LATE VISION QUEST

TO READ

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:36:00 +0000

***********To view all the posts start by clicking the archives on the right side. Select the oldest archive date first to start at the beginning. You actually have to find the oldest header and kind of read from the bottom up.... yeah, I'm trying to fix it so it's easier. :)

Mileage

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Total miles ridden

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

Rain again

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:53:00 +0000

No pics for this entry, sorry. The entire day back into Indiana consisted of me outrunning a thunder storm. I was literally racing the clouds to the point that when I was slowed in some towns I would get rained on and then take off to get in front of the clouds again where it wasn't raining. Roads either head N/S or E/W mostly and I needed to go diagonal for the best success. If I would have headed North I would go right into the storm and if I headed East I'd still have to cut North at some point and possibly not stay in front of the storm. I put the GPS on just the map and sliced through backroads from Illinois into Indiana by pulling out the image just enough on the GPS to not head down a dead end or get on the wrong road. It was pretty exciting looking back and seeing the dark clouds coming the whole time while I was pulling 70-80 down the back roads watching out for pot holes or turtles. Yes, I almost hit a huge turtle that was just standing out in my lane looking around. I don't think he knew I was coming until I blew by him at about 80 mph because he jerked his head in his shell like a bomb just went off. The storm was farther across the North than I knew and I couldn't get around the front. I ended up having to end the day in Lafayette, IN about an hour and a half from home. I picked up some white castle and headed to the hotel. I sat at the hotel and watched the weather and listened to the tornado sirens going off. When the rain stopped for a minute I went out with my nice white hotel towel and wiped the bike down. Free bike wash! In the morning I headed home. If I don't get caught up in a job and end up making it out West this year still I'll bump this back up when I leave. Cheers, Rob

Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:21:00 +0000

I woke up and checked the weather again and for once it was the same as they had said the day before. More rain coming. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. I'm getting sick of riding under clouds and taking on and off my rain gear several times some days. Staying in hotels adds up quickly too. There was a thunder storm rolling through last night that I didn't mention and is the reason I ducked into a hotel room again. It luckily cleared up enough for me to head to that theater a couple miles away though.

I decided to head North possibly thinking of toward Colorado and see how I felt after awhile. The national weather showed MORE rain coming across most of the states. The reason that I'd went South into Texas was to get a break from the rain because the storm that were coming through literally extended down into Texas and all the way up to the top of the U.S.

By the time I stopped the second time for gas I had mulled things over and was fed up with having to constantly deal with the wet weather. On the weather radar there was a n opening in the storms coming and I was going to go for it and try and get back home and possibly go back out with better weather. It was really early in the riding season to take off when I did, but I didn't expect it to be almost every day rain. This was a big decision for me and although I didn't mention it I was dealing with the rain and what looked like to be rain coming almost every day it seemed.

I cut East and headed out of Oklahoma. Oklahoma had wide open spaces with rolling hills from what I could mostly see. Lots of Native American references here. There are signs when you enter or leave their land. For example I passed a sign that said I was leaving the "Cherokee Nation" I think it was.

Golden Arches. FYI- I never realized how many overweight people there are everywhere until this trip. The food channel is on as I'm writing this..haha.

Into Missouri

St. Louis (notice the arch in the pic) Don't know what the arch is or are interested in more about it then go here. St. Louis Arch

I stopped at a hotel called the Sooter Inn for $29 a night. Not bad for the money.

Texarkana

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:34:00 +0000

After Hot Springs I headed South to get away from the rain because it was coming again when I awoke. It was raining when I arrived as well btw. Well, I was caught in the rain again so I pulled off the road in the next stop which happened to be a school. It wasn't too long before a kid on a atv/golf cart mixture deal pulled up and wanted to know what size my bike was. He noticed the F800ST on the side before I was able to answer and started telling me about the bikes he used to have. I chatted with him while I was getting my gear on, and politely said "see you later" as soon as I had everything on because it was about 85 degrees and with the rain gear on I'll start to sweat profusely unless I'm moving. I will be looking into some different rain gear that is cooler for the summer months. I'm NOT wearing "frog togs!!"

The sky spit rain on me for the next hour, but never enough to get me soaked. After I was through things cleared up pretty nicely.

I at first decided to head to San Antonio, but then decided to head toward Dallas. I was a bit interested in seeing The Alamo, but when I thought about that it would basically take me two days in and two days out totaling about 4 days to see one thing I decided against it. In this heat I wasn't fairing too well physically. The sun was draining my energy and the seat just wasn't cutting it for this length of riding every day.

Here are some shots heading into Dallas. I always try to get the skyline of cities if I can and one of the pics turned out pretty good and showed exactly what I was experiencing. Insane sun shooting right through my visor on my face, heavier traffic, and you can imagine the heat radiating off the road. None of that bothered me at the time, but now looking back at it I know I definitely was tired.

