Northern Ride – Day 7

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Freejack

August 14th
07:30-17:09
Bald Mountain, Wy to Madison Campground, Yellowstone Wy
137 Miles

Since I was only a few hours from Yellowstone, my next stop, I lazed about and finally broke camp at 07:30. Again I was breathing heavily due to the height. On the way out there was a group of cows milling around the campground sign. As I went by they were scared a bit, probably by the sound of the big cow going by.

Not far down the road I found the entrance to The Medicine Wheel (Alternate info site). One of the sites I really wanted to see. I’d read about it in several different places since the late 70’s and never visited. I didn’t really know where it was until I started planning the trip.

I drove up the gravel road until I got to the parking lot. I parked the bike and locked/covered things. Of the gear I was carrying the only thing of real importance were the pictures in the camera and I had that with me. The other things could walk without being too much of a hardship (well, I’d be annoyed at losing the MP3 player but what are you going to do).

It’s a 1.5 mile hike to the site. There’s a road but that’s only for handicapped folks and they have to stop 1/4 of a mile before the site. They ask that we don’t disturb anyone that may be meditating.

The info says that most of the tribes treat this as a special site and regularly use it for meditation. Some people spend up to a year preparing for the journey.

The Wheel is almost 10,000 feet up on the shoulder of a mountain. On the next ridge is a FAA post for monitoring of flights in the area.

The view from the ridge that leads to the Wheel is spectacular. You can see 10,000 feet into the Bighorn valley on the one side and into the forest on the other. The site is surrounded by a fence and the admonition to only walk around the site to the left and to leave the offerings alone. There were lots of colorful bits of cloth, scarves and some larger pieces of cloth tied to the rope as well as other items in the circle.

I left the site and headed back to the bike.

When I got there, I saw a pick-up with a Native-American dressed up. His pickup had a Lost Cherokee sticker on it and the state plate was Missouri.

I rolled out, stopping once to let a SUV go by. The road was a bit narrow.

I headed down Rt 14A again and headed for the twistys. I boogied on down enjoying the view and ride. A couple of BMW’s were on my tail for part of it but they fell farther and farther behind. Finally I reached the flatlands and headed out to Lovell. The BMW’s finally caught up and blew by me. I just waved.

After Lovell I got on the wrong road and headed north. It wasn’t until I passed Deaver and saw the Montana 5 miles sign ahead. I stopped, called Rita to chat and then turned around and headed back to 14A and Garland.

I went down until I got to Cody. I cruised around a little, grabbed some lunch and headed out to Yellowstone.

There were quite a few bikers rolling around town. On my way out I encountered another group heading my way. I stayed back a little, again out of respect. When one of them hit his emergancy lights and pulled over I stopped and asked if he was ok. Apparently he was waiting on someone else and waved me off with thanks.

A bit later I saw them coming up behind me. I slid over to the right and waved them through so they could rejoin their group and again hung back.

At the east entrance I fell in behind them and then had to wait until they got their payments worked out. Most of them had Wisconson tags but the straggler had New York tags.

I paid my money and rolled on in. There was a fire on the side of the mountain, trees were on fire. There were rangers who kept everyone moving. At one point I saw a helicopter fly overhead with a big bucket heading for the small lake. At the next turn was a lake that was quite low. I’m guessing they were using that lake before to quench fires. From looking at the paper, they had just opened the east entrance of Yellowstone that morning.

So I hit the general store at the other end of the lake. I picked up some deet and some snacks and a soda. I headed up to the Canyon camping area but they were full. They made a reservation for me at the Madison campground and I headed over there. On an amusing point, a couple of guys seemed to be racing me to the campground.

Anyway, on the way over I saw several herds of Bison including one lone guy that was calmly eating on the side of the road. Imagine encountering that on a dark night.

I pulled into Madison (the sign said the site was full) and went up to the window. For $18 I was able to camp. It was hot but I was ready to take a couple of hour break. I went over to my site and set up my tent. I put my cover over my bike and cinched it down.

I sat on the park bench and started reading my book. Weirdly enough while I was sitting there my nose started bleeding. I lay back on the bench and let it stop.

Later it started to rain a bit so I threw on the rain fly. Man, the problem with that is that you’re sealed in. There don’t appear to be any vents in that thing. I had all the zippers open in the tent and the flys spread out hoping to catch a breeze but I had also tied everything together so it didn’t blow off in the night.

Unfortunately it stopped raining later on and started getting a bit warm in the tent. Since it still looked like rain I left the fly on. Of course that meant a little restless sleeping since I don’t like being too hot.

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Northern Ride – Day 6

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Freejack

August 13th
07:30-17:05
Rapid City SD to Bald Mountain WY
316 Miles

I packed up my gear and turned in the key. I asked about a breakfast place and was pointed to a Perkins Restaurant just down the road. I stopped in there and grabbed breakfast. Kind of a Denny’s sort of place.

