Surroundings

This was a local trail in Springfield, not too far from my house.  It's shaded, but mostly groomed dirt and gravel.  Two street crossings, but otherwise it's "woods".  Lots of squirrels, chipmunks and blue jays.  I also got VERY close to a deer while running.  I guess I was nicely relaxed and "non-predatory", as she just shifted off to the side of the trail when I came past.  She didn't shift enough to get off the trail, just enough to leave me room to pass on the other side of the trail.  I could have smacked her rump if I was so inclined.  I guess she's accustomed to fat guys huffing down the trail. ;)

Stats

• Location: Springfield, VA
• TOD: Early Evening
• Weather: 75º, damp (had just finished a little drizzle)
• Distance: 3.7 miles
• Time: 50 min
• Pace: 13:43 min/mil
• Average Heart Rate: 136

Not bad...  but nothing thrilling up there.  The cool part is this:

The Run

The above is a pace graph of the first 20 minutes of my run.  A pace graph is like a reversed speed graph... the lower the pace (the dark blue), the faster you are going.  My first five minute warm up walk is the big section before the 5:00 mark.  Then I started running (ok, jogging).  The spikes are mostly from the GPS not having good reception (it's a heavily wooded trail).  Notice that it's in the Jogging/Running pace...  until 20:30!  That's 15 minutes and 30 seconds of jogging...  with NO stopping! That's was my first real goal for running.  Done! :)

Other software shows that my actual jogging pace average was about 10:43 minutes per mile. At that point, I turned around and did a fast walk back.  That's why it was a 50 minute session... 20 minutes out, 30 minutes back.

Anyway, my first running goal is complete and I don't feel terrible.  One ankle is slightly complaining, but no more than parts of me usually do from any reasonably decent workout. 

Now all I have to do is figure out my next realistic goal... gotta check the workout schedule and figure that out.  Will post when I do.

Hey again!  I just wanted to post up regarding my most recent run.  I'd set one of goals to be able to run a decent pace for 15 minutes straight.  I'm also looking for a longer term "stretch goal" of being able the run the entire 8k "Run! Geek! Run!" event without having to walk.  A stretch goal is a goal that would be nice to achieve, but it's a bit of stretch... I won't be crushed or anything if it doesn't happen.  It would just be a nice bonus.

In an effort to work on both of these, the wife and I decided to check out the course for the 8k run.  I did my usual 10 minute warm-up walk, then started jogging.  Here are the basic stats:

• Distance: 5.2 miles
• Time: 1 hour, 13 minutes
• Pace: 14:10 minutes per mile

The cool part isn't the pace, time or distance...  What's cool is that I managed to get a full 12 minutes running before backing off!  What's even better is that I didn't feel horrible while doing it (or after).  I probably was capable of hammering out the additional three minutes, but it wouldn't have been wise, so we backed off.  My running pace for the 12 minutes was 9:54 min/mile, which is about as slow as I can go and still be running.  But, I'm somewhat amazed that I could maintain it for the full 12 minutes. :)

My best pace during that was 9:13, but I only managed that for a minute or so.

The other cool part is that we did the entire course.  About half of it was walking, but it proved the first part of my stretch goal... I can complete the race!  I still may not be able to run the entire thing, but I'll finish and I probably won't be near death at the finish line. ;)

We're going to be doing an easy run tonight, due to weather (it will probably rain).  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get the full 15 minute run within a week or so.  Then I can see how much more distance I can safely get and continue to work on my stretch goal.

BTW...  my Saucony Grid C2 Roadsters kind of rock and are perfect for this kind of running. :)

Hey all, another update on my running (which I affectionately refer to as "Fat Man Falling Forward")...  I had a really good and surprising run this morning! 

