rodclark.com

I’m home! After 27 days and 7300 miles I’m actually home. Of course, I’m only home for two days then we’re off to Laguna Seca, which means another 1000 miles on the bike (I’m calling it the bonus round).

And finally, I’ve got pictures. Just click here to check them out.

Over the next week, I’ll be uploading even more photos and tons of video from the trip too! So stay tuned.

Until then, here’s me Kart racing in Phoenix.

Friday July 11th – Colorado Springs to Durango CO: My big push over the first four days of the trip home has finally paid off. Friday and Saturday are both easy days. Friday I rode across the rockies. What a stunning mountain range. I was really impressed with the first half of the day, crossing over 11300 foot passes (and getting light headed and loopie along the way) but nothing could have prepared me for the spectacular views on the road from Ouray to Silverton to Durango.
Just leaving Ouray, there was road work and traffic stoppage. I was the first in line and the stoppage was long, probably 20 minutes or more. You’re thinking… that sucks. But nooooooo. It meant that there was 20 miles of open road in front of me and no cars! I didn’t have to pass a single car until well after Silverton. Wooo Hoooo! Tearing up the rockies on a BMW!
I took a bunch of photos and video, and this stretch of highway is far and away the most beautiful landscape I’ve encountered. Absolutely breathtaking (and actually breathtaking because the entire ride is over 10000 feet).
Near the summit, just above the 11000 foot mark I passed two bicyclists stomping away happily and grinning from ear to ear. I gave them honks, thumbs ups, and a good round of applause. I was well and truly impressed, and I could tell they really appreciated the recognition.

Oh, I did an easy 350 miles today.

Saturday July 12 – Durango CO to Canyon de Chelly: I can’t tell you how much fun today was (but I’ll try). Today was a really short day of riding, only 260 miles. But every minute was just wonderful. And it wasn’t just where I was riding, but HOW I was riding. With such a short day today there was no urgency. I took my time and enjoyed every attraction I passed. First stop this morning was the Durango to Silverton railroad station and museum. I got to see all 3 trains leaving this morning.
It’s such a joy to see these beautiful narrow gauge steam engines running. The sound they make, from the chuffing to the steam horns, is just fantastic. But woo wee… they are not green party friendly. These suckers belch unbelievable amounts of black smoke and burn up 6 tons of coal on every trip!
The railroad has been running since 1881, and they’re the only railroad in the US to have been running steam engines continuously since that time. I’m coming back with Gwen and the kids and riding this train, soon.
Ultimately, I decided not to ride the train myself today. It’s something that would take nearly the whole day, and to be honest, it’s just not something that I want to do alone. So I pushed on to Mesa Verde National Park to view the cliff dwellings, ride the beautiful curvy road and try not to smack into the abundant deer in the area. They’re dumb critters.
From there, I was off to Four Corners. I let the GPS lead the way. I just aimed my bike towards the convergence of state lines on the screen and before I knew it, I was there. By the way, from Cortez to Four Corners you take highway 160, a.k.a. the old highway 666. I was singing “Highway to Hell” the whole way!! BTW curse those wimpy bureaucrats for changing the name of the highway to make it more PC.
From there, I headed to Canyon de Chelly, where I am now. I checked into the hotel early, took a quick shower, then headed off to see the canyon sans riding gear and helmet. Just a t-shirt, sunglasses, ball cap, and earplugs.
Only a few days left until I’m home. Off to see Pierce tomorrow, then more Karting on Monday! I got some sweet videos and photos today, and as always, I’ll post them as soon as I’m home. I think you’re going to really enjoy them.
Thanks for checking in, and I’ll speak to you again tomorrow.

Because this blogging crap is hard work!

OK, today’s post we’re going to get caught up on the past 4 days of my trip, which are the first four days of returning home.

By the way, there’ve been some complaints that the blog page is slow to load, so I fixed that.

July 7th – Wells NY to Punxsutawney PA: It’s always a mixed bag of emotions starting a journey like this. At the beginning of the first leg I was having general anxiety about starting the journey, plus excitement, plus the reality that I was going to really miss Gwen and the boys. The journey home was a much simpler deal… I’m going to miss Gwen and the boys. The leaving was easy, the journey was easy, the saying goodbye is the hard part.

