The end of the road

Well with every great adventure there comes a time for it to be over and, and that time came a couple days ago, I just haven't announced it on here yet. I continued heading north to upstate New York to stay with a good friend of mine Shawn Hogan from VMI. However on my way to Watertown i made a quick stop in Bufalo New York to see the awesome Niagara Falls. It was just a quick stop so i didn't stay there too long, that and it was raining. I was really glad though to get to Shawn's in Watertown because the rain was torrential, everything on me was absolutely soaked, there was so much rain i had almost an inch of water in my boots. So Watertown was awesome, I got to meet all of Shawn's Army friends and we went to a number of fine Watertown establishments. I also got the opportunity to go white water rafting down the Black River which apparently has some of the world's best white water runs. I can thank Estelle for the awesome white water trip. We did a lot of class 4 rapids and with all the rain that Watertown has been having the river was higher and more intense than it had been in the past three years. We had an awesome rafting guide who took us down some of the tougher routes and we went over a couple waterfalls. The next day Shawn took me to a state park near Watertown where we went rappelling on these cliffs overlooking Lake Ontario. After the rappelling adventure Shawn, Estelle and I just hung out on the rocks and read and relaxed. On our way back from the beach we saw a seafood restaurant so naturally being our hungry selves we stopped in and got dinner there. It was a rather nice place and i was a little nervous about going there because I was wearing just my swim suit and a stellar sleeveless motorcycle shirt Allison sent me. However the restaurant owner let us eat there and i thought our apparel added a little color to the place anyhow. The official last day of riding occurred on Sunday August 11th. Initially I planned to make it a two day ride from upstate New York to my home in Virginia, but when I got on the road it turned out that it was a very doable 400 plus miles away so rather than stay in a campground over night I decided to hightail it all the way back home. I was on interstate 81 for much of the trip with some heavy rain at times and at one place in Pennsylvania around Scranton i believe there was tons and tons of hail on the road. It looked like a huge storm had just passed through and thankfully I did not have to ride in it, but there was so much hail that it looked like it had snowed. It was piled up almost 3 inches high on parts of the road, and it was a pretty surreal scene to see all the hail. Well I made it home around 9:30 Sunday evening, and surprised my parents having arrived a day early. So after almost 15,000 miles and a little under two and a half months I had made it back! Oh one story i forgot to mention, so many people asked me along the way if i listen to music or anything when i ride and i would tell them no, all that time and no music, i know you must say wow how bored did you get. So when i was in Watertown I bought some headphones for my motorcycle helmet and I listened to some tunes for the first time, which really was pretty nice to have some music to listen to and why i did not do it sooner i have no idea. But anyways when I was leaving Syracuse New York after saying my good byes I got on the road for my last leg of my adventure, and I thought it was so ironic because as soon as i pushed play on my shuffled songs Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" came on it was so strange because while I was listening to the song he names of all these places, and I was mentally going through them and I swear I must have visited almost 70 percent of all the places he mentioned just this summer. So that was kind of interesting and slightly ironic that that was the first song that came on while I was riding! Well I must say this was quite an adventure I had an absolutely amazing time, I saw some amazing places, got to meet great people, see all my family, and I really learned a whole heck of alot about motorcycles! I want to thank anyone and everyone who helped me along the way and supported me through this trip. Everywhere I went i was greeted with the greatest hospitality ever! Here are some quick facts about the trip that I kept record of.

• one and a half sets of tires were used
• 5 oil changes
• over 291 gallons of fuel burned
• average miles per gallon 42 (driving conservatively at 55 mph)
• average miles per gallon 26 (full throttle driving at 80 plus mph)
• clutch cable replaced in San Francisco
• 2 flat tires both front
• dropped the bike countless times
• new chain and spark plug southern California
• only stayed in 2 hotels the entire trip
• Visited 27 states
• almost 15,000 miles traveled
• 72 days on the road

I hope everyone enjoyed reading this, I know it was rather lengthy at times but there was just so much to see out there in the United States! This really was an adventure that I will remember for the rest of my life and I was very happy to share it with you, next adventure... South America!!!

