HeadTrip

[hellneau]

The alarm goes off, but this day is very different from the everyday routine. I gladly jump up and turn the alarm off.  It's Friday - but not just any Friday!  A quick call to work to use one of those well deserved mental-health days then I look over to see if she's still there. 

She is! (Thank you Lord!) 

At long last, we are ready to do this.  It's early, especially for a day I'm not going to work but I can't wait!  I slowly get dressed in front of her.  Fondling her contours I know so well, I thumb her starter and she begins to purr without hesitation. As I twist, her purr, no - growl accelerates quickly. As she begins to warm up, my whole attitude begins to change.  Have I got everything... helmet, gloves, sunglasses...  ahh who cares...  LET'S GO!!

Easing off the loosely packed sand road that leads from my house to US 319, I thank the asphalt Gods for the hard packed stuff. A dirt biker I am not! As soon as we hit SR 61, we blow by an old pick-up truck doing 15 mph below the posted speed and stress from the workplace ebbs like the outgoing tide.  Zipping past that big yellow school bus full of kids, I don't even remember what my wife was upset about the other day. Right now, it just doesn't matter.  Ah, here is US 98.  Make a left. The logging trucks blur by like the telephone poles and the everyday grind gets left further and further in our exhaust.  Finally, it's October and the morning air is chilled. Biketoberfest here we come!  We can only stay the weekend, but I need the attitude adjustment I can only associate with riding my motorcycle for some distance and being immersed with others of like mind.

AAhhhhh..... I am so much better now that I have been on the road for about an hour. The cobwebs are gone. That feeling of being on the road is back! I've had breakfast at the only buffet in Perry, filled the gas tank, checked the air in the tires and the oil in the crankcase....not like I haven't checked each one 5 times this week. 

On the road again, old trips begin to flow through my thoughts: The summer I was released from indentured servitude (the NAVY), I spent a full six months touring out west on two wheels.  Those Rocky Mountain roads are wonderful.  Nothing like that here in the Florida panhandle.  When I was stationed in Hawaii, I'll bet we cruised every paved road on the island of Oahu.  On one trip home (to Chicago) from the west coast, I was lucky enough to hit monsoon season leaving San Diego, then a dust storm leaving Carlsbad Caverns, a tornado west of Dallas and an April snow storm as I crossed the Missouri / Illinois border. When I finally pulled into my parents' house after midnight, there was axle deep snow on the ground (Yamaha XS 1100 Special).  At one point, I was dating a girl in Phoenix while TDY in San Diego. Boy, crossing the desert at night. Something about being under a full moon at 80-mph on a bike... that really lit up all of my senses! (Suzuki GS1000E)

Look up...Branford. Just go straight...

Another time (the first time) I crossed the desert was after work on Friday.  It was so hot (how hot was it?) when I stopped for a drink at an air conditioned Dairy Queen, the temp difference was so extreme, I passed out before I could order (Suzuki GS1000E). Another time coming home from Orlando, it was so late and I was so tired that I actually believed my hands were on backwards! It was 2 AM and I had been on the road since 6 AM. That trip was right after graduating from naval nuclear power school (Suzuki GS750E). Another time in Alaska, it was so friggin' cold and it was so friggin' raining. I had the (heated) grips turned up all the way and I was hunkered down behind the windshield so tight and tense I thought my bones would freeze in that position.  I had no choice but ride on, the ferry would leave whether I was on it or not! (Honda Gold Wing)  Another time (in band camp) in New Zealand, the wind blew so hard my wife and I rode all day long at a 30 degree angle at least! Ya really had to be careful at the underpasses... (Triumph Sprint)

Reality check.  Just east of Ft. White, steer east toward O'Leno State Park.  The clouds are looking a little dark towards the south...

When I was stationed in Orlando, I would leave the base around 4 o'clock on Friday to see Aunt Sophie in Tallahassee.  It would never fail to rain just after I got on the road. (Suzuki GS750E)  Then there was that time in Canada.  The wind was blowing so hard, that at full throttle I could only muster 55 mph. (GS700E)  Or, how about that time in Colorado.  I began the day in jeans and a t-shirt. By noon, I had put on a sweater, by 2 pm I added long johns and a jacket and by 4 it had begun to rain/sleet/snow.  I ran out of clothes to put on! I was ready to trade her in then, but we stuck together and the next few days were some of the most beautiful riding days of our life. (GS1000E)

Man!  There goes someone! He must easily be doing 90. Could it really have been a Harley?

