Day Eight

I slept in this morning. I went to see Penn & Teller at the Rio last night and didn't get back to my room until 2:30 East Coast time. I think I finally got out the door and on the road somewhere around 10:00 (7 local time). I headed over to Hoover Dam, and the bridge across the gorge is still under construction. It almost looks to be in the same state of building that it was when Patricia and I went there in November of '05.

As I stopped to take a picture at a scenic turnout on the other side of the Colorado River, there were 3 guys on bikes sitting there taking pics of their own. One of them asked me if I was riding my sewing machine cause that's what it sounded like when I pulled into the lot. I just took my pictures and then asked them where they were riding from and riding to. It seems they just rented these bikes from Vegas yesterday and were on a *gasp* 150 mile ride. I wish I had my camera out when I told them that I had done over 3000 miles in the last week and planned to do at least 500 today alone. I then told them that I'd take my 157 Horse Power "Sewing Machine" and roll on down the road.

It was raining when I got to the Grand Canyon South Rim. I felt like Clark Griswold on the Vacation movie. I stopped, looked at it, and was on the road again in about 45 seconds. You only get wet when you stop!

I reached the 4 corner monument a few hours later riding through rain, sun, heat and cold. I made sure to ride around the monument a couple of times to make sure I actually road the bike in all 4 states. I got a nice lady to take my picture standing in all 4 states at once. I considered getting down and posing something like I saw Natalie do, but I'm too sore!

I'm staying the night in Farmington, New Mexico and I'm watching the news and weather as I type this. I believe that I will have to make some adjustments to my route due to Gustov. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to ride down to the Gulf states. I would have to wait until the storm passes and lose several days...as well as there isn't anywhere for me to stay. All of the people that evacuated went north. I heard on the radio while I was riding that many went as far as Memphis.

I'm thinking I'm going to try to make Wichita tomorrow and then on to the Memphis area Tuesday evening. Hey Rick! Can ya put a brother up for the night if I can't find a motel?????

I don't think I'll get to ride in Louisiana, Florida, or the Carolinas. And Sarah, if that is the case, I'll probably be in your area Thursday evening depending on the weather.

Mileage for the day: 540
Mileage for the trip: 4,113

Day seven

Today was a day of rest. Since I figured that the BMW shop would take at least a full day to do the required maintenance, I booked two nights in Vegas. Turns out that I only needed one. But since I'm here, I might as well enjoy myself! But business before pleasure. I still needed to go and ride in California. So I did.

I took a walk down the strip. Well...not really DOWN the strip. You can almost get from one end of the strip to the other without going outside these days. Connected AIR CONDITIONED walkways connecting casino to monorail to shopping centers. It was nice to be out of the 104 degree heat, but you don't get to see very much.

I did go to M& M world and bought Patricia some chocolates. But like Forrest Gump....I ate some. Well...I ate 'em all! At $11 per pound, those are some expensive M&Ms. I could have gone to the Sam's Club by the BMW shop and got a 5 pound bag for less than that! But I guess it's the "experience" that makes the candy you get at M&M world seem to taste better.

Las Vegas is a people watchers dream. I stopped at the Nevada/California boarder this morning on the way back to Vegas for breakfast. It just seems to me that there are stereotypical "types" of people that frequent the different gambling establishments in Nevada. For example: In Jackpot, there were a bunch of single senior citizens. You know the type...I saw one lady put her leftover eggs from breakfast into a To-Go container, and not 5 minutes later I saw her put a $50 bill into a nickle slot machine.

On the California border, I stopped at McDonalds for a quick cup of coffee and an egg McMuffin. There were several people there in line, most of them gave me the impression that they were "redneck" families with children. Why a Mom, Dad and 4 daughters under the age of 9 were standing in line at McDonnalds at 6 am was a mystery to me. I didn't get the details of the conversation, but I heard a few words and phrases. Things like, "How much did you lose?" and "That money was supposed to be for"......something I didn't hear. This was at 6 am local time.

Here in the casinos on the Strip, there are all kinds. The younger crowd gathers late at night to go to the clubs. They're all dressed to kill. The old folks sit at their favorite slots. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. It's harder to tell since they stopped paying out jackpots in coins. Everything is on printed slips that you take to a cashier now. I saw one gentleman lose $50k playing the $500 slots last night. I wish I had that kind of disposable income.

So tonight, I'm going to see Penn & Teller at the Rio. I got online and bought my ticket. They have a seating chart of the available seats, and I found one seat at Row A seat 1. I don't know if that will be a good thing or not, time will tell. The show starts at 9 Vegas time, which is midnight Michigan time. I'll make sure to let you all know how it was when I update tomorrow night.

