105 Trip: (Thur 04-Sep) Day 12 - Thunder Bay, ON - 3362 miles

Sunrise, as seen in this picture, was awesome. Was cold - around 54. Then hit a detour and through a small town and the bank said it was 48!

Going across the bridge was cool and I stopped and took a few pics of the island, then continued north. Got to Sault Ste Marie w/o incident and hit the border crossing.

• First guy asked me where I was going, what I was doing, and what I did for a living. Wrote some stuff down, handed me a yellow piece of paper and said "Pull forward, park and take that inside and show them your papers."
  
• Second guy - cop looking: "Where are you heading?" - "OK... take your papers inside" - didn't seem to friendly.
  
• Third guy - young guy at the far end; waves to me, and took my papers. Asked me the same questions, how long was I going to be there, etc. Gave me everything back and said "OK - have a nice visit."
  
• Second guy - waiting by the bike still. "Did he keep the yellow paper?" - "Yes" - "OK. Be on your way." Yikes!

Then I had to pull over to get a Canada picture... figuring he'd be right after me, but it was all good. Took some shots going over the bridge - cool - right over the locks - and then headed north.

The rest of the day was spent trying to make small towns. The third guy said I could make it to the "Canadian Carver" trading post and gas up there - that I didn't have to make it all the way to Wawa. So I stopped there and bought some stuff for Kian and Jaimer. Then on to Wawa. Ate lunch there at the 17th place (its in the pics I uploaded to facebook). Service wasn't that great, but the food was hearty and good. Excellent since I was cold. Then heading north again.

ON is BEAUTIFUL. I loved it. Kind of a mix between Montana/Colorado mountains, but with tons of mountain lakes and rivers... and a great lake! I'd be riding along in the mountains, and come around a corner and drop down to the lake. Crashing waves along the rocking coast line; then back up into the mountains, by a mountain lake, then back down to the coast again. Excellent bike riding - not too twisty, didn't drop speed too much, but windy and great roads (at least most of the way).

Finally made it into Thunder Bay - cold and a little damp, and there was a bike in front of me. Followed it here and there (when I was in the same lane) and then he got ready to turn and it was my turn too. I saw the Best Western so headed towards it - and the Harley dealer was across the street! So I pulled in, and there was the guy I had been following.

We chatted for a bit "Where ya from? Where you going." With a few "eh?"s thrown in there. :) It was a good talk. Then asked him where I might find a good local place to eat. He said, "Well right behind that building is Naxos. Its Greek, not local, but the food is really good.

So I went back to the Hotel; got settled in, and then tried it. It was EXCELLENT. Had,

• A pink spread for an appetizer. I had it before in DC - I think it was the same stuff. Made with carp eggs if I remember right. Yeah, its great.
  
• Avgolemond - a lemon rice soup
  
• Mousaka - I've had it once before in DC, and this was better. The tomato sauce / meat mixture was very meaty and had a rich taste. The eggplant was great. And the Béchamel was awesome. While the dish is tall enough that you might be tempted to eat some of the eggplant/tomato w/o the Béchamel... don't! Part of the overall taste is the rich tomato (almost like a spaghetti sauce) mixture along with the baked Béchamel that is on top. Eat them together and its a great taste!
  
• The Mythos Greek beer!
  
• Baklava - dense phillo with lots of honey, cinnamon and nuts, and finally
  
• A Baileys Coffee! Just the thing to take the chill off and finish off the meal

Did I mention it was awesome! Perfect end to the day!

Mileage total and quick update

Too tired to add detailed entries, maybe in the morning. But:

• Thunder Bay: 3362
  
• Bemidji: 3707.

Am in Bemidji. Got rained on quite a bit, but doing just fine. Was a cold day, but was bundled up. Turns out this is the head of the Mississippi and also the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. I'm pscyhed! :) I have pictures that I'll post later!

ABC Rally - tally

Woo hoo - picked up USA, Canada (again - just to be sure), MN, and an 'A' and 'B' county. I'm now at 63! So I only need 3 more and I will still get:

1. ND
   
2. MT
   
3. ID
   
4. WY
   
5. Colorado Springs
   
6. Douglas County

So that puts me at 69! 3 over. So I'm looking very good plus might pick up a few more.