I rode through Dallas after getting off the bypass and started out in the Industrial section and just headed toward the tall buildings. Dallas was just like every other city down town. I saw homeless people meandering about and taking up space on bus benches. I saw many business people carrying their brief cases and hurriedly crossing the street. I saw people drag racing from one light only to be stopped by the next and then try and do it again to make up that extra 30 seconds to their destination. I wasn't in any hurry really except that I did want to get off the bike for a little while. I headed through the city and I must have gotten to the "nice" side of town. The cars started becoming Mercedes/BMW's/Lexus/etc., the restaurants had fancy names, and there was quite a bit more landscaping in this area. Funny how people pay more to live around patches of green in a cit. And the people.... I'm pretty sure that half the girls I saw jogging were models or could have been. An Asian model type pulled up next to me in a brand new convertible viper with the typical huge bug eye sunglasses, but sorry guys I couldn't get out my camera in time.

I found a hotel just North of Dallas in Denton where I wouldn't be spending over $100 just to sleep somewhere. They almost gave me the handicap room again. Is it the haircut or my yankee accent?

There were a couple bikes parked next to mine. A couple full tourers and one had a trailer. The guy with the bike that had the trailer was filling the cooler on the trailer with ice and I struck up a conversation with him inquiring where he was headed and coming from. He said that rgiht now they were headed to a Hawg rally happening in Wichita, KS and had just back from Illinois. Hmm, if you know about the arrangements of the states here in the U.S. then you are thinking the same thing as me. Why in the world is he driving right past Kansas and then turning back around to go up North. He explained that they were doing another ride for the Ironbutt association. Very cool, I'd actually met someone that was in the Ironbutt association. If you remember, this is what we were going to try and do when we left home. He said that they went to Illinois to get a burger. I guess that is some ride on there where you go to a town a thousand miles away or so just to get a burger. I'll have to look it up later. The guy was cool and told me a couple other stories, one involving getting caught in about 4" of snow in N. Illinois last winter and one of his crew going down and his bike getting ran over by a semi. He said his friend was fine, but the bike was a total loss of course. You really need to have a bike like his to pull off some of those crazy long distance rides. I might be able to pull off that 1,000 miles in 24 hours with my sheepskin seat cover though! Maybe......, but right now my tailbone is hurting and I didn't notice how much until I went to sit down on the bed in the hotel room. Anway, I needed some R&R so I asked some people around the hotel office what there was to do and one mentioned a "Movie Tavern." At these places if you aren't familiar with them, you can order beer and food while you are watching a movie. I'd never been to one so I found it on my GPS, showered and changed, and headed out. I had a couple Fat Tire beers on tap and ordered some BBQ/Hot mix boneless wings while I enjoyed "Ironman." The movie was pretty good and it was after 12 when it ended. For some reason I ended up talking with the manager there about running one of those franchises. He was sent to that town to try and turn the place around. Yeah, there was me and about 6 others in the movie I was in.

Hot Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:11:00 +0000

After visiting with some family in Jonesboro, AR for a few days I was ready to get on the road. Over the previous week I had slowly started accustoming myself to the hardships of camping, trail mix, sweating more, and all this talking to people and staying in air conditioning I was thinking was going to make it hard to get back to the traveling routine again... I was wrong. After I was just outside of Jonesboro on my bike I was already back in the groove. I knew that rain was coming too so I made sure as always to have my rain gear packed in the most accessible place so it was easy to get to. I was about 30 minutes outside of town when I looked up ahead and saw the clouds opening up and pouring down on the road. It is really cool when you can see the actual line of where the rain starts. I immediately pulled off the road to suit up. I thought I was pulling into a driveway of a house, but it turned out to be about the most creepy "maybe" abandoned house I'd ever seen. I pulled up to an overhang from the garage next to it and snapped pictures of what I could see from there. I wasn't too interested in exploring... well I was interested, but I guess I've seen to many movies to go looking around when I'm out in the middle of nowhere. There literally was nothing else around this place for miles and there were some signs that someone might still be around.

Doesn't this make you want to go inside and say hi?

I didn't get a picture of it, but there was a big zip loc bag of water nailed on the wall next to the door..... strange.

Suited up I headed out and hit more rain. I rode through about 45 minutes of rain on the way to Hot Springs. It was only about a 3 hour ride there. Really pretty country though.

I found a campsite and threw up my tent and then headed to town since it was only about 4pm.

I made it downtown and parked the bike to take a stroll down and check out some shops and the area.
Here's a shot of some of the main drag in Hot Springs where all the shops are.

There were quite a few of these things. They were the "Duck Tour" and it was $4 bucks for a ride. I'm not sure where they get in the water at though.

I ended up stopping at a bar called "Capones, Ohio Club." This happens to be the oldest standing bar in Arkansas. I talked with the owner and I think he said it was established in 1905. The gangsters back in the day would come from up north to the nice weather in Hot Springs to vacation and this was one of the spots where they would have a few drinks. The cops had a bit of a unsaid understanding with the gangsters while they were there and didn't harass them if they didn't cause any trouble. I don't think I'd want to mess with Al Capone if I was an Andy Griffith small town cop anyway.