So far, I've been trying for the following routine: 10 minutes walk (warm up), 15 minutes running, 5 minutes walk (cool down).  The walk is a fast walk and is about as fast as I can walk without actually running or looking like a complete freak.  Sorry, but speed walkers kinda wig me out and I refuse to be categorized as one.  ;)

My short term goal is to actually be able to run the entire 15 minutes of the running portion of my workout.  What normally ends up happening is that I start running, manage a decent pace for about 3 minutes, then have to walk again for two minutes before I pass out (I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea).  I can generally do that three times in my 15 minutes and I'll survive it.  Sometimes I'll even pound out one extra cycle if I'm feeling exceptionally motivated.

Well, this morning was completely different...  I managed 7 minutes running, two minutes walking, then another 7 running. :)  The pace was pretty much the same as usual too, so I wasn't just running slower (which isn't really possible anyway). 

I don't know if it was because it cool, humid, early in the morning, or I'm actually getting that much better, but it was quite a surprise to me to be able to manage that.  I might change my goal a bit and see if I can extend the first running cycle by a minute each run until I can work up to the full 15 minutes.

A long way

Another interesting thing about this morning is that I did nearly double my usual distance.  I normally do almost half my workout in one direction, then turn around and do the rest of it to return to my starting point. 

This time, I wanted to finish off my running portion without interruption, so I just kept going.  So, I did 25 minutes in one direction, then turned around for the last 5 minute cool down fast walk.

That put me a long way from the start at the end of my workout.  So, I just took it easy and walked back... a little slower than my usual "workout walking pace", but faster than a plain ole walk.  Took me about 30 minutes or so.

In total, I was nearly double my usual distance and well over double my time.  A good day!  They may be few and far between, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be a good thing to cherish them when they happen.

Hey all, time for more silliness in the life of smthng...

I still need to finish off the posts for my Colorado/Yellowstone trip, but I'm not really motivated to do so (yet).  I'll get to it eventually.

I've pretty much stripped down the FJR, but it's got to get into the shop for a tune-up before I sell it.  I just feel "wrong" about selling a bike I'm not convinced is in the best shape it can be in.  Might do that this weekend.

I got the KLR back from the shop with a new muffler, rear brake line and a few other bits that got killed when the exhaust fell off.  It's all good now.

Speaking of the KLR... I might be able to live with it for a bit and hold off on getting the BMW F800GS.  Not sure yet, which means I probably don't really need the BMW right now.

What else has been going on...  I took the wife camping and Jeeping last weekend.  It's her first time camping.  She had a decent time, but was a little put off by the lack of participation from our off-roading club (so was I).  Still, we had a good time and hit some good trails.  My friend Rob (the other Rob) and his wife joined us, and it was pretty much his first time out on rocks.  They had a great time and he's already trying to figure out what else he wants to do to the Jeep to be more capable.  JEEP = Just Empty Every Pocket. ;)

The camping trip got me thinking about how to make camping easier and better for both me and the wife.  I'm not sure how it happened or exactly why, but she gave the financial nod to get a SylvanSport Go pop-up camper/trailer thing.  :)  That should just about cover any camping issues in the future.  It's ridiculously expensive, but it really does do everything I need it to...  camping, hauling stuff from lumber stores, towing the bike, etc.  It's also light enough that the Jeep can handle it (Jeep Wranglers are great vehicles, but don't weigh much, so they have a really low towing capacity).

Ok...  so now onto my running efforts.  I've decided to start running.  It's mostly my wife's fault.  :P  She's a bit of a health nut, but I hate working out because I don't feel like I'm doing anything.  A friend talked her into running a 10k last month and she diligently stuck to her little regimen and completed the training and the race (in a decent time, no less).  Honestly, I didn't think she'd stick with it, but she proved me flat wrong.  Wouldn't be the first time!  ;)

She was kind of at a loss of what to do after the race, and didn't have a real "goal" for continuing to run.  She also didn't have any real idea of how well or how bad she was doing.  So, I suggested a GPS for running as a good tool to help her train, examine her progress and stay with it.  I ended up getting a Garmin Forerunner 305 for her.  Of course, I couldn't let the wife get a new toy unless I got one too. ;) 

The 305 is really a neat little piece of equipment.  I'm very much "gadget motivated" and this is a cool gadget.  While I'd probably keep running without it, I know that I wouldn't be making great progress and I wouldn't be looking forward to running.  With the 305, I really do look forward to getting home, running a session, plugging in the 305, then immediately seeing everything about how I did.  It's instant gratification!