105 Trip - heading into Canada

Sunrise at 7:00 here, so I'll be heading out around that time. Its 9.5 hours by car to Thunder Bay. 10 hours would put me in there at 5PM - and it will mostly likely take me 11 or 12, since I'll be stopping more often for gas; seeing some sights, etc. Temp is 59 degrees right now; so I'm glad I packed my warm coat and some other warm gear... "just in case." I'll have 3 shirts on this morning! Wish I had my thermal pants. I know, no where near the 20 degrees I ride in during the winter - but hey, I'm not on the road for hours then either!

Looks like Gustav is going to head North but hopefully miss me. I think if I make it to Thunder Bay before it hits I should be ok. Its supposed to rain here, but not till this evening - and by then I'll be at least a few hundred miles north. Hopefully on Friday when I had more west I'll miss it.

I'd LOVE it if it was sunny today, driving along parts of Superior. Just makes it prettier and warmer. But we'll see. Either way its all good.

Staying at Best Western again tonight and will have WiFi so will update tonight after I get in and get settled.

ABC Rally - tally

55 points! I'm trying to get 66 - so I need 11 more. I should be able to get:

1. USA
   
2. Canada
   
3. MN
   
4. ND
   
5. MT
   
6. ID
   
7. WY
   
8. Colorado Springs
   
9. Thunder Bay
   
10. Douglas County
    

So I only need 1 more - and I have quite a few counties left that I can get. So if I get a few more than the ones listed above; I'll have a few spares just in case they don't take them all - so I should be in good shape. :)

105 Trip: (Wed 03-Sep) Day 11 - St Ignace, MI - 2843 miles

Today I left Pat and Ward's and went up to St Ignace, getting ready to head into Canada tomorrow. I went 403 miles... but its only 161 miles away! :)

Col got Eddie's Ultra and took me from Pat and Ward's up to Gaylord. I called about 4 different Harley dealers, all over the area; asking for service. The answer was pretty much the same when I talked to them on Tuesday. "I'd love to help you out, but there were 6 bikes waiting this morning and there is no way I can get you in tomorrow." I called Gaylord (Zip's HD) and they said "Chuck is busy, can you call back?" - Sure. So I called back later, "Can I talk to Chuck?" - "This is Chuck!" I asked if I could schedule service tomorrow (Wed) and he said that he was fully booked so wouldn't schedule anything else... but if I showed up around 11:00 he'd "try and work me in."

So we showed up at 11:00 - and he dropped everything, got me written up, and got me in. "Should be about and hour or an hour and a half." And he got it done. Excellent. Its a brotherhood :)

As a side note... I thought me going 4K to 5K miles on this trip was pretty unusual. I've now met at least two other groups who have gone that far. Met 2 bikes in Ludington MI. "We went out to Los Angles and then up to Portland and back to Indiana last month... then didn't do anything for 2 weeks so had to come up to MI to put a 1K miles or so on the bike because we hadn't ridden much in 2 weeks." - Then heard some people talking in MI who had just got back from going out to Seattle and then into Yellowstone. And at Zips there was a guy from FL who was up for the summer and was heading back in a few weeks. He was scheduling his 85000 mile service. :) You just gotta love it!

Anyway - I planned on staying in Sault Ste Marie - but someone booked a room in St Ignace (45 miles short :( ) - So I got to the hotel at 2:15 and checked in. They had a great room for me - I asked for one close to the parking lot - the bike is right outside my door. :) - I then went up to Sault Ste Marie and went to customs to make sure that I could get in and out with a birth certificate and drivers license. And they said yes that would work. I then went to Paradise, Whitefish Point and down to Newberry; then back. The trip took longer than I thought and I didn't get back to St Ignace until 8:15! And the trip was pretty cold. There is a cold front going through and it was only 60! But it was just beautiful. Ed Jacobs told me about the route and he was right. It was an awesome bike ride. He also told me to try Timber Charlie's in Newberry. I was running late and didn't - but I did get a picture. :)

Got back to town late, hungry since I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and I stopped at the Hillside Cafe - which had a sign out front about home cooked food and "fresh whitefish." I wanted whitefish - hadn't had any since we were up here a few years ago. They handed me a menu and I said "Do you have the whitefish?" - "Yup, it was caught this morning!" - "I'll have it!" :) - Had that and salad bar... and coffee ('cuz I was still freezing) and it was all very good. Yum!

