tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17277570999299061952023-12-12T12:26:09.222-05:00Jim's Motorcycle TripsJim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-2523608311190568062013-08-31T07:50:00.000-04:002013-09-01T12:01:34.763-04:00Iron Butt - SaddleSore 1000I completed an <a href="http://www.ironbutt.com/about/about.cfm">Iron Butt</a> - <a href="http://www.ironbutt.com/ridecerts/getdocument.cfm?DocID=1">SaddleSore 1000</a> this past Sunday, (Now I have to get certified by the Iron Butt Association and that should happen!). Sent all my paperwork in on Tuesday of this week. My longest day of riding up to this point has been around 800 miles. Got my motivation from a friend out in Washington who also completed his USA4CT this past May. He did a SS1000 down I-5 from Seattle to Weed, CA and back in one day a few weeks ago.<br />
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Heading into last Sunday the weather forecast was shaping up nice along the East Coast from Virginia to Georgia along I-95. This was my planned route for 500 miles down and 500 miles back. <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Sheetz,+2600+Anderson+Hwy,+Powhatan,+VA&daddr=BP,+Townsend,+GA+to:Sheetz,+2600+Anderson+Hwy,+Powhatan,+VA&hl=en&sll=31.531726,-81.44165&sspn=9.048853,16.907959&geocode=Fa-NPAIdzIFc-yGRmk-o1UeA8Cld83u-sWSxiTGRmk-o1UeA8A%3BFQ0h4QEd8UYl-yGMqPgeDqL3nyml8iqUGSb7iDGMqPgeDqL3nw%3BFa-NPAIdzIFc-yGRmk-o1UeA8Cld83u-sWSxiTGRmk-o1UeA8A&mra=ls&t=m&z=7">Here is my planned route.</a> Wanted to keep my route on I-95 to keep my average speed up and lessen the chances of animal encounters during the overnight riding!!! <br />
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Decided to leave around midnight on Sunday morning to get the night riding done early. I tried to get some sleep Saturday evening but didn't get much in anticipation of the ride! So I was ready to go around 10:30 pm on Saturday evening!! Got my wife to sign off on my starting witness sheet and I was ready to go. Stopped at a nearby Sheetz gas station to get my official starting gas receipt. The time stamp was 10:45 pm, so that set it in place that I needed to be back at least by 10:45 pm on Sunday!<br />
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Off I went into the night. This was the first time I had ridden any distance at night with my LED headlight and stop light setup. They were really nice and truly lit up the road and sides nicely. All night I only spotted one deer on the side of the road, so that was good!<br />
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I did really well riding through the night until around 3 am. Started to get tired and a little sleepy about every hour, so I stopped to use the restroom and get a cup of coffee. One thing for sure, the truck stops along the interstate have great fresh strong coffee at that time of the morning!!<br />
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After about 6 am I began to see daylight and as the sun came up I felt completely rejuvenated, alert and awake!!<br />
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I had sent a message to my friend Harold in Charleston, SC that I was officially on my SS1000 before I left home on Saturday night. I had a message back from him that he would meet me at the South Carolina Visitor Center just north of the Georgia border around 9 am.<br />
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I made it to Exit 58 in Georgia which was the Townsend/Eulonia exit. Stopped at a Shell station and got my "turn around" gas receipt with a time stamp of 8:06 am. Felt kinda good to know I was heading home now. Like on the downhill slope!<br />
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Met Harold at the SC Visitor Center northbound on I95. Got a guy that had stopped to get our picture!<br />
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I had been wanting to have lunch for some time with Harold at a place he recommended, <a href="http://www.schoolhousebbq.com/">Schoolhouse BBQ</a> in Scranton, SC. I checked my GPS with it added and I would still get home by 8 pm, so off we went for lunch!<br />
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It was pretty crowded as it looked like every person within 50 miles that went to church decided to come to Schoolhouse BBQ to eat today! It is a buffet the line was moving along pretty fast. As Harold and I were standing in line, we started to talk about places we ate on our USA4CT. I mentioned BBQ Depot in Vidor, TX and the lady in front of us turned around and said "I've been there!". She had lived in Kansas for several years and travelled to Texas. BBQ Depot in Vidor was one of her favorite places. She and her family had moved to South Carolina 7 years ago and now the Schoolhouse BBQ was one of their favorites.<br />
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Here was the result of traveling through the buffet line!! I could have used some "side boards" on my plate!! It was excellent. A real nice, clean place with great service and food. I would highly recommend it!!<br />
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Harold continued with me to the exit to "South of the Border" where he exited to head back to Charleston. I really appreciated him meeting up with me and riding in SC. That really helped pass the time and make that portion of the SS1000 just seem like another great normal Sunday ride with a friend!!<br />
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Other than stopping for gas, I headed straight back. Got to the Sheetz gas station for the completion at 7:15 pm. My GPS showed 1,069.6 miles and my bike odometer showed 1,095.5 miles. Interested that the Google map calculation of the same route showed 1,070 miles. So it looks like the bike odometer is about 2.3% off. That appears to be about right as I normally notice my speedometer is about 1-2 mph faster than my GPS.<br />
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I arrived back home at 7:35 pm and had my wife witness my arrival form.<br />
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Got all my documentation together and packaged the next day and mailed off to the Iron Butt Association. Hopefully everything is in order and I will get certified!! Overall a great ride and definitely glad I did it!<br />
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-46565358034001806022013-08-20T19:14:00.001-04:002013-08-20T19:14:12.791-04:00Our USA4CT YouTube video<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-64152282407986296942013-08-06T14:44:00.001-04:002013-08-06T21:34:53.171-04:00Back of the Dragon rideI have been wanting to ride VA16 that runs between Marion, VA and Tazewell, VA. It has been named <a href="http://backofthedragon.com/">Back of the Dragon</a> by the locals and has it own web page. Looks like it is being "marketed" as an alternative to the famous <a href="http://www.tailofthedragon.com/">Tail of the Dragon</a> in North Carolina (or maybe even trying to compete with it!). It is also listed on the Southern California Motorcycling Association web site as one of the <a href="http://sc-ma.com/rides/best-15-us-roads-challenge">Best 15 US Roads Challenge</a>.With all of this, I had HIGH expectations!<br />
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Looked at the weather and Sunday/Monday had two days of great forecast for motorcycle riding. Not much chance of rain and party
cloudy. Not too many occurrences of two consecutive days of nice weather (without RAIN)
in Virginia recently!!<br />
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So I committed, made a hotel reservation in Hillsville, VA for Sunday night and lightly packed a few things. Left the house at sunrise on Sunday morning. Just had to take a quick photo heading out the driveway as I was leaving. It was a beautiful sunrise!<br />
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Took the country roads of US 360 and US 58 across southside Virginia. Very little traffic on those roads anyway and on a Sunday morning! It was a very pleasant ride, to say the least. Stopped in South Boston to take a break and get gas. Was surprised to see that gas was only $2.87 a gallon for regular there. Don't know what was up with that, maybe they were having an old fashion gas price war! Funny that high octane was still "up there" at $3.59 a gallon!<br />
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The first real mountains are west of Martinsville. I had to stop and take a break and a picture at a wayside appropriately named "Lover's Leap":<br />
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Headed straight for the "Back of the Dragon". Stopped and gassed up again at a Shell station in Marion at the start. Across the station parking lot was another motorcyclists on a Kawasaki Vulcan pulling a trailer. I had to run in to use the restroom and when I came out he was gone so I didn't get to talk to him (BUT I would later!!).<br />
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Here is the Back of the Dragon sign that was just recently put in the ground (you can still see the fresh dirt where they dug the post holes). Interesting with the words, "eleven....try thirty-two" on the sign, as this is a competing marketing statement with the "Tail of the Dragon" in North Carolina. The Tail of the Dragon is only 11 miles long and this Back of the Dragon is 32 miles long.<br />
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So off I went. There are three mountains that are crossed. Lots of very tight curves, some switchbacks that require you to only be around 5-10 mph and "steer" around! The curves are not marked, expect for signs such as "15 mph curves next 2 miles". No guard rails and some very steep drop offs in the curves too! At the bottom of the mountains the road has a couple of passing lanes and straights before going up the next mountain. <br />
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Now for the interesting part. On the top of the second mountain I could see where the road had recently been paved and new gravel put down heavy on the berms. As I approached the first downhill curve I could see a lot of gravel on the turn where cars had cut the curve short and tossed gravel from the berm onto the road surface as well as from rain runoff. That made for very slow going and careful riding. It was really not any fun!! Every turn on this downhill side of the second mountain was covered in a lot of gravel due to the recent new paving. About half way down as I rounded a tight blind curve I saw a parked motorcycle in the road with it's flashers on and three people standing along the road. As I straightened up and braked hard I saw the second motorcycle along with it's trailer in the ditch on its side!! The one biker standing had his arm bleeding. I pulled over in front of them and put my flashers on. Had to stay on the road as the berm was very narrow and filled with loose gravel. The biker that wrecked was from Niagara Falls, NY. He was on a two week motorcycle trip. Told me his wife let him go every year for two weeks in the summer. As he rounded the curve his front wheel hit the loose gravel and he low sided and skidded into the ditch. He hit the pavement with his shoulder and had some pretty bad road rash on his upper arm. It was bleeding and had dirt and gravel in it. The other motorcycle was a local couple from Marion that was just out for a Sunday ride. They had been following the biker that wrecked. He said he saw them behind him and was a little worried he was holding them up. That may have contributed to his accident too! That was about the time I remembered the guy across the parking lot at the gas station in Marion. I said to him, hey did I see you at a gas station back off of I-81. He said, yes that was me and I remember seeing you across the parking lot. What a way to meet later!<br />
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First order of business was to get his arm cleaned up. He had a whole case of bottled water in a cooler on his trailer (it appeared to be really loaded down!! Probably another contributor to the accident). We washed his arm off and used a tube of neosporin from my first aid kit that I always carry in my saddlebag. Didn't have a bandage big enough to cover it, so we left it open. It was just raw from the road rash and he didn't "feel" like any bones were broken or shoulder dislocated. I am sure he was sore the next couple of morning though!!!! His trailer was still hooked to his bike so we disconnected it and all three of us got the trailer back up in the road. His bike had the passing lamp and signal lamp broke off on the left side. His engine guard was bent bad and had a lot of dirt embedded on the left side. We cleaned all that out and had to straighten (beat it) his left footboard and front shifter. We decided to try and get the bike out of the ditch. The injured rider got on the bike and it started up. Took him a little while to work the shifter to get it into first gear. I pushed and the other guy pulled and we got the bike moving down the ditch and brought it up the incline of the bank into the road. It was touch and go with the bike almost falling over a couple of times, but we make it!<br />
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Hooked the trailer back up and away we went following him on down the mountain. About half way up the next mountain he pulled off on the side of the road. We checked on him again and his arm was stinging from the wind on it and he just wanted to take a break. I left them and finished the Back of the Dragon and stopped at Thompson's Country Store on the Tazewell end.<br />
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About 15 minutes later he pulled in too and was doing better. He told me this was the "motorcycle trip from hell". His battery had died on him up near Waynesboro, VA and had to buy a new battery. Then his stator burned out near Roanoke, VA and he spent two days getting that fixed (of course that was probably the root cause of his battery dieing the day before!). I think he was ready to get back to Niagara Falls! Hope he did OK for the rest of the trip. He was really lucky this accident didn't occur on one of the many similar outside curves that went over a steep cliff without any guardrails!! This was was on the side of a hill with a ditch.<br />
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The guy at the country store was a real supporter of the Back of the Dragon road. He, of course, rides a motorcycle too and the riders adds to his business. He said they have called the state transportation many times about the gravel and they haven't done anything about it. It had been that way for several months since they paved.<br />
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Anyway, I have "been there and done it" but don't plan to do it again. I would not recommend the road for motorcycles with the gravel hazard the way it is. Also, it is like a lot of roads in the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia & North Carolina. I think the designation is just a half hearted marketing scheme by the towns, county, business and state to increase business and the local economy.<br />