The ride to Punxy was relatively easy. 453 miles. That used to seem like a lot. Now, it’s a short day. I left the lake house early so I could make it to the National Soaring Museum by 10am when it opened. That was definitely a highlight. If you’re a soaring pilot, don’t miss it. I’ll post photos later.

From there I went to Punxy. Now, everything in Punxy is centered around Phil. The loveable little groundhog that makes his world famous weather prediction every Febaruary 2nd. Every business has a 4 foot tall Phil outside. I did the tourist thing and went to Gobblers Knob. Then I had dinner at Punxy Phil’s. Their slogan is Cakes and Steaks. Silly me… I thought they meant cakes… like the dessert. And steak… like from a cow.

Ohhh no. They meant cake like hotcake, and steak like greasy horrible hamburger that tastes like the lady’s cigarrette in the smoking section 5 feet away.

Yuk. Skunked out on the Punxy Phils. Oh and Pennsylvania… get with the program and get a no smoking indoor law going. Jeezus H.

And now for my favorite thing in the whole world to blog about… the Amish!! Talk all the shit you want, because until they invent a computer that runs on the power of a butter churn, they’ll never read it! Ha.

I nearly ran over a few of those pesky little bearded bastards in their horse drawn buggies. Don’t speed in Amish country. Their cars are only 1 horsepower. Turns out, according to the locals that the Amish around Punxy are “not the good Amish” but the ones that have been cast out and shunned.

I guess that’s my major gripe with the Amish, is their heavy usage of shame and shunning. If you want to explore the world and spread your wings… nope. You do that, you get shunned and can’t come home. It’s their defense mechanism against extinction. Because I assure you, one spin on a Ducati with a cute girl on the back and it’s “Hey… fuck this farming by candle light business!”

I do find it ironic that the shunned Amish remain Amish. If you only stay Amish so you can remain part of your community, and your community shuns you anyway, shouldn’t you just bust out?? I’d be chillin in the south of France faster that you can say Jeremiah Joseph Yoder.

Oh and one final note on PA. Summer is road work season. I passed more orange barrels in one day than all of the Chins in China. (Put that in your PC pipe and smoke it.)

July 8 – To Indy: I passed through 4 states, PA, West Va., Ohio, and Indy. Somewhere along that ride… And I honestly have absolutely no idea where… I passed the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Museum. WOO WEE!! Bike heaven. I grabbed some cool viddy and photos, so I’ll share more about that later. But dude… WICKED.

From moto heaven it was on to Kettering Ohio to check out the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza. After that, I grabbed what can losely be called food and headed for Indy to meet up with Duwayno.

Now, I’ve got some minimum requirements for my friends. They’ve got the be intellectual, funny, hip, and above all, my friends have to be able to give me shit. I dish out the shit to my friends. They’ve got to give it back.

This element of my relationship ties into a conversation I was having with Duwayno not 5 minutes after seeing him again after 6 years. I was telling Waynoman how I stopped for lunch at White Castle, and how it was absolutley the most disgusting meal I’ve ever had. My mind had been boggled for the remaineder of the day on how a food chain can grow and thrive by selling the worst hamburgers on the planet. Duwayno was quick to point out “You’re supposed to go at 2 in the morning when you’re drunk. If you go during the day when you’re sober, you’re a fucking idiot.”

I’d never been before by the way.

But more importantly Wayno was giving me major shit, which meant that nothing had changed in 6 years. So that was really cool. And Duwayno hasn’t changed a bit. Actually that’s not true. He’s a better man today than I’ve ever known, and I rate him as one of the top people I’ve ever met in my life.

It was great to see him.

So, after 500 miles on the bike, with the prospect of another HUGE day the next day, we did exactly what two people should not do… we went for sushi then got trashed on Johnnie Walker Black.

Wednesday I woke up at nearly 10am, and we proceeded to brunch until after 2pm. THEN I left for Kansas City and pulled 561 miles until 10:30 at night.

