Our group for Saturday grew a bit compared to the first day, but it was still manageable and had the same riders included from the day before.  The intended goal was Mount Evans, the highest paved road in the US.

Forgive me, but I completely forget any of the names of where we went other than Mount Evans.  I'll get real names and stuff when I download the GPS tracks. Note: Updates are in italics.

Anyway, we went up towards Mount Evans on Squaw Pass Rd and highway 103 and stopped at a little 'general store' at the bottom of mountain near Echo Lake.  There was another crew of riders that had passed us on the way up and we chatted with them for a bit.  There was one girl who was on a Honda Hawk that the wife thought was kind of cool.  I really loved the sound of that little twin.  :) 

We headed up Mount Evans itself, after paying the three dollar park fee.  The ranger told us to be careful, as there were some major frost heaves in the road and she didn't want any of us "launched".  She was right to warn us...  The road could severely damage any vehicle that wasn't prepared for it.  It was kind of fun though. :)  The rest of the road was awesome.  Not quite the same kind of speeds we hit on the roads from Friday, but still really neat.  Lots of hairpins, most of which had a 1000 foot drop if you missed anything.  Traffic was fine and passing areas were easily found. 

At the top of the road, there's a parking area and restrooms.  Then you have quite a hike up to get to the actual peak.  I was told by many that I really need to hike it up and check it out.  Unfortunately, I knew I wasn't up for it.  The air was so thin up there (14,200 feet) that I could barely move.  Just walking across the parking lot made me feel high as a kite.  Not bad or sick, just weird.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to put up the effort to hike up unless someone was going to carry me back. 

The wife went up and enjoyed the hike, but I just hung out at the parking area and the little observation post.  I was quite happy to do so and it's a nice spot.  It was cool just to chill and watch people, bikes and scenery.

Anyway, we headed back down and all was good as soon as I dropped 200 feet.  Weird how that works.  The drive down was a bit more fun than the ride up, mainly because I had an idea of how the road was since I'd just done it the opposite direction. ;)  To give you an idea, the map above shows the peak area.  Altitude at the top of the map was 13000 ft.  Altitude at the turnaround and parking area was 14200 feet.  Nice road! :)

We made it down and then followed Phil (our defacto "leader" local rider) on some other roads that I also can't remember.  Faster, harder turns, fun. ;)  But, we hit some pretty severe traffic down in a valley on the way home and some higher temperatures.  The wife and I were cooked.  We headed back to the hotel while Jim and a couple others headed up to Lookout Hill.

At the hotel, we cleaned up, took the group picture, ordered frosty beverages, ate and then went up and started the packing, as we were checking out in the morning.  G'night!

The first day of the rally basically started with us getting set up with a route to ride in the morning.  Jim and I had one planned, but Jim had obviously been busy.  He'd managed to find a couple local riders and we formed up a group of about 10 riders.  As with the EOM a few years back, this ended up being the group we rode with the entire rally.  It was a good set of guys (and girls).  We gassed up and quickly split into two "packs".  The faster guys (including Jim and I) up front, with the others a little bit behind.  We were never more than 5 minutes apart.

We took highway 72 plus a few other roads North and we ended up for lunch in Estes Park.  The roads and the weather were both awesome!  Couldn't have asked for better.  The wife did very well and managed to lean with me and generally just be a good, predictable passenger. :)  The comm system I installed last week helped a lot.  I was able to explain things and point out stuff as we were riding and she was able to ask questions and point out stuff that I missed.  It was worth it's weight in gold. 

We stopped at the Stanley Hotel for lunch.  The Stanley was where a fair bit of "The Shining" was shot.  It's a neat place and the food was excellent.  We learned a fair bit more about the crew we were riding with.  I'll post up names when I can get all my pictures and other scribbled notes taken care of. ;)  On of the guys (Dave I think) was a bit sneaky and paid for lunch before anyone knew about it.  That was very nice of him...  I'm sure it was well over 200 bucks!

As we were packing up to continue on, it started pouring.  SERIOUS rain!  We didn't have a whole lot of options, so we just rode on.  The wife didn't complain a bit (we were both in mesh - we got WET). 

Jim and I decided we wanted to see the Rocky Mountain National Park, so we split off from the rest of the group and headed up.  The bottom portions were nice, but it was just more of what we'd already been riding through.  Then, we got UP into some altitude!  The temperature dropped drastically and instantly.  We were riding above snow fields.  My guess is that they're there year round most of the time.

