes in. Both MeAsWe and I were feeling really tired and thru a short discussion we decided to simply head back to the barn and take a rest day. We did not ride the Rim Loop. I don't even want to look at the pamphlet to see what we missed. This was almost as bad as a grab and run for a stamp.

Once we were back in Klamath Falls I did go seeking another sign on a building for the water. It was not that easy to find, but persistence will get you almost anything. Hasn't worked on a winning lottery ticket yet.

In the barn, cracked open a Rolling Rock and watched TV. The guilt drifted away

Skipping Skid Row and Goosing the Spruce

2011-08-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

Today will amount to a travel day. Heading out of Portland to Klamath Falls for sightseeing on Sunday. Portland will remind us of back home with its traffic. Actually it might be worse than back home. We did get a late start and took us nearly 4 hours to travel a measly 64 miles. My fault since I had to do some sightseeing first.

First stop was Skidmore / Old Town, a National Historic Landmark. Well for the most part I got it wrong. Skidmore includes both the area of Chinatown and the old section of Portland, which we saw from the highway.

I think the real Skidmore might bein this shot, maybe

Next was the Pioneer Courthouse, the oldest Federal building in the Pacific Northwest. I was trying to document this building with the camera and I didn't do a very good job.

Portland has all these pesky driving rules. Lots of one way streets that I tried to go down the wrong way. Trolley/Bus lanes that I am not suppose to ride in. I had a bus driver yelling out his window telling me to get out of his lane. Then having to let the Peds cross the street. Just so many rules.

Next is the B17 Gas Station that is no longer a gas station and only partially a B17. It's a restaurant now.

Off to the McLoughlin House, which is part of the National Park, has a stamp, and qualifies for the IBA National Park Tour. Oregon is locked up as a state. McLoughlin was the head factor for Fort Vancouver in Washington.

Since we saw the B17 we just had to visit another one. We passed thru this section that had something like 3 lanes merge to 1 lane and then they stuck a traffic light to make it worse. I don't remember what town it was, but is was brutal with the temps climbing into the 90's.

We did not pay the fees to go into the museum to walk around. The Spruce Goose was the primary objective. This is a place you could spend all day at and one of the largest aviation museums I have seen.

Out of the area, we hang a right on some country road taking us thru grape growing area, which was a nice ride finally. Came across a ferry to take us across the river. Thought we were on the Outerbanks in North Carolina again.

At this point we have 265+ miles to go, its 2ish or 3ish and the GPS is saying we are gonna get in around 8:30pm, which is the bewitching hour for critters. I decide at this point we are skipping the rest of the spots to visit, which are primarily water towns. Watch we will lose a place because we skipped them.

We are traveling thru some heavy forested areas, making the ride visually nice. Our primary road was RT58 and RT 97 into Klamath Falls. It is clouding up and we are getting a few drops of rain here and there. I am hoping we can outrun the rain, since I can see the edge of the storm.

With the rain on our left and the sun streaming thru on our right, sets up the conditions for a perfect rainbow

Trying to run for this sunlight

Came across one of those deer prancing signs. It said Deer 53 miles. Give me a break, its getting dark and there are deer all the way into Klamath Falls. Setting up another perfect storm for us. Now it was important to outrun this rain and get to the edge where there is sun light left. I decided to tuck myself in behind a truck and let them run interference for us. They were moving at an acceptable speed. I am spotting sone deer on the left, MeAsWe has the right flank and I am also having to keep an eye on the truck. Of course I spotted a friggin deer convention off to left, so makes the situation more tense.

Coming into Klamath Falls we are getting smacked left and right by bugs. They were thick, so thick I had to put my shield down. Pull into Days Inn, and my shoulders finally let a sigh of relief. Dinner turned out to be Tostitos and Rolling Rock.

Helen Blows her Top

2011-08-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be a busy day. On the agenda is Mt St Helen, then off to Fort Vancouver for a stamp, grab some BBQ joints and try to have a meal there, then ride the Historic Columbia River Highway then we have to head back to Portland for the night. Our original plans was to stay in Hood River, OR, but even as I planned this trip I thought it might be a problem getting a room on a Friday night. I was right, so we got a really nice room at the Mariott Courtyard for a great price.

Mt St Helen can be seen from 2 primary roads. On the east side one can take NF 25, which was in our original plans yesterday, but I decided based on the twisty nature it looked like in MapSource and it was going to be at the end of the day, I opted for the easier route. Stay the night in Kelso and head up RT 504, also known as the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway.

The ride up to Helen is a great ride in its own rite and well worth it. Before you get into the more remote section the state has a visitor center which costs $5 per person. I will say they had an excellent movie here, but it would not be tragic to skip this place and just visit the Johnston Observatory VC .

A foggy start

The burn off

Big sweepers

Getting close (sorta)

More sweepers, oh a view of Helen

>

The VC. There are 2 really great videos here which are well worth the time to see.

Mt St Helens. Look around the area and you will notice that there is just a beginning of signs of life, 31 years later. There was this guy Harry Truman that refused to leave his lodge. It was his life and he decided to stay. There are many stories of people and the eruption. One notable was a couple that was camping when the eruption took place. They were caught up in the flooding and were being carried down the mountain. The guys leg was broken when caught between 2 logs, however he was able to leap from one to another trying to pull his wife out of the water. He lost her three times, but on the third attempt he grabbed her hair, then her wrist (which was broken) and pulled her onto the log, which they actually able to ride out to safety. I just can't imagine being there.

Some plant life, very colorful

Headed back to Vancouver/Portland area, grabbed some water on the way, Salmon Creek

Quick visit to Fort Vancouver for a grab and run stamp. We did watch the video, which was not really up to snuff for the NPS. Fort Vancouver was the first settlement by the British, primary for the Hudson Bay Co.

MeAsWe was not feeling great and suggested we have a bit to eat to see if that was what the blahs were from. So we stopped at this place for Smoke Chasing 2011.

I had the smoked brisket and MeAsWe had some kind of sausage sandwich, both were great and would recommend a meal here. I don't understand why BBQ joints are expensive, but they are.

The joint has a nice collection of these guys

It's around 4pm and I give MeAsWe a choice, we can head for the barn now and have a long day tomorrow or we could do another 80 miles and get in later. MeAsWe opted for doing the extra miles today. What a trooper. So we hit the highway and got off to ride this road.

MeAsWe took some great shots along the road

There are quite a few places to stop for just the scenery. The Columbia River and Vista House at Crown Point Park from afar.

The Vista House up close and personal

The Multnomah Falls. We did get some other shots of falls, but this is the most spectacular.

Couple more miles east, cross the Bridge of the Gods and head back to Vancouver/Portland on WA14. This is a great ride as well, but the sun was brutal in places. So glad I had an HJC helmet with the visor in it. Worked like a charm.

The Bridge. Really bright out!!!

The Dam. Was kinda of disappointing, but it was late in the day and we are thinking a cold beer at the bar at this point.

Arrived at the Mariott Courtyard, booked via Priceline at a really great price. I may have spoiled MeAsWe with the nice accommodations this trip compared to where we usually stay. The beers were great.

Rapturous Ranier

2011-08-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today there is only 1 real place to hit, Mt Ranier, so we leisurely got ready. Had some breakfast at this place. (pictures are clickable and resizeable)

This pump was originally outside the Teapot Gas Station we visited yesterday.

We left the land of browns, tans and khakis

And hit the hills of greens and trees

We are riding up scenic Rt 410 towards Chinook Pass. One thing we noticed the trees were getting really tall.

Our first glimpse of snow

Road leading up to Chinook Pass

While riding up here I was wondering if Ranier was going to be half as good as Glacier. We are headed for the Sunrise Visitor Center which is on the east side of Ranier. At the turn, we have 14 miles go.

Our first look at mighty Ranier

Words, cameras, discussions can not possibly describe the beauty of this mountain. I was beginning to wonder if Ranier should have been ahead of Glacier for places to see, but we did both, so we don't have to make that choice.

The flowers in the fields were in full bloom. They are not very tall, but if you look out over the field you will see spots and patches of brilliant yellows, reds, blues and purples.

Ranier in its full glory

The Visitor Center at Sunrise

View of Mt Adams from Sunrise

There are 2 more VC's at Ranier, Ohanapecosh and Henry Jackson. It was really hard to leave Sunrise, but there are other places to see. Ohanapecosh is south of Sunrise and is the entrance to Steves Canyon Rd and Paradise Rd from the east side. At Ohanapecosh we met a couple that made a year trip to Argentina. Really neat to hear how they could take a year off to ride and especially while they were young. No picture thou.

Ohanapecosh VC. This is NP stamping location

Other things to see was this tree marked with years based on its rings

We head off to the Groves of the Patriarchs. This is a grove of really really big trees. One thing I found out, both of my knees that were replaced in November, are in tip top shape. Now I have to do something to make the rest of my body to be somewhat similar to the knees. The walk is not real hard, it is always the return trip that is the killer

The walk

MeAsWe holding up the tree so I can duck under it

Looking up to some really tall guys

Some perspective on how big these guys really are

MeAsWe going tree hugger on me. I think this guy was related to that other woody in Glacier.

Finally made it out of the woods and started to ride the awesome roads within Ranier. Keep in mind that this is a National Park and they really don't appreciate lack of throttle control.

When you believe you have seen it all you come around another turn to be confronted with another magnificent view.

The Henry M Jackson VC at Paradise

When you depart Paradise, you will find yourself on a very twisty road, with plenty of swithchbacks heading for the Nisqually entrance on the west side of Ranier. The roads are very narrow leaving just enough room for one car. Some of the switchbacks require you to enter from the outside of the lane to the apex and back out. This fucktard decided he was too impatient and passed me on the right just at the entrance to a swithcback. What an idiot, he endangered both himself (which I really don't care about) and us. I followed him for quite a few miles really pissed, but finally turned off and I found my happy place again. I really wanted the opportunity to pull up next to him and tell him how impolite he was and learn proper riding etiquette.

This guy was behind me about 3 seconds before this shot.

Headed into Kelso, WA for the night on RT 12. We were buzzing right along and came to an uphill climb with a passing lane. I throttled up and passed either a car or a truck and of course there was this non-descript white car coming at us. You know that sinking feeling when maybe you might have been over the speed limit. I was behind this truck traveling along. Its trailer doors were highly polished almost chrome and I saw some red blinking stuff going on. Quick view to the rearview mirror and yup that non-desscript car was no longer non-descript. The truck pulled over and I kept going and so did the LEO. Sigh, I found a place to pull over and to my chagrin so did the trooper. The trooper was very nice and explained to me about rules for passing cars in Washington and let me off with a verbal warning. Thank You Thank You.