Michigan, Family Visits, Ohio, and the Great Lakes

July 28th

As exciting as yesterday was, today was the complete opposite, very relaxed and very chill. I got a late check out from my hotel to compensate for the loss in hour due to the time change for me as I moved from mountain time to central time. My first stop was the Hitching Post, a local motorcycle dealer. I needed some routine maintenance things so I had to make it my first stop. While at the shop I got a spare bulb for the burnt out one I was pulled over for last night, turns out it wasn’t a fuse problem, good because I hate to get to the fuses because I have to take off the top box and my seat and side panels which is a real pain. Ok so brake light good, I also got another can of chain lube because I was almost out and I got a bottle of brake fluid because my rear brake fluid level was looking a little low. I also got two spare rear brake pads because recently my rear brakes have been making some irritating noise and turns out that noise is the pads wearing down and I can see fellow motorists cringe when I come to a stop so tomorrow morning will be a tech morning for me and I will be replacing my rear brake pads a simple and easy routine job well I should hope so. So I rode out of Minneapolis today to the twin city of St Paul to drive down Summit Ave, which I might add is the longest road of Victorian style houses in the country, the drive was absolutely awesome. I also got to stop by the Minnesota governor’s mansion which is also on Summit Ave for some great pictures. Furthermore St. Paul’s Cathedral is also located in St. Paul (no pun intended) and I stopped by there to check it out, which is a must visit for anyone to the area. The Cathedral is absolutely gigantic and I spent a good amount of time in there, I said a couple prayers, took a few pictures and I was on my way. Heading out of the twin cities area I of course hit traffic because I was leaving right in rush how something which I did not wish I had done. Now the Twin cities area is well known for its traffic control strategies something which I spent two years studying; So traffic wasn’t as bad as it could have been is what I am really trying to say. I headed north east towards the Wisconsin border and it was a very chill ride. I wasn’t planning on a high mileage day so I went about 200 miles to a town on highway 2 in north eastern Wisconsin. I finally made it to a town called iron city, where I got a delicious couple blue moons, summer ale version that is and I headed to my campground which is on of course a lake, because there are thousands of lakes in the north east! Tomorrow will be a really great day I am going to visit Marquette Michigan in the Upper Peninsula home of Northern Michigan university where my dad went. I am really excited to explore the Upper Peninsula as I haven’t been there in many years so I cannot wait!!!!

July 30

So the Upper Peninsula is a lot bigger than I had anticipated, my dad had told me that it is rather long but I had to experience that for myself. One thing I should say though is that the Upper Peninsula is very beautiful tons of forests and great shoreline views of the Great Lakes. Before left my campsite in the morning I replaced the rear brake pads on my bike and it was a good thing that I did because they were in some really really bad shape. I should have replaced those things many miles ago but it didn’t become apparent to me until I took the brake caliper off and visually inspected the pads. Once I got the caliper off which took some muscle to do since the screws were basically bonded to the frame it took a little finagling to get the pads removed. Due to my overuse of the rear pads they were rather warped and it was not easy to remove the pads. I also learned that you can’t put more brake fluid in the reservoir than is recommended, I thought that I could just pour in enough until it was overflowing over the little reservoir container however I was wrong, since there was so much fluid in the brake lines as soon as I took the caliper off the brake pads clamped together which is why I had to bleed some of the brake fluid out so relieve the pressure in the line so I could pull the pads out. One I figured all this out replacing the pads was as easy as cake and I since learned a new lesson, and that is you can have too much of a good thing, i.e. brake fluid.

Ok so on the road for me, I stopped in at a dinner on my way out of town by suggestion of the campground host for a delicious breakfast. It was amazing I got the super special something or another with a bunch of pancakes, and eggs and sausage and hash browns, ect ect. So yes that was good and I was full for pretty much the rest of the day! My one big destination of the day was the town of Marquette which is home of Northern Michigan University where my dad went. I stopped in there for a bit toured around the town of Marquette and I was back on the road. Most of the rest of the drive through the UP was kind of boring just more trees and no dual sporting for me which I had wanted to do. I did however get to drive through the town of Christmas Michigan, kind of touristy but I can now say that I have been to Christmas. Once I passed through Christmas I stopped in the town of Munising because I was of course hungry again. I found the most hopping place by the name of Dog something which apparently has awesome sandwiches as per the signs on their place. I got in and the service was friendly and the food amazing. They had an all you can eat seafood buffet which was all fresh fish caught from the lake, it was so good just thinking about it now I want to eat more! I got a full four plates of seafood and I was very content. I had planned on riding further after dinner but it was getting late and I bedded down for the night just outside of Christmas in a national park campground on the shore of lake Superior.

