Curves? What Curves?

P-Rock looking curvaceous

Day 4 - Thunder Bay, ON to Winnipeg, MB


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Very nice day weatherwise. Headed out from TB around 9:30am and started rolling toward Winnipeg. We had light traffic and plenty of passing opportunities, so we were able to keep the miles piling up. Once we hit the Manitoba border it turned dead stone flat. In fact we're really not sure if there was even a curve in the road for the last 200km. We made a valiant 75 mph+ attempt to get into Winnipeg before the local BMW dealer closed so Blackie could get some oil... We ended up being only 4 hours late due to their "summer hours" - closing at 1pm - for July and August.

Now tell me something. If you were a motorcycle dealer in a northern climate, and your "busy" season was presumably in the summer to sell motorcycles - wouldn't you think that "summer hours" might mean open late rather than close early? I don't want to start Canuck bashing too early but this concept needs contemplation. Serious contemplation.

So I had a little packing issue once I got out to my motorcycle this morning. It seems what I put in the trunk bag didn't fit in the trunk. So I had to do some major rearranging and ended up with this. My phantom passenger. Isn't she cute?

Tonight was pizza, TV, and Laundry. We are off to Saskatoon tomorrow.

P-Rock, on the longest drag strip on the planet.

Oh Canada

P-Rock said it well (below) - the border crossing was uneventful, weather started cold (52F), and varied as we moved close to the lake. The ride was a little wet to start, so pictures and video were unavailable for the ride from the border to Wawa - words cannot describe how excellent that was. Riding along the lake, roadside flowers, hills and curves - a bikers dream. Saw a few pedal bikers making the trip - impressive. Did get some video when the sun came out - will post tonight. Weather looks superb today.

As you can see, Snuzzles represented in Thunder Bay ON.

Picture site:
http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/gallery/8654567_ByKRt/1/581606745_zUMc5
Blackie out.

Juneau is Dead, Long Live Juneau

P-Rock - missing Sarah.


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Day 3 - Sault St. Marie MI to Thunder Bay, Ontario

Today was an A+++ day. Things in Sault started out a little chilly - ok maybe downright cold. Our launch temperature was 50 degrees, with a forecast high of 72. We made it over the international bridge and the border crossing without major international incident. After negotiating Sault St. Marie ONTARIO, we headed out onto route 17b which winds around the top of Lake Superior. Man what a scenic ride that was. I believe we hit a total of 4 towns all day long, and were treated to a road mostly free of traffic and incredible lake vistas each few miles.

So after our 460 or so mile day, Blackie and I treated ourselves to a Greek dinner and met the greatest bartenter (who, by chance, was dating the owner of the restaurant). His name is Andrew. We enjoyed the food and atmosphere and learned that everyone up here really is a rabid hockey fan. Thanks for the great conversation Andrew.

As we enjoyed our dinner we started to look at the stress of getting to Juneau and decided that the best option was to scrap it from our plans. It eliminates having to try to make up a day to meet a revised ferry schedule, and it gives us one additional "play day" in Alaska. Besides, since Palin resigned there really isn't a reason to go there now, is there? What timing.

Today we head off to Winnipeg, and I leave you with our now infamous PJ's hat, enjoying a Rickard's Red in Thunder Bay. PJ, are you listening? Thunder Bay could use a PJ's.

A big thanks to Robert and Jake who took the time to respond to our first follower participation day. If you haven't read the comments attached to the Day 2 blog you need to go back and find out about the word "Slab" Thanks guys!

P-Rock, bidding adeau to Juneau.

It Was The Best of Times, It Was The Worst of Times.

Day 2 - North Lima, OH to Sault St. Marie, MI was an interesting day, best described by Dickens.


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We started out running the slab through Ohio (for the unintiated - motorcycle riders call any superhighway riding "riding the slab" or "slabbing". ) Slab was a good word for it too. Reminds me of my old College days when I took a Classics course called "Word Elements". It was a class where you traced modern english words back to their Greek and Latin roots. I wonder where "slab" actually came from, being such a verbally descriptive word? Well that's where our new feature called "follower participation" comes in. How about one of you followers go research the roots of that word and post it back as a comment for us?

