Motorcycle Touring

227 Miles

When I woke up I had to make a decision. Either go for the ride (and it’d be a push to get there on time), or just take my time and just go on a ride, perhaps taking the planned route and jumping across at the split. Ultimately I went ahead and took my time. I got over to the parking lot at about 8:15am. I figured that if anyone was leaving a little later, I might be able to tag along. Alas, it looked like everyone had already grouped up and were on their way. So I put the map in the tank bra, suited up and started out on the planned route.

The beginning of the ride had me going to the left upon leaving the resort. The morning was on the cool side but still very very nice. The roads in West Virginia are pristine. Heading up 32 I was just enjoying the quiet and country type setting. I pulled into the gas station and gawked in the combination gas station and country store. Lots of hunting pictures on the walls and handwritten for sale and wanted to buy signs.

I’m going to see if I can locate a copy of the map for reference.

I got up to 93 and made that right turn and found that West Virginia was in fact, Almost Heaven. The curves while going down were nothing short of amazing. Traffic was non existent, the curves were clear and I truly enjoyed that specific stretch of road. I got down the hill and made the right turn on to Jordon Run. This also was an awesome ride. A nice little twistyish lane and a half road with no center. A perfect bike road.

I was sweeping through some of the curves when I came around this corner and there was this big white house sitting in the little vale. I got around to the other side and quickly turned around so I could get a picture.

I got to the other side, happy to be out riding. A left turn and now I’m heading to Petersburg. On the other side I caught up with another group of riders, perhaps other members of STN out for a ride. When we got to Patterson Creek Road, I saw they made a right turn and I followed. I hung behind them for a couple of miles but then they stopped on the side of the road. With a wave, I continued on. The road was also nicely twisty. This was working out to be an excellent ride. I glanced to my right and there were two small deer on top of a bank. They turned and headed back into the woods. Not far from Lahmansville, a deer got startled and hopped up out of the long grass. I immediately slowed down and the deer jumped back up the bank and into the woods, fortunately.

I made the right at Lahmansville and spotted a nice concrete bridge go across the river. The other side was blocked off so I went across, turned around and stopped about half way back. I walked up to the road and down a bit to get a picture.

On the other side of the bridge I snapped a couple of nice up and down river shots that show the beauty of West Virginia.

Once done there, followed Old Fields Road down to 220 and then down to Moorefield. In Moorefield the turn was onto 55 and heading on down to Back Road. The group was to head down to Strasburg for lunch but I decided to make the right turn onto Back Road instead. Up until this point the instructions were pretty accurate. But the turn on to Wolf Gap Road was to be at 17 miles. When I got to 17.5 miles I figured I’d missed the turn and turned around. The roads were numbered and of course not in sequence (they’re numbered as they’re assigned so they’re not in order). I passed a rider on a green bike and waved as he went by. I’ve passed him before, it seems he’s following me 🙂

So I went about half way back and decided there’s no way it was that far off so I turned around again. I back to where I first turned around and kept going until I reached the end of the road. It didn’t say Wolf Gap Road but I made the right turn anyway. Within a short time I found Wolf Gap Road and followed it on up. The road was pretty interesting in that it was a very good road until I got back into West Virginia and it got a little rough. That was odd because all the roads up until that point were exactly the opposite 🙂

Coming down the hill in West Virginia, I saw a squirrel start to dart across the road, jumped back unable to make up its mind. I think I hit it while it was deciding but I’m not 100% sure. Ah well, one less squirrel.

I followed the directions up to Moorefield, got to town and made the left but somewhere in there I lost the map. I figured I was close and unfortunately missed the next turn. Fortunately I knew where I was, went through Peterburg and headed back. It was a great ride back. I noted the turns I’d made on the way out and then got to where 42 and 93 were one and headed back up the hill. The ride back up was even better than the ride down. I don’t know why that is but I find I really enjoy going up a hill vs going down. This was one of the spots where I would have enjoyed having a video camera to get video of the short ride up the hill. I went by the lake again and back down to 32. On the run down 32 I pretty much had a ball passing slower RV’s and cars. I made the turn back into the resort at about 4pm. I got back about 4pm, 15 minutes or so before the others started getting back.

When I got back a few other bikes had already arrived including a green one that I’d been seeing all day.

