jwhite518
Well-known member
[SIZE=14pt]The SJC10K – A Ten Month Rally[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Leg One[/SIZE]
October 11, 2008
The Idea
To get ready for the IBR next year I want to ride as much as possible. I’m going to ride at least a Saddlesore once a month. In order to make the rides more rally-like I’ll keep fuel logs and take bonus photos. I realized I would need a rally flag to put in my pictures. I enlisted the help of my daughter Claire. She came up with a nice shield/breastplate design. We then put our heads together for a name and came up with the SJC10K. SJC stands for Sally, Jerry, and Claire and is also Sally’s initials. 10K represents the 10,000 miles I want to ride before the IBR. We found an old towel and some fabric paint, and the whole family contributed to the decoration of the rally flag.
Leg One- Version One
Since this is my first long ride on the FJR, which isn’t farkled yet, the route will be simple: Up and back to Eugene, Oregon, along I-5. I found a kitschy assortment of giant sculptures on roadsideamerica.com that worked well with my route. Then with a couple of well-placed internet postings I found the Ken Kesey statue in downtown Eugene.
Leg One- Version Two
Ever since Bob Higdon completed his visit to every county courthouse in the U.S., I’ve wanted to do the California version. I found the locations of all 58 California courthouses and marked them in my electronic maps. But since I had already bothered researching the silly tourist locations, I didn’t want that work to go to waste either. Therefore on this ride I’m doing courthouses AND muffler men, for a total of ten bonus photos. That’s quite a lot of stops for a Saddlesore 1000.
The Ride
Saturday morning at 5:30AM I left home and got my starting receipt. I rode to Dixon, CA and photographed the first of two giant oranges.
As the sky lightened and my GPS changed to daylight mode, I arrived at the Yolo County Courthouse in Woodland. The timing was perfect, because I want all my courthouse photos to be taken in daylight.
Next stop was the town of Willows to grab the Glenn County courthouse.
Continuing up I-5 to Red Bluff I found the very nice Tehama County courthouse.
In Redding I located Shasta County’s modern-style courthouse.
Riding north past Shasta Lake I was amazed at how low the water level was. There should be no doubt that California is in the midst of a drought. As the road climbed and twisted I got a bit exuberant with my right hand. My fun didn’t go un-noticed by the local CHP and I was detained for a roadside conversation. When he gave me the summons to sign, he pointed out the address of the courthouse where I could appear in person. The address was familiar, I had just been there. I pulled out my camera and showed him the photo, perhaps 20 minutes old. Officer Friendly wasn’t impressed with my courthouse quest and I got to keep the citation anyway. If my bike radar detector were properly installed I’m sure I would have avoided the whole affair.
Mount Shasta covered in snow.
Final California courthouse for this ride: Siskyou County, Yreka.
From there on it was a straight shot to Eugene. My first stop in town was a gas station. I was observing rally rules and had to correct the receipt. Good practice! Then I went to the university bookstore to pick up a Ducks souvenir for Claire. The bookstore was packed with football fans getting ready for the homecoming game later that day. I threaded my way through the mob, found a rubber duck, and paid for it downstairs in the book-selling area where there were no lines.
Duck Store
As I pulled up to the Kesey statue downtown, some skater boys were interested in my bike. First question: Does that thing wheelie? Well boys I’m sure it does but I would never condone such hooligan activities.
I asked one of them to help out and take my photo at the statue.
At this point I was halfway through my ride, but I had already spent over two hours stopped, due to all the bonus gathering and the police encounter. I had also taken some time to try to fix my malfunctioning heated clothing, which was unsuccessful. Therefore I decided to cut out the remaining roadside kitsch bonii, and just get over the mountains before it got too late and too cold.
I happened to need gas in southern Oregon, so it was an easy decision to stop in Medford instead of Ashland. That was the location of giant crow statue that I had previously decided to skip. That was good rally practice for on-the-fly route planning. Never say never!
The rest of the ride was cold, but not unbearably so. At my last fuel stop in Williams I had a hot soup and cocoa to warm up. I arrived at the starting gas station at 12:30 AM. It took 19 hours to ride 1090 miles, earn 8 bonuses, buy a souvenir rubber duck, and get a ticket. The FJR worked perfectly, except for the poor mileage. I’m going to remove the aftermarket ignition computer and see how that changes things. Leg 2 of the SJC10K will be a trip to the Pink’s RTE in Hollywood via Ely and Death Valley. You can bet that I’ll have the heated clothes and radar working by then. See you in November!
Thanks to Hans and George, and the folks from Craigslist. You know why.
