Some Videos

Well, it has been a long time since I wrote on here and mant things have happened in the meantime - not all good. Five days before we flew home, my father died.

I am just getting around to sorting photos and making a DVD of the trip.

Meanwhile, here are a few small vids posted to youtube....

New Tyres For The Breva

The Butt Buffer Unpacked

A Rainy Start - Missouri
 

The Breva On The Original Route 66

A Tornado Warning In Galena, Kansas

And Chasing The Train At Bonneville Salt Flats - we are traveling at 90mph


Johnson Pass, Utah

The Photos

I have given up trying to edit the previous post and add photos to it - pure lack of time.

So here is a slideshow.

When I get some spare time, I will give details about the pictures and where they were taken.

Catching up with the blog - at last

Hi Everyone.

It has been difficult to post to all the forums and my blog because, by the time we get to a motel, unpack, wash the bike, check oil/tyres/nuts and bolts etc, then have meal, we are usually exhausted.

So I will copy all the trip so far from the one forum we have kept up to date. The writing will be out of sync and, for some strange reason, the text size and the font is different in some places, but I will have to edit that another time. I am just trying to update you as quickly as possible. Then, from now on, I'll put the day's events and photos into a word document and then that can be pasted into other forums. The date (where there is one) will be the date of the original posting.

28^th May 2009

All went well with the flight to Toronto and we got the two new tyres bought and fitted the next day. Took Donovan and Anna out for a nice meal to thank them for all their help. Rested the following day and, planning to leave at 0600 the next day, Thursday, got up at 5am. To FOG.

Hung around until 10am, when it cleared a bit.

Rode 322 miles in fog and showers. Arrived at Pete and Barbs at about 1930. My ass was killing me. The pelvic bones as sore as sore could be. A bit of a long ride for the first one in nine months. Plus we only stopped for ONE coffee and two gas fill-ups.

Have had a good rest since and not a few beers. Now we are looking at setting off on Sunday. There is a huge weather system of thunderstorms right across the USA, from the east coast to the west coast and in a band north and south of Interstate 80, so we will head south to get below that and hope for better weather.

We may as well go for it and get out west because it is approaching Tornado time and the sooner we get out west, the better.

Just hope the new 'Butt Buffers' do something to relieve the pressure on the ass, cos we plan to make as few stops as possible.

Will write more once we are on the way. No internet connection at Pete and Barbs house, so we have to bring the Asus the library. But going to Radio Shack, see if we can get a Pay As You Go dongle for the USA.

OK, all for now, Ride Safe :P

JUNE 8^th

Well, we got off - around midday. Friends, Pete and Barb rode with us as far as Interstate 75 before waving us off.
As it is Sunday, the traffic was light. Almost made it to St Louis, Missouri but towards early evening, a deer threatened to jump into us, so we thought, 'time to stop'; at dusk, the deer get active. Counted 7 big, dead ones on the interstate today - no desire to add two Guzzistas to that total.
Start mileage - 19, 379
Four fuel stops and end of day mileage - 19,783 so wot's that.... 404 miles. Bit less than hoped for but we are tired and sore.
Bike running well.
Tornados forecast for the area tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Two incidents of note today.
A woman in the outside lane, overtaking us. Hands-free driving. Too busy looking in her mirror to tie her hair up. Scary. The second, another woman:;big, fat. Coming behind us at a great rate of knots. Stuffing a massive sandwich into her gob and busy looking at the grub. Mgman accelerated to make a lot of distance between us.
Anyway, found a very nice Super 8 Motel. $59 inc breakfast and a bar right next door. Three beers and now to bed.
Still getting into the 'being on the road groove', so no photos to post. Got video, but too tired to sort that out.
Ride Safe.
Christine

0615. Up at 5am to the sound of drizzle. Weather channel giving severe weather warnings for St Louis so we have decided to head further south and then turn west. That means traveling through lush countryside - and that means keeping our eyeballs peeled for deer and other potential roadkill. But will take us through the picturesque Ozarks. Much nicer than the interstate and means we can stop and shelter if it hammers down. Talking to locals last night, they warned us that heading into St Louis on a Monday morning would be a nightmare anyway. The Butt Buffers we bought help a little, but guess we're still wearing in our butt-ocks. At one point yesterday evening, we hit a big rut in the highway and jeez it sent a shock right up my spinal column all the way to my head - bringing tears to my eyes; thought I'd cracked a vertabrae. We'll soon develop 'iron butts' with a bit of luck. Why do motorcycle seats have to be so frikkin uncomfortable? The bar had finished serving food last night and we had only had one gas-station-'orrible hotdog all day, so off for breakfast. Then again, thinking of that GI-NORMAS woman yesterday... perhaps a nice apple would be preferable Ciao friends. Correction; that should have read 0530. Dumber and dumber. The motel provides breakfast from 0600. So I went to find something to quieten the hunger pangs. Room locked. So waited another half hour. Still locked. Was about to ring the bell to shake them up when I suddenly thought. 'hang on, could we be another hour west?' Back to check to TV and, sure enough....

June 10th

Route 66. In Oklahoma.

No post yesterday because no wifi in the motel.

Finding the old road is pretty frustrating at times - you see a 'Historic R66' sign, turn off and poomph, nada.

But now we are out of Missouri, it should be much easier. Oklahoma has the best preserved remains of the road.

At around 3pm today, we were in a well-restored place in Galena, Kansas. Owned and restored by 4 women bikers. The woman working today was a mine of information, but we couldn't stay long as there was a red alert for tornadoes and we were advised to get to Miami, Oklahoma, as soon as possible and to seek shelter. The sky was certainly threatening and the air stifling.

It's 9.30pm and the storm is close. The air got incredibly hot and sticky, all seemed eerily quiet; then, crack, a massive thunder clap. Now there is torrential rain and great bursts of forked lightning. Lots of people out looking. Another severe weather advisory on the TV, preceded by an audio alarm - a high-pitched beep. We were warned to 'stay tuned' as it may be necessary to seek shelter in the underground parking of the local hospital. The bike is underneath a staircase to the upper floor of the motel. If need be, we'll bring it inside.