A bit about me and why I'm running...  I'm in my late 30s, 5'10" and was about 200 lbs.  200 lbs is my "trigger" to get off my butt and do smthng about my computer geek lifestyle.  I'm in reasonably good shape, but I eat a lot and don't do much in the way of physical activity unless I'm on a Jeep trail (which is only about once a month).  I do have a few issues with running, but I think I can get past them.  First, I'm basically out of shape.  Nothing critical, just fat and sedentary.  Second, I have a weird gall bladder issue that none of the docs have been able to diagnose enough to do anything about it.  It's occasionally very painful (morphine levels of pain), but I can pretty much manage it by watching my food.  Third, I have incredibly high arches.  Bad enough that a walk around the block in bad shoes will leave me in agony for days.  That pretty much covers the reasons not to run.  I'm working on all of them. ;)

Basic stats on me before starting to run...  male, 199 lbs, 5'10", 27.7% body fat.

Reasons to run...  Well, I've only gone out about a half a dozen times.  But, I've also been laying off the junk food and eating relatively healthy stuff when there's an option.  The results?  194 lbs, 26.2% body fat. That's 5 lbs and 1.5% body fat gone... in about 10 days of running and eating better. :)

More motivation...  Other than fighting "getting old", losing weight, feeling better, etc...  I'm signed up for an 8k run November 2nd.  I don't know if I'll actually be in shape to run the entire 8k, but I have no doubt that I'll be able to finish and that I won't feel like death on a stick when I'm done.  If you want to join in, check out Run! Geek! Run!  It's for a good geeky cause.

Anyway, that's enough of my chatter for now...  I'll keep you posted on my running progress (and what I'm learning), the Sylvansport (when it's built) and the bikes.

To expand on the house of smthng weirdness this week...

I was riding the KLR home from work and had just pulled on to the HOV lanes on i-395 near the Pentagon (I work in DC) when I noticed the sound of someone with a really bad exhaust somewhere.  I happened to be passing a little old Honda car of some kind that looked like it's exhaust should have rusted off years ago, so I continued on my merry way without thinking to much about it.  Then I noticed it was getting louder. 

I generally ride a few miles an hour faster than the traffic around me, so I don't usually have people hanging on my rear tire for very long.  I checked my mirrors and did a quick head check... nope, no one gaining on me.  But, I was getting tired of hearing the thing, so I hit the gas to get away from whatever was making the noise.

That's when I figured out it was me. :(

The KLR exhaust is held on by two big bolts through the rear sub frame.  I'd read a few reports telling people to loc-tite them, but I never did so.  I checked the fairly regularly when I first got the K, but they were painted over and didn't appear to be loosening at all, so I forgot about them.  Oops.

The exhaust can was hanging off the header pipe, resting on the swingarm when I noticed it.  I pulled over to the shoulder, which is when it immediately fell off completely.  Current Interwebtube thinking is that there's a catalytic converter in the '08 mufflers.  Judging from how hot it was and how long it stayed hot, I'd have to agree.  It melted some plastic bits and the rear brake line on the way off.

While waiting for it to cool enough to pick up, a roadside service van pulled up behind me.  A few minutes of experimentation later, I had it duct taped to the rear rack, wrapped in newspaper and a wet rag.  Riding home was sad and awkward.  A single cylinder 650cc bike with no exhaust is painfully loud.  I'd be willing to bet that it could be easily heard for a mile or so... if I was trying to be quiet!

I took it up to Loudon Motorsports a few days later.  Got pulled over on the way out of my neighborhood, but the cop was cool and realized that I really was just trying to get to the dealer.  They'll probably call in a few days to tell me how long it'll take to get the necessary bits.

