Southeast Highpoint Adventure

On Sunday, October 30, mere hours after racing in the Run for the Water road race, I got onto my Fat Boy and rode 3,100 miles in seven days. On this cold, crazy, trip I visited eight state highpoints and three capitols. This brings my totals to 35 and 25, respectively. Other than a relatively minor issue with the bike, some rain outside of Atlanta, and trying to keep warm when it was in the 40s, it was a fairly uneventful ride. I did run into a slight problem off the bike, but the only real harm done was a loss of time.

Pedal Power Wildflower Ride

Yesterday I participated in the Pedal Power Wildflower Ride, benefiting the Hill Country Children's Advocacy Center. I did the full distance, 60 miles, through the lovely hill country. I even tacked on a couple of miles at the end to make it a full 100 kilometers, aka a metric century. Despite this being one of the worst years for wildflowers since I've lived in the area (due to drought conditions), it was a nice ride and we had good weather. I survived the ride, maybe a little worse for wear, in just under 4 hours.

Another Crazy Road Trip

I'm always thinking about road trips. When I'm on a road trip, I'm either thinking through the details of that trip, or plotting out some future road trip. I also probably spend far too much time at work thinking about road trips. In plotting to ride through my last Texas counties in the east, I started piling on more points of interest. "As long as I'm going to the Louisiana border, I might as well go on to Baton Rouge to the Capitol." "If I'm going to Baton Rouge, I might as well go to Jackson, MS." "I wouldn't want to go all the way to Mississippi and not go to the highpoint." "If I'm already in the northeast corner of Mississippi, it's just a quick hop over to Nashville, TN." I'm sure I played around with adding even more points, but those are the ones I settled on for a roughly 4-day time frame. I was thinking, based on weather and other stuff going on, I would take this trip late in October or possibly early November. When I happened to learn that the Highpointers organization was going to be in the area of the MS highpoint the weekend of October 9, I figured that was the best time for this little ~2000 mile trip.

I left well before dawn on Thursday, October 7. It was probably in the mid-40s at that point, so I was fully dressed with chaps, jacket, heavy gloves, and neck gaiter, which kept me warm but not hot. As the day warmed up, I stripped gear at every stop until by mid-day I was just in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Since I was heading almost due east, I was forced to stop just past dawn to change from clear to dark glasses, and even then it was hard to see anything. I passed through Liberty and Hardin counties (2 of the final 6) on the way out of Texas. I got to Baton Rouge and the capitol around 1pm. At 450 feet, it is the tallest capitol in the country. There is an observation deck, but it's not quite at the very top, and worse yet, they don't let you go outside. Other than the Mississippi River (which isn't pretty), the view isn't all that interesting anyway. The only other things in the building I was really able to see were the House chamber (currently under renovation) and the spot where Huey Long was assassinated. From there I hustled up to Jackson, MS in order to get to the capitol, worried that it would close at 5 and I wouldn't be able to get in and look around.
I arrived right around 5, and even though it seemed as though it was after hours, the doors were still unlocked and the guard post wasn't even manned. Whereas the Louisiana Capitol is more modern, essentially a skyscraper, Mississippi's is more of a traditional capitol with a large central dome and two wings for the branches of the legislature, and the governor in the middle. The Senate was closed and dark but with windows to see in. I was able to get into the House gallery, which is sort of unusual that people are seated behind the speaker, instead of looking towards the speaker's podium in most capitols. Once I was done looking around and taking pictures inside, I walked the grounds and took pictures outside, including the most coveted picture of my motorcycle and the capitol together. Leaving the capitol, I had another short stint of interstate until I got off onto the Natchez Trace Parkway.
I've ridden almost every mile of the Trace over two previous motorcycle trips (plus once in the car), and it a beautiful road. Other than the quaint woodsy setting, the best thing about the road is that it bans commercial traffic (meaning no trucks). There are no billboards, and it doesn't connect directly to any larger roads (it has something akin to on/off ramps), so it's almost like a world unto itself, hearkening to a bygone era. The only problem with the Trace is that the speed limit is 50 mph, but since there isn't really another road that goes from Jackson to the northeast corner of the state, it was still the quickest route to the state highpoint (Google maps didn't entirely agree, suggesting sort of a stair step, but that wouldn't have been very fun). There was a fair amount of traffic at first coming off of the interstate, but most of the cars turned off after a few miles. From that point, the road winds gently along a reservoir that looked spectacular in the setting sun light. I really wanted to take a picture, but there was nowhere to pull off. It started to get dark, even though the sun hadn't officially set, with the sun going behind the trees. I stopped briefly to change to clear lenses and put my jacket back on as the temperature also started dropping. I didn't ride too much longer: for the same reasons it's a beautiful ride in the day, it's kind of frightening at night, "real country dark," you might say. I saw a couple of the deer I was most worried about, so who knows how many were hanging around that I didn't see. I stopped for the night around 8:30 in the town of Kosciusko, and had a crappy dinner and stayed in a relatively cheap motel.

It was pretty chilly again Friday morning when I got off around 7. I got back on the Trace and cruised on up toward the town of Iuka, and more specifically the state highpoint near there. My GPS coordinates for the highpoint were right on (for once), but there were also a couple of signs pointing toward Woodall Mountain, which are apparently relatively new. The roads were all nice and paved until the last one, a small dirt county road. I looked as though it had been worked on pretty recently, but the work may have actually made it worse for me. The surface was really loose and hadn't gotten enough traffic to work in a groove for me to follow. I've ridden some dicey roads in the past, and this one was one of the worst to me. I gave up the fight just before the final steep section to the top of the "mountain" and walked the last few hundred feet. There wasn't much up at the top, a couple of cell towers and a little turnaround. There was, however, a brand new plaque on a big rock (which was probably also "new") in the center of the circle. The plaque was dated October 9, 2010 (the next day) so I must have gotten there too early to meet up with any of the highpointers, also evidenced by the complete lack of any other visitors to the site while I was there. I didn't particularly have the time or inclination to stick around or go out and find them, so I moved on after a quick stop in the town of Iuka, cutting the corner of Alabama. I rode the Trace for a little further, until I got closer to Nashville and cut over to an interstate. It was quite warm in Nashville that afternoon, amplified by the "heat island" cities create, and the slow speed (and traffic lights) of city streets. The Tennessee Capitol is not as large as many capitols, and has more like a cupola than a dome. I didn't pursue it, but I don't think they allow the public up the tower. Also different than most capitols, the House chamber is much larger than the Senate, and they're not symmetrically placed. There was some sort of book fair going on, so the building was full of people, many of them sitting down in the House and Senate chambers getting ready to hear a talk. I wandered around and took pictures, from the chamber floors and galleries, and the former Supreme Court chamber which also had some talk. The capitol is set at the top of a hill and has a fairly nice view, at least in the background. The foreground looking west is industrial and not pretty. I got gas and an ice cream bar before getting on the interstate heading west. I stopped for gas just outside of Memphis and searched on the internet for a cheap place to stay downtown. I found something, but rather than use GPS navigation I tried to wing it, more or less (I still used the GPS for the map). I missed one turn, and had to take a spin through surface streets, then when I got closer to where I was trying to go I ran into one-way streets and had to take a circuitous route to get to the hotel. The place wasn't anything amazing, but for $100 downtown, it was perfect. After checking in and unloading the bike, I walked a few blocks to a rib place the clerk had recommended, Rendezvous Charles Vergos. It was delicious, and I would recommend it to anybody who likes pork. From there I walked another couple of blocks to the world-famous Beale Street. I would say that Beale Street is somewhere between Austin's Sixth Street and New Orleans's Bourbon Street- not as crazy as Bourbon, but a little looser than Sixth. The only problem, to my thinking, is that most places have a cover charge, which I am almost universally against. The way it's set up, however, you don't really have to go into any of the clubs anyway. All the clubs have speakers pumping the live music inside out onto the sidewalk, and, like New Orleans, you can buy and consume adult beverages on the street. It was fun, but of course I was quite tired and went back to the hotel around 11.

Saturday was mostly a torture session riding 800+ miles from Memphis to Austin, even though there was no real reason that I absolutely had to get back. I went straight down the interstate through Mississippi pretty much just stopping for gas. The one brief other stop I did make was in Yazoo County, when I got off toward Yazoo City because it's a fun name and the Ys for the ABCs of Touring, but turned around when I found out it was more than 20 miles away and not worth it. I got off the interstate for good (well, almost) a little ways into Louisiana. I took state roads into St. Francisville where I took a ferry across the Mississippi River to New Roads. It was a short ride across, helped by lucky timing to where I rode up and straight onto the ferry. When I made it into Texas, I realized that I had been to Newton County previously, but hadn't marked it on my master map of counties I've ridden through. I wasn't as sure about Jasper, Tyler, and San Jacinto Counties, which completed my goal of riding through all 254 of Texas's counties. From there it took longer to get home than I was initially thinking, and of course I was more than ready to be home (or at least off of the bike). I ground out those last miles and made it home around 10.

