FJR Adventures: May 2024

It was a great adventure but it’s always nice to get back home as well. This morning I did most of the remaining unpacking and getting camping stuff stored and also finished up doing the laundry. My riding pants got hand washed and are hanging on the fence to dry along with the tent and the sleeping bag which are just getting an airing out.

The bike is parked in front and the job the restore it to cleanliness awaits. It’s pretty dirty and it will be a major job to clean it up.

As I recap, the first thing to mention is the bike. What an awesome machine! It ran flawlessly through the whole trip and all its features were there when I needed them. I LOVE cruise control! It remains the perfect ride for the kind of traveling I want to do. This is the 4th cross country trip I’ve done on it since I bought it new in ‘21 and it now has 36,770 miles on it. Changing the oil and tires is all that has been required.

So, some statistics before the commentary.

Totals miles on the trip: 5,928

Length of trip: 20 days

Days spent riding: 17

Days spent riding with son: 5

Days spent riding solo: 12

Nights camped out: 14

Nights stayed with son in Pittsburgh: 5

Number of gas stops: 37

Total spent on gas: $388.61

Average cost per stop: $10.50

Gallons used: 108.2

Average gallons per stop: 2.92

Average cost per gallon: $3.59

Miles per gallon: 54.7

Best campground: Devil’s Back Bone in Virginia: hot showers and a brewery. What’s not to like?

Number of states visited: 18 (Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming)

This is not an exact map but is pretty close and shows the general route I took.

OK, now for some general observations. The trip was great and, of course, the best part was riding with my son where we rode the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Tail of the Dragon. We both have Cardo PacTalk Bold units on our helmets so we can talk while we ride which is really handy and, IMO, improves the safety of the ride as whoever is in the lead can give warning to those behind, like when there was a bear in the road.

The remaining 12 days where I rode solo were also great. I can say that most of the over 35,000 miles that I’ve put on this bike have been solo rides so I must like it enough to keep doing it. I sort of settle into a rhythm throughout the day, the way I get started and packed in the morning, the breaks I take along the way, the stops for photos to illustrate this blog, stopping for lunch, and picking out where to camp and just the doings of the day. After a long day on the bike it’s nice to settle in to some downtime and I get that by writing which is when I make entries in this blog. My son likes his quiet time as well and while I’d be writing, he’d be checking in on his phone with friends, family, and, probably, work.

For the meals at camp I’ve got it dialed in: I make up packets of breakfast oatmeal for the mornings and use a backpacker meal in the evening, both of which only require boiling some water.. Lunch is a challenge because I can’t really carry a midday meal on the bike because I don’t want to unpack to get to it so going out for something healthy and nutritious is the alternative. Of course, choices for healthy and nutritious AND vegetarian are really limited which is why I tend to rely on Subway, where I can get salad and bread (veggie sandwich), or Taco Bell that now has a veggie filter on their ordering kiosks. I gave up trying to find something at any other fast food places long ago.

Now the issue of gear. There are a few things that I brought that I won’t bring again. One is my collapsable stool. I never used it. Every camp site had something to sit on and, for me, a picnic table is perfect because I want to sit and write on my iPad so a bench/table set up is perfect.

Other than the broken tent pole issue, the another equipment issue is that the zipper on my tank bag is failing. The teeth in one part are becoming disengaged from the fabric so I couldn’t zip it shut all the way around. Not a big deal but the failure is moving and eventually will involve more than a few inches. It’s a double-pull zipper and I should be able to find a replacement. Then I plan to cut the teeth out of the existing zipper, leave the attaching fabric, and sew the new zipper to that. I might be able to machine sew part of it but will probably require some hand stitching as well.

Another issue was with my cold weather gloves. When my hands get sweaty they like to grab the liner and pull it out of the glove when I take the gloves off. In Blue Earth that happened and I was able to get all but the little finger of the left hand back into the shell. For some reason the little finger liner won’t go into the shell all the way. I don’t know if it’s twisted or what but I used the handle of my toothbrush to push it into the shell and have it almost perfect but not quite. I’ll have to fiddle with it some more but I might have to cut the liner away from the outer shell, pull the liner out to resolve the problem, and then once back in the shell, hand stitch it back in place.

Clothing was OK but I didn’t bring short-sleeve t-shirts or shorts (other than my running shorts) and wished I’d had both. I had lots of clothing and that took up lots of space but I was packing for 3 seasons since I had winter weather with snow and low temperatures as well as warm days. I had both my thermal and rain gear for riding and used it all. I also packed my running gear (shoes, shirts, shorts, hat, gloves) because I knew I’d get a couple runs in while in Pittsburgh and on the road with my son. I’m glad I had my knit hat, sweatpants, medium gloves, and an assortment of socks. I did do laundry at my son’s place.