So - that was the day. I'm all caught up :) - Have to go upload a few pics and then hit the hay; since I plan on leaving very early. Its 8 hours to Thunder Bay by car... and I'll probably take longer. So I'm planning on leaving by 6:30 or so; so I can hopefully get in before 5:00.

105 Trip: (Tue 02-Sep) Day 10 - Milwaukee WI - 2430 miles

Well I was updating every day... but got behind, hanging out at Pat & Ward's for two days. Just too much down time to even want to get on the computer much :) - although I did do some work.

Sunday:

Left Milwaukee heading to Pat & Wards. Original plan was to take the ferry, but that just didn't work out. It was faster to go via land, because the ferry didn't leave till 1:15 PM. Terry, Ted and Kristi wondered if I'd be able to make it on my own, since I usually ride sweep. "Where are we going?" someone would ask, "I don't know... I'm following Terry", I'd reply. "How are you going to do, riding on your own?" Kristi asked. "I'll manage." So we left the motel, the turned left and I turned right... right behind 3 other bikes and ended up following them all the way to the interstate - probably 20 to 30 miles. :) Then on the interstate there were tons of bikes heading home from the 105. So I was pretty much in the company of bikes all the way to Michigan City or so.

Michigan City, IN. I stopped at the Harley dealer to get an ABC shot... but they didn't have any name/logo outside; so I couldn't get a picture. And this was to be my Indiana picture. So I asked them about it and the owner said they had a logo inside... and propped open the doors and told me to pull right in front and see if I could get the shot. So I pulled up on the sidewalk as close as I could get and a young girl who was the cashier came out and snapped a few shots... and they turned out. Cool. :)

Rest of the trip was pretty uneventful except the very end. Col and Eddie met me about 30 miles out and we all rode in together! Arrived and Ward was filming the whole thing. I forgot how he was with the video camera. :) Pat, Ward, Col and Eddie (and all their kids and one granddaughter) were there and we hung out and had dinner. It was great seeing them all and seeing Chloie (sp?). She is so cute! About a month older than Kian I think - and running all over the place. I miss the grand kid!

The rest of the time was spent just hanging out, doing a bit of working, eating great food and just being lazy. Did a couple of loads of clothes and got ready for the rest of my trip.

Oh - and Ward, Pat and I went on a drive around the country side and he showed me where they used to come when there were first "going up north." That was cool.

And then Denise and Ed came over on Tuesday night to visit. And Christin. (And yes, it might be with a 'K'. I'm terrible at knowing names of people I don't actually write to). But I should know soon because I think she is going to look me up on Facebook.

Did find out that Ed had two of his fingers mangled and mostly severed off in a machine accident a few months back! They re-attached them and he is just now starting to get some feeling.

Guess that is most of the family news. It was an awesome visit and a great chance to just relax and hang before heading into Canada.

105 Trip: (Sat 30-Aug) Day 7 - Milwaukee WI - 2012 miles

Although things were officially over on Sunday, Saturday was the last big day and we planned on heading out early Sunday morning. Terry, Ted and Kristi were all heading back to St Louis (Ted & Christi to go back to work on Tue and Terry to visit family for a few days); and I was heading to MI.

We got up "late" (met at 9:00 for breakfast) and planned on hitting a few more dealers. We went by the Buell factory so I could get an ABC shot for that; and then off to a few dealers to get dealer pins. I actually already had a few from Tuscon and Santa Fe - just didn't realize that was what they were. So I figured I'd start collecting them as well. Cheaper than t-shirts for sure.

So it was a pretty laid back day; just doing some slow easy riding and checking things out. Once again the dealerships were massive. One we would have had to park probably 3/4 of a mile away and decided the walking just wasn't necessary.

Heading into two for Summerfest, we passed a small greek place and stopped there for a late lunch. The place looked like it was a family place and probably been around for quite some time. There were a lot of what looked like family pictures on the wall behind the cash register and we asked our waitress (probably 16 or 17) if she was up there. "Yes... these are me", pointing to a few little kids pictures, "... pretty embarrassing. But not as bad as these," pointing to 3 people in short shorts with a boat and a coastline in the background, "of my folks when they were in Greece!" Again - a nice, local, small family run place where the food was good. Score.

