Part 1 left off at the KOA in Perryville, MO. This segment is actually only going to cover two days travel. It was a busy two days of travel however. I have biker friend named "Doc" who was in my chapter of Combat Veterans International. He was a Navy corpsman and that is how he picked up his road name. He and his family decided they wanted to move back to their home town, which is McKenzie, TN, when he retired from the Navy. He did so they did 
. He went from being a corpsman to a long haul truck driver.
When I got to Perryville, MO I didn’t really know if I was going to stop at their new home on the way to Braselton or on the return trip. I had prearranged to call them when I got close to see which option was best. As it turned out the next day , Saturday, would work out the best. I had already mapped and programmed my GPS with the alternate routes so I was good to go one way or the other. I didn’t need to be there until about 4:00 PM so I could still fit in a little more of the Ohio River Scenic Byway. The days route would end up being 470 miles. Here is a map of the next two days of my trip.
Part 2 Route: Perryville, MO to Braselton, GA
I got up in the morning and an hopped on I-55 South. After about a half an hour I turned East on US-60. I briefly picked up I-24 North in Paducah, KY to cross over the Ohio River then picked up IL-145 North. Then I just followed the scenic route signs along the Ohio River. There actually were not all that many scenic views ov the river along the route and I even did a number of jogs towards the river on local streets to see if I could see more of it. I eventually worked my way into Indiana and continued on to Evansville, IN. I turned South on US-41 and rode it all the way through Kentucky and into Tennessee where I turned West on US-79. US-79 passes through McKenzie, TN.
I made it to Doc’s at the appointed hour and I enjoyed some good BBQ burgers and all the trimmings. Doc took me out for a little tour of his home town. 
He couldn’t resist showing me his big rig. I got to see his High School and some of the local points of interest. We stopped at the town square where they have a small Veteran’s memorial and we walked around for a little while. Back at his place we did some relaxing and caught up what we had been doing since he moved to Tennessee. I got a soft spot on the couch for the night. I hit the road early in the morning because I was meeting my wife in Braselton, GA tomorrow and I still had a lot of riding ahead of me. My goal for today would be Deals Gap, a 411 mile leg, but things don’t always work out the way you plan.
I rode South on TN-22 to I-40 East. I rode I-40 through Nashville and picked up I-24 East. At Chattanooga I turned North on I-75 and eventually got off the slabs near Sweetwater, TN onto TN-68. I ran TN-68 South to Tellico Plains, TN and then onto TN-185 and the Cherohala Skyway. Finally I was back on some interesting motorcycle roads and some great mountain country. The Cherohala was awesome and I was looking forward to Deal’s Gap and the opportunity to run the Dragon a few times, especially without my trailer dragging behind me. Don’t get me wrong, it pulls like a dream but it does reduce the fun factor a bit.
TN-165 turns into SC-143 and eventually merges with US-129 South or Tapaco Road, as it was originally known. Deal’s Gap is North from this junction so I turned North on US-129. Deal’s Gap is less than half a mile South of the Tennessee border on US-129. I arrived at about 1:00 PM and the parking lot was just jammed with motorcycles. I had difficulty finding a spot to park my bike and trailer. Eventually I found a spot but the alarm bells had already started ringing as soon as I saw the parking lot 
. I had not made any reservations at the motel 
. Sure enough there wasn’t a room to be had.
At least I managed to picked up a Tail of the Dragon hat, t-shirt and pin to show that I had been there. So with that out of the way I started thinking 
. My wife would be arriving at the Chateau Elan later on this afternoon. Why not surprise her and show up a day earlier. So after a short break I headed out on what was supposed to be tomorrows route and another 258 miles to Braselton, GA.
Rather than getting several runs of the Dragon, I ended up settling for one run North pulling the trailer. Looking back on things it was probably good enough seeing as how insane that stretch of US-129 is on the weekends. The dragon is certainly an intense 11 mile stretch of highway. The traffic was heavy and I had a very close call with a BMW M3 that decided to pass on a blind corner and the hell with whoever was coming the other direction. A common occurrence on the weekends. There are several photographers that make a pretty good living taking pictures of people running the Dragon. They are set up along the Dragon seven days a week all 
year around. The pictures can be purchased on the Internet. The two shown here are of me riding the Dragon. One is from Killboy and the other is from Zee Photo. Dragon Slayer Photos, Moonshine Photos, US129 Photos and 129 Pics are some other sources for your pictures on the Dragon.
