May 14 2007 Kearney to North Platte

May 14 2007

Around six I get up and think about breakfast. There is a continental breakfast over by the lobby. I pack up some of the clothes that I washed out and start to pack up my bike.

For some reason, I seem to be worn out. Things are taking me a long time because I seem to be moving slowly. There isn’t really a reason for me to be worn out. I find it frustrating. I almost seem to think I am losing time, but I don’t feel ill. Losing time, not knowing where it goes is often an early symptom that means that I need to take it easy, to rest.

I’ll try to do that later in the week.

This morning, my body still seems to be dehydrated as I am craving water. I try to drink as much as I can, but don’t seem to have much caffeine available that will sit well on my stomach.

An hour later I am still packing up my bike and once again, like yesterday, things are not going well. The weight is off, but it is time to go. I carefully ride off after asking directions.

The people at the front desk could only tell me where the campus is and I am unable to mapquest the Drake Theatre. It is not in the telephone book, at least not where I am looking. I just have UNK Drake theatre.

I drive around on the campus and ask a couple of people where Drake theatre is and they don’t know. Ahh, I see a sign for student services.

When I ask, they tell me that I am very close. To walk across the parking lot and go in the fine arts building. (Actually, that was kind of what I was looking for, but managed to drive by it and not see the huge words on the side of the building so near to me.)

I go in and ask about a projector. I am more than able to give the presentation without a projector, but when people can follow along and read supporting documentation, it is easier for those people to remember the main points.

The presentation goes well, but my tongue trips a couple of times like my brain isn’t as closely connected or as sharp as I desire. Not unusual when I haven’t had enough caffeine, but I decide to relax as soon as I get to the hotel later today in North Platte as a preventative measure.

I eat lunch with Cheryl, Linda and Tammy. Cheryl mentions eating outside, but I am trying to avoid extra outdoor exposure when I have no sunscreen or lotion on. I am catching the beginning of a lot of sunburns that my body doesn’t seem to be adjusting to. It isn’t like my tan is helping me with a base layer, I guess is the way to describe what is happening. We eat inside.

As I am readjusting the load on my bike a man from Australia conducting a survey on the way mid America views god or God, however you believe it. He asks me,

“What one question would you ask God if you could ask him one question?”

Ahh, that fundamental Christian background. I try to tell him that I don’t believe that way, that the question doesn’t work well with my spiritual beliefs, but he doesn’t understand. I tell him again that I don’t really have any questions.

He really doesn’t understand and feels that with my belief system that I could go out and kill people if I changed my mind. So not true.

If I believe that my true job on earth is to

1. Find great happiness, peace and joy and then to
2. Help others find happiness, peace and joy

Then somehow I don’t think that I could just change my mind about what I believe and go out and kill people. How does that respect someone’s inner spirit?

People once again tell me that there is nothing much to see on route 30, but I find things to look at. There is the place where the persons house has decayed so much that they can’t live in it anymore so he has placed a tiny trailer next to it and is living in there.

There is the town that has nothing but huge tanks next to the railroad tracks that look to be filled with fertilizer. And all the stores across the road are boarded up, no one lives there on the main drag. And I have to wonder why there is no one. Is it because of fumes, of people who can’t afford to survive, or do people have what is called cancer clusters here?

There is lots to see.

I really enjoy the ride. The wind is reasonable, enough to keep me cool and keep the bugs off, but not enough to make me ride on the outside of my tires.

When I check in to the Holiday Inn Express, I find out there are the standard free beer and hors from 5-7, there are cookies and milk from eight until nine and that the swimming pool and hot tub are open 24 hours a day. I tell them that “I love you guys.” And I get two nights here, how cool is that?

Because of the chronic pain that seems to accompany me, the hot tub right before I get to sleep really helps me sleep better and longer. At the same time, going in before 11 doesn’t always work. If I don’t get to sleep right away the effect wears off. I am often unable to get to sleep before midnight and the tightness and pain have often returned by then.

