A brief update

Well, I made it to Fairbanks! In a half hour, I'll go to the local BMW mechanic and he'll swap out my mostly on-road tires for 50/50 on-road/off-road tires. Then it's north to Prudhoe Bay! It's been rainy in Alaska for the past few days, so the haul road that follows the Alaska pipeline will be muddy. Should be interesting.

My connection is slow right now, so I can't upload my pictures of the trip up the Alaskan Highway through BC and the Yukon. It was breathtaking. Absolutely stunning scenery. I'll try to get those online in a couple of days -- along with the Prudhoe Bay branch of my trip!

Days 8 - 10: from Green Bay to the AK Highway

Day 8: 387 mi to Darwin, MN

GREETINGS FROM THE TWINE BALL, WISH YOU WERE HERE!



After escaping form De Pere, WI at around 2 pm, I headed west toward Minnesota. Stopping for yet another lunch at a Subway -- incidentally, Subways in Wisconsin have more cheese options than anywhere else I've found, which I suppose makes sense -- anyhow, so realizing I was about to enter Minnesota, I gave my brother a call. The conversation went something like this:

JAKE: Hey Steve, you near a computer? I'm about to enter Minnesota and need you to look something up for me.
STEVE: What's that? You lost?
JAKE: Think: I'm about to enter Minnesota.
STEVE: Minne -- NO WAY!
[clatter of Steve's chair falling as he leaps out of it]
JAKE (laughing): Yep. Can you tell me where it is?

Why is this exciting? Because we're uber-dorks and listened to Weird Al growing up. Aside from his parodies, he wrote a few original songs, including this tribute (sincere, to my ear) to Roadside Americana:


(If you don't have Flash, that's supposed to be an unofficial Youtube video for "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.")

So when I found out that it would only take me about 30 minutes off my route, I had no choice. Twine ball or bust!



Unfortunately, the Twine Ball Inn doesn't look like anything more than a run-down bar, so I wound up camping at a nearby RV park.


Day 9: 817 mi to Regina, SK

Crossing the northern American plains. Minnesota to North Dakota to Saskatchewan.

Not a very interesting ride, although northern North Dakota has a rather stark beauty.






(don't worry, Mom -- I parked the bike first. And then ran into the middle of the road to get a better shot.)




Camped about 15 mi north of Regina. There was no hot water in the shower. Not fun.


Day 10: 815 mi to Grande Prairie, AB

More dead boring riding across the plains. There were cows ...


(moo)

... and bugs ...


(splat)

But mostly there was nothing. Even more nothing than in North Dakota. Yes, yes, stark beauty and all that, but I was getting sick of flat and empty.

Fortunately, that started to change once I got past Edmonton and turned NW. Soon there were hills, trees, streams. Industry shifted from farming to logging and oil.

Another picture of my shadow. Autumn is in full swing up here!




There are additional pictures that I didn't post in my online gallery. More of the same, really, but maybe you want another look at those bugs?


I'll be in Fairbanks in 2 days, which makes my Prudhoe Bay run the 20th or 21st. Precisely on the equinox. As a result, everywhere but the northernmost latitudes will still experience a full day/night cycle: on the equinox, the inclination of the Sun above (at noon) and below (at night) the horizon is just your angle from the North Pole. Fairbanks is at about 65 degrees north, so the Sun will go from 25 degrees above the horizon to 25 degrees below it -- more than enough to ensure perfectly dark skies. ("Astronomical night," during which it's dark enough for the big telescopes to operate at their best, is defined as the sun being more than 18 degrees below the horizon.) OK, physics lesson over. In practical terms, it means: I MIGHT SEE THE AURORA!! Please send some spaceweather, my astro friends.

OK, I've got to run! Day 11's a rollin', and I still need to change my oil before I hit the road.


>>>NEXT: Days 11 - 13: The Alaska Highway

Day 4 - 7: stuck in Wisconsin!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have no excuse, as I've had nothing better to do while I sit around in my hotel room. (Which, luckily, does have high-speed internet.) But my situation has been sufficiently pathetic that I've been doing nothing other than watching TV, playing computer games on my laptop, and ... well, that's about it. I did travel into Green Bay on wednesday and check out the local brew pub and a few other places. And there is a pretty decent Mexican restaurant right next door to the hotel. (I know -- it must be like all 10 of the Mexicans in Wisconsin, right there.)

So, the damage to the bike: one of the seals on my transmission failed, letting crap get in there. That destroyed the transmission and caused the clutch plate to become unaligned, prematurely wearing it. OUCH. I lucked out and found a used, good-condition tranny on beemerboneyard.com, which buys totaled beemers and parts them out, so that saved me a good bit of money. Still, this hurts the old checkbook.

WOOHOO! Dealer just called as I type this. BIKE IS DONE! I'll be back on the road in an hour.


>>>NEXT: Days 8 - 10: from Green Bay to the AK Highway

Day 2 & 3: We have a problem

Day 2. More or less uneventful. I rode from Alton, ON to Sault Ste. Marie along the lake. Nice ride.

Clutch started occasionally slipping in the low gears at the end of the day. Sometimes got a rattling noise when the clutch wasn't engaged. Hm. Decided to ride day 3 (goal: Winnipeg, Manitoba) in the US rather than in Canada, in case things get worse. Which brings us to ....


