7/18/09 -
7/20/09: Lake Mary, FL to
Cleveland,TN to near Detroit,MI to Iron Mountain,MI
Unfortunately rain during the first and
second days made photography impossible
of the more interesting sights....First
day left Florida and hit rain in north
through to into Georgia. Decided
to try "shortcut" to Deals Gap and to
run "The Dragon"...Got close to Deals
Gap but it was getting towards dusk and
the only thing worse than running the
Dragon at all - is doing it in the
dark! Rode a long long long way to
Cleveland, TN in the dark! (Day 1:
FL to GA to NC to TN!). Day 2 we
got on 75 and headed north to Detroit,
through Kentucky, Ohio, and then raining
again into Michigan..and more darkness!
Stopped in Detroit for gas and to put on
our raingear...would not stop at that
exit ever again! ..Not the best part of
town..but rain and gas made us stop!
Jim's new Garmin told us we had 56 more
miles to go...miserable rain, cold,
dark, can't see....this isn't fun any
more! But Mike (Keeli's cousin)
guided us to his home and life is good
again! Talked until 1:48am and
then decided to get some shuteye!!!
(Day2: TN to KY to OH to MI!).
Day 3: Rode up to Mackinaw Bridge
(featured on Discovery Channel "Dirty
Jobs"). On the way we passed over
the 45 Parallel..this is halfway between
the equator and the north pole, Science
Fans! The suspension bridge built
in 1957 is 5miles long, kind of REAL
high, subject to VERY HIGH winds and has
4 lanes, two of standard concrete and
two of grating...you can imagine my
concern since I am scared to death of
heights. It's not like I can close
my eyes for 5 miles, riding my
motorcycle over....When the winds get
bad enough they escort the vehicles
crossing so that they go slow enough and
there are no "car splashes" 140+ feet
below! I get my camera in
hand and begin the longest ride of my
life across a bridge...and you can then
imagine my surprise when I get to the
suspension part of the bridge and they
have closed it down to one lane each
way...guess which ones! The damn
grated lanes! HOLY CRAP! So
there I was, at what seemed like a mile
or two in the air, looking down through
the grating at the seagulls below,
motorcycle wobbling back and forth over
the grating, camera in my hand and the
damn thing wouldn't take pictures (found
out later that I had inadvertently put
it in "view mode" and was trying to take
pictures!). It took me a half hour
to get my heart rate back down to just
200 or 300!!!! Meanwhile Jim is
riding across without a care in the
world! We then turned onto
scenic Rt2, running along the great
lakes trying to get to WI....not quite
enough time..ended up within about 3
miles of the border in Iron Mountain,
MI. We unloaded, headed out to get
some dinner...suddenly a COP car is on
us!!!!! Jim found out MI has a
helmet law! But Jim told him he
was a Carlton and just like in Wachula,
FL...the criminal mastermind got off
with just a warning! Christine
taught him well and now he is determined
to use that trick in EVERY state we ride
through!
7/21/09: HEADING WEST!!!!!
Iron Mountain, MI to west of
Minneapolis, MN
Left Michigan into Wisconsin, back into
Michigan, back to Wisconsin then finally
into Minnesota...Route 2 on the Upper
Pennisula - you never know what state
you are in - except the state of
confusion. Nice riding all day,
past lumber trucks, etc through the
National Forests and back woods, very
few people and vehicles...but the SLOW
ones always seemed to get in front of us
on the 2 lane highway. This area
is mostly lumbering and tourists
(camping, lake, hunting, etc...but
mostly deserted due to bad economic
times). Ugly storms approached as
we headed south from Duluth, MN.
See the video, looked like 3 or 4
tornados getting ready to form DIRECTLY
OVER the highway we were traveling.
VERY scary...but I kept the camera
rolling for some good shots! Jim
immediately got off and we found a small
country store to get gas and under a
roof while putting on our
raingear....Saw Lake Superior and
Minnesota for the first time!