Once done, I hit Rt 44 out of town and headed for Johnson Siding. The riding was pretty interesting if hot. I bypassed Silver City and headed north on 385 to Deadwood. The directions to Rt 14A were interesting and I headed up to Lead instead of Sturgis. I turned around and headed back east and to Rt 90.

I wandered down the main Sturgis road and didn’t see anything particularly interesting so I turned around and headed out of town and towards Wyoming. I had seen on the map that I was heading towards Devil’s Tower and decided to make the right on 111 in Wyoming and head over to the tower.

On the way over I got behind a group of 6 bikers. Out of respect I kept back but as we slowly rolled down towards the monument I got a bit annoyed and when I got a good spot to pass I bailed. With that I realized that a group of more than 3 bikers is much like an motor home. Large and slow and difficult to pass. Unfortunately it’s hard to pass a group since I don’t want to get myself stuck in the group and interfere with their riding style. Plus they don’t know how I ride.

So a ways down the road when I first saw Devil’s Tower I was surprised at its size. It’s much taller than I thought and really sticks out from a distance. I was thinking more of a fang than a tower.

The bikers had just gone by when I got my picture and put the camera away so I followed them some more and was able to pass them again.

When I got to the turn-off there was a small store on the corner. I stopped to get a shot and some gas but there wasn’t anyone around. I hopped on the bike and made the right turn into the access road and found a larger store and the biker group stopped there. I greeted them, checked out the store and snagged a couple of hot dogs for lunch. I hopped on the bike again and headed up to the park.

Again there were hundreds of prarie dogs that people had stopped to take pictures of. I kept going up to the tower and got off to check out the info desk and read about the climbers. I hadn’t realized people could not only climb the tower but do it pretty regularly. There’s a comment about not doing it in July but a different site had complaints and basically said that it’s our right to climb whenever we want.

On my way out I passed the biker group and waved. I got a wave and two head turns. I guess I pissed them off when I passed them twice 😉

I pulled out of the park and headed back to the main road and Sheridan. The ride north was pretty damned hot. I made an attempt to drive basically non-stop to Sheridan, feeling that I was stopping too many times and should consolidate my stops (pee, get soda, get gas). When I pulled into Sheridan I found an A&W and pulled in for a break. The sign at the bank said it was 106 degrees.

After refreshments I hopped on the bike and headed for Rt 14. I’d been seeing signs for a while saying I should take Rt 16 for a nicer ride, less twistys and a safer ride to Grand Teton’s and Yellowstone. Of course I like twistys and wanted to visit The Medicine Wheel so I had to ride on Rt 14.

I made the left and off I went.

The ride up the Bighorn Mountains got cool pretty fast. At the split for 14A and 14 I took the alternate route and stopped at a lodge. I picked up a soda and looked around. They didn’t have an ATM and I was down to 10 bucks. I hoped that camping here wasn’t going to cost more than 10.

I checked out the jewelry seeing something that I liked but didn’t know if Rita would like it. Since it was almost $200 I decided that if I got it for her and she didn’t like it, I’d be yelled at 😉 so I didn’t get it.

I headed up Rt 14A and finally stopped at the foot of Bald Mountain at a camping spot. I set up my tent breathing heavily due to the height, paid the $10 (woo-hoo) and got ready for bed. Unfortunately there were three kids playing in the woods. I was reading and looking out of the tent at them running by. Eventually they said “how long as the bike been there”. I guess they just realized I was camped there. They seemed a little considerate since they ran off towards their camping area.

The place was fenced off since there were free range cattle roaming around. In the night I heard the moos but I also heard some wacky animal sounds. I thought they might have been the Bighorn sheep or something. Later on I realized they were coming from the cows. I could almost make out the words “get out! they’re going to turn you into hamburger”. Maybe he was warning the other cows 🙂

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Northern Ride – Day 5

Posted on August 12, 2003 by Freejack

August 12th
07:30
Cruising The Black Hills
160 Miles

I rolled out and got ready to go. About 07:30 I was outside and had started the bike. I checked everything; lights, tires, oil and got ready to roll out. As I went around the loop to the exit I noticed 2 or 3 doors had opened and the guys standing there were watching me leave.

I headed out to find breakfast and Rt 16 out of town. I’m wandering around town and get to a parking lot where I notice, off in the distance on the ridge of a hill, a large dinosaur. I made a note to find it and see what it was when I returned.

I found 44 and eventually hit 79 south. I stopped at a gas stop and asked for directions. She pointed me to the right and I was on my way.

I took 16 south to Keystone. Where it turned into 16A there was a cool looking tunnel we had to go through. I stopped and snapped a picture of it.

I stopped in Keystone, parked the bike and wandered around. Keystone main street was a big tourist trap. I wandered down one side crossed the street and wandered down the other. I stopped in at a couple of places but the prices were out of sight. Fortunately I was riding a bike so couldn’t pick up too much garbage 🙂 I looked at a couple of pieces of jewelry but I know Rita doesn’t like to wear stuff.