Day 3. We have a problem.



Rode roughly 50 miles onto the Upper Peninsula, MI. No rattling, no clutch slipping. Life feeling pretty good.

And then the clutch or the transmission or the final drive failed. Rattling and losing power to the rear wheel whenever the bike exceeds 40 mph or the engine has to put out a significant amount of torque.

I limped my way another 15 miles, to lovely Newberry, MI. Checked into the Best Western. Pulled my starter (pic above), half expecting to see debris in the clutch and flywheel housing behind it, but no debris.

Anyhow, that's academic at the moment. Regardless of whether it's the clutch or whatever else, I can't fix it here. I'll probably rent a truck tomorrow and take it to Nick's BMW in Greenbay. This is going to cost me a couple days and probably more money than I want to think about right now.


>>>NEXT: Day 4 - 7: stuck in Wisconsin!

Day 1

711 miles, Cambridge, MA to North Hampton, NH to Alton, ON via Niagra

So day 1 was a bit of a rescue mission. Miriam, a good friend of mine who is also doing a Canada ride, ran into some bike problems requiring some new parts. Parts in Canada are apparently hard to find and very expensive, so I stopped by the bike shop in NH that she goes to and delivered them to Alton, a town just north of Toronto where she is staying with friends. The plus side being that I got to stay with some extremely nice Canadians.

But first -- the beginning. Here's my odometer, right before leaving. 41,969 mi.


Not much to see, scenery-wise. I wanted to be quick so it was just a straight shot down the 90 through Massachusetts and New York.


The auxiliary tank is AWESOME. 428 miles before my first refill, and I could have gone another 40. Between that, the new saddle, and the throttle lock (think a poor man's cruise control), the highway miles just flew past. An iPod and good earphones helps too.



43 mpg. Not bad.

Finally, I reached Niagra. I remember the rapids before the Falls frightening me as a child. At night they are even more menacing. Here the Horseshoe Falls are lit by spotlights from the Canadian side.






And entering Canada:



OK, that's all for now. I am being lazy since I have such wonderful hosts here but I need to hit the road!


>>>NEXT: Day 2 & 3 - We have a problem

And we are GO!!!!

I'm hitting the road! (figuratively speaking, of course.) Sadly, without the camera. It was not happy with the motorcycle power supply, despite the big filtering capacitors I put in my controller circuit and on the camera itself. Ah well, something to do for the next trip.

It was a nice thought:


And here's the bike, ready and waiting for me!





Thanks to everyone who wished me off!

>>>NEXT: Day 1

Ready for launch!

OK. It's been quite a process, but I'm ready to go. Leaving at 8:00 am tomorrow. Yes, I said 5 am before, but I have good reason for leaving later. But first ....



That is it. What my past 5 1/2 years at MIT have come down to. The above form indicates that I have turned in my thesis to the physics office, completing all the requirements for my PhD in astrophysics. (Note that "PhD" has been circled, rather than "SM," for a science masters.) Never mind that the above piece of paper could be easily mistaken for a dry cleaning ticket. That is it. And with it, I am done. Summarily cut off of the payroll and sent out the door. Not a moment too soon.

So, with that in hand, I could go about more interesting things. Like this trip. The past couple weeks have involved a lot of bike preparation.

Adding an electrical connection, so that my cell phone and laptop can recharge while I ride:

I also hacked together a power cord and protective case for my Macbook, but it's packed away right now.

Put a 5 gallon auxiliary tank on my bike, right over where the passenger seat would go. I'll take a pic tomorrow before I leave.

Added a headlight guard to protect the glass headlight assembly from rocks on the gravel roads of Alaska. These things cost like $50 -- or you can whip out the trusty Dremel and drill and DIY. Granted, mine looks a wee bit ragged around the edges, but ... meh. It's functional.

Did a little motorcycle-worthy hair styling. BEFORE:

And AFTER:

Again, obviously DIY. Like hell I'm gonna pay someone $15 to buzz my hair.

And finally, I hacked up this old digital camera so that it will (hopefully) take a picture every six seconds while I'm riding. Unfortunately, learning astrophysics seems to have pushed most of the electrical knowledge out of my head -- and I never had much to begin with -- so we'll see how well this thing works. I give it 8 days before it falls apart. That's probably optimistic, but I at least want it to last until Alaska.

So the idea is that the camera will sit behind my windshield, looking forward and taking pictures of the scenery ahead. Taking one picture every six seconds, a time-lapsed movie will compress 2 hours of riding into a minute of video. If this all works, I'll put the time-lapsed movies on youtube. We'll see.

So that's it for prep. The plan:

I'm going to get up to Fairbanks, AK as quickly as possible. Blitz across the Trans-Canada Highway with minimal stops for scenery. At this point, it's late enough in the season that snow starts to be a concern. So I plan to be at Fairbanks in a week. I just got a new (to me) Sargent saddle. I hope it's better than the stocker.

That's all for now. I need to hit it. I'll post a picture of my packed bike tomorrow morning.


(Click on the >>>NEXT links to continue through the story!)

>>>NEXT: And we are GO!!!!