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. [↩]

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 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.

Hi folks! Sorry for the lack of updates. I’m in Seattle and having a really great time with Ryan, Jaime and Jeff (Taviri and Arcadi, RyJa’s kids, too!).

Arcadi is great. They mostly call her “Pretty Pretty.” She’s fun and giggles a lot at the goofy noises and faces I make. She’s a big gal now and sometimes they speculate that she’ll be a tough broad when she grows up. They make her say, in a really gruff voice, “When you get to hell, tell ‘em Pretty Pretty sent ya!”

These are fun people.

On the scooter-front, it’s again not so great. The cost of drilling out and retapping the bolt came to roughly $340. That’s quite a bit of money. I threw about $700 at the scooter while in Seattle. It’s a lot more than I thought it would be. Money for the Cannonball Run is becoming a concern. I’m seriously considering calling it off.

There’s always 2010, right?

I’ve been checking out Ebay and Craigslist for what the Toyota Yaris is bringing on the market these days. Turns out that if I’d sell it now, I’d actually make $2000 on it!

Anyone want a 2008 two-door Yaris? I’m serious. I get 42 mpg!

Good chance I’ll be selling the Vespa too, but that won’t be till later – maybe Spring ‘09. I’ll still have Whitey Will Pay, of course. And I’ll probably have another one (a vintage) by then.

I’ll be leaving for the east on Monday or Tuesday. I’m ready to get back on the road, but also ready to just move in with RyJa. They’re great and I’ve missed them quite a bit. We’ve known each other for around 15 years and I think they, with Jeff, are the folks I’ve been closest to the longest.

It’ll be sad to leave them, but definitely more exciting as far as the blog thing goes.

I’m getting ready for my last full day in Seattle, and honestly, I don’t want to leave. I’m having a wonderful time here.

It’s not that I’m sick of traveling, I’m really really not. But I am ready to settle down for a bit. I guess I’ll be doing that in Pennsylvania when I get back, but I don’t have my own place and that’s pretty rough and still feels vagabondish.

Tuesday morning, I’ll be pulling up the stakes and rolling out. I figure it will take me about two weeks.

My tentative schedule looks like this:

July 8 – Opportunity, WA
July 9 – West Glacier, MT
July 10 – Malta, MT
July 11 – Minot, ND
July 12 – Aberdeen, SD
July 13 – Pipestone, MN
July 14 – West Bend, IA
July 15 – Bridgeport, WI
July 16 – Kenosha, WI
Day off in Kenosha?
July 18 – Plymouth, IN
July 19 – New Vrndavana, WV
Few days off in NV
In PA around July 22 or 23

For the first part, I’ll be on US 2 and then US 12 around Aberdeen. From West Bend, I’m taking the Straight Story route.

After Kenosha, it’s US 30 or US 40 to Wheeling/New Vrndavana.

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And for the rest of the summer? Not sure. It’s looking more and more like the Cannonball Run is out. Money alloted for travel is running out thanks to the $700 I gave the scooter shop while in Seattle. I have enough to get home and a few smaller trips, but I don’t have enough for another trip across the country.

But we’ll see.