Well, that’s a wrap for The Big Ride North. Six weeks, seven thousand miles, dozens of campsites and cheap motels, national and state parks, lots of museums, cool bars and restaurants, and best of all, countless amazing (and some crazy) people I met along the way all made for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and a humbling and educational one at that. I started in Lakeland Florida, ran out of gas on my first night on the road and slept on the side of I-75 just south of Atlanta, rode up through Appalachia, then Midwest farm country, and spent time with family in the lower peninsula of Michigan before crossing the Mackinac Bridge into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I spent most of the trip there in the UP, zig-zagging around to see as much of the place as possible. I captured hours of drone and action camera footage there that I’m going to edit down when I have time. Crossed over into Canada to go to a bush plane museum, went up to Copper Harbor (northernmost point in MI), over to the Porcupine Mountains (westernmost point in MI), and then down around Lake Michigan through Wisconsin, stopping for a few days in Milwaukee, and then a few days in Chicago where I saw the captured WWII submarine U-505 and left the bike and caught a flight to Denver to see @wardruna and @cchelseawwolfe at Red Rocks and drive around in the Rockies. After that I rode back to Lansing MI for a cigar (or two) with @calebopper while I waited to make sure my house was still intact as Hurricane Milton passed through. Finished it off with a grueling two day ride from Lansing back to Lakeland. Very thankful for the experience and that the whole adventure went without any sort of negative incident and that I had amazing weather the whole time. Thoroughly humbled by everything I saw and experienced.
Made some custom grip guards for my Suzuki V-Strom. I didn’t love the options on the market and I was itching to make some sort of custom flair piece for the bike anyway. I rushed the job a little as I was hurrying to get ready for a long trip to Michigan, but I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. I intended to fully polish them, but they accumulate so many dead bugs that I’m not sure it’s worth it. Started with manila folder paper to create the form, then made a light gauge aluminum mockup, before finally transferring the template to a thick bar of aluminum. I had to form each one in two pieces and weld them together, as the bend in the middle was too much to try to bend. Used my press break to form the contour before welding and grinding into a monolith piece. Not sure how many hours I put into these and I don’t really want to think about it either.
I spent a day in Detroit last year on a little self-guided architectural tour. Had some downtime at work today so I went through my photos and picked a few good ones. The history of Detroit is fascinating and there is something especially poignant about the opulence and craftsmanship of the architecture in such a blighted setting. The buildings are like time capsules from a long gone era of American wealth, manufacturing, and seemingly a general sense of optimism. However it was good to see the amount of progress that has been made in cleaning up and developing the downtown area. Having grown up only a couple hours from the city I always wanted to explore it more, but safety concerns put a damper on that. It’s nice now that the downtown area seems largely safe enough to walk around without too much concern. Highlights of my tour were the Henry Ford estate, the Penobscot Building, the Guardian Building, Book Tower, the Fisher Building, and the massive Masonic Temple. I want to do a deeper dive next time I visit and go to some old theaters, bars, churches, and stores.
Took my first visit to the Rocky Mountains… I only flew in for two nights, but I got to spend both of them at concerts at Red Rocks, a bucket list destination for me. Saw some legendary metal bands the first night, and the powerful Heilung @amplifiedhistory the second. During the days I was there I drove hundreds of miles through the mountains, taking scenic bypasses, hiking and just meandering about. I always heard what a spectacular place the Rockies are but nothing prepared me for the heartstopping beauty at every turn and the sheer size and scale of the place. Can’t wait to go back.
Second week of Georgia/South Carolina motorcycle camping trip. Headed north from Savannah past Hilton Head Island, out to Hunting Island, one of the cooler campsites of the trip, right on the beach and in view of the sunrise and sunset from the same spot. Continued back inland and northeast to Charleston, where I spent four days and had ridiculousy beautiful weather the whole stay. I took the ferry out to Fort Sumter, spent several hours walking through the WWII-era USS Yorktown aircraft carrier and USS Laffey destroyer, went to America’s oldest/first museum, saw the grave of all three separate crews of the Civil War submarine Hunley, and checked out some OG American buildings in town. Headed north again toward Wilmington NC, but the weather turned by the time I got to Myrtle Beach. All I had was warm weather mesh riding gear and started to get uncontrollable shivers in the rain and cold which didn’t seem too safe on the bike, so I headed back home. Wish I got a little further north, but it was about as good of a 2 week jaunt as I could have asked for.
Week one of my motorcycle camping trip last month… a few of the many photos I took. I rode up through St. Augustine and got to hang out with @heymanthisisfun , continued on across the St. Johns river by ferry, up through Little Talbot Island, Amelia Island, and camped on Jekyll Island where I saw the building where the Federal Reserve was created. Continued north through Brunswick and the Georgia marshy shrimp country to Savannah where I rented a room for a few days to leave my gear and explore the area. Went to a bunch of old cemeteries and churches, and out to a couple Civil War forts that guarded the Savannah harbor. Fort Pulaski was notable as it was the first fort to get hit by rifled cannons and prove masonry forts of its type ineffective. A little further out from the fort is Tybee Point Light Station, a very a old lighthouse that I got to climb to the top of first thing in the morning when it was completely empty of other visitors. Spent a lot of time just tooling around Savannah streets, looking at old buildings and eating some good food. 10/10 experience.
I’ve wanted a Suzuki V-Strom for years now and finally pulled the trigger four months ago. It’s been everything I hoped it would be so far. Comfortable on long distances, handles weight like a pack mule, does well on all kinds of terrain, and built like a tank. I took it for a two week camping trip up the Georgia and South Carolina coasts last month and I couldn’t have been happier with how it performed. Thanks to Gary, for parting with his baby.
I’ve needed some sort of way to make clean bends in metal for a long time. All the small bending brakes for sale online seem to be overpriced or too big for my garage. I’ve wanted to design and build my own machine and finally had some projects that justified it. A lot of the steel was leftover cut-off drops from other projects, so I spent most of the ~$300 I put into it on hardware. Considering the hours and effort I spent on it I probably should have just bought a brake, but it was a fun and challenging project. Just need to paint it now before the whole thing gets rusty in this Florida humidity. #fusion360
