Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

True. I did all those things and it still wouldn't give. I used to hate grabbing my hammer and banging the pins but not I almost always grab it as part of moving the tandems, even before I know whether they are going to stick or not.

Now, when I do have to use the hammer, I consider it kind of a micro-therapy just smashing the crap out of those pins. Feels good. Who needs to pay a therapist when you can hit stuff with hammers.

 

Day 2 of my hometime...

Taxes

I got ma taxes done today so I'm happy to get that out of the way. Who would have known that you can't write off TV's, dvd's or my satellite radio? At least I tried. Not sure if it was done correctly when he asked how many days I was off and away from the truck. The number was unusually low as I only counted those days when I had hometime as I consider any day where I'm sleeping in the truck as a work day. If I'm not free to go anywhere and do whatever I want due to work then it's a work day. I guess I'll find out if the IRS comes a knockin. When I started to itemize everything that I purchased for my job, including the stuff that makes life sweeter but not necessarily required, the amount I've spent this past year was outrageous. I know that next year will be different as I have everything I need in my truck right now as it is. Spending for truck stuff will be a lot less this next year and thereafter. I was kind of surprised that I couldn't write off the Swift polos I've purchased over the past year. I think I am up to 3 so far. I still have 2 and one walked away at a Pilot in the laundry room. He argued that I could wear the shirt outside of work (I can technically although I don't really). I consider it a uniform even though I purchase it myself. Either way it was petty so it didn't really matter. I also wrote off the Swift schooling amount since I pay that every week through my paychecks. Taxes for trucking are so much different than what I'm used to. I will definitely keep all my receipts starting now.

 

My new bike..."

The most important thing is to have a good relationship with the bike... you have to understand what she wants. I think of a motorcycle as a woman, and I know that sounds silly, but it's true" -- Valentino Rossi


Man, I couldn't sleep the night before home time. I started my 10 in the afternoon the day before and that morning I got a late start. By the time I was lying down in my bobtailed truck off to the side of the Walmart parking lot, I couldn't sleep. On top of the anxiety of knowing I was getting some time off to see my family and meet my new (to me) bike I was having a hell of a toothache. Despite the Advil, it wasn't going away and sleep was impossible. So I stayed up and got everything ready, packing my bags so I wouldn't have to do it when I got to the terminal.

I hauled arse once my hours came back to me. The pickup was smooth and uneventful and Proctor and Gamble had a certified scale onsite ($8.00 + $1.00 reweigh - reweigh wasn't necessary). I scaled, got my paperwork and was on my way. I drove through the night and traffic was light. The truck was maintaining 63 to 64 mph, as it has been doing lately, and I was making good time. I had my drivers side window all the way down and the passenger window down about 1/3 and it felt awesome. No rain. No snow. No traffic. I had my music up and I was enjoying this final stretch to the Richmond terminal.

My ride was going to meet me at the terminal. She woke up early specifically to pick me up. I arrived before her, dropped my t-call trailer and hustled inside the terminal to give them my t-call and to scan some of my paperwork. I had left about the last 3 or 4 trips unscanned because I knew I was going to the terminal. Lately I have been scanning my paperwork as soon as I could but I procrastinated on these last few trips and planned on scanning them when I arrived at the terminal.

I walked into the Richmond terminal, looked over at the kiosks and saw that all 3 kiosks had signs on them stating they were broken. ####. I asked the staff behind the counter if there was another way to get my paperwork into the system. With attitudes of indifference they stated that I would have to go to the Pilot to scan them in. #### again. I knew my ride was on her way and now this. Already anxious and now cranky I made my way out to my truck, did the search on the GPS for the Pilot and had it route me. It was 20 miles each way. I started on my way and when I was about 3 miles shy of the Pilot, following the GPS routing, I came across a large yellow sign with yellow flashing lights on the side of the road prior to a right turn I needed to make. "Such and Such Road is closed to commercial vehicles. Do not follow GPS routing" I plugged the address into my Qualcomm and it was routing me the same way. I tried to switch the routing on my personal GPS from "shortest route" to "fastest route" as that sometimes will change the routing. It didn't. Not knowing where I was really and not knowing where this Pilot was I gave up. I drove the 17 miles back to the terminal, turned in my t-call and left the paperwork to be scanned when I return from hometime per my old driver manager's instruction. I was already tired from driving through the night and not sleeping before the drive and I was also resigned to being on my hometime so I let those trips go for now. I know my part in not scanning my paperwork prior to arriving at the terminal. That was my mistake. But I was aggravated a little anyway by other factors not worth mentioning here. Regardless, my ride showed up and I was off work for a few days and I started to get excited all over again.