We headed into Summerfest and it looked like it might be a nightmare. TONS of people - and we heard from one couple that they waited in line for hours to see ZZ-Top and then couldn't even get close enough to see them and could just barely hear them. So we wondered around and finally found the place where Daughtry was going to play, and there were open seats in the pavilion! So Terry and I snagged enough room for 4 and then I went and hung out waiting for Ted and Kristi. So we pretty much just hung out there all afternoon (I think we got there about 3:30) with folks making a water or beer run every once in a while. We say "Puddle of Mudd" - and they were ok. Pretty much Heavy Metal - with one song I recognized. I've never heard "God bless you guys!" and "You guys are all in my prayers - be safe out there" type phrases, intermixed with the F word so many times. But hey... God listens to everyone and I'll take any prayers I can get. :) Anyway - wasn't too bad and most of the crowd was really into it.

Later I was getting hungry and decided I should go do a food run. Folks had been buying and I figured it was my turn. Plus I hadn't done one of the "wait in line for an hour" things yet. So I headed toward a place that was selling pizza... and there was 1 person in front of me! Got two pizzas and a deep-fried veggie fix: mushrooms, cauliflower and *eggplant*. The eggplant was awesome! So took that back and we call chowed down on it.

The people in front of us snuck a *dog* into the event. It was tiny. It was a toy something. Small enough to fit in a small purse. It was sitting there in the hot sunny, loud music and was seeming pretty miserable, sleeping half the time. I just don't quite get it.

Daughtry was a bit late - but everything was running a bit late, and was pretty good. Did about 45 minutes. Pretty much all of his big stuff that I listen too all the time. And his showmanship and the band were all good. So it was cool. The went off stage, came back and did "Going Home" for an encore and then he went off and the band went into a really good instrumental; but the crowd was starting to leave and so we jetted out of there trying to miss all the people/traffic that would be leaving. Especially since we had parked under an underpass in a dirt/grass area with tons of bikes and it looked like it could be a nightmare trying to get them all out of there. But we made it out of there and back to the room w/o any hassle - so another good day in Milwaukee and a pretty good end to the entire "105" experience!

105 Trip: (Fri 29-Aug) Day 6 - Milwaukee WI - 1898 miles

Today was a "get a few ABC pics and dealer pins" day. Didn't hit many (any?) venues, mostly just toured around the greater Milwaukee (and Racine, Kenosha) area going to dealers and stopping by Capitol Street (HD powertrain plant) and Juneau Ave (HD Headquarters!)

Seeing the Harley facilities was cool. I have pics on the previous linked page.

Going to the dealer sites was... CRAZY. Think the 4 Corners Rally... at a dealership! Yeah... parking... oh 1/2 a mile from the place. One was in the middle of a bunch of other businesses (offices I think) and all their lawns, parking, shipment ramps, everything - were covered with motorcycles. There were definitely more vendors than at 4 Corners, and probably close to as many as Red River. And this was at EVERY DEALERSHIP we went to. Which I think was 4 of them. Plus all the venues (Millers Park, Summerfest, Museum, HOG Island - plus maybe another). It was pretty incredible. Plenty hot, tired, exhausting, sore feet... But something to definitely be a part of.

Somebody on the road asked me later, "You went to the 105? How was it?" - I explained like above, "Would you do it again?" Yeah... maybe if they do it in 5 years again - but definitely not every year.

I've never been to Sturgis - which is a whole different scene - but other than something really large like that - its hard to describe what its like to be a HOG and be in a city that size, where there are bikes EVERYWHERE - even 30 miles away! And where the whole town (even little mom and pop places) are pretty much saying "Welcome Riders! Stop on by!" Pretty cool stuff.

Downside for Christi is that most the dealers were out of dealer pins. I don't think anyone had a clue how many people would show up... You know an event is big when the US Post Office shows up as a vendor! "Ship your stuff home from here!" - so you didn't even have to carry anything on your bike!

We did stop at one store in...Ocowocon (or something like that - anyway - a big hard to pronounce name that started with a 'O' - that turns out to be the store I bought by backrest from on eBay! :)

We didn't even go "downtown" - but just hit vendors, then ate at a place on the way home and turned in early... Well OK - it was still 9 or 10 - but earlier.

