DAY 42 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MC TOUR-AUGUST 11,2008

August 11, 2008 - Monday - Day 42
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 318    - Total Miles - 9970
Mont-St-Hilaire, QC, Canada - to Edmundston,NB,Canada
(-staying at the Ritz Motel-)
(Ontario-New Brunswick)
- LAST FULL DAY IN CANADA -


  And so it's down the last few days…. I know from past experience not to take anything for granted. And I'm as careful or more so, to make sure things are right.
***
  It wasn't exactly sunny this morning, but it was bright. However, I still went out the door in complete raingear and expected the worst.  As it turned out it didn't rain until the last ten minutes of the 318-mile day. But then it poured. And it was cool today, anyway, so it was good having the extra gear on me.
***
  The last few days have nicely spaced themselves out at about 300 miles each. And that seems like a very comfortable distance for me. Again, it's about an hour and a half per 100 miles. So, what with breaks for lunch and gas, it fits nicely into the day.  Knowing that, I just sit back, feet up on highway pegs, and let the day roll by not having to worry about the day's end.
***
Here are some more cute names I've run into lately…Rabbit Blanket Lake, Baldhead Creek, Wolf Camp Lake, Red Horse Creek, Black Duck Lake, Gully Lane (yep, it was a dirt road!)
***
  On the way to Quebec I came upon another many mile long traffic back up - but it was going in the other direction and I was happy to breeze along. At times there was no one on the highway ahead or behind me.  Couldn't hit triple digits today because of the wind and other factors but came close a couple times. I generally zipped along with all the rest of the traffic at 70 to 80mph.
  At one point in a friendly gesture to a huge old tanker truck, and let him in ahead of me as he wanted to pass. It was a BIG mistake. The tank must have been filled of a year's supply worth of sewage and boy!  Did it ever stink up the roadway air for the next number of miles.  The fertilizer smell, wafting over from the fields just after I re-passed the tanker, seemed like the sweetest of Paris perfumes by comparison.
  Stopped in for gas at mid-day. And then I went down the way to my normal comfy-feeling Subway. But it was different. It was all French. No one understood English. It was like being in a dream where no one understands you and you understand no one. Like those folks in a coma where language is a skill lost. It was very uncomfortable and perhaps a little scary for me.  Everyone was friendly, but still. And it was like that all day with traffic signs, billboards, and everything written.
***
   Just before Rivere-du-Loup  there was a grey haired guy with a bicycle beside him standing on, and looking out from one of the bridges spanning the highway. I gave him a big wave, and he waved back just before I zipped out of view.
***
There were just some spectacular views of the St. Lawrence River.
***
   Made the turn at just about 4pm. Route 20 turned into 185 South on the Transcanada Highway.  It was shortly after that I gassed up and celebrated the turn homeward with a Hershey Bar. A Canadian French guy, Danni, was fueling up there, too. And as I shared my map with him his jaw dropped and he smiled broadly. We chatted awkwardly as best we could what with the language barrier. Danni was on a crotch rocket and lived in the area I think. He had a firm handshake.
***
  There are a ton of All Terrain Vehicles in the area - and even special roads for them. Speaking of which I heard from our local Canada expert Jacki again, and she had this to say today about the ATV's:

I was looking through your last pictures and saw you had a picture of some pretty dirty quads (4 wheelers - called ATV's - all terrain vehicles). We call them quads up here and are recreation vehicles for going on trails and plowing through mud....not my idea of fun getting muddy but we do enjoy our quad to go fishing into lakes where there are no roads only bush trails. In the winter time we go on these same trails with the skidoo (snowmobiles). We also have a boat that we leave up at the lake.....we call all these items "the men's toys" lol. UP here if you don't have one of these toys at least then they say they are living in the wrong place lol. 
  Pretty soon we'll have to start calling this journal, The Joel and Jacki Report!
***
I would have loved to stay in the town St. Louis du Ha! Ha! (Really, no kidding! That was the name! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!,_Quebec)  I did get a picture of the town greeting.  A huge road construction project was going on in town.  The one motel seen from the highway seemed closed, and I didn't go searching.  There was an unclear road sign near here, and I had to ask directions to make sure I was still on the correct highway.
  It must be fertilizing time around here or something. The air was ripe today with the odor - and coming through one town it seemed like a paper ill processing plant was emitting plumes of smoke with that awful smell, and THEN came a newly fertilized field!  Ugh.  But the rest of the day was delectable with fresh air aromas and scents.
  Toward the end of the day, every time I would put the camera away, another gorgeous scene would come up - either the view of the valley ahead, or the giant river to the left, or a farm scene. It was just amazing. And my poor little point and shoot wasn't up to the task. If I had my regular equipment, I don't think I would have EVER gotten through this section of the country from all the pictures needing to be taken.
***
  Maybe it's just the way it really was - or - maybe I've just been on the road for too long - but there were a LOT of faces in the clouds today!
***
  Got a tip awhile back about converting the kilometers to miles. Both readings are on my speedometer lining up with each other. So when I see a road sign, say reading that a town is 150 kilometers away, I just look at the speedometer and see which numbers it matches up with.
***
  I rode under haze and grey clouds most all day. But finally, with ten minutes or so to go in the ride, the skies burst forth, the thunder rolled and the rain descended. I was ready for it though.
  I came into the Ritz Motel in New Brunswick around 5:30pm or so. It was dark and pouring rain when I stepped into the motel office.  The first thing I noticed was the clock. It read an hour later! Believe it or not, according to Ray, the grizzled owner of the place for 35 years, I'm again in a different time zone. New Brunswick is in the next time zone over, and so I'm now an hour later even than Eastern Standard Time.  When I cross the border tomorrow morning, I'll be back to regular time. Don't know about you, but I can't keep any of that straight.
  Ray was eating dinner and I felt bad about disturbing him. But he said not to worry about it. It's not the first time, and the other day he started dinner at 6pm and didn't finish until after 11pm because of people coming to check in, he said.
  
    Ray was very excited about me doing the four corners of the US thing. And that meant going to Madawaska, Maine after crossing the border. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madawaska,_Maine) That's the most northern town and point in the USA.  He was going to have a friend interested in such things there with a camera. He said there was some kind of marker there.  That would put me into the States a little sooner and on a different road than I had expected.
  I'm already feeling emotional about returning to the United States.  I'm sure it will tug on me heavily tomorrow when I cross the border.


ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  For those who haven't been to the picture site for awhile: I've culled what are my favorites from the over a thousand images now, and put them into a FAVORITES folder.  If you have one that you think should go in there, please let me know. Otherwise, here's the same message: To view photos from today or the whole trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
     Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner. Do this by hopping over to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list.  I especially recommend days 10, 12 (the sandstorm day!), 14 (the most nostalgic day), 32 (the best day) and day 37 (the most dangerous day).



**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 41 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK SOJOURN-AUGUST 10, 2008

August 10, 2008 - Sunday - Day 41
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 339    - Total Miles -  9652
Mattawa,Ontario,Canada - to Mont-St-Hilaire, QC, Canada
(-staying at Le Transit Motel   -)
(Ontario to Quebec)
- RAIN DAY?????-

    Awoke refreshed as usual at about 6:30am.  Opened the motel room curtains, and sure enough it was pouring. Well, I was going this morning no matter what, so after catching up on the nightly emails I worked harder than ever about getting ready for a rain day. I put almost everything in plastic bags, got my rain pants ready, got my mostly waterproof light jacket ready and also the heavy one.  I got out my gaiters.  And I got all packed up.
  Then I went for a run in the drizzle down to the dock area. I got images of the river and of the motel/restaurant up on the hill. I resolved to come back one day as this is a wonderful place.
  After the run I went with the computer to the dining room where I caught up on said emails and had a delicious oatmeal breakfast.  By then, the texture of the sky had changed, the rain had abated, and the heavy clouds lay threatening, but not dropping any water…  I asked folks arriving from the east about the weather there and every one said it was pouring when they went through. So I went with my plan, packed and dressed up ready for rain, gassed up at the station not far away, and took off east.
  Until the cities of Ottawa and Montreal much further east, it was a fairly easy and by any standards regular biking day. No great sights, nice roads, a few farms sprinkled along the way.
   Once, I saw a bunch of bikes go by the other direction, and one was a trike with a canopy!  It was an unusual sight for sure.
***
  I wonder how many more days of purring through nature day after day it would take to get tired of this??  I love my life back in Havertown and what I do there, so though I guess I could continue contentedly at this for quite awhile, I'm happy to be returning home as well.
***
  I had my first 100 miles in by noon.  I thought that was pretty good considering I hadn't left by ten, and after gassing up it was 10:20!
There were a bunch of routing number changes. The first was Route 17 became Route 417.  I miss the "Route 1 - Transcanada Highway" signs that had been my guides for so long. The new ones still say, "Transcanada Highway" however.
  Buzzed through Ottawa around 1:30pm. There were a few questions about routing, but the 417 Transcanada sign was generally pretty clear to follow. All the markers were in place.
  Stopped for gas and lunch at a place where one had to pay for wi-fi. Ugh. Didn't do it. (And the result was more than 60 emails at the end of the day. Good thing I'm a fast typist!)  The lines weren't long, but the poor performing, slow, and/or lazy staff made it an unnecessary wait.
  I asked about directions out on the parking lot and was given so much help it was unbelievable. It's always good to have second and third opinions on a ride like this!  One guy walked all the way to the other side of the parking lot to help me!
  Montreal was a bit tougher and more complex as the routing changed a bit and the highways were swifter moving and less forgiving. A few times I pulled over to check and make sure I was going the right way. Then it was a challenge to maneuver back onto the highway.
  Not only that, but the signs stopped being in English and French. They were ONLY in French here.  I mean it was like being in a foreign country!  YIKES!  (The last was tongue-in-cheek if you don't know me well enough by now.)
  I was doing pretty well when I came upon a couple riding two up on a big bike and asked some directions to be sure. The cute-as-the-dickens girl in shorts in the passenger seat had a smile that lit the day, and the friendly fellow wanted to help a lot. He gestured for me to follow him to the correct road. At first I thought he took me past the right way, and we went through the city. That may have been the case, and he just wanted to give me a tour - and if so, it was well worth the extra time and miles for me.
   I'll remember that moment - I saw the way to go which seemed well marked, but the French-speaking fellow beckoned me to follow him and NOT go the way the signs directed.  What to do? I made the decision to trust the camaraderie of motorcyclists and people who want to help, and to follow these complete strangers to wherever they were taking me - which was through long tunnels and back into the heart of the metropolitan area.  There was also the question of the language barrier - because when we had a few moments to chat at traffic lights for instance, the communication between French and English was bumbling and halting at best. And I wasn't so sure he understood where I wanted to go. None-the-less, I followed them.
  We went over a big bridge at one point with Montreal proper to the left and huge ferris wheels and an amusement park there. It was a wonderful fleeting sight. Finally he got me back (again!) to Route 20 East, and with friendly waves we parted.
   I rode to the other side of the big city and about 20 miles further northeast to the second motel I came to. It was perfect.  On the net I noticed a Cardinal game was to be on ESPN, and I tuned in while munching popcorn and drinking lemonade. (It was the first time I had a motel room TV on the whole trip!) Too bad they lost, because otherwise it would have been a perfect day….
  By-the-way, I was suited up and waited for the rain all day.  The clouds continued murky and threatening for the entire time on the Nomad. In the distance I could see the wet stuff coming earthward, but the road seemed to turn away from the showers at every bend in the highway.  Had fifteen drops for the day! This 41st day of the trip I was fortunate weather-wise that's for sure.



**************
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(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 40 OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MOTORCYCLE VENTURE - AUGUST 9, 2008

August 9, 2008 - Saturday - Day 40
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST – SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 0 - Total Miles – 9,313
(NOT over 10,000 as reported yesterday)
RAIN DAY IN MATTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA
(-staying at Velois Motel-)

- RAIN DAY -

When I awoke it was raining. So I made the executive decision to hunker down, and take a rest day. And during this day I could – and did – plan the end-trip days ahead more exactly. I decided routing, etc., reorganized gear for the last time, worked on some writing projects which I had been procrastinating or didn’t have time for, and generally took it easy. Spent much of the day in the dining area where there was internet accessibility and the great view of the river.
When I went to the counter to pay for the extra day, I said slyly and with a grin, “So, the waitress told me last night that if I stayed an another night, it would be half price, right?” Darn. He didn’t buy the line!
I went right to work on the “How to Ride a Motorcycle” piece, and also on the section about the song words. Both were fun and enjoyable to work on. You should have both these items in your mailbox by the end of this day.
It rained pretty steadily until about 3pm. I don’t usually look at the forecasts, but when I did today it said rain in the area for the next three days. Luckily, I’m moving out of the area tomorrow. Unluckily, it’s rain for the area I’m going into as well.
But I’ll go tomorrow no matter what. And I spent part of this day getting ready for a wet ride – making sure rain gear was laid out, and making sure that rain covers were ready. I especially worked on the tank bag which really hasn’t had a decent cover since I began. (Remember the horrifying plastic bag billowing incident during the sandstorm?)

***
You may have noticed that the Transcanada route numbers have changed. I followed Route 1 for almost halfway across it seems. Now I have some other numbers, though with the Transcanada Highway symbols around them.
This is what an on-line source says about the numbering:
Route numbering on the Trans-Canada Highway is also handled by the provinces. The Western provinces have coordinated their highway numbers so that the main Trans-Canada route is designated Highway 1; however, from the Manitoba–Ontario border eastwards, the highway numbers change at each provincial boundary. As the Trans-Canada route was composed of sections from pre-existing provincial highways, it is unlikely that the Trans-Canada Highway will ever have a uniform designation across the whole country.
***
Miscellaneous Items, Asides, and Confessions:
- When home, I’m getting myself a new pair of boots.
- Note to self: Although you USED to be able to get through a day’s exertion with a handful of nuts and a couple pieces of fruit in your 30’s and 40’s, you just cannot do that any more.
- Suggestions to travelers: Before leaving any place make sure belly and tank are full, but bladder and everything else is empty. Also, never trust a toilet that has a plunger beside it, and always check for toilet paper FIRST!
- Perhaps readers have been wondering how does one stay on the bike for 6 or 7 hours? Well, as for me, I do a lot of thinking, shifting leg positions, and enjoying the views. Also, while riding I work on my posture, my poems, trying to figure little math problems of the miles gone so far and to go, and do abwork.
- The first half hour down the road in the mornings is often filled with thoughts of maybe having forgotten something. I mean, I’m already 15 to 20 miles down the road, so what IF I HAD forgotten something? Too late! The chargers? The (gasp!) computer? And then, if a synapse misfires, and I don’t recall putting something in the bag, I have to stop and take a look. A checklist would take too long, there’s so much. Oh, it’s all just a little morning angst.
- I was sorry to note that the comedian Bernie Mac died today. I liked the guy.
***
Received a nice email from my friend Charles. He wrote:
I am deeply impressed by the freely offered kindness of total strangers during all your trip. Maybe there is hope for all of us.
In the US, Mexico , and Canada, people have gone out of their way to help, give better directions, help with food, etc.
What an upper, (contrasted to downers). Your narratives are renewing my faith in the innate goodness of humans.

And this trip was no different from all the others. I have often said that the country is NOT what we see and read in the daily spewing of bad news in the newspapers and on news radio. That is all skewed to the sensationalistic bad side of people, and not representative of the general population. And it is alarmingly bad for our psyches to constantly be bombarded by all that. It effects our thinking and our views of the world. A great thing about these trips of mine is that I escape all that news dribble for awhile at least. I try to avoid it when home, and do for a few weeks before sinking back into the habit of listening to it all.
***
I also heard again from my Canadian friend, Jacki. Here are a few things of insight and interest that she pointed out to me:
I was waiting for you to comment on Tim Hortons....this is like the delicacy of the country. lol. They are everywhere and are the most popular places anywhere. When we go to the city, they are always busy and line ups inside and at the drive thru......they are worth the wait if you have the time. The coffee is favorite there.....you can order a double-double or a "double-cream" with them.
Yes there are subways everywhere and we even have one up here in our little town of 2000 people in the middle of nowhere lol.
In Canada the governments have cut back on highways crews so much that they don't have enough people to do the work so they always hire out the jobs to the highest bidder through tenders. Most of these companies do not do the job right, they do it as cheap as possible and never done on time ever. Up here we have abridge that had to be replaced (not a real big one either) and the company they hired to do it took 2 years to complete and now they are fixing it again, it is so frustrating to see tax dollars wasted, do it right the first time and you won't have to fix it. But that is sadly not the case up here. We get taxed to death up here and really wonder where all this extra money is actually going, we never see any improvements which is sad.

As for the metric system, the younger generation only know that system, but for us who grew up with the old system it is hard for us to take. We still figure out mileage conversion and use mph or miles away and not kilometers (km). I still use the old system for baking with cups and ounces and quarts etc.
***

I missed not getting to see some vacationing friends in Quebec by a day it seems. But because of this delay day, I DID get to have dinner with some folks from my old neighborhood. I delivered their newspaper, had their children as second graders, and played chess with the dad when I was running a monthly chess club out of the bookstore, Barnes and Noble, some 18 years ago. We go back about 38 years. I’ve taken their family picture, and attended the ceremony when the boys won Eagle Badges. Paul, a handsome mustachioed 40+ year-old-guy, and student at Coopertown Elementary where I taught had been keeping tabs on the trip. And by coincidence, a bunch of the guys in the Wojtowicz family happen to come camping to the area in Canada just nearly where I am. We hooked up initially by email and then by my Skype, and Paul’s cell phone.
The group included father Ed, brothers Chris (with son Neil) and Paul, brother-in-law Jon (and his son Nick). Neil and Nick were a cute seven and eight respectively. This hardy band of guys was going backwoods camping, and I was impressed. They have done so over the last number of years. (John, the brother I had as a second grader, was camping in Maine at this time, and I may get to see him in a couple days.)
The seven met me at the motel where I’m staying, and I had reserved a window table so the river made a good view for us all as we ate and chatted. I learned a lot about portaging and canoes and how all the equipment and food is worked out for such a trip. I got to hear some of their stories about trips past, and narrow escapes, and holes in canoes.
After I heard all these things and tried to picture what they would be doing the next few days I was alternately impressed, envious, and glad not to be going with them!
After hearing about the excursion and the details about being in the wilderness and the elements, I remarked, “I HAD been concerned about the weather for my ride tomorrow, but compared to what YOU guys are doing, I’m not concerned at ALL now!”
It was wonderful seeing folks from home, and the coincidence that they were vacationing right in this area at this time was incredible.
We were together about an hour or more, and then they had to go to get to their starting place. I said I wanted to be sure to hear about how it went.
I finished off the evening with getting all packed and ready for tomorrow’s ride. Rain or not, I’m heading out in the morning. (Well, ummm… If it’s wind-whipping gales of torrential downpour… well, then MAYBE I’d consider staying another day. But don’t tell those Wojtowicz guys – because then I’d REALLY seem like a big wimp to them!)

DAY 39 OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MOTORCYCLE VENTURE - AUGUST 8, 2008

August 8, 2008 - Friday - Day 39
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST – SUMMER 2008
Miles Today – 321 / Total Miles – 9,313
Sault Ste Marie,Ontario,Canada - to Mattawa,Ontario,Canada
(-staying at the Valois Motel -)
(Ontario)
- THE WIND AND THE RIVER –

I was probably only ten minutes away from the US border before leaving town. It had a tug on me, but I knew my journey led elsewhere.
After running and packing up, I sat on the little picnic chair outside the room while eating my banana and sliced up orange that I got yesterday. Across the highway a street performer was doing his bit on unicycle and pogo stick, and with juggling balls. It was a clear and crisp morning and the sun was shining brightly. I was late again, and after a gas stop, I was out onto the highway by 10:30am.
***
For pure riding enjoyment – piercing through the nice cool morning air – it couldn’t get much better than the beginning part of this day out of Sault Ste Marie!! The roads, the weather, the sky, the traffic – everything was 100%!
This morning there were straight flat roads with sight-lines to the end of the world.
***
The posted speed of 55mph (after conversion) on these roads is a joke! Nobody goes 55. Unless you’re old, or enfeebled, or way too overly cautious, or a straight arrow who follows rules without thinking, there’s no reason for it. In fact, going 55 would be unsafe, unnecessary, and ridiculous. Aside from getting better gas mileage or sightseeing, there’s no reason to go 55 on these roads.
There was a young teenage girl at a morning gas stop pumping gas. I told her that in 9000 miles she was the first female to be seen with that job. I asked her if she liked her freckles and she said she never noticed them. I said that as a photographer I liked people who had freckles because it helped me focus better. We both smiled at that.
At the same stop a mostly toothless fellow out of a mobile home came up to me and wondered about and worried about whether my yellow mc jacket made me hot. I said what I usually do when people ask me that, “I’ve found one of the secrets of life,” I said…. “YOU DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!” And we both laughed, but he pursued the subject and I mentioned that it was pretty cool to me here today. He looked incredulous and stated clearly in Canadian accent, “Why I think it’s pretty fricken hot today.” I said that it must depend on what we are used to! He agreed to that and headed back to his rig. I kept my second jacket on under my yellow armor and got back to the highway.
I finally stopped at a Tim Horton’s. They are a large chain of restaurants here in Canada and I’d been told I would just HAVE to try one. They seemed like a Subway with specialized coffees. The meal was good. And speaking of Subway, they are just about in every single city, little town, and tiny hamlet. It amazes me to see one wherever I go here. They are like Starbucks back home, like mushrooms in a damp environment – EVERYWHERE!
A woman in Horton restaurant said hi to me. I gave her a quizzical look of non-recognition, and she asked if I wasn’t the one back in Terrace Bay (which was 600+ miles ago). She said she was a woman behind the counter there. I wasn’t sure to which counter she was referring, but she did look a bit familiar.
There were a few road construction spots this day. Most were not bad or too inconvenient, but the one around 1:30pm had cars and trucks lining up for miles and miles on both sides of the road repair job. Even after I skirted down the shoulder about a half-mile, the wait was still over 45 minutes. We were way out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but trees other than a trading post store just down a-ways.
It was a little like a frustrated party atmosphere. Folks got out and sat in folding chairs. One woman just left her husband and started to walk to wherever the front of the line was. I shouted over, “Figure it’s just faster walking, eh?” She grinned and nodded.
I even dozed on the bike for about five minutes. Then I made friends with the Frito-Lay truck driver behind me, and told him he should open his truck for everyone in line. He wouldn’t do that, but he did get out of his seat and go into the back of the truck and bring me a bag for a buck. But it was salsa, which I don’t like. He went back for a different bag. As he was standing in the back of the truck and I asked for plain ones, he said, “There’s not such a thing as ‘plain ones’ in Canada.” We both laughed. Eventually though he did find an original Tostitos. The salty chips were delicious as I gobbled them up out there on the highway.
The fellow in the car in front of me said this mess was all because of the company hired to do the job. It was supposed have been done in June he said.
I figured that everyone SHOULD have made friends with the Humpty-Dumpty truck driver a couple vehicles in front of us – then all would have enjoyed some ice cream in the building heat of the wait under the sun.
Backups like that are little bit like life itself, aren’t they? You go speeding along unknowing of what’s ahead. Yep, there it sometimes is – slowing you down, rocking you off schedule. It was there, but sometimes you just don’t know it until you reach that point. As often as not, it’s NOT there, but sometimes it sure is.
I’m glad I wasn’t on my way to shoot a wedding, that’s for sure. As it was I just relaxed, took pictures, and chatted with folks. I sat there so long though, I could feel my beard growing.
After we got going I counted fifty cars waiting in line on the other side.
Despite the morning calmness the wind picked up in the early afternoon. I fought with it all the rest of the day as it would huff and puff on the Vulcan from various directions as the road turned. It took a bunch of concentration to keep going forward without incident. I couldn’t imagine doing this on a lighter bike. The buffeting was intense at times, especially when the big 18-wheeler rigs went by on the other side of the two-lane road! And most especially when there where two or three at a time that were passing me or that were barreling down the roadway in the other direction.
My familiar “Highway 1” signs have morphed into “Highway 17”. The Transcanada numbers will change a couple more times as I make my way through Ottawa and Montreal in the coming few days.
Bob, the owner of Bob’s Husky Gas Station, stopped me as I was heading into pay. He said right out, “That’s a great color for a jacket. It can be seen! If my buddy had a jacket like that he might still be around.” I asked him what happened, and it was a truck-motorcycle accident that got his 56 year-old friend killed. The fellow had been a safely instructor for eighteen years! It apparently was a situation where a more visible motorcyclist would have made the collision a lot less likely.
A bit later I asked Bob and his friend about those stones that I mentioned in this space yesterday…. the ones on the outcroppings along the roadway. they both were well aware of what I was asking about. They said it was the Inuit Indians that began that, and that they are supposed to be figures of a man. They are so well constructed and placed and balanced, that the stones often stay just that way for more than a year. Bob said that the stones are to signify, “I was here.”
Around lunchtime I was thinking back to Mary’s fakin’-bacon sandwiches that you may remember she made for me. (And that I went fifty miles out of my way for….) That was 14 days ago on Day 25, and a little shy of 5,000 miles down the road on the other side of the continent. But even another country and so far away, I started to drool at the thought of that lunch, and I was surely wishing there was something like that around the next corner here in Canada. But alas, Subway, Taco Bell, and Tim Horton’s don’t carry that menu item.
***
Everything is metric here in Canada, of course. Much smarter than the US system, that’s for sure. Well, I’ve decided that to get more time out of our days, that we should go metric time-wise, too. For starters, that’ll give us 100 minutes in an hour and ten days in a week. I think that’s the answer to our not-having-enough-time problems. I’ve been espousing that for years, but no one pays any attention to me.
***
I’ve been really careful about always keeping the gas tank full. Today, one stretch was 111 miles between stations.
Spied a vanity license plate today, “SHZ HOT.” I wondered if the guy was being really proud of his girl friend’s looks or his snazzy car?
Heading into North Bay, I got two thumbs up and a peace sign from two young ladies in a pickup truck. And right before that, at around 4:45pm, the Nomad celebrated it’s 10,000th mile.
There were some farms this day as I rounded the northern fringe of Lake Huron. I liked the bright red farmhouses as they sat on the dark green grass, against the stark blue sky. And there were lakes, too. Not as many as yesterday, and unlike yesterday, a bunch of these lakes had homes around the shoreline. I noticed that more and more as I traveled east and closer to the population centers
On the way into Mattawa the very first motel advertised ‘Free Wireless Internet’ but I kept on going. I went all through the maybe two miles of town, and stopped in the last motel. They had internet, but only in the dining room. So with a quick pickup at a Subway on the way back, I went to the first motel. I was about signed up when I asked if the wireless was working okay (a question I’ve learned to ask), and sure enough it wasn’t. Not working at all. So….. I headed back to the first place which was located right on the Ottawa River, secured a room, put the sandwich in the fridge for breakfast, and headed over to the dining room to get a signal. I had a window seat just overlooking the beautiful Ottawa River. While having a delicious salad, and a baked potato smothered in mushrooms – and then a piece of blueberry pie – I got all the day’s accumulated emails caught up. One was from a family from my old neighborhood, who coincidentally are headed up right to this very area – but tomorrow. And it looks like I’ll miss them by a day!
On my way out of the restaurant I was stopped by a middle-aged couple who had read the sign on the mc. They wanted to know all about the trip, and I was happy to share details with them. The woman said she had been coming to this restaurant/motel by the river ever since she was a little girl.
I cleaned the Nomad. This despite an email from friend Derick at my mc dealership. He suggested that I should just let the bike get dirty so it looked like it had been on a trip.
There was a gorgeous sunset over the river.
Then, back at the room, without the being on-line time, I got right to work on the journal notes and some other projects.


••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I’m hoping most of you are also checking out the photos. There are usually quite a number that go along with the day’s text. To view photos from today or the whole trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner. Do this by hopping over to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list. I especially recommend days 10, 12 (the sandstorm day!), 14 (the most nostalgic day), 32 (the best day) and day 37 (the most dangerous day).

THE MOOSE IS LOOSE!

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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 38 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK TRIP - AUGUST 7, 2008

August 7, 2008 - Thursday - Day 38
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 311    - Total Miles -   8992
Terrace Bay,Ontario,Canada - to  Sault Ste Marie,Ontario,Canada
(-staying at  The Satellite Motel-)
(Ontario)

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig states that riding an MC across the country is like being IN it, while riding in a car and seeing the world thru a window is like watching it on TV-not really experiencing it.  (sent to me by friend, Mark Z.)


  When I came out for my run there were some elderly ladies near the covered Nomad. Seems they were with a little group car touring around Lake Superior. They clucked and chuckled about the ride I was taking, and they asked a bunch of questions about the bike. When I came back and uncovered it, they expressed awe at how pretty it was.
  After breakfast in the motel dining room I finally got going on the highway by an extraordinarily late 11ish. I told the room cleaning lady with a wink, "OK, OK, everyone else is out and ahead of me, but I'm finally going now."
  I navigated the gravel parking lot okay, and got out onto the main road. It was a full day of nature.

   Who would have thought it was so mountainous on the northern rim of Lake Superior?  Not me. So I learned something!  Today was a nice roller coaster ride along all those mountains on mostly well-built clean roads.  And the sun patches reminded me of the first part of the poem Kubla Khan by Coleridge:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
   Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

   "And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."  Yup. In spades!

