1500 Miles for BBQ you say

So I am sitting at the computer Sunday morning. MeAsWe has just gotten up and having her first cup of coffee. I surf my way to the Smoke Chasing 2012 site to print the rules out for MeAsWe. She is a great navigator for the Grand Tours we do, especially picking out something that is not right. Well she is reading the rules for the 15/15/15. I have planned our trip to Florida to finish up our National Park Tour with the 15/15/15 in mind. Do you know once you cross the border into West Virginia, BBQ places seem to cease to exist.

Here's the Side dish for the 15/15/15:

David Morrow's 15/15/15 Iron Gut Challenge

Riders must visit 15 BBQ joints, in 15 different states or provinces, in 15 days or less with Kansas as a mandatory state.
All riders who complete this challenge will receive a limited edition jacket pin designed by David Morrow and 25 bonus points.
Submission must be made in accordance with sections 2,3 & 4 of the rules. This includes the bike/sign/passport photo and the name and address of the BBQ joint visited in each state. Riders MUST also produce a receipt from the BBQ joints visited or a nearby gas station if the BBQ joint is closed. This will validate that the ride was completed in 15 days or less.
This challenge is in no way affiliated with the Iron Butt Association or its corresponding rides. We do however encourage our long distance riders, and especially those who complete this challenge to check out the IBA, subscribe to the magazine, and complete an IBA qualifying ride.

So after she gets done reading, MeAsWe said you never mentioned we are going to Kansas. I said we are not. She says well you need it for this one.

Panic, I immediately start thinking my whole route, all 4000+ miles of it are for crap. MeAsWe underlines the word Kansas, just to make sure I understand all of the rule. I throw her a highlighter, this is the salt for the wound.

I jump on MapSource, bring up our 2012 file for the trip and find the most western point of our trip. That is right around Russell Cave in Alabama, which is just south of Chattanooga, TN. From this point I create a route from this area to Fort Scott in Kansas. (it was convenient, since I have the visitor center as a way point). 704 miles one way. Hmmmm, only 704 miles times 2 is 1408 miles. Then a big grin and maybe even a little bit evil of a grin. If I route myself thru some National Parks in Arkansas and we head due east on the way back to Chattanooga and then head south I probably could squeeze another 100 miles to bring the total over 1500 miles.



A Bun Burner 1500 is born.

2012 Calendar

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

Lake George on my Mind - Day One

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.

Brick by Brick - The Roads to be Traveled

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

Go West Old Man - Another Prep Stage

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

Go West Part Deux - Planning Stage

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.

Escape from Livingston, MT

We spent four days cooped up in the Best Western in Livingston MT. MeAsWe needed at least 72 hours with her leg pointed to the sky and I spent a fair amount of time on the phone on insurance issues and figuring out what we were gonna do. On Monday, I rented a car and went to Clyde Park to see the bike, pics posted in the last post. We decided to continue our journey, at least partially, so we rented a car for a week, pointed the car toward the west and headed to Spokane to visit some relatives of MeAsWe. After that we are going to Glacier (the major reason for the trip), closing this portion with a ride down US 89 back to Bozeman. From there we will take a bus to SLC and fly home. Not the way it was planned in MapSource but it is something. The cost to change our travel plans, was greater than the cost of the 2 way tickets out here.

Enterprise picked us up precisely at 10 am and we headed for Bozeman. The kid that picked us up. left Texas and moved to Montana to ski. First question I asked was how does someone from Texas get involved with skiing. I forgot the answer, but I thought it was kewl the kid was doing what he wanted. So many of us, me included, did what was expected of us. If I only thought to buy a bike back then, hmmm the possiblies. We were out of the Enterprise office and on the road heading west around 11:30. MeAsWe in her new pillion seat



I thought this was kewl. As we made our way up to Spokane we saw other mountains with letters as well. They must mean something



Since we had the time, I stopped of at a couple places along the way. Stopped here to get a tall shot glass to add to my collection





We stopped at Three River Fork a National Landmark. This is where the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers come together to form the Missouri River.







MeAsWe moved to the back seat. This was more like riding the FJR.



Arriving in Butte, I went looking for Burton Wheeler House, another National Landmark. Pulled into this hood and found a person to ask if they knew which house it was, which they didn't. They suggested I try the guy across the street, knocked on his door, he came. I asked if this was the Wheeler House, he said no and slammed the door. Friendly place Butte was. We drove around Butte because the town itself is a National Landmark. Both MeAsWe and I made the observation that the people in this town were some of the hardest looking people we had every seen. Weathered, looking down and out, western tough, disheartened and as declined as Butte looked. At one time Butte boasted the most Ho Houses and Saloons in one location in the US. It looks like they never left. Butte was a turn of the century mineral wonderland, mining gold, silver and the mother lode of copper.







Next stop was Grant- Kohrs Ranch, a National Park commemorating the western cattle industry. All I could think about while I walked around was Hoss, Ben, Little Joe and Adam walking. This ranch at one time reached 10,000,000 acres and had 50,000 head mozin and grazin about. Grabbed INK and got out of town before sundown. Yee Haw







MeAsWe was grumbling from the pain radiating from her leg, but her stomach started to chime in as well. She had never been to Hooters. They had a ton of neon inside so I grabbed some for Waymarking.







I just couldn't resist



This girl, who is the daughter of a police officer in town was one of the best waitresses I have ever had.



Most photographers use their thumb to line up a shot.



We put the pedal to the medal and drove the distance to Spokane. All in all, we had a good day. After dinner the sun dropped quickly and my eyes kept darting back and forth looking for FRs that want revenge for their brother in Clyde Park. You talkin to me?? Ya wanna piece of me. Come on I will F+&K you up real bad. Oh Oh you want to live in peace and harmony. I can live with that.

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