Fred W and TMJ's Vacation Ride to the Great Divide

[FJReady]

This has been so much fun to tune into each day. Where you going next? I'll be tagging along.

 

[ZOOOMM AGAIN]

We'll be thinking about you guys when your passing thru our area tomorrow. Thanks again for taking us along.

 

[Geezer]

Crazy thing... we ordered a pie and a salad from the local Fox Pizza den. They said, 30-45 minutes. 10 minutes later the guys was here knocking on the door! And the best part was it wasn't half bad. I actually wish we had some delivery pizza that good at home.

What? No beer?

 

[Fred W]

What? No beer?

I know, huh? But we still had some remnants from our 3rd fifth of bourbon in the "portable bar", just enough for the last night on the road.

If we didn't have anything to drink I'd have been walking the mile or so into town...

 

[El Toro Joe]

Well...looks like they will have nice weather for the final push to the homestead.

 

[Mihalis fjr]

E X C E L L E N T !!!!!!

Thanks for sharing with us!

 

[1maxman]

Awesome ride and report, it makes me want to hop on and just ride.

 

[Tanker]

Thanks again Fred for the great and timely reports during your trip. Its been very enjoyable!!

 

[Fred W]

Day 15 - Bringing it on back home...

Up early (what's new?) in Cuba. Found that the temps had dropped significantly last night. The one noght I didn't cover the bike and I come out to a wet seat. Oh well, that's what the hotel's bath towels are for right?

No in room coffee and a really skimpy FCB today. I guess that's what happens with these cut rate motels. No problem, after scarfing down a bowl of raisin bran and a couple of cups a Joe, we hit the road bright and early.

Not much traffic on I-86, and what there was was agreeable to my 80 mph pace. Thick fog was hugging the ground in all of the low spots, and we pretty much rode in the fog off and on the whole way until Binghamton.

Once we cleared B'town the cloud s lifted and the skied brightened, but the temps held pretty low. Jopsie was running her heated jacket liner pretty steady and I was wearing my regular jacket liner for only the second time of the trip (other time was at 8500 feet in the Bighorns)

I-88 from Binghamton to Albany is a quick blast. Noit smooth, but quick. I don't mind the highway when it is this open...

Shot up the Northway (I-89) a short bit to circumvent Albany and catch Rte 7 east thru Troy.

Stopped at the tourist trap in Hoosic this time thru. Good for a leg stretch and a pee (outhouses are out back)

You wouldn't know it, but this place is not in Vermont!

Circumvented Bennington on the new bypass again (boy is that a great thing!) and got onto one of my favorite high sspeed sweeper roads in VT, Route 9. Just have to remember that those double yellow lines are just a suggestion...

In no time at all (what is it with these tiny states in New England) we were back on the mother soil.

Ran Route 9 through Keene and then, on a whim, when I saw the sign for Rte 123 to Hancock, I hit the brakes hard and jumped on that old, worn out track. After riding on immaculately smooth roads for the past two weeks, where Josie and I would chuckle when we would see a "Bump" or "Rough Road Ahead" sign, it felt good to get my mogul mojo on again on Rt 123.

I realized that what Gina said earlier about those old cow paths that we are always on seeming boring after riding to far away places will probably not be true for me. These old familiar road felt great still, the bike was singing along happily, the lush green scenery was maybe more appreciated after being immersed in the dry western browns.

And I knew we were going somewhere really good...

What better way to cap off a 15 day vacation than with a fresh made sandwich on home made multi-grain bread at Fiddleheads Cafe? We split a Deli #3 which is the sliced turkey w/ cranberries, etc. and an Iced Tea.

I know all the NERDS wll understand these sentiment entirely.

The day had warmed up from chilly to perfect. We sat out on their porch (that's Josie behind the bush) and enjoyed the afternoon, celebrating the completion of our memorable adventure.

Rolled into the door yard and snapped the mileage.

6,543 miles door to door. A tad less than I had initially anticipated, but it was enough, and we are both quite satisfied. The weather was mostly magnificent, at least on all of out touring days it was. And the rain on the return trip was really a god send to keep us from sweltering out on those midwest highways.

The bike is a complete mess. I'll have to spend some serious time on it to get it looking decent again. Compare these "after" shots to the "befores" I post earlier.

The tires held up fine. The plugged rear PR2 held its air perfectly through the entire rest of the trip. But it has now worn into a foreign shape to me. It doesn't look so bad in this photo, but it is awfully square from all the highway miles, and the sides are feathered / scalloped badly from all the weight on the curves. Still, it's only got 6500 miles on it, right? I may try and put a few more miles on it...

OTOH, the wobbly Conti Motion still looks excellent! But it will be tossed on the emergency loaner tire pile as soon as I can get a new hoop delivered to Casa W.

