Trip Summary

What an AWESOME motorcycle trip!

We spent nearly 60 days out on the road, with just 6 of them being non-riding days. We visited and photographed our motorcycles in front of 180 different places all across the USA. We rode in 42 of the lower 48 states, missing only ME, NH, VT, RI, DE and MT. We put 18,000+ miles on the bikes, with our longest day being 692 miles and averaging 368.2 miles per riding day.

We rode in temperatures as low as 37 degrees and as high as 112. We did spend 5 days in temps reaching into the 100's each day. We got rained on (defined as requiring rain gear to stay dry) just 2 times, for a total of about 2 hours for the entire trip.

We saw many critters, from turkeys and foxes to deer and bear, but none required any real evasive actions to avoid.

Both bikes had both tires changed at approx 12,000 miles into the trip, as well as oil changes at the same time too. My ST1300 required repairs in Ohio after debris damaged my radiator & fans.

All Tracks from our trip
Thick Yellow was getting to start of trip, Thick Blue, returning home from finish. 

Tracks of most of my "Major Trips" including this TS30GT

Trip Log

Fuel Log

Home at last!

Made my final days ride home today.

It was a temperate morning that required no extra gear for a change. I was rolling at 6:25 AM - before the sun even had risen yet. I really wanted to get the early start so that I could get home early in the afternoon, hopefully before the afternoon rains would hit. It would be an almost completely interstate day, save for the 100 miles or so on US-301 through the speed trap gauntlet between I-10 and I-75.

Day 48 track

I did have one more checkpoint to get. During our trip, there was a couple of days when I had lost my flag so for the checkpoints we visited, mine wouldn't count due to the missing flag. The only critical one was the Route 30 sign. We got it in Texas, but I needed a replacement and it had to be another state route 30 from a state that we didn't otherwise use for the cities spelling out "Team Strange Airheads". Fortunately, I found just what I needed with GA-30, and it was right off I-95 near Savannah. I was able to get it right at the exit and then get back on with minimal delay!

Georgia Route 30

I made great time all the way down to I-75 in Ocala, but by then the clouds were building and as I started down I-75 it started to rain. I got off at an exit and checked the radar with my cell phone. There were some heavy cells south of me and they were tracking across I-75, but they were scattered so it would be a hit or miss proposition. I decided to gear up with my full rain gear in case I hit heavy rain and then I continued. As it turned out, I never did hit any heavy rain, though I did hit some light rain and the road was wet where the storms had crossed it just before I got there. The very last issue I ran into was a slowdown just near the Brandon exit due to a spun out car in the median. I cleared that and then arrived home at 1:00 PM!

Today's Stats: 411.9 miles in 6:30 elapsed time, 6:00 saddle time

On the way home!

The rain finished over night and I left Larry & Sally at 6:30 AM this morning.

It was an all interstate ride today on I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95. I made it 692 miles down to Walterboro, SC.

Day 47 Track

Day Forty Six - Final day of our Tour!

We finished our tour today!

We would start the day leaving the hotel at 6:54 AM. The hotel "breakfast" was minimal, so we opted for just coffee and a snack, plus we had made plans the night before to meet up with Richard - a snowbird friend of ours from Florida who summer's in Agawam. We figure we'll meet him and have breakfast there.

Day 46 Track

We head up I-91 to make the 15 miles or so into Chicopee. We did have to go right through Springfield MA, but it's early enough that the traffic there wasn't bad at all. We manage to not have to go into downtown Chicopee because we were fortunate enough to find this sign on the way in:

I've Been Everywhere Man - Chicopee

From here, we head back down I-91 for a short hop to get over to Agawam where we get our needed post office photo, including name and state for the "a" in Team for the TS30GT. Richard pulls in just a few minutes late and we greet him. He tells us some interesting trivia about the local area, including the fact that the zip code for Agawam - 01001 - is the lowest number zip code in the continental US. The only lower zip is in Puerto Rico!