And Tom was with us as of Thur - so that was cool.

105 Trip - Day 5 - Milwaukee WI - 1763 miles

Left Annawan in the rain :( - Rained for the first few hours until just about when we hit the WI border. "Welcome home!" it seemed to say. :)

Dropped stuff at the hotel and then headed for the museum. Going south into town the traffic started backing up... there were TONS of bikes. Bikes in all 3, 4, 5 lanes of the highway. Bikes pulled over on the shoulders - and as we passed Miller Park, bikes in all the parking lots; bikes backed up - 4 abreast for what looked like a good 1/2 mile or more. TONS of bikes. All said and done - I'd estimate 100K bikes in the area.

Anyway - got through that and down to the museum. Checked it out. Pretty cool. Terry and I didn't have tickets, but Ted and Christi did and Ted (Mr Extravert) was able to score some tickets from one of the staff people. We made it in.

After we went to Miller Park. Found the bleachers were the main bands were going to play and camped out. It was ridiculous! Early in the day we wanted in line for 45 minutes for a bottle of water! Later in the day folks were waiting 2 hours to get a sub sandwhich. The vendor ran out twice (going to get some more from the store - will be 45 minutes... "OK, we'll wait!") Crazy. Terry waited for water. Ted waited for sandwiches.

We all saw "The Billy Bob Thorton Band" - Think Slingblade meets blues / southern rock. Yeah... well it was something to see. Then Sugarload. Country... hey, turns out I do like *some* country music. She had a cute way with the crowd. It was good. Then Kid Rock... think emnimn meets southern rock. Yeah - not a fan. Stayed for 2 songs then cut out before the rest of the crowd.

I overheard "They build the area to hold 30K people, but I heard there were 60K to 70K here." Given the place was packed and 1/2 the people were waiting in line for beer/water/food - I'd agree. Given it was right next to the interstate - there were quite a few bikes that just parked on the highway and the people were sitting on the concrete dividers just watching... till the cops showed up and chased them off. But plenty of people stayed on the grass embankment.

Got home around 10ish... spent some time on the computer and then crashed. Up the next morning at 6:30!

105 Trip Pics

I'm uploading my pictures to facebook. If you are on facebook and a friend, you already know that. If you aren't and are interested - you can follow this link and see them anyway!

105 Trip - Day 4 - Annawan, IL - 1512 miles

Only did 300 miles today, but took pretty much all day. Did some river road (Mississippi and Illinois rivers) and scenic rides. Very peaceful and cool. Again - heartland of America stuff. Totally enjoying it.

Ate lunch at Fast Eddies. It was as cool as the hype. Just one of those things you have to experience. If you are ever in the area, check it out! Food was great and the beer is claimed to be the coldest in the area - and it seemed to be. Had a Landshark beer! I'm trying new beers on this trip. :)

Tomorrow up early and try to make it to Milwaukee in time for Ted and Christi to drop luggage and get to the museum by noon. So I guess that's it for now!

105 Trip - Day 3 - Saint Louis - 1218 miles

Went to Xenia IL today to get the X. First stopped at the Arch and got some pics of it and some Mississippi river boats. Pretty cool. IL was pretty much corn and soy bean fields, for miles and miles, as far as the eye could see... But some rolling and lots of trees. I actually liked it.

I like going through small town America. Plenty of towns with population under 100. Pretty much all of them with "We support our Troops" banners, Knights of Columbus Halls, and flags. And the "grocery store, liquor store, gas station, snake bar, etc." combo. I don't know... for me, gives me a sense of community just going through there and seeing it. Hard working farmers, proud of who they are and in what they do. Good stuff.

Terry grew up in the region and we stopped at his High School and then coming back dropped in and said Hi to his mom for a few minutes. Cool stuff. :)

Stopped at a gas station that also had a restaurant, for a late lunch. The girl working took our order, cooked it (did a good job) and served it. And did a good job waiting on us the whole time. A fresh change from people at McDonalds who can't even get your order right - and that is all they do.

Anyway... that's the report for today. It was good. Tomorrow we head to Alton, IL (to stop at Fast Eddie's) and then up to our stop in northern IL before heading to Milwaukee on Thur.

