The Plan for South Dakota

Yesterday I spent my last break mapping out the towns I plan to stop in for refueling.

In the western part of the country it isn't necessary to make such defined plans since towns are generally closer together, and when we traveled this route in our car last year, our range was more than three times that of the motorcycle. On a motorcycle, you really don't want to ride for more than two hours without a brief break anyway.

Since I recently learned exactly what the range is on my cruiser, it made planning the stops fairly easy. I'm refueling on the extremely conservative side since I don't know whether my highway mileage will be better due to the consistent RPMs or lower due to the extra gear, so I chose refueling points no more than 150 miles apart.

The first picture shows my overall trip with planned stops and the second picture shows the name of each point, with the details of the start and end addresses whited out for good measure.



If for some reason you can't see the second photo, the towns I plan to stop at, in order, are Cle' Elum, Wa, Ritzville, Wa, Kellogg, ID, Missoula, MT, Butte, MT, Livingston, MT, Billings, MT, Sheridan, WY, Moorcroft, WY.

From Moorcroft it should only be about 120 miles to Jon and Sheena's home.

According to Google Maps, the respective stop times should be about as follows:
A. Depart 3:00AM
B. 5:00
C. 7:00
D. 9:00
E. 10:45
F. 12:15
G. 1:45
H. 2:15
I. 4:00
J. 5:45
K. Arrive 7:30PM (8:30PM Mountain Time).

I actually expected the trip to end closer to 8:30 Pacific time, 9:30 Mountain, but for the most part, I usually beat any time estimated by Google Maps, so I'll just have to see how it turns out in the end.

I would love to be able to take more time on this trip, drive some backroad highways and make a couple of stops, but unfortunately this trip will have to be more business-like so that I can maximize visitation time.

I've been looking at JC Whitney's rain suits, I think I might get a lighter rainsuit for this trip and use that instead of my winter gear, since it will offer better rain protection and also take up less space in my saddlebags when I get into the desert. For warmth in the morning, I'll just wear long underwear pants and a sweater under my rain suit, since I need to bring a sweater anyway, this will save me even more space, and keep me relatively warm.

Since all of the states I'll travel through, except Wyoming oddly enough, have CPL reciprocity agreements with Washington State, I've also been considering a leather concealment vest from www.sportsmansguide.com. It's a good leather vest that I can use for riding any time, and it will help conceal whatever I take with me. Since Wyoming allows Open Carry, I'll just bring an extra hip holster with me for the three hundred miles I'll travel through the corner of their state.

Moderate Sunburn

I spent the majority of the day splitting wood on Saturday, so far I've chopped about 190 cubic feet, which is about a cord and a quarter. Only two more cords to go before I'm done for the year. Last year I didn't finish splitting all of my wood in time, so I stacked the rounds on pallets and split them as needed throughout the winter.

Although sunburns are practically impossible to get in the winter, the downside to winter chopping is that you need to wear a sweater and the moisture in the air usually makes the wood a little harder to split.

For those reasons, I hope to have it all split before the end of July this year. Then I can spend my time enjoying fires rather than cutting wood for them. Splitting it sooner will also give the split chunks of wood more time to dry out in the summer sun, which means they'll burn hotter and more efficiently.

Saturday, being the first long day of sun exposure I've had, I managed to earn a sunburn on my upper and lower back. Since my arms and shoulders got plenty of exposure on Memorial Day at Brandon's trailer in the desert, they didn't burn at all, just became much more tan. The thing about me and my skin is that I rarely burn seriously, no matter what I do, and after my first burn of the year, I am tan enough to not burn on the same spot again.

What usually happens, and what seems to be happening this time as well, is that the burn is red for the first day, but by the end of the second day it's mostly tan with a hint of rouge. After four days, I usually have a nice, dark tan. It rarely becomes second degree and starts to peel.

The last time that I burned myself badly enough to cause peeling was several years ago at Lake Ozette. Mac, Brandy and I borrowed Ron's boat and spent the whole day on the lake fishing at the beginning of a very hot August. We literally went out at about sun up and came in at dusk, Mac and I were shirtless for the majority of the day without any form of sunblock. I knew that night that a bad burn was coming since my skin was very warm, as it usually gets the night you burn. Interestingly enough I only burned my back and shoulders that day.

