Day 75 and Last One

Today was again another beautiful day. I rode about 210 miles today and won't be riding again for awhile! I was blessed with so much good weather!

Thank you Terry and Patty for your great hospitality in Williamsburg, I had a great time and your new house is beautiful. Terry made a delicious breakfast and the ride through the southern VA countryside was great. I rode down VA 5 which goes past a bunch of VA plantations along the James river. I was interested in stopping and taking pictures but I am exhausted by my trip and just want to get home to Beth and my thousand entry "honey do" list.....I did not stop but I will definitely be back with Beth because this part of the country is beautiful and historic and if you know me, I am all about history.

I stopped by the bike shop in Garner to get my mirror ordered, it should arrive in about a week so I can get the last part repaired from the mishap in Iowa.

Throughout this trip God held me in his hands and brought me safely home. Beth supported me throughout and i couldn't have more thoughtful and tolerant partner in life! I want to thank ALL the friends and family that I visited. You all made this trip very special and I couldn't have made the trip without you. I had such a good time and this blog is a poor attempt at showing how I felt about the folks I got to see. I really appreciate you all very much. The memories from this trip will last me the rest of my life. I know I may have taken too many pictures of some events and not enough of others but I hope the memories never fade.

I want to share some of the different things that i catalogued during the trip that I thought were interesting. Here they are in descending order of occurrence:

Russ’s Trip by the Numbers Amount Comment

Miles 10,690
Gas expenses $914.22
Longest ride 710 Miles
Total nights 74
Friends visited 37
States visited on this trip 31
Family visited 30
Nights in a hotel alone 16
Hostess gifts given 15
States left to Ride in 12
Computers, Kindle's fixed 6
Incidents with animals 5
Rounds of golf 4.5
New States visited 4 Arkansas, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska
Nights in hotel with Beth 4 1 in las Vegas because of Beth staying at the airport the first night and 3 in Iowa
Continental Divide crossings 4 3 in Yellowstone 1 in Colorado
CMA meetings attended 3 Lewes CO, Portland, OR, Mount Pleasant IA
Days of significant rain 3 Idaho, Montana and South Dakota really unbelievable out of 75 total days
Weird states to get rained on 2 Arizona and Southern California
Oil changes 2
New Tires 2
Carpal Tunnel 2 Each hand, worse on my left hand
Lost golf balls 2 Both in watery graves
Nights on a Sailboat 1 Thank you Tony for the great time sailing on the "Makai"
Bike knocked over 1 In Iowa
Canadian Provinces 1 British Columbia
Islands visited 1 Vancouver Island
Famous homes I stayed in 1 The "Happy Gilmour" house in Vancouver...thank you Bryan and Judy McKnight!
States I have never visited 1 North Dakota - hard to find a reason to go.....
Motorcycle warning lights 1 In Stoneboro PA
Broken mirror 1 In Iowa
Gloves worn out 1 pair I got this pair in the service 36 years ago.....hard to throw away....
Seasickness 0 Thank goodness

The best barbecue i had was at Joe's on the Kansas side of KC.....Thanks Jared and Hailey! The photo identification contest - Bitter Melon was won by Nancy Looney...your gift will arrive soon. The winner of the contest to guess the amount of mileage goes to.....drum roll please......Nancy Looney....pretty shrewd waiting to the last minute to guess.....i will have to send a bigger box.

Collins, I hope you saw the picture of the coke bottle i found with your name on it - see you soon at the bridge table!

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog and perusing the pictures as much as I had writing it and taking and experiencing the pictures.

God Bless you all and I hope I see you all again soon!