Today was cold. I think this may have been the longest cold ride I’ve ever taken.

I woke up at 6am and checked the outside temperature. 36 degrees. Things would need to warm up a bit before I’d get rolling. So I finished packing up and tying things down to the scooter. I stepped away from it and thought, “what am I doing?”

This is ridiculous. And that’s the theme for the whole day. What I’m about to do is making less and less sense.

By 10am, the temperature had risen to a whopping 48 degrees. I hoped on the bike and pulled out of the driveway. I noticed that the front end was wobbly. Through town, at slow speeds, it would wobble. I wasn’t sure if it was my nerves or the front end. I’m still not sure.

Before heading south on PA 104, I hung a left and dropped in on Nikki who was staying at her folks’ house. I traveled Route 66 twice with her and it was fitting to at least say hi/bye to her before taking off to see it by myself (a concept I’m not fully ready to face).

As New Berlin disappeared in my rearview mirror, the cold bit into me. The sky was over cast and offered no warmth. But in no time, I hit US 15 south, skipping old alignments, wishing I could be riding them instead of this 4 lane chunk of super slab. But I had to make time today.

Wheeling is about 350 miles away. I got a late start because of the weather, so there was no time to stop – even to eat.

That is, except at the BMW Motorcycle dealership in Mechanicsburg, PA. I wanted to get a helmet. I looked around a bit, tried on a few and finally picked out a silver Nolan. It’s the bee’s knees. I handed my old helmet to the parts guy and asked him if he could dispose of it.

I hate asking people to throw stuff away for me. When I ran the bookstore, people were always asking me to throw things away for them. I always found it rude. Always. But here I was asking some guy to throw away a helmet on my behalf. He did. Thank you, sir.

Seven hours to go.

Normally, the trip from New Berlin to Wheeling takes six hours. Normally, I’m in a car on an interstate. But on a scooter, no matter how fast it can go, you only do about 40mph average. All the starts and stops, the fueling up, my complete inability to take turns at speed, add up.

After buzzing through Carlise, I mistakenly took PA 34 south. I backtracked and found another road that went to Shippensburg. PA 174 is indeed a fine little road. Hardly any traffic. From Shippensburg, I took US 11 to Chambersburg and from Chambersburg I spend the next 80 miles on the Lincoln Highway, US 30.

I adore the Lincoln Highway through Pennsylvania. West of Chambersburg is great. I found some unmarked older alignments, but took no pictures.

The gloves I was wearing were huge snow gloves. It was cold. At this point, the temp was around 51 degrees. Huge gloves are a hassle to put on and take off. So taking a picture would require more effort and time than I could presently afford.

I road through McConnellsburg, Breezewood, Everett and Bedford, wanting to spend time in all of them, but unable to stop for more than gas and a quick (though failed) picture of The Coffee Pot just outside of Bedford.

Just after Bedford, I began to think that I had missed the turn off for PA 281 South. Luckily, I continued to press on, even though my “gut” told me I had passed it. I got a little worried, but figured if it were true, I could take Lincoln Highway some other road, take that south and follow 40 into Wheeling. To my surprise, my gut was wrong and 281 was waiting just for me.

When planning my trip through Pennsylvania, I looked for a “scenic route,” finding one in Jim Mountain Road. Yes, there is a mountain named Jim. And Jim has a road. Jim’s road was pretty special. Thirteen miles of smiles!

And though there were smiles, by this time, I was ready to be done for the day. I was cold, the temperature hadn’t creeped up too much and I was tired. Beat, really.

By the time I road around Uniontown (I have vowed to never stop foot nor wheel inside that horrible place), catching PA 21 to the West Virginia boarder, I was exhausted.

It doesn’t seem like it should, but riding takes a lot out of you. The upside is that you sleep really well at night. The downside is that you want to sleep right NOW.

I wasn’t sleepy – falling asleep on a bike is not for me, but I was ready to not be riding. However, at this point, it was a race against the daylight. I wanted to pull into Rati and Dwija’s, just south of Wheeling, by 7pm. I’m insanely punctual. You’ll see.

PA 21 is an old road. There are pot holes and twists and turns and some really very beautiful scenery. The entire day, I’ve had to deal with twisty roads. Most motorcyclists/scooterists love the twists. I do not. For some reason, I mentally block my ability to lean. I am always afraid the wheels will slide out from under me. Of course, they wouldn’t, but nevertheless, I’m scared of sharp turns. I slow down to 35 and lightly lean, sometimes throwing my foot out in the direction of the turn to act as a counter balance. The people stuck behind me are thrilled.