It is a bit of a shock to realise the reality of this type of weather here in 'Tornado Alley.
MGMan is outside watching the show and standing by the bike. I'm going to close the computer down as the TV advises all electrical equipment be disconnected.
Fingers crossed then.

The weather passed through without serious incident, although there were quite a few sirens woo-ooing through the night. By the way, anyone note the 'stay tuned' and the advise to 'turn all electrical equipment off'? Which is it to be?

The forecast is for continuing thunderstorms but no tornado threats at the moment.

Today we're continuing to search for the old highway. From here, Miami to Afton OK, there is the only remaining single lane stretch of R66. Oklahoma didn't have the money to build a two-lane road back in the old days so the road is only 9-feet wide.

It is good to get off the interstate at last. Especially with this weather - rain gear on, rain gear off; it's way too hot to keep it on all the time. We ought to make it to Tulsa (we're 'only 24 hours from...) unless we have to take shelter.

June 11^th Day 4: Oklahoma

Nice sunny morning but the bike obviously got a bit wet last night, cos she was reluctant to start. Ran the engine for a few minutes, then mgman rode towards me outside the office of the motel. As he turned a little, the bike stalled and went, slowly over. Obviously not warmed up enough. No problem.

We found the single-lane part of the original R66 highway and, Joe, if you thought that on the previous video the road was shite - check this out! We had about three miles of this one....

Oklahoma, at the time, could not afford to build a two-lane highway so the road was single lane and only 9 feet wide; here you can see the actual original road between Miami and Afton in north eastern Oklahoma.

It is incredible to think that over two million people travelled this route after the Dust Bowl years [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl#Human_displacement[/url]

Our next stop was Totem Pole Park where one man has built (amongst many others) the largest totem pole in the world at a height of 90 feet.

The ride here was great - long, switch-back roads through leafy lanes.

In Catoosa, we played on the R66 'Blue Whale' -

We rode through Tulsa (no longer, "Twenty Four Hours" away) and the weather closed in.

By the time we reached the small town of Bristow, the rain had returned and, after filling up and a coffee, we rode through a bit of a thunderstorm to a classic (read old) motel in Stroud. So, dried out externally and wetted internally with a cupla beers, we are now relaxing in our 'classic' (read - bit shabby, but has WiFi) motel with a bed reminiscent of Grandma's feather one.

Tomorrow, we will skirt around Oklahoma City and hopefully, reach the Texas border.

June 12^th Thursday.

A beautiful sunny morning so down to the local diner for brekky at 8am. Noticed that there were EIGHT churches in this tiny town; looks like there's a church for every house! The diner was packed with all the townspeople plus two very rotund sheriffs.

On the road at 0930. We stopped in two small towns on the way; the first town, Chandler, has a motel called 'The Lincoln' that opened it's doors in 1939 and, apparently, the rooms are as clean and just the same today as they were when they opened.

A few miles further down the road, we came to Arcadia. Here they have a round, red barn...

Just west of Arcadia, we passed a very futuristic gas station known as 'Pops'. Built by an Oklahoma millionaire, it is fronted by a massive, energy-efficient LED lighted bottle.

Now we had to negotiate the outskirts of Oklahoma City and that didn't go too badly I did see a car without any bonnet (hood) whatsoever. The young guy driving looked like a relation of Michael Jackson - you think he'd fork out for a bit of repair work on his nephews junker!

Then we got lost - well, as mgman would have it, 'took an interesting detour 'of about 80 miles.

The temperature was around 96 F (sorry, Europe and Oz) and humidity was at 90%, so it was with relief that we came into Clinton, where, directly opposite the Route 66 Museum, is the 'Tradewinds Motel'.

It is a big one too! I expected a room to be around $100, but no, it was only $50 for a ery nice room - massive bed, fridge, microwave, even (for those of a fussy disposition - not guilty) an IRON and IRONING board. And breakfast is included. And, even more impressive, ELVIS stayed here FOUR times. You can stay in his suite for only $100 a night.

Checked, then washed and polished the bike. After washing smelly socks and such, we went to a grill place; not too impressed there.

Saving the museum for tomorrow morning before making the final 80 miles left of Oklahoma and we should be in Texas tomorow.

OH YES, I forgot to tell you; the bike passed 20,000 miles on the odo. It is actually now 20,540.

June 13^th

Hi all.

Having a day's rest in Vega, Texas. Yesterday was very hot and draining and we also began to have some clutch problems. Just rang a Guzzi place in Albuquerque but they won't have a mechanic in until Thursday; they did recommend another workshop in the same town, so fingers crossed. It isn't as though we can try to sort it out ourselves - even if we had more than basic tools, I don't think the motel owners would be too impressed!

So, back to yesterday's ride on.....

Turns out there are two R66 museums; the one in Clinton, then there is the National R66 museum in a place called Elk City. Both excellent, both very different. The first being dedicated exclusively to vehicles and 'the road', the other is a combination of settlers/farmers/pioneer museum and has many buildings moved here to form a 'small town America' theme.

Sayre, the next town was dusty, hot and deserted. Most of the business' were closed down and yet, there is a magnificent Court House - seemed incongruous in this almost-ghost town. Apparently is was used in the film 'Grapes of Wrath' .

Erick - in and out without seeing anything, really.

THEN, we reached TEXOLA....

So, This must've been the right place. Right on the...

and we couln't go wrong here, cos the other road...

It would have been nice to have a cold drink but the two bars in Texola were not open for business!

The first Texan town we came to was McClean with it's restored Phillips 66 gas station but we couldn't fill up here, so, on to the next gas station

Oh, well, on to Groom and its' leaning water tower

Finally, we found a functioning gas station. It was a little nerve-wracking having a State Trooper watching us and glancing suspiciously at our strange, huge yellow reg plate...

The other attraction in Groom was unexpectedly beautiful. I am definitely not religious but I do appreciate art and I thought that this site was very simple and moving.