Mileage for today: 93
Mileage for trip: 3473

Day six

Day six started at 6:30 am Michigan time...which is 3:30 am West Coast time. I watched The Weather Channel last night and saw that the temp in Vegas was supposed to reach 106 today. Which is why I wanted to leave while it was still dark and cooler.

Cooler is a relative term. It was 47 degrees when I pulled out of the parking lot in Jackpot, NV. I tried the local general stores the night before to see if I could at least get a sweatshirt. No dice. I made it a whole 20 miles with steadily dropping temps before I knew that I was in trouble. Hypothermia can impair your judgment as much as being drunk. I still had enough judgment to realize this. I stopped and checked Zumo and discovered that I was 25 miles from a Truckstop. If anyone would have a jacket, they would.

I first needed to warm up, so I got off and pushed the bike for a bit until I was warm. I didn't want to work up a sweat. If I did that, I'd freeze to death before I made it 2 miles. I repeated this procedure once more as I closed to within 7 miles of the truck stop. The entire time, there was not another vehicle on the road with me.

The truck stop did have a thermal sweat shirt which I gladly paid $19 for. I also got the clerk to give me a couple of heavy duty trash bags to use as wind barriers to help keep the warmth in. It was a good thing I found some warmth because the temp got low enough for the Ice Warning Light to start flashing a few times. 35 degrees.

So less than 4 hours after the sun rises, it's well into the 90's and it's 103 by the time I get to Vegas.

The time I spent alone pushing the bike in the pitch blackness of the desert was actually quite pleasant. It was very relaxing and I've never seen so many stars. The only sound was my foot steps. If I wasn't so cold, it could have actually been relaxing.

On the bright side of the day, the Vegas BMW shop got my bike in and out in just 2 hours for it's 12,000 mile service. I checked into the 4 Star Westin Hotel (which I got on priceline.com for $72 a night). This is the view out of my window. I'm a block off of the strip behind the Flamingo Hotel and across the street from Ballys.

While I was waiting on my bike to be done, I looked around the shop for a liner for my jacket to replace the one I lost. Of course, they didn't sell JUST the liners. I had to special order it and it would be here in a few days. Uhh...I can't wait that long. What's my other option? A new jacket. Perfect. That makes...what? 4 now? Well, if I have to get a whole new jacket, let's make it a good one!
Not bad, eh?

Mileage for the day: 536
Mileage for the trip: 3380

Day Five, pictures

I hope these pictures end up in order. I've been having some problems with that lately. My computer illiteracy showing through I guess.

This is the scenic overlook in Washington where I stopped and enjoyed the solitude and silence.





See that sign waaaayyyy up there? That's the
"Welcome to Oregon" sign!







The next one shows the sign a little closer.

Day Five

No pictures this post. I'm in Jackpot, Nevada. I don't think this hotel has even heard of the Internet, let alone provide high speed service. I'm on my Sprint Mobile Broad Band card, and only have 1 or 2 bars signal.

But that's par for the course for today. Day 5 started out perfect. Just perfect. I got up before sunrise and was on the road just as the sun was starting to peek over the mountains. I crossed the Idaho/Washington border 10 minutes after I left the motel and after about a half hour, I came upon some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever had the privilege of seeing. I have some good video to post later.

I climbed about 5,000 feet before it leveled off, and then I was riding the ridge of a mountain for 30 miles. The sun was just coming up and it was getting light. I stopped at a scenic turnout to take some pictures, and the silence was deafening. There was no traffic, no one around, no wind and no sound. Just perfect.

After I got started again, I saw several Mule Deer, and one crossing the road as I came around a curve. Got that on video! I remember seeing signs warning of open range cattle, but on top of the mountain???? Yep. Big old Brown Cow standing right on the side of the road. From a distance I thought it was a moose. Must have had something to do with the "Moose Crossing" sign that I passed a few miles beforehand. But, alas, no moose. Just a big ole Brown Cow. Hmmm, I think I'll head over to the restaurant and have a nice steak dinner in honor of that cow.

I noticed at a gas stop that I had lost a screw that holds my kickstand foot on. A kickstand foot is just an installed "puck" that increases the surface area of your kickstand so it won't sink into the hot asphalt. I don't have to remember to bring a puck or have to find a pop can to crush with this handy little device. Well, I didn't want to lose (Amy, notice I got it right this time!) it, so I decided to take it off. Damn. It's a STANDARD allen screw, not metric. Everything else on the Bavarian Machine is metric. Oh well.

As luck would have it, I pulled off the highway in Boise to get gas, and right there on the exit ramp I see a BMW motorcycle shop! WOO HOOO. I was able to get a new screw and didn't have to take it off. I also got a couple of BMW Boise T-shirts, one for me and one for Patricia. These, I put in my right saddle bag, which also contained my rain gear, thermal liner, tennis shoes and spare Helen Two Wheels bag.