We trudged across Ohio in rain and wind and trucks. It sure seemed like the worst of times.

Too bad it wasn't.

After that we headed up I-75 and I-275 into lower Michigan. Ugh what an ugly place. My apologies to any readers that are from that area or currently live there... I am sure there are "nice parts", but we didn't see ANY of them. Bad weather, bad roads and loads of traffic jammed into a corridor that really could have used a good old fashioned bombing run.

But then things got better. As we headed north it turned to farm fields, an occasional idled oil well (who knew?) and then turned into more northern forest of evergreen and birch. All this and not a single picture from me because I had my camera stowed due to the weather. As we headed north it got very cold - down as low as 59 degrees. When we stopped for gas I put on a fleece and turn up the grip warmers. Who knew it was July?

One word of caution. If you ever cross the Mackinac Bridge - that beautiful three mile span that connects lower and upper Michigan - don't do it in the center lane. As you get to the windiest, highest part of the span the center lane turns into a steel grate roadway making motorcycles weave like drunken sailors. Add to that a car that cut me off after Blackie moved to the right lane and held me out there for most of the span and you have a recipe for one P.O.'ed P-Rock.

We ran across the U.P. and made it to Sault St Marie before 7pm where we enjoyed a leisurely dinner (at Applebees - this place really could use a PJ Whelihan's WINK WINK!).... then I crashed hard around 9:30 while Blackie posted up his message.

Here's my repaired overboot for all to see, the only picture of the day.

P-Rock - well rested.

Day 2 - Deer, Doors, Downpours

Arrived successfully at Sault Ste. Marie - 500+ mile riding day - not bad, excluding the rain, heavy headwind, deer darting across the road right in front of us, and dodging a house door in the middle of the road. Ohio quite a slab ride, southern Michagan very congested with traffic and semis - Norther Michagan and the Upper Peninsula extremely nice - suprisingly flat. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge (Lake Huron) quite a site - contemplated getting the camera out, but needed both hands on the bars due to the wind. Tomorrow we start the real trip - crossing into Canada early. Will hopefully have more time to blog tomorrow.
Pictures:

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/gallery/8654567_ByKRt/1/580527916_QDDfd

Blackie out.

Day One - North Lima, OH

P Rock, blogging with the roosters.


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Well yesterday certainly was eventful. Starting with the weather forecast, we thought we were going to get away with something as we cruised through PA on I-80 and didn't see a drop of rain. Well as Blackie stated, once we hit Ohio everything changed for the wetter. It wasn't bad though. If you've ever ridden in the rain, if you have good gear it's really quite a pleasant experience - besides, the people in cars give you some great looks!

With 16 miles to go to the hotel Blackie and I got separated, partly due to Blackie's jumping the GPS gun with directions and partly because I am a crappy wingman (Never leave your leader!). We ended up meeting at the hotel about an hour later at 8:30 and then went to grab some grub. We ate at a place called Steamer's just off the Ohio Turnpike in North Lima. It's attached to the Quality Inn there and they had great food and an excellent bartender that was very enamoured with our adventure (Frankly, we are too!).

Yesterday, the biggest delays were due to construction in PA - a never ending tribute to those at PennDOT in Harrisburg. You guys may be the next victims of the P-Rock and Blackie show, if you get my drift. I also had a colossal wardrobe malfunction that had Blackie in stitches. My overboot (picture tomorrow, repaired) had a complete blowout with the sole flapping like a big ol' bozo shoe. It was quite the scene.

I want to give a shout out to everyone at PJ's at the Walbert, particularly Steve. He hooked us up with this hat, which will be going with us to the Arctic Circle. I want to thank everyone there for the years of great food and service. This is my token of appreciation back at you. Blackie has similar feelings for Snuzzles (which I do too, it's just not as close for me), and I think he has something in store for those folks too.

We have a 540 mile day ahead of us, mostly interstate again too. Hopefully the holiday traffic isn't too bad.

P-Rock ... Adios.