After “Surviving the Dragon” I headed NE on the Foothills Parkway. I then turned SE on US-321 to enter the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. 
I guess I should have guessed the reason they are called the Smokey Mountains was because they look …ummm.. smokey. Folks from Los Angeles would feel right at home 
. Now living out West I have probably become desensitized to the proportions of geological formations. I see mountains, I mean real mountains, every day 
. But I digress, it was still a very nice ride through the park and it is very beautiful. I guess it just wasn’t what I was expecting 
.
US-321 and US-441 provided some interesting riding though the traffic was rather heavy so the fun factor was muted to some extent. I turned off US-441 onto US-64 at Franklin, NC. I had heard that NC-28 was a good motorcycle road and US-64 would take me to the start of it at Highlands, NC. The reports were not wrong. Though less technically challenging I enjoyed it more than the Dragon because it was very lightly trafficked. I even rode it again with my wife as one of our side trips during the CCR. I only had one motorcycle pass me the whole way from Highlands to Mountain Rest, SC. I did pass a few motorcycles and a number of cars but compared to the Dragon it was practically deserted.
From Mountain Rest I took US-76 West and then picked up US-23 at Clayton, GA. This took me most of the way to Braselton then it turned into I-985 at Gainsville, GA. A couple miles later I turned South on the Winder Highway and a short distance more to my destination, the Chateau Elan Resort.
I got to the resort at dusk and even though it was only 669 miles I was pretty darned tired. I had certainly wrangled more than my fair share of curves for one day. The heat and humidity had taken it’s toll too. My wife was already checked in and she was certainly glad to see me arrive safely. We enjoyed the weeks activities and managed a couple of side trips. 
We did Stone Mountain one day, which is one of the better attractions in the area. There were some good informational seminars and the accommodations and food were top rate. There were a good number of vendors and Blue Moon Cycle, the BMW dealer from Norcross, GA, had set up to do service for those that needed it. I had them do a fluid change on Rufus. I picked up a few odds and ends as well.
The week went by very quickly and we had a great time. That brings me to the end of Part 2 of my 2006 Summer Solo Ride About.
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In the winter of 2005 I started planning for a month long "Solo Ride About" across the country. I had been participating on the BMW Luxury Touring Forum since before I bought Rufus, my 2000 BMW K1200LT, in July of 2005. This is a forum that was at that time mostly dedicated to K1200LT. They host an annual event called the Curve Cowboy Reunion (CCR). It is not your usual biker gathering. They find first class resorts all over the country and put on a week long luxury touring event. CCR 2006 was being held on August 29-Sep 1, 2006 at the Chateau Elan in Braselton, GA.
I wanted to change or add some things to Rufus to be better prepared for what would eventually become an 8900 mile trek. In true engineering fashion I had already studied things to death. Over about an eight month period I purchased a number of accessories and made several mods.
The list at the right shows many of the changes and most items have links to more information.
I also wanted to have a cargo trailer to haul all my photo equipment, clothing, camping equipment, etc. without looking like some kind of circus act rolling down the highway. I initially ordered a Uni-go Trailer. but the company had just been sold and moved from New Zealand to Monroe, Ohio. They strung me along for five months and just couldn’t deliver what I ordered in time for my trip. I had ordered it through one of their distributors, Dauntless Motors, who happen to be located just a few miles from my home. Jay Giese and his wife are the owners and they went above and beyond helping me get a trailer in time for my trip. I would highly recommend their products with two thumbs up for their customer service.
I ended up buying a Zenith trailer that is manufactured by Dauntless Motors. I also purchased their excellent K1200LT trailer hitch. I had already installed the trailer hitch and wiring harness and I took delivery of the trailer on August 14th. I would leave on my trek the next day after I got off work 
.
