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2011 Summer Wander

Greetings from California to Kansas

When last we wrote we were safely tucked away in Victorville, California, poised for the final 46 mile assault into the Los Angeles East Valley and the finish of the 2011 Iron Butt Rally. We made it safely into and (later) out of the urban agglomeration known as greater Los Angeles. The Iron Butt Rally concluded on Friday morning last. It was a great rally. The basics of the rally included a ride to all 48 states to be a "finisher" with points gained by going to Alaska (3 folks), going to the four corners of the contuguous 48 states (Blaine, Madewaska, Key West, and San Yisidro) (numerous folks), and assorted bonus points to visiting the capitols of states vs just entering and obtaining a receipt somewhere/anywhere in a state. Paul worked as a scorer and Voni assumed her unofficial duties as the official IBR greeter as each rider arrived at the finish.

We departed Ontario, CA on Saturday morning. Paul at first thought that we had somehow missed the evacuation order for the LA basin as we headed northeast on I-15. Traffic was flowing briskly as many lanes wide as there were lanes, and at times eager drivers chose the truck-only slow vehicle lane on the right to pass on the right. But as he later realized, it was only the rush of gamblers headed out on Saturday of a three-day July 4th weekend. Half of the cars tried to get off at Primm, Nevada, clogging the off ramp and the right hand lane for a while. The rest of the cars sped onward to Las Vegas.

When we arrived in Las Vegas it was only 108 degrees at about 10:00 a.m. but we quickly checked in to our hotel and its air conditioned comfort. On Sunday morning as we headed north toward St. George, Utah it appeared as if everybody stayed in Vegas to go to church because the highway was deserted, or at least sparsely occupied. We headed east from St. George by way of Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and several other of the canyon National Parks and monuments including the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This area is simply impossible to describe. You need to go see it. We did discover that everybody who didn't stop in Vegas for the weekend had arrived to line up at the tunnel in Zion National Park.

It was at the tunnel that Voni's motorcycle decided to misbehave. For reasons we have only guessed at, it decided it wanted to stall every time she slowed to a crawl, as in every time the cars ahead slowed to a crawl. It would always restart but stall again soon. We spent several occasions beside the road which was thankfully fairly well equipped with pull-outs and parking areas. Once we got out of the park and traffic began to actually flow again the misbehavior stopped. It is getting new tires and fork seals at Engle Motors in Kansas City on Friday next, and maybe their diagnostic computer can shed some light on its antics. We hope so.

Departing Zion we headed north on 89 and then did the arching loop east and north on 12, camping in the National Forest just south of Torrey, Utah. Then east on 24 and south and east on 95 to Blanding, followed by a zig and zag north and east and north and east into and in Colorado. We rode both the famed 141 and 145 eventually stopping at Ridgeway State Park north of Ridgeway. We could hear but not see the fireworks being set off at Ouray, 15 miles to our south. We celebrated nature's own fireworks by watching a glorious sunset, and the rise of a silvery sliver of crescent moon.

Leaving Ridgeway we rode north to Montrose and then east on 50 until we could turn north to connect to U.S. 24 at Buena Vista. From Colorado Springs we tried to head straight east on 94 but turned north at Punkin Center when advised that US 40 was closed ahead, right where we wanted to be going. Oh well. After a stint on the dread Interstate we again connected to US 24, only dropping south to Hays for the purpose of an inexpensive place to spend the night.

We discovered that the vast expanse of eastern Colorado and western Kansas known in professional planning literature as the "empty quarter" is really rather nice when it isn't hot, isn't windy, and isn't being hammered by thunderstorms. While I-70 isn't at all exciting we found the backroads at least pleasantly boring in a calm sort of way. The temperatures were mostly in the 60s and 70s, but did reach the high 80s as we reached Hays. There was a breeze but by Kansas standards it really was quite calm with sub 20 mph winds. We rode under a cloud cover most of the day.

Tomorrow we will ride to Lawrence to spend some time at Mike's. We'll get tires and stuff at Engles on Friday and then northward on Saturday to Iowa to see Melanie and the grandboys, Noah and Brody, for a few days. From there it will be onward eastward to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania for Camp Gears and the BMW Owners of American National Rally.

Photos here:
http://s320.photobucket.com/albums/... MT/2011 Summer 7 Ontario CA to CO/?start=all

Voni and Paul



P1220307.jpg





 
Sorry I haven't updated this thread in awhile. We visited our son in KS and daughter and grandsons in IA and then went to the International BMW Rally in Bloomsburg, PA. I started a separate thread for that here:

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=54617

P1240137.jpg


Totally surprised Paul with the Prof. Dr. Gerhard Knochlein award.

http://www.bcef.eu/ICBC/guideline6.pdf

He was uncharacteristically speechless.