Agawam, MA - the "a" in Team for the TS30GT

From there we follow Richard in his car over to West Springfield to a favorite place of his - Memo's Coffee Shop - where we will spend an hour eating a very hearty breakfast and catching up. The place was right across the street from the "Big E" - the Eastern States Exposition which is a huge fair that my grandfather first took me to when I was just 8 years old! I know he would have loved to show us around a bit but we have places to go and are itching to finish out our tour today, so we finally head out.

So, we are back on the road at 9:06 AM, headed back down I-91 and ultimately I-81 for a long leg (175 miles!) across CT, NY and into PA for our next checkpoint. As we are rolling into NY, I realize that my fuel is down to 3 bars, but I am hoping it will last until we get to PA because the gas prices are so darn high in CT and NY. When my low fuel warning light comes on at 298 miles on this tank, the computer starts a countdown of miles to go to empty  - which varies based on the fuel mileage you were getting just prior to the low fuel warning light coming on. It says I have 61 miles to empty. The GPS says we have 53 miles to the exit in PA... That is not much of a margin so I am on heightened alert. I decide to run 3 miles and see if the spread changes (between the computer countdown and the GPS distance to exit). I do find a uhaul box van that is running right at the speed limit, so I tuck in behind him to get a draft. It is working, because the spread is increasing ever so slightly. At the best point it got to be a 12 mile difference. I am still nervous about running out and discuss the situation over the CB radio with Larry - who votes that we got for it - of course.
Well, when the computer gets down to 15 miles out 0 the display blanks out entirely - sort of a "you;re on your own now" signal. We're still several miles from the exit and coming into a construction zone. That really makes me nervous because, while slowing down will conserve some fuel, if it gets to stop and go, that will suck it up big time. Fortunately, it never got to stop and go, and the last mile was down hill, so I managed to roll into the gas station at the end of the ramp without running out! She did take 7.154 gallons, which is the largest fill I've ever put in her so I know I was cutting it REALLY REALLY close. Like Larry often says, if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. :-)

So we re-fuel and take a bio break and then head down the road into Milford, PA to get the "m" for Team. Don't you know when we get there, another post office with no city or state markings.This is beyond frustrating. Fortunately for us, right back up the road where we got gas, is the town of MAtamoras, PA - AHA- the M we need! So we backtrack there and go into town and voila - we are rewarded!

Matamoras, PA - the "m" in Team for the TS30GT

It's now 12:25 PM so we decide to stop in town here for lunch. After the huge breakfast I had, I wasn't all that hungry, but did manage to chow down a nice bowl of Bean & Bacon soup. We then headed back out onto I-81, westbound for our final checkpoint of the day - PNC Field in Moosic, PA - home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Baseball team

PNC Field - Home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders - Baseball Tour

So, here we are, having captured the final checkpoint of our tour - for a total of 180. It's 2:07 PM and we've got just 108 miles to get back home to Larry's house. We get back on I-81 westbound (though it actually heads southwest) and burn fuel to get home. It's a bit of a hassle getting through the Wilkes Barre area due to the major road construction in the area, as well as the resultant 55 mph speed limits. Even after that, this stretch of I-81 is in pretty poor condition. There were several sections of miles of single lane road due to surface resurfacing and/or bridge repair/replacement. Despite that we were doing OK until we came up to a state police car sitting off the road with his lights on. Turns out there was a temporary road closure up ahead - while the construction crew moved some barriers. We sat for a bit, and then slowly began creeping ahead at first as the traffic was choked down to another single lane but eventually we worked through this and were back at speed again. It amounted to about a 20 minute delay. Oh well, that's the cost of doing this riding business!

We arrived back at Larry's at 4:37 PM. Sally had a nice dinner waiting for us and we basked in the glory of having completed a very challenging 16,705 miles ride (not including home to start or finish to home for me), over 46 riding days.  

I still have another two day's ride to get back home to Tamps, but am sitting out today in PA due to the heavy rain moving through. Hopefully, it'll clear out over night and I'll have a couple of nice weather days to make it home. There's I'll likely post up some additional stats, summaries and details of the ride not yet shared.