I don't usually drink more than maybe one beer with some food if I'm riding, but I planned on staying here for awhile because it was still very early... and they were serving free pretzels which happen to be one of my favorite snack foods... or for dinner.

I had a Jack and coke and then a Heineken.

I talked with a few other people at the bar besides the owner and ended up meeting Sharon and Joe who just retired to Hot Springs about 3 years ago from Dallas. He ended up buying me a beer and they wished me well on the trip before taking off to entertain their visiting son and his girlfriend. I was told by Sharon that she wasn't the one for him among other things. People just seem to open up to you when they hear you are doing something like I'm doing it seems. Very nice people.

I'm now back at my campsite which costs me $26 for a tent!! But I do get water,electric, and wifi so I guess it's not so bad since I was able to get caught up on my trip here.

When I wake up in the morning I'll decide what to do and where to go then...

Racing The Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:44:00 +0000

After Mobile, Alabama I headed to visit some family in Jonesboro, Arkansas. I saw some big thunderheads on the way north and I hadn't tried out my rain gear yet so I figured there's no better time than now. I suited up. Joe Rocket Phoenix 4 with liner, some brand of footies to go over my boots, Tour master rain pants, and an Icon Alliance helmet.

So here goes nothing. I'm doing ok for some slight sprinkling and then the rain starts to come down a little harder.

Problem #1 - My helmet face shield starts to fog some so I start a breathing procedure to exhale through my mouth downward.. fun stuff, but oh well.
Problem #2 - I cracked my face shield because the temp changed so fast causing so much fogging that I couldn't keep it down enough to see clearly. Cracking the face shield eliminated the fogging mostly, BUT it then let water start dripping down the inside of the shield which of course can't then be cleared by your glove or the wind once you close it back up. Lesson learned there... keep that puppy closed and get a better face shield.
Problem #3 - The rain started coming down so hard that even CARS had their hazards on. I knew as soon as I saw other vehicles with their hazards on that I needed to get the hell off the road. Whenever you are in any kind of heavy rain and can't get out of it make sure to have your hazards on. I'd rather have people see me and say to their buddy that I'm an idiot for riding in the rain than hit me and wonder what they ran over. If it's a thunderstorm... pull off and let it pass.

I pulled off at a Sonic finally and got out of the rain. I ordered a Coffee and a corndog and stripped off my rain gear all over around the table I was sitting at.

The Joe Rocket jacket with liner did a good job, but when I took my Tour Master pants off it looked like I had spent all morning drinking coffee and the rest of the day pissing my pants. I'll use my Joe Rocket Alter Ego Pants w/liner in them from now on even though they will be really hot in the summer rains.

I rode through the rain a little ways longer and tried to skirt the the thunderstorms to no avail. They were all around me and I ended giving in and getting a hotel room in Jackson, Mississippi.

It was early and there was nothing to do so I went to the hotel bar "The Hunt Club." Me and about 12 other patrons listened to some horrifically sang southern Karaoke for the next couple hours. When I could take no more I surrendered to my room. Did I mention that they gave me a handicap room? I didn't think anything of it until I went to take a shower and found out that the hand held wand had no place to be mounted so I had to hold it the ENTIRE TIME! I tried to tie it up and wedge it up for a few minutes but just ended up soaking the entire bathroom as it would inevitable come untied and shoot water everywhere haha.

When I left Jackson I headed into Jonesboro to visit family and was there for a few days.

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:29:00 +0000

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

Mobile, Alabama

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:42:00 +0000

I left the campground and headed into Mobile, AL.

I decided to take the tunnel to the USS Alabama Memorial site and tour the ship and the USS Drum sub.

Check out the size of a propeller!

Here's the shells those guns shoot.

This is where all the officers on board turn their names to state whether they are on board or not.

The bunks are actually pretty comfy.

The toilets were basically like an outhouse.

Replacement 40mm barrels

From the top of the ship

SR71 Blackbird in the hangar

Here's a tire off of the blackbird after only 3 landings. The Blackbird has the heaviest footprint of any plane ever. They have to take off with about a quarter of tank of gas and then must be fueled in the air within about 10 minutes. It holds 19,500 gallons of fuel, which is equivalent to about 2 1/2 truck tankers of gas.

Torpedo tube on the USS drum

On a submarine you were thought of as a waste of air until you had your dolphins. Silver for enlisted men and gold for officers. To get these you needed to know how to operate EVERYTHING on the sub. If you were a submariner then you were part of the "silent service."

This wheel operates the bow dive angle.

Ever wonder what it was like to look through the periscope of a submarine. In the next picture after this one after a couple minutes I was able to line my camera up to get a shot so now you know.

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:26:00 +0000

Wednesday - I stayed in Newnan a couple days, which was fine because Tuesday it poured down rain. So when in Georgia where do you go? To the Gulf of Mexico of course. I decided I'd head toward Mobile Alabama.

Ever heard of the Tuskegee Airmen. I had so I decided to stop there and take a look around. The only thing better than a good war movie is a Clint Eastwood western.
This is where the military trained the first black pilots. They thought that they would prove that the black pilots couldn't physically and mentally have what it takes to be good pilots. They of course were proved wrong.