The contents of the saddle bag are important for the next part of the narrative. Apparently, when I placed the T-shirts into the saddle bag, I failed to close it all the way. As I'm driving down the highway, a trucker shouts out his window to me. Of course, I can't hear anything, but I read his lips. "Hey DUMBASS! Your saddle bag is open!"

Remember the list of contents above? Everything except the Helen Two Wheels bag is gone. I can probably get alone without tennis shoes and just wear my riding boots. The rain gear...no way. With hurricane Gustov headed for the Gulf, I'm sure to run into rain sooner or later. And the liner. I know I'm starting to get into the south west, but altitude makes a huge difference in temperature. I've experienced that these last 5 days. So it looks like I'm going on a little shopping spree tomorrow.

Ok, enough for now. I'll post some pictures and video from today when I'm in Vegas tomorrow. I'll be sure to stay somewhere that has high speed Internet access.

Mileage for the day: 424
Mileage for the trip: 2844

Day Four

This morning I woke up at about 6 am Michigan time (4 am local) and decided to go back to sleep for a little bit. Four hours later, I was on the road. I planned on taking it easy today only going 400 miles. I achieved my goal by riding 398.4 miles.

The first half of the day was uneventful. Long interstate roads across Western Montana. I did battle another strong cross wind necessitating a hard left lean for about 200 miles. That did wonders for my front tire.

As I approached the point I planned to turn off onto US 12, I decided to stop and get fuel, even though I didn’t need it. I learned my lesson on Day 2 not to let the tank get too low. Gas stations were few and far between in South Dakota. I figured that in the Montana/Idaho mountains, the same would be true. (And it was, but because I was prepared, I had no issues!) Anyway, as I’m getting gas in Missoula, MT, I remembered the weather forecast so I checked my Zumo weather. As predicted, it was raining and cool in the Idaho mountains.

Now, I can be wet...or I can be cold. But I hate being cold AND wet at the same time. So I took that opportunity to ad layers for warmth, and put my raingear on. Now mind you, it’s about 68 degrees and partly sunny while I’m doing this. At the pump next to me is a guy on another bike. Now, I don’t know this guy from Adam...but he was the stereotypical RUB (that’s Rich Urban Biker for those of you who didn’t know what I was talking about) on a Harley Ultra Classic. He’s got a long sleeve shirt on, no helmet, and jeans with sneakers. He starts giving me crap about the gear I was wearing and adding to. For the record, I had on my leather gloves, armored riding pants, armored jacket, High Vis Yellow vest, full face helmet, and rain gear. I took it all in stride and told him to have a safe ride.

As I approached the highest point on the pass over the mountains, I stopped to take a picture of the “Welcome to Idaho” sign. It was 46 degrees and raining. I was nice and warm and dry. The RUB rides past me as I start to pull out of the turn-off. He was riding about 35 MPH and I wanted to get by him. I waited for a clear place to pass and went around him. I waved to him as I passed on the left and he responded by FLIPPING ME OFF! I’m still laughing about it!

As I started down the other side of the mountain, the weather got warmer and nicer as the altitude decreased. By the time I got to 1000 feet, it was 75 and sunny. So I stopped at a pull off next to the river and dressed down. As I was getting out of my rain gear, 2 guys on BMW RT’s stopped to do the same. We got to talking and they started out in Stockton, CA and rode up to Vancouver Island and are, “Taking the long way home.” Steve and Bill, if you’re reading this, it was a pleasure to chat with you two and I hope you had a safe ride home. And Steve, it’s a Kontour seat!

I continued on to the Idaho/Washington state border and decided to stop for the night. I gained another hour as I crossed into Pacific time zone, but like I said before, my body is still on Michigan time. It is supposed to be sunny and cool with 20-30 mph winds tomorrow, so I’ll leave whenever I get up and moving. I want to make it to Jackpot, Nevada tomorrow. That will be another fairly easy day at about 450 miles.

Mileage for the day: 398
Mileage for the trip: 2,420

Day Three

This morning, I started out in South Dakota. About an hour out, I ran into a small heard of Antelope. I saw several others during the course of the day as well.

I continued riding into North Dakota and Montana where I fought a 30 mph cross wind for a couple of hundred miles. It got a little easier when I turned off of I-90 onto US 212 and started up Bear Tooth Pass. I got a nice couple to take a picture of me at the observation pull off located at about 9200 feet.