Fifty miles of PA 21 later and I’m at the border of West Virginia and the lamest three miles of crappy road ever invented. PA 21 magically turns into WV 891. It’s a three mile stretch of road connecting PA 21 to US 250 – the windiest road in the universe.

The speed limit on US 250 is 55mph. I have no idea how you are supposed to achieve that. There are no straight stretches. None. It is 100% curves. Most riders would love it. Again, I did not.

Lucky for me Palace Road was not too far away. And a mile down that was Rati and Dwija’s house. It’s been like my home for the past few months. And it was really nice to be here. I was welcomed with smiles and was finally warm (it got up to 60 somewhere around Uniontown – probably hotter there because Uniontown can burn in hell).

For the next two days, I will be hanging out here. I hope to see a friend or two and maybe I’ll even write about it.

My next stop is Auburn, Indiana. Nothing special there, it’s just 300 miles away from here and 200 miles away from Joliet (via Chicago).

Today was hard. Much harder than I expected. I’m completely exhausted and am now wondering if I can actually pull this off. Too many more days like today and I don’t see how I can. Fortunately, most days are much shorter and on much less twisty ground.

And that sums up today. Thanks for reading.

Check out my pics.

Miles traveled: 350ish (not sure, too tired to check)
Miles Total: 350ish (not sure, too tired to check)

Ending location: Near Wheeling, WV

High temp: 60
Low temp: 48

Things I forgot: Phone charger – so my phone is turned off right now. If you’re trying to call me, you won’t get through because the phone is turned off. So don’t try. Well… you can try if you like, you know, leave a funny message on my voicemail or something. Sure, you can do that, but really, I won’t answer because I don’t want to run down my crappy battery. I’ll get a charger soon. Sorry.

Today, I spent much of my time in Cherry Alley Cafe, Lewisburg. I told folks that if they wanted to say good-bye, I’d be there.

A bunch of people did drop by. Rodger and Gary had breakfast with me and that was a bunch of fun. Jessie from Cherry Alley joined us for a bit. After that, I quickly ducked out to hit the Natural Food Store. Chris and Kate helped me out with some amazing trail mix and such. They’re great. Thanks!

I wandered back into the cafe and met up with Marjorie and Leo. Later, Freddie, Jeff and Jen showed up. I also got to see Wes and Gillian who work at the Cafe. I wanted to see DJ, but his car was sickly. Feel better, little Focus.

After the Cafe, I headed up to Sarah’s. She couldn’t make it to the cafe, so I drove to Bloom. We took in Becky’s art show and then had pizza. Nikki also called. She forgot that I would be at the Cafe. I doubt I’ll see her before taking off tomorrow morning at 9am.

Tomorrow morning at 9am, it’s supposed to be cold. Tonight could set records, they say. It’ll possibly dip into the 20’s. There may be frost in the morning. I’d like to leave at 9am, but am very ok with waiting till it warms up a bit.

The number one question today was “are you ready?” Yes. I’m physically ready. The bags are packed. There is a place for everything and everything is in its place. But I’m not mentally ready.

Thankfully, after a long ride to West Virginia, I have two days off to visit. Olivia is up and it’ll be nice to see her. Those two days will give me time to buy what I’ve no doubt forgotten in Pennsylvania and basically just get mentally prepared for Scoot 66 to start in earnest.

Of course, there’s no way to really tell – anything can happen to mess up a schedule. But for now, here are the projected dates.

