The grand adventure is done! I am home safe, and
had a hell of a trip! I have LOTS of memories and met some great
people along
the way... Total trip distance: 3,884 miles!
I started the trip leaving later than anticipated due
to a delay at my BMW dealer waiting to have my new front tire installed.
I should have planned to have a new tire installed a week before the trip,
but had forgotten my tire was worn so badly. Thursday nights trip
inspection of the bike reminded me the tire was worn.
Damn! After getting the new tire mounted on the bike, my trip began
at 3 PM Friday afternoon, May 26. Traffic was light as I headed for
North Carolina and the first destination for my adventure. I passed
through a lot of new areas for me, and unfortunately it was in the dark.
I had never been to West Virginia or Virginia before and rode through both.
Darkness prevented me from seeing the beauty of these areas however.
The roads were fantastic, and passing through the tunnels was exciting!
Next time I'll have to do it during the day.
The SEPB (South East President's Breakfast) was held May 26, 27, 28 on Norman Lake North Carolina. BIG thanks to our hosts Brad and Tina and co-hosts Chip and Debbie! What a blast!!! I arrived at 3 am and figured no one would be awake at that time of night and was preparing to setup my tent in the dark. I was surprised to find signs of life as I was backing up the bike to park it. No, wait, it's just Chip! ;) Followed by Bob and George. I got my helmet off and we started to chat and Chip turns to George and says "The mans been stopped for 30 seconds (official RobieTime) and I don't SEE a BEER IN his HAND!" A beer materialized out of the dark and it was cold and good! Thanks guys!!! I needed that...! We hung around and chatted for an hour or so before everyone decided to retire for the evening. I crashed on the hammock on the boat dock, pulling my sleeping bag over me and figured I'd setup the tent in the morning.
I awoke to the sound of Canadian geese squawking and found Chip preparing the jetski for a ride. A few runs around the end of the lake, Chip makes a close pass to the dock and showers a few of us with water. Hmm... personal comment maybe? Guess I could use a shower! I setup camp and people started to awaken to the aroma of Brad cooking breakfast for us! Then the troop started turning out: Bob (I'm not sure he EVER went to sleep), Tina, Debbie, Dennette, Irv, Linda, Candy, and last, but not least, George. Mike and Coop arrived a bit later to lead us on a backroad trip to the BMW plant/museum. Someone brought two boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts too... yum! Sorry - I can't recall who to give him the credit he deserves!
A notable moment on the trip to the museum, for me, was a particularly curvy stretch of road we'd come upon. We were going... ahem ... a *little* fast through these curves and I was following Chip getting ready to tuck in for the next curve when he suddenly straightens up and slows down. I barely had time to wonder "What the hEll?!?" as a Trooper comes around the bend from the opposite direction! He doesn't pursue... Later, I can just picture Chip's maniacal grin under the helmet, "hello Mr. officer, sir! We're just out for a nice SLOWWWW ride..."
The museum was interesting, the highlight being the AIR
CONDITIONING! The fountains looked good too... but I'm not sure they
would have appreciated us jumping in them. It was
a *hot* ride. When it was suggested we scoot back via the slab, or
back roads, I was all for slabbing it! I had enough of the head and
I wanted to get back and jump in the lake to cool off!
The back ride was pretty uneventful. The LEO's were
out in force today... fortunately Chip and Bob's V1 was working... my power
connector came loose somehow along the way. Chip and Bob
sure can ride... my K100 couldn't keep up coming off an exit ramp when the guys
decided to open up their K1200RS's! And anyone who thinks the R1100's
haven't got pickup ... Brad kept up the whole time WITH
Tina riding as passenger!
After arriving back to the lake, I got into my bathing
suit and headed for the water... it felt great! Brad had Dennette
out on a tube behind the jetski, damn that looks like fun! Brian
jumped into the water and then Brad comes in to drop off Dennette... looks
like our
turn! Brian gets up on the jetski and I got in the tube.
What a riot! That thing can really move! Then Brian and I switched
so he could ride the tube for a while. Brad showed me how to run the jetski,
by trying to throw me off it, then let me out on my own. I have *got*
to get one of these things! OK, a house on a lake *first*... then a jetski!
I was trying all the things Brad showed me: power slides, 180's,
etc and managed to throw myself off a few times, but that's part of the fun!
When it got to the point I could barely pull myself back up on the jetski I
figured it was time to head in and give someone else a shot at it. It's
amazing how much of a workout those things really are! My whole upper
body felt like a noodle. I also somehow managed to bruise my right arm,
I have no idea how - must have been from trying to stay on that tube when I
was lying across it rather than sitting in it!
Saturday night Brad BBQ'd steaks for us that were just
incredible! Out of nowhere, a chiwawa shows up. Doesn't make
a bit of
noise, just starts running around our feet and staying
out of the way. Someone asks what his name is, but we don't know,
so I said "Hmmm... I'll call him... medium well" Chip picks up the
dog and says "NO! You don't BBQ a dog like this!! ... You microwave
it...!" Poor thing! It remained unharmed... It was a
cute little guy though, and refused most offers of food. I think
he just wanted some attention.
