Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally

So I made it to DC in case you were wondering. I have been here for
several days now.

I'm at the:

Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally
Http://www.RollingThunderMotorcycleRally.com

Right now. It's a ride through DC originally established after the
Vietnam war to bring attention to the POW/MIAs. It has since turned
into a support the troops ride. The first year there were 2,500
riders. This year they expect in excess of 250,000 riders and I'm one
of them!!

The people here are hard core cool! A couple of guys have set up a
lean to tent with their bikes and are sleeping now. The ride started
at noon but we are in the back of pack so we have not moved at all.

Jane and Joe to my right rode up from southern VA. Actually Joe drove
the truck and Jane rode the bike up. I love it!! They told me about a
ride down to Venezuela where they were headed through a mountain pass
to the city of La Jolla. They came around a corner and saw a group of
people lined up against the mountain. National guard were holding them
at rifle point. J&J just kept on going. Man that would be scary!!

Francois and Steve are on my left. One owns a Harley touring bike and
the other a Honda Goldwing Touring bike. We spent an hour comparing
the various gadgets and gizmos. Turns out they have the same cool
stuff just in slightly different places.

In front of me is Mark and his wife "Miss Fairfax county 2010". They
have invited themselves to join me on my ride back to LA. Well mark
did, the wife said hell no. We exchanged emails. I'll see how that one
pans out.

This is my first motorcycle rally ever. It is by far the coolest thing
I've ever done on my bike. Thanks to my friend Cox (cool name I know)
for telling me about it.

I wish you could all be here to join me and enjoy this with me. Since
you're not, live vicariously through me !!

Cheers

Day 4 : Make Sure You Buy the Right Gear

653 miles today. Longest day yet. Tough ride but the end is in sight.

I was planning on regaling you with tales of mental math and how much
work this trip has been. Instead of all that, I will share only a
single tale with you. When I realized what happened, I laughed out
loud in the middle of a gas station.

In case you are not aware. The gas (throttle) on a bike is on the
right hand grip. You twist it to give the bike more gas. The left hand
is used only occasionally but if you want to keep going, the right
hand must be on the grip. This means, the right hand gets,
potentially, a lot more weather exposure.

Someplace before flagstaff I lost one of my snowboard mittens. It must
have flown out of my bag on the road. I was bummed because these are
my favorite snowboard gloves and they were my rainproof hand gear for
this trip. Of course I lost only one, the right hand one.

Luckily there was a big 5 sporting goods store across the street from
my hotel. I stopped by on my way out of town. This late in the year,
they did not have any snow gloves left. I settled on some neoprene
diving gloves. They seemed warm enough, and proved to be so today. I
tossed them in my bag and left flagstaff.

Now fast forward to today. I've been racing the weather this whole
trip and it finally caught up to me. I was freezing cold and miserable
but I really wanted to keep going. I stopped to put on all my rain
gear and hopefully warm up a bit. Still shivering and now covered with
multiple thick layers of clothes I went to don my gloves for the first
time. I pulled the left one on and reached down to pick up the left
one.

No, that's not a typo. I had bought two left gloves in flagstaff. This
coupled with my remaining original left glove gives me a total of
three left hand gloves when all I really needed was a single right
hand glove. It was at this moment that I started laughing. It was one
of those deep earthy belly laughs. As I am typing this, I'm still
giggling.

I ended up wearing a left hand glove backwards on my right hand and
completed the ride in relative comfort. It's always fantastic to get
to exercise practical problem solving skills.

360 miles to go tomorrow.

Lates

Day 3 on a motorcycle

I went 598 miles today and arrived in Little Rock.

I've not had a motorcycle in a while and I've only done this long
distance thing once before so I'm not well versed on the norms and
oddities of the road. In another blog I talked about the wind being
the single most challenging and demoralizing factor in riding a
bicycle. Then last night I confided in a dear friend my realization
that the wind is in fact "the enemy of all things on two wheels"

This morning after three hour of riding, I was ready to quit. I was
tired and sore and my mask was damaged in an annoying, insatiably
tickling my nose, way. I'd been riding at a 45 degree angle all
morning, just trying to hold a straight line against the wind. Every
time I passed a semi truck (seriously if those huge things are
semi=1/2 then what's full?) I had to wrestle my bike to keep from
careening down the freeway end over end. Then the most glorious thing
happened as I was filling up for gas... "How'd you like that wind this
morning, boy that was hell wasn't it? I hate it when that crap pops
up" said the leader of the group of bikers filling up next to me. He
was talking to me FYI. I was pleasantly surprised, I guess I just one
of the gang.

With that single statement I was vindicated in my frustration,
exhaustion , and despair. It wasn't just me, all the bikers hate it.
Best of all, it was NOT normal. We regaled each other with our
severely diminished MPG (I was getting 23, they had 27. Doing 85 did
not help mine).