That reminds me of the time we were in Vermont. We shot by a group of bicyclists at twice the posted speed. (GS700)  In Hawaii, we would have 'slow races'.  We would ride to the local mountain top, turn off our motors and glide to a pre-determined beach.  No power allowed. We were saving on gasoline costs. (KZ900)  Now there is a trip to remember.  We (me and my motorcycle) left Chicago bound for California with $52, no maps and lots of naive to work off.  That was when camping was $2 to sleep on the ground and gas? Gas was $.79/gal.  Worries? --not me! (GS1000E)

Where the hell are we now?  Where is that dog-gone map ... ah, here it is, oh ya, turn right on SR 19 through the Ocala National Forest.  55...65...75...85...  The old gal still has some legs. OK, now slow down!

That reminds me of the time...  I was about 15 miles outside of Yakima, Washington. Just a picture perfect beautiful day, I was doing around 65 mph and the carbs just magically started free flowing.  There was gas everywhere. (KZ1000 LTD)  Then that time in Montana I lost the muffler and the Montana Highway Patrol brought it back to me. (KZ1000LTD)  Then crossing the Straights of Mackinac, the oil cooler line just magically came loose on the Mackinac Bridge. There was oil everywhere and it is a steel grate bridge to boot. (GS1000E)  Or that time I got a flat tire at oh-light-thirty on Sunday morning in North Dakota, or that time the battery died at the State Park in West Virginia when the temp dropped below 30. (Kawasaki Concours)  Or....

Hey, look at that hawk....

That reminds me of the time near Sudbury, Ontario we came to a full stop to let mama bear and her 3 cubs cross the road.(GS1000E)  And how about that time in Yellowstone we almost got stampeded by elk while reading the map on the shoulder. (GS1000E)  In Alaska, we came flying around a corner only to find mama moose and her two little mooses, meeses, whatever... licking the road salt from our lane. We were wide eyed to ole one eye that time! (Gold Wing)  In Custer State Park, we got so close to the south end of a north bound buffalo that we could smell the...

What road is this?  Are we at SR 40 already?  Turn left.

Where were we.  Buffalo, yah buffalo!  That reminds me of the time in upstate New York. We stopped for breakfast at a local greasy spoon and two of the most beauty-challenged women on the face of God's green earth served us some of the best food I've still ever tasted. (GS700)  Food, now there a subject I am familiar with.  How about that time we stumbled into Julian, California just in time for the apple pie bake offs.  Contestants were giving away slices of experimental pies. (GS1000E)  There was that trip through middle Wisconsin -  everywhere we stopped, local high schoolers were selling brats and a sodas for $1. (GS1000E)  Or, who can forget all the fresh beer boiled shrimp you could eat, served with ice cold beer and fried biscuits drizzled with honey butter all in the tropical setting of the Florida Keys. I still can't forget that sunset. (Concours)  One year, we rode east for 3 days, in the rain, for a fresh Maine lobster dinner, then more fresh lobster for breakfast and back on the road – west bound and hammer down. (GS700)  And, how about that time we mistook the directions (got lost) for dinner and wound up at the Dillard House in north Georgia for absolutely the best home-style country cooking in the south. Yes just about everything was fried! (Concours)  Remember those pig roasts at the horse stables on the south side of Chicago or the pig roast at the old railroad station near Rigby, Idaho.  The scenery consisted of the setting sun shining on the snow covered Tetons as the backdrop and all that wonderful food -- what a combination. (GS1000E)

Uh-oh, I-95 just ahead, only 7 more miles to go.  Look at all the motorcycles going by.  One is better than the next.  Another year at Daytona and a whole new set of memories.  I wonder how this trip will fit in.  Let's see, I think I've got just the spot.

All right ya'all. I've shown you mine, show us yours. Let's hear your most memorable events of past motorcycle trips. Dirt trips. Road trips. Dual Sport trips. It just doesn't matter as long as it was on two wheels...

[Hank]

That was fantastic.  It really got me thinking about some of my (mis)adventures on two wheels.   I'll see if I can put something together, although it won't be written nearly as well as your entry! 

[Lonesome Dave]

WOW!  That was great, I was smiling the entire time.  Thanks.