  Saw many long distance bicyclists with full pack today. Occasionally I'd pull up next to one of them. I'd ask if they needed anything, and then if traffic allowed would engage them in a conversation about their trips, and I'd mention that seeing them touched my heart.  I came up to one fellow, looked over to him and smiled, and shouted above my purring engine, "Do you want to race?"   We both laughed.  (When on a bicycle, I'll often toss the same joking challenge to motorcyclists!)
  Along the way today were forests and lakes only, no farms. There were also a lot of outcroppings of rock. One mysterious thing was that on most all the outcroppings someone had taken the time to make a little pyramid or little building of rocks.  It was very apparent that this was a purposeful activity on someone's or on many folks' part. I seem to remember hearing about this awhile ago, but darn if I can remember about it.
  There were a LOT of lakes. And lakes in all manner of shape and size: lakes full to the brim lapping up on the roadside and lakes partially filled, lakes skinny and lakes hugely wide, lakes sparkly and lakes with colors muted, lakes with islands and trees, and lakes that stood seemingly empty but for the reflection of the clouds and trees above.  Hundreds of the lakes dotted the landscape and roadside like odd-shaped shiny coins tossed at random to the earth.
  Time after time, and for practically the whole day, there were sumptuous views of these seemingly pristine lakes.  At each turn there were new vistas of wonderment in valleys below and clouds above as I tooled along today. And I began to think that I'm not looking forward to getting back to the puny clouds at home.
  "Wawa" is the name of a milk company at home. There's a town I rode through today with that name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawa,_Ontario). The word means "wild goose" from an Indian word. And sure enough there was a huge statue of a goose at the entryway to the town. I stopped in a little general store that possessed a ton of little-general-store character down to the wooden floors and down-home friendly attitude of the employees there.  I browsed happily around the store for a bit and didn't get anything other than a little bag of freshly popped popcorn. (When I came into the busy place, the cashier greeted me with, "How ya' doin' today, sir?"  I replied with, "Anywhere I see a popcorn machine I'm happy.")
  I was disappointed there was no bench out on the wooden porch on which to sit and munch. So I just stood around for quite awhile watching things go by… tourists come and go, workers pumping gas, the man on the high ladder cleaning the goose statue's neck, and the wind puffing the clouds along.
   There was a stuffed moose barely fitting on the porch there to keep me company. (Man, are those things HUGE!!)
   Shortly after Wawa came the full forests of Lake Superior National Park.

oooooooooooooooooooo
Errata, Asides, and Confessions:
-  There are no cabooses on the trains anymore. I miss them. Another casualty of the economy from what I understand. Happened a few years ago.
- Never got to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Days have been too full. Sent the book home awhile ago. Plan to read it when home.
- Seem to be talking to myself a little more than usual. (But at least I'm not answering myself back!)
- On my rest day in Winnipeg I went for a 2-mile ride to the carwash to clean the bike and to dinner without my armor on. Just shorts, shirt, running shoes, and helmet.  No need to scold me. I know, I know. Won't do it again.
- It's great when you love to do something and your planning, and your thinking about it, and your savings allow you to do it.
- There have only been one or two motorcyclists I've seen on the road that have had yellow on like I have. Most all the rest are in all black.
- It seems ironic on a 10,000+ mile motorcycle trip, but the time during each day that I am my most careful is when I step into and out of the motel room shower.
oooooooooooooooooooo
  I have several friends who are Canadians. I was sure disappointed that the vastness of the country, and where they live in relation to the Transcanada Highway prevented me from seeing them. Jacki, who lives far north from the route, noted some of my Canada questions and observation. She sent me a note about them. I'm sure she won't mind my sharing the information with you.
  Interesting catching up on your daily travels. You mentioned seeing a bi-plane landing near you, these are what we call "Crop Dusters". Farmers around here spray their crops and the easiest and quickest way is by plane, they fly really low and sometimes catch a person off guard, especially if they weren't expecting one. One time we didn't see one coming over us from the side until he was almost over us and there was this roar, we thought something was going to blow up. lol.
  Canadian money keeps changing. We haven't had $1 bills up here for quite a while now and we are used to the "Loonie" because of the "loon" (bird) pictures on the front of the coin. The Loonie was first introduced in 1987 to replace the $1 bills because it cost more to keep replacing the popular bills, the coin doesn't have to be replaced as the paper bills did.
  The Toonie became the official $2 in 2006 and again, it is that they do not have to be replaced anywhere near the # of $ bills that would be unissuable (meaning return to Bank of Canada to be replaced).
  The purple vegetation you saw along the prairies was Flax.
  Flaxseed has many uses. Its major use has traditionally been in oil-based paints and other protective coatings but it is also used in such things as linoleum, printer's ink, soaps, putty, industrial lubricant and as a salt-resistant coating for concrete highways and sidewalks. Flaxseed contains 35%-40% linseed oil. After oil extracting, the remaining linseed meal is used as a livestock protein supplement, averaging approximately 35% protein content. The addition of flax or flax byproducts in a variety of foods has diversified this market.
. oooooooooooooooooooo

  Today I traveled endless hills, some leading right up into the clouds and some heading right down to the rippling edge of Lake Superior.
  Every time there was a break in the trees to the right and Lake Superior came into view there'd be a huge gust of wind. I was distracted at one point putting notes in the tape recorder, and one puff of wind practically pushed me to the other side of the road.
  At 4:30pm while rolling along the highway I could tell I missed a storm by maybe half an hour because the roadway was wet.  Good thing I lingered at that little popcorn break back in Wawa.
  The views of deep aquamarine blues of Lake Superior were amazing to behold.
  Took a short little break at 4:20pm to take a look at the Transcanada Highway mid-point plaque.
   Just before Sault Ste Marie, a little black squirrel came skittering out in front of me and just made it to safety across to the other side of the road.
   Sault Ste Marie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario) is the biggest city I've come upon in awhile. It looked gigantic and bustling as it stretched out before me. This especially so after I had been through those scores of miles of placid lakes and trees.
   After checking out a few motels I settled on the Satellite Motel because it had a wireless connection.  I gathered my clothing together and hoofed it over to the Laundromat. While the laundry was spinning I hoofed it some more over to a Taco Bell about three-quarters of a mile away, and then browsed through a Staples, and a then a food store where I bought a banana and an orange.
  I like walking and running through places I don't know, and will often try shortcuts where it looks like there is no way out.  It's the best opportunity to find secret paths and back alleys.
  Back at the room I got to work cleaning the Nomad which wasn't too tough today since there wasn't any rain.  The friendly motel operator even brought me a bucket and a bunch of rags.
  There's a series of locks in Sault Ste Marie which is part of the busiest canal in the world in terms of tonnage.  One day I hope to come back and take tour of those locks.

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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 37 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK TOUR - AUGUST 6,2008

August 6, 2008 - Wednesday - Day 37
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 300 - Total Miles - 8681
- Ignace,Manitoba,Canada to Terrace Bay,Canada
(-staying at Red Dog Inn -)
(Ontario)

- It was SUPPOSED to be a nice easy day… It was to be a cushy ride alongthe northern rim of Lake Superior. But it turned into the most challengingday of the trip - and one that included the most terrifying moment. -

- In terms of excitement, challenges and danger, probably the best day yet. -
***

It was another good restful night's sleep. My run took me through theIgnace post office where I sent a few postcards. It was interesting beingthere. The price of stamps for postcards and letters is the same in Canada- about a buck!
I saw Albert's wife. I had hoped to see him, and was lucky enough to do so a bit later before I left.
Albert warned me about not going fast through Upsala, about fifty milesdown the road, where he recommended a place I stop to eat. He said thatone of the officers there, who watches the roads carefully, would "give hisgrandmother a speeding ticket!" Albert said, "Don't go more than 60!" I said, "'Sixty' to you and me have different meanings. He then verifiedhe meant kilometers, also known as 'clicks.'
Man-o-man, I was so excitedto be talking with Albert, I almost forgot my back bag. I was on the bikewaving good-bye and was just about to drive off. I probably wouldn't havenoticed for a few blocks when I leaned back. But before I left, Albert'swife came running out with it.

The day began in grand style - nicepuffy clouds and warm enough to not have to use two jackets, and cool enoughto be comfortable.
I wouldn't normally have stopped so early - itwas around 11am - as I did in Upsala for a meal. But Albert of Ignace recommendedthat I stop there and visit with his friend, also named Albert. It turnedout the guy wasn't there, but I did enjoy a huge bowl of superb real oatmealand a butterscotch muffin. They had a wireless connection there for me, too,so that was also a bonus.

I passed a number of buildings thathad the mysterious initials, "L.C.B.O." on them. I never got to ask anyoneabout what they meant, but at one point in the day I googled it. "LiquorControl Board of Ontario."

There are some odd public road signshere. One that struck me as peculiar was "LARGE VEHICLES NEED MORE ROOM." Hmmmm… Duh!

It got very cold and grey heading into ThunderBay. I missed a wonderful photograph through a little clearing of trees.It was of train tracks and forest leading off to the far horizon with halfrainfall, half sunshine over a distant mountain.

As I approachedthe town, there was a full apron of darkness over Thunder Bay, so I juststayed on the highway and sailed right by. I did stop at the hillock wherethere is a memorial to that Terry Fox fellow. You'll recall back at MileZero there was a statue honoring him, too. He's the young boy who tried tohoof it across Canada in spite of his cancer on one good leg and on one prosthesisleg. This was as far as he got before the cancer got him. It was a movingtribute there on that high hill overlooking Lake Superior.

At one point this morning, I moved back home into the Eastern Time Zone. And it was good being back!

There wasn't much in between towns. Just trees and lakes, and the occasionalfarm and stream. And the towns were about 50 or 60 miles apart so that'sa LOT of trees.

There were a number of dirt roads that seemed tolead to nowhere which radiated on occasion from the main road. I wouldpeer down them as I zipped past, and they went over crests and around hills. Some disappeared in the tree thickets. And some went into the distancebeyond seeing. Dirt roads. Where do they go?

At one gas stopjust east of Thunder Bay at 2:40pm, I chatted with a nice young guy who wasgassing up a four-wheeled sport vehicle. I asked him about the weather tothe east, and he said he was just down that way and it was pouring. So Isuited up.

There were quite a number of times in the last partof the day that I put on raingear, and then the sun would come out in a fewmiles. And so I'd take it off. Then the dark clouds reappeared and I'd donthe yellow slicker and the gaiters, and put the cover back on the back bag.Then another turn of the road brought bright sunshine and high heat. Itwas frustrating.

Rolling along in one part of the afternoonI'd notice the black sky in front of me. And I'd go, "YEOW! that's black." And there'd be a turn in the road, and I'd look up, and I'd yell louder,"YEOW!! that's even blacker!" And that went on for a few times until I couldn'tlook up any more because of the rain, and having to concentrate on the roadway.

Then I came to a long series of road construction projects. On the two lane road, that meant that flagmen were set up to halt the flow of travelon one side of the road, while the other side progressed. Then, the otherside would be halted.
So there were a number of waiting periods -just sitting and waiting for the whole line of cars to move along throughthe other side of the two-lane highway. Sometimes it was for a half houror more. Even though it was raining, some folks got out of their cars andhad a smoke. I took pictures and just watched what was going on.

The roads went from semi-repaired to all dirt and gravel, to just dirtfor awhile. It was very nervous riding for me picking my way along with thesnaking line of cars at five-to-ten miles per hour over the garbled highwayin the rain. Then it would be fine road, and then the process would beginall over again.
With a broad smile I shouted over to one of the guysstanding with his orange warning flag in the rain in the mud, "Which oneof you guys is going to come and clean my bike tonight?" He must have beenthinking about being in his warm home in front of dinner instead of beingout there in the cold downpour. Because I didn't see much of a smile fromhim. (Maybe he laughed when he thought about it later in the evening.)
I kept thinking, "How much worse can this GET?" And then, you knowwhat? It got worse!!! MUCH worse! There came an uphill on wet gravel/sand/rock/dirtwith the rain coming down, and with a zillion cars in front and in back ofme - at one point I almost lost balance and the Nomad started to go over.I righted it, but not without feeling my left calf crunch against the backcrash bar before the bike was righted. It was a terrifying moment - the scariestof the trip. The big 800-pound cruiser wasn't made for tip-toeing over littlestones. Wet stones. In the rain. And I was pretty nervous as I felt the controlgo, and the instinct step in. But I barely got the bike righted and I'm surethat all those folks around me breathed the same sigh of relief that I did. It was about another score of yards or so before the road became solid again.
The calf felt pretty stiff and sore for about fifteen minutes before feeling better.
The roadway was in some state of repair for about twenty slow miles.


It was raining pretty good and steady at most times as I rounded themountaintops, but there were some pretty darn good views of Lake Superior.I was frustrated that I couldn't take more photos.
Towards the endof the day, a single big patch of blue sky was tantalizingly in front ofme almost all the way. But I just couldn't catch up with it. Meanwhilethe rain kept pelting me in the face. Because of the rain on the windshieldand on my helmet's shield, and on my sunglasses, eventually I had to ripoff the sunglasses without taking my helmet off.
At one point, an18-wheeler was bearing down on me. There was no way to let him pass onthe downhills, and on the uphills and straight-aways, I was way ahead ofhim. But on the downhills I could feel that truck snorting at me like somebull in the ring. Finally there was a passing lane on a slight uphill andI let him go by with a friendly wave. Whew!
And the rain continued.Sometimes heavy, sometimes in just big drops and sometimes in a misty drizzle.And the big trucks coming at me were tracking with the water on the groundand one could see the huge shrouds of water droplets as they made their waydown the highway. And then that splume of spray would sponge over me andpass by… There were never tsunamis of water like on other rides, but itwas always pretty damp.

I was intent on hitting 300 milesand not stopping sooner. So I kept going. And right at the goal mark wasTerrace Bay. The price was right in the first place I stopped (although Idid walk next door and find that place was full up!)… After securing theroom I went on a two-mile jaunt down to the lakeside. I figured Trish wouldlike it if I also touched the shoreline in the north as well as the fourcorners!
I stopped at a Subway on the way back. As I was leaving anolder guy was taking a picture of the cute young blond woman with the tooheavy black-ringed eye make-up behind the counter. As we left the store togetherI asked the man why he was taking the picture. He said it was his granddaughter,and that he was in the area visiting. Seems his son, her father, had dieda few years ago. The man said it should have been himself at 83 who shouldhave died, not the son. I inquired as to if it was natural causes that causedthe death. The man said his son had lost his job, and took to drink, andlost most everything. From the tone I assumed it was a suicide. The man tearedup as he talked from the heart and said it was hard to move on…

I got back to the motel, pulled around to the side, and unloaded. ThenI set about the huge job of cleaning the Nomad. It took about 45 minutesuntil it was gleaming again.
I like trying candy bars that are notavailable in the United States. So when there were a few available down atthe office I said to the lady there, "Well, you talked me into it, I'll haveone of those." She laughed because she hadn't said anything about it, andthen I said as I often do, "Well, just give me YOUR favorite one." Shesmiled and handed me one, and said that I could just have it for free since,"You asked for my favorite one!"
Got a little hungry around 10pm orso, and I took one of my microwave popcorns down to the kitchen. The friendlyyoung woman there who was cleaning up the remains of the salad bar said thatsure, she would put it in the microwave for me. She did so, and the smellwas great. Great, that is, until ----- she opened the door and billows ofdark smoke and burned popcorn smell enveloped the area. She kept apologizingprofusely, but I told her not to worry about it and that I'd get anotherbag. Which I did.
While we were standing there I asked her how muchthat delicious looking wedge of blueberry pie would be? She said with asmile that since she burned the popcorn I could just HAVE the pie. Thatmade both of us happy - she got her act of contrition, and I got the pie.And it was delicious!
Back at the room I worked on getting the rawjournal notes out of the tiny tape recorder, caught up on emails, enjoyedpart of the Cardinal game on the net, and stayed up a little too late Skyping.

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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DARK SKIES FROM DAY 37

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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 36 OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MC RIDE - AUG5,08

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August 5, 2008 - Tuesday - Day 36
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 300    - Total Miles -   8381
Winnipeg,Manitoba,Canada to Ignace,Manitoba,Canada
(-staying at The White Otter Inn   -)
(Manitoba)
- SYNOPSIS -

  After I finished breakfast in the little dining area in the motel, I engaged three Harley guys who were eating. Nice fellows and we traded stories about our rides. The handsomest of the three said he had gotten a ticket the other day. The other two were ahead and he was catching up and got nabbed. It was the first mc guy that I heard of getting a ticket, and I felt bad for him.  He was sort of down in the dumps about it, but I took ten bucks out of my wallet and paid for his breakfast, and despite protestations from him, I could tell that picked him up.
  And then it was out on the highway through town. That didn't take long, and soon I was out on the bigger three-lane highway. I noticed that the further I move east, the more signs are in English and French.
   ***
   The last time I had been in Winnipeg was when I flew in and bicycled out of the airport on my Winnipeg-to-Lincoln,Nebraska bicycle trip.(The reason for that trek was to get the states, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska!)  That trip had many many interesting aspects to it including touring a palace made entirely of corn, a visit with and couple day ride with a former student, and the very very toughest day of any day in all my bicycling career. It was only 65 miles south into Oakes, North Dakota, but it was entirely against a strong cold wind and storm. And no place to stop and even lean a bike the whole way. Now, THAT was tough pedaling!
***
    An odd-looking building on the way out of Winnipeg was the Royal Canadian Mint.
    I had been wondering whether I was halfway through Canada when I saw a sign by the road announcing: THIS IS THE LONGITUDINAL CENTER OF CANADA!  I was so sorry that I wasn't able to get a picture.
    Didn't go by many farms today - but there were acres and acres of trees in probably thousands of square miles of forests.
   140 miles out of Winnipeg I passed through Kenora. It was a gorgeous little town with a large lake beside it.  In fact, there are hundreds, probably thousands of lakes, gigantic and tiny, in the area I rode through today.  And I might have passed right next to half of them.
   Each little town seems to have a museum of some sort. What a clever little way of advertising Dryden's history museum!  They had a billboard exclaiming, "Life In The Past Lane."
   Just as I passed a sheep farm in the early afternoon, two police cruisers came up on my left and passed me with siren blaring.  I've mentioned before about hating to be surprised on the road. But that was quite a surprise there!
   I chatted with a whole bunch of folks at the gas stop in Dryden. After hearing about the extent of the trip and then admiring the bike, one guy commented with a smile, "You got the toy to do it!"  Another wasn't so excited about doing such a trip on two wheels - he noted with a laugh, "I'd rather do that in a JET!"
   There were a lot more long distance bicyclists on the roads today than other days.
   By around 4pm, I was way short of goal, and felt badly about that, but I knew I just couldn't go on with any good margin of safety.  My concentration was shot, my eyes were drooping, and my head just wasn't clear.  I was "seeing" things on the side of the road that weren't there, and my reaction time was suffering.  So at the next town, Ignace, I decided to have a meal and see how I felt. Well, I learned that there was really no place to stay between Ignace and Thunder Bay, which was my original target stop. That would be another 100+ miles down the road.  So I would have had to go all the way tonight, and with the time change in a few miles I wouldn't have gotten in until about 8:30pm.  It wouldn't have been a problem with getting a room since it wasn't the weekend, and the national holiday was over.  But who knows if I would have made it.  So I decided to stay in Ignace.  Ignace had about 20 businesses on each side of the highway, and as far as I could tell, that was it.
  The young couple who had been following me much of the way on a sport bike came in to the gas stop right after me. He was a tall guy and she was short. They were riding two up.  I said that was quite a patch of road we had just enjoyed, and they agreed.
  After a Subway sandwich, and learning that the water was undrinkable in this town because of too much iron in it, I popped across the street to the White Otter Inn. It advertised newly renovated cozy rooms, good rates, and internet service.  Well, everything was mostly right except that the internet service was down for the community, and they were working on getting it back. I nudged them along. By mid-evening, it still wasn't working.
  I met one of the owners, Albert. After turning down coffee, and nixing a beer, he asked me, "Are you a friend of Bill's?"  With a quizzical look, I told him I didn't know what he meant. And then he explained that when someone is a member of AA they don't ask if someone is an alcoholic, they ask if the person is a friend of one of the founders, Bill. Albert said he'd been dry for 9 years, and I congratulated him with a firm handshake. I asked what prompted him to quit and he said he was about to lose everything in his life…
  Albert asked me if I had seen any moose. He said that around here a lot of accidents were caused by animals. In fact, 79% of the last 65 motor vehicle accidents involved deer or moose.
  After getting most of my gear up to the room, which had motel-provided bottles of water, I went down and spent about an hour of quality time with the Vulcan.  It was looking good before, but I got it about back to showroom total shine!  A number of people walked by and commented about how good it looked - and I told them about one of my goals being to roll in on the last day, and have someone say, "It just looks too clean to have gone those many miles."  It always makes me smile when I think of that.
  I also gave my helmet and shield a good cleaning.
  Without emails to catch up on I was able to concentrate on finishing up yesterday's and today's journal entries, downloading picture files, bringing the trip map up to date, and studying the route for the days ahead.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
To view photos from past days, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner, by going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list.  (I especially recommend days 10,12 (the sandstorm day!), 14, and 32.)








**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 35 OF THE CONTINUING AROUND-THE-BLOCK SAGA - AUGUST 4, 2008

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August 4, 2008 - Monday - Day 35
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 2    - Total Miles -  8081 
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
(-staying at a Howard Johnson Motel-)
- A GOOD DAY OF REST AND PLANNING -

   Today was a rest day/gearing-up-day. Among other things I:

- bought some food snacks so I wouldn't have to purchase them at the more expensive gas stop places.
- bought some new motorcycle cleaner/polish because the bottle I had originally brought with me is used up.
- completely cleaned up the MacBook desktop
- completely caught up on emails
- took the Nomad over to the carwash again and gave it another wash to get the rest of the coating of  bugs off it.
- organized and reorganized the bags again - even better.
- backed up all my files, picture and word files, to another drive.
- shaved.
- went through, organized, and filed all the various receipts for the trip - food, lodging, tolls, misc.
- studied my maps and figured I could be home within ten days. The goal of riding the Transcanada Highway from one end of the continent to the other would be accomplished - although there would still be that part in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to do…. someday.  I dunno, we'll see how fast the next days go.

   Enjoyed a bunch of emails today especially the one from Richard in Havertown who said I didn't have to really worry about going too fast here in Canada. His note read,  "By the way, you weren't really going that fast - speedometers automatically recalibrate to kilometers up there. Richard"  
   I thanked him for putting me at ease about that. And I went on to tell him that if a Mountie stops me I'll just tell him about that recalibration thing….


To view photos from past days, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner, by going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list.  (I especially recommend days 10,12 (the sandstorm day!), 14, and 32.)





**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 34 OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MOTORCYCLE VENTURE - AUGUST 3, 2008

August 3, 2008 - Sunday - Day 34
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 405    - Total Miles -  8079 
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada - to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
(-staying at a Howard Johnson Motel-)
(Saskatchewan,Canada to Alberta,Canada)
- CROSSED THE 8,000 MILE MARK - SECOND 400+ MILE DAY IN A ROW -


   Really moving along now - this makes 1173 miles in the last three days.
   
   For almost all day the crops and farm land were stretching in all directions into infinity. Once, several fields full of some purple vegetation were a delight to the eye.
  This morning, as most mornings, I hopped on the bike, and before I could blink twice - it was twenty miles on the odometer!
***
I'm mostly amazed that there is no trash - or hardly any trash - on the sides of the highway.
***
   I try to structure each day's riding in blocks of miles and time. I know it will take me about an hour and a half to go 100 miles. It's generally less than that, but I figure an hour and half.  Then I gas up at that 100-mile mark, and perhaps have a little snack, and stretch my legs.  And I just do that all day until I've reached where I wanted to go or judge that I'm too tired to go on.
***
  ESSO gasoline is here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esso) It sure brings back memories of childhood. Not only did I see the signs as a youngster, but my dad, one of the original announcers on WPVI (then WFIL) used to hawk ESSO gas in TV commercials.
***
  I actually feel sorry for the people in cars. They miss the breezes, and they miss more than half the fabulous scenes that roll by.
***
  As I was trying to deal with the different money system in one of the stores, I said with a smile to the young woman cashier, "Hey, I'm doing the best I can. I'm still trying to deal with the fact that your main piece of currency is called a "Loonie!" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie)  There is no paper one dollar bill here. The dollar is a gold-colored, bronze-plated coin with a loon on it. The two dollar coin is like a Loonie but the Toonie is a bi-metallic coin which bears an image of a polar bear.
***
  For part of the day I was fortunate enough to ride newly paved highway. Talk about glorious!
   I entered Manitoba (another of Canada's provinces) at precisely 2pm. Talk about "BIG SKY"! Man, all the way to the right was a storm. Right in front of me was a collection of cute little puffy clouds.  And to the left it was clear blue sky. It was like I was in an I-Max theater for most of the day!  Big Sky to the max!
  For much of the day I was alone on the highway. Or else I had just left everyone else behind!
  Right after Bandon, I looked over to my right and there was something I would have NEVER expected seeing - a huge bi-plane just over the field near the road, curving in for a landing.  It sure took me by surprise.
   And I thought the bugs were bad yesterday! Today they were dive-bombing me on suicide missions for most of the day. The windshield was littered with 100's of insect body parts between each gas stop. In the evening, after checking into the motel, I took the bike over to the local carwash and sprayed the bike clean. A fresh-faced kid at one of the  gas stops said they liked the dry weather. I even had to stop at one point and clean off my helmet visor because of the bugs that had splattered on it.  I could see them swirling at me before they splashed on the windshield. There were flocks of them, and occasionally I'd duck as if by instinct.  They'd also pummel against my hands and legs.
  Went through a few miles of grasshoppers and dragonflies. Gizzards all over the windshield!
  (The grasshoppers reminded me of a worse time with the jumping creatures. On my Gulf of Mexico-to-Canada bicycle ride along the whole length of the Mississippi, I was riding an empty highway in Louisiana. Empty, that is, except for fields of grasshoppers on the road. Thickly together they were like a blanket for several miles as they'd jump up onto my spinning legs. The unlucky among them were crushed under my tires as the crunching and crackling sound echoed up from the pavement in a gruesome staccato.)
   It was windy for parts of the day - and this was evidenced by the long trucks that were wobbling and wiggling along in their lane.  I was sure to stay clear of them.
   Heading into Winnipeg for about thirty miles it was pretty choppy road. Had to pay special attention to the holes and gutters there.
   I took the first motel that on the right hand side. And that's mainly because the cute young woman behind the counter gave me the government worker discount which was about $40 off the regular pricing.
  It was a great room, right down from a Taco Bell, and down near a carwash for the bike bugs, and near many other stores. It had a good internet connection. Because of all this and the fact that I had rung up so many miles recently, and because the next ride HAS to be over 425 miles to Thunder Bay, I decided to take another day here.
  Felt kinda wimpy though when I was talking to a couple other bike guys who blew in around 8:30pm or 9ish.  They were use to 700 mile days. I was absolutely incredulous!


(Note to readers: Is there an aspect of the trip you would like to know about that I haven't mentioned? And what questions might you have about what's been written?  I enjoy hearing from folks while on the road.  So please let me know what you might want to hear about. Or, if you have the inclination, just drop me a line. Joel)
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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

GREETINGS FROM MOOSE JAW, Saskatchewan,Canada -AUGUST 2, 2008

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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

A RAINBOW IN MOOSE JAW-AUGUST 2, 2008

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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 33 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK TREK-AUGUST 2, 2008

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August 2, 2008 - Saturday - Day 33
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 442    - Total Miles - 7674
Calgary,Alberta,Canada- to  Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,Canada
(-staying at  Park Motel  -)
(Alberta-Satchkatchewan)
- MOVING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT - DANCING WITH CLOUD SHADOWS ON THE HIGHWAY - AT RAINBOW'S END -

   By 9am I was ready to meet Myron and Marilyn Weber. They live here in Alberta. Last I had seen them was three years ago when their wedding was photographed on the same day as leaving on the All-48-State ride. Myron looked dapper in a black cowboy shirt that I liked a lot.
   I finished packing the bike and moved it over to the Denny's parking lot that was right next door to the motel.
   Myron, who is a professor at Calgary University, said he was just back from China and he's worried about the Olympic athletes going there. It seems that the air pollution has even turned the skies in many areas a golden yellow. He fears all the athletes will need medical attention for their lungs when they return to the USA.
  Myron related a number of good tales. He and Marilyn, real world travelers, were in South Africa a bit ago, and planning to stay in one particular town. The desk clerk in the hotel said to the couple, "There's going to be trouble tonight, and I'd get my lily-white asses out of town!"  They did, and a good thing, too.
   But it was even more dangerous when Myron was speaking in Egypt one time recently. He was accosted by soldiers with AK-47's pointing at him and Marilyn.  He bluffed his way out of that one saying he was in constant contact with folks, and if he didn't call in, they would swarm all over that place right away…. I said that that made my rain stories from the other day seem like puny child's play in comparison.
   Clearly a guy after my own heart, Myron said in the end, "I'd rather have the headline read, 'Old prof  hit by rhino,' instead of 'Hit by truck.'"
   The Calgary Stampede is a big draw around here. Myron said it's the largest rodeo in the world and has million dollar prizes - but he was concerned that  organized crime was gradually moving in.
  Myron noted that much of Calgary is high altitude desert at 3500 feet, and that my ride today was very flat and heading downhill a bit. So flat and so long he kidded, that I just might be able to see William Penn's hat.  (A statue of Penn sits above City Hall in Philadelphia.)
   As we were parting, Myron said it was good seeing me, and that I was "looking as immortal as ever! Kanahorah." (A Yiddish expression meaning "to ward off the evil eye, especially in light of good fortune".) I let out a belly laugh at that one!
   After the nice breakfast on this cool morning, and our chatting for about an hour, I was out on the highway and moving by 10:20am!
   And it was another most favorite day as the roads were sparkling, clear of debris, and straight as an arrow.
 
  Had an hour lunch at Pizza Hut - was very happy to get on-line and clean up all my emails. Also had a nice IM session with Jim, a video buddy from home. I enjoyed a big salad and a small tomato sauce and mushroom pizza while typing away.
  It was so flat today that there was nothing but the mirage of the water on the highway to the end of the road.
  Saw a few freight trains on the prairie today - one was seemingly stretched form horizon to horizon there were so many cars.
  I mentioned Soarin' earlier in these notes. It's that Epcot exhibit where one sits in a chair and the countryside on the huge screen flies by on film giving you the wonderful illusion that one is flying over the landscape. That is what it was like today - the road was perfect - flat, clean, and smooth. It felt like I was flying over that fabulous scenery of farms, sparkling low-lying lakes, and deep green pastures.
    At 1:30pm I rolled through Medicine Hat. Their sign at the front of the town proclaims them the dubious honor of being, "Gas City."
  The breeze was fresh as it rolled across the plains today, but there would be occasionally pungent fertilizer smells and more occasionally, the ripe awful smell of a putrefying dead animal.
  It was a perfectly clear afternoon ride, although I'd like to offer apologies to hundreds of little black bugs that sacrificed themselves by splatting against the Vulcan windshield. (I was culling the herd I suppose.)  I had to work hard to remove what was remaining of them when I'd stop for gas.
  The sky began cloudless, and then a few hours later, little puffs appeared. Then the puffs grew bigger, and by the afternoon, with the bigger clouds occasionally blocking the sunbeams,  I was dancing with cloud shadows down the highway. And a good dance it was!
   As I ride along, you'll remember, one of the things I do is memorize or recite poems that I know.  Well today the countryside, or at least the inside of my helmet got one hell of a performance of Poe's The Raven. I aced it perfectly while picking up some new meanings in the words, and new and better inflexions in the presentation.
  I looked down at the speedometer at one point and it read 93, and it was like I was going in slow motion. And the same with 97. And the same with 103.
  Even when I really TRIED to slow up I would look down and notice I was STILL going a hundred. The winds must have been really something today blowing me along!  At one point I hit a record 110 while crossing those plains! 
   And I think the Nomad was sorry that I backed it down then because it wanted to see how much faster it could go! We were just galloping along across the Satchcatewan countryside.
   Smiling all the way, I was a blurred streak of pure joy hurtling down the highway.
    I had a situation at one point where I had to back it down to 80mph. It was like everything around me was in slow motion, and I was taking baby steps down the highway.
  At one gas station I asked how far it was to Moose Jaw. The lady translated it into miles and then said, "About an hour and a half."  I replied with a smile, "Okay, I'll be there in twenty minutes!"  Everyone standing around laughed.
  Roared into Saskatchewan about 3:30pm.
  No two days could have been so different as yesterday from today, and no two days could have been as wonderful.
  At one point today it occurred to me that I had no clue as to what day it was!
  Rolled into Moose Jaw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_Jaw,_Saskatchewan)
(Don't you just love that name?) and passed the turn off for the motel, and so I had to double back.
  I found a man who looked very much bored with his job there, but he promised a web connection, and a somewhat reasonable rate.  I checked in and shot down the highway to a little restaurant for dinner. The salad and baked potato were superb and I gobbled them down. After taking my gear up to the room, I discovered a problem with the web connection, and so had to walk out of the room every time I wanted to get on-line.
Got my laundry done in a washer provided by the motel.
   There was a rainbow in the sky amidst all the wonderful clouds over Moose Jaw this evening.
   It was one of the first night's I didn't take a shower or even get ready for bed. I was laying on the bed typing away, and just fell sound asleep, deliciously exhausted.


To view photos from today, which include some amazing sunset shots, or the whole trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner, by going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list.  (I especially recommend days 10,12 (the sandstorm day!), 14, and 32.)


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**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

FROM DAY 32 IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

DAY 32 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYLING TRIP-AUGUST 1,08

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August 1, 2008 - Friday - Day 32
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today -  326   - Total Miles -  7232
Salmon Arm, BC, Canada - to  - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
(-staying at  The Point Motel  -)
(BC-Alberta)
- CHALLENGES, DECISIONS, AND ULTIMATLY, THE BEST MOTORCYCLING DAY EVER -  - A NEW FAVORITE PLACE -

I'm not a jaded guy. But since I've been so many places, and seen so much of the American continent, it takes a lot to take my breath away. For much of today though, my jaw was constantly dropping, and my eyes were wide with all the wonderment to behold.

