Another year

It's a little hard for me to believe, but we're coming to the end of another year. A little over 3 weeks it'll be time to turn the page to 2025. I got a lot done this year, mostly travel and adventure related. I made 

It Arizona, Texas, Alabama, Ohio, Wisconsin, and all the way to the West Coast for my high school 50th anniversary reunion. Reunion. I saw an amazing amount of stuff, especially a lot of geologic features. All in all, it was a great year!

Field hockey; or, why making hotel reservations is important.

 A lesson I learned long ago was to make hotel reservations sufficiently far in advance of a stay that I wouldn't be stuck having to ride long distances out of my way. That kind of advance planning is not always possible (some rallies are trickly to plan that tightly), but generally speaking I've been served well by that planning trick.

When making plans for this past weekend's trip, I noticed that the prices in Harrington, DE were a bit on the high side, considering what was on offer. But, I needed a place to stay, so went ahead with the reservation. 

It turns out that there was a MASSIVE field hockey event in Delaware, and hotels were booked up for miles around. The hotel I was in had contestants from NJ and PA (that I was aware of); who knows how many other states were crammed in that hotel. 

New Jersey

I was going to ride to Indianapolis starting yesterday morning, but my route had me going through southern West Virginia. The one to 3 in of snow that was forecast for last night convinced me that wasn't a good plan. So I did a replan quickly, and now I'm going to New Jersey New York and Pennsylvania this week. I have three counties to get for geocaching, and I want to do some more amateur geology on the Jersey shore. So I expect it's going to be a pretty good week for riding.

A beautiful day on the Outer Banks

Another late start again this morning, which I'm going to blame on low temperatures. It's really tough to get motivated to ride in cold weather unless I am going somewhere. And this week I'm just goofing off.

I did get on the road however and went a little bit north up to a wildlife sanctuary for a nice hike. Then I headed over to the lighthouse at Corolla to take a picture before heading south. I spent a lot of time at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, walking the entire length of the of the track, and hiking up to the monument which is at the top of the sand dune.

The weather was spectacular today. Never got into the 50s, but there wasn't a lot of wind and the temperatures kept the crowds down.

A brisk day

I got going a little later this morning then planned. It was 33° Fahrenheit when I rolled out of the driveway this morning. It got a little warmer as the day wore on, and I headed a little bit further south. So from 33° I got up to the upper 50s before the sun went down. The wind picked up quite a bit out here on the beach at Corolla.

The national park unit at Fort Monroe was closed today which I didn't know when I left the house, so I was unable to get a stamp. I did get one at York River, and I got one at Fort Story. I think today was the first time I've ever been on the base at Fort Story.

I saw someone in a rented box truck today who had the nozzle for a fuel dispenser lodged in the receptacle of the van, with the hose all the way to the breakaway fitting dragging behind. I motioned for the driver but he didn't understand or didn't care. I saw other vehicles also go up to tell him what was going on and that had no effect either. Very odd.

It's pretty quiet out here on the Outer Banks. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get anything for dinner, since this is the shoulder season. But I was able to get a nice meal at the local bar and restaurant.

Tomorrow is my own version of island hopping, as I head farther south.

Pre-flight

 Since I'm trying to get out of town early tomorrow, I did the pre-flight today. The bike is ready to go.

The temperatures here in the National Capital Region tomorrow will be 39 deg F, with a low of 22 deg F. Ugh. It'll be warmer as I head south, but not by a whole lot. It's definitely time to break out the heated gear. 

What a change from the temperatures last summer (118.5 deg F in Pendleton)! It'll be warm enough soon, though, and I'll have fond thoughts of the heated gear, but not of the cold driving up from the bottom of my helmet.

One of my stops this week will be to see if I want to buy a lighthouse stamp book. I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle of bringing along the book. I don't use the book for U.S. National Parks because they fill up pretty fast; I collect the passport stamps using adhesive labels.

2021 Pacific Northwest trip preps

Among my least favorite planning and packing chores is riding gear cleaning. Motorcycle riding gear has armored padding that must be removed before the rest of the garment can be cleaned (and made more water resistant). 

Removing this armored padding is a time-consuming nuisance, wrangling the padding and lots of hook-and-loop fasteners, all while having your arms in the legs and arms of the riding gear. 

I'm happy to report that I've completed that tedious chore in advance of this next ride!

County Chasing

 As of today, 23 May 2021, I've found and logged a geocache in each of 775 counties (parishes, boroughs, census areas) in the United States. All the way from Washington County in Maine (GC943D, For Whom the Bell Tolls) to the Aleutians West borough in Alaska (GCJ5C4, Shemya Island - The Rock at the Edge of the Earth).

