On the sixth day....he rested

So, yesterday was day six of the tour. I didn't have anything planned so I just took the day to relax. My aunt and uncle had prior commitments, so I took the opportunity to spend the day lounging about the house and walking around the neighborhood. Even the views from the neighborhood are stunning and I snapped a few photographs for posterity.

Uncle Dick made arrangements for the "Super Shuttle" to pick me up at 3:45 and deliver me to Denver International Airport. I had plenty of time to kill so I took a leisurely stroll around the airport and had some lunch. I eventually found a secluded seat somewhat near my gate so I thought I'd sit down and get caught up with some thing on my laptop. It was not meant to be due to the fact that the Denver airport's Wi-Fi sucks. So I decided to bury my head in my book. I was blissfully reading away when my seclusion was invaded by a family of five (three of which were really loud and not down with their Happy Meals). I couldn't decide whether to be annoyed that they picked the one secluded spot or feel bad for them because their children weren't travelling well. There was probably a little bit of both.

Anyway, my flight finally boarded at at 6:45 and we were out of the gate on time at 7:10. They really cram you into the plane on Frontier Airlines but it wasn't bad for me because A) I had a window seat and B) I was able to continue reading. I"d say the most annoying thing about the flight was the LCD screens on the back of the chairs. I kept turning mine off and the flight attendants kept turning it back on about every 1/2 hour.

We landed at Dayton International Airport at 11:40 and I was reunited with Laela and Miranda a few minutes later. We drove home in about an hour and 20 minutes, almost got T-Boned by a drunk at Bethel Rd (he was literally 2 inches away from plowing into us), and was in bed by 1:30. It is so nice to be home in the middle of the trip to see the girls.

The Reds and Phillies play in Cincinnati on 10/10/10 at 8:07 (wtf kind of start time is that?) and we'll be there to cheer them on. Until then, I'll have a nice visit with my girls.

Site Seeing & Visiting

Not much motorcycle on Friday. It was a day for some sight seeing and visiting friends. I woke up after a GREAT night's sleep. It was the first really restful night that I'd had on the journey since the Super 8 hotel on Tuesday night. The guest bed at uncle Dick's is really comfortable and I'm someplace where I feel that I can relax and let my guard down a little. Travelling alone is great but I feel like I'm always "on alert." Here in Lafayette I'm with family, my bike is in a garage and there aren't a bunch of strangers staying in the same building with me.

Uncle Dick and I got a jump on things early today. We had breakfast of bagels and coffee and then were out the door at 8:30. He first took me to see the Red Rocks Amphitheater. That has to be without a doubt the most gorgeous outdoor musical venue ever. We walked around for a bit and took some pictures. Then we went into the visitors center which is essentially a little museum dedicated to the venue. It outlines the history, how it was constructed, the geological features, and how it came to be. There are also plaques which enumerate every artist who has played there since it's opening. It's interesting to see the ebb and flow of the number of acts and the vast variety of artists that have been there. After visiting Red Rocks, we went across the road to see the dinosaur tracks that are preserved in the side of the mountain. Unfortunately the road was closed to vehicles and it was a steep enough climb that I did not feel up to walking it. They had an exhibit in the museum which had molds of the tracks and I figured that was a reasonable facsimile so I'd save my energy for what was to come.

We next went to the LoDo (Lower Downtown) section of Denver. There, we got tickets to take a tour of Coors Field, home of the National League's Colorado Rockies. Coors Field was constructed in 1995 and is the fourth oldest ballpark in the National League. I found that statistic amazing. I didn't realize that many ball parks had been constructed within the last decade, but after I thought about it, it made sense. One of the interesting features of the park is the row of purple seats that are in the upper deck. All of the other seats in the ballpark are green except for one row. The purple row is (within inches) one mile above sea level. I thought that was a really cool way for them to depict that. Another stat that I found interesting is that no ball has ever been hit out of the ballpark in fair territory during a regulation game. (Two balls have been fouled out of the park) For as much complaining as everyone does about how the ball carries at Coors Field I found it amazing that there hasn't been one that has left the yard. The Coors Field tour starts on the fourth level and works it's way down to the field level and finally ends up on the field. You are allowed to walk around on the warning track and in the dugouts, but not on the actual grass. This is pretty standard for all tours of major league ballparks. We took some photos and then we went back to uncle Dick's house for some lunch.