I go upstairs, fall asleep for a few hours and then go downstairs. I don’t avail myself of the free beer, but enjoy the food.

Happy Trails, marty

May 13, 2007 on the road to kearney

May 13 2007

Today I got up and tried to get moving. Why is that almost always next to impossible?

Ginny drops by as she has a check for the hotel and needs the bill before she can pay it. She is much more of a morning person than I am so she is there way before I am ready to leave.

I had hoped to go to church, but instead end up missing it. The hotel had put me on the side of the building that was in the sun and my brains seemed somewhat scrambled as I tried to load up my bike. When I went to back out of the parking space, I realized that my load wasn’t as balanced as I like so I drove around the building to find some shade.

Then I pulled the front bag off my bike, repacked it and tried a slight test drive. I had missed church, but was still near Barnes and Noble. I thought about heading on over, but realized that the whole day might pass if I started another book.

Instead, I drop by J. Rocks house to give her the t-shirt and some CDs. We sit and talk for a while, then I climb on my bike and head over to Kearney which is pronounced Car.Knee. Nebraska is an interesting state in that there are many places where the name of the town isn’t spelled the way that you say it.

The ride was nice except for the wind. I don’t think that I had much wear on anything except the sides and edge of my tires. I decided to take the back roads, Routes 34 and 30 into Kearney.

When I check in there is a gift basket waiting for me to help me feel welcome. I dig in as it is mother’s day and I want to return to Skeeter Barnes to eat dinner. Wanting to avoid the crowd, I call to find out what hours they are open.

The Ramada Inn has a laundry machine, but it is not in my building and I seem to be exhausted. I wash out some of my clothes so I will look decent tomorrow; put them in front of the heater and head on out to eat.

The food was great, but as I ate it, all I could think about was about how food is harvested in our country. I keep getting told that there is nothing to see when you take the back roads, but there is; rural America is out there. If you look, riding on almost any rural highway will really show the decaying of America.

Towns where the local gas station is also the local restaurant. The stores where many shop are in the bigger towns and even when there is a small store, it is filled with junk food; very little of the food available has any nutritional value. There are the requisite Little Debbie’s, Hostess, Hershey, etc, but little more. The cleaning supplies are targeted to those driving through. It can even be tough to pick up a staple like Duct Tape.

Denni and I once talked about a town in our community where the only sit down restaurant available was a McDonalds and how it impacted the community. If you wanted to eat out, you had to drive to another town to get food with any “food value” whatsoever.

I get to bed as early as I can get to sleep as I need to get up and pack up before I can head over to the college. Sometimes I can negotiate a late check out that doesn’t cost the sponsoring organization any money, but this hotel had a big sign that stated, anyone staying over for a late check out would be charged $20, but anyone who was still in their room after 1 would be charged the full room rate.

I debate about picking up the $20 charge so I won’t get sweaty, but decide that I can’t make it back before one, so I give up on the idea and decide to go to bed.

Happy trails, Marty

May 12, 2007 Lincoln, Numbness when writing

Tonight is my last night in Lincoln. I am going to be sorry to leave here.

But first, I am to present at a biker breakfast. To be honest, I am not sure what to expect.

The biker breakfast is scheduled to start at 8AM. I am having a terrible time waking up and getting moving. I got up early and started my routine of what I need to do to wake up, but it is not working. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get my head to work the way I want it to.

One thing I am having trouble with is that when I make notes, or write, my hands and arms fall asleep. It doesn’t happen when I keyboard and I try not to make notes very often, but this morning I know that I am presenting without a projector or computer. And my morning started out at five, with my trying to make notes, figure out how to best do the presentation in an outdoor setting, thinking through my options and my trying to wake myself up.

The numbness that I get when writing is starting to scare me a lot. When I write presentations, I first like to do things in longhand, and then transfer them to computer. I also try to draft other things by hand. It helps me slow my brain down to where I can think things through.