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There was a place I saw on the map that I had to ride to while I was over in the area and that was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claypool_Hill,_Virginia">Claypool Hill</a>, Virginia!! I should have spent some time looking at the area and doing some research on my genealogy, but I needed to get back to Hillsville that evening where I had my hotel reservation.<br />
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Another place I stopped at on the way back was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke%27s_Garden,_Virginia">Burke's Garden</a>. This is an interesting geological area in the mountains. Only one road in and that road was just as good as the Back of the Dragon and it didn't have any gravel on the road!!!! Beautiful upland valley and again, wish I had more time to ride around in the valley. I think there was a paved road that went all the way around the valley (it was about 4 miles wide and 8 miles long!!). Interesting too the Vanderbilt family tried to buy up the land to build a house back in the 1800's. The farmers there wouldn't sell, so the Vanderbilt family bought up some land on down the mountain range near Asheville, NC and built their house, known as the Biltmore Estate!!!!<br />
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It was about dinner time as I was passing back through Wytheville, VA and I had bookmarked on my GPS <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g58337-d1641980-Reviews-Skeeter_s_World_Famous_Hotdogs-Wytheville_Virginia.html">Skeeter's Hot Dog</a> shop. Sad to say, the only day they are closed is Sunday and it is Sunday!! At least I got my bike picture in front of the famous place!!<br />
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On back to the hotel in Hillsville and a nice evening meal at the Rio Grande mexican restaurant. It was excellent!!<br />
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Monday morning headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a leisurely trip back. Love riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just about the best overall motorcycle road in the USA!!<br />
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Just had to stop at Mabry Mill and get a couple of pics and do some walking. I was the only one there that early on a Monday morning! Very peaceful.<br />
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Another beautiful vista on the Parkway:<br />
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Also stopped and took a hike under the James River bridge on the Parkway:<br />
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While I was crossing the bridge a man and his dog passed by in their boat on the James River. Not sure who was having the best time, the man or the dog!!<br />
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Overall a great trip. Did 750 miles and saw some beautiful country and great motorcycle roads. Weather was great. Stayed in the upper 70's to low 80's. It was 55 degrees in Hillsville when I left the hotel on Monday morning! Bike ran great. Other than the one motorcycle wreck, no unusual events (Just glad I was there to help!!!) As always, nice to be back home.<br />
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<span id="goog_1122687356"></span><span id="goog_1122687357"></span><br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-65928911602207411802013-07-04T08:30:00.000-04:002013-07-09T09:23:04.128-04:00States & Provinces, SCMA USA4CT Finisher List<br />
With the completion of the USA4CT, I have now ridden my own motorcycle in all the 49 continental United States and 6 provinces in Canada!!! It has taken me 6 years to accomplish this. Guess I will just have to start all over again now!!<br />
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49 States<br />
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6 Provinces<br />
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I am now also officially listed on the SCMA USA4CT 2013 Finisher page:<br />
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From the <a href="http://sc-ma.org/rides/usa-four-corners-tour-site/finishers/2013-finishers">SCMA USA4CT Finisher web page</a><br />
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It will be 4-6 weeks to get my official SCMA finisher plaque. Each is custom ordered! Look forward to getting that. Bill and I plan to get one of the finisher red pavers engraved with our names and placed at the Four Corners Park in Madawaska, Maine. I will have to ride back up there just to see the paver! Also, get to stay at Martin's Motel and eat at Dolly's again!! Have to try J. T.'s Tavern out this time too!<br />
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My 2012 Ultra is scheduled for it's 30,000 mile maintenance next week. Just had the 20,000 mile maintenance done the first week of June! They do have to check and repair a loose shifter shaft on the transmission too.<br />
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Looks like the rain has finally stopped on the east coast for a few days. So gotta get some riding in to day and this weekend!!<br />
<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-73029037091756623492013-06-28T16:50:00.000-04:002017-10-21T08:15:19.556-04:00USA4CT Summary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li>Total miles on my bike odometer for the entire trip was 11,473 miles. </li>
<li>We had 7 days of over 600 miles with one day over 700</li>
<li>Our average daily was 478 miles </li>
<li>On the four days from Florida City, FL to Gila Bend, AZ we traveled 2,527 miles in four days at an average of 632 miles per day. </li>
<li>Total length of trip was 24 days (May 29 - June 21) </li>
<li>Traveled through 30 states </li>
<li>The total time we spend in the motorcycle saddle moving was 195 hours, 40 minutes and 58 seconds</li>
<li>Our average day in the motorcycle saddle moving was 8 hours, 9 minutes and 12 seconds</li>
<li>The total distance for the USA4CT tour (from Madawaska, ME to Blaine, WA) was 7,033 miles</li>
<li>Completed the USA4CT in 15 days (June 1-15)</li>
<li>Only
mechanical problems with motorcycles were minor. Bills LCD radio display went blank.
I had an intermittent left front signal flashing fast (both happened in
Tropical Storm Andrea - we "think" both were water related!!!!)</li>
<li>Only had our rainsuits on for 3 days (all in Florida). Never had our rainsuits on outside of Florida!! 21 DAYS OF SUNSHINE!!!</li>
<li> Favorite "corner" was Madawaska, ME</li>
<li>Least favorite "corner" was Key West, FL (although that was probably weather and "Keystone" cop related!!</li>
<li>Met two other riders currently on the USA4CT, Keith & Sharon from Fayetteville, Georgia. Met them in Florida City, FL</li>
<li>Met 4 other USA4CT finishers along the way, Joe in Madawaska, ME; Harold in Santee, SC; Marty in Crater Lake, OR; and Charles in Blaine, WA</li>
<li>Met one HD Forum member, Jeff, in Fort Pierce, FL</li>
<li>Only bought ONE Harley t shirt (Caribou, Maine)</li>
<li>Got one oil change on the road (Wildhorse HD in Bend, OR)</li>
<li>Best motorcycle accessory: Bill's back seat ice cooler!!!!!!!!!!</li>
<li>Best overnight stop was Crater Lake National Park</li>
<li>Maximum air temperature was 112 degrees in Arizona</li>
<li>Lowest air temperature was 26 degrees in Oregon</li>
<li>Our lowest elevation was sea level and highest was 7,672 along the rim of Crater Lake, OR </li>
<li>We had tropical rain in Florida, desert heat in Arizona and mountain SNOW in Oregon </li>
<li>Saw 3 moose, lots of elk, lots of deer, 1 coyote, 1 fox, 1 dead cougar & 1 snake </li>
<li>A bottle of Scotch will last through the four corners of the US, if you only have one shot at each corner!! Proven!! </li>
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My Overall theme songs for the USA4CT: </h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoT50N8uv4"><u><b>Roll Me Away</b></u></a> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Took a look down a westbound road,
<br />Right away I made my choice
<br />Headed out to my big two-wheeler,
<br />I was tired of my own voice
<br />Took a bead on the northern plains
<br />And just rolled that power on
</i><i><br />Twelve hours out of mackinaw city
<br />Stopped in a bar to have a brew</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>We rolled across the high plains
<br />Deep into the mountains
<br />Felt so good to me
<br />Finally feelin' free
</i><i><br />Somewhere along a high road
<br />The air began to turn cold
</i><i><br />Stood alone on a mountain top,
<br />Starin' out at the great divide
<br />I could go east, I could go west,
<br />It was all up to me to decide
<br />Just then I saw a young hawk flyin'
<br />And my soul began to rise
<br />And pretty soon
<br />My heart was singin'
</i><i><br />Roll, roll me away,
<br />I'm gonna roll me away tonight
<br />Gotta keep rollin, gotta keep ridin',
<br />Keep searchin' till I find what's right
<br />And as the sunset faded
<br />I spoke to the faintest first starlight
<br />And I said next time
<br />Next time
<br />We'll get it right</i></div>
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</div>
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<u><b>Born to be Wild</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Get your motor runnin'<br />
Head out on the highway<br />
Lookin' for adventure<br />
And whatever comes our way</i><i><br />
Racin' with the wind<br />
And the feelin' that I'm under</i><i><br />
Like a true nature's child<br />
We were born, born to be wild<br />
We can climb so high<br />
I never wanna die</i><i><br />
Born to be wild<br />
</i></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5UWRypqz5-o?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Song for each of the 24 mornings we got up:</h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b>On The Road Again</b></u></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>On the road again -<br />
Just can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
And I can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
On the road again<br />
Goin' places that I've never been.<br />
Seein' things that I may never see again<br />
And I can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
On the road again -<span style="color: black;"><br />
We're the best of friends.</span>
Insisting that the world keep turning our way<br />
And our way<br />
is on the road again.<br />
Just can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
And I can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
On the road again<br />
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway<br />
We're the best of friends<br />
Insisting that the world keep turning our way<br />
And our way<br />
is on the road again.<br />
Just can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
And I can't wait to get on the road again.<br />
And I can't wait to get on the road again. </i></div>
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/1TD_pSeNelU/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/1TD_pSeNelU&source=uds"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/1TD_pSeNelU&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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<br />
<br />
<h2>
Daily Trip Reports</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzmuccuVvJ9IeG5UTaPsBmGL0sKigLfpwLdKNNeMv5Y-fPs_FYMymiYoplA9XMSNnagNkfFokJCZSUjcxHAzOsaKrdK0XSzs0cr8QrYEhKF77F2RItQnPRF03LaV3bmDQcj4nelLQfZ0/s1600/Daily+stats.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzmuccuVvJ9IeG5UTaPsBmGL0sKigLfpwLdKNNeMv5Y-fPs_FYMymiYoplA9XMSNnagNkfFokJCZSUjcxHAzOsaKrdK0XSzs0cr8QrYEhKF77F2RItQnPRF03LaV3bmDQcj4nelLQfZ0/s640/Daily+stats.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<h2>
GPS Data</h2>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA2QLVCbvfO9H4972xHdxRdymHhXUMOiKOnck2l2LHOqH1Gmt6CqUcwOLLNdTt5bmVnNhB9dCdaxF1r32QzUtsiJmK0NeEdAdU8Eh43J8NkJpuOJk7ANChXpjtWgMmj4rtdKGoF7de_sU/s616/GPS+stats.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA2QLVCbvfO9H4972xHdxRdymHhXUMOiKOnck2l2LHOqH1Gmt6CqUcwOLLNdTt5bmVnNhB9dCdaxF1r32QzUtsiJmK0NeEdAdU8Eh43J8NkJpuOJk7ANChXpjtWgMmj4rtdKGoF7de_sU/s640/GPS+stats.JPG" width="510" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Map of States we traveled through</h2>
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<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
The actual GPS track map</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVGt6J_lknkw26dMtd5u9c4OjsRYzhxLMEVThwMDoXE092oD45exEF38zlZ7p5TKDGAsXCn4lXYdtTg2xo3PNMZwiENFspqxmdUReGCp9zENWuqfdpPywcxT1Sny5n68KK_AsCLkNWzsY/s1600/Actual+Track.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVGt6J_lknkw26dMtd5u9c4OjsRYzhxLMEVThwMDoXE092oD45exEF38zlZ7p5TKDGAsXCn4lXYdtTg2xo3PNMZwiENFspqxmdUReGCp9zENWuqfdpPywcxT1Sny5n68KK_AsCLkNWzsY/s640/Actual+Track.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Four Corners Pictures</h2>
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<td class="xl68" height="20" style="border-top: medium none; height: 15pt; text-align: left; width: 61pt;" width="81">Madawaska, ME</td>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Key West, FL</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
San Ysidro, CA</div>
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<td class="xl68" height="20" style="border-top: medium none; height: 15pt; text-align: left; width: 61pt;" width="81"></td>
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<td class="xl68" height="21" style="border-top: medium none; height: 15.75pt; text-align: left; width: 61pt;" width="81">Blaine, WA</td><td class="xl69" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 55pt;" width="73"><br /></td>
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<td class="xl69" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 98pt;" width="131"><br /></td>
<td class="xl69" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 123pt;" width="164"><br /></td>
<td class="xl71" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 57pt;" width="76"><br /></td>
<td class="xl69" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 224pt;" width="298"><br /></td>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u><i><b>THE END</b></i></u></span></span></div>
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<td class="xl69" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; width: 123pt;" width="164"><br /></td>
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<td class="xl63" style="width: 98pt;" width="131"><br /></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><br /></td>
<td align="right" class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><br /></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 224pt;" width="298"><br /></td>
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<td class="xl63" style="width: 96pt;" width="128"><br /></td>
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<td class="xl63" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><br /></td>
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<td class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><br /></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 96pt;" width="128"><br /></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 98pt;" width="131"><br /></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><br /></td>
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<td class="xl63" style="width: 224pt;" width="298"><br /></td>
