I never saw it coming

On Saturday, Deceember 28th, I was going to meet friends to have breakfast and take a short ride. Less than 10 minutes after leaving the house, as I was riding a road that I have ridden a thousand times, a deer, hit me on the right side.  I saw this poor animal for less than a quarter of a second and the next thing I remember is being loaded into the ambulance.  I was extremely fortunate in that I did not suffer serious injury.  Scrapes and bruises and aches in places where I didn't know I had places, but, overall, I am in much better shape than I had any right to expect.  I hit the deer at 55mph.  This was the speed limit and I never had time to apply the brake.  I killed the deer.  And alas, I totaled my motorcycle, ruined my helmet and destroyed a set of good motorcycle boots.  I had on really good gear and this likely saved my life.

Anyone that thinks it is never going to happen to them, or that any helmet other that a full face one is sifficent is only kidding themselves.  If you ride long enough, you are going to need the best gear you can buy.  I have ridden over 52 years and never had a moving accident.  This was unavoidable from my standpoint.  To all of my motorcycling and bicycling friends out there take heed.  ATGATT. All the gear all the time.

My new baby

It finally arrived. Weather in North Carolina has been rainy so I bit the bullet, put on my rain suit and went riding in the rain.

A great ride

Utah has become one of my favorite states for motorcycle riding.  Then state has five national parks and numerous areas in between with beautiful vistas and great riding.  The ride from Torrey, Utah to Zion National park is spectacular.  We stayed the night in Escalante, Utah, where the accommodations were just so so but the food was wonderful. 

An eventful day

When we awoke this morning the temperatures outside 44°.  When we finally got on the bikes the temperature had not changed much. After riding about 100 miles it was time to stop and take off a couple of layers of clothing.  Not long after our stop a driver motioned to Ted that his bag was missing from the back of his motorcycle.  For the next hour Ted and I searched for the bag.  I spotted the straps laying on the highway so I stopped to do a more detailed search.  After about five minutes a gentleman came along in his pick up truck asking us if there was something wrong. When we indicated that we had lost a bag he said he had it in his car.  While Ted was extremely happy to have the bag returned, since almost everything he brought on the trip was in it, his computer was, for the most part, trashed.

Speaking of Ted, below you will see a photograph of him with his motorcycle.  If you compare that photograph to the one of me next to my motorcycle you will see a study in contrasts.  Ted and I are different in so many ways. Ted is dressed to impress, rides a very cool motorcycle, carries numerous coordinated outfits, and in general projects a very macho image as he rides down the road.  I, on the other hand, ride a motorcycle that many consider down right ugly, dress for the conditions, and look like the motorcycle equivalent of the Beverly Hillbillies coming down the road.  

The last picture you see is of a portion of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Tonight we are in Grand Junction Colorado and anticipate riding into Utah tomorrow.

A very long ride

For some reason unbeknownst to me I decided to test my limit as it relates to how far I can ride in 3 days.  I think I may have reached it.  I rode just at 2,100 miles from Sarasota to Crested Butte, Colorado.  When I got to the hotel last night I could not ride another 2 miles to go to dinner.  Ted and I took a shuttle into town.  

Tigger thought it was fun but he was a passenger so he got to look a scenery and relax.  I didn't stop a lot to take pictures but the one posted here is from a rest stop some place in Kansas.  

The beginning of the trip was a little auspicious. I left home in heavy fog, ran into a closed I-75 for about 40 miles, and learned that the new GPS I purchased was not functioning properly. Before the day was out, I lost the only pair of prescription glasses that I own.  

My friend Ted was at the hotel waiting for me when I arrived. Since a long day on the motorcycle for him is 250 miles he had a few choice comments about my sanity. 

 

My friend Tigger

Here is a fella that always has a smile on his face. If you look closely you will notice the smile is just a bit bigger than usual. That is because he is looking forward to his first long trip in five years. What a guy!