Road Trip 2010, Part 2

It was only a couple of hours ride from Page to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I was held up from getting into the village because of road construction, but I finally did and met up with my parents who were already there for the Grand Canyon Celebration of the Arts, a plein air painting event with a number of invited artists. They were staying at the parks service's training "dorms," more like an average motel, and had arranged to get me a room next to theirs. Nobody was in the office, however, so I couldn't get into my room right away so we went to my parents' room for a little while before going into the nearby town of Tusayan for a luncheon. The luncheon was held at a brand new Western museum (they had their grand opening later that day) with Grand Canyon and Old West history, as well as a very nice collection of Grand Canyon art. The art was probably the real reason for getting the group there, and the man whose collection the art is from gave a little rambling speech about art. After lunch I got checked into my room and dumped all the stuff off of my bike. I went with my parents for a drive along the south rim west of the village. The road is normally closed to private vehicles, but artists were given special permission for the event. After stopping and checking out a few overlooks, my dad set up to paint and I went for a little run. I ran about 2 miles along the unpaved south rim trail, which was fairly level, well maintained, mostly shaded, and of course had spectacular views. My mom picked me up down the road and we went back to the room for a little bit while my dad painted. Later on, we all went to one of the lodges to meet up with some of the other artists for pizza.

Right around sunrise on Tuesday I rode south toward Flagstaff, to the Arizona Snowbowl, which I had briefly stopped at a couple of years ago (but didn't hike to AZ's highpoint). It felt like a decent temperature standing in the parking lot in Grand Canyon Village, but I was soon glad I was wearing my chaps and heavy jacket- a sign in Tusayan said the temperature was 47, which I didn't entirely believe, but it was pretty cool. It warmed up as I went south and into slightly lower altitude, but it started cooling off again as I climbed again into the San Francisco Peaks. I arrived at the trailhead parking area (around 9,000 ft elevation) and changed from riding gear to hiking gear. The very start of the trail crosses a clearing that, in the winter, is a ski trail, then it goes through the woods up to tree line. My first stop was in a switchback right next to a very rocky slope that might have been a nice ski run except that the ski area is on Agassiz Peak, and I was climbing Humphreys Peak. My second stop was right at tree line, just before the trail reached a saddle, where in one direction the trail went to Humphreys and in the other direction went up some subsidiary peaks. I had passed three people who were also going up on my way up, and just above the saddle passed a woman descending from the summit. The end of the trail was all rocky, and in a couple of places a bit hard to follow. The air was thinner up top, but not nearly as bad as Elbert was (being almost 2000 feet shorter at 12,633 ft). However, right at the summit the strong wind brought a lungfull of smoke from the many (hopefully) prescribed burns in the area, which was rather unpleasant. Fortunately it didn't stay too smoky, it was mainly that initial blast right as I summitted. I ducked behind the rock wind shelter, where there were already two women from Indiana resting from their climb. One woman was a fellow highpointer, and she had done some I haven't yet, and she hadn't done Rainier yet, so we chatted and traded notes. It was her friend's first highpoint, and had been sort of dragged along for the trip. I took some pictures from the summit (and had the women take one of me), but visibility was pretty low because of the fires, then started down just ahead of the two women. They caught up to me when I took a long break partway down to air my feet out, retape my blisters (from Elbert), and put on clean socks. Feeling refreshed from the break, I started jogging down, at least over the dirt sections of the trail, and slowing down over the rocky sections. I passed the women again, as well as a number of people going up, and made it back to my bike around 1:30, roughly 5 and a half hours after I had started. I changed back into riding mode, and headed on my way- but naturally I didn't take the most direct route back to the Grand Canyon, I went through Flagstaff and stopped at the Harley shop west of town for a t-shirt. They also had a roadhouse-style restaurant on their property, and since I was hungry I went in for a hamburger. The place was almost deserted and it was "grill your own" meat, but it turned out okay. I got back around 4, got cleaned up, and a little later went to dinner with my parents at the El Tovar Hotel in the village. It was a really nice place and the food was delicious- I had a pork chop, my dad had duck, and my mom had a shrimp dish. After dinner we met up with some of the other artists in the lounge area back at the training center. At one point, it was like back in school with yearbooks, with the artists passing copies of the event catalog for the other artists to sign by the work they submitted for the show.

Wednesday morning I went with my parents to Yaki Point to watch the sun rise. The Grand Canyon is pretty spectacular from pretty much any point and with any light, but it felt extra special at sunrise. We went over to the South Kaibab trailhead, where my dad set up to do a painting and I started on a hike down into the canyon. My mom went with me a very short ways down the trail, then watched as I shrunk away down the switchbacks. It only took me about 25 minutes to get down to Cedar Ridge, which I had confused myself into thinking was as far as I had intended to go. When I realized I had confused the 3 miles roundtrip to Cedar Ridge with the 3 miles one way I had intended, I continued down into the canyon until I got to Skeleton Point, 2,000 feet vertically below the rim, around 8 am. Just below that point was the first view down to the river. There are rapids at the point of the river that is visible, and I could hear them 2,500 feet below. The view was spectacular, and a completely different perspective than looking down from the rim. I probably would have gone a little further down, but I didn't want to keep my parents waiting since they were expecting me to take about 3 hours. I probably wouldn't have tried to go all the way to the river, since it is highly discouraged as a day hike, and the temperature that far down was still over 100 degrees, even though it was so pleasant on the rim. When I started planning this trip, I briefly considered doing a "rim to rim," hiking from the north to the south rim, but what I read didn't recommend it, and the high temperatures down in the canyon dissuaded me. It will remain on my list of things to do "some day" for now. I started back up the trail charging hard, until I had to stop to catch my breath. I took a longer break once I got back to Cedar Ridge, then started the charge back up to the rim. There were quite a few people coming down in the other direction, which made me think "if this is the less popular trail, I'd hate to be on Bright Angel Trail." I got back up to the trailhead around 9:30, just as my mom was coming over thinking she would see me coming back up the switchbacks. We loaded up and went further east to Shoshone Point, which is sort of a narrow peninsula into the canyon from the rim and giving a panoramic view. I of course rushed out to the end, while my mom could barely stand to watch me. It was a really nice spot, and hard for most tourists to get to, so it was quiet and not surprisingly there were a few artists set up in the area. We headed back to the village from there, and after lunch I zonked out and had my only nap of the trip. That evening I went with my parents and the other artists to dinner at the park superintendent's house in the village, along with some other park employees and sponsors of the event. It was informal, with heavy hors d'oeuvres instead of an entree. I enjoyed the whole thing, but especially getting to talk to the superintendent and assistant superintendent. Being pretty high up the food chain of the parks department, they've both traveled all over to various National Parks and I always enjoy talking about the parks. The Grand Canyon superintendent, Steve Martin (no relation), was previously superintendent of Grand Teton National park and has climbed Grand Teton several times, so I was able to talk climbing with him as well. I really could have talked to him all night, but obviously he had to socialize with everybody. Later on, back at the training center one of the artists gave me and my parents a preview of the work he'd been doing as well as that of his roommate. It was all spectacular, and I arranged to purchase one of Cody DeLong's plein air paintings he had done that week. If I had stayed longer, I might have purchased some from other artists as well, but the road she is a harsh mistress.

I got the bike all packed up and left Grand Canyon right at dawn on Thursday. I was dressed warmly at first, and it was cold again in Tusayan, but it warmed up quickly and I packed away the chaps and jacket at the first gas stop, somewhere on I-40 east of Flagstaff. I cruised along the interstate all the way to Albuquerque, NM, where I made a little stop at Isotopes Stadium. For anyone not a big Simpsons or baseball fan (myself being the former), the name for the team (unofficially) comes from an episode of the Simpsons, where the Springfield Isotopes threaten to move to Albuquerque. My favorite thing about Albuquerque (and I can't say I know much about the city) is that the people chose the name Isotopes. I've always thought about going to a game when they're visiting the Round Rock Express, but never have, so since I was already going through the area, I decided I'd stop in for a visit. Since their season is over, the place was practically shut down and I had to find somebody to sell me a t-shirt, and they didn't have much selection in my size. I took I-25 from there to Santa Fe, where I got the coveted picture of my bike with the Capitol. I went in to look around, even though I had already seen the inside in February. When I got back on the bike, it was not happy. It was popping, sputtering, and just plain running like crap. I tried pulling over and shutting it off, to see if maybe it was just in some funky mode and needed to be reset or something. When that didn't work, the only thing I could think is that maybe it was overheated, so I pulled over and parked under a tree for fifteen minutes. I was really worried, and was thinking I might have to get it towed to the local Harley shop or something- but at least I was in a major city and close to a shop. I tried starting her again after 15 minutes for both of us to cool down (it was actually not that hot in Santa Fe, it was hotter in Albuquerque), and whatever Gremlin had been fouling things up had moved on, and the bike ran just fine. I headed a pretty good ways north from Santa Fe, almost to Colorado, before turning east toward Texas. When mapping out the route, I found that if I just added a minor detour, I could add a few new New Mexico counties, so of course that's the route I took. This would have been a perfectly fine strategy, except that it was getting dark, and this was a rural area. I was pretty relieved that I was able to get gas in the tiny town of Roy, even if it was low-grade. It was really dark when I headed out the small road back to the US highway. It wasn't long before I saw one of the most dreaded country sights: the glow of reflection of an animal's eyes. First, there were a whole bunch of deer, and later I saw a solitary deer. I almost locked the wheels up stopping for the first bunch from ~50 mph, but kept my speed down closer to 40 after that. I was glad to make it back to the highway intact, and even though traffic was very light, a few cars felt better than no cars. I stopped for the night just short of the Texas border in the town of Clayton, some time after 9.