***
  To unfold this amazing day the way it should be told, would take a writer with far more skills than I possess….  I reread all that's below, and look at the pictures, and I'm frustrated that it just doesn't convey a tenth of the day.
***

  I awoke at 4:30am and thought I'd have another problem with not being able to get back to sleep, but I rolled into some really sweet dreaming, and got a couple more hours of  restful shuteye.
  It was the first night that the tarp was put to good use - it rained overnight. I hung it dry on the nearby fence. (I do put the cover on the bike every night. It protects from rain as last night, and also a covered bike is less of a temptation for someone to come messing around it.)
  My run took me out onto the highway and then through part of the little town. The ring of mountains, with dramatic clouds nuzzling the peaks was breathtaking.
   Back in the room, and before departing, I gave my contact lenses a really good cleaning this morning. It made a difference throughout the day.

***
   The secret to almost everything is getting a good morning jump on the day.
***
    About mid-morning, I passed a bicyclist, and his pump was hanging off the back of his bike precariously. It flashed me back to one of my southwestern desert rides where part of the pump had actually fallen off, and I was left with no way to pump up my tires should I have needed air (which I did!) in the total middle of nowhere.  He didn't quite get what I pointed out as I went by, so I rode about a hundred yards ahead, pulled over, leaned back in the crisp morning air, and waited for him. David was riding this part of Canada, and had a long haul ahead into the mountains. First thing I always say to bicyclists is, "You need anything?"
   He didn't need a thing. I told him how often as I was motorcycling along and I wished I was on a bicycle instead. He said when it came to the mountains, HE wished he had a motorcycle!  We both laughed.
   The lean guy was from Quebec.  I said I'd give him a shout when I went through Quebec further down the road. As I mention to all travelers, I told him if he ever got through Philadelphia he'd have a place to stay. Then I took a couple pictures, gave him contact information so he could get the picture, and then we parted. At the expense of a wave, I got an action shot of him as I passed him down the road.
  Soon it was all mountains as I crossed into Glacier National Park. Also rode through a bunch of rain showers. And it was cold. I kept debating whether to stop, and for the first time since the southern states, put on my rain slicker and the rain paints and gaiters recently purchased. I delayed all this as the sun seemed ahead and the showers were brief in duration. The mostly constant drizzle had me concerned.
  But the morning was glorious in views near and distant. Great greens and brilliant blues - and everything in between with air rushing at me that was clean and energizing.
   Shortly, around mid-day, just when I was getting a bit concerned about the gas situation, I came to an area where there was a store, some gas pumps, and a lovely looking lodge. It was set in just a magnificent little flat area near the top of the range with giant dramatic peaks all 'round.
   Just as I finished gassing up, and was paying, the rains came.  Rather the rains REALLY came. Torrents and buckets worth. 
   So I stood there thinking. And thinking. I had the choice - go out into the rain or go to that cushy-looking Glacier Park Lodge.  I asked the fellow behind the counter what he thought. In his experience, would this storm continue or abate? He said that as far as he knew it would continue the rest of the day, and that's what the forecast predicted.  Then, to my pleasant surprise, he gave me a paper that would give me $50 off the room price.  Should I go or stay? (Hey reader, what would you do?)  It was a dilemma. It was freezing cold out there, and pouring. Yet, I know how fickle the weather is in the mountains. Also, I had only put in 100 miles today, far short of goal for a second day in a row.
   On the other hand, the rain made the roads and riding more dangerous, eliminated the views, and was a pain in the neck. Perhaps tomorrow morning would be dryer - OR - perhaps the rain would last for a couple of days… Also, I had just geared up for the rain, spending about 15 minutes leaning against the ice cream freezer, putting on my gaiters and long rain pants. And further, I had just asked someone coming from the direction I was going how the weather was - and they told me it was raining all the way for many miles. What to do?  Frost's "The Road Not Taken" popped into my head…
***
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as long as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passage there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
***
  Clearly whatever I decided would have profound implications on the rest of the ride.  (Just as when I took the extra day to spend with Mike back on Day 2. IF I hadn't taken that day, would I still be facing this problem now?  Or would I have a whole new set of problems? So, I had a decision to make. And I made it - I decided to stay. I could catch up on lots of things and head for Calgary the next day.
  Well, ummm… so the guy handed me the slip of paper that said $50 off the room rate of $150. And I headed out the door armed with the paper and a sense of disappointment but also resignation that I wasn't moving on.
   At that point, a couple came in from the east on a motorcycle.  It was a younger couple on a little bike. And they looked like drowned rats. They smiled over at me and I at them. I asked about the weather to the east and they said just beyond the coming tunnels it was clear. The guy suggested I wait fifteen minutes. So I had more conflicting info…
    But then, an amazing thing happened. I stood there for about three minutes, again absorbed in thought about whether to go on or stay, and then received more new information of sorts: the sun came out dazzling brightly!  The snow at the top of the peaks were spotlighted in a halo of shine.
  Was it just a momentary lull in the storm? Well, the sky seemed blue. 
   Hmmmm…. With this new information in mind, I shoved the paper in my pocket, stuffed a candy bar in my mouth, and headed over to the Nomad which was still by the pump. I kicked it in gear and went out to the highway to have a closer look. Then I pulled off to the side looking at the mountains and the road ahead, and over at the Lodge. Again, what to do?  I leaned back on the bike, turned off the engine, and enjoyed the moment. I took a ton of pictures of the mountains - and one over at the lodge. And one at the curious shop with the grass growing on the roof. And I enjoyed the moment for maybe ten to fifteen minutes out in the freshest of air possible - the after-rain wind blowing off the mountains and the trees. (Only the breeze coming in from the vast Pacific off the Oregon Coast can compare!)  It was wondrous. Moments sublime. The nature before me was extraordinary. They were truly moments incomparable.
  And no one else but me could make the decision whether to go or stay.

ooooooooooooooo
  Should I have gone? Should I have stayed?  I might have missed more beauty down the road. It might have rained for the next three days.   The easy way out is to say it's all already written, or that some force directs us to right or to wrong. I don't believe that. That takes away our own responsibility. That takes away our essence as human beings to think. It takes away life itself. It kills initiative, and it's too easy an excuse when things go wrong. I believe we make, through our decisions foolish or wise or simple, our own futures.
ooooooooooooooo

   Well, at that point, I did the only thing that my accumulated experience and my character COULD do. I turned the key, and continued down the road to plunge into whatever was ahead, and find whatever adventures were there.

   And it was an afternoon through the mountains with scenes not to be forgotten. The roads were full of turns and challenges to me on my big cruiser bike.
  My motorcycling friend from home, David, was just back from his ride in Canada. I'm sure he would have taken those hills with ease like a billy goat, and with confidence and enjoyment. I was nervous and sometimes scared, and not very confident at all. But the scenes before me make everything worthwhile.
   At every turn there was a new panorama of amazing sights in every direction - especially toward the mountain tops.  There were great swirling mountains to the right, bubbling creeks to the right and left. At one point a train, powerful and dramatic, even went by.  It was just a sumptuous ride     .
   I took a short break in Golden. It was at an overview of the town, with the tracks and the river and the town below. And the ever-present majesty of the ever-changing be-clouded mountains all around. I reached into my rain slicker for the first time and I'll be darned if I didn't find my original set of molded earplugs!!!  The last I wore the yellow jacket was in the deep south during a rain storm, and I must have put them in there and forgotten that's where they were.  I was delighted that I hadn't lost them after all.
   The traffic was stopped ahead as I rode beyond just beyond Golden. I thought it was an accident, but it was a herd of  big horn sheep along the roadway. I pulled over and got a bunch of pretty nice and close-up shots.  A couple of the animals skittered across the highway in front of quick-stopping cars. It's just amazing at how the sheep continued to dine on the grass on the almost vertical cliffs!

  I came into the province of Alberta, Kicking Horse Country, in the rain - big splots of drops smacking me on the helmet and face.
 
  I crossed the Continental Divide again today.  And that's always a thrill. It was the second time this trip. 
  I stopped for gas in Banff. It was a little off the road, but the tank was about half full. And around these parts, it's just smart to keep filling up at about every station.  Sometimes the distance between stations makes me pretty nervous. In this case, since I had to travel a bit off the highway, though it was a pain in the neck. But it was a smart thing to do.
  Banff must be the tourist town where rich Canadians go.  It's a busy little town with a bunch of Japanese tourists, too.  Out in the middle of nowhere with scenic wonders beyond compare, it's no wonder that it was so crowded. There was the first traffic jam I'd seen in days!  Tourist shops and visitor amenities abounded.
   Right after Banff, and Dead Man's Flats, the dark clouds - and all clouds, in fact, disappeared and the sky turned total blue.
    I never did actually turn around to look as I rode the 80 more miles toward Calgary, but the mountains and the menacing clouds receded slowly as I peered into my rearview mirror.  Since both were so huge, it took awhile, but eventually, they were gone.
   I got a good chuckle at a number of the names today. For instance, I passed "Jumping Pound Road" followed by "Jumping Pound Creek."  Who can make sense of that?
   Into Calgary there are warning signs by the road that read, "WIND GUSTS"…  And how!  It's the first time that I felt myself and my 800-pound Nomad blown over a couple of feet at a time.
  I rode by dazzling lakes beyond compare today - lakes that were deep blue, and ones that were deep aqua-marine, a greenish blue that I've never seen before... lakes that were distant patches of sparkle, and lakes that were lapping up on the roadside.  They were as oddly compelling to the eye, as they were satisfying to the senses. It was wondrous to behold them all.
  I rode into Calgary with the sense that I had just experienced one of the best days of my life. And right when I was thinking it had been all of Canada since I'd seen a Taco Belle one appeared, and I pulled right over.
  I asked the pleasant but unfortunate looking lady behind the counter about availability of motels. And she said there was a motel section in the middle of town, but not to take any in the Taco Belle part of town, because there were "so many dopers here."
  I'm not sure that was so accurate but I made my way to the area she said, and sure enough there was a long row of places - all way too expensive. Except for the last one in the row.  But the sad looking woman with the globs of too red rouge said they only had smoking rooms left. (It was Friday night, and I expected a problem.) So I continued on through town and finally came to a large place, a little run down, that met my needs and budget.  By now it was about 7:30pm. I parked, checked in with the quiet-spoken neatly mustachioed man behind the counter and hauled my stuff up to the third floor.
  I wanted to write about the day. The thoughts and images from the ride were swirling in my head, but I couldn't do much because my energy was spent.
  People often ask me, "What's the favorite place you've been?"  And I knew that after today the Oregon Coast answer had been replaced by "Highway One through Glacier National Park."   

To view the many photos from today (AND FOR TODAY THIS IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED) and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html)



**************
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DAY 31 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MC TRIP - JULY 31,2008

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July 31, 2008 - Thursday - Day 31
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 251   - Total Miles - 6906
Hope,BC,Canada - to  Salmon Arm,BC,Canada
(-staying at  Traveler's Rest Motel-)
(BC)
- RIDING HIGHS, RIDING LOWS -

  It was enjoyable morning run. Out here pretty much in the middle of no where  I wound with the walkway around the slight curve of the mountain and the ridge. I ran to the bridge that straddled the Fraser River. Coming back I could see part of the little town of Hope nestled under the shadow of the mountains. A man and woman with three dogs were out early walking. I shouted over to them as I passed, "It looks like a parade!"
  I certainly had hoped to get an earlier start. Was finally out the door by 9:30am, but then had to stop for breakfast about ten miles down the road. They had just run out of oatmeal, so I had a veggie burger, and it was the best one of the trip!
  From that point on the day was split into two parts. The first part, north from Hope to Cache Creek was all trees and mountains and a very occasional store as I threaded my way over this part of the Rockies. A river flowed like a wet ribbon far down below for much of the way.  It was Grand Canyon-ish in scale. The views were amazing, but I couldn't enjoy them much because I was watching the road so carefully. There were a lot of  "Watch For Fallen Rock" signs, and "Avalanche Area" markers that caused concern. And what with all the high altitude turns, and that not being my favorite kind of riding anyway, it was slow going. And that slow going went on for about 80 miles!  Still, the freshness of the air was glorious, and I stopped once or twice for pictures. I just couldn't take but a few while riding during that portion of the ride. 
  There were also a number of tunnels to go through this morning. The most dangerous part of tunnels is that one can't generally see if there is debris on the roadway.
  From the high road I was riding, one viewed green valleys in size beyond imagining. Hay bales littered those green valley floors as if thrown down at random.  There were also great swaths of  rock canyons gouged out of the earth as far as one could see.
  The highest peak of all was on top of Jackass Mountain. (Really!  That was its name. Not kidding!)  I stopped and took photos of the river below which looked like a little line. The railroad tracks beside the river were barely visible. And house-sized boulders looked like puny playthings.
  Imagine a canyon and then imagine along the canyon there are sliced out ridges along the walls. That's where the cars moved along, sometimes the roads had shoulders and barriers, and sometimes there were none.  I took a good image showing a road along the rock face.
  Cars would often line up behind me because I was moving so slowly - partly because of caution, partly to get a better look around.  Whenever I could, I would move over to a rest area so they could get by my slowpoking.
The second part of the day was mostly flat, but with similarly fabulous views of valleys and mountains.  However, I couldn't enjoy the afternoon that much because I got so tired. Started to (you'll pardon the expression) crash around 3am. I'm not sure if it was the morning exertion or needing more sleep, or what.  But I kept getting more tired and more tired. And with this being some kind of holiday weekend here in Canada, and the motels filling faster, I knew that I should begin looking early for a reasonable place to stay.  (Many of the chain motels are over $135 with tax. But the smaller places are generally $50 to $70 less than that!  The exchange rate with Canadian money is about even at this time.
   So I bagged it at only about 5pm and with only 251 miles under my belt.  This was about 150 miles short of my goal.  I was sorry about that, but knew it was the right thing to do.   It also set me up better for the next two days with regard to distances between stopping for the day. The towns are much further apart now, and that has to be taken into consideration. 
   One thing that perked me up is when, east of Kamloops, I was running side-by-side with a long freight train.   I was smiling to beat the band.  Then, as I so often did when bicycling in a similar situation, I put my hand up in the air and pulled it down imitating the engineer yanking on the train whistle.  Most engineers understand, and when this guy saw me he tooted that whistle for all it was worth.  And that blast of energy - and the traveling camaraderie -  carried me for at least five miles.
  (Back on my cross-country bicycle trip as I was going into Santa Barbara the sun was going down.  I rode neck and neck with a train then, too. But that was after a grueling full day of biking. I had probably ridden 75 miles or more on that hot day. That engineer's train whistle still echoes through me every time I hear one - and that day it energized me up through the ever darkening California hills with an energetic spirit and joy that I've rarely felt since.)
  I had a delicious A&W root beer during the day. There are a lot of A&W restaurants here.  One patron there was wearing a "Roadkill Café" shirt. He let me take a picture of it.  I said to him, "You ever been there?" And he replied that he had been to one in Louisiana. I said, "Yeah, I think I passed by that one on one of my trips. But I have mixed feelings about it…. I'm a vegetarian!"  He laughed and laughed at that one!
  After checking out several motels, I settled into a mom and pop one just east of Salmon Arm.
  I was able to park the bike right outside the door. There was a little internet connection problem, that was soon solved.  Had a close call with one of my contact lenses. As I was cleaning it (stopper firmly in the sink) it plinked off my fingers onto the floor.  Not much problem there, but it landed within inches of the open heating grate - now THAT would have been a problem! (I do have an extra set with me, however.)
  I began working on fixing the pictures section on-line, and was up just a little later than I wanted to be.

Note 1:  I just don't know how dependable email contact will be now that I'm in Canada. So if you don't get a journal note edition for a day or so, don't worry.

Note 2: To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html)


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**************
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DAY 30 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK SUMMER JOURNEY - JULY 30,08

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July 30, 2008 - Wednesday - Day 30
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 180    - Total Miles - 6655
Victoria,BC,Canada- to Hope,BC,Canada
(-staying at a Red Roof Motel-)
(BC,Canada)
- ANOTHER FERRY - HEADING EAST -

   I awoke at 5:30am. I had some thoughts about rolling over and sleeping more, but I got right on the MacBook and happily caught up on emailings and some journal entry writing. The sun was pouring in on me from the window right beside the bed.
  Around 9am I went downstairs. I was sorry Mackenzie had to leave for Acting Camp.
  Linda prepared for me some oatmeal and I had some peanut butter toast. It was fun to watch Boo slice soooooo very carefully around her bread to take off the crust. I asked her if I could have those crusts, and then I eagerly gobbled them down.
  It was another hilly run, but my legs felt strong. And in the superbly refreshing mountain air I breezed along the tree-lined little roads.
   It was genuinely hard to leave here. It was another home in which there was a real warmth for the family, and not just a house that happened to have some people in it.
   On the way to Naimano and the Vancouver Ferry over to the mainland, there were lots of fields with cows or horses. The little towns had shops were advertising a lot of handicrafts including wicker and totem poles.  At one point there was a big ad for chicken manure.
    There were billboards for the All-Canada Indigenous Games to be played next week. (Which could impact my motel stay availability.)
  I enjoyed watching the different billboards and sale signs as they flew by on the highway. It was interesting dealing for the first time with the metric system re miles on the road and gasoline at the pumps. 
  The view from Malahat Peak was just outstanding. A giant-wide vista that seemed miles down - dots of white boats bobbing amid a miles-round blanket of azure blue!
   The ferry ride was smooth as silk. At one point the captain came on the squawker and announced that one of the roads on the other side was closed due to a rockslide.  (Not a road I was due to take though.)
  I spent most of the hour and a half ride in the comfy passenger seat typing. It was a huge ship - more like an ocean liner, I thought. The cavernous inside carried hundreds of cars, trucks, campers, and people. In fact, the ship measures 560 feet long (picture two football fields back-to-back), and these vessels can accommodate up to 2,100 people and 470 vehicles.
  Don Gilmore, a fellow mc'er on the ferry, heading out for his own little adventure, and I traded pictures and enjoyed chatting with each other…  He's a record produce who recorded Ravi Shankar about fifteen years ago. 
  Soon it was out of the ship's belly and rolling onto the highway. Then through the big city of Vancouver - and a magnificent swooping bridge over a wide waterway.
  In Abbotsford I stopped for gas. And man, I thought my luck was high, because there was a Honda dealer right across the street. (It's been about time to have the bike checked and the oil changed.) But they didn't have the filter I needed, nor would they fit me into their schedule to change my oil anyway.
   Outside the Honda place a fellow approached me and asked about my license plate which reads, "JOEL1".  He looked at it, looked at me, and asked, "Is that your name or a scriptural reference?"  I got a good chuckle out of that one!
  Then…. the  luck continued as there was a Kawasaki dealer right in the middle of town. I tooled over there and found a wonderful family-owned business. It was Gateway Powersports and they were most helpful. Jim, the dad, Ryan the son is the mechanic, and Nicole and her sister behind the counter were all friendly. I had the oil changed, the tires checked, and other parts looked over.  Jim gave me other ideas of places to ride, but I told him I was only interested in fulfilling my goal of riding the length of the Trans-Canada Highway.
   Leaving around 5pm, I couldn't resist stopping at "J's Pure Vegetarian Pizza".  The slice I had was superb. 
  For much of the rest of the day I rode into the dark-clouded mountains. It never did rain on me though, and I finally alighted in Hope.  It was a little early to stop, but I with the ferry ride taking a chunk out of the day, and the bike store taking another chunk I was pleased. I decided to end the day sooner, and then head out early tomorrow for the ride through the next range of mountains.
***

Note 1:  I just don't know how dependable email contact will be now that I'm in Canada. So if you don't get a journal note edition for a day or so, don't worry.

Note 2: To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html)



**************
Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today.
(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

DAY 29 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK FORAY /JULY 29, 08 - INTO CANADA

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July 29, 2008 - Tuesday - Day 29
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 104    - Total Miles - 6475
Bainbridge Island,WA - to Victoria,British Columbia, Canada
(-staying at Linda & Fred Jenner's Place   -)
(WA-British Columbia,Canada
)
       **** It's NOW folks! It's now the adventure REALLY begins! ****
--- THREE THRILLS: THE SHORE!  THE SONG!  AND CANADA'S MILE 0! ---

   It is to be a 4,800+ mile pretty much straight line tour across the whole of the Trans-Canada Highway ocean-to-ocean… and when  I look at the map it seems pretty daunting.  (This is a ride I had always wanted to do on a bicycle!  But time got by me, and for one reason or another, I just don't think that's in the cards now.  But trading the two wheels of the bicycle for the motorcycle it IS doable!  And…. about to happen.)

   It was not a particularly good night's sleep my second night on Bainbridge Island. The bed was comfy and all, but I was missing Ellie, and I was excited about the new phase of the trip.  After about four-and-a-half hours sleep, I awoke and gathered stuff together and went downstairs. Doug and Barb were at the table, and I gave them a good morning greeting.
  I took the long walk down the stairs outside the home to the shoreline with Doug.  Doug took a shot of me touching the water - now three-quarters through Trish's idea of touching the oceans at the four corners of the continent. We stopped at the boat house on the way back up.
  It was drizzly and cold this morning, as it was throughout the whole day.
  Back in the cozy dining area, Doug grabbed his guitar and played for me the song about my travels that he had been working on. Remember the  "Lonesome Roads and Empty Highways" song surmised about here on Day 6 into Vero Beach?  Well, Doug had actually written it, and then he and Barb sung it to me… (I shot it on video, too. If you have the inclination, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQV3vUXkrLY.)  I understand it's already in the Top 20, and so I'm guessing it will be up for a Grammy next year. It's really cool in that he weaves a lot of what has been written in these journal notes and some things people I've met have said, into the lyrics.
   By 9:30am it was time to leave. I was thankful that Barb and Doug escorted me out of the little community to the gas station and to the main road.
  I was so excited about getting back on the road that I left my gloves on the back fender and rode off. About three miles down the road, I thought, "Damn, my hands are cold!" After realizing why, I headed back to the station, but the gloves were nowhere to be seen. I thought Doug might have picked them up, but that turned out not to be the case. I got a cheap pair at the gas station and then got my butt down the road to Port Angeles - and to the date Nomad and I had with the COHO ferry to Victoria, Canada.
After a natural high, it's always a humbling experience to make a foolish mistake like losing those gloves. But that's what often keeps me sharp!
  It was a 53-mile ride through temperatures mostly in the 50's.  I passed a number of signs that read "Elk Crossing"… Spent most of the day's very overcast ride scanning the horizon at the end of the road and chasing the Dutchman's pants. (Don't get the reference? See day three!)
  I passed a few rain-slickered bicyclists struggling with the hills. I gave them all a thumbs up as I passed, and  honk-honked in a friendly manner. I've been there, and I know how that helps!
  There were mostly low hanging clouds over the peaks as I negotiated the mountains north on this Kitsap Peninsula.
 
  In Port Angeles, the Bainbridge Ferry area was very well marked with signs a few miles in advance announcing where the departure point was located.  At the entry point and on the boat, I chatted quite a bit with Suzy and Bob out of Portland. They were riding two-up on a big bike taking a  Canadian trip to the west.  The couple said that I looked like the actor Alan Arkin…  At least that was a little more complimentary than Doug saying this morning that he thought I looked like former Philadelphia mayor, Ed Rendell.  Man, I laughed at that one.
  With nervous excitement I disembarked from the ferry. I was very last in line and the last one off the boat. (Hey! They had TOLD me there was enough time for a trip to the men's room!)
  I had no problem getting through customs with the answer to a few questions. ("Do you have any weapons?"  "Are you planning on buying or selling anything in Canada?"  "How long do you expect to be here?"  "What is your job?")   One of my motorcycle pals who had made the crossing with me was not so lucky. He had been pulled over for further questioning.
  So, I was off the ferry and into the third country of this around-the-block journey. And I had absolutely no idea of where the two places I needed to go were!  I needed to find the "Mile 0" sign which marks the very beginning of the highway, and I needed to find the Jenners, friends from home. (I had shot their wedding eight years ago.)

  After a number of mile in the wrong direction, I backtracked and found that just past the beautiful Beacon Hill Park was the Mile 0 signage for which I had been searching.  I did a lot of asking to finally find it. I hopped off the bike, strolled over to the sign, and took a few photos.  I enlisted the help of Leonard, a dapper older gentleman who happened to be strolling by, to get my picture in front of the sign. It was a high point of my trip just being there to begin the journey.
Okay, the first goal of the day was done, but I still had to figure out where the heck Linda and Fred's place was - my GPS did not show their home in Victoria at the designated street. And a number of folks I asked about it, had never heard of the street.
  At that point a couple busloads of Japanese tourists came spilling out of big tour busses. They were chattering and excited about seeing the start of the longest highway in the world. They took pictures of the "Mile One" marker and also of the Terry Fox statue near-by. Terry was a young courageous fellow with cancer who began a cross-Canada running on one leg and a prosthetic leg… Regrettably, he died of his cancer before finishing.
  I went to one of the bus drivers and sure enough, he found on his map that the street needed was not in Victoria proper, but in Langford, a suburb. He gave me quick directions, but I plugged the address in the GPS, and bingo! It located the home.
  I set out through Victoria proper, and after some pain in the neck back-ups, was soon tooling along through the cold drizzle in search of   Lakewood Place.  I was coming right up on the left hand turn according to the GPS, but all that was there was a cliff wall rising about 100 feet. I had to go about 5 miles before getting u-turn accessibility on the mountainous wet roadway. I finally turned  around and found that the needed road was closed!  I hit 'detour' on the GPS and finally found the place.
  Linda and the three kids were home - Hudson, an exuberant three year old, Sylviann (or Boo), a smiley 5 year old, and Mackenzie, a wide-eyed and friendly 7 year old.
  The kids were abuzz with excitement about my arrival.  After greetings and unpacking, I had the girls supervise my bike cleaning. And they were very good at finding each spot I missed.
   Labs Philly and Jack, eager-faced and energetic to the max, ran after and returned each dog-saliva-laden ball that I tossed for them.
  Soon dad Fred came home from work. So much for interest in me, as the kids swarmed him.
   Before dinner, I had a nice 20 minute or so run through the woods and roads with Mackenzie and Philly.
    Linda had some soy chicken for me, and a special salad. And I enjoyed both immensely. It was fun being at the family table, abuzz with kid energy and happiness.  Hudson, Mr. GQ, had quite a time with the dips that were generously applied to the foods and to his shirt.
   It was around 9:30pm or so that everyone retired for the night.  I went up to the back guest room, and it wasn't long before again, I was wrapped in good thoughts of the day, and in a tiredness I could not ignore.
****
Note 1:  I just don't know how contact will be once I'm in Canada. So if you don't get a journal note edition for a day or so, don't worry.

Note 2: To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
    Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html)



**************
Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today.
(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

DAY 28 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK JAUNT - JULY 28, 08

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July 28, 2008 -  Monday - Day 28
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today -  0   - Total Miles -   - 6371
Rest Day at Bainbridge Island, WA
(-staying at the home where Doug & Barb are house sitting
(WA)
- ANOTHER DAY IN ANOTHER PARADISE -

   I awoke around 6:30am with light streaming in the window. Beside it was a forest of trees and below was a wide bay, and beyond was a mountain range rimming the horizon with clouds hugging the peaks. It was wondrous!
  I lolled around awhile, typed a bit, dozed for a few minutes at a time, and then got in some serious typing.
  I mentioned to Barb that I think this area has the cleanest and sweetest smelling air of any place I've been. Might just be the time I've arrived, but the breathing is sure great.  I guess it's because the island seems nestled amongst millions of trees and near the water.
  I began searching through my things readying for entry into Canada, and was horrified that I couldn't find an insurance paper and one other paper that may be needed. I learned that the insurance paper wasn't necessary to gain entry into the country, but if in an accident, and I didn't have it, I'd be hauled off to jail.  Hmmmm….. I called the company and would have the document faxed to the nearby little city.
   Doug and Barb and I drove to the town of Bainbridge and I headed for the FedEx office there, and eventually had the needed official insurance paper faxed over.  My heart was in my stomach for a bit because there was some little bureaucratic confusion over whether it could be sent right away.
  Doug picked up some stuff at the local hardware store and I bought another lightweight shirt at the nearby sport store.  We then went to a wrap place and had delicious and large portioned wraps for lunch. Then to the supermarket where we got spaghetti, veggie meatballs, and some other fixings for dinner. Including some tofutti dessert pops called 'Marry Me' bars which are delectable ice cream type bars. I was delighted to see them in the store.  They are my favorite dessert confection.
  This whole area seems fit conscious and nutrition wise. In fact, there are very few overweight people to be seen here. The stores seem to reflect this by offering many items not found in smaller stores around home.
  We returned to the house and I took about a 2 hour nap. When awake I went out onto the spacious deck overlooking the water, and with the blue sky above, and the mountains in the background, began in earnest finishing yesterday's journal notes. I ran out of time only somewhat satisfied with my writing or the coverage.
   After a bike ride and run with Doug (the run which he took me along was over hill and down dale in a time frame three times as long as I usually go of late!)  He noted at the end that, "Hills should count in dog years, each one counting more than one!"
  It was one of the first days that I didn't shave in the morning. It was good taking the day off.
  At one point today, it was sure a scene from 2008 - the three of us were sitting comfortably at the kitchen table, all at our laptops, but also chatting with each other. Barb and I were on Macs, Doug, because of frustration with his non-Mac, said, "Sometimes I just want to take this Dell laptop and toss it out into the bay." 
   Dinner was around 8ish and was a superb spaghetti and soy meatball meal. Even Doug agreed the meatballs were good!  We sat on the deck with the sunset as a grand finale to a wonderful day. We Skyped with Ellie for a bit and showed her, via the computer in real time, the scene that was before us.
   I got all my laundry done, and everything organized ready for launching into Canada tomorrow.


Note 1:  I just don't know how contact will be once I'm in Canada. So if you don't get a journal note edition for a day or so, don't worry.

Note 2: To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)

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DAY 27... THROUGH SEATTLE

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DAY 27 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE JAUNT - JULY 27, 2008

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July 27, 2008 Sunday - Day 27
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 283    - Total Miles - 6371
Albany,OR (south of Salem) - to Bainbridge Island, WA
(-staying at the home where Doug & Barb are house sitting    -)
(OR-WA)
-  -

   I had to get my butt (and the rest of me) out the door relatively early this morning, for I was meeting my college friend Ken, and his wife, Maria for breakfast at 8:30am at Elmers, a breakfast place in town.
  It was sure great seeing them again. Ken and I graduated Kutztown State College and went out and set the world afire with our teaching. We helped each other a lot in those college days and ate a ton of beer pretzels together!
   Now I don't think one could find folks further apart in political or religious philosophies than me from Ken and Maria. Yet there were agreements in lots of areas, and at least we could have a dialogue! We sat and caught up on families and work and lives.
  But mainly like a bunch of old codgers we sat talking about the new generation - the perceived downfalls and problems with younger folks. The only thing that gives me comfort after such conversations is a quote from Socrates from over 2,000 years ago:
         "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers". Attributed to Socrates by Plato, 469-399BC.

It was too soon we had to part. They were heading to a family baptism, and I had miles to go and more folks to visit.

    Then it was 20 miles to visit with Petra and Mike in Salem.  Petra is my apprentice Tom's mom. (I had seen and stayed with Tom's dad, you may recall, about a month ago in Charlottesville,VA.) 
    Mike is a motorcycling guy, and was wearing an "I RIDE" shirt as I drove up. That looked awfully good to me.  I liked, and got a picture of Petra's bumper sticker which bespoke a Gandhi quote, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." 
  There were splendid gardens around the home, partially due to the work Tom had done putting in a great sprinkler system.  When Petra met me at a supermarket on the road, we decided to pick up some things at the local Wal-Mart - I got a jacket for what seemed like a cool day ahead, a cover for my tank bag, and some more earplugs. Then we went the four blocks to the comfy home. I met Makaila and an exchange student at Petra and Mike's.  Two young women with great smiles. Petra plied me with popcorn and I sure enjoyed the kettle corn variety. When I left, sent me off with some more and some cookies, too.  We all had a nice chat on the back patio before leaving about issues in the world big and small.