Until then, I'm riding the FJR again.  She's sure gotten a lot of exercise since I bought the K. ;)

It's been a weird week in the house of smthng...

Saturday, I decide to run out to Rob's place to help him put his Victory back together.  He decided to replace the main drive gear to change the cruising RPM.  That was about a year ago. ;)  Anyway, he got that done and we got most of the exhaust back on.  We had to get everything torqued down correctly, fire it up and finish bolting the rest of his "bits" back on to get the thing back in running shape.  The exhaust and brackets and everything pretty much went without any problems, other than having to run to Tractor Supply to get some new bolts.  Once that was done, we decided to see if it fired up. 

He hadn't had it on a battery tender, so my hopes weren't great.  We had to jump start it from his car, but it did turn over.  We tried four or five times before it finally fired, but it wouldn't stay running due to the deadish battery.  We finally just ran it for a few seconds while it was on the jumper cables. 

At some point, we cranked it up and snake jumped off the bike onto the floor at my feet!  I didn't have enough time to see what kind of snake it was, as Rob and I pretty much both just bolted.  Unfortunately, that gave said snake enough time to just climb right back up the rear tire into the bike innards. :S

We pulled the bike out to the driveway and started hunting.  We finally found him behind the swingarm on the tranny side.  Rob decided to do some "prodding" with a stick, but all that did was relocate the thing under the new drive gear that he'd spent a year or so getting done.  There's no way to pull the cover off the drive gear without pulling the entire exhaust again, so that was pretty much out.

We did some thinking (hah!) and finally came up with trying to smoke the snake out.  Rob keeps bees, so he fired up a bee smoker and stuck it under the drive gear.  After about an hour or so, the snake finally decided to relocate (getting his tail caught under the drive belt probably had smthng to do with it). 

Anyway...  we finally got him off the bike, but he was messed up enough that he wouldn't have lasted very long, so Rob, uh... "took care" of it.

It was about 2 and half feet long, give or take.  While we were relatively convinced it was a copperhead or diamondback or smthng like that, in all reality, it was probably just a red rat snake that hadn't gotten his stripes yet. 

Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot more work done on the Victory. ;)

This isn't a full "day" from our trip, but is worth of a post of it's own.

After leaving Yellowstone, we headed to Hunter Peak Ranch, our next abode for the night.  I found the place with a combination of Google and Garmin's Mapsource.  In short, we could only get two nights in Yellowstone Park, so I started hunting for a close place to stay for the third night.  Hunter Peak Ranch popped up and seemed to be the nicest of the batch. 

We pulled in around 6 pm or so, as dinner was scheduled for 7.  When I made the reservation, I was informed that dinner is cooked based on the number of guests and that we'd better be there by 7, otherwise food would be wasted!

Shelley greeted us and showed us to our quarters.  There was an explanation of it not being the rooms we'd requested due to other families wanting the loft, staying longer than we were and not having enough people to use the room they'd originally planned on.  I was kind of expecting that meant we were getting something less than we'd originally booked, but I was quite mistaken.

What we got was the entire bottom floor of the lodging house...  Four or five bedrooms, six beds, kitchen, laundry room, two bathrooms, living room, huge dining room and two entrances.  WAY better than the "two rooms" we'd originally booked.  We had plenty of space to bring in everything off the bikes, reshuffle all our gear, do laundry, set up laptops for routing, lounge on the couches drinking local beer, etc.  Very nice compared to the rest of our accommodations. :)  If you check the picture above, we had the ENTIRE bottom floor of that building.

There was also an abundance of ground squirrels.

