Excuses, and new trips.

Sorry, guess I was too anxious in my previous post.  We reserve the right to change our minds, and exercise that right frequently.  Sis is really opposed to large gatherings of people, much more opposed than I realized.  She was going to Nashville because I said I wanted to.  When I cancelled, she was a very happy camper.  So, no more rally's.

We were also going to ride to Maine, but I changed our mode of transportation the night before we left, and we took the truck.  Reason, it was too damn hot in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolina's.  Above 100 most of every afternoon, and I didn't feel that at our age we were up to riding in that kind of heat.  However, when we were driving along the Skyline drive I was sure sorry we weren't on the bike.  Oh well.

A week from tomorrow we leave for Cumming to visit our daughter, and my brother and his family.  Have some things to take up for our niece, Megan.  A couple of days there, then we're off.  We think to Cherokee, NC or maybe Bryson City just down the road.  Ride the mountains and see the sites in western NC then head to the coast and follow small country roads back to Florida.  We are both really looking forward to this trip.  The weather has cooled and we're excited.

Drop by and see how we make out.  I hope to post some pictures of the leaves changing in NC.

Cheers,

Mike & Sis

And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

We are leaving the first week of September to ride our new Honda Goldwing trike to Nashville, TN to attend the "Nashville Road-Kill ride in"  This is an annual event of mostly "trikers" who gather for a few days of jawin', eat'n, and some ride'n.  I have been chatting on Trike Talk (an on-line forum devoted to folks who love and ride trikes) with several couples who are attending so this should be fun.  One guy, from Maryland, rides a Goldwing trike, and he has no legs.  How he does this remains to be seen, but he has a great outlook on life.  If you disagree with him he'll offer to leg-wrestle you to see who's right.

For those of you who aren't familiar with trikes, they are normal motorcycles, with the rear wheel removed and replaced by two wheels.  Like this:

And with us on-board:

I used to laugh at trikes thinking "they aren't real motorcycles", but boy was I wrong.  This thing is fantastic, and is probably the last bike we will ever own.  This cures all the things that were wrong with the Can-Am Spyder and should make our trips much more pleasurable.

We've had the trike for about 3 months, and I just had the oil changed and the 4K service done, so we're ready to go.

The real final update

We arrived home Sat afternoon about 4 pm.  Everything is fine.  A couple of my neighbors helped me unload the trailer from the back of the truck then we went to our favorite Chinese Restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner.  While we were doing all this, the hot tub was heating up, so we'll enjoy a nice relaxing dip in the tub, and probably be in bed very early.

It's great to be home, and time to de-stress.  Thank you all for your support and cheerful comments.  Believe me they helped.  This could have been such a disaster, but we were blessed everywhere we turned.

Thanks again...

Mike

Probably the final update

Found out today that the bike will need major repairs to the transmission, and this dealer can't get to it for months. So, we traded in our Toyota Corolla, for a full size Dodge pick-up.  Loaded our bike trailer on the back of the truck.  Arranged to have the bike shipped to Tampa, and we're finally ready to start the 800 mile drive home.

As frustrating and stressful as this has been, we have been blessed with kind, generous people everywhere we turn.  AAA said they would probably charge me $3 per mile to haul the trailer to Memphis, in addition to the additional money I had to pay for going over the free 100 miles.  This would have meant the towing alone would have about $500.  However, the two truck driver told me he'd haul the trailer for $50.

The motorcycle shop got our bike in immediately, and spent many hours trying to figure out what was wrong.  I expected a $1000 bill.  They charged me a little over $200.  Said they knew we were stranded and didn't want to take advantage of us.

Enterprise Car Rental, gave us the truck for the same rate as the Toyota, and didn't charge us mileage.  They too bent over backwards to help us.

My final problem was getting the bike shipped back to Tampa.  An internet search led me to Bike Haulers, a trucking company that only hauls motorcycles.  Charge, $845.  I called my dealer in Tampa, the GM told me to hang on while he called a trucker they use to ship bikes.  The guy will be going through Memphis next week, and agreed to haul the bike for under $500.

We have been blessed at every turn.  While this has been stressful, I am so grateful to all the wonderful people we've met who have done their best to help us.

We hope to be home by late Sat.

Cheers,

m&s

Update

AAA towed the bike and trailer 129 miles to a Can-Am dealer in Memphis.  They have to order a part so we don't know how long we will be here.  But, we are fine.  Got a rental car, and a motel room for a couple of days, and so far everything is going fine.