After lunch I laid down and took a quick catnap before I headed to Ft. Collins to meet my friend Bill for dinner. Ft. Collins is about an hour from Lafayette and I had planned on leaving at 3:30 allowing myself some time for wiggle room if I got lost. I overslept a little and didn't actually get on the road until 4:00, had to gear up and get gas thusly didn't get to FoCo until 5:45. Bill is recording Rise Against's new album at the Blasting Room studio and they had taken a break at around 5:00. When I got there Bill and I debated for a few minutes about the type of food we'd eat and ended up choosing Chinese. We went to a restaurant called Tiger Lily which is a few blocks away from the studio. Bill's family swung by the restaurant for a little bit. It was a pleasant visit with Stacie, Maddie, and Miles. Miles recently took up skateboarding and was regaling me with his feats on the stuntwood. Stacie had taken some videos of him at the Ft. Collins skate park and he was eager to share them with me. The kids had some teenage shenanigan type commitments to attend to so they left after a short while. Zach, Brandon, Tim, and Joe joined Bill and me to break bread. We had a good meal and a nice visit (other than the appetizer mix up that was full of shrimp and some kind of wacky sausage because they were supposed to be vegetarian). Zach and I are acquainted from his days in Hagfish and Armstrong. He and his brother Doni had stayed at our house a few times when they were on tour and it was nice to be able to catch up with him. It was a pleasure to meet Brandon, Tim, and Joe as well. They're a terrific group of guys and fun to hang out with.

After eating we went back to the studio and Bill gave me the tour, showed me the two studios and the mixing room. He also showed me how the different instruments were mixed. It's a fascinating and complex art form and Bill is fantastic at it. After hanging out at the studio for a bit I followed Bill back to his house and we hung out there for a while. We'd both had long days so we called it a night around midnight.

My ride back to Lafayette was uneventful except for missing the turn to Uncle Dick's house and going about 10 miles out of my way. I had gotten a little cocky about my navigational steeze and not turned on my GPS. The problem was thatI hadn't seen the area at night before so I rode right past the intersection I needed.

Rocky Mountain High

On Thursday October 7th, I woke from my restless night's sleep at the Butte Motel in Wray, CO. I was happy to be up early. I got my things packed and was on the road before 8:30. I thought I had seen a McDonald's in town the night before and was going to stop there for breakfast. Well, that McD must've been a night-time mirage because when I went back to where I thought it was, it wasn't there. I decided that rather than try and find someplace else that I'd just go on and soldier ahead until I needed fuel again.

That brought me to Ft. Morgan, CO where I stopped at a 7-11 for coffee, a donut, morning phone calls and fuel. It was also about 100 miles of riding with the bent shifter peg. It seems pretty manageable so I'm going to leave well enough alone until I get back home. I'm afraid that if I try to pry it back where it should be that I'll break it off of the shifter linkage and then have no shifting peg.

When I went to leave Ft. Morgan I got a little turned around and ended up riding in circles for about 20 minutes before I sniffed out the right direction to go. Anyway, the morning's 200 miles seemed to fly by. Once I got about 20 miles away, I let the AT&T Navigator app on my phone guide me in the rest of the day to Uncle Dick's house. I even hopped on the Interstate for a short bit (Speed Limit is 75 MPH w00t!)

I arrived at my uncle's place at about 1:30 mountain time. He had lunch already laid out for me, which was great because that donut wasn't doing it anymore. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, got cleaned up, and situated and we were off to the mountains. It's amazing how close they are to his house. A quick drive through Boulder and we started our ascent. There were lot's of mountain bikers and motorcyclists on the way up the mountain. It REALLY twisty and I'll bet would be great fun on a bike.

We arrived at the Pawnee Pass Trail and went for a short hike by Long Lake. I thought that the elevation change affecting people was a bunch of BS and hadn't planned on it effecting me, but as we started walking the trail, I was definitely a little light headed and had to stop no fewer than four times to catch my breath. I really wanted to keep walking the trail, but I'm trying to use my head these days and didn't want Uncle Dick to have to carry me back to the car.

Once back at the car we started back down the mountain and drove through Gold Hill which recently gained national attention as it was ravaged by a forest fire. It was a sad to see all of the burned trees and I can only imagine what those who lost their homes are going through. It was also very interesting to see trees that were totally untouched by the fire.

Once we were the rest of the way down the mountain we were back in Boulder and took a stroll through the Pearl Street shopping district. There were lots of fantastic shops and restaurants. We ended up meeting Aunt Jan for dinner at a place called Rio Grande. They are famous for their margaritas which was right up my alley. We had chips and guacamole for and appetizer and I ate flautas de pollo for dinner with rice and beans.

With my belly sufficiently full we went back home where I promptly made my airline reservations for Saturday and went to bed by 9:00.

I would ride 500 miles

The Super 8 motel I stayed at on Tuesday night absolutely ruled. It was just what I needed after a hard day. The manager Pricilla was very nice and accomadating. She even allowed me to utilize the hot tub after it's "official" hours were over. I got up Wednesday morning, packed the bike and was on the road by 8:15. I got to thinking about camping during the first portion of the ride and quickly came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't going to happen. I decided that if I were to run across a post office, that I'd mail my camping gear home. Lo and behold, about 30 minutes later there was a post office located in the small town of Burlington Juncion, MO. I stopped in and after 20 minutes I had my sleeping bag, mat, and tent on their way back to Columbus. One of the reasons that I decided to do this was to that I could more easily remove the seat from the bike in order to check my oil. As I found out the day 2, if I wanted to remove the seat it was easily a 1/2 hour ordeal. Also, after a long day the last thing that I wanted to do was have to set up camp.

