May 31

We are in Long Island now, digesting a wonderful dinner. Here's some photos from the last several days for you...

Annapolis, Maryland - Dancin Jim

Penny says they are in Annapolis Maryland and it's hotter than blazes.
The bay bridge

http://www.baydreaming.com/chesapeakebaybridge.htm
is "AWESOME" and the only issue with the bike is the blinker fuse
keeps blowing.

Well, I'm finally getting the blackmail video up online. If you see
anyone remotely looking like the guy in this video make him do "The
dance" for dinner. I don't know how he did it sideways so don't hurt
your neck watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw2cKOY-r74

--
Brian

May 29 update

This morning we took the Metro into Washington DC to finish our tour.
There's so much to see and do a person would need a week or two to see
it all.

Of all the memorials we visited, the Vietnam Memorial was the most
emotional. As we approached The Wall the people around us were
talking, carrying on their regular conversations and doing their
thing. As we got closer and along The Wall, it was almost silent as
everyone took in the names on The Wall. It really hit home that each
name on The Wall was a real person, someone's loved one, father,
brother, son.... It was more than just a monument representing a
period of time, it represented individual people. Loved ones left
flowers or pictures or other items along The Wall, like what is left
at gravesites in a cemetary. Uncle Pat told us that they collect
everything at the end of the day and mark where it was left along The
Wall. We took a rubbing for a friend of ours and even though we
didn't know him, it was still an emotional experience, a sobering
experience. It was impossible not to let the emotions of everyone
around us affect us.

The Korean Memorial was also different than the others. It's a wall
not to much unlike the Vietnam Wall, except instead of individual
names there are faces engraved on the wall. It's almost like ghosts
coming out of the wall from the past.

We also visited the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Monument and spent
some time at the Smithsonian. We walked for what seemed like miles.
It was a great experience. Tomorrow on the way out of town we'll stop
at Arlington Cemetary and visit the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Since leaving Baker City, we have ridden 5,046 miles, had one flat
tire and one gravelly parking lot dropped bike. Not bad. Like Jim
says - if that's the worse that happens, we're doing great.

We're heading to Long Island next - taking two days to get there.
Hopefully we'll be able to post some photos in the next few days.

We appreciate all the well wishes and prayers we've been receiving.

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

May 28

Still in Wash. DC. Going to see more monuments, etc. tomorrow. If we
accomplish all our goals, we may head out Weds. or stay until Thurs.
A.M.

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

Rolling Thunder Ride

Jim & Penny "Survived the parade with an estimated half a million
bikes in attendance" They also mentioned "it took several hours just
to get them all on the route". I'm sure after a day like that
they'll want to get out of Dodge and away from the crowds and noise.
Hope they had their ear plugs in =:0

--
Brian

Made it to Washington DC

I got a message that the Kids have made it to Washington DC and are
camping at Burke Lake campground in Fairfax Virginia
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/burkelake/

After Jim waking me up at 5 AM this morning to let me know it was
really 8 on the east coast he pawned me off to Penny who filled me in.
Penny says the campground is DELUXE with running water, toilets,
showers, minature golf, a mini train, snack bar with ice cream parlor
- Jims favorite, electric fireplaces, tanning rooms (wait scratch
those last couple).

They are heading into DC and hitting all the hotspots today and will
do the Memorial parade ride on Sunday 27th. She isn't sure if they
will hang out much longer after that or not but then head North to
Long Island.

--
Brian Diver
www.PDQ-signs.com
Everett, WA IBA # 8270

May 22

In Montgomery, Indiana. Saw the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri this
morning and are now at the Gasthof Amish Village in Montgomery, In.
Beautiful place - hope to get photos tomorrow.

4,200 miles so far. Plan to reach WA D.C. on Thursday eve.

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

Boonville, Missouri

We are relaxing at a casino in Boonville, Missouri. Getting ready to
go down to the buffett in a few minutets. Eat, ride, sleep, repeat.
Everything is going well.

Had a flat tire on the R6 today. We weren't on the freeway more than
probably 40 miles when the bike started feeling a little squirrely. I
thought it was because we were on grooved pavement, but the feeling
started getting worst. Just as I was getting ready to pull over, Jim
told me my tire was going flat. We had left after the pack but were
lucky in that the chase vehicle was running late. He showed up about
the time Jim was pulling out the tire patch kit. We loaded the bike
onto the trailer and had it taken to the nearest Yamaha dealer -
Brooks Yamaha in Manhattan, KS. They had a tire and got it put on in
just a few minutes. I'd recommend them to anyone passing through.

I keep forgetting to mention - Jim has a new biker name. He's been
dubbed Leatherman by some of the guys we've been riding with. Poor
guy - he won something during a raffle and when he walked up to get
it, the announcer told everyone, "Look who it is - Leatherman." So,
he's been Leatherman ever since.

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

What state are we in?