Jane's addition

It's not a motorcycle but here is Jane's ride.

Upcoming trip

Tigger and I are in the process of preparing for another of our long journeys. This one will be quite a bit shorter time wise and distance wise than our 2008 trip. We should cover about 6,000 miles in 12 to 13 days. Tigger is excited since things have been pretty boring for him lately. This trip portends to be the last long trip on the motorcycle pictured here. The bike is absolutely, for me, the best bike I have ever owned. However, on any bike, there are always a few additional things any rider would like. Well BMW redesigned this bike and put almost everything I wanted on the new model. So, I will be purchasing a new, 2013 BMW GS some time this Summer. In the interim, we will be leaving Florida on May 16th, heading to Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and places in between. We will be meeting my friend Ted for the western portion of the trip and hopefully I will post photos of our adventure along the way.

Goodbye to an old friend.

I have decided to change motorcycles so I can do some off road riding but I feel like I am saying goodbye to an old friend. My R1200RT took me on what was most certainly the trip of a lifetime and it performed like a champ. The problem was that there were many times that I saw gravel or dirt roads that looked so inviting and the RT just wasn't made for that kind of riding.

I have purchased a BMW R1200GSA. Some say its ugly. I say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is one of BMW's dual sport motorcycles and it is made to be ridden off the pavement. It is kind of the Range Rover of motorcycles. It works well on the road as well as off. My first trip will be mainly on road as I ride to Nova Scotia later this Summer. Hopefully I will get some riding time with my brother as well. Lastly, Tigger has been in hibernation way too long.

Epilog

My staff decided that the photo I published of my office was not representative of their efforts, so I have published a revised photo. I am going to try to post all of my photos at

http://picasaweb.google.com/BMWRider1946

Here are some statistics about the trip. In 49 days we rode 15,562 miles, visited 41states, the District of Columbia and 2 Canadian provinces. We visited 59 national parks, national historic sites, national monuments etc in the US and six national parks in Canada. Our longest day was 718 miles. I made five different shipments of stuff home that I didn’t need. We visited the four corners of the United States including Everglades National park in Florida, Acadia National Park in Maine, Sequoia National Park in California and Olympic National Park in Washington State. We had significant rain a total of four days. The lowest temperature encountered was 42 degrees in Jackson, Wyoming and the highest was 113 degrees in the desert of southern California. The largest temperature fluctuation experienced in one day was from 42 degrees to 103 degrees.

Being an accountant and typically relating everything to numbers I would rate the trip 9.5 out of 10. Mostly because of time constraints, there were several parks that we were not able to visit which I have never visited before and I plan to get to these parks on future trips. My biggest disappointment, outside of not being able to visit all of the parks, was the conditions encountered in California. My biggest surprise was the constant beauty enjoyed in the Canadian Rockies. Several people have asked me about my favorite parts of the trip and I would have to say the Canadian Rockies, Montana and Acadia National Park in Maine. Tigger liked it all. I was also disappointed that my friend Ted could not join me for any part of the trip. While I was ready to come home to see Jane, Wrangler, my co workers, friends and family, I was not tired of motorcycling. I could get on the bike tomorrow and do it all again.

I find it interesting that at any age a person can continue to learn about themselves. I have the reputation of getting bored easily and almost anyone who knows me well would have bet that I would not have completed this trip. I would probably have bet against myself. So it was with no small measure of surprise that I found myself enjoying almost every minute of the adventure. We had a couple of bad days, mostly dictated by riding conditions, but even those days had their upside. Interestingly, a number of people asked about being threatened or any fears or concerns I had. Never once did I feel any threat from another person. The most intimidating moment of the entire trip was our encounter with the bison in Yellowstone.

For those of you with whom I attended high school, I thought of Ms. Hamilton every time I wrote a post. I know my spelling is no better than in high school (thank goodness for spell check) and my punctuation and grammar still suffer as well. I could visualize her from up above grading each post and likely still getting very frustrated.