One of the riders had installed the 132db horn on his bike. After a bit, we talked him into letting us hear the horn. After a warning horn! he hit it. It’s freaking loud. I have the horn and wanted to install it but didn’t really have enough space to install it. Now I think I could install it anywhere and still get a really decent sound out of it. Here’s the guy and his bike.

Birdrunner and his SO came down from Canada on his Blackbird with the cool single wheel trailer. He said it was
a fairly stable ride up to about 80 or so. That looks like a pretty interesting contraption 🙂 We got to see the scar
he picked up on his ride to The 2005 National. Unfortunately his wife picked up a bit of lye on today’s ride and had
to see the doctor to get it flushed out.

So I’m heading back to the Hotel to grab a snack when I happened to spot the Bus Parking sign only it doesn’t actually read that way any more.

Of course those of us who were riding ‘busa’s were forced to park in our designated parking spots.

I hung arund and we all chatted about the days rides. I went over and had dinner at the diner in the hotel. There was a mixup on the kegs. Apparently the hotel thought we’d ordered two kegs of beer so Colleen had to head over to straighten it out. Finally I headed back to my camp in order to take a shower and get ready for the ride in the morning.

429 Miles

Leaving the state park I headed up Rt 11 until I got to 81 and headed on up looking for 19. I stopped and got a couple of pics of the bike with Chili and Lucky in their positions of power.

If the bike looks a bit heavy, it was. While I was able to ride with a load like this, it really was heavier that I liked. Since it’s a three week trip, I packed a bit more than I normally do and when you add in the fuel tank (empty), the bike gets a little weird feeling. But it’s still rideable.

Coming up to Virginia I got off at the Rt 19 exit because I was taking that north vs the highway. I am trying to avoid the larger freeways 🙂 It was actually a pretty nice ride for the most part. The humidity made even the closer hills hazy and indistinct.

I followed 19 north into West Virginia. It paralleled 77 but was an infinitely better road with nice curves and high points were I could overlook the freeway or run next to it for short bursts of speed.

I got into Beckley and followed the two lane road through town backed up behind lots of traffic. It seemed like I’d hit just at lunch time. I considered stopping and grabbing a bite but we were supposed to be at Canaan Valley by 5 or 6pm and I wasn’t sure how much longer it was going to take to get there 🙂

On the other side of Beckley the roads got a little clearer and I was able to enjoy the beautiful green countryside again. The nice thing was the humidity had gotten better on my way north which was a relief. Unfortunately my cell wasn’t able to connect any more.

Heading further north on 19, I got to Fayetteville. There were lots of warnings on STN prior to the trip warning to be careful of the local police. They were very very picky about speeds. I kept the speeds way down (not that I flew around anyway) and didn’t encounter a single officer.

On the other side of Fayetteville I crossed over the New River Gorge Bridge (no stopping on the bridge). I pulled in at the other side to get a NRG pin of course but also to get a picture of the bridge from the overlook. There are two levels where you can get pictures. I decided to head on down to the lower one. I also didn’t remove my Aerostich suit. See I had my bicycle pants and compression shirt on under the suit and I wasn’t sure how people would take someone in boots, bicycle pants and compression shirt. 🙂 I also took Chili planning on getting a picture.

Heat wise it wasn’t all that bad. The suit had the vents open and I could ignore the worst of it. I got to the bottom and took a couple of pictures of the bridge. Most of the pictures show the bridge but I found a pretty nicely framed shot.

You can see the humidity misting out the background as you get to the other side of the bridge. I was looking around for a place to put Chili to get a picture but the rails were all angled (to keep idiots from sitting on them and falling into the gorge I’m sure). I was considering getting a couple of cable ties so I could get a picture of Chili when I had an idea.

I looked around and there was a family with the kids all running around the deck and I decided I wouldn’t trust them but there was another couple. I approached them and started out by telling them that I had a strange request. They were willing to take my picture but I stopped them.

“No no, I’m a member of a motorcycle touring group and I have the group mascot. I wanted to get a picture of him against the New River Gorge Bridge and I’d like you to hold him.”

Weirdly enough they agreed to pose with Chili.

Afterwords they asked if I’d take a picture of them with their camera. Laughingly I asked if they wanted one posing with Chili and they said yes. So somewhere there is a couple with a similar picture of Chili posing against the New River Gorge Bridge.

