I headed back to Corpus but decided to play tourist one last time. I got a room at the Omni hotel in downtown Corpus Christi. I ended up having dinner at Water Street Oyster Bar. Ya gotta love happy hour! Half off draft beer, oysters and sushi…all of which was wonderful! The Omni is a… Read more

On the way out of College Station I came across a Costco! Bonus round! The drive to Port LaVaca was uneventful. I wanted to go there because Bill and Rachel had told me about the top 50 BBQ joints in Texas. LaVaca BBQ was in the 8th place slot. Turns out it was well deserved.… Read more

I left Waco by heading east. I went through a great big clockwise loop before ending back up in College Station. On the way I found three smaller towns, Corsicana 25k population, Nacogdoches 34k, and Lufkin 34k. All had their own bit of charm. Corsicana has a ton of charm in the downtown area. I… Read more

I am glad to put the traffic construction of San Antonio behind me! I’m headed to Waco by way of a highway that will take me west of San Marcos & Austin. Marble Falls, TX is a pretty little town in an area full of lakes but it isn’t what I’m looking for. I was… Read more

I was glad to leave Abilene in the rear view mirror. That meant the hill country of Texas was not far away. Man this part of Texas is flat! So it was nice to start in with the hills as I pulled into Fredericksburg, TX. My brother Wes and I had ridden through here many… Read more

Started off the day with going to Granbury, TX where Mark Fowler, former Metro partner of mine lives. I met him where he currently works with some young guys training horses for competitive roping. It was a fun watching someone practice their craft that they are obviously good at. Mark was kind enough to offer… Read more

I took off from Longview this morning and decided to check out Tyler, TX, only about 45 mins away. They are similar in size but that’s where the similarities end. Tyler has a city with a feel of decline…needless to say, it’s off the list. Not much to say other than being glad to get… Read more

I left Memphis fairly early since I didn’t sleep worth a darn. It was nice to leave the big city on a Sunday so I didn’t have to deal with traffic. It wasn’t long before I was in Arkansas. I hadn’t ever been in the eastern side of the state. I must say…it was flat.… Read more

I did a little more exploring of the Downtown area today. Recent years have given Memphis a bit of an unsavory flavor, but the last couple of years they have apparently done a good job of getting things under control. I can’t say I ever felt uncomfortable during my walks. Of course not being out… Read more

Decided to make my way to Memphis but I decided I could use a haircut and trim along the way. By doing a quick GTS (Google that shit) I found a barber not far off the road on the way way out of Chattanooga. I stopped in at The MAX Barbershop. I told the gentleman… Read more

We started off the morning taking my car to a nearby shop to have the a/c system recharged. It turned out that it was needing a full recharge so hope my a/c will be a bit more efficient. Nils and Elaine took me to the Top of the Rock at Missionary Ridge, famous for its… Read more

Well I thought yesterday’s drive was wonderful and it was….but today was over the top! I took backroads that took me through S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Georgia was the only state I’d been in previously, so got to check off a lot. Now that’s not to say the day went by without… Read more

Today was by far the prettiest drive of the trip. The first place I was curious about was Macon, GA. It turned out to be bigger & busier than I prefer. I should have taken the route through Athens, GA but opted for a smaller highway. It was a beautiful drive. Greenville, SC is a… Read more

This was a short drive to Savannah. I got checked into the hotel only to find out their elevator was out of service and they didn’t have any more ground floor rooms…..Damn! At least it turned out to be a decent, though somewhat threadbare and worn out, room. A couch to plop down on and… Read more

I waited too long to type this up! The only thing that stands out is going to a tanning salon and getting some color. It was a good idea.

