After a visit to Aerostich Rider WareHouse in Duluth, we avoid the construction on I-35 by taking “surface” roads. We head south to St. Paul, where we stop by the home of Mike’s maternal grandparents. The folks who bought the house way-back-when are still the owners and graciously welcome us and show us around. Mike makes a pitch for the pool table! As we leave, Mike’s parents and brother are driving up to do the same thing!

Then it’s a stop at the Apple Store to try to figure out why I can’t download images from my iPhone. The tech does an archive-and-reinstall of the OS. I’d had a wipe-and-reinstall done earlier in June. Finally, we get to Cannon Falls, the site of the family reunion. (Google Map; the trip summary page)

(more…)

Spending the night in the car at a CENEX truck stop is probably more fun in your 20s. But when you can’t get a motel room after trying for about an hour — and you’ve been in a major thunderstorm and are tired and it’s late — you do what you have to do.

In the ladies room at the restaurant across from CENEX, I get to explain to two women from Alberta that the “wah-wah-wah” sound they heard last night (“Was it a tornado warning?” was the emergency warning system announcing the thunderstorm. They spent the night in their truck instead of their tents. We’re all tidying up; no shower but large sinks!

(more…)

We get off to a slow-ish start after sampling the motel’s enhanced continental breakfast. After a gorgeous drive through Glacier National Park on the Going To The Sun Road (west-to-east) we aim towards North Dakota.

I’m looking for a Radio Shack because I’ve left my iPhone USB cable at home (I have at least three of them) and I can’t charge the phone. This is a big oops. (I don’t think about WalMart as being a probable source – they do sell Apple products and iPods. Eventually I buy a cable at a Target in North Dakota.) It’s a good thing I also brought along the baby Nikon camera!

(more…)

The summer of 2010 trip turned out to be a car trip, not a moto trip, because I was worried that my sleep apnea would make a moto trip too risky. Plus, we can take Katie in the car. So we rented a Hertz Sebring (leather seats, Sirius radio, moonroof).

D-day … we get a late start because we can (4-wheels are more forgiving) and because we need to. Route: Lynnwood WA to Kalispell, MT  with a stop in Coeur d’Alene ID for Hudson’s Burgers. Our motel room is next to a half-dozen Harleys; they hit the road earlier than we do Wednesday morning. (Google Map; the trip summary page)

(more…)

On May 2, 2009, Lora L. Hunt, 48, re-ended motorcyclist Anita Zaffke, 56, who had stopped for a red light near Lake Zurich, IL, about 40 miles north of Chicago. (Google map view of the intersection; Zaffke was traveling south on Route 12.)

Zaffke, who was wearing a bright high-viz yellow safety jacket and riding a Honda Shadow, was thrown “a couple hundred feet” and died at the scene of a broken neck. (She was wearing a full-face helmet.)

In September, a grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Hunt. She was convicted of reckless homicide; the sentencing hearing is set for July 22. Her sentence could range from probation to five years in prison for the conviction of reckless homicide.

(more…)

Data on Washington State motorcycle fatalities, calendar 2005 through June 2010.