Lessons of a half liter single in a three liter world

[kdtrull]

Great story...depending on how you look at it.  I was following along via spot....and monitoring that giant, inland hurricane....and getting wind reports from NWS....and hoping it's not as bad as it looks...but thinking that must be a miserable few days of riding.  I started to screen-grab some of those radar images....that was one gigantic LPS.

[Chitza]

Lessons from Day 3: 545 miles

1. Don't underestimate the power of a good nights rest - The next morning I was showered and refreshed. I had gone through my gear, dried my clothes and repacked everything in garbage bags, then placed them in my luggage. Walmart was across the street. I walked over (in the rain) and bought a hydration pack. Bottled water wasn't working for me. I wasn't drinking enough. I texted Tony who said they had a rough night with high winds and lightening all night. They were waiting out a nasty storm. Hold my position. I finally received word to meet them 50 miles up the interstate at the exit for the campground.
When I walked in, Lincoln and Tony were chatting with "the old men having coffee" group. One of the guys said I sure looked refreshed and much better than the two guys who had only had a couple hours sleep. I agreed and asked if he saw any guilt in my eyes :). Nope. Not even a smidgen. Allen and Melony were still sleeping and we waited for them to respond to the text on our location. They arrived and we set out on another long wet ride. I wondered what the talk had been while they set up camp and broke down their tents the next morning. Were they taking odds on whether I would show up?
2. Don't ride too close to the trucks - Farming in Minnesota was different than Illinois. Grain trucks were replaced with livestock transport. At which point, supported by the smell, I realized the brown slurry spraying on us from the road wasn't mud 8)
3. Geometry wizards were from Minnesota - the idea of points on a straight line was born here. And everyone knows the shortest distance between two points is...... A straight line. Without studying Minnesota history, I can only suppose  that there was also a religious faction who determined curves were of the devil and would not be allowed. The Minnesota DOT obviously obliged the fanaticism. 
4. There's gold in them thar hills -WTF is it? - As we moved closer to the Canadian border, the landscape changed. Rolling hills as far as you could see, covered in a crop I didn't recognize. Pure gold. Bright yellow blooms. As the sun began to sink, it glowed. We had a few discussions on what it might be. Obviously a cash crop as every available square inch space was planted. Even the medians on the highways. Alfalfa? Wheat? Barley? Not likely. It was canola.


Photo credit: stolen 8)

And every town we passed along the way had grain elevators with railways and grain cars. This crop dominance continued well in to Canada as we approached the Canadian Rockies. 1500 miles. How is it humanly possible for the world to consume THAT MUCH canola?
5. Caution when meeting the big trucks - With grain farming comes a need for transport. Not only did we fight rain early in the day, but as we moved north, the winds became stronger. I just thought I was struggling the day before. Meeting the large grain trucks became a game to see how long I could hold my line. Did I pick the right one or was this gonna be the gust that grabbed my helmet and lifted me out of my tight fit cockpit? I noticed small birds scattering from the roadside when these trucks passed, some of them flying into the path of the truck. I thought, yes. A quick end to these straight roads and endless fields of yellow. I might have to consider that if we didn't stop soon for a rest break.
6. Crossing the border - We finally arrived. It was still very much daylight and the rain had stopped somewhere amid the canola fields. A long rest break. Looking at the map and GPS to find a campground and exchanging USD for Canadian currency. This was it. If I crossed that border I was going all the way.

What the group learned from me: NEVER bet against the gypsy

Take aways: we spent quite a bit of time at the convenient store just outside the border crossing. There was a young guy at the register. He gave me free coffee because "it's old and probably not very good anyway." He was right. As I left he wished me a good night. I looked outside and it was pure daylight. I looked at my clock and it said 8:30pm. His shift was almost over and he would go home and maybe sleep just like I do when it's dark outside. Or would he? To me, it was day. It was then I realized how the people and the crops are affected by the longs days of summer, and alternately the long nights in winter. Growing any crop is accelerated by the extended sunlight. The length of the season is actually the same. The same number of sunlit hours. Just in fewer days. And the same for the people who live there. They have to take advantage of the sun when they have it. Same number of hours we have. Just on different days. I would be up all night in summer, gettin' while the gettin' was good.... and so we rode.

[Yankee Dog]

Great story.   You spin a great yarn.  Pero yo pienso pig es puerco.

[Chitza]

Which proves just how bad my Spanish is. Peurco is pig. Cerdo is pork  ::)

[Crandon]

2. Don't ride too close to the trucks - Farming in Minnesota was different than Illinois. Grain trucks were replaced with livestock transport. At which point, supported by the smell, I realized the brown slurry spraying on us from the road wasn't mud 8)

I had to explain to coworkers what was so funny when I started laughing.  Each week I present at our Tuesday meetings and I end with a "Fact of the Week", well this will be on there today.  Thanks,

[Chitza]

Day 4: 500 miles

We stayed at a municipal campground in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada, the night before.



Canada has a good parks system with many cities offering low cost camping. The provinces also provide parks with few amenities, but they do have a well outhouse and free firewood at a very low cost.

Lessons from Day 4:
1.  Put the smallest bike up front - I'm not sure if it was a conscious decision with discussion or by accident, but the line up changed. I pulled out just behind Lincoln and found out that I had a more relaxed ride. I had been using all my energy and my bike was at max just trying to keep the pace. Catching up from behind had been draining. In second place, I could keep up with the group and didn't get separated. When the larger bikes fell behind, they were able to power up and get back in line. We kept this line up for most of the remaining miles.
2. A little known Minnesota history fact - The mathematician who wrote the theory of points on a line had a spiritual awakening and wrote the theory of roundabouts. He was exiled from Minnesota and moved to Canada where he was accepted and his theory on small curves to improve a change in direction when two straight lines intersected was put in to action. 
3. Grain elevators always have the names of the towns painted on them. It is how the train engineer knows where he is stopping.




