Finishing the National Parks Tour

 

 

  Finishing the National Parks Tour---Completed

   September 6-11, 2012

After getting many park stamps in my passport book during my last two adventures, it's now time to complete the project by going to Maine and getting more stamps along the way.  On the way home, I'll stop in Washington, DC to spend a few nights with my daughter Rachel.

I'll try to update this blog as I go. 

 

Wednesday night, September 12, 2012

Well, I'm home and the bike is safely in the garaage.

3,500 miles of bugs

All in all, this was a great trip, even with the slight mechanical problem I had near Cleveland.  I was able to avoid riding at night except for about an hour, and I had zero inches of rain.  As in all IronButt rides, I was able to see parts of our country that I would not ordinarily see.

My greatest lasting impression is of the 'oldness' and general decay of some parts of the major cities of the old industrial midwest and to a lesser extent in the northeast.

In Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Buffalo I rode through large areas of abandoned factories and warehouses.  In Buffalo, some of these were near the waterfront; areas where the views and ambiance should be able to afford major high rise condos.  In Boston there were large areas of similar run-down or abandoned multistory factories that will probably never be used again.

The roads in New England are poor compared to the roads in the south and west.  But in New England, there are many vibrant little towns that seem to maintain their decades old charm and character.  In the south and west, most of these small towns are slowly shrinking as people move in to the larger cities.

Oh well, thanks for following along.  My next trip will be to ????--I don't know when.

Monday afternoon, September 10, 2012

Washington Monument

WW II Memorial

I spent today riding and walking around Washington and Northern Virginia collecting stamps and just sightseeing.  I didn't have the SPOT with me--I left it in Rachel's apartment.  I started to take a bunch of pictures, but Washington is pictured out--you can see wonderful pictures of this city almost anywhere you look. Tonight we'll have a leisurely dinner.

Tomorrow I'll leave early and head home for dinner.  I won't forget to turn on my SPOT.

Sunday night, September 9, 2012

Two more bikes are hidden in Bob's garage

I didn't write an entry last night because I stayed with my fellow biker and friend, Bob Collin and his wife, Sharon.  So I'll try to catch up now.

Yesterday, I left the hotel early to get to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Mansion in Woodstock, Vermont.  The hour ride was on two lane roads, with a constant double yellow line.  This would not have been a fun ride to take at night.  Another not-fun aspect of riding these roads at night are the road signs, like this one.

The mansion was supposed to open at 10 am, but I got there early and the ranger was nice enough to open the door so I could get my stamp.

Then on to Cornish, Vermont, about 40 miles f two lane no passing road to get the stamp at the Saint-Gaudens Home.  This is the only National Park Service facility in the State.

From there it was a long ride to Bar Harbor, Maine, to visit Acadia National Park.  This was a 350 mile ride, mostly interstate,  mostly dull and boring.  This stamp from Maine was the last 'hard' stamp to get.  Now I had all four corners of the US--Alaska, California, Florida and Maine.

While in Bar Harbor, I did what the Mainers or Mainists or Mainiacs (whatever Maine residents call themselves) do and had a nice snack.

Bob Collin

As I started towards Boston, the wind on the interstate got stronger, and it certainly looked like rain.  That's when I called Bob who was nice enough to invite me for the night.

Bob and Sharon are both retired but both serve as Red Cross volunteers.  Each of them has spent as much as a month away from home at disaster sights.  Bob is a mental health counselor and Sharon has perform many administrative and executive task at these sights.  These are really selfless people.

This morning I left Bob's house and rode to Saugus, MA, to visit the Saugus Iron Works, then on to Danbury, CT, for Weir Farm.  When I arrived at Weir Farm.  The park range told me that the visitor center was closed today but that the farm itself was open for tours.  When I told him that I needed the stamp, he opened the visitor center for me to get the stamp.

Morristown Visitor Center

Then  s short ride to Morristown, NJ, to visit the Morristown Battlefield.  This is tghe first time that I successfully made it from CT to NJ without getting lost on the many NY expressways.  I needed gas along the way and paid $4.07 per gallon--it must be really good gas that they sell in NJ. 

I then rode to Philadelphia for the Liberty Bell Historic site.  I tried to take some pictures here, but my battery was discharged and the camera wouldn't work.  Oh well!

Then on to Washington, DC, for dinner with my daughter, Rachel, with whom I staying.  Tomorrow I'll be off to visit several sites in the DC area and collect the rest of my stamps.

 

 

 

Friday night, September 7, 2012

First, a few additions and corrections to yesterday’s blog.

I didn’t visit the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial is Cincinnati; it was the Taft Memorial (correction made).