I want to thank Jane for being so patient and understanding. After putting up with my antics since we were sixteen years old and being married to me for 39 years she has become tolerant of most of my idiosyncrasies and my sense of wanderlust. Also to my friend Mike Retherford who posted a comment about the honey do list I would encounter when I got home; surely you remember Jane grew up on a farm and is very self sufficient. After all, Doug ran his dad’s car through a barbed wire fence and into a corn field on our way home from that farm one night. I also want to thank my partners for allowing me the time away from work and my team for covering for me while I was off gallivanting around the country. Also, thanks to those of you who posted comments on this blog. Hopefully you enjoyed my periodic ramblings and I didn’t offend anyone. Lastly I want to thank my ever present companion Tigger who made sharing the experience much more enjoyable. Even a 61 year old accountant can still have a bit of imagination and enjoy some frivolity in his life. For those of you who think maybe I have gone a little off of my rocker, you just never realized that I have always been just slightly askew. I hide it well.

PS - I have decided to keep this site active and post from time to time when I take future trips or just feel like posting. I find I enjoy it and it can be quite cathartic.

Days 47 and 48

I'm back home safe and sound. It was wonderful to see Jane and Wrangler again. Wrangler was just a little unsure at first as to whom this stranger was, but within two minutes had a toy in his mouth waiting for me to play with him.

The past two days were mostly riding on the “super slab” just to get home. Of course the last day I encountered 11 different rain cells as I made my way through southern Georgia and Florida. I stopped so many times to put on and take off my rain suit I finally took off my riding pants and just kept on the rain pants. It was too hot and humid to wear both at the same time. I have learned it is not the heat but the humidity that makes things uncomfortable. Riding in temperatures of 105degrees with low humidity is much more comfortable than riding in 92 degrees with very high humidity.

I returned to the office with a celebration of my friend and companion, Tigger. As you can see by the picture, my co workers felt it was appropriate to congratulate him for putting up with me for the past seven weeks.

I will attempt to compile some statistical information and post an epilog of my trip over the weekend.

Days 44, 45 and 46

On Saturday evening Tigger and I looked at the map, looked at the calendar and decided it was time to head home. We could get the necessary national parks passport cancellation stamps and still basically head straight home. I had promised Jane I would try to be home by the end of July and if we headed home Sunday morning we could make it. The ride Sunday was great. I felt like I could have ridden for ever and Tigger pretty much slept the whole day. After 680 miles we stopped in the middle of Nebraska for the night.

Monday was a different story. First, we lost a head light. Then, we ran into wind so bad we had to stop. This is the first time I have ever stopped for weather but the wind was gusting up to sixty mph and we were riding lateral to it so we were being blown all over the road. A constant wind, even a strong one, is tolerable because you can compensate for it. But strong gusts are like being hit in the side by an unpredictable force and can be quite scary.

Today we stopped at a BMW dealership in Kansas City and had the light repaired and the oil changed for the last time on the trip. We should be good for the duration. The temperatures were quite warm and the humidity is much higher here than out west.

Since I have been focusing on getting home I have taken few interesting pictures. I will try to post a couple tomorrow as I can barely keep my eyes open tonight.

Days 42 and 43

I am posting days 42 and 43 together because I anticipated covering Yellowstone and Teton National Parks in one day. Yellowstone is a park that has several diverse areas and we wanted to visit several of them. Mammoth Hot Springs, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Old Faithful were our primary objectives. It took us about two hours to reach the entrance the morning of day 42 and once we were in the park we ran into construction delays, heavy traffic and hoards of people. When I started checking on lodging for the night I struck out completely so we made the decision to ride over to Red Lodge, Montana and stay at the Pollard Hotel. It was a fairly long ride, but it was over the Beartooth Pass, a road Charles Kuralt referred to as the most beautiful in America. Unfortunately we ran into construction delays here also. Saturday morning we decided to ride down through Cody Wyoming and enter the park from the east side. In Cody we rode past the store that made the now indispensable motorcycle bags designed by Ted. This ride was quite pleasant, but again, after we entered the park the traffic was very heavy. We did visit the locations we wanted and we saw bears, wolves, bison, antelope, elk, deer, and fox while in the park. This is a park in recovery from fires that wreaked havoc four or five years ago. Amazingly, the burnt areas are recovering quite nicely. I had visited the park the summer after the fires and I was surprised at the rate of recovery.