We stopped at a Swain's department store on the way home the next day and bought some Solarcaine burn relief and helped each other apply it liberally before hopping in the car. We didn't get out of the parking lot before the "instant cooling" agent actually intensified the burning sensation to an extreme degree. When we got home, we all took a cold shower right away.

At another point in my life, I thought that perhaps it was just a fluke that we ended up having such a terrible experience with something that advertises relief, but when I've tested it on burns of varying levels of intensity, there is still a resulting burn intensification. I don't doubt that the gel is good for your burned skin, but I feel like they should probably say something like "Agitates and intensifies" rather than "Cools and Soothes" on their bottle.

I've found that a heavy moisturizing lotion works the best for soothing and healing, and drinking plenty of water. Although it's expensive, I usually use Cetaphil, which my doctor initially prescribed for the excema I occasionally get on my fingers.

In any case, my burn is turning into a nice tan, and with the melanin factory running, I hope that I can avoid any burns on my upcoming trip to South Dakota.

On that topic, I've ordered my tires and I'm taking the motorcycle in to have them installed on Friday the 3rd.

Combustible Supply Critical

I ran out of fuel yesterday on my way back home from the Bainbridge ferry terminal. In preparation for my upcoming trip, I was testing the limits of my V-Star to see how much I could get from a tank before I would run out.

Of course, this plan doesn't make a lot of sense to everyone, you might wonder, if I was trying to run out, why didn't I have extra gasoline with me so that I could refuel when it ran out. The piece of information you are missing is that, since it isn't easy to put fuel gauges in motorcycles, they have a reserve switch which keeps you from using the last quarter to half of a gallon in your tank until the switch is engaged. This usually gives you 10 to 20 miles to get to a gas station if you manage to run out inadvertently.

Not only was I testing my range, I was also testing to find out whether my reserve worked or not. My original plan was to run the tank down to the reserve, then head for the closest gas station. Since I know Bainbridge and the 305 corridor very well, I know that I should be able to reach a gas station from any point on my trip.

When I first started the motorcycle, I turned the choke on full, then when I got on to leave the parking lot, I turned it to half. Just as I left the parking lot, I accelerated slightly and felt the bike lose power a little. I should have known better, but I attributed this to the choke being on and turned the choke off, to which the throttle seemed to return to normal. I suspect that it was low on fuel and the choke was simply making the draw a little too aggressive for how much fuel I had left, the pump probably couldn't keep up with the demand.

So I continued down the road about three miles, passing the intersection to turn for fuel without giving it a second thought. The bike began to bog down again and I knew it was about to run out of gas. Not to worry, I flipped the switch to the reserve position. The motorcycle continued to bog down on power, just barely moving itself forward.

If you have ever run out of fuel, it's not the feeling you would expect. You don't suddenly stop without warning, you usually try to accelerate and notice that the engine dies as you push the accelerator harder. If you have a manual transmission, you downshift one gear at a time as the engine slowly winds down after each gear. By the time you stop, the engine stalls and you are out of fuel completely.

I pulled over at a gravel turnout on Madison, about a mile from the Valley Rd. intersection, got off my bike and checked to make sure I had the switch in the right position. Since I knew that this was a possibility, I had already been mentally prepared to call one of my friends or family members from the nearby area. First I tried Peter, who did not answer, but was able to reach Ron who came promptly with a full gas can. As it turns out, he wanted to stop by Burton Motorsports soon, and I was on my way there at the time.

I put about half a gallon in the tank, fired it up and rode to the Shell station in Suquamish. I filled up my tank there, and also Ron's gas can, so that I could see how much fuel I used. It came out to about 4.6 gallons, since my tank only holds 4.5, I obviously put a little extra in Ron's gas can, but what this tells me is that unless I greatly overestimated the amount of fuel initially in Ron's can, my tank ran itself entirely out of fuel, which means that the pet cock may be broken or leaking.

If I was mistaken in my fuel reckoning, then the pet cock is just clogged. I'm not sure that the problem concerns me enough to worry about replacing it before the trip since I got the information that I really need, being that I know 200 miles is the cut off point for my range, so if I always refuel at or before 150 miles, I shouldn't have to face any problems.