This is a painting of Daniel, James who was the first 4 star black general.

After leaving there I decided that I would get my bike through the edge of Florida while I was near it. Here is a shot coming back into Alabama. There wasn't much to look at down here wile riding and the sun was blazing!! It hit 95 my temp gauge said.

Ever not have enough time for Ice Cream? Me either, so I stopped at this place.

Mmmm

I'm convinced after visiting that place that ice cream is to old people like a light at night is to bugs. They were everywhere. I couldn't find a place to even sit outside because the blue hairs had the place locked down.

Some of the gas stations were selling "Alligator Ice". I'm guessing it's just a green slushy.

Off the highway I was looking for a place to crash and following the GPS's instructions as to where it shows a camping spot. The roads around here all look like this. Pines, but I did get to see some palms in some areas.

I was about 45 minutes outside of Mobile and this stupid GPS lead me to what looked like a swamp with some huts build along the side of it. There sure as hell was no camping there. I ended up having to offroad down this road and do a U-turn after passing a NO TRESPASSING sign and coming under the glare of some very unpleasant looking swamp rat guy.

I decided to head closer to Mobile in hopes that the KOA campsite my GPS was showing would pan out.

Big long bridge heading into Mobile County crossing some rivers flowing into the Bay and then Gulf.

The GPS pulled it off on the third try. I pulled into the KOA campground and noticed though that there were no other tents and then I saw this sign. Is that the reason there are no people in tents.

Well, the attendant was already gone so I setup camp and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't become gator food.

I was going to get a drink of water, but I had to get in line.

The whole time I kept looking over my shoulder for ninja gators.

Right when I pulled in and started setting up camp I met a couple guys and starting chatting with them. Turned out they were state cops and were part of the drug task force. There "job" from April to September is to travel around to different counties camping and staying in hotels and go out and destroy Marijuana fields that are spotted for them by a police helicopter. They had a trailer with a couple big 4x4 atv's on it. They spend most of the day riding the atv's destroying fields and arresting people if it's on their land. They were really cool and we exchanged some riding stories because they used to ride often. They gave me a shirt and hat that say "Alabama Marijuana Eradication" haha. They also gave me a couple bottles of water because I was running low and tossed me an apple. One thing that I thought was interesting was that I told them that I went to Tuskegee and they said that there used to be a Walmart there and that it was the only one that ever closed and it closed because the employee theft was so incredible that they couldn't keep it open. I don't know if it's the only one that ever closed or just the only one closed because of theft, but either way that's a LOT of stealing to shut a Walmart down.

The noises were insane that night. Bullfrogs, tree frogs, unfamiliar birds, things I don't know what they were, and some stupid little lap dog kept barking probably scared to death that his owners put him outside there. I sorta wished that an alligator would eat him after awhile.

Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:25:00 +0000

Monday - Adrian and I woke up at about 7am and tried to stay asleep and in the tent as long as possible because we could see our breath. It was damn cold. It had to be in the 40's I'd guess. We couldn't stay asleep so we got up and layered up in some clothes and hung around the deck and a pavillion where the sun was hitting.

Oh yeah, when I was talking about Adrian becoming obsessed, just ask him about his sticker. This little route 129 dragon sticker that he bought had a bubble in it when he put it on his windshield.... This was the day the earth stood still for Adrian... This Evil bubble would not let Adrian rest until it was vanquished. I probably cannot count on both hands how many times Adrian went on about this bubble. Adrian was entertaining me with this actually and I wondered if it would ever end. Adrian's plight finally ended when he went to purchase another sticker and they guy let him have another for free after hearing the horror story of the bubble. I've thought that maybe his nickname should change from "Asshat" to "Bubbleboy" or maybe "Sticker."

Moved the tent to the sun to dry off the dew.

Here's a pic of a couple of the cabins that you can rent.

We got everything loaded up and said goodbyes to Jody and Sherry who were sitting on their deck talking some business with someone. As we rounded a corner about a mile away we passed by their Punkin Center store and I honked at Burt who I saw setting up his displays at his spot on the side of the building. Couldn't have asked for a better time camping. http://www.punkincentermotorcycleresort.com/

We planned on riding the Cherahola Skyway which took us through the dragon again. The dragon just gets to be more fun every time you go through it. Even fully loaded we were pretty aggressive on the turns and reeling people in and then waiting for them to let us pass.

We had a little ways before we reached the Cherahola Skyway so we filled our gas tanks and then ate lunch at a Wendy's. Besides bikes ALL OVER there were also still some badass cars out here to drive these routes and we were behind a brand new vette with a license plate that said "180 PLUS" on our way to Cherahola. The little road up to the Skyway led us to a police checkpoint where they checked our ID's for some reason. No problem there and we were still behind the vette driving through some twisties and we were pacing right behind him, but suddenly the road switched to gravel where they were doing some construction. I thought the vette was going to come to a complete stop and the guy in the Vette was going to come to a complete stop he freaked out so much about his new car being on gravel. We made it through that and continued to stay on the Vettes ass until he pulled to the side and waved us around throwing up the peace sign. I'd like to think of it as he yielded to us because he couldn't out do us in the turns.