Back to my bike...

The bike was parked in the back of my parents' garage against the wall as I had seen in the pictures that were sent to me after the bike was delivered. I was anticipating seeing her like a child coming downstairs all sleepy eyed on Christmas morning looking for the shiny wrapped presents. I could barely maintain an aire of calm on the outside. Inside I was bursting. When the garage door was opened I got my first look "in the flesh" at her.

She was awesome. She was huge! Black mostly with a yellow seat and yellow accents shouldering the "GS" on the monstrous gas tank. Otherwise all black with unpainted aluminum side cases and top case. She looked the part of a bike that could take on the world. If she is a female she is a brute - not beautiful in a supermodel way, but purposeful and attractive like a woman that knows her job, knows what needs to be done and does it successfully with confidence. Confidence is sexy. Every angle and curve had a reason for being there, all the materials she was dressed in were utilitarian. Nothing was there for show or glamour, it was well thought out and put together with intent. The bulbous 8 gallon gas tank, when seen from behind, looked the same way a very pregnant cat looks as it is walking away from you. It was monstrous and the black steel of the tank almost seemed to drape and drip over and down while it swelled off to the outside. She was very tall, especially sitting up straight on the centerstand. The different sized side-by-side headlights are unusual and unique. They are something I've always noticed about the big GS's, like it or not, there isn't much out there that looks like them. I know there are plenty out there who don't like the way she looks, that she is a BMW and foreign, etc. but I never ride a bike to make anyone other than myself happy. I like a lot of bikes for different reasons and faced with a world that was motorcycle-less, I would ride a scooter. I buy and ride what I like, as anyone should do, and do not rely on consensus.

I walked over and touched her and started poking around. The seat was not smooth but not soft to the touch. It was made of some kind of synthetic material that grips you. I sat down on the ground and checked out this boxer engine that I am completely unfamiliar with. I followed the exhaust from beginning to end and observed how the intake was set up. I noticed the little touches like the pieces of hard plastic built into the sides of the head for protection followed by another layer of protection in the form of heavy steel crash bars that began out front under the tank and curved their way out and around the sides of the horizontally opposed cylinders, over the exhaust and continuing down under the belly. The front suspension was different, a telelever design involving two forks and a separate spring mounted near the lower triple clamps. Looking up front I saw the telltale beak-like upper fender that grows out from under the headlights and the lower "true" fender over the front tire. Another love it or hate it design of this particular bike. The beak sticks straight out and it nearly pointed. She almost looks like some aggressive, googly-eyed bird when seen directly from the front. The windshield was aftermarket and higher with a separate mini Touratech windshield mounted atop this already high aftermarket windshield. The previous rider is much taller than I am and needed the extra wind protection. After a day I ended up removing it and putting the stock, lower windscreen back on. I like to feel the wind in my face so the lower one works better for me. The gauges were fantastic as well as the set up of the controls on the handlebars. I've never owned a bike with so much "stuff" on the instrument cluster or on the handlebars. There was even a gas gauge which I've only had on one other bike, oddly that bike was a GPZ550 built back in 1984. Usually I just know when I need to fill the gas up or, at best, I have a light that comes on that tells me "better get gas quick". I noticed that the factory hand guards were excellent. Firm and hard plastic they would work great at cutting out the pain from a cold wind and I guess if I started running into tree branches they would keep me protected as well. The extra PIAA lighting that was mounted up front and off to the sides. It's a nice addition and they are bright as I found out later.


Ah, to touch...

I grabbed the bike to take it off the centerstand and move it away from the wall and I immediately felt it's weight. It's dry weight is a little over 500 lbs but it felt heavier. My other bike's dry weight is 374 lbs and I feel like I can throw it around. This did not feel like that. I carefully rocked it off the centerstand and moved it to the center of the garage. I walked around it checking out the shaft drive, which is different to me as I'm more familiar with chain driven bikes. I checked out the hard bags and tail bag and noticed how strong and well-made these were. They looked anything but cheap or flimsy.