Last stop of the day was Silver Creek, Washington PO for An Affair with Water rally

It is really hard to sum up the trip, so I won't. It would be hard to decide between Glacier National Park and Ranier National Park as a favorite or recommend one over the other. Both places I can get very excited about and would come to mind immediately if someone mentioned they were going to be in Montana or Washington.

Indians Dinosaurs and Tea Pots

2011-08-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

We head out of Kamiah ID heading to Yakima, WA. Today's travels include a couple of National Park visits and travel to put us in shouting range of Mt Ranier, which I have high expectations. We stayed at the Clearwater Motel in Kamiah which I will highly recommend to anyone needing a place to stay in the area.

We headed out around 8am following RT 12 which follows the Clearwater River. While not as twisty as the descent from the Lolo Pass, it does have nice sweepers.

The landscape changes rapidly going from green hills to ones that are shades of browns and tans. The hills appear to be covered with a velvet covering, like legs under a blanket.

We stopped at the Nez Perce National Historic Park. There is nothing much to see here, however the history is well worthwhile. We watched the video and took a look at the exhibits. Some of the exhibits has Indian garb on sculpture made out of little slats of wood. While they blend perfectly into the garb, they are quite striking in their own regard

Rangers setting up a tee pee. This was my first time really looking at these contraptions. They were quite efficient and ingenious in the complexity thru simplicity.

Click this picture, enlarge it in the new window and take a look at the detail. Really quite remarkable.

After spending more time than I intended (that is the case for all of the National Parks) we head out for Walla Walla. We did stop at one of our fellow FJR'r place to say hi, but Bob was out of town taking his daughter off to college. We were suppose to stop here for dinner last year, but the venison in Clyde Park had a different agenda in mind.

We screwed around in Walla Walla looking for BBQ joints for Smoke Chasing 2011. It seems that all have closed, but we did grab this one to shore up the state of Washington.

Then we had to grab the Car Parts sculptures at a local muffler shop.

A quick run down to Oregon to grab the Milton-Freewater Post Office for An Affair with Water hunt, we were off to the Whitman Mission. I have to admit for me this was a grab a stamp and run. Well actually I went outside to the shade, laid down on the ground and took a power nap. It was in the 90's and the heat was taking a toll.

From the Whitman Mission we have something like 100 miles to go to Yakima for the night so we broke up the ride by stopping to see the dinosaurs in Granger. There are a bunch of them around the town and they are life size.

Can't forget the all important Tea Pot Gas Station

Last stop of the day was this place in Yakima for Smoke Chasing 2011.

Lolo Naked Cowgirls and Climbing Cowboys

2011-08-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Todays travel is all about getting somewhere today, so that we see stuff tomorrow. Before leaving Kalispell we traveled downtown for this fun guy.

Initially the roads looked like this.

Captured a couple of these during the day for An Affair with Water

In one of the water towns this guy comes trotting thru town

Apparently his main mode of transportation is his 4 wheeler.

Stopped at this place to get our first Blue Goose Passport stamp. These are similar to the National Park stamps, but are issued by the National Wildlife Refuge System. They have a road thru the refuge, however they do not allow motorcycles because it is gravel and the bison can get a bit testy at times because it's mating season through July and August.

A stack of antlers at the refuge.

Right where this Cowgirl sits, if you hang a right onto Rt12 you will begin the ascent to Lolo Pass.

Climbing to Lolo Pass

At the border of Idaho / Montana you hit the Lolo Pass.

Just as you leave the Lolo Pass Visitor Center there is a sign that says "Winding Road Next 99 Miles". I saw this sign but had passed it and could not turn around. A missed pictunity. The sign wasn't kidding about the miles and we rode all of them into Kamiah, ID. This is no doubt the most turns we have ridden in one stretch. After about 45 miles of this turns, you begin to wish for some of the straight sections, but they are far and few between.

Our end point for the evening, right on Rt 12.

Going Going Gone to the Sun

2011-08-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

Last year the main purpose of our trip was Glacier National Park. While we did make it, it was in a car versus the bike, since that forest rat decided to try to ruin our vacation. Today I awoke, but without the excitement that I had last year. I was no longer thinking I was Jack Nicholson in the Shining and I would be breaking down bathroom doors on MeAsWe. Plus last night we met some riding folks and one of them, Don, said if we did not get there first thing the traffic would be so bad it would ruin the ride. It was sprinkling out as well and a bit chilly. (all pictures are clickable and can be enlarged)

We had our breakfast and headed out about 8am, first stop was gas and then US89 North to Glacier National Park. The roads were ...

still straight, but at least there were some mountains to look at. Then off on the horizon these appeared

Yup those are the Rocky Mountains. As we got closer the road turned into sweepers and then twisties. That unexcited feeling earlier in the morning disappeared. I was about to fulfill a dream I have had since seeing that Modern Marvel series on building the Going to the Sun road.

From the very point of passing thru the east entrance in St Mary's the unbelievable, totally awesome, inspiring vistas begin. Words or our photos cannot describe, but I will post them up anyways. Oh the unbearable traffic, there was none.

The VC

One of the first vistas

We did get off the bike and walk to Sun Point.

Even thou there was no traffic I don't think I got the bike up to over 35. No need to speed thru the park, the Going to Sun road is only 50 miles or so.

After about 7 miles you begin the ascend to Logan Pass

There is road construction going on in Glacier, so occasionally you are stopped because the road only has one lane. There is plenty to look at when you are stopped.

Out back of the Logan Pass VC. Those that are in better shape wander out to where the snow is.

In front of the VC there were a couple of animals

We began our descent to the West Entrance.

Some snow

Shower anyone

The gorge river that empties into Lake McDonald on the west side

MeAsWe's new smokin friend, Good thing I am the only one that can pilot the FJR and have the keys.

The West entrance

No further words can describe the experience. All I can hope for is this little ride report inspires one person to Go to the Sun.

No Buck to Stop Here

2011-08-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today we traveled thru Yellowstone to the North Entrance around Mammouth Springs to our final destination of the day in Great Falls. Other than the stamp at Fort Yellowstone it is pretty much a pure travel day. We did get to pass a special spot for both of us, plus it is MeAsWe birthday. For a birthday present, I promised not to hit any animals.

We hit very little traffic in Yellowstone. How lucky is that, 2 days in a row and no traveling castles obstructing our views.

First stop was Norris Museum. We stopped here because it is National Historic Landmark.

Out back of the Norris Museum are some geyser basins. We did not walk all the way out to them, since they pretty much look like the rest of the geysers in Yellowstone. Matter of fact this was pretty much a roll thru since we had been here last year.

These pools look so inviting to jump get in and relax. Right outside Fort Yellowstone is Mammouth HotSprings. Another geyser but pretty impressive. We walked about 3/4 way up these.

One of those "You are Here" maps. Helped make the decision to ascend or descend.

It is amazin how some of this stuff grows where it grows

The last view of Yellowstone as we head up US 89 to Great Falls

Thru Livingston, MT, hang a left onto US89 North and away we go. First we have to stop and take a picture of ourselves for that oh so special moment in Clyde Park.

Today there was no Buck, or any other animal around. A picture of an intact FJR at the Antler Bar. We did have lunch here.

From Clyde Park to Great Falls the roads looked like this

And this

Let's just stay the ride became tedious and the temp rose into the high 90's, very unusual I understand for this area. We finally hit Great Falls, grabbed some ink at the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center and then headed into the barn for some Red Beer.

Oops, before the beer we had to seek out a Great Falls sign for An Affair with Water. We found it right across the street from the Holiday Inn.

We have been using Priceline.com for booking our motels and it is working like a charm. Cheap price for a much better motel room I would have booked on my own. Thank you Jan and Alan for the info.

Going Nuclear in Idaho

2011-08-16T03:43:00.000-07:00

Up bright and early, still on east coast time in body and mind. While planning the trip the objective was to make sure we are in before dusk, so we are not infringing on the critters play time on the roads, thus I had us leaving real early, I really didn't consider the critters like dawn as well. Adjustments are needed.

This morning we will be back tracking 30 miles to Craters of the Moon, but there is this place right in the middle of Arco that must be visited. It's like the missile in Warren, NH. This was the first reference going nuclear in Idaho. This is the Roadside America's the Devil Boat, Submarine in the Desert. The numbers on the sub are real. This was the fast-attack nuclear submarine USS Hawkbill (SSN-666). (all pics are clickable and can be enlarged)

Next we head south to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. We watched the video before riding around on the park loop road. Craters is a huge lava flow that is pristine from an geological point of view. We also took a walk out to one of the bat caves. I have found the knees can take the walk, now I have to work on the rest of the parts of the body.

It's really hard to convey the beauty of this place thru my camera. Gotta be the camera and not the shooter right ?

Back on the road with the wind. I had to list the bike to the left to keep going straight. Did I mention these roads are straight, if not they are. Next nuclear event is Experimental Breeder Reactor 1. Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) is a decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located in the desert about 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Arco, Idaho. At 1:50 pm on December 20, 1951 it became the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs. It subsequently generated sufficient electricity to power its building, and continued to be used for experimental purposes until it was decommissioned in 1964. (thank you Wikipedia)

The core

One of the original bulbs they powered up.

Back onto the windy road and heading for Yellowstone. We finally got a break being on the straight and wide when we turned onto ID 31 heading up the Tetons. The elevation changed as well.

The straight and wide

At least there was a reason to lean right and left

Into to Jackson, WY for lunch at a BBQ joint

A collection of antlers

A view of the Tetons

Entering Yellowstone. What surprised the heck out of us, we owned Yellowstone. The traffic was really light we could go as fast as we wanted but we kept the speeds down to enjoy the view.

Owning the road

What we learned last year, there are a ton of elk, moose, bison, and deer in the park. While we didn't rush thru we didn't particularly dilly dally. Stopped a couple of places for some scenery.

The last stop was right around 7pm and while the sun is still out it, it is dropping fast. We came up on one stop and the traffic is stopped and gathering. Having been stopped for more than a couple of moments, I figured there must of been some animals up ahead. Sure enough a herd of bison comes walking up the road. On the inside of the pack is a calf, protected by the huge bison. She or he was snorting away, jumping and bumping the other bisons. When he/she was about 40' from us, looking pissed, starts to head right for us. Damn damn damn, another one of these fuckers are gonna take us out again. Closer and closer, me shaking at this point, too late to dismount, we just stood there waiting for the impact. Snorting louder and louder, she/he is looking right into the fear in our eyes, he/she turns away from us. Thank you thank you thank you. MeAsWe thought she had captured the whole thing on video, but she forgot to press the start button.

Throttle up to use up the last remaining light of the day and got to West Yellowstone, MT. Grabbed Montana for Smoke Chaising 2011 and headed into the barn.

