A Trip in Review

I knew the trip would not be easy, but a few times I feel I really went out of my way to make it harder on myself. Seeing the country via motorbike really is incredible. You get to feel the changes in temp as you climb, the wind and you cant easily put on some tunes to drown out the boredom of the slab.

Having a GPS was a Godsend, and even with that I felt like a LOT of every day was spent hoping the gas station really existed, and that it had not closer for the night. I really am now clear how people would have done this in “olden times”.

I did have some challenges with the machine, but all in all it ran like a top. the Google Map estimate puts me at 7,000 and change but with sidetrips, stopping for fuel as well as items that I had to omit to fit it all on a single map, I think it was more like 8,000 and change. From the high temps in Death valley up though the cold mountains she just purred.
Unlike Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I didn’t have to adjust tappets or anything like that, she just kept going. Thow in gallons of fuel several times a day, and a quart of oil from time to time and give the wrist a crack and she responded.

I shoud have slept more / better, and started my days earlier. Too much of the trip was spent whizzing through beautiful county at night at or above highway speed, I missed so much with those travel habits, but I found riding with trucks to be a lot more predictable than riding with cars. You can tell when a truck is going to change lane, but too many car drivers are just wildcards.

People in general however were great, there is something about being on your own on a long trip that has people open up to you and tell you their stories. You are doing somethign they wished they had done, had planned to do and they share their intimate stories. I was going to do ‘x’ but I got my girlfriend pregnant, and then I got a job as ‘y’ but I always wanted to do a trip and this is why I would have gone there.

Day 21 (and change) - Minisotta to Home

Anyone who knows anything about motorbike trips writes that the first rule is if you can do 500 miles per day at the start of a trip, the road takes it toll and you can do half that on the last day of a trip.

Not one to stand for conventional wisdom, I set out to prove them correct, by doing my longest riding day as the final day of my trip.

From the time I waved goodbye to my friends at the truck stop in MN until i got home was something like 25 or 26 hour, so if those last couple of hours don’t count as a single day of riding, maybe I did do a short ride.

The rain hammered down for most of my ride to Chicago, and two interactions I had in that town did an incredible job of raising my spirits.

The first was a tollbooth, there was a massive line, so I got to the front, took off my gloves and lobster covers paid and was rushing to get out of the way of the next car. The operator took me under her arm, said she would not raise the gate until I had everything zipped up and buttoned down and was ready. If people behind had a problem, they could take it up with her, as I would not be able to leave until she opened the gate.

The next was a gas station, my waterproofs etc were soaked through at this point, and an older African American gentleman rolled up in a some ancient land yacht. Got out of the car, looked at my slammed his leg laughing “MAN YOU TOOK THE WRONG CAR TODAY”. He then proceeded into the station continuing to laugh heartily.

As I shivered intermittently for the next 12 hours of riding, I would remember both of those interactions and either feel happy, or laugh myself. It got me through.

If I am going to be kind to myself I would say I made a few “tactical blunders” on this final day, one was being pig headed and deciding to double my miles on the last day. The next was not allowing for it being Memorial Weekend, so Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania had troopers out in force looking for speeders. In Western states with speed limits of 80MPH or more I was able to go with the “flow of traffic” and really chew up some asphalt.

When planning for this last day I didn’t factor in the lower speed limits, and that we would all be obeying them.

By the time I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I had plenty of red-bulls in me, but as it got into the overnight hours and the fog/mist descended my judgement again made some bad choices, At each rest area / gas station, I would honk down two of the big redbulls and get to moving.

In the fog I realized that while I could not see the road, that meant that speed radar could also not see me, and even when I could not see the lane markers due to fog, if I rode over the cats eyes I could sort of tell by braille if I was on the correct part of the road.

I woke up a few more times, but the worse was when I woke up overtaking a semi in a corner. That put some fear into me, but again I was crashing out not too long afterwards.

As the sun came up it was easier to stay awake and by the time I crossed into Maryland I could smell home. I caught myself a couple of times blowing past all regular traffic realzing I had not dialed it down from Western highway speed, but got home safe and sound to me bed.