I fired her up and she came to life right away. She purred. It was a simple sound with hints of click. Not a rumble like a big twin, not really the thump of a single cylinder. She didn't make the familiar higher pitched rev of my gsxr. Just a simple and relatively quiet purr. The dash lit up like New Years and she lived.

I investigated and played with the controls. Everything was different but, again, designed for utility and purpose. Typically the blinkers on my bikes have been one control, usually on the left handlebar near the grip. Push the control left and you get the left blinker. Push it right and you get the right blinker. Push the button in to cancel the blinkers. However, this bike had a thumb control for the left under the left grip, the control for the right blinker was under the right grip and near this right grip control was a slide switch to cancel either blinker. Odd those crazy Europeans. The headlight control on the right grip had 3 settings. All the way down had every light off. This was odd because most bikes made today do not have an option to shut the headlight and taillight completely off. Usually, on these newer bikes such as my Suzuki, when you start the bike the low beam headlight and the taillight are on automatically by default. This bike had a ninja setting and I liked the idea of being somewhere where I could go completely dark while keeping the bike running. I like to at least have the option as this bike does. The next setting on this switch activated the low beam and then the highest and third setting, oddly, activated the PIAA off-road lights - not the high beam. The high beam was activated through another switch on the left grip that had a setting up that kept the high beam on and a setting down that was used to flash the high beam. Again, odd. There is a button on the right grip to deactivate the ABS should I want to shut it off. Kind of ideal to have going down a slippery slope off road when you just want to ride the rear brake to keep the bike from falling. I like the option to shut if off. I have no idea how well ABS works on a bike as I've never had anything like it. As a matter of fact, my other bike hasn't had rear brakes in about 7 years so I've learned to master just using the front brake in every situation, including rain/sleet/snow without even touching the rear brake. Now I had not only rear brakes but an ABS system. Back to the right grip there is a toggle switch for the heated grips, as I found out by playing with it. When it is off there are no little white circles to be observed. When you put it on the low setting there is one while dot indicating this. And the grips get pretty hot. Toggle the switch up again and there are two white dots visible plus the one dot from the low setting. Now the heated grips are on "high". I had it on for only a short while and I could barely touch them with bare hands. They were blazing. I don't know how many times I rode in the wet of Washington State with the temperature barely above freezing, my gloved hands exposed to the wind and wet, that I prayed for this heated grip option. I've always rode without having that option but there were plenty of times I wanted it. There's nothing like having frozen hands while you are riding and you not only have to deal with that dull pain of near frostbitten hands but your tactile sense and your grip weaken in that kind of weather. Rounding out the compliment of switches and fun stuff was a 4 ways button, the starter button and a button that activated a pretty loud horn. The clutch lever and front brake lever felt sturdy and the grips were made of thick rubber. The hard plastic hand guards almost completely surrounded my hands. The gauge setup is nice. Not too much information, not overly complicated, but it covers everything (and more) of what I need to know. From right to left there is a tach with the redline around 7,000 rpms and terminating at 10,000 rpms. A 150 mph speedometer. Probably some overkill as the top speed on this bike is either 110 or 130 mph, I don't remember. Odometer and tripometer. To the left of the tach and speedometer is a cool readout displaying the oil temp in a rising bar design and to the right of that a gas gauge broken into 8 separate bars. In between the two is a digital readout of what gear the bike is in. Not sure why that is needed but it's there. Below that is a digital clock. Below the gauges is a warning/informational cluster indicating which turn signal is on, whether I am in neutral, high temp warning light, a low fuel light, low battery light and high beam light. On the handlebars the previous owner mounted a Garmin waterproof GPS and a pre-wired, waterproof cellphone case. The GPS is cool but I can care less about the cellphone/mp3 holder. The charging wire that is wired into it doesn't fit my phone and, more importantly, I can care less about my cellphone (and sometimes care less about getting lost) while I ride. Riding gives me the proper excuse to forget about life with a cellphone and that's the way I like it. The GPS isn't the newest model, per the previous owner, but I thought it was just fine. Did almost everything the one in my truck does and this one has Bluetooth compatibility so you can get directions read to you in your helmet. The owner included a higher end set of helmet speakers/communication system that I can mount in up to two helmets. Haven't really looking into this yet but I know the GPS works with it.

