Not a lot to report on the return trip.
<br />
Had the motorcycle tire turned around correctly tueday morning. Hit the road by 11 am. Frantic to beat the stormfront rolling in. It was already raining and occasional hail as I headed down 195 to Lewiston Idaho.
<br />
I have to comment how striking Lewiston is being what seems a thousand feet below the higway coming from the North on 195/95 with the Snake river (and reservoir) by it. Probably beautiful in the spring.
<br />
Continued racing south down 95.
<br />
Beautiful ride from Lerwiston to New Meadows but wet winding roads, hail, cold, and nasty 30+ mph winds disturbed most of the enjoyment that would have been there, as well as the ever increasing and darkening storm clouds of the main front and the dropping temps.
<br />
I made it over the pass(es).
<br />
Just as I was coming up on a small town called Council Idaho, an oncoming tan early eighties pickup truck swerved into my lane and the teenage punk driver driver opened his door while he and his passenger grinning maniacly as I swerved to the shoulder white line to avoid being smacked by his door. They swerved back just shy of me and the driver pointed his hand at me (still laughing) in the shape of his hand holding a gun and pulling the trigger...

I was obviously considerably irritated, but rode on.
<br />
About a mile down I came across the county sheriff's office and decided to report the incident. Then rode on.
<br />
I made it to Boise without futher incident other than stronger head and cross winds.
<br />
The county Sheriffs office called and said they had found the culprits and the the driver admitted to swerving, but that he said it was to avoid an animal in the road and denied opening his door. I recalled a dead animal in the road about a mile earlier, but of course it was still a bogus response. However the Sheriff had spoken with the kid's parents, and apparently the mother didn't buy the kids falsehood, and was very upset with the kids, and were dealing with it. I said I wouldn't press charges at this point unless the sheriff thought it would do any more good, than the parents already being informed. So i didn't press charges since I would have had to come al lthe way back up there to testify.
<br />
Hit the road the following morning.
<br />
Note, except for Twin Falls to Burley (about 30 miles) the ENTIRE 1,500+ mile round trip I had either headwinds or crosswinds. The winds from Boise onwards were 30-50 mph gusts. It was weird from TF to Burley having a tail wind because there was almost NO wind resistace even at 85 mph because the wind behind was so strong.
<br />
From Boise to I-86/-84 interchange was cold but clear (and windy).
<br />
After interchange heading towards Pocatello and Idaho falls to do some quick information security work for a client who asked for help, it mostly hailed, and rained, and blustered intermittently and became colder and colder. Left I.F. around 6:30 pm.
<br />
Summit was cold above Malad going down I-15 snow was at the 6,000 ft mark, the summit is about 5,700 ft.
<br />
made it home by 8 pm. Very cold and sore, though nothing like the FEbruary trip the previous year's winter from California.
<br />
Now have to find buyer to take cycle for financial reasons. Very sad to do so, but must sell by October.
<br />
So these adventures are all finished on the cycle alas.
<br />
If anyone is interested:
<br />
2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "naked"
<br />
Metallic Red (Stock).
<br />
Corbin "Beetle" bags
<br />
Givi Tail bag 40 liter cap.
<br />
Tailblazer strobing (safety) headlight and brakelights.
<br />
New rear tire (< 800 miles)
<br />
New front tire (< 3,500 miles)
<br />
New rear wheel spoke and chain (<3,500 miles) gearing is changed two, to increase top end speed/gas mileage.
<br />
35-40 mpg.
<br />
Bike has 15,074 miles total.
<br />
Most mileage is highway/freeway through 12 states.
<br />
Never been laid down.
<br />
Body in great shape.
<br />
Always been reliable.
<br />
Has had every manufacturer recommended servicing and maintenance.
<br />
I have to sell, though I don't want to.
<br />
Remaining balance owed to Suzuki Corp is ~$5,600 ($209/mo).Pictures at www.hawkes-haven.com website in the motorcycles section.
<br />
Please email hawke(at)hawkes-haven.com if you know anyone interested.

$4,500 or best offer. (no longer selling, old article)
<br />
<br>
<br />
Must sell ASAP!
<br />
2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "Naked" Plus Corbin beetle bags and Givi tail bag.
<br />
<a href="/images/cycle/20011001/front_rt_beetles.jpg"><img src="/images/cycle/20011001/front_rt_beetles.jpg" height="240"></a>
<br />
<br>
<br />
Now have to find buyer to take cycle for financial reasons. Very sad to do so, but must sell by end of November at latest, else sell to dealership (aka get totally ripped off).
<br />
  <br>
<br />
 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "naked"
<br />
<br>
<br />
 Metallic Red (Stock).
<br />
<br>
....