I hiked back up to the bike and after getting the NRG pin, I got back on the bike and headed north. I must say, rt 19 is a very nice road. Good roads and nice curves. Not much in the way of really bad traffic or anything.

I considered following 19 on up to 33 once I got to 79 but it was getting late and I had a bunch more miles to go before I got to Canaan Valley so I stuck it out on the freeway. Once I got to 33, I exited off and hit that first gas station to top off the bike.

I watched as other bikes went by and pulled in for gas, here or across the street. Yep, we’re coming together for the meet.

I got on 33 and headed east. The road wasn’t bad but it looked like some of the road was being converted into a freeway. The curves are being straightened out. I got to Elkins and cruised through town. When I reached Harman I stayed on 32. I got behind a couple of riders and camped there for a few minutes thinking they were STNers but I saw that one of them had short pants on. Because they were on the slow side and because of the short pants, at the next opportunity I hit my turn signals and went around.

I enjoyed the rest of the ride up the Canaan Valley passing by Rt 72 and the great warning sign about longer vehicles and said to myself that I wanted to hit that road while I was here.

I got up to the campground at the resort at about 4:30 and checked in to get my packet. I asked if there was a way to walk over to the resort but there didn’t appear to be a good path. I unpacked my gear and got my tent set up and then rode over to the dinner.

Sport-Touring.Net National

I have a whole lot of pictures of the dinner. I’ll post a selection of pics and thumbnails of others. The thumbnails will be clickable and will take you to my photo album so you can see a larger picture. I’m not a reporter so I didn’t get everyone’s name. I will identify the ones I remember or took notes of. If you want to provide a name (screen or otherwise) I’ll update my pages. So without further ado, here are the STN pictures.

Sport-Touring.Net National Check In

We had a check-in room to ourselves. Head downstairs and it’s just to the left.

>Mr. Ed to the right and Twist at the laptop, were at the check in table passing out name tags, t-shirts and prize tickets. I dropped my riding gear in the corner.

Sport-Touring.Net National Meet And Greet

While walking through the lobby, I snagged Black Ice (right) and had him pose with Chili.

As a group we hung out in mini-groups chatting and eyeballing the bikes as they came in. I snapped pics of the groups and tried to specifically get pics of the folks I know on line.

Yamaha FJR with a beer cooler on the back. Heck of an idea.

Suzuki Bandit.

Strgzrgrl not really enjoying a quick pic.

County on the right on the bench.

Sport-Touring.Net National Dinner

A view of the tables. Slingshot in yellow. Mr. Ed to the far left with Strgzrgrl behind.

Looks like they’re trying to figure out how the beer keg works, doesn’t it? There’s the best shot I have of the the new National T-Shirt designed by DogBoy. Probably the best shirt done so far. A big thanks goes out to DogBoy.

Mr. Ed giving away prizes. Strgzrgrl, DantesDame, and Twist on the far right. For some reason we had a lot of Nikwax (all the green topped bottles). There were also billed and knit STN hats. I actually picked up the “Shiver and Shake” award receiving a STN Knit Hat and a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans.

We found out during dinner that one of the riders had encountered a deer and it took out his bike and broke his collar bone. He came to the dinner in a hospital gown.

At the end of the awards I had a bit of news to impart as well. It turns out that while Russ was watching the game he got up to grab a snack and one of his dogs got a hold of Chili pulling off one of his legs. He had one of the local seamstresses sew the leg back on. He’s still ok but a little more care needs to be taken in carrying him around the country.

The Northern Virginia group. Slingshot in yellow kidnapped Chili twice to the point where I was reluctant to let Chili sit with DantesDame.

More Beer!

And it’s time to grab some of the awesome food that was provided.

Spooooonnnnnnnsssssss! Strgzrgrl is showing off her magnetic personality.

A group shot of the NoVa group with BugR (from Canada) standing next to Slingshot.

Sport-Touring.Net National Afterwards

We broke up into smaller groups after the dinner. One group took the keg out behind the building and the party continued there. Others sat around the dinner tables or went out front. SWRiverstone had created a map for a nice long ride tomorrow and many of the riders had decided to head out for that ride. Because of the length though, the starting time would be pretty early.