Second, I didn’t tell you that for about 100 miles yesterday, my ABS (antilock brake system) warning light was on, indicating some error in that system.  I called David Lewis at Yamaha of Millington, who is very knowledeable about FJR’s, and he thought that maybe there was some dirt on the sensors.  In any event, the brakes worked fine.

Now for today.

Within five miles of leaving the hotel, the ABS warning light came on.  No big deal, right?  But yesterday I was able to get the light to turn off by shutting the bike off, thereby resetting the system, and restarting.  So I tired that. 

To my surprise, the bike wouldn’t start.  I was parked on the interstate near a ramp.  The voltmeter was reading 10.0 volts—way low.  I waved down a car getting off the interstate and SHE helped me push the bike to get it started.  I got back on the interstate, and noted that the voltage was going up m(the battery was charging, so I went for about ten miles, got off at a gas station, and with the bike still running, called Gary at the dealership in Millington, who suggested that the ABS solenoid might be stick open, causing a large drain.  So I disassembled part of the bike to get to the fuse box, and pulled the fuse for the ABS system.

When I cranked the bike again, the voltage started to increase, so maybe this was the voltage problem.

Off I went on the interstate.

But after about ten minutes, the voltage started to drop.  I was getting near Cleveland, so I continued to the James Garfield Memorial, got my stamp, and called David again.  The voltage was intermittent, going up for a while, and dropping fast.  This suggested a charging system failure, rather than some battery drain.  I asked him to find me a local dealer who could diagnose and fix the problem.

North Ridge Yamaha was 20 miles away in Geneva, Ohio.  David called Brian at that dealership, told him of my problem, and off I went to that dealership.  I noted again that the voltage was seem to get normal, and then drop fast, like the charging system was going off line.

When I got to the dealership, they were waiting for me.  At first I was skeptical—the facility had gravel driveways and looked very old—just a cinderblock building with few windows.  But looks are deceiving.

Dustin put the bike on a lift, I explained the problem, and off he went working on the bike.  He absolutely knew what he was doing.  He removed the voltage regulator, noted that one of the terminals was full of burnt plastic from the connector, cleaned everything up, put on a new connector, checked out the charging system while the bike was on the lift, and put the whole thing back together.  Brian had removed a new voltage regulator from another new bike, being willing to put that one on my bike if my regulator was bad.

All in all, these guys were great!

I was back on the road, five hours behind schedule.

A quick trip to Cleveland to the Roosevelt Memorial--it had to be quick because I would be near their closing time.  I made it with about five minutes to spare.

I rode the next 300 miles on interstate 90—the NY Thruway, with some speed, and without stopping.   It got dark, and the last forty miles or so was on a two lane road through the mountains of New York—not a comfortable ride.  I got to the hotel near Lake George, NY, and  10:00 PM.  This was about an hour short of my intended destination, but the next hour would have been more night riding through the mountains, and the next stamp location didn’t open till 10 am, so I decided to stop early.

However, as I was getting on the bike to go to my parking spot, several [people were eyeing the bike.  They are bikers from Canada.  We started about long distance riding and the Iron Butt Association, and an hour later, I started the bike to park it.

Now for some sleep.

Thursday night September 6, 2012

I planned to leave at 6 am, setting my alarm clock for 4:30.  Of course, I didn't need the alar,m, since I woke up at 3 am.  After my normal morning rituals, I left the house at 5:30, still very dark.

Mammoth Visitor Center

My first stop was Mammoth Cave National Park, about 4 hours away.  The ride was totally uneventful.  However, exiting the intersate abiut five miles from the park, I noticed that the ramp to get back onto the interstate was torn up and had large chunks of gravel.  So I started planning for another way to get back on the road after visiting the park.

This park is like many of the others I've seen, except there were countless groups of deer along the roadway.  The didn't seem to be bothered with me driving near them (thank goodness!). 

I drove to the interstate by riding the length of the park to Cave City, KY, got gas and headed north to the Abe Lincoln Birth[place in Hodgenville.

The most noticeable aspect of this site was the number of school buses in the parking lot and the many many kids on tours throughout the site.  That was very nice.

From there I went to Cincinnati to the Theodore Roosevelt Home, which is located in a horrible poor part of the city.  Driving through this part of town was very depressing.  I absolutely would not want to go here at night--in fact, the Roosevelt site was surround.ed by a large wrought iron fence.

From there I took the interstate to Dayton to get some stamps from the Wright Heritage sites surrounding the city.  While there, I spent an enjoyable hour or so with Mike Hoegler who will be riding in 2013 IBR.  The temps in Ohio hovered around 90 degrees and very sunny--it was very hot.

From Dayton I headed towards Cleveland to get to the Garfield Historic site.  I stopped for the night in Medina, about an hour away.  The site doesn't open till 10 am, so being an hour away won't hurt my schedule.