Day 20 - South Dakota into Minisotta

The wind tearing across the plains rally gets tiring, it was bad a couple of days ago, but today it is taking most of my strength to keep in my lane. It is wild when you pass on the leeward side of a semi you immediatly start to launch towards the trailer becaue of how hard you are pressing to stay straight.

I was about as exhausted as I have ever been when I was looking for a room south in Minneapolis. The hotels I tried were full, but one of the clerks hipped me to a gas station / truck stop with rooms.

The idea of unpacking the machine to pull stuff up the stairs to my room seemed exhausting, and the owner clearly saw this. He took me to his workshop where he repairs trucks, explained he was the only person with a key and I could leave my machine in there fully packed.

He then outdid himself by hooking me up with the executive suite, which was $5 more than normal rooms, but had its own shower so I didn’t have to take a ticket and wait, and it also had a card table so I could play poker all night.

I truly wish I paid more attention to where this place was so I could send a thank you letter.

I did lots of little side-trips that I didn’t take snaps from, but tomorrow is just going to be grind to get the riding done.

Day 19 - Little Big Horn and the Black Hills

Starting off in the town of GarryOwen, which I assume is named for the entire village kicking a ball in the air and running after it. The countryside continued to be epic.

After being blown-away non stop by all I have seen on this trip, Deadwood / Black hills was my first real disappointment. I don’t know if that is the ara itself or if the road is taking its toll on me. Riding into the Black Hills you are welcome by gross looking flashing signs for hotels bragging about tubs or Cable TV.

The town of Deadwood itself I expected more from, it felt like a few places all claiming to be the location of the same handfull of attractions, and it felt like many were just fronts for slot machines / gambling parlors.

I am of course a hypocrit, as if the tourist swag included a shirt of Mr. Wu calling Al Swearengen a cocksucker I think it might have gotten back into my good graces.

The next stop was Mount Rushmore which again didn’t lift my spirits, Superman clearly lied to me about the scale of things and stupid as it is, I was a bit huffy that despite my national park pass they wanted me to pay for parking and then walk along a collection of tatty flags for a view not wholly superior to what I could see from the road.

But things really turned around when after following my GPS longer down a logging road than made any sense I saw some wild turkeys in the “wild” and then got to Crazy Horse. The whole story of the Crazy Horse site delighted me. If people who never lived in this area can be carved into our mountains, we will do a bigger version for one of our heros. They hired a Polish-American guy with no expereinnce of making something on this scale, and 60 years later progress is slow.

There was a great cultural center, and you could see some of the works of the people native to the area, which was all a delight.

I didn’t realize how early Wall Drug closes so I got there too late to experience it, but I did get a beer across the street. The proprietor apologized that due to economic conditions the price of beer had gone up. I think it was from $2.25 to $2.50.

Day 17 & 18 - Seattle, Idaho and Wyoming

Time to get the hammer down. The ride across Washington, a sliver of Idaho and half of Wyoming was also beautiful.

Temperature and weather-wise i am paying the toll now for doing this in May. I wanted to go early so that Death Valley was manageable on an ail cooled bike, I don’t think I got above 5,000 feet, but there is lots of snow and ice around some parts, and when the wind and the rain hit, they hit hard.

The countryside truly is incredible, but I am fighting the twin urges to explore and to get home. To see friends and family, and of course to keep my job :)

Day 15 & 16 - Seattle Washington

Got to hang out with the Wonderful Sanfords, sample their keg, shop for a utilikilt, see a Burgermaster.

They live in Freemont which is a cool neighborhood, I met the Freemont Troll, see the statue of Lenin and maybe had a beverage or two in the local watering holes. Even did a walking tough of old Seattle to see the lower buildings and saw some fish being thrown around Pike Street Market.

I took my time away from the machine to drop it off and get an oil change done, and oil change is a pretty simple thing to do, but it felt good for us to spend some time apart.