John (Black Ice) had expressed interest in the LED setup I’d done for my bike and I wanted to show him my setup for the BlueSea fuse box. He’d done a write up about it and I followed it in putting mine in. So at about 8ish, we head out to my bike to check out the setup and the LED lights. We had a nice discussion about Rita and my possible trip to Alaska next year and he expressed an interest in coming along if we were willing. We discussed it for a bit, talked about bikes and whatnot.

Finally it was time to head on out. I wanted to see if I could make the morning ride so I went back, got my gear and got ready to go. Before I left, I rolled down to the area where all the bikes were parked, just to see who was hanging around. I had the LED’s on and everyone checked it out. Several pictures were taken and it seemed to be accepted well.

I turned the bike around and headed back to the campsite. The temps were a little on the cool side which was actually pretty nice feeling. I suspected however that I was going to be needed some warmer gear up north. On my way back, I spotted three deer crossing the road in front of me. I was already going slowly and carefully. I’d seen a skunk waddling through the parking lot and with the deer strike earlier I was quite wary.

Finally. Back to the sack. I’d set up my site earlier so I was ready to hit the sleeping bag. I’d found earlier that the sleeping pad had a hole in the pillow part so I’ve been using a bag of clothes. No problem. I’ll just have to find something later I can use.

32 miles (8 runs) +138 miles to campsite

So bright and early I arose, got dressed and wandered around for a bit. The breakfast opened at 8am so I got my bike ready and tied Chili in place ready for the run down The Gap.

I got some pics of the campsite. I set up way up at the far end and away from the crowds. Unfortunately I was also next to the little creek and picked up a few mosquitoes. I could have camped in the enclosed area but they didn’t want vehicles parked in there so I stayed to the outside of the area.

If you look up and to the right (that bit of red), that’s where the garage is. The bonehead who went up at 2am used the dirt road to the right of the trees there.

This next shot is looking down towards the entrance of Deal’s Gap. That first tent is Rocketbunnies.

I hit the inn and snagged breakfast. It wasn’t too bad I guess. We watched the TV and basically sat around and chatted with the others who were up early. There was some discussion that Killboy wouldn’t be out because it was a Tuesday. That was disappointing as I was hoping for a couple of good shots. Ah well, I’ll still enjoy the ride but will miss the pics. While we were there, other bikes started heading up The Gap. On my way back to my bike I snapped a quick pic of Rocketbunnie’s damaged bike.

I made my first run to get warmed up and stopped at the Overlook. No one around so I stopped and watched a few guys heading up towards the resort. I waited a few minutes before heading out. I’m not Mr speed demon but I don’t like running up behind folks either. On my way back I spotted Rocketbunny on her way out. A quick wave and I’m into the next corner.

The run back was pretty interesting. I got a warning wave from an oncoming rider to be careful. I came around the corner and a semi was across both lanes in a corner. Not fun. When I got back to the resort, I hung out for a few minutes to let the semi finish getting though. I removed the spare gas tank and luggage rack while I was hanging out.

Once I thought it was clear I went ahead and went through again. I’d gone through a couple of times when I spotted Killboy in one of the corners. Cool, so I might still get some pictures.

On my way to the overlook.

And on the way back.

And my absolute favorite shot. I was on the line, shifted over correctly (but knee not down and feet not dragging like last time), looking into the curve, etc. As far as I’m concerned (and I haven’t heard different yet), it’s about the best form I’ve seen for me.

At around noon on my way back I again encountered some lead riders. Quite a few this time. Apparently a cattle truck was coming. And unfortunately it was leaving a 1′ wide swath of cow dung and pee. Not something to instill confidence in the state of the road. Once I got back to the restort I stopped and hung out a bit and then decided that I still wanted to talk to Joan (my coworker) and get beyond Knoxville to avoid traffic in the morning.

So I took a shower at the showers located next to the tree of shame. While I was taking the shower, several folks tried to come in (it’s a one shower, one toilet small cinderblock building with ladies on the other side). While I was getting dressed, someone had retrieved the key and started to open the door when I told them I was just finishing up taking a shower. Sheesh.

I broke camp using the picnic table as a staging station. I got the bike all packed up nice and neat and headed on out avoiding the dung trail. On the way out I passed DantesDame but since it was 2:30 or so I kept on. I figured I see Colleen at The National tomorrow night.