We finally made it onto the actual Cherahola Skyway and the road became smooth and more open as we headed upward in elevation. This thing tops out at over 5,000 feet. For a comparison I'd say that you could look at the Dragon's tail as an autocross course and the Cherahola Skyway as a large road course such as Gingerman or Buttonwillow, etc. This ride was nothing short of the most fun I've had on my motorcycle ever. We're talking 70 - 100+ mph sweepers in the mountains with a spectacular view.

We saw an ambulance and a cop car go flying by when we were at an overlook stopped and thought unfortunately there was probably an accident up ahead. We rounded a corner later and came upon a car stopped with a guy telling us that the road was closed and we had to turn back. This was just a regular joe helping out so we pulled off on the side and decided to wait and see if we could get through because we were already 45 minutes into the skyway and turning back really wasn't an option. Another guy pulled up with us on a Hayabusa and parked to see if we could get through.

We talked to this guy a little bit and he was up from Florida to ride here. Turns out we were right around the corner from the accident and didn't know it. We heard that it was a group of about 8-10 guys on full dresser cruisers and one took a tumble for some reason. He wasn't moving someone said. Including this, it was the third accident in the last two days. Two were on the dragon and they were involving two cars and the other was a van and a bike where the rider had to be airlifted to a hospital. I'm thinking that they were either planning on airlifting this guy out or he was already gone because the ambulance wasn't taking off with him. We were finally let through and I could see that his bike was slammed flat somewhat in front and the windshield/top was knocked down. Hope he was alright.

We finished the Cherahola Skyway and rode through some more scenic routes down by a river and then pulled off at a gas station. This is where Adrian and I said goodbye and we parted ways down the road about 10 miles. He was going to see a friend in Kentucky and then head back home. I headed off to Newnan, GA to visit family.

SUNDAY/RAINY DAY

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:47:00 +0000

Before getting to sleep let me tell you what was going on in the park. There were motorcycles doing burnouts... AWESOME. The main reason that it was awesome was because this camp ground had a burnout box just for you to do that!! There was then a drunk ass that hopped into his Mustang and couldn't figure out how to do a burnout without launching his car and then slamming on his brakes. Persistent guy though, but his fun finally ended when he tried on last time and the car lurched about a car length and he jerked the wheel hitting some gravel and throwing it all over a truck and another guys bike. The next day we heard that the owner of the bike had chips in the paint and it was a custom paint job so they were trying to get a hold of the guy in the Mustang to pay for the damage.

I mentioned that I thought that 22 bucks was expensive, but after checking things out in the park here is what it offered for that. Showers, Pavillion, fire pits, paved parking at your site, a BIG deck on the side of the office w/Direct TV, DVD Player, Stereo, Beer on tap!!!, and the owner would take your order for food and cook it in the kitchen she built.

So on with the morning. The rain was coming and we knew it so we decided to get a couple of runs on the dragon. This time we were starting to become more confident on the bikes and turns. It is a quick learning curve here because all you are literally doing is judging speed and taking turns for about 13 minutes straight. We were starting to take the corners faster and leaner farther. We were reeling more riders in now and very seldom having people come up behind us except for the squids. The knee dragging leather suit wearing power ranger looking fellas are called squids because of the way the shoot down the straight aways to slow up at the corners and then shoot down the straight away again sort of like how a squid propels itself.

Other riders were good about updating you about cops by either patting the helmet to signal a cop ahead of you or patting down in the air saying to slow down.

So here we are at Deal's Gap Resort and it was a Sunday so there was a decent crowd there.

This is looking the other way. You can see that there are bunkhouses so you could stay RIGHT at the end of the dragon and ride it all day if you wanted. Toward the right you can see the Tree of Shame where you can donate a part from your wrecked bike if you wish. Many have dates/names/and short descriptions of how they wrecked.
Oh yeah, there was about every kind of sports car going through as well. Turbo 350Z's, Porsches, Corvettes, rhd 300zx, etc.

The required nice lady was found to take a pic of us both.

Want a T-shirt?

My new horn must be pretty popular around here... even chrome.

Alright, so we get back to camp as the rain starts pouring down. We showered and the owner lady named Sherry made us some lunch. A Canadian guy pulled up on his bike and said that he was separated from all his friend and they must be trapped in the rain somewhere. He said they trailered all their bikes down from Toronto about 16 hours. You can see their trailer in the back of the picture of my tent if you look. The really did say "Eh" a lot.

From here on out is when things got really cool and Adrian became possessed in a way as well. Let me tell you a little more about this place. We met quite a few people hanging out on the deck and everyone shared some stories.

Here's a shot of the deck so you can see that we definitely weren't roughing it here! You could sit up here as long as you wanted and watch satellite tv and use their phone for free.

