Rambling thru life

My friend Mark put together an Beer Brewing outing for a bunch of us. We went down to Vine Park Brewery and made 4 batches of some great beer. You can see pictures from the evening in my photo Album - There is a link to the photo album in the sidebar of the blog or you can click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trhomer Vine Park provides all the ingrediants. You provide the fun and time. It takes two evenings to do this, two weeks apart. Night one we all showed up at 7:00PM. You mix a bunch of ingrediants and then take a half hour to fortyfive minute break. This was enough time for us to head down to the local pub for a beer or two. When you return, you have a few more ingrediant to mix and then they transfer the mixture to a holding container in which it magically turns into beer. Two weeks later you return and bottle your beer. Of course, while you bottle you have mishaps that have to be drank. We brought food to share with each other and turned it into a party. Sharing your food w

My father recently sent me an email with a link to a slideshow with music set to it. www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm The purpose was to illustrate that patriotism is not dead in the public schools of the United States. The slideshow was various patriot slides and included slide depicting Christs presence in the Nation. The music was the battle hymm of the Republic played by 4 high school bands and a song by a Childrens choir. It is a moving composure that did send a wave of patriotism shivers up my spine. I had to respond to Dad, telling him that I already know that all is not lost. I told him about some of the experiences that my wife and I have had at the North Branch High School band recitals. Although the bands typically play topical music associated with High School level, we have also heard them play patriotic songs AND Christ based Christmas Carols. Yes, its true. Not all the school districts have gone the lost way of the inner cities. Small towns in MN

Last day of the trip. We left Valentine Nebraska at 8:00AM and I arrived home in Lino Lakes at approximately 5:30PM. We took HW 12 out of Valentine to HW 11. North on HW 11 to South Dakato HW 18. HW 18 to Interstate 29. I-29 north to I-90. I-90 east to I-35. I-35 to home. On this last day we traveled about 560 miles. In total; I traveled 3865.7 miles in 8 days from my door to my door. The weather was fantastic the entire trip; it only rained for a couple of minutes on day 6. Thanks to God for his protection. Thanks to all those who were watching our travel. Thanks to Steve for planning such a great route and being such a great wing man. For those just coming to the blog to read about the trip, may I suggest you go to Rockie Mountain Trip - Preperation D -4 and start reading from the beginning. I will try to pull together final thoughts and such and publish them in a couple of day. Come on back It was a fun trip; a dream ride finally come true.

We left Loveland and flew up Interstate 24 to HW 14. Then we headed east on 14 to Sterling CO. At Sterling we turned north on HW 138 and then HW 113/19 to Sydney . At Sydney we jumped on HW 385 to Alliance. We turned right on HW 2. Somewhere just pass Hyannis NE we got lost. We made our way to HW 61, then turned north on HW 61 and turned right on HW 20 making our way to Valentine NE. A total of 460 miles. Just outside of Alliance was an interesting site called Carhenge . Modeled after the Stonehenge monument in England, but made out of old cars. This has been a bonus check point for various motorcycle rally's including the MN 1000; which I have run several times. Steve has been here before, but this was my first visit. An interesting artistic impression. The city of Alliance is a central hub for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. We must have seen 20 trains running into and out of Alliance on HW 385 and HW 2. Most of them were coal trains, loaded and empty.

Today we left Glenwood Springs and blasted up the freeway to Wolcot. There we jumped on HW 131 and went north to Steamboat Springs. From Steamboat we took HW 40 to Granby. Then we jumped on HW 34 and went into the Rockie Mountain National Park. At Estes Park we took HW 7 to HW 36, then HW 36 back west to HW 34. Finally we finished out the day taking HW 34 into Loveland. Throughout todays ride, we noticed that the pine trees in northern Colorado are dying off. We don't know whats happening to them. My guess is because of lack of water. We saw this east of Steamboat as well as in the Rockie Mountain National Park. You can see the dead timber in the pictures. All that dead lumber, must be a fire hazard for the region. Lets hope a fire doesn't happen. When leaving Steamboat Springs today, I had a flash back to a ski trip that Steve, My other brother Doug and I took years ago. We were in Dougs paneled station wagon traveling down the same roads after a long day skiing. There were a