Land of the Lost

Blackie - Day 1
Good ride, good weather up until Ohio. Saw the Fagans at the send-off lunch at PJs at Walbert - always a good thing - looking good Adele!
Good 325 miles in today - slightly more for Blackie as a GPS malfuntion (or was it cockpit error) sent me on a tour of Eastern Ohio.
The machinery is performing well - these bikes were made to run.
Due to prevailing weather conditions, no pictures today - will post tomorrow.

Packing before:

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/photos/579119709_ggVrn-M.jpg

Packing after:

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/photos/579732230_Tu4eC-M.jpg

Repacking starts tomorrow....
Departure photo at PJs at Walbert:

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/photos/579732162_aHN9n-M.jpg

Blackie out.

What a day

Prock posting

Blackie and i are too tired to post this evening, we'll do it tomorrow morning. The trip was uneventful except for construction, weather, getting split up, bad gps advice and a woman that wanted to run me off the road while on the cell. It's after 8:30 and we're going to get dinner and a beer.

Prock, thirsty.

Blackie morning of departure
We now ride "into the wild". You may wonder what one packs for a trip like this - the answer would likely be too much of some, not enough of another:
http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/photos/579119709_ggVrn-M.jpg
Will it fly - we'll know if 4 hours time.
Enough talk - time to pack and ride....
Blackie out.

Launch Day

P-Rock, ready for soggy

Well we're finally at launch day. Sleep last night was at a premium as the anticipation of leaving ramped up. I think we're ready, at least I am with that nagging exception of the untested bike-to-bike communications. Hopefully we have everything right, but as I have learned in the last week or so, radio manufacturers go to great lengths to do non-standard things so you have to buy their accessories. Meaning that interfacing to 3rd party equipment like we are doing can be very problematic.

It looks like Mother Nature is tossing out a big middle finger to us to start the trip - at least in the rain department. Today looks to be very showery/thunderstormy and generally a good test of our foul weather gear. Of course Blackie and I will take this with our usual response - providing Mother with a good long look at our bare asses (note: this may be an all too frequent and disturbing occurrance - as evidenced by attendees of the most recent Buffett concert). We're ready for anything she wants to throw at us.

I have to head in to work this morning for a short meeting with one of my staff, then it's on to pack and roll on down to our launch point. Take care all.

The planning to stay very dry P-Rock.

A New Meaning to "And Counting"...

P-Rock, ready to compile and link

2 days and my job is smothering me. I told Blackie this morning that for every item I cross off my list two get added. The good news is that there is a hard stop to all this mayhem.

I figured out how to add a webcounter to this blog, which required some real-live genuine html editing. They do not have a built-in webcounter gadget, so I had to grab some code and insert it using the generic html gadget. For those of you that know me, that is one scary-assed thought. So in a moment of pure unadulterated conceit and bravado, I made our webcounter 7 digits wide - assuming we'll be a web sensation. Don't let me down now you Slackers!

Tonight we try to collect all the loose ends and prepare for launch. One more day of work remaining - man does that sound good.

P-Rock: Return code 0 %LINK-I-SUCCESS

T-Minus 3 Days and things are coming together

P-Rock checking in.

Blackie stopped over today and we had a short chat on how much we both had left to do. Well since then I've accomplished quite a lot, and I think by Wednesday I'll be ready (Well actually I'm ready now, but just not packed and organized). I got a trial pack complete and it's clear that everything really will fit. I have one last comm item to solve and that's in the works as we speak. I made a test run with all the comm gear active and things worked out better than expected. Even cell phone communications are very doable at speed.

There's no doubt that the energy and excitement is heating up. I'm starting to watch the weather forecasts (right now looking like possibility of isolated T-Storms on launch day, high in the low 80s) and starting to notice the increase in comments from our friends and hecklers (ahem, Chuck). :)

I can also tell that Mrs. Rock is getting a little antsy at the prospect of us being gone for so long, and I expect Mrs. Blackie is as well. Fortunately we are the kings of connectivity, so they will probably be sick of hearing from us by the time this adventure is over. All I know is that I want to get the first day or two behind us so we can start to relax, unwind and enjoy this experience.