105 Trip - Day 2 - Saint Louis - 981 miles

Day 2 - weather was great. Missouri going across Hwy 50 was really pretty. Rolling, windy, green. Stopped and got 9 or so ABC pictures. Took some photos of the route... best I could while driving at 65MPH. :) Got in to the dealer party at Gateway Harley, met up with Ted and Christi and hung out for quite a while - then to their house. They have their Toy Hauler all set up for us and it is great. Just hanging out, sipping a beer chatting.

Still a bit tired this morning - but not sore. Plan to go into IL today to 'X'enia - pick up about 4 more ABCs then back to their house where Christi is making some ribs. YUM!

105 Trip - Day 1

Left home at about 6:15, running a little late but got to Pueblo about 7:10 and we headed out. It was a good first day. I got tired in the afternoon and pretty sleepy, but once it cooled off I was fine. Got 11 ABC pictures today!

Stopped in Kinsley, KS for lunch. Asked a fireman doing the "boot for MDA" thing where was a good place to eat. He directed us to a Mexican place that was pretty good. Food wasn't very spicy, but alright and the quality was pretty good.

Had one car passing a lane of traffic, heading at us, and we had to slow down (and so did the lead car) to let him in w/o hitting us. :( - Other than that (and it wasn't close or anything), no mishaps or potential ones.

Radio is acting up. Didn't come on twice. Will have to have someone look at it later.

Dinner, after dark, in Emporia, KS, was at the S & S cafe. Little tiny, "Good Food - Open 24 hours" place. VERY LOCAL. Old time mid-west type salad bar... radishes, green onions, cucumbers and onions in vinegar! Young waitress - a little attitude. Chicken fried steak was homemade. Meat was good. Gravy was good. Hashbrowns "done crispy please" were PERFECT. This was definately my kind of Road Food place. Just what I wanted in all aspects - even the locals smoking (not too much smoke) wasn't bad. It all screamed road food diner, and the quality and taste was exactly what I was looking for.

Time to hit the hay soon. We made it over 1/2 way to Ted & Christi's on day one, so should get in early enough tomorrow to go to the dealer party. Plus did 11 ABCs today and only plan on 9 tomorrow... But some are standard letters so if I don't get them all, no big deal.

Oh - and one more thing. There is nothing like going down the road at 65 MPH, cool breeze rushing past you, worship music on the iPOD, across the plains of CO and KS, looking at the farms, green, streams, trees, etc. - to bring God's creation into focus and clarity.

Day 1 was a great start to the trip!

Harely 105 / HOG 25

Many of you know this, but perhaps not everyone...

In about 1 week I'm heading to the Harley 105 / HOG 25 celebration in Milwaukee. Originally Tina was going to go to; but she hasn't been feeling well lately and decided it would be too long of a trip. Because she was going to go; I planned the trip to be 3 weeks. Take a few days to get to St Louis where we'd meet up with some friends; spend a day there; then all of us head up to Milwaukee. Stopping about "a hundred miles out" somewhere on Wed (to avoid the high event hotel fees) then stay there Thur, Fri, Sat. Tina's Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward live in MI which is "so close", so we'd leave on Sun morning, take the ferry across a Great Lake, and then hang with them for a few days; then start the long ride back. Given Tina gets tired of riding after a few days, the plan was to do light riding for a couple of days; then spend a couple of days somewhere. Maybe stay in St Cloud, MN for a few days and just check the area out. Then go on to SD and check out Mount Rushmore, Sturgis, etc. Then finally head home. So all in all a 3 week trip. Lots of riding, but lots of breaks as well. So late last year I OKed that much time off at once with my boss and then have been double checking throughout the year.

So... I've got the time, and we discussed it and Tina still thinks I should go - so I'm going for it. However, now I'm going alone so the plans changed.

• I'm still taking the full 3 weeks, since I have it off anyway
  
• Terry, who is another Sheriff Architect, just bought a Harley this year, and has family in St Louis, is going with me.
  
• We are still meeting up with Ted and Christi in St Louis and hanging out there for a day or two. They are awesome and have a Toy-Hauler with double beds all set up and said the fridge would be stocked with beer and snacks and just show up when ever. Awesome. Also for the whole HOG "ABC Rally" thing I always do - there is a town with that starts with 'X' 2 hours away, so we are going to all go ride over there on Tue just for the fun of it, then head north as planned on Wed.
  