  Then it was another 60 miles to visit with Greg and Julie, friends the early days in my recent motorcycling career.  We had a little trouble connecting off the Vancouver ramp. I got to a location near some apartments, and a young boy of about 5 came rushing out to see the motorcycle. He asked all kinds of questions.  I saw his mom look on approvingly from the doorway.
Finally, Greg, Julie, and their friend came into view. It was good seeing them there. When the three new bikes came roaring up, little bubbly Christian was in, you'll pardon the expression, hog heaven. I asked Christian to take few photos of us - he did - a few with his finger in front of the lens.
  Brad, Greg and Julie's friend who came along, was riding a vintage Kawasaki. It was an old bike that looked like new. Even had a kick start. It took me back to thinking of my first bikes and their kick starts from the '70's.  I made a fun big deal about it, going over and asking mock inquisitively, "What IS that??"
  We stopped for lunch in Vancouver at a Subway. There was a happy fair going on across the main street. It was a wonderfully friendly community gathering with lots of bicycles, smiling folks, and happy times for families.
  When we had too leave - after too short a time - the three rode with me to the next exit before heading home.

  At one gas station, I walked inside to stretch my legs and also give Ellie a call. A frustrated looking man with a huge waistline and a furrowed brow came in the store. He gave me an impatient look saying that I shouldn't have left my bike by the pump while in talking on the phone.  A younger couple who overheard looked incredulously that he would say this to me. I replied that there were many other pumps available, and that if it was crowded I wouldn't have left it there.  When outside, I noted to him in a friendly way that it was ironic he would say something to me when HIS big trailer was taking up TWO pump spaces.  I wished him a good day as he harrumphed and I rode off.  His wife, in the passenger seat, perhaps unaware of her husband's feelings, gave me a nice smile.
  North of Vancouver,WA there were numerous signs proclaiming with their bright orange scream, "MOTORCYCLES USE EXTREME CAUTION".  I rode carefully and kept scanning in double time, but there was no reason I could ascertain for the signs. It was a puzzlement.
  Had a wonderful 15-20 minute break at 4:45pm at a rest area.  Air was fresh and cool and superbly delicious. I sat munching the chocolate chip cookies from Petra, and enjoying the passing scene while also cleaning up emails.
     I was about to zip up the shoulder on clogged I-5 south of Olympia, when luckily I spied a patrol car handing out a ticket ahead.
   Via email last night I had asked Mary, whose husband you may recall drives gasoline tankers, what the giant alien-looking things are that I notice over the highways in front of the truck scales. Here's her answer:   Frank said those huge white things are a "free pass" system.  They are readers. If the truck has a free pass box inside it, will read the weight at they go by, there are steel plates in the road that along with the box do this.  As you go by the scale, if the weight is ok you will get a green light and not have to stop.  If it is questionable, you get a red light and have to stop to be weighed and inspected.  Not all trucks have this system in them.  AND the Highway Patrol has the option to turn the system off so that ALL trucks have to stop to be weighed.
  It was 66-degrees entering Seattle. It was cold as I motored along with the traffic on I-5. I wore my gloves for the first time on the trip. I was super glad I had bought that jacket earlier with Petra. THAT turned out to be a smart move.
  It was an exciting time trying to find Pier 52 where the ferry was that went to Bainbridge Island. I scooted down I-5 and when it finally seemed that I was passed anything that resembled a wharf area, I pulled off and up by a couple homes there. A tired looking guy came up right at that point on a bicycle. I asked him how to get to the wharf area. He gave me simple directions but said he was too tired to think after working all weekend. I was left standing there with a very full bladder and really not knowing much more where to go than before.  But I went up to the house and Seth was in there working away on Google maps for me. I asked to use the bathroom and he said I should.  Then he took the time to write out the directions. I was most appreciative. Got a shot of him in the doorway and said I'd send it to him.
  After Seth's great kindness in Google-mapping me the way to the piers, I would have been there sooner but for some of the unmarked streets. As it was I had to double back quite a bit, and ask directions to streets a number of times. Some of the roads were broken up in disrepair, or in the process of repair, and so it was tough riding. At one point I was waiting with a line of cars down by wharf at a train crossing. Must have been 200 cars in that train. After about ten minutes, yet ANOTHER train, to the warning clangs of the downed gate, on the track next to the first one, went the OTHER way.  I turned to one of the men in a car where I had just asked some directions, and we silently laughed at the situation.
  Finally through, I came down to a wonderful little row of shops and eateries along the pier way.
  I've taken these giant ferries that carry motor vehicles in their bellies across wide bodies of water before on my bicycle. I can't recall doing so on a motorcycle before.  I had a little trouble finding the correct drive for Pier 52. But finally I found the tollbooth that led to the Bainbridge Ferry.  I chatted with a woman there who had one of the highest and squeakiest voice I've ever heard. For $6 (which was less than I expected) she directed me to lane 38. I was about 45 minutes early for the 9:10pm ferry. I used my time taking pictures, going over to the hot dog stand - and elated getting a vegan hot dog even!!!  I would have bought it even if I wasn't hungry!  Took some nice shots of some ships around, and finally of the rim of pink as the sun was setting over the harbor. 
  I Skyped Ellie and turned the computer around so she could get views of the Seattle skyline and the harbor area. An official came over to me at that point and, looking a bit uncomfortable, said to me that the captain was a little 'nervous' about me with laptop there and showing it around, and asked me to close it up and put it away. I did so, of course, without delay.  I then sat on the bike making a few phone calls, one to my apprentice Tom back home, telling him about my great visit earlier with his mom, Petra.
  The guy on the scooter and I were the first ones on. I turned to him and allowed as to how excited I was about this, and asked if he was, too.  He said in a nonplussed way, but with a smile, that he's taken this ferry twice a day for the last 15 years.
   I sat on the bike for about 10 minutes of the 40 minute ride. Looking straight ahead there was no change, but when I looked off to the side and saw the water moving by, I realized with a jolt that we had been underway for at least ten minutes. I enjoyed gobbling the popcorn that I had gotten so many miles, a number of hours, (and what seemed like half a world away) down the road from kindly Petra in Salem.
  After a bit, I roamed around the cavernous innards of the huge ferry - the immense seating area, the cafeteria, the viewing areas.  Soon, in the dark, we were approaching the lights of the buildings at the edge of the island. Then we were mooring onto land, and the scooter guy and I zipped off. There was Doug Humes, brother of one of my first students and friend from the neighborhood were I was raised, waving from the side.
  After a little tricky maneuvering, and driving the roads of the little island, we reached the place where he and wife Barb were house/dog sitting for a week or two.  There were hills, then steep hills along the way, and I was nervous about what was ahead.
   Doug had contacted me by email while I was on the trip and invited me to stay if it was on my way.  He's the one who plays guitar and was considering writing a ballad or some tune weaving in email threads or events from this trip.
  As I mentioned before, it was dark, so I couldn't see much outside the home.  But what I did see eventually inside the modernish place built on a hillside above a bay was a little kid's room on the second floor that had hooks for clothing on one wall, and a big bed taking up most of the floor under a low dormer slanted ceiling. There was a big window out to a multitude of trees and what must be the bay down below.  The bed seemed especially attractive to my exhausted body and mind, and after washing up a bit, I fell into it and dozed soundly. 


Note 1:  I just don't know how contact will be once I'm in Canada. So if you don't get a journal note edition for a day or so, don't worry.

Note 2: To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)

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DAY 26 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE SOJOURN-JULY 26, 08

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July 26, 2008 - Saturday - Day 26
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 414(!)    - Total Miles -  6834
- to  Albany,OR  (just south of Salem)
(-staying at a Travelodge Motel-)
(CA-WA)
- ONE LAST LOOK…. HOLY SMOKES! -

  I was all set to leave. Didn't need to look around the motel room a THIRD time, for pete's sakes… but for some reason (good habits? an inner thought? luck?) I did decide to flip the switch of the bathroom light to check there once more.  And there on the sink was my contact lens case and solutions. Whew!  (I have extras, of course, but still….)
  The air this morning was much smokier than last evening. All this because of the forest fires of late. Across the big highway and against the far mountains everything seemed in a haze
  I had a nice run down the big main street around 9am or so, and then came back, uncovered the bike, and had a bowl of oatmeal in the motel office.  I was glad I spent so much time polishing up the Nomad last evening. It looked shiny and great in the morning sun as I pulled off the cover. 
  The office person, a cute short Asian woman was standing smoking under the overhang by the front door. Among other things I joked with her by saying, "Are YOU the one responsible for all this smoke. This isn't all coming from YOUR cigarette is it?"  We laughed.
  Left the motel and motored out of the parking lot at 10:10am.
  As I made my way north on I-5, the smoke smell saturated everything for a good part of the morning and early afternoon.  Mary said yesterday that it was so bad at her house in Santa Rosa one time recently that she could barely see to the end of her block.
  It was straight north on I-5 today all the way.  There were curvy mountainous parts to negotiate for sure, but basically it was due north.
***
   I knew I wanted to make this my longest mileage day and so I broke it into four 100-mile gas station stop segments. And I knew to pace myself. (I've found that's one of the real secrets of life - you have a big something to do, you just break it into smaller segments. Get one of those more easily manageable  smaller segments accomplished, you feel good about it, you realize there is less to do, and before you know it, the big "insurmountable" job is done!)
***
  Most folks like my bright-as-blazes yellow jacket. A construction worker at a gas pump this morning made mention of it. I said what I say to everyone who comments about it, "You know, if I get hit by a car, I want to lay there, look up at them, and say, 'You didn't see THIS?????'" It always gets a laugh.
For one of my gas stops I inadvertently pulled into a truck diesel bay. I quickly found out that I was in the wrong place!
***
  There was a big commotion at the summit of the highest mountain. Just over the other side had been an accident. There were a lot of cars, and motorcycles, and an ambulance.  It wasn't clear what had happened. I wanted to stop and help, but it appeared there were enough folks there. I kept going.
***
  The 1000's of feet in elevation were ticked off in little signs by the side of the road. 3000 feet.  2000 feet.  At times, uphill and downhill, they seemed to whiz by.
***
   At one gas stop the attendant queried, "Where ya going?"  To that I invariably respond, "Everywhere!"  That gets a smile. This guy said, "That's the best place."
  I met Dave (on a Kawasaki 1400 and Tammy (on a Yamaha FV6) at a gas station stop. They were on two crotch rocket sport type muscle motorcycles.  I got a picture of the handsome couple, and one of Tammy in her great looking pink jacket.  I told them about the accident on the mountain, and Dave seemed to know the spot.
  We talked speed. When I told him how I made it a point to hit 100 most everyday, he came out with, "A day without triple digits, is a day without sunshine."  He admitted it was a stolen quote from a guy in his 60's who was a racer, and with whom 40-year-old Dave could not keep up.
  He then said that on their ride today, he hit 140!  I was astounded, and looked at his speedometer, and sure enough it went up to 180!
  Dave gave me a heads up to be careful with the speed limit in a little town near Eugene where the officers were very sneaky and careful with speeders.
***
   For a lunch break at a Taco Bell's I sure enjoyed a couple tacos along with catching up on email.
In the morning I was cheated of  some views. Only the tallest peaks could be seem poking their giant heads dimly against the heavens. And when I escaped the smoke, it was like being able to see in Technicolor again.
  All the magnificent natural beauty around me was intensified by the speed at which I was traveling.
  At one point, forty-mile apart towns just blipped by.  I viewed a giant body of water that was Shasta Lake.  Says Wikipedia: Shasta Lake is a reservoir created by the building of Shasta Dam in California, USA. Shasta Lake is the 3rd largest lake in California. For more info, poke on over to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shasta_Lake.
  There was a really interesting looking step-like mountain bathed in sunlight in Roseberg, OR.  I managed to get a picture.
   Off to the left at one point were little clouds nestled right on the mountain top.
  It's great to look ahead and see a road wind around a hillside or mountain and slowly embrace it.
   I rode through valleys today so big and so wide and so expansive that one's eyeballs just can't take it all in.
  There were quite a number of mountain crossings. And quite a number of signs reading, "Caution 6% Grade".  One was for more than five miles. Typically I'd pass cars on the way up, and they'd pass me on the way down. I have to be much more careful heading down!
   The air blasted on my face as the blur of farmland, pastures, and trees moved by. Sometimes it seemed that the surroundings were moving and I was standing still. A wonderful feeling.  Much of the day my feet were planted firmly on the floorboards with concentration acute, intense, focused.  At least once during the day, the excitement brought out one of my spontaneous WHOOPS - at sheer enjoyment. And the vibrations from that WHOOP were like being at one with nature.
  The bike and I swept over wide swaths of valley floor and to the very tops of mountains.
  I had hoped to reach college friend, Ken, and his wife, Maria. But I fell short of the goal by about 25 miles. It was the most mileage day at over 400, and I just didn't want to push it.
   I again typed myself into even a wearier oblivion as my eyes shut in restful sleep.

Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)



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DAY 25 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK TREK - JULY 25, 2008

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July 25, 2008 - Friday - Day 25
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today -     - Total Miles -  (totals tomorrow)
San Francisco - to - Corning,CA 
(-staying at    -)
(XX-XX)
- THE GOLDEN GATE - FIFTY MILES OUT OF MY WAY FOR A SPECIAL SANDWICH… AND A SPECIAL FRIEND - INTO THE SMOKE

    It was a wonderful breakfast to power my day - a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and a vegan muffin.  Then June, Sam, and I went on the mile-plus walk to Sam's summer camp where he would spend the day. We had a good time walking through the bright morning. Sam's natural curiosity sparkled and bubbled along the way with his broad grins.
  I learned a lot during that walk. It seems that Foster City was a planned community, and so has a number of little waterways and parks.  The area was originally marshland.  June declared that she would rather live in a city because of the convenience, among other things, but she was very happy here.
  And I could see why.  The 'burb, at least for my short time here, was diverse in make up, clean, good looking, and engendered a wondrous spirit of friendliness.
  I was proud seeing June's by-line in a national magazine for a story she wrote.
  June was leaving the house right at 11am and we both left at the same time.  It was hard leaving the warmth of that home in the San Francisco suburb…
   From June and Neil's it was exactly 20 miles to San Fran's city limits, and exactly 30 miles to the lip of the Golden Gate Bridge.
   It was typical city riding - but with the enormous hills, of course. The challenge was watching the ragged roadway and staying on course by following the 101 signs, of course. I made a couple lucky guesses and stayed on the right path amid chaos of the cars, trucks, scooters, and pedestrians.  As I moved along in traffic, I enjoyed the quick glimpses of the town that I could squeeze in, and especially that of the San Francisco Opera House.

  The approach to the Golden Gate is always dramatic. And the crossing no less so. I was limited in the photos I could take, of course. But it was a wonderful fresh air feeling in the crossing.
  My most thrilling ride across the bridge was a number of years ago from the north - by bicycle! At night! In great gales of wind.  And then came the dark entry into the city with unending hills to climb and an uncertain place to find.  That was on the Canada to Mexico ride along the whole coast.
  This crossing was much less dramatic, but none the less exciting.

  After the bridge I passed quite a number of horse farms and cows today along route 101 today. The smoke from the recent more than 1000 forest fires all up and down California was evident throughout the day.  Most of those forest fires were ignited by lightning storms.
  I ran into some traffic back ups.  Mostly the miles-long tie-ups were in the other direction. But when I was caught in one I would generally just zip up the highway's right shoulder. I was fearful of "splitting the lanes" as the other motorcyclists did because my cruiser was too big.  The shoulder is always dirtier with flotsam, too, so I had to be wary.
  My friend Mary, in Santa Rosa, CA, who I met in an on-line discussion group for our common affliction, Meniere's Syndrome, invited me for lunch of a fakin-bacon sandwich.  Again. 
  I met her three summers ago in person during the 48-state ride with my friend Karen. Mary is a wonderfully smiley person and she makes (if you'll pardon the expression) a whale of a fakin-bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. I went fifty miles out of my way this year just to see her again, and I was drooling the last 45 miles.
  We spent about an hour together, I gobbled up three(!) sandwiches, and had interesting conversation for which time and energy will not permit me to do any justice in this writing.  I spent a lot of time "MMMMing" while savoring the tastes of those sandwiches.
  It was good sitting across from her sparkling eyes at the dining room table. Her husband is a trucker and drives the gasoline tankers.  He told her to tell me that the tire pieces I've mentioned and been encountering on the highway are called "alligators" by the truckers. And that's because if one doesn't watch out and runs over one, it will jump up and bite you!
  I also learned that it was apparently legal to "split the lanes" for a motorcyclist as long as the traffic wasn't going more than 35 mph. This tidbit was also from Mary's husband.
  For most of the afternoon after leaving Mary's I was moving along swiftly, the tires gobbling up the miles. I wanted to take a shorter day, to regroup and then get an early start, and make a big push north on Saturday.  But the ride was enjoyable and the towns and highway exits just kept floating by.
  There was an extreme in temperatures all day. From the actual cold as I rolled through the big city and toward the Golden Gate this morning, to the warm breathing on me from mountain valley breezes.
   By 6:30pm waves of the forest fire smoke, which earlier were just observed in the distance on the valley walls, now partially obscured the roadway. The somewhat acrid smells began to burn, and make my nose uncomfortable and my contact lenses were clogged up a bit.

   The Days Inn had a little black Pomeranian on the counter at check in. I got good shot of the cute black dog.  The friendly check in lady gave me the discounted rate even though I wasn't able to provide her with a coupon.
  Much to my surprise when studying the maps this evening, I saw that I'm very much in striking distance to Canada - it's probably only two or three days away now.
  I spent too much time tonight working on the organization in the photo program that I use to upload all the pictures. I fear I messed up the images and especially the order of them. Oh well, I didn't/couldn't take the time to fully fix or understand how to fix them.  As it was, I was up too late, and tomorrow was planned to be a big day…
   The genuine kindnesses met along the way have been so uplifting, and the spirit of friendliness so warming - this country is sure not what the daily headlines scream at us!

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To view photos from the trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner, by going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list. 


**************
Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today.
(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

DAY 24 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE TRIP - JULY 24, 08

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July 24, 2008 - Thursday - Day 24
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today -  183   - Total Miles - 5404
Fresno, CA - to  San Francisco 'burb of Foster City
(-staying at  former 1972 second grader, June Bell's  -)
(CA)

   The day began pretty early when the phone rang at 4am!!!  It was my friend, fellow photographer, and fellow motorcycle enthusiast, Dave Ickes. He was on his own tour this summer. He had his BMW motorcycle trucked out to the Midwest, flew out, and then began a long tour around Colorado and into Canada. There had been some hope that we'd somehow get to meet up. He thought I might be closer to him than I was - certainly not time zones away. He was apologetic for awakening me so early but it was great chatting with him. He had camped in a farmer's field that night, and still had to get his tent out and away. I managed to still get back to sleep after a good conversation with him.
  I woke for good at 6am, and saw Ed, the security guard guy with whom I had a conversation last night, take off from work on his black bike.
   I had arranged to meet Trish and Bob at the nearby Denny's at 7:30am and take them out for breakfast.  When I arrived they were waiting for me at a table.
   Trish, my friend from the Savage motorcycling discussion group, met Bob on her mail carrier route nine years ago. He had moved away for awhile from the place he was renting, and then she looked him up again. He's a lucky guy he said because love really DID come knocking on his door, not just once, but twice!!  When I called him a 'lucky guy' I didn't realize how much truth there was in that phrase for him!    The next paragraph helps explain why he's a lucky 'guy' in more than one way….
  He was hesitant to marry Trish though, he said with a twinkle in his eye, because his last name is "GUY", and he just didn't want to turn her into a 'guy'….  I enjoyed the little play on words, but  smilingly winced none-the-less.
  Bob is a strong fellow who grew up on a farm and in the mountains for most of his life. He's been battling prostate cancer, and doing a good job with that battle, putting up with the chemo treatments and all.
   Trish made some interesting observations at breakfast about travelers and traveling, and having people as guests. Back in the Indian days people traveled a lot, but not that great a distance. So when people did come from long distances they were encouraged to stay a longer time so that the hosts could hear about the lands from far away.
  Trish and Bob have matching Honda Silverwing scooters.  I learned that the difference between a scooter and a motorcycle is the way one steps through the scooter to get on it. Their Silverwings get 50mpg and is certainly a great way to get around.  It has an automatic transmission.
    We walked over to the Best Western and they got to see the Nomad. Trish took a little package of stuff to the post office for me.
    I went back to the room and typed and typed about yesterday, and finally got all my gear packed. It wasn't until 12:30pm that I finally left. It was much later in the day than I wanted to leave, but my stop in San Francisco wasn't that far.  As it turned out, it was farther than I expected! 
   After a short ride through Fresno I regained Route 99, the highway north.
    At 1:45pm I stopped for gas, and since the Subway at the gas stop had a veggie patty I broke for lunch. It was a good choice. The meal was delicious and I filled the camelbak bladder with ice water to keep me charged up for the rest of the day's ride.
      Rode through a big section of farms this day…. They were reeking of fertilizer smells, the air pungent with the aromas of it.
    The San Luis Reservoir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Reservoir) was to my left for part of the afternoon ride in the mountains. It is a massive body of water that would appear on my left  a couple of times as I passed a couple of mountain tops. Blue and dramatic, irregular in shape and enormous,  it was shimmering and inviting to the eyes on this hot day.
   I crossed the state from east to west on Route 152. On both sides of me as I rode through the valley was a ridge of mountains still shrouded in the recent massive California forest fire smoke.
    It was windy in sections of the mountains today.  I was buffeted constantly by the crosswinds. And I KNEW it was a pretty strong wind when I looked above me and saw a big bird, a crow perhaps, flapping his wings trying to get to the tree on the left side of the road…  and he just wasn't going anywhere.  He seemed suspended in mid-air as he tried to move forward.
    More mountains. More valleys…  As my consciousness went streaming down the highway today, and the scenery blurred past, it was with a certain satisfaction that I had reached this far into the trip.
   There were a number of mile-long backups today - but ALL of them were on the other side of the road going the other way. Felt fortunate about that!
   There was a carpool lane on most of the highways I rode today. And beneath the sign that noted only cars with two or more passengers can ride in that lane, there is a little note that read, "Motorcycles OK".  I took advantage of that lane a lot.
   It got much cooler as I approached San Francisco.
   It was somewhat before five that I arrived at June Bell's home. She and husband Neil and their son, Sam, have lived in San Francisco for about six years. I've known June and her folks since 1972 when June was in my second grade class. I 'see' her every day at home, in fact, because in my living room is a photo I took of her saucer-like wonderful second grade eyes. I took the negative of those eyes, sandwiched it with a great cloud picture I had taken, and came up with a composition of eyes looking out of clouds. It won a couple prizes in photo competitions.
  I arrived to the home in Foster City, a 'burb of  San Francisco, a little before 5pm. I stood in the drive for a few moments making some phone calls home, and then called June. We had chatted earlier in the day, and I thought she might not be home. But she was, and shortly she and Sam, a precocious 5 year old soon appeared at the door. The eager boy, with a curiosity to match the simmering intelligence behind his dark eyes, swarmed over the motorcycle with questions and smiles.
  I was welcomed into the home and I remembered it well from when I was here three years ago midst the all-48 states motorcycle trip.  Sam was quite different now, of course, and he fairly bubbled with observations and questions. He is a kid of this computer generation, and the son of a techie, too, and so he loved all my gadgets and things.
   He was attracted to the Mac laptop, and when I opened it he knew his way around it with ease. He was able even to maneuver to different websites on line.  (Yep, that's right. Five years old!)
   I got my gear into the upstairs loft area.  Then June had some errands to do and Sam had a choice of going with his mom or going on a little run with me. He decided to hop on his training wheeled little bicycle, and we went around the neighborhood and to a little park nearby. It was a cool and wonderful experience as I loped beside the inquisitive son of a former second grader of mine.
  At one point in the park I spied a box of  plastic bag doggie scoop bags supplied by the community association I surmised. I went over to it, grabbed one and told Sam I got it for him in case he needed it…  After a bit of thought under a thoughtful expression, he got the joke and broke out into a big laugh.  We continued, and shortly saw a fellow in his garage seated around three motorcycles, mechanical guts hanging out of one of them. He was clearly a wrenchie and effecting some kind of repair. A youngish guy, Chris, seemed bemused at our presence. We chatted, and Sam took a picture of us together.
  We continued back to the house where Neil, Sam's dad had just arrived home and was sitting in the driveway chatting on his cell phone.  I joked with Sam, "So does your dad have to stay in the driveway all night?"  By now Sam was getting the drift of my sense of humor. He laughed.
  It was wonderful being in the Ponderosa type home.  The family reminded me of  the one I grew up with, and irrepressible Sam brought back joys, long submerged, of the wonderfulness of  being with a bright-eyed kid.
   We had a perfectly scrumptious dinner of some concoction of soy cheese, fake meat, combined with veggies and noodles.
    Sam went to bed around 7:30pm, and June and I reminisced about kids from our old class, and things back in the old neighborhood.
   Back in that '72 second grade I would do a bunch of things with kids, and one was to meet with a group of interested parents and children down by the Schuylkill River and we'd bicycle ride the 8-mile path around part of the river, stopping to picnic along the way.  This was eight whole years or so before I even got into a fitness lifestyle.  I never knew whether I would make it the whole way around that bicycle path.  Well, the Bell family would join in this little venture, and I recall one famous picture of June, cute pigtail framing a wide-eyed face, sitting by her dad who was laying on the ground. He was okay, and just napping, but the image looks all the world to me like a little girl grieving for her passed away dad. 
   So we chatted until about 10:30pm or so, and then Neil and June went to bed and I went up and lay in my little cocoon cotton sleeping pouch on the comfy bed, and typed happily away about the day's events. (I never feel I do the day justice!) Shortly, a drowsiness overcame me, and I just could not keep my eyes open any longer - no matter with what strong effort I tried.  I drifted. Drifted away into a deep happy sleep with a smile on my face.

Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)



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DAY 23 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY / JULY 23, 2008

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DAY 23 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY / JULY 23, 2008

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July 23, 2008 - xxxxday - Day 23
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 240   - Total Miles - 5221
(-staying at  former 4th grade student's Paul Livingstone's home  -)
(CA)
- HEADING NORTH IN CALIFORNIA - ECLIPSE THE 5,000 MILE MARK -

  One of the little cats here jumped up on the bed this morning, likely expecting to see one of Paul's daughters. When he saw me, he had a look on his face like, "Who the hell are you???"
***
  I was up around 6:30ish, and spent a relaxing morning typing, writing, and chatting with Paul. He was wearing a dhoti around and said he's been wearing one since he was fifteen. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhoti) It's traditional east Indian.  It's a kilt-like thing only down to the ankles.
  I had a wonderful breakfast of some super fresh bread that Paul had gone out to get and three cereals mixed together in a bowl of almond milk.
  Paul worked around the house as I wrote on the kitchen table. Our paths would cross occasionally. I wrote and wrote as late at 12:30 and then knew I had to get on down the road.
  I told Paul, when he came down from playing a sitar on the big hill in the backyard, "This will be the most dangerous part of the trip so far."  And I was referring to how, on that greatly steep hill, we would manage to move the bike off the driveway area and out onto the street pointing the right direction.
   I straddled the bike, thankful for the super strong kickstand, and could not budge or nudge it upright. Paul pushed and we managed that. Then began a process of very very slowly backing it out onto the street at the correct angle to eventually have it facing down the hillside.  Paul pushed and I duckwaddled backward, and after a series of maneuvers we accomplished the task. 
  At that point there was no way I could get off the bike, and so Paul put on the back pack and handed me the tank bag. A fellow coming by took a couple pictures of us, and I was off.
***
   I wear two pins on my vests. One reads, "Question Authority". And the other has the word "WHINING" which is crossed out. No Whining.  I believe strongly in both those goals. However, it's tough sometimes on a difficult riding day, where things are hard, luck is bad, and there are problems, not to fully write out those things in these notes without appearing, at least, to be whining.
  James Biddle, one of the journal readers sent me the following quote,
"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." -G.K. Chesterton
   And I am surely in agreement with that.
  With all that in mind, however, it would still not be fair to readers, or give a real impression of a trip like this, if every single thing and every day  was sunlight and daisies. I have been as accurate as possible to date, and will continue to try to be so. So without interpreting some of the following as whining, here's a little rant, if you will.
   It was sure not my best day riding. There were at least four times when I came close to having an accident. The first three were my own fault, because of my inattentiveness. The last one was a truck driver who decided he wanted to enter the lane where I was riding.  None were really close, but all four were closer than I would have liked.  I was also grumpy today - again likely because of my fault in not hydrating or eating right.  It was somewhat hot on the road (again because of not drinking enough), and I just didn't LIKE the roads: the marked lanes didn't follow the grooves in the road which is always a problem for me.  There also at least SEEMED to be a lot more trucks out on the highway. The pace of the cars and trucks was higher and more intense today than I can recall.  The roads were also less cared for - a number of potholes that I had to pay attention to  - instead of being able to watch the scenery. And those crease lines in the road - deeper and longer than I recall on any other highway this trip - just gave me the heebie-jeebies more than usual.
   I seemed a bit more tired today, and was surely more skittish and less confident on the bike.  I had heard through one of the discussion groups about a biker recently on a multi-state trip who was killed changing lanes so subconsciously  I was much more hesitant about doing so.
  You know, one of those days where not much at all went right. I was filling my little water pouch at a restaurant late in the day at a gas stop, and had neglected to close the end of the little tube. So as I walked back to the table where my stuff was there was a river of water and by the time I noticed the oversight there was a little lake by the floor of the table. I apologized profusely and said I'd mop it up, but the friendly folks there wouldn't let me, and they did it promptly themselves.
Whether all of the above was felt and happened because I was missing my time in Mexico or somehow sorry I couldn't spend more time to learn things from Paul, I don't know.
  And hey, there is a just plain natural up-and-down flow that body rhythms possess, and I've certainly been due for a down mood day. I have no complaints - these last 20 or so days have been entirely 'up' days, and if part of this one was a little body-rhythm challenged, I can live with that. And anyway I KNOW  from experience that it won't last past a good night's sleep, and I'll come bouncing up.
  Still, with all the ranting above done, I can look back on a day of riding along the mountain tops. The gold-ferned and green-treed mountains were beautiful against the blue sky. The views for the middle part of the day were all down on grand monster valleys or up to the giant peaks.  I rose from a thousand feet or so up a couple thousand, and on the ups and downs could feel my ears continually popping.
   After the first 50 miles, and coming out of the Angeles National Forest, the second part of the day was all mostly farmland and considerably table top flat out to the horizon. 

   I arrived in Fresno somewhat around 6:30ish. Far later than I would have liked. I had gone out of my to come here to meet Trish, an on-line pal from a motorcycle group I had been in when I owned my Suzuki Savage. We clicked together on line with ideas and interests and became friends.
   Over at Trish and Bob's, where I arrived late for the planned dinner, I met their friends, May and Jean … They ride a big yellow scooter. May is in her 80's.  Jean, a spry guy who's also older at least in years, rides that scooter everywhere. Even made a trip to the east coast awhile ago. With a top speed of 75, he says he really has to be more careful than on a motorcycle.  He noted as a word of caution to me to be careful to ride on the outside part of a lane when passing a truck because a truck tire exploding is equivalent to a half stick of dynamite!  That made an impression on me!
  So did the yellow tomato!  A yellow tomato!  I had never heard of such a thing… It tasted like a tomato, but it sure did look funny to me.  Along with that Trish had prepared a delicious eggplant parm with soy cheese. The friendliness around the table and the food on the table filled my tank.
   I met Ed, security guy for the Best Western, when I came out cover the bike.  He owns a shiny gorgeous black Kawasaki 2006 Mean Street. He had a license plate reading "MEAN V2", referring to his engine.  It was parked next to my bike. We talked motorcycles a bit, and I told him about Koy's comment back in Lubbock about riding and "windshield time" helping with problems.  It turns out Ed just went through some tough times recently with his wife passing away quite unexpectedly. He noted, "You can spend the money on a motorcycle and blow all the problems away with the wind, or spend it on a psychiatrist. I recommend the motorcycle, it's a whole lot better."



Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)



**************
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(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

No Subject - See Attachment

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(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

DAY 22 OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MOTORCYCLE TRIP - JULY 22,08

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July 22, 2008 - Tuesday - Day 22
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today -  240   - Total Miles - 4981
Ensenada, Mexico to Los Angeles,CA
(-staying at former 4th grade student, Paul Livingstone's home   -)
(Mexico-LA)
-     BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN - 

   I've often said that one of the hardest parts of traveling like this is the saying good-bye to folks befriended.

   I took one last look at a wonderful black and white photo in the bathroom of the casita. It's a huge portrait of downtown New York City by a photographer Lou Stoumen.  How delightfully ironic that the picture as this of such an urbanized citified-to-the-max area should be in this out-of-the-way location.
   After a run, I pulled all my newly organized stuff together. After packing it onto the bike, and a few photos, we took off out of Charles' garage, down the dirt and gravel road, and out onto the highway.
   I pulled over to Charles and Carol at one point at a stop, and told them I was enjoying this last ride on Mexican roadways, but with a lump in my throat.
   As I saw Charles slowing to a traffic light a half-block away,  the thought came to me that motorcycling, like life itself is often all about looking ahead, and planning accordingly.
   Along the way was a scene out of Ensenada that I wish I had been able to photograph… it was two little bicycles and a flowered cross - where small kids must have been killed.  It was a poignant - and chilling - scene.
  There were a number of trucks and billboards advertising "Jersey Milk"… I was thinking THEY must be way off course.
  We pulled off the main highway about 20 miles in front of the border. Charles went down one street and made just a dandy and easy-seeming u-turn. It took me about five minutes of duckwaddle forward and backward to negotiate that turn which he made so effortlessly. Part of the problem was because at the previous toll booth there was a bit more oil on the ground than at other toll booth stops. And because of  that the bottom of my boots were pretty slippery.
  Charles and Carol peeled off at the roadway into the States. I was very appreciative of them taking me to the border. It was the end of a huge number of things they did for me for which I am appreciative.
   I was at the end of about three or four very long lines. As I waited there mulling whether to split the lanes, i.e. go up between the lines of cars, many of them, seeing my hesitation, waved me along and told me to just go. I did.
  I had to pull up the highway pegs to fit between the steaming cars and trucks. And at times vendors got in my way as they hawked their souvenir wares and flavored ices. I was about 25 minutes in the snaking string of vehicles.  The roadway had some dangerous grooves there as I wended my way through the sometimes obnoxious and sometimes noxious odors.
  Finally, of course, I got to the front of the line. The older, clearly overworked guy, had me move forward a bit to see my license plate, asked me the usual questions about why I had come to Mexico, how long I had been there, and if I had bought anything while there. I then told him about my trip, and he waved me on through the tollbooth-like structure.
  It was surprisingly emotional getting back to the United States.  Had to clear my eyes a few times after crossing the border.

  Except for the boiler pot of heat around the long line of cars at the border, there was a slight chill in the air most of the day.  Even thought of pulling on my gloves.

  While on the trip back in Texas somewhere I had gotten an email from Paul Livingstone. He had been digging around some old papers and found the booklet I had made for his 1980-81 fourth grade class when I was his teacher. He googled me, and emailed me, and learned that I was headed toward the west coast, and he invited me over…
   I got to the pre-arranged place of meeting, the music studio in LA where he taught, a bit earlier than expected, at about 3:30pm. He was in the middle of giving a lesson. I sat on the old porch and hooked up with broadband, and enjoyed being in the sun catching up on emails. The studio was up about a hundred steps on a massive hill that overlooked what seemed to me all of the LA northern 'burbs. The huge skyscrapers of LA were off in the distance about 8 miles off, in a pool of afternoon haze.
   Paul poked his head out the door, and I said, "I'm Joel, here looking for that last fourth grade assignment that you owe me!"
   Shortly, Paul and his student, Michael, came out on the spacious porch and while Paul played his viola, Michael sang a song he had written while playing his guitar. Michael wore a t-shirt that read "QUIT WORK, MAKE MUSIC". He had just returned from music camp, and was clearly into his guitar and the music he made with it.
  After a bit, we moved into the spacious studio. A number of sitars - strange looking instruments to me -  were hanging from the ceiling. The two guys sat on the floor and played some sitar and guitar together.  Somehow the subject of poetry came up and I asked Michael what his favorite poem was.  I do this a lot with folks, and when it's one I know, I delight in being able to recite it for them. Michael mentioned two, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Frost, and Kubla Khan by Coleridge. 
   The really wonderful thing was that while I recited, the two played music to the recitation. Paul was sorry later that he hadn't recorded it….  It was a terrific moment there on the hilltop.
  Michael's dad came to pick him up shortly. The dad had the firmest handshake of anyone I'd met yet on the trip. 
  Back in the studio I learned that Paul is one of the only folks who plays what's called a "fretless" guitar. A fret is a (usually) metal bar that keeps the notes separated. The sliding notes, associated with Indian-type music is made possible when there are no frets.
  There was a recital poster there of interest on a music stand. It was Paul's Masters Recital Poster. The subject involved Dr. Suess - a wonderfully whimsical topic I thought, for such a serious project.
  I called my music teaching pal, Ken Peters, back in Pennsylvania. He's the one who should really have been here to appreciate all this!
   Paul just finished his fourth cd. He sells them on-line at  tanpura.com. He has met and played with Ravi Shankar, who I learned is in the Guinness Book of records for the longest performing career. I delighted in seeing a picture of Paul with Ravi.
  Paul's into the microtonal practice and theory of music which is an exploration of tuning systems based outside of the traditional 12-tone system.
   I was sorry to miss Laticia, Paul's wife. She and his two daughters are in Mexico at the moment, visiting relatives.
   Paul was born in Lebanon, then lived in Aspen, Colorado. Then lived in Havertown,PA where I had him as a student. Then, after a stay in southern California, Paul moved to India when he was 15 because he wanted to go to an international school to learn sitar. (He just got back last February from his third trip to India, where he had his first performance tour there. Thirty-seven year old Paul has now played sitar for 22 years.) 
   Paul told me that he had received an artist APPEX fellowship in 2001 to Bali with 16 different artist-types from eight different countries. I surmised, "All the creativity flying around there must have been something!"
   This guy has been all over the world. He's been in El Salvador, throughout the US, Portugal, Morocco, Spain, France, England, Belgium, eight different states in Mexico, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Java, and Bali. He's performed in about half the above countries.  I mentioned to Paul somewhat meekly, "And here I though I was doing so great doing three countries on my motorcycle."  We laughed.

  Paul advised me that Los Angeles was the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world.
  We drove about a mile to a local little market for a few items. And then to Paul's place about another mile away. He noted that he felt very fortunate to not have a huge commute like so many others in Los Angeles.
  I didn't feel it fortunate to have such a greatly steep street and driveway on which to park the Nomad. I had to do a LOT of maneuvering to get it in a position where I even felt a little secure about it.
  Another high rise of steps brought us up to Paul's apartment. (No wonder the guy stays so slim with these steps and the ones at his studio!)  At the top of the steps is a great view of the San Gabriel Mountains. Paul said that it's wonderful seeing the mountains, but that when he first came here, the pollution prevented being able to see them.
  Paul made me supper. I was as hesitant of the meal here as I was of the water in Mexico… Part of the meal was made of the lentil, dal.  Paul said I'd be eating the staple food of a billion people around the world. I joked, "Well, I JUST got this the other day in Taco Bell." 
  I cautioned Paul - about fifteen times - as he was preparing each ingredient - that spices were something that just didn't sit well with me, especially in the midst of a long journey, and my experiences with Indian foods had taught me they were most usually spicy… He promised me it would be okay…
  And it was more than okay… it was superb!  The dal sauce over the rice was delicious. The few spoonfuls of chana masala, which was a garbanzo bean curry next to it on the plate, burned my lips a bit. I finished it none-the-less, but it was just fair to me. But the dal is something I'm surely going to look up in the future.

  In a bit, Paul's friend, Kahl, came over. A bearded guy with sparkling eyes, Kahl, whose real name is Chris Moore, is from  Philadelphia. The two didn't know each other back east, but had met around here studying world music at the California Institutes of the Arts. (That's where Paul got his BFA and MFA degrees. Paul also taught there for five years!) Kahl joined us for the meal.
  "When one eats raw foods," noted Paul, "one can taste the sunlight in them."
  Re foods, Paul said to me, "You have an open mind, now you need an open palate."
  Shortly, Paul's 9pm student came. A Hindu college student from Fiji, Sanjay brought some things for the observance today in his culture of  Guru Purnima, a special day in India where everyone is meant to honor their teachers with a special ceremony.  That ceremony involves the "arti", a brass plate with some flowers, and a lit wick inside of a clay vessel of oil. It also included a ceremony of lighting incense and putting an application of red paste on the forehead of the teacher, and feeding him or her sweets from hand to mouth.  He also performed "pranam", a touching of the feet in bowing motion.  Sanjay has never been to India, and Paul surmised that he's so really into Indian things because of that.
  A lot of good things are coming together for Paul lately. One is that some of his music was recently selected for the background music in an art film. He was sure happy about that - that it was happening, AND for the bucks!  He also, while I was there, got invitations to perform in North Carolina and in Mexico.  The North Carolina gig folks found him on the internet.  Paul observed that the internet really "levels the playing field. One doesn't have to be a super star any more to be found," he said.
I learned about ghee - a clarified butter. A little of that was in the concoction we had for dinner.
   The sitar is based on a 2000 year old instrument… Paul and Kahl had a special 'concert' for me in which they played a "raga" which is an Indian classical melody. Paul played sitar, while Kahl rhymically played the tabla, a type of drum set.
  They played for quite awhile, and Sanjay joined them. I enjoyed the show immensely. 
  And then came a Skype call from my friend, Jim Christaldi. It was about 1am his time. He was sitting there with his guitar in his studio back in Broomall, Pennsylvania.  The three of them then, Paul on sitar, Kahl on tabla, and Jim with his guitar played an intercontinental jam session.  How amazing was that!
  After the other fellows left, Paul and I chatted until after 11. We spoke of old things and new, and plans for the future.
  After that I washed up, and crawled into the bottom bunk in the girl's room.  It was a typical teenager room with clothing and posters all over.

  In that booklet of events that sparked Paul contacting me, I had written a personal note to him on the front inside page. It read, "Best of luck in all your travels."  I guess never realized or dreamed how far flung those travels would be…


Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)

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Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today.
(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

DAY 21 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE RIDE-JULY 21, 2008

July 21, 2008 - Monday - Day 21
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 0    - Total Miles - 4741
(-staying at Charles Grey's place in Ensenada, Mexico   -)

- YET ANOTHER DAY IN WHAT SEEMS TO BE CLOSE TO PARADISE -

   Charles invited me to stay another day. Today he and Carol were having a big party with over 100 guests invited. (The main reason for the party was to celebrate the signing of the 14th amendment to the US Constitution - which states that the issue of equality amongst people should be a federal issue instead of a states issue.) There was to be a mariachi band playing the rhythmic and characteristic Mexican tunes.  Charles also said that Tuesday would be a better day for him and Carol to ride with me back to the border. I considered it for a bit, and then I thought I'd just be a fool to leave…. But I DID get a friendly reminder email from my teacher friend Karen Penn back home.
   She wrote:  I just finished looking at A LOT of pictures of your friend from the class of '59 and his friends, Mexico, Mexican trinkets and tee shirts, people's lovely homes, and you say you're staying another day so that you can go to their party. Now, Joel, do you remember that you're on a journey to go around 3 continents?? Do you remember you're supposed to be on the road?? I'm beginning to think you're liking this Mexican lifestyle a tad too much. Hmmmm? So, let's move on up the coast, shall we?
   Yeah. Well…  I kept signing off emails to friends the last couple of days with, "Things going well. But yes, I think I might just take Charles' offer to be his pool boy and live here for the rest of my life…"
***
  The day began a bit earlier than the last few days. I was up and out for a bike ride and run by about 8am. My run took me to the beach I had visited last evening, and I enjoyed seeing it in the morning time. I ran up and down by the waves almost reaching the end of one crescent shoreline of the beautiful cove.

  I noted an advertising sign that read,  "PAMELA'S HACIENDA - FISHING, HOUSING, TRAILERS, RVS, QUIENCEANERAS (like a sweet sixteen party) WEDDINGS" … When back to the house I showed the picture of the sign I had taken to Charles and asked why there were no "BAR MITZVAHS" there???  But the main reason I took the picture was that it seemed an odd juxtaposition to have "FISHING" and "WEDDINGS" as a featured draw at the same place.
  Charles made some superb pancakes for me using the soy milk we had bought the other day. They were garnished with juicy blueberries.  Then I gathered every bit of clothing I had, and while wrapped in a giant beach towel that Carol supplied, I began my laundry. While the clothes were swishing and then tumbling I worked on the journal notes for the last number of days. I finally got them and the cropped images off to their cyberspace destinations.
   Charles and Carol spent a good bit of the morning preparing for the party.
   The party was to begin around one, and Charles was pacing a bit about the beer not being there yet. Nor had the big umbrellas that were expected arrived yet.  But all came shortly, as did the guests.
  Many folks I had met over the last couple of days were there - and many others.
   New friend David Lewis was there with his great smile and sense of humor… I got a picture of him from across the courtyard munching full face into a hamburger. Then I came over and showed it to him, laughed, and said, "Here's my best picture of the day." While we were standing there I tried being helpful. I brushed away a fly that was dive bombing around his burger. He gave me another little friendly vegetarian poke as he looked at me, told me to stop brushing the fly away because, "Fresh meat is okay…."
  It was a good picture of him munching, and it was much better than the one of his wife Betsy who produced what must have been a life-long practiced effort to produce the most contorted face she could muster.  It WAS uhh… late in the party.
  I chatted with Marilyn, the sparkly-eyed lady who I'd met at Bahama Mama's.  Marilyn likes to talk. And her energy can be spotted behind every word. She invited me to the tango dance lessons that she was attending later in the day. I demurred.
  Roger is a motorcycle enthusiast who owns a Harley Fat Boy - we discussed bikes a little.  He said he had just returned from a trip with a bunch of friends up to the Four Corners (where four states meet) area. It was a blast.  I asked if they had done the put-yourself-into-each-state-at-once thing. And he said he had.
  An interesting woman new to the area, Maryse, and I chatted a lot. She wanted to see the Nomad and so we went to the garage - and she even helped me clean it a bit. (Finally I remembered to clean my helmet's face shield!) She's a French lady from Quebec.  She'll be running a b&b somewhere nearby here in a few months. She seemed to enjoy sitting on the bike, but she was disappointed I wouldn't give her a ride on the motorcycle.
  I enjoyed my chat with DL Street. He's a cousin of ex-Mayor Street of Philadelphia. He was retired down here. DL was sitting back in a corner smoking a huge cigar. He's from the West Philly area and we chatted about some places in common we knew.
  Perky Trisha, of the fabulous mountain top home, was there with husband Jay. Jay's leg from the century tree stab wound was healing nicely although his foot was still swelled.
  Many folks were interested in my trip, and I had my map handy to show them where I had been and where I was going.
  I would often go and check email in the main house, and was all caught up again by the end of the day. I also took a few breaks from the party to organize and pack gear.
   As the fiesta was dying down, I got to meet the folks Maryse were staying with at their place about four houses down the dusty road from Charles'.  Irka, a friendly great-smiled lady, had a visiting friend, a fellow there who was a charismatic Frenchman who owned a French restaurant in Texas.  He had a great enveloping friendly smile and was cooking chili peppers on the open flame of the gas oven en route to a meal of chili rellenos. I had never seen anything like that before. We swapped some stories of folks each of us had known. I told him about Jacques Reynard who I had met bicycling in the midst of the Appalachians in the '80's.  I was on my Philly-to-Dallas 2000-mile bicycle ride down the length of the mountain range. Hale and fit in his late 70's, Jacque was credit card bicycle touring (without pack) from motel to motel on the Skyline Drive. I sure admired that guy, his leanness and fitness, for his wherewithal and his enthusiasm.
  Back at Charles and Carol's at about 8ish I had a yen for some popcorn… so we popped some.
  After some on-line time, and figuring out where I'd be going tomorrow and how I'd get there, I headed to the casita. There I typed out these notes and considered all the great times, new experiences, and wonderful folks met over the last days. I'm itching to get back on the road, but it will be hard to leave.
  There is no way to properly thank Charles and Carol.  They provided me with a life experience unparalleled. They allowed me to share in their lives in a way that was meaningful, educational, and memorable. They provided an entertaining and friendly respite from a long and sometimes difficult journey. When I'd try to thank Charles at times during the last couple days he would say that it 'was an honor' to have me here. But the real truth is  it was an honor and an amazing gesture for them to have me here.
  There is no way to properly thank them.  But I get the sense, and it is a feeling that I think rings true with them, too, that no thanks is necessary…..  and that makes the emotion in the memories, and the emotion that will be truly felt in the leaving tomorrow morning…. all the more powerful and all the more real.
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DAY 20 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE TRIP/ JULY 20, 2008

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July 20, 2008 - Sunday - Day 20
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 0    - Total Miles - 4741
(-staying at  Charles Grey's in Ensenada,Mexico -)
- SYNOPSIS -

   After awakening after a good night's rest, I got right to work and finally finished Day 18 of  this journal. It wasn't until around 9:30am that I showed my face down at the main house.
  We went to Baja Mama's Restaurant, a well known eatery in the area, around 10:15am.  And it was yet another meal for me right beside the Pacific Ocean - close enough to hear the waves crashing and the birds yapping.
   There was a huge collection of buffet foods there. And many I could eat.
   There was a station wagon out in amongst the waves. Carol surmised that the owner had driven onto the beach last night, fallen asleep, and then the tide came in. Before we left, a huge earth moving machine came and dragged the auto out from the water.
  Marilyn, an amazing woman, who had built her own house near the top of one of the mountains came over with her sparkling blue eyes, and asked about the dolphin that had washed up on the beach. She said it was probably shot. What happens is that dolphins get into the tuna nets and the owners shoot them because they have no market value. It's usually reported to federal authorities, but Charles had never heard of anyone being arrested for it.  Marilyn noted that the dolphin cortex is larger than the human one.
   There used to be dogs all over the place here, but only a few were sniffing and trotting around the place now.
   As we sat, we saw some huge oil tankers on the edge of the far bay. They were likely there to bring diesel fuel to the area explained Charles. The trucking and taxi industries need that fuel. There were also cruise ships in another part of the ocean that came from all over the world. All the ships - and the people who came ashore - contributed in a very large way to the economy here.
   There is a huge American expatriate community here primarily because of it's proximity to the United States.  I learned that sometimes this area was called "Gringo Gulch".
   This beach was a Federally Protected Environmental area. But as was mentioned about other laws here, the supervision was just haphazard when it was there at all.  One of the worst examples of this was in the case of child labor laws.
   I noted to Carol and Charles that maybe I was getting into the forget-about-time thing a bit. Because it seemed, I hadn't worn my watch for the last couple of days.
  Charles and I went down to the waves and I touched them. He got some pictures and video on this side of the continent, just as Connie had on the other side of the continent in Vero Beach. That was fourteen days ago on Day 6.

   At one point some little sales girls came up and plied their necklaces and wristlets to those sitting around the tables. 
   We sat for a bit more than two hours at Baja Mama's enjoying the amazing Pacific breezes, the atmosphere of the open air part of the place where we sat, the rhythms emanating from the guitar players, and the views extraordinary and mundane.  Carol exclaimed, "This is the life!"
  I thought to myself that if I have to ride through another 110 degree day, I want to reflect back onto this wonderful cool breeze wafting over me from the Pacific!

   We drove from Baja Mama's place to a place called Bufadora.
   The place was a mélange of food odors and other smells, as well as huge collections of wares for sale - from Mexican jumping beans to sombreros to turquoise jewelry to ponchos of every hue and color.  There were corncobs and sweet things and fruits of many description.  There was the hustle and bustle of all sorts of folks selling and buying and running around, sweating and sightseeing.
  There was a famous tourist spot here where the waves crash into the land in a particular way and because of the angle of the rocks often splay a huge geyser of water up into the air. Around this area a gallery of people watch, some from perilous rock advantages, as the water shoots high into the air. The kids go "Oooooo" and everyone smiles in delight. It's a lot like Old Faithful in many ways but much more often in frequency, of course.  I took a bunch of pictures and video there in the crowded area.

  Walking back we stopped at an eatery.  Sitting atop the high and huge windowed room above the sea and tourist area in the Habana Banana, we enjoyed some rest and drinks.
  At one point, I noticed a stooped older man just hobbling along. I reflected wondering if one day we would be like that…  We thought about that a moment, and then Charles took the edge off the moment, by getting another little friendly vegetarian dig in with, "Yeah, and that was from just ONE hamburger!"
   I noted that around that Bufadora area it wouldn't be too good for folks who were allergic to dust. And Charles added that a lot of folks were also allergic to the pollen of the many olive trees in the area.
   We were talking motorcycles and some of Charles' rides - and he used a great expression when he described a particular ride, and said he had a 'helmet full of grin'.

   The first wave of immigrants came to the Ensenada area in 1898 or so. They were Russians, followed by the Chinese. Then the Mexicans came to the Baja area.  There were gold mines and silver mines. The Chinese stayed and established the city of Mexicali which has the only major Chinatown in the area.
  We were pretty tired when we got back to the house. Charles did a few things to get ready for tomorrow's bash, and I promptly went to my casita and fell asleep for an hour and a half.
  I ran and biked in the evening. My run took me to the coastline, and I walked out onto the sand a little. There were kids digging holes, families walking along the shore, boyfriends and girlfriends holding hands, and even a little fly plane buzzing over the waves.
  I had my picture taken in a cutout face. And I took some pictures of the evening skies.
  It was a little camping place there, and I asked one of the folks if there were any ping pong tables but there were none… "Used to be one at the fire station," offered one fellow.
  I spent some time on the DSL with the computer - no wireless available right here - and it was good connecting with folks again.
  In my casita I wrote and worked on the many recent day pictures until past midnight.


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To view photos from trip, and there are a LOT from today, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner, by going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.


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DAY 19 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE TRIP/ JULY 19, 2008

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July 19, 2008 - Saturday - Day 19
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 0    - Total Miles - 4741
(-staying at  Charles Grey's in Ensenada,Mexico -)
- SYNOPSIS -

  It was a wonderful night's rest in the casita. The bedroom is a small room with big windows and open air flows freely and fresh from the rest of the place.
   After awakening early I stayed in bed for a couple hours typing away and enjoying the activity and blue sky and trees from beyond the little deck.
  After some delicious oatmeal this morning we went to a neighborhood swap meet. I got to meet a bunch of the people in the community.
  From the road near Charles' one can spy a huge house on the top of a nearby mountain. I learned that was the home of a Sony executive. When he found out that the windows he wanted to put in would cost $100,000 he walked away from the project.
  The squatter laws in this area are much different than those in the United States. After a certain amount of time on a piece of land, squatters attain certain rights, not ownership rights, but rights to remain on that property. I suggested an owner had better be vigilant about kicking people off if he didn't want them there.
  Near this area is a world class surfing championship that features 50-ft waves and $50,000 worth of prizes.  I suggested that Charles should be practicing!
  Puerto Escondido is the name of the community we visited next. Charles called the road toward the place, "the Interstate of Dirt Roads." The roads in the little community, dirt and gravel and sand, were up and down in amazing roller coaster swoops - but Charles said he can even ride his Goldwing up here.  I found that pretty amazing.
  We stopped at Jay and Tricia's home. And quite the home it is!! Perched way up on the very tippy top of a mountain it looks down on the ocean with a view as stupendous as it is jaw dropping.  They've been here about the same length of time as Charles, about four years.
  The Palmer Century Plants were pointed out to me. It used to be believed that they bloomed only every 100 years, but it's since been shown it's every 30 years.  Regrettably, Jay was just stuck with the poison points of one of the sharp leaves of a century plant. He has to take expensive medicines for a week. The hole in his calf was kinda gruesome.
  In the water, far down below there were huge rings that encompassed tuna farms. Charles said that these tuna farms, basically Japanese business concerns, were an ecological disaster.  The waste product of the thousands of tuna go down to the ocean floor, and spread out killing everything in their path. The boats carry armed guards that protect the rings 24 hours a day as each ring can hold $25 million worth of tuna.  The tuna are hand picked by Japanese businessmen who come and decide which are good and which are no good.  The divers that go into the pens are extremely brave according to Charles. Sharks can eat their way into the farms and can surprise the divers that go in.
  We were at the home about an hour. It was fun seeing the decorations and the paintings and the furniture. It was a home that could have been in an art gallery somewhere.  I took many pictures of the cute knick-knacks and colorful designs there.

  The route out of the mountaintop community was even more roller-coasty than the one in. Carol and I held on tightly in the car as we maneuvered over the sometimes sandy roadway, thousands of feet above the land below, but Charles seemed to take it in stride.
****
  Gas down in these parts is $2.55/gallon.
  I was amazed when the little store had soy milk. Now that was a surprise!
  Charles and Carol held a dinner party for David and Betsy, Jay and Tricia, and me in the evening.  It was a superb spaghetti meal and everything was just perfect.
  While joking around and ribbing one of the folks here, David came out with the colorful phrase, "Screw you and the horse you came in on!"  Everyone got a laugh out of that one.
  The conversation was witty and clever as I listened to it, and occasionally joined in.  I would fail in capturing the proper descriptive here of the friendliness and even camaraderie of this group of friends, and so I'm not even going to try.
  Everyone left around nine, Charles and Carol went to bed, and after some time on the DSL wire, and working on journal notes I, too, went back to the casita.  After some work with maps and bag organization, I dozed comfortably here so very far from home.

Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)

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DAY 18 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE TRIP - JULY 18th,2008

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July 18, 2008 - Friday - Day 18
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 284   - Total Miles -   4741
Barstow,CA to Ensenada,Mexico
(-staying at Charles Grey's home-)
(CA-Mexico)
-     INTO MEXICO - OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO…. -

  
    This was the first day that I came out to the motorcycle and there was not a single cloud in the sky. Not a single white puff, large or small, anywhere above.  Had hoped to leave by 7am, and be early. But I had built a thick pad of  leeway time, and so I was still well within making my scheduled meeting time with Charles Grey in Chula Vista, just south of  San Diego, by noon.

    I'm guessing that most readers would have finished the phrase above, "Out of the frying pan into…. the fire."  But you would not have been correct at least as it pertains to my riding today. It was downright cool to cold today. I lucked out with the temperatures. While at home in the western Philadelphia 'burbs everyone is sweating with 95degree temps and higher, here it was likely in the high sixties and low seventies most of the day. It was a welcome relief after yesterday's top-burner like experience through Needles and the 110degree day.
  Victorville was another thirty miles or so, and I got a bunch of pictures of  the town name for my friend at home for whom the town was surely absolutely clearly likely named… 
  Outside of Victorville on the southern highway, the dynamic of the traffic and road changed somewhat abruptly. There was much more traffic and the hectic pace of it picked up considerably. 
   After just passing the San Bernadino National Forest came a 12(!)-mile downhill.  (I remember such descents fondly on my bicycle - so glorious!)  This one was swooping with long vistas to the left. As I descended I noticed the elevation markers - 4,000 feet - 3,000 feet - and so on. And occasionally I'd swallow and my ears would pop with the altitude differential.
  One gas stop was particularly frustrating. They seemed to take only debit cards there, and I carry a credit card, by which I'm paying for most everything.  The pump just wouldn't read the card, so I went into talk with the lady behind the counter. She came out and examined the pump - and said I'd have to come inside and pay. I told her I didn't know how much it would be.  She just could not understand that concept that I couldn't know what the cost would be. Eventually I just up and went to a different gas station.
  If it weren't for the episode above, I likely would have been right on time for the noon meeting with Charles Grey and his girlfriend, Carol Larsen.  They were waiting for me and reading in the Chula Vista Starbucks.  It was the first I had actually met Charles but our communication through the Haverford Class of '59 on-line discussion group brought us together.  We have many similar views and in a number of ways we just seemed to mesh on-line. (I was actually in the Class of  1965, but because I'm president of the Alumni Association, I was allowed to take part in the '59 group.)
  We all hugged and smiled at meeting. I had a cold drink as we chatted, and then eventually headed out of the little city traveling due south and across the border into Mexico.
  I had been in Mexico once before. It was in 1980 on the cross-country bicycle trip.  It was then I had crossed the border in Calixico into Mexicali. Only stayed about a half hour or so and found the town dusty and not particularly friendly.
  During the mostly pleasant ride into Mexico this time I thought to myself, "Sometimes this seems like a whirlwind dream, and sometimes this whole adventure seems like a slow motion drama playing itself out in real life."
  We passed through the hustle-bustle town of Tijuana. I had been warned many times by many many well-meaning people about the danger, potential and real, of doing this…  Folks had read about murders and drug-related crimes and the like, and so at first I was somewhat apprehensive.  But it seemed like a normal city and certainly no different from when I'd travel through other big cities - in many parts it was dirty, traffic clogged, and people-filled. In most parts there were billboards all over the place, hawkers selling their wares by the side of the road, and buildings in the midst of construction.
  With somewhat of a deep deadpan, I asked Charles, "How come everything is in a different language?"  And noted with the same deadpan, "I've noticed that there are a LOT of Mexican restaurants around here."
  At one point on our way through the middle of a busy town, we were stopped at a red light. There, a young 20ish fellow who was also stopped, was using his cell phone to take pictures of a lot of folks in traffic.  He especially zeroed in on the two motorcycles. Who knows for what reason he was taking the pictures!  But he had a friendly smile and interesting way about him. But he was REALLY surprised when I slid my camera out and took a picture of HIM!  He laughed and laughed at the surprise, and we exchanged friendly grins.  He passed by me a little later, shouted something unintelligible through the traffic and in Spanish to me, showed a great laugh, and lifted up his left arm which was all in a heavily signed cast.

It struck me that there are a number of signs when entering the country that read "NO GUNS ALLOWED".  Even law enforcement officers from across the border are not allowed to bring guns into the country.
   It seemed that the most prominent billboards of all  read "DISPONIBLE".  Charles let me know that meant "AVAILABLE"… There was some recently passed law, and the advertisers were trying to get buyers for their signs.
   There are a bunch of the old style Volkswagens driving along here, and it made me homesick for the ones I used to own.
    (I recounted the story to Charles later that in college my girlfriend and I were driving back to Kutztown State College from her home in Kennett Square. It was in her family VW. It was on a Sunday night and the roads were all totally dark, and the music in the car was softly playing, and the VW heater was doing its uncontrollable very hot heat-blasting thing. I was driving and tired, and fell asleep at the wheel! 
  The country roads, adjacent to acres and acres of cornfields, were not very wide, and they were lined with very tall, and very sturdy, and very thick large trees. The trees were, say, twenty feet apart and spaced evenly.  When the VW came to a corner with it's sleeping driver at the wheel it kept going straight, of course, as the road turned.  My girlfriend and I hurtled into the farmer's field in the dark, traveled several hundred feet, flipped over  a few times in the little VW, and came to a rest finally and firmly with the car on its roof!
  We were okay, and we scrambled out one of the windows. The road was sparcely traveled but eventually, and I recall the headlights stopped by the roadside, a few of the farmer-type guys came over to check out the accident scene with flashlights beaming rays into the darkness of that field.  They pushed the car over onto its four wheels. And, with no damage to ourselves or the car - aside from the roof being smashed in a bit on the VW - we drove to the college.
  My folks never did find out about that. It was my birthday a few days later, and I recall having quite a time avoiding the real answers to the, "What's new?" and "How are you?" questions.  But after that I concluded that VW's were very safe cars and that I would always only get that kind of car. In fact, my next seven cars or so were all VW's, and would continue to be for as long as they were manufactured.  Anyway, that's why it was good seeing the Volkswagens on the road here, despite the fact most were all very old and even battered.)

