Those who know me know that on July 1, 2 and 3, I’m usually in Gettysburg for really geeky battlefield tours.

Because of Scoot 66, I’ll be missing them this year. However, PCN TV is there and records them. They show older ones from past years throughout the day and then at 6pm on each day they show the ones that took place that day.

I’m particularly interested in one that will be on probably around 7 or 7:30pm on July 2nd (Wednesday). If someone could record that one (and any others) for me.

The ones they’re running this year are:

Tuesday, July 1
Gettysburg Battlewalks – Day 1
Union 1st Corps on Seminary Ridge (2008)
Brigadier General Doles’ Brigade (2008)

Wednesday, July 2
Gettysburg Battlewalks – Day 2
New 2008 Battlewalks begin at 6:00 p.m.
Major General Hancock’s Leadership (2008)
Brinkerhoff’s Ridge (2008)
Lt. General Longstreet: Culprit or Scapegoat (2008)

Thursday, July 3
Gettysburg Battlewalks – Day 3
New 2008 Battlewalks begin at 6:00 p.m.
Longstreet’s Flank Attack (2008)
Confederate Cannonade Examined (2008)
Pickett’s Charge, Confederate Perspective (2008)
Pickett’s Charge, Union Perspective (2008)
Big Round Top (2008)

Again, I’d really appreciate someone recording the Brinkerhoff’s Ridge one. That would make me happy. Also, Longstreet’s Flank Attack would be fun.

PCN is the Pennsylvania Cable Network. Usually they show tours of weird/normal Pennsylvania things, but over the Gburg anniversary, they show the battle walks. Anyone willing to help a geeky fellow out?

Thanks!

I don’t have a lot to say. I mean, I’m pretty busy, but it’s pretty busy hanging out. Not a lot of interesting things to write about.

Seattle is a bunch of fun and the weather’s been great.

Mostly, we go to parks or eat. Sometimes we eat vegan doughnuts. I had some this morning. Oh, it’s good stuff. Seattle is great for that.

I rode a bit yesterday, hoping that the problems with the scooter would occur again, but they didn’t. Right now, the scooter is fine. It’s a good thing, but if something is going to go wrong, I want it to do it here so I can fix it.

Several people have suggested that I leave the scooter on the west coast, fly back to PA, spend the summer there and at the end of it, fly back out to the west coast for the Cannonball. It’s tempting and I’ve given it a lot of thought.

Though I’m not convinced that it’s the best choice, I’m going to be riding back. There’s also the option to ship it out to California before the Run and then fly out. That is pretty tempting, to be honest. We’ll see how it goes. There’s also the option of simply not doing the Cannonball. But that’s an option I don’t really want.

One of the reasons I was going to be home was to change out the engine on the Stella. I ordered a PX200 engine and I’m pretty excited about it. However, that doesn’t get here for another six weeks. That should be in mid-August. We’ll see how/when that happens.

So… hm… anyone have any questions about stuff?

Sorry there isn’t much to talk about. Hmhmhm.

As most of the regulars will know, there is a 3,400 mile, coast-to-coast endurance event for scooters that takes place every other year. It’s called the Scooter Cannonball Run (no affiliation with Burt Reynolds). 20 or so scooterists ride from the Pacific to Atlantic Oceans over the span of about 10 days. It’s a grueling event that puts you in the saddle for sometimes over 400 miles a day.

This year’s Cannonball starts on Sept 11 in San Francisco. It ends ten days later in Ocean City Maryland.

Some ride for fun or to see if they can do it. Some ride to race. And some ride for charity (with a bit of the other two thrown in). And that’s me.

After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to do it. I’ve also decided that I will be riding to raise money for Food For Life, a world-wide food relief organization.

Currently, I’m in Seattle, having ridden my Vespa GTS , zigzagging my way across the country for a distance of 7,500 miles.

After visiting Seattle and getting some work done on the scooter, I will be riding back to central Pennsylvania in the next couple of weeks. Then, in mid-August, I’ll be heading west towards San Francisco for the start of the Cannonball Run.