Route 66
Date    Start                       End                      Miles
4/30	Lewisburg, PA	         Wheeling, WV	   350
5/1	Day off in Wheeling!                                 20
5/2	Day off in Wheeling!                                 20
5/3	Wheeling, WV	        Auburn, IN	           300
5/4	Auburn, IN	                Joliet, IL	           200
5/5	Joliet, IL	               Springfield, IL	   165
5/6	Springfield, IL	       St. Louis, MO	     90
5/7	St. Louis, MO	        Lebanon, MO	    170
5/8	Lebanon, MO	       Springfield, MO	     60
5/9	Springfield, MO	       Tulsa, OK	            200
5/10	Tulsa, OK	               Oklahoma City, OK     130
5/11	Oklahoma City, OK       Mena, AR	            235
5/12	Mena, AR	               Bonham, TX	            217
5/13	Bonham, TX	              Oklahoma City, OK	    207
5/14	Oklahoma City, OK       Elk City, OK	            100
5/15	Elk City, OK	               Amarillo, TX	            155
5/16	Amarillo, TX	               Tucumcari, NM	     125
5/17	Tucumcari, NM	       Santa Rosa, NM	     80
5/18	Santa Rosa, NM	       Santa Fe, NM	    120
5/19	Santa Fe, NM	      Albuquerque, NM	    100
5/20	Day trip to Moriarty, NM                     	    100
5/21	Albuquerque, NM	       Gallup, NM	           160
5/22	Gallop, NM	               Holbrook, AZ	           110
5/23	Holbrook, AZ	       Flagstaff, AZ	   100
5/24	Flagstaff, AZ	       Kanab, UT	           225
5/25	Kanab, UT	               Mexican Hat, UT	   277
5/26	Mexican Hat, UT	      Canyon de Chelly, AZ 172
5/27	Canyon de Chelly, AZ	Flagstaff, AZ	  233
5/28	Flagstaff, AZ	         Kingman, AZ	   165
5/29	Kingman, AZ	       Needles, CA	            75
5/30	Needles, CA	               Barstow, CA	           175
5/31	Side Trip to Tehachapi Loop, CA		    200
6/1	Barstow, CA	      Los Angeles, CA	   120

Total 5232

The Return Trip
Day    Start                       End                      Miles
6/2	Day Off in Malibu Creek State Park                0
6/3	Los Angeles, CA	      San Luis Obispo, CA   270
6/4	San Luis Obispo, CA    Berkeley, CA	            261
6/5	Day Off in Berkeley	                               0
6/6	Day Off in Berkeley		                       0
6/7	Berkeley, CA	       Donner Pass, CA	    253
6/8	Donner Pass, CA	       Austin, NV	            220
6/9	Austin, NV	               Delta, UT	            300
6/10	Delta, UT	               Salt Lake City, UT	    109
6/11	Day off in SLC / Trip to Orem                     100
6/12	Day off in SLC                                           0
6/13	Salt Lake City, UT 	Logan, UT	            172
6/14	Logan, UT	                Jackson, WY	    195
6/15	Jackson, WY	        Bozeman, MT	    211
6/16	Bozeman, MT	       Forsyth, MT	            304
6/17	Forsyth, MT	        Bowman, ND	    177
6/18	Bowman, ND	       Aberdeen, SD	    263
6/19	Aberdeen, SD	       Pipestone, MN	    237
6/20	Pipestone, MN	       West Bend, IA	    177
6/21	West Bend, IA	       Mt. Zion, WI	            244
6/22	Mt. Zion, WI	        Kenosha, WI	    175
6/23	Day off in Kenosha, WI                               0
6/24	Kenosha, WI	       Plymouth, IN	            161
6/25	Plymouth, IN	       Wheeling, WV	    343
6/26	Day off in Wheeling                                   20
6/27	Wheeling, WV	      Parkersburg, WV	     90
6/28	Parkersburg, WV	      Hungry Mother, VA	     272
6/29	Hungry Mother, VA      Lexington, VA	     234
6/30	Lexington, VA	      Gettysburg, PA	     253
7/1	Gettysburg, PA for Anniversary                    40
7/2	Gettysburg, PA for Anniversary                    40
7/3	Gettysburg, PA for Anniversary                    40
7/4	Gettysburg, PA	       Lewisburg, Pa	     100

Total 5261

GRAND TOTAL  10493

A couple of days ago, I read an article about the $100 fill up. Some folks were bitching that their 10 mile per gallon truck wasn’t as cost-effective as they hoped it would be.

Seriously?

Listen, if you drive anything that gets worse than 30 – 35mpg, you have no right to bitch about gas prices. Ever.

At this point, if you can afford a car, you can get one (even a mid-80’s compact) that gets 30 – 35mpg.

Or better yet, get a scooter. My Vespa gets 75mpg. My fill ups cost about $6. Sure, maybe I’ll someday have to deal with the horror of a $7 fill up, but I’m ready for it! What I’m *really* hoping for is the $10 fill up.

I have a two gallon tank. I usually fill up when it’s about 1.75 gallons. A $6 fill up means that gas is around $3.45ish. A $7 fill up would bring gas to an even $4, something I’m likely to see on my trip.

