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I can never do anything the easy way or spread out over time. This weekend sums things up pretty well.
Friday night there's a meet in Mason City Iowa for the PGI(Pyrotechnics Guild International). For the uninitiated, it's the group responsible kinda sorta for your fireworks displays and getting folks licensed and safe.NotEvil has a campsite reserved in Clear Lake the next town over. Now all we have to do is get there from my work in Dubuque Iowa bye 8:00pm, and the time on the clock is reading an alarming 3:45pm, it's time to go.
Jump on 20 and head west, get to 218 and head north. Get off 218 looking for a gas station for 3 miles.
Give up and get back on 218. Follow the route gas up a few times and get to the campsite about 30 minutes before we're supposed to be there.
The fireworks were awesome. They started with special one of a kind setups. Vintage 1915 and 1920 fireworks being set off. Stuff that's simply too big or too complex to set off in a regular display. They moved on to the "all-stars" display. About 20 minutes long and the requirement was for the team to have the display built and set up in a week, and have it done using the "old Italian canister shot method". The end of the day were the "Grand Public Displays". Two professional crews set up to show off their talents. The shots are set to music and a computer rig/software controls the firing timing and order. There were 109 modules with 32 fireworks per module. It was simply amazing. A full on 40 minutes of sky lighting fun.
When it was all over we made our way through traffic and hit the local Buffalo Wild Wings (the local places were all closed). Halfway through our meal the power went out. I was hoping it wasn't indicative of things to come. We finish eating in the mood lighting of emergency exit signs and head out. It's pretty funny to see exactly half a small town in the dark out in the middle of no where. Back to the tents for some shut eye.
7am Saturday we get up and break down camp. Gas up and get some breakfast. We can either take the route we took to get up there on the way back or take the longer route but slightly shorter time and stick to the super slab. Normally we would have taken the local highways but we were under a time crunch. By 4:30pm we needed to be in Plainfield Illinois for a party. We pick the straightest/fastest route and get up on it.
At our gas stop outside of Des Moines we were asked if we had gotten rained on. NotEvil and I looked at each other and shrugged. It had been nice and dry. At that point we were told we happened to be just ahead of a front moving in that seemed to be following I-80 right to Illinois. Oh great that's our route. Back up on the bikes and burn on out of there. I crack the throttle a bit and pick up from cruising at 75mph to 80mph (speed limit in most of Iowa away from the cities is 70). I'm averaging a little over 41MPG on the big B1250 and NotEvil's SV650 is hanging right in there, but he has a smaller tank by almost a gallon. We have to stop every 120 - 140 miles to make sure he doesn't run out. Out in front of the weather front (yes bad pun) I stretch us a bit and get to Iowa City. I badly needed food and figured that as it was getting near school time again there'd be some college women hanging about. I wasn't disappointed. Gas tanks and stomachs full we get back on the highway and I pray that the bridge over the Mississippi from I-80 to I-88 is open again as otherwise it'll add some time and difficulties with gas.
For those of you that don't know the pleasure of going from Iowa into Illinois on either I-80 or I-88 let me warn you now. There's no gas, none, for something like 30 to 40 miles on the Illinois side. If you're anywhere near getting close, pull into Bettendorf or Davenport and get go juice before crossing over.
We're going along and miraculously I-80 is open over the great river and we pick up I-88 an start that last leg to getting to his home and my folks place (which happen to be in the same city). I look down at my gauge and odometer and notice I'm at 120 miles. I know out there gas stops are few and far between so I motion at the next gas stop sign and pull off the highway. At the end of the exit the sign says "Gas 15 miles east", there's no freaking way I'm going to get off the highway and go for 15 miles to get gas, just to have to come back. I look over at NotEvil and ask if he has enough to go another 40 miles as I secret pray there's another gas station closer to the highway within his range. He says "No Problem" and we just cut across the road right back onto the highway. Another 20 miles up the road we reach I think Rock Falls and fill up. Start calling folks, "we're close we'll get there a bit late but not too bad."
Head out of there and blast up I-88 at a slightly more sedate 70mph, the speed limit is 65 out there and I don't want to antagonize the local constabulary. The rest of the trip out ended up being pretty uneventful. Zipped into Naperville, seperated, and met back up at the party a few hours later (an hour late). Had some fun, caught up on old times and ate our fill till it was time to go.