By the way, my plans for arrival went completely in the shitter. My destination was Kansas City so I planned on passing through the city and getting a hotel room on the other side so I wouldn’t get caught in morning traffic. On the MO side of Kansas City there are about 20 miles of burbs.

On the Kansas Side. Nothing. Nada. Squat. Nuttin.

There’s a goddamn toll road to Topeka. Half way to Topeka I got off the toll road at the motel 6 (smokey ass shit dump… Kansas as it seems is also behind the times with the smoking laws). I didn’t know I was headed onto a toll road, and I didn’t have cash, just change. So when I got off the road it was $1.40. I handed the toll booth attended all of the change in my pocket and asked her to give me back what was left over (gloves on you see).

Turns out I was 14c short. I had 1.26 in the pocket, .26 of which was canadian. The nice attendent (the horrible cantankerous smiteful bitch) immediately went into “I’m calling the state trooper mode” and “You’re going to have to wait here until the cops arrive.”

For 14 fucking cents.

After a few choice words (by me) she finally said “well you can use a credit card.”

I was fuming, something like “Listen bitch…don’t you think you could have mentioned the credit card option before the calling the troopers option, it’s 10:30 at fucking night and I just want to go to bed.”

What a horrible miserable piece of shit of a person. Screw her. She was the Agent Smith to Duwaymo’s Neo. Life in balance I guess.

Today’s ride was through Kansas. I can sum it up in three words “Don’t go there.”

OK, that’s a bit severe. Kansas was pretty, but the people are toothless and backwards and the wind blows hard across the praries.

I’m in Colorado Springs tonight. It’s been a real treat. I’ve met some nice friends, checked out the local high end audio salon, and had the single malt sampler with my baby back ribs.

Now I’m off to watch Cash Cab, Deadliest Catch, Man Vs Wild and Mythbusters. Then spank my monkey and go to sleep.

Because of the big mileage of the last two days (561 and 555) I’ve only got short easy days ahead. So I’m going to take my time and enjoy the rocky mountains.

Talk to you soon.

A lot has happened since the last update, way back in Duluth, and I’ve got a few things to share.

Duluth, Thursday June 26: With three days of riding left on my outbound journey weather began to become the major factor in my ride. Basically, storm cells move west to east across the midwest. I found myself in a pocket of dry weather between two huge systems. The systems were moving about 500 miles a day, which meant that I had to outrun them or be caught and soaked. I decided on this day that I would push on with my normal 400 mile day, and if possible (if I was feeling up to the challenge) push on an additional 200, and make it a BIG day.

400 miles put me into Sault St. Marie, Ontario Canada. But before I could get there I needed to pass through Wisconsin and Michigan. The riding was beautiful. This was my first time through both states, and they’re just gorgeous. But… cold. There is a thing called the “Lake Effect” and when you’re close to Lake Superior, it’s fricking freezing. I had every layer I could find on, including rain gear, and I was still freezing my ass off.

I finally pushed inland towards the middle of the upper peninsula of Michigan and it started to warm up, but it was still cool. I’ve been struggling with “the 300 mile wall” on this trip. It seems like around 300 miles into every day I start to drag. This day was in particular the worst day I’ve every had. And it was the first time in my life I’ve every felt actually drowsy on a bike.

Well, just at that moment when I was really hitting bottom, bam! I get pulled over by the State Troopers.

The officer was coming the other way and clocked me on his radar at… get this… 30 over! Now surprisingly, the experience of getting a ticket in Michigan is not all that bad. Well maybe it sucks but I had to make the best of it. The officer was really cool. He liked bikes, was about my age, and we chatted for a good while before we got down to business.

But business had to be done.

So I got a ticket. Trooper Dave was cool and wrote me for 10 over, which is fair. But the deal is, if you’re from out of state, you need to square up on your ticket right then and there. So I had to follow him to the court house, which fortunately for me was 20 miles in the direction I was heading. But I had to actually go to the court house, go to the ATM, get out 100 bucks, and fork over 95 of them bucks to the great state of Michigan.

