The bike is prepped and ready to roll. I'm pretty much packed. Hope I don't forget anything important tomorrow morning!

And I'm off! The odometer turned over 40,000 miles this afternoon on my first day, so it will be easy to remember and figure out my trip length.

I need to turn up the idle screw to increase idle speed. I'll do that tonight after the duffel bag comes off, because I have to lift the tank to get my hand at it, and to do that, the seat has to be flipped up.

I notice some popping backfire at idle. One of the air screws is too lean. I'll wait till I get to Griz's place near Harrisburg to fiddle with that.

Tomorrow, I enter the US if they'll take me, and try to get my US SIMM card functioning on my iPhone.

Thank goodness for rain!

I left my parents farm this morning in on-again, off-again rain. Had to put on my rain suit. See pic below. Gassed up in Gananoque and headed towards Ivy Lea bridge along the Thousand Is. Parkway in on-again rain. My natural speed is 100kph on a road like this but due to the rain and packed-up bike, I was comfortable at 80, the speed limit. I was feeling sorry for a car behind me that couldn't pass due to curves and traffic. When there was finally a free straight stretch, I waved the car to pass me. When it did, it was an OPP SUV! Thank goodness for rain. It saved me from a speeding ticket before even getting out of Canada!

The border guard was ticked off because I didnt have my licence plate memorized and he had to get out to look at it so he could run it on his computer, but he totally bought my story about my retirement trip, and let me in with no hassles or strip search. :)

Short stretch on 81 to 180 to 3 to 104b, and at the moment I'm in Oswego, NY. Got rained on pretty hard along the way, but its good to get that out of the way and be done with it. (Yeah right.) Driving along, I look down and see my tach reading 0. It's mechanical so I was hoping one of the ends came loose. When I do pull into a McDonald's for free wifi, both ends are where they should be, so either the tack drive under the valve cover is pooched, or the cable is broken. I'm hoping for the latter! There's a nasty kink in the cable just past the metal fitting of the drive end. thats got to be where the cable has broken. 

It gets sunny between Oswego and Rochester, so I can dry out. I got a surprise when I took off my gloves: the rain soaked them and some dye transferred onto my hands. Not blackface, black palms.

I'll stick this here: my actual odo reading at first gassing up in Port Perry, ON.

Made it to Rochester, NY. My buddy Earl, a fellow photographer, is putting me up/putting up with me, for a night. A few months ago, he received my order of black and white film from an American Internet mailorder store. This saved me shipping and import duty to Canada.

My cameras and ipad are in the tank bag. Thank goodness for the rain cover! My clothes, and some tools are in the yellow waterproof duffle bag on the back. It supports my back a bit. I can lean on it while riding and can feel that it hasn't fallen off. On top of the duffle is a tripod and a pair of sandals. (Yes Blake, I am a hippy.)

Great BBQ last night, then an evening of scotch and discussions of religion, old girlfriends, and stuff until 2:30. We had breakfast at Tom's Resturant while the fog in my head cleared.

Got in touch with Griz from APUG photo forum and he mentioned that a storm was on its way and wished me luck getting in before it hit. Back on the road, continuing to head south on 11, the weather was perfectly sunny. At marysville I took the turn west on 850 and headed towards the Appalachian's. that's when I saw the storm front looming darkly ahead and in the direction I was going. I didn't quite make it. Got soaked, but only for a few minutes.

Many thanks to Griz the Mountain man and his wife (GOOD people) for their hospitality and shelter from the storm! Griz has a great darkroom, but needs to get back and spend more time there. ;) Griz also showed me Christina, his beautiful bike.

Wednesday night

Ian was 24 and the son  of a former friend of Joel's. Joel was 3 years younger than me and is a newly retired restaurant/bar owner. We  connected/hit it off, due to our similar age, life experiences/outlook, and his very gregarious personality. Joel is a very interesting guy and shared his stories and feelings freely. As an example, he explaned that he has a thing for skulls, and has a collection of different animal skulls at home. Joel also told me about his plan for his body after he dies. In his will, he specified that he wished to have his head decapitated before cremation, and de-fleshed. His skull will be shared on a year by year basis by his 2 children. The ashes of his cremated body will be consumed by his friends at a big party. 

I kid you not. 

Joel is areal character, and I like colourful characters.