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-86900947368274365842013-06-28T07:36:00.001-04:002013-06-28T07:36:57.084-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 24 - June 21, 2013 - FriStart Time: 0900 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1530 EDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Clarksburg, WV</span><br />
Stop Location: Richmond, VA<br />
Lodging: Home<br />
Dinner: Home<br />
Miles Traveled Today: 293<br />
Weather: 70-90, Sunny<br />
<br />
Today was an easy riding day. Beautiful ride through the mountains of West Virginia over US 33. Here is a break stop we made at Seneca Rocks.<br />
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We decided to make one last stop just outside of Richmond and have a final cold beverage (fitting that we both had a Land Shark!) together like we had done every day of the trip (just didn't need the ice in Bill's cooler this time!).<br />
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This is where Bill and I split and headed to our homes in Richmond. We were both very anxious to now get home (and maybe rest for a few days from riding our hogs!! hehe).<br />
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GREAT trip!! One for sure that neither of us will every forget!!<br />
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<b>BACK HOME!!!!!!</b><br />
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I will do a Trip Summary post next to finalize the trip. Hopefully have some good data from all the tracks stored in the Zumo. <br />
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-83009753631309398522013-06-28T07:21:00.001-04:002013-07-06T13:40:07.597-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 23 - June 20, 2013 - ThuStart Time: 0700 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 EDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Gaylord, MI</span><br />
Stop Location: Clarksburg, WV<br />
Lodging: Wingate Inn<br />
Dinner: Oliverio's<br />
Miles Traveled Today: 623<br />
Weather: 46-85, Sunny<br />
<br />
Not much to report today until we got to Clarksburg, WV. Another beautiful sunny, mild day. Perfect for motorcycle riding! It was also our 7th and last over 600 mile day!!<br />
<br />
Bill & I had our USA4CT "Last Supper" at Oliverio's in Bridgeport. It was excellent. The cuisine at Oliverio's is Italian and we had not had Italian since the evening in Tallahassee, FL of Tropical Storm Andrea and that was a pizza delivered Pizza Hut!! Ha! Oliverio's was a lot better than that, for sure!<br />
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We just had to have dessert to celebrate too, so we had the bread pudding. Had not had bread pudding for dessert either since Florida City, FL. This was excellent. Don't know which one was better. They were both great in their own ways. If you like bread pudding, they you know what I mean (almost every bread pudding is different anyway).<br />
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We returned to the hotel (had to ride our bikes to Oliverio's) and parked for the night. We then finished (only one drink left anyway) the bottle of Scotch and had a cigar outside the hotel to finalize the last evening of our USA4CT!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-40534277663230491152013-06-27T17:43:00.001-04:002013-06-27T17:43:15.962-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 22 - June 19, 2013 - WedStart Time: 0700 CDT<br />
Stop Time: 1830 EDT<br />
Start Location: Superior, WI<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
Stop Location: Gaylord, MI<br />
Lodging: Quality Inn<br />
Dinner: Wild West Sports Bar<br />
Miles Traveled Today: 501<br />
Weather: 48-75, Sunny<br />
<br />
Well the highlight of today was the crossing of the Mackinac Bridge. This is quite a bridge. It is the longest suspension bridge in the Western hemisphere and the third longest in the world (It was the longest from the time it was built in 1957 to 1998!). The bridge is 5 miles long and 552 feet above the water (and you can see the water through the steel grating as you are crossing!!!). A real thrill ride, for sure! Fortunately there was not much wind in the straits today, since the bridge will sway back and forth up to 35 feet in the wind!!<br />
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One lane was closed for maintenance while we were crossing. Traffic was very light so there was no delay.<br />
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Interesting that one lane is paved and one lane is steel grate. We had to ride on the steel grate for awhile since the paved side was closed for maintenance on a portion of the bridge.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCUSPs1pZpoIapc7dYRaT2Bf1mVdNfhDWlxRI_r4EMKA2uVrDE048cYHpks4btbDDdyJmmLAdeFXCrqvTvaB06oKwWuOwLWsrWFKlhNcRU5hTBHNjOX2yXxcAJY4f7EIj5g1SpdFRa2Lg/s1600/IMG_3016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCUSPs1pZpoIapc7dYRaT2Bf1mVdNfhDWlxRI_r4EMKA2uVrDE048cYHpks4btbDDdyJmmLAdeFXCrqvTvaB06oKwWuOwLWsrWFKlhNcRU5hTBHNjOX2yXxcAJY4f7EIj5g1SpdFRa2Lg/s640/IMG_3016.JPG" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb7SfnbVsgTuNDnlh_noRPqDSeIx7mJWAX5huk9iO00TWt8hMJD2bVkbCKaEt0PGp-t1-ZojWmdNP6AkroGTGueyhac7QCDBw9YM7lqdhhI3Sw6XqaJ3AzF8VOLQUrAnqvCzvhBdb7O2w/s1600/IMG_3014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb7SfnbVsgTuNDnlh_noRPqDSeIx7mJWAX5huk9iO00TWt8hMJD2bVkbCKaEt0PGp-t1-ZojWmdNP6AkroGTGueyhac7QCDBw9YM7lqdhhI3Sw6XqaJ3AzF8VOLQUrAnqvCzvhBdb7O2w/s640/IMG_3014.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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We were surprised at the few hotels at exits going south on I75 from the bridge. We stopped at Gaylord. The Hampton Inn was already sold out and we ended up at a Quality Inn for the night.<br />
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We plan to get to Clarksburg, WV for our last night on the road!Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-78208940393222698292013-06-27T14:08:00.001-04:002013-06-27T17:38:51.139-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 21 - June 18, 2013 - TueStart Time: 0630 CDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 CDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Williston, ND</span><br />
Stop Location: Superior, WI<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: The Shack <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 617<br />
Weather: 52-80-57, Sunny<br />
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We were kinda glad to get up early and head out of Williston, ND. I guess this must have been what the California Gold Rush was like back in the 1800's. We stopped to get gas in eastern Montana and a local told us to watch our and be careful the closer we got to Williston. Really did not expect what we did encounter there!! I would have to say I am glad I came through the area and personally witnessed all the business activity going on there, but we were so glad to get out of the area and head on east. Sure don't plan to go back to Williston anytime soon. If you need a job, looks like that is the place to be!!<br />
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Here was one of the many oil wells going into production. Most of them were venting and burning off the gas as in this one.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCSVlpnzTGC7Vwknnkye7HUnaitDwmm6VO-kNnfFr86O_B8d5PB37GarHZMznMWifVi36FRR04R8w9Cges17rTrVVxe4i_JekRqSfZj6-DD0va6RqMhDXBp_xidq41JQMxjMpCtyQ7_4/s1600/Oil+well.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCSVlpnzTGC7Vwknnkye7HUnaitDwmm6VO-kNnfFr86O_B8d5PB37GarHZMznMWifVi36FRR04R8w9Cges17rTrVVxe4i_JekRqSfZj6-DD0va6RqMhDXBp_xidq41JQMxjMpCtyQ7_4/s640/Oil+well.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This was a typical picture of all the highways/streets in Williston. Even had temporary stop lights installed on wooden poles at many intersections due to the truck traffic. We made the mistake this morning of not stopping on the right side of the road for gas and had to cross over to the left side to a gas station. Didn't think we would ever get pulled back out on the highway going east!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj28inOJ8Gw4AZRQbVGzcIr2q7h6JgLL_6pt65j1Xiqf4F25-qL6PQcqASbI3hdE-puzblt0yH7LlZax_M5ukovajzSQ-kQEptYXWf-bxLGyLtYEGX0tzol_48Do4YzJ7_AnF8eQlzYzMo/s1600/traffic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj28inOJ8Gw4AZRQbVGzcIr2q7h6JgLL_6pt65j1Xiqf4F25-qL6PQcqASbI3hdE-puzblt0yH7LlZax_M5ukovajzSQ-kQEptYXWf-bxLGyLtYEGX0tzol_48Do4YzJ7_AnF8eQlzYzMo/s640/traffic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Lots of construction of temporary housing, i.e. "mancamps" everywhere. They even had temporary "<a href="http://mobilemotel.net/">mobile motels</a>".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikccPn4FRc1XKclKFfthyqhvFXPceufo3IcakqcPun0ff3uULYhKQ9JieJ6wLN32mGDzsiVrwWZTpZ525PfXD1ZjS1900dRmbHgYEp8c5c4zV9jFKRseJLSZ3grhtIzqtY0nzscx1ARW4/s1600/Mancamps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikccPn4FRc1XKclKFfthyqhvFXPceufo3IcakqcPun0ff3uULYhKQ9JieJ6wLN32mGDzsiVrwWZTpZ525PfXD1ZjS1900dRmbHgYEp8c5c4zV9jFKRseJLSZ3grhtIzqtY0nzscx1ARW4/s640/Mancamps.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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EVERYTHING was expensive too. The highest price we paid for premium gas was in Williston, ND. Even higher than California!! ($4.59 a gallon). Kinda ironic that gas/oil was so expensive there with the oil/gas boom going on!!<br />
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No doubt it is an economic boom to the town and state and I am sure there are a lot of mixed feelings with the locals there with the huge disruption in their lifestyle.<br />
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Lot's of infrastructure going in. Water, sewer, electric lines, roads, etc.!!<br />
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Anyway, good to see it, but was really glad to leave this morning!!<br />
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No other pictures today. We crossed both North Dakota and Minnesota on US 2 and landed in Superior, Wisconsin for the night. Good day of riding and another 600 mile day! Temperature was a little cool both in the morning and when we arrived in Duluth/Superior. I guess Lake Superior keeps the air temperature cool/cold for awhile in the summer!Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-67339851614937668512013-06-27T08:29:00.001-04:002013-06-27T09:17:13.064-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 20 - June 17, 2013 - MonStart Time: 0700 MDT<br />
Stop Time: 1830 CDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Kalispell, MT</span><br />
Stop Location: Williston, ND<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Big Willy's Restaurant <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 581<br />
Weather: 55-75, Sunny<br />
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Today was a ride across Montana, Big Sky Country. I knew that on our way, in the neat little town of Hungry Horse, MT was <a href="http://www.huckleberrypatch.com/">The Huckleberry Patch</a>!! The place has been in business for 20 years and the people that own it have been dealing with Huckleberries for over 60 years. They do know Huckleberries! This was my THIRD time stopping by and having a piece of Huckleberry pie. I stopped here in 2007, 2010 and now 2013 (hmmm, every 3 years, will be interesting if I am back again in 2016, maybe so!!!!). I had asked Bill if he liked Huckleberries and he said "oh yes". I told him I knew the place we were going to stop by for Huckleberries in that case (of course, I was going to stop whether he liked them or not!!)<br />
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We had our normal continental breakfast at the Hampton Inn before we left at 7 am. We had decided that we would get coffee and a piece of Huckleberry Pie at the Patch instead of another full breakfast!! I thought The Huckleberry Patch opened at 7 too. When we arrived the door was locked with a sign that they didn't open until 8 am!! I thought OH NO, that is a loooong time to wait for a piece of Huckleberry Pie. About that time a lady walked by the door and I knocked. She opened the door and I explained that we were on a motorcycle trip from Richmond, VA and we just wanted a piece of pie. She said, "In that case, come on it. We won't have breakfast ready until 8 am but the Huckleberry Pie and coffee are always ready". She let us in, so we had the place all to ourselves while we enjoyed our pie!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01MwCnxk1Wc1MT_TXHsJGDCpmIGlIRi6uQ0K1lYz6d072qp_I4o0_IMhDgbXGhfXCuHD8-h5IyrXO6tumCVl6Ok4U2ZGMv4BKZS9qNgRfzspxl4jRyIjwmT3GAxdATBGftGkqEOSbYEY/s1600/IMG_2108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01MwCnxk1Wc1MT_TXHsJGDCpmIGlIRi6uQ0K1lYz6d072qp_I4o0_IMhDgbXGhfXCuHD8-h5IyrXO6tumCVl6Ok4U2ZGMv4BKZS9qNgRfzspxl4jRyIjwmT3GAxdATBGftGkqEOSbYEY/s640/IMG_2108.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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WOW, it doesn't get any better than this!!! Huckleberry coffee and Huckleberry pie!! We also loaded up on some of their Huckleberry preserves and pie filling to bring home. Nothing more valuable could occupy the limited space on our motorcycles!!! hehe!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhya3tI3J41fWmN5NOAMrU9SdSRZXgvavJXACR5x8HOTX6jZwcMHRRgxz9g6CC9pJoOPYu6kEQ-O8Wdb6rIGdyn8bdtPoZ8yVqv1jqw8nqDMw0-X-bSbm6DPkSgoCd7hqFU9sXxqidoHUs/s1600/IMG_2110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhya3tI3J41fWmN5NOAMrU9SdSRZXgvavJXACR5x8HOTX6jZwcMHRRgxz9g6CC9pJoOPYu6kEQ-O8Wdb6rIGdyn8bdtPoZ8yVqv1jqw8nqDMw0-X-bSbm6DPkSgoCd7hqFU9sXxqidoHUs/s640/IMG_2110.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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WOW, that is quite a smile on Bill's face!! Wonder why?????<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJJYq5dLR0hVymleOvWe9-qZr-V2GrZDR0zhWoqqFcU8b5dXmj6zSTzonxCob87QeBpRVFkE8sftNx-qw1Suo3au9sLYyoQxmwSLL9TegI3ga_vQ1yWJMB0cjBhdMwVSFO4BR3EckINI/s1600/IMG_2111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJJYq5dLR0hVymleOvWe9-qZr-V2GrZDR0zhWoqqFcU8b5dXmj6zSTzonxCob87QeBpRVFkE8sftNx-qw1Suo3au9sLYyoQxmwSLL9TegI3ga_vQ1yWJMB0cjBhdMwVSFO4BR3EckINI/s640/IMG_2111.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