As we were riding we came upon a curve and I caught a glimpse of a slow moving row of cars coming in our direction. To our great surprise the fourth “vehicle” in that procession was a bison. He was trapped because he could not exit on either side of the road and this was one of the few times during our entire visit to Yellowstone that we were not behind another vehicle. So there we were heading directly toward one another and I didn’t know if I should stop, keep going or ditch the bike and run. A bison is quite a large animal and very intimidating when coming your way and it appears he has his eyes focused directly on you. Before I had time to make a decision, he was right next to us and apparently had decided we were not part of his dilemma so he trotted on past and we “got the hell out of Dodge”. Tigger was too amazed to be frightened, but my pulse rate was up 40 or 50 beats.

I don’t think I will visit Yellowstone again in July or August. The scenery is quite pleasant and the chance to see the animals in their natural habitat is wonderful, but for me the negatives can best be dealt with by visiting the park during a different time of the

Day 41

The word Montana evokes a certain image of mountains, wide open spaces, blue skies and a laid back way of life. (Or 20,000 screaming pre teens) The ride today was a confirmation of that image. The high peaks were on the horizon but the ride was still a motorcyclists dream. The horses seemed to almost be running free, the cattle were well fed and content and the streams were full of fly fisherman enjoying what could only be described as a perfect Montana day.

We did not make it to Yellowstone but we are close. There was “no room at the inn” as the West Yellowstone hotels were full for the evening. We did find a room in Big Sky at the ski resort. Ski areas are always somewhat deserted in the summer so it is possible to get a decent room for a good price.

Ted, my good friend and fellow motorcycle rider, is one of those individuals who does not lack in self confidence. He is always looking at a situation or product and saying “What were they thinking? I could have done that so much better.” About six years ago we were riding through Cody, Wyoming when we stopped at a western store. On the wall were some unique duffle bags so Ted asked the lady where she got them. She told him she made them and could make just about any thing any one wanted. So I told Ted this was his chance to put up or shut up. In five minutes he designed a bag for motorcycling. The bag was expensive and when he asked me if I was going to order one I told him I really didn’t need that expensive of a bag. After giving me an extremely hard time about being a cheap accountant he ordered one for himself and one for me. As it turns out, that bag is the best motorcycle bag I have ever seen. When preparing for this trip I ordered a new bag designed by a big company for motorcycle touring. Turns out I shipped that bag home yesterday along with a whole box of other stuff I have not used and kept the bag Ted gave me. The bag I kept is much more functional and well designed. Ted, I thank you and apologize for ever doubting you.

Day 40

Today I was able to get on the bike but not for long. It seems my little “problem” has not moved all the way through my system yet and I found myself looking at the map to see how close the next town and the next bathroom were. After my third stop with less than 45 minutes between any of them I decided to quit for the day and hope my problem would work itself out (pardon the pun) by tomorrow.

On one of my stops at a roadside rest area I was greeted by a swarm of the biggest mosquitoes I had ever seen. Because of the wet winter, apparently they are quite bad this year and I thought I was going to have to fight them off with a baseball bat. Since the rest area had an open pit toilet that was basically four walls with a roof and a lot of ventilation they had invaded the entire space. I didn’t even take off my motorcycle helmet because it offered some protection. So, there I was, motorcycle helmet on, pants down to my ankles and my digestive system in overdrive trying to keep these monsters from biting any of the more vulnerable locations on my body. I am happy to report that my struggle was successful so I am not walking around scratching my … well you get the picture.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a calmer day as I hope to reach Yellowstone National Park.