Back on the road, Missouri greeted me with a beautiful morning. Not a cloud in the sky and a brisk 42. degrees, it wouldn't be long before it was almost 80. The roads were twisty and rolling and made for great scenery. It was exactly what I had envisioned a bike trip to be.

Before long I was at the Missouri/Nebraska border. As soon as I crossed it I lost my cell phone signal. I would not regain it for 250 miles. My phone really feels like my lifeline. I made extensive use of it on day 2 for mapping and communication. To not have it available to me felt really isolating. I also didn't want Laela to worry about me because I'd been calling or texting her every time I stopped for gas. I was even looking for pay phones in small towns to be able to call her. Fortunately for me she wasn't concerned about the lack of communication. US-136 in Nebraska is really desolate and I easily went 1/2 hour at a time without seeing another vehicle. It was nice to have the road to myself. What wasn't nice were the sections (albeit short) that were actually gravel. Nothing like gravel and no phone signal to make you feel a little nervous.

Other than that, the day was unremarkable. After my final gas stop in McCook, NE I decided to start looking for lodging. The sun was going down and I had no fewer than three locals warn me about deer. It would be another 93 miles before I found lodging at the Butte Motel in Wray, Colorado. The dark ride was slow and I didn't go over 50MPH unless I was fortunate enough to be behind another vehicle. Obviously I had my brights on and was HYPER alert for any fauna that might be lurking on the roadside.

I finally got my room, pulled up to my parking spot (they're numbered for each room). I hopped off my bike, but oops. I was so happy to be getting to a room that I forgot to engage the kickstand. I dropped the bike onto it's left side. I quickly removed the luggage and got it stood back up. After schlepping my gear into the room, I went back to the bike to head up to 7-11 to grab something to eat. It was then that I notice that my shifter peg is now bent all to hell. It's still rideable but the peg is noticabley "limp."

All in all, Wednesday was fantastic and I cleared 501 miles. I just woke up on this fine Thursday morning and am about to get back at it. I better upload this before someone figures out that I'm poaching their wireless (I hope it's not a honeypot).

Day 2

The Best Western in Rantoul, IL was adequate boarding for the night; however, my mind was racing a mile a minute and I only ended up sleeping for about four hours (total sleep time, not consecutive hours). I ended up getting out of bed at about 6:00 and after getting dressed went over to the "Red Wheel" Pancake and Steak house across the street. I had the 2x2x2 at 2 eggs (over easy), 2 pieces of french toast, and 2 sausage links. I had a feeling it'd be a busy day so I wanted to eat a hearty first meal. I finished quickly but for some reason I didn't get on the road until 9:15. I guess I just took my sweet ass time.

It started off easily enough. A brisk, beautiful, bright sunny morning. The perfect day to go riding. About 60 miles in something went wrong. I'm not sure what it is/was, but the bike started vibrating more than usual. Wheezy ordinarily vibrates quite a bit at idle, but once under load smooths out quite nicely. I was humming along at about 65mph, the pavement changed and then things started shaking. The engine didn't sound any different and was just as responsive, it just shook quite a bit. Lots of people complain about HD engines vibrating their fillings out and dropping parts all over the place, but this is the first time I had ever experienced something like that. I decided to pull over in Havana, IL just to be on the safe side, check the oil, and make sure that there wasn't something visibly wrong. This is the part where I tell you that I REALLY miss the oil level site glass that all of my Japanese bikes have. To check Wheezy's oil you have to look at the dipstick. Easy enough, right? Not so much when the oil tank is located under the seat and the seat has 50lbs of gear strapped down on top of it. The long and the short of it is that the oil level was fine, but it took a while to unload, then check, then reload the gear. The gear needed to be reseated anyway because it had shifted during the short distance traveled. Anyway, after an hour and a half of messing with things I was back on the road. The bike was still vibrating but it was just an issue of comfort, not an issue of performance to I decided to soldier on.

I started to suspect that maybe a wheel weight fell of throwing the wheels out of balance. To test this theory I got the bike up to a reasonable speed, pulled in the clutch, and killed the engine. If the problem was with the wheels, it would still present itself if the engine was shut off. Shutting off the engine stopped the vibration, so I ruled out the wheels as culprits. So, I don't know what is causing it but it's something I'm going to live with. Actually after my last gas stop tonight, it didn't seem so bad but I think I'm just getting used to it.

Needles to say losing another hour and a half at the beginning of the day was going to ruin my mileage goal for the day. This revelation bummed me out for a while because I was dwelling on it, but then I thought to myself "Self, this trip is about the ride not the destination. So roll with it."

Being focused on my setback made me miss a couple of great photo opportunities. There is a river to cross going between Illinois and Iowa's "udder." On the river is a dam for power generation and the gates were open. It was a spectacular site but I missed out on the photo opp being preoccupied by losing time. I also missed photographing the Iowa state line sign. In my defense, it is on the bridge and there are only 2 lanes so it's not like you can pull over and snap a pic. I think I was only in Iowa for 10 miles or so.

So today's mileage total was 339.2. Not bad all things considered. That's straight from Rantoul, IL to Bethany, MO. I guess I'll have to tackle Nebraska tomorrow.