Sue's Roadtrip Highlights and Lowlights...

Thirty-five days on the road is a unique opportunity to cover miles of terrain and wide, open spaces together on a bike. Yet, life can also seem confined to a very small space: the limited area of a small bag, a bike seat, and the voice in your headset. This time together has been filled with wonderful delights and a few irritations.

Highlights

• Loving the time with my husband
• Praying together in our headsets (eyes open at all times!)
• Reconnecting with significant people in our life
• Meeting amazing new people and kind, interesting strangers
• Viewing beautiful, grand vistas
• Seeing the multitudes of crops growing across the country
• Chatting with other bikers
• Enjoying a stream, viewing a flower, watching a hawk
• Experiencing the variety of color, hue and texture in creation
• Chuckling at billboards
• Experiencing a glorious thunderstorm
• Hearing “I love being with you” in my headset
• Eating a good piece of pie

Lowlights

• Sweating in the 100+ desert heat in a black helmet, boots and jeans
• Taking blurry pictures of precious scenery
• Getting Tim to slow down so I can take a picture or see the herd of bison
• Being on the go...not enough time to linger
• Always being the last one to put my helmet on (Who do you think this really bothers?)
• Ignoring antique stores and art/sculpture galleries
• Eating a blah piece of pie
• Stopping at another roadside bathroom (Tim drinks a LOT of liquid!)
• Having the trip end

I cannot truly express how humble and grateful I am to have this opportunity. I adore being with Tim, and traveling on the back of a bike is thrilling. We are already dreaming of the next adventure…..

Sue

Little things make me happy...like "lane splitting"

We're back in California, I LOVE California, but it's the little things, like "lane splitting." It seems so logical to me. California is a bit more advanced than the "rest" of this country of ours, in some areas, that may not be all that good, if you know what I mean, but in the area of "lane splitting" I think it's very good.

I love "lane splitting." I wish other states we visited on this trip had it. I introduced it in some of those states. I can't remember everywhere this happened, Sue probably does, in fact, there's probably a mark on the back of my helmet where Sue whacked me upside the head for doing it!!!

"Lane splitting" is most appropriate on city streets, where one can anticipate the light as you move between cars, which means you never really have to stop...again this is a good thing...cause who wants to stop.

This is a particularly nice occurrence when you're in Barstow, Baker, Palm Desert or Indio and the temperature reads 110 degrees, which doesn't include the heat of the engine, the heat of the pavement, the heat inside the helmet, in this case stopping really #+%^#'s (you fill in the word). So "lane splitting" helps with the heat factor cause you keep moving...

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make somebody like me happy. I'm very glad to be back in So. Cal., we're not all the way home yet, but I'm glad to be back in a state that allows "lane splitting."

So here's to the advanced state of California!!! We have NO money in our state budget, but who cares when you have "lane splitting."

Soon to be in OC,

Tim

Barstow...

Well over 13,000 miles on the bike now...I'd love to put another 10,000 miles on before Labor Day, but reality calls...believe me, yesterday, we were watching TONS of bikes head toward Sturgis...and more than once I said to Sue, "Why don't we make a U-turn and just go on back..."

There's stuff I wanted to do on this trip but didn't have the time, like...

• Blue Ridge Parkway from North Carolina to Virgina
• The Skyline drive through Northern Virgina
• Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee/North Carolina
• Northwest Arkansas
• Glacier National Park in Montana
• Northern Idaho

Oh well, all for another day...for now we'll finish out with Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park and Barstow, yep, Barstow...I think every motorcycle trip ought to go through Barstow...it's been a long time, is the train car McDonalds still there? Gotta stop and have Fillet o'Fish with Cheese and EXTRA Large fries :-)

By the way, Barstow and Kansas (south western/lower middle) are on my same list...I won't tell you the list, but for now, just know their on my list...

See you VERY soon, have a great weekend,

Tim

P.S. I've got some exciting news as it relates to our upcoming Building Project...I can't wait to share it.