Well NotEvil was home so he didn't need to go anywhere. I on the other hand on Sunday needed to get back to Dubuque. Up at 9am. Spend time with the family, get some breakfast and hydrate myself. At noon I went over to another friend's place (RabidWolf) and picked up from him a bracket for the rear signal lights on the bandit that moves them back out of the way for the luggage assemblies. A nice bit of kit and should move the signals out of the way of my soft bags and give me flexibility if I want to go hard bags later. On the plus side it also gives me two extra signal lights.
At RabidWolf's place it rained a bit and then let up. I donned my rain gear and headed out. On the way to the gas station I got rained on a bit but a light sprinkling. Gas up and get on I-88 and just past Orchard road it looked like the doom and gloom in the sky touched the road. Suddenly I was in the rain, hard driving rain. There were cars parked on the sides of the highway waiting it out. I could still see and the bike felt stable under me so I kept right on going. Cats and dogs from the sky, cops and cars all over the place I plodded on at a stately 60MPH. About 3 miles from I-39 the rain gave way to gray/white high overcast, and humidity. The rain gear was now my mobile sauna suit. I was sweating but not drenched, and the skies up ahead along with the mornings weather forecast promised me rain all the way along US20 into Dubuque. Luckily it never materialized and the rest of the trip was about as mundane and normal as could be.
Dang good weekend, almost if not slightly over a combined 780miles in the three days with 430 of those coming on Saturday in the mad scramble from Mason City to Naperville. I did learn some things though.
#1. Riding great distances is more fun when you have company.
#2. Buy new MSR bottles with some extra fuel just in case.
#3. Get there earlier next year so we can get some firewood.
#4. My tent sucks bigtime, it's too short, and doesn't have near enough ventilation.(in the humidity of the weekend during the middle of the night even with the "door" open it rained condensation inside my tent)
#5. Schedule things better if I can.
#6. In the stock B1250 saddle about 500 miles in one day is about the best I can do.
#7. I wore running shorts instead of underoos on the bike and it was a godsend. Switch to biking shorts.
Friday night there's a meet in Mason City Iowa for the PGI(Pyrotechnics Guild International). For the uninitiated, it's the group responsible kinda sorta for your fireworks displays and getting folks licensed and safe.NotEvil has a campsite reserved in Clear Lake the next town over. Now all we have to do is get there from my work in Dubuque Iowa bye 8:00pm, and the time on the clock is reading an alarming 3:45pm, it's time to go.
Jump on 20 and head west, get to 218 and head north. Get off 218 looking for a gas station for 3 miles.
Give up and get back on 218. Follow the route gas up a few times and get to the campsite about 30 minutes before we're supposed to be there.
The fireworks were awesome. They started with special one of a kind setups. Vintage 1915 and 1920 fireworks being set off. Stuff that's simply too big or too complex to set off in a regular display. They moved on to the "all-stars" display. About 20 minutes long and the requirement was for the team to have the display built and set up in a week, and have it done using the "old Italian canister shot method". The end of the day were the "Grand Public Displays". Two professional crews set up to show off their talents. The shots are set to music and a computer rig/software controls the firing timing and order. There were 109 modules with 32 fireworks per module. It was simply amazing. A full on 40 minutes of sky lighting fun.
When it was all over we made our way through traffic and hit the local Buffalo Wild Wings (the local places were all closed). Halfway through our meal the power went out. I was hoping it wasn't indicative of things to come. We finish eating in the mood lighting of emergency exit signs and head out. It's pretty funny to see exactly half a small town in the dark out in the middle of no where. Back to the tents for some shut eye.
7am Saturday we get up and break down camp. Gas up and get some breakfast. We can either take the route we took to get up there on the way back or take the longer route but slightly shorter time and stick to the super slab. Normally we would have taken the local highways but we were under a time crunch. By 4:30pm we needed to be in Plainfield Illinois for a party. We pick the straightest/fastest route and get up on it.