Spiking Gold and Rockin the City

2011-08-14T02:12:00.001-07:00

No need to get up early this morning, Golden Spike doesn't open until 9am and it is only 25 or so miles away. We needed the rest anyways since we have not adjusted to the Mountain Time zone yet. (all pictures are clickable, will open a new window and can be enlarged)

The roads out here look like this, at least today they did. Good for making time thats for sure.

First sign you are there

We are suppose to spend 45 minutes here, but that didn't quite work out that way. First thing we did was get our stamps for the National Park Tour, buy the pin for Golden Spike and then watch the video in the auditorium. If you go to parks the video are well worth while.

OK Golden Spike is where the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah connecting the east coast to the west coast of the US in 1869. The Golden Spike was the ceremonial spike driven as the last spike connecting the 2 coasts. Today it is marked by a special tie.

The park has 2 exact replicas of the trains that met here and they pull them out of the train barn somewhere of in the distance and run them down the track for all to see.

The Central Pacific Train approaching

The two of them nose to nose

We ended up spending 2 hours here and already behind a loose schedule. Next stop is 112 miles away in Idaho, City of Rocks. This is where the early go west guys cut thru the mountains on their way to California. It is also very popular with the mountain climbing crew. I figures we could make up some lost time here, maybe making it a stamp and grab place.

Getting there was on the straight and narrow and easily able to do triple digits if one so desired. We kept our speeds down (still abit deer shy) but still made very good time. Some pics from the bike.

Place that makes missiles

Passing into Idaho, see the bend in the road

We arrived at City of Rocks, got the stamp, bought the pin and watched the video. Figured we could be done, but decided to ride around where the wagons cut thru.

The road thru City of Rocks is not paved, but the put some kind of stuff down on the dust which turns the surface pretty darn hard. It's hard to convey what we say thru the lens. Worthwhile place to visit.

So the time we were suppose to pick up here ended up costing us another hour. Glad we were not rock climbers or we might still be there.

From here the agenda lightened up and only needed to grab a HD dealer in Twin Falls, a water sign and make tracks for Arco, ID. Oh we are suppose to grab a Evil Knivel memorial for his attempt at jumping the Snake River. Found out this marker is on private property and really can't get to it.

Some views

Since we were not gonna find the Knievel marker we decided to visit Shoshone Falls Park. When we first stopped in Twin Falls some guy stopped where we were and asked if we knew where they were. Of course we shrugged our shoulders. He happened to mention they were the Niagara Falls of the West.

The falls were no quite Niagara, but MeAsWe liked em better.It will cost ya 3 dollars to get to them but the road was a nice twisty road down into the canyon.

Getting late we headed to Arco and landed ourselves at the DK Motel. Now if you read there ad and history the couple that bought this place we youngsters. Lets just say they have grown up and are my age now. Nice place to stay by the way. Had dinner right down the street at Pickles Place.

Walking for 20 Percent

2011-08-12T04:43:00.000-07:00

At the Western Inn in Trementon UT. Right next door is Denny's, convenient, can walk there and the food is not bad. Right there as you walking, show us your AARP card and get 20% off the ticket. Turned around and went to get the AARP card. While I wish I was 20 years younger, in this 60 year old mind, but we do have some advantages.

This is the Place - Licking Salt in the City

2011-08-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

First day on the road was grabing historic places, BBQ joints and HD shops. Inspection went flawless at Baileys. The only intimidating thing was pulling off the pallet since it had a block of wood that I had to go up and over. Started the bike, a rev, drop the clutch and didn't look back. It looked worse than it was, they always do. It will be that time when things look simple, when the unexpected will occur.

First stop was Kaiser's BBQ. This locks up Utah for Smoke Chasing 2011

Off to where Brigham Young saw the Salt Lake Valley coming thru the Emigration Canyon in 1847.

As the account goes, Brigham Young was very sick with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and was riding in the back of a wagon. After exiting Emigration Canyon and cresting a small hill, he asked to look out of the wagon. Those with him opened the canvas cover and propped him up so he could see the empty desert valley below. He then proclaimed, "It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on." The words, "this is the place," were soon heard throughout the wagon train as the Mormon pioneers descended into the valley, their long journey having come to an end. (Source Wikipedia)

We had a pleasant surprise as well. We grabbed our fist NP stamps at the visitor center. Three stamps in all, Pony Express, California and Mormon Trail.

Next stop is Temple Square for some historic landmarks. The Beehive House is where Brigham Young housed his many wives. The name doesn't come from the king bee being busy in the house, but from the Beehive Sculpture atop the house.

The Lion House is right next door and also houses some of Brigs wives, he had more than 2 dozen of them and fathered 57 youngins.

Couple last stops, before we head north for our hotel

Salt Lake Temple. Note the couple in wedding garb.

Old City Hall and the Capitol. Old City Hall is a National Landmark

The Capitol

We rode around SLC quite abit. It is a strikingly clean city. The mountains surround the city and some snow is in the hills. While it is home to the Mormon Latter Day Saints, the city does not seemed oppressed with religious overtones. It looks like it would be a nice place to live.

Our next stops were a couple of post office for Water towns, a BBQ joint we had planned to eat at but had closed up shop for good and a Harley dealer for a shot glass. While I had a hankering for BBQ, in retrospect it was probably a good thing because we definitely got to the hotel in Trementon before the sun went down. Just making good on riding during the daylight this time.

When we were all said and done, we still had not gotten a sign that said Salt Lake City for An Affair with Water hunt. Hope we remember when we head back in in 17 days. Another observation is that it is easy to go fast out on the highways. I looked down a couple of times and we were doing 86, but we were not zinging past the cars either. Its all relative.

A couple pics from the road

Patty Cake Patty Cake - TSA Man

2011-08-12T02:25:00.000-07:00

430a Thursday morning, we are dropped of at TS Green to start our trip to Salt Lake City. First stop is the ticket counter, but they are not there yet. Finally get our tickets next stop Security.

We are standing in line and make our way to the plastic buckets to place our shoes, laptop, well everything we are carrying on that we are not wearing. I have absolutely nothing in my pockets, but wearing my riding gear for the trip.

As we approach the passageway to vaca land, I am told to go right. Right is the metal detector. I get waved thru, BEEEEEEP. They say do you have anything on you. Nope is my reply. Please step back and come back thru. BEEEEEEEP. WTF It can't be the metal clip on my riding pants.

It then dawned on me about my knees. I say oh I got new knees. They simply ask me to step over to the Pat Down Station.

The TSA officer explains what he is going to do and why. He says do you want a private screening. I am thinking strip club now. I say I am perfectly comfortable out here. He proceeds to pat me down. At no time did I think he did anything inappropriate

He takes off his gloves and processed them thru a machine. He then inform me that I will have to go thru the Pat Down again, Private Screening Mandatory.

Another officer comes over, we go off to the private room. MeAsWe says can I watch, they say sure. Again he explains exactly what he was going to do and asks are you ready. I say go for it. As he is performing the pat down, I thought to myself would it be funny if I started to moan and gyrate. I passed, figured it was not time for a comedy routine.

He processed the gloves thru the machine and I pass.

I have to say I never found the experience to anything but professional. These guys got a tough job, and not one I would want to perform all day.

Let the next Touch Down proceed, Salt Lake City

Federal Comes Thru - The FJR has Landed

2011-08-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

In the previous post I described my anxiety about the bike not being in Salt Lake City. About 2pm I got a call from Bailey's in Salt Lake City that my bike was there and they wanted to know when I would be picking it up. Federal is a GREAT COMPANY. Thank you Jackie

Panic - Anxiety - Will it Stop - Please Go Away

2011-08-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I get up earlier than I needed to, but I figured it is the day before our trip and time for fretting about the small stuff. The routes have been printed, data sent to the GPS's and GPS ready to go. The key to the bike is safely tucked away in the medicine bag, so we don't forget it. Cash has been placed somewhere so we don't forget it. The bags have been packed since the weekend. So what is there to fret about. WHATS TO FRET ABOUT, OF COURSE THERE IS STUFF TO FRET ABOUT. One has to fret about the stuff that you don't know about yet.

One of those things is where is the bike. Last year the bike was in Salt Lake City well before we arrived. Pull eMail and check the tracking status. It says IN TRANSIT BLOOMINGTON IL. Huh ??? It should be in SLC, if it is in Illinois it's not gonna be there when we arrive, not only is it not in SLC, but it is in-transit to Bloomington, IL. The pain starts to crawl up the back of the shoulders. The stomach gets queasy. Then you start questioning yourself why didn't you look at this earlier in the week. MeAsWe is making some comments, but the words are just spinning around my head with the thoughts on what are we gonna do.

I quick start thinking how would we replan the trip if the bike was there on Friday. What park will we skip. Then the thought, what if it doesn't get there until next Monday or Tuesday. I quickly grab a calendar to see what that would mean. IT MEANS SOMETHING NOT GOOD.

OK, we could rent a car, but then MeAsWe says all the cameras are packed on the bike. It feels like I am being pulled into the ocean at the Joisey shore and there are crabs snipping at my feet.

It's something like 7:15, so I call Federal knowing full well it is in the 6's for time there. Thank you for calling the Federal Company. Our normal work hours are 8 to 5pm, Monday thru Friday, except on Holidays. Please listen carefully for our options have changed..... I hang up. Do I wait til 8 or is their 8 our 9. I look at the clock and the hands slow to a crawl. Time in now saying we are going to make you sweat this out Willie, and we are going to have fun watching you sweat.

Anxiety, anquish, dazed, panic, pacing (heart and feet), head is spinning and I have to go thru this for a while.

In the car on the way to work, clock hits 8:01, speed dial Federal Companies, don't even listen for the options (which have changed), dial 2210, voice comes on. WOW Jackie is actually there and it is not voice mail.

Me: Jackie this is Bill Collins. I don't have my tracking number, but I hope you tell me my bike is in Salt Lake City.

Jackie: Bill, I have your information right here. Let me see what I can find out.

It is reassuring that Jackie actually had my stuff in front on her or she portrayed she did. What a pro move.

Jackie: Bill, I am sure things are OK, but can I call you back in 5 or 10 minutes.

Me: Sure

That 10 minutes was very very very long. I finished driving to Mansfield, went into Subway to get my breakfast clinging the phone, drove over to Honey Dew for a decaf coffee, got in line. All this time I am clinging to the phone. One car away from ordering and the phone rings. I immediately pull out of line.

Jackie: Bill, hows your day going.
Me: Depends on what you tell me.
Jackie: Sometimes I am the bearer of bad news, but this is not one of those days.

A halo of calm starts at the top of my head and flows gently down over my face, to my shoulders, makes it past my stomach (not an easy feat) and down to my toes.

Jackie: The tracking has not been updated. Your bike is due in the terminal today and will be waiting for you when you arrive tomorrow.

Me: Thanks a ton
Jackie: I hope you have a great day.