I don't think I had a picture of myself for the "record book" in front of The Huckleberry Patch" so I had Bill take one for me. Now I have it officially recorded.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtyV5Iie7nu1CxiyoLNqezRiuP_KKg7u1OMP0Aj631SuI7Rfa3rwQtFuDQhX47sO-Ar9PZpdNWWz_LcdxUzqpJjkbKM7AtzkhcYjEU9eJFBxZ19TbthZltrM7BA0x3bBIIfXQ_sXoKdY0/s1600/IMG_2112.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtyV5Iie7nu1CxiyoLNqezRiuP_KKg7u1OMP0Aj631SuI7Rfa3rwQtFuDQhX47sO-Ar9PZpdNWWz_LcdxUzqpJjkbKM7AtzkhcYjEU9eJFBxZ19TbthZltrM7BA0x3bBIIfXQ_sXoKdY0/s640/IMG_2112.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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I also wanted to ride the "<a href="http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/goingtothesunroad.htm">Going to the Sun</a>" Highway through Glacier National Park. I had ridden the road back in 2007. Here are a copy of pics from that ride in 2007 and a video my riding friend made of me coming down the west side from Logan Pass: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmoiite116gYaE-1mXu3IYOUAI31uaTvI1eyq3Ox-7eayMwOEfdgJK9Vxsuah7t_HyhTHq6F_6aOJ4ij3J2YQNCZ_eUctga8KuKVTQiaZeVmVjfUeijrSFvTwTLRwnUoYzF0BYJDeliQ0/s1600/IMG_0567.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmoiite116gYaE-1mXu3IYOUAI31uaTvI1eyq3Ox-7eayMwOEfdgJK9Vxsuah7t_HyhTHq6F_6aOJ4ij3J2YQNCZ_eUctga8KuKVTQiaZeVmVjfUeijrSFvTwTLRwnUoYzF0BYJDeliQ0/s640/IMG_0567.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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The "line" mid way down the mountain in the picture is the "highway"!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfA5e_lIjyBRhUCvLqu7TSRz3ApPMTXW9UhzAfq2Ct1s_UNtNYLDp4rS8SriAwyyMf6YRSGCFAWbhTakG7vOio2Zhjj7gohF4fmH6XkJ06uiWt_o0V3OdqsrCQ6HEB3TqXredBgrKz4-M/s1600/IMG_0577.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfA5e_lIjyBRhUCvLqu7TSRz3ApPMTXW9UhzAfq2Ct1s_UNtNYLDp4rS8SriAwyyMf6YRSGCFAWbhTakG7vOio2Zhjj7gohF4fmH6XkJ06uiWt_o0V3OdqsrCQ6HEB3TqXredBgrKz4-M/s640/IMG_0577.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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Keith, in 2007, was the "videographer" of me in this short video:</div>
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<object class="BLOGGER-picasa-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fl46i95gVmA/T0PSGwGKkPI/AAAAAAAAH_8/jn749gz1bSc/s1600/MVI_1579.avi" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dfb81d2ccd5ede564%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dpicasa%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%253Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1374924931%26sparams%3Did,itag,source,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3DA50A2D489F584F5189EF019991AB7CFAEAEC661B.5FE09AB291B974A7FCB4EACDB53DA344F341A511%26key%3Dlh1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dfb81d2ccd5ede564%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dpicasa%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%253Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1374924931%26sparams%3Did,itag,source,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3DA50A2D489F584F5189EF019991AB7CFAEAEC661B.5FE09AB291B974A7FCB4EACDB53DA344F341A511%26key%3Dlh1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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Unfortunately, the Going To The Sun Highway was STILL not open due to snow today!! No big deal, we would just continue on US-2. Neither of us had ever ridden US-2 around the south end of Glacier NP, so all is good!</div>
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We stopped for a break and a few pics at the top of Marias Pass and the Continental Divide.</div>
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I always like to take a few pics of my bike with the snow covered mountains in the background. I like the red in contrast with the gray and white!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUZOeLV5shCvyf3SbpWvujI8jnWRa1822ANhtbATRgQZ-_-4QWnBmhtvalCQNFTLVNeZ9HEDMbWXWidcPmWvkX-IwN7XS0MdT89VnQmk0rBHed5ZE9aWecA8-gUVzaFF1TYuNzs9IyBGs/s1600/IMG_2972.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUZOeLV5shCvyf3SbpWvujI8jnWRa1822ANhtbATRgQZ-_-4QWnBmhtvalCQNFTLVNeZ9HEDMbWXWidcPmWvkX-IwN7XS0MdT89VnQmk0rBHed5ZE9aWecA8-gUVzaFF1TYuNzs9IyBGs/s640/IMG_2972.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is Bill<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvk6BAwiDcgUleYwM7sgzq032Rr1sLXjvSKK4uFgrJhn0DAJRnf4vaZhanxSIDoBxwzmoETgrg00ogo3gkWloWbUZLRj_HtV8HT6b2qu1vQ6RnY8ITEKIYq6J9m8KsJRQIV47j258GSWo/s1600/IMG_2969.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvk6BAwiDcgUleYwM7sgzq032Rr1sLXjvSKK4uFgrJhn0DAJRnf4vaZhanxSIDoBxwzmoETgrg00ogo3gkWloWbUZLRj_HtV8HT6b2qu1vQ6RnY8ITEKIYq6J9m8KsJRQIV47j258GSWo/s640/IMG_2969.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
More of my bike!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvqezvLORPTAtktFXcn9JxWI2yVTDHD-0bqyaaQFmNXnhC0VSp38yTj_HWPjMqukqh7EorJvzBewqfNH5UHZFLsIWIdiHq-XEX2N7pXGkNN1f_cY2Pw_tLNPeYEni8KHE8OzbwRSO8L4Q/s1600/IMG_2975.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvqezvLORPTAtktFXcn9JxWI2yVTDHD-0bqyaaQFmNXnhC0VSp38yTj_HWPjMqukqh7EorJvzBewqfNH5UHZFLsIWIdiHq-XEX2N7pXGkNN1f_cY2Pw_tLNPeYEni8KHE8OzbwRSO8L4Q/s640/IMG_2975.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghMAzuKVeUrPzAilXRiXh3Al53u9j8qyQqi8qek0j1oMXIJisbKqeSqtTT5UYhoHLk_BIck_mibdjlphGh1iQPeLjFBnUo2hDy77hn6bPNUcQ2W9I6Z4yRF62uu3fze-wX8Pg4Pvq2gGE/s1600/IMG_2974.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghMAzuKVeUrPzAilXRiXh3Al53u9j8qyQqi8qek0j1oMXIJisbKqeSqtTT5UYhoHLk_BIck_mibdjlphGh1iQPeLjFBnUo2hDy77hn6bPNUcQ2W9I6Z4yRF62uu3fze-wX8Pg4Pvq2gGE/s640/IMG_2974.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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About that time, I needed to take a "nature" break so I headed up the hill into the woods. (BTW, for all my East coast friends, I made sure I took my "nature" break on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide - sorry West coast friends!! hehe!!)<br />
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Remember the snake "incident" in the National Park in Maryland a couple of weeks ago. Well, as I was standing in the wooded area I looked over to my right and saw this. Now the picture doesn't do it justice, as what I thought I saw at the edge of the woods was a GRIZZLY BEAR!! But as you can see it was a brown limb of an evergreen tree (if you get back from the picture it does look like a bear face). It was enough to startle me a little!! hehe, again!!<br />
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On east we rode. The true meaning of "Big Sky Country" was realized as we headed east of Browning, MT. WOW!!<br />
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Reminds me of the song I like by The Highwaymen, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3zSp_uhjcI">The Road Goes On Forever and The Party Never Ends</a>"!! (One of my "theme songs" for this trip!)<br />
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The last sight of the Rocky Mountains of western Montana behind us. BTW, that is Bill behind me as I took this picture with the camera backwards. Lucky shot traveling around 70 mph!!<br />
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We made it to Williston, ND for the night. We had called several places the night before trying to find a hotel room. If you don't know it there is a oil boom going on in western North Dakota and Williston is right in the middle of it. I will post more pics tomorrow of the area and talk more about it. Here was our dinner for the evening. We found a really neat restaurant within walking distance of the hotel we did find with a room!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-40097543146893364552013-06-26T18:29:00.002-04:002013-07-21T17:50:09.903-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 19 - June 16, 2013 - SunStart Time: 0800 PDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 MDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Winthrop, WA</span><br />
Stop Location: Kalispell, MT<br />
Lodging: Hampton Inn<br />
Dinner: La Fiesta Mexican Family<br />
Miles Traveled Today: 456<br />
Weather: 60-85, Sunny<br />
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WOW, this is what we woke up to this morning. We had left the sliding door open last night. Had a really good night's sleep with the cool mountain air and sounds of rushing snow melt water of the Methow River right outside! Yesterday had been a really exciting day so it was nice to have a restful night.<br />
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We walked back downtown for a hearty breakfast this morning. Here is Bill waiting for his breakfast to be served at Three Finged Jack's Saloon.<br />
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This was a picture in the saloon! At first, I thought someone had taken my and Bill's picture the night before and had it mounted on the wall already!! Hard to remember all the celebrating we did last night for finishing the USA4CT!! hehe!!<br />
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Nope, this was more of the way we looked the night before in the saloon!! hehe, again!!<br />
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Look at the size of this plate of sausage gravy and biscuits!!<br />
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Look at the size of that pancake and all that bacon, just for Bill!!!!We definitely had a hearty breakfast!!<br />
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We headed on east on US 2. Planned to take US 2 all the way to the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. As you can see, it was another beautiful day on our tour! Very little traffic. One short stretch of US 2 was under construction and we had to ride on gravel for about a mile, but without any delay. We also had an elk run out in front of us nearing Idaho. The dang thing got in front of us and just ran down the road for about quarter of a mile. All we could do was slow down to a near stop and watch what it may do. It finally turned to the right and headed back into the woods.<br />
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Another beautiful SUNNY day of riding across Washington, Idaho and into Montana!!! <br />
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-3186574191973117412013-06-26T16:56:00.000-04:002013-06-26T16:56:57.133-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 18 - Tour Day 15 - June 15, 2013 - SatStart Time: 0630 PDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 PDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Yakima, WA</span><br />
Stop Location: Winthrop, WA<br />
Lodging: Hotel Rio Vista<br />
Dinner: Carlos 1800 Mexican Grill<br />
Miles Traveled Today: 478<br />
Weather: 65-85, Sunny<br />
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Well today would be the day to complete the USA4CT by visiting Blaine, Washington. I had read about the North Cascades Highway (WA-20) and about the town of Winthrop, WA. It looked like we could make it to Blaine and then head on east on WA-20 to Winthrop for the night.<br />
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I had also "met" another USA4CT rider, Charles, who lived near Seattle through the Southern California Motorcycling Association. He had completed the tour solo back in May of this year. We became Facebook friends and I had got several "tips" from him about the tour. I called Charles yesterday and told him we planned to be in Blaine today, so he said he would plan to meet us in Everett, WA and ride up to Blaine with us. Charles also has a very unique motorcycle that is truly his as you will see later!<br />
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We had a beautiful ride up to Everett. First thing this morning we took scenic route 821 along the Yakima River between Yakima and Ellensburg. I had ridden this route back in 2007 and knew it was good. It was a refreshing start to our ride today! We also crossed Steven's Pass on US-2. All of US-2 was a beautiful ride.<br />
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We met Charles at a rest stop on I-5. Spent some time talking about our trip and Charles' customized Road King. Charles is a retired US Army Miltary Policeman and current works as a police officer at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. His bike is "customized" for a military policeman!! Pretty cool as you can see in the pictures below.<br />
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Somewhat surprising he was only stopped on his USA4CT one time by the state police and that was in Illinois (someone had called 911 about a motorcycle going down the road with guns!!). After he showed the state police his bike and that he himself was a career police officer they all had a good laugh about it!<br />
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Charles is a great guy. We really enjoyed meeting him and having his company & direction along our way to Blaine. He was a real asset in leading us through the detour on I-5 near Mount Vernon where the interstate bridge had fallen into the river back in May. Took us only about 30 minutes of stop and go traffic to get through the detour. <br />
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BTW, Charles tells us his current base commander where he works will not allow his motorcycle on base!!<br />
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Well, here we are, at our final corner of the USA4CT!!! And in 15 days too, since we left Madawaska, ME! Bill and I both felt a great relief and a sense of achievement at the same time. I had been planning and thinking about this tour for several years and had it set in place for last year when I had my accident coming back from Daytona. This was a big ticket item on Bill's "bucket list"!! We both felt the achievement, since t<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">his
official tour sponsored by the Southern California Motorcycling
Association (SCMA) has been running for 29 years. It started in 1984. 1,300
people have completed the challenge over the 29 years. That is an
average of only 45 people per year. As Blake Anderson, the chairman of the SCMA said, more people climb Mt. Everest every
year than ride the USA Four Corners Tour!!! Now we just need to get our documentation sent out in the mail and get the official certification and plaque sent to us as well as our name on the SCMA US4CT web site!!! That does feel good!!!!</span><br />
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Had to get a pic of all three of us at Blaine too!!<br />
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After the documentation pictures and gas receipts we all headed back south on I-5. Bill and I headed east at Bellingham. WA-20 was pretty straight and flat for several miles until we hit the North Cascades National Park and the scenery and road really changed as you can see below!! Hardly any traffic so it was a fun, enjoyable motorcycle ride!<br />
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Note in this picture the railroad track well about the road. This was a pretty good grade. I was hoping to see a train coming and to see how many engines it would take to get up this grade. I am sure it was a lot. We didn't see a train.<br />
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We made it to Winthrop and our lodging for the night, Hotel Rio Vista. Lots of motorcycles there!!<br />
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The desk clerk gave Bill and I a prime parking location for our motorcycles!!<br />
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This is the river right outside our room balcony.<br />
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Here is where Bill and I had our now, traditional cigar and Scotch for finishing our fourth corner.<br />
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We were hungry so next on the agenda was dinner. We wore our USA4CT hats & pins with pride this evening too!!<br />
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I think we really celebrated with dinner too!!<br />
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Winthrop was a very authenic looking Western town. It was hard to walk down the board walkway without putting your thumbs in your pockets or walk bowlegged (that was pretty easy for us after now about 9,000 miles in the motorcycle saddle over the past 3 weeks!!)<br />