There are 3143 counties (parishes, boroughs) in the U.S., so I have a few more to work on. The Cape Girardeau trip in April and May 2021 got us quite a few new counties, filling in along the Ohio River (except in a few places where we got "rained out") -- we'll go back to fill those in later.

One of the goals of the 2021 Pacific Northwest trip is to fill in a few missing counties; I'd like to have a contiguous path from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by the end of summer.

Ride preparations

Ride preparations are usually tedious -- there are a lot of small chores and maintenance items that have to be completed. Tire replacement is coming up this Tuesday. That's the last major item on the bike (that I know of) that needs work before departure. The sketchy rear tire pressure sensor hadn't completely failed  during the last long ride, so it will likely wait until our return to be replaced. Not ideal.

Our helmet visors and Pinlocks took a lot of abuse over the last couple of years; mine, especially. The gravel and dust in 2020 put the whammy on my visor, and blew a lot of dust up under the Pinlock that I'm sure I could get completely removed. Both visors and Pinlocks were replaced today, along with a little cleaning and lubrication of the hinges. That parts replacement should get us through a few more years.

I bought a new air compressor to replace the last one I'd purchased years ago. I've gone with the Dynaplug Micro Pro, which is getting good reviews these days. I don't plan on using it, but if I need a compressor, I'll have one with me (along with the plugging kit).

The Google Pixel 5 that I had to buy on the Cape Girardeau trip has turned out to be fantastic. I've been able to catch up with six years of technology development -- the extra processing power, more storage, and 5G (where it's available) have combined to give me so much more capability than I had on the last ride. I've put a new SlipGrip mount on the bike, along with wiring up a charging capability for when I need it.

2023 American Rockies and the American West

 In the "it's almost never too early to think about the next trip (or in this case, the trip after that)" category, the early favorite is a long trip to New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Getting out there just after the snow clears at the upper elevations will keep the temperatures down, and might help with crowd control as well.

Alaska 2022

Under the theory that it's never (really) too early to plan complex trips, I restarted the planning for the Alaska 2022 trip this past weekend. This trip has some tricky reservations, and I'm assuming that the demand for Alaska trips will be very heavy in 2022 (given the scarcity of supply in 2020 and 2021). High demand places like Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Denali National Park all require reservations a year in advance. Some other remote locations also demand early attention.

So, to get working on the trip details early, I sketched out the route out and back, and are more-or-less ready to go with reservations when June rolls around. I'll be executing one trip while planning the next. Nothing like a little concurrency!

End-of-year vacation trip 2020 (and a little of 2021)

 Donna and I took a wonderful end-of-year trip to Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah this year. We started out in Las Vegas (briefly) -- we picked up a Camaro convertible (?), then headed to Beatty, Nevada to get the party started.

I've had Death Valley on my winter travel trip list for a long time, and 2020 was a good enough excuse to make that plan a reality this year. Lodging at Death Valley was closed right before our trip, so we did a quick re-plan to stay in Beatty (which turned out to be a great idea, anyway). 

We then headed out through Rhyolite, Nevada and Death Valley to enjoy the sights (and much cooler temperatures), with an overnight stop in Laughlin, Nevada. I've never been to Laughlin, so this was a new experience for me.

Grand Canyon National Park was our next overnight destination. We stopped off in Kingman, Arizona to see a little of historic U.S. Route 66, then continued to Williams, Arizona to see a bit more. Both of these towns deserve a more detailed visit, especially Williams. The weather was getting a bit more interesting as we headed north from Williams, and quickly turned to snow as the temperatures dipped. The Camaro didn't appreciate the road conditions, but we took it slow as we got to the park. Grand Canyon is amazing enough, but the snow cover highlighted the impressive geology by affecting the contrast of the geology and the sky.

Because Navajo Nation closed the east entrance to Grand Canyon earlier in 2020, we took the long way to Zion -- back to Williams, then east to Flagstaff. More U.S. Route 66 sightseeing (much more is required), then north through Cameron, Arizona to Zion National Park.

We spent two nights in Zion National Park, to allow for some serious hiking in the canyon. We didn't make it all the way to Angel's Landing (the ice was a bit much), but we saw wonderful scenery on the portion that we did. I'm glad I spent a lot of time pre-trip studying up on the geology of the area; it made the trip more enjoyable for me, as I was able to spot specific features in the park.

From Zion National Park, we headed to Las Vegas to see 2020 out the door. There weren't specific festivities available in Las Vegas this year, so we enjoyed walking up and down the strip. 