Tonight you find Steve and I in Glenwood Springs CO. We left Durango around 8AM and headed straight down HW 160 to Four Corners. From there we back tracked on HW 160 to Cortez and then headed North on West Dolores Road ( HW 145). At Placerville we took a right onto HW 62 to Ridgeway . At Ridgeway we headed North on HW 550, to Delta. At Delta we took a right onto HW 92 towards Hotchkiss . At Hotchkiss we headed North on HW 133 right up to Glenwood Springs. 390 miles today. Thats it... You can leave now! No wait theres more! Four Corners was interesting. We left the motel this morning and headed right to the site. We contemplated cutting it from the route because of time considerations. Because this is a site I have always wanted to see, we went there. I figure getting there and visiting the site would cost us up to 2 hours. After discussing it with Steve, we adjusted our route in other area's and decided not to spend a lot of time sight seeing on the rest of the rou

We started the day with clean motorcycles! We washed them last night. They looked pretty good at this point of the day. My bike is the silver one in the forground. Steves is green in the background. Today was a majestic ride. At every corner we thought the view could not get any better. Then we'd go around the next corner and we'd have another majestic sight. God's gift to us!. We left Cedaredge Co this morning and road towards the city of Delta, then we turned east and south to Gunnison. The road followed the Black Canyon. This canyon is very deep and with steep walls. But all around it are beautiful mountain passes. It was in this region that Steve came face to face with a 12 point buck (deer) standing in the midde of the road. We passed 4 deer total in this section. At the end of this section is another Hydro Dam and a lake (Blue Mesa). We stopped for a few minutes and talked to a older couple from Europe. They were interested in knowing about the route we took and appre

Welcome back - glad you could come back to follow our Journey! Sorry, there are no pictures today. The best part of todays journey was the beginning and the end. At the beginning we just got onto the road and really didn't want to stop. At the end, we where like horses heading for the barn and didn't want to stop. Leaving Thermopolis WY this morning at 8AM we headed up the Wind River Canyon. This is an awesome drive alongside a fast river, with the road winding its way between two vertical canyon walls. At the end of the canyon, there was a small hydro-electric dam with a great big lake behind it. With the dam producing electricity, it almost gaurentees water down the river unless the lake goes dry. I can't imagine what would happen if the dam burst and the water came flooding down the canyon towards Thermopolis. Steve said it would make a good movie! The second quarter of the drive was almost 150 mile of straight roads and nothing else. There really isn't anything in m

Todd in the Bighorn mountains What a great riding day. We left Sheridan WY this morning after a good breakfast and with full gas tanks. Then we headed up Hwy 14 into the Bighorn mountains. The ride up into the Bighorns was fun and exciting, twisting and turning all the while going up. This was the beginning of the fun of the trip after yesterdays dash West. The weather was good, but the higher we went the colder it got. I turned on the heated grips for awhile. It got a little exciting when Steve spooked a couple of deer that ran out in front of me. I dodge the one that went to the front but did hear a clunk as something collided in the back. I think it may have been a hoof of the deer hitting the bike or a rock kicked up by the deer. Farther down the road I thought I saw some big dark brown thing moving in the woods. Although I can't be sure, it may have been a bear (since bigfoot has been found dead in a frezzer box it must have been a bear ). Because this territory is open for c

Today is the first day on the road! What a ride! From my house to tonights hotel in Sheridan Wyoming: 879 miles. I left my house this morning at 6:45 CST. Already 15 minutes behind schedule, I arrived at Steves house and than it took us a 1/2 hour to clear Steve's house and get on the road. Part of the delay is because we found that we had problems with our communicators. For some reason my microphone isn't working. I can hear Steve just fine, but he can't here me through the microphone in the helmet. Without the headset, the radio works find. We'll work on it tonight to try to fix it. For today we worked out a series of clicks for yes, no, stop. It worked but Steves conversation was one sided. I wanted to talk back to him. Most of the ride today was on the superslab interstate. It was very boring. We did see some guy dangling below a helicopter working on a very tall high voltage line. That was allsome. There were many long miles traveled. The weather was pretty decent

Wow, its the night before departure. The day at work went by so fast, and it was in fact productive. The to-do list will be completed as soon as I get this Blog entry done. I crossed off the list mowing the grass, cleaning the bike and a whole lot of little things. As I talked to my friend Allan at work today, I realized that what I am going through is very typical for anyone going on vacation. There are things to finish at work. There are animals to care for. The are family members that need attention. All the little details must be completed, or the trip begins with concern about what didn't get completed and left behid. The saddle bags are packed. I think I am leaving so much behind because I have 1/2 of a bag left empty. I have less 'stuff' for this 8 day journey then I had on the 5 day journey to OK. What did I learn? What did I forget? From what my brother Steve told me, he's packed and ready. The saga of the BMW continues because now he has a sticky clutch cable.