There had been a fairly large fire at the other end of town. It took out the big bar and a couple of adjacent buildings. There were signs up talking about having wing-dings to support rebuilding.

I walked back up to the bike and headed to Mt Rushmore.

I stopped on the way out of Keystone when I first saw Mt Rushmore and took a quick picture. There was also The President’s Alpine Slide that I snapped a picture of.

When I got to the park I pulled up, paid my entrance fee and parked in lot 4. I walked up to the entrance and in. One thing I was looking for was a diet coke. I took a couple of pictures. There was a tour that took you up to the foot of the monument but I wasn’t really interested. The monument was pretty cool if you ignore the destruction required to create it.

I headed over to the snack bar but it was packed. I slid by the hucksters who wanted to take your picture with your camera and a tip. Tourist traps everywhere.

I boogied out after finding a soda machine and headed south on Iron Mountain Road (16A). It was nice and twisty. There were a couple of wooden bridges that you went under and then did a tight turn up around so that you went over the bridge. There were a couple of short tunnels and then a long one. There was a sport biker in front of the van who was in front of me. He blew by the first van on a double yellow. The van in front of me was nice enough to pull over and let me go by so that was cool. The idiot in the first van tried to get me to pass on a double yellow switchback approach. I shook that one off. I’m not on a sport bike and certainly not _that_ stupid.

At the long tunnel there were lots of people at the other end taking video shots and pictures. That was a bit odd.

I continued on down to the entrance to Custer State Park. I stopped to pay the permit fee but the lady said that since I was just driving through and not using any of their services I didn’t need to pay the fee. Odd but I continued on.

At the junction of Rt 87 South as I was curving around to the left I nearly got my bell rung by a van with an extended mirror. Fortunately I was riding more towards the right side of the lane instead of the left and he just missed me.

I’ve been paying more attention to this riding behavior. When you’re in a car, it doesn’t lean to the right or left when making a turn. In fact it slightly leans away from the turn. Bikers however lean into the turn which can be an ugly accident. I’ve been making sure I was closer to the center of a turn rather than in one track or the other. This time I’m pretty sure it saved me.

I headed into Wind Cave National Park but there wasn’t any signs indicating where the caves were. I went through the park fairly quickly and must have missed it. While going through the park though there were hundreds of prarie dogs in the fields. I did see the mules but the lot was packed and a bunch of kids were feeding them. I saw a buffalo on the side of the road.

Anyway, I came out of the park on 385 South and headed to Hot Springs and the Mammoth Site. I stopped in Hot Springs for lunch at a Taco John’s.

I found the site and pulled off to investigate. There was a guy outside selling flint arrowheads and someone excavating off to the right of the path. I went in and looked around but that the tour cost a couple of bucks and the time I picked up a couple of t-shirts and headed out.

I made a right on 18 and headed west. I made a right turn at Minnekahta Junction onto Rt 89 and headed north. This was a fairly desolate ride until I got back into the park. I passed Pringle, a small town of a few buildings and up to Custer. I continued on 16 until I got to the Crazy Horse Memorial. I pulled in and parked the bike up on the back parking lot. I went into the visitors center and checked out all the pictures and other exhibits. The work they’re doing is pretty cool. They’re creating a monument to Crazy Horse.

After I left Crazy Horse, I followed 385 up past Hill City to Sheridan Lake Road. This was a nice road back to Rapid City. Nicely curvy and cool I headed back into town and my room and parked the bike. A couple who were staying a few doors away stopped by and we chatted. They were from Florida and had come into town for Sturgis. He commented that he thought it was great that I’d traveled from Virginia. I think I disappointed him by sticking around for a day to see the Black Hills but that’s the way it goes.

I headed down to find dinner, stopped at Safeway for a deli-type sandwich and headed back to my room to prepare to leave in the morning.

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Northern Ride – Day 4

Posted on August 11, 2003 by Freejack

August 11th
06:00-19:03
Rochester MN to Rapid City SD
568 Miles

I was up at 4:30, showered and packed and out the door at 6am.

One of the things I do when I get up is to check the lights on the bike. I found the left turn signal was out and that the right turn signal cover was melted. It was quite warm going through the outskirts of Chicago but I didn’t think it was that hot.

At a break I briefly chatted with a couple on a BMW. He was from Chicago and she was from Minnesota. I noticed a piece of metal sticking out of side of the bike. I asked about it and she said they were foot rests. When they got up to speed he kicked them out and rested his feet. I thought that was cool.

As I headed through Sioux Falls I spied J&L Harley and pulled in to get a replacement bulb and cover. I have a replacement bulb in my gear but it was already packed when I checked the bike. The service guy didn’t believe the melted cover. It was bubbled in texture with bits of black, seeming carbon bits on the outside. I couldn’t think of anything I leaned on and had checked it yesterday morning before leaving the campground (it was covered there).