On this trip I brought my blue back pack because I want something I can get into on the road without doing any major unpacking. It sits sideways on top of my clothing satchel and lashed with ROK Straps. I used this for carrying my rain gear, heavy riding gloves, and for stashing beer that I bought before hitting a campsite. I am thinking of doing something different the next time out but haven’t thought what that might be. My big satchel that I’ve used on past trips works great for carrying clothing but maybe change it out to a dry bag of some kind that allows easy access and get rid of the backpack. I’ve been using this stuff because it’s what I had on hand already.

In my side cases I’m thinking of changing what I place in each. On the left side, the side that faces down when the bike is on the side stand, I keep my tools and my cooking stuff as well as some of the food. These items are in the FJR liner that came with the bike and works OK but is difficult to get into on the road and it’s the first stuff I want when I set up camp. The bag on the other side has more of my food along with my iPad, Kindle, sketchbook, and a water bottle. I’m thinking of swapping the contents around but leaving the iPad in the right-side bag. Getting stuff out of the bags is no problem but reloading is more easily done my taking the side cases off the bike, laying them on their side, and dropping the packed liners in that way. I’m thinking that if I swap the contents, I might not even need to get into the left side every day.

I do bring my sketchbook and drawing tools but I have never used them on one of these trips because at the end of the day I have a campsite to set up, a meal to prepare, and a blog entry to write. However, I bring them in case I get stuck someplace for a longer period of time such as really bad weather or (Yikes!!) mechanical issues. Besides, I rarely go anywhere without my sketchbook.

The tent, sleeping bag, and air mattress worked great except for the broken pole issue on the tent. I’ll order a replacement but the pipe nipples I picked up worked great and I’ll continue to carry them just in case. BTW, the tent came with a little piece of tubing and I wasn’t clear what it was for but now I am. However, the pole that broke, broke in two places so bringing along these pipe nipples will be extra insurance. I also wanted more rope than what came with the tent and did pick some up when I was in Bloomington.

For lashing things to bike: ROK Straps. Nothing else to say.

Now for the rides. The bike handled great, even over roads that needed some improvement. The new tires (Michelin Road 6 GT) felt exceptionally good and the only times I had issues were hitting tar snakes while on a curve. New blacktop is a joy to ride on and there was plenty of that. Concrete is OK as long as the sections are consistent to one another. I did hit quite a few unavoidable potholes so the tires and suspension got their workouts but that is what they are there for.

With almost 6,000 miles on this trip I can honest say that I had few close calls. One I wrote about early on where a car was passing a piece of slow moving farm equipment did so in a no-passing zone over a hill. She came right at me as I approached the crown and I luckily dodged her. The other was in Kansas the other day when I was coming into small town and the highway was curving to the left. A moron pulling a 5th-wheel was passing a slow moving truck and came across the double yellow line on the outside of the curve in my lane. Vigilance is the life-saver. I can’t think of any other close calls and I’d say that most drivers are aware and quite courteous.

When it comes to other motorcycles, outside what we saw at Deals Gap, I saw very few. It’s early in the season and during the weekdays I’d see only 4-5 in a day with more on weekends. Harleys are the dominant bike and I think that is a regional issue. Two years ago when I did a big tour of the Northwest, I saw very few Harleys and plenty of BMWs.

I generally had decent cell service where I stayed along the way and was able to make these blog entries on a daily basis although once or twice I had to wait for better service to attach the photos. I shoot the photos on my iPhone 14 Pro and they synch to iCloud. My iPad does not have cell service so I use my phone as a Wi-Fi hot spot and connect the iPad to the Internet through the phone. This works but can be slow. Once connected I synch the iPad to the cloud to access the photos for entry here. I suppose that I could carry a StarLink dish….well, maybe not.

While I’m not in my youth anymore (turning 72 in a few weeks) I haven’t found any physical limitations to doing these rides. Keeping is physical shape is a necessity as we age and I get that that primarily through running with the occasional laps in the swimming pool. Hopefully, this will extend the number of years I can continue doing these rides. The only issue I have is the carpal tunnel syndrome, that I’ve had for decades, is tweaked by the use of the grips. My fingers get tingly and numb so frequent breaks to shake them out really help but every year it becomes more of an issue. I’m reluctant to seek the surgical solution (having had 4 surgeries for a different issue in the past 5 years or so) and want to delay that for as long as possible. That said, butt time in the seat gets better with practice and my last day of 400 miles felt like nothing. I have the stock seat and an AirHawk cushion and that seems to be all I need. 400 miles is enough for me.

