This Was the News Log While We Were on The Road(It is Chronological from the bottom up) | ||
| 11:03 PM CDT June 5,2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Norm rolled in here about 8:15 p.m last night.....tired, swollen legs, bloodshot eyes, dirty bike and all...glad to be home....Bill had to go to work today...Norm spent the day getting caught up with mail..snail and e-variety, haircut, doctor' appointment, etc...may go in a short while tomorrow but can work from home unless there is a 'must attend' meeting......he's already talking about what he needs to do to the bike before the Butt Lite in August!!! | ||
| 12:04 PM EDT June 3, 2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Norm phoned about midnight saying they were going to spend the
night just a little south of Calgary.....he phoned again about 10:00
a.m. (CDT)....they got about 5 hours sleep.....they traveled 200 miles
this morning before stopping for breakfast...they were in the US about
50 miles north of Great Falls MT....been riding in and out of rain and
looking forward to some dry pavement and...what was that he
said...???...looking forward to getting to the
Interstate!!!!!!????...these lovers of back roads looking forward to
interstate highways!!!!....but I guess they are ready to make some time
and bring it on home...... They hope to travel another 1000 miles or so today putting them south of the Denver/Colorado Springs area for the night. They don't want to have to deal with early morning rush hour in those areas tomorrow morning.....hoping to make 'Amarillo by Evening'*...and possibly home by midnight-thirty tomorrow night......of course, this all depends on good weather and continued good luck with roads, traffic, machinery, etc.....(no performance awards yet, that I know of...you know, the kind that costs you money!)..... * for those of you who are not Country and Western music fans, there is a song 'Amarillo by Morning'....about a broke and busted up bull rider lookin' to make some money on the next bull......if he can just make 'Haamarilla by Mornin'....I imagine our guys are going to feel like they have been on a bull by the time they make Amarillo by evening!!!! | ||
| 12:23 AM EDT May 30, 2002: | ||
| I haven't had my cell phone for a day or so 'cause I had some electrical problems. Day before yesterday - Monday - left Burlingame, CO on the KS/CO line. Rode uneventfully. Good ride. Rode an extra hour and ended up in Las Vegas. The extra hour was a bit of a grind. Got up in Las Vegas, pushed off and had an absolutely gorgeous ride. Made it up into Missoula, MT last night, Tuesday night. Tried to stop about 30 miles short, but there were no rooms to be had. So we rode on in. Got up in Missoula and Bill had a bike problem with a fuel filter and I've had some electrical problems. All 48 states complete in 7 days, 20 hours to the minute. 1086 miles over the last 2 days. Stopped in Marysville, WA to get some work done on the electrical. Now we're rolling towards ??? [message ended] | ||
| 6:00 PM EDT May 29, 2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Norm phoned about an hour ago to bring me up-to-date. They were in Yakima WA; he was pleased with their progress. They have made all 48 states now; he says they logged it in 7 days and 20 hours......they are heading to British Columbia with Hyder in their sites.......more to come. | ||
| 3:00 AM EDT May 28, 2002: | ||
| Our 6th full day on the road. Left Burlingame, CO this morning and made it to Las Vegas, NV. About 1180 miles in about 19 hours. Had a 1 hour delay due to a headlight repair. One of the bikes blew a headlight out, so we had to stop and get that fixed before riding through the night. To this point in time, we've done 6570 miles total in 6.5 days. 41 states in total. We reckon we've got about 2500 miles left to go. All we have left is to swing up the west coast and then head on to Alaska! | ||
| 4:02 PM EDT May 27, 2002: | ||
| Heading out of Sante Fe going toward Albequerque. 39 states under our belts. Stayed in Burlingame, CO last night. Got about 4.5 hours sleep and feeling good today. 500 miles so far today. Still maintaining a 1000 mile day on average. Hoping to make Needles, CA... [message very choppy... didn't get much.] | ||
| 12:22 PM EDT May 27, 2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Norm phoned again this morning around 8:30 Central Daylight Time.....they had
ridden approximately 150 miles already and had stopped at a Denny's for some
breakfast. They are south of Colorado Springs headed to NM; didn't make their
scheduled overnight stop in Springer NM as planned originally. They will
continue south into NM, across AZ on to Needles, CA and cut back north
again...... hoping to spend the night in the Las Vegas area....still putting
them a little short of the original plan...says they are well rested and
everything is going well (small amount of grumbling about some of his
motronics (?) and still wanting to 'get caught up')...I was still in
bed...didn't have pen and paper in hand...ooops.......he will phone me here
again this evening at my sister's and I will post another update for
them....hopefully a more accurate one.....to get me out of the
doghouse....!!!! [You gotta love Microsoft. Of course, "motronics" showed up with red underline. Just out of curiosity, I right-clicked to peek at their suggestion - it was... "moronic."] | ||
| 12:01 AM EDT May 25, 2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Just spoke with Norm. He and Bill are approximately 60 miles of
east Minneapolis where they will spend the night. They traveled from
Buffalo to MN today logging 7 states and 950 miles.....they drove
through Indiana in the rain...they stopped for a decent dinner west of
Chicago.....he estimates that they are running about 300 miles behind
their original schedule... At present, they are riding in ideal riding conditions.....clear night sky with full moon, cool temperatures, minimum wind and he claims to be rested and in good shape...looking forward to ND tomorrow and eating up some of that 300 mile 'deficit' ... He asked me why I was yelling at him...I was hurting his ears; giving him a headache......I assumed that since I was hearing a lot of road noise and having a little difficulty hearing him that he was straining to hear me, likewise. He has earplugs and can hear me fine..no reason for me to raise my voice, he says!....SORRY, Stormin' (reminds me of the story of how we met!).....said then 16 years ago that I would never work for him because I could never please him....so I married him....go figure!!!! Sixteen years later I still cannot take dictation or phone messages to please him... | ||