Day Forty Five - 1st half of New England Loop

Heading for the home stretch now! This would be the last day on the road to end in a hotel. Again, our planning was deliberate so that we'd be in the most congested areas on a Sunday and that really paid off. Had this been a weekday, we never could have gotten so far in the day.

We started late today. Larry went to church in the morning so we didn't get out on the road until 10:30 AM. 

Day 45 Track

We headed south to Harrisburg where we picked up I-78 eastbound. It was just 40 miles to the exit onto 183 south which would bring us down into Reading PA where we would grab our first checkpoint for the day - the First Energy Stadium - Home of the Reading Fightin Phils 

First Energy Stadium - Home of the Reading Fightin Phils - Baseball Tour

From there we would head east on US-222 to get us over to Allentown where we two checkpoints to get. We went to get the post office first, but when we got there, we found yet another old, but large, post office with no city/state identifications showing, not even on the doors. We rode all the way around the building, but we weren't going to get what we needed here. There were no other post office listed in the GPS for Allentown, so we decided to just head over to our 2nd checkpoint in Allentown - the Coca Cola Park - Home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs baseball team - for the Baseball Tour.

Coca Cola Park - Home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs - Baseball Tour

After getting the baseball field, I decided to check google maps on my phone to see of it showed any other post offices and sure enough, it did! We punched in the address and headed there, but what we got to was a shopping center with a grocery store and on the outside of the store was a sign for a branch post office located inside. Still no city/state markings so this would not help us any.

What is so important about the post office having the city/state name visible? One of the tours we are doing is the TS30GT (Team Strange 30th Anniversary Grand Tour) The initial goal is to spell out the words "Team Strange Airheads 30" using letters from city names and a route 30 sign for the 30. We could have done this with city names from any state, but we opted for a special "Eddie James Award" option where the city names must each be from a different state - and thus we need to have proof of that via city/state names. If you click on the highlighted text it will open the page explaining all this in more detail.

At any rate, we headed out again to get back on I-78 heading east towards our next checkpoint in Clinton NJ - for the presidential tour, but while riding down the interstate, Larry's head was working overtime and he developed an alternate plan to deal with missing Allentown. Just shortly ahead, off the interstate a bit was the town of Asbury, NJ. We could get that to replace Allentown, but that would also mean that we would need to drop Morristown (the "m" in Team), because we need the letters to be each from a different state. (Yeah, my head's exploding just recounting all this!) So, we jumped off the interstate and grabbed the photo needed for Asbury, NJ as the "a" in Team.

Asbury - the "a" in Strange for the TS30GT

From Asbury, we'd head back to I-78, picking up our Clinton checkpoint for the presidential tour just before getting to the interstate. Also note that we opted for the pretty city sign instead of the post office - wish we'd done this more as some of the signs were really nice and it avoided having to go into the downtowns for the post offices which sometimes didn't even have the city names on them.

Town of Clinton - Presidential Tour

From Clinton we jumped back on I-78 eastbound over to I-287 northbound, up through Morristown (skipping the checkpoint there for previously listed reasons), and then onto I-80 to get us on into Hackensack for our 5th checkpoint of the day - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour. We got this photo at 3:45 PM.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Hackensack

Now, it's onto I-80 for just a bit, almost up to going over the George Washington Bridge, but then jumping onto the Palisades Parkway heading north along the Hudson River. Some really nice scenery along here and no commercial traffic made it a welcome relief from the interstates. We did have to jump off the Palisades just before the NY state border, in order to get onto US-9W which would take us on into Haverstraw for our 6th checkpoint of the day and another I've Been Everywhere Man Tour item. We got here at 4:58 PM.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Haverstraw