Meet Willy- Of course he couldn't tell his story, but his story was that he was brought home by one of the owners Sherry and Jody/husband. While Sherry was gone one day Willy decided to eat a goat. The problem with that was that they are Sherry's goats and Jody saw Willy slam this goat to the ground. Jody also happens to be an avid hunter. Jody wasn't really attached to the dog apparently so he took about a hundred yard shot with a rifle and put one through Willy's neck. Willy dropped, then got up and ran. Jody told Sherry when she got home what happened and that he ran off to die. Sherry pointed at Willy sitting right behind him. They then paid a few hundred at the vet and Willy hasn't attacked a goat since.

Dutchess -
You think she's going to tear your face off Cujo style right. Nope, she actually smiles when she's happy.

Here's a picture of Sherry the owner hanging out after cooking some pizzas for the Canadians.

So we both had some patches that we bought and learned that "Burt" the guy that sells some patches and stickers lives in a cabin on the campsite and he'll come down and sew them on if we go get them. It was probably about 8 or 10 o'clock (who cares) and he came down with his rebel flag pajama bottoms on saying that he had just finished smoking a big fatty. He had been kinda rained out earlier since he sets up outside so he was happy to get a little business. He was in such a good mood that after talking a bit he brought me down some apple pie moonshine. I had no idea moonshine could be so smooth.... Burt was from New Mexico and is an ex-marine that used to be in a biker gang.
Here's a pic of his truck and him sewing the patches on in the back of his rig.

More pics from Adrian's camera later and the rest of the nights happenings...

Saturday 5/17

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:43:00 +0000

Saturday came and I awoke (hell I was alive and not in jail so all is good) with a little bit of a hangover and some puffy eyes. I downed a lot of water and ate a Cliff bar and that helped quite a bit. Adrian was complaining of a headache but trying to look tough.

We decided to load up and head to The Dragon's Tail. It wasn't a bad ride there except there was still some soreness from the day before since any initial rides to prepare as much as possible were still never close to the length of the ride to Nashville. We followed the GPS towards Robinsville, NC which is on the South side of The Dragon's Tail. When were close to Deal's Gap I recognized the area and decided to look for a camping spot in that area because we were very close to the start of the Dragon's Tail. We stopped for gas and I asked a couple people about camping spots nearby and the second mentioned a place called Punkin Center Campground. I was actually able to pull this place up on the GPS!! We pulled into the place and it was setup just for motorcycles. You could of course trailer your bike in and whatever and park your car there, but they did not allow just a car or any RV's at all. We paid the $22 just to camp which I wasn't too happy about and setup camp.

There was still a little daylight left and I was pretty excited about being so close to the Dragon's Tail so when Adrian mentioned we should ride it I didn't hesitate.

This will give you an idea of how the turns just seem to keep coming and coming!

I figured he might be too sore, but I think he was excited as I was. We had all the bags off the bikes which I know made mine feel like a rocket when compared to being fully loaded. The sun was beginning to set as we entered the start of the Dragon's Tail. This is pretty much a 2nd gear race track that happens to be a public road. You can get into third (maybe 4th depending on gearing) if you want to push it on the straights and brake hard for the curves. We were taking it easy since it was his first time and the sun was going down so the asphalt is cold, but caught up to a guy on some sort of old crotch rocket in front of us. This guy was NUTS! I was hanging behind him with Adrian behind me and then I noticed that on almost every turn this guy was cutting into the oncoming lane. This is a two lane road. One lane going each way and almost every corner is cut out of the side of a hill so you can't see what's coming around the other side. About the 3rd time I saw him do this sure enough there was a car coming around that caused him to jerk the bike over throwing sparks and narrowly be missed by the car. We're talking about 2 feet maybe. I backed off and signaled Adrian to do the same.

Talk about hurting wrists from pushing so hard on the handlebars making those turns. There are turns where you could get down to first gear they are so tight. When we arrived at the top it was getting dark and Deal's Gap Resort was closed, but they were having mini bike races that were pretty funny.
Bad picture because of the darkness, but there were about 5 of these guys.

We rode the Dragon back from the resort all by headlight in the dark. That was pretty cool!! We ate some food and then hit the sack. Of course I was up later than Adrian, but I only made it through about half an hour of The Hitman on my portable DVD player.

The cops can be quite a problem there sometimes. Here's video that is a bit entertaining, then boring, then entertaining.

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:14:00 +0000

Friday Night 5/16-
(all pictures of this night Adrian is supposed to get to me)
We had plans for Adrian's friend to stop by around 8 so we both showered up and I was able to get in a little bit of a nap beforehand. We set around for an hour until 8 screwing around with the sensitivity on the bike alarms and taking a walk around looking for this mysterious Houlihan's that the GPS said was only .2 miles away. Never found the damn thing. 8 came and went and Adrian talked to her again and she said it was taking her longer than expected. She showed up around 9:30 and we left in her car to go get something to eat. We stopped at a barbecue spot, but I pointed out that they were closing in about 20 minutes and we should go somewhere else. I asked about finding some place that was a bar and grill and a little more fun than just a restaurant. She drove us to a short strip of college bars/restaurants and we went in a place to eat that had a live band outside on the patio. Very cool place, but I can't remember the name of it. Had a few Woodchuck ciders and an awesome ruben on the waiter's recommendation. Adrian had never had a Woodchuck and now he has a new favorite beer since he did. There was good conversation and with a little buzz I was contributing quite a bit to it actually. Met a couple friends of hers and I had a crazy girl trying to get me to come talk to her.