From there I am not sure what was said, but I heard what I wanted and the world was back in balance.

Now to find the next thing to fret about. I am sure it will come to me.

Brick by Brick - The Roads to be Traveled

2011-08-04T03:55:00.000-07:00

The following are the individual maps for the Trip West 2011. Each image is clickable, which will open a new window that can be enlarged. I choose to break the loops into individual days because it does not take as long to load up the routes in the unit. I learned early on with my 2610, if I planned a multi day trip as one big route, by the middle of the trip, it took longer for the route to load because it was reloading the entire route and then trying to figure out where the heck I was. Planning individual day routes lets you focus on that part of the trip versus constantly looking at the forest. The trees do make a difference. My spreadsheet application deals with 24 hour periods better than multi-day periods for calculating times of arrivals, gas stops, etc.

Day 1 - 104 miles

We land in Salt Lake City around 1:30p, have to take a cab to Baileys Storage to pick up the bike and perform an inspection. Giving all of that, we won't make Golden Spike in time to spend any quality time there. Instead we held into SLC to pick up some Landmarks, such as Temple Square, Old City Hall and "This is the Place, a couple Water towns and maybe a Harley dealer for a shot glass. We have our reservations booked for the night, so maybe we will have eat at Souls and Bones BBQ for Smoke Chasing 2011.

Day 2 - 362 miles

No need for an early rise and shine, since Golden Spike doesn't open until 9am, our first stop. From there we head off to City of Rocks National Preserve and Evil Knivel jump over the Snake River marker. We will try to make it to Hagerman Fossil Beds. We may not make Beds before the VC closes, so we may just head to Arco, ID passing Craters of the Moon, which is the first place for the next day. We also have reservations in Arco for the night. We will be staying at the D K Motel. We will find out if my selection was a good or bad one, but it does have quite a few stars on the Internet. Also scheduled for the day is another HD dealer, and Twin Falls, a water town.

Day 3 - 326 miles

From Arco we back track 20 miles to Craters of the Moon and then head off to Atomic City and Breeder Reactor 1, the first world's first nuclear electric generating plant. It initially lit up 4 200 watt light bulbs. A stop in Idaho Falls for a Water grab and a BBQ joint, then head off to Grand Teton, JD Rockefeller Parkway and Yellowstone. We did these last year, but I am sure we will still have a in awe of the scenery moments. Our destination is the Branding Iron Motel in West Yellowstone, pricey but so is all the other places. We have a couple of National Landmarks, like Murie Ranch and a BBQ joint to pick up on the way. As of this writing this is the last reservation we have made for the trip. We will make a decision on where to stay and make a reservation the day before or just wing it.

Day 4 - 284 miles

Today's ride should be real easy, other than we pass Clyde Park, where we had out deer strike last year. We have no places that we have to make, no pressure and we should arrive in Great Falls way before the sun goes down. We have a couple of Landmarks to pick up in Yellowstone, White Sulphur Springs for Water, and will probably stop in the Lewis and Clark Expedition Center for a NP stamp and a visit. In Great Falls is a Smoke Chasing special BBQ joint, Big Mouth BBQ, so we will stop here as well.

Day 5 - 248 miles

This will be an early rise and shine days, since Great Falls is about 157 miles away from Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun road. We have a bunch of National Register of Historic Places to pick up, but this will be primarily a day of taking in the vistas. Our destination for the night is Kalispell, MT.

Day 6 - 301 miles

This is another leisurely ride day, but we will ride down RT 12 to Kamiah, ID. Here we may actually arrive much earlier than planned since we pass from Mountain to Pacific time zone. This places in ear shot of Nez Perce and Witman Mission VC's for the next day. We will pick up 3 or 4 water towns, Travelers' Rest as a landmark and stop at another HD for a shot glass. I am looking forward to passing thru the Lolo Pass.

Day 6 Side Trip - 63 miles

Depending when we arrive in Kamiah, we may just go grab Weippe Prairie. This is where Lewis and Clark emerged out of the Lolo Pass on their way to the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully we will be able to find the Landmark plague.

Day 7 - 314 miles

Two parks on the agenda, Nez Perce and Whitman Mission. We will pick up oddities like the Teapot Gas station Car Part Sculptures, and a BBQ joint. Destination for the night is Yakima, WA

Day 8 - 254

We will head up WA 410, which is the Chinook Scenic Byway, on our way to the Sunrise Visitor Center at Mt Ranier. Hopefully we will not run into any weather related problems like snow. We will then travel south and head west via Steven Canyon Rd and Paradise Longmire Rd. It is my understanding the Grove of the Patriachs is a must see. I am so looking forward to view this area. Destination for the night is Kelso, WA

Day 9 - 245 Miles

Today should be an overwhelming eye candy scenic day. First we will head for the Johnson Observatory to see Mt St Helen and then off to Vancouver / Portland area. We will visit Fort Vancouver, grab a stamp and then travel the Historic Columbia River Highway ending up in Hood, OR. We will stop in at the Bonneville Dam VC.

Day 10 - 309 miles

This is another pure ride day with no places we have to be ending up in Klamath Falls. If we get there with plenty of time to spare, we will head to the Tulelake VC in California as a side trip

Day 11 Part 1 - 165 miles

An easy day in miles as we head out of Klamath Falls to Crate Lake. I have great expectations for this area, but we may have been spoiled by Ranier, Mt St Helen and the Columbia Highway. We will head back to Klamath Falls for the night.

Day 11 Part 2 (if there is enough time)- 66 miles

This is the Tule Lake Loop which can be done in any of 3 days. This park is part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific, which is primary in Hawaii. Tule Lake was a WWII internment center for the Japanese, which had the highest level of security out of all the internment centers located in the US. Also on the agenda are a couple National Wildlife Refuges.

Day 12 - 241 Miles

Finally leaving Klamath Falls, we head for Redding, CA to set us up for a quick visit to the Whiskey Town VC either today or the next day. This is another easy ride day with a few water towns to visit.

Day 13 - 254 miles
Today's major visit is Lassen Volcanic National Park and then off to Reno, NV for the night.

Day 14 - 346 miles
Out of Reno heading for Ely, NV on the Loneliest Road. This is a pure run and go day with a few stops such as the Shoe Tree that has been chopped down. We will visit Virginia City for Landmarks.

Day 15 - 408 miles

From Ely we head to Great Basin National Park and then off to the Bonneville Salt flats. Plans are to make it to Provo, UT for the night. This will put is very close to Timpanogos Cave National Monument.

Day 16 (The last riding day)

Today primary spot is Timpanogos Cave. We were here last year, but because of my knees I was unable to climb up the 1/2 mile to the caves. Maybe this year will be different. From here we deliver the bike back to Bailey's Moving and Storage and head for a motel, to be determined, for our flight by to Massachusetts on Saturday

Follow the Red Brick Road - Planning Stage

2011-08-03T00:56:00.000-07:00

This morning I pretty much finished the routes for our trip out west. (I am sure I will futz around with them some more, just in case I missed something) While the picture looks like one big loop (after all we do have to get back to Salt Lake City), it is made up of 21 individual routes. Essentially there are 17 primary day routes, with 2 alternative routes for the day, and 3 side trip routes that can be executed after we reach our motel for the evening. Miles is in the neighborhood of 4500 miles, the shortest day is the first day at 104 (we don't get on the road til around 3pm) and the longest day is 408 miles. Based on my spreadsheet we should be in before the sun goes down and the critters come out to play. Many days we are done before 5pm, which is a good thing.

I have waypoint symbols on the routes to differentiate landmarks, National Park Visitor Centers, BBQ joints, Water towns, National Wildlife preserves, odd ball places, hotels, and other historic places. The waypoints for each route will be printed to 4X6 index cards and placed in the map holder on the tank bag.

MeAsWe will have the master spreadsheet that tells us the estimated time of arrival and how many miles between waypoints. This simply is a tool to tell us if we are ahead of schedule (hardly ever), on schedule or are we gonna be late. This enables us to make changes or if can we add some adhoc place to visit. It is a guide, not a mandate. Well the in before sun down is a mandate. I even placed a waypoint where we had the deer strike last year. No point avoiding it. Matter of fact we should celebrate the place. We may even stop at this place to see if we can thank some of the folks that helped us out that night.

Somewhere over the Rainbow - Step 1 Execution

2011-08-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

This morning we delivered the FJR to Rainbow Movers, which is Allied Moving in Franklin, MA. They will be transporting our bike to Salt Lake City, UT for pickup on 8/11/11. It was quite a relief to walk up this morning to see that the 2 parties's YoYo's in Washington have come an agreement on the debt ceiling and the National Parks should be open when we get there.

Finding a Home away from Home - Planning / Execution Stage

2011-08-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made our reservations at hotels for the first 3 days. First night we will be staying in Trementon, which puts us close to Golden Spike. Second night is Arco, ID in ear shot of Craters of the Moon. 3rd night we are staying at the Branding Iron in West Yellowstone, MT, which is right next to the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately for us we end up in Yellowstone on Saturday, so we are paying a premium for the room, 139.00. Last year we stayed at the Branding Iron's Pony Express Motel for 79.00.

After Yellowston we will probably make our reservations that night just so we know how far we have to go for the day and whether we will be in before it gets dark out and the boogie rats come out to play.

Is Two Too Many and Other To's

2011-07-31T04:16:00.000-07:00

Today I mounted up the StreetPilot 2720 and the Nuvi 855 to see if they would fit. They mounted up like a charm, wiring them into the accessory plug was a snap and we were ready to rock n' roll. Now all we had to do was test them on the road.

Fiddled abit to position the GPS so that I could see the tach, the info panel and the neutral light. The test ride would be the NER breakfast club in Littleton at Tres Amici. As soon as we were on the road, I realized the right turn signal indicator was NOT visible. Thats not good, because I don't always remember to flick em off now. No visibility is not going to improve this situation. Why they don't put self cancelling turn signals on all bikes is beyond me.

Other than the turn signal, there are real advantages to having 2 GPS. You can have one zoomed in and one zoomed out. Great info to have while traveling. One to do adhoc routing without disturbing the other GPS. What if we went this way or that way. I just might travel this way for now on.

We arrived at the NER Breakfast Club hosted by Rich aka PuckerNoMore at around 8:30a.

The JJFlash crew, well 2/3 of them. Jack has already parked his GW.

These 2 characters are Magilla and Giff. Magilla is the one with the hi vis jacket. He has established the standard for Hi Vis. He has the jacket that brightens the already bright Fusion Blue Gold Wing and to top it off he has a safety Hi Vis yellow Arai helmet. You would think just his size would be enough (he makes a wing look small)but you can't possibly miss him on the road. We rode up with Giff he has a really nice ST1100 with 96K on it.