More time with our grandsons, and then we're off to KS for routine doctor visit and replacing leaking fork seals. Paul calls it a forksealectomy.

Yearning for the cool forest service campgrounds of the west. Soon.

Voni
sMiling
 
Thanks ; )

GREETINGS FROM WYOMING - WYOMING, MINNESOTA THAT IS

Quite a bit has transpired since we last reported our whereabouts. We left California, went to Kansas and Iowa, and then attended the BMW Motorcycle Owner's National Rally in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Do you recall that really hot spell that spread over most of the United States. That was the week we were in Pennsylvania. Lest you think that being a bit northward might have tempered the temperatures rest assured it didn't really. The rally was spent camping at a fairgrounds with very high 90s or triple digit temperatures every day. A couple of the buildings, used primarily for vendor displays were somewhat air conditioned but the crowd of 7,300 people and temperatures 20 degrees above normal began to overwhelm the air conditioning after a while.

On the Tuesday and Wednesday preceding the Thursday-Sunday rally we again attended Camp Gears, a training camp for young riders put on by the BMW MOA Foundation. We hosted Camp Gears for four years before giving up the official duties last year. But both this year and last we attended and each made presentations for the young campers. At the rally Voni hosted the "Women Who Ride" seminar with a panel of outstanding women riders who each gave a presentation regarding their special riding interests. Paul presented his two technical seminars. Both were very well attended despite the triple digit temperatures in livestock buildings at the fairgrounds.

Paul received a very special surprise at the rally closing ceremonies. We had planned to leave early so they lied to him to convince him to stick around. Voni helped with the deception, even though she didn't know why they wanted to make sure he was up on stage. He was presented the "Professor Dr. Gerhard Knochlein BMW Classic Award". This award is presented by BMW and the BMW Clubs International, generally to one person worldwide each year, for contributions to maintaining the heritage of BMW cars and motorcycles. Paul is almost never speechless but he was on this occasion.

Following the rally we returned first to Iowa to visit Melanie and our grandson's Noah and Brody, and then to Kansas to visit Mike. While there Voni's F800 visited Engle Motors in Kansas City for new fork seals which are a bit tricky to change while on the road without benefit of the necessary special tools.

We are now visiting Voni's sister Sylvia and her husband Bruce in Wyoming, Minnesota following a quick overnight visit with Voni's sister Elaine and her husband Steve and their daughter Gretchen in St. Joseph, Missouri. From here we are headed to Bismarck, North Dakota where we will visit for a day or so with a number of Voni's cousins, aunts, uncles, and assorted kin folk. More on that after it happens.

Voni's quest to reach her one-millionth mile riding BMW motorcycles remains right on track. She needs an additional 4,800 or so miles to reach that goal which she has been determined to reach before her birthday in December. Since when we leave Bismarck we are headed by the scenic route to Nakusp, British Columbia and then by another scenic route to just south of Taos, New Mexico, Paul (the navigator) predicts the millionth mile will happen either in late August or early September.

It is still warm, even here in Minnesota, so off to Canada we go, again, eventually.

More when we think of it.

 
Wow sounds like you are still having a good time even in the heat.

I'll be watching for her mile stone. :thumb
 
Can't. Wait till you read the next update, Kevin.

Wish we could send you some rain, Super8mm!

Voni
sMiling
 
It is 370 miles from Chinook, Montana to Libby, Montana, usually an easy one-day ride. It is one million miles from Lone Tree, Iowa to the Red Mountain Mining District on the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado (the way Voni went). These two thoughts are related.

It has been a while since we sent a greetings - last from Wyoming, Minnesota headed to Nakusp, British Columbia. Well, we eventually made it to Nakusp, and then onwards to Ouray, Colorado. And, at 10:50 a.m. on August 30 Voni logged her one-millionth mile riding BMW motorcycles. By prearrangement she was riding with our friend Ardys Kellerman who also reached her millionth mile on BMW motorcycles. This event made Voni and Ardys the first women ever to document a million miles on BMW motorcycles. We are celebrating.

See: http://www.bmwmoa.org/news/general_interest/voni_glaves_and_ardys_kellerman_hit_one_million

Now back to that ride from Chinook to Libby that should take a day or so. It took us 8 days but not for lack of trying. We were beset and beseiged by a series of mechanical problems in a string unmatched in any of our combined 1.73 million riding miles. First Voni stopped and told Paul that her odometer had quit. While checking the condition of the wheel speed sensors Paul found the rear wheel sensor damaged. He then figured out why when he found slop and wobble in the fit of the rear axle to the axle hub. The sloppy wheel had rubbed the wheel sensor and ruined it. In a feat of heroics Engle Motors in Kansas City obtained and got to us, the parts needed to fix the axle and bearings at exactly 24 hours from our first phone call to Engles. Paul fixed it in the motel parking lot but he did need to buy a small torch and a big (1-13/16 inch) wrench to pull this off.

