Today I swallowed.

Alright - time to get an update online because I know the world is interested in me.  At least that's what I tell my narcissistic self.

The last several times have been spent in Orlando enjoying the family at the Disney World complexes.  I've vowed to stay positive so I will leave it with: The next time I go to Disney World will be right after I win my next Super Bowl.  Actually, it was fun to get to spend time with the girls in the parks and such.

Here is the best part of Orlando...

Me leaving.

As normal, my butt ached - here is the solution I have developed (only works when going slow):

Long day today as we headed South all the way to Key West.  Our hotel is right off of Duval Street.  I'm debating on how much I should use the camera in Key West.  I don't want any photographic evidence of activities that would preclude my chances of running for the Presidency.

And what about this "Swallowed" thing?  In Connecticut we went to a maritime museum that had an exhibit specific to sailors and their tattoos.  A sailor earns a tattoo of the Swallow bird as a commemoration for each 5000 miles sailed.  On the way down to Key West, my total milage for this trip passed 5000 miles (5033) so I earned my swallow.  You people are sick.

Erin

Oceans and big corporate irony

After spending several days with the parents in Charleston, I headed down to Orland with Lindsey and her boyfriend.  I was surprised that I could fit all of us on the bike but I got it to work.  (They drove and I rode).

Charleston is a very neat town with a lot of history.  We visited Ft. Sumter, took a carriage tour of the town and walked, walked, walked...

The highlight though was a sailing trip.  It's very cool to think that my parents are really living the dream.  For all those that remember the boat in the back yard (although they now have a different boat), I think my parents are living proof to the adage "follow your dreams".

Here are some pictures - I'm going artsy fartsy with the Black and White.

The Captain...

The admiral...

Lindsey...

Lindsey's boyfriend, Damen.   He's a strapping young lad in the Navy so we made him do all of the hard work.

Once it was time to leave Charleston, Damen, Lindsey and myself headed down to Orlando where the family would all meet up again.  We took the highway most of the way, but cut down next to the Atlantic from St. Augustine to Daytona.  The astute will wonder why the Ocean is on that side of the bike (answer: I get lost a lot).

For all the time I've been on the East coast, I had not taken the opportunity to actually touch the ocean, so...

We did not get the opportunity to stop and get state sign pictures, so this one of Lindsey and I will cover Georgia and Florida.  I think this picture is a fair trade for the loss of the sign...

The next several days will be Orlando, Key West, and Miami.  Key West and Miami should be a source of good pictures and stories!

You are a very handsome man and my Monkey form

I'm currently in a brief layover in Charleston, SC with my parents and oldest daughter, Lindsey.  She is spending the summer with her boyfriend, they are traveling up the East coast in their boat.

Charleston is a very cool city.  I seem to keep repeating "______ is a cool city"; I must have done a good job picking out my stops!

I took all beachfront roads on the way down from Wilmington, which meant I was burning up the entire way.  The SouthEast is very hot and I need to make some changes in my gear to try and stay cooler.  I've been going through 2 full Camel back loads per day and that is a lot of sweating and water loss!

My route took me on a 1/2 hour ferry ride.  The ferry was was ok, but the highlight was when a lady told me that I was a "very handsome man".  I think she may have had some odd fetish because I was sweaty, stinky, and in a general state of road worn.  Be that as it may, I'm taking the compliment.

Here I am waiting in line with all of the cagers to get on the ferry:

And "I'm on a boat..." (the bikes behind mine were trailered down from Maryland - wimps):

And the obligatory state change sign:

I didn't realize it, but I walked into a trap when taking my state change picture.  If the reader remembers my last entry, there was mention of bears at the Virginia/North Carolina state change.  Well the bears tried their best to get me at the NC/SC state change.  It's a good thing my advanced Ninja training skills kicked in.  Everybody knows to use the Monkey form when fighting bears.

Upon arrival in Charleston, I met up with my parents and Lindsey and we headed down to their boat.  It is an absolutely beautiful boat and a wonderful place to call home for a couple of days.  No roaches either!

And possibly the ugliest figure head any boat has seen:

Today was all about errands which included lighter weight riding gloves, getting more/better Dri-fit type shirts, and lighter weight socks.