<br />
 Corbin "Beetle" bags
<br />
 Givi Tail bag 40 liter cap.
<br />
 Tailblazer strobing (safety) headlight and brakelights.
<br />
 New rear tire (< 800 miles)
<br />
 New front tire (< 3,500 miles)
<br />
 New rear wheel spoke and chain (<3,500 miles) gearing is changed two, to increase top end speed/gas mileage.
<br />
 35-40 mpg.
<br />
 Bike has 15,074 miles total.
<br />
 Most mileage is highway/freeway through 12 states.
<br />
 Never been laid down, dropped, wrecked, etc.
<br />
 Body in great shape.
<br />
 Always been reliable.
<br />
 Runs super.
<br />
 Has had every manufacturer recommended servicing and maintenance.
<br />
 I have to sell, though I don't want to.
<br />
 
<br />

<br />
 I am in the South East Idaho area. You can come see it in person by emailing me at hawke[at]hawkes-haven.com.
<br />
 
<br />

<br />
 I am currently in Malad, ID.
<br />
 I can personally deliver the bike as far as Idaho Falls, ID, Evanston WY, Provo, UT, Elko, NV.
<br />
 Otherwise you'll need to pick it up or arrange for shipping.
<br />
 
<br />

<br />
 More pictures at www.hawkes-haven.com website in the motorcycles section.
<br />
 
<br />

<br />
 Please email hawke(at)hawkes-haven.com if anyone interested.

This may fit under the "life stories" category better than the motorcycle section, but since I've not been doing any adventuring on the bike in a long time, and this was a "mis-adventure", I figured I put it in the Motorcycles section. The short version is: My sport bag, with many possessions, slipped onto the exhaust of my motorcycle, while I was on the freeway, and caught fire. A portion of the motorcycle is ruined/melted/burned, and just about everything in the bag was scattered over a 1.3 mile area. To read the long version, click the "Read More" link at the end of this article for all the gory details of my stupid actions exacerbated by more stupid actions. At least I wasn't hurt, and no one else was hurt. At least, that's what I keep trying to tell my self. ;-)
Here's the photos (click the image to see fullsize version):

Burned motorcycle mudflap and melted turn signal, rear view.	Right Rear View
Right Rear View.	Right side view
Burned Items - Black shirt (mostly gone).	Burned items - portable folding keyboard (salvageable, but hinge damaged, I'll have ot jerry-rig something to keep it together). This is the external wireless keyboard to my Zaurus handheld.
Burned items - Green kung fu uniform.	Burned items - White kungfu uniform.
Burned items - Notebook, keyboard, black kung fu pants.	Burned items - blue kungfu uniform, tshirt, belt, sport bag (3/4 of bag completely gone from fire).
Burned items - books, papers, bills.

I'm very tired right now, and it took longer to get the first part up (photos and all), than I expected, so I'll post the long version of this event later on when I've had some sleep. Check back in a day or two if you want the gory details.

I hit the road on a pleasant Thursday evening (September 11th ) after finishing celebrating my birthday with my family as soon as the boys were back from school.
The trip was very enjoyable and I was making great progress and was about 80 miles southeast of Salmon Idaho on Highway 28.
I was doing about 85 on an open stretch of straightaway with slight rolling hills (lava flows) really enjoying the ride, planning to spend the night camping in Salmon.
All of a sudden there were a couple of sickening thumps from my rear wheel (of my motorcycle) the all too familiar feel of a tire going flat, but never before experience on a motorcycle. I felt maybe 2-3 of these thumps, did not feel it hit anything before that, and then the back was trying to go down on my left side. I leaned heavily on my right, and started applying the front brake to slow down from 85, and of course, the back end tried passing the front end on my right side, so I was using all my strength to keep the bike straight on the road as much as possible and keep it from going down on the left side as chunks of rubber flew off the back.
Once I made it down to about 25 mp I headed for the gravel shoulder hoping to save the wheel rim and it was getting harder to keep the bike up and since I had gear on to protect me from road rash or gravel rash, if I was going to go down I wanted to do it on softer earth instead of the hard road, plus I didn't want to get run over by any traffic if any showed up suddenly from the rise just ahead.
I skidded to a VERY wobbly stop at long last.
Put both feet on the ground.
And stood there shaking, and swearing up a storm.
Hopped off the bike and...