At our gas stop outside of Des Moines we were asked if we had gotten rained on. NotEvil and I looked at each other and shrugged. It had been nice and dry. At that point we were told we happened to be just ahead of a front moving in that seemed to be following I-80 right to Illinois. Oh great that's our route. Back up on the bikes and burn on out of there. I crack the throttle a bit and pick up from cruising at 75mph to 80mph (speed limit in most of Iowa away from the cities is 70). I'm averaging a little over 41MPG on the big B1250 and NotEvil's SV650 is hanging right in there, but he has a smaller tank by almost a gallon. We have to stop every 120 - 140 miles to make sure he doesn't run out. Out in front of the weather front (yes bad pun) I stretch us a bit and get to Iowa City. I badly needed food and figured that as it was getting near school time again there'd be some college women hanging about. I wasn't disappointed. Gas tanks and stomachs full we get back on the highway and I pray that the bridge over the Mississippi from I-80 to I-88 is open again as otherwise it'll add some time and difficulties with gas.
For those of you that don't know the pleasure of going from Iowa into Illinois on either I-80 or I-88 let me warn you now. There's no gas, none, for something like 30 to 40 miles on the Illinois side. If you're anywhere near getting close, pull into Bettendorf or Davenport and get go juice before crossing over.
We're going along and miraculously I-80 is open over the great river and we pick up I-88 an start that last leg to getting to his home and my folks place (which happen to be in the same city). I look down at my gauge and odometer and notice I'm at 120 miles. I know out there gas stops are few and far between so I motion at the next gas stop sign and pull off the highway. At the end of the exit the sign says "Gas 15 miles east", there's no freaking way I'm going to get off the highway and go for 15 miles to get gas, just to have to come back. I look over at NotEvil and ask if he has enough to go another 40 miles as I secret pray there's another gas station closer to the highway within his range. He says "No Problem" and we just cut across the road right back onto the highway. Another 20 miles up the road we reach I think Rock Falls and fill up. Start calling folks, "we're close we'll get there a bit late but not too bad."
Head out of there and blast up I-88 at a slightly more sedate 70mph, the speed limit is 65 out there and I don't want to antagonize the local constabulary. The rest of the trip out ended up being pretty uneventful. Zipped into Naperville, seperated, and met back up at the party a few hours later (an hour late). Had some fun, caught up on old times and ate our fill till it was time to go.
Well NotEvil was home so he didn't need to go anywhere. I on the other hand on Sunday needed to get back to Dubuque. Up at 9am. Spend time with the family, get some breakfast and hydrate myself. At noon I went over to another friend's place (RabidWolf) and picked up from him a bracket for the rear signal lights on the bandit that moves them back out of the way for the luggage assemblies. A nice bit of kit and should move the signals out of the way of my soft bags and give me flexibility if I want to go hard bags later. On the plus side it also gives me two extra signal lights.
At RabidWolf's place it rained a bit and then let up. I donned my rain gear and headed out. On the way to the gas station I got rained on a bit but a light sprinkling. Gas up and get on I-88 and just past Orchard road it looked like the doom and gloom in the sky touched the road. Suddenly I was in the rain, hard driving rain. There were cars parked on the sides of the highway waiting it out. I could still see and the bike felt stable under me so I kept right on going. Cats and dogs from the sky, cops and cars all over the place I plodded on at a stately 60MPH. About 3 miles from I-39 the rain gave way to gray/white high overcast, and humidity. The rain gear was now my mobile sauna suit. I was sweating but not drenched, and the skies up ahead along with the mornings weather forecast promised me rain all the way along US20 into Dubuque. Luckily it never materialized and the rest of the trip was about as mundane and normal as could be.
Dang good weekend, almost if not slightly over a combined 780miles in the three days with 430 of those coming on Saturday in the mad scramble from Mason City to Naperville. I did learn some things though.
#1. Riding great distances is more fun when you have company.
#2. Buy new MSR bottles with some extra fuel just in case.
#3. Get there earlier next year so we can get some firewood.
#4. My tent sucks bigtime, it's too short, and doesn't have near enough ventilation.(in the humidity of the weekend during the middle of the night even with the "door" open it rained condensation inside my tent)
#5. Schedule things better if I can.
#6. In the stock B1250 saddle about 500 miles in one day is about the best I can do.
#7. I wore running shorts instead of underoos on the bike and it was a godsend. Switch to biking shorts.
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