The above is Rich (PuckerNoMore) our host. He has finally found at PT that has relieved him of some debilating pain for the last 9 years. It says it's like winning the lottery. Puck picked up the tab for all of us, 11 of us, and asked that we donate what we would have paid for breakfast to either the NER or the Wounded Warriors Project.

We disbanded, Giff our travel to partner, was off to other roads, and we needed to head back to get the bike ready to ship to Salt Lake City. It was a near perfect day out. Blue blue skies, and the temps were in the 70's low 80's. I am suppose to deliver the bike with no gas to the shippers, however they accept very little gas, so I had to run the tank down. I dropped of MeAsWe and headed for the Rhode Island tag.

Rustic Drive-In used to be a Triple X rated drive-in. According to MeAsWe the sign is a phallic symbol, but to me it looks like Googie to me, but what do I know.

In our tag games, you must travel to the current tag location, but it is ok to post a file photo for the new tag. I figured it would be easier to just pick up another spot right now, run some more gas out of the tank, so off to Twin Rivers Casino just down the road.

I figured the door handles are distinctive enough to figure out where this place is, but if someone asks for a clue I will tell them to combine Dan Fogelburg and Joan Rivers to arrive at the name. Dan Fogelburg album Twin Brothers of Different Mothers is the first part. If that doesn't work then I will post up this picture as another clue.

If that doesn't work I will make them read this blog.

After grabbing Twin Rivers, headed towards home, but decided I needed to run some more gas out and went to Walmart to see if they had long sleeve wicking shirts. Nope. Finally got home, but had to stop at the gas station to put a gallon in the tank so I could get to the shipper in the morning

Go West Old Man - Another Prep Stage

2011-07-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

This morning I played around in MapSource getting the routes finalized for the trip. I need to post the maps when they are complete. I was having a frustrating time getting the data out of MapSource to the spreadsheet application I wrote to tell us if the stuff that I bit off can be chewed, in other words will the VC's be open when we will actually arrive.

About 1pm I had the following choices, take a nap (it was beautiful out, blue skies), watch a Netflix movie (it was beautiful day out, blue skies) or take a jaunt down to Roger Williams National Memorial VC and pick up some of these

After picking up our new books, we headed for a bit to eat. MeAsWe was starved. Arrived at this place that was a previous tag

Only to find out they were closed

With the stomach set on some dogs, we back tracked to

All done in the cage today and did not feel a bit guilty about it. Got home and took that nap that I was thinking about earlier

The Connie Goes Sailing

2011-07-28T03:37:00.000-07:00

Last night the Concours was sold to a really nice guy from the Marblehead area. His main hobby is sailing and sails like we ride all over the place. I drew similarities between our quest for roads and locations with leaving a harbor and sailing off to a new destination for no other reason than being able to do so.

After he left, I had an empty feeling as the cash laid on the table. I have been to every state east of the Mississippi on that bike and a few just west of the river. That bike earned me 2 National Park certificates with the IBA and traveled 49,700 miles without a hint of hiccup.

I did have one scary moment before the sail. I decided to take the Connie out just to make sure every thing was working. As I headed into the center of town, it started to sputter. As I passed thru the center, it sputtered some more and then died. I said to myself, Damn why today. Thoughts of getting it back home, putting some Seafoam into the tank and trying to clear the ever so present problem raced thru my mind. I looked at the speedo and the Trip 1 Odometer (It has 2) was telling me there was only 146 miles since the last fill up. Not trusting what I was seeing, I popped the gas cap and it looked awful empty in there. Switched the petcock to Reserve, fired up the engine, released the clutch and the Connie took off like it just got a new lease on life. Blew thru the center clocking 5000 RPM and rose to 6000 RPM. Smooth as silk. Anxiety abates. Pull into the gas station for some more fuel.

I will miss the Connie. Every day it sat next to the FJR, saying Ride Me Ride Me. At least now it will have its desire fulfilled.

Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high
Somewhere over the rainbow Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true
Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly
Why then, oh why can't I?

The Connie is the Bluebird

Go West Part Deux - Planning Stage

2011-07-27T06:21:00.001-07:00

This morning I finished the routing for our trip out west. We will be riding 16 days and cover right around 4300 miles. We have done more miles in the same amount of days, but I did promise we would be in before dark. We will let the forest rats own the night. Our trip will cover UT, ID, WY, MT, WA, OR, CA, and NV.

Our planned National Parks parks will be:
Golden Spike
City of Rocks
Craters of the Moon
Nez Perce
Grand Tetons
Yellowstone
Glacier
Fort Vancouver
Mount Ranier
Whitman Mission
Crater Lake
Lassen Volcanic
Lava Beds
Whiskeytown
Tulelake
Great Basin
Timpanogos Caves

These will cover Washington and California for our Silver National Park Tour certificate from the IBA. Next spring we will head south for Florida and pick up Maine during the summer or even this fall to cover the four corner states. READ HERE

We will also pick up one barbecue joint in each state for Smoke Chasing 2011 so that we end up BBQ Pit Masters (1 joint, 15 states). We are at the Smoker level (3 joints, 5 states) right now.

I haven't counted the number of towns that will be covered for An Affair with Water, but as a guess it is probably over 40. We are not going to go way out of our way for the Water Towns, but when close we will go seeking the Post Office. Some of the towns that come to mind are; Great Falls, Idaho Falls, Columbia Falls, Salt Lake City, Bear River City......

We are also grabbing a bunch of National Historic Landmarks. On the agenda is Bonneville Dam, Experimental Breeder Reactor 1, Two Medicine Chalet, Temple Square, Timberline Lodge, and many many more....

We will attempt to see the infamous Shoe Tree and the new sprouting one in Nevada along the Loneliest Road (US 50). This 70' cottonwood tree was adorned with 1000's of shoes in the middle of Nevada. It was cut down by some vandals in 2010. I hear there is another one sprouting from the shoes that lie on the ground next to the original one.

We will cover the Northwest Passage, Volcanic Legacy, Historic Columbia River Highway, Chinook Scenic Byway and White Pass Scenic Highway all of which are America's Byways. Last year we covered Beartooth Highway, Chief Joseph, Flaming Gorge and Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway. CHECK THEM OUT

This weekend will be the final preparation of the FJR before shipping. This time we will pack as much on the bike as possible. Less we have to carry thru the airports. I might even wash the FJR before it leaves, well at least the windshield and Laminar Lip. We deliver the bike to Allied Van Lines in Franklin, MA on Aug 1.

On Aug 11th we board our plane to Salt Lake City to begin this journey. We will ride right past the spot where we were taken out last year. Maybe we will stop in the Antler Bar and buy a round for some of the folks. They sure deserved it in the help they provided during the night we will never forget. It was the 175# buck last thought. I am hoping we get to ride the whole Going to the Sun road this year. I heya thars snow in dem hills. Ranier and Mount St Helen may have snow as well. Tulelake was a Japanese intermnet camp during WWII and probably the worst of them to boot. This was a black spot on our history in the US. We might even watch Old Faithful again. There is so much to see, that one trip just doesn't cut it, but ya gotta start somewhere. Better to have done, than dreaming about doing it.

Connie does the Dalton

2011-07-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

The other day I received an email questioning whether the Connie I have is still available. My simple replay was Yes, what would you like to know. I also left the person my phone number and told them to call me.

I get another email from that person, asking "is 11pm to late to call". I read that email about 11:30pm and told the person I would be up until at least 12am.

Sit back down to watch TV and the phone rings. I pick up the phone and hear the other person say "is this Bill". A conversation ensues about the Connie and motorcycling in general. It was like I had known Gordon all my life, but we had not spoken to one another in a decade or so.

Then Gordon says "Would you ride the Connie to Alaska". Within a split second I said "No".

I then realized Gordon was not being literal, but asking the question in a figurative/rheotorical manner. Almost immediately after I belted out No, Gordon says I am not asking if YOU would ride to Alaska, I wanted to know if someone could ride to Alaska.

Well as it turns out Gordon was going to drive one of his vehicles from Alaska to the east coast to visit with his kids, fly to Boston, and ride the Connie all over the east coast while he was visiting, then truck it back home to Alaska. As life is, something got in the way at this time and the Connie will be staying in MA for a while longer.

I still feel like I found a friend in Gordon and if we ever make it to Alaska, I just might have to look him up.

Surfing Water at the Joisey Showa

2011-07-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

We spent the last 3 days running New Jersey for An Affair with Water, capturing something like 60 or so towns for this contest. Weather was perfect and even more perfect along the coast. We also picked up a BBQ place to lock up New Jersey as a state. What I found on this trip, mainly below Toms River, the Post Offices were either non-existent, MapSource had it all wrong, the PO moved, or I did something wrong when entering the Waypoints. We only missed one location Oceanville in our quest thou. I have spent quite a few weeks in my youth on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, where Jersey Shore is shot. Matter of fact my sister offered to take me to the exact location, but the show is pure crap and not that important to me, so we passed. The next PO was far more exciting to us, but I did manage to get a picture of the water tower. Almost like the shot of Pizzaland on the Sopranos.

All pictures are expandable by clicking and resizing

First day was getting to the Toms River where my sister lives. New Jersey is the most over built, over retailed, no zoning laws state I have ever seen. A lot of the stores are closed, especially car dealerships. Northern Jersey is very country, New England like, with huge homes. Drop to Bloomfield to Sea Bright is where the old cities are. A lot of rundown places. Asbury Park is a scary place.

The Merritt Parkway is an historic byway. Each overpass has a unique character.

Crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge. This bridge is designated to be replaced because the traffic has far exceeded its designed capacity

Jersey is known as a extremely liberal state, but even this is kinda of over the top. What ya figure transgender somethings ?? (click the picture to enlarge)

We stopped into Bergen County HarleyDavidson / BMW. I don't think I have ever seen the two most exclusive brands as far as dealerships go, crammed into the same building. As I was purchasing my tall shot glass, I did notice the new 1600 GTL stuffed between a Road Glide and Ultra Glide. One of the things that makes Harley so successful is the gathering they have at the dealerships. Announce free music, hot dogs and hamburgers, drinks and they will come and they did come.

Jersey has some great neon. I could spend days gathering these up. Worked for the water thing too.

You can always tell when you are getting towards the ocean and the shore in Jersey. Other than the names changing so do the colors toward the pastels.

Shoring up New Jersey as a BBQ state

A couple more Water Places and we find ourselves at our dinner destination for the evening. Hows this for having a back alley in your yard, plus there is nothing to mow.

Day 2

South Jersey for riding is really boring. The roads are straight; I can’t imagine anyone learns to ride a bike properly in Southern Jersey, but the ride along the Atlantic Ocean makes up for it. Seaside Heights is kind of a trashy town; Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor are clean, classy and family oriented. As you get closer to Cape May you find yourself on a lot of bridges to cross over the coves, bays and salt marshes.