Guess which state this is:

wind
lots of feed lots (cattle and chicken)
windy
lots of grain bins
wheat
lots of John Deere's

You guessed it - Kansas. We're in Dodge City, Kansas at a Motel 8
getting ready to go eat. Having a great time. The weather couldn't
be better. It was in the 70's for most of the day.

We rode about 450 miles today. Tomorrow we're heading for Salina,
Kansas to meet back up with the RFTW guys. We're going to do the
activities with them, but ride on our own. We're not used to riding
with that large of a group and just don't feel comfortable riding that
close to people we don't know. We'll ride into DC with them on Friday
and do the activities on Sunday, then be on our own again.

Hopefully we'll be able to check in again soon.

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

Update

I'm not even sure what day today is, except that it's Friday.  The 18th I think? 

 

We're at some friend's of ours in Albuquerque, NM right now.  We broke away from the Run for the Wall group for a while and will catch back up with them on Sunday night in Salina, CO. 

 

We're having a great time.  We've met some wonderful people and are ready to keep riding.  It's nice to take a break now and then from all the riding though and just relax.  Rhoda and Karen are getting ready to feed us some wonderful lasagna and are keeping us hydrated so we don't melt tomorrow.  We're planning on reaching Dodge City, Kansas tomorrrow night. 

 

We are looking forward to reaching Washington DC and then being able to keep our own schedule and do our own thing.  It's finally settled in that we have no where to call home now, and it hasn't bothered us one bit.  And the fact that we're unemployed hasn't bothered us yet, either.

--
http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

Thoughts

So far we've gone 1,789 miles. I wondered how many miles it would
take for my mind to shut off. I figure it took approximately 1,500
miles. Up until that point, I couldn't quit thinking about stuff -
work and family stuff and other stuff that just clutters the head.
Things that I can't do anything about but that still fill the mind
with needless thoughts. Finally, it all shut off and I just rode and
actually enjoyed the ride.

May 14 - Palm Springs

We're relaxing in Palm Springs right now at Jim's brother's place.  Nick and Maricar have been wonderful hosts - shuttling  us around and feeding us.  We take turns relaxing by the pool or swimming in the pool.  It's right around 100 degrees.  WAY to hot to be riding.

 

Tomorrow we'll head to Ontario, CA to check in for the Run for the Wall and then take off the morning of the 16th for Washington DC.

 

We've seen gas prices as high as $4.59 at a ski resort in California.  The highest we've had to pay is $4.09.  The average prices have been between $3.39 and $3.69.

 

We stopped at a historic hotel in Ridgeport, CA for breakfast and to Jim's amazement, they didn't make pancakes.  That was kind of odd, we thought.  The french toast was marvelous tho.

 

 

 

--
http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

May 9 Update

We're still relaxing at Uncle Pat and Aunt Cathy's house - doing laundry, washing the bikes, and Jim's putting the chain oiler on my bike.

Since leaving Baker City, we have gone 1,310 miles.

The road we took into Redding (199 I believe) was a biker's paradise. We're under a deadline right now to get down to Ontario, CA so we didn't get to spend much time in Redding, but we plan on going back.

We stayed with some friends of Keith and Paulette's named Ken and Delia. They ride a big Harley. We've never met them before but hit it right off. We enjoyed the time we spent with them and appreciate the hospitality they showed to people they had never met. They took us for a quick tour of Redding where we got to see the Sundial Bridge. http://www.visitredding.org/sundial/sundial101.cfm That was pretty cool. We plan to make it back to visit the area a little more and explore some of the areas they recommended.


After leaving Redding we went to Rick Mayer's to pick Jim's seat up. Jim says his butt is in heaven now. When we make it back to the area he might have a few modifications made, but he says it's much better than the stock seat.

The ride into the Bay Area was hot. The traffic wasn't to bad. We managed to miss the worse of rush hour by taking a wrong turn that actually turned out for the best. Uncle Pat was waiting for us with something cool to drink. We slept great last night and are just taking it easy today.

Tonight we'll go visit Tony (Jim's brother) and his wife Christine and they're new baby, then head up to Jim's Grandparents tomorrow. On Saturday we'll head down to Palm Springs area to visit Jim's other brother, Nick, and his wife, Maricar, for a few days before we start the Run for the Wall.

Start on page 3 for newest photos:
by pendev1

The Bay Area

We're now relaxing at Uncle Pat and Aunt Cathy's place in the Bay Area. Tomorrow we'll go see Jim's brother, Tony, and his wife Christine, and their new baby.

It was a hot ride today! We rode from the Redding area. Jim got his new Rick Mayer seat. We had a nice visit with Rick Mayer and received a grand tour of his place.

May 6

Right now we're relaxing in a motel room in Gold Beach. First thing
tomorrow morning we're heading for Brookings to find the DMV because
someone forget her driver's license expires this month. Oops!
Gotta get that taken care of before we head out of state.