As an added safety measure, I may keep a small bottle of gasoline in the central storage compartment of my bike, but generally speaking, in many of the areas I'll be travelling through, the extra 20 miles that a reserve will get me or an extra 1/5th of a gallon in a spare bottle will probably not be the difference between making it to a gas station or not making it to a gas station. If I run out, I'll just have to push it and hope that a kind motorist pulls over to lend me some fuel. In any case, I usually drive on the extremely conservative side with fuel, I usually refill with plenty of fuel to spare.

I got to Burton's before closing time so that I could pick up my new cruise control for the throttle and talk to Burt about my replacement tires and still managed to get home an hour earlier than my normal arrival time.

Gearing Up

I am planning a motorcycle trip to Rapid City, SD to visit my friend Jon. Ever since he moved away, then back, then moved away again, we've generally visited at least once per year. Last year it was easy to get to Rapid City, since we were already driving to Nebraska to visit Brandy's family and Rapid City was just a few hours from Hastings.

This year, we aren't making any trips since Coughlin is so young, but I've decided to make the trip myself. I've wanted to make a long distance motorcycle trip since I started riding, but every time that I tried to team up with a friend to make one, something would come up and the trip would fall through. Now that I have a reason to travel solo, I'm taking the opportunity to visit a friend and also get my IBA certification, which one of the afore-mentioned ride-mates, Malachi, already went on to get without me.

For those who don't know, IBA stands for Iron Butts Association. They are a group who offers certification on a series of endurance rides that are both grueling and practical to complete without breaking laws or putting anyone in extreme danger.

Before you can go on to complete any of the more advanced rides, you have to complete one of their two preliminary rides which are the SaddleSore 1000 and the BunsBurner 1500. The SaddleSore, which is the ride I plan to complete with this trip, requires you to ride 1000 miles in 24 hours. The BunsBurner is 1500 miles in 36 hours.

http://www.ironbutt.com/ridecerts/getdocument.cfm?DocID=1

Even if there was no certification involved, I'd be doing this ride just because it's the type of thing I enjoy doing. I love road trips, especially the kind which boast ridiculous proportions for relatively short times. Such as the time that Brandy and I went to Sacramento to have dinner with Mac and Malachi, then came back home.

I'm planning to leave at about 3:00, which is a pretty standard departure time for road trips. I think I'll start out wearing my rain gear becuase it will probably still be fairly cold, and it would be smart to keep my rain gear handy in case I run into any of the frequent western summer storms along the way. The only problem is that it's just one more thing to store when I hit the hot tempuratures on the other side of the cascades. If it's warm enough, I might just bring some trash bags and push through the cold morning in the name of packing lightly.

My plan is to arrive at Jon's house before 9:00, so that I'll do the majority of my riding while it is light. Since I'm staying close to the 45th parellel, I think it should be light until well into the late evening.

In preparation, I've already ordered a throttle locking "cruise control" kit for my V-Star, it should be very useful in all the vast open spaces I'll be travelling through. In addition to that, I plan to get a new set of tires from Burton Motorsports, since the current tires appear to be stock. The concern for me at this point is the age of the tires and not the miles on them. On average, motorcycle tires last around 10-15,000 miles, because they are made with a very soft rubber, unlike car tires which usually last around 60,000. In this case, the tread is still just legal, but after ten years the tires are showing some minor signs of aging, including some very small cracks. I plan to replace them with a stock size.

I'm very excited to be on the road again before the end of the summer.

Changing the Oil on a 1999 V-Star 650 Classic

I have been working from 7:00 - 3:30 this week to cover some absences at work, and in order to make it to that shift on time, I have to take the 6:20 ferry from Winslow. I had a little extra time Yesterday so I went by Burton Motorsports on my way home to pick up some oil and a filter since I hadn't changed the oil since buying the V-Star.

Changing the oil on a vehicle is nothing special, but I noticed a few quirky things about the V-Star which I found interesting.