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This is the oldest "legal" saloon in the state of Washington<br />
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Hey, this was our kind of place!!!! hehe<br />
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-6697438707946388842013-06-26T14:50:00.000-04:002013-06-26T14:50:36.474-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 17 - Tour Day 14 - June 14, 2013 - FriStart Time: 1000 PDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 PDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Crater Lake NP, OR</span><br />
Stop Location: Yakima, WA<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Outback Steakhouse <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 330<br />
Weather: 26-85, Sunny<br />
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Even though I didn't set the clock, my intent was to get up early enough to see the sun rise on Crater Lake. That I did! WOW, was it ever COLD this morning. The official temperature in the lodge was 26 degrees and my bike thermometer showed 27 degrees. Quite a heavy layer of frost on my motorcycle in the parking lot. For sure we would have to wait for a warm up before departing as a Harley does not include a defroster!!! (although probably should for what it costs!!)<br />
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So here is the pic of the sun coming up over the edge of the crater. Quite a site. Funny, although it was in the 20's, I didn't really feel cold. I guess I had already got used to the colder temps having been in them for about a day now. After a few cups of coffee, I ended up hiking about 3 miles on the rim trail, just pausing and enjoying the views and taking a few pics along the way. I talked to Bill and Marty and told them to just go on to breakfast without me this morning.<br />
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I took a bunch of pictures this morning. Just like the evening before, as the sun rose and I walked along the rim trail the view of the lake constantly was changing. Here are just a select few of them.The pictures speak for themselves:<br />
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This was my shadow next to a rock column. I thought it was kinda cool as the rock shadow looked somewhat like a face.<br />
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It warmed up into the upper 40's around 10 am so we packed up to take off. We had called Wildhorse Harley Davidson in Bend, OR a couple of days ago to see if they would work us in for an oil change if we just stopped by today. They said they would and should get us done in about an hour. Most Harley shops will do that for traveling motorcyclists, although I have been to a couple that would not do that, but that is definitely the exception rather than the rule!<br />
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We said our goodbys to Marty and he headed on South as we headed North ready to make it on to Blaine, WA for our last corner checkin. We knew it would take more than a day to get there so we planned to spend the night around Yakima, WA. <br />
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We had to stop at the North entrance station since I had been talking to Bill on his CB a few times coming out of the park but I wasn't getting any response. Hadn't mentioned it, but since riding in the Tropical Storm back in Florida, Bill's LCD display on his radio had gone blank. Apparently some water got into it and shorted something out. The radio and CB continued to work, it's just he couldn't tell if it was on or if the volume was turned up. We found that the CB volume had gotten accidentally turned down when we stopped. Fixed that and we were back on our way.<br />
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We made it to Wildhorse Harley Davidson around 12:30. The folks there were super nice and took our bikes right in for the oil change. They even made us a fresh pot of coffee! Kinda funny, our home dealer in Richmond is Steelhorse Harley as is where we got our last maintenance, now we were at Wildhorse Harley for our next maintenance.<br />
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The ride up US 97 was a nice ride. Not much traffic and nice scenery. The best part was coming down into the Columbia River gorge and coming back up out of the gorge. That was some fun, scenic riding.<br />
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We made it to a Best Western in Yakima, WA and ate dinner across the parking lot at a Outback Steakhouse. We were ready to head on to Blaine and our final corner tomorrow!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-7918016987526630592013-06-25T15:38:00.000-04:002013-06-25T17:04:12.059-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 16 - Tour Day 13 - June 13, 2013 - ThuStart Time: 0700 PDT<br />
Stop Time: 1400 PDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Crescent City, CA</span><br />
Stop Location: Crater Lake NP, OR<br />
Lodging:Crater Lake NP Lodge<br />
Miles Traveled Today: 185<br />
Weather: 58-65-42, Sunny, cloudy, ice pellets, SNOW<br />
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It was a cool morning in the 50's heading out from Crescent City. We had breakfast at Fishersman Restaurant (same place we had dinner last evening). Great breakfast with a lot of local folks there. We had called Crater Lake Lodge yesterday and they had a couple of rooms left. We got one double for us and I called Marty (who was also on the USA4CT from Richmond but about a week ahead of us) to let him know there was a single room available and if he wanted to meet up with us. He did, so we were all set for a Richmond/USA4CT/Dominion retiree motorcycle gathering at Crater Lake NP for this evening!<br />
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Other than being cool (but the heated jacket took care of that!), it was a beautiful morning heading up US 199 toward Oregon. This was a great motorcycle road with lots of great scenery and twisty pavement. As we approached the town of Cave Junction, I noticed a waypoint that I had marked in my GPS. It was <a href="http://taylorsausage.com/">Taylor's Country Store</a>. I couldn't remember the significance of it at the time, but I knew I had bookmarked it for some reason, then I remembered SAUSAGE, of all things. I called Bill on the CB and told him I was going to make a stop at this place that had something to do with sausage. I know he thought (and other times too!) that I was crazy!! We pulled in and it was crowded for that early in the morning. Sure enough, the place cut all types of meats, made sausage and jerky right there in the store. They also had a small restaurant, so we had a cup of coffee (had too much breakfast earlier!). We both ended up buying some beef jerky, it was really good. Pretty neat place. The family there has been making sausage since 1924 and it was definitely popular with all the people in the area! I remember now reading about this place on another motorcycle ride blog from the area. That is why I had bookmarked it on my GPS.<br />
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Just about anything in the meat, sausage, jerky line was in this store!<br />
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Some of their packaged meats!<br />
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At Grants Pass we jumped on I-5 for a few miles south to head up to Crater Lake. That's about when the clouds moved in and it got colder and colder. Of course we were climbing in elevation too. Crater Lake Lodge is over 7,000 feet. A little fine mist of rain started to come down too, but not enough to put on the rain gear. As the temperature dropped though the 40's to about 42, the misty rain turned to ICE PELLETS!! Even with the heated jacket on full, it was starting to get chilly.<br />
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We made it to the Park entrance station. (Remember the park ranger back at the little Saguaro NP in Tucson?) This time I was prepared with my photo ID (diver's license) in my jacket pocket with my annual national park pass. I thought, in any case, I would test the "system". As I handed my National Park pass to the Park Ranger I asked him "Do you need to see my photo ID too?". He immediately said "No that is not necessary, you can go on through"!! (OK, I was happy and again I am not going to say anything else about this!! hehe).<br />
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We finally made it to the top of the crater without freezing to death!! Does Bill look COLD in this picture? He should and does, it was only about 40 degrees here with SNOW laying all over the place!! But hey, he still has a smile on his face! I am sure he was just thinking of the 112 degree day we had had in New Mexico and Arizona just a few days ago.<br />
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Here we were parked in front of the lodge unloading our motorcycles for the night's stay.<br />
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This was the view from the window in our room for the night. Unbelievable view!<br />
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We didn't walk around much outside since we were so cold. There were several fireplaces going in the lodge and we both headed for one to warm up to. This was one big fireplace and it felt good too!<br />
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Now that we had our "outside" warmed up, it was time to warm up our "inside"!! hehe. What better for Bill and I upon our arrival than "The Old Man's Hot Chocolate". Now that really tasted good and warmed us up in more ways than one!!! hehe, hehe, hehe!<br />
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Only problem was there wasn't enough of it in the glass!! It definitely made you want more. <br />
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After getting unpacked and warmed up, I headed outside to explore and takes some pics. It was a picture taking paradise both around and of the lake. Lots of snow on the ground and as the evening went on, new snow began to fall. It ended up just being flurries and the temps had fallen into the mid 30's. The forecast overnight was to be in the 20's!!!<br />
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The drifts of snow were around 8-10 feet in places. There are years that the snow never totally melts at Crater Lake over the year.<br />
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Bill just couldn't get away from that fireplace and he really had a nice time reading a book in the lodge. (Hey, it don't get any better than this, now does it Bill?)<br />
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Another cozy fireplace.<br />
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Marty got there around 5:30 pm. I mentioned before that Marty was also from Richmond, VA and on the USA4CT solo. He started out about a week before Bill and I and he had already finished the tour and was hitting some places on the way back. Marty also retired a few years ago from Dominion Virginia Power, like Bill and I. Here was Marty's bike (The Big Blue Pig) parked out front of the lodge as he was unloading.<br />
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Bill, Marty and I had a great dinner together this evening. Great conversation and company. We shared stories about our USA4CT as well as a few "old" work stories!! hehe<br />
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Now for a few pics of the area of Crater Lake. This was a "cool" place. Something to think you are standing on the rim of a volcano that erupted around 7,700 years ago. They think it was around 12,000 feet high prior to the eruption, so about 5,000 feet of the top of the mountain is "gone" or collapsed into the crater which created the area of the lake. It is also around 6 miles across the crater.<br />
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This is the bluest water I have ever seen. It was constantly changing as the sun would change on the lake.<br />
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I think the water was bluer than the sky! (Flag at the Visitor Center)<br />
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Here is when it was SNOWING!!! <br />
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It was a photographer's paradise as the view constantly changed with the clouds/sun and as you moved. There was a rim walk for about 1 mile near the lodge.<br />
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Again, no AC today, just HEAT in the room!! I planned to get up in the morning near sunrise to see the sun come up and get a few pics! <br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-69762628118347652832013-06-13T00:55:00.001-04:002013-06-24T16:49:37.465-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 15 - Tour Day 12 - June 12, 2013 - WedStart Time: 0700 PDT<br />
Stop Time: 1830 PDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Santa Nella, CA</span><br />
Stop Location: Crescent City, CA<br />
Lodging: Curly's Redwood Lodge<br />
Dinner: Fisherman's Restaurant <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 490<br />
Weather: 70-85-55, Sunny<br />
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After a nice sit down served FREE breakfast in the hotel restaurant we hit the road for another great day of riding. We wanted to ride part of the PCH on our way north instead of just pounding out the miles on I-5 so we decided to turn off onto CA-16 at Woodland and head over to US 101. As we were going through the town of Capay, CA a sign on the side of a building caught my eye. "The Road Trip" Bar & Grill!! I called Bill on the CB and said we gotta make a quick u-turn and I have to at least get a pic of our bikes in front of that sign!! That we did and seeing the "open" sign we decided to go in for a cup of coffee since it was still morning. Glad we did as <a href="http://www.roadtripbg.com/" target="_blank">The Road Trip Bar & Grill</a> in Capay, CA is a really neat stop! Just wish we could have been there for lunch and/or dinner too. <br />
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Very tastefully decorated inside. This sign was made just for Bill and I!!!!<br />
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Maybe this one was appropriate too for us!! hehe<br />
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Someone had painted these hands on the crack of the floor next to our table. Cute!!<br />
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For all of our still working friends, this sign is for you!! Sorry about that!! Another hehe!<br />
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Thought I had got a picture of rest of the inside bar, but you can just check out their web page from the link above. Very friendly, nice staff and motorcycle friendly. Definitely a nice place to visit, have a drink and food!<br />
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Now on to CA-16. This was one nice motorcycle road!! It runs through Cache Creek Canyon and follows Cache Creek. Very little traffic too and nice road. We really enjoyed that and was thankful we were not on I-5!!<br />