I'll be posting up some retrospective conclusions tomorrow, (after I go back to work and therefore have more time to post on interwebs forums) about our experiences and what the big take-aways were. What things worked for us, and what things we might do differently next time. I'd like to do this as partial payback to all of those who gave us such great advice before we set out. And for those who might be inspired to set out for their first longer ride.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

Fred, you are awesome. The Magnificent Josie is even more so.

I found that my travels to far away beautiful places has given me an even greater appreciation and enjoyment of the beauty of home. I have learned to look at my local scenery in a whole new light. My traveling has enhanced and increased the happiness of riding those familiar roads.

Still, nothing compares to Out West. The vast distances, the immensity of it all is beyond description. I am so glad you and Josie brought it all back via the internet to share with us.

I am so glad you both made it home safe. Go wash your bike.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Welcome home Fred.

Glad to see you and the missus had a safe journey. Awesome report. I have no idea how you did it.

Great job!!!!!!

 

[Hornet Pilot]

Nice trip and RR Fred. I'm leaving on Labor Day for Montana, Wy. and down to Colorado. Hope the weather holds.

Thanks again for taking us along on your fun trip!

 

[RadioHowie]

Magnificent! Spectacular! Praiseworthy! Best I ever read! Thanks!

 

[Iris]

Welcome Home !!

Thanks for taking us with you two. I had a wonderful time reliving all of our trips through your journey.

I look forward to hearing the about the things that worked well and the things that you may do differently next time.

-Iris

 

[dcarver]

Wonderful read. Tx for taking the time to share.

PS you will really appreciate this after you return home, get swamped busy at work and honey-do's...

 

[Top_Speed1]

Welcome home Fred and Josie. Glad it was epic-fun and most importantly a safe trip.

 

[Fred W]

Thanks everyone. Felt pretty good to be home. Burned another mild Dominican cigar last night as a sacrifice, giving thanks to the weather gods for smiling on us in our travels.

So, as for the final wrap-up. The trip was a total of 15 days and 6500 miles. We hit 18 separate states and provinces, some twice, traveling through NH, VT, NY, ON, MI, WI, MN, SD, WY, MT, ID (just touched), MT, SD, NE, IA, MO, IL, IN, OH, PA, NY, VT and NH in that order.

We stayed at 13 different hotels along the way. None were totally disgusting. Probably the least nice ones were the first night in Niagara Falls, and the 2nd to the last night in Dayton, OH. Both were "Days Inn"s. Coincidence?

I wouldn't go back to either one of those again.

The other 11 were all fine, and their prices ranged from $65 to $150 a night, with the most expensive ones being in the towns closest to the big National Parks (Cody, WY and Kalispell, MT). They all gave us an FCB (Free Continental Breakfast) of varying proportions, saving us about $15 to $20 over going out to the waffle house, and all had Free WiFi included that was mostly functional. The only one where I had to resort to using my iPhone as a portable hot spot was in St Ignace, and that hotel had so much other stuff going for it I really did not mind that the WiFi was substandard.

Here's what our final the GPS track looked like:

Now let's talk about what worked well, and then what didn't:

Getting a hotel room each night for the following night seemed to work well for us. There is an entire thread going on about "Booking Schemes" so I won't regurgitate all the caveats there. Let me just say that you do want to do a little homework as you find room for the next night.

I found that the most reliable source of reviews is TripAdvisor.com. Some of the reviews on Google or other booking sites are whacked. TripAdvisor will also give you some pricing info about what all of the booking sites are charging for rooms, but you also may do better at the hotel's own web site.

Another scheme that I used was the AMA member 15% discount on "Choice Hotels." We tended to like the Quality Inns and stayed at several.

Eating the FCB each morning, taking rest breaks every 2-3 hours along the way and just snacking at those breaks, and only going out to eat one big meal a day (usually for dinner) helped keep the food bills and midsection growth to a minimum. That seemed to work well.

Bringing along a stainless steel, screw top bottle for carrying the "evening's libations" worked well. Thanks to Gina McD for that suggestion. I filled the 1 liter bottle before we left home, and then needed to buy two 750ml replacements along the way to refill the bottle. I bet a slightly smaller bottle would work as well and waste less valuable trunk space since the adult joy juice only comes in 750ml and 1.5L bottles. Maybe try to find a 750ml size SS bottle if you decide to try it yourself

Travel days we aimed for ~ 500 miles and/or 7 to 7 1/2 hours of seat time. Getting out of the hotels early, by around 7 - 7:30 AM at the latest allowed us to roll into the next hotel between 3 and 4PM. This was good. It was easier to maintain that pace for two weeks straight than if we had tried to do a couple of bigger 700 mile ,10 hour slab days on the front end. Getting to the hotels early gave us time to kick back, relax, have a drink, and start processing ride reports of course.

