Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
We Made it
You can tell by the picture that we made it home, choosing to pass up Savannah and ride straight through 11 1/2 hours from North Carolina just beating tropical storm Fay to Central Florida.From Nashville made a jog to the east to Murphy N. C. to surprise Tom for his ?0th birthday on Saturday, and ended up staying a couple of days discussing how we would get home without going through Atlanta traffic. I took a few hours Sunday to ride up to Deals Gap, a famous stretch of US 129 in N. C. and Tennessee with 318 curves in 11miles. When I was done I found myself in the middle of nowhere with no short cuts home so I ended up traveling 180 miles to do this 11 mile ride.
Due to the storm coming out of Cuba and toward Florida we left early on Monday to get as far as we could. Early in the day we were watching for deer grazing on the sides of the road, but instead we encountered a black bear bounding across a couple hundred feet ahead... no time to get the camera out.
No long stops today, gas and go, a quick lunch and an occassional check of the map allowed us to make good progress. About half way to Savannah we decided to just keep going through a few showers and Jacksonville rush hour.
So 7,768 miles, 23 states and 27 days after leaving Sarasota we are safely back in Ormond Beach. We will try and post a video in a few days, check back one more time.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Nashville
Yesterday (Thursday) took us through St Louis where we did take time out to stop and see the Arch again as last year. Temperatures were 20 degrees cooler than our last visit and we missed rush hour traffic making our stop less stressful. If you look through our photos, you will find a webcam shot of us at the Arch. We passed through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and into Tennessee stopping in Nashville.
By chance we stopped for gas near the cornfield where, last year, we ate lunch and phoned friends. Another small mechanical problem with the shifter today. Again someone stopped to check on us, I hope that we will be as lucky one day when we have a more complicated problem. Near the boarder of Illinois and Kentucky we passed through the town of Metropolis, home of Superman... again not a lot to see on this part of the route.
Last year when we came through Nashville we thought it would be a good place to spend a little time so we will stay two nights here. We are walking distance to lots of entertainment on Broadway and Thursday night spent some time listening to music at a couple of spots. By midnight there were women dancing on the bar, as fate would have it the ones at our end were long past the table dancing age but didn't seem to know or care.
Today Friday we trade the Hilton for the Hampton next door, long story but they didn't seem too happy to see us arrive and not too upset when we canceled the second nights stay. Spent the afternoon walking around town, sitting around the pool and tonight we will find some more music and get ready for the last leg of the ride home.
By chance we stopped for gas near the cornfield where, last year, we ate lunch and phoned friends. Another small mechanical problem with the shifter today. Again someone stopped to check on us, I hope that we will be as lucky one day when we have a more complicated problem. Near the boarder of Illinois and Kentucky we passed through the town of Metropolis, home of Superman... again not a lot to see on this part of the route.
Last year when we came through Nashville we thought it would be a good place to spend a little time so we will stay two nights here. We are walking distance to lots of entertainment on Broadway and Thursday night spent some time listening to music at a couple of spots. By midnight there were women dancing on the bar, as fate would have it the ones at our end were long past the table dancing age but didn't seem to know or care.
Today Friday we trade the Hilton for the Hampton next door, long story but they didn't seem too happy to see us arrive and not too upset when we canceled the second nights stay. Spent the afternoon walking around town, sitting around the pool and tonight we will find some more music and get ready for the last leg of the ride home.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Day 22 Kansas and Missouri, uneventful... almost
Today was an interstate ride across the eastern portion of Kansas and across Missouri stopping near St Louis.
The trip was uneventful with a stop at a welcome center just outside the Kansas City Stadiums for lunch. The scernery was no less captivating than yesterday with lots of corn and sunflowers and cows.
In the middle of the afternoon a gas stop was extended by a small mechanical problem, a broken shift rod leaving us unable to get out of second gear as we got on the entrance ramp. A temporary repair using 2 plastic zip ties would get us back on the highway. A tatooed guy in a pickup stopped to check on us and directed us to the next dealership 5 miles up the road for a $20.00 replacement. Rather than take time to replace it there, we decided to ride on using the temporary fix til we reached the hotel near St Louis.
This morning we ride through town and may stop to see the Arch on our way to Nashville... hopefully it will go smoother than last year where we got lost and caught in rush hour traffic leaving town.
The trip was uneventful with a stop at a welcome center just outside the Kansas City Stadiums for lunch. The scernery was no less captivating than yesterday with lots of corn and sunflowers and cows.