July 31

I awoke early and was on the road as soon as I could because today would be my big dual sport riding day! I was so anxious I had checked my map the evening before and there were numerous national forest roads and snowmobile routes which crises crossed all over the Upper Peninsula. My initial plan was to ride to the Mackinaw Island area today and then wake up the next morning and make my way down the eastern coast of Michigan to my Grandma Louise’s however this did not happen and once I got to the Mackinaw Bridge I decided I would suck it up and ride the 4 hours or so it is to the Detroit area. When I left my campsite I headed to the Pictured Rocks National Park and I road some amazing dirt roads through the park. Riding in the UP was a lot different than some of the other dual sport riding I had previously done; this was in the woods with a good amount of mud that I had to deal with. I was at first worried because the nick-name for my Avon Gripsters as I mentioned before is the Slipsters, and in addition to this the tread on my rear tire is next to nothing so I had to be careful with what I rode through. The road to pictured rocks was good until I got to part of the park where there was a road block and turns out the new park management closed all trails to ORV (off road vehicles) so that left me stranded. I had to backtrack all the way through the Upper Peninsula around the park. It wasn’t such a big deal, I got to ride on lots of snowmobile trails which conveniently were all marked in my Garmin, so I had a lot of fun riding the trails. One thing I did have to worry about as I rode further south down the snowmobile trails towards the mackinaw bridge area was that a lot of the snowmobile trails were pretty well sanded out. No more had packed forest dirt but lots of sandy spots, so the riding was a little squirrely at times and thankfully Mav didn’t go down at all! Ok so I rode dirt roads for a better part of the Upper Peninsula all the way from Munising to the Mackinaw Bridge. Once I got near the bridge is when I decided that I didn’t want to spend another night camping and that I would make my way to my grandmas that evening. So after crossing the bridge which was a lot of fun I high tailed it down interstate 75 straight through the middle of Michigan and on to Grandmas! When I told people I was going to cross the Mackinaw Bridge on a motorcycle I initially got many concerned comments. Apparently the bridge is subject to some extreme winds and cars have actually been blown off the bridge but thankfully I crossed on a fairly calm day and I really enjoyed the drive over. Once I crossed the bridge the ride to Grandmas was uneventful and I got a little after nine and bedded down for the night.

August 1

Today was a down day for me, and I spent most of the day just catching up with my grandma and hanging out at her place. Our one adventure for the day was to get a new rear tire for Maverick. I had put a good 11,000 on my rear Avon Gripster and it was looking pretty rough, the tread was worn way below the recommended 2 mm depth and I was in dire need of a new tire. I called around every place I could find in the phone book and to no avail no one had an Avon Gripster for me. People could get them but it would have taken close to a week and I would have to spend extra for shipping so that was a big no seeing that Avon’s are already pricy tiers. So after more calling around I finally found a shop that suggested I call a place by the name of Blue Wheel Tires a car and motorcycle tire supplier and just my luck they had the exact tire I needed in stock, and it was just down the road from my grandmas! I was so happy! When I got there to pick up the tire the guys at the desk were rather surprised and shocked to say the least because no one ever buys this tire from there and they were even shocked that they had it in stock. So Grandma and I picked up the new tire and I headed over to Macomb Power sports where they installed the new tire and a beefier rear tube, they were also nice enough to oil and tighten my chain which I thought was pretty nice of them. Good people here at Macomb Power sports, because lately I have had some pretty snooty motorcycle shops that I’ve dealt with. While waiting for the tire to be installed I of course spent the next hour buying un necessary things for my bike, two of the necessary things which were included in my purchase was some more oil and new front brake pads. Once the tire adventure was complete I headed back to my Grandmas where I packed some things to head to my Aunt Kris and Uncle Joe’s where I was going to pick up a car from their place for my next big adventure… Cedar Point!!! I hung out with my aunt and uncle and cousin for a bit then I made my way to my aunt Marilynn’s where I was spending the night since we had to be up early the next day to leave for Cedar Point!!!