So that was the big ride (so far) of 2024. I want to do at least one cross country trek each riding season and this is one that I’d planned a while ago. I’ve done 3 of the 4 corners of the lower 48 states with only Key West left but I’m really reluctant to do that one. I’m just not that interested. I’d like to go back to the Ozarks and spend a week there and explore the many routes that I’ve seen on the maps as the short ride I did there last week was only exploratory and whetted by appetite for more. I’d also like to go back to New England and cover more of Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire but right now, I have nothing pending. With the Beartooth Highway opening soon and only 60 miles away, I’m sure I’ll have lots of day rides coming up this summer where I do that with the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway added on.

So, another big adventure in the bag and more to look forward to.

Monday, May 20, 2024

2024 Trip 1 - Day 20

May 20, 2024

What a beautiful morning at Guernsey Lake State Park in Wyoming. Well, it was after the rain let up. This is a gorgeous park with 13 different campgrounds within it and I recommend it highly.

Today is my last day of this adventure and I plan to just grab The Slab to cut the distance down to about 400 miles for the day. The weather looks like it might get moist so I don’t want to spend time trying to enjoy backroads under those conditions.

Here are some photos from camp this morning.

I had breakfast (oatmeal) and got packed up and on the road by 8:30 am. The first stop was to the dam that holds back Guernsey Lake. It was built on 1927. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the state park and its structures. The dam is used to generate electricity. There is a CCC museum nearby. Here’s some photos from the dam.

I got back on Hwy 26 and it took me to I-25 which I rode to Buffalo, WY where it connected to I-90. The first thing I noticed was that I was underdressed for the conditions. I tried to tough it out but when the temperature started dropping into the 40s and the rain became serious, I knew I had to pull over and did so in Evansville, WY at a gas station. I put both the rain and thermal liner in my jacket and pulled on my rain pants. I also got out my waterproof and insulated cold weather gloves. After getting gas I pulled away from the island and noticed that one of my boots had come untied so stopped in front of the Tesla Superchargers to tie it.

I continued on going north which took me right through Casper, WY. The road went to 2-lanes as they are undergoing a major construction project here. Riding through a city, on a road under construction, in the rain, reminded me that I did the same thing last week in Columbus, OH. I got past that and kept heading north, now much more comfortable with the right gear on.

I was sort of getting a headache, for what reason I’m not sure, maybe the stress of the ride, so I pulled off in Kaycee, WY to take a couple Ibuprofen.

Outside of Buffalo I pulled over in one of the many “Parking Areas” designed for truckers to take a few photos.

In Buffalo, I pulled off thinking I might find someplace for lunch but it’s really difficult traveling in this part of the world as a vegetarian so I got back on the road and headed for Sheridan, WY. It was beginning to rain again anyway. In Sheridan I got gas and had a salad with bread (a Subway veggie sandwich).

Now it was just about getting the 2 hours to Billings done. I stopped in Hardin for a short break and then back on I-90. As I got closer to Billings I could see that I would be welcomed by an afternoon storm. I shot this photo about 15 miles east of the city,

I didn’t hit the weather until I exited the highway in Lockwood and headed across the Yellowstone River when I got both rain and hail. The hail abated but the rain remained all the way to my house.

My wife tracks my location and created a parking spot for me in the garage and was out there with the door open to greet me.

What a great 20 days. Today was 407 miles and made the total, 5,928 for the whole adventure.

As is my custom, I’ll wrap this up with another post with stats and observations, hopefully, sometime tomorrow.

Sunday, May 19, 2024

2024 Trip 1 - Day 19

May 19, 2024

What a day, or I should say “night.” It started with a little thunder and few drops of rain about 1 am and worked itself up to a major storm with some of the loudest thunder I’ve ever experienced with even heavier rain and, of course, wind. I was safe in dry in my tent and after watching the flashes and hearing the thunder for a bit I fell back to sleep. I woke up frequently and checked conditions in the tent and they were fine but about 5 am I found that water was getting in from somewhere. I guessed that it might be because the rain fly was not staked down on the ends of the tent but after a while I discovered that I was sitting in a pond.

I selected this spot because it was high and flat but the ground just could not take any more water and it flowed under the tent. I stacked stuff up in a way to prevent things from getting too wet and my air mattress mostly kept my sleeping bag out of it but it eventually took on some water too.

I kept an eye on the radar map during this and here’s what I was seeing. I’m the blue dot.

At one point it stopped for about 30 minutes so I got out and heated up some water for my breakfast which was a Backpackers Pantry Breakfast Scramble. It hit the spot, especially considering the conditions.