At about 4ish I pulled in to the shopping center where Joan was eating and we grabbed some ice cream and chatted about work. My job had been offshored (found out for sure while I was on the trip) so we were discussing new positions and in general the things coworkers discuss 🙂

Ice cream was pretty good considering the heat and humidity. When we got done at about 5, we went out to the bike and I had her post with the bike.

I got back on 75 and then 40 and headed northeast. I went around Knoxville intending on getting off at 11 but missed the turn. I’m not good at turns which is why I got the GPS. Unfortunately it doesn’t have as many maps as I’d like and I’m unwilling to spend the $80 on the map software since the GPS is really a Marine type and I’m considering selling it. No point in getting the software/maps if I’m not going to keep it.

Anyway I headed up 40 looking for a likely place to stop. After passing the turnoff for 40 south, I spotted a sign for Panther Creek State Park. Hmm, sounds like a likely place and I didn’t want to camp off of the freeway. That’s very noisy 🙂 So I headed up 66 to 11, made a right and a couple of miles up the road I spotted the sign for the park. Making a left I headed on through the back country. Finally I got to the park. It looked pretty nice.

I decided to stop at a higher point to see if I could avoid the mosquitoes and keep out of the damper areas. This spot is really a camper/RV spot but there’s just enough space there for my tent. So I paid my $16 in the deposit area and pitched my tent. The showers were pretty nice and in general this was one of the better camp sites I stayed at as far as a neat and well maintained site.

531 Miles

I packed all my gear up and got suited up. The suit was still on the heavy side but not chilly. I checked out the bathrooms in case I wanted to hit the showers but they looked like no one had cleaned them since last year so I bailed on that 🙂 Since it was early, I stopped by the office in case anyone was in but it was still empty. So with a free night behind me, I headed on out. As I left the campground, I spotted the following sign.

Maaan, I have to get a picture of that. See I’m a big fan of comedy type music and really like Ray Stevens. A couple of years back he came out with the Mississippi Squirrel Revival and it was in the Antioch Baptist Church. Now granted it wasn’t in Mississippi but I had to get a pic 🙂

My intention was to try and bypass highway when I could. I zipped through Memphis and missed the turn to 64 east. After a couple of miles I checked out the map and made a right on down to 64. I followed it out for a couple of hours but I really didn’t like the single lane roads I was sharing with semi’s and having to stop every mile or so for a light. The speed limit was averaging 35mph. I was dealing with it as best as I could though.

At one point I spotted an abandoned farm to the left and looped back around to get a picture of the trees being overwhelmed by the vines (kudzu?). For all I know there were houses, barns and other outbuildings in all those vines.

Eventually at Rt 13 I bailed and headed back to the freeway. It was getting later than I liked and I still wanted to get to Deal’s Gap at a reasonable time. I wended my way north on 13 and got to 40 a little west of Nashville. I followed 40 on through and out the other side without a problem.

On the other side of Nashville however, I got behind a car and semi just as the semi decided to pass a slower semi in the right lane. Cars were stacking up behind me and the semi was just huffing. I could see there looked to be lots of space in front of him for me and after giving the car in front of me a second to move right if that’s what he wanted to do, I hit my signal and shifted right.

With this I broke one of my own rules. I don’t like going around cars in this situation. I was going to try and make the gap between the two semi’s before they closed up and figured I could make it. Unfortunately the car decided to shift right just as I got to his left rear quarter-panel. I beeped at him and really didn’t think I was going to be making it to The National. The two Latinos looked over at me as they kept coming. I backed down, went left, in front of them to the right and between the semi’s and out into clear space. Believe me I really thought that was it for me.

A nice thing though was either I got used to the humidity or the level dropped quite a bit as it seemed to get much better. I made it to the cutoff at 321 and headed towards Maryville. Just outside of town I spotted the local Harley-Davidson dealership (Smokey Mountain Harley-Davidson) and popped inside to pick up a HD Dragon pin. I looked at all the gear and found a pin I liked. When I got back out to the bike, a couple were there on their HD. We chatted for about 10 minutes about gear (“aren’t you hot?”) and places we’d been and where we were off to. I gave them my card with links to STN on the back as well as my web site and headed off to Deal’s Gap where I was to be camping tonight.

Heading up 129 to Deal’s Gap was mostly fun. I had a full load of gear so I was a little wary and I didn’t really push it very hard. No sense in losing it when I just got here. Still it was as cool as always and with familiarity, I was a lot more comfortable with the ride. At one of the first turns after the overlook, Killboy was there getting pictures. He got a couple of me loaded up.