sure enough the tire was shot.
The left side of this Dunlop tire sidewall had completelly separated at the seam from the rest of the tire!
I reached for my cellphone, and NO SIGNAL.
I waited a few minutes and saw no vehicles.
So, i battended down my gear. Taking off the heavy one piece outer suit and helmet and gloves. Then started hiking to the rise in the direction I was heading, hoping that I could get signal.
A few vehicle drove by and a few trucks, none of which stopped for my outstretched thumb.
Finally about about 20 mintues a fellow in a pickup stopped. He gave me the bad news that there was no cell service until just outside of Salmon. He kindly offered a ride to the nearest town befor ehe was going off the highway, at Leadore.
There at a bar I asked around for anyone willing to haul my bike with a pickup up to Salmon.
It took a while, but we tracked down the local towing owner and he arranged for a kid with a pickup and his buddy to help me load the bike. Then we took, it up to Salmon.
We arrived there around 10 pm. The flat happended around 8 pm.
We left the bike in back of one of two shops we hoped would have a tire.
Cha-ching, $120 gone for the tow.
Cha-ching, $50 gone for the dump of a motel, since the other less expensive and nicer motels were booked up from fire brigades staying in town.
The following morning, I was there at the shop and as soon as the owners came up explained the situation.
They checked. They only had an 18" tire. I needed a 17".
They called the other shop in town, and they only had a 16".
Both shops did about 99% dirt bike business not street bikes.
So, now the nearest town that had a shop (after much more calling around and waiting) with the right tire was Al's in Hamilton.
So we tried to find a person with a pickup or a rental pickup to take the bike up to Hamilton about 120 miles north.
No one had anything except the car dealership, and they stuck it to me.
Cha-CHING! $150 just to drive the truck one way 120 miles for a few hours. argh!
So, finally arrived in  Hamilton around 1:30 pm.
They commented they had never seen a tire blow the way this one had.
We inspected it thoroughly and couldn't find anywhere that had been penetrated.
Here's the real kicker. I just bought both tires back in Oklahoma City last year, when the bike was around 11,500 miles, I was now around 13,800 miles. So these were practically new tires, and I was already eating one.
Worse, this shop stuck me (with a "generous" 20% off) a $190 bill to put a new tire on.
So, this flat ended up being a $500 flat tire!
And it wasn't over.
I was over the summit from the Montant Idaho border and stopped in Wallace Idaho to chat with some motorcyclists, one from Idaho, the other all the way from New Jersey.
I shared my blowout story with the Jerseyite and then he grimaced as he looked at it and said:
"I hate to burst your buble, but they put your tire on backwards."
I looked and sure enough the directional arrow was the wrong way for rotation. ARGH!
I finally made it to Spokane.
By the time I had a chance to go to a shop Saturday evening, I missed the shop being open by 10 minutes.
I ran into one of the workers in back. He wouldn't authorize any work after hours since his guys had left (I thkink he was either an owner or manager). He said the directional only affected the tire's ability to resist  hydroplaning. I'm worried it also affects traction.
Also, I know radial tires don't like to have their direction changed once they're worn in a particular direction.
So, I'mhere in Spokane, Monday, at a Cafe with wireless internet (the Spike on Monroe St.) and hopefully tomorrow morning (Tuesday) whent he shop's open (They're all closed on Monday here) hopefully they'll have time to hurry and change the tire in the morning.
There's a major storm coming that is supposed to snow in the passes.
I have to ride back to Malad by Wednesday night to catcha  Thursday morning flight to Arizona.
If they don't have the time for me I'll have to risk it. But I'm not a happy camper to be sure.
Who knows what the hazards are to that tire being backwards?
Please let me know.
Thanks,

An old friend/coworker recently emailed me asking how things were with the family and myself. I replied with an exceptionally long email, and decided I should post excerpts here, for others who might have the same questions... Click the READ MORE link for the rest of the details...

Regarding Halloween this year:
Last year only about a dozen or so
kids came to the door, and my wife had bought a LOT of candy. So this year, I
just bought one large bag from Costco. Well. we actually ran out after about
the 30th or 40th visitor!
In just the past year, a lot of new families have moved into the area, so
that's probably why the significant change. This is/was an older
neighborhood, about 40 years old, and most of the people were in their
70's/80s. So they've been moving out to retirement communities and selling
their house on this very hot market, and families like ours have been moving
in. So we hit it at a great time of transition for what is normally a very
non-changing, nice families, neighborhood. ;-);-)

Kids are doing great. William (9, be 10 in December), is in his second year of Kungfu, is in chess club, has become fanatical about role playing gaming (non-computer) since I introduced all three kids to it recently, and
I'm trying to keep him from going overboard on that. ;-);-)
He's now using email between family members, and loves playing multi-player game classics such as Warcraft 2 and Diablo. All three kids are totally addicted to Neverwinter Nights. William read The Hobbit last year in 2nd
grade. He's now started the Lord of the Rings. He was dressed up as Harry Potter for Halloween today.

I'm going to post Halloween pics shortly today on
my site.

He prefers to be sedentary, so I kind of have to push him to do physical stuff, but he's really good about doing Kungfu every day. He's a bit of a pessimist, and that may be a bit my fault, but we're working
on it. ;-);-)

He's struggling with OCD and anxiety issues, but doing ok in school. We're working with counselors to help him with that. I've been teaching them meditation and breathing techniques, and those are slowly sinking in.
He is most content "playing in his imagination" in his head, reading, playing video games and watching tv, and role playing gaming (paper and dice).

Brennan (7) is being active as always, despite his asthma. We tried him in
Kungfu this summer, but he kept goofing off, so we pulled him (much against
his wishes) until he's a little more mature to behave. ;-);-) He's been close to
whooping my tail in Warcraft, and is acing Neverwinter Nights.
He's good at being active, and helping around the house, riding his bike,
inline skating, scooter, running (despite asthma), and more. He's struggling
with controlling his temper, which has had him in trouble sometimes, but he's
making progress. He's a huge optimist, very positive, and loves people. He
loves role playing gaming and games, and a little tv, but he's most happy
being active, playing with others, going outdoors, mountain biking, and most
of all doing stuff with daddy. (as they all love). ;-);-) Brennan is a real
"doer" who expresses his emotions of the moment very strongly. He love
cuddling the most.

Drake (5) is the youngest, probably the toughest (out of necessity), and will
probably be the largest of the three (burly and tall). He is a real
"watcher", and shy with people at first, but very outgoing once he gets to
know them. He's actually doing very well with WC2 and NWN. He also loves
paper and dice RPGing, He does a GREAT orc voice, I should record it, it's a
hoot from a 5 year old. He also has a bit of a "Dark side". Long before he
played video games or role playing, he always wanted to play "the bad guy",
while his brothers were the good guys. I'm not sure how much of that was just
the other two putting him there, but he fully embraces it now, though I try
to dissuade him. ...
He enjoys rough housing with his brothers and others (they all love that of
course). Loves hid and seek and tag. Likes to watch tv waaaaaaay too much.
Enjoys moderate hikes and some bike riding, though not as much as Brennan,
much more than William does.
He's doing well in private school in Kindergarten, he'll be joining his
brothers at Evergreen next year. Evergreen is one of the "best" public schools in the Mead district, and the Mead district is the one of the "best" districts in the Spokane area (we kept our house selection to try to make sure they ended up in that school).
The private schools here aren't quite what I thought they should be from a private school
from them, as well as the expense, and Evergreen is an exceptional school, though I generally don't
like public schools.

