Camping in FL, Houston

I camped for the first time on this trip in the Torreya State Park in FL. I found it by just looking at my road  atlas, but I also have a cool app for my phone that detects your location and tells you where nearby campgrounds are. It was a nice campsite but really hot and muggy, not many people there as it was a weekday I guess.

Arrival at the Campsite

Campsite

Luckily they had cold showers.

Dinner

For dinner I had dehydrated Katmandu Curry--pretty good.

Longest Ride Ever

I left the campsite Tuesday morning (5 June) and headed for League City near Houston to see Air Force friends from LA. It was a grueling day of 13 hours and 700 miles, with lunch and stops. Not a typical riding day I hope. I arrived around 9:30 pm CDT and was quickly introduced to Steve and Christie's 2 chocolate labs, Tek and Remy. And then, while unloading my stuff, I quickly let them escape out the back door into freedom. So for the next half hour the three of us stalked the two dogs around the neighborhood until they were finally convinced to surrender in exchange for some treats. When we got back to the house Christie put me in a 43-minute time out at the bottom of the stairs, one minute for each year of my age--apparently that's the standard rate for time outs.

Had a great visit, met the kids Sully and Ian, and Steve and I went to Boondoggle's for a great lunch--I had jambalaya pizza, delicious.

Steve and his Doodads

The Zen of Ass Pain

One drawback to long distance motorcycle riding is pain--ass pain. Ancient texts reveal that pain is in fact a selfish, self-centered experience, and to control the ass pain it often helps to think of someone else's ass. I find this very effective. There are other techniques as well. It is possible, using the mind, to relieve pain by removing thoughts of pain. In other words, compartmentalize the ass pain.

Modern science has also contributed much to the field of ass pain management. Mental anesthesia is the technique of imagining a pain killer entering the body, so sometimes on a long ride I imagine snorting some crushed Vicoden followed by a shot of tequila. That usually helps. Some say deep breathing and relaxation can help but that's a load of horse shit and just makes me hyperventilate, fall asleep and run my motorcycle into a ditch, so I don't use that technique anymore.

If you have some techniques for controlling ass pain that I haven't mentioned, please leave your tips in the comments section.

Breakup

I had a falling out with my girl today. You know how couples get in big fights over directions? Well, my girl (let's just call her "Garmin") took me on a wild goose chase today leaving Tampa. Normally I have complete trust in her direction finding abilities, but today she took me through local roads with traffic and stoplights, instead of going on the interstate--obviously the quickest route. She was apparently pissed off at me, because she was also giving me the silent treatment. She would only talk to me to tell me where to turn. Whenever I suggested an alternate route, all she would say is "Recalculating" in a really patronizing and monotone voice. I don't know what her problem was but I doubt she's getting a firmware update anytime soon if you know what I mean.

Tampa

Yesterday I left Brent's house and rode to Key West, the true start of my trip to Alaska, and I'm starting to worry--my butt is really saddle sore, and I'm starting to like it. Kind of like the time I worked out once; I was sore the next day but it felt good. Ok anyway the ride yesterday was almost 450 miles and I rode from about 8am to 7pm. It took a little longer since I had to backtrack from Key West. But man it was a nice ride through the Keys, then the Everglades, and around 4pm as the sun was getting lower, it was a great ride into the Tampa area. That FJR is just an amazing machine, cruising at 80 with no effort whatsoever, eating up miles.

My favorite part of the day starts around 4pm when the sun gets lower and the light becomes amazing. By then I'm usually on a stretch of empty road with nice scenery and just loving it. One thing I've noticed already is that there is about half as much traffic everywhere than in DC. It was Sunday in Tampa, but still, the roads were clear and it was easy to get around.

Below is a little riding footage from my trip from the Keys to Tampa:

Mile 0

Just took my picture in front of the marker for the southernmost point in the US, mile marker 0. I'm at the police station to get an officer to witness my start.

Hobie Cat

I used to have an 18 foot Hobie Cat sailboat when I was in high scool. I loved that thing. So one thing on my list to do while I was in the Keys was to rent one. Brent and I finally found a place that had them and called about renting. They said sure, but there was a storm coming so we only had about a 2 hour window. That was fine with us so we suited up and headed out.

Brent and Me Sailing in the Keys

Key Colony Beach, FL

Vic rode with me for about an hour, showing me a route to avoid Miami traffic, as I headed to Key Colony Beach in the Keys. The ride was about 4 hours, and I arrived at my friends' Brent  and Suzzane's house. From here on out the pace will be much more mellow. I'll spend a day or so here hanging out before I go to Key West to start my ride to Alaska.

I haven't decided yet which route I'm going to take yet to get to Denver. Denver marks the start of my ride  north to Canada and my route is more established.