7/22/09: West of
Minneapolis, MN to Belfield, N Dakota
Left MN motel late, had rained overnight
but weather was wonderful the entire day
except a lightning storm in mid North
Dakota - but we stopped for gas before
we ran into it and it passed north of us
before we got back on I94. It is
FLAT out here! Averaged about
80-82mph a lot of the way. Gas is
getting MUCH harder to find! Must
remember that 99% of the gas stations
are now located about 4 to 10+ miles OFF
THE INTERSTATE!!!!! AMAZING!!!!
While riding through the last of
Minnesota we saw a herd of REINDEER!!!!
Full/large antlers and all!
Approximately 2 dozen were in a field
near the highway (and we went by at
80+mph so I fumbled too long to get my
camera and missed the shot!). Saw
cars near Fargo with DIPSTICK HEATER
CORDS hanging out of their engine hoods
while driving! Also noteworthy is
that we are seeing more windmills in
each state (Michigan had some big ones
near the bridge), Minnesota had one near
the mall, and we saw at least 3 large
ones in N. Dakota today. Stopped and
stayed at the Cowboy Motel in Belfield,
ND, near the Theodore Roosevelt National
Park. We went for supper at a
"Frontier Trapper Restaurant" and both
of us got a Buffalo burger - seemed like
the right thing to do, eat a Buffalo
whenever possible! CLICK
TO SEE ALL 7/22 PICS
7/23/09: Belfield, N Dakota to
Boulder, Montana
We drove through the Theodore Roosevelt
National Park - mostly a Badlands with
canyons and multicolored rock
formations, etc. Got a
chance to irritate a bunch of Prairie
dogs in their "town"...lots of squeeking
at us. Then we saw wild horses
pretty close to the road. Drove a
short way further and saw buffalo and
their young crazing. I let them
know we ate Bobby Buffalo last night on
a bun...then we hightailed it out of
there before they could get us on a bun!
We stopped at the Big Bear Harley
dealership in Billings so that Jim could
get his oil changed and lighten his
wallet by a lot! On the way we
also find out that the gas stations are
getting even MORE further apart!
We end up move some gas from Jim's tank
to mine at 3 miles from the next gas
station!...We ride through the Little
Big Horn area - if you remember, Mr.
Custer is the little-worse-for-wear from
his last visit here! .We then rode
to Boulder, through some more little
rain and some cold...starting through
some mountain areas in the dusk.
Found a old motel, hot, no air, 1930's
vintage???? Had to call a number
posted on the door and got the owner to
come over from one of the bars in
town....OH and no internet...sorry fans,
no log/picture/video updates...maybe in
the next town we stop in....nearer to
civilization/modern conveniences!
7/24/09: Boulder, Montana to
Glacier Park to Kalispell, Montana
We got up and started up through Rt15.
The first 40+ miles were beautiful
mountain riding...then we hit the
prairie. The wind was horrendous.
We were hammered for almost 70 more
miles with gusting sidewinds, my
fluttering top of my windshield, and my
helmet lifting up and down like a
jackhammer - good thing my noggin is
mostly bone! My neck and shoulders
ache for days afterwards. We rode
by a huge windmill farm near Shelby, MT
- about 75 to 100 huge windmills...and
more going up with cranes. We
started west on Rt 2 through Cut Bank,
MT, a small town with a huge two story
tall concrete Penguin which brags about
the town being the coldest place in
America. They also had a sign
about how many millions of barrels of
oil and billions of cubic feet of
natural gas they produce. Seems
like they should have a Walmart or at
least a traffic light!
We keep riding (through some light rain
for a short time) until we get to East
Glacier and the huge hotel built by the
railroad barons back in the day.
