After Thoughts:
We made our own trail mix with mixed nuts and MMs. With a little pressure (bungee cord) and a little heat (113 deg. Arizona) the MMs do an excellent job of coating all the nuts with chocolate. My daughter calls this Muddy Buddies. Yum.
This plate is what Erik has been chasing down for the whole ride and in the background is the bike that his wife wants never to see again.
Oh well, Bikes will come and go. Memories are forever. (even the memory his wife has of riding 800 miles in one day)(would you want that bike in your garage?)
Eat Sleep Ride
Beartooth Pass
What an excellent road.
The guys at the Tail of the Dragon may think that they have the best road. Theirs is good but NOTHING to the Beartooth pass. This road must have taken 10 years to build. Then they almost have to rebuild parts of it every year because of the extreme weather. http://www.beartoothhighway.com/
Thanks road workers.
Eat Sleep Ride
Days before we started the ride I looked at the route and the miles and wondered if we were going to get up the 3rd or 4th day and look at each other and say: “I’m not doing this any more”.
The plan was 22 days and average 550 miles a day. Very do-able in a car but maybe a bit much for a bike that has to stop for gas every 200 miles and butts that need bloodflow every hour.
Well…………..I has turned into a love hate situation. While just waking up I think that there is no way that I can get back on the bike but I get up and pack anyway.
Then within the first 10 minutes of riding the feeling comes back: “I’m the luckiest guy in the world right now. I get to ride through this GREAT country of ours and see what we have been blessed with. I think back of all the ground we have covered and all those who have made it possible for us to do it. First is my wife who didn’t look at me with that look and say: “Where are you going to get the $$?”. Second, all the people who assembled my FLAWLESS motorcycle in Marysville Ohio. Third, all the people who carved the miles and miles of roads throughout this FANTASTIC country. Forth, All those people who farm so we can eat, make dams and hydroelectric power plants, etc. etc. You get the idea.
It is like being a chocolate lover and having signed up to eat chocolate 22 days in a row and after the 4th day questioning if you want any more, but after that first smell in the morning„„ YOU GOTTA HAVE IT.
Bon Appetit
Eat Sleep Ride
Since Erik is the photographer I’ll just toss out some thoughts.
7:50AM Sunday.
I did get the address of the local church but my riding partners have not cut up all that wood and are still “Sawing Logs”.
During the 36 months of preparations I sent a lot of stuff to all those who said that they wanted to go. One of the items was a list of questions regarding your personal riding style. Some like to get up early, some like to get up late. Some bikes can only go 100 miles so there are a lot of gas stops, others (Troy) can go over 250 miles. Some like to ride then eat breakfast at 10AM, etc.
I think our group did fill out the survey and we sent our answers to each other. If the others were like me they didn’t give it much thought. Now I realize that it is very important if you were just to meet up with others to ride. It doesn’t matter with this group because we are friends first and riding buddies second.
My planning was to get up early and get 1/2 of the days riding done in the cool of the morning…….Yeah Right. I think over half of our check-ins were after 10PM but those were the days we made good miles in the dark with no traffic. What a great ride.
Eat Sleep Ride
