Category Archives: Travel

“Turn Left on Big Coulee Road”

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Every few months I check Google for Big Coulee Road.

It’s one (??!) of the roads I managed to crash on. It was back in 2007 on the way to Alaska (?!).

I remember it well.

Most things I don’t remember nearly as vividly.

We were in the middle of nowhere. The bike’s computer was saying I had around 50 miles of fuel left. The GPS said a gas station was around 100 miles away.

Not good.

There we were. On a dirt road. Me at the controls and En behind me. A full load of stuff surrounding us — camping gear, supplies, clothes, parts… stuff.

“Turn Left on Big Coulee Road.”

I looked at the GPS. I looked at the sign. The GPS was nothing more than a squiggle. The road had a caution sign.

“No. I don’t want to turn left!”

We scouted around a bit to no avail.

Big Coulee Road was between us and a bigger highway. A bigger highway with — parhaps — a gas station and a motel.

- = -

 Eventually we turned down Bug Coulee Road.

At first it was easy. For the first hundred or so feet.

We were descending from a plateau to the valley floor. Down the edge. A rock cliff was on the right, treetops on the right as the cliff continued down.

- = -

We hit a patch of deep loose gravel and the rear wheel spun up. We went down. Thankfully we didn’t hit the cliff to our right or go down the cliff to our left. Just a low-speed low-side.

Other than the corner of the panier nothing got damaged.

The bike was picked up and we continued a few miles and got to the main road. A semi drove by. Gas was near — it had to be.

Turning towards Glacier National Park we went west. A few miles later we arrived in Ryegate. We got the gas we needed. En asked the proprietor about a place to stay. He pointed down a quarter mile to the brightly lit motel sign.

Checking in we said hi to the kitty that lived in the lobby and proceeded to start picking out some of the rocks that had lodged themselves into the cooling fins of my right cylinder.

- = -

 

Not my bike… but a few hundred feet above the crash…

(more here)

I’ll never forget that day.

- = -

Yellowstone. Beartooth Pass. Big Coulee.

I don’t think I’d trade it for the world.

West coast trip ideas

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Two years ago Ennie and I went down the Blue Ridge Parkway from start to finish on the bike. Last year we didn’t have a chance since I broke my leg and all so that ruled out anything interesting from happening.

Well, this year I had a bit of a case of the moves. All that precluded just about anything we could do to get out of town.

Which, of course, leads me to start thinking of next summer. I know — it’s a ways away — but I’m OK with that for now.

Someplace I’d love to go back to is the Liard Hot Springs up in way northern British Columbia. Maybe a week-long loop up and around that area would be a fun trip with some camping involved.

We can also explore some of eastern Washington as well. I’ve been wanting to get out to the scablands since I learned about them back in ’05 or ’06.

Or we can take the PCH down south a bit?

It’s a cool exercise to think of the things that are now possible.

Not really better or worse than out east — just different.

Travel; Break

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I like to travel. Hell, I can say I love to travel.

Travel lets you see people and places that you don’t normally see. It gives you a new perspective on the world.

It lets the world see more of you as well.

Be it a vacation or business travel, I have to say that I still like to come home.

This week was chock full of travel. Four airports in as many days.

That type of travel gets old pretty quickly. While I love travel in general… business travel is so-so. It has a purpose no doubt. The travel this week was taxing as hell — but it got us in front of a lot of people who can help us out.

No pain, no gain.

I guess the same can be said of some of the motorcycle travel that we do. It sometimes hurts… (well, hopefully not too much physical pain) but I think it makes you better.

No pain, no gain.

- = -

 Now I’m back home. I kinda like the break from the travel.

X-Day 2011, Days 2 and 3

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Wisteria seems a lot like Brushwood in many ways. Though there are some big differences as well.

The biggest is flush toilets versus portapotties. Brushwood has a few places with flush toilets. over here there are portapotties. You are never too far away from one, but they don’t flush.

It also doesn’t get as cold here overnight. Walking around at night doesn’t get my feet wet. It gets as warm during the day which is good or bad depending on your view. There are also showers here so that makes the camping that much more enjoyable.

The bands last night were great. We had Tommy Amoeba with Phat Man Dee, Andrew the Impaled, and the Evolution Control Committee.

I’ve seen everyone except ECC before at previous X-Days. Two words: Live Mashups. Awesome on a stick!

Summer plans – Acadia, New York, ????

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It’s that time of the year again: time to figure out where to go for the summer vacation!

The best we can think of at the moment is to head east to the coast then follow the coast up to Acadia National Park up in Maine then spend some time touring around up there.

As an added bonus we can visit Cynthia, one of my good friends, who’s up there in New York City (“New York City? Get a Rope!”) and have a look around there. We’ve not been there to visit since around 1999 or so for a Rocky Horror convention that was up there.

Beyond those two destinations does anyone have any other ideas?

Appalachian Trip – Day 7 Pictures (finally!)

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As the weather is finally warming up I realized that I never posted the last day of pictures from the trip last summer. Doh!

The final day of the trip wasn’t really supposed to be the final day, but that’s the way it turned out. We were going to ride on the “Tail of the Dragon,” but that road had been closed due to some land slides earlier and they were busy fixing things up.

With that road closed we faced a choice: circumnavigate the park one last time or head for home. We figured that just going around the park for the hell of it wouldn’t really lead to a whole lot more adventure so we got on the highway and headed back north.

It was a long haul up to Cleveland, but we soldiered on with the help of some Red Bull and Snickers bars. Yaay sugar rush!

The treat at the end of the road: Mexican!


View Appalachian Trip 2010 in a larger map

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View photos at SmugMug

Travel – fast and slow

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I’m writing this sitting in a tube at FL380. (Pilot speak for 38,000 feet above sea level at a normal pressure)

This is no way to see the world; no way to see America.

I’m about an hour and a half from my destination: San Francisco, California. I’m guessing I’m above Wyoming or something.

I keep thinking back to the Alaska trip in 2008. It took days to get there, not hours. By flying I’m missing out on all the things down there. All the places… all the people…

I’m missing see Devils Tower. I’m missing out seeing the biggest ball of twine. Of the Spam museum.

When you only go from place to place with no sense of time and space it’s almost like teleporting. Not seeing the scale of this country for what it is.

Recovery day

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It’s been a long, long week last week. Flying out of Cleveland to San Francisco and staying a few days there working then moving to the offsite in Tahoe.

The offsite was fun but a lot of work with nearly every second being accounted for.

Flying back from Reno to Cleveland was the real killer. Bussing from Squaw Valley to Reno for an hour then waiting for another three for the flight. Then waiting in LAX for six hours was nearly maddening.

A few bright points stuck out to make things easier. Talking to Ruth in Reno about hew working on the airlines for the past 30 years made me realize how much has changed in the airline industry. Back then all the stewardesses were nurses and gave out Valium to folks that needed it — in the piano bar of the 747. Not any more. The other cool thing was dinner at Ruby’s Dinette at LAX. Normally I don’t think airport food is good, but this was actually pretty good!

At this point I’m still just recovering from the week.

And I think I’ll drink a whole lot less to make up for the Quinebreation that we all had last week!