Was great seeing the Sanfords and I basically took a break from riding and taking images so not much to show, but good times with friends and a proper night or sleep will help me gird my loins for the next six days of hard riding. I am 2/3rds of the way through my trip and assuming zero side trips I am looking down the barrel of 2700+ Miles. And I-90 has some classic side-trips so this is not going to tickle.

Day 14 - Portland and Washington State

I have been waking up on the bike a good bit again, somewhere in Oregon after really hammering the bike through the PCH I was woken by a police siren.

The police officer was really cool about the fact that I was majorly speeding while asleep on the machine and gave me suggestions on a place to take a nap.

I messed up his directions and went to the one place he told me not to go, which was a rest stop that they had been called to a couple of times that day for homeless people fighting.

While rolling in for my nap I offered to change the tire for a lady who was struggling with a flat, she work me from my slumber after AAA quoted her an outragous price and I could not have been happier to change it for her.

A cop had just saved my life AND not given me a ticket, seemed like a good deal to change it.

Rolling into Portland I had a bit of a look around, and caught up for a little bit with Ryan was out for a conference.

Day 13 - Redwoods, ocean on the PCH

All the hype about the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) really seemed to be true. The coast was stunning and the size of the redwoods was hard to fathom.

The Shrine Drive-Thru Tree was certainly my first time driving a vehicle through a tree.

Somewhere in this entire process I worked out that the new battery I got was bad, putting it back onto the machine and nursing things was not going well. For some dumb reason I had held onto the old battery, started using that and my problems largely went away.

A lot of this coast looks like “the movies”, five different towns convinced me that “the birds” was shot there and I spent a lot of time getting off the machine just looking at huge trees.

Camping was interesting, the guy in the next tent over was pedaling himself down the PCH and waited a full 3 minutes before starting to feed the racoon that the signs said to not feed.

The next morning I was impressed at just how loud the seals were, they were making quite a fuss. Mile counts as very approximate as I dont remember where I camped. I am pretty sure it was on the coast if that helps :) I followed Chris Brock’s advice and enjoyed a refreshing Lost Coast Great White, It was very crushable and did the job.

Day 12 - Dublin, Sanfrancisco and the PCH

I managed to leave my spare gas can (with gas in it) in the parking lot of the hotel i stayed at, hopefully it was put to good use, and someone didnt call the bomb squad.

Rolling through San Franciso was fun, but after a few days of solitude, I was more excited to get back across the bridge and see the closed Nike site and get onto the PCH.

View on the PCH are exactly as advertised, it is stunning.

Something I ate did not agree with me, so I attempted to do the fastest check-in to a hotel in history, this confused the teller slowing the whole thing down and the outcomes was close to catastrophic.

Day 11 - Death Valley, Manzanar and the Sierra Nevadas

Power problems continue, so when I stop the bike I need to plan to sit around for an hour or two as it trickle charges back to a crank-able level.

I had really been looking forward to experiencing Death Valley, but in the time it takes me to skid to a stop, jump off and take a photo the oil temperature on the bike is getting really, really high. So then i make all haste to try and get the temp down from the critical levels.

I think that led to some questionable choices, I am not sure taking the machine down dirt roads to monolake or Sulfate springs was my best idea. I had plenty of water and lots of space gasoline, but dealing with a flat out there, would be a real pain.

On the plus side, it is wide open country so you can really put the welly down, and because not a lot of big things survive here you dont have to worry about a Moose stepping into the road.

I did stop at the gas station in Death Valley and got some much needed water and fuel. It is funny how on a bad day someone can really put a smile on your face. A lady was 100% convinced I was Ewan McGregor and would not take my arguments as evidence, she even came back with a minivan full of people to check me out while I waited for my battery to charge up.

A local Law Enforcments officer was nice enough to confirm in the gas station that they do not worry about motorbikes speeding out here, so if I was running hot, just keep the hammer down.

Manzanar is new to me, I clearly need to learn more about Japanese internment camps.