  Across many of the town roads here there are "topes", or speedbumps.  Some of them are made of leg-thick rope which span the road. I thought that very effective, and certainly less expensive than the cement speedbumps. At any rate, both types are very annoying, but they do serve their function.  They have cut down on the traffic accidents a lot.
  There were also many what seemed free-for-all stop signs at various intersections.
  Past the cities, on the coastline here it's much like the coastline in some parts of California - on the left, headed south are high mountains, some built-upon, and some nicely treed. And on the right, down unbelievable ravines and cliffs, sits the sparkling Pacific Ocean. The white wave lines near the shore, the deeper blues further out.  It's all such a magnificent scene - especially from the seat of a motorcycle with the fresh air rushing against cheeks and neck.
  On our way in we passed the largest color statue of Jesus in the world. It sits upon a mountaintop near Rosarito. It was erected by a dad whose son died in that area in a car accident. This humongous (75 feet tall and weighing in at 40 tons) statue of Jesus Christ was commissioned by Antonio Pequeno Guerrero and now stands over the old town of El Morro,

  On our way to their home in Ensenada, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensenada,_Baja_California) Charles and Carol took me to a popular restaurant, La Fonda. On our way in we met two friends, David and Betsy Lewis. Friendly and outgoing, we chatted and they posed by my motorcycle. I offered Betsy, the head of  the Family Court System in California, and who has a private law firm, an who said she was extremely fearful of motorcycles, a ride. She declined with a laugh.
  Charles pointed out that in Mexico the service is slow. "That's just the way it is. It's not that it's tomorrow, it's just not today," he observed.  He said that it takes awhile to adjust to that time attitude. I suggested that it would take a long time for someone like me to adjust to that.
  In my broken Spanish, I asked the good-natured server guy, "What does 'La Fonda' mean in English?"  He got a mischievous look in his eye, and told me, "McDonalds"!
  I learned from Charles that Mexico is the most obese country in the world. Well, next to the United States, of course, which is embarrassingly number one!
  Our seats in La Fonda were right in view of the Pacific. The sweet breeze rushed in as the couple chickens prowled the floor. A Mexican band played native music, and everyone was smiley and friendly.
  As we came out a lanky friendly fellow was interested in my trip, and I showed him the big USA map with the route plotted. The security guard there congratulated me on making it so far.
  Along the rest of the way we passed all manner of buildings and homes. They ranged from fabulously well-to-do to run-down shacks.  After passing some of the slum-like residences, I pulled up alongside Charles and Carol at a light, and knowing their sense of humor, shouted over to them, "What you SHOULD have done was pulled up to one of the broken down homes, and told me, 'Here we are!'"
  Charles moved into the left lane at one point and a car from behind, going about 90mph in the probably 25mph zone came somewhat close to clipping them. In the same somewhat humorous vein as above, I pulled up to their Honda Goldwing at a light and mock whined, "That was awfully close. What would I have done for a place to stay tonight?????"

   It was humorous to me - especially after my experience the last couple of days - that the final approximately mile to the little community was on a dirt road. But this one as eminently rideable as opposed to the one up to the mountaintop the day before. 
  There is the main home and a little "casita", which is really a big apartment a across a beautiful courtyard, and over the gigantic garage.


  As we sat in the spacious courtyard it was fun to see the humming birds, in all their seeming hyperactivity, flitting around the trees. Charles noted that they come first in the morning to the little fountain here. He said that different birds come at different times during the day for a drink at that fountain.

  Charles explained that Ensenada is one of the three places in the world where a living desert meets the sea.  Just beyond Ensenada to the south, the highway turns to dirt road. I wryly expressed that it's the 'end of civilization' and Charles agreed that, in the least with regard to the number of people, it was the end of civilization as we know it.
  Charles noted that the entry-level average factory worker is paid 78 pesos a day, which is about $7.50.  Minimum wage here is about $5 a DAY!

  After a bit of freshening up we went to Betsy and David's elegant home for dinner.  It has an open air courtyard with hot tub and seating right in the middle of the home. The Pacific is right outside in  their backyard.
   It was wonderful conversation, some about my trip, and some about local events happening or about to happen.  David, a brain cancer survivor, and now retired, has a wonderful personality and terrific smile, and it meshed well with Charles' and my good humor. There was a lot of good natured needling and friendliness. My vegetarian diet always is a source of conversation for folks and it was no different here.
  As we're talking around the table Betsy used a local colorful expression to describe someone she knew who was a little out of the ordinary - he is a "baja goofball" she noted.
  We left about 9pm.
  One can see the huge Americanization of  the Spanish lifestyle in many ways - from the billboards to everyday language. For instance, coming back from the Lewis', Charles chatted friendly like with each security guy at the different 'gates' into and out of various communities.  At one place tonight, as he put it, "he went through hoops" to speak Spanish, and the Mexican guard says simply, "Okay!"
  When back in my spacious casita around 10 or so, I worked on looking at the next few travel days, and on the route in Canada. There are some ferries which will need to be taken in Canada, and in the past that has always been a problem in planning.  No more. One can not only check out the existence of the ferries, but can get the exact schedule, and even book them - all on line, at no extra cost. Sometimes it just seems too easy.
  The bed was deliciously firm, and though I felt badly about not getting the journal page out, I was made to feel a bit better by the words of someone who had written earlier in the trip that I didn't need to feel that I 'had a school assignment' each day….  I chuckled about that, and I recounted the many many wonderful parts of this day, as I drifted off pleasantly to sleep.

Note:
To view the many photos from today and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)

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DAY 17 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK JAUNT - JULY 17, 2008

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July 17, 2008 - Thursday - Day 17
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 240  - Total Miles  -  4457
Kingman,AZ- to Barstow,CA
Routes 40W and 15S
(-staying at  a Red Roof Inn  -)
(AZ-CA)
- THE HAIRDRYER EFFECT! -

It was a wonderful awakening in the room there on the mountaintop.  And I got right to work on tightening up and finishing yesterday's journal page.
  Clark went to the grocery store for some soy milk and to the post office - and sure enough there was the package I had expected - with the Life Is Good caps - one tan, one blue. It was terrific that the package came in time, and it sure brought a huge smile to my face.
  I was invited to stay another day, and I decided to do so - BUT then I realized that it would be close to a 500 mile travel day on Friday to make it to Ensenada. And that would be surely too much. Also, I had to be at the meeting place with Charles by noon.
  I made some calls to check about the Mexican MC insurance. And it's a good thing I did. The dates on the policy were wrong. They were promptly righted.
  Clark and I had much more wonderful conversation, and then we went on a little walk around the property and the little house next door that Clark had had built. It will make a great bachelor pad for his son it seems. Or he may rent it out.   The downstairs was a workshop for Clark, and the upstairs was a cozy little apartment. It still wasn't quite finished, but one could sure see the potential.  I noticed a small tree on the property, and Clark proudly noted it was planted as just a twig only a year ago.
   The far mountains seemed to be in a fog or something. I mentioned it and was told it was smoke from the recent California forest fire disaster.
  I asked if we might walk up to the little ridge, but Clark said there was a little problem - the snakes. I decided to forego the trek.
    Clark solved the unfathomable mystery of how to fold the motorcycle cover into it's own pocket.  I've tried to figure it out many times, and asked others to help me. But no one could do it. I only wish I had watched him more closely.
    I was obsessing a bit about the gravel I'd have to be going over to leave that garage, but Clark chimed in with, "Hey, if you leave a lot later, it'll be dark. Then you won't have to worry about it."
   At about 4ish we went back to the garaged bike, and after a bit of conversation with Ginny, Clark led the way while I mainly duckwaddled the Nomad down he driveway, out onto the dirt road, and then, finally, to the paved portion. We said some more good-byes, and I headed down old Route 66 for about twenty miles to then meet up with I-40 and headed west.

    Want an idea of what much of today's riding was like? Okay, here's what you want to do:  First, get yourself one of those handheld hairdryers.  Set it on the low setting.  Put it up against your hands and face. Leave it like that for say, an hour and a half. Then occasionally put it at Medium.  And then maybe four, five, or six times an hour put it up on the HIGH setting.  And you'll then have a good idea what it was like out on a motorcycle on the highway today. Oh, your hands. Also put them occasionally into a skillet that's about to fry something. That's the way the chrome on the bike felt.  Seriously, I couldn't leave my fingertips on it for long… I checked with the National Weather Service.  When I left Kingman, it was 102 degrees. When I was passing through Needles,AZ, it was 110 degrees.
   I was surprised to come up to an inspection station at the California border.  The chap there waved me right by, but several cars were stopped and inspected. I saw several pieces of fruit were confiscated. I was asked if I had any food with me. I said how I had a couple granola bars, and then he told me to go on….
   Around 5:30pm I rolled along the edge of the Mohave desert.
   It was a lot of steady riding today. I headed into the western evening sun, head down, and blasted down the highway.  At Newberry Springs I paid the highest for gas of the trip so far - $5.19/gal for premium.
  I really had wanted to make Victorville - in the very least to honor my friend and co-worker at home (Victor), and for the most part to have less miles to travel tomorrow to meet Charles Grey, 1959 Haverford grad, who was going to escort me through the border.  And then we'd be going on to his home, about 100 miles south in Ensenada.
   I hadn't run this morning on the mountain, so I loped over to the nearby Subway this evening for a superb salad sandwich with some avocado cut and spread on it.
  Back at the Red Roof Inn room I caught up on emails, began writing these journal notes, and also did some planning for tomorrow's big day.



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DAY 16 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY

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July 16, 2008 - Wednesday - Day 16
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - - Total Miles - Average Daily Miles -
(Miles to be filled in tomorrow - over 4,000!)
Holbrook,AZ - to Kingman,AZ
(-staying at Clark and Loreen Isaac's home -)
(AZ)
- GAS SCARE! - THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! -

Despite falling asleep at the keyboard last night after watching the All Star game, I was up and feeling frisky, and went for a longer run than usual. I headed up to the big dinosaur statue at the end of town, and got a bunch more images from differing angles. I felt great awaking at 6… took the shower I missed last night, and caught a good shave.
(Note to self: the way to get an early start on the day is to forget to change the watch at the time zones on the way west!)
In the Travelodge's little office I chatted with a guy who had just returning from a motorcycling adventure in Alaska with a buddy. His bike was on a trailer and he had just gotten back, and was headed home to somewhere in Texas. He reminded me of my 1000 miles bicycling in Alaska, and we talked for awhile about common experiences there. He was an older fellow with a glint for good times in his eye.
On-line I found a Kawasaki dealer's address and phone number, and called to make an appointment to have the oil changed later today. It's about time to get this done and I didn't want to put it off any longer than I had to. That bike is being too good to me, and I don't want to neglect it.
Haven't used the extension cord brought from home but sure glad I have the multi-plug outlet for all the chargers.
I was out by 10pm. Far later than I wanted to be. But I often think of the friend from home who asked me if I was still able to keep track of what day it was. I said that no, I wasn't able to, but I would write the day on the windshield so I could do so. He suggested I just forget it and let it go… I've been somewhat successful in doing that. Not completely though.
Throughout much of the day it was a cool 86 degrees, and the roads were all flat right out to the horizon.
Three of the predictably western-themed roads that branched out from the big highway: Two Gun Road, Double Arrow Road, Devil Dog Road.
The winds and the road being favorable, at one point today I tucked in behind a little red sports car that had just passed me - we flowed along at 90+ mph on the open highway, and it seemed for all the world like we were creeping along.
At one point on this purely delicious morning I was soaring along but thought I was going very slowly - maybe 70mph or something like that. But when I looked down it was 90mph-something! Gosh, it felt good! It was a little like that Soarin' exhibit at Epcot - where one straps himself into a seat and you go effortlessly far above the ground and at great speed and watch the world around you float wonderfully by - all the sights seeming in high definition. That's the way it was for me this morning - the colors were intense, the focus was amazing down to each strand of evergreen needle, and the air smelling fresh as air can possibly smell.
I was going to revisit Meteor Crater. A wonderful many mile wide hole in the ground. Had been there a few times twenty years ago or so. But I had sticker shock at the gas station (about $4.50 a gallon!) near there, and learned that the crater is now privately owned and they charge about $18 to get in! So, being behind a bit anyway, I decided that it probably hadn't changed much, and besides I still had vivid recollections. Besides I wanted to get to that oil change for the bike.
On the way out of the station I experimented with eating a whole fruit popsicle while riding. The experiment failed miserably. I popped the sweet confection in my mouth, got into gear, and ready to leave the gas station driveway, and the thing melted before I could grab it again and fell to the dusty concrete. I leaned over perilously, picked it up, and tossed it to the weeds - some ants will find an absolute treasure!
It got predictably warmer leaving the mountains and the Kaibob National Forest in the early part of the afternoon. As I descended the 6% grade mountain, the gorgeous vista seemed to extend for fifty miles out to the end of sight. I couldn't take any photos because I had to attend to the broken truck tire rubber pieces on the road, and the descent itself.
And beside it was at this point that I really was getting concerned about the gas situation. I was beginning to get low, and the stations were much farther apart in this area. I get about 40mpg as I've mentioned, and the tank holds just about five gallons I think. But the warning light comes on at variable times, and besides I've been told not to trust that warning light. So when I was getting to a high of 150 miles for the tank, I got REALLY nervous. I rolled into a station at 170 miles and I didn't care about the cost.
Got caught in an I-40 road construction project for about half an hour just east of Kingman. One side of the two west bound lanes was being paved over. The line of vehicles just snaked along. It looked like beautiful road they were putting down - just wished they could have timed it to be ready for when I was coming by.
The Kawasaki has performed magnificently - with every single little tweak of the throttle it has moved effortlessly ahead. Actually, I haven't even noticed the effort to get up the mountains. (Believe, one DOES notice on a bicycle.) But it was time to pamper the baby, and so I rolled into the motorcycle dealership Kingman for an oil change and for a general checkup. As I was packing the computer back in, the back seat that held the heavy rear bag came clean off. Dave, the friendly mechanic found the proper sized screw and fixed it right up.
I headed toward Clark Isaac's home. He's way out in the middle of nowhere. We had met on-line about four years ago, but neither of us can remember how or through what connection. But though we have differing views on many things - and similar ones, too, we became good on-line buddies. And so, for this trip as I looked on the map, I decided to make a giant detour and come up and visit him in his mountaintop home.
The place was in the mountains, and for a number of weeks I've been somewhat worried how I'd make it up the driveway which he described as hard packed dirt and sand. Well, I didn't have to worry about the driveway, because he neglected to tell me that the road to house, maybe three miles or so was dirt, loose sand, and small rocks. When I got to the point at around 5pm where the sign read, "Pavement Ends" I stood and looked and pondered and wondered for about five minutes whether I should try it. I didn't really know how long it would go, and I couldn't really see it's composition, but it seemed solid. So I motored out onto it slowly and tentatively… It was a mistake. I got about 100 yards and it finally sunk into my brain that this was no place for 850 pounds of touring cruiser motorcycle and gear. But how to turn around? You'll remember Koy's understated quote, about that the Nomad doesn't really "have a very dynamic turning radius." which I chuckle at every day. Well, here I had to turn on a very pebble-slippery and dangerous surface. And on not a very wide road. And on the edges of the road were inches of deep sand, to boot. As I mentioned to Clark as we laughed about it later, I was more scared here than facing that sandstorm!
Through a lot of very careful short duckwaddling backing up and moving forward I finally, after about fifteen minutes of effort got the bike going in the other direction. I took out my phone to call Clark, but there was no phone service here. I wasn't able to reach him until I got back up on the main highway aways. I explained the problem, and after we discarded the idea of trailering the bike up to the house, he suggested that he'd call a friend down the way. We'd garage the bike there for the night. Then he'd truck me and my gear up to the house. And, after meeting on Route 66 by that closed down Outpost Sloon, that's what we did.
Tom and Ginny posed for a picture in their garage. Tom is a transplanted guy from New York who now takes tourists out on a Colorado River pontoon boat rides at the Hualapai Indian Reservation, close to the west rim of the Grand Canyon. After expressing my discomfort with the taking of my motorcycle on these roads (and the ones to his place weren't much better!), he said he sees this size bike and bigger all over this area. I noted that I'd been all over, and showed him my map, but that I sure didn't have the skill level to ride here.
I sat chuckling, mainly in disbelief, and loudly at times, as Clark and I wended our way the three miles or so up to the home in Clark's Prius. The roadway was about the very last thing I could have ever ridden on insofar as road surface - in parts deep sandiness, loose rocks, and dirt, some soft, some hard packed. I'm not sure I could have even done it on the 1100 Honda Shadow!
Clark and Loreen's home sits at 3500 feet on a little atoll, really a small mountain. This sits near the Music Mountains and only about eight miles away from the Grand Canyon. The area folks dug a well down 1300 feet to the aquifer and now they have water supposedly for the next 100 years.
This is a home that would make the cover of the magazine "House Beautiful". Of wooden construction, it has open space and lofts and views as great as any place I've been.
It was the first Clark and I had actually met. And we actually hit it off big time. This is always a worry when one actually meets someone one has known through the internet phenomenon. He is an engaging conversationalist, and a true Renaissance Man. A fellow from Rochester, NY, and raised in Toms River, NJ, he has owned a restaurant and lived on a houseboat and been a lawyer. And done about everything in between it seems. And been just about everywhere, too. What with my experiences all around the place, and his, we sat and swapped stories and shared coincidences, and blended ideas and swapped thoughts for a few hours.
We had a delicious eggplant meal which he and Loreen had concocted during the day for me. There was also a delicious flax wheat bread which was home made and fresh out of the baking machine. AND when I asked if they had SmartBalance (a healthy and good tasting butter substitute) and they said they had, I did a swooping and hooping shout and dance right there in the living room. (It was a bit reminiscent of my little outrageous outgoing in the Best Buy when I found that battery charger!)
Around 9:30pm my eyes drooped and began closing with weariness as usual around that time. My yawning even in front of the very interesting stories and insights was embarrassing to me. Finally I adjourned up to the comfy bedroom. There I made ready for bed. I also made every attempt to transfer the day's 25 or so spoken notes from my little tape recorder to the typed word in the laptop propped on my belly in bed. (From there I'd weave it into some semblance of a story in the morning.) I wrote for about an hour before not being able to even lift my fingers any more. And as it was, I note that I have sadly left out considerable detail.)
It was a plush comfy bed in a room with great atmosphere. And I looked forward to the view of the mountain peak out the window in the morning. I was in the middle of nowhere, so far from home, and with new friends. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and fell, with the day's experiences swimming before me, into a deep wonderful sleep.

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DAY 15 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MC TRIP

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July 15, 2008 - Tuesday - Day 15
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 358  - Total Miles - 3963
Average Daily (Travel Day) Miles - 304
Santa Rosa,NM- to  Holbrook,AZ
(-staying at  a TraveLodge  -)
(NM-AZ)


     Writing up my experience visiting that Santa Rosa church went late into last night, and I about fell asleep at the keyboard. So this morning was a little draggy and I didn't start motoring out of town until about 11am!
   I got an email from Derrick, who's with the company that sold me the Kawasaki.  I had asked him a few questions and he replied. I consider him my Life Line in case of trouble with the machine. And I sure appreciate his help.
  I just seem to be flying through these time zones. I just can't keep track of them.
It was another great morning for riding - and I'm wondering if it will EVER got hot… It was relatively cool again for most of the day.  I probably missed some pretty good hours on the road with my late start, but these late morning hours were just fine, too - nothing but blue sky with a bunch of puffy clouds to show the way west.
  I wasn't going to stop for lunch as early as I did, but the Subway in the Cline's Corner Store had veggie patties. Up until this stop, every place in this cattle country where I asked about a veggie patty I got only strange looks.
  As I took my seat I chatted with a family in the next booth. I told them about the trip, and they were interested. They were from Lubbock and I wondered if they knew Koy. The slim mom had heard me ask for the veggie patty and told me they had just come from a vegetarian wedding in Seattle.  We talked a bit and then the dad noted, "Well, I needed some meat!"  The mom and I smiled, and I said in a mock serious way, with a semi-serious look on my face while I walked away, "Well, that ENDS this conversation!!!"  We all laughed. As they left the place the dad shook my hand, said he wanted to do something like what I'm doing, and said they'd be keeping me in their thoughts.  The gas here was the highest I've seen of the on the trip - $4.59 for regular.  I was glad I didn't need any.
  At the second gas stop of the day I chatted with a Texas fellow filling up his motor home. I did some complaining about the price of filling up the cycle by saying, "It never USED to cost close to $20 to fill this tank!"  He then told me that he just put in $100 worth into his rig - and it was only half a tank!  Unbelievable!
  At the next gas fill-up I chatted with a fellow who puts in a lot of miles every year - he runs a carnival game. A dapper looking guy, he took one look at the Nomad and said, "That  bike looks awfully clean to have gone so many miles." I told him I've been waiting for someone to say that!
  I had bunches of rain spitting at me late in the day and one good dousing, but basically it was a rain free day.  The storm clouds were there but always off to the left side of the  road. I'd keep yelling to the road unseen around the curve, "Go to the right, go to the right."  And it usually did.
  Crossed the Rockies today. And zipped over the Continental Divide in the middle of the afternoon. The Nomad grabbed highway like a champ, and not one of the mountains seemed like a problem.
  At 4:00pm a New Mexican State Trooper flew by me on the left. The speed limit was 75mph. I was going about 85mph, and I thought well, "This is it!"  But he kept going on down the road. I have this theory that my yellow jacket is part of what keeps the police off me. I look like I know what I'm doing, I'm not scruffy, I use all signals, and I ride safely.  At any rate today's average was probably between 87mph and 94mph!
   I received a call from my photographer and motorcycling buddy, David Ickes. He was beginning a little mc trek of his own. He had had his BMW mc trucked out to Colorado and had flown out to get it and then do some riding in the west, and then up in to Canada. Regrettably, the back end of the bike had been bashed in during transport. Ouch! But he got it fixed, and was on his way. We may meet in Canada somewhere in a week or two.
   It was another late night for me as I watched the 15-inning All Star game. I have great memories of tenting in past years, and watching that game on the campground TV with other campers.
  I took over a hundred images from the motorcycle seat today. But the best shot of the evening came right after cleaning the bike - a purely gorgeous Arizona sunset….




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DAY 14 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE RIDE

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July 14, 2008 - Monday - Day 14
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST – SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 261 - Total Miles – 3595
Average Daily (Travel Day) Miles – 277.8
Plainview,TX- to Santa Rosa,NM
(-staying at a Super8 Motel -)
(TX-NM)
- A MORNING OF GLORY – UP-ENDED CADDIES – AN OFFICER FINALLY GOT ME…
- AN EMOTIONAL END OF THE DAY -

My head was laying on the pillow at 7:30am, and I'm hearing a couple
motorcycles ripping down the highway, and I'm thinking, "Hey, why
aren't I out there?"
On the run I ran by a truck stop, and a dog popped it's head out from
one of the big rig windows. It was one of those big white dogs with a
black ring around one of its eyes. And he was barking like crazy at me
– and he kept barking until I was way out of sight. No doubt he was
doing his guard dog thing while his boss was having breakfast at the
nearby eatery. And that dog was in the driver's seat doing a good job.
Looking at the map, and I was heading super slab north on big I-27
instead of northwest on back road Route 60. The distance was a bit
further, but the roads, according to Koy were infinitely better and
without numerous potholes. But some of the towns that I'd be missing
were almost mythical to me on that Route 60… Willard, Encino, Vaughn,
and Fort Sumner… It was the exact route I had traveled on my 4000+
mile, three-month, ocean-to-ocean bicycle ride back in 1980. And there
were some adventures there, let me tell you….
But I've been to these type of places before – the ones where one
"can never go back home", and it's true! There has always been
practically nothing recognizable from the years before. But I would be
going through Santa Rosa,NM later in the day – and I was hopeful that
there would be something there for me because that place has special
meaning for me….
***
Finally got out by 9:30am.
As I was streaking along beautiful empty interstate roadway toward
Amarillo this morning, I thought to myself, "Now here's totally empty
highway, and the perfect spot for hitting my 100 for the day." And I'm
thinking I'm going about 70mph, and when I looked, it was actually
90mph! So I notched it up, and without any effort at all, the
speedometer hit 105! Then I brought it down, of course. Delightful!
***
This could have been the most beautiful morning – ever – since the
world began – for motorcycling down a highway. It was cool, the
scenery was magnificent, the roadway excellent.
***
On most sections of highway this morning I just took it slow to enjoy
the breathtaking scenery. As good as I was feeling this morning, at about the best of it, sure
enough there came a town sign proclaiming that the name of the place I
was passing was, "HAPPY"…. Happy, Texas.
***
Vignettes along the way today:
- a lone cow, clearly separated from the herd – clearly oblivious,
munching away
- old rusting windmills, like past-their-prime sentinels, keeping watch
in the middle of the prairie (reminding me of the one I put my tent by
in the middle of nowhere on one bicycle trip. Its creaking was eerie
through the night. In the morning, a couple cows had moseyed up to my
tent.)
- driveways off to the distance with no discernable end point
- telephone poles and power lines marching out to the horizon
- lone trees standing tall, perhaps somewhat courageously in the middle of a wide field
- or a bunch of trees buddying up to each other and nestled around a homestead ranch house
- cows grazing peacefully before going off to their ignominious and brutal slaughter (I remember one picture I took on one of my bicycle trips in this area – it was a small contented herd on a extremely hot day. They were in the shade of a billboard that was an advertisement for Burger King! How ironic is that!)
***
Koy had recommended that I stop20by the buried Cadillacs off the road
outside of Abilene. It was like a modern day Stonehenge. This is what
some travel website notes:
On the west side of Amarillo the place called Cadillac Ranch is a
must see. Not really a ranch but a cultural sculpture, ten Cadillacs
are buried grill down on the prairie. The cars date from 1949 through
1963 and some say were buried one per year for ten years by the owner
who was apparently annoyed with the auto manufacturer. The other story,
more likely, is that Texas billionaire Stanley Marsh 3rd wanted to
create highway art and did so with the cars. It was once the custom for
visitors to add graffiti to the auto monoliths but the custom may have
been abandoned since the restoration in 2002. (Joel's Note: It's still
the custom!)
I had passed by the place by half-a-mile, as it was on the other side of the road and nowhere to cross over. There were quite a number of folks walking up to the site of the 'burials'…. I came around at a turn, and tooled over to the peculiar scene. The cars were about a football field away, and there was quite a wide and worn dirt path to them where they stood in the midst of a wide empty field. Everyone got pictures, and many were signing the cars with spray-paint or pens. It was a very odd sight.
***
I've been training myself, even on the lonely highways to use the turn signal, and also to not trust the rearview mirrors. I always use the mirror AND give a head turn sideways look to make sure that no car there creeping up on me as I change lanes. I hate surprises on the highway.
After getting gas at around 11:30am outside of Abilene, and just past
the half-buried caddies, a fellow with a Life is Good motorcycle cap
just like mine came up to me. He said, pointing out my plate, "From
Pennsylvania, eh?" I proudly took out my same cap and showed it to
him, and we had a friendly conversation. Dennis, from northern
California, was in the area for a family reunion. He had begun motorcycling again at 61. He was a wiry in-shape guy with a wonderfully friendly smile. He told me about his bike that he had to leave at home, and we chatted a bit more before he went off to fill his car at the pump. He seemed interested in my travels, so when I went by him on my way out, I gave him a card with the website so he could follow along with the trip.
Speaking of fueling up, it never USED to cost $18-$20 to fill a
5-gallon motorcycle tank! I keep careful track of the gasoline
purchases, amounts, types, and costs. Today included the 25th fill up
of the tank. As I travel around the country daily hemorrhaging money at
the pump, I know it's well worth it, but still it occasionally gives me
pause.

I was actually so taken with seeing and chatting with Dennis and his
enthusiasm that I began to get back on the big highway by taking the
wrong ramp. All of a sudden realized I was going the wrong way, and
pretty far along it, on a one-way road. Ooops! I quickly turned around
and found the correct ramp. In all fairness, the signage was just not
clear though.
By-the-way, to any law enforcement officers who may be reading this:
just kidding about the speed…
West of Abilene the stench of the cattle yards came through loud and
clear. Ugh. Yuck. Made me gladder and gladder that I've been a
vegetarian for so long. (I remember staying at a cattleman's ranch
once. The husband was quite animate about meat being okay – after all
it was his livelihood. But when he left the little kitchen, the wife
turned to me with a knowing look and a quiet whisper, "I don't blame
you. I wish I could be a vegetarian.")
Picked up another hour as I moved past Mountain Time entering New
Mexico.
Stopped in at the New Mexico Welcome Center for the motel coupon
books around 1pm.
And there an odd thing happened – I seemed to have lost my motorcycle
keys. Very odd, I kept thinking. But after searching all my pockets
numerous times, and retracing my steps many times from the door of the
place to the Nomad, it was getting kinda frustrating. Finally, and with
a great deal of relief, I spied them on the pebbles by the little sidewalk area. It was such an odd thing, because I'm sooooo careful with those keys! One good thing about the incident, if one wants to look for a silver lining, is that while searching, I came across my spare key! I had forgotten where that was, so it was good locating it
for the future, should the main keys really get lost.I have spares and doubles of almost everything – keys, documents, computer batteries.
It was a wonderful, but in some ways sloppy day. Not only did I
endure that key incident, but I discovered that my beloved Life is Good
motorcycle hat had slipped out from where I kept it in my tank bag and
was gone, probably along the highway somewhere. I was sad about that,
of course. But I immediately called the company and will have them send
me out a new one. Had it sent to Clark's place in Kingman, where I'll
be in a couple days. That's one thing about inanimate objects. About
things – they can be replaced. Unlike departed friends or cherished
memories or time – all of which can NEVER be replaced.
Wasn't sure about the gas situation this afternoon. My warning light
was on but I had only gone 121 miles since the last fill up. Usually
got to 150 or so before the warning light comes on. A number of folks
in the know said I shouldn't trust the sensors on the motorcycle gas
gauge. So in little Cuero I pulled over for the only pumps there.
Ancient pumps they were. Had to be careful on the gravel there, too.
And an old unsmiling, clearly bitter-about-life old crone came out
after about 5 minutes and said she'd turn the pumps on. I could only
get regular so I just squirted in two gallons. When I popped my head in
the woman's little office area, there were quite a few huge, stuffed
and taxidermied animal heads on the walls. They looked grotesque to me.
A place of death it seemed.
It wasn't too much further down the road that I came to Santa Rosa,
NM. I could have gone further. It was, after all, still relatively
early in the day at about 3pm. But I had a special mission in Santa
Rosa. It was here almost exactly 28 years ago that a great kindness was
bestowed on me, and one of my favorite little adventures began.
I arrived here in April of 1980. This cross-country bicycle ride was
my first trek out across the country. I was 33! I had begun in San
Francisco, traveled south down the coast, dipped into Mexico, and was
at about 1,400 miles when I got to this then, little New Mexican town.
At the time I wouldn't even consider a motel (that whole trip in
lodging cost less than $5!), but there seemed to be no place for my
little tent. And a storm seemed to be approaching.
I poked around the little town and eventually ended up in front of
the Santa Rosa de Lima Catholic Church on Lake drive. A big old
imposing building. The front door was open, but no one seemed to be
around. I had often thought along the way that churches would be a
good resource.
Well, as I said, no one was around in authority. But someone, and I
can't recall who, said that, in fact, I could stay at that church for
the night. And so I think I brought my bike in, and made myself as
comfy as I could on the very last pew of the immense church. It was a
little eerie when it got dark. I was wrapped so comfy in my sleeping
bag on the hard bench, and the enormous stained glass windows with the
colorful designs were peering down on me, and it was quite the
situation! There were strange big building noises, but the most
interesting, most unsettling, and most annoying (for someone trying to
sleep after bicycling more than 50 miles AND who would be bicycling
more than 50 the next day) was the stained glass window right beside me
rattling in the night wind.
It all made quite an impression on me, and it was a looooooong night!
As usual though, I awoke refreshed and eager for the next day's ride
– BUT – when I stepped out the door for my morning run there was about
a foot of SNOW on the ground!!!! I ran through it, and then came back
to decide what to do. I had a place to stay in Fort Sumner, NM, which
was about 50 miles away. (It was Roy Martin's folk's farm (Roy and
Janet were visited on Day 4, you may remember.) So I chatted with some
friendly neighbors and left my bike here in Santa Rosa while I
hitchhiked to Fort Sumner. Out on the highway there were very few cars
tempting the treachery of the snow-filled highway. A trailer did
eventually pick me up and all that occurred after that – one of my most
memorable, dangerous, and exciting memories – is surely a story for
another time and place. But suffice it to say, Fort Sumner, at a lower
elevation had no snow. After visiting there for two days, I hitchhiked
back to Santa Rosa, collected my bicycle, and continued across the
country, along the aforementioned Route 60 and those other little towns.
Fast forward to today… I was now on a motorcycle on another little
epic jaunt, and I asked about that church in a couple motels I
considered staying in.
(I miss camping. I used to spit on people who stayed in motels back
in those younger days. I consider three reasons that attitude might be
changed now – it MIGHT be because I have more money now…. or it just
MIGHT be because I'm older now….. or, it just MIGHT be because I'm
SMARTER now!!! Not sure which of those it is, but I do look back on
those days – an aggregate of over a year of bicycle camping days in
my little tent in all kinds of conditions – with a blend of awe and
warm reminiscing.)
Sure enough I was directed to the location of the church, the only
Catholic Church in town. And I promptly motorcycled there. And there it
was. I didn't recognize too much of the surroundings. The side doors
were locked, but the main front door was unlocked – as it was 28 years
ago – and I walked right in, and then the emotion of the wonderful
recollections overcame me and I teared up and cried like a baby. (And
even as I write this tears splash on my cheeks!)
I wonder why the tears? Heart-felt emotion of some kind? Recognition
of good luck enjoyed. A time thing in some way? A realization of time
passed and looked back upon happily.
I couldn't reach Ellie, so I called my friend Tom Rudolf, and shared
some of the emotion with him. It was just too much to handle on my own…
I poked around the insides of the cavernous church – and took a bunch
of pictures. The old stained glass windows were still there – and the
one that rattled during the night was boarded up with a wooden
framework scaffolding against the outside of it – clearly in the middle
of a restoration process long delayed, probably because of lack of funds.
I walked around the outside and finally went to my Super8 room a few
blocks away. But this was too much of a human interest story to keep
to myself – and so I called the local paper. A reporter met me at the
church about 20 minutes later.
Jesus told me he was a police officer as well as the newspaper guy in
town. He asked me a number of questions, and that was when… an officer
finally got me… to tell him the story about my trip….
We walked inside the place as we each peppered the other with
questions. Jesus took a number of pictures of me in and around the
place. A couple on that same bench where I spent the night so long ago.
Jesus has lived here all his life and knew about everything and
everybody. He said that the neighbor who kept the bike for me so long
ago was one of the only ones still living here. We went over to the
place but she wasn't home yet from work. (I also went back after my
supper at a local restaurant, but she still wasn't there.) What a hoot
it would have been to shake her hand again! When I get home I'll dig
out the old pictures I have of her and her daughter and send them to
Jesus to pass along.
Eventually I had enough. And I wandered to dinner (where a bright
young lad of about 12 waited the tables) and enjoyed a superb taco salad
and treated myself to a wonderful slice of cherry pie! Mmmmm….
Then, and it was now about 7ish when I went back to the Super8.
Hadn't cleaned the motorcycle in a few days so it took a little
longer than usual. But I got it pretty much up to it's newness shine!
I had it under the Super8 portico and covered. I felt bad for the three
Harley scoots that had been left by their owners out in the storm
uncovered, now getting spattered by rain.I was up way too late planning, and writing and rewriting about this magnificent day.