August 2

Cedar Point… wow what more can I say I had an absolute blast, not only was I getting to spend lots of time with all my family but I got to ride some killer roller coasters. Cedar Point bills itself as the roller coaster capitol of the world and it is everything it claims and more. I rode to Cedar Point with my Aunt Marilynn and my cousins, Bobby, Joey, and Nicky, and my cousin Bobby’s girlfriend Jacquelyn. When we got to the park we met up with all the rest of the family. I did not know this before I got to Michigan but the Cedar Point trip was going to be a Family Reunion which is awesome because I have been visiting tons of family my entire summer and the more the merrier! When we got to the park we were staying at the Breakers Hotel which much to my surprise is very old and historic, and another great thing was that it was dead smack in the middle of the park so we basically parked the car got out and walked straight into the park. When we first got into the park my cousins and I all rushed to the Dragster, quite possibly one of the most extreme roller coasters I have ever ridden. The ride is all of 12 seconds long, if that and it shoots you from zero to 120 mph in a few seconds and straight up spiraling into the sky then you crest over a hill and spiral back down just as fast as you went up. It was an amazing ride and well worth the wait, it was one of the first roller coasters in a long while that I got such a rush from. Being a Saturday in August the park was rather crowded so as the day went along the waits for the coasters got a little bit longer, but it was ok because I had a good 16 + cousins to wait in line with and talk to. We rode a bunch of other coasters throughout the day which included the Mantis, the Raptor, the Corkscrew, the Millennium Force, and my personal favorite, the Maverick!!!! Yes people Cedar Point has a roller coaster named after my famed Kawasaki KLR! The ride was very cool and I will not describe it to you so as not to ruin the surprise. After we rode it I wanted to get a sticker for my bike from the ride however the store there did not carry maverick Stickers which was a big bummer. Later that evening we had dinner with all the family at a Japanese steak house where I ate way too much food for the roller coasters I would be riding later that evening. I managed though to hold it all down and rode roller coasters long into the night all the way until 11 pm. The trip to Cedar Point was quite a memorable one and I really enjoyed seeing all my extended family there. I want to personally thank my Aunt Marilynn for making it an awesome experience and taking care of me the entire time, I would not have been able to come or even known about it this trip had it not been for her, so a big thank you goes out to my Aunt Marilynn!

August 3

The next morning we woke early and met the rest of the family for breakfast and after a big group photo we all parted our ways and I headed back to Michigan with my Aunt Marilynn and my cousins. Before I tell you about my big Sunday I just want to thank another awesome aunt of mine for planning a really fun pool party. Seeing that a number of the cousins in college were in town, two summer birthdays were upon us and well it was nice out and who doesn’t like pool parties, my Aunt Sue had everyone over for a fun afternoon of good food, delicious beverages, and pool side fun! The food was great; my Uncle Jay grilled these amazing sausages, along with grilled corn on the cob. My one cousin Bobby is quite the chef himself and marinated some shrimp which were later grilled and tasted amazing. I was so happy to see all my relatives on my dad’s side of the family and I also got to see my Grandma Marianne, Actually both of my grandma’s on my mom and dad’s side of the family were there so it was fun to hang out with both of them! One of the highlights of the pool party was when we had flaming cheese, now I am probably going to butcher the spelling of this but what you do is melt this delicious cheese on a platter on the grill then you put some liquor on the cheese and throw a match into it and everyone says “OHPAA!!!!” Well the first time we did it my aunt threw the match into the cheese downwind so the flames flared up almost engulfing her but no one lost their eyebrows so it was all ok. The second time the flames weren’t quite as big but the cheese was really good on pita bread. So I ate and ate and ate, and hung out with all my family for a good long while until it was time for me and everyone else to head home. Before everyone left though we all went out front and got a picture in front of Mav with my entire family, hopefully I will be able to upload that picture for all to see, and I will also try to get the video up of the flaming cheese, a personal favorite of mine! Ok so something that has been looming over my head for the past several months has been an unfinished report for the Virginia Department of Transportation which I am required to complete as part of my time in graduate school. So the report is almost almost done, there are just a couple revisions which I had to make so I spent a better part of the night polishing it up for final review, as such I did not get to go see the new Batman movie which I had planned on seeing before I left Michigan. All in all the trip to Michigan was great, I got to see all of my family, I got to eat great food, and it was quite a memorable experience