When the storm picked up again I stayed in the tent and sort of organized and packed the best I could. At one point the thunder was just continuous rolling booms. Luckily my bike is waterproof.

Eventually, about 9:45, it let up and the radar map showed it was time to move. Things felt heavier as I loaded them up due to the water they were carrying. Here’s a photo of where my tent was.

When I picked up the tent, a field mouse ran away from under it. I guess it needed shelter from the storm too.

Here’s the bike ready to go, just before 11 am.

I got onboard and decided that rather than make a tight u-turn where I was, I’d make a wider one and exit through the campsite next to mine which was unoccupied. I’d walked it and it seemed fine so off I went. The loaded bike weighs more than I do so that ground that felt solid when I walked across it gave way as soon as I hit the grassy strip between the sites. I felt my rear tire want to spin and go sideways as it started to make itself a mud hole. The traction control indicator lit up (big surprise) and I had my feet dragging the ground working to keep the bike upright. I knew not to stop and kept feathering the clutch and carefully giving it the gas to keep moving as I could feel that rear tire slipping in the mud. I finally got to the hard gravel and heard lots of mud being thrown in the fenders.

On the way out of the park I stopped to look back at the storm.

The main goal was to put distance between me and that storm so I took the highway that headed northwest out of Kansas and into Nebraska. I know that I’ve been through Nebraska but can’t remember exactly when but it was probably a few years ago on a car trip to Pennsylvania as I remember coming close to Omaha.

Today’s ride took me through no big cities, just through rolling hills that replaced the flats of Kansas. The Google map had me on state and county roads as there are no interstate highways that provided a faster way to get to where I am going.

I did the usual stops for gas and such, In Oberlin there were a dozen or so bikes gassing up at the station across the street. All Harleys from the look of it.

Some of the residual mud from this morning’s exit maneuver.

I pulled over for a photo in Palisade.

In Grant I took another photo and also stopped to use the restroom at their city park.

I was thinking of stopping for lunch in Ogallala but the place I’d picked was too busy and there was nowhere to park the bike where I could keep an eye on it so I just kept going. While there I had to take a photo for a friend who texted that he used to live there.

By the time I got to Oshkosh I needed gas and wanted a snack to replace my lunch. The weather up ahead looked foreboding and a guy told me he’d just come from that way and it was looking bad. I got my rain gear on just in case and snacked on a few cheese sticks.

According to the radar map, the coming storm was headed right for me but I figured I could outrun it and shoot the gap between the main storm coming from the south and a smaller one in the north. I got out of town and stopped just to take photos of what was coming from my south and ahead to the west.

The radar map indicated that I might make it through the gap.

I wanted to stop and see Chimney Rock up close but that’s when the rain threatened so I had to satisfy myself viewing it as I went by. I only got a few sprinkles. Photo from Wikipedia.

Outside of Minature I stopped for a few photos.

My friend who lived in Nebraska told me that he did his student teaching at the high school in Scottsbluff so I took a few photos for him. This school replaced the one where he taught.

The rest of the ride was all about dealing with crosswind. Lots of it. I had to slow to 55-60 mph to where I felt I had control of the bike.

Another issue with riding these 2-lanes in this part of the country is the number of cattle-hauling trucks going by in the opposite direction. Many semis create a wall of wind as they pass but nothing like these do with their huge perforated trailers which is like a shock wave or sonic boom. Hanging on through that can be unnerving.

When I got to Torrington, WY is was warm and dry and I stopped to shed my rain gear and sweatshirt.

In Guernsy, WY I stopped for gas as I am really close to campground and I like starting the day with a full tank.

At Guernsy Lake State Park I rode around and looked at various sites. There are very few people here so I wanted to get a site in an unoccupied loop rather than to crash their solitude plus I have to have a site that I can get the bike in and out of.

There is a huge lake and the road that leads to the campgrounds is as twisty as The Dragon. The loop I selected was not in the first-come first-served list so I needed to make reservation. I’ve got good cell service here but their registration site is as convoluted as it is picky and it took about 20 minutes to complete the transaction

The first job once I’d parked was to get the tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, and a few other things hung up so they could dry out. It’s breezy and in Wyoming’s dry air it really did not take very long. This is a nice park and my site is located above the lake.

I got the now dry tent set up and my equipment stowed just as the wind picked up. I sat in the tent for a while, working on the blog entry, and when it calmed down I heated up water for my dinner, a Three Cheese Mac and Cheese that was great with some Diablo Sauce saved from Taco Bell.

Once the wind was down I went out to look at the moon and take a few photos.

It was a 379 mile day.