I finally got away 3:00 PM. Barry was so kind as to take a few photos with my camera as I was taking off. The odometer reading was 60,395 miles. I remembered about 15 minutes down the road that I forgot the chicken sandwich that I had made. I made a stop in Alameda to pick up antibiotics that Jan wanted me to have. I stopped by her office and to say good bye and thanks. I used the carpool lane going through Berkeley on 80. It was great; I was doing 60 while they were doing stop and go. I didn't get into real stop and go traffic until I was pass Pleasanton. I can't believe there isn't a carpool lane. When I got on highway 5 there were a couple of cars that flew past me and then for the most part everyone was going along about 80. There were two major wrecks along the road. One was on the other side and there were 5 to 7 cars involved with some of them having rolled over. On my side of the road there was a big rig with a little car side ways under its front bumper. If you think the stockyards smell when you are driving a car, well let me tell you it is much more pronounced on the bike. The good part is, it does not linger. I am staying at a Model 8 tonight, in Kettleman Ca. Not as good as the others that I have stayed in.

The hills are mostly brown now with just a little hint of green. The sky was clear and the temperature was in the high 70 all the way except for the last half-hour when it was dark.

4-26-07

Up at 5:30am. and getting ready to go. They are predicting record highs today. Then there is going to be rapid cool down. I have the TV on this morning to get weather, and there is Bill Berg of Alameda advertising his legal services in one of those high-pressure ads.

4-30-07

Left Parker AZ late because I was having computer problems and I needed to get them fixed. I tried to keep it under sixty most of the way. Put on about 350 miles. Road around Parker before leaving town. There are some interesting spots along the river. Motel was very nice. Because of computer problems I was not able to plan the days trip. Temp between 88 and 91 all morning and then dropped after going through Prescot. Hit rain later in the day and then had rain and freshly oiled roads. That got my attention. Bike ran great all day. Spent the night at Heber AZ. I think it is about 5000 ft elevation. This is scrub pine tree area. Stopped and took Photos from the bike along the way. There just is not enough time in the day. Need to get to bed earlier. Hard to turn the lights out before 11.

4-1-07

Road from Heber to Holbrook AZ and then down the road a few miles to the petrified forest. My life time Golden Age pass work, so it was free. I have now paid for the card. What a great deal that is. This was beautiful country, reminding much of the area in southern Utah along highway 12. The road through the park is 25 miles long so there is a lot to see. Petrified wood was no big deal but it is interesting to see it just laying all over the place. I took some photos while riding along. Not as hard as I thought it would be. But this was also the place to do it as there was very little traffic and I could go along an 30 mph. There was a couple ridding the Harleys through the park. I managed to get them to talk with me for a few minutes. They are full time RVers. They have Volvo big rig truck pulling a large 5th wheel trailer. They have been on the road for two years. Take jobs at camp grounds as they travel. Looked to be in there late 50's The Volvo had 400,000 miles on it when they bought it. From conversation I figure they only drive it about 10k miles per year. They had a special compartment build for the bikes behind the cab.

The ride to Albuquerque was interesting. The roads are posted 75 in NM and that is for everyone. That was faster than I would have liked to ride but it is more important to move with the flow of traffic. At times it was very windy with rain and on an off. I do get wet when it is raining and there is a stiff wind from the side. Met a group of Senior bike riders when I stopped for gas. I didn't talk with them to long as I wanted to get going. They were mostly ridding Goldwings that had been all tricked out. A couple of them said they had Ventures at one time. Bike backfired when I pulled of the freeway. The exhaust note seems a little louder to me. I wonder if there is an exhaust manifold leak. I will try and spend some time tomorrow looking into that.

I found my motel in Santa Fe, NM easily. It is a Days Inn and is just about the same as the others I have stayed in but was cheap. They actually had oranges and cantaloupe at the breakfast buffet. Room was just shabby. It rained most of the night. And is slowly drying off this morning. I lost my nice map of the southwest that Jen had got for me. Blew out of the suite case. I had left the flap unzipped. I thought I heard something. A GPS system would sure be useful.