The numbness doesn’t happen when I ride my motorcycle either. We know what it isn’t, but don’t know what it is. The feeling takes longer to leave than it has before and once again I am late.

The presentation goes well. The breakfast is great, it is all consumers and they feel free to get up, wander around and smoke if they need to while still being able to listen. I miss those days.

J. Rock and I ran around the rest of the day, we went shopping in a thrift store, and checked out the state capitol until it was time for the party to start. I trade in my boots for sandals, grab my backpack and we head out for the party with our driver, Robert.

The party was awesome. There were a lot of really neat people. I wish that I hadn’t had to get up at five so that I could have gotten to get to know more of them. I really enjoyed myself. I even sat, listened to more great live music and thought about just how much my social skills have improved.

I hope that some time in the future, I can meet some of them again. There were people that I would have loved to talk to away from the music. I took my hearing aids, but with the background music happening the way it was, I couldn’t use them.

The party was held in a house that used to be a barn. It was such a wonderfully awesome house. It was unique, the materials used were recycled, it was all natural wood, the view of the Nebraska Capitol from one of their windows was amazing. There were conversation nooks everywhere, a great kitchen, lofts, that overlooked all the floors and the view.

Holy cow, what a great place. We moved from person to person, conversation to conversation. It was a good time, good conversation, great music and people that I wish I had the opportunity to talk to more. I don’t think that life can get any better than that.

Tomorrow I am off to enjoy the ride to Kearney.

May 11, 2007 Lincoln Day 2 and really great falafel

I get up around 6 and start trying to wake up. It is a tough job this morning. I am not as coherent as usual and in the mornings things are bad anyway. I drink some water and then drink some caffeine. I take some meds and eat some organic veggies.

Ginny is coming to pick me up at nine so around eight, I head over to the restaurant. The continental breakfast is too continental for me. There is too much white bread and sugary stuff for a morning that I need to have accurate lucidity, so I order breakfast.

I order eggs over easy, sausage and hash browns. It comes with a choice of whole wheat or white toast. When it came I realized that I should have asked more questions. The hash browns came out of a bag straight from the freezer, and the whole-wheat toast wasn’t anything like what I think whole-wheat toast should be like. To me it was pretty gross. I ate it, I needed the protein for my brain.

I leave the restaurant, find a bench outside and sit down to wait for Ginny to come by. The air is fresh and the day is beautiful.

We head over to the capitol so I can talk to the senators. I really enjoyed the presentation. It wasn’t working well, the way we thought about doing it, so I changed it up, asked for questions and just worked my way through the time by answering questions using examples from my life’s experiences. I think that it worked well.

One person brought up how excited they were that there is new imaging that proves that we need treatments that will target that part of the brain. This always makes me incredibly nervous as I immediately think of the fact that this was the purpose of lobotomies. They also bill ECT that way.

I had some better tasting fruit salad and we moved over to the Region 5 where I had the wonderful opportunity to present again. A wonderful woman helped me set up the projector. There were a lot of family members, professionals and a few consumers. I think that things went well.

The food was alternative, tuna in tomatoes, cheeses, bottled water from Frontier Harley Davidson, and some chips.

I started to feel better, so my presentation skills kicked up a notch. Then I sat and talked to the man who does housing about different options and the way that housing worked there. After the presentation and the conversation, I asked to go back to my room to rest for a bit as I needed some downtime.

I was expecting J. Rock to call, but she didn’t. Mixed signals. The nap was awesome, I really needed it. I woke up late, called and then we went out to eat. It was hard for me to get moving. No matter how hard I tried, I felt like my brain was sifting through oatmeal.

The restaurant was called Holyland something or other and had the best falafel that I have ever had. I wish I could go back and get the recipe. It was so awesome. I could eat it four or five times a week and be extremely happy.