Normally, we'd be looking for a hotel for the evening by this time of day, but if we stopped anywhere short of our next checkpoint in East Hartford CT, that would mean dealing with Monday morning commuter traffic which neither of us was really looking forward to. So, we pressed on, crossing over the Hudson River at the Bear Mountain Bridge (yes, a $1.50 toll), and then a short, but nice twisty ride down US-202 and then the Bear Mountain State Parkway and then back onto US-202 which would take us all the way over to I-684.
From thre we headed north and then up onto I-84 eastbound which took us all the way up to Hartford. Normally, this stretch of road is filled with traffic, and on the southbound side it was backed up quite a way for weekend vacationers heading back into NY, but on our side is was the lightest I have ever seen it and I've been through here on more than 20 occasions. We were running 10 to 15 over the speed limit and were getting passed like we were standing still by numerous cars. We saw only on State Police car the whole way, and that was at a vehicle that slid into the median just a little south of HArtford - and even that didn't cause any backup! We rolled into East Hartford CT to get the "e" for Team in the TS30GT. What we found was this:

East Harford Post Office

I had to crop and enhance the photo in order to show the name more clearly, but we had a concern that this one might not be acceptable because although is says East Hartford Branch - it appears to indicate that we are actually in Hartford, CT and we NEED the letter "E"... So while we are sitting there pondering what to do, I spot a sign just up the street and we go over to investigate it. At first, while it clearly indicates we are in East Hartford, it appears that there is no needed state designation on it. Upon closer inspection though the medallion to the left of the town name has our gold - the city and state name together!

East Hartford - the "e" in Team for the TS30GT

Close-up of the emblem because the photo above it is washed out in the sun a bit.

East Hartford Connecticut emblem

It's now 7:21 PM and the sun is just about set. We do a quick GPS search for hotels and pick a Super8 just 1.5 miles away. As we are nearing the hotel, we notice lot's of pedestrian traffic, lot's of signs for "event parking" and a TON of local police scattered all around. We manage to get to the hotel and check in - withoug paying much attention to the details of the hotel itself as we are glad to just be in before dark. We unload the bikes, change and then walk out to a local McDonalds where we grab some supper. There we discover that the activity we saw is for a Kiss Concert.

When we get back to the hotel only then do we discover that the Wi-Fi is NOT working - at all. You can connect ok, but there's no connection to the internet. I call the front desk twice an they tell me they will reboot and try again. After 30 minutes of that frustration, I go down in person and the clerk just say's sorry - they don't know what's wrong and will have to report it to their service provider. Too bad...So never did get service there which is why I am writing this blog entry 2 days later...

Today's Stats: 359 miles in 9:05 elapsed time, 7:26 saddle time

Day Forty Four - Washington & Maryland

Today, we would do a loop out from Larry's home near Harrisburg, PA then down into Washington DC, then to Baltimore, MD, and finally back home We picked a Saturday deliberately so as to minimize traffic and we were glad we did even though we did still hit some major delays due to construction...

Day 44 Track

We got off this morning at 6:40 AM. Larry's wife Sally rode along with him today. Larry was ride leader today also. It was cool (about 61) and there was a heavy fog in the air early on. We headed directly downtown to Harrisburg to get the Metro Bank Park - Home of the Harrisburg Senators baseball team. The park actually is located on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna River!

Metro Bank Park - Home of the Harrisburg Senators - Baseball Tour

From the park, we headed west on I-81 until we got to Chambersburg where we got off onto US-30 (AKA The Lincoln Highway) which we took into Peters Township where we got the the Buchanans Birthplace State Park. This is where former President James Buchanon birthplace was. The home is no longer there, but there is a memorial structure and an entire State Park dedicated to it. That was a 74 mile leg that took us 2:10 to complete. That included a breakfast stop of 30 minutes in Chambersburg.
Here are the photos we got at the birthplace.

James Buchanon Birthplace - Presidential Tour

And here's a close up view of the board so you can actually read it.

James Buchanon Birthplace

We left the birthplace at 9:55 AM. We are headed southeast on some named (no route numbers) roads for the state border where would get our next item - a Washington County line for the Presidential Tour.