When I put the cover on that bulb went out so I had to get another bulb. The service guy asked about rear signals. Since my local dealer said that front ones would work on the rear, I said that I had plenty. He said that the ones in front were double poled but the rear signals were singal poled. The brake lights and front signals were interchangable though. Based on that I picked up a couple of rear bulbs but I’ll have to check it out later.

While the ride was fairly uneventful it was soothing. I could feel myself settling down to riding at 80 MPH along with everyone else. Coming out of my lunch break stop I was passed by a sedan with two nuns. As I got up to speed I passed them. A few minutes later they passed me at about 90 MPH. 🙂

The wind started blowing from the south pretty hard and steady. I pulled into a rest stop and a couple of bikers were asking about it. I said that it had started about 30 minutes before I stopped. He said it was blowing like this all the way to Rapid City which was quite a ways away.

I’ve been waving at other bikers and am finding that a majority of them don’t wave back. After being at Daytona I can kinda understand. I saw one guy with a big hand mounted on his tank.

The bugs had been hitting me for a while, a welcome change from the rain farther east. A couple of the critters were fairly large and many of them left a sticky mess behind. One that squarely hit my right hand, coated my right grip with a sticky piney smell. I couldn’t think of a largish bug that lived on pine sap so I figured it was a bee. Several of the larger bugs stuck around (sorry) throughout the entire trip. There was a fairly large one stuck on the cable mount on my handlebars.

As I approached the Badlands National Park I pulled off at a rest stop to take a few pictures. Basically I was looking at the plains. Lots of flat. Imagine folks hiking or riding out here when there was not much but buffalo (days of buffalo) and seeing nothing for miles but the peaks in the distance (the black hills).

I chatted with a family briefly. He commented on the heat and I made some funny about air conditioning.

Next I headed over to Badlands. I’m not sure what to say about that. I had the same thoughts about the folks on the plains but that they were walking towards the mountains they could see and this massive “badlands” opened up before them. I stopped at the first photo op and walked around a little.

I couldn’t help but wonder at the awe the first visitors had upon seeing this vast gash in the landscape opened up as they approached it.

I took a few pictures and road around the tour road until I got to the interstate and Wall SD. Man, what a change. From the pristine beauty of the Badlands to the awful tourist trap called Wall Drug. I cruised through town, stopped at a Dairy Queen for dinner and continued on to Rapid City.

I stopped for gas and picked up a Sturgis t-shirt. I stopped at Black Hills Harley but it was after 6 and they had closed. After a brief ride through town, I found that the cheap motels were asking $60 for the night; the price of the nice place on the interstate.

I headed down 90 and pulled off at the Tilford exit. I was going to head back to town and get a room anyway but saw Rt 79 and headed to Rapid City via the back way. As I came into town I pulled in to the second motel and got a room for two nights for $38 per night.

I unpacked my gear and called Rita. I was interested in riding around The Black Hills and had picked up one of the tourist maps of the area. She checked one of the web sites and found a list of the better rides. I noted them on the map. We picked the stop at Mt Rushmore and the run down 16A to Custer State Park. From there down to Wind Cave and then Hot Springs for the Mammoth Site. From there a ride west to 89 north and then up through Custer and Hill City and back to Rapid City.

On the way out I was going to stop at Deadwood and then to Sturgis.

Once they were mapped out, I hit the hay.

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Northern Ride – Day 3

Posted on August 10, 2003 by Freejack

August 10th
05:30-18:18
Shelbyville IN to Rochester MN
568 Miles

At about 4am I got up and packed up the bike. When I got her loaded I realized that the other tenters had bailed in the night. They may have been the other side of the fight or the lady who ran the place kicked them all out.

I started the bike at 05:30 and let her warm up hopefully giving the revelers a rude awakening.

I bailed and headed out to the freeway. After a couple of miles I pulled into a Denny’s to grab breakfast. I made my order and then hit the restroom. I checked myself in the mirror and noticed that I had a mosquito bite on my upper left cheek and either a bite or a welt from the whack yesterday on the road (from the rock). I know I looked a little beat since the cop sitting at one of the tables eyed me as I returned from the bathroom.

I finished breakfast and headed on. On the other side of Indianopolis I could see it was raining up ahead. I pulled off to an underpass and changed my gear out again. It was pouring rain. By the time I got my gear on it had slowed to a drizzle but the roads were still wet and running water. I bailed and headed north.

I got into Gary Indiana and on to the toll way. Those frigging tolls were 50 cents and about every 15 miles. A couple of times I had the change handy but others I pulled up, stopped, put the bike into neutral, pulled off my glove, fished out a buck, put the change in my tank bag, put the wallet away, put the glove back on, put her into gear and head out. I got into Illinois and stopped at a service area to call Rita and get out of the Rain gear. It was getting quite hot. I snagged lunch and took off.