Here is a picture my wife took of me in front of our house as I was leaving. She didn’t ride with me on the trip but she would fly to Atlanta and spend the week with me at the CCR.
I had spent many hours planning my route and researching points of interest that I would want to see along the way. My actual route stuck to the plan surprisingly well.
Here is the route for this Part 1 of the 2006 Ride About.
Part 1 Route: Renton, WA to Perryville, MO
My goal for the evening was to get to Lewiston, ID, a 302 mile run. I wanted to ride US-12 from there through Lolo Pass in the daylight. I have ridden this route a number of times and is a very beautiful stretch of highway. There is also about 140 miles of great mountain road between Kamiah, ID and Lolo, MT. I stayed at a hotel that night and headed out early the next morning.
The ride through Lolo was great but all good things must come to an end. When I reached Missoula, MT I hopped on I-90 for one of the relatively few super slab sections that I would have on my trek. I stayed on I-90 a little ways past Butte and then turned South on MT-359. I continued South after this merged into US-287 . US-287 eventually turns East and that is where I briefly zigged into Idaho on MT-87/ID-87. ID-87 merges with US-20 and I headed NE towards Yellowstone Park. The highlights of this 475 mile leg of the trip was running the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway and the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway .
Yellowstone National Park was to be the first of many places I would visit that I had never been to before. Don’t ask me how I could live my whole life 740 miles from one of the most popular tourist areas in the country and never been there . I stayed at the KOA located four miles West of West Yellowstone, MT on US-20. The tent sites were assigned spaces that were almost private with fences and trees on three sides of most sites.
My schedule was pretty tight so I could only afford to spend two days at Yellowstone Park. I wouldn’t really be able to spend much quality time at any of the incredible sites to be found around the park. I even made a sprint down to see Grand Teton National Park. To say my site seeing was rather spirited is an under statement. I still managed to 
take almost 600 pictures. Some of them are in this gallery album.
The KOA I stayed in was very nice and I meet a couple of riders, one was riding BMW R1150GS and the other an R1150GSA. They were staying a couple of sites away from mine. They were traveling together and on the tail end of a two week trek of their own. That was probably my first real examination of a GS. It was surely the moment that the seed was planted that eventually led me to buying an R1200GS. I had a very nice stay there and there really wasn’t much in the way of crowds either at the campground or at the park.
I left West Yellowstone very early on Saturday morning, August 19th, and headed East through Yellowstone Park on US-20. Actually this highway is US-20, US-16 and US-14 combined but who is counting . I left early because I wanted to be ahead of the bulk of the tourists that might be coming into the park. This route would put me on the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway. Once I was out of the park I stayed on US-20/16/14, passing through Cody, WY and eventually reaching Greybull, WY. I then continued East on US-14 and passed through the Bighorn National Forest. I picked up I-90 East at Ranchester, WY. I turned North off I-90 at Moorcroft, WY and found myself back on US-14. US-14 turns East at Carlile and I again turned North at Carlile Junction onto WY-24.
From there it was a short distance to the KOA at the entrance of Devils Tower National Monument. The run from Yellowstone was a total of 464 miles. The camping area was pretty much just a large open field but there were a few trees in the middle and around the periphery. There was almost nobody there so I had a lot of area to choose from. I picked a spot that I could set up and take pictures of Devil’s Tower without having to move from my camp. My intent was to get up before sunrise and take a series of pictures as the light changed. The visible side of Devil’s Tower would have the morning sun on it. This gallery album has a sampling of the pictures of my run from Yellowstone and at Devil’s Tower. I didn’t manage to capture any strange lights or experience any close encounters. I only spent one night there and after I took my sunrise shots I went on into the park. I forgot to mention that I purchased a National Parks Pass before I left and I managed to save some money with it on this trip.
