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On The Road with Lou!
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Location Date Alberta 1534892400 Montana 1534719600 Idaho 1534633200 Nevada 1534546800 Colorado 1534460400 New Mexico 1534374000 Arizona 1534287600 Kansas 1533942000 Missouri 1533769200 Nebraska 1533596400 North Dakota 1533510000 British Columbia 1471561200 Alaska 1471129200 Texas 1439506800 Louisiana 1438988400 Wyoming 1438470000 Mississippi 1409353200 Florida 1409266800 Pennsylvania 1408575600 Georgia (Usa) 1407970800 Tennessee 1407711600 Ohio 1312844400 Washington D.c. 1312498800 Maryland 1312412400 Indiana 1312326000 Iowa 1312153200 Minnesota 
1312066800 Saskatchewan 1311894000 - Willmar
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Location Date Sun, 31 July 2011 1312152900 Sun, 31 July 2011
1312152360
Minot, ND to Willmar, MN (750km). Departed at 1100, no dental pain today for a change! Skyped the Lovely Lady Eryn prior to departure for a little pick me up. Gawd I love that woman!! That Skype thing is gonna catch on.
Good riding until I hit the Interstate, I-95 eastbound. The speed limit is 75 MPH (God Bless America!) but there was no one doing less than 90! I like 130 km/h, or about 80 MPH as the Rocket3 has a sweet spot there at about 3200 RPM plus the wind noise is at a level where I can still hear my tunes, so I just tried to keep out of everyone's way. My aftermarket mirrors look kewl, but don't show much so cars kinda sneak up on me.
I usually get about 400 km out of a tank of gas, but I let the attendant in Minot fill it up and he apparently shorted me as I ran out of gas just short of Tower City, ND at 351,6 km indicated. Coasted to a stop and started walking, with my thumb stuck out. Nice man named Rick stopped and picked me up. His son rides, but is in Afghanistan shooting diaper heads so he has a soft spot for long haired dudes dressed in black leather.
He not only drove me to a gas station (about 8 miles), he waited for me to get a gas can and a coupla bucks of go go juice, and then drove me back to my bike. He declined to be photographed, as he would have been the picture of the day, and also declined to be compensated for his time! He also took the gas can back to the station as it wouldn't fit on my bike anywhere. The nice lady at the gas station didn't charge me a deposit on the gas can as I was with a local!
I'll get me own gas from now on, thank you very much! Fill that sucka right to the top!
The rest of the day was uneventful. I hooked up with Highway 9 just inside of MN and it was, again, a deserted piece of fresh blacktop. My butt hurt and I had about 100 miles left so I put the hammer down and did that last stretch in under 60 mins, averaging 160+ kmh all the way, Saw maybe 4 cars in that time span, although there were numerous small towns with local speed limits of 30 MPH. I respect the local limits, but an empty stretch of highway beckons for an aggressive right hand!
The Rocket3 is running great! That bike just begs to let her legs stretch out!
I am about 1900 km from DC so I am hoping for 2 more 750+ km days, leaving a short day for the final ride into DC Wednesday affording me 3 or 4 days in town for intellectual pursuits (Smithsonian Institute) before taking a slightly longer route home. I hope to hook up with a buddy in Nevada if we can work out our schedules.
As my Good Samaritan declined to be photographed, the picture of the day shows my contribution to maintaining the bug population. Keep in mind that my headlights have about 30 sq/cm so imagine the number of bugs that hit me!
Good riding until I hit the Interstate, I-95 eastbound. The speed limit is 75 MPH (God Bless America!) but there was no one doing less than 90! I like 130 km/h, or about 80 MPH as the Rocket3 has a sweet spot there at about 3200 RPM plus the wind noise is at a level where I can still hear my tunes, so I just tried to keep out of everyone's way. My aftermarket mirrors look kewl, but don't show much so cars kinda sneak up on me.
I usually get about 400 km out of a tank of gas, but I let the attendant in Minot fill it up and he apparently shorted me as I ran out of gas just short of Tower City, ND at 351,6 km indicated. Coasted to a stop and started walking, with my thumb stuck out. Nice man named Rick stopped and picked me up. His son rides, but is in Afghanistan shooting diaper heads so he has a soft spot for long haired dudes dressed in black leather.
He not only drove me to a gas station (about 8 miles), he waited for me to get a gas can and a coupla bucks of go go juice, and then drove me back to my bike. He declined to be photographed, as he would have been the picture of the day, and also declined to be compensated for his time! He also took the gas can back to the station as it wouldn't fit on my bike anywhere. The nice lady at the gas station didn't charge me a deposit on the gas can as I was with a local!
I'll get me own gas from now on, thank you very much! Fill that sucka right to the top!
The rest of the day was uneventful. I hooked up with Highway 9 just inside of MN and it was, again, a deserted piece of fresh blacktop. My butt hurt and I had about 100 miles left so I put the hammer down and did that last stretch in under 60 mins, averaging 160+ kmh all the way, Saw maybe 4 cars in that time span, although there were numerous small towns with local speed limits of 30 MPH. I respect the local limits, but an empty stretch of highway beckons for an aggressive right hand!
The Rocket3 is running great! That bike just begs to let her legs stretch out!
I am about 1900 km from DC so I am hoping for 2 more 750+ km days, leaving a short day for the final ride into DC Wednesday affording me 3 or 4 days in town for intellectual pursuits (Smithsonian Institute) before taking a slightly longer route home. I hope to hook up with a buddy in Nevada if we can work out our schedules.
As my Good Samaritan declined to be photographed, the picture of the day shows my contribution to maintaining the bug population. Keep in mind that my headlights have about 30 sq/cm so imagine the number of bugs that hit me!
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