August 4

There were a lot of things slated for my schedule today that did not get done due to the ever foreboding weather which was moving in. I was up early though because I had many things to do before I left this evening, however my leave time was bumped up to an earlier time to beat the rain. Waiting for me when I woke up was a delicious breakfast that my grandma fixed for me seeing that it was my last day visiting with her, the breakfast was just what I needed for the big day I had ahead of me. As with every 3,000 mile stint Mav was due for an oil change. I had debated switching to synthetic oil all trip long because I can go a lot further between changes if I used synthetic, however seeing that I was at the tail end of my trip I would not be putting on any more serious mileage like this for quite some time so it was back to the same old 20-W50 oil I have been always using. By suggestion of my grandma I rode to an auto shop on the corner near her house where I could do the oil change and dispose of the oil. So far the guys at the fix it shop I went to today have been the nicest and most accommodating for my routine maintenance. They were very interested in the trip and didn’t change me anything to dispose of the waste oil. After the oil change I headed back to my grandmas garage to replace the front brake pads. They were not terribly worn down, however rather than waiting for them to wear out and seeing that I recently changed the rear pads I figured it would be better anyhow to have fresh pads front and rear at the same time. Replacing the front pads took all of 5 minutes and I couldn’t believe that if I would have taken it into the shop they would have changed me almost $45 to change just one set!! With fresh pads and new oil Mav was ready for the road. My first stop I had planned on was to visit my Dad’s cousin Lori and her husband Tom. Now Tom and Lori, like myself are motorcycle enthusiasts, and provided me with a lot of advice when I was planning my trip. I really owe a lot to them for their guidance in the planning process and I was really looking forward to riding over to their house when I was in Michigan to say hello and introduce Maverick to their heard of bikes. Well as I was getting ready to head out, I checked the local weather and just my luck, thunderstorms were in the area and coming quick. As much as I wanted to go see Tom and Lori I just did not think it would be safe to do a day of riding in the rain. This rain also put a stop to my evening meal, as I had planned on meeting my other Grandma for dinner that evening. So sadly I had to cancel dinner with my Grandma and my visit with Tom and Lori so that Maverick and I would have a safe and rain free journey down to Cleveland Ohio. On my drive down to Cleveland I decided to take the most scenic route as possible yet quickest out of the city and I went by my old house where I grew up at in Michigan! It was really good to see my old house and it had changed quite a bit, my old swing set had been replaced by a gigantic wooden fort like play set and the new family had added a deck on to the back of our house. I did a little drive around the old neighborhood, then I headed for my second quick stop on my way out of town to the town of Grosse Point Woods where I visited my Mom’s house where she grew up. The drive though Grosse Point was very nice and along the water most of the way through these huge neighborhoods with gigantic mansions on the water. The gigantic mansions on the water soon gave way to inner city and before I knew it I was in the real city part of Detroit. The buildings are rather nice; architecturally that is, however they are run down and in ill repair. It was rather sad to see the city in this state however Detroit has been undergoing some hard times as I understand and if you look at it this way the only way this city can go now is up! So on that positive note I was happy to know that maybe someday these old historic buildings will one day be as nice as they once were in their heyday. Once I left Detroit the drive down to Cleveland was rather uneventful, I hopped on the interstate so there was not much to see. I was pretty anxious to get to Cleveland though because I was going to get to spend time with my Uncle Nick who works in the city. Now Cleveland is something of a cool city, I was quite impressed with it and I really enjoyed my time there. That evening when I got there I was greeted by my Uncle and a nice frosty beverage. We later headed out to a great place for burgers and I was subsequently stuffed. We then did some bar hopping for a bit and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my uncle as I do not get very many chances like this. The night was fun but tomorrow would be even more eventful since my Uncle Nick was going to take me on a walking tour of the city.