In the middle of the afternoon a gas stop was extended by a small mechanical problem, a broken shift rod leaving us unable to get out of second gear as we got on the entrance ramp. A temporary repair using 2 plastic zip ties would get us back on the highway. A tatooed guy in a pickup stopped to check on us and directed us to the next dealership 5 miles up the road for a $20.00 replacement. Rather than take time to replace it there, we decided to ride on using the temporary fix til we reached the hotel near St Louis.
This morning we ride through town and may stop to see the Arch on our way to Nashville... hopefully it will go smoother than last year where we got lost and caught in rush hour traffic leaving town.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Days 20 and 21 Colorado & Kansas
A day of rest in Colorado seemed more exhausting for me than riding for 11 hours. We (Debbie) chose the Cog Railway over riding the bike to the top of Pike’s Peak. Even so the 14,000 ft altitude seemed to wipe me out by the end of the day. Debbie had thought this may be an hour, but the ride on the train is an hour each way plus our time at the top, so it took much of the day to go up and back. Since we failed to make reservations we had to be on standby and when our name was called we were assigned seats 31 rows apart. We agreed to that rather than take a chance of not getting a spot and we wanted to be on top of the mountain prior to the afternoons showers. On the ride up the conductor noted out various points of interest, big horn sheep, deer, marmot, and we could see Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and much of Colorado from the train.
On the ride back to the hotel from the railway we rode through Garden of the Gods, but were too tired to do any exploring.
Lot’s of excitement at the hotel in Colorado Springs. When we got back to the room we saw the hotel on the news where the police had tracked down someone hiding out here, and at 1 am I called the front desk to complain about the noise upstairs only to find that it was the paramedics there making all the racket…. I checked out front to find fire trucks and ambulance there and someone being wheeled away. Never did find what happened but at least they quieted down so we could sleep.
Stopped at the dealership this morning for an oil change where several other travelers were getting tires and service on their way home as well. We have seen many bikers on the road the last few days, loaded down and probably on their way home from Sturgis.
Today we left Colorado and began a long straight interstate ride through Kansas. Traffic and the winds were pretty light and the temperatures were warmer than we have seen since we left the Mojave Desert nearly 2 weeks ago. Not a great deal of excitement in Kansas as you may imagine. We listened to the noon crop and livestock report, and Paul Harvey on the radio since the Ipod was not charged up last night. That was the best we could find for a while.
We rode about 450 miles stopping only for gas, sandwich and Dairy Queen. Most of the scenery consisted of corn, cows and hay but we did pass another wind farm with at least 1,000 windmills over several miles. We had seen these before in Oklahoma Wyoming and parts of the Southwest but this was by far the largest. I told you there is not much exciting here in Kansas.
At dinner across the street from the hotel we were treated to a Johnny Cash Medley including “A boy named Sue”… I noticed the waitress singing along with every song.
On the ride back to the hotel from the railway we rode through Garden of the Gods, but were too tired to do any exploring.
Lot’s of excitement at the hotel in Colorado Springs. When we got back to the room we saw the hotel on the news where the police had tracked down someone hiding out here, and at 1 am I called the front desk to complain about the noise upstairs only to find that it was the paramedics there making all the racket…. I checked out front to find fire trucks and ambulance there and someone being wheeled away. Never did find what happened but at least they quieted down so we could sleep.
Stopped at the dealership this morning for an oil change where several other travelers were getting tires and service on their way home as well. We have seen many bikers on the road the last few days, loaded down and probably on their way home from Sturgis.
Today we left Colorado and began a long straight interstate ride through Kansas. Traffic and the winds were pretty light and the temperatures were warmer than we have seen since we left the Mojave Desert nearly 2 weeks ago. Not a great deal of excitement in Kansas as you may imagine. We listened to the noon crop and livestock report, and Paul Harvey on the radio since the Ipod was not charged up last night. That was the best we could find for a while.
We rode about 450 miles stopping only for gas, sandwich and Dairy Queen. Most of the scenery consisted of corn, cows and hay but we did pass another wind farm with at least 1,000 windmills over several miles. We had seen these before in Oklahoma Wyoming and parts of the Southwest but this was by far the largest. I told you there is not much exciting here in Kansas.
At dinner across the street from the hotel we were treated to a Johnny Cash Medley including “A boy named Sue”… I noticed the waitress singing along with every song.
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