The visitors center wasn’t open when I got to the parking lot so I went ahead and walked the Tower Trail. This is the shortest trail, 1.3 miles, and goes completely around the base of the tower. It is a beautiful walk and there are many great viewpoints of the tower. It is not a difficult walk and I highly recommend it. I didn’t see anyone as I walked the first half of the loop. The visitor center was on the shadowed side of the tower at that time of the morning so I walked fairly quickly to get around to where the lighting was better. I wanted to get a variety of pictures with different lighting and shadows. The trail meanders around through wooded as well as more open areas. There were no sounds of civilization and the all I could hear beyond the birds and the slight breeze through the trees were my foot steps on the walkway. I would stop when a picture opportunity presented itself and then move on.
When I got about half way around I heard voices. I didn’t see anyone at first but I moved down the trail a little and I got a good view of the tower. I finally spotted a rock climber on an ascent. This picture was taken with a 400mm lens. I continued around the loop and got a lot of great pictures. I did see a few people as I was walking the second half of the loop. There was considerably more activity in the parking lot then when I had arrived.
I went to the visitors center and spent a little time there. Then I was packing my camera gear and getting ready for a relatively short distance run, 139 miles, to my next destination. I had wanted to spend a little time in the Black Hills because there was just so many things that I had never seen before. I had decided not to camp while I was there and I researched various accommodations in the areas. I eventually made reservations at the Hillside Country Cabins located fairly close to Mount Rushmore on US-16.
When I left Devil’s Tower I went South and picked up US-14 East. When I got to I-90 I headed East for the short run to Spearfish, SD. I turned South on US-14A and onto the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. As luck would have it there was a women’s marathon race being held in the canyon so traffic was a little slow. Unfortunately there wasn’t any place to pull off and take pictures because of all the activity. It is a beautiful canyon.
I continued on US-14A to Lead, SD and then turned SE on US-395. I stayed on US-395 to the junction of US-16, which is also Mt. Rushmore Rd., and then to the Hillside Country Cabins. These are log cabins that are set up very nicely at a reasonable price. I spent four nights at the cabins so I could do a little sightseeing. I will only touch on some of the highlights. You could probably spend months in the Black Hills and never see it all.
The next day was a very full one. I managed to visit Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, ride the 1880 Railroad in Hill City and fit in a ride on the Needles Highway. This gallery album has some of the pictures from this day’s travels.
On the second day I visited the Badlands National Park and the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Yes I did make an obligatory stop at Wall Drugs 
. This Gallery Album has some of the pictures from this days travels.
On my third day at the cabin I decided I needed to do a little laundry and take a little break from the frantic pace I had been keeping. This was supposed to be a vacation after all 
. I did get out and take a look around Keystone, SD and I made a quick trip into Rapid City as well. On the way back from Rapid City I spotted Landstroms which is a large Black Hills Gold jewelry maker and store. I ended up buying a watch.
When I got back to the cabin I packed up everything except what I needed for the morning and hooked up the trailer. I got to bed at a reasonable time so I could get an early start in the morning. I wanted to beat the heat running past the Badlands if at all possible.
It was Thursday morning and I was on the road by 5:30AM. I was back on US-16 heading for Rapid City. I picked up I-90 East at Rapid City and settled in for a 525 mile travel day. By 6:30AM I was North of the Badlands just past Wall, SD. There was a stiff cross wind and it was still 85 degrees. So much for beating the heat 
. I ran a little ways past the Badlands and then turned South toward Nebraska on US-83. I realized there wasn’t going to be a lot of scenic wonder in my route today. I did find on the Internet that there was a scenic route called the Outlaw Trail in NE Nebraska so I figured I would check it out.
I crossed into Nebraska and turned East on NE-12, supposedly part of the scenic Outlaw Trail. I followed NE-12 until it merged with US-20 just West of Sioux City, IA. I must have blinked for a little over two hours because all I saw was corn fields and pastures filled with cattle the whole way. I guess I am a little spoiled living in the Northwest.
I crossed over into Iowa and picked up a piece of the Ohio River Scenic Byway. It was only a short distance from there to Onawa, IA and the KOA located there. The goals for today and the next two days are basically just putting miles on to get someplace else. The next morning I hit the road and continued to follow some back roads heading South. I eventually picked up I-29 South around Council Bluffs, IA.