I sat on the garage floor and read through the owners manual while I looked at the bike. I read the maintenance and repair manual and poked around some more. I found the toolkit that came with the bike which was decent. The ignition key also works on the hardbag locks and once I opened them I noticed the removable soft bags that were built to come with the aluminum hard bags. Pretty cool. They were like little zippered, heavy vinyl travel bags with separate pockets inside. They had handles to pull them right out of the aluminum panniers and top case to make things easy. They even have a built in shoulder strap should you feel so inclined. I won't. But kind of cool anyway. I can picture some hoity Europeans walking around on some cobbled street with their pullout BMW-logo'd bags strung over their shoulder. Not for me but I like the idea of loading up the bags and then pulling them out of the panniers when I got to a hotel or hostel. They still had their tags on them and were never used by either of the previous owners. The hard bags and topcase lock onto the bike but were removed easily. The platform that supports the panniers fold up onto the bike once the sidebags are removed.

I sat on the bike to get a feel for it. It was unlike my other bike. With this bike I felt like I was sitting "in" the bike and not on top of it. Different.


Who doesn't like the DMV?

I went inside, cleaned up a little, got the direction to the DMV and I left. I finally found parking, took my number and waited. And waited. When called I used some of the mail I receive in Virginia to convince the DMV woman that I would be keeping the bike in Virginia and using it there. She was satisfied. The tax on the bike was 4%. Ouch. I got special Blue Ridge Mountain plates because they were colorful and cool looking compared to the others. I almost got the "Fight Terrorism" motorcycle plate that only had a "VA" up top for the state and a cool little 9/11 design. I opted for the colors of the Blue Ridge Mountain plate instead and, as is customary in Virginia due to the low cost of vanity plates, I ordered my plate as "SUSIO" which means "dirty" in Spanish. Which this bike will be sooner than later. I'm hoping that sometime later down in Mexico or somewhere in Central America that they will find it humorous at a military checkpoint as I stumble in my weak Spanish to explain my motivation for the plate.
The only unfortunate discovery in this titling and plating exercise was that I will be taxed two additional times, every year, for having a vehicle. Something this county in Virginia does. I think it is a luxury tax or something but, either way, it just means that I will be paying for the use of my bike two times a year for eternity not including renewing the registration. ######## but nothing I can do about it right now.

I got a temporary plate from DMV, an actual metal plate to use until Sucio is delivered, and I was on my way. I got back to the house, installed the plate and had my first run on the bike.

As it was so heavy I was a little apprehensive. I kept it on it's sidestand and I couldn't get it back up on the centerstand at this point. The sidestand would have to do for now. Since the side bags and the tail case were still on it, I couldn't swing my leg up and over the bags to mount it. I had to use a different approach involving a short two skip raising my leg straight over the seat and getting on. To dismount I had to stand up on the pegs, with the sidestand down, and swing my right leg over the bags. Simply raising my leg from the ground usually ended up with me horse kicking the top case.


The first ride and somewhat disaster...

With a little reluctance due to its size, I started out down the road. Once she was moving I couldn't feel her weight. The bike made an odd clicking noise for just a moment once I got rolling. I later remember reading in the manual that this noise was the ABS activating or something along those lines. She purred and sounded like a dualsport bike. Kind of had a deep grumble at low rpms in a higher gear when I gave it gas. She was quiet. I immediately could tell that, unlike my GSXR, this was not a high revving bike. She was more comfortable it seemed being shifted early, around 4,000 rpms unlike my GSXR that is happier the higher you rev it closer to the 12,250 rpm redline. This bike was to be shifted at a lower rpm and it was about torque. It took a few minutes to get used to the directional and the blinker cancel button but I was fine with it as I took my time to think about it at first. As she was clicked into a higher gear the click was loud and had purpose. Everything was smooth and the clutch was adjusted well.

I rode down through Jamestown along some scenic road through the woods. It passed by the bay where the original Jamestown settlement once was. I passed the new Jamestown history center and just putted along at the indicated 15mph. When no one was around, which was most of the time I rode through there, I weaved the bike back and forth down the road trying to get a feel for it. It felt surprisingly pretty nimble once I was moving.