But a $10 fill up would be $5.75 per gallon. Hell, let’s go for an even $6.00 per gallon. It’s still over $2 cheaper than gas in England.

What would gas that’s $6 a gallon do to SUV drivers? Hell, probably not much. It would pretty much double their gas expenditures. However, I can’t imagine many would drive less. The folks in the article would pay around $150 per fill up. $150 for 200 miles (they said that’s their range). That’s $.75 per mile.

My range is 150 miles. With fill ups around $6.00, I pay a whopping $.04 a mile. Sure, I can’t pull a trailer full of horses, but I can cross the country a couple of times with a fuel budget of $400 for $10,000 miles. If the folks in the article were to do my trip, it would cost them $7,500.

Again, if you drive anything that gets less than 30 – 35mpg, you have no right to bitch about gas prices. And if you drive anything that gets 75mpg, you don’t have a whole lot to bitch about.

Even better yet, if you live in a city, there’s public transit, ride share, bikes, etc. A scooter or motorcycle is great because it can go pretty much anywhere a car goes (if you have a fast enough one) for a fraction of the cost.

So what will I do if gas prices climb to $7.00 a gallon? Nothing at all. My $.04 per mile will go up to $.07 per mile. But nobody is predicted $7.00 a gallon anytime soon. They’re predicting $4. And with such a slight increase, I’ll never even notice it.

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Incidentally, here’s a fun article from Time Magazine (from almost a year ago) explaining that 100 years ago, gas was 18 cents a gallon—or about $4 in today’s currency.

Looking at the weather, I think I might be changing the first day’s travel.

Originally, I was planning on riding north to US Route 6, then west, staying the night in Kane, PA. The next day I would head south to Rati and Dwija’s in New Vrndavana, WV.

But due to weather (it seems it’s going to be pretty chilly in the morning, possibly 35 degrees), it seems weird to go north. So now my plan is probably going to be a one-day trip straight to New Vrndavana. I’ll then get back on schedule by staying two days in West Virginia with Rati and Dwija.

If I do this, I’ll head south along Route 15 and then west on US 40/National Road. Or possibly I’ll head west on US Route 30/Lincoln Highway. Not totally sure just yet.

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Last night I did Chinese with Smartz (such scandalous activity!!!). On the way there, I rode through a very wet rain storm. Oddly, nobody else anywhere got rain. Oh, but I got it. By the time I got to the Chinese place, I was soaked and cold.

I didn’t bring my rain gear. Why? Oh who knows. But I wouldn’t have had time to put it on. So what I need to do is waterproof my coat. I wish I could waterproof my pants. Water pools in some very … uncomfortable places. But when I’m on Scoot 66, I’ll have my riding pants on over my regular pants.

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If anyone is hoping to see me before I leave, I’ll be at Cherry Alley Cafe in Lewisburg on and off. I’ll definitely be there on Tuesday, the day before I leave. I’ll get there at 8am and will probably stay till close.

Haachaa!

The start of Scoot 66 us merely one week away. 95% of me wants to leave NOW. I’m ready.

Well, not quite.

I have to get a rear tire. That should be in “’round’bout end of th’ week er so.” Not really sure what that means, but I hope it means that I’ll have a new rear tire by the time I leave.

And you know what? That’s it. At this point, I’m waiting for a new rear tire.

I am READY. I don’t think I’ve prepared as much for anything as I have for this. And it’s great. I’m freaked out and scared and will get lost a WHOLE bunch, but I’m ready for all that.

Now, the weather has to co-operate. If it does, all should be fine.

There are only 10 days left till the start of Scoot 66. And while I’m 95% ready to leave, there are still a few things I need to do.

I need to get a new rear tire. The one I have won’t make it to Albuquerque, where I’m scheduling a maintenance stop. And speaking of that, I need to schedule it with the shop.

Also needed is a new face shield for my helmet. The one I have is pretty scratched up.

I also need to cancel three or four reservations I made before extending the trip. Mostly KOAs. Maybe I can just change the dates.

And I’ve also go to make reservations at the two motels I’m definitely planning to stay: The Blue Swallow and the Wig Wam (in Holbrook, AZ). I’m pretty well not making reservations anywhere except those places (and a campground in California). All because you really have to if you want to stay there.

So basically, I’m almost ready to go.