• Stop at Fast Eddie's; which I've mentioned before in this blog, on the way up.
  
• Then its the big event for 3 days. Lots of bands, lots of fun, lots of motorcycles... what could be cooler? :)
  
• Head to Aunt Pat's and Uncle Ward's as planned.
  
• While there get my bike serviced somewhere
  
• And from then on the plan is kind of up in the air. I've got about 12 days till I have to be back, and it would take maybe 4 to ride it! Even less if I pushed it. So I'm just heading down the road. I've got two different thoughts right now:
  • The plan was to come home through SD and I've got friends in WA, and haven't been "home" to MT forever - so maybe head up through MT to ID and then into Spokane.
    
  • Tif and Brian are going to be in MI about the same day I was planning on leaving Pat and Wards; but they will be down south in Detroit and maybe heading up to Sarnia for the day. So... I could meet them wherever along Lake Huron, then do some Canada traveling for a few days! Go into Sarnia and then up around the "outside" of Lake Huron and end up at Ste St Marie... And then maybe still head to MT.

So... I'm not sure at all the plan after Aunt Pat's... but that is kind of the plan. To hit the road and see where it takes me. I could also go up through Thunder Bay! Don't know. Basically there are a few goals:

• Not to be too planned
  
• Hit plenty of states, territories, counties, cities for the ABC Rally
  
• Cover lots of miles
  
• Go wherever it looks good
  
• Get home right before I have to go back to work.

If I hook up with Tif and Brian then that will add a bit more planning, but that is fine. So... lots of decisions to make in the next few days!

As noted on another post, I have set up Twitter. One of the main reasons I did that is that I can update my status via my cell phone, so while I'm on the road I can text msg where I'm at and anyone watching my facebook status or following me on Twitter will know what is going on. Pretty cool.

Plus I'll be taking plenty of ABC pictures, and hopefully other pictures as well, and I plan on uploading all of those to the computer and to facebook albums every night. That's all the plan... reality will probably be different, but hopefully close. :)

God is a supporter, not a controller

[Originally put this on Facebook, but decided to start entering all my notes on Blogger and let them get pushed to Facebook; so I have them in both places.]

Many people say that God is in control. Personally, I don't believe that God is in control. I don't think He can be, given we have free will. Free will isn't just a personal thing, its something that is true in all of those around us. And we interact with way too many people for God to be in control of our lives, given all those interactions.

I do believe however that He is there constantly watching and holding out His hand. And that He provides the comfort, joy (in the biblical sense) and support to help us get through whatever life throws at us. As well as the Holy Spirit guides us as much as we will listen; helping us to avoid some of those pitfalls.

So - although He isn't in control, He is there to help get us through life in the best way possible; if we'll just listen to His voice.

So many interfaces - but all connected

So I'm on Facebook now, which allows you to blog, but only your Friends on Facebook can see it; which is fine. I view it, at this point anyway, as a way to write short notes. But that is not its primary purpose. Anyway - I found that I can have Facebook automatically pull these entries; so that is kind of cool. Enter journal stuff here, recipes, etc. Stuff I want to easily go back and look at later. And then Facebook will automatically pull it to my Notes section. That way I don't have to figure out where I want to store this stuff. Just put it here and it will copy to Facebook. Excellent.

And then today I set up Twitter - which will update my Facebook status. So again, Facebook can pull from something else. Cool. So now I can use Twitter for what its good at, and folks can get updated that way; but I can also set Facebook to copy it; so that I don't have to update status in two places.

Cool stuff... :)

Meatballs!

Just finished making a double batch of Turkey Sausage Meatballs - which turns out to be 44 meatballs. Yum :)

You can always count on a biker

Shopping in the store with my biker gear on, and there was a couple ('H'usband and 'W'ife) about 5 feet away.

W: Can you grab (something I didn't hear)?
H: With my back I can't reach up and grab that off the back of that shelf.
I turn and see the woman standing on her toes and trying to reach something off the back of the top shelf.
M: wondering over What do you need?
W: Oh... That jar of mild peppers. Thank you sir.
M: I grin No problem
H: You can always count on a biker!
M: Yup