How you can help.
Like I said, I’m riding to raise money for Food for Life. I’ll have a donation page set up and you can donate a flat sum or donate based upon how many miles I do (for example, if you donate a buck for every 100 miles, at the end of the Run (which totals around 3,400 miles), you will have pledged to donate $34).

Whatever money that is donated goes to Food for Life. None of it goes to me. I’m keeping not a farthing. I’m only asking you to donate to Food for Life, I’m not asking you to fund my vacation.

All of this will be set up in the next month or so.

I have little doubt that I can complete the Run. The scooter is in great shape and so am I (relatively speaking). I’m used to long days in the saddle and riding a ton of miles a day. The only differences will be that I’ll be “racing” a bunch of other riders and I’ll be riding with a purpose other than “seeing what there is to see.”

I guess there’s not much to say. My big trip to Seattle was shortened to a three hour ride on the interstate.

Riding on the interstate isn’t fun. It’s not scary or anything like that, it’s just not fun.

Before I left Portland, I stopped in at Corazzo to say good-bye to those folks.

I felt really at home in Portland. A lot of that was because of the town, but a good chunk was because of Ashley. Hey, thanks! It’s great to have folks in places. I think this is the first town where I felt really at home. Woo!

The ride to Seattle was lame. There’s a ton of really great things to see along the way, if you leave the interstate. But I just didn’t feel much like traveling. I wanted to get to Seattle, but just didn’t want to travel there. Makes sense?

One big concern is the scooter. The spark plug boot came off at a gas station – that’s not good. And after that, it was idling weirdly. It would be fast for a second or two and then slow down. Over and over. Why would it do that? I’m not sure. But I turned it off and started it again and it was fine. I wonder if I need a new spark plug.

So that’s my big day.

I arrived in Seattle around 4pm and it was great to see Ryan, Jaime and Jeff again. I’ll be here for about a week. Hopefully that week will be action-packed!

Miles today: 248
Miles total: 7684

I was all set to meet up with Kelley Baker today, at 1:30. I even mapped out the route and nearly memorized it! Kelley toured through Lewisburg a couple of times over the years. When he was in town, he’d stop in the bookstore. So I figured I’d return the favor now that I was in his neck of the woods.

Around one o’clock, I hopped on the scooter, started it up, got to the end of the parking lot and it died. I tried to start it again, but nothing. The starter motor just turned over and over. I figured that I was going to run the battery down, so I pushed it back to where it was in front of Ashley’s front door and figured I’d have to get a tow.

I was lamenting not having a vintage Vespa. I could probably fix that. If a two-stroke scooter won’t start, you can usually get it running without too much hassle (then keeping it running becomes the task). But I had a modern, four stroke and had no idea what to do.

So I figured, “check the sparkplug.” And I did. And that was the problem.

Somehow or another, the sparkplug wire came detached from the boot. I looked at it and the wire seems to attach to the boot via a threaded screw, almost like a wood screw. This seems like a dumb set up to me.

So I screwed it back in, still unsure how it worked its way out (maybe when I ran over that tarp?). It started right up and I rode to meet Kelley.

We hung out at a coffee and tea cafe and talked for something like three hours. It was pretty cool to see him again. We caught up on our lives and swapped travel stories – he has more than I do.

That evening, Ashley and I planned to go to something called “Last Thursday,” it’s basically an art walk mixed with street fair. Anyone is allowed to sell whatever on the street and many of the shops have artists in them, showing their work.

While much of the atmosphere was “whoooaaaaaaa look at ME, I’m SO weird, MAN!!!!” There was more than enough sincerity there to make it very worth while.

Most of the art wasn’t to my liking, but almost all of it was cheap – the best kind! Most of it was very DIY and again, I dig that.

There was one piece (pictured on the left) that I really dug. But the artist wanted $175 for it. This wasn’t really the place to be selling the over-priced stuff. And I didn’t really have the $175 to throw at it. But I really really dug it. If it were $100, I would have bought it.

I also rediscovered sidewalk chalk while being here.

The first night I was here, one of the cafes wrote “The Waffle Window is Open!” on the sidewalk, with arrows directing all where to find it. My first thought was “what if there really isn’t a waffle window and it’s just arrows leading people to no where?” That would be a very fun thing.

