Burger Me This...

Zena wolfs down her $1.95 hamburger at a restaurant in Cambridge City, Indiana . Actually, she got the deluxe version with veggies so make that $2.30. It's really easy to get used to these midwest prices. We are dreading the NYC economy.

Arch de Saint-Louis

Zena and Dave Kaleidoscope

Gateway to the Midwest

Little did I know that one could ride to the top of the arch and peer out the tiny windows. Little did I know that it symbolizes the expansion into the west during the 1800's.

Day 18: Alton, IL to St. Louis, MO to Maryland Heights, MO

Total Miles: 45
Total Number of Times a Clausterphobe Would Have Freaked: 35
Total Times Crossing the Mississippi: 1

We crossed the Mississippi (again) to arrive at the City Museum of Saint Louis, where we crawled and climbed through structures of wood, stone, wire and plastic that formed tunnels and crawl spaces, three-story slides and a host of other potential adventures. Zena crawls out of a tight tunnel, though not the tightest of those we made it through.

We enjoyed some live blues music and overpriced food at the Big Muddy Blues Festival, then made our way to Dan's house for a house party. Dave and Kevin got their first lesson in "washers," a St. Louis game akin to horseshoes.

LIfe as a Hamster

Dave gets a fresh perspective on hamster life. He's about 150 feet off the ground in a steel tunnel. Next time he plans to wear knee pads.

Day 17 Bloomfield, IA to Alton, IL

Miles Ridden: 254
Number of Times we Crossed the Mississippi: 1

It was a leisurely day on back roads with a long breakfast where we met a retired couple who each have ridden over 800,000 life miles on various motos. We did a short side trip and visited their home moto museum full of various motorcycle memorabilia.

We traveled a very scenic road along the Mississippi river where this panoramic shot is from. We got lots of deer warnings and deer collision stories so we are sufficiently scared to ever ride at night through deer country.

Bee Sting #2

Why me? Kevin inspects his sensitive nipple just after being stung by a bee while riding. Is it the red riding suit? Does he look like a huge flower? While cruising at 15mph through the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska, Kevin drove into the bee or the bee flew into his supersuit (jellybean) and attacked. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUCH!

Day 15 McCook, Nebraska to Lincoln, Nebraska

Miles Riden: 270
Number of Deep Fried Twinkies Eaten by Zena: 1

We made it to Lincoln, Nebraska (state capitol) and home of the famous Nebraska State Fair (started in 1868), Check it out at http://statefair.org/. We pitched our tents in the fair campground around 4pm and then walked over the the fair. Here's a quick rundown of our fair activities:

5pm - entered west entrace $6 a head
5:30pm - watched vintage tractor parade (garnered ideas for next SF City cruiser)
6:30pm - watched Giraldo Family Circus Troupe
7:00pm - Kevin ate entire Funnel Cake ($4.50)
7:15pm - Lost a combined total of $9.50 at Bingo Tent
7:45pm - Watched Zena Devour Deep Fried Twinkie ($3.00)
8:00pm - Got Nauseous in the Vortex Tunnel ($2 each)
9:00pm - Zena & Kevin bought unlimited passes to the fair rides ($10 each)
9:01pm - Dave is stuck carrying both backpacks, waterbottles, and all jackets while Z and K run around the park. As the designated "Dad" he also got to take all the pictures.
10:00pm - Kevin lies down to fight his second attack of Nausea after the rides.
10:30 - Zena buys a Pineapple Whip ($2.50), Kevin gets a super size fresh lemonade ($5) and nachos with jalepenos($4).
11:00pm - Enter Beer Gardens to enjoy live Country Music - bummed we left earplugs with the motos
11:30pm - Watched an honest-to-god, beer induced, bar fight break out & immediately broken up by the Nebraska State Troopers.

All in all, we left with an euphoric feeling of having had an authentic Mid West Experience.

Miss August 2006

Zena poses for the "Go Army" calendar as Miss August 2006.

Go Army!

The US Army Recruiters were displaying their tools of the trade at the Nebraska State Fair. This is a 1987 Hummer complete with a gun turret in the top. Kevin is left to his imagination, so he climbs in and pretends to shoot man eating bees.

Bumper Ninja

No really, if you look at the hood of the bumper car you can see that it has a name....Ninja. No other cars are even around him 'casue he's in Ninja Stealth Mode. He would only appear momentarily to perform a catastrophic BUMP on his opponents.

Funnel Cake

No fair is complete without a classic funnel cake. White dough deep fat fried layered with powdered sugar. YUMMY in the TUMMY. (feels more like a rock afterwards)

Moto Heads Unite

Dave, Zena, & Dave pose with one of the Globe of Death riders inside the globe of death. She was riding a 100cc Honda motorcross bike.

Globe of Death

It's a bit hard to see, but that's a guy on a moto inside the globe of death riding in circles. He is currently at the top of the globe.

Circus Show

Dave waits patiently in the grass for the Giraldo Troupe to begin their tight rope act, motorcycle stunts and other craziness. It was a free show sponsored by the Nebraska State Fair.

Let's get Sick

We each paid $2.00 to experience the "Vortex." It's a catwalk surrounded by a rotating tunnel of different colors and patterns. Simply walk through right? This nausea inducing 3-d effect is purely mental, but effective nonetheless.

BINGO!

At 25cents a card, why not double up each round. The Lion's Club of Lincoln Nebraska sponsored a 'straight bingo' tent. Kevin lasted three rounds, losing $1.50, but Zena and Dave persisted, but never hit bingo. They were both out $4.00. It was a wild night of gambling at the State Fair.