Karina is going to school now taking her generals. She is thinking of becoming
a nurse possibly. But it's early yet since she just started this Fall
quarter, taking a course in precollege map to work up to her requisites. She
is very excited today because she had the best grade on the midterm test
today. And the teacher pointed it out and praised her and all, I think she
said she had a 96% on the test.
Woohoo! You go girl! ;-P

She's doing the "craft fair" thing on the weekends, She registered booths at
the three largest fairs in the area. Her website is www.karina.org, the
undeveloped catalog is dev.karina.org
I'm trying to take pics of all her stuff, especially her great angels, before
it's all sold off. She says this is the last year she's going to do this.
We'll see... ;-P
She has been taking Kungfu on and off the past year as well. And she just
started going back to the gym this week. Her weight is still not good (380
lbs). But her health is better than 2 years ago, even though she skips Kungfu
and working out for weeks or months at a time. She can kick quite high with
good balance, and woe betide anyone who tries to mug her without a
weapon. ;-P
She's been reading fanatically the new Robert Jordan (11th) book, and the
Harry Potter book she recently finished, after re-reading all the books
leading up to both.
She's made lots of friends here, and is active with them frequently.

I'm acting as "Mr Mom" now. I control the finances, groceries/shopping, and do
most of the cooking. We are eating much healthier now, but eating well too (I cook a lot
of gourmet and other recipes). I'm enjoying this (quasi-retired) still busy,
but less insanely intense life style. Though it's still overwhelming with school on top of everything else.
I've posted some of what I've been
cooking on the website.
I love it here in Spokane. Though my heart is always with Northern California,
I'd say this is the closest "2nd" I've been to in the USA (about 25+ states
I've been in for any brief or prolonged periods). The economy is much more affordable than
CA, the city is large enough to have all the necessities, but not TOO large. It has an excellent education and medical infrastructure (multiple major hospitals and suppoorting structure, two community colleges, several other colleges, and universities).

We feel like we almost live in the woods (which is a good thing from my view), even
though we're only 3 minutes from the malls and such, and everything is within
15-30 minutes. Surrounded by trees and life. Since most of the trees are
evergreens, it stays green year round, rather than the brown "ugliness" of
winter in other places. There is a "winter" of actual snow and ice, but very
moderate compared to Utah, Idaho, Nevada. Very temperate summer (actually
cooler than the Bay Area many times by a few degrees). Over 100+ lakes within
100 miles in any direction. Awesome outdoors life here.
Reasonable "cultural culture" here. Though certainly room for improvement there.
I'm hopefully getting my Internet radio show approved on a community FM radio
station here in the next few weeks. I've donated streaming for their signal
as well. Check them out here:
www.kyrs.org
You'll see the streaming link leads to one of my servers.
I don't agree with much of their politics, but I agree TOTALLY with their
approach to free speech, civil liberties, etc.

I have started being trained by the Kungfu studio to become an instructor in
their style. I'll be starting with the kids in a few months, and adults after
a year or so.
Physical therapy is going well. I "graduated" from the first level, and am now
at the 2nd tier, which is more a "Sport training" level.
I'm VERY sore from the first Friday session, but no injuries, and I did handle Kungfu yesterday just fine. No injuries, just soreness, is a VERY good thing, and a welcome change to the pattern of pain and injuries of the past years.

There's a third more
intense program from PT for "professional sports level". I don't know that I'll go to that third level or not.

My goal is to be at Kungfu a
minimum of 3 days a week for 2-3 hours per day. Eventually maybe 4-5 days per
week.

Also a therapist who used to teach Karate, says, when I'm ready he'll hook me up with teaching the
children in the Children's Asthma center of Sacred Heart hospital as
well, which he apparently did years ago.

School is chugging along. I've never liked academia, and have always struggled
in school, except for my computer science degree. But I'm trying to make the
best of it.
I'm full time this quarter taking:
Overview of Therapeutic Recreation
Intercultural Communications
Medical Terminology

I've been chiseling away at my required 1500 hours of volunteer/work related
work for the prerequisite before I can start the 16 weeks internship as part
of the degree requirements.
I'm majoring as a Recreational Therapist, and minoring in Music for music
therapy.
I've been learning the African Djembe drum, in addition to continuing with the
Native American wood flute, guitar, bass, harmonica. I've been taking on and
off voice lessons to try to get better with vocals too.