By the time I got to The Gap, the doors were just closing at the shop. I was able to get in and get a campsite (not that they were busy) and a couple of sodas for the night. I set up my tent, rolled out my sleeping pad and bag and took the gear off of the bike to get it ready for a run. I made a couple of runs before figuring it’s getting a little late and I should just hang out for a bit.

I got some pictures of Deal’s Gap including the new sign. I put Chili and my riding companion Lucky up on the sign for pictures. I also got pics of the old sign

I expect to see others from Sport-Touring.net since The National is just up the road in West Virginia. I know others will be in the area especially DantesDame but I was surprised by Rocketbunny on her GS about an hour after I got there. She recounted how she got into an accident on her way here. While waiting at a stop sign, some yahoo in a truck knocked her over. It took a little help (none from the bozo in the truck) to get her bike back up on two wheels. It’s good that the damage was fairly minimal.

While RocketBunny has pics of her with Chili, I figured the trip wouldn’t be complete without getting a picture of her and Chili.

We wandered around looking at the bikes and checking out the rooms. I noticed several had bunk beds 🙂 There was a couple out front of one of the rooms and we chatted a bit with them. He had flashing lights installed under the spotlights of his Harley. It made his bike look like a police bike.

They told us about an accident that happened on the Cherohala Skyway where a bike had slid into a guardrail. They figured the guy was a goner but we found out later that the guy had lost control when he hit a small animal and washed the bike out. He walked away with a few bruises but nothing worse.

I hit the sleeping bag not long afterwards. Sometime in the night I was awakened by some bonehead roaring up the dirt road that runs from the motel to the shop. I could smell race fuel (I guess that’s what it was) even after I got up in the morning. Inconsiderate fool.

661 Miles

Since it was the first night on the trip and I was sort of intruding, I spent the night dozing rather than really sleeping. It really kinda sucks because Russ was nice enough to let me hang there and I spent the night trying not to wake him up (my phone alarm was set and I didn’t want it to wake Russ up unnecessarily).

For this part of the ride, I wanted to revisit Eureka Springs again in Arkansas so I headed towards Tulsa on the freeway. At about Oklahoma City, I began to encounter the beginnings of humidity. With the Aerostich suit, I’d been able to keep cool on the road even with the heat, but with the humidity it was getting harder to keep cool. It was bad enough that people were asking me if I was hot 🙂

After Tulsa I headed straight east. In Springdale I kept going past the main freeway (540) to 71 and followed it north to 62. A right and I headed on up to 187. I’ve been down to Beaver before and really enjoyed the ride. It goes across Table Rock Lake on a beautiful single lane wooden bridge and then up through Eureka Springs.

This is just before the bridge looking out over Table Rock Lake.

While heading towards Eureka Springs, I encountered many more motorcycles and especially cruisers than I had last year when I drove through. I was also somewhat surprised by the number of “Welcome Bikers” signs I was seeing. I guess I didn’t realized this was another biker destination.

After going through Eureka Springs and heading down 62 again, I was very surprised to discover that the corners had been ground down a little. Not quite like a full grinding like they do before repaving but just a set of grooves. It made going around corners pretty treacherous and I went around them at a very very slow speed. Perhaps this was something the local counties wanted to keep bikes at a more reasonable speed. If so, it sucked a lot. This went on on the way down the mountain and seemed to clear up once I made the right turn on 65 and headed down towards Little Rock.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I got on to 40 at Conway and headed on east to Deal’s Gap. I wanted to get to the other side of Memphis but it wasn’t to be. With the bad humidity and what looked like a storm coming in, I thought I’d see if I could find a camping spot. I called Rita and she found a state park just a little way off the track. I headed on out but didn’t see the sign for the park. I pulled into a gas station, filled up and asked about the park. “Oh yea, you’re right at the corner. Just keep going right and you’ll see the signs.”

It was a nice little ride, if humid, on down to the park. I pulled in after 8 and pulled up to the Village Creek State Park office. They were closed but the sign said to just drop by in the morning after 8am and drop off the fee. Sounds good so I headed on to the campground and found myself a site.