I wanted to go to Milwalkee but wasn’t sure where The Motor Company was located. Since it was a bit after noon I also didn’t know if I was going to make it to my next scheduled stop in Minnesota. I was leaning towards not stopping and the freeway signs finally made the decison for me. The exit I needed was opposite from where I was on the road so I headed west towards Wisconson on another toll road.

With the construction and tolls it was getting late as I passed over the Mississippi River. There were a couple of bridges as we eventually passed over the river proper. Coming up onto the high plains was cool. The ride up to that point had trees and shaded rest stops. After that was when it got hot riding. With the dryness and heat my nose began to ooze blood and get clogged, especially the right nostril. Periodically I’d have to blow it out. Initially I’d be careful but after a few days it was slight turn-blow 🙂

I almost made it to Austin Minnesota but because it was so late I instead pulled in to Rochester. A slight run down the road found me at The Homestead Motel (weekly rates). He had a room for me. I took the gear off the bike and headed off for dinner at a local Burger King.

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Northern Ride – Day 2

Posted on August 9, 2003 by Freejack

August 9th
06:30-19:49
Friendville MD to Shelbyville IN
418 Miles

I set the alarm for 5am, got up and got everything ready to go. After a shower and getting the gear packed I took off but it was 06:30. I figured I’ll have to get up at 04:30 in order to leave at the targetted 6am.

I passed over the Ohio river and went on to Cambridge where I had planned on staying the previous night. In Columbus I briefly considered bypassing Paramont King’s Island, one of my scheduled stops, mainly because I was behind on the trip but I figured the heck with it. I’m on vacation and headed south on Rt 71 toward Cinncinati.

At one gas stop I was checking the bike, just making sure it was all intact and found the lost strap hanging from the left side of the rear axle. It must have gotten caught. I pulled it off and put it into my pocket. While I was pulling out, I noticed a faded yellow warning grid on the pavement next to the driveway. I was curious about it as I went over the curb and scraped the bottom of the bike :-0 I’ve done that before so I knew it wasn’t that bad but still.

I exited at King’s Mill and checked out the park from the road. If you’ve been to Paramount’s King’s Dominion here in Virginia you’d recognize the green tower.
I checked out the Harley Dealer (Aces & Eights) that was located outside the park but didn’t see anything worth picking up.

Finally, at 13:55 I pulled in, paid my $10 parking fee and parked the bike. One of the security guys came over and we chatted for a minute. He was interested in the TourMaster pack and tank bag. When I got the bike covered and cinched down I popped out the cell-phone and called Rita. While I chatted and headed for the main gate a guy with his kid in tow stopped me and asked if I wanted a ticket.

One of his kids guests and bailed and he didn’t want to just blow off the ticket. Since I was by myself he offered it to me for $20. I went ahead and gave him $20 and headed up to the entrance.

Before I went in, I dropped off my pocket knife at the security window.

I went through the gates and the ticket was good. It was a little drizzly and thunder was rolling. I didn’t see any lightning though.

I wandered through the park a bit until I found “The Beast”. It’s on the top ten list of great wooden roller coasters and it’s why I stopped by.

When I headed in to the line one of the line guards was telling folks that lightning had just hit and that the ride was paused. They would start the ride 5 minutes after the last lightning bolt hit. So I stood in line and waited, watching the stupid TV’s. Eventually the ride started and we headed up. They must have seen the line of people and opened up the inner gates.

I waited in the “front half” line. There are two lines, one for the front half of the car and one for the back half. After a short time I was in the line for the front seat. About 20 minutes after getting in line I was up and in the front seat ready to go.

This is a 7000′ wooden coaster with two tunnels and lasts about 5 minutes. It was a great ride! I kept my hands up and knees locked under the hand bar. On the second loop the guy at the controls kept saying to keep your arms down so I lowered them a little and he stopped 🙂 In the second tunnel I had to lower my arms to be straight out in front of me instead of up since the tunnel was so low.

Finally at the end we got out and headed down to the pictures but I had my arms in front of my face at the first downhill so I didn’t buy the picture.

I checked out the other rides in the park but didn’t see anything else that appealed to me and I left the park. I stopped by the security window but couldn’t find my ticket. I mentioned it to the security guy and he said that they found the ticket. Fortunately it was the same guy and he gave me back my knife.

It was still a little wet when I got to the bike so I put on my rain gear. When I finally was ready to bail it was 16:30. I got back on the freeway and headed to Indiana. I picked up a few rocks including one that whacked the right side of my nose.

At one of the gas stops I called Rita and asked her to check for a Motel room in Shelbyville. She found one but when I stopped again for gas it was a nice day so I went camping instead.