I LOVE my online broadcasts, but due to a busy schedule I just cut it back
from 3x / week to 1x / week, in the hopes that I'll be doing the Radio
broadcasts with KYRS 1x /week as well.
My site for all this is:
www.thesyntheticzenshow.com
or
www.synthzen.com

My show time is now:
Sundays 4 am to 6 am UTC/GMT (that's 10 pm to Midnight Saturdays for Pacific
time).
I've been working on my two Broncos. One is lifted 6", with 32" tires. It's an
awesome off road beast, but a POS other than that. That's the black one. :-p:-p
The red one is "a more civilized" Bronco. It's a great family mobile, that I
can take them most anywhere, and it's in great shape, though it's needs a
little work.
It's going to cost me about $200.00 to replace the melted/burned parts on the
motorcycle. :-):-)
Luckily my Zaurus wasn't in the bag, as it usually is, else that would have
been a $930.00 handheld lost. But I did lose all three of my Kungfu uniforms,
and my primary eyeglasses, as well as my whole quarter's work so far and
their sylabi (?). But, could have been a LOT worse. I'll post the full
version of my stupidity in that event at some point as an update to that same
article already on line.
I've been working on the house, the landscape.
I'm still working on a (way overdue) database project for a client, for extra money for my "useful gadgets" such as the Zaurus.

I'm Game Mastering a role playing gaming group twice per month (http://eagroup.merp.com) based in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.

So, that's probably WAAAAAy more information than you wanted. And if you
actually managed to read through it all, you should get a reward for
patience. :-P :-P

But, that gives an overview of the highlights of current events for our clan.
Cheers!

For various reasons, I had to move from the Bay Area in California
to Idaho in the middle of winter.
 My bike certainly wouldn't qualify as an "adventure" bike normally,
but I put it through an adventure anyway.

It's a 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "naked" (no windscreen),
that I've added both Corbin "beetle" bags (custom hard
saddle bags), and a Givi 40 liter tail bag. I had to do a lot of bending
and tweaking to get both mounted at
the same time, but it worked out pretty nicely in the end. I'll be a very sad person though if i ever lay the bike down on those saddle bags though.
 I didn't want to leave my motorcycle behind in CA for who knew how long, so I decided I would drive it to Idaho, since funds were short.
 Many people kept trying to talk me out of it, and luckily I survived it with out too much injury.
 I lucked out in the weather at least stayed mostly clear the whole of the two day trip, there was no way I could ride very long at night due to ice and cold.
 The trip would be approximately 1,000 miles in two days (mostly daytime only travel).
 I took the Interstate 80 route through Sacramento and over Donner's pass into Reno.
 Climbing the west side of the mountains went without incident, other than just eyeing any wet spots from melted snow on the road with suspicion.
Thankfully, none of it turned out to be icy in the mid afternoon sun.
 However the other side of the mountain was a  different story...

 ...Every patch where the evergreens or hillside kept the road in shadow, and enough water had dripped onto the road, was ice.
I was weaving in and out of lanes constantly to try to avoid the patches.
 There was one incident coming down the east side of the summit where I needed to pull over to stop to take a break.
I slowed down considerably before pulling into the rest area (about 45 mph or so) when I saw the whole lot was ice and snow!
 I did my best to stop but it took more than a 100 feet of skidding with both feet on the ground/ice to keep me from falling. Phew!
A lot of people in the rest area were blatantly staring in surprise and pointing fingers at me as I came in there.
The temperature was around 20 degrees F, Lake Tahoe was frozen solid from where I could see it.
I tooks ome pictures, I'll try posting them in a few weeks.

The rest of the trip up to Elko went without incident.
I had added some wind screens to the handle grips to keep my fingers from freezing off, but even with those and 5 layers of clothing and a full one piece bike suit I stopped about every hour for about 10 minutes to thaw out (as I had planned in advance).

 One thing i discovered, my bike does NOT like cold weather, it went from 47 MPG in 40+ degree weather to 28 MPG in < 20 degree weather. At first I thought it was the altitude (going from sea level to over 5,000+ feet), but later driving in warmer weather up here in Idaho at over 5,000 feet has shown it was the temperature.

 The bike comes with a 5.1 gallon tank. I was getting about 15 MPG less than expected and getting nervous between gas stops, so I picked up a 1 gallon gas can and without filling it and put it on the back, just in case.

As evening approached on the first day of the journey, after having a hearty warm meal at Sparks (just outside of Reno) I decided I would try to make it to Battle Mountain and spend the night there.
 As soon as I came around a pass and the shadow side of the mountains there, I REALLY regretted not staying in Sparks.

 I had picked up a thermometer for the trip, so I actually have fairly acurate ambient temperature readings.
The temperature plumeted from around 20 degree F down to minus 10 below zero F in about five minutes. From the charts I've consulted, my windchill at 65 MPH at 20 F was around the equivalent of -20 F, when the temperature dropped to -10 Farenheit I slowed down to 55 MPH because I was FREEZING and shivering so much the bike was wobbling. The wind chill would have been aruond -40 to -50 F at that point and speed.

 The next 75 minutes crawled by on shards of frozen broken glass and razrod blades as I counted every mile marker to Battle mountain, there are NO motels in between.

 Finally around 6: 30 pm (about 1 hour after sunset). I arrived,and almost dropped the bike on the slippery roads. The skies were clear, and the moisture in the air froze in such a thick frost that the roads off the Interstate were very slippery. I skidded my way into the Motel parking lot, followed closely by a local Sherrif who was eyeing me suspiciously as I swerved and skidded about.
By the time I arrived in the parking lot the ambient air temperature read -20 F. Brrrr.
 I came into the motel and had to wait about five minutes shivering and chattering before i could get a coherent word out to the motel clerk.
 When I checked myself, my fingers and toes were a very very dark purple with no feeling. Luckily they had a hot tob in there, so I warmed up in the room for a few minutes, then painfully soaked my aching frozen tired body in there for about any hour.
The normal color and feeling returned to my limbs and backside luckily.