There were a couple of other campers out and quite a few mosquitoes. It was bad enough that even with the humidity, I kept my Aerostich suit on while I put up the tent. When I removed the ‘stich, I was dripping with sweat. The ‘stich must have gained 5 lbs of water weight it felt so heavy. I hung it on the bike assured that it would still be wet in the morning.

I climbed inside and used the flashlight to kill the few mosquitoes that actually found their way in the tent. I didn’t lay out the sleeping bag because it was so frigging humid. I lay on the mat though. It was very strange. The sweat was dripping off of my face and my ears so I could hear the splatting of the droplets hitting the mat. The hairs on my body were gradually drying and popping back up. It felt like little ants or other crawly things were on my skin. It was very creepy.

I’d lived in the DC area for 30 someodd years and after living in Colorado for about two years, I actually felt a suffocating blanket of humidity. Until you feel the difference, you really do get used to it (or get air conditioning). Oh, and on top of that, the crickets and frogs were serenading me all night as well.

689 Miles

The day was supposed to start at 4am but as I said previously, with DantesDame arriving and me getting ready, I didn’t get to sleep until 11pm. Not a good time for starting at 4am so I reset the alarm to 6am, got up and headed out with Colleen at 7am.

We got the bikes out of the garage and it took a few extra seconds for me to get myself together, making sure nothing was flapping in the breeze and it was all plugged in as expected.

Since I was heading south through New Mexico and to Lawton Ok to meet with Russ, we split up at 270. Colleen headed east towards 70 and I headed south. The weather was pretty nice if a little chilly. Temps reached 52 degrees as I headed south on 25 to Colorado Springs.

Over on the left there is Rabbit Ears mountain for the obvious reasons. The land is pretty flat and it’s heating up quite well. I have Rita’s camelbak and it’s really helping with the ride. The wind started in Texas and has let up at all. One thing I really hate is a side breeze for any time. I think it, along with the heat (up to 101.7 at least) is enough to drive me a little bonkers. I found myself stopping here and there in order to take a break and cool down. Dumping a cold liter of water into the camelbak is a real shocker when I take that drink.

After getting on 40 east, I pulled into a station for gas and a break and I’m standing behind some guy with one of the OCC shirts on. Now I’ve seen quite a few different sorts of bike shirts in my travels so it shouldn’t seem too shocking to see this one, however as I’m saddling up and starting to head out, I actually see the semi that’s parked over to the side. It’s the OCC semi with their bikes. Hmm, I wonder where they’re off to.

I was stopping so often that I finally got to Lawton and it was getting dark. I gave Russ a call from the local gas station and wended my way to his place. With the insanity of the breeze and heat, when Russ asked what my next stopping place was going to be, I asked if I could spend the night at Russ’ and he agreed.

After getting settled in and checking out his Hayabusa and v-Strom, we exchanged Chili and the first goal of the trip was completed.

One issue I was having was with my helmet speakers. I broke out my knife and adjusted the helmet by cutting out a couple of bits so the speakers wouldn’t press in on my ears any more.

Ok, earlier this year I made plans for my yearly multi-week ride. This time I wanted to go to Labrador in Canada. Specifically I wanted to go down the Trans-Labrador Highway. I’ve been taking my bike down the occasional dirt road and felt that as long as I wasn’t trying to go down a dirt trail, I’d be ok. I got lots of flak about wanting to take a sportbike down a long dirt road but it’s my bike and as long as it doesn’t get stuck somewhere,
it should be ok.

So I did some prep work by working on getting my bike ready and getting me ready.

First I hit AdvRider specifically one of the threads about a couple of guys who went down the Trans-Labrador Highway. They had lots of good information including about getting a satellite phone and the gas situation but especially that the road was a gravel type of road. Generally I didn’t think that was a big deal, however a good tip was that the gravel tended to migrate down to the valleys between the hills so you’d have a dirt road down but a deep “river” of gravel at the bottom you needed to power through. There were other bits of good info, check out their report for some good stuff.

Next I had to make reservations on the ferries going across from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, Newfoundland to Quebec/Labrador and from … to Goose Bay. The Ferry service has a web site where you can check the schedules (important) and find out where to call and make your reservations. I made the calls and put down the amount I needed to put down.

I needed to make a list of the things I wanted to do to get the bike ready for the trip. I’ve been going on long trips and had shaken out my main gear load down to a pretty good and well organized setup. But there were things I wanted to do to the bike to make it a little hardier and ready for the trip.