The pass, at it's highest point is almost 11,000 feet. As you can see by these pictures, it was just a bit cool up there. When I was actually riding ABOVE the snow, I decided to check the temp. My bike's thermometer indicated 41 degrees. It was 82 at the start of the climb.

After I came down the West side of the pass, I entered Yellowstone Park. The scenery is out of this world. But I could do without the sulfur smell. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't ever have to see it again. I can cross Yellowstone off of my Bucket List. I stopped for the night in Livingston, MT. Total mileage for the day: 680

Total mileage for the trip so far: 2022.

Day two

The day started out early. I'm still on Michigan time. I got up and out the door of the Super 8 at about 7 am. It was 43 degrees, so I put in my jacket liner and fired up the heated grips and seat.

So I just checked all the video that I shot today...I have about 22 minutes of some pretty boring flatland in Minnesota, then a huge bug splattered on the lens and all of the remaining 7 hours of footage are blurred. Lesson learned. Check the camera lens more often.

So today, I made it to the Crazy Horse monument. That thing is HUGE!



After Crazy Horse, I headed over to Mt. Rushmore. I rode through some nice twisty mountain roads but the bug splattered camera only shows a green/gray/black haze. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Day one

After Patricia's graduation party last night, I didn't get to sleep until well after midnight. I got up this morning and hit the road at 7:56 am. Since I didn't get much sleep, I figured I'd just go until I got tired and then call it a day. I'll worry about the Iron Butt later. I did do over 650 miles today though.

I stopped once around Kalamazoo for a rest room break, then for gas in Michigan City Indiana. I didn't stop again until about 8 miles from Iowa, and that was just for fuel and bathroom break as well. As I was heading west on I-90 in Minnesota, the setting sun was too much. So I pulled over and got a Super 8 room in Austin, MN for the night. After I do a brief update here, I'm hitting the sack so I can get up early and get back on the road.

I still have to download the video from the helmet cam and then edit it before I post some clips, so that may or may not be done tonight. If not, I'll make sure to get some of it posted tomorrow.

Tentative Route

This is the tentative route that I'm going to take on the trip. It's kind of hard to see the details due to all of the way point labels, but you get the general idea. The route goes counter clockwise. I'm hoping to make it just inside South Dakota the first day. Maybe I shouldn't have posted that statement...Murphy's law and all that....

It's getting closer

Today is Wednesday. My trip starts on Sunday. There's so much to do before then. Patricia (my girlfriend) is having a graduation party Saturday (which is why I'm not leaving until Sunday) and we have to get the house and yard ready for that. She graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in Mortuary Science.

OK...let's get back on track here. My Kontour Seat arrived last week. I haven't had the opportunity to go for any long rides since I installed it, but so far it seems way more comfortable than the stock seat as well as the Sargent seat that was on the bike when I bought it. If the seat does what it's supposed to do, I'll be riding in luxury...but more importantly...I won't get Monkey Butt!

I also installed my Piia HID driving lights. I opted not to install them under the faring like most people do with Halogen 11xx Piias. These lights are a little bit bigger and the suspension travel would have been impaired. BMW of Denver has some really cool mounts for the GT that places the lights under the mirrors. They even move the mirrors outboard about a half inch for better viewing. That's a good thing for me because my shoulders are quite wide and can get in the way of seeing behind me.

I've been playing with the helmet cam and digital recorder and have learned how to edit the video into manageable size and add music to make it more interesting. One thing I plan to do is make a video of me crossing all 48 state lines. We'll see how that turns out later.

I'm kind of worried about the fires out west and the hurricanes down south. There's not much I can do about them, except detour around the fires and wait out the hurricanes. Not a big deal, but I start classes on the 18th of September, so I don't want to lose too many days.

OK, enough for now. I have work to do in the yard.

Getting it up and running

On August 24, 2008 I will be headed out on a trip of a lifetime. I'll be riding my 2007 BMW K1200GT to all 48 continental states.

I still have a few weeks until departure, but I wanted to get my blog up and running before hand...just to make sure I know what I'm doing when it comes time to actually sit in a motel room after a long days ride and update my friends and family about my progress.

I will have a few "Farkles" on board that will help me document my trip for posterity. By the way, for those of you who don't know what a Farkle is, according to Wikipedia :

F.ancy

A.ccessory

R.eally

K.ool

L.ikely

E.xpensive

Here is a short list of Farkles that I already have or that will be arriving within the next week:

1. Garmin Zumo 550 GPS with GXM antenna (Traffic and weather data)
   
2. XM Satellite Radio
3. MotoComm DSR-100 Motorcycle Helmet cam and digital recorder
4. Piia Cross Country HID driving lights
5. Star Comm GPS tracker
   

Once I get everything installed and the bike is packed, I'll make sure to include more photos of my Farkles.