I got going a little after sunrise, had the pretty decent breakfast, and headed for Texas. As ever, I didn't take the direct route home, I wound my way through the last 5 counties in the panhandle I had yet to ride through. The riding was pretty standard for a second straight 700 mile day- my back was not happy, I was pretty much sick of my iPod, and I mostly just wanted to be home already. There were a lot of clouds in the sky as I approached Llano and the sun was setting. I could see there was rain in the area, so I pulled over and got on my rain gear just outside of town. Fortunately, I didn't run into any actual rain, but did go through some spots of wet pavement, so it was definitely nearby. I got home around 10 but didn't wind up going to sleep until almost 1. I didn't do much of anything over the weekend, just tried to get caught up with the postal mail and my work email. I would have mowed the badly overgrown lawn, but it sprinkled on and off both days.

The final tally for the trip is 3866 miles in 10 days. Good trip, but too much in too little time, as always.

Road Trip 2010, Part 1

On Wednesday, September 8, I set out on my first long motorcycle trip of the year. I've been doing so much cycling and so little motorcycle riding, I'm pretty sure up until this trip I had put more miles on the bicycle than either motorcycle in 2010. I had originally planned on leaving Tuesday, but I wound up having to do something Wednesday morning, so I left as soon as that was done. It's just as well I had to wait, the whole region was getting lashed with rain on Tuesday from Tropical Storm Hermine. I rode just to the corner station to fill up with gas and check that the bike was running well, and got wet even with my rain gear on. It was a lot milder in the morning, but I still got rained on steadily from Austin to Lampasas, then off and on for the rest of the day. I went through a few areas where it was actually sunny, and as soon as I thought that maybe the rain was done and I could take my rain gear off at the next stop, I would hit another patch of rain. My rain gear didn't do the best job of keeping me dry, the top and bottom of my shirt and the bottoms of my pants got wet. The sunny stretches allowed my shirt to mostly dry out, but my pant legs, and worst of all, my socks, stayed wet the entire day. I finally stopped in Guymon, Oklahoma and got dry and a decent night's rest. On the positive side, I did ride through 7 Texas counties and one OK county I'd never ridden through before.

I got packed up and moving on early on Thursday, and got to the Kansas line right around sunrise. I headed north along the western end of the state to its highest point, just east of the Colorado line. The biggest challenge in getting to the highpoint was riding on gravel roads, but that's not exactly anything new. It was the Fat Boy's third actual highpoint (NE and OH the others), so at least that's something. While I was there a man and (I'm guessing) his two sons drove up, who were fellow highpointers. I took a picture of them in front of the highpoint marker, which is kind of a neat metal sculpture, including a sunflower (the point is called Mount Sunflower, even though it's not a mountain). I rode a gravel road from there to the interstate, and headed west to Denver. The weather had been pretty pleasant, but it was hot in Denver. I went to the Capitol, but there was no place to stop for a picture in front, so I had to get one around back. I parked and went inside for a look around. I climbed up into the dome just as the woman was getting ready to close it down for the day. The view was really nice and the breeze up there was great. I hit some traffic on my way out of the city, but fortunately it was just rubberneckers, and not the multi-car pileup in the other direction. The temperature dropped, from quite nice to downright chilly, as I climbed into the mountains, and then it would warm up again descending from the mountain passes. As I have previously, I went through the Eisenhower Tunnel, the highest (and longest) in the US, at over 11,000 feet above sea level. On the way down, I was chasing a semi that seemed to be on fire, as it was spewing foul smoke. I eventually got off of the interstate and headed to Leadville (the highest city in the US). I gassed up and headed just outside of town toward the Elbert trailhead. I found the turn I somehow missed when I was there in 2008, and found myself a campsite in the National Forest campground. I would have just stayed put for the night, but what I didn't realize at first is that the campground was effectively closed for the season- the restrooms (pit toilets) were locked, but there was no fee at least. The manual water pumps (if they were operational at all) had had their handles removed, so there was no water. I set up camp and rode back to town to get water, and I also picked up some cookies and other carbs for the hike the next morning. It was starting to get dark as I made my way back to camp, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid. That wasn't the real problem, though. I realized, after it was already dark and I had no interest in going back to town, that the batteries in my headlamp were nearly dead. I also searched everywhere and didn't have a backup flashlight anywhere. I used to keep a mini-maglite in my backpack as a backup, but I probably took it out to fly somewhere. Of course there was no moon out at that point, and after a little while the headlamp was putting out only slightly more light than the stars. I managed to prepare and eat dinner, and did find a lighter for emergency lighting. On the positive, I did see more stars that night than almost any other time in my life.

It was still dark when I woke up Friday morning. I fumbled about for a while getting stuff sorted out for the hike. It started getting light as I was packing the bike back up, and the sun was rising by the time I got to the trailhead. The toilets there were not locked, so I availed myself of one. There was a pretty big group of guys of various ages (mostly 10+ years older than me) that left a couple of minutes before I did, but I caught up with them in less than 10 minutes. I passed most of them before catching up with the youngest at the front. He must have thought I was with his group at first, because he seemed surprised when he turned around and looked at me. After a little ways, there was a flat traverse section, and I decided to jog a little bit. In retrospect, I probably should have saved my energy, but I was feeling strong. I passed an older guy by himself just after the trail started climbing again. He caught up to me when I stopped for a 10 minute break not long after, and he said he was from Nashville. I think he must have turned back before the summit, because I didn't see him again. It was only about 15 minutes after my break that I reached tree line (around 12,000 ft), and took a quick break to put on sunscreen and sunglasses. It started to get steeped from there, and the air was definitely getting thinner. I met a couple coming down who had been at the summit for sunrise. The air was getting really thin by the time I got to the first of several false summits around 14,000 ft. I would only go about 50 feet before having to pause for breath, and every time I restarted from a stop I got a head rush. Fortunately, the trail from 14,000 to the summit (14,440) was not very steep. The wind, which had been blowing pretty good all the way from tree line, was particularly strong at the summit. Thankfully, there are several low rock walls for shelter. There were two people at the summit when I got there. I had them take my picture before they started back down. I didn't stay very long at the summit, mainly because it was cold and windy. I passed a number of people on their way up as I was descending. Some of them were not exactly thrilled to hear how much further they had to go. I passed the big group I had passed in the beginning just before I got back to tree line. I was feeling pretty tired when I stopped for a break just below tree line. I took my boots and socks off for a while, ate something, and relaxed for a few minutes. I was a bit more energetic after the break and clean, dry (but thin) socks, but it wasn't long after that I was feeling pretty sapped again. I pushed myself for a while, but ultimately decided that I didn't really have to rush and took my time. Ultimately, it took my almost 3 hours from the top to the bottom, and it had only taken me 3 and a half from the bottom to the top. I had to do some rearranging of the bike before I could head back down the gravel road toward town. I rode south and then west to the town of Gunnison. For whatever reason, the first chain hotels I tried were full (or only had an expensive room available), so I wound up staying at a small family-owned motel. It wasn't much and the room was very tiny, but it had what I really needed- a shower. I had dinner at the place the clerk recommended, but it was not very good and the steak prices were significantly higher than Austin's. After dinner I used the motel's curious hot tub in a little wooden house in the middle of the parking lot. It felt pretty good nonetheless, and soon after I was socked out in front of the TV.

It was very cold Saturday morning- the local weather was saying 26 degrees, which was pretty much confirmed by the frost on my bike and the several other bikes in the parking lot. I brushed the ice off and packed the bike anyway. I had breakfast along with the owners of some of those other bikes. We chatted a bit about our rides in the area until I finished and got geared up for my morning ride. I had every piece of warm riding gear with me on, and I was still freezing. The temperature had started to rise, but I had not yet begun to thaw when I got to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park about an hour away. I started to warm up in the visitors center, and moreso when I walked down to a view point and back up. Since a ranger program was starting soon, I rode down to the river to the East Portal ranger station. The road down might just be the steepest paved road in the US at 16% grade. The bike wasn't entirely happy, it was backfiring the whole way down. I found the talk interesting- it was about the Gunnison Tunnel, which at the time of its completion was the longest irrigation tunnel in the world, and is now a National Civil Engineering Landmark. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the tunnel itself, since it is still in operation, providing water for the area's fruit trees and other crops. After the program, I rode back up the steep road and checked out the vistas along the canyon rim. It was pretty impressive- very tall and quite steep. I don't have a great fear of heights, but there was one view point in particular where I had a hard time getting the proper perspective, and it kind of made my head start to swim. At another view point, there were rangers who were checking up on two rock climbers who were coming up just across the way (but still on the same side of the river). That was pretty impressive to see, but even more impressive would have been to climb the Painted Wall, which at 2300 feet is not quite El Capitan, but is the tallest in Colorado. It had warmed up by the time I headed out of the park around noon, and since I still wanted to go a pretty good ways, I got back on the road. The sun was getting close to setting as I was riding pretty much due west into Capitol Reef National Park, so I was having some trouble seeing, but fortunately there was very few other cars. When I got there, the park's one campground was already full, so I went on 10 miles further west into the town of Torrey and got a site at a commercial campground. I had a nice little campfire going and had even picked up some new batteries for my headlamp, even though I didn't need it nearly as badly as I had in Leadville, since there was a big artificial light in this campground.

