Well, I have been back in VA for about a week now. This from my solo ride to Missouri and back. Put a little more than 2600 miles on Saphire (Road King). Bless her heart, she ran like the wind, with the wind. After thinking about it and reflection on what went right and wrong, I thought I'd share a few with you. In no particular order.

First and foremost you got to have tunes riding that far. I almost fell asleep a time or two when I didn't have some sort of music on. If you don't (and I didn't) have a radio on your bike. Plug something in your ear. Works great and time passes by more pleasurable as you're passing all those big trucks. Or getting passed!

Put your map, sunglasses, sunblock, gloves, or anything else you are going to need on TOP of everything else. That way you don't have to dig to the bottom everytime you need something.

Big bugs HURT when they hit you in the face and you're going 70 miles an hour down the Interstate.

When its 95 degrees and you're out in the open on the road, you really need to stop often to drink and cool off. (no not beer, silly)

I get about 200 miles on a tank of gas. I finally figured out to fill up about every 130 or so. That way I took care of everything in one stop. Gas, bathroom, drink, a little air conditioning. A few times though I had to stop sooner to drink something. Coming back it was hot, hot, hot.

Don't make a schedule. Of how far you'll get or what you'll do after you get there. Hardly ever works out and when it doesn't it just gets aggravating.

I must say, and I know this is not always the case, but most all other vehicles on the road were courtious drivers as far as me on a motorcycle goes. No one tried to run me over and cut me off. I was very surprised by this, but I'm giving credit where its due.

When you travel 1200 miles to a smaller town that is having a Bike Night, they think that is remarkable (if not a little strange) They treat you right and buy you stuff.....like dinner, booze, take your picture for the paper, buy you more booze, introduce you to the town officials, buy you booze.. (you get the idea)

When you get stopped in traffic on the Interstate and its 95 or so degrees...shut'er down. Way to hot to keep it running going a foot or two at a time.

I'll wrap this up by saying if anyone tells me they have a seat that you can ride forever and it doesn't hurt your butt, I'll be very doubtful. I road over 600 miles a day while traveling and my butt was tired, sore, and then more sore. When I started wiggling around I would stop so I could rest my poor posterior. When I first bought my Road King, lots of people told me that the Sundowner seat was a seat you could ride forever. UH...I don't think so. Not on my skinny butt, anyway. After careful thought, I can only come to the conclusion that all the folks I talked to about seats....they all have more cushion on their rears than I do. hah!

Oh and one more thing...Harleybrat I am so sorry I didn't make it to Burlington to say Hi. That goes back to the scheduling thing I talked about earlier.

Ride Safe

Longrider

Saturday's the Day!! The plan is to get up early and head out for my long trip of the summer. Going solo. Just me and my dear Road King Saphire.  Headin' to Missouri and Iowa from Virginia. Will be going the Knoxville, Louisville, St. Louis route. Not the shortest but suits me best for this trip. Just hope I can dodge the thunderstorms. Anyone know of any bad construction areas I should try and avoid. I'm bound to hit some along the line somewhere.

Everyone ride safe and behave While I'm gone

Longrider

Hey, Anyone going to the NC HOG Rally on the Outer Banks next week. If so, give me a shout. Would like to meet any BikerWorld folks that might be attending. If you're not on my Friends list, maybe we can change that. I guess there is another rally going on there at the same time. I'm sure I'll sneak over to that one at some time, too.

Longrider

By now, I am sure most of you have heard the news of the Killings in Blacksburg, VA. At the Virginia Tech Campus. I have just watched the latest news briefing and not a lot of details are being released as of tonight. Except that 33 people have been shot, mostly students. And the guy doing the shooting killed himself. There are a lot of stories and theories going around, but I won't get into those. It just blows my mind that ONE person could destroy so many lifes. It makes me angry and it makes me sad. I am sad for the victims and their families. I can only imagine what the Mothers, Fathers, and other loved ones are going through right now. When I first heard of it today, it was said to be only one female student and RA at one of the dorms. Then it went up to 20, now the death toll is 33 (including the gunman). And it makes me angry that some asshole with a gun would think he could justify (in his own mind) the taking of all these young lifes.

I work in Blacksburg. I see and am in contact with these young people most every day. They are at the beginning of their lifes adventures. I see them laughing and carrying on with their friends. Yes, sometimes they may party too hard and some get into trouble for doing stupid things. But I was young once. I remember how that was. They certainly did not deserve this.

I am not ashamed to say I shed a tear today.

Longrider