Until recently, this was the largest cross in the western hemisphere; it is 19 stories tall and weighs nearly three tons.

The sun was low in the sky and, as we were heading directly west, in our eyes. We pulled off into yet another dust town, Vega.

The motel mentioned in the R66 guidebook was closed and hidden in weeds but there was a very nice bar opposite. One beer and directions to another motel. We rode the bike the 2 block, parked up, unloaded and dashed back to the bar.

The evening went very well, I think. Lots of friendly Texans who had difficulty with our accents. Beers flowed and we decided, sod it, we'll stay here another night. We needed internet and phone access to try to find a mechanic to look at the clutch, so that was a good excuse to sleep off the various beers we tried last night.

Only one problem; EVERYTHING in town is closed. There are three gas stations. One is closed down, the second one is 'card only' pumps, ie, no actual shop. The third is like that garage on Heartbeat. The diner is closed, Dairy Queen is closed, the bar we used last night - closed. There is a truck stop close to the freeway and I slogged up there - I was ravenous our last 'meal' was a burger at 3pm yesterday. And the 'links' (sausages) looked distinctly dodgy so I slogged on further and finally found a small grocery store where I bought a bag of burger buns and some ham. So that will be breakfast, lunch, dinner and breakfast tomorrow. Good job I carry my own tea bags ( God, us Brits are anal!). Mgman bought a bottle of milk (which turned out to be buttermilk) for drinks as there is no coffee-making gear in the room. Thank Christ there's a microwave to make me tea!

MGman is pretty shattered and has spent most of the day dozing. He's earned it. Our mileage, so far is 2,088 miles.

Now, in my book, this man is tough and determined;

he has cycled from San Diego, California and is following R66 all the way to Chicago. It has taken him 9 days to get here - just over half way. Impressive.

June 15^{th Sunday.}

^{Last evening, there was a knock on the door of our motel room. A Brit, Les, on his 20 year-old BMW. He had noticed our UK tag. Incredible to meet up with someone from home who had shipped his bike out too. He lost his wife a year ago. Decided to make this trip when one of his kids accused him of wasting their inheritance. So he had the bike delivered to New York and has now been on the road for two weeks. He was around 70 years old and has two fractured ribs from his bike falling off a trailer - with him sitting on it! He is riding the bike to LA and then having it shipped home. A grand chap.}

^{So we went to the bar and had a real good evening - until we all ran out of money (only three beers though - there hasn't been an ATM for quite a while). We were all counting out cents and dimes for the final beer. We learned a lot about cattle ranching from the lovely, young barmaid (honest, only 3 beers, and Miller Lite at that)}

^{Breakfast was the last of the ham and burger buns. Then on the road to the tiny town of Adrian - the mid-point of R66}

^{Believe it or not, our 'trip' at the mid-way point was}

^{There was a great diner there. The two ladies were very welcoming and helpful, so we bought T-shirts for our friends in Ohio - that meant we could use the plastic to buy 2 coffees and some postcards. Remember, no dosh.}

^{As you can see, the weather was deteriorating.}

^{The next town, Glenrio, was an abandoned ghost town - but we did come across another biker...}

^{Depending upon the direction you are travelling, Glenrio is the first or, as in our case, last motel in Texas.}

^{The sign used to say so}

There were two things I forgot to tell you yesterday. First, we missed Amarillo. Hard to believe, but, surrounded by 18 wheelers, we missed the exit. Does this mean we can join Tony Christie's fan club? -

^{'Is this the way to Amarillo'}

^{Incidentally, I had been singing that for the preceding 50 miles! I am ashamed to admit that I know all the words :oops:}

^{[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHuOagWzaws[/url]}

^{I do remember the awful stink of blood as we passed an abbatoir and the overpowering pong of poo as we rode past thousands of Black Aberdeen Angus. Very tempting to return to being a vegetarian.}

^{That's the thing about the USA, there seems to be a song for wherever you are and you can't get it out of you head for miles. Today, I've been singing, 'Deep In The Heart of Texas' - even though we were in the upper left had corner. I just know I'll be singing the Eagle's song, 'Take It Easy' as we head towards Winsow, AZ.}

^{OK, the 2nd thing; I forgot to say we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, just after the conspicuous-by-it's-absence, Amarillo. Some nutty millionaire planted these Cadillacs here - all at an exact angle - some years ago.}

^{Back to today.}

^{The next town - now in New Mexico and our third time zone (Mountain Time - so we are now 7 hours behind the UK, but I have kept the netbook on GMT) - was Tucumcari. Now that was a wonderfully kitsch town, loads and loads of motels and neon (would have been great to stay overnight) and derelict buildings from the beginning of R66. I loved it. It was a photographers wet dream.}

^{A wonderful wall near the drive-in ATM (yes, we finally got flush again)}

^{The Blue Swallow Motel is a classic R66 icon}

^{A modern addition to the town is this chrome thingummy-jig}

Back on the road, it got very hairy around the sign for the county of, get this, 'Deaf Smith'. The wind was pushing us into the overtaking lane; the clouds were massing and darkening. We pulled into a truck rest stop to put our waterproofs on and set off again, but within minutes, realised it was getting dangerous and so pulled off at the first exit; Santa Rosa.