Washington County line - Presidential Tour

It was 10:15 when we got the county line and our next stoop is just 20 minutes away on the south side of Hagerstown, MD - the Municipal Stadium - Home of the Hagerstown Suns baseball team.

Municipal Stadium - Home of the Hagerstown Suns baseball team

Our next checkpoint would be down in Washington DC so it would be a 68 mile trip lasting 1:19 to get there. We headed southeast on I-70, down past Frederick, MD where we got onto I-270. We took that down to near North Bethesda where we took the I-270 Spur southbound and then got off onto the Clara Barton Parkway, which was a lovely 2 lane road that ran along side the Potomac River and would take us right into downtown DC. There we captured this photo of the Washington Monument - a Big Bonus for our Presidential Tour.

Washington Monument - Presidential Tour

While we were in town we thought we would also get the Washington Nationals Stadium. It was just a few miles away, though it would take us about 15 minutes to work our way over and into a position to get a decent photo.

Washington Nationals Stadium - Baseball Tour

Our next checkpoint was in Baltimore, MD but it was a slower go to get there than we'd planned. We got onto DC-295 to get our of DC and that turns into the BW Parkway (AKA the Gladys Spellman Parkway) but we ran into some major delays due to road construction. The first one took us 9 minutes to make .9 miles. After that it opened up for a while and then we hit a second snarl that took another 9 minutes to make 1.2 miles. We would hit 2 more slowdowns, but none as bad as the first two. We ended up getting off for a 30 minute lunch break in Arundel Mills, MD. We got back on the parkway and made it into downtown Baltimore to get the baseball park - but it turned out there was a game on so it was packed with people and cars and many streets were closed. We wound our way around the stadium looking for opportunities to get an appropriate picture. We finally resorted to lane splitting to make any headway and when we got around to the east side of the park there was a pair pf motorcycle cops guarding some kind of loading zone that just happened to be right in front of the sign we needed. We pulled in and told them what we needed and they told us go ahead!

Oriole Park at Camden Yards - Home of the Baltimore Orioles - Baseball Tour

We would leave here at 2:10 PM heading for Towson, MD. Since we had gotten off our planned route in running around the stadium for our photos, we punched in the next waypoint on the GPS and it took us across Baltimore entirely on surface streets. It would take us nearly an hour to get to the next checkpoint and when we did - we were expecting a US Post Office labelled "Towson, MD" and instead it was labeled "Baltimore, MD"! Another search on the GPS showed us another PO 1.8 miles away so we headed over to that. It was tucked in behind a maze of one way streets and some construction closures but we persevered and were rewarded by the following photo.

US Post Office Towson, MD - for the "T" in Team for the ts30gt

 As we headed out of town from this one, we would stop at a McDonalds for soft serve ice cream to take a break and cool down as it was getting hot. Soon though we were headed up I-83 north where we would cross back into PA and then get off in Shrewsbury and head northwest up to a little town named Glen Rock - which we needed for our I've Been Everywhere Man tour. That trek would be 35 miles in 45 minutes.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Glen Rock

Only one more for today - The town of Jefferson for the Presidential Tour. This was just 15 minutes up the road from Glen Rock.

town marker for Jefferson - Presidential tour

By now, my fuel computer was flashing at me saying "you only have enough fuel for 28 more miles"! We continued along Hwy 116 and finally came to  gas station in Spring Grove PA. From here it was another 54 miles to get back to the house and that would take us 1:10. We finally got in at 6:10 PM so it had been a pretty long day and we were glad to be home.

Today's Stats: 355.6 miles in 11:19 elapsed time, 8:13 saddle time

Day Forty Three - Back together again!

Day 43 and Larry finished his leg home where he will now await me to finish out the same 2 days he just did.  My bike was repaired today and I am set to head out tomorrow, If all goes well, I will spend the next 2 day getting all the same checkpoints Larry just did and arrive at his house on Friday afternoon. Then, on Saturday, we will start out to finish out the last 3 days of our tour.

