48 States in 27 Days at Age 84

[Calimusjohn]

I'm an 84-year-old ADV relic and just completed a 9,391-mile ride on my 2022 Sea to Sky that touched all 48 states. If readers are curious, I will submit a day-to-day ride report. I cover routes, weather, costs, and observations. Is anyone interested?
John

[Peter Aawen]

.... Is anyone interested?
John

Sure am!

[Scotts8826]

I would love to hear about your adventure!

[ARtraveler]

Absolutely, positively, please submit your day by day adventure. We are all looking forward to seeing your ride across the country.

[Bangorbob]

Oh Ya!! Please.

[EdMat]

It's not complete till the paperwork's done!

Would love to hear about it.

[troop]

Yes please

[Isopedella]

Awesome

Yep I would be very interested in your journey and comments.

[BamaJohn]

+1 to hear your tales....

[baxter]

Your resume is quite interesting.

[StalkyTracker]

Ditto.

[Deanna777]

Yes, would love to hear your ride report.

Deanna

[Partzman23]

Yes please do give us the details on your adventures!

[Calimusjohn]

SPYDER TOUR
Day 1
It’s been three weeks since I finished six hundred miles of riding on a jet ski, so I’m taking a quickie motorcycle tour.

September 18, 2023
I left my Tennessee home at 8:00 a.m. surrounded by thick fog. The thermometer read 59 degrees. Five miles down the road, I stopped and inserted a liner in my jacket. The heated handgrips and seat didn’t warm my core. I shivered.
Oakridge, the birthplace of the uranium processing facility for the first atomic bomb, hid in the fog. I stuck to back roads as I worked my way east to Harrogate, Tennessee. I spotted the entrance to Lincoln Memorial College, then jumped the border into Kentucky, passed through the impressive Cumberland Gap Tunnel and squiggled my way along the Cumberland Valley. The “Kingdom Come” highway is a marvel of engineering. Mountains were drilled and dynamited away until a four-lane highway could carry travelers east and west.
Towns and hamlets abound in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. They hunker in the bottom of hollers and valleys next to creeks and rivers. The width of each town is restricted by the width of the valley. The urban areas average two or three streets wide and a bit less than a half-mile long.
The roads follow the waterways as they squirm their way toward the sea. There are no straight roads, railways, or rivers in the Appalachians.
Lunch consisted of a less-than-memorable burrito. Dinner came from KFC. My bed is located at the Economy Inn in Bluefield, West Virginia.
Expenses:
Breakfast: at home
Lunch: $ 7.00
Dinner: $ 12.83
Motel: $ 71.00
Gasoline: $ 47.90
Day’s Total: $138.73
Miles ridden: 352

[Little Blue]

....Thanks for your post up on your trip.
I will enjoy reading all of your trip information.
Any chance you have pictures of the grand event. This should be good read.

Stay Healthy and be Safe. ....

[safecracker]

Amazing ryde. Keep us posted. Bruce

[Valkrocket]

You just set the bar a little bit higher for the rest of us Spyder riders. I look forward to your complete write up.

[baxter]

very well written and documented.

[Calimusjohn]

This introduction should have preceded the Day 1 report. But like many aspects of life, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.” Robert Burns, To a mouse.
My bucket list showed that I had not visited the forty-eight contiguous states on one motorcycle ride. On September 18, 2023, I left home in Kingston, Tennessee to rectify the omission.
My ride was a 2022 Can-Am Sea to Sky Spyder. I chose a reverse trike over my other two-wheelers for several reasons. The most obvious is that I can no longer pick up a Goldwing or a big BMW when they decide to take dirt naps. An advantage of the Spyder is that it has lots of luggage space, heated seats, and hand grips.
Not having to put my feet down at stop signs and traffic lights was a bonus.
One drawback is that the machine doesn’t lean in corners. It always sits upright. It steers like a snowmobile or a jet ski. It has power steering but requires more arm and shoulder movements than a conventional motorcycle.
I added a Garmin Zumo GPS unit that easily interacts with my iPhone and helmet communications system. The Zumo led me from point to point, to remote gas stations, small cafes located off the beaten path, mom and pop motels, and major lodgings. It’s great.
The iPhone’s downloaded music lists provided hours of entertainment. The Spyder’s built-in radio requires a nine-year-old technician to reprogram it as you move from one geographical area to the next. BRP missed the boat on its programming of radio and other apps.
So much for the basics. Tomorrow we ride.

Photographs? No. The only photos I took were the "Welcome to State's name," to prove I was there. Other riders have posted pictures far better than I've ever taken. The pictures slipped into my brainbox are sufficient memories.

[Isopedella]

You are not alone with "requires a nine-year-old technician to reprogram".
I grab the kid from next door now and again.
I supply some Cookie Tax, and he goes click, click, hmm, click. There ya go - all sorted.