Sunday morning, I had some breakfast, packed up, and headed back into the park. Since my legs were still sore from Elbert and I wasn't really geared for hiking, I mostly just rode to the various view points, even a couple that were down dirt roads. The one hike I did do was to a natural bridge. It certainly wasn't Arches NP with its dozens of arches and bridges, but it's always cool to see those weird formations. I paid the $3 and took the scenic drive, which honestly wasn't that much more scenic than the main road through the park, but it did offer some spots to pull over and take a few nice pictures of my bike. I headed out of the park around noon, and passed through lots more beautiful landscapes. I particularly enjoyed passing through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is rated as one of the most scenic roads in the country. I would definitely agree, it was pretty spectacular. It would have been nice to be able to explore it some, but that will have to wait for another trip. I did stop and check out Kodachrome Basin State Park, mainly because of the name and that once I saw it on the map, I couldn't get the Simon and Garfunkel song out of my head. It wasn't a particularly large park, and I didn't think the formations looked all that different from the others I had passed, but it was still a nice place. It sucked to pass right by Bryce Canyon NP and Zion NP and not have enough time to stop, but I have already seen them and really want several days to explore them some day. I headed east toward Page, AZ as the sun was setting, and was treated to a typically gorgeous desert sunset. The hotels in Page seemed to be pretty full and while I might have found a better deal elsewhere, I checked in to the Best Western. After dropping my stuff, I went out for food. For as many foreign tourists as there were in my hotel, the town seemed to be pretty dead. I had a pretty good dinner, then headed back. It wasn't too late, since I had gained an hour by crossing the UT/AZ line, so I went for a swim. The heater for the hot tub was broken, but the pool was open. The air was cool and the pool wasn't especially warm, but it was fine once I eased my way in, and I started swimming laps despite it being an irregularly shaped pool and the lights (in the pool) being off.

Dyno-mite!

Saturday morning I went on my first HOG chapter ride in about two months. We took a mix of highway and back roads to get to Marble Falls for breakfast at the Bluebonnet Cafe. It was nice to visit with some old friends, and a new couple who moved to Austin from Alaska not that long ago. After I finished stuffing my face, we took some back roads I've ridden countless times back to the Harley shop, where they were having their monthly lot party, which was also a "post ROT party." I paid the bill on my Fat Boy, and while I was in the service area I got talked into entering the Night Train into the dyno shoot-out. It pulled just under 80 horsepower and just over 92 foot-pounds of torque, which ultimately was good enough to win second place in the softail division, against pretty meager competition. The only problem was that I had to stick around until 4 in order to claim my prize of a t-shirt and a printed certificate in a cheap plastic frame. I killed some of the time I was there by having the Coyote Ugly girls give the Night Train a quick cleaning. Also, I left for a little while to ride the Fat Boy home, where Jimmy gave me a ride back to the shop, by way of his house where I helped him fix something on his daughter's car. Once I finally received my fabulous certificate, I rode home and chilled out for a while, then went back over to Jimmy's and we had steak for dinner.

I slept pretty late on Sunday, until 9, and then still had trouble waking up and getting out of bed. I had a little bit of breakfast and headed off on my bicycle to Alamo Lamar at 10. I couldn't decided if I wanted to see District 9 or In The Loop, so I flipped a coin when I got to the theater. It came up heads for In The Loop, and when I got inside I was pretty glad that's the way it landed when I saw the line of people waiting for District 9. I really liked the movie, I thought it was very funny- a good political satire. From there, I decided that since I'd never actually been inside the Capitol, that's what I would do. I stopped in to Patagonia along the way, but didn't find anything on sale I wanted. I was kind of pissed off that I couldn't find a bicycle rack anywhere on the Capitol grounds, and had to lock my bike to a street sign just outside the fence. I wandered around and looked at stuff for a while, then started to make my way home. I was waylaid pretty quickly, however, when I decided while waiting for a light to go to the Gingerman. I had one beer, and when I couldn't think of where I wanted to stop on the way home for some food, I just got an empanada there and another beer or two. It was around 5 when I finally left and started home. My legs were starting to get tired, seeing as this was pretty much the first time I'd exercised since Rainier, so I stopped into a market for some Dr Pepper and Twizzlers. When I got home I watched TV for the rest of the evening.

I got a call from Jimmy Monday afternoon to let me know he'd finished working on my car. I called him later once I got home, expecting him to come over and give me a ride to his shop. When I heard a car pulling up to the house, it was definitely not his truck, but was instead my car. I drove over to his house and we hung out on the deck and ate the rest of the steaks from the other night.

It was good to finally drive to work Tuesday so I could finally take my backpack home, since it had been sitting in my cubicle for a week after getting it back from Sean.

Today I rode my bicycle in, since the shower room in the building is open now. The new place is about two miles closer to my house, and cuts out a big hill, but to avoid making a big loop under the highway, I have to ride head on into traffic with no shoulder. Fortunately there was nobody using the turn lane I was riding in, but I doubt that will always be the case.

ROT

On Tuesday I finally actually rode my bicycle in to work. It went about as well as I expected. The stretch of road I was most worried about was mitigated by going through shopping centers and waiting for a couple of long lights. I stopped twice going uphill on 360 to catch my breath. I got to the office drenched in sweat and went to hit the showers. I had to wait a few minutes since two other guys rode up on their bicycles just moments before I did. I brought lunch instead of my usual going out, and ate it a little at a time throughout the day. I left the office around 5:30 after changing back into my workout clothes, which were ickily still wet after having sat in a plastic bag in the bottom of my backpack all day. It was quickly apparent that my legs were still tired from the morning ride, even though I was going downhill. It was really nice to whiz past all the crawling traffic, but past the bottleneck traffic light I had to worry about getting run over. I stopped to catch my breath near the top of the hill just before the shoulder pinched off. When I was rested a bit, I had to wait for a break in the traffic to get going again in a traffic lane until I finally got to a sidewalk. Down Manchaca I stopped at the farmers market to get some fruit before riding the last 3 miles home.

On Thursday I decided to blow off training for a few days for the annual Republic of Texas biker rally here in town. I rode the Night Train in to work Thursday and Friday. After work on Thursday I went to bike night at Twin Peaks. There were a few bikes when I got there, but they kept coming, eventually filling the parking lot. I ate dinner, then wandered around outside to look at bikes and of course the women hired to promote one thing or another. I went back in and sat down with some people from the HOG chapter, but jumped up to see the ladies competing in the bikini contest. When we saw the weather report including tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings, and a big angry radar blob headed our way, we all hurried up and headed out. I left around 8:30, earlier than I had expected, but I did make it home before the rain hit. Fortunately there wasn't any hail at my house, at least not enough to do any damage.

I didn't get out of the office until 6:30 Friday. I stopped and had dinner at Uncle Billy's on my way downtown. I parked just west of Congress, and started wandering. I went up Congress and got a beer as much for the novelty of drinking in the middle of what is usually a busy street as for thirst. I went up as close as I could get to the setup for Robbie Knievel's jump, which still didn't allow me to really see much of anything. I wandered down Sixth, checking out bikes. It was still on the early side, so bars were either empty or packed, depending on whether or not a group descended upon it. I made my way back to Congress, where the parade was starting to stream in. I watched for a bit, then ventured to cross the street. I went to the Gingerman, amazingly for the first time since they moved around the corner in March. A bartender I always talk beer with asked what I thought, and I gave a pretty noncommittal "it's nice." Really, it's a nice place, but it doesn't have the character (and certainly not the soaring ceilings) of the old place. When I closed out to leave, I found I'd only been charged for half the beers I'd drank, but I didn't complain. I wandered some more and started to look for a place to stand where I could see Knievel's jump. I sat down at 11th and Brazos on a railing such that I could stand up for a better view. It turned out that was the takeoff side of the jump, so Robbie was making runs up just past the crowd and fence. I couldn't see much of him as he went by, other than to know he was there. He did several passes before the actual jump, probably at least partly to build it up, since he was riding a wheelie at least one time as he came back up. When he did make the jump, I could only see a little bit of it through the trees between me and the site. There was a bunch of pyro, and then it was all over and people went on their way. I walked back to my bike, rode home and went to bed.