We head north through the "gateway to
the glacier" and get some advice in the
village of Saint Mary where we enter the
Glacier Park. On our ride through
the mountains up to Saint Mary I
happened to notice - there are no damn
guard rails! And it is straight
down 100's of feet to not-so-fluffy
rocks below! AND parts of the road
is covered with gravel (which is like
riding on ice to a motorcycle).... The
Canadian we get Glacier advice and
antidotes from assures us that there ARE
NO GUARD RAILS...BUT there are stone
walls, SOME of the way...so that is good
news..until he tells us they are only
tall enough (about 12 inches) so that
our bikes MAY NOT fall over the edge BUT
WE CERTAINLY WOULD! I am NOT
making this up! He also
notes that there are waterfalls which
actually run over the road and down the
other side, ice and snow year round,
avalanches of rocks and gravel and
snow/ice, missing parts of the road,
etc, etc. Note that I am not
comfortable with heights, depths, and
anything that washes/rolls me towards
them. HOLY CRAP, we start up the
road anyways! One more clue that
maybe I should rethink this, the actual
name of the road is - the
"Going-to-the-Sun" Road...hmmmm...I
wonder if it is going to go up very
high?. We start up and looking
back I can see the little ants..then I
notice they are cars weaving their way
back and forth through the loose gravel,
and sheer cliffs....my heart stops, my
digestive system clenches up into knots
a sailor couldn't undo, and I couldn't
pass a poppyseed even if my life
depended on it! I inch my way up
the mountain roads, more like goat
trials...to Logan's pass. I am
hunkered down as far as I can get on my
bike - I'd crawl on my belly just about
now so I wouldn't have to see over the
edge! From there we can see snow
glaciers above us AND below us on the
sides of the mountains, waterfalls
dropping for 100's of feet, etc.
Also a deer runs across the parking lot,
and two herds of bighorn sheep
relatively close on the sides of the
pass. Jim got ahead of me over the
other side of the pass and waits as I
inch my way down...going slow because IT
IS FREAKING HIGH, did I mention no DAMN
GUARDRAILS, and he is at the bottom of a
shear rock wall where boulders drop down
onto the road whenever they feel like it
and are the average size of an
Escalade! He is parked by a
bulldozer that was trying to build a
portion of the road back where it
disappeared 1000's of feet below!!!!!
WHAT WAS I THINKING???? Now
we get to the beautiful part of the road
WHERE THE WATERFALLS ARE HITTING THE
ROAD - RUNNING ACROSS - AND FALLING 1000
FEET! See my pictures (yes I
know, I am scared so bad I CAN'T crap my
pants - BUT I AM GOING TO GET THE
PICTURES - NO MATTER WHAT!). I
continue inching my way down the other
side while half of Montana is shutdown
in a traffic jam since no one can get
around me and I am not going to speed
up! ;;;;Needless to say, we
survived! Then we make our way to
Kalispell for the night, stop and see a
car show at the DQ, and then look for a
motel....ALL BOOKED UP! Horse
show, car show, etc and we can't find
anything....start riding south through
the hills, forests, around beautiful
lakes, through Indian Nations...it is
getting dusk/night and EVERYTHING for
50+ miles is booked!!! Stop at a
place the looks like a KOA wannabe.
All booked up. THEN the guy and
his wife say "we really do not want you
to go back on the road and ride your
bikes at this time of night. The
lady next door just hit a deer, lots of
people in cars are hitting them, and
mooses (meese?) are also running across
the road." They suggest that last
year a biker had slept on their pontoon
boat (parked on a trailer!) and we could
too, if we wanted to. We were
exhausted and agreed...his wife piled us
high with pillows, blankets, comforters
(it is unseasonably COLD, OF COURSE!!) ,
plus towels and soap for hot showers!
Things were looking mighty good!
AND they had a laundrymat. Don't
tell Jim, he probably doesn't realize,
but after a week on the road in sun,
rain, sweat, blowing dirt, plastered
with bugs, and wearing our jeans at
least two days each - WE REALLY STINK!
(In fact we are NOW BANNED from many of
the states we visited during this trip!)
So we say goodnight to the very kind
folks (charged us $5 each just for
showers and cleaning the stuff they
loaned us). We then start washing
our laundry at almost midnight...since
we want to get on the road early.