Sunday rolled around and I didn't see any signs of people
leaving. Hmmm, I thought we were all packing up and hitting the road
this morning. It doesn't seem like anyone is wanting to
go...! A phone call comes in finally from Cole, who's been missing in
action the whole weekend, and apparently he is on the way! I had started
to prepare packing up, but with new arrivals on the way, I figured I'd stay
too! I have an Aunt that lives nearby in Charlotte North Carolina, who
was away for the weekend, but will be in this evening, so I figured
instead of going to Florida today, I would hang out with everyone at the lake
for the day, visit my Aunt this evening, then head for Florida in the morning.
I packed up around 5 PM, not really wanting to leave at all (and it sounds like I really missed some highlights!), and headed for Charlotte. We went to dinner at Carrabba's, a very good Italian place. While we were there, a terrible storm blew through the NC area, torrential rains and severe lightning blistered the area. Hope everyone back in their tents are OK! I'm glad to be sleeping INDOORS tonight though! ;)
Monday morning I left for Deland Florida to visit with my dad a couple days. The trip took 6.5 hours. In South Carolina I hit heat... terrible heat, and humidity. It was smothering. Clouds were mocking me the entire trip. They would build, block the sun for a moment of relief, threaten the dump rain on me, then dissipate and release the sun once again. Just north of Daytona Beach, I ran into a light rain. It only lasted a minute or so... enough to experience the relief of evaporative cooling. Then the heat and humidity bit down again like a rabid dog. Fortunately, I only had another 30 minutes to go...
I spent a few days in Deland and helped my dad around
his houses, and setup a new computer system for him. I showed him
how
to get on the net, do some browsing, setup his Email,
and introduced him to Word and Excel. How much can you really show
in a
day or two? Not much... I suggested he pursue classes
through the local library. I saw all the new work they did on my
old high school there, stopped in one of my favorite restaurants, Bellinni's
and the owner, Scott, still remembered me from years ago! It's a
small town and you get to know people like that. Since dad was in
the middle of moving, I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag. One
night we had a hatch of flying aunts coming into the house from the lighting
fixtures - from the attic. He must have killed over a 100 of the
things! Bugs, humidity, spiders, running into webs while out for
a walk... now I remember why I LEFT Florida! I saw the new houses
he's bought, checked out a few new prospects, and took a close look at
the Blue Lake properties. With all the complaints I'd heard about
the Daytona Rally campsite in February, I thought this might just make
an excellent campsite. Only 20 minutes or so from Daytona... on a
lake... plenty of camping space... one shower. Hmmm, I'll have to
come up with a solution for one shower. This might be a good place
to have a mini-rally, I'll have to ponder that some more...
Thursday morning came too soon and I was packing up again.
This time I'm headed for La Cygne Kansas, for the Land of Oz rally.
La Cygne is south of Kansas City about 40 miles.
I decided to make this a Bun Burner Gold (BBG) ride, 1500 miles in 24 hours
or less. I've completed a BBG ride once before but since this rally
is 1310 miles taking the short route, so I figured what's another 190?
AND I'd have my second BBG! Cool... I set out in the heat once
again cutting across I-10 to New Orleans. I'd never been to New Orleans,
and I won't have a chance to visit now. I would have liked to stop
and explore a bit, but it's just not in the program this time around.
The heat stuck with me through Mississippi until dusk finally came and
brought some relief. I continued on through the night, not feeling
tired until dawn arrived. Dawn is a bad time for me, I don't know
why. It doesn't matter how much sleep I've had (or NOT had in this
case) dawn just puts me out! I stopped and got a mountain dew to
drink (need that caffeine!) and tried to shake off the sleep. It
didn't work. Another 40 miles down the road, I pulled into a rest
area to take another try at waking up. Did some stretches, sat down
on a rocking chair (at a rest area!) for a bit and chatted with a trucker.
The talking helped wake me up. Just outside of Kansas City, I hit
a light sprinkle of rain. It felt good, but also did not last long.
I passed through a cold front though, so now it was much cooler and definitely
MORE pleasant for riding! I arrived at the rally site around 8:30
am (EST) having ridden 1585 miles in 22.5 hours! I needed two signatures
from witnesses to complete the required paperwork and who should I run
into put Paul (President BMW Motorcycle Owners Association) and Voni Glaves,
high mileage rider winner of 1999! Who BETTER to witness the end
of the ride for me!?! They were excited to hear about the ride I'd
just completed and signed off on my forms... Voni had to go back and get
her red pen though! It's a good thing I ran into them, I thought
someone would be at the registration area to sign it for me, but registration
didn't start until noon!! It might have been tough to dig up two
other witnesses at this time of the morning, I didn't see too many people
awake yet.