I wonder if it's normal to have wind like that in the plains and
desert and not in the forested areas. Would be cool to see norming
tables on that data. Oops hard to play the role of hard core biker
dude when referring to potential meteorological norming tables on
seasonal winds. So just ignore this paragraph.

Those guys must have cast a magic spell with their words. After the
realization of the adversity sunk in, the wind was gone. The only
force pressing constantly on my body were generated by my movement of
85-90 mph. Happily these forces were orders of magnitude less than the
morning onslaught. It is surprisingly enjoyable to ride a motorcycle
in conditions like this afternoon. And silly me I wanted to give up
and buy a plane ticket.

***quiz time***

Q: name a type of person that initiates conversations with bikers.
A: Other bikers

Q: name a type of person that avoids conversations with bikers
A: everyone else

Next time you see a biker at a gas station be nice. Remember he may be
someone just like me (or me). Also its important to point out the
converse. Next time you see a biker at a gas station, be careful, he
be someone just like me.

Traveling alone on a bike is not scary. Think about it what are you
afraid of on the road? You're afraid of the crazy loaner bikers.
Honestly I'm probably the scariest thing out there.

Day 2

I have the most fantastic friends. Today was a glorious 606 miles. I
rode from Flagstaff, AZ to Amarillo, TX. Lucky for me Albuquerque was
on the way. I was not sure when I would arrive so I did not call ahead
to let my friends know. Instead I just pulled off the highway near
their house and sent a text message.

Rain geared up

Motorcycle Cross Country Trip: Day 1

I  rode my motorcycle 500 miles in the rain today. A few years ago I
sold my old bike, not because I did not want to ride it, but because
it was damaged by some neighborhood kids and I gave up trying to fix
it. I missed that bike and have wated to replace it since the day I
sold it.  I finally decided to buy a new one (well new to me, 2005
Honda VTX1300c candy red). I have had it a few weeks and it is just as
exhilarating as I remember it being. Now that I got the hang of riding
again, I began my journey of 2,690 miles from Los Angels to
Washington, DC.

I'd like to say this an epic journey of a lifetime but actually this
is the second time I've done this. I remember only feelings from my
last trip along with a few details. Today, several details came
rushing back into my head, like the wind rushing to chill my bones,
finding every seem and gap in my armor as I careened down the highway
at 89 miles per hour. Thankfully my subconscious mind forced me to
make some wise choices on gear. As I was outfitting this trip with
things like floor boards, throttle locks, and snow board pants I was
wondering if it was all really necessary. I spent three hours in the
pouring rain, then a few in the blistering sun, all the time fighting
high winds, all on the first day and all endured with only mild
discomfort. I'm glad at least one of my minds remembered the important
things.

I wear a red skull mask and black worn leathers, honestly I'm a bit
scary and I'm not very approachable. I guess at one of my gas stops I
looked pretty friendly though. Another biker dude came over to ask
about my bike and tell me about his VTX1800 at home. Today he was
riding his Honda goldwing, the yupy gold standard of motorcycle
touring. Dude was all decked out in gadgets and gizmos and tech
clothing. Translation, totally not threatening, but, he was a nice
guy. I warned him about the rain in LA. He told me to look out for
floods Midwest. It was like something out of a fantasy novel. Two
strangers meet on the road and trade news before they move on. So cool
that this tradition is still alive with today's hightec Internet
world.

I went in to pay for my gas and there was a group of French tourists
inside talking to each other. I overheard the clercs complaining
because, they had no idea what the group wanted and one clerc wished
she spoke French. I tuned I to the tourists to pickup on what they
wanted. Just as I got it, the dude clerc makes some stupid comment
like they should just learn English or stay home. Thankfully the
tourists did not fully understand him.

Thankfully also he did not understand me when I called him an A-Hole
in French. I showed them what they were looking for and chatted a few
minutes. My French production is not great but my reception is pretty
good. They were a group of friends touring the USA together. They were
from some town I. Southern France.

The girl clerc was amazed this random dirty biker guy just buste out
with French. She asked where I learned French. The dude clerc replied
"in school DUH". He said it with a bad attitude too. Just to be mean,
I looked at her and said "actually I learned it by going to France and
finding people without attitudes to talk with me". That shut him up. I
left her with a suggestion to buy Rosetta stone.

Before and after that stop I had no other human interaction. Unless
you count the bikers salute. If you have ever ridden on a cruiser for
a long distance, then you know what I mean by bikers salute. I'm not
sure it has a name but that's the name I'm giving it. Interesting
phenomena is that the same thing happens on road bicycles. Maybe
that's why I'm drawn to these two activites. There must be a similar
thread that differentiates cruisers and road bikes from other two
wheel adventures.

I'm in Flagstaff, AZ now. I whimped out and got a hotel. I'll be up
early tomorrow to hit the road again. Perhaps tomorrow I can push past
the 500 mile mark.

 Dana