Jim gets done early and goes to the boat
to start making our blanket
"nests" for the night...he comes back in
in about 15minutes as mad as a hornet!
He had laid down and felt something
crawling on him, brushed it off and got
stung! IT WAS A HORNET! I
got done and went on the boat - could
not see anything so laid down for the
night at the front on the floor.
Jim tried setting up way in the back -
GOT STUNG AGAIN!!!! I killed a
hornet by my area, Jim killed one on the
wall,....AYE YI YI..A NIGHTMARE...AT
MIDNIGHT! Jim moves to the bow not
under its roof, and I am still at the
front....hunkered down... We fall
asleep...dreaming of rolling gravel,
plummeting waterfalls, falling-bouncing
Escalades, and voracious hornets....
...sorry fans, no log/picture/video
updates...maybe in the next town we stop
in....nearer to civilization/modern
conveniences (like electricity,
plumbing, INDOOR ANYTHING!
7/25/09: Kalispell, Montana to
Idaho to Ellensburg, Washington
We woke up very early after trying to
sleep on the pontoon boat, hornets
buzzing around, mosquitoes biting, the
dew settling on us, unseasonably cold,
and the boat floor was hard......I awake
at 6:30am (after on and off most of the
night) UNSTUNG, but mosquito-bitten, and
cold. A nice hot shower, loaded up
our bikes and got the heck out of there
as soon as possible. I did notice
the captain's chair (near my feet)
had hornets buzzing under it and flying
around like maniacs. I whack it a
few times so I can get some good
pictures for the website! If I
only had some poison I could send those
little flying bastages to a
well-deserved hell! We get
on the road and have a nice ride through
the rest of MT, Idaho (beautiful Coeur
D'Alene area)..AND this part of the
state is on 60+ miles across WAHOO!,
then into Washington!
Amazing...we find that east Washington
is very flat, plains/prairie, and desert
that is irrigated with canals and those
irrigation systems half a mile long on
wheels rotating over many of the huge
fields. They grown wheat, alfalfa,
corn, sweet corn, and potatoes.
LOTS of potatoes! We see lots of
Dust Devils (looks like a mini tornado
maybe 5 stories tall or higher sucking
up dust as they move across the fields).
We get to the overlook on Columbia River
and it is gorgeous...also viewed the
Ginko Petrified Forest national park
(6000 acres on opposite site of river).
We travel west and everything is turning
into "high desert", tumble weed type of
scrub bushes and dirt, rocks, etc. We
see another Wind Farm (25?) of wind
mills on the ridge of mountain
range. At our gas stop at
Ellensburg, WA we see a truck with NY
plates and stickers of windmills on it.
I talk to the young guy who is a
commissioning contractor for GE.
They are building windmills quite
aggressively. We decide to stay
the night here...and find out, just our
luck, that there is a festival in town
and most of the rooms are booked...and
ALL of the rooms ARE AT A HIGHER RATE!
We find a room at Super 8....AND THEY
HAVE INTERNET! I guess I will stay
up until 3 or 4am so that everyone gets
to see some pictures of Jim "Lewis" and
Ray "Clark" exploring America!
7/26/09: Ellensburg, Washington
to Seattle to Portland to Eugene, Oregon
Great weather and riding into
Washington! Getting into the
mountains and canyons and more
picturesque areas. Stopped in Seattle
and ate lunch at the waterfront, Space
Needle, Domes, etc...beautiful, cruise
ships, etc...riding south we got a view
of Mount Ranier. LOTS of
traffic...mostly stop'n'go headed north
for probably 25+miles....good thing we
were heading south!!!! The smell
of the hay and the grain was nice (a
nutty smell).
7/27/09: Eugene, OR to Phoenix,
OR (getting Jim a new tire) to Mt
Shasta, CA to Reno, NV
On our way to Reno, Nevada. Currently sitting at
D&S Harley in Phoenix, OR getting a new
rear tire for Jim's bike. He was
going quite slow on the curvy
roads...got him down to about 70-80mph
while taking pictures with his
right-hand and swatting yellowjackets
with his left! www.dsharley.com
Note these are the nicest people
we have met at Harley dealerships as we
have traveled across the entire country
so far!!!