Freshly Fried Twinkie

Zena accepts her "freshly fried" twinkie from a young and fit employee who said, "I've already had three of these myself today." Let's just say, that this employee was not representative of the typical person at the Nebraska State Fair.

Death by Twinkie

If you think twinkies are bad for you with, how about a deep fried one. Zena whipped out her $3 as fast as she could.

Day 14 Denver, CO to McCook, Nebraska

Miles Riden: 24o
Number of Times Kevin got stung by a Bee: 1

With bags packed with fresh laundry, we headed east to begin our Midwest Conquest. After many people suggested that we bypass Kanas, we altered our route slightly to drive the Southern route of Nebraska. Thanks to Zena's forthought, we were well aware that the Nebraska State Fair was running over 10 days. We were primed to hit it.

Not counting the Bee String, we had an easy ride to McCook, Nebraska. We ate dinner and breakfast at the local 24hour family restaurant and enjoyed some incredible all-american food. Homemade apple pie and fresh cut ribeye steak. We also had the very tasty vegetable soap, but quickly learned that vegetable soup in Nebraska means beef soup with carrots, celery and potatoes.

Bee Sting #1

While driving out of Denver on route 76, a bee flew up the left arm of Kevin's red super suit. It sneaked in the space between his gloves and overlapping sleeve of the jacket. The bee immediately paniced and stabbed it's stinger into Kevin's forearm. Kevin pulled over, jumped off his bike and began stripping. This is the resultant squashed bee sans stinger, which was removed from the forearm forthwith.

Peaches Grow on Trees

Zena eats from a tree of life. It was a self pay, self pick orchard. They provide bags and a scale, post the cost per pound and trust people to drop the right amount of money in the metal box. Plus, the orchard was in the middle of a national park in a high desert climate. Overall, a bit surreal.

Panoramic of Hwy 12 view

We moto'd around the corner to be presented with this. Everyday we discover new things about America 

Moto Camping

Sunset Campground at Byrce Canyon National Park

Kevin & Moto in Bryce Canyon

DAVEEEEEEEEEE Wake Up!

I want to go see Byrce Canyon

Do you Know Where We Are?

Neither do we. It's 3:45pm, Wed Aug 23rd. Dave's Moto has a inoperable cylinder so we are trying to jerry rig it until we get to the next town.

Big Skies of Utah

Life on the road. Any Complaints?

Moto Art

Kevin's shadow, Zena in the rear view, blue skies and billowy clouds

How Cute Are They?

Dave and Zena riding tandem through the Red Canyon Tunnel on Hwy 12 on the way to Bryce Cannyon National Park.

Day 4 St. George, UT to Zion National Park, UT

Total Miles: 40

Departure Time: 3pm
Temperature: 103 Degrees
Helmet Law in Utah: Optional

It's was mellow day of riding. We actually spent 4 miles on the major freeway 15...yuck. Surprising that such a conservative state (considering the large population of LDS) has no helmut law. It's weird passing motorcyclists in t-shirts, shorts, flip flops and bare heads.

We spent the afternoon relaxin by the river. As you can see, Kevin was able to get enough momentum to slide along the surface...must have something to do with the high salinity.

103° in St. George Utah

Zena is drenching herself before our departure at the local waterfall in front of the Bank downtown. Wind will keep her cool & she'll be dry in only 30min.

Mid-Nevada

Dave with cows that were chillin on the road until we got closer. It's so unpopulated, why waste money on fencing off the highway.

Bone Chopper

We meet Bebos who is residing at the clown motel for a few weeks. He builds motos from bones he gathers from road kill. Check him out at bebosbones.com.

CLOWN MOTEL

Tonopha, NV. It was a bit surreal.

Zena out cold at Clown Motel

Motel pillows are too hard, so Dave's shoulder fills in.

Day 2 - End of Day Wrap up

We made it to Tonopah, Nevada. Total mileage today = 302. We went over Tioga pass & spent 2 hours in Tuolome Meadows, Yosemite Park. Dave and Zena went running & Kevin did some bouldering & went for a skinny dip in the creek. Now we are crashing at the Clown Motel. $40 gets us a none smoking double queen w/ 1970 something microwave, a minifridge that is barley colder than the room, running water & it still reeks of smoke. We've reached the middle america zone!

No internet connection, so photos will have to wait. This a cell phone update.

Day 2 / leg 1

We've made it to the foot hills of the sierra's. Yosemite is about 50 miles away. We've had to bump start Zena's moto twice already.

Let's do a MPG status check:
Dave 24 mpg
Zena 65 mpg
Kevin 56 mpg

yes it's gonna cost Dave more than twice as much to go X-country. He might have to work nights.

Day 1 - Thursday August 17th

It’s are first day of riding and we already hit double digits at 89 miles. Wow, we rode all the way from Redwood City California to Modesto CA via back roads. Zena’s Ascot is still having starter motor troubles. It sporadically fails. Dave’s 750four is leaking from brake fluid and has a vacuum problem that is fouling the spark plug on his number one cylinder. Kevin’s R50 /5 is the oldest bike of the lot (36 years old) and is running like a dream. We are sweating in our riding suits, and all three of us still feel a bit stressed from our pre-trip preparations.

Kevin has changed to a 1970 BMW R50 /5, it's August 2006, it's 3,000 miles to NYC from SF, CA, and he's got 30 days to do it. What's the rush? It's a setup for a moto slow venture across middle america on backroads. No fairings, no hard bags, no fancyness, just an old slow beast of a machine and the open road.

Here's the first Group Shot of the MotoSlow 3. From left to right:
Dave - 1976 Honda 750 four
Zena - 1984 Honda Ascot 500cc
Kevin - 1970 BMW R50 /5 (500 cc)
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