We did a quick cleanup of ourselves and headed over to the main office for dinner.  Dinner was "family style", meaning they bring out a bunch of food, set it on a table and everyone goes and gets what they want.  Blackened chicken, string beans, nachos, potatoes and smthng else I forget filled my plate.  All of it cooked on a wood burning stove or a fire pit out back. :)  Desert was peach cobbler, huckleberry ice cream, and/or huckleberry crumble.  I chose the "and" route and it was all excellent. ;)

After dinner, I wandered around a bit and talked to some of the hosts and guests at the fire pit.  I managed to get a couple of pictures before the light disappeared and made friends with the two very well-behaved dogs.

I then retired back to the lodge and joined Jim and Rich for laundry, frosty beverages, lies and politics.

We finally ran out of frosty beverages and decided to check out the night sky away from our usual city light pollution.  Wow!  I don't remember the last time I was able to actually see the Milky Way band of stars.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it literally looked like a sky we never get to see.  We were able to easily see satellites and planets.  There were so many stars, we couldn't find any real constellations other than the big dipper.  I'm used to being able to pick them out instantly, but there was just so much that it just looked like one big field of lights.  Shooting stars were constant, at a rate of one every 1 to three minutes.  Keep in mind that this was about a month before any scheduled meteor showers!  I can't imagine what it would be like with a full on shower. 

When our necks got sore enough, we headed back in, did some basic packing for the morning and called it a night.

The next morning, we awoke in time for breakfast.  Home made sausage, french toast, really good bacon, fresh yogurt, eggs over easy, excellent coffee, fresh orange juice, huckleberry jelly, and I don't remember the rest.  We showed some restraint, as we had a full day on the bikes ahead of us, but it was awesome. :)

I wandered a bit more after breakfast and got some more pictures in decent light.  The ranch property is actually quite a bit bigger than the area we were using.  The main selling point is horse rides through the forests and mountains, which is what most of the guests were there for.  There is a river (possibly Soda Butte Creek) running through the property, which crossable either on horse, or via a trolley bridge.  For those that haven't a clue what I'm talking about, a trolley bridge is basically a cable system with a trolley suspended on rollers.  You sit on the trolley and pull yourself across on the cables.  I didn't have time to play with it, but one of the families staying there assured me that it works and that one of the daughters had gotten kinda "stuck" on it in the middle of the river. ;)

It was finally time for us to get going, so we finished packing everything up and cleaning up our lodge.  We ran over a quick final check of the route for Rich (he was heading back to Utah, while Jim and I continued on "Eastward").  After everything was all packed, checked, etc., we said goodbye to Rich and Jim and I headed towards Cody, WY.

That'll be in the next post!

The second day of our stay in Yellowstone National Park started with us packing everything up and checking out of our humble cabin in Lake Village.  I was able to pack efficiently enough to be able to get two additional "bits" into my luggage...  a six pack of some local amber ale (which was surprisingly good) and my Sidi Vertigo boots.  While my Sidis did a great job, they were HOT!  We were expecting mid to high nineties in the park, so I chucked the boots in the Givi case and wore my Solomon shoes that day.  It's rare for me to not have "all the gear all the time" (ATGATT), but I knew we were going to be doing a lot of low speeds and a lot of walking.  It was good call!

We headed north up the bottom loop from Lake Village and stopped at the Mud Volcano.  It isn't a volcano any more, as it blew itself apart a long time ago, but it's still a pretty neat spot.  There were several mud geysers and springs, plus we got to see another elk and a bison, both at reasonably close range.  This was probably the biggest geologically active area we'd seen up to this point.

We headed up to the bottom of the upper loop and shot West over to the Norris geyser basin and the porcelain basin.  This is a HUGE area with LOTS of activity.  But, it also had a LOT of people, lots of steps and it was hot.  I checked out Steamboat geyser and a few other areas, but I wasn't walking around in the heat, so I found a nice shady spot under a tree and waited for Jim and Richard to finish their meanderings.  They tried to talk me into checking out the porcelain basin, but I was just being a lazy twit, so we got back on the bikes and headed up to Mammoth. 