We
continued on to Mt. Shasta, CA and the
drive through the National Parks which
include these volcanoes, Poison Lake,
ancient lava flows, boulder fields
(looks like boulders of molten lava
landed after blast.....all while running
through wonderful forests.....huge red
trees, evergreen scent......Ended in
Reno..from wonderful nature to mankind's
most plastic, gaudy, unnatural...arg!
7/28/09: Reno, NV to Salt Lake City,
UT to Park City, UT (Steve and Janet's
place!!!)
We start towards Salt Lake City.
We notice that northeast Reno smells
like old dead fish...(or is that the
Mustang Ranch??? I guess we'll
never know! (And that's our story
and we are sticking to it!) let's get
out of there ASAP! Along the way
Jim starts leading and Ray is snapping
photos like some kind of 75mph
demon-possessed camera maniac and is
lagging behind by about 1/2 a mile....A
woman passes him on her Harley Softtail
and then Ray's VROD suddenly shuts down
as he starts up a hill - in the middle
of the burning 105 degree desert...Jim
screaming along at 80+mph sees a Harley
in his rearview (the woman) and thinks
everything is fine...keeps hauling butt
as fast as possible. Ray coasts to a
stop at the side of the road..in the
dust...and the deafening silence of the
desert, the 110 sun beating down, the
buzzards circling..waiting on the
biggest feast they have ever seen - down
there standing beside his
Harley...already cooking! Ray
frantically calls Jim 2 or 3 or 12
times...begging for water....but all he
gets is Jims voicemailbox! How is
he going to survive out here in the 120
degree heat? How soon before those
mirages stop appearing? What are
those voices in his head? Can one
survive drinking urine in the 130 degree
heat? In his delirious state Ray
decides to try starting the VROD - holy
crap! It starts!
Unbelievable! Ray packs up his
last will & testament, may have been
"jumping the gun".....He rides off into
the sunset (East towards Salt Lake
City?)...The 3 dozen buzzards shrieking
pitifully as they see their Guiness-World-Record
"almost a feast" disappear
over the rise!
Great ride then coming over the
rise/mountain as we suddenly see the Bonneville Salt
Flats - AMAZING!!! UNREAL!!!
Just such a dramatic unexpected change
going over one rise!! We take lots of
pictures and then head on towards Salt
Lake City. We ride up to Steve and
Janet's beautiful home in the mountains
near Park City, UT. The nicest
people you could ever meet and Steve's
garlic burger, marinated shrimp, and
topped off with yellow raspberry pie,
WOW! Then Janet's wonderful
breakfast and melt in your mouth
blueberry muffins right out of the
oven...well you can imagine how hard it
was to leave that little piece of
heaven..."back to the interstate, Ben
Stone"...and back to gas station
breakfasts...lunches...dinners!...Jim is
a tough taskmaster and if we are going
to do another 1,000miles today, we can't
stop to get real food..or peepee...or
nothing! And as Janet always says
"NEVER EVER pass up a chance to pee!".
Yeah, you have to meet her - she is a
CHARACTER! More stories,
jokes, and obscure Bryan Adams songs
than you can imagine! And she had
us so stuffed with blue berry muffins
that our Harleys STRAINED PITIFULLY to
get us up the mountains the next day!
7/29/09: Park City to
Salt Lake city (Harley) to Rifle, CO
We sobbed uncontrollably as we left
Janet's huge breakfasts and tender
loving care to get back on the road!
We headed back 16 miles to Salt Lake
City to have the Harley dealership check
out Ray's VROD. We both had our
oil changed, and the result on the VROD
was...TADA..."Rear Cylinder Combustion
Shutdown" as an incident 13 cycles
before arriving at the
dealership...Hmmm. In plain
english, "This didn't sound like the
total shutdown that was experienced in
the desert....we don't know...ride it
and see if you can recreate it."