Two weeks on the road. It seems so long ago that I left Grand Coulee…and Anita. So it wasn’t long before I left the coast behind, but not before I went through the towns of Apalachicola and Carrabelle. Apalachicole is a beautiful little town which has a very storied past and Carrabelle is just a… Read more

So this morning’s drive let me see a short area between Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach. I could live there. Good feel through the whole area not to mention I had my first breakfast at a Waffle House in Gulf Shores…probably be my last. Crossing the bridge from Fort Walton Beach take you into the… Read more

Well, I joined the group at Drago’s, an oyster bar inside the Hilton. Our little group did a fair amount of damage to their stock of oysters (I should have taken a pic of the pile of shells). It wasn’t long till we gave each other big hugs and parted ways. My first goal was… Read more

Pretty countryside on the way to N.O. The weather has turned. Most of the day was in the high 40s to low 50s. I got into N.O. without much fanfare. Damn phone signal has been crappy (so much for buying a new iPhone in Houston!), so had a bit of fun navigating downtown and had… Read more

Was wonderful to get out of the Super 8…again nothing super about it, but I did get a good nights sleep. Thank God for gummies. The goal today was to get to Port Arthur, TX. The first place I stopped for gas ($3.29 gal) was about an hour out. While I was getting gas I… Read more

Today started off with a send-off breakfast with Greg & Coleen at Chops & Eggs. OMG what a great breakfast..shade of The Hash House a Go Go in Las Vegas. This was a vegetarian version of eggs benedict…what no meat? Nope. This was a great day of driving. I was intending on going to my… Read more

More west Texas driving….which is to say boring. I’m so glad I got the XM/Sirius radio prior to leaving…it makes these stretches easier to handle. I’ve come to realize I’m sure I’m more interested in a smaller community as Brownsville is over 190k plus and Harligen is a bedroom community of 81k…so they are pretty… Read more

Lots of west Texas driving today, but not too much to speak of. This area at first glance seems to be in decline. Perhaps a closer look would reveal more than what’s on the surface. It was interesting to note that between Laredo and Brownsville there were at least 100 miles of electrical towers being… Read more

Not much to say about today…west Texas is desolate. It’s a lot different than the deserts of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. I’m not a fan…does that come through? Having said that I should mention that I saw a large body of water with the most amazing turquoise green water I’ve ever seen. It’s the… Read more

So I got to start the morning looking at the type of country I had driven through the evening prior. It was gorgeous…lots of red/orange/purples. Did I mention it was gorgeous? Got a bit of a late start but had a great drive. It started with a stretch between Morenci and Silver City, NM. For… Read more

So I got a late start to Morenci because I was able to have breakfast with my good friend Mark Baker. Mark has been there for me through thick and thin. He’s one of the good ones. After breakfast I made a run to Costco to gas up and then over to Dr Tino’s to… Read more

Another long day of driving but at least the scenery was different. The desert has its own kind of beauty and this time of year it tends to show off the best. I wish I had taken a moment to stop and take a pic of HUGE chunks of rock that have broken off the… Read more

Up after a good nights sleep (thanks to some gummies I got while in Pullman. I said my goodbyes and hit the road to Twin Falls. Not much to say about it other than it was a long trip. I’ve been having some issues with my current iPhone. I asked Anita her opinion and after… Read more

So this is the first day of the trip. It’s a short one to my Big Brother Greg & wife Jeannie’s house. I get to tell them whats up. I love the Palouse…doesn’t matter what time of year the rolling hills always have a beauty about them, no matter the season. Like I said…love this… Read more

I think I mentioned in a previous blog that when I moved back home one of the first things I did was ask Sam to involve me in as much stuff as he could handle (or as much as he thought I could handle). I had helped Sam one previous time walking fence line in… Read more

What do these two subjects have in common?  I guess that’ll be the topic of today’s blog. On Mother’s Day Mom and I enjoyed the afternoon watching a rendition of Monty Python’s “Spamalot”.  It was put on by the local community and I’ve got to say they did a great job of it (I saw… Read more

The clean-up of 40 plus years of storage begins.  A little follow-up is needed to clarify this; my Dad and Gene  were both pack-rats to varying degrees.  Dad would buy four bolts when only one was needed and the leftovers were thrown into a drawer.  This went on with damn near everything.  Any small bit… Read more

So by the end of March I’m getting ready to leave Las Vegas.  In one day I managed to pack up everything I still had, loaded it into/onto Wes’ pickup and into the Blue Roo (formerly known as the POS).  It was loaded all the way to the gills.  I didn’t realize I still had… Read more