But looking back, this was probably the break I needed to get my mind revived for the rest of the day. It was only 60 miles from where I got the ticket to Canada, so I pressed on, crossed the border, exchanged some cash and headed for lunch. After a nice lunch break I decided I still wanted to press on. So I did, all the way to Sudbury, ON.

My total trip mileage was 635 miles that day. Which is my biggest day ever on the bike. When I pulled into town there was a bike night going on at the local Tim Hortons, which is it turns out is the ubiquitous Canadian doughnut shop. The bikers there were SUPER SUPER nice and really welcoming to me.

Some nice bikes too. One guy had a Yamaha V-Max that was just stunning. The nicest one I’ve ever seen and put many Harleys to shame. Another guy, whose name I regretfully cannot remember, was just so generous. He offered to show me where the hotels were and showed me where the best parts of town were for getting something to eat. He even offered me a place to crash should I not find a hotel. All this generosity from one of the craziest looking bikers you’ve ever seen.

Isn’t that interesting… the real biker guys are nice, but the yuppy biker guys are the assholes.

The following day, Friday June 27 would be my last day riding on the outbound leg of my journey. I pushed on for 535 miles through Canada into New York. Canada was really cool. I really liked the people and the scenery. The only knock against them is that they pay twice as much as we do for road signage…. because about 50 feet behind every sign in english is another one in French. It’s not a knock actually. I’m just joking. But it really does emphasize, mile after mile, that you are indeed traveling in another country. I just thought that was the coolest.

The Conine family lake house is just off route 30 in Wells NY. Route 30 is the main road bisecting the Adirondacks and it’s a nationally recognized scenic byway. So the last day of riding was easy miles. Really easy even though I piled on 535 miles.

So I arrived safely, a day ahead of schedule, relatively dry. The week at the lake house was wonderful, and I’ll tell you more about it later.

Today I’m in Indianapolis on my way home. I’ll fill you in on the details later.

Also, I wanted to mention that I’ve been taking tons of photos and I’ll get them posted towards the end of the trip so everyone can see them.

Cheers, ciao, talk to you soon, and thanks for following along!

Rod

Hi Everyone! Just in case you were wondering, I made it to NY. The Catch 22 is that there is no internet up here! So I’m taking a few minutes on a friend’s computer to let you know everything is going great.

I’m back on the road tomorrow and I’ll give you a full report then!

Talk to you soon,

Rod

Breaking news: There’s nothing in North Dakota. I hate to break it to you, but as far as I can tell, there’s really nothing going on in that state. Once I left Bismarck I went 100 miles east before I hit a single gas station.

And the 100 miles in between… Nothing. Just prairie.

But there is good news. I had a kick ass tail wind of about 30 mph all day. It made the riding today so easy and enjoyable. The miles just melted away. North Dakota sucks, but about 5 minutes after you cross the border into Minnesota the landscape changes from prairie to lush wooded hills and lakes. Lots of lakes. 10000 is what they claim.

While life in North Dakota seems to be focused on, well… nothing (maybe country music and drinking beer) life in Minnesota revolves around water sports. There are beaches and swim docks everywhere and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. The little towns are a lot cooler too. I went through a town called Walker that had a great feel to it.

I really like Minnesota.

This evening I’m staying in Duluth, right along the River Walk in downtown. It’s vibrant and hip with tons of great restaurants. Speaking of restaurants, the food on the road is awful. Big chains occupy every rest stop and the food is killing me. Literally. I tried a place today called Taco John’s. Trust me, this is a place you can avoid. I ordered a burrito. It was basically hamburger, or maybe dog food in a tortilla. And do you know what it was served with? Tater tots.

Who eats tater tots with Mexican food? Yuk. It was disgusting. I find myself eating less and less on the road. I skipped breakfast today and had only a few bites of Taco John’s dog food burrito and tots for lunch. I was really stoked to see that Duluth had a bunch of great restaurants. I had Famous Dave’s BBQ! Ummm sampler platter. I grubbed.

