Monthly Archives: July 2015
Last October I wrote about my family “Ances-Trees” and what I found out about my family through Ancestry.com. I had already known some of the history, of course, but it was fun to find unknown relatives and branches of the genealogical tree. This past Wednesday, as part of my leave-taking from Eve and Rick, we three rode / drove [Rick and I rode our bikes; Eve drove her car because of a bruise… Read More
Actually, it was way better than nice, but I couldn’t think of a word meaning “the second time” (or similar) that also rhymed with “great.” I’m talking about the motorcycle ride that I took today with my daughter, Eve, and her husband, Rick. Rick and I had already run this route last Friday, but Eve wasn’t feeling well that day so she stayed home. Thankfully, it was a minor bug and she… Read More
There’s one thing about riding a motorcycle that you can’t avoid, and that is total immersion in your environment. [Well, there are probably plenty of things you can’t avoid, but I’m only writing about one of them today.] If it rains, you get wet. If you’re lucky and you have appropriate raingear, only your outer layer gets wet and you’re okay, but if you don’t have that all-important protective layer, you’ll get… Read More
One of the things I habitually do when I read signs is that I actually *read* them (imagine that!), and too often I find mistakes in them. When I do, I will sometimes take a photo of it to (a) post on Facebook, or (b) send to a page I follow (Dale’s Fails) so *they* can post it. If you also follow Dale’s Fails, you’ll probably see some or most or all… Read More
(with apologies to Gene Autry) After a wonderful do-nothing day on Thursday (except for replacing the Honda’s battery), my son-in-law, Rick, and I went for a ride through Illinois and Wisconsin over to the Mississippi River yesterday. Unfortunately, Eve was not feeling well, so she opted to stay home. The idea was to ride west on roads straddling the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, then head south along the Mississippi (well, sort of), have… Read More
Most motel rooms, even the inexpensive ones, are good enough for one night. Once in a while, though, I pick one that I probably shouldn’t have. The most recent example occurred last week in Joliet, on my last night on Route 66. It had been a long day, and I was thinking that because 66 intersected with I-80 there should be some motels in that area. I was wrong. So I pulled… Read More
Oh. My. Gosh. How do I condense two days of airplanes and more than 2000 photos / videos into one post? I saw the only remaining airworthy B-29 Superfortress, “FIFI” – not only on the ramp, but also taking off: I saw an Airbus A350 – not only a new plane, but a type so new that the example at the air show was filled with testing instrumentation and a whole engineering… Read More
Sunday, July 19 – You have one job, and that is to ride from Joliet, IL to Chicago, meet up with your son-in-law, and then ride with him to his house. Can you do it? You’ve been on the road for 8 days already; you’ve ridden your motorcycle more than 2400 miles (indicated); the days were long; your butt hurts. But do you really have a choice? Uh, no… 🙂 The ride… Read More
Saturday – my eighth full day on the road and my body is starting (?) to rebel. I have a touch of helmet rash (or a zit – at this point I can’t tell the difference); a constant ache between my shoulders, but primarily just inside and below my left shoulder blade; and some chafed areas on the backs of my upper thighs where my (very sweaty!) jeans have rubbed the skin… Read More
My decision to stay in Joplin on Thursday night turned out to be a very good one. The next morning I was able to retrace my ride to the point where I got confused (the instructions said 66 “merges with Main” whereas the road I was on *intersected* Main). Knowing what had happened on my first try, when I turned left onto Main, I decided this time to continue across Main and see… Read More
The Peripatetic Traveler 
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