Note:
To view many of the photos from today (including many from the Cadillac
Ranch and the Santa Rosa Catholic Church) and the whole trip, you can visit
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141.

Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it
works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past
day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the
appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner or just
going to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html.)

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DAY 13 - OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MC TREK

July 13, 2008 - Sunday - Day 13
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 5 (around town)   - Total Miles - 3,334
- to  Plainview,TX (north of Lubbock)
(-staying at  Best Western  -)
(TX)
- REST DAY IN PLAINVIEW -

    A number of factors figured into taking a rest day today. Mainly though after 10 days on the road motorcycling, and six out of the last seven 300+ miles, I was tired and thinking a rest day would be wise.
  Also, it was the first morning I awoke to rain. It was pouring, and worse, to the north there was NO blue sky. The forecast called for lots more rain for the day.
  Also, I wanted to craft the writing of the sandstorm day, and there was a lot to write about that and meeting Koy.
  Also, and perhaps not least importantly, in this Best Western there was one of those cart popcorn machines that doled out free popcorn!
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The 'free' continental breakfast wasn't too shabby, but I did indulge in my very first glazed donut in about twenty years!
  I made conversation with Raul from Killeen,TX during breakfast - a former Apple technician.  He's now studying to be a physical therapist.  It was good chatting Macs with him, and when he carried in his 13-inch MacBook, I had a big smile on my face.  (I am what one calls a Mac addict!) It was good chatting with Raul.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  For awhile I stood outside the room door watching the rain. I had mixed feelings about not getting ready to go.  I chatted with the three goth-type (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_subculture)  young women from the room next door who were also watching the rain and smoking.  The many rings and things protruding from their eyebrows and lips and ears were a little disconcerting, but they seemed like nice folks.
  I was disappointed, as was Koy, that the weather kept him from getting here this morning for breakfast and more conversation.
  Shortly, I went inside where I spent a good part of the day variously napping, writing yesterday's journal, and cleaning up the MacBook desktop of all the things that had been sloppily put there over the last week. And I devised folders and schemes to keep that from happening again.
   I had a good IM session with my sister Lil.
   I had to decide by noon about whether to stay or put in at least some miles, but I decided to stay, and make it a true rest day. I'm not sure my body knew what was going on.
  Th rain did clear up mid-afternoon, and I had pangs of guilt for not proceeding. But I know I made the right choice and that I'll come back even stronger tomorrow.
  In the late afternoon, I had a half-decent run, and then went out for about 5 miles on the mc. Stopped at the Little Mexico for dinner and sure enjoyed that fresh salad and beans and guacamole on one of those flakey shells they serve it in.  Filled the tank on the way back so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning.
  I got the big USA map updated with the trip lines and stats.
  I got everything ready so I can get my earliest start of the trip tomorrow morning.  There's a lot to do in the mornings to get ready to go. Here are some of them in no particular order: sunblock on, lip balm on, water ready, ice in proper bags, everything packed in proper place, take cover off the bike, and fold it for packing, everything placed in or on bike, check last night's Cardinal's score, check the room and bed and bathroom for things left,  double check the room and bed and bathroom, make sure all chargers are out of wall sockets, leave tip, catch up on email, send journal to everyone, and then send it to the blog site, send joke for day, go for a run, upload pictures to site.

   Hope to be in or beyond Albuquerque tomorrow and then to Kingman,AZ the next day. Although it's likely I'll break that up into three days so I can get to Clark Isaacs' earlier in the day so we can spend some more time together. I met Clark on-line and he's an interesting guy who's an author, among other things. He lives on what appears to be a mountaintop in Kingman, and though I'm a bit worried how I'll get the Nomad up his long long driveway, he assures me it will not be a problem.
  In the evening, I Skyped with Trish, a motorcycle pal from an early Savage on-line group. She lives in Fresno with her husband and has been following the trip. It was her first time on Skype, and it was good chatting with her and finally 'meeting' her.
  I got other things done today like copy over that Pelican poem to put it on the bike to memorize it. I made various calls and paid various bills. But even with the full day, some things didn't get realized.  Time.  A funny thing about that "time" thing.  There just doesn't seem to be enough of it.  I'm thinking if people realized how much more important time is than money, this world would be a far better place.

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**************
Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
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Day 12 pictures

 

DAY 12 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK JAUNT

July 12, 2008 - Saturday - Day 12
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 365    - Total Miles - 3329   
Average Daily Miles (of travel days) - 302.6
Winter Park,TX- to  Plainview, TX (just north of Lubbock)
(-staying at a Best Western-)
(TX)
- SANDSTORM! - A NEW FRIEND - RIDING INTO NIGHT!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  The heck with Leno, check out this amazing news report:
http://www.news3online.com/index.php?code=8iat2r15K9ENH792Dt17
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   "There's nothing in your life that can go so wrong that a little bit of windshield time can't sort it out." -  Koy Carson
oooooooo

For anyone who loves to ride a motorcycle, this day would have a star beside it!  It was like a dream -  Mostly warm.  A ton of  blue sky stuffed with cottonball clouds. Flat, clean, reasonably wonderful roadway. Hardly any traffic. A few challenges.  Just a delight!
  Had my first 100 miles in at just about the hour and fifteen minute mark.
  At a few points it was very windy.  The bike and I handled it well. I remembered coming out of Soccoro,NM a number of years ago on my bicycle, and the wind had me at a 45º for much of the ride that day. It was nothing like that this day, but I sure had to keep both hands on the handlebars.  No lollygagging, right hand on the throttle, left hand by my side, feet up easily on the highway pegs for parts of today - at times it took all my strength to keep the bike from swaying in the wind - especially in the passing truck eddies.
  One of the reasons that the day was so successful was that I stayed hydrated well. I used the little Camelbak bladder often, sucking from the tube and getting the refreshing cool liquid often into my body.  Occasionally I would try to spit the water back onto my palm so as to direct the water onto my chest for a cooling effect.  However, it would usually just splurt back up into my face. It's a technique I will have to refine a little…
  Stopped about midway for another shop at Wal-mart, and especially for the Subway that was in there.  I occasionally get criticized for not trying more of the local foods. But I find on a trip like this that it's much better to eat the same foods all the time so that I don't have to worry much about stomach problems or digestion difficulties when on the road. I hear about a lot of people who have trips sidelined for them because of food problems. So I keep it simple, and over the years it has worked well for me.
  While sitting munching in the Subway from about 1pm to 2pm I enjoyed very much catching up on emails. Some folks wrote that they were actually trying to contact the Jay Leno show on my behalf.  That after reading my little piece yesterday - so who knows what may become of it?
  In the store I treated myself to a new pair of binoculars and some razor blades.  I people-watched and chatted with a few, too.
  Near Sweetwater, someone with a sense of humor must have been in charge of naming the roads.  It brought a smile to my face as I passed Noodle Dome Road. And just as I was chuckling about that I came upon Stink Creek Road!  There was no awful smell there. But I sure wondered about how those two roads came upon their names…
  So I only had about 20 miles to go to Lubbock. And for the most part the sky was clear, the air was warm, and far in the distance there were some dark clouds.  I lingered with the friendly woman behind the counter of the gas place, and we chatted about things in general. I asked her about the weather, and if I need to worry about policemen on the road north.  She says not to worry about the police at all. My grinning reply was, "Ok, if I'm stopped, I'll tell the officer YOU said it was okay."  We laughed and then she said that would be fine as her uncle was a highly ranked officer on the force.
  Eventually I headed out onto the roadway, and what happened next will not soon be forgotten.
  A hot breath of air licked me - hotter than I've felt on the trip so far, and then it moderated.  Seemed like nothing but scrub and prairie on both sides, no buildings that's for sure.  I could have gone about five or ten miles or so, and then up ahead I saw a storm cloud, one much lower than I'd ever seen before. There were some lightning strikes to the right and left and then a huge bold trident strike straight ahead.  Not much unusual so far, but what WAS unusual was the color of the lower part of the cloud as it reached toward the ground!
  I saw oranges and reds and pinks. I had never seen anything like that before, and it was VERY odd.  My heartbeat went up a couple notches in intensity as I tooled along. It became dark, and then a few drops bounced off me, and then the torrent began as the cascading rains pummeled the Nomad and me.  During a brief lull, I stopped to put a plastic bag over my tank bag and then rode on as the intensity and the lightning and thunder of the storm increased. But still no clue as to why the odd color… until….
  I reached a part in the road where it became very clear to me the reason for the oddly hued atmosphere. It was a rain and SAND storm. I immediately pulled my helmet's face shield down tight and continued through as I could see whirlpools of sand being swirled around me.  Vision in front of me decreased markedly. There weren't many other cars on the road, but I was very careful to watch ahead and behind. 
   At one point as I was making my way the wind caught under the blue bag I had wrapped around my tank bag, and that wind stretched the blue plastic up like an ever expanding balloon. I kept trying to mash it down because my big fear was that it would balloon up and block my view of the road.  It would have been a comical scene had the implications not been so grave.
  After about fifteen minutes the storm began to abate, but I watched in it my rearview mirror - as it totally covered the rearview mirror's reflection.
*******
  I've been thinking about people's reactions to my Day 10 dust-in-the-eye blinding experience story and that big storm… And I'm thinking how I took it in much better stride than most folks who read about it. And I came to the conclusion as to why that is… Of all the exciting motorcycling experiences I've had on this and other trips, there are few or none that can compare to the excitement, perhaps danger, and surely uncertainty that I've had on my 24,000(!) or so miles of bicycling around the country.
******
  I rumbled into Lubbock following Koy's good directions, but then must have missed a turn. After following the GPS punched-in directions I found the street with no problem.
  I shortly saw Koy standing in the middle of the block waving both arms up at me.  I rolled up and met him and his Pomeranian little black dog, who was yapping at me to beat the band.  I hopped off the bike and told him about what I had just went through, the storm and all, and he stood there getting a good big hearty Texan laugh about it… He allowed that maybe he should have warned me about the sandstorms…
  It was good seeing Koy's handsome Shadow Sabre in the driveway. Like my Shadow Spirit it is an 1100cc and it has several cool accessories. The key goes in the side on the Honda not on the top of the tank as on the Kawasaki. But I told Koy how I STILL instinctively in the morning go to put the key in on the side. It's surely a habit ground in after the three-year ago trip of 40-days, 11,000 miles, and a route covering all the lower 48 states.
   Shortly Koy invited me in and we sat for a bit in the comfy bachelor pad type little home.
     We chatted in the living room with a huge TV paused in the middle of a show and talked.  We talked about motorcycles, and places, and livelihoods and growing up times.  Re technology, Koy noted that sometimes the further we go ahead, we sometimes seem to be going backwards as well. That, for instance, despite there being more cell phones and so on, the less he finds that people actually listen.
     We went into the computer room, and Koy brought up one of my recent posts - the one with the huge storm clouds.  He seemed a bit taken aback by the cloud after he looked at it more closely, and stated with some kind of awe in his voice, "That's a WALL cloud."  Never having heard the term before I asked what that was… He said that here in tornado alley that's the kind of cloud that spawns tornados.  That took me a bit aback. But I said, "Well, this isn't the time of year for them, is it?"  Which prompted him to say, "It's EXACTLY that time of year!"  But he went on to say that I'd be moving out of the area in my next day's ride.
    We went out to the garage and there was Koy's  casting shop. It's where he makes his living making jewelry. He also has a store in town. On the right, looking like a big washtub was his centrifugal casting machine. There was a burnout furnace next to that, and on the left was the vacuum station, which sucks stuff out of the casting so one doesn't get bubbles in the pieces of jewelry.
    There's a temperature controller on the wall on the left. One's got to take the temperature to over 1400 degrees over twelve hours and then bring it down slowly. And the temperature controller helps in that process. I could tell that with the knowledge and pride and care that he took, that Koy was a master craftsman. I told him this, but he laughed it off…
  He used to call himself a "jeweler", but now he calls himself a 'Professional Artist."  The reason for that is that people want their "jeweler" to be all dressed up in suit and tie and be all clean cut and formal, but that's just not him, Koy said. A "Professional Artist", on the other hand, can "be like me" he said, "have tattoos and ride motorcycles."
  I was very appreciative of Koy testing my tires and then putting a few pounds of air into my front tire. He gave me a scare when he noted that although my tread was good, I had some cracking on the sidewalls. However, I was relieved when he saw that was just dirt there….  Whew!
  I had pulled into Koy's driveway and there was a little dip at the end of it and I had some trouble duckwaddling backwards with the big bike, and in fact couldn't quite get it out onto the street that way. In the end I had to zip down part of the sidewalk and go out a different driveway. With characteristic deadpan, and a friendly little jab infused in the wonderful southern accent, Koy noted, "No reverse on that big Kawasaki???"  I chuckled about that a LOT, and I'm sure to be doing so for the next number of weeks as I hear it echoing in my thoughts.
  As we pulled up to the Mediterranean Café and Koy zipped into the parking spot, he stood watching me as I slowly maneuvered the bike into the spot next to him. He noted while dryly smiling, and with a good amount of understatement that my Nomad didn't really "have a very dynamic turning radius."  I liked his phrasing and the way he put that, and said, "Exactly!"
  I learned about the Texas Blue Laws.  There are a quarter of a million folks here in this county but it's a dry county  - because of the strong Bible Belt influence here one just cannot get a drink on Sunday.
  After we chatted about Koy's dogs, I told him that I had had a number of cats. But he said I had that all wrong. "You might think you had cats," he said wisely, "but you don't really. Because they really have YOU."  And as I thought about that, I decided he was right.  To his credit, Koy has been involved in saving animals, especially dogs, for quite a number of years.
  Koy showed me his huge tattoo on the upper part of his right arm. He's had a tattoo since he was 11 when he tattooed himself - a small Capricorn symbol on one of his fingers. He said he regretted that one at least occasionally, but not the others.  The one on his arm has a number of  inside meanings. For instance, there's a hook there that represents his ex-wife, and then the fire stands for an 'out of the fireman and into the fire type deal.'
  Koy has owned a motorcycle every day since he was six years old. His dad was one of the best flat track racers in this area in the early days, the 1950's and 1960's. His brother has a roomful of Motocross and Enduro trophies - but he doesn't ride anymore because he lives in the Dallas area - and all the driving around there is just plain crazy.
I learned that Lubbock has the largest wind research base in the nation.  Lubbock is also arguably the best planned out city in America according to Koy. All the streets one way that intersect are alphabetical, and they are criss-crossed by streets numerical.
  Lubbock's big claim to fame, said Koy, is that Buddy Holly hails from here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Holly) We stopped at the museum dedicated to Holly on the way out of town. It was closed, so we just got some photos out by a huge sculpture of  Holly's trademark spectacles.
  Koy and I were standing by the Buddy Holly Center and chatting about things, and then he came out with some wonderful motorcycling philosophy.  He told me about the time he had a big life decision to make - he just didn't know what to do, a lot of complex business decisions and the such.  He got on his bike rode, rode to Copper Canyon from Lubbock which was about 150 miles or so, and by the time he had gotten back, he had it all sorted out.  And it was then he said, "There's nothing in your life that can go so wrong that a little bit of windshield time can't sort it out."
  Koy said he thought there were a bunch of motels 20 or so miles up the road a bit. We parted with a handshake, and with the hope that we'd see each other the next morning, when we'd breakfast, and bike north for a bit.
   It turned out that the next motel was more than 50(!) miles. I was riding into the evening now, and on a Saturday night, when motel rooms are generally harder to find, it was making me a bit nervous. But it was a nervousness born with the excitement and fun of the trip. I mean this is what the trip is all about - it wouldn't be my first choice, but I could have ridden in the darkness for hours! And the best part? Surely one of the top parts of the trip so far was the sweet cool evening air.  I purposely gulped it in. I swallowed it with happiness and joy and enthusiasm as the sun lowered toward the horizon and the clouds became darker and darker in the evening sky.
  The towns are farther apart in this part of world. That added to the nervousness part, but finally Plainview came into site, and there were a few accommodations here including the last room at the Best Western. It was about 9pm already, and so I took it.
  I quickly got gear into the room, the bike covered, and began all the evening chores.
  Skyped with a pal from home, video guy Jim.  It was sure good seeing him when he popped up on the screen.  We had a nice conversation.
   After uploading the day's photos, and Skyping with Ellie, it wasn't hard to fall into a pleasant and deep slumbering.
 


Note:
To view many of the photos from today and the whole trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner.)



**************
Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
(http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus00050000000112)

DAY 11 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK MOTORCYCLE RIDE

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July 11, 2008 - Friday - Day 11
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 326    - Total Miles - 2964 
Average Daily Travel Day Miles -  296.4
Houston,TX - to  Winter Park (just west of Forth Worth,TX)
(-staying at a Ramada Inn    -)
(TX)
- STEADY RIDING - A CERTAIN SADNESS - IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

  I was up by 6:30am.  Bill's 8-year-old grandson, Allen, a cute towheaded kid, popped his smiling face up to the loft where I was working on the journal notes.  In a bit the personable fellow joined me for  a run through the humid and hot morning.
  As Allen and I left for the run we chatted with the blond lady from next door who was not having a good start to her day. She had just locked herself out of her car - with the engine running. And worse, when I asked if she had a spare set of keys, she said she did, but that she kept them in her car!!!  (I'm sure there's a blond joke there somewhere, but I won't go there!)
  Further down the street miniscule yappy dogs came barking out at us as we ran. I said with a smile over to the owner lady, "They think they own the street, don't they?"
  Ellen, kind-hearted lady that she is, had made yet ANOTHER batch of chocolate chip cookies - this one NOT burned. I said to her, "You just didn't believe me that I like the burned ones, better, did you?"
  Ellen had been up since 5:30am getting ready for a trip the family was taking and preparing breakfast. A great table of foodstuffs was already laid out when I went downstairs.
After some good-by pictures, I headed out by 10:30ish and immediately made my first mistake. I passed the local gas station before getting on the big highway. Didn't run out of gas, but came close and the added morning angst just wasn't necessary. (Note to myself: always get gas when less than half-full before getting on the highway. It's generally less money, it avoids worry, and it doesn't break up the rhythm of the day as much.)
  When I did get gas I figured out that my mileage per gallon on the gallant Vulcan Nomad is 40mpg!!
   Well, in reality, the very first mistake was leaving my special soap in the shower last night - but I didn't realize THAT until the end of the day!
******************
  I had trouble keeping track of what day it was today…  They are all starting to blend into one… in some ways every day is the same it seems.
******************
  After my Taco Bell lunch,  I rolled next door to the Texaco pump. An older chap with a wise and friendly face approached to me with an earnest demeanor and suggested, "You fill up that tank, and I'll trade you that bike for my pickup over there."  I hadn't heard him completely, and he caught me off guard as I hadn't noticed the gleam in his eye. But when I got the joke we both laughed out loud. I told him about the trip and he said he was envious.  He looked like an old cowboy right off the calendar page. He said he was working with the guys at the prison down the way.  He told his actual name, but said with a smile that was for "the government boys" and that "my friends call me 'Bud'."
******************
  Anyone have a contact with the Jay Leno Show?  (You know Jay is a motorcyclist himself who has a passion for the ride.)
  Here's the little fantasy dream I have:  Jay is giving his monologue and I come motorcycling onto the stage. I interrupt his monologue to ask directions. He gets all flustered, of course, but helps direct me, then asks about the trip around the country to visit former students and so on, and he has me sit and answer a couple questions.  Wouldn't that be cool?
******************
  This morning I kept deluding myself into thinking that the wonderful green trees along the side of the road would stay with me. But I know that won't happen. In fact, by this late afternoon they began to thin, and by the time I was riding this evening out of Dallas and into the heart of Texas they were pretty much thinned out as the flat Texas landscape had mostly bushes and scrub.
******************
  Went to Irving, TX, a 'burb of Dallas, to have dinner with Sharon, the ex-wife of my roommate from college. She came to meet me on the edge of the city and then we went to Snuffers, an oddly named restaurant, but one with character. Sharon had mistakenly brought her 15 year old dog along, and so although we tried for the outside terrace at the place, she eventually had to leave him in the car with the windows rolled down. "Too old to jump out," she said.  There was a condom store across the way. Never saw anything like that before.  What a world!
   Neil, my college pal,  died a few years ago of heart disease. He died as he was bringing the groceries home.  Shortly after college he got the old time religion, let himself go in a number of ways, and put on a huge amount of weight especially for his short stature. I think it's also fair to say that he changed in quite a number of ways psychologically and emotionally, from the in-shape brilliant guy I knew.  He sure didn't treat Sharon very well in the end.
   But back at Kutztown College in those late teenage years, he had a wonderful free-thinking confident flair that influenced and impressed me quite a bit. Our times on the tennis court and talking will never be forgotten. I still see him lifting those weights in our dorm room while philosophizing about this or that. I sure didn't see him much in the last number of years, but with a certain sadness, I sure do miss the guy.    
******************
  Left Dallas and the magnificent skyline with the sometimes odd-shaped wonderful buildings around 6:20pm. Sharon led me most of the way to I-20 West.  It was the latest I had ridden on this trip, and I was a little afraid of getting caught by the dark. This was especially true as the Texas countryside opened up and there were miles of open space and fewer buildings at many more of the exits. And the motels were much rarer. I got the old bicycle trip worries of not finding a place… and then I realized it was Friday and worried even more.  But as 7:30pm came around I spied one motel just west of  Fort Worth. It was a Ramada Inn, and the Indian woman behind the counter, slim and pretty despite some chipped teeth, was helpful but hard to understand.  Between my hearing, and her speech defect, and her accent, almost everything she said - from the simplest words to the longest phrase - had to be repeated.
  In the room I got out a AAA USA map and starred in the spots stayed and lines between them.  It's a good record of where I've been.
   I got an email from Doug Humes, a friend and brother of one of my students. He's a music buff and songwriter - he said that he was going to work on a tune with the title, "Lonesome Roads and Empty Highways". That's the title I was bouncing around for a country and western tune back on Day 6.  Now, having a song like that written because of these notes would sure be a fun spirit lifter!

   By the end of the day I was a bit more tired than usual - I think yesterday was catching up to me, and I was up a little later writing than usual. Also, it was hotter during the day with no refreshing breaks from a rainstorm.

Note:
To view many of the photos from today and the whole trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner.)

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Pictures for Day 10

 

DAY 10 of the AROUND-THE-BLOCK TRIP - DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

July 10, 2008 - Thursday - Day 10
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 322 - Total Miles 2638 -
Average Daily Travel Day Miles - 293
Baton Rouge, LA - to Houston,TX
(-staying at -)
(LA-TX)
- AN EPIC DAY - 0NE NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN - EVER - PERHAPS WORTHY OF A LITTLE ULYSSES JAUNT -

Slept well overnight and got my usual six or seven hours of good rest. Went out for the run, and back to emails and to proofread yesterday's journal notes.
As I pulled out of the motel, I needed to turn left across a couple lanes and into one of the two lanes going toward the Interstate. I saw that there were two cars coming from the right, and calculated that it would be no problem making the left turn into either of those lanes. As I was about to make the turn, I thought to myself, "What if that car which is closer to me up the far lane decides to speed up???" And so, when I made the turn, I stayed in the lane closest to middle of the road. And JUST AS I MADE that turn, sure enough, that car whizzed by me on the right…. a good thing I didn't swing wide as I usually do to make the turn into the outer lane.
In the alternate timeline, where I'm not as careful, I wouldn't have thought about and no less looked for - or even considered that car might be coming as fast as it did in other lane. In that timeline I guess you would be doing something else at this moment besides reading these notes.
Stopped in at the local post office to send home about 15 pounds of stuff I decided wasn't necessary to lug along. Things packed up a bit better, and it was good traveling a bit leaner.
In the PO I asked about how long it would take to get the 250 miles or so to Houston. The friendly lady with the warm interested smile behind the counter said it would take about four hours. When outside, an older lady, having overheard the inside conversation, came up to me admiring the motorcycle, and with a gleam in her eye remarked, "It ought to take a lot less than four hours on that!!" I laughed and replied, "Yeah, but I didn't want to tell them that." Then the lady told me a story about her son who was on an mc behind a big truck at a traffic light. The kid didn't make sure the truck could see him. The truck started backing up, and the kid had to bail out. He was okay, but that was the end of the motorcycle. I know about that situation, but will be much more careful in that situation in the future.
Then I chugged across and down the street, and gassed up at a FasTrack. The price was $4.08 for the premium I always get - much better than the usual $4.25 to $4.39 I usually pay per gallon… Was sorry I didn't need more fuel.
Finally got out of town around 10:30am…. much later than I had hoped.
Had a lunch stop in Vinton. And then gassed up again. In the little truck stop place I got a candy bar, and I remarked to the somewhat friendly looking woman behind the counter slyly, "Now if you REALLY had my interest in mind you wouldn't let me buy this." She laughed.
It was a wonderful first part of the day riding. The roads were wide and clean - at one point five lanes wide. The weather was coolish with the pesky intermittent rains… I rode along the outer edges of a few storms so only nice refreshing little misty drops hit me for long sections. In other sections I was pelted with heavy drops, and in other places the small drops just peppered my gloveless hands and pelted against the yellow helmet. But mostly it was sunshiny, and the billowing clouds ever expanded into the atmospheres I rode under and through all day long - and they entertained me with funny shapes and designs as my mind prompted joy and smiles.
It was a wind-gustier type of day. Had to do battle with those winds as they buffeted against body and helmet. And especially as the dinosaur trucks belched by with their long long bodies, the wind whipping was at times fearsome, at times mightily scary. Had to be in tight control of the bike.
It was rough riding the roads in Louisiana - some were in the process of being replaced, and some just neglected and in bad shape. There were a bunch of potholes on the Interstate to dodge! The seams of the roadway were often separated further apart than should be. And parts of the pavement were very lumpy bumpy…. And in one section there were large beams of wood strewn over the highway. Had to carefully wend my way around them - meeting any one of them intimately would have meant disaster!!!
Just inside Texas, going through a place named Vidor, there were huge slabs of truck tires all over the road. The worst part was that the cars and big rigs were hitting them, and bouncing them all over the place in front of me. They were ominous. Had to be on my toes there!! Any one of them at 50 to 60mph could have meant doom! And no way to slow down on those speedways, of course, what with the rushing traffic.
I was headed to fellow Haverford High School alumnus Bill Perks who now lives in Houston. Bill was a few years ahead of me at Haverford. We had met on-line through the wonderful class of '59 discussion group, and then within the last couple of months in person in Atlantic City for a small reunion of sorts with another Haverford grad. I like Bill. His wry sense of humor stretching to the outlandish always tickles my funny bone.
I had gotten directions from him a couple times via email and also by phone.
Entering a big city isn't always easy with all the turns and by-ways and highways and big trucks and small ones buzzing hither and yon - everyone scuttling around in a hurry! Plus, if one makes a wrong turn or misses an exit - then what??? Not even a place on the expressways to pull off and collect a thought, no less ask for directions.
So with all this in mind I had the directions as I do, clipped to my windshield in bold blue letters… Houston, like many cities, has beltways around it, and Houston has many…
Well, when I made the turn onto the Sam Houston Beltway from I-10, I didn't realize that it was on the wrong end of town from the part of the Sam Houston Beltway that I was to SUPPOSE to have taken.
The storm clouds were moving in again for their every few hour dance.
After a call to Bill indicating I should go back to I-10 and start again, I negotiated a way to turn around on the big roads. But still the roads I should have seen according to Bill's outline did not match what I was seeing.
What happened next I won't ever forget. I would be so bold as to compare it to Ulysses and some of his travails, tests, and travels. I mean, so far this day I've had close calls, I've had 'attacks' by the wood planks, having to endure the wind and the rain, been "blown" off course and was lost for a bit, and then there were the 'assaults' by the rubber truck tire pieces - all of which could easily have cut this trip sadly short….
So as I wrote, I was headed back toward I-10 to figure out where I was, and to try and fathom how to get where I needed to go. The cloud situation was getting worse as a gargantuan darkness was now near overhead, and rumbles of thunder banged out from the heavens.
I thought to pull over at the next available spot which was a construction site near a shopping center. I pulled up onto the slanty lip of the driveway - the driveway was blocked off a bit further in by a large yellow earth-moving machine with a rather large bucket assembly.
All right so far. But then things happened quickly.
As I was punching in numbers on the GPS device - the first real time I wanted to use it this trip, I noted a security guard coming over to either check me out or shoo me away or see if he could help me. The friendly smile on his face seemed to indicate the latter.
JUST as he approached me and I turned my head over at him from the seat of the now parked bike, the storm gained intensity and the strong winds blew harshly and fast. And with those winds, the mounds of dirt and grit of the construction site were carried into my contact lens-covered eyes. It was as if someone at the beach had just thrown a fistful of sand at my eyeballs. I was instantly - and painfully totally blinded! I crouched on the seat there with my hands covering my eyes trying to dislodge the perhaps 50 or so kernels of sand in each one - all of which by now felt like big jagged-edged boulders…. YEOOOOWWWW!
I couldn't tell if the guard was talking to me, partly because of my poor hearing, and partly because of the cars and trucks whizzing past to my left and partly because of the booming of thunder above, and partly because by now the rains were bucketing down in full vengeance. I do recall the guard not letting me get off the bike because he was afraid I'd fall into the traffic.
But he was soon gone to drier safety, and I was left to flail blindly on the bike. I reached around to the Kuryaken bag and knew right where my lens stuff plastic bag was kept. Still totally blind I was able to get the rain cover off from where I sat on the seat and twisted around, and was able to grab the plastic pouch. But I couldn't take out the lenses from my eyes because of the winds even if I was able to open my eyes - which I couldn't. Meanwhile the storm, now in full force was drenching me totally and the pain in my eyeballs was increasing.
Oh, and did I mention that my bladder, already totally full, was now egged on by the wet rain against my now soggy skin, and made me really really have to piss in a most urgent way!!!
So it was quite the situation! (On the edges of my thought was how I was going to write this all up, and how entertaining it might be, but basically I was mostly hoping for some sight…)
And that came shortly in the form of one barely opened eye - at the expense of more excruciation - and then came into view the blurred vision of the yellow earth mover and a rather large mostly glass building on the other side of a driveway. I managed to get off the bike and make my way toward that building. And I spied a two-square-foot or so patch of dryness where the wind and rain was blocked by the building. I headed to that patch, and with the storm ricocheting out of control all around me, I crouched down deeply to the ground, and managed to get the right lens out of my eye. I tried cleaning it off and inserting it a couple times to no avail, but finally it went in with no pain attached to the insertion. My left eye, meanwhile, seemed to be somewhat better as the boulders must have been washed out by the voluminous tears…
While standing there I caught a couple digitals of the deluge coming over the motorcycle…
I shortly heard a banging on the glass next to me, and it was Mr. Security Guard beckoning me to come around the corner and into the building, which I did.
The cavernous place was totally empty save for a couple guys working on the plumbing in the bathroom on the far side. I got a couple pictures of the place, too.
One of the plumbers knew the area, and he told me how to proceed back to I-10 and go to the correct exit. I also programmed the gps with Bill's address.
After loud cracks of thunder, some of which shook the building with their excess, the storm began to abate to just a little tattoo of droplets dancing on the puddles. And then finally, sun again, and blue sky.
It was quite the ordeal.
But no worse for wear, aside except for a couple frayed nerves, I scrambled back to the bike, donned my soaking helmet, which had been left on the handlebars, and motored off through the puddles to I-10.
As it happened, I was still quite a number of miles away from the correct turn off. And unfortunately, now it was rush hour. And even more unfortunately, the road between here and there was all torn up for repaving - the sub-surface of the highway all scored and scared the way it is in preparation for the new cement to be poured. So yet another trial - it was about 7 miles of motorcycle duckwaddling on wet uneven cement!
Finally got to the correct exit after about 25 miles and from there it was a piece of cake to Bill's.
There with the bike safely in his garage, I related the story to him in as animated fashion as I could muster - and I wanted to relate it well as I was full to the brim of excitement about it.
Then, with Bill supervising, I cleaned off the Nomad of all the road grime, and restored the shine.
Inside the house, we chatted about lots of things - reminisced about past teachers and administrators at Haverford, about family things and other incidentals. I had a shower and shave, and finally came down off the incident high.
Ellen, Bill's "beloved", as he calls her, came shortly and we had a delicious meal - with sweet thumb-sized strawberries starring, and capped by two accidentally burned batches of chocolate chip cookies which I enjoyed immensely. Although Ellen didn't believe that I really liked them that way.
At dinner Ellen told how her daughter was just back from overseas to live in the Houston area. She said how it was fun shopping in the grocery store and her daughter remarking how cheap everything was. For instance, where she had been it was $20 for a box of cereal.
Bill and I chatted for a few more hours, and then we had a Skype session with Ellie before I turned in to write all this up. It was almost 1am before I was done.
And then I turned to sleep… a day of adventure and friendship behind me that surely will be remembered and relived and relished in my thoughts for a long, long time to come…. with smiles, and with joy at having survived to tell the story.