The switch from the toasty temperatures in Death Valley to the chill crossing the Sierras was not something I had not planned for. By the time I got to 5,000 feet temps had cooled off a lot. But the ride up was stunning, listening to the Audiobook of the Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe Aslan was busy creating the world as I climbed and started to see nature again.

Power problems aside the Bapper did some Trojan work today, up in the snow in the mountain passes it got really cold after roasting in the heat and she did great. This really has been the highlight of the trip, Death Valley feels like the Moon and to go from that to the ice and cold in the mountains in the same day is a real brain twister.

Day 9 & 10, Heading West - Meteor Lake, GRand Canyon, Fort Irwin, Edwards AFB and Airplane Graveyard

Blogging has become very spotty. The cycle only holds about 5.5 Gallons of juice and at these fast higway speeds I am eating that fuel up fast.

Battery / Alternator or something is unhappy, I had no cranking power at the Grand Canyon so switched the my original battery that ran flat in Opelika and I was able to at least get the machine to turn over. By the time I had all my stuff packed back onto it the tmep on my air cooled machine was in a bad place, but I could not risk turning it off again.

This has become my new routine, pull into a gas station, pump in a few gallons and then push the machine over so I can plug in the tricke charger to run for long enough to get the machine to crank.

Day 8 - Rosewell and VLA

Rosewell was fantasitc, caught up with Ron in Qlbuquerque and traded the bapper for a cage with AC while he drove us to Socorro NM to see the VLA.

Shortly after we turned off of I-25 we lost Cell signal, and then everything else.

Day 6 & 7, Austin, Alamo, Rudys, Carsbad Caverns

Pulling out of Austin this morning I started to get a chance to roll at Texas speed, highways in Texas have drivers that are much more polite, and also much more liberal speed limits. Time spent on the slab allows you to really eat up the miles.

Went down to visit the Alamo and I have to say it is a lot smaller in person than in the John Wayne movie, I have heard the guys from Cartalk mention that the Alamo used to be outside of town and they dont know when it was moved into the city center. The riverwalk looked great and it would live up to the hype, but parking looked messy and I have miles to consume today so I kept rolling.

Not eating in the riverwalk paid off pretty well as when I stopped at Rudy’s North of town I ended up having some very tasty pork. I have been eating a lot of dry food like cereal bars or eating gas station sandwiches, so this was quite a treat.

Having heard about Mesas before heading out West I didn’t entirely understand what made them cool, I heard they were mountains with the tops knocked off. But they really are cool.

As I get further into the trip I find more and more people introducing themselves to me. I ran into a group of guys heading out to national park and they swore up and down that Big Bend is a place I should see before I die. It is too far away from my planned trip but I will have to go back at some point. Starting to get to really pretty sunsets,

May12th stared in the middle of nowhere but already I saw my first actively working oil well. A quick stop at the Apache trading post had me coming out empty handed, Also seems like a good time to pay more attention to the drivers around me so I don’t get surprised by someone who is impaired.

The scenery continues to change as I climb up towards Carlsbad Caverns.  There is no real point in putting a picture of the caverns here as the photos I took could not do it justice. It is also fun with my national park/monument pass the wonderful treatment I get. I am sure much of it just comes from dealing with nice people, but there is an extra thank you for this card that is not that expensive. I just did the short tour as time is not on my side. I need to work out why I am rushed on this trip, 8000+ miles in 20 days is ambitious, but I could use some more R&R time.

After a natural wonder it was time for super natural, and Rosewell NM. What a cool idea this town is, from what I can tell it would be a blip on a map with no note if not for the alien shenanigans a few years ago. As I got the ‘museum’ not too long before closing I got a discounted entrance rate. I can not imagine what a person would do if they had more time, as I think I hit everything the museum has to offer.

As I went north i stared running into some of the biggest bugs I have ever seen. My helmet was getting pinged by very large, fairly glow in the dark bugs. I guess they count as UFOs but it is not the type I expected. For a good bit of the ride my visor had a nice phosphorous glow.