Rita checked around and found “Fairland RV Park” just off the next exit. I pulled in, paid my 10 bucks and picked my campsite next to the lake. There were some folks parked at the lake with some of the cloth fold up seats. A guy with his wife walked up while I was looking over the place and we chatted (he was missing all of his front teeth top and bottom). He said that he was a biker and that his bike was in the trailer. If I needed some help with my bike he’d be happy to provide it and they wandered off.

I went out and grabbed dinner. When I got back I set up the tent and covered the bike. Again the wooden sidestand plate helped again as I was parked on the grass.
I sat outside on the park table and updated the journal. There were some guys at the lake (about 20′ in front of me) chatting and a couple were over fishing on the other side of the van.

After the third mosquito attack (she had to be sucking bone marrow or cartilege; she was in the finger joint) I retreated into the tent and got ready to sleep. It was about 20:30. I shut out the light and got comfortable. After a bit the guys with the pick-up cranked up the country tunes and the party got started. It’s Saturday Night in the RV park. About 10 minutes after that I put in my ear plugs and went to sleep.

That worked until just after midnight when a fight broke out. From what I can tell during the drunken fight one of the guys got kicked in the head. He and (picture the sound of a 15 year old fat kid; high pitched yelling) perhaps his wife were yelling that “motherfucker, I want you out”. I took out one earplug to listen. There were lights shining and people walking around. At one point the guy asked about my tent but the wife said that “it’s the biker” and they left me alone. One of the more interesting comments was the guy yelling that he had a gun too (!). I had my hand on the cell in case shots rang out.

I went back to sleep.

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Northern Ride – Day 1

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Freejack

August 8th
13:45-18:18
Washington DC to Friendville MD
178 Miles

Before I left on the trip I called my first stop, the state park in Ohio. On the positive side, it’s a large park with lots of sites. On the negative side, they’re all full for the night. Guess I should have called sooner.

At 13:45 I started gathering my stuff and walked out the door. It took two trips since I had all my gear and the bike was in the bike lot.

By 14:31 I was on the bike and on my way. I followed the directions given by the Microsoft Streets & Trips and realized that the times in the directions were very optimistic. I made it to the beltway at 15:14. Traffic was about average I guess for a Friday afternoon.

There were a couple of slow downs on the way out, particularly at the places you’d expect. Turn offs and lane losses. No accidents or anything.

At the Rt 68 turnoff it looked like rain ahead so I pulled off and put on my gear. It was at an exit ramp where the left turn was towards town but the right was a short dead-end. I expected I’d get pretty good at getting my gear on 🙂

One of the first things I learned about with the rain suit was that if you didn’t fully seal the arm and neck holes, you’d get balloon (from the air getting into your arms) and you’d get wet.

After a bit I pulled off and removed the suit. I realized after leaving it on for a bit that it gets fairly sweaty if it’s not raining/cold. A bit later it started raining again so I stopped at an underpass and put on my gear again. This takes between 20 and 30 minutes to get it out and on.

About 30 minutes before I stopped, I felt a pop in my back. I thought it was one of the bungie cords slipping out of its hook. I reached back and felt around a little but couldn’t find anything loose. I had two bungie cords for each bag and a strap for the side stuff (leathers and tent).

About 10 minutes later I felt a sharp pain in about the same place. On that one I thought for sure a cord had released. It was very sharp.

So, by 18:18 it was raining, I was wet and I realized I wasn’t going to get even close to my target stopping site. I spied an exit and pulled off in Friendsville Md. I stopped at the first place and, dripping wet, asked if they had a room. Unfortunately they were booked up but she called the other place and they had a couple of rooms. So I stopped at “Sunset Inn” in Friendsville Md.

It was upstairs and overlooked the pool. The parking lot was rocks and the small wooden kickstand I “made” (10 seconds on the table saw) was useful. I stripped the gear off and covered the bike.

When I took the gear off of the bike I found that the left buckle that I had used a strap on had broken and, while I could find some pieces of the buckle, I didn’t find the strap. I figured it was gone.

I walked down to the town (about 1/2 mile) and to the grocery store. There were no restaurants in town and it looked like everything was closing up. The grocery store had most of the lights out and when I walked by the back room there was a poker/dice game going on (picture of 4 or 5 guys and one with money in his hand). I walked around a couple of times and finally grabbed a premade deli-sandwich, a bag of chips and a Diet-Coke.

I commented that I hoped I wasn’t holding her up, she said that I would be the first customer of the following morning.

Anyway, I walked back up the hill to my room. It was dark and a little rainy. The hills looked cool with clouds hovering around the tops.

When I got done with “dinner”, I undressed and because of the strap, checked out my back. There were three red insect bite-size marks in the middle of my back. I took a quick picture.

I put my wet gloves on top of the light fixture hoping to dry them out. After a while I turned them over. It turns out that this isn’t such a great idea since my left glove looks like it shrunk. It took a couple of hours the next day to get them comfortable again (the right glove needed to be stretched out a little).

