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 to the Maritime Provinces. A lazy arising, a slow packup, and on the way to visit my brother David and family a few short hours away in Zumbro Falls MN. This has always sounded like ... read more

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 was much nicer, sun and puffy clouds, a little cool, but perfect for riding. Of course, about 60 miles away from the campsite, I realized I had FORGOTTEN to pack up the handy line. Dagnabit. ... read more

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 Mtn NP, , rode the Blue Ridge Pkwy a short distance, went through Cherokee NC, caught the Cherihola Skyway for a bit, and then rode north on US 129 through the “tail of the Dragon” ... read more

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 were marvelous between Burkesville and the RRG, but as I approached the area, I realized I didn't know specifically where the boys were camping nor climbing. There are literally hundreds of places to climb in ... read more

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 from the filter. In the meantime, an old guy on an old Ural side-car rig stopped to see if I needed help. We had a nice chat about some of his riding on the Ural. ... read more