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We continued on CA-20 to US 101. 20 was a nice road passing by a nice lake, Clearlake. We saw a whole herd of elk along US 101 and I had to stop and get a picture!!<br />
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We rode the "<a href="http://avenueofthegiants.net/" target="_blank">Avenue of the giants</a>" through the Redwood park. The redwoods sure are BIG!! Thought about parking the motorcycle beside one for a pic but didn't. We were getting tired and it was getting COLD (mid 50's) along the coast.<br />
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We did stop for a bathroom break (hey, there were actual restrooms nearby, so we didn't have to go in the ocean!!!!) and a nice picture of our motorcycles with the Pacific Ocean in the background along the PCH.<br />
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We made it to Crescent City for the night. Got a room at the famous <a href="http://www.curlyredwoodlodge.com/" target="_blank">Curly's Redwood Lodge</a>. The entire lodge was built back in the 50's from one giant redwood tree. You can read the history on the above line. Again, had really nice covered parking for our motorcycles!! There was NO air conditioning and that was fine. The room did have a wall HEATER and we turned it on full blast!! Now that felt good!!!<br />
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The <a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/239/1130708/restaurant/Northern-California/Fishermans-Restaurant-Lnge-Crescent-City" target="_blank">Fisherman's Restaurant</a> was right across the street. We both had the fish and chips for dinner. It was very good and plentiful!!!<br />
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Had a great piece of blackberry pie for dessert. We tried to walk off some of the dinner by the harbor, but it was just too cold for us. Back to the room and ready for a restful night's sleep!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-18042654316957275202013-06-12T00:06:00.000-04:002013-06-24T15:30:54.269-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 14 - Tour Day 11 - June 11, 2013 - TueStart Time: 0600 PDT<br />
Stop Time: 1545 PDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Laguna Beach, CA</span><br />
Stop Location: Santa Nella, CA<br />
Lodging: Hotel Mission de Oro<br />
Dinner: Pea Soup Andersen's <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 386<br />
Weather: 60-95, Sunny<br />
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We got up early to head out of the Los Angeles basin. Bill knew a good route that was a great motorcycle road. We headed up the Laguna Canyon Road. If you can avoid traffic there are some very scenic nice motorcycle roads in the Los Angeles area!! There was hardly any traffic on the toll roads which helped at the toll station we had to stop at. Had a little traffic on Rt 91 & I-15 but most all of it was heading west in the opposite direction we were going!! Did see a dead cougar that had been hit by a vehicle that night along one freeway. A LA police car was just on the site. It was a really big cougar on the edge of the road. We don't see those hit on the road back east!!<br />
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Someone had told me about a good road to take around the north side of the LA basin. I believe that was Blake with the SCMA. Thanks, Blake!! That was I-15 to CA-138 and then the Lake Elizabeth road back to CA-138 and I-5. I also had bookmarked on my GPS, <a href="http://www.historicrockinn.com/" target="_blank">The Rock Inn</a> at Lake Hughes and we planned to stop there for breakfast. What a fantastic motorcycle road and Inn along the Lake Elizabeth road. This was one of the highlights of the trip. Now, CA-138 was not as good as there was a lot of trucks on this road, but the Lake Elizabeth road was really nice! As we traveled further we started to see the hillsides had recently been burned with a forest fire. That sight triggered in our minds that we had heard on the news recently about some major forest fires north of the LA basin and we realized that we were traveling right in the middle of the fire zone!!!We began to see fire trucks along the road and we could smell the smoke but did not see any fire or smoke so we headed on.<br />
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Here is a pic of the hill side that was common along the Lake Elizabeth road:<br />
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We could see where the fire had been close to many houses and unfortunately we saw a couple of homes completely burned to the ground. After we got to the Rock Inn, we picked up a copy of the fire incident update. WOW, the fire had only been contained yesterday and 30 homes had been destroyed.<br />
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Another dramatic thing we saw from the fire was the melting of vinyl farm fences in the area. This really gave you a feel for the fire intensity and heat!<br />
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As we pulled in at <a href="http://www.historicrockinn.com/" target="_blank">The Rock Inn</a> (by the way, in addition to great food, this place has a lot of history and character associated with it. You can click on the name and see the web site.), we saw the banners along the top of the Rock Inn thanking all the firefighters. I don't think we visited a town anywhere on our trip that had friendlier people than Lake Hughes. I don't think a single person that we passed by on the street or inside the Rock Inn didn't stop by to speak to use, ask us where we were from and talk to us about the town and fire. You could tell instantly that it was a nice town with very nice people who cared for each other and their town, BUT at the same time welcomed outside people like Bill and I on motorcycles. One lady told us about the fire and she had been evacuated just the Saturday before. One of her friend's home had been completely burned, but she said they were looking after the family and would recover.<br />
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The Rock Inn is a fantastic place to stop for a visit and/or breakfast/lunch/dinner/drinks!! Very nice inside with a lot of character, history and very friendly waitresses.<br />
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You could tell they catered to motorcyclists, especially HOGS!!!! hehe<br />
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Here was Bill settled down with his coffee reading the morning newspaper:<br />
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I had a breakfast burrito and it was fantastic!<br />
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Our waitress invited us to tour the upstairs where they still have a historic lodge still in use. Very tastefully restored/maintained. I took a neat picture of our motorcycles looking down from the balcony:<br />
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The upstairs lodge lounge area:<br />
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The upstairs common area fireplace: <br />
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The stairway to the lodge comes right down into the restaurant/bar <br />
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On up I-5 we headed after a hearty breakfast and great stop at Lake Hughes. Here was one of our rest stops. This guy on the ground was really taking the literal meaning of a "rest" stop!!<br />
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Time to talk about one other "highlight" of our trip. In preparation for this trip, Bill decided he didn't need a seat bag on his motorcycle so he bought a cooler bag. By the way he found it at Walmart!! (I gotta pick one up for my use before Harley starts marketing it and adding a couple of hundred dollars to the price!! hehe).<br />
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Every day on our last gas stop before stopping for a hotel, we would pick up a 6 pack of our favorite beverage, a small bag of ice and stock the cooler on his back seat. The cooler has a plastic removable shell inside it so it didn't leak. Now that was the "cat's meow"!! There was nothing better than an ice cold beverage upon arriving at the hotel (with an apprioprate toast to that days ride!) and then a walk to a restaurant!! Great idea, Bill!!<br />
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It got pretty hot heading up I-5 that afternoon. Marty, another USA4CT rider from Richmond, VA that was about a week ahead of us, had mentioned a neat hotel he stumbled upon just south of Sacramento so we decided to try it as we were passing by. New owners had been working on it to restore it and it was very nice. Friendly people there too!<br />
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Bill out on our room balcony:<br />
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The view from our room balcony!!<br />
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The owner even gave us dedicated covered parking near our rooms for our motorcycles!! He even brought a water hose by with wash rags and we washed the bikes up that evening. They really needed it as they had not been cleaned since driving through Tropical Storm Andrea in Florida several days ago!!<br />
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The evening meal was a little more than a walk (about a mile) so we rode our bikes and got take out at a neat place called Pea Soup Andersen's.<br />
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We had a great place to eat out on the room balcony. It was really good pea soup and a great chicken salad sandwich. With the cold beverages from Bill's now famous bike seat cooler, we had a great evening!!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-2921118740364139462013-06-12T00:05:00.002-04:002013-07-05T08:10:25.375-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 13 - Tour Day 10 - June 10, 2013 - MonStart Time: 0630 MST<br />
Stop Time: 1330 PDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Gila Bend, AZ</span><br />
Stop Location: Laguna Beach, CA<br />
Lodging: The Art Hotel<br />
Dinner: Lumberyard <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 391<br />
Weather: 75-90-70, Sunny<br />
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WE MADE IT to San Ysidro, CA, our third corner!! We were lucky as a car pulled out of the prime parking slot right in front of the post office sign as we pulled in. Would have been a better picture without the tree in front of the sign!! Didn't need it for shade as the temps were only around 70 degree in San Ysidro at mid morning. Went on and got our gas receipts and headed on up I-5 to Laguna Beach, CA for the evening/night! <br />
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Backing up a little. We had a great ride from Gila Bend this morning. There were lots of high wind and dust storm warning signs along I8, BUT we had no wind. As a matter of fact there were some very large wind mill electric generating farms along the road and NOT a single wind mill was turning (being a retired electrical engineer made me think of the coal/oil/gas/nuclear plants that had to be running at that time to made up for "no wind" electricity to keep the light on!!!)<br />
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Beautiful sand dunes along I8 too:<br />
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The road and view got really nice as we entered the mountains heading over to San Diego<br />
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We spent the night in a neat Hotel in Laguna Beach. We even had a nice parking garage for our bikes! We ended up in Laguna Beach since Bill's son and family live there. So it was a great opportunity to have a quick visit and dinner with them as we were passing through. Of course, Laguna Beach is a really nice place to spend an evening and night anyway on the trip!!<br />
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This was a cool motorcycle picture the Hotel had on the entrance wall.<br />
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While Bill was visiting his son and family and our laundry was being done, I did a quick visit to the beach. Beautiful beach!!!<br />
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What a place too to see the sunset. Just gorgeous!!<br />
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Bill and I planned before the tour to do something special after checking in at each of the four corners. That was to have a drink of Scotch and smoke a cigar!! My son had provided us with a bottle of fine 20 year old Scotch as a send off to start the trip. The one bottle would serve us through all four corners. Of course we did that at the end of the day we made it to that corner at the respective hotel. Here is a pic of the cigar and Scotch while I was looking out over the Pacific ocean this evening. This was a special place to celebrate the third corner!! Thanks to Bill's son and family for such gracious hospitality!!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-61669964754755300812013-06-12T00:05:00.001-04:002013-06-23T18:13:46.788-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 12 - Tour Day 9 - June 9, 2013 - SunStart Time: 0630 CDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 MST<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Fort Stockton, TX</span><br />
Stop Location: Gila Bend, AZ<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Space Age Restaurant <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 724<br />
Weather: 75-112, SUNNY<br />
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We knew today would be a hot one for sure. Just didn't know that the temps would be well above 110 degrees for a lot of our ride!! We also "picked up" two extra hours, even though we only went through one time zone. It is interesting that the state of Arizona does not recognize daylight savings time, so when we crossed from the Central time zone to the Mountain time zone we actually moved back two hours to the same time as in the Pacific time zone. Kinda confusing!!! Don't know if it was the extra two hours, the straight roads, the HEAT or just our "not thinking", but we rode for 724 miles today over about 14 hours!!! We were both pretty tired (understatement), when we arrived in Gila Bend that evening. But hey, we are on a long distance motorcycle ride and we are getting "tougher" by the day/mile in the saddle!!!!!<br />
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Had to stop at Barnett Harley Davidson in El Paso since it is the largest Harley shop in the world. Only problem was they were NOT OPEN!! It was Sunday and they didn't open until 10:30 and we were there around 9 am. Oh well, did take a pic of the bike in front of the shop so I can have evidence I was there. Maybe the next time!<br />
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Pretty cool coming through El Paso and seeing the Mexican town of Juarez right across the river. As we traveled along I-10 through town, the US/Mexico border fence & the Rio Grande was right next to the interstate. I have always heard of the crazy stuff that goes on in Juarez and I am sure there is a lot more that I don't even want to know about. Can't imagine what it is like to live so close to that border town. Just west of El Paso the entire I-10 traffic had to move off the interstate into a border check station. Took us only about 10 minutes as they did separate the cars from the trucks. The border agent just waved Bill and I right through. I am sure they were looking for illegal aliens!! (I guess they figure it is hard to conceal one on a motorcycle so they didn't waste any time on us!!)<br />