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Northern Ride – Planning

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Freejack

Trip to Boise and Back

On August 8th, I’m heading out to Boise for my first really lengthy motorcycle ride.

Mostly I commute on my Harley but I’ve done some lengthy rides. My first long distance ride was on my Honda 360 back in the 70’s. I rode to a gaming convention in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t all that long a ride, probably all of 4 hours but I was hating life after the ride. So much so that I cut short my stay.

These past couple of years though I’ve really been hitting the road which includes a trip to Daytona (2000 miles in 4 days round trip) and a trip to Deal’s Gap (1200 miles in 2 1/2 days) so it looks like I can handle around 400 miles in a day and maybe even 500 with some planning.

For this trip, it’s going to be around 2700 miles to Boise so I’m planning on 7 days for the ride. I have to be in Boise not later than Friday the 15th.

See The Route To Boise for the mapquest maps (stupid site) and some brief info.

For the return trip I’ll be heading to The Great White North. That’s right, a trip through Canada. Basically around The Great Lakes and then south home. That’s going to be around 3000 miles.

With side trips and lolly-gagging along, I expect to be home sometime on the 24th although I’d like to be home on the 23rd.

In planning this trip, I intend on hitting camp grounds at least two out of every three days. To save money but also to enjoy the outdoors.

I’ve been poking around the ‘net looking for equipment and lists of suggested stuff to bring along. There are some interesting items such as Microwave Ovens.

I’ve compiled and condensed the lists into these pages. While I’ve removed the duplicates and things I won’t be too hard up without (after all, I’m not conquering the wilderness; there’ll be a Wal*Mart everywhere, I just don’t want to have to stop and buy things all the time), I may still reduce the load a bit depending on how this weekend (the 2nd of August) ride with the proposed load goes.

Anyway, I’ll be adding information below either from the road (unlikely) or at each end of the trip since they have a computer.

One of the things I was planning on was to take a few pictures at minimum every hour. Especially at Sturgis and the surrounding countryside.

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Northern Ride – Route

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Freejack

The Route to Boise

First leg: DC to Wheeling WV via Morgantown WV: 287.23 miles, 4 hours 53 minutes.

Leaving work at 2pm and heading towards a state park on the other side of Wheeling.

Second leg: Wheeling WV to Cincinnati Oh: 225.7 miles, 3 hours 43 minutes.

I’m actually heading for the King’s Park amusement park to ride The Beast rollercoaster.

Third leg: Cincinnati Oh to Madison WS: 448.14 miles, 7 hours 22 minutes.

I might try a jog to Milwaukee who knows.

Fourth leg: Madison WS to Sioux Falls SD: 437.48, 7 hours 10 minutes.

Fifth leg: Sioux Falls SD to Sturgis SD: 483.54 miles, 8 hours 52 minutes.

Actually the ride to Sturgis is faster but I’m going to hit the Badlands NP.

Sixth leg: Sturgis SD to Canyon Junction Wy: 456.75 miles, 9 hours 9 minutes

Seventh leg: Junction Wy to Boise Id: 427.41 miles, 8 hours 14 minutes

Total mileage: 2766.25

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Deal’s Gap

Posted on May 24, 2003 by Freejack

Hi all. Back from 12 days of vacation. Of that, I was only able to ride over Memorial Day so here’s a brief ride report (and no, I didn’t want to do Rolling Thunder Storms again this year 🙂

Goal: Avoid the rains, get out of town.
Destination: Deal’s Gap (1,400 mile round trip)
Depart: 2pm Friday
Return: 6pm Sunday

I bagged up my clothes and chaps into a laundry bag and then into a plastic trash bag. It was tied up and mounted under my tailbag. Boris the Spider had been my tailgunner for a month or so and continued for this trip. I also used a tank bag which had my camera, cell, plugs, moto mags, maps and various other small items. I bought a couple of mini-locks for the tank bag and used cable ties to secure the bag. Nothing I would leave overnight but I could hit the bathroom at a rest stop or grab lunch without worrying that it’d take a walk.

I tried to pack my other helmet but there wasn’t a good place to put it so I left it behind. I grabbed my cable lock and a handful of rubber gloves. Ironically I forgot just about all of my other gloves so I stopped at Whitts in Manassas to pick up a pair of “waterproof/windproof” gloves.

For my riding gear, I had my boots and wet weather gear. My leather jacket was under the blue rain coat and I had the hood up and tied down. I also used my 5/8ths helmet and aviator goggles. I tried to find one of my scarves (red or blue) but Rita’d packed them away. The only thing she had was her purple scarf so I snagged it and tied it around my neck. I used it to cover my face below the goggles. Drizzle can be distracting 🙂

I was able to leave on time which was a first. Maybe because I set the departure time to 2pm.