^{We had just unloaded the bags when the lightning started and the heavens opened.}

^{Once the downpour eased off, we took a ride down to the Automobile Museum.}

^{Very good. MGman was most impressed with...}

^{The Bultaco - Spanish, I believe?}

^{I liked this massive truck}

^{But I fell in love with this Dodge}

^{The bike has been fine today - only a problem after a lot of miles, when hot. Still aiming for Albuquerque and a mechanic tomorrow.}

^{Much more to tell, but tiredeness and (premature) senility prevent me from thinking beyond a nice hot bath.}

^{Ciao friends}

^{We were surrounded - not by Indians, but by massive trucks and we were past Amarillo before we knew it; but no great loss. From the outskirts it looked pretty rough - lots of Bail Bond and Loan places.}

^{The other problem is the different traffic system. You find yourself in a lane where 'you must turn right'. And often, it is a long time before you can turn off or around. By then, we are confused and dazed.}

^{And the difference between a map and reality is that the distances are always a lot further than expected.}

^{Road signs are not that good here, either. For instance, we were about four miles along a section of R66 when we came to a 'Dead End' sign. Why not warn drivers at the beginning? So we had to turn around again. In Missouri, in particular, there would be a sign for R66 and we would take the turn-off only to find the road didn't go anywhere.}

^{The route is very bitty and broken up. But all good fun.}

^{Yes, I've got Google Earth, but don't want to plan too much. Some of our detours have led to really interesting places and people. We enjoy the hit and miss of it - don't want to be following an itinery too much.}

^{I got this photo tagger thingy, but the software that came with it (admittedly very basic) won't attach the files to the photos or go onto Google earth - they are .csv files and have to be converted to NMEA or KMZ. and, by the time we've got to a motel, unpacked, checked the bike, downloaded about 4Gb of photos and then the video, edited a quick selection for posting, recharged all our batteries and washed socks and keks, blah blah blah, I just have't got the energy or grey matter to try to sort out a solution. So just saving the files and will do something at a later date. I wish I had had the new electronic stuff before arriving in order to work it all out.}

^{Foggy this morning so hanging around, waiting for the sun to burn it off.}

^{And a correction to the time difference - 8 hours behind the UK}

<sup>Just a very quickie tonight as we are both knackered. In Grants, New Mexico.

Found Southwest Motorcycles in Albuquerque with relative ease - apart from having a dermal abrasion when a massive gust of wind blew a load of plastic bags, a giant tumbleweed and a load of wickedly gritty sand into our helmets just as we approached a set of traffic lights. Luckily, the lights were on green and we sped out of the path of the dust storm. Got a grazed cheek, but it could have been worse - mgman got some in his eyes, but managed to deal with it ok.

Anyhow, the guy at Southwest Motorcycles was great - just an adjustment of the clutch cable needed; he sorted it in minutes and refused payment - unacceptable, but incredibly kind. We managed to force some spondoolies on him.

He was chuffed to have a Guzzi to look at. And you should have seen the stuff he had in his place. Triumphs, Nortons, BSA's - loads and loads of bikes. He even had two Union Jacks hanging from his unbelievably cluttered 'office'. And a very nice guy too.
A massive relief re the bike!
I'll put some pics on tomorrow</sup>

^{Tonight we are in Holbrook, Arizona. Been a hard day physically.}

^{The day started in the Uranium Mining Museum in Grants, NM. Very interesting but I'm checking for strange glows when I turn the light off tonight!}

^{We took HW53 then, through El Malpais - The Badlands (I think that should be The Bad Country if translated literally) to El Morro National Monument and Signature Rock - a massive slab of sandstone with over 2,000 'graffiti' writings on it. The Zuni Indians and the first Spanish conquistadors left their marks here - the first signature being made in1583. Beneath the rock is a pool where travelers could find the only drinking water for miles and miles around.}

^{It was a hot, steep walk up. mgman walked the half mile to see the signatures and I carried on to look at some Pueblan ruins - around 2 steep miles.}

^{We crossed the Continental divide this afternoon - so now, when mgman pees in a stream, it will head off to the Pacific Ocean instead of the Atlantic. Careful Wal, don't drink from streams in Oz!}

^{Another windy ride on I-40 and we we crossed into Arizona. A 28 mile ride through The Petrified Forest National Park and The Painted Desert and a lot more walking and climbing on and off the bike. The 19 miles ride from here was directly into the setting sun again. It makes it difficult to watch for deer and other wildlife.}

^{Arrived in Holbrook at 8pm - I think. Now, here is a puzzle: we have put our watches back three times up to now. But certain parts of Arizona - like where we are now, have a different time zone. We had to put our watches forward an hour. I am very confused.}

^{It is about 190 miles to the Grand Canyon and we were planning to go tomorrow, but both feel we need another rest before camping, so we will find a better motel than this seedy one we are in at the moment - maybe Flagstaff - and catch up with all the mail, photos, washing (again) do a load of battery charging (camera etc) and a good going over for the bike. There is ONE socket in this room and EVERTHING electrical in the room is plugged into it with a very dubious-looking extension thing. So we'll have to charge gear elsewhere tomorrow.}

^{My ears have been giving me gip all day. Last night I got mozzied by Lynx copter-sized b*stards - both my ears are swollen and bright red and it's been frikkin painful pulling my lid on and off so I could take pics. I tried looking through the visor but it's difficult to focus the camera.}

^{So the promised (last night) update will be tomorrow instead, mainly because there is no WiFi here; I'm getting a weak signal from the motel next door, but a bit too slow to upload photos - especially with the lack of a socket to connect the laptop up - it works slower on battery.}

^{June 18th}

^{Where are we? We're....}

^{Mgman parked the bike in front of the statue and waited a while. I asked what he was waiting for. ' For that Napa truck to move'. I asked, 'what Napa truck?'}

^{'That big old red Ford behind me.' he replied.}

^{I burst out laughing, 'That 'Big ol' Ford is part of the scene you dummy!'}

^{There's a line in the song that says,}

^{"It's girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me" .}

^{Yes, we rode all of 28 miles today. Liked Winslow, found a reasonably-priced motel within walking distance of town and booked in for 2 days. Besides, the weather wasn't too great this morning; overcast, then strong winds, so camping can wait a couple of days.}

^{The past three days in brief:}

^{As we came to the western side of New Mexico, we took a spontaneous detour to a place described as deserted in the R66 guidebook.}

^{But the place was not deserted. There was a bar with ve-hicles parked outside.}

^{So mgman left me with my camera and went off to check it out. He walked in and, to his great surprise, the owner began speaking to him in Swedish - which mgman also speaks.}

^{He was amazed.}

^{The owner, Lawrence, had moved to this part of New Mexico many years ago. Born in Minnesota to Swedish parents, living in a big Swedish community and not learning English until he went to school at about 5 years old, he still speaks with a Swedish accent. How he guessed mgman also spoke Svenske, I'll never know.}