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They also have right nice "hospitable" rest stops in that area. Here is the big sign at the front of the rest stop!! I didn't see any but I did watch my step and looked close when I was in the restroom (didn't want another "encounter" like I had in the national park in Maryland!!)<br />
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We did decide to stop at Saguaro National Park near Tucson. I always wanted to see some of these giant cacti up close and it didn't look too far off the interstate. Only problem was the two lane road was under construction, several stop lights and a lot of new development was going on along the road. That made for an even hotter ride for about 5 miles into the park!! Got to the park visitor center and got my passport stamp. Outside the visitor center was a family of <span class="st"><a href="http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_javelina.shtml" target="_blank">javelinas</a> laying in the shade on a very hot day! They had the right idea with the afternoon temps well above 110 degrees!!! Cute little things!</span><br />
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Got our pics with the Saguaro cacti. Those things are really BIG!!<br />
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There was a loop road for about 8 miles though the park. The nice ranger in the visitor center told me it was a great ride on a motorcycle and there was hardly anyone in the park today (makes sense due to the temps in the 110's!!!!!). So off we went to do the loop road. Only little problem is that you then have to go through a National Park entrance station. I had though of that as I kept my National Park pass in a pouch attached to my motorcycle keys. I handed my park pass to the ranger at the entrance station as she slid the window open from her nice air conditioned hut and I could feel some of the cold air rush out. She looked at my park pass and said something to me. My motorcycle is running and my earplugs are in and it is around 112 degrees!! She was pointing to the back of my pass and I could hear her saying loudly, "I need to see a photo ID to let you in". Granted the back of the pass under my signature did say "Photo ID required", in all my travels to National Parks, I have never been asked to show a photo ID along with my park pass. As a matter of fact, I have been to a couple of parks where I told the ranger I have a national park annual pass while on my motorcycle and in the process of getting it out of my pocket he told me that is OK and waved me on through!! With the heat, being tired and remembering what the ranger in Maryland told me the Washington administration had told them to be doing TO the American citizens, that set me off!! Anyway, I probably should not have said anything, but I did and I let that park ranger have it verbally!! In the end, she let me in without me having to dig out my photo ID (which was stored in my saddlebag!), but she told me this was for this time only and the next time I had better have my photo ID available. I gave her a few more choice words and off we went on the loop road. I am sure our administration has also put out an "order" for all the park rangers to do all they can to inconvenience the American citizens with this kind of stuff. This park ranger, on a hotter than hell day, talking to clearly evident American citizen on an American made motorcycle was doing everything she could to inconvenience me. I guess she was just doing her job and just what she was told to do and NOTHING else like a little common sense!! (edit - also went to Crater Lake National Park later. At that entrance station I had my photo ID in my hand with my park pass. As I handed my park pass to the ranger I asked, do you also need to see my photo ID? He promptly answered no, that is not necessary and waved me on through!!). OK enough said on this subject!!<br />
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The park was beautiful, but it was an "urban" park right up against Tuscon with a very poor access road and at least one park ranger that definitely graduated in the bottom half of her class (sorry, I did say I wasn't going to say anymore on that subject!! hehe)<br />
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Here is a pic of my bike thermometer. It was near 116 degrees with a little sun on it. It was also so hot you could see mirages in the road up ahead!!! We used 112 degrees as our "official" high for the day!<br />
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Got a little bored traveling the long straight hot interstate so I had Bill pull up beside me and I too a riding picture of him.<br />
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Also realized I had not got a "cockpit" pic of my bike so here it is. Kinda neat, if you click on the pic and make it full size, you can see Bill in my rear view mirror on the right side!!<br />
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Here was a gas/restroom stop we make somewhere in New Mexico. We had to use the women's restroom for some reason (the clerk told us too!!), I started to get a picture of Bill coming out, but just too this pic instead!! Was an interesting place with decorations and metal sculpture work outside for sale.<br />
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We had originally planned to only get to Casa Grande, AZ today. We wanted to make sure we got to San Ysidro the next day and on to Laguna Beach, CA for the next night. We checked hotels and found this neat hotel in Gila Bend. It was the "Space Age" motel. I called from Tuscon and made a reservation as you definitely don't want to miss a hotel out here when you get done riding for the day or you could continue riding for a looooong way!! It was originally built in the early 60's during the real Space Age race. This "only" added about 65 miles to our run today and resulted in our over 700 mile day and two very tired, hot old motorcycle riders!!!<br />
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Funny, even the room door had a flying saucer for the room number (note no smoking in the flying saucer!!)<br />
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The lobby building looked somewhat like the star ship, Enterprise!!<br />
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Wouldn't you know it, the "Space Age" restaurant was right next door. Note the flying saucers on the dinner plates!! Good meal. The next morning the hotel gave us a free coupon for a sit down ordered breakfast at the same restaurant. That was nice! <br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-7636942522953250612013-06-12T00:05:00.000-04:002013-07-02T09:42:07.579-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 11 - Tour Day 8 - June 8, 2013 - SatStart Time: 0630 CDT<br />
Stop Time: 1800 CDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Vidor, TX</span><br />
Stop Location: Fort Stockton, TX<br />
Lodging: Comfort Inn<br />
Dinner: K-Bob's Steakhouse <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 618<br />
Weather: 68-95, mostly sunny<br />
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WOW, another nice riding day. We got a little "gun shy" about the weather after riding though Tropical Storm Andrea in Florida, but things were really looking up now!<br />
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It was a Saturday so that was good news and bad news. The good news was
that there is no real business traffic. We took I-10 straight through
Houston and it was a breeze. Couldn't do that on a weekday! That saved
us a lot of miles to not take one of the circumferential expressways!! The bad news is a lot of tourist at the "tourist" locations!<br />
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Just can't ride though south Texas with stopping at the Alamo. I had never been there so it was neat seeing it. I didn't know it was so small!! Didn't get inside as there was a long line and wait. This was definitely a "tourist" location. <br />
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We also visited the San Antonio river walk. It is very nice. A lot of people were down there but it was not that crowded. Bill and I had a nice visit and "cold drink" at <a href="http://www.maddogs.net/" target="_blank">Mad Dogs British Pub</a> on the river walk!!<br />
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Both Bill and I were really impressed with the road and scenery of I-10 heading west from San Antonio. Nice curves and hills heading out of town. Went on for many miles before getting hotter and more straight. The speed limit west of San Antonio goes up to 80 mph!!! We kept running around 70-75 as the wind noise increases and the gas mileage really goes in the "tank" at that speed. Gas stations are sparse in that part of Texas so it was a "no brainer" for us to keep at the lower speed!<br />
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One gas station we stopped at had a <a href="http://bluebell.com/" target="_blank">Blue Bell</a> ice cream snack bar. Blue Bell just started marketing and selling in the Richmond, VA area. There are no "snack bars" here yet so it was good to get a scoop and a Blue Bell ice cream sandwich!! Especially good in the heat of west Texas!!<br />
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We arrived at Fort Stockton, TX and checked in at the Comfort Inn. We had checked trip advisor and called for a reservation before we left Vidor that morning. Didn't want to get "caught" without a hotel room in west Texas due to something like a weekend baseball tournament!!<br />
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We had also checked for restaurants in the area and just what we needed for our second night in Texas, a Texas STEAK!! (Hey, we love the BLUE sky too in west Texas!!!)<br />
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Of course everything is BIG in Texas including the glass/"jar" they serve a beer in. It sure was good with the heat!<br />
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A Texas steak it was. A full 16 ounce one too!!!! It was really good!<br />
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On our way walking back to the hotel we noticed this manufacturing facility making these cool looking "dune buggies". We don't know what is up with these. Maybe they are for ranchers or oil/gas workers. They do look like they would be a lot of fun to ride around in! (Found this on the web, <a href="http://www.terracat.net/index.php">Terra Cat</a>). In any case, back to our motorcycles!!!!!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-54442105563774270082013-06-12T00:04:00.000-04:002013-06-23T18:05:00.059-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 10 - Tour Day 7 - June 7, 2013 - FriStart Time: 0630 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1930 CDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Tallahassee, FL</span><br />
Stop Location: Vidor, TX<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Bar-B-Que Depot <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 668<br />
Weather: 65-95, mostly sunny<br />
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What a relief when we woke up to 65 degrees and SUNNY skies with no more rain. Tropical Storm Andrea had headed on up the coast and away from our path of travel. That was a relief!!<br />
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A lot of miles on I-10, although we did take the "short cut" around New Orleans via I-12. The ride went well until we got to Baton Rouge. There was a three vehicle accident in the center lane of the Mississippi River bridge!! It was very slow stop and go traffic in 95 degree temperature and what felt like 95% humidity!!! Took us 45 minutes to make it to the bridge and across the Mississippi. That took a lot out of us, especially with the slow/no speed and heat of the engine. I even turned my engine off for about 30 seconds a couple of time to cool the engine and ME!!<br />
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The swamp bridges west of Baton Rouge are pretty amazing pieces of highway engineering. Goes for miles and miles. I can't imagine the monotony of the workers that were pouring concrete along this highway when it was built. We were lucky that we didn't encounter a wreck on these bridges as I am sure traffic is blocked for hours when an accident happens. We did see one more wreck on I-10 in western Louisiana. It had just happened and many cars/trucks had stopped and drivers were running to the scene. It looked pretty gruesome as the car had apparently flipped several times and was tore up pretty bad. We slowed up but didn't stop. I am sure all the traffic was stopped in that area after we passed through with the needed clean up! In just two days we had seen more car accidents than I think I had on all my combined trips before!! (edit - thankfully, we didn't see another accident for the entire rest of the trip, except for a cougar that had been killed during the night on a Los Angeles, CA freeway!!)<br />
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Riding through Louisiana was a first for me. I only had another two states to ride in to complete the 49 states and I would ride in those (Wisconsin and Michigan) on my way back to Richmond later in the trip.<br />
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We finally made it to Texas: <br />
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We decided to stop in Beaumont for the night and thought would be no problem getting a room since it was a Friday night, but we were wrong. Little did we know that Beaumont was hosting the Junior league baseball tournament this weekend for the entire state of Texas. Since Texas is so big, that is a big deal. We stopped at a Hampton Inn and the desk clerk just laughed at us when we asked for a room!! There were kids running all over the inside and outside of the hotel so I guess we were lucky as I don't think we would have got any sleep. She did tell us that all the hotels in the town were booked for the tournament. I got on the phone with Best Western and finally found an available room in Vidor, Texas and grabbed it quickly. This required us to backtrack on I-10 a few miles and we had seen a back up going back east as we were coming west. We looked at the traffic maps on our iphone and it looked like if we went back through town we could bypass the traffic heading back east. Wow, did we ever see the old section of Beaumont, Texas. Just glad we did not have any breakdowns or run out of gas as the areas we traveled through did not look very hospitable!!!! In any case, we made it by the traffic and on to the Vidor hotel.<br />
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Two things I wanted to eat in Texas was some good Texas BBQ and a Texas steak. Checking with the hotel desk clerk, she recommended a place just a few blocks down the street called the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bar-B-Que-Depot-Inc/104963906214164" target="_blank">Bar-B-Que Depot</a>. They had been there cooking Texas BBQ for 17 years. Meet the owner/cook and his wife. Nice folks and some really good Texas BBQ!!<br />