One last thing - Charleston is where BMW imports their cars into the US and the port is right next to the marina we are staying at.  Here are hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of X5 and X6 cars being brought into the US:

Tomorrow is a tour of the harbor, which includes Fort Sumter, and the city.

A visitor to my room...

Yesterday's trip took me from Virginia Beach, Va to Wilmington, NC.  I was born in NC so this is a sort of homecoming.  Not really, but it sounded poetic.

Since this was a shorter leg, I decided to take all small back roads.  I'm glad I did, but it certainly made for a long day: 9 hours of riding for only 300 miles.  I had wanted to stay in the Outer Banks, but North/South travel is pretty complicated to do that, so I had to stay inland slightly.  Inland where it is hot and humid.

Immediately prior to the state change, there was a sign noting cars to the presence of bears (similar to the deer signs).  I was very surprised to see this because I was unaware of a heavy bear population in the NC/VA region.  I was also concerned because I needed to get my state change sign.  Now you should all know that not all of these pictures are easy to get.  For this one, I had to park the bike about 50 yards from the sign and then walk to get the image taken.  Of course my eyes were wide open for any bears.  Below is the obligatory state change sign self portrait:

Oops - forgot to download from phone - will revise and include at next download.

Since the roads were all smaller I decided to take more pictures while traveling.  Every now and then I get some cool shots:

Wilmington, NC is a nice town with a lot going on.  I'm not sure if this is a big college town (UNCW?) or if it's all just coastal tourism, but the population is very young.  This young thing was in my room when I checked in and am happy to report it will not be reaching old age:

How to get a cop's attention in 3 minutes or less

Mileage update (remember when I was going to be structured on the statistics of the trip???) from Abq to Virginia Beach: 3,825 miles

I pulled an itinerary audible and cut my stay in DC short by 1 day.  My parents (the hippy boat folks) are currently traveling up the East coast and I decided to pull out a day in DC to add a day in Charleston with my daughter and parents.  Good trade, but I certainly plan on going back to DC for an extended visit!

The ride down from DC (actually - Annanndale, MD) was very nice.  This trip is so much more enjoyable when I am not on the major interstates.

I'm hell bent on getting back into taking pictures as I enter states and saw a good (reasonable) opportunity as I left Maryland and entered Virginia.  Since I didn't (and still don't) have a Maryland photo, I pulled over for the shot below.  The sign is immediately prior to a bridge that crosses the Potomic which is the boarder between Maryland and Virginia.  What I didn't realize is that next to the bridge and sign is a Nuclear power plant.  When I stopped, there were no cops anywhere.  But by the time I had pulled over and snapped the shot a cop had pulled up behind me and the 20 questions started.  Apparently they don't like people stopping on the side of the road and taking pictures with a camera that has a "High powered lens", near a major bridge, next to a Nuclear power plant.

I should have taken a picture with the police officer, but he didn't appear to be in the mood..

And as I enter Virginia (no cop issues!):

The ride through Virginia was a lot of fun.  As I noted above the back roads are really the way to see this country.

Look at the pretty cylinder sticking out there!

The tri-pod shakes a lot so I tried the next best thing:

At lunch, the little diner I ate at had a place-mat which was a coloring sheet of the US.  I decided to map out my journey so far.

Almost forgot, I spent the night in Virginia Beach, Va.  Very cool beach town and they had a fun band playing on the boardwalk.  But honestly, sometimes the journey is better then the destination...

Next stop is somewhere in North Carolina...

Frog piss or I am #10...

I'm starting to get back in the riding groove (read as: My butt has started to hurt) and it's nice to start seeing new things again.

What is with the title for this blog?  Well, I'm writing at a Starbucks and I may have to break the habit.  I've noticed that a lot of guys seem to hang out at Starbucks: currently there are 9 guys sitting by themselves, reading or typing on computers.  And I am now #10.  I'll get to the Frog piss at the end of the story...

From Connecticut my plan was to make a quick trip (long trip going fast) down to Washington, DC where I would meet up with my Uncle and his family.  It was just pure luck that they would be in Washington around the same time I was to be in the North East.