We drove to Boulder City for the last night of our trip, staying in the Boulder Dam Hotel. We enjoyed hiking around the town, and our stay at the hotel. This was the third dam-related stay of the past year: Fort Peck, Riverton, and now Boulder City. I highly recommend the Boulder Dam Hotel for comfort and historic charm.

We wound up the trip with a drive to Hoover Dam, and a meandering trip back to Las Vegas. We took the red-eye back to IAD, arriving after noon on Sunday.

It was a great trip; I'll likely put in more details shortly, as I dive through the photographs and videos.

2020 Alaska Adventure -- reservations (continued)

Making reservations is a tedious process, even with much of the process done online. I've spent quite a bit of time already selecting locations to stay, based on factors such as distance from the previous stay, and places that I want to see in the vicinity of an overnight stop. The logistics associated with motorcycle travel include thinking about how to change from motorcycle boots and pants to hiking boots and pants. I've combined the motorcycle-powered sightseeing with some hiking on this trip, so those logistics concerns matter a fair amount.

Several of the places on my list of stays are highly-trafficked (e.g., Denali National Park, Glacier National Park), sparsely-provisioned (e.g., McCarthy, Watson Lake), or on the I-want-to-stay-there list (e.g., House No. 1 at Fort Seward in Haines, Alaska). As of last night, I've worked the list of stays without reservations down to about six locations (seasonal shutdown, combined with innkeeper travels, make communication challenging). Despite the remoteness of a couple of these locations, I'm not particularly worried about getting these last few reservations made over the next few weeks.

Many (most?) motorcyclists traveling to Alaska either intend to camp most or all of the time, have a much more compressed timeline than I have time, or can get away with much more modest accommodations (there are quite a few "dry" cabins available, for example) than I have in mind for this trip. The constraints I put on this trip (stays in specific locations, no "dry" cabins, no camping), coupled with the previous reliance on the Alaska Marine Highway System, put some urgency on getting the reservations made early. In a few cases, I was too late (e.g., House No. 1 is already reserved for the period of time I needed, and nearly all of the properties in Glacier National Park are reserved a year in advance). I was able, though, to get a place to stay in every one of my desired stops. I have a bit of an advantage over first-time travelers in that I've been to some of the 2020 Alaska Adventure locations before, so I know what to expect in those areas. Some others, such as Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK, have significant information available online, so those uncertainties are contained.

The bottom line? Seven months (or so) out isn't too early to be making reservations in places if you're determined to see specific things or have one or more zero-mile days. I think our 2020 Alaska Adventure is shaping up nicely; the advance planning will help ensure that I'm not making things up (and taking up valuable time doing it) on the road.

2020 Alaska Adventure -- Alaska Marine Highway System

It's now well past mid-December, and the Alaska Marine Highway System sailing schedule is nowhere on the horizon. The chatter on the Internet points to a budget impasse in the Alaska legislature, which is confirmed by a lot of official warnings about service impacts.

Last summer, folks were trapped by strikes; the 2020 situation is grim, but for other reasons.

Since we're not camping, and are planning to visit some very popular places (e.g., Denali National Park, Glacier National Park), it's time to plan around the two ferry runs in the original route and move on. It's not a lot of extra riding; I was hanging on to the ferry rides to get a little underway time and see Prince William Sound.

2021 Summer Adventure Planning

Yes, I know. I'm still hip-deep in planning the Summer 2020 adventure to Alaska, but it doesn't hurt to think a little past the next one, to what's beyond.

I've been thinking about a Pacific Northwest trip for several years, and it might just be time to do that in 2021.

There are a lot of National Park Service units to visit, and a lot of other sights to see....

Summer 2020 planning

I spent the weekend puttering around with details for next summer's trip. I realized, yesterday, that some of our stops are very popular, and that reservations are going to be difficult / impossible to obtain.

I started by researching what may be the worst: one of the lodges at Glacier National Park. Our trip has two complicating factors; the first is that because Glacier National Park is on the return end of the trip (the Going to the Sun Road will most probably be closed when we come through Montana heading north), and the second is that our itinerary headed south is driven by the Alaska Marine Highway System schedule (which won't be published for several more months). So, finding a decent place around Glacier National Park will be a trick.

Since I spent a lot of time fussing with that, I thought about other tough locations, such as McCarthy, Alaska, and the area around Denali National Park. McCarthy has very limited lodging options, and Denali has a lot of tourists. The cruise ships provide their own hotels, but everyone else is staying somewhere between Healy and Cantwell. The combination of prices and reviews isn't good. I'll start to fuss with this again when the ferry schedule is published, and I can commit to specific dates.