Lastly, a special thanks to the people back at my company. Without the support and dedication of Jayne, Mike, Jason, and Andy this whole trip would not be possible. Of course they have a few weeks with the inmates running the prison as a reward. Thanks much - I appreciate everything you guys do to make the business better. And a special thanks to Mrs. Rock and your unending support. Finally, a second shout out to Szak with the very thoughtful ride bell. Mine is hanging proudly on the FM antenna base, and when Blackie stopped by his was prominent on his top bag.

The road awaits....

P-Rock, over and out.

4 Days to Go and Lots to Do

Further Acknowledgements
Neglected to mention Hermy's BMW (Port Clinton PA) earlier - great dealer, great team - from presales through post-sales service. I bought my LT new there, and they have been great to deal with. See you guys when I get back...

The Snuzzles gang - Holly, Jena, Shera, Terry - thanks for the good wishes today (and the hat) - I will proudly wear my Snuzzles attire at the top of the world.

Szak - who dropped off a biker-approved good luck charm - much appreciated.

Chad A from the LT forum - appreciate the advice on the video mount - situation improving, still not right - the pictures and advice were a help - thanks.

Video (Argh...)
Still wrestling with this (when I should be doing other things like getting ready) - working on two options. The first, inspired by Chris A is a handlebar mirror hole mount:

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/photos/575587533_KH9tZ-M.jpg

Still wobbly. Tried a J-Peg mount, with optional boot stabilization:

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/photos/575587536_xnUyw-M.jpg

Best so far, but not great. Will try a lighter camera tomorrow, and a non-HD one. Could be this camera is too heavy to not wiggle.

My images will be posted on Smugmug if interested (and whatever becomes of video):

http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/gallery/8654567_ByKRt/1/575587536_xnUyw

Back to packing...
Blackie out.

6 Days to Launch and Chaos

P-Rock on the blogspot.

Well it's good to see Blackie appear, huh gang? I am out on the West Coast all this week, so I have gotton nothing more done for prep. Piling on to the situation, we have a recent high school grad who is having his graduation party on Saturday, so I pretty much have to write that day off too. I am starting to feel overwhelmed with what needs to get done before we depart.

Blackie and I still haven't had a good solid communications integration test, and that quite frankly worries me. As I wrote earlier, my on-board Comm unit went belly up two weeks ago and even though I have a replacement in-hand and mounted, there is still a lot to do in terms of wire management and configuration. Add to that, that I still have not gotton all of my gear together to do a trial pack. I think we may be into the "wingin-it" phase gang.

Hopefully Blackie can work out the video stuff - the concept of posting live video is one of the most compelling aspects of the trip if you ask me.

I have to sign off now, time to pack and catch a plane back East. For those of you unregistered lurkers, please register as a follower of the blog. It will help us know who is actually watching and following, and it also allows you to post comments, which we very much appreciate.

P-Rock, blog.disconnect.

Video Testing an abject failure

Between P-Rock and I, expectations are high for quality photographs. My fervent hope was to supplement the stills with video via a motorrcycle-mounted HD videocam. I provisioned a bracket from B&H that seemed up to the job. Sadly, testing this evening was disappointing. I tested the camera mount in two locations - one mounted on the right rear passenger peg, the second up over my shoulder on the luggage rack. In both cases, the swing in the mount caused some fairly shaky video, shaky enough to render even the most seasoned sailor a bit queasy. I'll post the results on the SmugMug site when I get a chance to downsample the video - I think you'll agree the idea is compelling - just need a stiffer mount and a direct frame attachment (try to find the latter on a BMW K1200LT - the whole bike is a shroud of plastic). I have seen this work - will try up to the end - which by the way is now 6 days.....
Blackie out.

Blackie emerges from the shadows

I'm not much of a blogger, but here goes....



Blackie?

Long story - Slacker Shack related. As I seem to favor black motorcycles and cowboy metaphors, Blackie (aka JRP) it is...



Acknowledgements

First, a shout of appreciation to the supportive wives: Lynne and Deb. They have tolerated past P-Rock/Blackie schemes, but none this extreme. We have received nothing but support and enthusiasm for this little adventure - we are lucky bikers.



Second, to AP, Dave and the team for the time away. While I plan to be on-line intermittently, it's a long time gone. Appreciate the support and cover.