As I drove towards Kansas City I could see some serious thunder storms and lightning moving in from the East. I kept thinking I was going to get hammered with bad weather but I just kept skirting the edge of the storm. I eventually headed East on I-70 at Kansas City and I was thinking that I had really dodged a bullet. Wishful thinking on my part. Shortly after turning East I ended up in a real gully washer complete with some awesome lightning displays. I got Rufus and myself grunged up pretty well with all the rain and the nasty 18 wheeler spray. A less dedicated rider would probably have found some place to hole up and try to wait the storm out. If there is one thing that is for certain, I am a dedicated rider.
The storm didn’t start to let up until I got to St. Louis, MO. That was were I turned South on I-55. About an hour later I arrived at that day’s destination, the KOA at Perryville, MO. This leg ended up being about 610 miles.
This finishes up Part 1 of 4 of my 2006 Solo Ride About.
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On BWMLT.com in the Northwest forum, Brian 
(SanJuan2) suggested a clam chowder run to Dooger’s in Long Beach, WA. A number of folks thought this was a splendid idea and the plan was to meet at Doogers at 12:30 PM. Four riders from the Seattle/Tacoma area decided to meet at South Sound BMW in Fife to ride down together. Others were traveling from other locations in Washington and Oregon. We originally thought there was only three riders but one additional rider decided to surprise us by showing up unannounced. That’s Denny (AvonFloater) on the left and Bill (PrestonBill) and Brian on the right. I must be too ugly for pictures to register in digital cameras because I am not in any of them . 
My BMWLT.com user name is jwd98056. Kinda’ catchy ain’t it . If you could see my picture you would see that the four of us look like a First Gear fashion show with three Kilimanjaro and one Denali jacket. At least I was wearing Motoport pants 
, I wasn’t looking closely enough to see what the others had on.
In spite of the fact that BMWLT.com started out as a K1200LT oriented forum it has managed to spread it’s wings into the area of other BMW models. Our group was made up of two K1200LTs, an R1200GS and a K1200GT. I should note however that Brian just sold his K1200LT and Rufus was home in the garage. After a brief chit chat and introductions we mounted up and headed out with Brian in the lead on his GT. The Google Map shows the RTE route including the trip to and from my home. The group met up at waypoint marker "B". My total mileage for the RTE was 348 miles.
JD’s RTE Route to Doogers
Brian was taking the scenic routes whenever possible as some of our meanderings on the map indicate. Even with that we had plenty of less interesting road to travel. There was a lot a pretty scenery though and enough interesting road to keep us smiling.
When were got to the berg of Brady we took a little break. We were doing well as far as time was concerned. Brady is one of those "Don’t blink or you’ll miss it." kind of places. We stopped at the Brady Food Mart.
A hot cup of coffee and a little bull session got us refreshed and ready to get back on the road. We even had a nice chat with a local who was interested in our different models of BMW. His health prevented him from riding any more but he had owned many motorcycles over the years that he did ride.
Back on the road and looking forward to some nice weather. So far we had only seen a few patches of sun but the sky to the South looked like it was clearing. As we wound our way down US-12, WA-107 and US-101 we gradually rode into clear blue skies.
Along part of this route the devastation from the late December storms stood out in stark contrast to the beautiful weather we were currently enjoying. This was the result of the same storms that eventually caused the I-5 flood closure. There were so may trees blown down I am sure they will be working months to clear it all away.
We had more fun and spirited riding and eventually arrived in Long Beach. We managed to ride right past Doogers but got turned around in short order. We turned out to be the last to arrive. We got most of the road gear off and went in to enjoy some very good clam chowder, some very good service and some very good comradery. A couple 
members of the group managed to score free refills on the clam chowder and Brian even got a free take home Doogers Chowder Kit. Our waitress was a real gem and we all thought Brian was guilty of over exerting his boyish charm 
. As you can see once again, by the empty space at the table, I must be too ugly to register on digital cameras. However my ice tea can clearly be seen in the pictures.