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Here is Bill placing his order: <br />
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The menu:<br />
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Bill is ready to EAT and have a beer!!<br />
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Since we were pretty tired we had already decided to get take out and eat in the room with the cold beer we had already. That was tasty!!! BBQ beef sandwich and sliced brisket!!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-74177982170174434162013-06-06T19:52:00.002-04:002013-06-23T18:05:56.160-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 9 - Tour Day 6 - June 6, 2013 - ThuStart Time: 0530 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1500 EDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Florida City, FL</span><br />
Stop Location: Tallahassee, FL<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Pizza Hut Delivery <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 517<br />
Weather: 70, RAIN to HEAVY RAIN, Tropical Storm Andrea - RAIN SUITS ON!!!!!<br />
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WOW, what a day to be on a motorcycle in Florida. Got some advice from a fellow Harley rider, Jeff, that lives in Fort Pierce, FL to hit the Florida turnpike at least by 6 am to avoid some of the Miama traffic. Jeff was right on. We left at 5:30 am from Florida City and the traffic was, even then, starting to pick up, but flowed very well. The problem was the RAIN from Tropical Storm Andrea. It also started and continued for most of our 517 miles. It rained and then rained hard back and forth for most of the trip. The last 50 miles coming into Tallahassee, it REALLY rained!! Made me think of the Forrest Gump quote about rain in Vietnam:<br />
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<i>"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been
through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and
big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even
seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at
night... "</i><br />
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Several times we and the rest of the traffic were down to 35-40 mph with our flashers on!! Had we known this morning what we know now, I think we would have just spent an extra day in Floriday City relaxing and headed out tomorrow. In any case, we were SAFE and looked out for each other. It was a stressful ride with lots of tense moments! We did see 6-7 wrecks along the way (2 cars spinning out hitting the Jersey wall, tractor trailer off into the woods, another car off into the woods, etc.).<br />
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Here is a pic of the radar after we arrived in Tallahassee. I really think we drove through every rain band in Tropical Storm Andrea one time or another today!!<br />
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Bikes parked for the evening at the motel with rain still coming down!! <br />
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Everything we had (that wasn't in a saddlebag or tourpak) got some wet. We even had to "launder" our money after we got to the motel room!! Ha! Found out from Bill the value of a motel hair dryer too!! Great for drying gloves, billfolds, coin purses, tank bags, etc!!<br />
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One of the several turnpike service plaza stops along the way today.<br />
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-84014210282790636292013-06-05T21:21:00.003-04:002013-06-23T18:06:36.728-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 8 - Tour Day 5 - June 5, 2013 - WedStart Time: 0800 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1630 EDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Florida City, FL</span><br />
Stop Location: Florida City, FL<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Key Largo Conch House <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 262<br />
Weather: 80's, cloudy, showers - Rain suits on<br />
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Well, due to the threat of Tropical Storm conditions in Key West over the next couple of days, we decided to just ride down get our picture and gas receipt and ride back to Florida City. We wore our rain suits but it didn't really rain until about 5 miles from Key West. Then it poured it down as we approached the Southernmost buoy for our pictures. There was no one at the buoy so we pulled our bikes up to take the pictures. Bill took my picture first and that went well. I moved my bike and Bill pulled his up. I had the camera up to take the pictures when I heard this loud voice from behind me saying, "Motorcycles must be removed from the buoy area immediately!!" I turned around and a Key West police car had pulled up. I walked over and ask if we could just park by the curb for a few seconds to take a quick picture. He got back on his car bull horn and said " Motorcycles must be immediately removed and parked in an approved street parking lot". So we had to stop and move out of the area. That really set the stage for our time in Key West!!!!<br />
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We moved to the Key West post office for Bill's certification picture. As it turned out, it was a great picture especially since some chickens came walking by in the picture. Really made it authentic then!! Of course, note that Bill is parked in a "no parking" zone. That was the only space available to get a picture of the post office sign. I think we were just lucky the same Key West "Keystone" cop didn't come by again with his bull horn to make us move (maybe he would have arrested us this time). I think the cop looked a lot like Barney Fife!!!!</div>
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As soon as we got our gas receipts we headed out of town. The Key West police certainly left a bad taste in our mouth for Key West. We were then glad we had not decided to stay in town for the night!!<br />
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We stopped at the <a href="http://www.keylargoconchhouse.com/" target="_blank">Key Largo Conch House</a> for an early dinner. It was great. We had eaten breakfast there two years ago on another motorcycle trip to Key West. We both had the Lobster Bisque soup as a starter!<br />
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I just had to have the award winning conch fritters as my main course!!!<br />
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Yes, that is Key Lime pie!!! What a smile on Bill's face!!!!<br />
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After arriving back at the hotel in Florida City, I noticed a Goldwing with a trailer in the parking lot with an Iron Butt license. Met the owner in the lobby. They were Keith and Sharon from Georgia and they were also on the USA4CT!!. They were about a day ahead of us. They had left Madawaska on the morning of the day we arrived and had been in Key West a few hours before us. Keith was having a problem with a wheel on his trailer and planned to head back home to Georgia to get a replacement before heading on to San Ysidro. We did exchange email addresses and phone number to stay in contact along the way and maybe meet up again somewhere.<br />
<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-46185951219617327742013-06-05T21:21:00.002-04:002013-06-23T18:07:29.049-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 7 - Tour Day 4 - June 4, 2013 - TueStart Time: 0630 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1930 EDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Santee, SC</span><br />
Stop Location: Florida City, FL<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Captain's Restaurant <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 650<br />
Weather: 70-85, sunny, cloudy, rain - Rain suits on<br />
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Leaving this morning from Santee, SC the weather looked great. Around 70 and sunny!! As we headed south into Florida the clouds moved in. We started hearing about some tropical activity in the Gulf that may affect Florida over the next couple of days!<br />
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Our arrival at the Florida state line. Just had to have a cup of fresh cold Florida orange juice at the welcome center!!<br />
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Didn't really think about it before the trip, but we really spent a lot of time and miles in the state of Florida. It was around 1,500 miles of travel once we crossed the border with Geogia on I 95 until we left two days later at the border with Alabama on I 10!! Don't think we spent as many miles in another state, including Texas!!!! Also, Florida spans two time zones. We even went into the Central time zone before we left the state!!<br />
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I had "met" another Harley rider on the HD Forums web site and from my blog. His name is Jeff from Fort Pierce, but his blog site name is <a href="http://biggatormotorcyclerides.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Big Gator</a>. I gave Jeff a call as we headed down I-95 and we planned to meet at the Flying J truck stop at the Fort Piece exit. Sure was nice to meet Jeff and he gave Bill and I some great tips on getting around the Miami traffic both going down and coming back. We saw some really nice scenery in southern Florida without ever getting into the Miami traffic!! THANKS again, Jeff/Big Gator for taking the time off from work to meet Bill and I!!! <br />
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Just after Fort Pierce we had to stop under a bridge construction project to put on our rain gear for the first time on the trip! It rained off and on most of the way to Florida City. Good timing and decision on putting our rain suits on when we did!!<br />
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We made it to Florida City and checked into our hotel. The desk clerk recommended a restaurant next door and gave us a coupon for a FREE dessert.<br />
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We headed on over to <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34225-d1627308-Reviews-Captain_s_Restaurant_and_seafood_market-Florida_City_Florida.html" target="_blank">Captain's Restaurant.</a> Both our meals were plentiful and very good! Bill had the shrimp creole<br />
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I had the grouper<br />
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The real highlight of the evening was the dessert. We both like bread pudding and that is what we selected for our FREE dessert. It had a great real rum sauce on it. Some of the best bread pudding I have ever had. Bread pudding is something that you don't really know what you are going to get, since it is prepared so many different ways. This just had a great sauce and consistency to it. Just perfect!!<br />
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Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-6305890297605841472013-06-05T21:21:00.000-04:002013-07-02T09:21:00.924-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 6 - Tour Day 3 - June 3, 2013 - MonStart Time: 1245 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1900 EDT<br />
Start Location: <span style="text-align: left;">Richmond, VA</span><br />
Stop Location: Santee, SC<br />
Lodging: Best Western<br />
Dinner: Captains Quarters <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 403<br />
Weather: 75-85, sprinkles-part sun<br />
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Bill and I both had a 10 am appointment at Steel Horse Harley here in Richmond for service on our bikes. I had the 20,000 mile maintenance and Bill had his tires replaced. We both went out to dinner (at separate places) to have breakfast with our wives and to say goodby for the second time while the service was being done! We had hoped to get away by 12 noon but it took until about 12:45 to get away from the shop. We made good time heading south on I-95 and the traffic was not bad anywhere.<br />
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Having breakfast with my wife: <br />
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We had a few sprinkles along the way down I-95, but nothing to warrant putting on a rain suit. It would just sprinkle and then dry out.<br />
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I had met a fellow USA4CT finisher, Harold, last year and become Facebook friends with him from Charleston, SC. My wife and I had had dinner with him last year too when we took a cruise out of Charleston, SC harbor. Harold had told me to call him when we would be in the SC area so I did and we decided to meet for dinner in Santee, SC. We timed it so well that as we got off the interstate we met Harold coming the other way as we all pulled into the hotel parking lot together. <br />
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We all had a great dinner and conversation at a the Captains Quarters seafood restaurant next door to our hotel (Although it was not nearly as good as the restaurants in Charleston, SC, especially <a href="http://www.poogansporch.com/" target="_blank">Poogan's Porch</a>!!). <br />
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Harold gave us a lot of great tips on the USA4CT. Just a great evening with great friends!!! THANKS, Harold!!<br />
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My dinner of shrimp and grits (gotta have them when in South Carolina!!) <br />
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<br />Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727757099929906195.post-45910319677833656372013-06-03T07:06:00.000-04:002013-06-22T17:38:43.294-04:00USA4CT - Ride Day 5 - Tour Day 2 - June 2, 2013 - SunStart Time: 0600 EDT<br />
Stop Time: 1430 EDT<br />
Start Location: Newburgh, NY<br />
Stop Location: Richmond, VA<br />
Lodging: Home<br />
Dinner: Home <br />
Miles Traveled Today: 455<br />
Weather:70-85 sunny-cloudy-sprinkles<br />
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Well no pictures today. This was just "pounding" out the miles to get back to Richmond to make sure we got there in time for our scheduled Monday morning maintenance at Steel Horse HD shop. We started out in Newburgh under clear blue skies with the sun just coming up and at our backs as we headed west and south. Beautiful warm morning and almost no traffic on the interstates since it was a Sunday morning. Over around Harrisburg the skies got very cloudy fast and we started having a few sprinkles. Never did rain on us and the clouds keep the temps down to a very comfortable motorcycle ride. Our only stops were for gas and quick restroom breaks. No traffic tie ups anywhere. We did see in the north bound lanes near Wilkes-Barre, PA a large RV completely burned out. It was still smoking as we went by and the north bound lanes were tied up. Just hope nobody was injured, but it was completely "gutted"!!<br />
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So far we have NOT had to put our rain suits on yet. I think that is about to change!!Jim Claypoolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984894166664872261noreply@blogger.com0