We saw lots of other FJRs coming the opposite way... more rally attendees.  We stopped at the top and the wife and I waited while Jim did the hike to the peak.  We saw about 6 other FJRs pull in and out of the parking area and talked very briefly to one couple on completely matching 07s and wearing matching gear.  We'd bump into them later. 

We headed back down and put some hustle on to make it back to the hotel in order to catch Jim's wife when she landed.  We hung out for a bit and checked out the other bikes until the dinner.  Jim's wife arrived as we were finishing up, but the staff was nice enough to keep a plate for her. 

After dinner, we pretty much called it a night.

Jim and I met in Springfield, VA at 4:45 am on Wednesday, July 23rd.  The plan was to leave Springfield and head West for about 1500 miles on our FJRs.  That would have put us somewhere near Burlington, CO at about 2 am on Thursday if everything worked out ok.  This would have gotten us a Bun Burner Gold from the IBA (sorry no links right now, I'm composing offline).  The pace is rough, but it's possible and Jim and I have both done that kind of distance and time before.

What actually happened was a fair bit different.

A local DC-Cycles member and IBA member, Louis, was kind enough to show up and sign our starting witness forms.  Then, Jim decides he needs to check his tire pressure.  Ok, fine...  We air up his tires.  Then we pull up and get gas.  This gets us a time-stamped receipt and starts the clock ticking.  Jim tries to put his helmet back on and his speakers fall out.

Jim messes with them for 20 minutes or so, says goodbye to his wife and we can finally start rolling.  We've already lost time, but not much.

Then we head into Pennsylvania and it rains...  The entire time we're in that state.  Not too big of a deal, but it means we aren't able to use CBs (mine's not waterproof) and we're not making really good time.  But, we persist and aren't doing too bad.  The rest of the trip goes without too much incident until we hit Kansas.

Kansas is hot and boring.  We've messed with the CBs and they are close to useless.  Jim's is probably worse than mine, but that's like arguing about which pile of poo is bigger.  Not too big a deal, but it's another setback.  We just aren't making real good time.  I'm having to stop at every gas station and soak down my head-rag and drink lots of water.  Dehydration is definitely a concern. BTW... when I say it's "hot", I mean that the average temperature is about 100 degrees. :S

Then we hit St. Louis.  Traffic was real heavy to start with.  Add in some construction, then an accident and we're at a standstill.  We probably lost an hour or so getting through it.  We're also exhausted from the heat.  But, we press on.

We finally get about 40 miles East of Abilene and stop at a Denny's for food.  The service was pretty bad and Jim and I are both beat.  We reluctantly decide that it's not smart to continue and we cancel the Bun Burner plans.  We tried to get a room in two places and called two others.  All are full. So, we ride on to Abilene and managed to find one hotel with a room.  We notice another FJR out front and hope we can catch him in the morning.  That's it for us, good night!  Time...  2 am.

We get up Thursday morning and repack the bikes.  We meet up with John, the other FJR owner and chat with him for a few minutes while he's packing up.  He's from Richmond and we'd both met him before at the Eastern Owner's Meeting.  He's traveling with his wife and taking it a bit easier than we are, but he heads out before us.  We figured we'd catch up with later.  Wrong!

We keep on going and manage to get out of Kansas (YAY!).  We make it somewhere in Colorado and have figured out that we can still do a regular Bun Burner if we get a few hundred miles in about 5 hours.  A Bun Burner is 1500 miles in under 36 hours.  No problem!  We just keep on trucking and manage to get it done.  We pad out the mileage a bit and stop at 1580 miles.  Jim goes to gas up to get his final time-stamped receipt.  It's about 100 degrees out and we both have about half a tank of gas.

I'm at an opposite pump and am digging out my credit card when I hear a loud "whoosh" and then a big splash.  I turn around and see the remnants off a lot of liquid hitting the ground between me and Jim.  Turns out that his tank vent had clogged and it pressurized from the heat.  Jim says that a huge column of gas just shot out of his tank and arced over towards me.  Luckily it didn't make it all the way.  This is a wierd "glitch" I was already aware of, but it's news to Jim.  I explain it and we now are both in the habit of holding the lid closed when we release the key latch on the gas tanks. ;)

Anyway, we eat and then roll on.  We hit one really heavy thunderstorm, but it was actually kind of nice.  I dry out in no time (I'm wearing mesh gear by now).  We reach Denver without further incident, but then I had to choose to stay on I-70 instead of taking the bypass.  Traffic was congested, but there weren't any problems.  We finally make it to the hotel around 6 pm. 