Paradise Park-
This place was in a long stretch of bars on both sides of the street. There are colleges all over this place so the bars were very cool and there were friendly people everywhere. There was a bit of gridlock on the street and LOTS of cops on bicycles which I wasn't happy to see because I knew I'd be pissing outside of the car if we parked behind a building after sitting in traffic so long. Cops on bicycles are sneaky. So Paradise Park is made to be like a trailer park. The front windows of the place slide open like a huge sliding glass door and the floor of the place is putt putt green astro turf stuff. Many beers were had here. There was also a live band that was pretty good and besides the required country fodder they were playing they often played some good requested songs. Later in the night a guy came out of the audience and sang Santeria perfect which was a good song to hear. We were ushered out of the bar sometime after 3 and headed back to the car. A few minutes after we left it was apparent that Adrian's friend shouldn't be driving so we pulled over and he took the wheel. She instantly went to sleep. You know I've never been to Nashville and neither has he...... Where the hell are we and where are we going?!? We decided to get on the highway running around the city and look for the exit that we turned off of earlier in the day to the hotel. We didn't see it for awhile and we decided to pull off and try for directions again after the first time didn't lead us anywhere. As we were on the offramp the car ran out of gas. I saw that the gas gauge wasn't functioning before, but figured that surely she would have kept a good amount of gas in the car. Guess not. So here we were having all drank, lost, and out of gas. Thankfully there was a gas station about a 1/4 mile down the road so I gave Adrian some cash and he took off on foot. About a minute later a cop rolled by...... I thought that Adrian would come back in the back of that car, but he didn't. He came back and we fueled up after awhile found our way and I was able to get to sleep after having been up since 3:30 the night before. The pics will be posted when I can.

Greetings from Newnan Georgia!

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:11:00 +0000

It's been about four days since I've left so I'll get things up to speed now that I have a wireless signal and some free time.

Day 1 - Friday
We (Adrian and I) left at about 4:45 a.m. with the intentions of riding an hour or so in the dark to allow for us to have more daylight to tackle the 1,000 miles in 24 hours to be qualified for the Ironbutt Saddlesore 1000. It was Very cold. 44 degrees if I remember right. We filled out our starting paperwork for the ironbutt and topped of the gas to get a receipt and proof of our time and location then headed South down 31.

I used to think it was a good thing that my bike had an air temperature gauge built into the computer that I could check, but all that I did was get more and more pissed that even by the time we had reached Indy and the sun had been up for awhile it was barely a steady 50 degrees. Still hoping that the temps would raise a bit more the further South we went we rounded 465 on the West side of Indy and headed toward Illinois. A few things happened on this leg of the journey. One was that my mouth hurt. (hold the jokes) I realized that I had been clenching my jaw muscles because I'd been so cold. I was thinking that my legs were pretty cold and stiff and how much Adrian was suffering because I had riding pants with the liner in and jeans underneath and he had jeans with I think his pajamas on underneath or something to that effect. I also had my heated grips on. We had now entered Illinois and after every muscle in my body being tense for a few hours now from the cold and having a better setup than Adrian I was ready to have the "fuck this shit" talk with him. It wasn't hard....

I think it went kinda like this.

me- Hey, Adrian. I don't think that we're going to make it to 1,000 because this is torture and we're only at 250 although it feels like twice that. You want to just head to Nashville?

Adrian - Yeah, I was already thinking about that. You can do this later by yourself. You're awesome Rob and the coolest person I know.

So we punched in Nashville on the GPS and cut South. It was like a huge weight was taken off my back because the 1,000 miles wasn't looming there anymore. Cutting to Illinois probably added an extra couple hours on the trip to Nashville, but we did leave before dawn.

I didn't get a many pics on the way there or at stops.

NASCAR - So many jokes came to mind when I saw this.

BMW Loaded up-

Triumph Loaded up-

My ass is not iron yet :( So I bought this -

Although it was cool we had pretty good weather once we cut off to Nashville and the sun was a little higher.

Asshat as happy as a pig in shit-

It was pretty un-eventfull riding to Nashville except for Adrian almost running into the back of me, but narrowly shooting past me about a foot off my left side when I had slowed and was exiting at an offramp. We pulled off and I decided to take a little drive through downtown Nashville on the bikes before we tried to get a hold of his friend there. There were people walking everywhere and I was able to use my new horn a few times. It works really good on people as well as cars. After we were through town he was able to get his friend on the phone and we were given a general area to find a hotel in so we headed there. The area was expensive as hell of course. $80+ for a room at the first places we checked. I was pulling places up on th e GPS and since it gives you the phone number as well we started calling them. We found a motel for a little over $60 after tax, which is way out of my budget, but since I was splitting it and there probably wouldn't be much cheaper that was anywhere near here it was a done deal.