4-2-07 Wednesday

was slow getting out of motel again. Everything on the laptop still taking a long time. To much time to write things and wanted to down load photos. Seemed to take forever. Drove over twenty miles to get out of Santa Fe to head for Los Alamos. Road signs were not making sense. Then I drove 10 miles just looking for an off ramp with a gas station or strip mall or something. Finally got off at Airport road. There was nothing. Drove for 5 minutes in the direction of were the airport most be. Road became just a two lane road covered in mud from a construction project. I turned around and went back the other way and a couple of miles down the road on the other side of the freeway came to a Macdonald's. I fired up the laptop and with the just the name of the street and Santa Fe I was able to find my place in this world. I was then able to put in Los Almos and get the route. This is so much better than a map because I can zoom in and look at the interchange and even know which side of the road to be on when I get there.

The ride to Los Alamos was similar to Chucks description except it was raining. I spent about three hours at the museum. It is interesting to hear their side of the bomb building story. They had models of the bombs dropped on Japan. Watched the videos etc. All very interesting. They are expounding on their efforts in medicine, human genome, nano technology, and material science just like all of the other labs.

The women guarding the door at the museum stopped me as I was leaving asked if I was ridding a bike. She suggested that I would enjoy the ride out of the back of the Lab. She fixed up a map to show me the way out. Never would have done it myself because you have to go through the guard gate to Lab. It was a fantastic ride. Must have climbed to around 9000 ft. There was snow along side the road in shady spots. Then it started to rain hard and the temperature dropped to 38 deg. Great views along the way as it is the crater of a volcano with a beautiful meadow in the middle. Then followed a beautiful stream down hill on road that was just meant for a motorcycle. Had to be really careful as there were wet spots here and there. At about 6000 ft started driving through an Indian reservation. It is sad to see how they live on the reservation. So many homes that look totally trashed and then you realize that people are still living in them. It is not just a matter of money. A lot of it is their own expectations of how to live and their priorities. Eventually came to freeway and headed south again. Had to fire up the laptop again to figure out where I was. Found 25 and headed south again to Albuquerque. I was going to stay in Albuquerque for the night but it started raining very hard just as I was getting into town. I wanted to take photos of the beautiful freeway interchanges all done in south west colors and graphics. They are a wonderful statement about the pride the locals have in their city. They were even better in Santa Fe. In any case as long as I kept going I didn't get wet on the bike.

I stopped at a amazing rest stop, there were these little covered, almost rooms with wooden tables that had been covered with epoxy so you could clean them and raised up so you had a good view of the scenery. All done in a very nice SW style. How great…. I finally stopped in Socorro for the night after having driven through another town that said it had 5 motels. Never did find them. Motel 8 again. Best place so far. Small room but very neat and clean. Worked on laptop taking off as many programs as I could. It now is running much faster. Boots up more quickly.

Watched Bill Maher on HBO. That was almost a good reason to get HBO. He is sure pounding on the Bush administration.

4-3-07 Thursday

Went from Socorro to Roswell. I took a very scenic route. Most of the miles were just across rolling desert hills but then climbed up into the mountains of Lincoln National Forest. There are some beautiful homes tucked away in those hills. Just before I got to Rioduso I decided to take a ride up to a ski resort. It was a 12 mile ride up to the resort. At the peak of the road I must have been over 10,000 ft. The lodge was at 9600 and you came down hill at least 400 ft to get to the lodge. It was very clear because it was very windy. It was just the perfect thing to do on the bike. The air was so clean, each breath felt so good, just free and easy.

It was interesting on the way up and the way down the front wheel on the bike would slide every now and then, as though it was on gravel. Yet I could never see the gravel that caused it slide. When I went over gravel that I could see, nothing would happen. Can't figure it out. Is just amazing how quickly you respond to the bike sliding. The bike just ran great, didn't over heat going up and I seldom had to use the brakes coming down. The bike carbs are called constant velocity carbs but I think in reality they are a constant mass flow device. Another words they are not effected strongly by the change in altitude. I took the bike up to 90 mph indicated just for the fun of it on one of the long smooth stretches of straight road. Did not have as much wind pressure me as going up highway 5 into the wind. Tomorrow is going to be interesting as they are predicting 45 mph winds in this area in the afternoon. Ruidoso was a very up scale town and fairly good size. There were 4 or 5 building with Gold metal roofs. The material look like standard metal roofing but it looked like a satin finish gold. Very neat.