I couldn't feel the weight until...

I was approaching a small wood bridge that spanned part of the bay and saw a little gravel pullout to the side, just big enough for a motorcycle but not quite big enough for a car. Perfect. This would be a good place to just stop and take it all in for a moment. Kind of reevaluate the short ride so far and relax in this somewhat scenic spot on the side of the road. I'm not sure exactly what happened next but it happened quick. I think I was putting the sidestand down on the left side but the road kind of petered off to the right at a slight angle downwards. At some point, while still straddling the bike, she started to lean down towards the right. Now usually, at this point, if this happened on my other bike I could just stand her right back up using my strength. But not this time. Although it happened kind of quick, time seemed to slow down as the bike slowly fell to the right and I used everything I had to fight the inevitable. I think I remember, in a slow motion kind of way, saying FFFUUUDDDDGGGGEEEE (but it wasn't exactly the word FUDGE) like Ralphie from A Christmas Story did when he messed up his dad's tire changing, as the bike hit the sand. At some point in the lean and fall I realized that the bike was at a point of no return and was absolutely committed to kissing the ground despite my protestations. And she did. Mostly pretty gently as I fought it all the way down and she didn't land very hard. I immediately accessed the situation. The road was narrow and was one way all around the park. I looked up the road to see if anyone was laughing at me. They were not and I was alone. But for how long? My adrenaline kicked in, partially by the fear of embarrassment of this whale laying on its side being seen by anyone other than me for it's current condition did not look natural in any way. Somehow, David Banner style, I became the Hulk. Facing the bike, I grabbed one of the forks and part of the frame to the rear and lifted it part of the way. It was freakin heavy. I got it up some and then, unknown to me still, I did some quick maneuver where I turned around facing away from the bike. I had looked up, prior to even seeing my new beast, how to pick this bike up should it fall. I remember how they did it facing away from the bike, putting your back into it and using your legs to push up the bike. I did the little turn around maneuver, grabbed her like a drunken prom queen, and lifted her upright using my legs. It worked and I did it amazing quick somehow. Again, most likely a mix of adrenaline and the Hulk. I had her balancing upright but I didn't know what to do from here. I was holding her up and couldn't just jump on it and mount her. I reached over the seat to the far end and stretched out to push the sidestand down. As I did so I touched something very hot and burned the crap out of my thumb, forefinger and hand. But the Hulk kicked in again and I worked through the pain enough to get the sidestand down. I leaned her over on it to the left and, sweating now, I took a sigh of relief as the first car came puttering up the road behind me completely unaware of what had just transpired. They waved hello and I waved back with my burned hand, still sweating profusely. Success. Sort of.

I got back on, rode the rest of the trail, got lost a little bit and coming back behind colonial Williamsburg, past William & Mary college and down the road I parked her in the driveway to access any damage. There really wasn't any. I put a tiny scratch in the tank which buffed right out and a couple of little scratches on the hard plastic engine protection on the head. Good to know but I'm sure she will go down again just hopefully not soon.

I've been riding her every opportunity since then. I'm getting better with her weight but somewhere in the back of my head, when I pull up to a red traffic signal and have to put my feet down, I still get a scary thought in my head of dropping her more publicly. For some reason the thought of tipping over at a red light or at a stop sign, with traffic around me, then having to battle her back up off the ground, scares the #### out of me. I guess it's more fear of embarrassment.

So far though I've been getting used to her. She corners very well, no unseen surprises or weaknesses and the handling is pretty tight. She is by no means fast but she is not meant to be. She can get out of her own way, as they say, but she doesn't leave in a haze of burned rubber. That's ok with me. I love it and I'm going to miss her when I have to get back on the road.

Once I'm on her, I'm just riding again as I love to do. There really is no better feeling than the one I get riding and this bike delivers that in the same way. Riding leaves me with a universal feeling of higher conscious that, at the time, I don't want to end. I want to point the bike and keep going and going, never stopping, no real destination other than the ride. I guess that's why I look forward to taking that time off in the fall when I can leave the country and just ride, wear myself out and park, have some drinks with some locals and go to sleep knowing that the next day I will be riding again - riding all day at my own pace with nowhere to go.

But, as of right now, I still have a couple more days left. I'll be getting back on her tomorrow.