My wife was there waiting for me. :)  We grabbed some food, hung out with Jim and then called it a night.  Let the NAFO rally begin!

NAFO is done and we're now in Yellowstone. Sorry for the lack of progress in updates, but cell service has been all but non-existent... forget about wifi. We almost hit a bison on the way in, had some excellent riding and are now just checking out the scenery. We just finished watching Old Faithful and are sitting down for lunch. Good times. :) If I can get some time tonight, I'll write some posts, but they probably won't get uploaded until Wednesday or Thusday.

Note: that means that the next few posts about NAFO (which is now done), will appear after this one when I get time to sit down and do some typing.

Almost there! We had some technical issues on the way, so we aren't making the time we'd hoped, but it's still a reasonable pace and we'll get into Golden around 6 pm mountain time. We're currently in Seibert, CO getting fewd. it's about 96 degrees here, but it's been about 100-105 on the road for a few hours. We're pretty well cooked and figured we needed some down time. Anyway, all is well and we'll be in Golden tonight. :)

We cut it short and bailed out at Abilene, KS.  We're grabbing some sleep here tonight and will get up, uh, somewhat early to finish the 450 or so miles to Golden. 

I'm at the gas station waiting on Jim. I'll be in Colorado this time tomorrow. ;)

0 miles - Springfield VA

The FJR is now ready to roll!  I spent a fair chunk of last night re-assembling and testing everything.  Surprisingly, almost everything worked right out of the gate.  Here's what was done:

• Fabbed power cable for CB
• Added ferite chokes to CB and Zumo
• Wired up helmet headset
• Finalized installation and power for Autocom communication system
• Buttoned it all back up

Everything is working as designed with two minor exceptions...  The CB is useless and the headset volume isn't quite loud enough for podcasts.  The CB problem is probably the CB itself, not the wiring or comm system.  I borrowed it from Jim and we've had problems with it before, even when just trying to use it as a normal handheld on the Jeep trails.  In short, it sux.  I'll probably bolt out of the office a bit early and head down to Manassas Auto Outfitters to see if they can tune it up or if they have a replacement (I'm pretty sure I need to just chuck the thing and get another).  The headset volume is another matter...  I doubt it'll be good for podcasts, but it'll be fine for music.  I might try moving the speakers just a bit to see if I can get them to line up with my ears a bit better.  The speakers sit just a tad too low right now I think.  Not that big of a deal, it'd just be nice to catch up on some of my podcasts on the 24 hour trip out.

As for the rest, I've just got one more technical issue... I have to wire up the wife's helmet.  If needed, I can do that in Colorado if I can't get to it before I leave.  It's not a huge issue by any means.  It'd just be easier to do here with my dremel.

Everything else is just packing and loading up data.  I've got a bunch of music I need to convert to MP3 format (the Zumo won't play WMAs).  Then I've got to dump that over to SD cards.  I also need to pack up the Eee PC, the camera and then make sure I've got all the right cables for my phone, USB devices and such.  Throw some tools and fluids in a side case, toss some clothes in a bag, recondition my saddle (leather), then grab as much sleep as possible before I roll out at 5am tomorrow morning.  

Still working on it, but I'm now REALLY close. ;)

I got everything mounted and all the appropriate wiring stuff routed all over the place.  Tonight, I just have to hook up two power lines and slap all the body work back on.  Then the bike is DONE!

I still have to switch out the headset in my helmet and install one for the wife's helmet, but those are both only 15 minute jobs.  Then, it's just down to packing up my gear and ready to roll out Wednesday morning at 5 am (EST).

The basic plan is as follows:

• 23rd - 1500 miles to Burlington, CO - stop for 6 hours sleep
• 24th - 200 miles to Golden, CO - meet up with wife and the rest of the FJR group
• 25th-27th - unknown miles touring the Rockies.
• 27th - 550 miles to Yellowstone National Park
• 27th-29th - unknown miles touring Yellowstone
• 29th - 70 miles to a ranch in Cody, WY to spend the night
• 30th - 470 miles to Mount Rushmore

After that, it gets a bit hazy.  But, we have at least another 2100 miles to go before we get home in the begining of August.  So, that's a total of about two weeks with 4900 known miles.  I'm guessing we'll add about 500 unknown miles, so that's well over 5000 miles on the road. 