 The next morning I was up early about 6:30 am hoping to hit the road at first light.
 No go, the roads looked like they had a frosting of snow, but it was just the morning frost so thick from the cold.
 I walked to a place to eat, and slipped and slid and actually fell once on the way there (boots weren't the best tread). I decided I'd obviously have to wait a few hours for the sun to thaw out the roads.

 Finally around 9:30 am the areas that weren't in shadow had defrosted enough to chance it, I figured the Interstate, with more traffic on it would be better defrosted. Luckily I was right.

 The rest of the morning and afternoon went without event.
I stopped in Elko without event, gassed up and continued on.

 Finally I arrived in Wells, a tiny little town, to eat and gas up.
 The ambient air was back around a relatively warm + 20 F.
 I gassed up, and realized to my dismay that this day was now Sunday, and I had forgotten that the stop I was planning to make between Wells and Snowville (between Oasis and Snowville really), wouldn't be open on a Sunday.
 So, I topped off the gas can and tank as full as I could.
 I now had to make a (according to the maps 180 mile, but actually turned out to be a) 156.8 mile trek with no stations in between. And my gas mileage being way below normal. Hopefully, as I did the math, if I could maintain at least 31 MPG I would make it on fumes without having to use the gas can. Or if I was off, the gas can would give me the extra 30 miles or so of buffer. Assuming the map was right about the distance.
 Something else I had discovered on this journey was how much wind resistance was affecting my mileage in the cold.
 I figured out that if I kept my MPH around 55-60 i was getting about 35 MPG (at best), but if I went above 60, i lost about 1 MPG per every 5 MPH higher.
 I was in a quandry though. If I went too slow night time would totally over take me and freeze me solid.
 If I went too fast, I wouldn't have enough gas to make it.
 Well, I went for it, gritting my teeth, and setting the cheap little "cruise control" clamp on the throttle and went about 65 MPH figuring that would be the right balance between time and mileage and freezing.

 As I hopped off the Interstate at a ghost town called Oasis, and headed northeast on a higheway that would later turn into State Route 30, I was dismayed to start seeing dead cattle frozen solid on the sides of the road.

Later I came across an entire heard loitering on the highway (I guess for warmth?), unattended. I kept honking my horn to get them to (slowly) move out of the way.
I have pictures, I'll post them later.

 As I came into the Utah side of the highway, I was further dismayed to see that the state was having it's wonderful inversion again.
 An inversion is when the low pressure cold temperatures get trapped in the mountain valleys, and the higher pressure, warmer temperature floats over the top and keeps the mountains warm, but the valleys frozen cold.
 I've been in Northern Utah where it's been 0 degrees F in the Salt lake City valley, and 45 degrees F in the mountains at Park City at the same time. Thus, inverted temperatures.

Worse yet, it was REALLY thick icy fog.
The highway dipped down into this salt flats valley, and I watched the thermostat visibly move from +20 down to 0, and visibility dropped to about 5 car lengths or so.
Other than nearly being hit by a few semis (the only rare traffic on this highway, I saw a vehicle only once about every 30 minutes or so), I was doing ok other than being quite cold again, Ihad to slow to only 55 MPH because of the windchill though.

 I switched to reserve when the engine started to sputter.
 I calculated that Snowville had to be coming up soon.
 I found out that the mileage markers, and mileage signs were drastically diferent between Nevada and Utah as far as the distance to Snowville.
According to the maps it was a 180 mile trip.
Then I was relieved when the mileage signs said it was only 130 miles.
However, the mileage was inconsistent between the two states, the actual mileage according to my odometer turned out to be over 150 miles.
 I came to a junction, and smelled something oily burning.
With no other vehicles around, it had to be my bike.
 I pulled over and inspected my bike and found a bunch of oil on the bottom of the exhaust, but could not for the life of me determine WHERE it was leaking from. I looked at the oil level, and it seemed ok. This bike was new, I had just bought it in May 2001. It had about 6000 miles on it now.
 This was definitely upsetting.

 I drove about another 20 miles, and the bike started to sputter, i figured i was going to have to use the gas can after all, when a sign indicating Snowville appeared through the fog, and a few minutes later I was happily (though frozen) at the gas station.

 I consulted the attendants on whether the passes were open or not for the back way into Malad, which would shave off quite a bit of time (1-2 hours), and they said they were open.
 I started to get ready to go when a tow truck driver came up to me who had overheard the conversation and said, that yes, the passes were open FOR FOUR WHEEL DRIVES WITH CHAINS!
 The roads were completely snow packed.
 Thankfully he warned me, so I changed my plans to take the shortcut on state 30 into Idaho, and instead took I-84 and I-15 down to Tremonton and up north on I-15.

 The only problem now was that it was past 6 pm, an hour past sunset.
If all went well I would make it to my destination around 8 pm.
 This was not a good prosepect as far as how cold and dark it was going to be.
 I went for it anyway.

 The temperature dropped to minus -25 Fbelow zero in some places, and never came above -10 F!
 At a speed of around 50-60 MPH I was being exposed to around -60 to -80 F!

 Worse yet, the roads were not only icy, they had packed ice and snow (on the Interstate) frozen, and I was driving in the ruts between the snow and packed ice, but wobbling on the occasional black ice in those patches, the ruts were made from other vehciles tires driving on the road, and were about 2-4 inches deep in places. Occasionally I saw actual pavement.