In order to get an early start, I packed everything up Thursday ready to get on the bike and ride Friday morning...  at 5:00 AM.  Waking up early on sabbatical isn't a problem since I have started sleeping through the nights.  However, Friday morning I awoke to a rainstorm.  And not a little drizzle, but a full on rainstorm.  Long story short, I wasn't able to take the interstate and took HWY1 from Connecticut down through the Bronx and ended up in DC much later then expected.  However, I made it safely and that's the most important part.

Why did I have to get to DC so urgently?  The Bourbon, Beer, and BBQ festival of course!

And it wasn't all about the Bourbon/Beer/BBQ, it was also about having fun with family...

and dancing in the rain...

The next day (Saturday June 18), I walked around DC to check out the monuments.  There is not much more to say other then: What an amazing place!  I have a ton of pictures, but honestly, they are of all the standard Washington, DC stuff.  So nothing new to see.  However, I have not been able to get my portraits by state signs (way to risky on the Highways).  I have missed Virginia, Marlyand, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.  So to prove I did make it...

After a ton of walking it was time to wrap it up for the night and get ready to head down to Virginia Beach.  But given how cool this place is, there will be a Fria family trip to DC in our future!

Here are some pictures of me riding (playing with camera mount)...

And what I've looked at for the last +3600 miles...

Now, what about the Frog piss?  This morning as I was packing up and getting ready to go, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny little frog jumping around.  I heard rumor that frogs are a sign of good luck and I picked the little guy up for a picture.  And what did he do?  He took a pee all over my hand!  I'll still take that as a sign of good luck.

Next stop - Virginia Beach.

Back in the saddle again...

After a wonderful visit and rest in Connecticut/NYC it's time to start packing and head a couple of hundred miles South to Washington, DC.  Here are some highlights of the stop in Connecticut and New York City.

First, let's start in the gutter.  On our drive down to the city on the highway, I looked over and in the car next to us, a couple was... uh... how do I say this... they were... ummm...  enjoying each other's company.  Me being me, I had to try and get a picture.  Thank God it didn't turn out crystal clear so the reader's imagination will set parental ratings.

In no particular order, here are some highlights of our trip through NYC:

Little Italy (Note who has the comfortable shoes and guess the person who had zero foot/shoe complaints):

We woke up early one morning and headed down to the set of the Today show.  It was drizzling slightly, but we toughed it out and made TV!

At the Today Show:

And on TV:

We headed up to the highest floor we could get to at the Empire State Building.  Tourist note:  They try to sell you express line tickets.  If the lines are long, then buy the tickets.  We opted to not buy the tickets, and spend over 3 hours in the building.  The majority of which were standing in lines!

On the 102 floor of the Empire State Building:

Characatures (spelling?) of the girls - my two princesses!

My brother-in-law works in 2 World Financial where he can see the construction of the replacement buildings.  Stuart actually worked in the original WTC2, but thank God was not at work on 9/11 - he was across the river and watched the whole thing happen, but that's another story...

At the actual foot prints of the two buildings, they are putting in reflecting pools:

They have 65 stories of the replacement building already constructed!  It is going to be a very attractive building when complete.

Once we returned to Connecticut, we cruised around Greenwich one day and Mystic the next.

Greenwich, where thankfully there was more "looking" then "buying" while shopping:

And the town of Mystic where we went through a historic ship village and then went to have a Pizza.  Get it "Mystic Pizza"!?!?

It's been a great break from the road, but I am anxious to get back on the road and get more miles on the odometer.  Tomorrow is DC for a couple of days and then keep on heading South...

Last but not least, and there is no reason for this photo other then I really like the way the lighting turned out:

Hanging in the Conn

We've been spending time with family in Conn with Tracey's brother, Stuart, and his family:

While in Conn we have...

Gone to the beach:

Where we saw a beautiful Mer-man:

And then off to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game.  However, the game was delayed and as it turned out we didn't get to see any of the game.  However, we did get the hot dogs, beer, and fun experience:

For the ride, I bought a new camera that does cool things like Panoramic shots:

And a tri-pod that will allow for shots like this:

And plenty of good food...

And posing for the camera...

Tomorrow we are off for a couple of days in NYC...