Sidewalk chalk is also good for leaving little messages to the world around you. Tonight we saw, “Nothing says arrest me like a 2am cartwheel.”

Words to live by, folks. Careful out there!

There were other chunks of art that I wanted and I really wish I would have known about this, because I would have sent my books out here and tried to sell a few. I also have another idea that I’m keeping to myself.

I tried to encourage Ashley to sell her paintings and jewelery here, because she’s really good and for some reason never tries to get her work out there. Hopefully next Last Thursday, she will.

We got home late and basically crashed out. Tomorrow, I leave for Seattle. But I’m sad to be leaving Portland. I really feel at home in this town. Like a lot.

Mile today: 7
Miles total: 7436

ps – While I didn’t pick anything up at Last Thursday, I did become the new owner of Boy with Duck. I found another one and it’s mine! I feel very lucky.

You know what I did today? Not much at all. Some folks would take the time to explore Portland. See what’s here. Me, I just needed a day where I didn’t do anything.

Tomorrow I’ll explore some. But today, I just did laundry and ate some strawberries.

I emailed some scooter shops and worked out more logistics for the Cannonball. I went from being really hyped up about it to nearly not doing it. I’m still planning on it though, no worries.

When Ashley and Kevin got home, we grabbed some pizza – a few pizza shops in Portland have vegan cheese. West Coast pizza never ever even comes close to east coast pizza, but it wasn’t bad.

And then we hit Powell’s Bookstore. It’s the largest independent bookstore in the universe. It takes up a whole freaking city block! It’s amazing. I could have bought a million things, but bought three small comics.

And then we came back home.

That’s it, really. Easy day.

I’ve been thinking more and more about Cannonball Run and if I wanted to do it for charity.

Turns out that I do, but I’m not sure how to go about that. I’ve picked the charity I’d like to support. It’s a food-relief one. I’ve contacted them and hope to hear back soon.

I’m going to be asking for donations for the charity (and the charity only – no money for me, ok?). Folks can donate by-the-mile (or rather, by the 100 mile segment) or can give whatever they can. The money, again, won’t be touched by me.

My folks suggested that I park the scooter out on the west coast, fly back to the east – then back west for the Run. It’s definitely something to think about.

But I doubt that I’ll do that. I want to ride. And if I get back to PA, what will I ride? I have the Stella, but that’s my next project and not street legal anymore.

Anyway, I’m 95% sure that I’m doing the Run. And I’m 75% sure that I’m riding to PA and then back to the west coast.

I’ll have to secure service work somewhere in the upper mid-west, in PA, somewhere in the middle of the country and then somewhere on the west coast (San Jose?).

This is going to be a lot of work, but I’m really really excited about it.

Maybe I’ll head up to New England for a week while I’m in PA.

Now, about “66″.

Several blogs have mentioned me of late and that’s just dandy and a little weird. I want to clear a few things up.

1) I know Route 66 doesn’t go through Idaho. The Route 66 portion of Scoot 66 was over a long time ago.

2) Someone mentioned that this is basically an extended vacation and not a real big deal. I agree. It’s not a big deal and really is an extended vacation. Why should you care? You really shouldn’t. Why do folks care? I’m not exactly sure, but I’m glad they do.

3) The point isn’t to make it across the states and back in 66 days. I’m not behind schedule. I’m exactly where I want to be. It’s Day 55 today and I won’t be home till Day 70 something. At that point, Scoot 66 will be over. In mid-August Scoot 66 II: Electric Boogaloo will start.¹ That will take about a month and will include the Cannonball Run.

Schedule?

My schedule is pretty foggy right now, but to the best of my knowledge, I should be back in PA in Mid (Carson) July. I’ll be leaving for the Cannonball in Mid-August. I’d like to take a week to go up to New England, but I’m not sure about that one. I’ll return from the Cannonball on Sept 22nd-ish. After that. Oh I’m gettin’ plans!

All in all, I’ll probably have a 20,000 mile summer.

Now that that’s cleared up, go and do something fun, ok?

1. That’s not really the name that I’m calling it – I probably won’t call it anything. Just Scoot 66 or something boring like that. [↩]