Its Thursday night - less than two days until we depart. Last night, Steve stopped by and we had a great chat about the upcoming ride. I walked him out to his bike as he left. His bike seemed to be running rough. Steve laughed it off saying something like its just the twin of a BMW. This morning Steve emailed me: "Vibrations in the bars caused my hands to go to sleep. Could be caused by throttle body sync. Still can ride though." What more do we have to go through. Later today I got another email: "I went to Leo's, They checked the TBS and found a crack in the vacuum line. The bike ran very much smother on my return from Leo's, Going change a tire and then change oil and then wash bike. Set up radio gear." Great news.... My wife had a root canel and was feeling poorly. She then developed flu like symptoms. The poor lady has been down now with this for a couple of days. I told her that I was heisitant on leaving her sick. She does look better tonigh

From my friend Joe - from Tennesee- True story; Good laugh; With his approval I share this! -------------------------------------------------------- I'm working in Minnesota this week... been here for the last year about as much as I've been at home. This week and last week, I've been able to sweet talk my way into a pretty cool rental car. It's a Dodge Charger R/T (it's got the hemi) with a "Plum Crazy" package. As far as rental cars go, this is a pretty sweet car. Somehow, while I'm driving this thing 'round town... the good angel on my shoulder seems to blow out the window. -shrug- The car, even stock, sounds pretty good. It just 'wants' you to open the thing up. Who am I to argue? I'm out and about this evening... headed back to the hotel. It's a two lane road. I'm in the left lane. In front of me is Miss Slowbutt. To the right of me and to the front of her, not a thing. Behind me; well, I'll get to that in a minute. The

Wow - The long awaited Rockie Mountain motorcycle trip is getting off with a rocky start. This trip has been in the planning stage for almost two years. Originally slated to be ridden in 07, it was put on hold because I was pressed at work with a software release. I put the end of the summer ride aside last year. This year, my loving wife, has supported me with my plans to have two motorcycle rides in one year. The first trip down Route 66 can be read below. The second trip to the Rockies was to be led by my brother. We make such a great team. Steve's bike started acting up with clutch problems weeks ago. It looks like I might have to make this trip alone. Steve was suppose to lead this ride and had routes picked. Traveling alone isn't what I wanted, and sitting home isn't what Steve wanted. We had been planning this one for two years! I am going to go even if Steve isn't able. He would do the same for me. And Steve is very bummed about the hassle and possible loss of a

I'm a little late posting this, but I thought I'd update this blog on my route 66 ride. My brother Steve, again, was my wing man for this trip. We are a good riding team, with equal endurance, tastes, and similar ride. We left Tuesday May 27th, traveling along the roads of the mighty Mississippi well down into the state of Iowa. Then we turned left and travelled into Illinois, north of Springfield. The next day we caught up with 66, following it through St Louis into the state of Missouri. The picture above is from the Ted Drews frozen custurd stand. A yummy stop to cool off. In Mo, 66 basically follows interstate 44. Day three we blasted down 44 from St James Mo into OK, where we jumped off the super slab onto the old highway. That night we ended in OK City and had dinner with my wife and members of her family. Day four we left OK City, road into Arkansas, turned north into Mo again and finished up in a rain storm in Columbia Mo. The last day we two laned it most of the way th

With the motorcycle season coming very fast, I have begun thinking of my rides this year. I'm using the excuse that I need to fit into my motorcycle pants as the reason for a diet. But for now, let me take a moment to look back in the past. I've been associated with long distance riding since 1993 but have never gotten an official IBA paper regarding my rides. I got into long distance riding through rallying. Basically this type of rallying is a large scavenger hunt. You are given different points to ride to, ride there and provide evidence that you were there and you get points. The most points wins. The most miles doesn't necessarily secure a win. You have to be smart about the travels. Some points are mandatory. Some points have hours associated with them. Some points are given for spending time off the bike. Some big points are miles away, but they do not always secure the win by them selves. And the type of bike doesn't matter. There are usually differe