The boardwalk at Seaside Heights. This is taken about 8am and surprisedly the people were not all over the place.

A semi famous water tank.

Where they make those huge yachts.

Moving down the coast line.

Ocean City

Sea Isle City

A glimpse of the Atlantic.

We made it to Green Creek, which is just outside Cape May. It was about 4pm and we decided to call it a day and blow off the 4 remaining towns (watch we will come in second by a margin of 4) and take the Garden State Parkway back to Toms Rivers to have dinner with my sister. My turn to take her out to eat.

Before heading home, some ice cream is in order.

I let this guy handle the cigar thou.

Day 3 was heading back to Massachusetts. We passed thru Lakehurst and tried to see the hangar where the Hindenburg blew up, but they were not offering tours today. We meandered up thru the central part of Jersey and crossed the Hudson River via the Bear Mountain Bridge. As you cross the bridge you must go right or left. Right is US 202 and you end up winding down the mountain on a road very similar (in my opinion) to Hawks Nest. As the pilot you must keep your eyes forward, no matter how tempting it is to look at the scenery. We grabbed our last 4 or so towns and slabbed it home on 84. Of course a stop a Reins Deli in Vernon was a nice break. Hot pastrami extra lean 1st cut Reuben. A sandwich doesn’t get better than that.

McGuire - Fort Dix - Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst

Made our way up to Bear Mountain and crossed the Hudson there. The bridge had the distinction of being the longest suspension bridge in the world for a brief 19 months.

Some action shots along US 202 after crossing the Hudson.

Final destination of the day before slabbing it home

Estimated miles for the 3 days, right around 1,000 miles. Perfect scrubbing in for the new Shinkos. They are already for the trip west

Breaking Water on the Maine Line

2011-07-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Maine seems so far away, but in reality it is no further than New Hampshire. With that in mind I told MeAsWe we were getting up early to head for Maine for some water. Of course she asked how early is early, I said 5:30. She said are you serious, to which I said very softly, No. I still woke her up at 6, so we could be out and about by 8 thou.

We are in search for water, which Maine has a bunch, but this was to be a day trip. Of course we will ride thru New Hampshire and might as well grab some New Hampshire State Markers. When all said and done the list of 9 out of the way towns, grows to 20+ places to stop. 20 waypoint stops is a very full day, and not always doable.

I am getting very used to the Nuvi, however it does has it limitations in waypoints and routes. The 2720 Street Pilot will be the GPS of choice for our western trip, I will still probably pack the 855 as a back up. By 7am the Nuvi is all loaded with the trip and waypoints. Sure hope I remember how the SP works. It will come back fast.

A quick shot up 495 to Exit 34 has us headed north to New Hampshire for our first stop. As we are gliding up 495, I begin to think of all the things we have to do before 8/1, the day the bike gets shipped to Salt Lake City. New tires, oil change, check the brakes, and maybe wash the bike. Then there is finalizing the routes and daily plans, to make sure we can accomplish what I got marked for the day. Then there is the trip to Joisey to grab some more water. This kind of thinking makes the first 50 or so miles just zoom by. Oh the sky is as blue as blue gets, the temps are near perfect, the humidity is almost non existent, it is a PERFECT day for a ride.

My new knees have fully acclimated themselves to riding again. No longer is it painful to drop a leg down when having to stop at a light or sign. No longer do I have the fear my leg may not plant itself on the ground and be out of sync with stops. I can drop and drag the leg for stretching them out or stand up on the pegs to really flex the muscle. I am sure MeAsWe prefers the dropping of the leg. I can imagine what her visuals are when standing on the pegs.

First stop (as a side note, while writing this I realized we really missed our first stop...go figa) This is New Hampshire oldest meeting house in original condition, built in 1760. It will be a good tag some day.

Last time I tried to grab this place there was construction going on.

Now it is off to the Maine purpose of the trip Water towns. Springvale, ME Post Office was going to be a difficult to show the name, so we grabbed this right across the street. We also snapped off a shot of the Post Office for Waymarking (now that I look at the PO, there is no problem with reading the sign)(at that particular moment there was some logic to my decision)

Our most northern and inland spot was North Waterboro, ME. I found this amusing and snapped off a shot. Modern day Lil Rascal club house ?? Potential tag, if so location is N43 31.933 W70 43.113. (if google does it part, the clue will be Hog Pen, The Future is Not Today)

From here we head toward the shore line in Maine for Pond Cove IGA. But first we stopped by a new shiny diner. Not quite like the old ones I am so fond of but it does have a neat neon sign outside. Back in the Nomad days I got hooked on neon signs, I don't stop for every neon, but do stop for quite a few. There is something about neon that makes me smile.

Pond Cover IGA turned out to be a bust. The only sign was not attached to the building and it has to be ON THE BUILDING to count. Oh well.

As we move closer to the ocean the views become more scenic.

In Ocean Park we were suppose to grab the PO (PO almost always have the name on them, except for the new ones they are building, becoming very generic and sanitized ) Ice Cream Parlors work too, as long as the name of the town is on a building.

There are 2 key words in An Affair with Water that are hard to find, Hydro and Pool. Maine has a Pool.

There is something so serenic and scenic about the ocean.

Of course that serenic ocean attracts traffic and people that can make you scream, but today I actually enjoyed watching the folks scurry all over York Beach. We must look like ants to someone out in space.

As we roamed along RT 1 and 1A, seeing the people enjoying the cool waters of the ocean, I expected to see some scantily clad young women. I found out why there were none. We were in the area where I would be allowed to go. (as I write this we will be heading off to the Joisey showa, I am sure there will be some scantily clad women)

York Harbor I thought was going to be a washout. I had 2 motels to find and hoped the name was on the building. I didn't find a Post Office for York Harbor. MeAsWe said we passed a PO going to this place.

Another shot of the ocean

With Maine done, we are headed to Hampton Falls and Seabrook, I caught this out of the corner of my eye and promptly made a U Turn. This will lock in the State of Maine for Smoke Chasing 2011.

Last stop of the day and we are headed out of New Hampshire into Mass on 495 and home.

The trip

United BBQ - Providence RI

2011-07-10T04:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we headed out for a quick ride to capture the last of the 15 BBQ joints we need for the 2nd level in Smoke Chasing 2011. Destination was United BBQ in Providence RI.

First things first we grabbed the Pine Cone at Federal Hill for the RI Tag. Federal Hill received it's name after the 1788 celebration of 4th of July ox roast. The organizes of the event were celebrating the ratification of the Federal Constitution. Anti-Federalists sentitments ran strong in RI, this guy lead 1,000 farmers to stop the celebration. Federal hill became home to Italian emigranst and now houses some of the best restaurants in Rhode Island.

The pine cone, which hangs above, is an italian tradition representing welcome to our world.

Next on the agenda is United BBQ. They are located at 146 Ives Street. This was intended as a grab and run, however it was late in the day, neither of us had eaten anything so we ordered a beef brisket sandwich with slaw and chips. The sandwich was huge and quite tasty. The chips were homemade and very good. This is a joint worth coming to. Pigtrip the BBQ review site gives this place a good review.

They have a really neat Smart car for delivery.

Of course the picture of the food.

Neat neon sign

The staff

With this joint we are Smokers. Visit 3 joints in 5 States. With the west trip coming back up I've got Waypoints in each of those states to make it to the BBQ Pit Master level. Maybe by the time this is done, I will know something about BBQ. So far, I know I like brisket as a meal, but pulled pork for a sandwich.

What does a Book, a Bike, a Bear and BBQ Joint have in Common

2011-07-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Team Strange hosts the 2011 Smoke Chaising BBQ Treasure Hunt. From time to time they have interim contests, which they award prizes for. The current one, you must submit a picture of your bike, your book and a stuffed bear in front of a qualifying BBQ joints.

Since I no longer have little kids, and my daughter who does have a young son lives too far away for a spur of the moment trip, we borrowed a bear from MeAsWe uncle an aunt. We asked on a whim and they just happened to have one.

Our entry to the BBQ Challenge for late June early July. Mic is a diehard Patriots fan, my guess Toni, his wife, got Mic this for Valentine's Day. It is an original Vermont Teddy Bear bear, hence he is a New Englander.

The BBQ joint is just 6 weeks open as of this writing and could use some customers to build his business. Location of the joint is 796 Atwood Avenue, Cranston, RI. Oh they have some neat T-Shirts which MeAsWe wants. so will will be back.

Throwing back Shots in Vermont

2011-06-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Today's adventure is a trip to White River Junction and pick up 6 locations for the Affair. Rising early and time on my hands, means I had time to complicate the trip.

First thing to do was look at my National Historic Garmin file with 18000+ waypoints and see if these was some low hanging fruit I could pick up. While I did add some waypoints I did not place them in the route.

Second file I looked at was the New Hampshire Historical Markers. I added 3 waypoints to the file and placed these in the route.

Third file was BBQ and there was a place in Claremont where 2 of the New Hampshire markers were so this got added to the route.

What started out as a 280 mile run was no pushing 325. By the time I got done executing the run it turned out to be more than 380 miles.

First stop was Winchendon Springs Post Office. I almost passed this place because it was not obvious this was a post office. From here I was headed to Keane, NH with nothing I had to grab, but ended up picking up 2 or 3 National Register of Historic Places.

Winchendon Springs PO

Wymans Tavern - First meeting of the Trustees for Dartmouth College

Next stop Bellows Falls. Picked up an Affair with how this chasin stuff all began.

From Bellows Falls it was a long haul (at least for this route) to White River Junction. This segment was broken up with a stop at Sweet Fire BBQ in Claremont, NH. This would give me the 3 required BBQ places needed for Smoke Chasing 2011. I had brisket with some cheese and mac for lunch. It was actually pretty darn good, but I am not the BBQ expert by any means. The cheese and mac, was quite cheesy, each fork leaving strings of cheese, like a spider web, to the dish. I was their first customer and they were reluctant to serve me the Cn’M because it had not been smoked. I am glad I still got it. I think this is the first time I got brisket versus pulled pork and I just may have brisket from now on.

In Claremont I picked up 2 New Hampshire markers. I think I have about 75% of the 200+ markers now.

This place is the oldest standing Episcopal Church in New Hampshire. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Somehow when I arrived in WRJ, I must have taken a wrong turn and I found myself heading out of town on Route 4. The Nuvi is very quick to calculate a new route; you don’t even see a recalculating screen most of the time. A quick confirm with the GPS and found the next spot was Bridgewater Corners. Reroute to the Post Office is in order.

Now back on track, I am on RT 4 heading south and west. This is where the not so nice roads of Vermont and tedium started. You can read about my state of mind in an earlier post.