We stopped a couple of times at overlooks for scenic shots, but pulled off into the Mammoth spring area to drive a loop around the springs.  This was pretty cool, with lots of activity and some pretty strange deposits and formations.  We probably spent an hour or more taking pictures and just checking stuff out before we took off to Mammoth for gas and fewd.

Getting gas was a bit interesting.  They have the old gas pumps with the handle and spinning dials in Mammoth.  Unfortunately, they were old enough that they couldn't handle prices as high as $4 per gallon.  So, they had set the pumps for "half-price".  It was smthng like $2.18 per gallon.  It was kind of cool to fill my tank for $9.50 for a change.  Of course, when I went in to pay, they doubled it to get back to "normal" prices.  There were signs everywhere explaining this, but it was kind of funny and quaint.  It was just neat to see how they'd adapted the old technological dinosaurs to deal with current prices.

Anyway, we stopped and grabbed lunch, which wasn't very good, quick or cheap.  There were a LOT of bikes out.  I'm guessing a lot of people go to Yellowstone on their way out to Sturgis.

We then decided we'd seen just about all of Yellowstone we needed to see and proceeded to head out towards the Northeast entrance.  It was quite a haul, so we still had plenty of time in the park.  I don't remember stopping anywhere in particular, but we did see quite a bit on the way out...  bison herds, a bear with two cubs (too far away to get pictures), and some more elk. 

I'm about to go on a rant here...  There wasn't much traffic, but there was enough that there was always some other vehicle in front or behind us within about a minute or so.  Most were polite and either pulled over for us or at least altered speed slightly until there were clear passing areas.  However, there were exceptions.  One in particular really torques my shaft drive!  We managed to get behind a pair of Hardley baggers (Harley Davidson touring bikes with full luggage) who were doing the speed limit...  Until there was a corner.  These two morons would be doing the speed limit and then would drop down to about 20 miles an hour as soon as there was any type of curve.  They'd creep through the curve, then whack the throttle wide open to get back up to speed whenever they got out of the curves.  Rinse, repeat...  repeat... repeat... 

Don't get me wrong here, I wasn't looking to do 80 mph or anything around the park, but I was planning on maintaining the speed limit (which I think was 45 mph).  A slight curve isn't going to change that.  If it's a curve I can safely manage at 70 mph, I'm not going to be happy doing it at 20.  I was fine doing the whole thing at 45.  I would have been even happier if the morons on the baggers have either made room for us to pass or just not whacked the throttle every time we could have passed.  All three of us would have been around them in less than a minute and we all could have enjoyed the remainder of our riding. 

Baggers take note...  You absolutely cannot outrun or even keep up with a decent rider on a four cylinder sport tourer.  It's not possible.  Unless your last name is Hayden and you are just playing a really cruel practical joke, it's not going to happen. End of story!

What happens when you try this is that we get closer and closer every time you block us.  Then instead of doing a nice pleasant pass, we do smthng obnoxious like drop the bike into first gear, wheelie past you and cut you off HARD when we complete the pass.  This makes us happy and we leave five or six miles of pent up frustration behind us (preferably in your air intake).  We then either do the same maneuver to you or make it even more obnoxious (my personal preference would be eating a pop tart in front of you while going barely fast enough to keep the bike from falling over, but that's a different story).  Once we think you are frustrated enough to try to pass us, we then start the engine again and make sure that you are only going to see our tail lights fading into the sunset.  You might also hear us giggling over the horrible noise of your loud exhaust pipes.

It should be noted, that I would never do this.  I've just heard that this happens.  Occasionally. ;)

Anyway, with the baggers dispatched, we continue on US 212 towards the park exit.  This is a really nice part of the park and I think a lot of people miss it.  It's basically a huge valley with a river and some grass plains.  Absolutely gorgeous country!  A few people obviously know about it, because we saw quite a few fly fishermen on Soda Butte Creek.