August 5

My uncle lives in a really central part of the city so it was very convenient to walk from place to place to place. We first headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame down by the water and I had thought about maybe going in and checking it out but it was a whole $25 bucks to tour the place and although I am a music fan I am not enough of one to pay that much to see some old albums and what not. After some photo ops in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame we made our way over to the Cleveland Browns Stadium then back up into the city to grab lunch. On our tour I also got to see the Jessie Owens Statue, which many of you may like to know is a Cleveland Native and ran track at Ohio State University. My uncle and I grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Café where I had an awesome pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw on it which is a favorite of mine. I also forgot to mention that on our walking tour we stopped in at this one microbrewery to sample some frosty beverages and they had the coolest thing at the bar, and that was a long strip of ice that ran the length of the bar so you could set your drink on it to keep it chilled. I thought it was the coolest thing I had seen in a bar since well anything. At the conclusion of our lunch and walking tour my uncle and I headed back to his place where I packed up my things and I got back on the road to head further south to the city of Columbus Ohio where my cousin Alex just moved to. I was very thankful to have gotten the chance to spend time with my Uncle Nick in Cleveland and I am also very happy to say that I have now visited every single one of my aunts and uncles on both sides of the family, and all in one summer! I got into Columbus right around six-ish and like the drive to Cleveland I just took the interstate and it was rather uneventful riding. My cousin Alex lives in a really cool area of Columbus called I believe it was the Brewery District, which is right near the German town area. It’s very historic, so much so the streets are still made of brick pavers. Alex has quite a sweet pad which overlooks the pool and is complete with gigantic TV and the mandatory pool table in the living room. I can only hope my new apartment this fall will be as cool as Alex’s. We talked for a bit and Alex showed me around the place then we headed to dinner as we were both getting very hungry. Alex and I tried out this one restaurant which had of course its own microbrewery and we ordered a pizza with everything on it, and when I say everything it had literally every toping they carry except for of course onions because as we all know from the new Mexico broken shifter incident, I hate onions. The pizza was delicious as was the frosty beverages. After dinner Alex took me on a driving tour of Columbus up High Street and then to a huge gigantic open air mall which basically has every awesome restaurant I could imagine. One thing I have been doing on my trip is visit college towns and seeing that Columbus Ohio has one of the biggest undergraduate populations at the Ohio State University we had to drive through the campus. I don’t have an official count but I have visit almost one major university in every single state I have been in. At the conclusion of the driving tour Alex and I made our way back to his place where we ended up watching some episodes of Entourage, which is a second only to Lost one of my most favorite shows on TV. Now Alex has the mother of all cable packages so we were able to watch the last couple episodes of the 3rd season of Entourage which I had not seen yet, I was very content and at the conclusion of that I was spent and crashed for a good night’s sleep.

August 6, 2008

Today was another uneventful driving day. Not much to see here. I left Alex’s around 1ish and I got to sleep in which was good because I needed the long rest to recharge the batteries! I took mainly highways from Columbus. My final destination is Watertown New York home of the infamous Shawn Hogan also known as Hogatron, a fellow VMI alumnus and former class Valedictorian. Mr. Hogan is quite the character and my visit to Watertown may quite possibly be one of the wildest experiences on my trip yet. So back to the driving, I couldn’t make it to Watertown in just one day which is basically in upstate New York where the winters last 10 months of the year, so I split the drive into two days. I rode to just east of Cleveland and I got on the Lake Erie Scenic Byway which skirts the lake all the way to the Pennsylvania border where it becomes I believe it’s called the Lake Shore Byway. I crossed into Pennsylvania and with the sun getting low on the horizon I found a campsite on the banks of the Lake Erie where I am currently residing. Tomorrow should be an adventurous day where I will continue to follow the coastline of Lake Erie and I will visit Niagara Falls and then make my way further north to Watertown where I will spend the weekend with Hogatron.