Once the bike is fixed we plan to return home.  Yesterday we realized that we probably were very optimistic about riding to the Grand Canyon and points beyond.  And the weather hasn't been very nice, too boot.  So, we'll swallow our pride and come home to lick our wounds.

I will continue to post updates as we learn more.

Trip Aborted!

This has been a terrible day, and it's not over yet.  I need a course in Map Reading 101.  Rather than just set the GPS for Memphis and following it, I thought I knew where I was going, so off we went.  Being exceptionally stupid it took me all day before I realized I was headed SW rather than NW.  After about 8 hours we were still 2 hours from Memphis.  Ok, I got us back on track and things were going well.

Stopped for the night in Winona, MS (get out your maps, it's a very small town).  Went out to eat, and just as I pulled into the motel the bike died.  Well, the engine runs fine, but the throttle doesn't work. I limped into the parking lot, called AAA and got one hell of a run-around.  Seems the coverage you buy in Florida, isn't the same in Mississippi.  Many phone calls later, the MS AAA has agreed to tow the bike 100 miles for free.  The closest dealer is 117 miles away, in Memphis.  BUT, our trailer isn't covered, and we will have to pay for that.  You don't want to be in the Tampa AAA office when I get back!

So, the trip is done, and now we just need to get the bike fixed and head home.  I have to admit that heading home sounds pretty good right now.  We discovered that what was fun when we were 50 or 60, isn't quite as much fun now that we're 70.  Hours of grinding down an interstate, even if traffic is light, just isn't fun anymore.  But, we have met some interesting people, seen some interesting things, and all in all enjoyed the trip to this point.

We'll have some stories to tell when we get home.  Oh, anyone want to buy a 2010 Can-Am Spyder?

Day 3 (continued)

My niece had her picture taken about 10 years ago on the back of my Goldwing.  Her Mother wanted a current version of Meg and I on a bike, but now that she's grown we put her in the driver's seat.  Right after this was taken, Meg got to drive the Spyder and she did great.  I think we have another Biker Chick in the making.

Day 3

We've enjoyed a wonderful day with Sandy (our daughter) and my brother Don and his family.  Gave some Spyder rides, and my beautiful niece Megan got to drive.  She loved the Spyder, but then almost everyone loves it.
We're headed for Birmingham, AL tomorrow and there we'll decide whether or not to continue north to SpyderFest in Ozark, MO (freezing rain is predicted), or turn south and begin our trip to New Mexico and maybe the Grand Canyon.  We repacked a lot of stuff and Sis found some cold weather gear that was missing, so now we don't have to be quite as worried about severe weather.  Of course, it's still no fun to ride in freezing rain.  We'll see...

Day 2

Short post tonight.  It's very cold, high 40's when we left Valdosta at 8 am, and it never really got warm till we reached Cumming, GA.  I don't think Sis said 10 words the entire time we were riding, she was crunched down trying to hide behind me.  At least the predicted thunder storms never materialized.

I just checked the weather between here and our next stop in Ky.  It remains cold.  High in Murray, KY Wed is 56.  Also checked Ozark, MO and the lows are in the 40's and the high never reaches 70.  We're wishing SpyderFest had been held later in May.  This weather is probably fine for our northern riders, but this old Florida boy is cold.

Day 1

I've got to come up with a better way of naming the daily posts!  Day 1 just doesn't get it, but we're tired and I don't feel too creative, sorry.

This is taken in our driveway as we were leaving. Notice we're smiling!

And this was taken shortly before the one above.  Donna (second from the left) had several of the neighbors over for breakfast, which gave us a chance to say goodbye to everyone.  We are blessed to have fantastic neighbors.  Thank you Donna, and everyone else.

We made it to Sis' cousin in Jacksonville about 12:30.  Eat a little lunch and started for Georgia.  Everything went pretty well, until I discovered that I'd set the GPS to avoid Interstates, so instead of I-10 to I-75, we wound around the back roads of GA for several hours.  By the time I realized the problem we were pretty far from any Interstate, so we just plowed on.  Actually swam on would be more accurate.  Torrential rains tried to drown us, but we got our rain gear on in time and didn't get too wet.

Just as we made it to I-75 I noticed a new Best Western to my right and we pulled in and got a very nice room on the first floor.  I walked out front to move our bike and found this:

We weren't the only ones looking for a dry spot.  These were a great bunch of guys and we had a good time talking bikes and highways.  Since it was still raining, we called Domino's Pizza and stayed in to watch a little TV and get to sleep early.