 Finally after a very scary and freezing 2 hours, I arrived at the small town near where I'd moved to, only to find that this town hadn't plowed any of the roads, and that they don't salt the roads.

 These roads were all packed snow and ice!
I ambled along the last 5 miles at around 10 to 20 MPH skating my boots on the snow and ice as I went.
It was a steady -20 F ambient.

 Some passing cars with young punk drivers, honked rudely as they passed me as I slipped in and out of the ruts, snow and ice.
 I finally arrived shortly after 8 pm.
 Ambient temperature was "only" about -10 here at the house.
My hands, feet, and tail were dark purple like nasty bruises and had no feeling, I was worried I might have pushed it too far as far as frostbite.

 It took several days to get feeling back in my hands, feet, nose, and my backside too.
 I then picked up a nasty flu, and then one illness after another, basically my family and I have been sick non-stop for about 8 weeks now.

 And yet, I'm still VERY glad I made it in one piece, and relatively unscathed.
 I still have no idea where the burning oil came from, there's no sign of leakage, but there was a LOT of oil on there before.
 So, for all those who kept telling me I was crazy to ride this bike this time of year, even in "perfect" weather for this time of year, you were right. it was was stupid and crazy, and I don't recommend it for anyone.

 I was sooo geared up with cloting (poor man style, no electric heaters or anything), I thought, enough for the cold, with so many layers, and precautions, but that just didn't cut it.

 I guess if I could have afforded electric warmers, and grips, etc., It might not have been as cold, but the road hazards were bad enough.
 My bike will probably be sitting in the garage now until May!
 Phew, at least I'm alive.
 -Hawke

I post this story at ADVRIDER as well.

There was a break in the weather long enough today for me to take a trip to the surrounding areas and try taking some photos with my new zoom lense. I'll get into the photography details more in the Photography News, here I'll just describe the trip.

I rode my trusty 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "Naked" motorcycle,

which has over 9,000 miles on it now and I've ridden it less than a year from California to Idaho, Idaho to Oklahoma where I am currently styaing for a few months...

I rode North on I-35 looking for fields with Sunflowers, but didn't find any, the ones I saw a month ago are either already harvested/plowed under, or else further north into Kansas, further than I had time to go. Though I was tempted. As I neared Perry about 60 miles north of Edmond, there were many dark storm clouds to the North, so I opted not to risk it.

I stopped in at Perry and saw a hopped up roadster with some people looking at it, I stopped and asked an older local fellow about the area. His eyes lit up. He explained how there was a fair today in downtown Perry, and that they had all sorts of tractors on display. He was obviously excited about these tractors. He said there might even be a steam powered one running. I feigned interest, maybe there would be something interesting...

I followed him downtown a few miles away. On the way, I saw much to my surprise, WHITE cattle. Entirely without pigment. Ok... I thought, that's worth taking some shots. Then I passed some old train cars, that looked good for some black and white shots. And maybe a few color ones with the digital Mavica, that would make good compter desktop backgrounds. We arrived downtown and sure enough it was quite crowded and the downtown streets were mostly shutdown for the fair and live bands and street vendors hawking their wares, etc. I saw a long row of 20, 30 or more tractors.

in various condition, and spanning about 100 years. Most were totally uninteresting to me, but one caught my aye. Someone had made it look like a sort of 40s to 50s car bright yellow/orange coupe, but it was most definitely a tractor. That I HAD to take picures of and did.

 It was bright Orange and yellow. I wandered around for a few more minutes, but nothing else was of much interest to me in the town, so after shooting a few shots and wandering around for a bit, I hit the road back to to the train cars. Using black and white film with the Nikon F5, and a few shots in digital color with the Mavica I caught a few nice photos.

A little further down the road I shot the White cattle (I hear that's that a hanging offense in these here parts :) ), and some of the funky streamlined water towers they have out here to resist tornadoes and high winds. While getting close to one of these towers, I stepped in a lot of the really bright (iron red mud they have around here. so on the way back I stopped at the cattle guard in the road to scape the mud off my boots. Well, foolishly I slipped right through the grating and nailed each of my legs just below my knees! Ouch that hurt considerably, and later that day and onto the next few days I had a lot of trouble even walking and was pretty badly brused, it could have been a lot worse though. Then I slowly climbed out, noticing that the strap on my Nikon had come apart! Ack, that's a 4,000 dollar camera! Well, I definitely to need to get a stronger strap for that. I limped back to the motorcycle, my left boot coverred completely in red mud now past my ankle. I scraped off what I could in the grass and put my equipment away. I then proceeeded back on to the highway.

I kept trying to find some good old Oil rigs that I could get close enough to to shoot without trespassing, but didn't have any luck for a while. Finally I stoppeed in Guthrie, heading back south from Perry, getting a little nervous about the storm clouds continuing to gather and darken. Guthrie apparently was the previous capital of Oklahoma long ago. Now a small-ish town.

I rode around west, came across a sign - that at first I thought I misread - for a town 2 miles west of Guthrie called called Cedar Valley Oklahoma. I thought it said "Golf Land USA", but thought I misread it, as I continued on I realiszed, no, that was what it had to say, because I was in mile after mile after mile of nothing but golf courses, never ending golf courses, as far as the eye could see. I kid you not!