Roswell is very disappointing. It is just messy town with a lot of businesses that have gone out of business. Had a very poor rib dinner at a place that specializes in BBQ ribs. Mine are ten times better. The BBQ sauce did not help them. It may have been the poorest meal of the trip so far. I was looking for another locally owned diner. Those are the ones that I have had the best luck with so far. I have stayed away from all of the chains.

I hope to be down in the Carlsbad Caverns. It is 604 miles from Carlsbad to Laredo Texas. 450 miles to San Antonio. I plan on spending the night in Carlsbad and then make the run to San Antonio. Send a day in San Antonio and then go to Laredo. I want to see the Alamo and get a little feel for Texas.

4-4-07 Friday

Went from Roswell to Carlsbad caverns. Went to the UFO museum before leaving Roswell. It was just what I had read but still interesting. I also remembered that one of my goals in life is to live long enough for alien life forms to be identified. I just hope it is an intelligent form that we can communicate with and learn from. There was a major wind storm going on today. It made riding very difficult and annoying. I was getting pushed around more on the bike than the bike was getting pushed around on the road. That was good.

Got to Carlsbad and went directly to the caves. My golden pass got me in for free. I did the natural entrance walk in. It started out just fine. There is a funny dank smell just as you go in. Then you just keep going deeper and darker and it keeps getting stranger and stranger. I had been going down for about a half hour when my right knee started hurting me. I had been concerned about my heal but it was giving no problem. I finally had to do a funny skip to get down. By the time I got to bottom my left knee was also hurting. But I did the mile and three quarters walk around the large room. It got a little slow at times but I took a lot of photos. The caves are just out of this world. Every corner you came around there would be a new and different formation. It just brought me back to reading National Geographic when I would visit Grammy and Pappy Batson. It is even more spectacular in person than I ever expected. The size of the chamber is just amazing. The different formations are beautiful and strange at the same time. It was interesting that everyone spoke in soft voices like they were in a library or a church. There were not that many people there for the size of the place. I would sometimes go for five minutes with out hearing or seeing anyone. It turns out you are 750 feet below the surface. They have high-speed elevators and the ride is still a minute long. There are 5 different guided tours you can take but after doing the big room I was saturated plus my knees wanted a break.

Went to Chines buffet for dinner. It was pretty good and I was able to get my veggies and fruit fix. More wind is predicted for tomorrow. I can't get the laptop to log onto the net. I don't understand what the problem is. I disabled the MS firewall. That didn't help. Rebooted several times. I just wonder if the MS firewall and Zone Alarm used some of the same files and when I uninstalled Zone alarm it deleted a file that MS firewall uses. It says it is sending but nothing is being received. I could install zone alarm again…..

visited the Alamo today. Made me realize that Texans are Texans 1st and American second. A lot of them still live the republic of Texas. It is very hot and muggy.. San Antonio reminded me in places of New Orleans. One the hot muggy weather but there also the small old homes that have all of the charm and beautiful of decay. Much of the old architecture is the same or very similar. Food and gas are cheap here. You can get 93 octane premium here for less than 3 dollars a gallon. I saw it for more than $4 in California. I had a good Mexican lunch yesterday for $5.95 and that included all of the ice tea I could drink and it was served to me at table. Can't do that well at the fast food places.

They love GW Bush here, but I don't see any support the troops stickers. Maybe it is just a given... I see very few Mercedes here but a lot of Chrysler 300. They don't have as many big SUV's but of lot of big diesel pickup trucks. I have hardly heard anyone speak with a Texan accents but then the service industry is made up of Hispanics. I parked by a church when I went to the Alamo and all of the Southern Lady's were coming out in their church outfits.

5-8-07 Tuesday

Now that I am over my shock of not have birth certificate and not being able to head into Mexico, I headed out this morning with plans to get to Victoria, Texas going through Corpus Christi on the way. After leaving Laredo I went for 60 miles without seeing a town, gas station, nothing. Just lots of bushes and just enough traffic to not feel to lonely. In Texas they do not warn you about the long distances to the next stop.