Here is a map of the counties I visited.
[SIZE=12pt]Leg One[/SIZE]
October 11, 2008
The Idea
To get ready for the IBR next year I want to ride as much as possible. I’m going to ride at least a Saddlesore once a month. In order to make the rides more rally-like I’ll keep fuel logs and take bonus photos. I realized I would need a rally flag to put in my pictures. I enlisted the help of my daughter Claire. She came up with a nice shield/breastplate design. We then put our heads together for a name and came up with the SJC10K. SJC stands for Sally, Jerry, and Claire and is also Sally’s initials. 10K represents the 10,000 miles I want to ride before the IBR. We found an old towel and some fabric paint, and the whole family contributed to the decoration of the rally flag.
Leg One- Version One
Since this is my first long ride on the FJR, which isn’t farkled yet, the route will be simple: Up and back to Eugene, Oregon, along I-5. I found a kitschy assortment of giant sculptures on roadsideamerica.com that worked well with my route. Then with a couple of well-placed internet postings I found the Ken Kesey statue in downtown Eugene.
Leg One- Version Two
Ever since Bob Higdon completed his visit to every county courthouse in the U.S., I’ve wanted to do the California version. I found the locations of all 58 California courthouses and marked them in my electronic maps. But since I had already bothered researching the silly tourist locations, I didn’t want that work to go to waste either. Therefore on this ride I’m doing courthouses AND muffler men, for a total of ten bonus photos. That’s quite a lot of stops for a Saddlesore 1000.
The Ride
Saturday morning at 5:30AM I left home and got my starting receipt. I rode to Dixon, CA and photographed the first of two giant oranges.
As the sky lightened and my GPS changed to daylight mode, I arrived at the Yolo County Courthouse in Woodland. The timing was perfect, because I want all my courthouse photos to be taken in daylight.
Next stop was the town of Willows to grab the Glenn County courthouse.
Continuing up I-5 to Red Bluff I found the very nice Tehama County courthouse.
In Redding I located Shasta County’s modern-style courthouse.
Riding north past Shasta Lake I was amazed at how low the water level was. There should be no doubt that California is in the midst of a drought. As the road climbed and twisted I got a bit exuberant with my right hand. My fun didn’t go un-noticed by the local CHP and I was detained for a roadside conversation. When he gave me the summons to sign, he pointed out the address of the courthouse where I could appear in person. The address was familiar, I had just been there. I pulled out my camera and showed him the photo, perhaps 20 minutes old. Officer Friendly wasn’t impressed with my courthouse quest and I got to keep the citation anyway. If my bike radar detector were properly installed I’m sure I would have avoided the whole affair.
Mount Shasta covered in snow.
Final California courthouse for this ride: Siskyou County, Yreka.
From there on it was a straight shot to Eugene. My first stop in town was a gas station. I was observing rally rules and had to correct the receipt. Good practice! Then I went to the university bookstore to pick up a Ducks souvenir for Claire. The bookstore was packed with football fans getting ready for the homecoming game later that day. I threaded my way through the mob, found a rubber duck, and paid for it downstairs in the book-selling area where there were no lines.
Duck Store
As I pulled up to the Kesey statue downtown, some skater boys were interested in my bike. First question: Does that thing wheelie? Well boys I’m sure it does but I would never condone such hooligan activities.
I asked one of them to help out and take my photo at the statue.
At this point I was halfway through my ride, but I had already spent over two hours stopped, due to all the bonus gathering and the police encounter. I had also taken some time to try to fix my malfunctioning heated clothing, which was unsuccessful. Therefore I decided to cut out the remaining roadside kitsch bonii, and just get over the mountains before it got too late and too cold.
I happened to need gas in southern Oregon, so it was an easy decision to stop in Medford instead of Ashland. That was the location of giant crow statue that I had previously decided to skip. That was good rally practice for on-the-fly route planning. Never say never!
The rest of the ride was cold, but not unbearably so. At my last fuel stop in Williams I had a hot soup and cocoa to warm up. I arrived at the starting gas station at 12:30 AM. It took 19 hours to ride 1090 miles, earn 8 bonuses, buy a souvenir rubber duck, and get a ticket. The FJR worked perfectly, except for the poor mileage. I’m going to remove the aftermarket ignition computer and see how that changes things. Leg 2 of the SJC10K will be a trip to the Pink’s RTE in Hollywood via Ely and Death Valley. You can bet that I’ll have the heated clothes and radar working by then. See you in November!
Thanks to Hans and George, and the folks from Craigslist. You know why.
Here is a map of the counties I visited.
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