I've already said this several times in the RR, but I think making your way via state and US highways is a far better way to see things than the interstates. I hate the mid-west and eastern interstate highways, even more now than I did when we first set out. It isn't the roads or the boring-ness that I hate so much. It's the friggen trucks. Not just because they are Big and Scary, but more-so because they are the cause of the majority of the ever-present wind turbulence that really makes riding a bike on the interstate suck.

The few interstates we hit out in the wide open west were not nearly as bad because the truck density never reaches the point that is does in the heavier traveled areas. And then there are the ******* operators that think they own the road. On one 3 lane highway in Misery they were three abreast, all running at almost the same speed, dropping well below the speed limit on inclines, jockeying for position, while the rest of the traffic backed up behind them.

I hate them all. I wish we could go back to moving stuff by trains, or limit trucks to only operate during certain hours. At least they tend not to use the State or US highway systems as much, so that makes those roads even more attractive.

The FJR worked well (of course).

With our Russell seats, comfort was seldom an issue.

Sticky Strings FTW!!! Having a e-pump and tire repair kit saved our trip.

The Cee Baily +4" windshield mounted on a Rifle Tuning block, with the Laminar Lip mounted on it worked very well. The little sticky things to hold the lip on failed, but that can be made more permanent with screws and spacers.

The V-strom hand-guards were a good thing to have. When it would rain, even hard, my hands would stay relatively dry without using any over-gloves. They do block most of the wind from your hands, so they also prevent the wind from blowing up your sleeves, which would be sort of nice in the afternoon heat, but they also help the same way in the chilly AMs.

The Vista Cruise Throttle lock was also a good thing to have along. A good cruise control would have been better. More on that later.

The Wild Bill highway pegs I borrowed for the trip from bbdig were a huge benefit. Not just to stretch out your legs, but having your legs in front of you keeps them cooler (on a 1st gen that can be an issue) and allows you to more easily support your body weight if you have a big windshield up blocking the wind. IU'll definitely be buying a set of these before our next LD trip..

The old war horse zumo 550 worked flawlessly (knock on wood). I had a paper road atlas tucked away in the trunk, but only took it out to consult in the evenings when strategizing the next day's route. I had loaded up three 8 GB SD cards with the entire US map sets and 1000 different MP3's on each card. We did not listen to music much during our touring days, but did on the highways and "travel" days. We still only managed to listen to 530 songs on the first SD card.

Our old school, hard wired Starcom1 headsets functioned well. They were good for listening to the music with our earplugs in, but it was hard talking to each other at highways speeds, especially in the afternoons when I would drop the shield down for added ventilation. I'm not sure that anything else out there would work any better for those of us who wear earplugs.

Now... the things we would probably do differently:

This list is not very long. For neophytes at distance touring, we did OK, I guess, due not doubt to all of the great advice that was given (and taken) above.

The Conti Motion front tire was a disappointment. I knew I should not have tried a new, unfamiliar brand of tire for a trip like this, but I took the chance. And paid for it. Don't be like me. Use a well known and reliable tire on your vacation.

We wished that we had more time to spend at the touring end. We traveled the first 4 days to Pierre, toured SD, WY and MT for 5 days, then spent the last 6 days in getting back home from Great Falls, though at least one extra travel day was required to make the stop at Josie's brother place in MO. Had we done this trip over three weeks the added time spent in the mountain states would have made all the grueling travel days more worthwhile. And if we were going to hit the left coast I'd want to make it 4 weeks.

I'd also be trying to do a bit more pre-planning and have enough time in the schedule to use US routes all the way back instead of dicing it up with the teamsters.

I might be somewhat tempted towards getting rid of the B4 and maybe trying a different bike to do our next long distance trip on. Maybe one with intrinsically better aerodynamics and heat management, slightly taller gearing, and a cruise control built in? Since TMJ and I are in agreement that there will be more such adventures in our future, and Ole' Blue is getting a bit long in the tooth, I think we have agreement about this move too. I'll have to work on that.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

At almost 100K miles you have gotten your money's worth out of it. You know it will last a whole lot longer but it is a tool that you actually use. If you want a newer, "sharper" tool you deserve it. The Magnificent Josie especially deserves to be comfortable!

I have said before that if my wife would ride with me I would have a GoldWing or Harley Ultra and paint it pink if that is what it took to get her riding with me. I ain't joking either. I was and am so jealous of you with TMJ taking all those wonderful pics...

Thanks again for your efforts to bring all this back to us. I know how hard it can be to do an RR. To do one this good... I have no idea.

 

[Top_Speed1]

Thanks again for your efforts to bring all this back to us. I know how hard it can be to do an RR. To do one this good... I have no idea.

Yur being too modest RFH! Your RR was awesome as well, just not an "on the fly" like Fred's. 2 different types, both superb in my eyes.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Fred, I think your plan to buy a 2014/2015 FJR is a good idea.

I am also impressed by TMJ on a 6500 mile trip in 15 days. <applause>