Well I have been riding it and all seems
to be doing well.....I guess my girl (VROD)
is okay...but just wanted some extra
attention! We head out on a
shortcut to Denver, CO by way of Vernal,
UT (to see dinosaur footprints!!!!) The
scenery is absolutely breathtaking!
(Or is that all of Janet's muffins I
stuffed into my belly suffocating me???)
The rock formations, the unusual colors,
shapes, windblown erosion, rivers and
lakes....wonderful! We finally end
up in Rifle, Colorado. The motels
are packed with natural gas drilling
people! Everywhere you look are
white diesel crewcab pickup trucks!
And every room has a Weber grill outside
the door...I guess those natural gas
boys like their BBQ! I wonder why
they use charcoal instead of natural
gas???? And another STRANGE thing,
they ALL seem to SMOKE!!!! I hope
they don't go on coffee/smoke break ON
THE JOB! Utah and Colorado
will have another Grand Canyon!!!!
7/30/09: Rifle, CO to Vail, CO
to Colby, KS
Started out from Rifle, CO and it wasn't
too long before we were seeing
unbelievable canyons, mountains, etc!
BUT then the rain began! AND THE
COLD! The elevation was up to
10,090 feet! "Mile high city" is
for wimps! We were 1 1/2 to almost
2 miles high most of the day!!!!
We put on our raingear over everything
we could layer...THEN THE ADVENTURE
BEGAN: the driving rain, the
bitter cold, the sharp curves, the steep
grades UP and DOWN, the rain slick roads
(and in some places - mud!), the
traffic, and the cars running through
standing water AND THE RESULTING
TIDALWAVE of water and mud off the
mountains covering us and our bikes!
Instead of the 70-75mph we anticipated -
we were running at half that.....
BUT if you get a chance to run Rt70 west
of Denver,CO be sure to DO IT! It
has wonderful scenery, mountains,
canyons, rafters on the river rapids,
many tunnels through the mountains, and
more! The clouds in the mountains
were glorious BUT hard/impossible to
photograph as we rode through the rain,
mud, freezing cold! Our hands were
so cold we could hardly bend the fingers
and the leather gloves were wet the
entire time. We battled to just
get through to Denver and anticipated
tropical weather as soon as we hit the
plains....not so fast! We broke
through the fog and rain on the city to
be met by more cold until we were
halfway across Colorado to Kansas.
We took a wrong turn after going through
Denver (Rt 76 instead of Rt 70, my
fault) so we backtracked and hauled...to
Kansas. We were so exhausted
fighting the weather that we collapsed
in Colby, KS. By the way, we heard
that Bruce Rossmeyer was killed in a
motorcycle accident out in this same
area today. One mistake can be all
it takes. This is a big loss with
all the millions in contributions to the
various children's charities, etc.
7/31/09: Colby, KS to Hays, KS
(Harley Dealer!) to Salina,
KS to Oklahoma City, OK
Filled up our bikes with gas on our
first stop, in Hays, KS and discovered
that my rear tire was showing the belts!
Only 8,000miles on it!!! Luckily
we could see the Harley Dealer from the
gas station and rode over. They
had the tire and replaced it for "only"
$299....ay yi yi!!!! We rode on
but the wind was BRUTAL! The
Kansas bikers we talked to at the
dealership said that it was nothing,
that they have 60mph winds at times.
They said it was normal to be like we
rode at about 30 degrees leaning over!
They did say they have a problem -
whenever the wind stops - all Kansas
bikers fall over! We rode on into
Oklahoma..not much to see compared to
out
west...flat...corn...flat...wheat...flat...WINDMILLS
(KS)...flat...flat. Did I
mention...it is FLAT out there! We
finally arrived at Rebekah's house in
Oklahoma City at about 8:30pm.
They had a surprise for us! Big
banners across the front of the house
and garage which Leah had made - brings
a tear to my eye! That and over
7,600miles of road to get there!!!