 

Back on the road...

Left Richmond on Tuesday and got a load picking up from Georgia Pacific in Big Island, VA coming out here to Mt Olive, IL. Not a bad load although it was a heavy paper load. I was barely getting up some of the hills in Virginia and West Virginia.


Before I sealed the trailer at pickup I opened the doors to check it out. I didn't realize those rolls of paper were so large. I think there were 8 rolls at about 5,500 lbs each!

The road going up to Big Island is windy and narrow. It was nice traveling through here at night just chugging along slowly through the mountains on these narrow back roads. Nice.

Waiting to get another load out of here and get rolling again.

 

It almost happened. I was so freakin close...

I almost got divorced yesterday. I've been legally separated for almost 23 months. Emotionally separated for much longer. STBEW was supposed to have it wrapped up yesterday in the superior court back in Tacoma. Washington has this stupid 90 day "cooling off" period that is mandatory so I've been patient. STBEW calls me yesterday upset that she woke up late. She showed up at court 1.25 hours late. They put her in timeout out in the hall all day while the judge decided whether she would work STBEW in to the docket since she was late.

Got a text about 4 pm pacific telling me that they had to reschedule her for 4/30. They wouldnt or couldnt work her in. ####! So I'm still married somehow after almost 23 months. I can't wait until the day when I can say I'm completely and legally divorced.

Stupid rules and stupid ex for messing up the one day she needed to be on time.

 

At the Kansas terminal tonight. Got 3 loads stacked and took care of 2 of them today. Basically went from IL to MO and then MO up here to the tcall drop in Kansas. Tomorrow I got a pickup nearby in MO going out to CO.

Truck is approaching 500,000 miles but it has been running well. I hope I don't have to turn it in soon...

 

Dropped my load in Pueblo this afternoon and currently at a Walmart here on Dillon Ave. Easy access, they allow parking and best of all there is a large movie theater across the street.

I got my first hard braking event today. I didn't know that that is different than a critical event but it is as I found out when I called in. Not a big deal
I braked hard for some deer that ran out and had just picked up an empty trailer after tugging around a 45000 lb load for a couple of days. I'll have to watch my brake pressure more.

Its snowing here now, just when I started to get used to wearing a short sleeve shirt. I guess I prematurely got used to the idea of warmer weather. Sent my Mac 34 to let them know I'm ready to roll with hours but I'm guessing since its Sunday I won't be moving until tomorrow.

 

Pueblo, CO to Billings, MT

Dropped and hooked today here at the Target in Billings. Pretty effortless although the drop the loaded, hook to the empty to pull it out from the dock, drop the empty, hook to the loaded and drop that in the bay and then the hook to the empty again took a few minutes. Still much, much easier than some of my drops and pickups.

I was talking to the manager here and she let me park on the side of the building. Nice as I didn't have to go find parking elsewhere. I was asking about the easiest way back out of the lot to go to the Walmart nearby and I forgot that Walmart is their biggest competitor. A slight on my part but I explained to her that I despise truckstops, I need to get food and that Walmart allows parking. She told me that they have food here that I could park. Didn't take much to convince me. Sales for them and parking for me while I wait on a load.

So despite the overwhelming presence of red here at Target the views were spectacular. Not sure what they got in the water up here in Billings but the girls that work here and the girls that shop here were gorgeous. Unreal. I felt like a kid in the candy store but with no money in my pockets. I did enjoy my shopping experience today thank you and yes I found everything just fine. Thanks for asking.

The trip up here didn't involve any snow. Looks like Wyoming just got hit recently but nothing fresh on the road. Pretty uneventful drive up compared to the last trip I had out to Pueblo from Missouri. That last trip found me being followed two seperate times by the authorities. I didn't do anything wrong as far as traffic violations but I found myself once followed by a sheriff in a pickup truck, most likely the only cop on duty that late at night and then later followed by a CO trooper. I spotted the sheriff as I came into small town, KS. He was just getting ready to leave the only gas station. He was in a dark colored pickup truck with a shorter light bar on top and "sheriff" was printed along the sides. Seemed like the town did not have the latest equipment as far as vehicles go. That was my impression as I creeped down the main thoroughfare at 23 mph.