Hello gentle readers, Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve reached out, but it’s been a long and winding road as the song says. Not many, if any, of you know the back story of my bike ride.  I took off riding Baja last spring with the intention of riding all the way to the… Read more

It’s funny, I’ve been meaning to post something over the last week or so to let folks know what’s been going on, but instead it takes a low-life POS (piece of shit) scumbag asshole stealing our bikes to get me to do it.  Ah well… Rosa and I have been riding our bikes just about… Read more

Growing up we always have people we admire.  For me one of those folks was Les Schertenleib. Les and Edna lived just down the road from us so we saw them quite a bit.  Everything from helping them out during harvest to pulling soft-water taffy, or helping to make mince-meat pie. Les was, well, a… Read more

After spending a couple of weeks with Mom and Gene in Tonasket it was time to head back to Vegas. My old POS made it back to Spokane without any issues and I dropped it off at Bill’s Import Auto Repair, a fairly small, modest shop in north Spokane.  They had been recommended as being… Read more

A few days after Aaron went back to Vegas I decided to work my way back to Mom & Gene’s in Tonasket.  I had the choice of taking either my POS or the newer one, but in good conscience I just couldn’t leave it parked in front of my brother’s for God knows how long.  So,… Read more

So Rosa flew back to Vegas on Tues and my youngest son Aaron was due to fly up late Thurs night.  Why you ask?  A fair question indeed.  Aaron is a Senior in high school and is still deciding on which university to attend.  I knew he was interested in San Diego St and was… Read more

So although Rosa and I didn’t ride from Spokane to Tonasket, we did manage to ride every day.  Our rider were only 6-16 miles but they were all good rides and gave her a lot of confidence in herself which she didn’t have prior to starting.  Rosa had told me she had been close to… Read more

It’s been a while since I’ve posted…and more than a few have commented on it, sorry for taking so long! I stayed in CDA for a couple of days.  The combination of a good inexpensive hotel combined with the local scenery prompted me to stick around. On Sunday I decided to call my brother Wes… Read more

I pulled out of Garfield about 8:30 in the morning.  The B&B was in the shade of some big trees so it was a good time to try out my jacket for the first time.  It only took about 20 minutes of riding before it came back off again. Washington is truly home for me even… Read more

Well, I certainly took my time at my big brother’s house.  I have to say that Greg, Jeannie, Tom and Taylor were very patient with me spending a week with them.  But like all family, as glad as you are when they get there they are equally glad to see you head out.  Now don’t… Read more

Before going to bed I pursued Portland’s Craigslist and found an ad asking if anyone wanted a ride from Portland to Pullman.  Viola!  How lucky can you get.  I left the guy a message and kept my fingers crossed I’d hear back. I got up early and saw that “Wes” had replied to me.  He wasn’t… Read more

I have to admit I was glad to have the sunshine in my eyes waking me up this morning.  I stretched while laying in bed and quickly recalled doing my best imitation on that old bag of cement.  What really surprised me was my knee (though banged up) was fine…it was my shoulders and right… Read more

I decided to go through my panniers once again and mailed off probably four-five pounds of weight.  This is an ever-evolving thing. So I left Camas after having breakfast at Natalia’s (no sense in getting rid of all my ballast)…I enjoyed a Russian’s take on biscuits and gravy.  The road was nice and flat and very… Read more

When I had dinner last night an old-time trucker told me I ought to consider taking a bus from Canby to Oregon City (about nine miles away).  He advised they had some major highway construction taking place and often there was no shoulder to ride on.  So  the next morning I went to the transit… Read more

So here’s a reminder to myself…penny wise/pound foolish…that was how I felt about my stay at the Salem Travelodge.  Yeah it was inexpensive but I really wonder how much another place might have been.  It’s not that the room was crappy or the neighborhood was bad, however my neighbor was a drop dead idiot.  I… Read more

The idea was to take the train to the first stop where checked-baggage could be unloaded…Klamath Falls, OR.  The train ride through the night was fairly comfortable although clad in short sleeves and shorts I was a bit chilly.  Ah well, I’m still fairly well insulated and managed to get some sleep. When the sun… Read more