4. Tony is a man magnet. As we passed through Wainwright, a couple guys in a cool old restored truck couldn't get enough of chatting him up at every traffic light stop.
5.  If you're going to eat at a nice place, take a shower and wear clothes under your Moto gear so you can take off your riding pants. I was mistaken for a man in the restaurant  bathroom by a little girl. I brushed my hair. It didn't help.
6. We camped in Holden, Alberta that night. Had our first fight with the mosquitos. Spray your tent and tent door as you set it up. 


This picture was taken at 10:15pm at our campsite in Holden.

Take aways: when you push your limit repeatedly, it gives in and expands.  Up to this point I was still entertaining the thought of turning around. I was so tired that I could not lift my butt off the seat. I had been able to wiggle side to side and stand while riding but standing on the pegs to mount and dismount was taking a few attempts before success. And I wasn't the only one 8). Tony earned his trip name, Mr. Myagi, for his karate kick method of mounting his bike. At one point I caught my foot in my luggage strap and Lincoln had to rescue me. But every morning, with any amount of sleep, I was ready to go again. There's no way to know your limit if you don't push to it. Like a kid slapping his toe right up to that line you drew in the sand, my body kept saying, "Go ahead. I dare you."

[Chitza]

Was able to find some pictures on my phone(only one stolen, I'll replace it with one of mine when I find my blasted card reader). Went back and posted a few.

[Nice Goat]

So proud of you and the rest of the the group.  Can't believe that you all rode there and back again so quickly!  No surprise that you were exhausted!

[TFancher]

I now realize that Karla was paying WAY more attention to the details than me. My attempt at a ride report would be like
"We rode about 10-12 hours today and stopped in Canada somewhere to camp" I don't have the wordsmithing skills she possesses.

[Chitza]

Wow. Thanks, Tony. That means a lot. And I think your take on the trip is important. I saw you taking good notes ;)

[Nice Goat]

Great story.   You spin a great yarn.  Pero yo pienso pig es puerco.

Which proves just how bad my Spanish is. Peurco is pig. Cerdo is pork  ::)

Depending on the country, you are both correct.  In Mexico, "cerdo" usually means a man acting like a pig.

https://youtu.be/OlCKJM5OYWM

[LRobinson]

I love reading about this trip.   I an envious and at the same time proud to know people that did the trip.  About six weeks ago, I did my longest trip to date and it was 5200 miles in 15 days.  You guys easily doubled that!    It is on my bicket list but unless i hit the lottery or change jobs it cannot happen until I retire :(

Keep it coming Gypsey Lady!

[Chitza]

Lessons from Day 5: 425miles

1. The route to Alaska from Alabama is a "geographical oddity." Or at least the one in Lincoln's GPS. Everywhere we wanted to go was just 50 or 200 miles away. We stopped asking.
2. Tag brackets can be fickle. Or some jealous someone had a voodoo doll 8)   Gorilla tape, zip ties and bungees will suffice for repair.



3. Beer fixes everything. Well that and a clean hotel room with laundry service. Having a low miles day allowed us to have dinner and beer.
4. The smell of clean laundry can revive a weary traveler. (If you make this trip and find yourself in Dawson Creek, BC, I recommend the Traveler's Inn. Nice people. Good hosts).
5. When you have soft luggage, you will never be able to re-pack it the same way twice. Taking it off the bike is a necessity. But close your eyes so you don't see all the dust and muck that has accumulated under it.

What the group learned about me: I'm a cheap date. One beer and I was asleep before they could walk me across the street to the hotel. Also, they were gonna get half of whatever I ordered.

Take aways: I was so oblivious to the actual plan that when we arrived at Dawson Creek and the beginning of the Alaska Hwy, that I had no idea there was a sign and a big deal photo to be had. I was so excited I could hardly breath. I wanted to stand on my seat but I'm afraid of heights. Standing on my pegs made me look like a normal height person. This was it. My no turn around point. Mile 0.





And the flow of the group was working. Pace. Distance. Rest stops. We were beginning to read each other's body language. We had a rhythm. And it was noticeable. We inadvertently picked up another rider.   Dr. Sam from Florida. He had just changed jobs and was on a two month vacation before he moved to Texas. Sam graduated from UAB and worked in Selma for awhile, so it was almost like he was a Bama Bum. We had stopped at the Travelers Inn because we saw his BMW there. Must be a decent place, right? He was mesmerized by Allen and wanted to know everything Allen had to say about the trip and our plans. I'm not sure any of us were anxious to have a tag along, but tag he did. He wanted desperately to fit in. I may have been too harsh with him, pulling him aside and making sure he understood group riding. He was on an R1150gs, (I think...I never looked very close at his bike), new to him after trading a Hyabusa on which he had only put 4000miles in a couple years. I explained staggered riding and the 3 second rule of distance behind the rider in front of him. We rode through the Canadian Rockies where we had our first real encounters with wildlife. Sam was like a child, giddy and stopping to take photos of a bear cub on the roadside and honking his horn to scatter the herd of mountain goats in the road. He was dubbed Dr. Dolittle but he was too young to know who that was. I pulled him aside again and asked him to keep group safety in mind and not to scatter the wildlife as that made them even more unpredictable. Sam didn't stay with us much longer after that. And I began to regret how harsh I had been with him. If I could do it again, I think that's one thing I would change.

[kdtrull]

Durn nifty perspective.  WTG!

[TFancher]

I had forgotten about Dr. Sam. He did try desperately to fit in. But ultimately he was a loner. I don't think you had anything to do with his departure. He just had other plans.