But what I really can’t prepare for is how nervous I am about it. I’m pretty ok with being alone, but I am prone to bouts of loneliness from time to time. The fellow doing Vespadition is going through that. And he’s REALLY social. He talks to tons of people. I wonder if I won’t just become some desocialized hermit or sociopath or something. Shit, maybe I’m the next unibomber.

I’m not really worried about getting lost. I’ve been lost a bunch of times. Never really liked it, but I’m used to it. My directions aren’t perfect. The things I want to see are random and scattered. I will get lost pretty much every day. But I’ve got some good maps and guide books and a lot more patience than I used to have.

I’m not close enough to my departure date that I can see how they’re predicting the weather will be.
As of April 20, the weather on April 30 will be: Periods of cloud and sunshine. High of 55, low of 40.

I’m ready as I possible can be, sans the rear tire change and a few reservations and stuff.

Yesterday, I went to New York City with Sarah and a bunch of folks from the Bloomsburg art program thing. While most of them checked out the museums, Sarah and I hit the lower east side in search of four things.

1) 26 2nd Ave
2) 25 1st Ave
3) The Hare Krishna Tree
4) Doughnut Connection

We also checked out a few galleries and walked WAY too far.

Well, I figured that 26 2nd Ave would be closed, but I wanted to at least see it. I’ve never been there before. Actually, I’ve never really been to the lower east side before. I don’t care for NYC. At all.

So we went around the block to see Radha-Murlidhara (spelling?), but that was all closed up. There were some buttons to push to ring someone, but I felt weird saying “Hey, um… Haribol… I want to see the temple room.”

I took a few pics and headed to Tompkins Square Park to see the Hare Krishna Tree. At first, we couldn’t find it, but we called Rati and wandered around the weird park – it’s all fenced in everywhere. Finally, we found it. I was pretty excited. There’s even a plaque put up by the city (at the request of IRM – SHAME on ISKCON for not doing this first!).

We hung out in the park and then walked a bit to the Doughnut Planet. Doughnut Planet is a devotee-run doughnut shop. I got a glazed doughnut and it was amazing. The devotee working there, a Trinidadian-bodied devotee whose name started with “Hari-” was great. He was encouraging and a bit pushy – just how I like my Trinidadians! He told me to always remember Krishna and to never forget Krishna. It’s not always easy to remember to remember Krishna. And it’s even harder to not forget to never forget Him. Thanks!

We had some time to kill, so Sarah thought it would be a good idea to walk from 4th Street to where we were being picked up… on 51st Street. Only 50 blocks away from where we were! I figured she was joking, so said ok. But she wasn’t joking. We walked 50 blocks. Around 34th Street, my left knee gave out on me. Around 40th, my right ankle was starting to not work. But by this time, it was a great contest of endurance. New York City was waging a war of attrition on me and I’ll be damned if I was going to let it win!

After nearly 90 minutes of walking, we made it to 51st Street. I was, of course, unable to walk. I was hardly able to stand – the boots I wore weren’t made for this amount of walking. I was dead.

Thankfully, the bus came and I was able to rest up on the way home.

Overall, it was a great day. Beautiful day. I was sad that I didn’t make a arrangements to see the temples. Mostly, I just don’t want to be a bother.

Click here for more pics…

And if you like, Sarah’s…

Today was a very long driving day. Even longer than the first day. Today I drove 750 miles from Cookeville, TN to home.

Along the way, we did the entire 105 or so miles of Skyline Drive. Much of today’s drive was interstate and basically eventless. However, Skyline was really nice and I’m glad we did it.

Here are my 18 pics from today.

And here are Smartz’s 15.

Well today we started in Harrison, Arkansas. We had to get to Memphis by 330pm. And we did. But along the way, we discovered that Arkansas is actually a really pretty state. Especially going south on US 65 to Little Rock. East of Little Rock, it’s not so pretty, but that’s also where some major flooding has been going on.

We got to Memphis and ate at a really really good Indian place. Then we checked out some spots that Cole told me about. Nice town, I guess, but – like her – I could never really live here. The healthfood store she told me out has gone out of business. Most of the shops were closed for the day or forever.

Sadly, we missed House of Mews, which is a cat adoption place. We got tons of pics through the window though.

After Becky was finished with her stuff, we high-tailed it out of Memphis. We are now in a motel room in Cookeville, TN. Tomorrow we will be home. Late tomorrow. Really late, probably.

Here are the pics from today (only 17).

And here are Sarah’s.