| 6:33 AM EDT May 25, 2002 / Buffalo, NY: | ||
| South side of Buffalo, NY. Did not make the distance we intended to yesterday. We got about 820 miles of the targeted 1000. Came up about 200 miles short. Should have been in Toledo, OH. Had a bad afternoon. Had a lot of 2-lanes. One particular 2-lane was blocked totally by an 18-wheeler which crashed and burned. Caused us to do a major re-route. Lost time planning, etc. So, rode until midnight, then got ourselves a good 4.5+ hours sleep, and back on the road Heading toward Toledo, across to Chicago, and up to Wisconsin, etc. More later. | ||
| 12:50PM EDT May 24, 2002: | ||
| Got Kittery, ME and headed west. | ||
| 10:02 AM EDT May 24, 2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Had two conversations with Norm last evening. First one, he and Bill
Twheatt were sitting down to a Memphis Blue barbecue meal somewhere in
West Virginia....he phoned back about 3 hours later from the bike and
they were motoring up the NJ Turnpike...not exactly enjoying the Eastern
seaboard....(in particular, the toll rates)...their plan was to try to
make it to the other side of NY City before stopping for the
night......they did not want to have to fight NYC rush hour this
morning....still sounded upbeat...things have gone well except for the
little 230 mile backtrack excursion to GA but they are feeling better
about it now having some more pavement time under their belts.....so to
speak. [Webmaster's note: I hear you about those toll rates. Born & bred in the Northeast 'til I was "saved" by moving to NC. Logged more miles on the toll roads than I care to remember. I-95 through DE is the most expensive toll road per mile in the US. You'd think their taxes would be lower, what with tolls and lottery earnings and all...] | ||
| 7:40 AM EDT May 24, 2002: | ||
| Another report for myself and Bill Thweatt. It's about 7:30 on ... Thurs morning. Starting to lose track of the days... no Friday morning, I guess. We made up for yesterday's mistake with the GA receipt. Came within about 40 miles of our original stopping point last night where we stopped in Danbury, CT. Had a little trouble finding a room. Spent about an hour trying to find one. Got about 3 hours rest. Back on the road again. Target now is to finish out the Northeast and get over to Toledo, OH or thereabouts today. That's about it. Stress is starting to tell a little bit, but once we get out of the Northeast, things will get better. More later, Bye. | ||
| 1:12 PM EDT May 23, 2002 / Kingsport, TN: | ||
| Just leaving Kingsport, TN heading up I-81. We've had one heck of a morning. We got to our room in the corner of ?? [cell phone static, where's that Sprint guy when you need him, eh?] about 12:20 AM, realized we had missed GA. After a few panic moments, we found the shortest route to get GA and get back to where we needed to be in TN was 230 miles. North into Middlesboro, KY and I don't know what happened, but it was a 2-lane road with two oversize loads and traffic way backed up backed up behind them, so we found an alternate route back out of Middlesboro, KY and back onto I-81. Got to Kingsport, got our receipt for TN and on our way to VA, WV, MD and on the way up through the Northeast. | ||
| 12:50 AM EDT May 23, 2002 / via email from Sandy Grills: | ||
| Norm called from the bike around 9:00 p.m. this evening. I could hear a lot of road noise but he said he could hear me very well. They [Norm & Bill Thweatt] were in NC about 180 miles short of their stop for the night. They are running a little ahead of time and all is going very well. They logged eight of the Southern states today and he sounded very up.... | ||
| 1:48 AM EDT May 22, 2002 / Natchitoches, LA: | ||
| Left Plano, TX on schedule at 6 PM local time. Picked up 4 states. Our original plan was to stop in Shreveport, LA at midnight. We got there 30 minutes early, so we rode on down to Natchitoches, LA - an extra 60 miles - we stopped rolling at 12:20 AM local time. Have a 5:30 AM wake up call and back on the road again. Everything going great. First day - everything's going well. Will call again tomorrow with another update. | ||
| 4:15 PM CST May 21, 2002 / Plano, TX: | ||
| It's 4:15 p.m. Departure set for 6:00 p.m. Bikes are loaded; ready to
go. Next stop Shreveport, LA. ETA; midnight..... more later (Norm is resting and dictating this to me; waiting for Bill to get here). | ||
| 9:30 PM EDT May 19, 2002 / via email: | ||
| 48 hours to the Start At 6pm on Sunday the 19th, I got a call from Bill Thweatt. He actually talked to my wife Sandy. All he said was, "48 hour time check." It has been a busy couple of weeks. I got a late start on my bike because I have been off the bike for 12 weeks while my achilles tendon healed after a SECOND surgery. On Saturday morning, thinking everything was ready on the bike, Bill and I did a test ride. Dang! Still an audio problem. I am multiplexing my radar detector, CB and cell phone and the audio from the CB was very low. After about 9 hours, EUREKA! I found the problem. Now the bike was ready. Now for the packing. After church today, another trip back to REI for some last minute items. Then a half day of organizing, packing, re-organizing and re-packing. I THINK I have it figured out. Now it is time for thinking through everything one last time, making sure I have the maps, routes etc virtually memorized. By tomorrow night I will be done and all that's left will be to meet Bill and the witnesses at the start point at 6pm Tuesday. I'm ready! Starting to get a few butterflies but that is normal. I just hand drew the route on a US map. Sitting back and swallowing hard, I just realized what I am about to undertake. I will be nervous from now until I get a hundred miles under my belt and then I will settle in for a lonnnnng spring ride. | ||
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