It was more drizzly than rainy. I headed out to Rt 28 and then south on 29 until I got to North Carolina. Instead of going to Greensboro, I took a shortcut to 40W at Winston-Salem. I started looking for a motel but found them all full up. After the third or fourth one, I found out that there was a cup race and that I should try the other side of Hickory. I called my wife and had her checking 40W motels to find a room. Meanwhile I kept going. Finally on the other side of Hickory and two exits east of Morgontown I found a Red Roof Inn that had a room. I unpacked the bike and got set up.

I put a chair in front of the heater and put my wet clothes and boots in front of it. I put my gloves on top of the bathroom door and moved the door under the heat lamp to dry and sat down to read on of my moto mags. After a few minutes I checked the gloves and found they were steaming/smoking so I moved them back a few inches.

The next day I headed west on 40 and then south on 74 (I think) to Rt 28. 28 to 143 to 129 and I’m in town. Lots of bikes both on the way in and in town itself.

I headed west on 129. There was someone behind me on a bike but he was the only one. I’m a little uncomfortable when someone is riding behind me, I’m not sure why. In a few minutes we caught up with three “wheelchairs”; Goldwings that had training wheels (a device where you can back your bike onto this contraption that converts your bike to a trike in 5 minutes; I saw them at the bike show a month or so back). As they took corners, the opposite wheel would raise into the air a couple of inches.

When we hit the white bridge, I saw three sport bikes coming from the other side. The last guy wheelied and then we were at the tail of The Dragon.

After a few minutes of following the wheelchairs, I pulled off to the side and let them get a few minutes ahead of me. I was able to get a little better lean until I caught them again. They and the other bike pulled into the gas station where there were 150 or so other bikes. I kept going though.

I was able to ride most of the rest of the way without being slowed down by someone in front. A couple of times I moved to the right and waved the sportbikes to pass me. At several locations there were people sitting on the side of the road filming people coming over the hill or around the bend. There was a yellow Porche Boxter in front of me at one point with another car filming him; a regular motion picture type camera with mounting rails on the car. They tried to wave me by but I wasn’t interested in passing on a double yellow and curves. Eventually they pulled off and I was able to continue on.

At Fontana Dam, I pulled off and took some pictures of the bikes parked there. One of the guys took a few of me by my bike.

Oh yea, I probably kept it at 2nd gear the whole way and dragged right peg twice. I noticed that I was much more confident when making right turns than making a left, hence the right peg dragging and not the left.

When I got to the bottom of the run I was looking for Deal’s Gap Resort; basically I wanted a t-shirt and maybe a map of the run so I had good information. I never saw it and eventually stopped at a gas station. In the meantime I saw three ambulances, 4 cops and a pickup all with flashing lights and all heading back to The Dragon. Someone (or more) had probably gone over the edge.

I really enjoyed the ride on 129. An extended roller coaster ride without the safety harness 😉

I continued on heading towards Knoxville Tn. I was looking for Rt 40 and mistakenly turned onto 140 West. Since the difference was only a few minutes I just kept going and made a right on 40. I followed it up to 75 north. I was going to hit the Harley Dealer and pick up a light bulb; my right running light had gone out but I missed the exit. The next dealer was in Paintsville but I got there too late.

I have to say that the roads were great. Four lanes and at long stretches there wasn’t any traffic. It made for a nice ride.

I turned at London Ky and headed up the Davy Crockett Parkway; a toll road. In Hazard I got back on 80 and headed up to Louisa and eventually Huntington WV. Unfortunately again I couldn’t find a room. Rally Across America. I kept going until just west of Charleston (St. Alban I think) and they cancelled a room (9pm).

Sunday morning I headed out to go home. Somewhere by Beckley I encountered a smallish looking bike that had camo paint and Kanjii (or some Asian type script) on the side. I was very angly; like a stealth plane. In the Motorcyclist mag I had, I think it was one of the newer bikes in the 600cc range with Canadian tags. Anyway, we played tag until the rest area when I pulled off and we waved at each other.

Along the way I was passing a white family car with a couple of girls in the back (10 or 12 or maybe 10 and 12). They were jumping and waving at me as I went by so I stuck my thumb on my nose and waggled my fingers at them. Probably made their day 🙂

Once I hit 81N in Virginia, I knew I was back. Rude driving. People parked in the left lane. Weaving traffic. At the next stop I put my reflective vest back on in defense. I also noticed that my rear left turn signal was out as was my right front running light. Three failed lights. Must be the vibration.

I was going to hit 211 at 81 but there was a big backup at Harrisonburg so I pulled off and found 33E. I got on Skyline drive ($5 bucks) and headed down to 211. The ride down there was ok but there were two cars and a bike in front of me so we kept it slow.

I connected with 29N, made a right on 234 and headed home.

This is just the beginning of the ride report. I’ll flesh it out with more observations and anecdotes and post it to my ‘blog. I post the URL here when it’s ready.

Later (260 messages; jeeze you haven’t been busy, eh? 🙂

Carl

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