Since the 650 doesn't come with a center stand, the oil drain plug is located on the bottom-left side of the oil pan instead of the bottom center. Because of this location, you can fit a socket on the plug, but there isn't enough space for your wrench between the plug and the frame, even trying to use a universal joint proved unsuccessful. When I inspected the plug, it was obvious that the previous owner had problems with this, since the plug showed signs of stripping and trauma. In the end, it looks like someone used vise-grips to get the plug loose and subsequently tighten it again. This wore down the edges, but also pushed the metal from the worn edges on to the flat portions, making it very difficult to fit.

In addition to the problem with sockets, crescent wrenches are too wide to fit into the space between the plug and the oil pan. This means that the only way to remove the plug is with a special short socket or a spanner.

Being a less-destructive mechanic, I went down to wal-mart and bought a set of cheap Stanley spanners, since the 3/4" spanner that I needed was one of the few that I didn't already own (most of my motorcycle tools have been metric since I've owned only Japanese motorcycles).

At first, you might think this is an odd design, but in reality, most motorcycles have a toolkit which include spanners for all of the motorcycle bolt sizes that you might need to use, and most motorcycle bolts are made to work with a spanner. The fact that sockets generally work as an alternative is just a matter of convenience.

The spanner set was only $7, I bought one for Metric and one for Standard sizes, I think I'll use them on some upcoming long trips, so I'll get my dollar's worth out of them.

Anyway, with a few gentle taps from my hammer, I was able to get the 3/4" spanner on and remove the plug without any trouble. The oil drained out quickly, and it looks like the motorcycle was just a little overfilled (3.5 quarts instead of the 3.2 it needs). The oil didn't show any signs of abuse such as extreme age, dirt or water intrusion, and while I was on the underside, I cleaned up the pan and made sure that there were no leaks.

I cleaned off the plug and took it over to my bench grinder where I was able to trim down the stripped portions of the bolt enough so that my new spanner could fit comfortably, without any hammering required. This should buy me a few uses, but eventually I will need to replace the plug with one that hasn't had such a hard life. At least for now the plug threads smoothly and evenly without any snagging, and it seals without leaking too, as you would hope for.

I flushed the oil out with a quarter of a quart of leftover motorcycle oil I had on hand and let it drain thoroughly, then went about the task of locating the oil filter.

After a little reading online, I managed to find it in a location that wasn't expected, but is at least easy to access.

In the picture below, you can see the oil filter cover. it is a round circle just above the lower exhaust pipe and right below the large, round, air filter cover. It's held in place with three allen bolts. After removing the three bolts, the round portion of the cover comes off, exposing three more bolts underneath. After you remove these three bolts, and two more on the outside, the whole cover assembly comes off and the oil filter is exposed underneath. Simply pull out the old filter and slide in the new on in it's place, then re-attach the cover.



It's not the simplest oil filter cover I've seen, but I've also seen worse. It's ridiculous to remove 8 allen bolts to get to the oil filter, but it's not a complicated task by any means, and the fact that the oil filter is well protected from rocks and road debris is a good thing. With the common modern oil filters that attach outside of the engine, there is a small risk that some projectile from the road will puncture the thin-skin and cause a leak.

Due to the proximity to the oil pump, a hole in any oil filter will deplete your oil supply very quickly, in most cases, probably so quickly that you wouldn't notice until you had already damaged your motor.

I refilled the oil, carefully measuring the 3.2 quarts specified, with Bel-Ray semi-synthetic 10w40. In the Bandit, I used to run Bel-Ray fully synthetic superbike oil, but at a retail price of $17.99 a quart (yes you read that right), the performance difference on the V-Star would be negligible. The semi-synthetic blend has made the engine noticeably smoother and quieter, and it will take more heat and time to break down. Since I hope to make at least one long road trip this year, it will be well applied, not that I need any special reasons to run semi-synthetic oil.

Ideal Spring: The Gamble of Vegetables in Washington

As previously stated, I managed to pull together a Garden this year, which I haven't been able to do for several years.

I tilled in my compost and planted all of my seeds in the same day, the first weekend after the last frosty morning. There is a calculated risk involved with planting so close to the frost, but most seeds won't be damaged by freezing temperatures, you only have to worry about that after the sprouts actually come up.