Corpus Christi is a large city. Went to beaches. There was a 30 mph on shore wind that was driving a high tide right onto the picnic grounds. Beautiful white sand. Did not see anyone windsurfing or kite boarding which surprised me. You don't see a lot of people pulling boats and toy trailers in Texas. There are a lot of small American cars in poor condition and large pick up trucks. Gas keeps getting cheaper as I travel. Down below three dollars a gallon for premium.

Weather was in the Mid 80's all day with very high humidity. My neck is soar from the wind blowing on it.
5-10-07 Thursday

Road from Lafayette to New Orleans and check into my mystery hotel. I did not see any signs of Katrina along the way. I used bookit.com to find a room. I took a gamble on their mystery hotel which turned out to be a Holiday Express which is two blocks from Bourbon St. It was a very good choice as there is a good place to park the bike. Road down Bourbon St. on the bike after checking in.

Went to Bourbon St. for the evening. There was a group of convention people here having a good time. They had a lot of beads and got the crowd into it. Only saw one girl flash her tits but was not able to catch a photo as I only had the Pentax. There was also a large number of beautiful women on the street dressed very well. Ran into a couple of young women and talked with them for awhile and shared taking photos of each other. The tall blond was a riot. Any way they were a lot of fun.

5-11-07 Friday

I spent the day walking around the French Quarter. It looked better to me than it ever has. It was not very busy but this is not the prime season here. There is no sign of the Katrina damage as one of the merchants that I talked with said there was no flooding in the FQ. I had some fun with a couple that wanted me to take pictures of them with their camera while he was holding her butt while they were walking down the street. We all had great laughs. I took a bunch of photos of the signs along Bourbon street. Went buy the place that Jan and I stayed in the first time we were here. There are signs of a fire in the main building and the place looked pretty closed up. There was a for rent sign on the building. There were no business signs on the building. Bayonas was open as well as all of the other businesses that I remember. The place (sea port?) where Jan and I used to go have oysters and listen to music on Bourbon street has changed hands. It is now a jazz club. The music on the street did not seem as good to me. It was mostly loud rock. There was just a little Cajon music. There were not as many of the street performers and a felt there quality was way down.

Ps The action on Friday night was not as good a Thursday night. Thursday night there were people on the balcony with a lot of beads. That made for good action. The only tities I saw were some girls that worked for a new club that is opening. They were flashing the crowd from a balcony. They were having fun with it but the cops where all over the situation because they dumped some water on the crowd below and since they worked for the club they should have not been out there, without pasties. I saw the cops talking with the club manager and the girls showed up later on the balcony with duck tape over their nipples. I got the Canon camera to do a pretty good job getting the photos with just the flash on the camera. There were just a few other people on the street taking photos. I had a plastic bag with me that I put the camera in for the walk back to the hotel. There was a couple of blocks that I didn't feel comfortable walking down late at night. I think that was a pretty clever.

5-12-07

Hi Chuck,

How are things going. I have not done as much photography as I thought I would while traveling. It turns out that the bike is a bad platform for taking photo's. I can't park it alongside the road in a lot of places because of the camber of the road. The other thing is I have been traveling in such hot weather that I just want to keep going to stay cool.

I have learned how to take pictures while riding down the road and I am not taking photos through the windshield. But these are just snap shots to record where I have been. It all just make me appreciate the photos you take more. I did spend some time yesterday walking around the French
Quarter taking photos but still I don't think they represent my best efforts.

There was a definite shortage of beads on Bourbon Street last night. But it was still fun. Talked with some of the merchants and they are just hanging on. Business is still way down. I am going to head for Florida tomorrow to visit my nephew.

Have a good one,

Phil.......

5-13-07 Sunday

I rode from New Orleans to Fort Walton Beach Florida. Just past Pensacola Florida. It was very interesting driving through the East Side of NO. The damage from Katrina was just amazing. You could see the whole neighbor hoods that were devastated. Much more damage than I had seen when I drove out to Lake Pontchartrain.