In Putney I stopped for gas and Curtis All American BBQ was right next store. There are not a lot of BBQ joints in Vermont with BBQ in their name. I grabbed Curtis in case I elect the 15 joints, 1 in each state.

A hop on I91 (I had had it with the choppy and dirt roads for the day) I am cruzin at 80+ on the way to Lake Pleasure, MA for the last stop. Now all I had to worry about was getting a performance certificate, versus deer, ruts, potholes, etc, etc.

Lake Pleasure is a really really really small town (if it is one, but it does have a post office). As I follow the road to the PO, it keeps getting narrower and narrower. I half expected it to turn to dirt. I finally came to a spot that looked like a parking lot and shrugged, where was the post office. The road was narrow enough that I had just passed it. Drats no sign on the Post Office. Right across the street, maybe 10 feet is the Lake Pleasure Community House. On the wall they have a small glassed in information board with a notification that has Lake Pleasure in the title. I take a picture of this, hoping this is allowed for the Affair.

From Lake Pleasure it was a straight shot across RT2 to I190 and home. Starting around Saxtons River I decided I would stop a Kapi’s, a local pub for some clam chowder. I had some about 2 weeks ago and was shocked at how good their home made chowder was. It is creamy, thick and has quite abit of clams in it. I arrived here about 7pm to find out they stopped serving at 3pm. Another rut in the road. I had a couple PBR’s that are only 1.50. Kapi’s is only a stone throw from where I live.

Today's title is my attempt to allegorarize with the GLMC An Affair with Water treasure hunt. Maybe I should have stuck with Another Affair complete in Vermont.

Velvety Vermont - Deer Deer Deer - A Frame of Mind

2011-06-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

NOT!! Vermont has always been known for their smooth, sweeping roads. Yesterday I think I found all of the hidden CRAP. While the ride wasn't all bad, it became tiresome. I found at least 5 unpaved roads that forced me to turn the bike around and head back for pavement. You know that road that goes up the mountain, not in terrible shape, but not the greatest and you wonder what it is going to be like coming down the other side. One road lead me to a mud pit, another unpaved looked like they carpet bombed it, holes the size of my bike (yes that is an exaggeration). I found myself not at the top of my game, but not at the bottom either. One road that said "Not for Thru Traffic", which I ignored and was penalized for my ignorance. (i wonder if ignor and ignorance are derivatives of one another) I also found all of the roads that have not recovered from the frost heaves yet. Roads with those cracks in it, wide enough to grab your front tire, acting like you are a slot car racer now, and they all seem to head for the side of the road.

Every time I encounter these end game roads, I mean to take a picture. Today was not different. I get consumed trying to turn a 800# bike (that includes me) around on these narrow things, I forget to take the picture. Same story each time, you need to remember to take a picture.

After getting off one of these hidden gems, I was turning onto another road to find the next water town. The car in front of me pulled over to the side to let me pass. Not sure if it was courtesy or something else. Of course it was a no passing zone, but I still accelerated to get around him, and I have to say reluctantly, I was content to follow for a while. Just as I pass, there it was a, FREAKIN DEER darting across the street. Brakes, squeeze, squeeze, squ, squ, slight nose dive, more brakes. My speed wasn't so fast to cause the ABS to become part of the show, but fast enough to require more than normal braking. I have seen those yellow diamond warning signs, which work on me like those deer whistles are suppose to work on the deer. This was my first close encounter since Montana. This too works for slowing the pace for a while.

While my heart rate initially went up, it soon returned back to normal. I keep remembering that I have become one of those other people that you read/hear about and not convinced that lighting strikes only once. It remained as a constant thought for the next 5 or so minutes, but then there was the next POS road to ride.

After hitting Saxtons River (which had the sign to the post office covered up by a tree), it was a pleasure to hit one of those velvet roads, I91 to get to my next stop, Lake Pleasure. For some reason that name sounds like a place for a horror movie.

While the day was a good day for capturing water, historic places and BBQ and uneventful from a disaster standpoint, it is my frame of mind I am writing about. As riders we all have those days and yesterday was mine.

Gulping Gallons in New York

2011-06-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Gulping Gallons NY Style is done. Either I really missed planned this trip time wise or we are just getting good at doing this stuff. We were actually in by 6:30pm each day and on the first day we arrived at 4:30pm. The new FJR handled flawlessly, but that was expected. We captured 64 locations out of the planned 67. Four locations were there, but did not have a sign on the building to take a picture of; 1 location that was not planned, but we just happen to ride thru. We traveled 1284 miles and according to the on board computer our average miles per gallon was around 41 mpg. That’s with limited inter-states as well. I think out of the 1300 miles, maybe 250 miles were interstate (mainly the MA pike to get out of MA), the rest two lanes highways and a lot of county and country roads. I did notice on this trip, every time we came across one of those deer signs next 5 miles, I pulled back on throttle. I even thought about how I would take evasive action if one of those critters just happened to pop out of the tall grass / grain lines we found ourselves in. We also picked up 2 BBQ places for the Smoke Chasing 2011 tour and 2 National Historic Landmarks in Auburn, NY.

Day 1 consisted mainly of getting out of MA, via the Mass Pike. Our first stop was Stuyvesant Falls, NY and we made our way up to Queensbury, just out side the Adirondack Park

Stuyvesant Falls

This building just grabbed my eye. Art Deco I believe, in Albany

One of many Post Offices we grabbed. This one is Round Lake, NY

Is it Live or Memorex

Grabbed a bite to eat here and snagged a NY BBQ Joint

Neat Ice Cream tin Signs

Hmmm

Erie Canal Lock

Almost done for the day. One more NY BBQ place.

Last pic of the day

Day 2 began as a drizzly day and we headed to Lake Luzerne. Our first road went straight up a mountainside on a nice twisty road, with quite a few switchbacks. Unfortunately the rain kept the speeds down, but this trip, like our others are not about how fast we can cover the route. Next stop was in the tourist trap of Lake George. LG appears to be a lot like all mountain resort / lakeside towns. Lots of neon, motel signs and other similar sites. All of this seemed on the old side from the 50’s versus new and fresh. Not run down, just that old time comfortable times that I remember as a kid. Schroon Lake was probably the first Adirondack town, with Lake Placid at the top as we headed west and south. It was right around here the skies decided to go from sprizting rain to rain, we toned down our speeds, but not our spirits. Our day ended in Lyons Falls, NY at The Edge motel. MeAsWe guessed that their name was because they were on the edge of town. I asked, it was because they were on the edge of the Adirondack’s.

Alot of the day looked like this.

I find beauty in this photos. Lake George

Not too far from where this begins.

To see this up and personal cost about 14.00 Lake Placid Ski Jumps built for the 1980Olympics.

Lake Placid Middle/High School. During the 1980 Olympics the school was issued a liquor license. It is the only school in the country to have this distinction.

Lake Placid Olympic Building. Lake Placid hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympics

It wasn't until we left the Adirondacks that I finally found the sign I had been looking for

MeAsWe guiding me in for a landing

Day 3 had us heading out on crisp clear morning at 7am heading for Lake Ontario towns and the Finger Lake region. We rode out to the Fingers Lakes last year and I found the roads to be quite straight and boring. This year it was not boring at all. I wouldn’t say they were twisty like the Adirondacks, but more sweeping and rolling hills. We pulled into the Herkimer around 5pm. We rode past the Budget Inn and we both said hmmmm maybe not. We tried the Herkimer Motel, but they wanted a 139 and only had suites available. A call to the Knights Inn in Little Falls found us a more reasonable rate and only 8 miles away. Actually the KI turned out pretty good, since they had a restaurant and bar on site.

I know what I said up there, but his was first thing in the morning so straight not too bad until you get into the swing of things.

A really neat Peace Mural in Watertown NY. The sky kind of makes me think of the 60's

Henderson Harbor, NY. This is the smallest Post Office I have seen and I have seen quite a few.

Into the Finger Lakes region we found this sculpture

I have ate hear once before and had a good meal, so we stopped for lunch. Connie's Diner in Waterloo, NY. Don't forget to stop at the Women's Rights Historical Park right up the street.

In Auburn, NY we stopped at Harriet Tubman's church. Harriet was a major player in the Underground Railroad. This is a National Historic Landmark

In slightly better condition, another Landmark, William Seward House. William was the Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

I thought this was going to be one really big Neon, but as we got closer it looks as if it was de-neonized. Downtown Auburn, NY

MeAsWe realized that the Knights Inn we were staying at had Little Falls right on their sign, so she went up and got the flag and camera.

Day 4 was the short day. Only a couple of sites to pick up and then 85 miles of Mass Pike to get home. We started out later than the other days, since we should be home easily before 5pm. Coming out of Fly Creek, NY; we passed thru Cooperstown, NY. Of course we had to grab a picture of the Hall of Fame. A lot of today’s ride would be on US 20 as we dart off to towns in ear shot of the route. We passed the Duanesburg Diner, a place we stopped at last year. Arriving in the Albany area, I saw we had routed ourselves right thru the heart of the city. While most times I don’t mind the stop and go. I enjoy seeing the downtown sites and architecture, but ya gotta look up so see the neat stuff. Today I decided we should by pass the city and took the interstate around Albany for our last few stops. As we hung a right on NY 22 I knew we were riding right along the border of MA. Our last official stop was Lebanon Springs Jr Sr High School. No sign on the building so we opted for the Episcopal Church, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Passed thru Pittsfield, Lenox and Lee onto the MA pike, home just around 4pm.

Our stop in Cooperstown

Our last stop Lebanon Springs was a bust, no sign on the school. We picked this up instead as a National Register of Historic Places instead.

On the road back home. Thanks for coming along

First Long Trip of the Season - The Plan

2011-06-09T03:46:00.000-07:00

Our first long trip of the season will be into the Adirondacks, Lake Erie and touching on the Finger Lakes in New York. The New England Riders are having their first outting at Acadia National Park, however these seem to be always held the first or second weekend of the month and I can not commit to go due to my work schedule. Those are the busiest times for me at work. I hope they all enjoy the weekend in such a grand and beautiful place.

This trip will be just around 1,225 miles in 4 days. No biggie in miles but we have around 67 stops for the GLMC Affair with Water tour and 1 to 3 BBQ places for the Smoke Chasing 2001 tour.

Our initial plan was to leave Friday 6/10. First chink in the armor with our first night stop in Lake George, Americade is also happpening too. I have a relative in Queensbury so that solved this first problem. Looking at the weather for the weekend, that is a problem we can not solve, so it looks like we shall put this off until Thursday, June 16th.

This is going to be the first big test for our new Nuvi 855. This past weekend it seemed to get real skittish, almost as if it got over loaded with new Waypoints. The unit was having a hard time taking in new inputs and rerouting. It was just slow, but a stop at Wendy's for a small chili and being shut off for about 20 minutes seem to cure its blues and it worked flawlessly for the rest of the trip. With the Nuvi's so plentiful and relatively inexpensive, this could finally end my search for another 2720 as a backup.