Day 39

I spent the entire day in bed. Got some type of virus and felt like ..... I spared you any photos. Tigger was bored but was good company.

Day 38

Glacier National Park is probably my favorite. Two years ago I did a bicycle ride through Glacier and the Canadian Rockies. Some of the territory I rode on this trip, I rode on my bicycle trip. I entered the park from the east side and proceeded to ride the “Road Going to the Sun”. It has to be one of the two or three most spectacular rides in the country if not the world. Much of the road west of Logan Pass is cut out of the side of a very steep mountain. There is a significant construction going on because the roads were built many years ago and they cannot accommodate larger motor homes.

There appears to have been very significant snow fall this past winter since the snow melt and glacier melt is much greater than when I was here two years ago in July. The flow makes the mountain streams and waterfalls that much more scenic. The parking lot at Logan Pass was a zoo. I literally saw people nearly get into fights over spaces. The good thing about being on a motorcycle is that they have separate areas where we can park.

Day 37

Today would be another day of mileage crunching. We were headed back to the good old USA. When we crossed the border there were two lines and of course I chose the line that moved at about half the speed of the other one. The questions they ask you are always the same. Why did you go to Canada? Do you have any booze? Did you buy anything you are bringing back? Why don’t they ask if I am a card carrying member of Al Kaida or have any miniaturized nuclear weapons? It seems like that would be important stuff to know as well.

We were riding with the Mountains on the horizon but the ride was still very visually appealing. Much of it was farming country and it seems hay is the major crop of the region. The farms in this part of the country would appear to be much larger than those in Indiana. While the summers here at quite pleasant, I would imagine the winter could be brutal. At a gas stop I spoke to a lady who was also a motorcycle rider and she was explaining to me that on weekends she sells crafts that she makes during the winter because that is pretty much all she can do between November and March.

Day 36

We awoke to temperatures in the mid 40s this morning. This is the coolest morning so far. We layered up as we prepared for today’s ride. Another day in Canada and another day of incredible scenery. We did pass several spots where there have been somewhat recent forest fires. The regeneration has already begun, but it is still a little difficult to see the dead trees so stark and barren.

I have found the Canadians in this part of the country to be very friendly and helpful. They always seem curious about the trip and have advice on local places to see and things to do. They do get a slightly strange look on their face when they see me with Tigger, but I just smile and say “grandchildren”. That’s easier than going into an extended explanation.

Day 35

Over the years I have had many great rides, but I have never had a day where the scenery was as spectacular from beginning to end as today. I don’t believe there was a time during the entire ride that we were not at a spot that was photo worthy. I have come to the conclusion that we should trade California for British Columbia. I was originally thinking about trading California for the entire country of Canada, but that would not be fair to the Canadians, and the French Canadians don’t even want to be part of Canada so I’m sure they would not want to be Part of the United States. The British Columbians would no longer need to post everything in English and French, but could keep the metric system at least for driving. As a matter of fact I thing we should convert the entire US to KPH rather than MPH. There is something really cool about looking at you speedometer and having it read 125. They would have to change the name of their two dollar coin though. Coins should have noble names, not be called loonies. Lastly, the Canadians could have the wisdom and experience of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We did encounter a few of those mountain showers, but overall the weather was very comfortable. I would much rather ride in cooler rather than hotter conditions. After all, you can always add another layer, but you can only remove so many layers legally. And even if it were legal to remove all layers, I’m not sure the sight of me on a motorcycle in the buff would not create the same reaction that Godzilla used to create.

We did manage to visit four Canadian National Parks including Revelstoke which is the coolest name ever for a park. Tigger is thinking of naming the hundred acre wood after this park.