I stopped at the first rest stop in Mississippi. They had free soft drinks and coffee. The interior looked like some mansion. It was hard to believe the furniture was there for you to sit in. The ladies behind the desk were very helpful. Gave me a good map of were I wanted to travel through. Turns out the bridges at each end of that area are out. I travel on 90 through Golf Port and Biloxi. The amount of destruction along this stretch is just horrifying. It is interesting at this point to see how some place have been totally fixed and other places are just sitting there with nothing done. Others have had enough done to stop further damage from just the normal weather events. There were also many lots where the only thing left was the concrete slab. I suspect that one of the problems is the lack of contractors to do all of the works that needs to be done.

I was able to get a fair number of photos. The beach along this whole stretch is absolutely beautiful with white sand and public access almost the whole length. It is interesting the Casinos are almost all fixed and open for business. I just can't help thinking there has to be some business opportunities. There are vacant lots that would be just incredible to have a home on. There were just a few sail boats out on the water.

I then stopped at the Alabama rest stop and welcoming place. Also very nice. While I was there I was looking at a weather screen on a computer and it was showing thunder storms in the South. When a I left the rest stop there were a couple of other bikes in front of me. There was thunder and lightening the whole time I was at the stop. In any case about ten minutes down the road I saw the two bikes in front of me take an off ramp and I could see some rain ahead. All of sudden it was major rain and the visibility dropped to maybe a couple of hundred feet. Traffic slowed to about 20 miles per hour. There were huge gust of winds from the side. I just got totally drenched. I had taken my jacket off earlier to survive the heat. I was thinking about pulling off onto the shoulder of the road but that did not look like a smart option. The smart thing would have been to take the exit with the other two riders. I just plowed ahead. After about ten minutes it started to break. There were times when I would lose the tail lights of the car in front. The thunder was just sounded like it was right next to me. I was never scared but just felt a little foolish. I just kept going after the rain quit.

About a half-hour later I stopped to eat. I ate at a truck stop dinner. These have been good in the past but this one was not, but interestingly enough there were cigarette ash trays on all of the tables and most of the people were smoking. My shirt was dry but my pants were still wet. My pants were still soaked when I stopped for the night. I learned that if your cloths are wet you stay cool even weather in the mid 80s. Next time it gets really hot I am going to pore water over myself. Makes a big difference. Spending the night at another Super 8 motel in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It is nice room except there is a lot of highway noise though that never keeps me from sleeping. I must get a handy capped room half the time. Do I look crippled. They aren't for the mentally handy capped.

5-14-07 Monday

I rode from Fort Walton Beach to Mary Ellen's and Lyle's in Treasure Is. Florida. It was a longer ride than I thought it would be when I stopped for the night before. It is a 430 mile trip. I made a few navigation mistakes along the way so it was longer than I should have been. I was later leaving the motel than I hoping for. I rode along the coast the whole way. I was able to take some photos from the bike. Some of the areas are very beautiful. The white sand on the beach looks so inviting. Interestingly most of the new homes along the coast are build on stilts. Some must be at least 15 feet in the air.

I stopped to eat at a restaurant bar type place. I had a shrimp, bean and rice dish. It is fairly good, just not as good as I was expecting. There were a number of towns along the way and long sections with hotels or motels all along the coast. Travel was quite slow for the first few hours. The smoke from fires in northern Florida gave everything a surreal look. I traveled at least 200 miles through the smoke. When I got about 60 miles from Saint Petersburg I missed the cut off to the toll road so I traveled the remaining distance on rout 19. It was almost 60 miles of strip malls but they put a new meaning to the word strip mall as there was a strip club about every mile. Traffic moved along at 50 mph while the road was posted for 35mph. I just rode along with traffic. The lights were well timed for 50 mph but when you did miss one it was a long wait. This is probably the most prosperous looking area I have ridden through yet on the trip. I had made more detailed directions before leaving and it worked pretty well but I got insecure when I got in Saint Petersburg. I would not have found their place without the address and the computer map. I sure wish I could use the GPS unit. I stopped ounce along the road to try and figure out for sure where I was but I could not find the location with just the intersecting streets. And none of the businesses around me had their address on the building.

