Rocket and Me

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

2016 SCR Day 1

Today was so great. It started with me finally deciding how to pack for the run. I added one small waterproof bag and a bag to hang on the curry hook. It worked but the backpack I had already planned to take was hot and probably not necessary.

The 40 mile ride from home to the start in Fernandina Beach started in darkness with me a little uncomfortable, carrying an extra bag forcing me forward on the seat. It began getting light as I arrived at a parking lot filled with scooters. I was trying to get sorted with bags going into the support Rav4, then gas for the scooter and spare tank, when my brother David came to see me off. It wasn't a minute later when the scooter club arrived. I thought it would be Russ and Jim only, but it turned out to be many more. It was great support from such nice friends. I can't think of a better send off.

I started at 7:28 with a photo of the night's hotel. From there I sped down Fletcher, passing cars and trucks, not the way I usually drive that road. I decided to take I-95 to the Woodbine exit. From there a series of pretty roads to checkpoint 1 at Byrd Road. I passed going over 70 mph and saw a group of Helix riders stopped to take their photos.

From there it was uneventful through checkpoint 2 until I missed a turn on the Garmin. It started signaling to take a U-turn, but I thought it had to be wrong so I corrected it by asking it to take me to the next checkpoint. I was about five miles off course and it had me going down a small road to an even smaller road. So I turned around and rode about 5 more miles before finally stopping to get it right. I went down the same wrong road but further this time to the road to take me to checkpoint 3. When I got back on track it appeared that the missed turn had cost me 20 to 25 minutes.

When I got to the hotel, there were only a few scooters here so it didn't appear to hurt too much.

I turned my times in to Mark who said I had done ok. After about half were in I was in second, way behind Gonzo, Absurd Ruse, riding a fast vintage scooter.

It got hot as the day wore on, so tomorrow, I plan to leave early, maybe 5:30.

I enjoyed riding with a few fellow riders along the way. My teammate Walt among them.

After the ride, I had a nice lunch with Ken and Bill Pray.

First light and lots of scooters

Debbie and Vicki came to see us off

Along with ten scooter club friends and my brother David. That was special.

Robert, Mike and Russ seeing us off.

Sunrise

The Seattle crew

A row of Honda Helix's

More scooters at the start. Big Red and Rocket in front.

Mark at the Rider's Meeting

Seattle riders listening Mark.

Vanessa and Me

All the visitors with me and Vanessa

Cruising down the highway

Helix riders at CP1

CP2

Finally CP3

The day on Garmin.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Ready for the Cannonball start

Everyone has made it to Fernandina Beach for the start of the 2016 Scooter Cannonball Run. Well, almost everyone. Several had to drop out over the past few months. The latest was Feb31st, who broke his foot while working in his yard yesterday. His brand new Vespa is sitting in my garage, awaiting pick up later in the summer.

The participants are coming from all over the country. At least one from Canada. There is Team Hawaii too. The Highway to Heal team from Seattle is an interesting group. They will be a breath of fresh air, as they appear to have much fun while riding with interesting helmets.

The rider's meeting went well with Maroy doing his usual fine job addressing everyone's questions. Yanobobano passed out the shirts, stickers and patches. These were all based on Kylie's winning design and they look great.

I had run 35 sets of daily guides, expecting maybe 30 participants. But ran out with three or four not receiving theirs. Mine goes to one of those.

Unloading MP3's for Maroy and 4in6iscool

Julie, Mrs. ScooterRaton, ScooterRaton and Wendell

Scooter Raton's wild scooter

The hottest lunch in history. It must have been 100F overlooking the beach. Lostboater, CDwise, 4in6iscool Maroy and Captain Gary.

Red, White and Blue Helix's on Independence Day.

Scooters gathered

More

Scooter Raton's again

Yanobobano's GT

Tromper bought this Kymco People three days ago. After many problems,

and repairs in my garage, it appears to be ready to go

A Kymco

Vintage

Suzuki Burgman 200

Vespa GTS

Blurry shot of Gary getting the guide books

Maroy running the meeting

Part of the Highway to Heal team

Cool headgear

Highway to Heal in their headgear at the beach.

Maroy and 4in6iscool in the trailer.