I woke up at my usual time on Saturday, had breakfast and went to the Harley shop, getting there about 8:20, and reported for duty as a paid "volunteer." I was originally scheduled to be working in the t-shirt area, but the motorclothes manager pulled me off of that to help in the helmet area. Because of increased police enforcement, they had been selling a lot of helmets that weekend, and needed someone who knows something about fitting a helmet to help out. There weren't many customers at first, but the started coming in more steadily after 10. By noon, the shop floor was one giant mass of people. I didn't have nearly as many people to deal with as the actual employees, but I was still pretty busy. Because helmets are all sized differently and nobody's really sure about the fit, I had to run back and forth to the stock room a lot. That was one of the challenging parts of the job, since there wasn't a lot of walking space to begin with, and with so many people it was tough to get through. Fortunately, everyone I dealt with was patient, even the group of people who weren't really that serious about actually buying a helmet. At noon I was pretty hungry and took a break to eat some of the mediocre pizza they'd ordered for everyone, then went back to work until 1:30. I was signed up to work in service for the afternoon, but I was going to talk to the coordinator to stay in motorclothes. Before I could talk to either of the ones in charge, another service volunteer grabbed me and dragged me back there. The service assignment was not nearly as good of an assignment. The biggest problem was that it was a lot warmer in that area, since the doors rarely stayed closed, and I was in and out the whole time. The other thing that made it an inferior job was the much drabber scenery. The only female who works in service is not nearly as cute as the motorclothes girls, and female customers weren't hanging out in that area. The job was to write tickets for any customers showing up to get service on their bikes- just basic information like name, address, and what was wrong- then ride the bike inside, and the professionals handled everything else. The work was really lumpy- there would be nobody for 15 minutes, then 3 bikes would come up in the next 5 minutes. There were three volunteers, and we would stand around and bullshit when there weren't customers. I was getting pretty tired of standing by 6:30, and there were almost no customers coming (plus they were planning to close up around 7), so at 6:45 I checked out with the service manager and went to check out with the volunteer coordinator. I had to wait a little while with a growing group of volunteers for her to come back prepared with cash and gift cards. I went home, changed clothes, and went over to Jimmy's for some dinner. We were all vegetating in front of the TV around 9:30, so I had to pick myself up and drag myself home before I fell asleep right there.

I woke up early Sunday morning for no reason. I tried to get back to sleep, but didn't manage, so I got up and went for a hike before it got back up to 100 degrees outside. I hiked along Barton Creek from MoPac to Camp Craft, starting at 9:30. I was hiking with my new 80L pack, stuffed with two pillows and weighted down with my mountaineering boots and crampons, plus 5 liters of water. I had previously weighed the pack at 20 pounds with only 2 liters, so it was somewhere around 27 pounds. The pack didn't bother me, but I was sweating within 15 minutes of starting, mainly from the temperature. The trail was pretty flat until right at the end, which I've heard called "the hill of life." My plan going up was to take a break once my heart rate hit 185, but I stopped at a nice little spot at 183. I drank some water and continued the little bit further to the very top. I walked back to the spot I had stopped and ate a snack. I decided I hadn't had enough vertical gain, so I decided to drop my pack and jog back to the top. On my way back to my car, I went down to the creek to investigate the sound of running water. There was a small falls and pool, with a few people bathing. I seriously considered jumping in, and probably would have if it was a few degrees hotter, but continued, getting back to my car around 11:30. According to the trail map I saw, the distance I hiked was about 2 1/2 to 3 mile each way, so I felt pretty good about it. I got lunch nearby at a taco place I sometimes go to, then went home for a nap. I slept too long, from 2:30 to 4:30, and was really groggy once I finally woke up. Once I did, I ate a snack and then around 7 I went skating at the veloway. My first 5K lap went pretty well, so I just kept going for a second. I contemplated doing some more, but decided not to push it, plus the sun was starting to set. Overall, I was feeling a lot more fit than I had in a long time.

Of course, I'm paying for it today. I rode my bicycle to work again, and my legs are feeling it. I discovered I had a flat tire from a staple within sight of the office, so I decided to just push the bike the rest of the way rather than change the tube. My legs were already tired, but they were burning trying to get to the office without getting run over. My legs are still a little sore, and now I have to fix my tire and ride home...

Midwest Roadtrip '09: Michigan to home

Monday morning I had a nice cooked-to-order breakfast in the hotel, then started heading south, meaning I was officially on my way home. After some nice riding through the Upper Peninsula, I got to the Mackinac Bridge in the afternoon. The bridge was under construction and all traffic was going over the northbound two lanes. It took a while just to get through the toll booth, then traffic practically crawled over the bridge. The bridge wasn't much different from any other bridge until I got to the center span. Normally, there would be an option of going over pavement or grating, but since there was only one lane I had no choice but to go over the grating. It was pretty unnerving, first because the tires wanted to follow the grate causing the bike to wander a bit, but also because when you look down, you can see straight down to the lake. I was tensed up the whole way until I got back on pavement and breathed a sigh of relief. Back on solid land, I took a detour to Bellaire to visit a brewpub a friend said I had to check out, but it was closed for Memorial Day. I continued on to Lansing to the Capitol, and decided to get some dinner. The brewpub I found on google was also closed, so I went to some roadhouse-type place I had passed. It was okay, but far from great. When I stopped for gas afterward a guy on a bike came over and started talking, asking about my road trip. I talked with him as I went about my business, and when I was done and ready to leave, he was still talking, so I had to politely say goodbye and get on my way. I finally stopped for the night just south of Toledo, Ohio.

My first destination Tuesday was Ohio's highpoint, which actually has a school built around it. Along the way I stopped for a couple of ABCs pics, and from there it was on to the Capitol in Columbus. I thought about stopping to at least look at the inside, but I just pushed on westward instead. I headed toward Indianapolis, but via Xenia for the elusive X. When I got to Indiana, it marked a major milestone, that I had ridden the Fat Boy in all the 48 contiguous states. Just inside Indiana I turned off the interstate to go to the highpoint. The road leading to it was closed six miles short of the highpoint, so I had to take town roads which were actually not far off course, just a little bit slower. The highpoint itself was nothing particularly special, just a spot in a small wooded area between farms. I had a snack while I was there and headed on to Indianapolis. I thought the city was pretty nice, at least the downtown area. That opinion changed some as my GPS routed me through surface streets out of town. Going along the interstate I realized my load had shifted. Concerned, I pulled over at a truck stop and adjust stuff to keep from losing everything. While I was there I took off and stowed my leather jacket and got some super glue to at least temporarily reattach the sole of my boot which had gotten loose enough to flap when walking. In Illinois, getting close to Springfield, it started to look like rain was imminent, so I put on my rain gear. I did get rain, but it wasn't too bad. It did, however, scuttle my thoughts of finding a campground for the night. After taking pictures of the Capitol, I decided I didn't really want to stay in Springfield at all, and continued south about 30 miles, and got a motel room in Litchfield at about 8. I had dinner at a little local place the clerk recommended. I had a steak which was huge but a little dry, nothing great.

Wednesday morning I had some great riding getting to the Missouri highpoint, and then to Jefferson City to the Capitol. The highpoint was down a gravel road, but then the path from the parking lot to the highpoint was concrete. I thought about riding the path, but figured there might be somebody who wouldn't like that. When I got to the Capitol, I decided to take a look around the interior this time. Security was almost nonexistent, I just walked in and started wandering around, taking pictures. The ride on from there was pretty nice until I got to Osage Beach. Not only was it raining the whole time I was going through the area (I did suit up beforehand), but it was an ugly tourist trap of a town, lined with motels and fast food restaurants, and lots of traffic. The riding was much nicer once I got away from there. I stopped for the night in Joplin, at a place where I took advantage of their hot tub and pool.

I got on the road at about 8 Thursday, and got to Rogers, Arkansas around 9. I stopped there because that's where the state HOG rally was taking place that weekend. When I got there, they were just setting up and things didn't start until much later. I got the picture I needed for the ABCs of Touring, and continued on my way. I hadn't planned on going to the Arkansas highpoint, since I went last year, but when I realized I would be going really close to it, I figured I had to stop. It wasn't too much of a detour (certainly less than some other detours I took on this trip), and it took me over some nice roads. I continued on to Little Rock to the Capitol. I decided to take a look around the inside, which required going through a security checkpoint. It didn't feel nearly as secure as an airport, but I did have to go through a metal detector. I walked around the place a little bit and took a few pictures, then started toward home for real. While I was still in Arkansas, the Fat Boy rolled over 100,000 miles, another big milestone. I hit some nasty construction traffic in Texarkana around 5. I decided to have dinner at Hooters and hope it would die down some by the time I was done. When I got back on the interstate closer to 6, it was just as bad, so I had to just deal with it. I was already feeling pretty tired when I got to Dallas, but at that point I was completely determined to make it home, even if it was after midnight. My last stop was in West, where I ate a couple of kolaches to give me the last bit of energy I needed. At that point it was late enough and I was tired enough that I was actually going the speed limit. I finally got home at 1am, having ridden 850 miles, more than I'd ever ridden in one day. I was totally spent, and I still don't feel like I've recovered yet.