A final surprise on our way out of the park was trotting towards me down the road.  I stopped (in the road) and waited patiently while a mangy looking coyote trotted past me in the other lane.  He didn't care at all about me, my lights, the horn, the other two bikes, the three cars behind them, or the SUV that was following him.  He was just out for a stroll on the road.  I did notice that he had a dark green park radio collar on him, but he really didn't seem to care about that either.  It was kind of cool to get that close to one, but they are nasty looking little critters.

After leaving the coyote to his walk, we got out of the park and stopped at the Yellowstone sign to take the required "I was here" pictures.  We then continued up Beartooth Pass through Silver Gate and Cooke City (hello Montana).  This was pretty much a miserable let down.  There was massive construction going on and we ended up in a "convoy" of about 30 vehicles, being led by a construction truck.  The road was dirt and rock... which meant huge dust clouds being thrown all over us.  To make it more interesting, the construction guys apparently decided to water parts of the road so it wouldn't be so dusty.  Dirt plus water equals mud.  Not real fun for a 600 pound motorcycle with about 100 pounds of gear on it.  Still, no mishaps occurred and we cleared the construction in a few miles.  I then promptly got "bad" and passed all the traffic that was previously in front of us.  Sorry, I was "done".  I stopped and waited for Jim and Richard later. ;)

Beartooth Pass was a nice ride with good scenery, but it wasn't the motorcycle Mecca we had been led to think it was.  Maybe we just did one piece of it or smthng and missed the good bits, but I wouldn't go back for it.

Anyway... we stopped for more pics and then turned off highway 296 to Hunter Peak Ranch.

That'll be it for now, but I'll post up separately about the ranch in the next post.  It was a cool place and I'll probably find an excuse to go back some day. :)

The roads in Yellowstone make up a "figure eight".  We decided to do the lower portion the first day and the upper portion the second day.  We started from our cabin in Lake Village, on the east side of the lower loop.  We stopped first at Pumice Point on Lake Yellowstone.  We snagged a few pictures and moved on.  The next stop was Potts Hot Springs Basin.  There's a bunch of pools and steam there, but not much else.  You can't get very close, as there are no trails or anything.  Still, it was our first sighting of geysers, so we had to stop.

Then we hit the West Thumb Basin.  Way cool!  There's a whole area of springs and geysers.  There's a nice boardwalk that goes right through the basin and you can get really close to a lot of the features.  We spent a fair bit of time here and this was probably the main cause of my camera battery dying later that day. ;)

On the south portion of the loop, I noticed a large male elk at Scaup Lake.  Unfortunately, by the time we'd parked the bikes and gotten out cameras, he'd decided he liked hiding in the bushes.  We hung around for a few minutes, but he was uncooperative, so we continued on until we found Kepler Cascades.

Kepler Cascades is a set of falls on the Firehole River.  There's a viewing platform, but the best views are afforded to those who are brave enough to climb out on some rocks (that would be me).  We took the requisite pictures and then headed to Old Faithful.

Old Faithful was still faithful and spewed pretty much on time.  It was hot and crowded and honestly not that impressive.  But, it's one of those things you have to see if you're there.  We then had lunch at one of the restaurants. Food, acceptable.   Service, horrible.

We then saddled back up and headed to the Prismatic Spring.  This is a really big spring with a lot of bacterial/algae growth.  It flows down into the river and it's a pretty cool place with boardwalks to get you out over the area.  Elk and bison don't use the boardwalks, as we did see quite a few hoof prints in the hot muck.  I guess the local critters are used to it.

We then headed up through Madison to the northern part of the loop.  We stopped to get some pictures of a bison who was hanging out on the side of the road.  They are actually bison...  buffalo are in Asia and Africa.  BTW... the picture doesn't do it justice.  Bison are HUGE!  Especially at night, when driving down the road. :S

We also stopped at another set of falls on the Gibbon River.   I think it's just called the Gibbon Rapids.  I left Jim and Rich for a few minutes and ran up to the next overlook.  That gave me an opportunity to get pictures of them riding (trust me when I tell you that it's a rare thing to actually get a picture of yourself on a bike in motion).  They weren't great shots, but they'll do.