It is predictable that there may be a cop lying in wait when you approach these small towns with the decreasing speed limits. The speed limit drops from 65 to 55...40...30...25 and bam there's the cop. I watched him pull out from the gas station and follow me from about 6 car lengths back. He didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular and he continued to follow me out of town as the speed limit increased incrementally up to 65 mph. I kept it at 62-63 mph and he still followed me. About 15 minutes later I spotted a sign stating that I was entering Wichita County. The sign was at a crossroads and as the sheriff contacted the crossroad where the sign was, he turned onto the street and turned around to go back. Later I was the only one on the highway in Colorado when I passed a CO state trooper whom pulled out behind me. He stayed behind me for a short while and then turned off. I really done worry when I drive as I stay below the speed limit everywhere and I do everything by the book. As long as I keep doing that they can follow me all they want.


I need my passport

My next home time will have to be in WA unless Swift can get me there somehow without taking an official hometime. I forgot to grab my birth certificate out of storage the last time I was there and now I have to pick it up for my passport application. It would be nice to somehow just swing through and pick it up without having to take time off, such as a short 34, but most likely ill have to put in an official time off request. That's fine as I'm thinking that once I get my passport for this trip prepared I can use it to get some loads up into Canada. As it is, I can't get the enhanced Washington drivers license because I don't receive a utility bill at my old WA residence - a requirement for the enhanced drivers license.

Once I get my passport, which I've never had before, I can get my international drivers license. One more step toward my planned motorcycle trip in the fall.

I'm tentatively planning on riding through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. I've read that Belize is expensive by Central America standards so my rough plan is to maybe just get some border crossing experience there, spend maybe a night or two hitting a couple of the tourist spots and getting back out. I'm looking into taking a Spanish language immersion course in Guatemala for a week or two and bumping my way around there afterwards. There is a town in Mexico called Guanajuato that I've been researching and it is a must-see at this point. Its a college town, colonial architecture, plenty of plazas to enjoy and they have these tunnels underground used to get from one part of the city to another. Sounds like a wonderful place. My buddy out in WA was born in Mexico City, what they call the "DF" out there for the Federal District, and he is putting me in touch with his cousins there. They are going to show me the real DF as the locals live it. Just the kind of experience I'm looking for. I'm a traveler, not a tourist and this is the way that I've always worked my way around.

I ordered a few books lately. One of them isnt so much a book as it is a handwritten and photocopied guide. There's a guy on this other motorcycle forum I'm on that travels to Mexico and places further south a few times a year. Over the years he has logged all the different towns, cities, highways and lodging that he comes across. Hes compiled prices for lodging, updates it and provides a ranking and descriptiin for each. He eventually put it all together and sells it now. I ordered my copy from him and its on its way to VA for me to pick up next time I'm out there. Can't wait to read this one especially. Invaluable.

I also ordered a repair guide for on the spot repairs that will come up as well as a couple of other books on traveling by motorcycle through Mexico and C. America. I've already read a couple of shorter ones that I downloaded on my tablet. Makes the downtime pretty sweet and keeps my eye on the goal.

For my birthday coming up in a little over a month I've asked family to only buy a couple of cheap things I have in my list as they apply to the trip. That way it makes it easier for them, takes the thinking out of it for them and it will help me in getting things ready. We usually try to give each other solid ideas for our birthdays so we don't all end up with gift certificates to the Olive Garden each year.

Next step, when I get back out to Virginia, is to arrange for someone to walk me through some of the possible bike repairs I may encounter on the road. I'm mechanically inclined but this bike is new to me and I've never had to so much as change a flat on the go on a bike. I can do it but I need to be proficient at it and I need to know this bike in and out. Troubleshooting as well as repair is on my list. The repair manual alone won't cut it but I'll be studying that as soon as I can get my hands on it. I have to order and install a new battery, check my valves and change the oil for now. There's BMW off road course training out of a VA dealership that is coming up in June that I may check into depending on price, availability and my schedule. If its cheap enough it might be nice to practice dropping this German pig a few times in a controlled environment in the dirt and practice picking it up rather than wait until I do it out in the middle of the Mexican desert where no one will hear me whimper or see me struggle to get the old girl righted again.

I'm starting to hammer down a rough date of about late October or early November, at the tail end of the rainy season but before high tourist season. That may change but hopefully not by much...