Tomorrow morning is also going to be rainy, but we'll be on I-75 which is a lot safer than back roads, as I think I mentioned in another post.

So, that's a brief synopsis of our day.  Are we going to make it all the way -- who knows, but right now we feel pretty good.

Cheers,

m&s

The Journey Begins

After what seems like an eternity, departure time is almost here.  Tomorrow morning, after having breakfast with some of our wonderful neighbors, we'll leave for Jacksonville, Fl where we'll have lunch with Sis' cousin.  After lunch we'll ride for 3-4 hours and spend the night somewhere in central Ga.  Saturday will take us to Cumming, Ga where both our daughter and my brother live.  Plans are for all of us to meet for dinner Saturday night.  Sunday should be a relaxing day and the real trip begins Monday morning.

It looks like it will take us two days to ride from Cumming, Ga to Ozark, Mo.  I called the Best Western  in Ozark and they were able to extend our stay by one day, since I original reservation didn't start till Wednesday.

Ozark is hosting SpyderFest for the first time this year.  Previous Fest's were held in Cuba, Mo, but it became too large for that small town, so it's been moved.  The town is excited about having the Spyder riders there (spending our money), and they are going all out to make us feel welcome.  For one reason or another, we've always had to cancel previous trip plans to attend SpyderFest.  But this year it looks like we'll make it.  Our reservations are through Saturday, but that's a long time for us to hang around chatting with other Spyder owners, and seeing the local sites, so we may just bail out early and head to Colorado.

Checked the weather around the country last night and Colorado is COLD!  A daytime high of 34!!!!  That's too cold for us, but it looks like it will warm up a lot over the next week.  Sure hope so.  But our plans after the Fest are very fluid, so we'll let the weather dictate where we go.

What a mess in our garage, but by morning we'll have our truck and car in there and the house locked up.

Almost time to leave...

Today is Monday, April 15th, and departure on this adventure is Friday the 19th.  We were just mapping out our "rough" route and trying to get an idea of distance and time.

We calculate a little less than 6000 miles, which will take us anywhere from 3-4 weeks.  

While we originally planned to stay off the Interstate Highways and stick to smaller roads, we're now rethinking that plan and will probably spend a lot more time in the Interstates since they are much faster, and are actually safer for a bike.  The most dangerous situation for a motorcyclist is someone turning left in front of you.  They frequently claim they never saw a bike.  This problem doesn't exist on Interstates and as long as I stay away from the trucks and heavy concentration of cars we will be fine.  There is also abundant gas, food and lodging, which eliminates the need to worry about these as you travel through small towns.  True, the Interstates are more (read VERY) boring, but there just isn't a lot we want to see in the middle part of the country, so we'll zoom through.

Now much of this is pure speculation.  If the weather is bad in one place, we will go in a different direction.  So all of this is subject to change.

Wish us well, and please drop by and check on us occasionally.  And, by all means, leave a comment and let us know you were here and how you are doing.

m&s 

Hope I learned my lesson today.

If I'm going to get serious about this blog I have to remember to take my camera, everywhere we go.  Today we stopped by Bethany Center and had Father John bless us and our trip.  Hi wife Marcie (yes, there are married Catholic priests) loved our Spyder and even joined me for a short ride around the neighborhood.  We had a wonderful time chatting, but alas no pictures.

Fr. John suggested that we stop by Chimayo, NM if we have a chance.  I Googled Chimayo and indeed it does look interesting.  So, I entered the data into our GPS and we'll try to stop by, if at all possible.  And, I'll take my camera!

Six days left till take-off, and we are getting pretty anxious.  Florida is getting warm, but I suspect we will see a lot of varied weather.  Our winter gear is in the trailer, as is our rain gear, so we should be ready for just about anything.

Stay tuned...

This "before-trip" picture was taken Saturday by our friend Donna, the miscreant sitting on our bike in the previous blog entry.  Sis thought it would ge nice to see how we were smiling before riding so far on the bike, and see if we are still smiling when we return home.

It's so easy to be happy when you're home with all the comforts of life.

Found this strange couple sitting on our bike!

And that's something you just don't do in the biker world.  You wouldn't climb in a Lexus just because it looked nice, would you?  Well, these two would.  I called the police and they are both doing 30 days in the county jail.  Servers them right, wouldn't you say!