Day 5, Austin TX via Cotton Gin

Since I didn’t have a huge amount of miles to eat today, it was more about touring, seeing things I had not seen before and then getting to Austin around the time the ladies were getting home.

I stopped in to see the Burton Cotton Gin, this bad-boy has been around for a long time, has a huge amount of contraptions and I was shocked when the lady said it had the modern equivalent of maybe 125 BHP. So right now I am laying down into my back tire enough power to run this whole Gin. Bonkers.

Good old work-wife Joanne as soon as I got to the house she had a load of Fat Tires waiting for me. We got to go through the crazy flagship wholefoods store, I had never walked in an aisle long beer cooler before. We also of course checked out the bats of Austin that were in fine form. Joanne and Darlene also have a really cool way of doing business. As they live far enough out of town that you need to drive, the partner that does not know the guest gets to get hammered and your representative is the DD. What better way to get to know people than laughing at the DD.

I could see living in Austin, obviously I didn’t spend very long there, and after a few days on the cycle this was my longest break, I arrived there before sunset and left the next day but there was a cool vibe. And of course the house they had was insane.

Some more heavy miles starting tomorrow so I will enjoy a nice comfortable bed tonight.

Day 4 – New Orleans, BattleShip Texas, Houston

Things went later than I wanted last night, as I didn’t want to park the Bapper in New Orleans, but when I was rolling out of the city there was nothing available for a good while  I wanted to find a place that was good to leave the machine.  So I woke up this morning with cows outside my window.

A quick ferry ride and I was able to see the Battleship Texas, but much more importantly once I got to Houston I did a drive-by on the Johnson Space Center. It was weird with all the super-suburban tree lined drives, not sure what I expected but I am sure it was lovely.

Nothing much to report tomorrow will be fun as I will get to see Joanne and Darlene.

Day 3 – Opelika, AL to New Orleans, LA via Gulfport, MS

Things started off pretty nicely this morning, I had planned to call a cab but the good folks of Opelika finest said to call in as a distressed motorist. When I got to the garage they had a replacement battery ready to go, but since they don’t worked on Beemers they didn’t know how to work on it, so I showed them how to replace the battery.

Last minute I got a hair up my ass to keep the old battery, it had gone flat and had not tested as good on all cells, but I wanted to keep a spare. Again thanks to the good folks of Opelika, town seems to be falling on hard times but anyone I interacted with was cool.

A quick visit to a battleship and then on to Gulfport, it had been two years since Hurricane Katrina but my expectation was that things were still going to be rough. First top in Gulfport was the SS Hurricane Camille, it was pushed ashore.

A quick pop across the road to the West Side Pier, and then I got my toes into the water on the Gulf side. The West Side Pier was really nice with a pretty sunset. The ride into Gulfport was pretty depressed. A lot of really torn up looking and abandoned buildings that showed no plans to repair. New Orleans got a lot of coverage for its destruction and what I saw a couple of hours later was undoubtedly in bad shape, but parts of the city were coming back. Gulfport looked like no-one was ever going to try and fix.

One onto New Orleans proper, being my first time in that town it was a shame that I was not going to be able to properly enjoy the city. So I parked beside a scooter, grabbed a po-boy and a quick beer. A little walk around the French Quarter and I was ready to hit the road. I need to come back to this city again and do it right.

The ride into New Orleans had some really long causeways that made me question the logic of having the town there when it needs to much faffing around to just make a road work.

Day 2 – Myrtle SC to Opelika, AL

Hung out in the morning with Brew-daug and got to check out some of what Myrtle had to offer, Also took advantage of the beach to dip my toes in the Atlantic.
 
Mr Brew was then good enough to escort me back to the main road, and it was clear that he would have been good to come a thousand or two miles further.

Getting into the miles now, stopped off to check out the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem Georga, but sadly when I got there it was closed. Since I am still getting set into the bike I am OK with that, gives me more time to eat up the asphalt.