I set up camp, then took a nice, long shower. Julie pulled in just as I was returning from my shower and camped down the road a little bit. We chatted a bit while she set up, then I headed back to my camp and decided to get some breakfast in me and get some beers to have chilled down for later arrivals that were expected. When I got back, I decided to move my tent into the shade, and then took a well deserved nap. I awoke at the unique note of a single mufflered R100RS and sure enough, it was Nate pulling in from St. Louis. He'd taken the backroads way to the rally. Cindy was not with him, having stayed behind because of work she needed to get done. Jeff was the next to arrive, and then Nancy showed up from Kansas City. A little later Arnold showed up from Texas. The group was beginning to trickle in. I had picked the same sight as last year, at the top of the hill, overlooking the rally site and lake. We had a nice breeze and beautiful weather. I was told that a bad storm had come through early that morning - high winds, lightning, etc. I had apparently missed it by only an hour or so! I felt really lucky to have avoided it!
I took another nap after visiting for a while, then we all headed out to dinner. We'd gotten a late start and made it to the restaurant just before they closed. Our waitress was not a particularly bright individual. Granted, she was young (probably 16 or so) but she didn't know the answers to any of our questions. "Is that $14.95 crab legs dinner all you can eat?" "I don't know. I ... maybe ... yeah... umm, wait, probably not... no." "Is the shrimp dinner fried? or boiled?" "Um... I don't... fried... I think, no probably boiled... fried I think..." Could you maybe go ask someone who knows? When she left with our orders, I made the comment that she sure isn't too bright. Maybe she over heard me, because when she brought out our food, she promptly dumped the cocktail sauce for my shrimp, in my lap. I went to clean up, and she just couldn't keep from laughing the rest of the evening. My jeans did not clean up too well, nor my shirt. I then had to ask for some more cocktail sauce... she certainly was not too bright...
We headed back to the really and hung out around the campfire with a group of people gathered around to listen to Carl play his Concertina - keep practicing Carl! It was a fun time. Down at the pavilion, a country band was playing, but things got real quiet down there by 10 PM. Up on the hill... we kept the singing and jokes going until 2 am or so... at least, that's when I went to bed and there was only a handful of us still up then.
Nate packed up and left Saturday morning, heading to see his dad in Kansas City. We all went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. A DIFFERENT one than the evening before ;) Nate hit the road afterwards and the rest of us headed back to camp. Arnold, Nancy and I headed to Kansas City in her Explorer. We walked around and checked out a few stores. Bought some ice cream, then we started back. We passed a Krispy Kreme and HAD to stop to buy come to take back to the rally with us. I skipped the rally dinner that night, though it looked good. I just wasn't hungry. I actually won a prize in the random drawing but didn't get the long distance riding award - they wouldn't take the total trip mileage (too hard to verify I suppose) - they went by direct route from home to the rally site, so some guy from California won at 2,083 miles. I had ridden 3,121 miles at that point. Oh well! The band Saturday night was pretty good, but I took a walk and chatted with folks around the site, or hung out on the hill listening to Carl again. He needs to learn more songs...
Sunday morning came and I was up by 7 am. I didn't
feel like breakfast, so I began to pack. By about 8:30 am I was ready
to go.
Nancy and Arnold were just getting up then ... so much for THEIR
early start! ;) We chatted a bit and I hit the road around 9 am.
Just a measly 715 miles home now... I'll be in before dark. It was a gray
morning and continued to stay gray. I was in a strange funk I could not
get out of. This is the first time, during the entire trip, that I had
nothing to look forward to. At each stage previously, I was headed somewhere,
looking forward to meeting up with friends or family. Now I was heading
home. There would be no one waiting for me when I arrived home.
Maybe that was it. Maybe it was just that the end of a great trip was
coming to an end. I couldn't shake it. I didn't want to go.
I wanted to pick a whole new direction and just lean the bike in an altogether
different direction. This feeling would stay with me for the first couple
of hundred miles. I stopped for gas in Iowa outside of Iowa City.
I ran into a couple there, riding two up on their motorcycle. It was lightly
raining at the time, which was one of the reasons I stopped. I didn't
really NEED gas, but wanted to put at least my rain pants on. I went in
to pay for gas and found the Texaco station carried ... what else? ... Krispy
Kreme donuts! We don't have these in Kalamazoo, so I decided to get one
and turn this into a rest break! I struck up a conversation with the other
rider and his wife. They shipped their bike out to Spokane Washington,
and have spent the last 10 days riding back to New Jersey where they
are from. They've been doing about 300 - 400 miles a day.
They had been on the road for 10 days now, and had travelled down into California
before coming across the US. They had been to a lot of interesting places,
places maybe someday I'll head to on my bike. After 30 minutes or so, I decided
to hit the road again. They were going to wait out the rain and see if
they wanted to continue to put up for the night. I felt better.
I'm not sure why, I just did. Suddenly I wanted to get home, the next
400 miles or so would go by quickly and I was again enjoying the ride.
It had gotten cold, there was a light rain so I was getting wet, yet I was enjoying
it again. I think it was the thought of my next ride
that did it. I believe the thought of the end of my trip got me into the
strange funk, but now thinking that the end of this trip will be the beginning
of another got me out of it. The wheels have stopped rolling now.
The bike remains idle outside my apartment. Uncharacteristically cold,
damp weather has settled on us here in Michigan. The rain will stop though,
and another trip will present itself. Before I know
it, the four cylinders will be pounding away again, that K-bike whine will be
singing in my ears and I'll be scooting to new places again
to meet new people and experience new things. I can't wait...
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