I wish I had one of those cameras that included the Long/Lat in the data for each photo was taken. Every time we stop and take a picture, I mark the spot in the GPS and cross ref the spot to the photo number. When we download the photo to the computer in update I update the attributes with the Long/Lat. I also create a MapSource file by year to where we have been. Why, I just don't know but I have been doing this since 2006. Just one of those things that completes our journeys.

It has taken awhile to knock out a firm plan, going thru 2 or 3 revisions, but ya gotta put a stake in the ground sometime and just do it. I just know we missed a town or two here and there. Heres the plan.

Go West Old Man/Young Lady - Encore

2011-06-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Today I booked our flights back to Salt Lake City. A couple of weeks ago I contracted Federal on reserving a spot for the FJR to be shipped to Salt Lake City.

We WILL make it all the way round this time. We WILL NOT ride after sundown. We may SKIP Colorado this time, and make it to Mt Ranier. We WILL NOT leave another FJR in the West.

The states will definetly hit are; Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. If we have enough time we will make a run to Colorado and back.

One Week

2011-06-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

the movie. This is about a guy that is diagnosed with cancer which must be treated immediately. One his way home from the Docs, he meets up with a guy that has a Norton Commando for sale, Ben (the guy) tests rides it against his wishes and ends up buying the Norton.

From here Ben starts out on a trip across Canada to figure out his life, his impending wedding day and things in general for 2 days. Well 2 days turns into more than 2 days.

MeAsWe watched this movie the other night and I completely enjoyed the travels. I was more into him stopping for pictures of ginormous paper clips and other odd objects than wondering if he was going to find the answers he was seeking.

When we are chasing stuff, whether it be a post office in western PA, a national historic place, BBQ restaurant or what ever the next little destination is, it is not really about that particular destination, it represents a stopping point to think about what we have just seen, experienced, people to talk to, people to watch and to forget about day to day life and just enjoy the moment.

Each time Ben came thru a tunnel, saw the glaciers at Banff National Park, talked with a person, I reflected back on our moments and made parallel to his moments with ours. Each one makes me smile.

At each of his stops, he takes a picture of either himself, or the place with his bike in it. Each picture became a lifetime for Ben. We have lived 10,000 lives, all of them memorable and plan on another 10,000 lives.

KC Rib Shack Bar-B-Cue Manchester NH

2011-05-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

We ran NH for water towns and barbecue places today. To offset our absolutely awful experience in New York, we stopped at KC Rib Shack and Bar-B-Cue for lunch in Manchester NH. What a great experience !!

Now I do not profess to be a BBQ expert by any means, but I do know when something tastes good. I had their Cubano Sandwich, which is smoked ham, roast pork with pickles and mustard, hot pressed panini type bread. MeAsWe had their Pulled Pork Sammie and put some great apple bbq sauce. Both sandwiches were outstanding.

But food is only part of the dining experience. Our waitress, Courtney was great, as well. She is originally from Canada, moved to Ohio, and then ended up here. I asked if she missed Ohio and surprisingly the answer was yes. I lived in Ohio for about 10 years and I never missed leaving the state. Hot, humid and no air in the summer, cold, frigid and windy in the winter.

So we have good food, great waitress. Atmosphere is next and KC has atmosphere. The joint is decorated with license plates from all over the place. These we vanity type plates where the previous owners had something special placed on the plates. Other decorations were the signed guitars and music paraphernalia. I asked Courtney if the owner was a picker and he is. The place at one time had live music, but it attracted a particular type of biker, which became to much of a problem so the owner cut out the music.

One of my favorites was the WEDEAD plate.

After we finished our meal, Courtney showed us upstairs where they are expanding the restaurant. This will probably double the amount of seating.

All in all our experience was simply perfect. Hopefully we will make it back one day. KC's more than made up for the lousy BBQ joint we visited in New York.

They are located at N42 58.192 W71 28.779 or 837 Second Street, Manchester, NH. They are set off the street but their sign is right on the main drag. Look em up HERE

Sippin Water in Western CT and NY

2011-05-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

30% chance of rain today, 60% chance tomorrow, better head out today. First option was a trip to the Winnipesaukee Lake area, however we were just in NH last week. Need to grab some water for GLMC and maybe some BBQ places for Smoke Chasing 2011. MeAsWe is still sleeping so I bring up MapSource and begin plotting a course out thru western Connecticut. Get out as far as Falls Village and I see Millbrook NY is not that much further. There is 2 BBQ places we can pick up. THATS THE PLAN.

First stops were in Brooklyn CT. For Brooklyn we stopped at the Farm and Pet store. At this place they advertise having healthy foods for your pet and poison for those unwanted rodents and other animal pests. Guess it would be easy to mess things up back home.

Grabbed this over sized Swan for a potential tag in the future

Broad Brook Post Office was on the agenda next

While none of this seems exciting, it is an ends to a mean and the roads to get to these places would not be traveled if not for these places

Stopped in Windsor CT for Nat's place. Was too early to eat thou.

Hit Riverton CT. This is a really picturesque place and is part on New Marlborough CT. I believe this is a National Historic District on the register. I will have to check that out.

Went right past Lime Rock Park. Lime Rock is natural terrain race track owned by Skip Barber. I have been here before, so we did go in.

Cozy Corner Lunch has seen better days

Grabbed the Millbrook NY Post Office for the Water Affair and was heading out of town and just had to stop for a picture of the Millbrook Diner to add to my collection

Next stop was the Fireside BBQ and Grill and I wish we just did a photo and scooted off. In keeping with the Smoke Chasing 2001 treasure hunt, we should eat at some of these BBQ places. This one I can say just keep going. I ordered some kind of sandwich with cheese and mac. Supposedly the meat has been cooking since last night, maybe they forgot to turn the oven on. The chef should check out Kraft's Cheese and Mac for lessons, because theirs was garbage and cold to boot. The only outstanding thing about this place was the price of this crap. Oh that's outrageous, not outstanding. I did take pictures of the food, but I am not going to post them, cause looks can be deceiving.

All day we have been skirting the rain. We arrive someplace and there are puddles around and the road is wet, but no rain on us, but skies were cloudy all day. This is just outside Copake NY and we are heading east for home.

At around 7pm we roll into Mill River, MA. This was a chancy spot to stop at for the Affair with Water treasure hunt. The name of the conforming town must appear on the building and there was suppose to be a general store and a post office someplace. Low and behold they were in the same location. The woman who was working this evening has worked here for 17 years. On the porch there were chairs, with ash trays, so you just knew people would come down here for coffee, read the paper and just spend a time catching up with neighbors. The women said she was anxious to close, since she had already been here 13 hours today. Just around 5 minutes to 7, the cars came pouring in to get something at the last moment. She would stand outside yelling at the customers by name to get their ass in gear and get what they wanted, she wanted to go home, all in a very friendly manner.

MeAsWe asked me how far to get home. I said I would check the GPS. Getting late and most of these back country roads we had been riding thru was prime deer county. Not wanting to ride these roads in the dark, I decided to skip Bash Bish Falls State Park and head for Three Rivers, MA. 71 miles to Three Rivers and not sure how far home. My guess it was 50 miles, but did not want upset MeAsWe.

We passed thru Lee, MA and hit the Pike and headed east. Somewhere along here we ran into this guy who ran out of gas. When I first pulled up I thought I just ran into a classic Honda 750 four, what is considered the first super bike by some. What I first saw was those distinctive stacked tail pipes. Poor guy had run out of gas and was pushing the bike along the break down lane. I lent him my phone to make some calls and we were on our way. He had made contact with his father, but it was going to be a while. I suggested he call the state police, but he said he had registration problems with the bike. I looked over and he had a 2010 stick on it. As we left, the guy started pushing the bike again. Glad he was young.

The last stop was Three Rivers, MA. As I pressed the button on the camera, I got Full Memory Card warning. Good thing.

Pulled in to home right around 9:45PM, some 375 miles for the day. Good training for the up and coming trip to NY for the gallons and gallons of water.

Drinking the Water in Upper New York

2011-05-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I got the itch for a long run and the best way for me to accomplish this is planning An Affair with Water Grand Tour Trip. Last year we never made it to the north part of New York thru the Adirondacks and looking at the overall places we could go, this seemed like the perfect place to head. Ya gotta go somewhere.

Day 1 will be right around 420 miles with the first 140 or so simply getting to the treasures. We should capture around 23 water towns and at least 3 BBQ’s places for Smoke Chasin 2011 Grand Tour. The stop point is Lake Placid.

Day 2 we depart from Lake Placid heading south thru the Adirondacks and then west to end up the night in Watertown NY. An easy 223 miles for the day with the grabbing of 17 water towns.

Day 3 is the turning around point and head for Syracuse NY area and zip zag taggin I-90 but never get on it for the most part. This is the longest in miles, 450, but the least amount of towns at 17. I have us landing home around 10PM on Sunday.

This is the preliminary plan and some adjustment may come with riding longer on Day 2 to shorten up Day 3, but the overall scheme is in place. I do not expect to hit any interstates during this 1100 mile trip, but flexibility is the key. All total we should come home with 55 photo ops to add to our collection. Last year we put in 263 towns, of which 261 qualified and we started a month later in the year. This should be a good run. It will be a good test of the knees and legs for the both of us.

Width of a Spreadsheet

2011-04-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

I was doing some financial planning the other day which involved projecting some expenses out 12 years or so, in order to make a cross road decision. While I ended creating a very nice model, which answered my question, I then realized my mortality is the width of a spreadsheet on a monitor. This was one of the first time I had a concrete experience that I have gotten old. Glad I don't feel it.

Smokin

2011-04-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

On Friday of last week it was Christmas in April. I received 2 items in the mail that I had been anxiously waiting for. One was the Nuvi 855 from Woot.com and the other was my Passport Book and T-Shirt for Smoke Chasing 2011.

Smoke Chasing is first and foremost a way to raise money for Eddie's Road. At their site they describe their mission as

Eddie's Road directly funds and supports a variety of quality public and private programs dedicated to assist abused children and young adults. The majority of our funds are raised by participating in motorcycle rallies and events that were the passion of Eddie James, the man our foundation was built to honor.

Smoke Chasing 2011 is a barbecue treasure hunt. To become a Griller one has to visit 5 BBQ restaurants in 3 states. The next level is Smoker, which is 5 states and 3 BBQ joints. The BBQ Pit Master is visiting 1 joint in 15 states. These visits must be completed and your documentation submitted by Oct 15th. More details for those that are interested can be found at this LINKY.

The Passport Book

The Awesome T Shirt

My first destination will no doubt be this place.