Trip Out West - Part 4

Today was a slower day. By the time I got the bike packed and the gas tank topped up, I wasn't on the road until 8:30.

The weather and the scenery were spectacular all day. The temperatures easily got into the 80's, maybe higher. Since I had made such good time the first few days, I decided to take it a little easier and stop and take a few more pictures. But I was quite disappointed that Montana doesn't have any "scenic lookouts" where you can legally stop on the freeway like many other states or provinces. Shame.

I stopped for the evening at St. Regis, Montana, mostly because I was feeling the effects of the heat and needed to call it a day.

My total for the day? 643 miles (>1000 km), leaving me about 6 hours (400 miles) of driving to Seattle the next day. My sons won't be home from work until past 6:00 pm, so that should give me a more leisurely day of driving.

My travels today:

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Montana, with the Rockies in the distance:

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My bike, with the Rockies in the distance:

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Unfortunately there is no Internet access at my sons' home (can they be MY kids???), so the blog entries may be on hold for awhile...

Trip Out West - Part 3

The bike was packed by 7:00. It was already raining...

It rained rained for over 3 hours, sometimes very hard. My new Goretex-lined waterproof boots failed me - well, sort of. My jeans weren't totally covered by the rain suit, and got soaked. This soaked into my socks and wicked down my socks into my boots. If it weren't in the 40's I wouldn't have minded so much, but my feet started to freeze... And my hands...! By the time I stopped for gas my hands were so wet and cold I couldn't move my fingers to pull off my gloves.  Ahhh......that's why they call this an "adventure"...!

When I got to North Dakota the weather cleared, and eventually turned quite sunny and warm. This allowed me to drive for quite an extended period -- a total of 819 miles -- ending in Glendive, Montana.

Along the way I passed "Jack" on his Harley. He caught up to me, then followed me to my next gas stop. It turned out he was driving in the same direction for about 300 miles, driving from his home in Minnesota to his new construction job in North Dakota. He waited for me while I had a quick lunch, then we drove out together. The goal was to drive about 10 MPH over the speed limit, but that plan flew out the window when we followed some pace cars with radar detectors. Let's just say me shortened the time of the trip considerably...

Jack from Minnesota

Today's travels took me from Wisconson through Minnesota, North Dakota, and to Montana. I stopped in Glendive, having accumulated about 830 miles for the day (>1300 km).

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Here's a quick snapshot I took in North Dakota:

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Today? Not sure how far I'll get, but I'd like to get as many miles in as possible. I'm sure the Rockies will slow me down considerably, not just because of the twists and turns, but because of the scenery I'll want to stop to take pictures of... 

Trip Out West - Part 2

I got on the road shortly after 7:30. The forecast in Cleveland called for rain, so I figured I'd be smart and wear the rain suit right from the start. Was I ever glad I did.

As soon as I hit the Pennsylvania border the winds started, then when I hit the Ohio border the rain started. After Toledo, the clouds parted and the sun came through, prompting me to stop and throw on some more sunscreen. But just before Chicago the skies turned BLACK, and the rain hit harder than I have ever experienced. Unfortunately I was on a section of the highway that was under construction and didn't have any shoulders, so all I could do was drive through it. My vision got so bad that I just looked for a vehicle that had bright headlights and followed it -- road lines were useless at that point. When that ended, I found myself in the thick of rush hour in Chicago, the city where I wouldn't be far off in saying has North America's worst drivers, and where the drivers have absolutely ZERO respect for motorcyclists.

With the time change as I headed west I gained an extra hour, so I took advantage of it to drive a little longer. My total miles for the day were a tad over 700 (>1100 km). I drove through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, where I finally called it quits in the little town of Mauston.

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Trip Out West - Part 1

The oil's changed. Preliminary dates to stay with friends are planned. I have a rough route planned in my head; now I just need to enter that in my GPS (hehe... target:Seattle, tolls okay, fastest...).

I'm a little concerned about whether my rear tire will last the entire trip, or if I should swap it out when I'm out west. I've contacted a friend in Portland to see if I can ship a tire to his house and change it there.

Today I tried to install a Vista universal throttle lock but it wouldn't work on the V-Strom. That will be a pain -- travelling over 10,000 km without some sort of a cruise control.

I also changed out the front and rear sprockets and changed the chain. I was a little concerned about the front sprocket, but when I compared it to the new one, it was probably could have easily lasted for this trip. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

I'm planning to stay with a friend on the US side tonight to avoid any border delays in the morning. I'm not sure what what my target will be tomorrow night. I figure I'll take the entire distance, divide by four, and add a bunch...

Microchips Articles

There are some great articles at the IEEE Spectrum website on microchips. Included is an article entitled "25 Microchips that shook the world", which includes some historical information that students (and teachers!) may find interesting.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/25chips

This site has been added to my public TEJxx bookmarks: http://delicious.com/pbeens/tejxx