Friday, July 1, 2016

They're Here

Cannonball riders are beginning to converge on the First Coast, four days before the start.

Tromper from Seattle arrived yesterday to purchase an almost new Kymco People 200. It is an older version with a small, air cooled engine, but it should be rugged and make it to the finish.

But he needed to make some minor changes. Adjust the carburetor, mount a GPS and disconnect the evap system so he could actually fill the tank at the stops.

We had lunch, then we scooted to my house so he could use my tools to make the changes.

It was a hot afternoon, especially for someone from the Pacific Northwest, but he got everything done.

It was a pleasure to meet a fellow Cannonballer. I am looking forward to getting to know him better during the run.

Then Yanobobano and her dad arrived today. We had lunch and spent much time discussing scooters, the Cannonball and the route. Nice pair.

Then the Sprint for Feb 31st was delivered to my house. Nice scoot.

Tromper working in the garage.

Yanobobano and her cool dad, Wendell. We had lunch at Mossfire, but my phone erupted saying the Vespa delivery driver was at my house.

Feb 31st new Vespa Sprint arriving on a trailer. 0 miles on it.

I rode it from there to my house, a half block away.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Cannonball Daily Guides

Mark, the main organizer this year, asked me if I could help by making the daily guides. That is a little booklet of each day including an overall map of the day, photos and a detailed satellite map of each checkpoint and the finish and an elevation graph.

The cover gives each rider a place to put their time of day at each of the checkpoints and the finish.

I couldn't figure out what app to use to create them, but settled on Microsoft Word.

Mark had to assist in getting the turn by turn description to me. Then I took it and modified it to fit the format.

I am pleased but I am sure that we will find some errors along the way.

The printing company does all of my "blueprints" as they used to be called. They did a fine job running them, but I wish I had asked them to sort them with package having all 11 day instead of each package having each day. We can bust them up to hand them out on Monday.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

All Stickered Up

Because Vanessa is my chosen scooter, I thought last night that it was time to get her totally ready. That included attaching numbers and stickers, most of which I have had for years.

So I washed her and began applying the little pieces of my own traveling history.

Good ones here, Rocket that Kylie made, Team Hawaii from Liana, Snoopy MV from carrying Snoopy during his time seeing the world, thanks to Bob. Frank Lloyd Wright from my visit during Wisconscoot, Unrally from the best rally ever by Jami. Yellowstone because I liked it and the other Rocket because we are remembering those not going.

Maizy checking it out while Cooper rolls in the new backyard grass

Blue Ridge Parkway because it is one of my favorite roads, Driehause Museum because Sarah and I visited there last time we were in Chicago. Great house museum. Froggieposition for my friend Amy.

Always a rocketship somewhere. I will be getting this year's Team Hawaii sticker soon.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Two Garmins

I have had my new Garmin Zump 660 for a couple of months now. At first it wouldn't charge the battery, but my friend Ralph said to rub the connections with paper and a pencil eraser. It worked.

Then I noticed that it had no way to run it on a RAM mount without hardwiring it to the scooter.

I had been told to use Posi-Taps but couldn't find them anywhere. Then I went to West Marine and found something similar, but watched a video that said to wire it directly to the battery.

I was starting to do this when I decided to see if I could wire it to the 12v outlet that I have been using for years. It had two wires and the GPS had the same, plus a way to test it on the exposed connections. I touched the wires and the GPS came on. Success!

So I used the connectors and they worked perfectly. I re-assembled the scooter and took it for a test ride and all was good.

So I should never get lost again.....

I will be running both on the Scooter Cannonball Run

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Cannonball Prep: The Routes

Part of the preparations for the Scooter Cannonball Run are selecting the daily routes. The organizers made route maps taking into consideration the terrain and scooter speeds. These routes are not necessarily the fastest, so if one wants to be competitive, the route selection becomes very important. I went into Google and bought up the official routes, then asked Google for its fastest route.

Because the Google fastest route usually includes interstate highways, where my scooters can barely break the speed limit, I looked at other routes that take into consideration the speed I can make in relation to the speed limit and chose accordingly.

I might change my mind after each day, but my routes will be the "Actual route I will take" or "Fastest according to Google"