A lot to post, but not tonight...

Blisters and all my youngest daughter and her husband have made it to my oldest daughter's and her husband's place in Pasadena. The lack of the Spot "OK" message the last two nights had to do with the terrain, trees, and inability for the Spot to find the satellites. They are going to spend at least one zero day, i.e., no walking, there and may be buying more shoes. As much as they are spending on shoes, they may need more money than planned to complete the trip. I suggested that they press the Spot "OK" button every day, even the days they are staying at their RR&S.

Yesterday I moved one step closer to my cross-country motorcycle ride by getting my motorcycle serviced. It sounds great again and rides very smoothly with a new rear tire. I also got a new jacket. Not only is my leather jacket too big, it isn't really suited for summer weather riding. Indeed, with the wind blowing up the sleeves, it wasn't all that suited for less warm riding either, especially with the zipper problem with the lining. My new jacket has multiple vents including scoop features along both upper arms and shoulders. It is also very adjustable. Wind will only be getting in where and when I want it to.

As far as the rest of this post, there won't be one. However, I do have a lot of Honest Tea bottle caps that I want to share in some future post. As Ambrose Bierce has said, I like their "predigested wisdom." I also have a couple Toastmaster speeches I've given without posting and my opening remarks from the time I was Toastmaster, basically the emcee of the meeting. I also have a couple more twoems, which I tweet into Twitter via a text message from my cell phone.

Motorcycle Camping

I was glad I had my cell phone with me and was dressed for walking when I just happened to let the door close on me when I went out to turn my motorcycle this morning. It locked. Neither my daughter nor son-in-law was up yet so I went for a walk. While walking, I was able to talk with my parents, youngest sister, and her husband. I closed the conversation when I got back to their house. Since they still weren’t up, I went back out for another round. This time I tried to call one of my sisters-in-law without success. So I “tweeted” my predicament, which also posted to Facebook. One of my “friends” quickly commented: “hahahahahaha.” I have such sympathetic friends.

At my two of my gas stops I “tweeted.” At my son-in-law’s urging, I am now calling my Twitter poetry twoetry and the individual tweet poems twoems. He particularly likes the connection / connotation to it sounding like Elmer Fudd. I created a number of twoems today, some of which I actually tweeted.

In my heated
Gloves not needed,
The air is quite warm enough.

The cool sea breeze
Still didn’t please.
Its strength was its weakness.

I couldn’t see why they just slowed.
Here I am stopped on the road.
Great mileage, if I were moving.

In actual fact, I did get great mileage, 144 miles on the tank without going to my reserve tank.


I’m now camped for the very first time from my motorcycle. (See pictures.) There are a couple things besides toothpaste, floss, and sunscreen I’ve forgotten, a flashlight for one. At least I made it to the campsite before dark and there was a space. I was planning on getting into my tent before dark because there is at least one mosquito in it. Instead, I talked with a fellow motorcyclist who is riding from Arizona to his home in Canada. I picked up some great tips for long distance riding. Anyway, we talked until too dark to find a mosquito. I am using the Macbook screen as my light. At least my last two nights in my daughter’s guest bed has prepared me for my 1.75-inch Thermorest. The Thermorest may even be softer.

The Plasket Creek campground is particularly nice with nice tent areas and paved parking. I also don’t have a metal plate to put under my kickstand for soft dirt/turf parking.

There is no cell phone signal so I shut it off in order to have some juice when I finally get back to irradiation. This means that I couldn’t tweet my last two twoems. Since the moment has passed, they will probably never be “tweeted.” Here they are for your groans:

Two dogs doing it by the side of the road.
Two people watching them as they unload.
Not a pooper scooper in sight.

Who would have thought it?
Going north on 1
Is into the sun.

Keeping the shiny side up.

All atwitter

I really wasn't all atwitter on my ride down to Pasadena but I did text three messages to Twitter and via Twitter's application on to my Facebook status.  Once again I had more thoughts to tweet but didn't even have a cell phone signal at one gas stop.  (Motorcycle riding is probably as great a thinking activity as walking, at least there is plenty of time for it.  It is also a good platform to meditate on, pun intended.)

A good many of my thoughts were on Twitter, such as:  I am really impressed by the possibility of information density in a "tweet," a form of poetry, a "twery(?)."  While many people obviously don't use Twitter for anything more than, and often substantially worse than, mundane activities of their day, it could be a tool for concise, honed, well constructed observations.  While many of these constructions will be blank verse and not all that well honed as there really isn't a draft and edit process, some could be very good.  For the rhyming ones, the limited number of characters suggest an equally short rhyming scheme:  ABB or AAB.  For the latter I have two examples from my ride down:

Lack of water,

Getting hotter,

Brown is the new green.

Tumbleweeds along the fence...