[Calimusjohn]

SPYDER TOUR – Day 2
Weather: Foggy morning, 54 degrees to 77 degrees, sunny most of day.
Awakened at 6:00 a.m. in Bluefield, West Virginia. Humidity was 100% in pea soup thick fog. Rode for two hours without seeing anything but taillights.
Eventually, Virginia revealed herself as a series of verdant rolling hills. Cattle dotted hillsides. The temperature rose to the mid-seventies. Great riding weather. I stuck to four-lane expressways. The traffic was light and amazingly polite. The road surface was excellent. No potholes.
Traffic thickened as I approached Washington D.C. Drivers became less polite. Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey traffic were elbow to armpit thick. No one gave an inch of space to anyone else.
Motels had no vacancies. Managers could not explain where all the people came from.
I ended up in a fleabag motel in Thorofare, New Jersey. The TV has one channel. No sound. The programing was XXX rated. The program directors saved loads of money on buying/renting costumes . . . they just went au naturel. The mirrored headboard should have been a clue. The mirror on the ceiling . . . maybe.
There was no wi-fi.
The nearby Chinese restaurant provided tasty food.
Expenses:
Breakfast: $ 21.38
Lunch: skipped
Dinner: $ 15.00
Gas: $ 61.78
Misc: $ 0.00
Motel $ 83.00
Days Total: $181.16 Total on trip: $ 319.89
Today’s miles: 500 Total miles: 852

[Calimusjohn]

SPYDER TOUR
Day 3
I slept well in Thorofare, New Jersey.
Awakened to a clear sunny day. Temps varied from 60 – 77. I tried driving turnpikes, but don’t have an EasyPass to sail through New Jersey, or New York, toll gates. They don’t take cash. There were no toll takers in any booth . . . so, I waved and rode onward. Never paid. Hmm.
I swapped lies with a man and wife from Cebu, Philippine Islands. They admired my bike. I envied their being on a round-the-world trip.
A retired colonel―paratrooper in the Israeli Defense Force introduced himself. He’s 74 and made 54 jumps, 24 at night. Tough cookie.
Today’s ride was terrible. Heavy traffic. Road construction. Accidents. I rode at speeds ranging from zero to twenty for four straight hours. A madhouse. Roads in New York feature potholes you could rappel into.
The 19 toll road miles ridden across New Hampshire were delightful, except for the one tiny tar-strip bump.
Breakfast: $ 10.00
Lunch: $ 12.00
Dinner: $ 32.00 Fish & chips
Misc: $ 2.00 New Hampshire toll road
Motel $130.00 Radison /Wyndham Motel
Day’s costs $247.50 Trip Total $567.39
Miles today: 400 Trip Total: 1,252
Ended the day in Kittery, Maine. The town feels like a tourist trap.

[Calimusjohn]

SPYDER TOUR
Day 4
I awakened in Kittery, Maine. Which was good. That’s where I went to sleep. For breakfast, I ate the cardboard-style waffle featured in most upscale motels. Swapped stories with a man from Park City, Utah. He is visiting all fifty states to see and identify fifty birds in each state. It may take a while.
Another sunny day with the temperature at 64 degrees started the ride. The temperature then dropped to the mid-fifties. I stopped, added a sweatshirt and rain pants to combat the cold wind created when traveling at 70 mph.
Before this ride, I had not ridden a motorcycle in Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire, or Vermont. They’re now checked off on my Bucket List.
Vermont proved a treat. Well-paved roads topped hills that think they are mountains, swooped through verdant valleys, skirted bogs that undoubtedly harbored a moose or a moosette. Cattails in ditches looked like exclamation points. Pines fought for space with deciduous trees sporting fall’s rainbow colors. Rock-bottomed creeks and rivers flowed into pristine lakes.
Quaint towns, villages, and hamlets featured hundred-plus-year-old houses with front porch swings and Adirondack chairs. Interesting to me, I saw no dogs, horses, or cows. I saw one raven atop a lightning-struck tree.
I ended the day in Utica, New York.
Expenses:
Breakfast: $ 0.00 Motel fare, waffle
Lunch: $ 33.00 ( Keene, VT golf course clubhouse established in 1897.)
Dinner $ 33.67 (Delmonico’s Restaurant in Utica, NY)
Misc. $ 0.00
Gas: $ 47.75
Motel: $153.50 (Best Western)
Day’s Total: $267.92 Trip Total: $835.31
Today’s Miles: 283 Trip Total: 1,535

[Calimusjohn]

SPYDER TOUR
Day 5
Utica greeted me with morning 50-degree fog. I put on my warmest clothes and headed west. A hundred miles down the road, I stopped to purchase gasoline. Imagine my dismay on discovering that the credit card I used the previous evening at Delmonico’s Restaurant was not in my wallet.
Drat, and double drat!
I telephoned my bank and cancelled the card. The bank confirmed there were no unexplained purchases. I have a debit card and a bit of cash. Three restaurants on this trip have only accepted cash. No plastic. Hmm. ATM machines can save me.
I admit the images of the ride through western New York and Pennsylvania are mostly blurs. My mind refused to get off the “What ifs?”. Punctuating the last sentence stumped me.
I stopped in Elyria, Ohio. The thermometer on the dashboard read 86 degrees. It explained why I dripped sweat. I still had on a helmet, gauntlet gloves, levis covered by rain pants, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, the winter jacket liner, and a windproof canvas jacket. Mental distractions . . . whew!
Expenses:
Breakfast: $ 0.00 Motel fare . . . waffle, yogurt, coffee
Lunch: $ 12.00 Whopper/fries
Dinner: $ 36.81 catfish, mushy green beans, slaw, peach cobbler
Misc: $ 0.00
Gas: $ 59.50
Motel: $ 87.00
Day’s total: $180.31 Trip total: $1,018.62
Day’s miles: 420 Trip Total: 1,955

[Br549rick]

yes please