Rebekah (my sister, that daddy always
like best), her daughter Leah (13,
model-to-be), Ruth (my wonderful baby
sister - and a fantastic cook!!), Greg
(my cousin - a General at Tinker AFB)
and Marilyn (my aunt, retired and
training pitbulls with a weedwacker) had
a late dinner with us and we reminisced
about growing up and what a wonderful
brother I was and how they wished they
had been nicer to me and not made my
life A LIVING HELL. Hehehehe,
that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Of course everyone fell in love with Jim
and adopted him into the Shedden family
as their brother... In fact at
about that same time they disowned me!!!
The ungrateful monsters! Jim went
to bed at about midnight and we
continued our stories (including
weedwacking pitbulls for fun and profit)
until about 2:30am. The
murder-suicide, bulletholes in the
ceiling, and related ghosties and
goblins in the house didn't affect
my beauty sleep BUT Leah's snoring on
the sofa and all of her drooling
threatened to!
8/1/09: Oklahoma City, OK
to Arkansas to Memphis, TN
We wake up, still alive
and un-axe-murdered, in the
not-too-haunted house...and have a huge
Oklahoma breakfast with everyone, sweet
potato pancakes, Rebekah's breakfast
casserole, AND A SIGHT NEVER BEFORE
SEEN!!!!! - a teenager awake before noon
on her summer vacation - AMAZING!!!!
UNPRECEDENTED!!!! CALL GUINESS
WORLD RECORDS!!! We tearfully wish
everyone goodbye..and all the good
homecooking from Ruth and Rebekah!!! and
the modeling and murder-suicide
re-enactments from Leah!!! AND the
exciting pitbull stories from Marilyn "Weedwacker
from Hell" Hallett!!!
Unfortunately Greg can't leave with us
and escape BUT we wish him the best!!!!!
Rebekah hops on her motorcycle and rides
with us, PRETENDING she is a biker
hooligan, JUST LIKE US BIG BOYS!
We head towards Memphis,when suddenly
Jim remembers he better get something
nice for his wife...SINCE SHE STAYED
HOME AND IS WORKING HERSELF TO DEATH
while we goof off!!!! WE stop in a
little town - coincidently the HOME TOWN
OF CARRIE UNDERWOOD (Chictoah, OK)!
I help Jim pick out the best presents
ever (but he put them back and got
something else)...and then we ride off
to Memphis...We ain't nothing but
hounddawgs, a-cryin' all the time, we
ain't caught a rabbit, and we ain't no
friend of rhyme!!!!!
8/2/09:
Memphis, TN to Birmingham, AL to
Atlanta, GA to Lake Mary, FL (arrived 2:15am
8/3/09)
We leave Memphis and as we hit
Birmingham the rain starts and it REALLY
comes down...all the way through
Georgia! And the car wrecks are
all over the place in Georgia,
especially near Atlanta. The
riding was miserable, driving rain, then
lightning in south Georgia. We get
off to get gas and see someone has
plowed through the gas pumps with their
Jeep Grand Cherokee. Jim
experiences some difficulty starting his
bike during two gas station stops.
We thought we might have to stay in
Georgia but his bike fires up
eventually, each time. As we cross
the Florida border the rain magically
disappears and the riding is great, as
we race through the night to make it home
to our HunnyBunnies! We finally
make it back to Lake Mary at about
2:15am! Jim finds that his horn
and turn signals are no longer
working....We made it home, safe and
sound, only a little worse for wear!
TRIP
SYNOPSIS:
8,275 miles!!!!! Temperatures of
40 to 110+ degrees. Altitudes up
to 10,090 feet. Speeds up to 100+
mph. Rain and/or sprinkles 13 of
the 15 days (worst places were going in
Detroit at night and coming back in
Georgia at night). 22 states,
including: FL, GA, NC, TN, KY, OH,
MI, WI, MN, ND, MT, ID, WA, OR, CA, NV,
UT, CO, KS, OK, AR, and AL.
<=Remind
me to kill Ron Sandusky for these pict
graffitti!