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July 9- DAY 9 OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MOTORCYCLE TRIP

July 9, 2008 - Wednesday - Day 9
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST – SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 380 - Total Miles – 2316
Average Daily (Travel Day) Miles - 290
10am- 6pm - 8 hours
Marianna,FL to Baton Rouge,LA
(-staying at a Days Inn -)
(FL-AL-MS-LA)
- A FOUR STATE DAY – PASSED 2,000 TRIP MILES – GREAT GOOD FORTUNE –
– PASSED INTO THE CENTRAL TIME ZONE –

Once again the day didn't begin too well. After about five minutes of the lady at the desk looking for one, I said to her, “Hmmm, maybe you ought keep these plunger things a little more handy…” It was a little problem with the toilet that was quickly resolved. Most of the motels offer as part of their come-ons, a breakfast in the lobby. But there is usually nothing, and I mean NOTHING that is not overly fattening, full of hydrogenated oils or good for you in the least. As on most trips of this nature, I sleep well and deeply and awaken fresh, with strong legs, and ready to roll. Other than a little neck ache from sleeping funny a couple nights ago, I feel about perfect. And that pain was gone by the end of this day. I think the good feeling must have something to do with the great outdoor air and the travel. It's great walking up to the bike in the morning and taking the cover off - and beholding the wonderful shininess of the red and black! It's worth the time I take in cleaning it the day before. One of my goals is to finish the ride, and have someone say, “That bike is so clean it just couldn't have been on a 10,000-mile trip!!!!” I would have liked to have left a little earlier, but the whole day came into play wonderfully and so I sure don't have any complaints. It was virtually clear skies as I took off at 9:45am. The new Kawasaki and I are becoming more in tune. I still don't feel the kinship and oneness as with the Shadow, but then I've ridden that many more miles. (Not to anthropomorphize too much, but I'm sure the Shadow is sitting under the carport at home, and just wondering where the heck I am…) And because of the bigger size, this bike is a little harder for me to handle on the tight turns. I find myself duck waddling, for want of a better term. (A term I attribute to a motorcycling friend from my first days on the Savage, Tom - of the inimitable team of Ali and Tom.) Duck waddling is when one just maneuvers the bike by straddling it with both feet on the ground and moving it around that way - slowly, and it frequently looks awkward. Out on the clear wide clean highways this morning I tractor-beamed onto a guy pulling boat-towing devices of some kind. I just tucked in right behind him as he charged along at about 90mph and followed him for about 50 miles. The rain began much earlier this day than on other days. At around 11am the on-and-off-again-for-10-minute showers began. And this continued until the last part of the riding day. It never got very hot this day as I streaked across the Gulf states. I know I will be wishing for these cool dousings once I get out west. Also the weather systems will likely be much larger out there. So the burning sun periods and the drenching rain sessions will be much longer in duration. Was once again hopscotching through the weather systems. And riding along the fringe of a number of the storms.While at a pump I saw what was to me an unusual sight. A fellow rolled in on a Honda Shadow and without even getting off the bike proceeded to do the credit card thing, get the pump nozzle, and fill his tank. I got a picture, and then went over and told him it was the first time I'd seen anyone do that. We chatted for a bit - a little about the weather - and he said he was a soldier at the nearby base. It was drizzling on the highway as I rolled near Spanish Fort, Alabama, just east of Mobile. There was a Best Buy there and I decided to make one last stab at finding that charger for my little Sony camera. This charger thing has been just one of my little challenges. I have a number of cameras with me so it wasn't a necessity really. But the little Sony was handy to grab while on the bike and take pictures while riding. I had gotten good at it, so there was little safety concern, and being a photographer, I hate, of course, to miss anything that would make a good image.So I wheeled over to the Best Buy in the Eastern Shore Plaza as the storm clouds thickened above. At first I made the wrong turn off the ramp from the highway - and it was an awesome sight: all of the sky from end to end was pitch black and with lightning strikes!! But the store wasn't in that direction, and I thought, “Glad I don't have to go that way.” The fellow at the door of the Best Buy directed me to Crystal back in the camera section. As I approached the woman she appeared to be working on some paperwork. She turned with a real friendly manner and the young lady with the great smile and wonderful model-like cheekbones asked if she could help me. Whenever I'd stop over the last number of times in the tech store, I'd be real playful and have fun with the sales folks about the possibility of the charger being there - “I KNOW you have it. I'm SURE you have it!! It's GOTTA be here!!! You're gonna have it, I just know it!!!” I'd say with mock earnestness and cheery optimistic disposition as they searched. Without exception they'd smile at my earnest enthusiasm and hope, and then turn to me with disappointment in their eyes. This was the case here, too… except Crystal didn't stop there. She opened a cabinet, and right there was the old charger I needed. The one I desired. The one I craved…. But there was one problem. It wasn't a sale item. I said to her with mock seriousness, “You've got me drooling, now, Crystal. There must be something we can do….” She COULD have told me to get lost. But instead she told me wait a few minutes while she checked with her boss. I waited anxiously. She came back and said that not only could I have the charger, but I could have (what is a $50 item) for FREE!!!!!! I literally, and somewhat dramatically, and I'm sure embarrassingly to Crystal, got down there on the floor on my knees in thankfulness, exclaiming great gratitude. It must have been a funny scene to anyone in that store seeing a man in a bright yellow motorcycle suit down on his knees looking like he was proposing, for goodness sake!!! Both Crystal and I laughed at the silliness…. But I WAS grateful. We chatted a bit about the trip, and I gave her my email address and the site address so she could contact me for the picture that co-worker Forest subsequently took of me, Crystal, and Manager Tripp. I said to Crystal at one point, “You know, I know it's not appropriate because you don't even know me, but I feel like giving you a hug!” As we said good-bye, I think Crystal and I felt a good feeling pass between us. She had been in a position to help a complete stranger in need. And she did help. She didn't have to - she could have just told me that charger was unavailable... But she had a good spirit within her - as did manager Tripp. And I felt a need to give her more than just a verbal 'thank you', and she could tell that I wanted to give her a hug thanks, and I could see in her eyes it was okay, and so we did… It was a good life moment there in that aisle of the huge electronics store.- - - - - - Not only was the stop good for the charger, and because the time in there was during a particularly heavy downpour that I missed, but I also got a Best Buy plastic bag on my way out of the store that perfectly covers the tank bag as a rain cover. One good thing about the spurts of rain is that as the big drops crash against my windshield they clean off the accumulated bugs that have splashed bloodily there. On the way into Ocean Springs there was a gigantic dark cloud storm system with a rain downspout that was just mesmerizing. I took some shots from the bike, but then even stopped to get another shot with the other camera just to be sure I got it - so you KNOW it caught my attention. The dark cloud seemed to cover a couple states it was so hurricane big!! I rode along the edge of that storm and the drops nibbled at me along the way. Had lunch in Ocean Springs, which is about fifty miles east of Mobile. That Waffle House was on the very edge of the storm. (I just love those pecan waffles!!) I had my laptop fired up wirelessly through my Verizon card and replied to a bunch of emails. I'm keeping all caught up on emails just like at home. Sometimes I have more than 50 (some spam, some business, some trip-related emails), and because of being a fast typist, I'm able to whittle them down pretty quickly. I enjoy hearing from everyone who “are along on the ride with me”. Especially those with questions or who point out something I may have gotten wrong or omitted. Almost stopped for the night in Hammond,LA… but the pricing wasn't quite right, and something just didn't “feel” right about the place. So I continued on another 40 miles or so and found a nice spot in Baton Rouge. That would put me closer to Houston where I get to visit with a Bill Peaks. He's a Haverford alumni guy (as I am) known through the great Class of '59 discussion group, and recently met in Atlantic City before leaving on this trip. By traveling more miles today, I should get to Bill's earlier, and so have more time with him tomorrow. Checked into the Days Inn here, and the friendly person behind the counter of suspicious, dubious and perhaps unknowable gender said I could put the bike right by the front door. I inquired if he could match the $45 at the Colonial Motel across the street, and he said, “I wouldn't let my dawg stay there…” So I took the room at the Days Inn. After getting the gear in the room by 6pm I went across the way and enjoyed a good Subway meal and had the computer along for catching up on the news and getting caught up on emails again. Had a good Skype session with Charlotte, friend and client, from home. It was the first Syype session with a reader other than Ellie, and my apprentice and friend, Tom. It was good chatting with Charlotte and her husband - they have cheery attitudes. I think of the technology and how it's progressed through the years on my trips. I mean, the best I had before was the occasional expensive phone call and postcards! What a world! While munching on some microwave popcorn, I once again reorganized all the gear, and got a little pile - including the video camera - to be sent home. I can do video with my other digital cameras so there seemed little use in having the bigger camera. As the day closed in, and sleep came quickly, I smiled a LOT about this day - remembering the good stuff, and finely appreciating, and caressing the thoughts of all the kindnesses that came my way.

DAY 8 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK JOURNEY

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July 8, 2008 - Tuesday - Day 8
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 323    - Total Miles - 1936 
Average Daily Miles (travel days only) - 276.6
Wesley Chapel,FL- to Mariana,FL
(-staying at Microtel Motel   -)
(FL)
   - JUST A GREAT DAY OF RIDING -  I GET CLIPPED -

  Hmmmm…. my little experiment of hanging yesterday's washed clothes in the room failed - as they were still wet this morning. They were washed as I showered in the stall last night. So I headed to the motel laundry dryer.  Had a good run in the area, and then had some breakfast before packing up.  It's always fun having the MacBook on while working around the motel room - I can listen to music on Itunes and hear if any incoming emails arrive. It's always good hearing from folks on the road - and a number have been writing.
  I hit the road at ten, and immediately tooled over to the nearby shopping center. I struck out twice there - couldn't find earplugs in Dick's sporting goods place (they usually have them in the gun section), and couldn't find the battery charger I had been hunting for in Best Buy. And at Best Buy, where I got there before they opened, I had to wait in the hot morning sun for 15 minutes before they'd even let me in the store.  I just KNEW the day would get better!
  In fact, a few times today - while tooling down the highway - I broke out into a spontaneous unexpected, wonderfully broad grin.  Pure joy. Pure joy at the doing this - at the green trees streaming past me right and left - and at the moving.  Being in motion is a wonderful thing.  The landscape was a-blur around me and the future coming up fast.  (As I lay at the end of the day in the comfy motel room bed and think of these last few days of being on the road - and all the happy planning that has made it happen, I feel that smile coming upon me again…. )
  An untold number of times this afternoon pleasant drops splashed against that smile.  And blue skies ahead and down the highway always kept me going.
  While zipping happily along today, it was like the road kept comin' me - like a video game where the action is an endless loop of never-ending variation.  And it was big highway all day - perhaps as my uncle suggested it's that I'm just taken with the dog-lolling-tongue-out-the-car-window effect.  But it was sure wonderful today.
  One dark car zoomed past me today and flashed up the highway. I thought, "Man, is that guy ever going too fast for his own good!"  Sure enough, I saw him pulled over by the police a bit further down the road. Something just didn't seem quite right about him, and I was glad he got stopped. That guy got greedy and stupid with his speed.  I never let that happen to me.
  Only a few other motorcyclists I've seen on this trip have had the bright yellow on like what I wear. I know the trend and "cool" thing is for wearing black and leather. But I LIKE being SEEN. (And I like not having animals killed for my clothing.) One of the things that motorcyclists do is give a friendly low wave to each other when passing in the other direction - well the non-snooty motorcyclists anyway… (A little like VW owners use to do in this country before there were so many of the little bugs.)  But I noticed when being waved at from across the wide highway, it was even difficult sometimes seeing that wave unless the guy was in a visible color!
  There's always quite a little drama show going on out on the highway - the guys who won't move over to let someone pass, the guys who move over right away. There are all kinds of little vignettes.  At one point today a police car pulled out abruptly from the trees on the left. Everyone who had been zipping along at 90mph came to a big slowdown. (The speed limit on the highway was 70mph.)  I put my feet up on the highway pegs, leaned back, and watched the fun scene as no one would pass the policeman.  Cars zoomed past me - and then came to a quick crawl when they saw the reason for the long line.  Finally, the officer pulled off at an exit, and life continued as before.
  I'm very perceptive of the cars coming toward me on the other side of the road from the other direction. When they have their lights on, I always know that rain is not usually far away… And that's especially true when it's a long line of cars with lights on.
  The rain played cat and mouse with me today in the afternoon.  First it seemed like the day would be forever bright and blue. But then the road turned and I'd be heading into darkness and lightning and wet roadways and then big drops turning to downpour.  Then the storm eased and/or the highway turned, and it would be bright sunny happy warm skies again.  When one rides big miles like this, fifty miles at a clip, one moves from weather system to weather system!
  I have my little tape recorder in a left pocket of the tank bag. It's easy to get to, and by now I can reach it with no problem without even looking when I have a thought worth recording. Had a scare this afternoon as I had put it by accident in a different pocket, and when I reached for it in it's regular place, it wasn't there!!!  Thought it might have popped out or something out onto the highway.  But no, it was just in the adjacent pocket.
  My sister wrote to me, "Man, how lucky can you get, not getting a ticket!"  And I wonder about that, too.  I'm sure there's some luck involved but when you think it has been over 20,000 miles in every part of the country, perhaps it's how smart I ride, and that there's a little more than luck involved. (Hey, if I get one, you guys will be the first to know.)
  As usual, wonderful smells inundate the senses on the scoot (another term for motorcycle) much more than when one is in a car.   The freshly cut grass smell from the tall weeds begin mowed by the highway crews along the way, the occasional beds of wildflowers,  the oxygenated air from passing storms, the flour in granaries out west, the smell of down drafts of cool air off the mountains.  And smells have long histories: I can still remember like it was yesterday the grand fresh smell of that laundry on the line as I crested a hill in Shamokin,PA on my 1980 cross-country bicycle ride.
   Along Interstate 75 I had something get into my contact lens. An eyelash or road grit, who knows?  Anyway, it happens most days to a greater or lesser degree, but today it was more worrisome. Today the discomfort was great, and the eye teared up and shut with no warning. One-eyed, I had to pull over a couple lanes to the shoulder where I had to take the lens out and splash water on it before I could pop it back in and be on my way.
   At 250 miles I was in Tallahassee and it was only 2:45!!!  I looked around the little part of the capital of Florida that was before me, and considered staying for the night. After all, it was drizzling, there were some things I needed, and lodging was plentiful. But it was early in the day, and the sky now looked clear to the west, and I just had not had enough riding for the day!
  Got another 50 miles or so to Marianna,FL, somewhat between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It really was like riding around the block and very enjoyable. 
   I hit the trifecta of places to stay: the motel was near the interstate, there was a restaurant nearby, and there was a Wal-Mart in which to get anything I might need.
  I checked into a Microtel Motel, and after leaving some gear there got my butt to the local Wal-Mart. Now, I've been in Wal-marts before, but after being on the road for so long, it's tough dealing with immensities. I was staggered at the huge gargantuan size of the place!  They didn't have my needed charger, but I did find everything else for which I was searching - something like a grease pencil (the little crayon Connie gave me didn't quite make it), the earplugs, and some food stuff.  (By-the-way, the grease pencil is for writing little notes on the windshield like mileages, etc. It rubs right off later, and is very handy for remembering things.)
  After that I tried a Radio Shack again for the charger but to no avail. But there was a SuperCuts haircut place down a few stores and I went in and got clipped. Really shorn. It was like the trip haircuts I used to get before a trip.  But without the middle part of the hair on my scalp, you know, it just doesn't look the same.  I joked to Meecha,  who wouldn't let me get a picture of her giving me the haircut, "Put it back, put it back."  She laughed. I sighed.
   In one of today's emails Mary Black wrote me - Mary from trip day 4 -  saying that she liked the pelican picture… She reported it brought back old memories of her father telling her a 'silly little ditty' about pelicans…. She wrote, "Thanks for the reminder. You never know what will mean something to someone else. So don't leave anything out.'  This was the poem as I found it on the net:

A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill will hold more that his belican.
He can take in his beak Food enough for a week,
But I'm danmed if i can see how the helican
(Dixon Lanire Merrith - "The Pelican"(1910)


Note:
(Although there are no new ones today, to view many of the photos from the trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day's journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip on the left hand corner.)

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**************
Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.
(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

DAY 7/ SUNDAY JULY 7th/ OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MC TRIP

July 7, 2008 - Monday - Day 7
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
  -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 228    - Total Miles -  1613 
Vero Beach,FL - to  Wesley Chapel, FL
(-staying at  a Best Western  -)
(FL)
- ON THE ROAD A WEEK - HEADING WESTWARD - LINKS TO CHILDHOOD -

   After a run to the beach in the humid morning where I captured some pretty reasonable sunrise shots, and bidding good-byes to Connie and her cat,  I backed carefully down the steep slope of the driveway at 8am.  I was excited about this segment of the trip - because I had done it before - but  on a bicycle!
 
Headed down Route 60 west across Florida just like back in the 90's when I bicycled it as part of a 500-mile ride from Jacksonville to Tampa! 
   This morning I slid past Yeehaw Junction around 9:15am. The memories are ripe from 14 years ago… heading out of Vero Beach on a bicycle and getting the 33 tough windy miles to Yeehaw Junction. The place  turned out to be only a deadbeat closed hotel and dust.  Had to keep bicycling as the sun slowly descended and finally disappeared leaving me panting and sweating and with no place to stay.  Finally, after about 60 miles the lights of a little fishing village appeared on the right.
  Darn, I missed the picture of the Grape Hammock Fishing Camp sign.  It's still there, that fishing camp. The place was such a savior back in March of 1994!  The folks there were sure nice as we rolled in and it was dark, and there was just nothing else anywhere in the area to pitch a tent!! It was in the middle of nowhere and the folks there were of the commonest sorts and the friendliest. What a great memory!
   The roadway out of town all changed. Now it's not just a single lane in each direction, but a big highway much of the way. Past Vero and the outlying area of CVS's and traffic lights, there is still much green pasture land all the way out to the wide horizons. And this day they were all under even blue skies radiating warm sunshine.

  It was a rush to get across the state of Florida to Palm Harbor where Bob and Lorna were. I concentrated hard on the safe miles and the time. I arrived only five minutes late after noon.
These folks are more than just friends, more than just folks known. They are links to childhood, and anchors to youth.
  I often think of Bob as 'the tall skinny man in the black cowboy suit'… As that is how he often dressed for the school's Halloween parades - and in my dad's family films that's the way he is frozen in time.
  Bob said that daughter Robin, who works for the UN, had his sense of good humor and Lorna's good looks!!  Robin has a couple of villas in Tuscany. The Landis folks volunteered, and then Robin on a phone call also offered me a place to stay should I ever decide to cycle around Europe.
  I used to deliver the Landis newspaper on Clemson Road. And we chatted how there were not many homes in the Coopertown area where I hadn't either mowed the lawn, shoveled the snow, babysat the kids, taught the kids, and/or delivered the newspaper, The Evening Bulletin.
  I rolled video getting some of Bob's impressions on what is now the 50th anniversary of  Coopertown School, where he was the first principal.
  For my part, I had told my third grade teacher there that when she retired, I would replace her - and that's exactly the way it worked out.
  We chatted about old times and about lots of things that brought smiles to our faces.  "In order to succeed, you have to have a sense of  humor," said Bob.
  I brought the folks up to date on what was going on in the old neighborhood and with the school district. We reminisced about how when they last visited, we went to the house where Bob grew up and we got a picture of  him in the attic room, where as a tot more than a half-century before he had scribbled his initials in a wood beam.
  He and Lorna are in their early 80's, and happily doing fairly well and enjoying Florida.  Bob was suffering from a neuralgia type problem but was done, or so it seemed, with the shingles he had suffered with in the last few years.
  I enjoyed seeing the wall of photo and other memories in the Landis apartment. And the sign on the front door of their plate seemed fitting: The Best Antiques Are Old Friends!
  Lorna and Bob treated me to a lunch at the little commissary, and then, as Bob had to get to the docs for some tests, we took a few pictures by the motorcycle and bid our good-byes.
  Route 19 was right around the corner - which was good.  I headed on it the wrong way which was bad.  But I discovered the mistake after only a few miles and turned myself around only losing a little time.
  The postman in Taco Bell gave me significantly better directions than I had planned to use. I was hoping that those directions not only would make less miles for me in getting over to the big highway I-75 North, but would also take me away from the brewing storm clouds.  Well, as the drops plunked on me, I figured one out of two wasn't too bad…
   The rain began to fall.  I didn't even bother covering up. It wasn't too heavy, but when I noted that I could see no blue sky at the other end of the road, I decided to keep with my early day plans, and pulled off at the first exit with a motel.
  After checking in, I spent about 20 minutes wiping down and cleaning the Kawasaki to it's shiny state, and then went to the room to carefully go through all the bags, emptying each pocket while cleaning and re-organizing.
  I did my laundry, caught up on these notes, and learned the lesson that I need to find a motel that has a restaurant nearby. Or at least a food store.
  Although it had been a good day, and I had been a good boy, still, I went to bed hungry.  I'm sure I'll make up for it at breakfast….
 
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**************
Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.
(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

DAY 6/ SUNDAY JULY 6th/ OF THE AROUND THE BLOCK MC TRIP

July 6, 2008 - Sunday - Day 6
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 389 - Total Miles - 1385
Ashburn, GA - to - Palm Harbor,FL
(-staying at Connie's home -)
(GA-FL)
- TOUCHING THE OCEAN - BIG MILES -

I was determined to get an early start today, and put in big miles.
Had a self-made waffle in the motel lobby.
I was packing up the bike on this just beautiful July morning when an older couple walked by. The crotchety woman looked over at me with a scowl, took a sneering look at the bike, and barked, "I HATE those things! I hate those things. My son was in an accident, he's okay, but I HATE those things!" I should have asked her how many folks she knows who were in CAR accidents!!!
A hugely obese guy came walking by me right after that with a half dozen donuts on his plate, while munching one. He had an envious look in his eye at the bright red Nomad and me. He didn't say anything, but he was very reminiscent of the fellow I encountered on one of my bicycle trips out west a few years ago: an identically overweight-by-100-pounds-man with donuts. Only this guy also had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, too. He looked at me on my bicycle and with a wistful look in his eye clearly reflecting his wish to be on the road with me, remarked, somewhat poignantly and ironically at the same time, "I wish I could do that…."
The 100mph on the speedometer wasn't tough today: tabletop flat highway, straight line to the end, three lanes, no cars - just south of Valdosta, GA..
For the first part of today it was lonesome roads, and empty highways. (Hey, it seems like there should be a country song by that name…. "Lonesome Roads, and Empty Highways"… it has a ring about it!)
At 11:30am I gassed up, and then it wasn't but a few miles down the way that the Florida Welcome Center popped into view. Mmmmm - free orange and grapefruit juice. I asked the lady behind the counter how far it was to Vero Beach, and she immediately replied with an authoritative, "300 miles!"
With my patented mock seriousness, I asked her, "And just how do you know that so quickly?" She replied with a smile, "I've been here 33 years, and I know!"
A guy in a gold pickup truck and I were leapfrogging down the highway just before entering Florida. I kept thinking I had shaken him, but he'd pop up again right there. Finally, I just let him go.
I was glad I wasn't behind that one car going northbound at about 11:35am. The car virtually exploded into plumes of smoke.
I rode through three short intense storms today… Gallons of rain pouring buckets of water as windshield and sunglasses puddled up with drops of rain. I sank low in the seat to see at times, and I raised myself above the windshield to try and see at other times. Sometimes only the white line on the side of the road was visible. Speed was, of course, brought to a very slow cadence, and the whole tempo of travel was different. Slanted a LOT toward just survival!
The skyscapes today were amazing… from gigantic clouds of puffy huge dinosaur cotton balls to clouds of extreme flatness with layers of many many dimensions that stretched from horizon to horizon ahead of me with occasional streaks of blue: almost indefinable shades of aquas, and blacks, and whites.
A truck kept trying to pass me on Route 60. I wouldn't let him. And we enjoyed the cat and mouse tag game. I kept thinking I had shaken him off, when I noticed he was there again. At one point, I had been taping into the tape recorder and naturally was going a bit slower. But with this new 'challenge' I put the recorder down, tugged a bit more forcefully on the throttle, and that truck just receded into the dark blue line that was the horizon in my rear view mirror.
Most of this day I was like a red and yellow bullet piercing through the Florida wind.
Streaked down part of mostly deserted and super flat Route 60 keeping pace at 85-90mph with two purple red helmets riding two up (two on a motorcycle)… She had on a tank top of sorts over slender shoulders, and was clutching onto him tightly. Lucky guy, I thought.
Connie lives in Vero Beach. We first met when she was the parent of one of the boys in my very first elementary school classrooms back in 1969. He and his brother had found me on the internet a few years ago, and Connie and I became internet pals. I also had visited her on an mc trip a couple years ago.
After unpacking my stuff and pulling into her garage, we had a splendid walk to the beach. It's only a block or two from her home. After a row of homes, and the left turn to the shoreline, we came upon a sandy area with plants and at least one hawk, and some gopher tortoises. I had never heard of them, but they burrow like gophers. I managed a bunch of nice images of one of the handsome devils. I threw him a banana peel and he (or she) enjoyed munching on it…
We walked across the sand to the water's edge, and Connie got a couple pictures of me touching the water. It was an emotional moment for me as it's yet another time where I'll be touching the water of two oceans on a journey.
I took a ton of pictures - cloud designs, horizon shots, and even one of a pelican in flight. I was patient for that one, and feel pretty proud of it.
It was getting on in the evening, and a friend of Connie came by to join us for dinner. Keith is a fellow she had met a number of years ago when they were both working on some kind of environmental cleaning project in the area. Keith is quite a bicycle rider. In fact this day he rode with someone who was visiting and who had brought his bicycle ON a motorcycle. I would have liked to have seen that!!
As we drove to the restaurant we went down Sand Fly Lane where there is just a spectacular live oak tree. It's branches spew out in many directions like a Medusa Head. The whole lane seems covered with a canopy of branches, and it's resplendent with green.
The restaurant was right on the oceanfront and had many interesting, unique, and fascinating art works - mainly from driftwood. It was a delicious meal, which I capped with a piece of superb key lime pie, and by the time we got done talking and eating, it was past nine, and I was exhausted. I had a little trouble contacting the folks with whom I was to have lunch tomorrow - my elementary school principal and his wife. Finally I reached them. But I learned that Bob had a doctor appointment at 2:30pm, so I'd have to get there by noon. Which meant I'd have to leave Connie's by 8am!
It was disappointing because I wanted to spend more time with her, AND it meant I couldn't finish these notes in the morning. By now, with all that happened today, and the especially with the big mileage day, I was too exhausted to do anything much, no less get my thoughts together about the journal writing.


Note:
(To view many of the photos associated the entry above, as well as with the whole trip, check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141. Some folks have reported trouble with this link, but most find that it works. Sometimes it takes two tries… Also, you can check out the past day's journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip on the left hand corner.)

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**************
Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.
(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)