Midwest Roadtrip '09: Minnesota to Michigan

Friday I got off to something of a late start, not leaving the motel until after 8. Then my GPS was acting up and couldn't route me to MN's highpoint. I was 20 miles off course before I was sure I had missed a turn. I stopped in at a small store and they gave me a map. It turns out that the turn I missed was only a couple of miles outside of Grand Marais, so I just went into town and got gas before I took the correct roads to the trailhead. As I knew it would, the road turned to gravel a couple of miles from the trailhead. It started alright, but worsened some on the way. I was riding along at a decent pace when all of a sudden I saw several potholes full of water. It was too late to really slow down or swerve, so I clenched up and went straight through, splashing water everywhere. I made it to the trailhead, stripped my leathers and started the three mile hike. It wasn't a particularly difficult hike, the first two miles were pretty flat to Whale Lake, and the last mile wasn't especially strenuous, but enough to break a sweat. The highpoint itself wasn't particularly impressive, but there was a really nice overlook just beforehand. I think my favorite part was a really nice beaver dam about a half mile in, and Wale Lake was also quite beautiful. I had been concerned about my knees, but they held up just fine. I took a different road back, and as much as I thought such a thing didn't exist, it was a good gravel road, very well graded, and much better than the road I'd taken in. It was almost 2 o'clock when I got back into town and since I was really hungry, I had lunch at the restaurant I'd had a beer in the night before, which was quite tasty. I then headed back along the lake shore toward Duluth. I turned off toward Ely, which was a really great road, nice long turns like I love. It also warmed up quite noticeably as I got away from Lake Superior, but not so much that I had to remove any layers. When I got near Voyageurs NP, the weather was looking threatening. I went to a visitors center, which full to overflowing with boat trailers, but not only was the place closed for the day (it was 7pm), it hadn't even opened for the season. Since I didn't have a boat and didn't have enough time to do some sort of commercial boat ride, there wasn't much I could have done in the park, so when it started raining I decided to head back south toward Duluth. I rode until late and finally stopped for the night just across the Wisconsin line from Duluth. The place didn't seem to be in the best location, but it turned out fine.

It was still quite cool Saturday morning, being on the lake, and I headed to the WI highpoint. Fortunately the problem of my GPS not being able to read its maps was fixed by pulling out and reinserting the memory card, so I had no problems navigating. I was dodging raindrops as I neared the highpoint, but didn't really hit rain. The highpoint was in a nice county park and had a wooden observation tower that gave a nice view. I talked to mom while I was there, while being swarmed by mosquitoes. I felt kind of silly at first, since the sun had come out, but it wasn't long before I was glad I switched from chaps to rain pants when I hit about 60 miles of rain on the way to Madison. The ride from the highpoint to Milwaukee was kind of a whirlwind of POIs, the Tomahawk plastics factory, the Capitol, the Buell factory, the Capitol Drive powertrain factory, the headquarters and finally the Harley museum. At the museum I sat down and had a beer at the bar and chatted with some people. I went to get some dinner at a brewpub nearby, but it was really loud and noisy, plus neither the food nor the beer were very good, so it turned me off to staying the night in Milwaukee. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted to camp for the night. There was supposed to be a campground not too far away, but I couldn't find it, so I went on to a KOA in Fond du Lac, 45 minutes away. I got there at 11, and not surprisingly the office was closed. I went to the tent area to crash, and figure it out in the light of day. I was unpacking and starting to set up when two guys came over to run me off. I tried to explain that I was only looking to stay the night, since their concern seemed to be more related to the holiday weekend, since there wasn't anything set up in that area. The guys went back to their camp, then it must have sunk in that I was alone and just wanted to stay until morning, and they said it would be alright. They came back a little later and invited me to join them for a beer, to be friendly and apologize for any confusion, I suppose. After I set up my tent and used the restroom, I sat down for that beer with the whole group, which included the two guys and three women (the older guy's girlfriend and two daughters, the other guy was one girl's boyfriend). I still felt a bit uncomfortable about the whole situation, but we talked about motorcycles and my road trip, among other things. It was about 12:30 before I broke away and went to bed.

I woke up at 5 on Sunday and didn't feel like sticking around, despite the lack of sleep. I got off at 6, headed north. At 7 I stopped and had breakfast at Denny's and felt better than I had beforehand. I got to L'Anse, Michigan around 11, got some water and snacks and headed to the highpoint. It started out paved, then good gravel, then it degraded from there. The waypoint I had in my GPS was way off, so I had to consult my book to get to the trailhead. I made it to within about a half mile of the trail, which was better than I thought might be the case. Honestly, I'm not sure I would have gotten much further in my car. While walking, my right foot started bothering me, a result of my ingrown toenail. It was a major pain, but I kept on and made it to the highpoint, which was swarmed by gnats. I spent a while at the top, resting my feet. When I got back to the trailhead, a carload of people had just pulled up, and another car pulled up as I was heading back to my bike. Of course they couldn't have come just a little sooner to give me a ride. When I got back to L'Anse I was pretty much exhausted, and rather than try to head toward my next destination, I headed up the peninsula to Houghton. On the way up I saw what I'm pretty sure was three bears run across the road. I checked into a hotel about 5, and laid down and took an hour nap. I woke up and went to a brewpub called The Library, which had good beer and good food. I stayed until 9:30, then went to check out the other brewpub in town, but it was closed.

Midwest Roadtrip '09: Minnesota

Tuesday it was pretty warm when I left the motel, probably about 75 degrees at 7am, but once I headed north and got into St. Paul proper, the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees. I stopped at the capitol, still expecting the day to eventually warm up. However, after about a half hour and starting to get cold, I stopped and put on my chaps. It kept getting colder as I headed north, to the point where I saw a sign reading 40 degrees in Duluth. I finally stopped again just outside of town for gas and drank a hot chocolate to try to warm up. I continued north, but it didn't get any warmer, and I was feeling pretty whiny and miserable until I finally stopped at a restaurant along the shore of Lake Superior for some lunch and hot tea. It was pretty tough getting back on the bike and going another hour to Grand Portage, where my original plan was to camp for the night. To add insult to being freezing cold, it started raining on the way. I quickly ditched the plan to camp and decided to stay at the casino hotel instead. When I got there around 3, I was still thinking I would make a run across the Canadian border, but it was still raining and that was the deal-breaker. I warmed up a bit by taking the stairs to my room, but that backfired when I tripped and banged my knee. I changed into my swim trunks and went to really warm up in the sauna. There was a Canadian guy in there, and we talked some. As is customary, I was super heated after a while and jumped in the pool to swim for a bit. I took a shower and changed and went for dinner at the restaurant, which was okay but nothing great. After dinner, I went to check out the casino (Grand Portage is an Indian reservation), which is all electronic games. I never figured out how to use my "free" $5, but my $1 lasted a while. It got to where I was almost hypnotized, and my brain shut off. I was hoping to either get to $5 and cash out or go bust and go to bed. When my luck turned and it seemed like I wasn't going up, I started betting a quarter at a time and before too long I busted and went to bed.

I woke up early Wednesday and repacked the bike. Since the kitchen didn't open until 7, I picked up some snacks at a gas station on the way to the marina. There were a bunch of people already there waiting to board. I had to rearrange some things on the bike, then went down to get my stuff and myself onboard. The two hour ride to Isle Royale was a bit boring. I did talk with one couple a bit, but half the people were asleep. I started reading some park information that was on the boat, but because it was pitching and rolling in the rough water, it wasn't long before I started feeling motion sick. I wanted to get to the back of the boat to get air and to see the horizon, but a guy had started talking to me about his trip. I felt better eventually, and then a short time later we entered the harbor that was our destination. I registered, then went to find a shelter to stay in. I selected the most secluded one on the end, not that there were many people there to make much difference. While it had been cold on the mainland and the ride over, it was beautiful and about 65 degrees, feeling pretty warm. I went for a pretty easy hike to an overlook, 3 miles away. The hike was nice, and I took my sweet time, stopping almost any time I started getting sweaty or winded to read my book. On the way back my right knee started hurting pretty bad, kind of ironic considering I had banged my left knee. It sucked and took forever, but I made my way back to camp. Ibuprofen and a nap helped my knees, at least until I stood up again.

Thursday morning, I didn't do much. I slept late (at least by this trip's standards), but it was raining in the morning, after an overnight thunderstorm. I cooked my breakfast inside the shelter, sitting on my little camp stool. After packing up I had a bunch of time to kill, so I did some reading and walked along the short nature walk around the visitors center. At 11:30, a ranger gave a talk on moose ticks until the boat came to pick us up. We got an earlier start than expected and made it back at 2. It took me a while to repack my bike and get away. I crossed into Canada and went to the Harley shop in Thunder Bay. Afterward I got some dinner at some place called Montana's. Whereas the Canadian border guard only wanted to know my plans and didn't even look at my ID, the American guard must not have liked my answers, because she waved me aside and I had to sit for a while while they did whatever, then asked me some more questions and let me go. I went south and found a motel for the night in Grand Marais.

Midwest Roadtrip '09: Texas to Minnesota

Saturday, the 16th, I woke up at 5, which was no surprise since I'd been waking up about that time all week in anticipation for this trip. I got off around 7, dressed lightly expecting typical Texas weather. South of Waco the clouds got dark and the temperature dropped. I was hoping that the rain I hit would be light and isolated, but it picked up and started looking like it was going to stick around. Unfortunately, once I realized this I was just past and exit and a few miles from the next. I was already wet and cold when I pulled over, got gas and put on my rain gear, which is never ideal. I kept on going, only barely slowing down (unlike many other people on the road) despite lessened visibility. It rained the whole way to varying degrees to my next stop in Denton. I was feeling pretty whiny and miserable at that point, but still determined to make good time. Once the rain let up shortly thereafter, it stayed pretty cool and I was feeling better, but still uncomfortable. At the subsequent stop, I changed to my leather jacket and chaps, as well as putting on a dry t-shirt. I felt like a new person after that, and had no problem making it to my designated stopping point for the night, Salina KS. I did, however, run into a triathlon in downtown Oklahoma City which made it difficult to get to the capitol to take a picture. I got to Salina around 6, had dinner and through the power of the Internet found a decent cheap motel for the night. I picked up some beer and sat in the hot tub for a while drinking beer and reading the newspaper I'd brought with me.