Usually to avoid this risk, but still get your garden started in time, you can sprout your vegetables indoors, or in a greenhouse. However, the potential for shock when you transplant your sprouts is high, so it's imperative that you keep the same soil and light conditions in both your sprouting location inside and the future home outside. Some vegetables, such as corn, are temperamental, even with very careful transplants. Others like beans will thrive no matter what condition changes you put them through.

Anyway, this May turned out to be perfect for sprouting seeds, the morning frost disappeared instantly, as it usually does in Western Washington, and we experienced record rainfall in the first two weeks of May. In order to sprout, most seeds need even temperatures above 50 degrees and a lot of moisture. Normally, the moisture of the soil when sprouting occurs is so high that an adult plant of the same species would be unable to survive. After the rain, we had two very warm weeks, with overcast nights, keeping the temperature higher. By Memorial Day, all of my corn, beans, cucumbers and onions had sprouted. Two weeks later, the beets and cucumbers came up too. I haven't seen any pumpkin sprouts yet, and I don't know if I ever will, because the last row, in which I placed the pumpkins, is just a little too shady.

Next year I plan to expand my garden and move it over a few rows to increase the amount of sun I can absorb.

I placed the three rows of corn on the side of the garden that receives the most sun, since corn thrives on bright, hot days, as long as it has an ample water supply. There is a saying to help you track the progress of your corn which goes "Knee High by the Fourth of July" of course, meaning that if your stocks are knee high before the beginning of July, they should mature in time to provide a good crop in the fall. If you don't reach that goal, all is not lost, but you probably won't get much produce before it is too cold in the fall.

A clear indicator of how unusually good our growing season has been this year, is that most of my corn stocks reached knee height in early June, and are continuing to grow. If the moderately warm weather can team up with a few good rainstorms, I hope to be able to get a couple of harvests in before it's too late.

The next row is cut in half, filled with beets and carrots, being tubers, they also like the light and heat. The carrots are doing very well, and the beats are coming along at a fair pace. You can't see the beets in this picture because they are beyond the two rocks at the end of my carrot row.

After that I have my cucumbers and beans, which prefer to have a little cool shade. They all sprouted very quickly, but have not been very fast to grow. I put up some wire fencing to use as a trellis to keep them from trying to take over the whole garden at ground level. The cucumbers are hard to see because they don't start out as leafy as the beans do, so they are currently just leafless stocks, sticking out of the ground.

In addition to the vegetable gardening, I've been sprouting apple trees since sometime last year. I love gala apples (but only before they turn pithy), so I've been germinating and growing their seeds. My yard is more than large enough to hold a large orchard, so I would like to get a few more fruit trees. Not only do they provide fruit, but they provide shade for the grass to grow in and fertilizer, both from the leftover fruit and from the droppings left by the nearby bird population.

Last year I was able to get two prominent seedlings. I placed the larger of the two in the back yard near the garden, and have planted the smaller tree in the front. I have them both protected by tomato cages right now to prevent any accidental damage while they are still in their first year. I have two first year seedlings that I sprouted last winter which I hope to be able to plant next year and I already have a batch of new seeds germinating for next year. If I can pull it off, I'd like to have several in my front yard, because the direct sunlight tends to bake the grass unless I water it a lot. Since I hate to waste potable water on something as vane as a green lawn (as much as I like having a beautiful green lawn) I'd rather avoid doing that, so growing some fruit bearing trees is an ideal way to improve the whole situation.

Since taking this picture, this larger seedling is almost to the top of the pictured tomato cage.

As part of clearing out my garden, I was able to take out a majority of the blackberry bushes that had overgrown that section of my yard. In doing this, I also uncovered the grape vine shown behind me in the first picture. Last year the vine produced a lot of grapes, but because it was so overgrown by blackberry bushes, it did not get enough light to ripen. I'm hoping that the new-found freedom will give it enough light to ripen this year.

Next year I plan to cut it all the way back and tie it up to help it out some more and finish off the last of the blackberries.

For anyone who who hasn't had a garden before, but is thinking about starting one, I know how daunting it seems, but let me assure you that after the initial set up, the two or three hours per week that you give to your garden will yield you the best fruits and vegetables you will have in your life. If I had the time, I would till up most of my backyard just so that I could consume and share more of the fruits of my own labor.

