Finally headed back to Texas!

After putting off my return trip for a week I finally set out for Texas on Friday the 18th. I was originally going to ride all the way to Front Royal, VA after work but didn't leave as early as planned and hit some very heavy traffic going through New Jersey. My wonderful alternative to heading the VA was to stop in Philadelphia and see Kea+Tom!  Fairly uneventful day, city/highway riding.  Ah, I finally named my bike: Härkä (Finnish for Taurus)

I did order some crash bars for my bike as I plan on going through some nice trails and gravel roads down in Tennessee and North Carolina and would prefer not to crack my engine case if/when I fall in the dirt.  When I ordered the bars I received an email from someone at Touratech confirming my shipping address- the sender's name (Kimmo) was distinctly Finnish so I decided to call him to confirm.  Upon hearing his accent,  we chatted and found out he grew up just east of where my mother is from;  due to the 'Finnish connection' he tossed in a free team t-shirt along with free shipping on the order.  Hyvää Suomi! 

All loaded up and ready to ride for TX:

A nice Jersey sunset en route to Philadelphia:

Long Due update

Long overdue for an update here. I've gotten a ton of riding in since being up here ranging from an afternoon ride with a co-worker and his friends around CT to a 'long way' back to Stamford from my family's place outside Boston through Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

I had to change my oil when I was in upstate New York for the horse races and dropped down to MAX BMW in Troy, NY - the largest dealer of BMW motorcycles in North America.  At first I was told there was a 2 week wait list to get in for services but they said to stop by in case they could squeeze me in as I was traveling.  I rode in on Saturday and I was told they could fit me in for a quick oil change.  Much to my surprise, when I brought my bike around back I ran into an old friend I went to high school with, Ben Stratton, who happens to own and run both of these shops (they have one in NH as well) with his brother. 


Since leaving TX I've ridden about 3,400 miles through 18 states.



visited 18 states (36%)



On the Taconic returning from the Travers horse race up in Saratoga Springs

Riding up/down the coast in New Hampshire with a family friend.

At the parent's house in Boston before heading up into Maine, NH and VT.

I had to stop for some fried clams at Woodman's in Essex, some of the best seafood out there, served in cardboard beer trays.

The Woodman's clam

the back roads of New Hampshire

day 4

At last, I start riding on road I'm very familiar with. After waiting for commuter traffic to die down I hopped on the road to Stamford. Again it was a much shorter day than either Friday or Saturday and was a quick jaunt through NJ up to Stamford.

My technique of following the fastest flow of traffic from a distance paid off nicely as I watched the poor guy I was trailing get pulled over going through Jersey. And back to 5mph over the limit for me.



View Larger Map

Crossing the GWB with Manhattan in the background

and I finally arrive in Stamford just in time to relax at the pool with Jimmy, Mikayla and some red wine.

day 3

Day 3 was my first day of recovery. Slept in a bit in DC, had brunch with a few of my college friends who I haven't seen in ages and then packed up to head to Philadelphia for dinner with my sister, Kea.

I stopped by Arlington on my way up to Philly to visit my grandfather's grave and met a woman there who has been going there every Sunday for the last 10 years.


 After chatting with my new friend for a while, I rolled out to Philadelphia to have a nice dinner with Kea.  Such a quick ride compared to Friday and Saturday!


View Larger Map

Kea snapped a picture as I arrived

day 2

day 2 was one hell of an adventure. I got lost trying to get into the smokey mountains and realized I didn't have enough time on this trip up to really do it sans-GPS in unfamiliar territory having to stop to look at maps constantly. With that figured out (and me slightly frustrated with the ****ers who flaked on sending me the GPS unit I bought from them) I decided to try to make it to Washington DC and see my friends from college Laura, Jason and Alissa.










somewhere in TN



again TN



entering Virginia!



see those reflections in the helmet? mountains. you don't see those in Texas...



unfortunately i was too tired to bust out the big camera for a good picture at night, but finally I get to DC

day 1

long day for day 1. three heavy rain storms, amazing lightning storm, and 680mi. The most wonderful thing is that cops down here seem to speed a LOT and don't mind if you follow them as they do so. 85-90mph through a few sections of Mississippi and Alabama really helped getting some miles done for this part of the trip.

here was my day (GPS tracker crapped out for the last leg to birmingham):








clearly not many good photo ops in torrential rain, but managed to sneak one in by the highway. I'm planning to spend today taking my time riding through the smokey mountains and hopefully have some better weather / opportunities to snap a few pictures.

all packed up and (almost) ready to go

Well it is the day of departure. Long-horns are on the bike, everything is packed and good to go, oil topped off. Only hiccup is apparently magnetic tank bags don't work on the R1200GS... happily the dealer here opens at 9 and hopefully they have one in stock for my bike.



very important addition...:



oh and harboraudio.com is truly awful. pre-ordered the gps from them at the end of may, it went through two delays, finally "shipped" on july 30th yet I still haven't seen it. No responses from them from e-mails I have sent and both of their phone numbers have been set not to receive incoming calls anymore... Reversed the charges through amex but by law they have to give them 6 weeks to figure things out so I can't really go out and buy another until this is settled. Thanks...