Third, to my riding partner Pete (aka P-Rock). Due to a number of personal distractions this winter/spring, P-Rock assumed the bulk of the early planning for the trip (obvious if you've read the blog) - I'll attempt to make up some time on the back half. Thanks bro. (In addition to riding/planning expertise, P-Rock has become an quite proficient at disassembling/reassembling a BMW K1200LT - a skill I hope proves of no worth in July).



Lastly, a shout out to the gang at Snuzzles. Holly - I'm stopping over for trip apparel this week. The Snuzzles logo is about to meet the Arctic Circle...



The Bike

The bike is now ready to go. Every dude needs a good name for his mount, and Blackie had chosen Rocinante - the literati among you will recognize this as Don Quixote's noble horse. I thought this apt as P-Rock and I tilt at our Yukon windmills. I have revisited the name after an unpleasant bike-related experience Memorial Day weekend. I awoke to a very smelly house, and tracked the odor to the garage, where underneath Rocinante was 4 gallons of fuel that had been in the tank the night before. A massive fuel leak is nasty business, worsened by the fact that this occured 5 weeks to launch and the bike had a whopping 1100 miles on it. Thought yet undecided, Rocinante may be replaced by the more colloquial Stinky.



Pictures/Videos

P-Rock and I plan to be armed with cameras (and video hopefully) - I suspect we'll run into creative limitations in the blog. For that reason, I'll be posting stills and video to my SmugMug site (not much there now - will be adding soon):




http://jrpimages.smugmug.com/gallery/8654567_ByKRt/1/571241572_FhJSF

More blogging soon. Blackie

This is a test, this is only a test....

This is a quick test post to see how cell phone initiated posts appear.
There may be days where we have no internet access on our trip, but
would have at least intermittent cell access.

Oh yeah, less than 2 weeks to go!

Oh yes, and there is a rumor floating around that Blackie isn't real,
and that I'm really doing this trip solo with an imaginary friend. This
rumor is based on the fact that Blackie still hasn't posted to this
blog. I'm here to dismiss this rumor as a fake. That's my story and
I'm stickin' to it.

P-rock, on the road

16 days, I wish all systems were go

P-Rock is in da house.

I stopped by Blackie's house Sunday to check on his bike progress. It seems he's making good headway in getting his ride ready for our departure on 7/1. I on the other hand seem to be going backward. While I got my straps installed to hold the bag on the pillion, pretty much anything electronic has been turning to absolute poopage in my hands.


While testing out the GMRS radios, my COM system decided to take a big hairy dump and quit working entirely. I had music through the bike speakers, but I could get nothing to work through the helmet - so the GMRS test didn't come off, at least from my perspective. After some fiddling we figured out Blackie's system and had it working quite well. I hope he takes some pictures of the electronics pad he's built for his tank bag. It really looks slick and gives him pretty much everything at-hand. It's quite an engineering feat you can barely see here in this picture. His LT is the one on the left in the foreground.

We took off after some time working on the bikes to tear up the local roads - man was that fun. I do have to say that while this is an 850 lb motorcycle, it handles like a dream. On the way home from Blackies I scraped the center stand three times in left handers - who'd think you could do that on this big beast?

We are headed off with a big group of people to a Buffett concert this Thursday, should be a great time, as we are big Parrotheads. Many thanks to the on-crutches Mrs. Blackie for today's pictures. I am thinking that crutches are a must for photography - look how stable and clear those pictures are :) We all hope you are back on two good feet soon ma'am.

We had a short discussion on possibly trying to figure out some sort of way people could donate money that we would pass along to a charity as part of this ride. Nothing firm yet, but what a great way to raise awareness of a cause and rally people to action. We were thinking in terms of something like a half-cent per mile donation, which works out to about $50. If anyone following this has any ideas please post them as a comment, I think this would be a great way to make the ride even more worthwhile. We don't have any particular charity in mind, but between Blackie and I, I am sure we'll choose a good one if we decide to add this to the trip.

P-Rock, dying to get on the road.