^{He came to work in the Uranium mines in the 50's and met and married Lucy, an Indian (Native American) lady - which was very unusual in the 1950s. They produced lots of children and now have many grandchildren, all of them seem to work in the bar.}

^{They asked us to stay and eat with them and to stay at their home for as long as we wanted to. That was sooo kind of them, but we politely declined. But it would have been fun - all the kids around. Lawrence told us about a time when some swedes cane to visit and were looking a little confused as to who was who and whose kids were who's. So Lawrence told them that ALL the women were his wives and all the kids were his from all his wives. He said it was the easiest way to deal with it.}

^{It was just so amazing to find a Swede with an Indian wife in a 'ghost town'.}

^{Last night I wrote about Inscription Rock; here's some pics}

^{The town we came to after the national monument was Zuni a reservation. I almost had my collar felt by the Reservation Police for taking a photo of a derelict building. It was a special day to the Zuni and the taking of photographs is forbidden.}

^{I-40 between Gallup and Flagstaff is a speedway filled with big trucks and RVs, so we were glad to take the exit to The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.}

^{As this was the first National Park, we bought our usual season membership. It costs $80 per family. If you consider that it costs over $20 each to visit the Grand Canyon, then the year's ticket is a great buy if you plan to visit a few National Parks, monuments, and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) places.}

^{It was whilst buying the ticket from the Visitor Centre that we discovered the time-zone quirk in Arizona. We should be on Mountain Time which is GMT -7 hours. But this part of Arizona is GMT -6 hrs. yet the Navajo Nation which is not further west or east, but north of here, the time is as it should be GMT -7. So I don't know what the bloody hell time it actually is}

^{The drive through the park is 28 miles on nice roads}

^{The Painted Desert is aptly named}

^{And the Petrified Forest}

^{It's hard to get to concieve that these trees were around in the Triasic period and that dinosaurs roamed around this very land. The trees died and fell down (forgive the ignorance, but was that in one of the Ice Ages?) and here they lie, millions of years later, petrified into fabulously coloured, hard rocks and we can still see them, touch them.}

^{Route 66 did pass through here until the freeway swallowed the old highway up. But there are still signs of the Mother Road}

^{I explained about the wiring in that motel we were in last night; here's the state-of-the-art wiring}

^{So we packed early and left town. I didn't much like Holbrook. there were lots of remnants from the old days - characterful motels and such, but there was a depressing aura of neglect and hopelessnes. We were approached lots of times for 'a dollar to buy food' by the mostly Indian population. Sad.}

^{On the way through Holbrook, we came to this motel - another one of R66's quirky, entertaining, delightfully kitsch examples of 'Americana' circa the 1950's}

^{Yes, you can spend the night in a concrete Tee-Pee, many of which have an antique classic car parked next to them - just to reinforce the illusion that you are on a Road Trip in the hey day of R66}

^{Breva is keeping some classy company these days -}

^{Pontiacs yesterday, Studebaker today.}

^{Two interesting characters we've met today.}

^{The first was a guy on a Harley who, unusually here, willingly wore a helmet and had his bike loaded to the gunnels - bit like us. He sounded like a walking disaster. He fell down a 60 foot shaft in a refinery and fractured every bone on his left-hand side - skull, jaw, collarbone, all his ribs, arm, pelvis and leg. He was in a coma for three weeks. And before that, he had been thrown over the front of his 1970 Sportster. It was kick-start and whenever he had to kick start it whilst hot, he got chucked over the handlebars. One time, he had had his inspection ( I guess a bit like our MOT). The 'man' gave him his sticker and told him to go and make room for the next vehicle. He said he knew he would have trouble getting the bike started and wanted to let the bike cool down and he couldn't push it out of the way cos it was on a steep incline. The inspector got angry and impatient, so matey tried to kick start. He got thrown over, as per usual, and, alhough he didn't feel anything, suddenly felt a lot of blood down the back of his leg. Looking behind him, he saw his tibia was poking out of his pants, pouring in blood.}

^{Guess what the inspector said?}

^{'I'll come and help you push the bike outta the way in a minute'}

^{27 operations later, matey finally had a knee replacement.}

^{Anyhow, despite all this guy's injuries, he has had his new Harley for just over a year, and has put 21,000 miles on it.}

^{The second guy we chatted to was here in Winslow. He heard our foreign accents and stopped to chat. He lived in London for many years and was head chef at Harrods for some years and Harvey Nicols at some other time. He has just written a book about being a chef, He's using the title, 'Pot Boiler; In the kitchen with Royalty, Dictators and Despots'.}

^{Finally, I've just realised why we are so tired (mgman is snoring happily away at this moment). We are at an elevation of 7,000 feet. From the plains of the midwest to the higher planes of western Texas and then suddenly, those plains gradually, sneakily began to climb. That explains why a mere 2-mile walk yesterday made me so breathless and tired.}

^{Another reason for kicking back for a couple of days. Acclimatising.}

^{There is a yuppy term for the above; Denial - not that we are getting older - we are just a little high up.}

A Long Way Down The Road

First, apologies for my tardiness in posting - I hope to do better from now on. It has been a case of getting into the touring life again and the initial tiredness at the end of the day.

Here's a quick update - rather than try to catch up, I'll be brief here and keep the blog up to date on a daily basis.

The flight to Toronto went well - ie, on time.

The bike was fine and we replaced the tyres.

 Photo: Here is the odometer reading for the start of the year

The first day's ride was in fog and rain - 322 miles from Hamilton in Ontario, Canada to Sandusky in Ohio, USA.  It took three days for my ass to stop hurting.

We spent a week with our friends, riding, relaxing, doing oil changes and having a good time.

DAY 1

Sunday, 7th June, we had a lazy morning then packed the bike. Pete and Barb rode their bikes with us as far as I-75 in Cygnet in Ohio, which is where we parted company.