Composting: Experienced and Exceeding My Expectations

I have missed out on gardening entirely for the last couple of years due to time restrictions or lack of space to do so, but this year I finally got everything together in time.

I started composting more officially a few months before tilling in my garden. I've got a large lawn in the back, so I've obviously been composting since we moved in, but now I've actually set up a bin, which breaks everything down faster and more effectively.

There were four short steel fence posts in my yard because the previous owners had used them to support the crappy picket fence that was in my front yard. Since my neighbor and I agreed to take that down right after I moved in, I kept the steel posts, guessing that they would come in handy down the line.

I drove them into the ground with my sledge in an approximately 5x6 foot rectangle. A few months ago I picked up some free chicken wire that someone posted on Craigslist, so I folded that in half and wrapped it around the posts, using the pre-fabricated tabs on the posts to secure the fence to it.

I have a lot of grass and some other yard waste like leaves and brush to compost. I generally produce as much as you see in the picture below in a two week period during the spring and fall time of year, and in my new bin, it only takes about one week to reduce the pile to a layer only a couple of inches thick.

You can see Abby in the background sniffing around at stuff as Beagles often do. The invisible fence keeps her from getting into my new garden area, which is one of the reasons I chose the specific locations that I did.

The new bin makes it much easier to turn the compost effectively and since more air gets in through the sides, everything breaks down very quickly. I turn it just about every other day and during the cold spring mornings it would steam very actively.

I always knew that compost piles were warm, but I've been studying this recently and have found lots of interesting information about exactly how hot compost can get. I read one article in which a man buried a hot water heater under a 10x10x10 patch of compost and got the water up to 170 degrees. Apparently there are some homes which utilize a compost based heating system and it has been used to heat greenhouses for centuries. Working in my own compost pile really drives this home when I turn it over and the pile is actually hot to the touch.

The heat is caused by bacterial activity from the invisible friends that break down the nitrogen and carbon in all of the items. Everything breaks down most effectively when you have a good balance of nitrogen and carbon, so my pile is usually hottest when I add grass clippings that include a lot of maple leaves from all of the nearby trees.

We recently canceled our curbside trash service because Wal-Mart had a sale on 45 gallon trash cans (of which I purchased six), and I can take the trash to the Olympic Transfer Center for $10 per metric ton myself. Since my truck is a half-ton pickup, it will never cost more than $10. I bought six cans, and we only use about 1/3rd of a can per week, if that, so I'll only have to make the trip ever few months. We've been doing this for two months now and haven't even filled two full cans yet.

I kept the curbside recycling at $5 per month, even though I can recycle items for free at any transfer station. The reason is that in order to recycle at the transfer stations, you have to pre-sort the items and store them until you can make the trip, the $5 per month charge is well worth the time I'll save by simply having the truck come by every two weeks without requiring any sorting or storage.

Anyway, I say this because we have started composting the portion of our trash that can be safely composted to save space in the cans and to keep down the amount of rotting going on in the cans between trips to the transfer station. It's also pretty good for my garden soil, so it's a benefit all around. We keep a small container on the counter in the kitchen, and empty that into a larger plastic bin which we keep on the back porch so that I don't have to walk all the way down to the compost pile every day.

It's been really amazing to see how quickly things will decompose and the impact on my soil quality has been remarkable. I made my initial compost pile on the spot that my garden now sits, and the black, rich soil is hosting some very healthy corn stocks. Since then, I moved my pile to the side of my current garden space, to a location that I plan to till next year when I expand my garden.

At that, I purchased a roto-tiller from my neighbor to help speed up the process. I like doing work manually whenever I can, as many of you know, I split wood with a maul and sledge every year, but my current commute definitely doesn't allow enough time for me to manually and effectively till in a garden, so the addition of a tiller to my compliment of tools has been very handy. I may get to use it for more than gardening, since I have some very packed sections of lawn that could use a good tilling, and it also works great for removing blackberry roots since the tines pulverize the soil and pull everything even remotely solid out of the ground. As a point of the matter, my whole garden area was previously overgrown with blackberries, and the tiller pulled every root out without any problems.

This brings the end of my lunch time to a close, I've had a lot of things to write about recently, but no time to write them in, I hope I can post some more pictures and stories soon.