From there, we continued on to Artist Point.  I managed to get a few pictures, but that's where my camera battery called it quits.  After hte sun set, we headed back to the lodge. We passed another couple of bison and some elk.  There were a lot of people stopped to look at the elk, so we didn't bother. I started some laundry, had a "frosty beverage" or two and settled down on the lodge porch to write up some of the ride.  While waiting, I saw a coyote go trotting down the road in front of the lodge.  A few minutes later I saw a baby deer (I think) come flying up the road from the lake.  Then, there were all sorts of hoots, howls, yips and other strange noises before a pack of coyotes surrounded it and pounced on the thing.  They demolished it in no time flat!  Coyotes make some weird noises when they're getting ready to tackle smthng.  It was truly creepy, but way cool.

Anyway, I finished up my laundry and turned in for some much needed sleepz.

Sunday started out with us repacking everything on the bikes and seeing our wives off to the airport.  We headed north on I-25, not quite realizing how far much of "nothing" there was that way.  We managed to make it to the last exit before I-80 before we stopped for gas.  We were all running on fumes and really nervous about running out.  A lesson for later rides.

We then jumped on I-80 West and pretty much just hammered for a couple hours (150 miles).  We did stop at exit 323 to check out the Lincoln Memorial and take a couple of pics, but then we just continued on to Rawlins, WY.  Jim was leading as we approached Rawlins.  He apparently wasn't paying any attention to the GPS, his map, or the big brown sign that pretty much said "Yellowstone - Exit here", as he sailed right on past it.  I jumped past him, pulled off at the next exit and had a few choice words with him. Jim was officially done leading that day. ;)

We gassed up in Rawlins, after another little roadside discussion, where Richard (Jim's BMW rider friend) convinced us of the need to get gas instead of relying on the three little dots on the map to have gas stations.  This was a good call... I apparently hadn't learned the previous gas lesson... We wouldn't have even made it close to the next station if we hadn't gassed up in Rawlins.

From Rawlins, we headed North towards Yellowstone on rt. 287.  This is a long, mostly straight road across miles and miles of nothing.  It's some huge basin or plateau or smthng.  It's a good road to be on... for about 5 minutes.  Then it's all just more and more of the same nothingness.  I vaguely remember a couple of curves and maybe a hill or two within about 100 miles of each other.

We took 287 up to 26 and headed towards the Tetons from there.  26 was a lot nicer than 287, but it's still a long way to go.  Wyoming is big.  We stopped somewhere near Brooks Lake at the Lava Mountain Lodge for a quick rest before hitting what looked like some interesting roads.  Ginger ale, windshield cleaning, a guy playing a guitar and some pictures later, we were back on the road approaching the Tetons.  From there, 26 does get interesting.   Twisties, canyons, beautiful views, etc.  Amazing stuff!  Unfortunately, we were looking directly into the sun by this time. 

We made it to the Grand Teton National Park just as the sun was setting.  We made one photo stop, but the light was going and the mosquitos were horrible!  Then, it was on to Yellowstone!

We made it through the GTNP and into Yellowstone right around 9:15 pm or so.  Way dark.  We continued into Yellowstone on 191... a road that runs along a river and then a canyon.  No guard rails or anything, just a big drop into a canyon if you miss a curve... at night.  Tons of bugs... my faceshield and windscreen were nasty!  We stopped at Grant's Village to clean up and get gas, as I didn't know if there was any where we were staying.

We continued on a bit more and passed a buffalo wandering down the road.  I slammed on the breaks to make sure we could get past without it making any sudden surprises for us.  It was about 12 feet away from us.  Richard and Jim didn't even see it.  I guess that's why I was leading. ;)

We finally arrived in Lake Village at the cabins and lodge at about 10:30 pm.  We checked in, parked the bikes and we were pretty much done for the day.  All's well and we're where we wanted to be. :)

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.