As it is Sunday, the traffic was light. Almost made it to St Louis, Missouri but towards early evening, a deer threatened to jump into us, so we thought, 'time to stop'; at dusk, the deer get active. Counted 7 big, dead ones on the interstate today - no desire to add two Guzzistas to that total.
Start mileage - 19, 379
Four fuel stops and end of day mileage - 19,783 so wot's that.... 404 miles. Bit less than hoped for but we are tired and sore.
Bike running well.
Tornados forecast for the area tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Two incidents of note today.
A woman in the outside lane, overtaking us. Hands-free driving. Too busy looking in her mirror to tie her hair up. Scary. The second, another woman:;big, fat. Coming behind us at a great rate of knots. Stuffing a massive sandwich into her gob and busy looking at the grub. Mgman accelerated to make a lot of distance between us. 
Anyway, found a very nice Super 8 Motel. $59 inc breakfast and a bar right next door. Three beers and now to bed.

Day 2  -  Monday, June 8th

0615. Up at 5am to the sound of drizzle. Weather channel giving severe weather warnings for St Louis so we have decided to head further south and then turn west. That means traveling through lush countryside - and that means keeping our eyeballs peeled for deer and other potential roadkill. But will take us through the picturesque Ozarks. Much nicer than the interstate and means we can stop and shelter if it hammers down. Talking to locals last night, they warned us that heading into St Louis on a Monday morning would be a nightmare anyway.
The Butt Buffers we bought help a little, but guess we're still wearing in our butt-ocks. At one point yesterday evening, we hit a big rut in the highway and jeez it sent a shock right up my spinal column all the way to my head - bringing tears to my eyes; thought I'd cracked a vertabrae. We'll soon develop 'iron butts' with a bit of luck. Why do motorcycle seats have to be so frikkin uncomfortable?
The bar had finished serving food last night and we had only had one gas-station-'orrible hotdog all day, so off for breakfast.
Then again, thinking of that GI-NORMAS woman yesterday... perhaps a nice apple would be preferable  

Correction; that should have read 0530. Dumber and dumber. The motel provides breakfast from 0600. So I went to find something to quieten the hunger pangs. Room locked. So waited another half hour. Still locked. Was about to ring the bell to shake them up when I suddenly thought. 'hang on, could we be another hour west?' Back to check to TV and, sure enough....

It was a good day's ride and we made 404 miles.

Day 3 -  Tuesday, 9th June 

Following 'The Mother Road' - Route 66

Finding the old road is pretty frustrating at times - you see a 'Historic R66' sign, turn off and poomph, nada.
But now we are out of Missouri, it should be much easier. Oklahoma has the best preserved remains of the road.
At around 3pm today, we were in a well-restored place in Galena, Kansas. Owned and restored by 4 women bikers. The woman working today was a mine of information, but we couldn't stay long as there was a red alert for tornadoes and we were advised to get to Miami, Oklahoma, as soon as possible and to seek shelter. The sky was certainly threatening and the air stifling.
9pm 

It's 9.30pm and the storm is close. The air got incredibly hot and sticky, all seemed eerily quiet; then, crack, a massive thunder clap. Now there is torrential rain and great bursts of forked lightning. Lots of people out looking. Another severe weather advisory on the TV, preceded by an audio alarm - a high-pitched beep. We were warned to 'stay tuned' as it may be necessary to seek shelter in the underground parking of the local hospital. The bike is underneath a staircase to the upper floor of the motel. If need be, we'll bring it inside.
It is a bit of a shock to realise the reality of this type of weather here in 'Tornado Alley.
MGMan is outside watching the show and standing by the bike. I'm going to close the computer down as the TV advises all electrical equipment be disconnected.

The weather passed through without serious incident, although there were quite a few sirens woo-ooing through the night. By the way, anyone note the 'stay tuned' and the advise to 'turn all electrical equipment off'? Which is it to be?
The forecast is for continuing thunderstorms but no tornado threats at the moment.
Today we're continuing to search for the old highway. From here, Miami to Afton OK, there is the only remaining single lane stretch of R66. Oklahoma didn't have the money to build a two-lane road back in the old days so the road is only 9-feet wide. 
It is good to get off the interstate at last. Especially with this weather - rain gear on, rain gear off; it's way too hot to keep it on all the time.
We ought to make it to Tulsa (we're 'only 24 hours from...) unless we have to take shelter.

The Day Draws Near

Well, here I am, back in the UK. One week and this is the first internet connection I have been able to access. So a short one for now.

I got my new Asus Eee 901 and, so far it works great. The problem has been connecting. My old dad doesn't have internet so no connection there. I bought a Vodafone Pay As You Go package. No connection from the house. Now I am using 3. Still nop connection from the house, but if I pay nearly four pounds to come into Manchester on the bus and then buy a one pound seventycoffee at Cafe Nero (so I have a table to sit at) - voila, connection.

23 days before flying to Canada.

Where are we NOW?

Just came across a brilliant hint for iMove (iLife 09).

There is a nifty little feature where you can create maps showing your route when on a trip. The only downer is that a lot of places are not in the ready-made database.

Macworld came up with this simple fix.

From this page, I then linked to a Google site where you can pinpoint where you are and it will give you the coordinates for latitude and longtitude!

You can also do this on Multimap

So, where am I today, at this very moment in time? Well, I am here.....

View this aerial image on Multimap.com
Bird's Eye view on Multimap.com
Get directions on Multimap.com

....sitting on my boat, waving at you from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands!

HD Video On The Trip

On previous trips, I have used small point and shoot cameras that have video capabilities. In fact, on three trips, I have had four Canon Powershot cameras - a boring story I´ll tell you another time.

But on this trip, I want to take the best photos I can - after all, the scenery is so stunning. So this year I am taking my Nikon D80 DSLR with a Nikkor 50mm 1.8 prime lens and a Sigma 18mm - 200mm 3.5 - 6.3 zoom. The Sigma isn´t the best of lenses but does do wide angle to a good zoom without being hefty or long. The Nikkor lens just takes great, sharp photos in relatively low light.