One Step Closer

P-Rock here

The last of the bike maintenance is complete! I got my new rear tire put on today, along with new clutch and brake fluids. She was purring like a kitten rolling down I-78 this afternoon at 75mph. We've got 18 days and counting, woohoo! Blackie, the absent poster, is finishing up his communications wiring this weekend while I am going to fit my pillion seat straps for the auxilliary clothing bag.

For anyone considering going into Canada and taking along GMRS radios (These are the radios that are rapidly replacing the old "FRS" radios and have more power, range and features - but oddly require an FCC license to operate) be very careful. After picking up a set I learned that the Canadian regulations differ from US (no license required, lower power limits and two channels are restricted use) and that US radios are probably not Canadian certified. if you limit yourself to "FRS" operations - meaning FRS channels and power levels - you are OK, but otherwise it could spell trouble. Who knew that consumer radios could be so complicated? Anyway, fair warning on the GMRS - the FCC license is $85 and there are several usage rules that I am sure are being largely ignored by consumers. If you ask me, this needs to go the way of CB and the license requirement should be removed...

This weekend I plan to assemble the tools and repair supplies and see how much bike space they take up, then take a look at the bike gear (cold/warm weather jackets and pants, etc) and photo gear. Also, there is a person (Scott) and his wife (Mary Jo) on the BMWLT.COM forum that is going to be travelling south on the ALCAN down from Eagle River, Alaska at the same time we will be heading north. Hopefully we will meet up, and if so, post a picture here. He goes by the name "Sandback" on that forum and seems like a helluva nice guy. They will be on a Bronze BMW K1200LT, and he will be on the lookout for our two Black Beauties. I also had a conversation with "Patm" from the Harley-davidson V-Rod Forum last week. Pat lives in Saskatoon (which we will be passing through July 5) and is a crew member on a Harley Top Fuel Race team racing in IHRA competition. Now how's that for a cool thing to do? Unfortunately Pat will be out of town at a race when we pass through town, but it was good to speak with him and get his perspective on travel in that area and places to stay.

Ok that's a good update for now. Keep the shiny side up.

P-Rock, turning off the analog signal and going all digital.

Under a month to go!

P-Rock on the air...

WOW, hard to believe that we have less than 4 weeks left before we hit the open road. Between Blackie and I we've had quite the hectic few weeks - I'll leave Blackie to tell his own story here, but I've been travelling quite a bit for work, getting involved in other activities (mostly of the Honey-Do variety - of course) and trying to get organized for the ride. Well frankly that just isn't going too well.

I had set aside the dining room table to start to collect the items I want to make sure to take on the trip - so I have a central place to sort out the grain from the chaff, so to speak. Well that table, all 9 feet or so of it, has FOUR, yes FOUR items on it: Foul weather overboots, a rain cover for the bike, a throttle wrist holder and a water bottle holder I plan to mount to the bike (somehow - not really sure yet how at this time). Let's just say that I'm really not prepared to leave just yet. YIKES!

One good thing though, the bike has everything lined up to be ready to go. I stripped it down one last time over the past weekend and got my (replaced) HID headlight installed, the GPS power re-wired to operate with the key in the on or off position (and off when in LOCK), and the XM radio re-wired to eliminate the cassette interface, after I figured out what I needed to direct wire it. Also, I made the appointment with Hermy's our local BMW motorcycle dealer, to get a new rear tire next week, which rounds out the bike-related needs. P-Rock, on the other hand, still has lots of needs. heh.

Hopefully this weekend and next week I will be able to get a little more organized on the personal side, but of course everything is relative. The last week in June I will be away in San Diego, so I don't have the luxury of much time for last minute prep. I know you all feel real sorry for me too. :)

We've locked in the first three stops on the tour, to avoid hotel reservation problems over the 4th of July Weekend. So neither rain, hail, sleet, snow or dark of night will keep us from these first three stops: Youngstown, OH, Sault St. Marie, MI and Thunder Bay, ON. From there we maintain our right to flexibility, so that the throngs of fans can be kept at bay.

Trust me, Blackie's story is a whole lot more interesting and eventful, so hopefully he'll be on here soon to post up his saga. He also has quite a bit more bike prep to do, as his brand new bike still needs a few items to round out it's functionality.

Ride Safe, and keep the oil in the crankcase.

P-Rock, out.