Exactly two days later, camped in the Lewis and Clark National Forrest the 50 day old battery in Voni's bike shot craps (slang for quit working well). We layed over another day in the woods while Paul rode to Great Falls to get another battery. The next day, while riding on US 2 west of Kalispell, Montana Paul's front wheel encountered a piece of wood. Voni thinks it was a 4x4 from a broken pallet. Paul thinks it was a log that fell off a logging truck but has deferred to Voni because she had more time to watch him hit it. After we stopped to discover the badly bent wheel and wonder why the tire didn't go flat, and to love tube type tires, and several other thoughts we rode about 1/4 mile to the only crossroads motel, gas station, and hardware store between Kalispell and Libby. Our distress messages on the Internet took about one hour to have the offer of a loaned wheel in Sandpoint, Idaho about 150 miles away. So the next day Voni rode to Sandpoint, picked up the wheel, and returned.

The following morning we packaged Paul's wheel to send off to Woody's Wheel Works in Denver. But when Paul turned the key, his bike was totally electrically moribund, even though there were plenty of electrons in the battery. After some thinking, looking, fiddling, and testing we found a broken wire from the ignition switch. After taking apart a whole lot of the front of the bike Paul spliced the wire; Voni shipped the wheel; and, we rode off to Libby, arriving 7 days later than planned. Oh well.

Since we had lots of time in the schedule we made it to Nakusp on time and had a wonderful time. We made an evening seminar presentation about life on the road and other motorcycle topics which was very well received. We love Canadian rallies.

Then we meandered southward through Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. And thus arrived at Ouray to meet Ardys, so she and Voni could ride a "Million on the Million". We are spending about a week in Ouray riding the great locale, and will then head to a rally at the Sipapu Ski Area south of Taos, NM. Then home to the Adobe.

Voni and Paul
sMiling Large in beautiful downtown Ouray.
 
Greetings from the Adobe

After a cool and wet two days at the rally at Sipapu, New Mexico the Sun came out and Sunday was a great day for riding toward the Adobe. The Saturday night ceremonies were especially fun since Tony Black had sent a messenger with Voni's BMW MOA One-Million Mile Award to the rally. Deb Lower and all of the rest of the MOA Ambassadors at the rally presented the BMW MOA award, and Marina Ackerson presented a special award from the Land of Enchantment BMW Riders, the rally hosts.


 

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After a late start Sunday morning we stopped overnight to look for aliens at Roswell, New Mexico and arrived home Monday afternoon. The telephone company eventually dutifully took the phone off its vacation status but the Internet refused to cooperate. Yesterday they didn't get it fixed, but today, the third modem they tried actually decided to obtain an IP address and work. We might have guessed - this is the third year in a row that it took hands-on fiddling by one of their technicians to let us get email.

The greatest discovery and surprise was that all three of our water catchement tanks are plumb full to brimming over. Having watched the weather part of the time we knew we had some rain and would have some water but didn't expect full tanks. Whoopeee!! The Ocotillo are fully covered with green leaves, meaning we got a bunch of rain recently. Our Deputy Sheriff neighbor Paul said he got 2.5 inches of rain. We probably got a bit more to fill the tanks.

The Saturn started. The Exploder didn't. Bad battery! Three out of four of the left-behind BMWs started right up. Paul's K75RTP seems to have a battery that lacks electrons, even though it was on a maintenance charger. The battery was in that bike 4 years ago when he bought it so this comes as no huge surprise.

We didn't have the power failure at the house until after it got dark Monday night. Then the fusable link at the transformer started to melt and the breeze blew sparks all over. Paul stood fire watch while Voni went to the Cowhead Ranch to call the power company since our phone wasn't on yet. By the time she got back in about 15 minutes our phone worked but the power was out. We watched the Moon rise, drinking red wine, until the power company guys showed up and restored the power. It's amazing it waited until we got home because if it hadn't nobody would have known the power was off because it was just our house.

When the lack of the Internet caused us to twitch and shake a little bit Voni went down to the American Legion Post just south of us to download email and upload some photos.

Now that the phone, electricity, water system, and Internet all work at the same time we are getting caught up on all those things folks need to do when they get home from four months on the road: buying batteries, ordering tires, ordering assorted motorcycle parts, shipping the wheel Paul borrowed when his was bent back to its owner, etc. Just normal getting home from summer vacation stuff.
 

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