Everyone finished lunch and started gearing up. The Puget Sound Group decided to take a more direct path to get back home. That way we would be home before dark to avoid as much horned rat exposure as we could. The others did as the road and their machines called.
I will throw in one more picture in from an attempt to get a picture of myself. Brutus is obviously photogenic. Unfortunately, even with the sun out, I was only able to capture my shadow. Consider yourself lucky .
We pretty much back tracked to the Brady turn off and just stayed on the US-12 to WA-8 to US-101 and finally back to I-5. Each of us pealed off I-5 as we took the exits for our homes. When I turned off in Renton I waved at Bill as he was the last one of us still blasting up the car pool lane.
Brian has since reported that the chowder he made from the Doogers Chowder Kit was awesome. I would certainly recommend Doogers to anyone looking for a great bowl of chowder and some great small town atmosphere.
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I discovered that Google Maps now supported embedding maps directly into web pages without needing to use the Google Maps API. It’s just cut and paste. I thought it was zippidy-doo-dah and off to the routing races. Well it was almost that easy. In Google Maps I created my first route map for one of my Chili Bun SS/BB runs, it was actually the Northbound return route. I clicked on "Link to this page", copied the code from the "Paste HTML to embed in website" window and then pasted it into the HTML code for my article. I then switched to the WSIWYG view and PRESTO!, my embedded map appeared with the route and all the waypoints. I was happier then a hog in a wallow 
or is that happier than a dancing banana. I always get those mixed up 
.
Then it was on to my Southbound route. I followed the exact same steps and PRESTO-CRAPO the map appeared but there wasn’t any route or waypoints 
. I repeated the process a couple of times with the same results. If I clicked on the "View Larger Map" link below the embedded map I was taken back to Google Maps and there is the map, route and waypoints in all their glory. I looked at the embedded code and I couldn’t see anything that could make any difference. I searched the web and the Google Maps site for any tips and came up with zippo 
. I tried a lot of others things but this post is already boring enough so I won’t elaborate. I finally give it up and just left the honked up map in my now updated article.
I revisited this a couple of times over the next week or so but I just couldn’t get that route to work right. Tonight, for some reason, I decided I was going to resolve this dilemma or just nuke the embedded maps all together. I went back into Google Maps and created the route from scratch and then went into "Link to this page". I decide to see what the "Customize and preview embedded map" page would do for me. As it turned out it didn’t directly help correct the problem but it did show me that my route and waypoints were not working in the preview page either 
. Now we are getting somewhere.
I again started the route from scratch and after adding each waypoint I went to the embedded map preview page to see if the route and waypoints were still being displayed. One after the other everything was working like a finely tuned BMW 
. Well it did until I got to the Bermuda Triangle of Google Maps, Gustine, CA. As soon as I added that waypoint the route and all the waypoints would disappear from the embedded map preview and subsequently the embedded map 
. If I deleted it and entered all the remaining waypoints everything worked just fine. I started a new map and just entered that one location and even that would not show up in the embedded map.
Not to be undone by a buggy piece of mapping software I decided to manually zoom in on the map location and add a destination point that way rather than entering an address. A big PRESTO-ZILCHO resulted from that gambit. I tried this a couple of times at slightly different locations around my refueling point and eventually a point I created, literally on top of I-5, finally worked. So it was back to square one rebuilding the route and manually entering that one waypoint at the magic location. 
Success was finally achieved. So then I was back into my editor pasting in the new embedded Google Map code and both of my route maps are now fully functional.
I struggled with another aspect of creating the embedded maps. I would create the route and then scale and position the map to how I wanted it to look in the article. The embedded map always ended up looking like the map did when the last waypoint was entered. It didn’t matter if I zoomed from the embedded map preview page or the full Google Map. I finally figured out the magic sequence to get what I wanted. I had to reload the page after re-scaling the map. Only then would the embedded map codes be updated.
I know to err is human and to really screw up takes a computer but give me a break, please . It’s still a nifty feature and I will be using it frequently. Knowing about the problems will allow me to avoid them in the future. Well at least until the next Google Maps software upgrade anyway .
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