Good times! :)

I'll be posting up here with short updates.  Basically, I'll post up cities we stop for gas at when we're actually moving.  I'll post up longer accounts when we get the chances to settle in at night if there's an internet connection. :S

Just making sure it works before I go. ;)

Unfortunately, it doesn't support images. :(  So... I'll probably just post up the city, state and milage so far every time we stop for gas.  It's just an easy way for friends and family to keep track of me while on the road. 

Why only 2.5 and not 3?  Well, I ran into a minor snag last Tuesday...  I am now gifted with a "severe cervical strain".  Basically, I've messed up smthng in my neck pretty much as badly as I can without causing permanent damage.  I was slapped into bed on pretty heavy meds for a few days.  I can now move (slowly), but everything is real stiff.  I'm better than I was, but now all my other muscles are complaining for having to make up for not-quite-functioning neck.  That's put a major damper on my plans. :(

But, I did manage to take a ride out to Rob's on Friday and get some more done.  The ride was a good "test" to see how I'd manage on the bike for the upcoming trip.  I actually feel better on the bike... it forces me to relax, which is what my neck needs most.

We managed to complete the following fairly hefty jobs:

• Brake fluid flushed and bled (that's a NASTY job)
• Clutch fluid flushed and bled (that was some NASTY fluid)
• Throttle bodies synced - they were real close to start with, so I doubt this actually did much, but it's still good practice.
• All ram mounts installed

That leaves one big job, which I have to get done before I'm ready...

Wiring up the com system.

It's not difficult, it's just a lot of work getting the octopus of cables safely routed all over the bike without any of them getting crushed, melted, or binding up the steering.  It's a lot of tedious stuff...  the power and audio cables aren't long enough, so I have to splice and solder a bunch of stuff.  But, it's got to be done.  So, I think I'm gonna rest up a bit more today and then tackle it late this afternoon.  I'm not sure how much I'll get done, but I should be close enough that I can polish the rest off Monday night.  That leaves Tuesday for packing up, then I'm outta here before dawn on Wednesday. ;)

More ride prep done last night...

• Rear gear fluid changed (almost no metal "fuzzies" on the drain magnet - yay!)
• Oil drained, flushed, refilled (oil be getting expensive!)
• Oil filter replaced
• Air filter replaced
• Burned out bulb replaced - new one is a dud. :(
• Electrical work started

Tonight I have other commitments so I probably won't do much, but I've really only got a few things left...

• Install comm system and wire up the wife's helmet
• Install Ram Mounts for CB and a few other gadgets
• Run a power line for the CB
• Flush brake and clutch fluid (maybe - that's a beast of a job when you've got an ABS system).

Then, it's packing and getting ready to roll. :)

Sorry I haven't been posting for a bit, but I've been pretty busy.  I'm currently prepping the FJR for NAFO - a national FJR meetup in Golden, Colorado. I'll be leaving in a little over a week.  Jim (the guy who did the 50CC trip to San Diego with me) and I will be leaving from Springfield, VA at about 5am on a Wednesday.  We'll ride 1500 miles to Burlington, CO where we will catch some sleep for a few hours.  Then we'll finish off the 200 miles into Golden, CO.  The wives are flying into Denver and will meet us at the hotel Thursday and Friday. 

We then spend three days with over 270 other FJR riders and passengers... exploring the Rockies, eating good food, kicking the tires and generally having a good time out of the office. ;)

Then the wives fly home, while myself, Jim and his friend Richard (a Beemer guy) head up to Yellowstone National Park for three days.  We'll check out the sites, chase some wolves around the park, then head back home.  We've got a week to get back and we have no real agenda other than to stop by Mount Rushmore on the way. 

So far, I've replaced the rear suspension on the Feej with a Wilburs shock (with remote hydraulic pre-load adjuster - allows me to "jack it up" for passenger and gear) and wired up the Zumo power.  Tonight, I've got to get a new oil filter, air filter, some crush washers and some spark plugs.  Hopefully those will get done tonight.  I've also got to wire up the communication system (an Autocom) so I can have some tunes and talk to the wife, install the CB (might not happen - looking less likely every day), synchronize the throttle bodies and I might flush the brake and clutch fluid.  Quite a list. :(

I intend to post up about the trip pretty much every day I have an internet connection except for the night we stop on the way to Golden.  I'm pretty sure I won't have a connection while in Yellowstone.  I'll probably write the posts anyway and just hold them until I can get a connection again.  They'll probably be pretty short, but it might be interesting for those stuck at the office. ;)

I'll post up again before I go and let everyone know how much work I actually got done. Till then!