I woke up at 5 again Sunday. Since I was ready to leave at 6 and the continental breakfast didn't start until 6:30, I ate at McDonald's down the street. I rode north into Nebraska, then east along the interstate to Lincoln to get the capitol. I headed south back into Kansas to get the capitol in Topeka, then to Kansas City. The day had started pretty cool, but by the time I got to KC around 3, it was pretty warm, and I would have liked to take off my jacket, but it would have been a pain trying to stow it away again. It wasn't actually that bad as long as I was moving. I stopped at the Harley factory, which was closed, but I got a nice picture of my bike out front. I went to a brewpub nearby, which I would describe as a "typical" chain brewpub- nice place, but very mainstream beers. I got an inexpensive motel room nearby, then headed in search of some BBQ for dinner. I went to a location of a local chain I'd visited on a roadtrip many years ago (but not the same location). I got ribs and slaw, but I didn't really love either of them, and definitely didn't think the meal was worth the 16 dollars they charged me for it. I thought the ribs had way too much sauce on them, even after scraping a lot off. I went to try a brewpub called McCoy's, which had some good beer. I was almost going to call it quits around 8, but went along a nice road lined with beautiful homes to a place called 75th Street something-or-other. It was a nice place with a decent band playing, but I thought their beer was pretty weak.

I woke up far earlier than necessary for a 9am tour one mile away Monday, so I had a bunch of time to kill. Fortunately, after breakfast I laid down and dozed off for about a half hour until 8, then pretty much gave up waiting and went to the factory. While I was hoping the visitor center opened before they started tours, I didn't think it would mean it opened at 9 and the first tour was 9:15. The first tour was almost all people who had ridden in, some from WV and one from TN, not sure about anyone else. The tour was really cool and I guess I'd either forgotten or not realized they started making Dynas there in 2002. After the tour I bought a t-shirt and got my bike resituated. Before I'd even started what promised to be a hard day of riding, I felt like I could use a nap. The next problem was that an intermittent problem of my satellite receiver cutting out every once in a while had become nearly constant, so I had to shut it off and ride on silence until the next stop. I stopped at the Iowa Capitol and in addition to the usual pic right out front, I got what I thought was a cool pic of my bike in front of the cornerstone. I headed from there to the state highpoint, in the NW corner of the state. It was a rather unassuming mound off of a dirt road with a tall water tower next to it. On the way onward toward Minnesota I found that instead of my GPS's route over 5 miles of dirt roads, I could have come a much easier route with half a mile of dirt, and I would have seen the entrance to the proper highpoint parking lot. I went up to the interstate in MN and headed east. Since it was getting toward dusk, I had to override the GPS's almost certainly flawed route via state roads and stick with the interstate. As the light was fading, I stopped for dinner at Applebee's about 100 miles from St. Paul. After dinner I pushed onward, finally stopping just outside of St. Paul at 11. I got a cheap motel room, which was clean and adequate and all, but it had a weird smell and it was designed for the handicapped. Nevertheless, I managed to get a decent night's sleep, waking up at 5:45, but going back to sleep until 6:45.

Ill but recovering

Last week I went through various phases of a cold. Sunday through Tuesday I had a sore throat that was bad enough that I went to the doctor's office on Tuesday to get checked for Strep throat. The test was negative and the PA just recommended taking decongestants. On Wednesday my throat was feeling better, but that's when I really started coughing. It wasn't too bad during the day, but at night I kept waking up with coughing fits. Last night was the best night's sleep I've had in more than a week, after a coughing jag just after drifting off to sleep I managed to sleep until 6am. I haven't been coughing nearly as much today, although strangely my voice has been a lot weaker the last couple of days. Hopefully I'm almost over this thing, whatever it may have been. At least at this point I can be pretty sure it's not swine flu or pertussis.

Friday night I met up with Jimmy and family and friends to have dinner for his daughter's birthday at Hula Hut. It was rather crowded when we got there at 8, and it was after 9:30 before we sat down at a strange gathering of tables to accommodate all 16 of us. Since it was close to 11 by the time we were done and my coughing was getting worse, I went straight home and to bed.

It was pretty cloudy Saturday morning, and on my way to the meeting spot for my ride to Enchanted Rock I ran into a few raindrops. I figured nobody would show up and we would cancel the ride once I talked with the sweep RC. Three people showed up, undeterred by the threat of rain, and were willing to risk a few drops of rain to go on the ride. After we waited out what proved to be an isolated shower under an awning, the five of us set out on the ride. The ride went just fine, we didn't encounter any more rain, and even had some sun in a few spots. Just before we got to the park entrance, I pulled over and bid the group adieu, since none of them were interested in hiking. I parked and got ready to hike, changing into shorts and strapping on my backpack. I managed to pace myself enough going up the rock that I only had to stop to rest briefly two or three times, and I still made it to the top in just over 15 minutes. Probably helping this time versus the previous trip was waiting until I got to the top to have my lunch. This time I decided to descend the rock to the north. I went over a good section of bare rock before I found a small trail headed in the direction I wanted to go. This eventually led to a loose rocky stream bed, which made for much slower going. I followed the stream for a while, until I got past one of the smaller granite outcroppings and I wanted to start back around the back side. There wasn't a trail, but I decided to follow a small valley over to the other side. I wandered around the back side of the rocks, following what might have been game trails until eventually I met up with an actual trail. I was a pretty good distance from the enchanted rock at that point, and it took me a while to get all the way around it and back to the parking area. Since I wasn't following a trail, it's hard to know exactly how far I went, but I would guess that in the two hours I was there I covered about 4 miles. I rode home and vegetated briefly before getting cleaned up and going to a coworker's house for a BBQ. It was a pretty good time, there were several other coworkers and non-coworkers. Two people had brought their own home-brewed IPAs, one an American style and one a British style. They were both quite good. I stayed until around 10 and then went straight home, despite having thoughts about stopping downtown since I was passing through.

I woke up at 6:30 Sunday morning, but didn't do anything useful all morning. I didn't even have breakfast until 10. Just past noon I rode over to the Harley shop to meet up for a chapter 'road rally,' which turned out to be a lot of fun. One guy had set up a route to the chapter picnic, but didn't tell anybody what it was. He set up pie plates to indicate that there might be a turn ahead, but no indication of which direction. If you guessed correctly, there was a check mark to indicate so, otherwise you had to back track. The winner was the one with the closest mileage to the proper route without going under. At least a dozen bikes participated and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The picnic was pretty nice. They changed some of the games around and I wound up winning the jigsaw puzzle contest (handily, naturally) and the trivia contest, but that was only because it was multiple choice and other people guessed wrong and I got the remaining answer. I won a 500-piece Harley puzzle and a Harley Monopoly game. Later in the evening I watched a DVD for the first time in about a month.

Hiking the Rock

Saturday I did a pre-ride for a chapter ride later this month to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. I had to find a new sweep road captain during the week, after the original one had to drop out. He and I met about 9 am and went for a really pleasant ride. It was a nice and sunny day, it started off cool but I was getting warm under my jacket as the day warmed up. I wasn't particularly surprised at the lack of wildflowers in the Hill Country, considering how dry it's been the last several months, but I was hoping it would be better than it was. I don't think I saw any bluebonnets along the Willow City Loop, and it was probably the only time I've ridden it without going through any low water crossings. When we got to the park, Bruce went back home and I parked to go for a hike. There were a lot of people there already and still streaming in by the carload. I bought a Dr Pepper from a concession stand and sat down at a picnic table and ate the PBJs I'd brought with me. After lunch I started hiking up the rock, initially at much too quick of a pace. After 10 minutes I was panting and sweating and had to stop and take a drink of water. I continued up to the summit pretty quickly again and had to stop a couple more times before I got to the top. I finally slowed down near the top and enjoyed the view, even though it was full of people. I wandered toward the back side, being careful not to fall off the more sheer side popular with rock climbers. I found a hard-to-get-to shaded spot and sat down for a little while and read the paper. From there I made my way down the side of the rock, having to deviate from the direct route to avoid potentially bone-snapping boulder fields. I got down to the valley and headed further back into the park, pretty much wandering among the many trails attempting to circumnavigate Enchanted Rock. It got pretty hot in the afternoon, especially since I was still wearing jeans. I dunked my head in a stream I came across for some relief. When I got back near the road, I cooled off again from a faucet that had water colder than my water bottle. When I got moving again on the bike, I cooled off pretty quickly and had a pleasant ride back into town. Back home, I watched some TV before going over to hang out with Jimmy around 7. We went over to his son's place for some BBQ and to see his various project vehicles. A bunch of his friends were over so of course there was a lot of beer drinking and lie telling.