I doubled back, and and took a shot of my motorcycle in front of that sign. I'll post that photo later when I get access to a floppy drive to up to uipload it from. My Vaio alas, doesn't have a floppy drive, and my "tank" laptop is still in the shop. I rode back to Guthrie.

I thought a bridge I passed over might be interesting from underneath, it turned out to be an ugly modern style cement type bridge underneath, however on the train tracks were some nice older abandonded red passenger train cars. ">I took a few photos of those. I road around the town, there were some buildings that once were nice (American) gothic style buildings ,that would have made some good black and white shots, except that they had modernized sectinos of them, and so that ruined the look I didn't bother to shoot them.

I rode further south back on the freeway hopping off at every exit looking for more stuff to shoot. Finally at the northenmost Edmond exit I found an oil rig close enough to shoot. It had a nice contrast in content to it. The old style oil rig was turned off and rusting, and next to it was running a brand shiny new (blue) tiny little contraption that had replaced it, and was not at all as impressive as the big "hammer" style one. I took some black and white photos that will hopefully look better than these digital color ones. I shot them side by side as a comparison of old and new, using my last frame of black and white.

Then I headed to lake Arcadia on the east side of the I35 freeway in Edmond. It's a very large man made lake with large parks around it. and camping areas. It cost me 3 bucks to even go in. It would cost a vehilce 6 for just a visit, even more for overnighters. It was nice enough though very artificial.

I found a nice field though in the undeveloped area, with lots of sunflowers, not a farm full as I had been looking for, but a small wild field and enough to get some decent shots, though not as dramatic as what I wanted to shoot that must have been in Kansas. Right now only the Mavica digital shots are online, I'll try to get the nicer Nikon shots online later. I manged to get some good shots and used both the wide angle and the new zoom, which was perfect for shooting some of the bumble bees on the flowers without scaring them off, I think I have one or two good ones there hopefully. --Update, after looking at the develoed photos, they're good, but it would have been better to use a tripod, asome are a hair blurry due to shaking, a tripod would have avoided that, I forgot about zooms doing that. --

I saw a nice cluster of dead trees sticking out of the water across the lake, and tried to find a way to get close enough but it turns out, that end of the lake was owned by private property so I did not have a chance to shoot that, ah well. I took a quick shot of the bike by the lake, nothing pretty, just for the travel shots section.

I finally headed down towards Okalhaoma City to drop off the film, and then swing back to the house just as it started to rain and lightining, I cut that as close as I could.

Now I'm limping, but feel a pleasant fatige, of a pleasant unstressful day other than some minor injuriies. It was fun. Until next adventure. This is Hawke, signing off for now.

This is long overdue, but I'm finally piecing together all the pics I took with my motorcycle in 13 different states and 17,000 miles between 2001 and 2004.
If you click the "Read More" link you can see many of the pics of the various places of note.
The states this motorcycle (with me of course ;-) )has been to so far include:

• Arizona (Around November 2002)
  






• California (Feb 2002)
  
Tahoe, February 2002 (wearing 7 layers of clothing to try to keep warm it was +20f above zero in the daylight, and -20f in the shade of the mountains, and -40 after nightfall out in the salt flats of Nevada/Utah, brrrrrrr.

:








• Colorado (August 2002 - pic missing)
  




• Idaho (Maybe around 2005?)
  




• Kansas (August 2002 - pic missing)
  




• Montana (September 2003, motorcycle is in the rental truck due to a blowout at 80+ mph (see the related story in another posting)
  







• Nevada (February 2002, so cold the cattle died where they stood. The road was packed snow and ice, with my factory stock tired, this was and adventure to say the least, that I do not care to repeat in that horrible cold)
  




• New Mexico (November 2002)
  




• Oklahoma (September 2002)
  










• Texas (September 2002 - pic missing)
  




• Utah (2002 and 2003 - pic missing)
  




• Washington (maybe around 2005?)
  




• Wyoming (August/September 2002? - pic missing)
  




I plan to hit Oregon and Canada and eventually even Alaska (if I can ever get my passport straightened out) in the near future too. ;-)




 

Here I'll keep updating and adding pics of interest from my various motorcycle trips.



Arizona 2002





Another from Arizona 2002






Idaho/Montana border. Long story behind it being in the truck (tire blowout, see old articles in the Travel, trips, adventures, mishaps, "Blowout at 80 mph, $500 flat tire").





Washington to Idaho border Highway 195







New Mexico 2002







Oklahoma 2002







Idaho to Washington 2003




Coming soon, pics from:
Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Nevada, and Utah.

Well, back in November I tried to make the trip from Oklahoma City Oklahoma, back to Idaho, but the weather stopped me at Gallup New Mexico. Snow and ice and freezing cold in the mountains, there was no way with the load on my back (see picture) that I would have made it in one piece. So, I detoured down to Tucson Arizona through the canyona backroads, and saw some beautiful contryside there, and deposited my bike in Tucson. I'll be coming back down around early April to ride it back. Notice, I stacked several computers and enough clothing and equipment for the 4 monts contract I was working for a big energy and oil company in Oklahoma.
This stack was almost as tall as me (6'8")!
 
 

The weight of this load nearly broke my chain, and DID break some of the mountings for the Givi tailback bracket. I had to replace my chain and sprockets, and replaced my tires while at it, since I'd already worn them out in 11,000 miles of travel in about 9 months of riding and I had to perform some improvisation to keep going.