May 31, Sunday The second bag was not utilized, though the 20 degree Go Lite bag was just hanging on to the “keep me warm” amount by a few feathers. Definitely NOT a true 20 degree rating, and I may have to ship it home and buy a different bag. Harrumph. I’m going to see if I can live with it across the northern plains because from BC we’ll be heading south down the coast, and then across the southern roads of AZ and NM to the National in Tennessee. I’ll have time to decide what to do prior to getting [View Full Entry]

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May 28, Thursday Joel took the day off from work, and we got out the sewing machine, and the hose, did some repair work to several pieces of gear, and washed both of the BMWs. That clay and gravel gunk was like concrete. What a nasty mess to clean, but once accomplished, Bear looked much better. Later that day, I called Gina’s BMW in Iowa City and asked her if they had a rear mud flap. If you recall, I’d broken one off in Belize or Mexico somewhere. Gina said they could order one, and I explained I was “on the [View Full Entry]

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May 27, Wednesday The tent was fairly dry when I got up and made some breakfast. Definitely packable by close of the meal, and I hung the footprint up along the great little 20 foot line that Joel had made for me years ago, which fits into a film cannister, with a hook and ring on one end and a tent slider cleat device at the other. I kept reminding myself NOT TO FORGET to pack up that handy line. Once the footprint was dry, and all the gear packed away, I took off for Joel's house in Iowa. This day [View Full Entry]

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May 24, Sunday Rain during the night, then more light rain in the morning. I was awakened by the lilting sounds of Louisiana natives discussing their ride home just outside my tent at 6:30. I got up for a pancake breakfast, then hung around a bit since the rain stopped and I wanted the tent to dry off a bit. Once I was all packed up, and just as I was putting on my helmet, it began to rain again. Off I rode, taking all non-interstate roads and generally easing my way north and west, while trying to stay in front [View Full Entry]

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May 21, Thursday Dennis and I were up by 7, and breakfasted and packed read to go by about 8:30. Dennis headed back to Indy, and I headed first for Morristown to talk to Laura about vans. Unfortunately, even though she was more than willing to donate the vans, the weekend of the national is also a national guard weekend, so all the van’s were already reserved. Dang it. Laura gave me a number for the Abington VA Enterprise, and maybe I can make a deal with them. After that disappointment, I rode down the west side of the Great Smokey [View Full Entry]

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May 18, Monday Eric is going to stay here in the gorge most of the summer to climb, and Steve will be here a week or two, so after breakfast I packed up and waved goodbye, heading for Johnson City Tennessee, the site of the BMW MOA National Rally in July. I took more back roads, and found US 421 to be a marvelous ride through Kentucky and Tennessee. I found the Appalachia Fair Grounds, in Gray TN, our actual rally site, and got a grand tour courtesy of Richard, the big guy at the fairgrounds. He showed me where registration [View Full Entry]

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May 17, Sunday Everyone was up fairly early and packing up, so I figured I'd do the same. One the road after a quick rather blah breakfast of biscuits, gravy and egg casserole, skipped the donuts. I decided to back road it up to the Red River Gorge, also in Kentucky to see if I could meet up with my two sons, Eric and Steve. RRG is a climbers mecca, and everyone in my immediate family are avid climbers except me. I would if I could, but sadly my shape is not that of a climber at this time. The roads [View Full Entry]

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May 15, Friday I visited the warehouse sale put on by the outdoor gear store, and ended up buying two more items at tremendous savings, enabling me to return the sleeping bag I bought yesterday. My son Steve brought some summer riding gear and will take my extra clothes and some winter gear home with him. It's tough to know just how much to give to him, as I'm not sure where I'll be going at this point, and therefore, what the weather may be like. I kept my Gerbings jacket, just in case. After Steve departed for the Red River [View Full Entry]

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May 12, Tuesday Fruit for breakfast and on the way after a lazy get ready. Low clouds threatened me with rain much of the day, but the most I got was a little light misting. I stopped for a great pulled pork barbeque sandwich somewhere in Arkansas, and chatted with a H/D guy and the owner for a bit. Later on I stopped to troubleshoot my music hookup, because it was driving me crazy with the volume going up and down. I removed the filter and that solved it. Must be a bad connection somewhere in the leads going to or [View Full Entry]

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May 7, Thursday My first inclination was to return to Veracruz and register my displeasure, but I decided about all they could do would be to say sorry, and maybe clean up the bike which was still an oily mess. So instead of backtracking 2 hours, I pulled over at the first auto lavenderia, and the guys completely cleaned the oil off the bike, by hand, in an hour and 15 minutes for 150 pesos ( $10.50) On the way again, and I was soon riding through the northern "desert" in 105 degrees. What fun. I stopped a few times for [View Full Entry]

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