But this leaves me short of any video-capture capability (well, not quite - more about that later). So the web crawl was back on. My very first choice was a Sony HQ1 bullet camera from Dogcam. It sound really great; waterproof, rugged, almost broadcast quality video and can be mounted anywhere on the bike for great action shots. But to use this, you need something to record to, which in turn needs wires and this and that.

The package of one camera and one dv recorder from dogcam is good value, but ultimately, in our budget, an expense we can do without.

I did have a Canon MX3i camcorder that cost around $800 five years ago, but it is a big thing with terrible battery life and needs DV tapes; in other words, a dinosaur and a hassle. So I sold that.

Now, many camcorders are petite and use SDHC cards. I looked at reviews for Flip Video, Vado, the Panasonic waterproof cam and the Xacti. But, according to the many reviews of each, none have particularly good video quality and many of them are not Mac friendly. Accepting the fact that you get what you pay for, I decided something cheap and cheerful - at least I´ll get some video footage and adjusted my sights a little.

Then I came across the Kodak Zi6 HD camcorder.

It is small, uses rechargeable batteries - it even comes with two of those and a charger - it can take up to a 32Gb SDHC card and is simple to use on a bike. It will work with both the Asus netbook and my Mac OS. You can also upload video directly to youtube. Sounds promising. It costs less than 100 pounds - cheaper still if you go for the pink one. I´m such a cheapskate!

Moto Guzzi

Our motorcycle is a 2007 Moto Guzzi Breva 750cc.


Breva 750 i.e. (744 cc) (2002–): a Standard motorcycle formally introduced to the press at Intermot 2002, Munich — Like the Nevada features the 'small block' engine derived directly from the engine Carcano designed for Guzzi in the mid-sixties and Tonti refined: the 750 cc V-twin, rated at 48 bhp (36 kW). With its ease of maintenance, durability and even, flat torque curve, the engine design remains suitable to everyday, real-world situations. To mark the rejuvenation of Moto Guzzi, the first Breva 750 was delivered to its owner on April 7 2003 in a special ceremony at the Mandello works. Likewise, the first 100 Breva 750's were delivered to their Italian dealers in a special ceremony on March 26 2003 at Mandello del Lario headquarters on the occasion of the company's anniversary.

Although on the small side, it has coped incredibly well with two-up and all our luggage - including camping gear.

We bought it brand new in the UK and had it flown (on the same flight as ourselves) to Toronto, Canada.

You cannot imagine the fear of riding a bike for the very first time out of a major city such as Toronto - on a busy Interstate (the 401). I kept thinking, ìf we´re gonna die, please make it quick and painless´.

However, we survived that and went on to ride the bike 9,400 miles that year (2007) and 9,600 in 2008.

We made it all the way across the USA to the Pacific coast - what a shock that was too; foggy, freezing and fires - and then all the way back across.

So all in all, we are very proud of this terrific little bike and consider the Breva to be aptly named - maybe it should be spelt Braver.

Las Canteras Beach, Las Palmas and Las Dunas, Maspalomas

This was posted earlier, but due to the vagaries of Picasa, it suddenly disappeared. So, as mentioned in an earlier post, i have moved to ImageShack.

Here are some images of the Canary Islands...

Roadworthy Electronics? The Asus Eee 901 netbook

I had a heck of a job deciding on which netbook would be best for the trip.
Since Asus brought out these small portable laptops, many, many others have jumped on the band wagon.
The Asus is still the smallest. But then you have to decide on Winows OS or Linux.
As we already have software conflicts - motoguzziman has Windows, I have Mac, we decided not to introduce a third complication so I chose the Windows XP (Lite).
If you are undecided which of the available netbooks to go for, this is quite a good review of four of them side-by-side.



I´ll let you know how it stands up to the road!

Photo Hosting Problems

I am very new to this blog stuff. Perhaps many other `older´ potential bloggers, or frustrated bloggers, or `given-up´ bloggers were / have been put off by trying to get images into their blog.

So was I. I have loads of photo-hosting sites that I have signed up to and, despite their popularity `fame?´ have frustrated the heck out of me. Flickr - couldn´t find where to embed; Picasa - despite being as much part of Google as is this Blogger, will NOT give me the full or correct embed code to post slideshows onto my blog.

So I spent the whole evening trying various others and, after much disappointment and frustration, have come across one that really integrates with blogging / websites /emails etc.

ImageShack ®

Give it a try.

Bikes In Gran Canaria

With our own bike in Canada, we tend to suffer withdrawal symptoms and look wistfully on others riding. Thankfully, we have been adopted by the local Moto Guzzi club. They took us down to Maspalomas a few weeks ago to check out some beautifully restored classic bikes and some new bikes too - a local group meeting up for a Sunday ride.

Life Is A Highway

Here is a video with clips of some of our rides in 2008
Music by Tom Cochrane from the album, `Mad Mad World´, Columbia Records


Life Is A Highway from Christine Fitzgerald on Vimeo.

What If?

There are many possible`what if?´ situations but one of them, we can do something about; what if we get a puncture?

In 2007, with this particular `what if´ in mind, we bought an emergency aerosol tyre inflation kit. Some sort of stuff in a can that contained a kind of green slime (turned out it was actually for use on dirt bikes) and little syphon bombs to inflate the tyre.

But on our first day out on the 2008 trip, one of the bolts holding the soft panniers on worked its way out and the bag fell down onto the red hot exhaust. This was despite the Loctite used on all the screws and bolts.

The first we knew about it was a big bang and a load of smoke at the back of the bike. We thought we had blown a tyre. But the bang was caused by our emergency tyre inflation gloop and the Sterno cans for the camping stove exploding with the heat! What a mess that was!
So we have explored other solutions and this year, we have bought a decent puncture repair kit
and this is how it works:

The kit cost $146 inc p&p
www.bestrestproducts.com

Picasa Web Albums - Christine - Sand Sculptures on Playa Las Canteras

Picasa Web Albums - Christine - Sand Sculptures on Playa Las Canteras

Camera Mounts

I´ve been looking at camera mounts today.