Did they blow there?

Did they grow there?

I also thought that it would be cool to establish rules for a group game of chess, where a cluster of mutual followers play as a group against one person.  The one person would initiate the game with an opening move and the followers would "tweet" each of their personal moves.  Then the one person would "tweet" the majority response and his own next move.  There would have to be time limits involved to establish when the move majority can be determined.  (Unlike the Minnesota Senate race.)

Some of my other observations from the ride:  I passed a group of sheep that while all were rather close, there were distinct subgroupings of various sizes.  I couldn't help but think that it was a "clustered clusters" of sheep.  I also saw a single gas efficient car being carried by a large car hauling semi.  No wonder fuel efficient cars aren't profitable.  After the Grapevine, I was passed by a California Highway Patrol car on the right.  I knew that the posted speed limit was 65 and only looked down at my speedometer as he went by.  I was going 80.  This made me rethink what I always assumed was poor grammar in the "Speed Enforced by Aircraft."  While it obviously means speed detected by aircraft, it may be grammatically correct.  I certainly would speed up if I saw a plane coming up behind me, on the road.

My goal was to get to my daughter's and son-in-law's during daylight, which my late start, 11:30 AM, didn't help.  Once out of the Bay Area, my speed brought it back into a definite possibility, until the traffic stopped on I-210.  I was able to lane split until I finally made it to the front to find that all lanes were stopped.  
As I sat there with my motorcycle turned off, I texted my daughter to tell her I was stopped and took a couple pictures.  I had already put away my camera but would have probably missed the shot anyway when a semi rear ended a pickup truck on the opposite side.  I heard another crunch, didn't see the action, but later saw a similarly damaged black car parked to the side diagonally opposite me with another semi parked behind it.  Finally a police car with the special pushing bumper shoved a sandwiched police car to the side.  The stretcher I saw earlier may have been the cop driver.  I did not see any other damaged vehicles but I didn't do any "lookie loo" with the rather forceful reminder of what that could lead to on the other side of the expressway.

Tweets I would have made...

Unlike my ride down where I texted a tweet at every little gas stop, I only did one this time. It seemed that whenever I had something to "tweet," my hands were busy and whenever I stopped I wanted to get back on the road. So, I'm home now and have decided to try and recapture those "tweets" I would have made had I been able to and present them here.

"T-shirt, sweatshirt, thin jacket, motorcycle jacket, heated gloves, jeans, chaps, and truly thankful for every layer."

"It's easier going 80+ with the wind than into the wind."

"Wind, rain, gusts, and bugs. The bugs make me particularly thankful for my full face helmut."

"I used my glove's squeegee on my visor with limited success. It didn't touch the water on the inside."

"The chaps protected my legs from the water. The jacket protected my torso and arms. The helmut protected my head. The gloves protected my hands. About the only thing that got wet was my crotch."

"Concentrating animals in feed lots and feeding them also concentrates the scent of their having been fed."

"This was the first trip where the Grapevine hills were some other color than gold. They were actually green."

I had to stop for a while. Napoleon, the cat, was typing more than I was. It's just as well, my memory was running down.

"I had a latte and now have another activity before which I will never ever again drink anything with caffeine in it."

"One bug managed to avoid being splattered on my helmut by ducking inside it."

"I wonder if anyone's neck has been broken by the wind as the lane to one's side was checked prior to changing lanes. Well, I guess if a neck is broken there wouldn't be any intentional lane change."

Twitter and Facebook

I joined Facebook because one of Marilyn's friends invited me to do so. Indeed, I have reconnected with a number of people from my past as well as a few of my children's friends. I am using it as it was truly intended, social networking, and as a gateway for more. It was through Facebook that I arranged for one of my youngest daughters friends to check in on her cats while I was away visiting my oldest daughter in Pasadena. (Her birthday is tomorrow, although that was not the only reason I came down.)

I signed up for Twitter through Twitter's Facebook application for the express purpose of being able to update both Twitter and Facebook through Twitter with my Spot OK/Location message. In a test at my house and again in Pasadena, the Spot message did not show up on Twitter or Facebook. I get an error when I try to forward the Spot message that shows up on my cell phone and the cell phone message doesn't have the Google Maps url like the email message does.

I have used Twitter for texting messages to both Twitter and via Twitter to Facebook. Somehow it is easier to send a text message to Twitter than it is to Facebook, primarily because I can type 40404 much faster than select the Facebook url from my contact list on my phone. I have sent a "question" to Twitter to see if they do have a way I can send my Spot message to Twitter and have it associated with my ID, @dewline172. (Now you have my username if you want to "follow" me on Twitter.

I'm meeting my daughter for lunch tomorrow so I need to find out how to get to the restaurant she wants to meet at.