I woke up first, of all the guests, at 6:30. Played throw the stick with the dog until the others got up, and the owner, Scott, came to make us a great breakfast. I was able to tell some kindergarten teacher stories which the other guests seemed to enjoy. Heartfelt good-byes after packing up, and I was off. 

I made it to waynesboro and with the help again, of McDonald's free wifi and a map app, and was able to find the north entrance to the Blueridge Parkway. It was immediately a different and beautiful ride. Within the first few minutes, I rounded a corner and scared off a deer on the road. 

There's nothing quite like viewing a spread of landscape from a height. One can see the cloud shadow patterns over the land. Height makes the landscape smaller, and the viewer larger somehow, at least for me. So combine these expansive vistas to the almost hypnotic leans and turns of a twisty mountain road, and that was my first zen, be-in-the-moment experience of my trip. I relished it.

Eventually, the miles add up and the rider knows that the gas tank capacity is becoming taxed. I left the parkway at one of the crossings in search of more go-juice. Unfortunately, I didn't findanyuntil a long time later when I found myself in Bedford VA. This time it was a Burger King that provided me Internet access and I determined that I needed to take  road 221 south and west.Itlead me through Roanoke and it took forever to get out of. Imagine driving in the traffic across the north of Toronto, through north York and Scarbourough, twice. Frustrated with the slow progress,Ichanged my route to take #11, but even that was frustrating through the southern sprawling suburbs of ronoak. 

I had hoped not to have to do so, but I succumbed to the mileage-melting power of the super-slab, interstate 81.  It has brought me to this point, just north of Bristol, in a cheap motel withmybike chained to the railing outside my room door, where I am now hen-pecking out this post. This is not a motel that I would have stayed at with my wife or family, but it suited me for $35. 

Hallelujah, my bike was still there this morning!

Contrary to one of my life tenets, today WAS about the destination, not the journey.  I'm headed for Memphis via Knoxville and Nashville. My hat is off to this beautiful motorcycle! For hours + hours and miles + miles on end today, at highway speeds and in plus 90F temperature, she ran without fault. 

Blake, my contact in Memphis sent me mapquest directions to Memphis and his specific address. About 50 miles north of the city, I stopped for gas and at a McDonalds for wifi, and refreshed my memory of the mapquest directions and set out on the last few miles of this very long travelling day. I was on I40 and it was getting darker. My visor is tinted which is great for sunny days, but not so good at dusk. To top it off, the bike's headlight is not very bright. Riding along with some big trucks, I entered Memphis and looked for the 1A exit as per the mapquest directions. I rode through all of the eastern suburbs of Memphis on I40 and found the exit in the downtown area. Having found the correct exit, I stopped to reread directions and was happy/relieved to see that the street names I was seeing were matching up with the directions. 

I seemed to be heading towards the city center and was surprised that Blake lived in this area. Suddenly I saw the famous Beale street crowded with people. Something was wrong. I parked my bike within sight because I was worried about the photo gear in my tank bag being swiped. I walked up to some sheriffs, excused myself very politely and asked one of them if they could tell me where around here the street was of Blake's actual address. The officer acted very surprised and said that that street was no where near where we were. It began to dawn on me that the mapquest directions I got from Blake were just generic directions to Memphis from we're I began my day near Bristol, VA. and not to his actual address which he had sent me separately. Now I was lost and worried. (My phone had not yet been activated so I had no Internet access to contact Blake.)  I explained that I was coming to Memphis to meet a fellow photographer who I had only known from an internet forum. I asked if he knew where that street was. "This is the street I live on in east Memphis," he said."Your friend's name isn't Blake, is it? He's my neighbour."

Super coincidence or what! 

Memphis is a huge city, and the sheriff I approached for help in downtown Memphis, the first person I ever spoke to in Memphis, turned out to be Blake's neighbour some 10 miles away in east Memphis! We had a laugh about it and he kindly wrote out directions to get back on the interstate and which exit to take in east Memphis. I rode back this distance, on the interstate, along with other big trucks, in the dark, with my weak headlight, found a McDonald's at this exit, and used the free wifi to contact Blake. It then turns out that the McDonald's was just 2 blocks away from his house. He came to collect me.

My Memphis weekend deserves a page to itself. Navigate to it using the area on the top right of the page.