I arrived at Mary Ellen's around 8:30. Parked the bike in their carport. Mary Ellen and Ed were glad to see me and Mary Ellen and I sat talked for about 2 hours.

I spent the night and then visited with Ed for about 4 hours in the morning before leaving. I got up in time to say good bye to Mary Ellen before she took off for a meeting.

11-15-07 Tuesday

I left Mary Ellen's and rode to Kurt's in Satellite Beach. I had made up a very good instruction sheet to get me there and I drove right to his place. He was not home yet. I was able to get connected to the web by stealing a little bandwidth from somebody and email him. I also left a phone message.

The road to Orlando seemed totally different to me than when Jan, Ros and myself made the trip about 5 years ago. The road has been widened to 3 lanes each direction all of the way and there is a lot more traffic. I wound up on a toll road to cut over from Orlando to Kurt's. It is really a bitch on the bike as the amount of money is not the same each time so have to get the bike in neutral, put the kick stand down, then take my gloves off and then get my wallet out and find the correct amount of money. I should have just stopped and taken the gloves off. The toll booths vary in distance from 5 miles to ten miles. Toll from 25 cents to buck quarter. The road and traffic were no better than the freeways. The Orlando area is being totally build up with these big homes on small lots. They are building in groups of about 500 and there must have been at least 30 groups that I could see from the toll road.

Kurt's place is a real bachelor pad. He has a few good things and the rest is just stuff. We went to dinner and had a great meal. We talked until almost 2 in the morning and Kurt had to leave the house by 6:30 or so for work. I slept on his couch. It makes a great bed. I didn't even hear him leave in the morning.

Hi Keir and Bob.

I met a fellow in Texas that was on an Iron Butt run. You have to do 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. He was from Dallas and had be heading into wind for several hundred miles when I met him. He was riding a Suzuki Harley look a like. It was blowing 20 to 30 mph easily all through Texas at that time. Texas has a ton of windmills.

Maybe I will try and do a 1000 mile run on the way home. I think I have passed the 5000 mile mark. Tried to get the oil changed today. They could get to it on Monday. The front tire is still hanging in there.

I do have a photo of the bike and I in front of the most Southern Point Monument. Key West was interesting but not great. It is a place that is much better at night I am sure but I had a sloppy Joe's at Sloppy Joe's. Reminded me of the ones that we got in the cafeteria when I was in high school. I wanted to get back and headed north again. I want to make it to the Museum at Cape Canaveral and to Daytona Speedway and spend some more time with Kurt. I am going to ride until I am on the North side of Miami tonight.

The poor bike is starting to look a little sad. The seat is getting very tired. The knob on the radio fell off today. Ridding in the rain just makes a mess out of it.

I am still having a great time but I am on the way home now and it will be good to be home I am sure.

Hope everyone is doing well

Phil.......

Hi Barry,

Thanks for the warning about the Cicadas. I have been dealing with the love bugs the whole time I am Florida. They make a real mess out of the windshield but I don't get anything on my visor. They are so thick some times that I have to be careful when putting gas in the bike so they don't fly into the tank. They are amazing as they fly around mated together, back end to back end so somebody has to fly backwards.

My current plan is to travel from here to St Louis and then head west on 70 and then into Utah head north and take 80 home. I am looking forward to getting home now.

I had a great visit with my nephew. Spent yesterday with Kurt at the visitors center at Kennedy Space Center. Great walking around with someone that knows so much about what is going on there. Spent this afternoon at Daytona Motor Speedway and then took time to go down to beach and walk on the sand. I didn't take the bike onto the sand though I don't think it would have been much of a problem except for turning around.

The motel tonight is filled with fire fighters. The ones that I talked with are from Colorado and the motel clerk said she was talking with some that were from Oregon. That is a long way to travel to fight a fire and they have to bring their own equipment.

How are the tomatoes doing? Have you had any yet?

Say hello to Val for me….

Phil…..

5-22-07

Rode from Nashville TN. To Topeka, Kansas. It was an uneventful trip. The roads were very smooth. Went state hoping, going through Illinois, Missouri, etc.

I need to get going as they are predicting tornadoes in the area that I need to drive through today.

Ending Mileage 69,470 miles

Trip was 9075 miles.