2019 Summer Adventure

The 2019 Tour of Honor announced that they're offering a modified IBA National Parks Tour, so I took to building a few routes to knock out another NPT in 2019. There were a couple of long rides needed to overcome a lack of relevant NPS units in ME, VT, CT, and RI. One of those rides was to cover AR, MO, KS, and NE -- pretty long for even an extended weekend ride.

Donna thought about those long rides, and suggested that we cut back on the New England trip a bit so we could get the long ToH NPT ride in, and that discussion led to a complete re-plan of the 2019 Summer Adventure. So, as it stands today, we're going to do a National Parks Tour in 2019!

I did a little planning to frame up the ride, and it looks like we're going to have a lot of fun, even considering the flat and heat of the midwest!

More to follow....

Alaska 2020

It's always good to have goals...goals certainly keep me out of the "lost weekend" syndrome, where I can fritter away large blocks of weekend time without producing anything meaningful. So, it's with that in mind, that I'm seriously starting to plan a nice ride to Alaska (and British Columbia, Yukon, and everything between Virginia and there) in 2020.

With a 2017 R1200GSA to ride, and much (perhaps all) of the gear needed to make that ride, already around the house, all I need is a plan and a good set of off-road/on-road tires.

Sunday, 8 June 2014 Ride Report

Time for another ride!

There were a few nearby bonus locations that needed to be finished, so they constituted today’s ride. A Grant County (WV) sign (for the Team Strange Airheads Presidential Grand Tour), the 10th Mountain Division memorial at Seneca Rocks (Tour of Honor), and the Edinburg, VA Post Office (for the Team Strange 30th Anniversary Grand Tour).

I’d wanted to take Connie along some of Old WV Route 55, so that was in the mix, also.

The weather was perfect…it was in the mid-70’s when we left, and didn’t get above about 85 all day. The temperature dipped to the mid-60’s as we rode through areas affected by recent thunderstorm activity. We were rained on a bit in Petersburg, VA but a couple of stops under gas station awnings ensured we missed the worst of the downpours.

U.S. Route 48 is slowly straightening the route that old WV Route 55 still follows. The old road is quite twisty, so it’s a lot of fun on a motorcycle. Since we weren’t in any hurry to get to where we were going, it was a wonderful day to explore the old road.

We got fuel at the new Sheetz in Moorefield, then headed south to Petersburg. After a bit of a rain delay, we reached the Grant County (named for U.S. Grant) line, and got the needed photograph.

Our next stop was the Front Porch Restaurant at Seneca Rocks. We try to stop there every time we’re through the area. We had a nice, and somewhat extensive, discussion with the motorcyclists at the next table.

After lunch, we headed over to the 10th Mountain Division memorial at the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center. It took a couple of tries to find the best access (with motorcycle parking available), but find it we did.

From Seneca Rocks, we headed south and east on U.S. 33 until nearly to Harrisonburg. We’d been on I-81 A LOT, so I wanted to find some back roads to take us home. We took routes 613 and 42 through some wonderful farm country, and along some amazing ridge views.

We got the needed Edinburg, VA Post Office photograph, then continued north through Woodstock and Toms Brook. We picked up I-66 where it intersects U.S. 340 (and where we got something chilly to drink), and headed for the barn.

Another great ride and a great day!

Sunday, 1 June 2014 Ride Report

I picked up the bike from Bob’s BMW on Saturday, and needed to get out for a shakedown run. Connie mentioned that she wanted to return to a place we both enjoyed in Washington, Virginia, so off we went!

There’s a tradition in the long-distance riding community called a Ride to Eat. Usually, these RTE events involve many hundreds of miles…we didn’t have that much time, so a short ride around Virginia was in order.

I planned to get us to Stonyman Gourmet Farmer at lunchtime, so we took a somewhat circuitous route. We headed west along I-66, and turned south to explore Fort Valley Road. It’s beautiful.

So, we cruised south until we got to U.S. 211, then headed east for lunch. U.S. 211 is a great road, fully of “twisties”.

We had a great lunch at Stonyman Gourmet Farmer – BLT sandwiches with salad, and soda. The temperature was marvelous, so we sat outside in their garden courtyard, and enjoyed out meal (and the birds).

From Washington, we headed north to ride a stretch of Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park. We were “warned” we might see bear, but alas, no bears were in sight. We did have a great ride, though.

We headed home via Stanardsville and Ruckersville, familiar territory for our rides.

All that, and we got back at a decent hour!