• Pull the clutch cover; clutch has a small leak and front sprocket should be checked and replaced.
• Replace the oil in the front springs and since I’m getting it done, have the springs replaced.
• Install the new louder horn.
• Install the GPS cable so I don’t have to replace batteries on the trip.
• Get longer screws for the GPS mounting bracket.
• Get the right sized screws for the right side mount.
• Investigate the installation of a fuel cell for the ‘busa.
• Install a luggage rack.
• Build a plate for the luggage rack to hold the fuel cell.
• Purchase the correct fuel cell.
• Replace the front brake lines with steel braided.
• Check and replace front and rear brakes.
• Replace brake fluid.
• Install voltmeter.
• Install fuse box.
• Install 12v accessory plug.
• Build riding music playlist (more rocking and kill the quieter songs.
• Get new tires before trip.
• Test ride a few days before the trip to make sure all is set up ok.

Of the list above, I was able to get most of the work done and especially the important work. Other things checked (brake pads; ok) and all was ready for the trip.

For the trip, once I decided on the direction I wanted to go, I listed all the stopping points and started building the map using Microsoft Streets & Trips. Part of the map had to take in to account several destinations as well as cut-offs in case I was delayed or over-optimistic about the route. One of the goals as listed above was riding the Trans-Labrador Highway. Another goal is to complete my riding in the lower 48 of the United States. I already had everything but the northeast. I also needed to add in the Canadian Maritimes (a little later in the planning, I discovered that Prince Edward Island was in fact another province so I had to plan a little jog there as well).

1. Oklahoma – Pick up Chili, the Sport-Touring.Net mascot
2. Deal’s Gap – I always like to stop there
3. Knoxville – Visit one of my co-workers
4. West Virginia – Sport-Touring.Net National.
5. Richmond VA – Visit my brother’s family and my daughter
6. Falls Church VA – Visit my step-daughter and where I used to work.
7. Groton Ct – Visit with an old friend
8. Riviere du Loup – Just to see it. (Harry Turtledove)
9. Labrador

I’d made several attempts to meet up with the current caretaker of Chili who lives in Oklahoma including an attempt to ride down with Rita the weekend before but none seemed to work. So the first leg of the trip is a little dip south of Oklahoma City to pick up Chili.

Next was a ride through Eureka Falls in Arkansas, a pretty nice set of roads. I’d been there last year.

I like to try my hand in Deal’s Gap located on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. One of my co-workers also happens to live in Knoxville so I can kill two birds with one stone.

The Sport-Touring.Net National meet is in West Virginia this year so I was able to fold in a visit there as part of this trip. Just a killing birds left and right here.

My brother and his family, my youngest daughter and my wife’s daughter live in Virginia. I also used to work at NASA so I don’t mind dropping in to say hi there as well.

A friend whom I used to work with at NASA now lives up in Groton Connecticut so I made plans to stop by his place and visit for a day.

My older daughter lives in Boston, but moved about the same time as the trip so she got dropped. I was able to see her as she passed through Denver on her way to Portland Or but that’s for the end of the tale.

From there it’s a ride into The Great White North.

I’d purchased a rear tire about a month before the trip but since I’ve worn through tires on trips three times now, where I had to get replacements while on the road, I decided to replace the rear tire with a new one the weekend before the trip. That would give me fresh rubber and keep me from having to sit around getting a replacement.

Something else I did was go a GPS location at various times when I stopped. I’d call Rita or I’d snap a picture of the GPS and let Rita know when I called her again. She’d enter the information in the database and people can keep an eye on my progress. This database is located here.

One of the members of Sport-Touring.Net was also on her way to Deal’s Gap but is visiting family a hair north of where my route is. We invited her to drop by on her way through so she’d have a place to hang out and update STN and check her mail before heading out on Saturday.

That would be Colleen or DantesDame chilling out and checking her mail. Since we weren’t sure when she was arriving, we didn’t have plans for dinner so she got some nice Mac ‘n’ Cheese and a place to crash.

The bikes in the garage, bedded down and ready to hit the road in the morning.

I’d planned on getting up early as I usually do on the first day of trips but the excitement of having Colleen in the house and getting ready to go kept me from getting to sleep on time so I bailed and didn’t get up until a little later in the morning.