Unloaded the bikes

And I was in such a good mood I decided to take a myspace style pic between my legs while also doing my best serious elmo face. Here are the results.

Well this takes us up to about 7pm the first night and I'm going to have to finish this next time I have the chance because this night in Nashville lasted until about 5am.......

Here's the route so far

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:36:00 +0000

These are the states that I hit on my 2007 motorcycle trip.

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

Organization

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:49:00 +0000

I'm going to get a little more organized with my list of things I need, have, and might possibly want to get.

Bike-
1. GPS - CHECK - INSTALLED - BMW Motorrad Zumo 550
2. Throttle Lock (cruise control) - CHECK - INSTALLED Kaoko
3. Top Case - CHECK - INSTALLED
4. Hard Saddle Bags - CHECK - ORDERED Hepco Becker
5. Alarm - CHECK - INSTALLED (with pager option) Gorilla 7017
6. Black Reflective Safety Strips - CHECK - (will install on bags or top case)
7. Bike Cover - CHECK
8. Power Adapter - CHECK
9. -------------
10. Auxiliary LED brake light - ?
11. Registration/Insurance Card/ Extra Key
12. Oil Change/Service Bulletin Check (have appointment for tank breather line)
13. Helmet Lock - CHECK - NOT INSTALLED
14. Hepco Becker Case Liners - CHECK - ORDERED/NOT IN STOCK
15. Stebel Nautilus Horn - INSTALLED

Gear
1. Camera - CHECK (have my old Sony Cybershot)
2. FM Radio - (check weather/local news)
3. Led Light (strap on head)
4. LED light - Check
5. Swiss Army Knife - Check (the big bad one, had it since I was 12)
6. Camp Chair - Kermit chair?
7. Can Opener -
8. Eating Utensils -
9. Pots/Pans -
10. Teepee -(Hey, I'm camping here)
11. Stove - CHECK - Jet Boil
12. Sleeping Pad - CHECK - Thermarest Pro-lite 3 w/stuff sack
13. Tent - CHECK - Sierra Designs Lightning 2
14. Foil - (Can use to cook caught fish etc.)
15. Rechargeable Batteries - ?
16. ---------------
17. Compact Fishing Pole - CHECK
18. Thermarest fitted sheet/ tech blanket - CHECK
19. AAA Batteries

Personal Items
1. Hat - CHECK - (If safari style is cool, then consider me Myles Davis)
2. Hair Crap - CHECK HAHA
3. Toothbrush/Paste/in container -
4. DVD Player - CHECK - (Couple Rum and cokes and a movie!)
5. Soap in container -
6. Shampoo -
7. Laptop - (have to fix my old one!) - FIXED
8. Moisture wicking clothing -
9. Compression/Biker Shorts - ?
10. Helmet Law State List (can ride around the campground without a lid?)
11. Planner - Enter events I might want to hit

4/22/08

noreply@blogger.com (Visionquest) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Trip departure is coming fast. It seems like the last couple weeks has flown by. I now have the MAIN camping essentials I'll need except for a sleeping bag. I do have a cheap sleeping bag, but I'll have to see if it'll pack up small enough for me to take and not have to buy a more compact one.

UPS just stopped by with the brackets to install the hard side cases on my bike so I need to decide which size luggage to get. Those should be the last large purchase I'll need to make since I've already purchased the GPS system.

I watched a program on the Travel Channel about Yosemite Nation Park and I'm definitely going to have to go there.

Also, I just printed out the forms I'll need to make a SaddleSore 1000 run to be in the Iron Butt Rider's Association. There are only about 15,000 people worldwide in this association of long distance riders and the SaddleSore 1000 is the "easiest" of the rides. It requires you to document and have witnesses at the start and finish of the ride in which you must travel 1,000 miles within 24 hours on your motorcycle. I I've done 600 miles straight through before and am pretty sure that I'm going to need to make some comfort enhancements to my bike or my self to achieve this without being disabled for a day or two afterwards. My bike is no big highway cruising Goldwing or similar bike. If you'd like to read a little more about the association the link is www.ironbutt.com. There are a couple of other rides that I'd like to get certifications for as well like the Great Lakes ride.

Some really good news is that my friend Adrian Guyberson

is going with me for at least the first week of the ride. He will be riding his 2007 (I think) Triumph Daytona 675, which is a crotch rocket by motorcycle standards. This will be a good thing in a couple ways. It will keep me slowed down from traveling too much since he won't be able to do as much mileage as me on a crotch rocket and I'll have to enjoy the sights stops more instead of just dead heading to my destination like I usually do. And also, I won't be going from seeing all my friends every day like I do now to being completely alone on the road. Having him with me will give me a good transition to me being by myself. This all depends on if he finds a job within the next few weeks or not though. I printed out two sets of the SaddleSore 1000 forms that I wrote about above, although I'm pretty sure that Adrian would be looking like Quasimodo if he were to ride that long, BUT you never know. He might want to go for it with me. We can always lay around a campsite the next day licking our wounds and nursing our aches with some drinks.