The three-suction one is from Dogcam and costs £23.99.

The single suction is made by Cullman and costs £28.

The three-suction one appeals - not just because it is cheaper, but I like the idea of having three areas to rely on. It will only need to hold 107 g (3.8 oz) plus the weight of two AA batteries, - the weight of the Kodak Zi6

From the Dogcam website...
Compact alloy triple suction mount with adjustable head
A compact triple suction mount with alloy base. For use with bullet cameras and very small dsc's or camcorders. Provides excellent adjustment and a very strong suction grip. These mounts have been designed in house and it's one of the mounts we use most often for filming on bikes or cars.

If you have any experience using a camera mount on a motorcycle or have alternative suggestions, please leave a comment

Data Storage On The Road

The ASUS Eee 901 only has 12 gb of storage, so we need an external hard drive. With a 10mpx camera and lots of video at 60 fpm, plenty of storage is needed. Again, it has to be rugged - can you imagine losing all those precious photos and video of your trip; the idea makes me shudder.

Freecom make a really tough, small external portable drive:

Features :

• Durable, shock resistant hard drive, ideal for mobile computing
• Outdoor active sports design, including integrated USB cable with unique climbing rope texture
• Internal anti-shock mechanism insulating the hard drive from shock
• Can withstand falling from 2 metres on a fl at surface
• Secure encrypted 256 bit MD5 hardware password protection
• Turbo USB 2.0 driver, for faster data transfer speeds (Windows only)
• Integrated USB cable, no additional connection cables needed!
• The easiest way to add additional storage space to your computer
• Fast and easy “plug and play” installation, no need to restart your computer
• High quality design, only 155 x 91 x 21mm in size
• No cooling fan, no noise!
• Including extensive backup software
• USB 2.0: available as 250, 320 and 500GB
• All Freecom devices meet the highest industry standards
• 2 years manufacturers warranty and unlimited help desk support

Designed for:

• Data storage; use all your data, like business information, digital photos, videos, MP3s and withstand bouncing around in handbags, cars etc.
• File sharing; share all your important data between computers and networks
• Backup; protect all your data against calamity, human errors and virusses
• Archiving; archive all your data and lock up drive for extra data security
• Installations; copy all your software on multiple PCs

The Toughest and Sportiest drive there is:
The ToughDrive Sport offers you, next to a unique sportive design, a drive that can withstand bumps and drops so your drive is still fully fucntional after it has dropped. You can still access your valuable files.

Secure hardware password protection
The ToughDrive Sport is equipped with a secure hardware 256bit password protection feature. Your password is encrypted and stored in a chip – the data on the drive can only be accessed by entering the correct password. The obligatory combination of the hardware chip and password to unlock the drive and access the data means that even if the internal hard drive is taken out of its original enclosure and assembled into another enclosure, people will never be able to access the data. Should you forget your password or should you lose your ToughDrive,
the only way for anyone to be able to continue using the drive is by reformatting it, thereby erasing all data. There is no possibility for password recovery. There is no safer way to protect your data !

A Rough Route Plan

Well, here is the planned route in its early stages. There is a lot more info to be put into the various waypoints - but I am slow and getting old

We want to get from Ohio to Oklahoma as quickly as possible, avoiding the major cities.

There is a lot of Route 66 stuff to see in Oklahoma and Texas. Then we have to cross New Mexico and at about half way across Arizona, we´ll head north to the Grand Canyon North Rim (we were at South Rim last time).

From there up into Utah and across to Nevada where we hope to ride `The Extraterrestrial Highway´- maybe we´ll meet some aliens who will give us the winning lottery numbers!

From Warm Springs, we´ll turn west to start at the beginning of Highway 50 - `The Loneliest Road in America´ (click here to watch a funny/cute video of this road) . I´ve already emailed the Nevada Tourist Board and they are sending us a `Loneliest Road´survival guide and some kind of paper that, if you get it stamped in various places along the 287-mile road and post it when (if?) you get to the other end, then you get a certificate (signed by the Governor of Nevada, by gum), a button and a bumper sticker. Kitsch, but I like that.

From there we will head down Highway 93 - The Great Basin Scenic Byway´.

Then it is back through Utah to Canyonlands, `Island In The Sky´ and Deadhorse State Park.

Hopefully, we will make it back to our favorite `cowboy town´ for the fourth time - Meeteetse in Wyoming. Then the long slog back: God willing.

If anyone has any suggestions of place `not to miss´near to our route, please let me know.


View Larger Map

GeoTagging

On each of the three previous trips, I have returned home with around 3,000 photos. It takes a fair while to sort through them believe me and, often, I can´t remember where we were at the time I took them - unless there is something very obvious in the picture.

So anything that helps keep track of the photos is a blessing. Again, after much research - considering a GPS for the bike, or a photo logger for the camera, I have decided on the Columbus V900 as it seems to provide the best of both worlds.

It is a tiny device - about the size of a large keyring.


It has BlueTooth and can be used with the Asus Netbook which also has BlueTooth. Using suitable software and it also will `tag´ my photos, giving Lat and Long and also altitude. And it will record voice memos.

But this review will give you all the info:

http://mobilitysite.com/index.php?s=columbus+v+900&x=0&y=0

USA Motorcycle Tour 2009: The Planning

A brief intro:

Motoguzzimomma here - my partner-in-adventure is motoguzziman. Since 2006 we have been flying to the USA to tour this beautiful country on our motorcycle - a Moto Guzzi Breva 750.

This year´s flights are now booked - we travel at the end of May. Insurances - bike, medical and travel are all sorted.

The route is tentatively planned - I´ll post details soon.

Also, I will be posting details of the electronics - cameras etc - that I´ll be taking and explaining why I chose these particular items and, down the line, letting you know how they perform and stand up to the rigors of life on the road.

Now I have time to start my blog - how organising is going and, meanwhile what day-to-day life is like here on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands

Check out our 2007 trip here.

Loads and loads of photos of places like the Grand Canyon and the beautiful National Parks of Utah. Plus info on shipping a motorbike to Canada.