There’s a draw bridge down along the river walk and I had the pleasure of seeing a “Great Lakes Vessel” pass between the lighthouses through the canal. A Great Lakes Vessel is the term they use for any of the cargo ships that are built to the largest allowable size in the great lakes. So it’s 735 feet long and 75 feet wide. It basically looks like the Exxon Valdez… except err not sunk. But the ship is fricking gigantic and it pass about 100 feet away from you standing on the sidewalk. The boats is probably 80 or a 100 feet tall. On each end of the ship there are crew quarters that are about the same size as a four story apartment building. Pretty cool.

There’s an area at the beginning of the river walk where all the altie kids hang out. I hung out there for about 20 minutes watching a few kids skateboard. They were trying flat ground tricks, just simple ollie kick flips and stuff. For the duration of my watching, not a single trick was pulled.

Note to self… kids in Duluth SUCK at skateboarding.

The cops eventually came and broke things up. Dicks. They’re just kids.

OK, tomorrow I’m off to Sault St. Marie Canada!!

By the numbers:
States today: 2 ND & MN
Miles today: 447.5
Miles total: 2550.7

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Today started off great! The sun was out, it was warm. I went to Mt. Rushmore first thing this morning. The Black Hills are so beautiful. I was really enjoying myself when I caught up to a quartet of Harley bikers. They’re going slow. No big deal. I’ll pass them. As I began to pass their group the rear rider sped up to try and cut me off. “What ever” I’m going to get past this asshole. So I passed the entire group and went on my merry way. A while later at an intersection I was checking the GPS to see which way to go when two of the riders in the group pulled over next to me and were irate that I had passed them.

Now these weren’t like gnarley bikers, they were yuppy bikers. But they were going apeshit. I told them where they could stick it and went on my way. But the younger of the two assholes wouldn’t let up. He actually tried to run me off the road! The guy swerved into me, ramming me bike to bike and kicking my panniers. Then he got ahead of me, pulled to a complete stop and tried to ram me when I passed.

Unbeliveable.

The guy was young, and dumb, and skinny, and not wearing any motorcycle jacket or helmet. I’m 215 lbs, plus I was wearing a full face helmet, armored jacket, and gloves with titanium knuckles. I would have totally kicked the crap out of the guy.

But that’s just the thing. I don’t want to get in some altercation. I just want to ride cross country and enjoy myself. I finally managed to slip passed both asshole #1 and asshole #2 and just bolted out of there.

What a nice way to start a day… get attacked by two yuppy harley assholes. Grrrrr.

Needless to say, I decided to put some distance between myself and them so I was carving up the black hills pretty nicely, and actually having a great time.

I pulled into the gas station in Sturgis and a dump truck driver who I had passed earlier got out of his truck and was yelling at me about passing him. I’m not joking, this guy was like 300 lbs and had ONE TOOTH (bottom left K9).

Dude… passing a dump truck? That’s cause for alarm? He was going 35…maybe.

I filled up, and got the fuck out of Sturgis.

So here’s the lesson… if you ride a BMW, stay the hell away from the shit ass town. I skipped the Motorcycle museum and just bolted north for North Dakota.

I headed mostly North today, but a fair bit east too. Heading North there was a tail wind, so that’s the way I spent most of my day.

In Faith SD I met a couple from Sturgis. They were really cool. The husband had both Harleys and BMWs. He said that the Sturgis locals are cool, but the out of town kooks come and go crazy living out some agro biker dream. We had lunch, they were cool folks.

Faith SD is also the T-Rex capital of the world. Just thought you should know that.

I picked up the Lewis and Clark trail this afternoon. As the afternoon progressed thunder storms developed again. Huge scary ones. I used the tail wind to my advantage in the wide open plains and just did 100 to 110 MPH for the last hour trying to beat the rain.

I managed to beat the rain by about 10 minutes into Bismark ND. Now it’s storming like crazy. I’m going to hole up in my room this evening and get some rest.

It was nice to be on the road again today, but I am missing Gwen and the boys badly. But really, today mostly sucked. I awoke with a stomach ache, then dealt with yuppy biker assholes, then thunder storms again.

I’ll try and keep everyone posted again tomorrow. I’ve got some sweet pics I need to upload too. Maybe I’ll try and get them up.

Ciao,

rC

By The Numbers
States today: 2 SD & ND
Miles Today: 400.9
Miles Total: 2103.2

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