Actually, these are some very good friends from Delaware who spend the winter in Florida.  This year we were lucky enough to have them park their beautiful new 5th-wheel in Clearwater, about 40 minutes from our home.  They left this morning (Monday, April 8th) to return home, and we're going to miss them.  As hard as we tried we just couldn't talk them into staying another couple of months so they could experience a lovely Florida summer.

Wayne and I met, and became good friends in 6th grade, at East Lansdowne Public School, in East Lansdowne, PA.  That was too many years ago to count, I run out of digits.  We lost track of each other for a while, but Wayne found us last summer while they were staying in Palmetto, FL about an hour south of our home in Lutz.  

But we can't complain too much since we leave in 12 days on our journey.  The bike is ready, and I had the trailer serviced just to minimize the chance of a problem.  Sis is getting anxious and we're both ready to hit-the-road, but a few last minute appointments will keep us here till the 19th.

Stay tuned...

m&s

Getting ready

Recently, on our ride south to Lake Okeechobee, FL a friend found that he was very low on gas and we were pretty far from the nearest gas station.  We slowed down to save gas, and he made it with out running out.  Not being very bright, I forgot that I had a syphon hose in my trailer and could have given him some of my gas.  But I didn't discover this till we were home and unpacking the trailer.  This shows how seldom we use our trailer!

I've been thinking about buying a good gas container to carry with us.  The Spyder is a thirsty beast, and there are places out west that will test the limits of our mileage.  I read on SpyderLovers.com that Chris (out friend) bought one of these:

Actually, only the red one, I believe the white if for water.  This happens to be the same container I have been considering for over a year.  Now, with our pending trip it was time to buy, so I placed an order last night.  These babies aren't cheap, but they work, or at least according to what I've read they work.

Chris has already received his and seems very pleased.  We'll carry it in our trailer, and if needed this 1.75 gallons should give us about 50 additional miles.   Should be more than enough to find gas, even in west Texas.

So, I think once this arrives, we're about as ready as we can get.  Packing will be next, and that's always an interesting experience.

m&s

Some more testing

Just a few more shots of Sis and me enjoying our Spyder.  If we look a little bundled up in the picture on the left, we are.  It was about 45 degrees that morning and we were competing in a bike rally.  There were some serious folks riding in that rally, and we just had fun, and came in 7th, which was amazing since all the others rode like banshees, and we took our time, and even stopped by our house and took a short nap.  Sounds like the old tortoise and hare story. 

D-day minus a month or so.

This is a start to something!

In 2005 I started to ride my Goldwing to Alaska.  During the trip I would email short notes to selected friends as a way to keep in touch.  That worked okay, but I thought for our upcoming trip maybe a blog would be better.  This way I don't have to force feed people information about our journey, just give them the blog address and they can check if and when they are interested.

Since I've never created a blog, I thought I'd better get started.  It is now about 29 days till we leave, that being April 19th as plans stand today.  I imagine things will get pretty hectic as departure time nears, so I'd better figure this out now before chaos sets in.  These initial entry's will be my effort to learn how to do this, so forgive me for wasting your time.  I will need help though, so if I ask for your opinion please spare me a minute of your time, and I'll try not to be too wordy.

Posting pictures.  I guess this is a good place to figure this out, since I plan to take a lot of snap-shots while on the road.

There, that's pretty easy.  And, no, this is not the bike we're using, but it was a cool bike to own.  It's a 2009 Ural Patrol, complete with part-time 2 wheel drive for the really tough stuff that may be common in Russia where the bike is made, but here in Tampa, Florida it didn't get much use.

This is how we're traveling this trip.  Actually this was taken during a recent ride with a group of friends to Lake Okeechobee, Fl to have lunch with other Spyder riders from South Florida.  If you aren't familiar with Spyders just hang in there, you'll read a lot about them over the course of our trip.

But, to get started, as you can see, it's a trike (a three-wheeled motorcycle) made by Can-Am in Toronto, Canada.  Unlike most trikes, this has two wheels in front and one in the back.  It is also the only trike that is designed from the ground up to be a trike.  All of the others are converted two-wheeled motorcycles.  The Spyder has a ton of great features, many of which you will read about in the coming posts.  If you are interested in these bikes, just google Can-AM Spyder, or goto  http://www.spyder.brp.com/home.  Ours is the RT, or touring model, and we have the optional trailer which makes traveling a joy.

So, it's time to post my first blog entry and see how this turns out.

Cheers, and please let me know what you think...

md