I had ambitions of actually doing something Sunday morning, but wound up lazing about until about 10:30 when I went into the garage to try to adjust the shifter rod on my Night Train and found that it was already as short as it gets. I rode over to the Harley shop to stage up for the Peace, Love and Happiness ride. It was a lot cooler than Saturday and very windy, which probably limited the turnout. There were over 100 bikes nonetheless, and it made for a pretty impressive stretch of motorcycles going down the road once we got started. Police escorted rides like that are fun to do mainly for being able to blow through intersections, though they tend to go on the slow side. I barely got above third gear for the first half and only got into fifth for a few short stretches on the second half. When we got parked at the Backyard, most people went in to see the concert, but I went with a couple of road captains to lunch elsewhere. I finally managed to do something productive after loafing a bit after getting home from lunch, and mowed my front lawn. Since I don't have much of any real grass at the moment, I just used my weed whacker to knock down the crabgrass and other weedy crap. I watched TV and started packing for my trip back east in the evening.

Cool, Sunny Drags

I got some workouts in last week, but I felt fat and sluggish. I did stairs Monday, Wednesday and Friday; and on Tuesday my Night Train was finished getting new forward controls, so I picked it up and then rode my bicycle over to the shop to get my car. I wouldn't consider the six mile ride an intense workout, but it was enough to break a sweat. On Friday I finally managed to watch the finale of Battlestar Galactica. I had mixed thoughts about it, but at least it was a definitive ending, not some ambiguous cop-out or launch pad for a movie or spinoff (Caprica notwithstanding).

When I woke up Saturday morning, the heater was running, so I knew it had to be cold outside. I left wearing a lot more gear than I was expecting to, but I should have had more. I wore my chaps, but just my mid-weight jacket and gloves. I would have been better with my leather jacket, but I really wished I had worn my heavy gauntlet gloves. When I stopped for gas in Sealy, my hands were so cold I could barely operate my zipper or buttons. I toughed it out, and made it to Baytown at 11, when I hit heavy race traffic. I sat there waiting in it, rather than being a dick and going around and squeezing in at the last second. It took more than an hour to go the last mile. It did allow me to warm up some, but it was really windy, so I was still bundled up and a bit chilled. Since the traffic was moving some, albeit very slowly, I couldn't get to my lunch or do anything useful. Once I finally got parked some time after noon, I then had to wait in line for ages to get tickets. Somehow I managed to get in the slowest line, and it was 1 o'clock by the time I finally got through the gate. I had missed the entirety of the third qualifying session of pro stock and top fuel, and got a seat in the grandstand in the midst of funny car qualifying. I stayed on the spectator side for alcohol and sportsman racing, mostly in the stands, but also wandering a little bit. Because I foolishly decided to sit near the top of the stands, where the wind was the worst, I never really warmed up, and seeing people walking around in shorts and short sleeve shirts didn't help. After the final pro qualifying, I went over to the pits. I wandered around for about an hour, checking out the work and picking up driver "hero" cards. Around 6:30 I was hungry so I left the track (which fortunately didn't take long) and went into Baytown for dinner at Outback. It was on the early side when I got there, so it was kind of dead. I had dinner and stuck around for a while. As I was getting ready to leave, a guy wearing a team shirt sat down next to me. I asked him about it, and it turned out he was rookie driver Matt Hagan. I chatted with him for a little while before I left and went to check into my hotel a few miles down the road. I stayed at the Holiday Inn, and when I checked in about 9:30 I could hear karaoke going on in the bar. I got my stuff into my room, and then went down to check out the bar. It wasn't such a bad place, so I stuck around for a while, and even did one karaoke song. It was about midnight when I went to sleep.

I woke up briefly at 6 Sunday morning, but went back to sleep until 7. I packed up, checked out, and headed back toward the track. I stopped for gas, a soda and some McDonald's to go, and continued on to the track. Traffic was fortunately quite light since it was still early. I parked and sat there eating my breakfast before going in and back to the pits. I wandered around for a while, checking out the preparations for raceday. About 10:30 I went back to the grandstands to get a seat for the last of pre-race stuff before the first engines fired at 11. The second pair out, Urs Erbacher had a massive engine explosion. It was so spectacular it was almost worth the half hour plus of cleanup. Another oildown in funny car caused another delay, and it was after 1 by the time the first round of pro eliminations was over. I ran to the bike to get my lunch afterward. I should have put on more sun screen, as it turns out, since I'm pretty red in the face today. I got a drink and went back to the grandstand to eat lunch and watch some sportsman racing before the second round of professionals. After the second round was over, I went into the pits, then back to the grandstand for the semifinals, back to the pits, watched final round, and then went to check out the winning cars in the staging lanes. I was pretty tired after all the standing and walking, and then I had to get on the bike and ride home. I left just wearing a t-shirt, anticipating getting overheated from a long delay to get out of the parking lot. Fortunately traffic moved, and it only took about 20 minutes to get to the interstate. I was a little on the cool side, but I didn't want to stop, so I kept on going, until the sun was getting pretty low and it really started cooling off. It was pretty hard to see, heading west, straight into the sun, but I certainly didn't let that hold me to the posted speed limit. After getting gas, a drink, and a snack, I put on my jacket and my clears and continued home, getting in about 9:45. I leafed through the paper a little before going to bed, exhausted.

Shreveport

I woke up at 4 Saturday morning. I tried to get back to sleep for a while, but at 5 I got up and went downstairs to watch TV. It was then that I found out my crappy DVR hadn't recorded the finale of Battlestar Galactica. I hadn't noticed earlier because I'd been over at Jimmy's Friday night and didn't turn the TV on when I got home. I was pretty pissed. I watched other stuff for a while, then had breakfast and finished getting ready for my short trip to Shreveport/Bossier City. I left the house about 8, waiting for the sun to come up and start warming things up. I realized I had forgotten something half a block from the house, but waited until I got gas to check if I had indeed forgotten it to go back home and get it. After running back into the house I was finally actually under way at about 8:30. It was a pretty uneventful ride. The day warmed up as I went on, but not so much I had to take my jacket off, just open the vents. I got to the Shreveport convention center about 2, got a photographer to take my picture in front of the ABCs sign, and then parked. The downtown area looked pretty boring, and the HOG rally looked pretty much like every other one. I would have walked through the vendor area, but it was only for registered rallygoers, and was certainly not worth my $40. I looked for a place to have lunch on my phone, and decided on what turned out to be a glorified open-air shopping mall with a few midscale restaurants. I was going to eat at Saltgrass, but it was too crowded and I ate at Hooters. After lunch I went and checked into my hotel, which required going through a stupid traffic bottleneck. I laid down for a little while, talked to my parents, and then went riding again, stashing my jacket in my bag still on the bike. It was about 4 at that point, and instead of trying to go to both Harley shops, I just went to the Bossier City one, bought a t-shirt, and continued east toward the state highpoint. The access to the highpoint was from a church parking lot about 10 miles from the highway. The actual highpoint was further from the parking lot than I would have expected, about 0.8 miles one way. I set out at a good pace and got to the highpoint, marked by a bench and a signpost in a clearing in the woods. I set my camera on the bench to get a couple of pictures of myself standing next to the sign. I looked around a little bit, then headed back to my bike. I passed three college-age-looking people going the other way. I was pretty disappointed with how sweaty I was when I got back to the bike. I thought at this point I'd be in good enough hiking shape not to be phased by an easy mile and a half in less than an hour. I blame it on the heat and humidity. Getting back in the wind cooled me off quickly. When I got back to Shreveport, I went in search of a brewpub that Google showed, but definitely doesn't exist, as far as I can tell. I went back to the same mall to try Saltgrass again, but was again denied. I decided to go to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner, a decision I almost went back on a couple of times before I actually ordered a beer. After I was sitting there for a while, a woman came up and for no reason I could discern, moved a stool over right next to mine, so that she was almost in my lap. At first I thought she had a speech impediment, but after a few minutes I was pretty convinced it was just that she was drunk. We talked a bit, but mostly I was trying to focus on reading stuff on the internet. I had shrimp for dinner, which was okay but not great. It would have been a lot better deveined, since the ones I didn't devein myself were gritty. I got back to my dive of a motel about 10, and pretty soon thereafter fell asleep reading the newspaper.

I didn't sleep well, I woke up every hour from 4 to 7, but still felt reasonably rested. I ate a waffle at the lackluster continental breakfast, packed up and was on the road a little after 8. The ride home took a lot longer than I was anticipating, as it was a lot more circuitous than the ride out (and ~70 miles longer). I stopped a few times for some ABCs pictures. The ride through Texas took me through 5 new counties- Sabine, San Augustine, Polk, Trinity, and Walker. It also added one Louisiana Parish, Sabine. One stretch of road toward the end- TX 21 from Bryan to Bastrop- was pretty treacherous, since it was a high-speed 4-lane undivided highway with moderate traffic, made all the worse by strong winds. I got home about 4:45 and collapsed on the floor and watched TV for over an hour, then went over to Jimmy's for dinner. I got back home about 10 and fell asleep in front of the TV.