Update - Friday 8/8: I finished out my 2nd solo day successfully and am now at my buddy Larry's home where we are planning on completing the final 3 days of our tour.

I set my alarm this morning so I got up early and almost got off to a real early start, but I had an anomaly with my fuel injection warning light that delayed me for about 20 minutes. It worked itself out so I was able to leave and I did manage to get on the road at 6:50 AM. It was in the mid 60's so not quite as warm as yesterday morning, but still comfortable. I must have had the gremlins on my shoulder today because after the FI light anomaly, my GPS crashed on me twice in the first 20 minutes on the road. There was something about the route I had loaded that it just did not like, so I ended up having to load each successive waypoint as it's own destination in order to keep on track.

Day 43 Track

I had to head north for a bit before turning east to get to my first checkpoint - The James Garfield Birthplace in Moreland Hills, OH. This was a bonus points location for the Presidential Tour. I caught this one at 7:20 AM.

James Garfield Birthplace - Presidential Tour

This was Larry's photo of the same place when he got there on Wednesday afternoon.

James Garfield Birthplace - Presidential Tour

And here's a close-up of the sign so you can read it.

From there, I headed south for a short bit to pick up US-422 which would take me east and south to got to my next checkpoint in Niles, OH - the William McKinley Birthplace - also a bonus for the Presidential Tour. This was a 44 mile leg that took me 1:23 to make, though that time included a 20 minute breakfast break.

William McKinley Birthplace - Presidential Tour

Next stop would be Salem, OH for the "S" in Strange on the TS30GT Tour. This was just another 21 miles down the road from the McKinley Birthplace. Here is Larry's photo of that.

TS30GT - "S" in Strange

Next stop would be another Presidential Tour item - the Jefferson County line. This was just another 32 miles along the route, located on Hwy 39 just west of East Liverpool, OH.

Jefferson County line - Presidential Tour

In just another 10 miles down the road we would come to the town of Toronto which we will use as another I've Been Everywhere Man Tour checkpoint.

I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - Toronto

I got the same post office shot as Larry, but I liked the city placed sign so much I also got that shot.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Toronto

Next up - Pittsburgh. That would entail heading further south down to Steubenville and then heading east, crossing the Ohio River into West Virginia and then crossing into PA and getting to Pittsburgh. It would take me 1:42 to make that 50 mile trip thanks, in large part, to a construction delay on I-376 getting in the final 10 miles into Pittsburgh. There were two items here. The first was the post office for the I,ve Been Everywhere Man tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Pittsburgh

And the second was PNC Field - home of the Pittsburgh Pirates - for the baseball tour.

PNC Park - Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates - Baseball Tour

The above two places were less than a mile apart, so now it was time to head out of the city to the next destination - the town of Oklahoma (for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour) - which would take me an hour to make the 35 miles, thanks to yet more construction getting out of Pittsburgh. This is Larry's photo of that location.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Oklahoma

The next checkpoint was a good ride away - it would take another 2 hours to make the 81 miles, mostly over US-422, to Altoona PA for the Altoona Mirror Stadium - home of the Altoona Curve baseball team.

Home of the Altoona Curve baseball team - Baseball Tour

The final checkpoint of today's plan was another baseball tour item - Medlar Field in State College, PA. This is the home of the State College Spikes. This was another 45 miles away, but it would take just about that many minutes to get to thanks to clear running on I-99!

Medlar Field - Home of the State College Spikes - Baseball Tour

I would finish out the day covering the last 80 miles from State College to Larry's home in Halifax but that would take 2:04 thanks again to more construction delays along US-22 in Lewisburg, PA. here, the road was closed and we were detoured off and through town. It took me 32 minutes to cover the 3.2 miles of the detour :-(

I finally arrived at Larry's house at 6:00 PM - Just in time for dinner :-) And a home cooked one at that, so all is again right with the world!

Today's Stats: 414.6 miles in 10:58 elapsed time, 8:52 saddle time