So you know that gas gauge problem I mentioned, funny story I got some crappy fas and instead of my usual 250 to a tank, I crapped out with something like 130 miles into the tank. Luckily I had a nice deck chair with me, so I set it up down the embankment and called for fuel.
Funny story number 2, between the GPS to report my location and the hazard lights, when the guy showed up with the fuel there was not enough power left in the bapper to turn it over. The towtruck guy as only called out for fuel, so he had not charped up his jump start box. So back down the embankment with the sweet smell of roadkill and I waited for the flatbed.

This is were I got to understand why copes are referred to as the … finest. I got to meet Opelika’s finest, from the office who picked me up and made sure I got to a good hotel at a good rate. To the cops who ran by the bike dealer the bapper was dropped to for service, through the guy who picked me up the next morning so I could go pickup the bike and get a new battery.

It is still early days on this trip but I am already fascinated by the experience of just meeting people, there is something about being on a bike loaded down like Beverly Hillbillies that makes people open up to you. One of the officers was telling me about the big trip he wanted to take, a bike is just a great way to meet people. Toes are good, other parts are sore a lot more miles to go but another solid performance today with 450.

Day 1 – Arlington to Myrtle Beach

Heading Out

I had put in a couple of good practice long days on the bike, while prepping for the long days I found the range of the bike to be a bit of a challenge. Once I got to about 200-250 miles I would end up looking for fuel. On the big trip the 250 miles range is probably not going to be too much of a challenge.

In an unfortunate development just a couple of days prior to the roadtrip my tank gauge dropped to zero available and didnt come back. So I am starting my first really major roadtrip without a working gas gauge. Ripping the bike apart to get to the tank just before going out was asking for trouble.

Day 1 on the trip, pulled out with a very overloaded cycle and was off to Myrtle, I really did a poor job on the load-out. I was packed in super-tight so ended up a bit bloodied but so be it.

Things started getting a bit uncomfortable on the ride, and as I was becoming acclimatized to the ongoing nags of being packed in tight I came up with a great idea, if I just put my boots on the black-top I could keep my legs stretched out. This worked pretty well until North Carolina as the reduced road maintenance caused my boot to snag on the black-top and rocked up under one of my paniers. I was pretty sure I had fractured a toe based on how sore it was. Of course that was not a challenge until I had to get off the machine so I voted to keep rolling.

I got to stop for the first time at South of the Border, Pedro is a handsome chap, a lot of it was closed when I got there but since it was a bit of a tourist trap (should I have said spoiler alert) that was probably not for the worst.
Rolled down to Myrtle and spent the night with Brew-Daug and the family, was great catching up with them, just wish I had longer to hang out.

2007 Roadtrip – Retrospective and Eanes Service

Prepping for my first big roadtrip

I didn’t Blog this one live, but it is of course just a matter of time before my brain changes all of this it seemed like a good idea to write some of it down. Much of this I wrote in 2007 when it was fresh, but from Day 8 on I am writing this 15 tears later. So dailing distances and general memories are very much best guesses based on what photos appear in date.

Before the 2007 road-trip  I really had no idea what I was doing, both in terms of working on the bapper and in terms of loading it up for a decent length run.

 I popped out to the compound and Eanes was able to work out the service. Despite my having picked up the service manual I was baffled by the valve adjustment.  

Not a problem, good old Eanes got me squared away, also learned the advantage of having a center stand, as we ended up balancing the cycle on some 2x4s on milk crates.

 Not to worry, all set, ready for the road.

Flickr Images from the trip can be found here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/thekidfromcrumlin/albums/72157600209576480

Whats in a name

As I recall I first heard of the term bapper to refer to a motorcycle from the Van Dyke Road , Feather Bed lane area of N.J. The Term bapper was then used to refer to dirt bikes, as when you wind them up they go BaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA, BBaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA BAAAAAAAAAAAAA BAAAAAAAAAAA etc.

I had gotten into the habit of calling bikes bappers and when I picked up the ST it seemed the only sensible moniker.
Of course bapper is any bike “The Bapper” is one in particular.