Jim has an appointment Tuesday morning with Rick Mayer to get the seat
for his FJR. Monday night we're planning on staying with some friends
of Keith and Paulette's who live in Redding.

Jim found out the difference between oysters and clams tonight at
dinner. He does not like oysters in any way, shape, or form. I
thought we might get kicked out of the restaurant because I was
laughing so hard and couldn't stop. He took one bite of an oyster and
went into panic mode, not knowing whether he should spit it out or
swallow it. He decided that was probably one of the worst things he's
ever eaten. He thought it was clams.

The weather's been wonderful. Sunny for the most part, and a little
windy, especially along the beach.

After checking in we went for a walk along the beach and found several
whole sand dollars. This is the first time we've ever found whole
sand dollars - they're usually broken or missing large pieces in the
middle of them.

The riding has been great. We've been going just a little over 100 -
150 miles a day. Tomorrow we'll have to do over 200. I haven't been
as tired as I was afraid I'd get. My muscles are sore because we've
been doing a lot of walking and rock hopping. When I'm able to, I'll
post photos of some of the walks we've taken along the beach.

Thank You

We would like to share HUGE Thank You's to the following people:

Our bosses:

John and Teresa Stebbins at S&G Machinery
Ken Errend at PIMC.

Brian Diver at PDQ Signs for the decals and t-shirts.

Keith and Paulette for the use of their pickup and for all their time and help.

Kim and Tracy for all their time and help and for storing our stuff for us.

To all our friends for their support and contributions for our time
off. Without all the support we received, things wouldn't have
progressed nearly as smoothly as they did.

I'm sure there's many more people along the way who we will want to thank also.

May 4 & 5

May 4 - 5

We left my parents house in Sunnyside, WA around 9 am on Friday, May
4. We rode from Sunnyside to Toppenish and over Satus Pass. We rode
along the river on the Washington side to Milwaukee, OR. At a gas
stop fairly close to Portland Jim noticed that one of the bolts that
hold my rearsets on was missing and the other one was loose. A few
days earlier, the ones on the other side were loose. A few miles from
Milwaukee, my blinkers quit working. A fuse had blown. It was windy
the entire way and started raining a couple miles from Paul and
Nancy's, where we stayed. Nancy had dinner cooking when we got there
- bbq pork ribs, corn, and potatoes, with ice cream for dessert, of
course.

For my birthday, Nancy and Paul gave me a Hawk Oiler - so we won't
have to oil my chain at the end of every day. For my birthday, Jim
will put it on. Sounds like a great deal to me. Thanks, Paul and
Nancy. I sure appreciate it.

Saturday was a neighborhood clean up day so Nancy took a load

Fwd: Ridin' in the rain

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: J&P Devlin <devlinstravels@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 17:16:11 -0700
Subject: Ridin' in the rain
To: devlin.devlinstravels@blogspot.com

Went 185 miles today. Sitting at Paul & Nancy's in Miwaukee, Oregon -
fed and dry. Jim & Paul are on a mission to find parts for my bike.
The rearsets keep spitting off parts. Also blew a blinker fuse just
as we were pulling into town.

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

--

http://devlinstravels.blogspot.com

Traitor

Oops - caught in the act! Not even gone from John Deere for a week and he's already driving something else.

My
parents had some weeds that needed cut down so he's doing the job for
them. I guess we can't give him to bad of a time since he's being a
goodSamaritan.

We're off!!

I don't think it's quite sunk in - we're unemployed and homeless! Wow! That's usually a bad thing, but in this case, it's a great thing.

We had quite the send off. My boss had an open house and took some of us out to dinner on April 20th and Jim's boss had an open house/going away bbq for Jim on the 27th.



Friday night some of our friends came up and took the last load of our stuff up to our trailer and other friends started showing up for the weekend festivities.

Saturday we went for a ride to Hell's Canyon Dam then came back just in time for a bbq at another friend's house. We appreciate everyone who took the time to ride all the way to Baker City for the weekend. It was great seeing everyone and sharing stories around the bbq.


Hell's Canyon Dam





Richard A. from Canada surprised us with a delicious ice cream cake!! I don't think there was any left after the party.



Sunday morning we met for breakfast and the out-of-towner's took off. We finished packing our stuff and cleaning the apartment. On our way into town, we ran into some friends from Everett who came over for the party and were just finishing up visiting the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. We had ice cream with them then went to a friend's house in town and just mellowed out for the evening.

Monday morning we finished up a few things, had lunch with Jim's boss and his wife, and headed out.

The starting mileage on my bike was 12,249. We only went a couple hundred miles to my parents in Sunnyside, where I'm at right now. Jim is on his way to Omak to visit with his Mom for a couple of days. On Friday, we'll head out once again. We have an appointment on Tuesday for Jim to get his bike seat finished up at Rick Mayer's in California.