Then we headed over to the dance that was scheduled. The live music was so incredibly awesome. I wanted to stay over and attend the Sunday Afternoon Recital that the pianist was giving. His music just so much touched my heart.

To me the music was a pocketful of happiness. The drummer sang “Georgia On My Mind” and it was wonderful. So were the trumpet and the sax player. And a stand up bass player. Mmmm, mmmmm. Mmmmmm.

I gave J. Rock a ride back to her place and told her that I would pick her up in the morning. She told me about a party that we could attend tomorrow night. Hey, cool. Works for me.

May 10, 2007 Lincoln and a different bookstore

I get up around nine and head down to breakfast. This Holiday Inn Express in Norfolk has one of the best breakfasts around in this hotel chain. At least that is true in my humble opinion. The people who staff the breakfast (and the person who staffs the nightly snacks) are absolutely awesome.

I finish reading the novel that I have started and pack my bike. It is around eleven before I am ready to leave. I am so ready to have a great ride. I try packing my bike different and I like it a little bit better, but the load still needs to be back farther.

I like to pack the tent, the back duffle, which is full of my camping equipment; (stove, propane, food, sleeping bag, and lantern), then the side bags which right now are full of books and then the front duffle. The front duffle has a lot of what I need in the mornings (clothes, shampoo, my computer) which means that it is heavy and needs to ride square on the back seat.

I think about dropping by Hastings one more time, but decide against it. I really miss J. Rock and want to drop by and see her.

The ride is perfect. Beautiful weather, back roads, etc. I kick back and enjoy it all. When I get to the hotel, I see that it is next to a Barnes and Noble. What a joy. How cool is that? I call J. Rock and find out that she doesn’t have a car.

I ask her if she knows someone that she can borrow a helmet from. She thinks so and starts to call around. After a bit she calls back and tells me that she can borrow a helmet, but it will be tomorrow before she can get it. I tell her that we need to do dinner tomorrow, but that I can handle going to spend some time at Barnes and Noble.

I get a sandwich as it has been hours since I eat, find the book that I was in the middle of reading at Hastings and read some more. Let’s face it, even though I could afford another book money wise, I couldn’t afford it space and weight wise. So I read and devour as much as possible. I am looking at natural healing, pesticide and growth hormone use, and other toxic chemicals and how they might affect our bodies, both mentally and physically. I am in Lincoln for four nights, and I hope to make it back. I don’t, but have a great time doing other things.

I get to bed as early as I can as I have to present to a senator, or two, (or more) in the morning.

Happy Trails, Marty

May 9, 2007 Norfolk and I am next to a bookstore--whoohoo

Nebraska’s Mental Health seems to be divided into six regions. Yesterday’s presentation was in Region 6.

Today’s presentation is in Region 4. This region has a lot of rural areas that I have to wonder how people manage to get services. They have to drive a county away from what I understand and their counties sound like they are pretty large.

I understand the problems that distance from a provider can cause. My VA Healthcare Facility was about 70 miles away from me. They offered me groups and more, but I was so not able to drive 140 miles once or twice a week to get therapy.

I chose to pay a therapist in my community. There was a jackass of a community mental health system in my community and from what I understand, if you sell your soul to them, they will teach you about recovery and if you don’t sell your soul to them you are still screwed, blued and tattooed. They just don’t believe in getting you into a solid recovery—they only care about their money.

I don’t get that feeling here, but then, I don’t see services in some of the counties, either.
Anyway, today’s presentation is in Region 4. And I am enjoying it. People seemed to enjoy the presentation and I love interacting with the people who chose to attend. I wish there could have been more, but it is a rural region. I really enjoyed getting to meet other people who happen to have a mental illness who are working on their recovery.

On my way to the presentation, I see that the hotel is next to a Hastings Bookstore. I am so in heaven. I go and sit and read for about three hours and buy three books. (I am traveling by motorcycle, what am I thinking? I just picked up four books yesterday at Goodwill Thrift Store.) Then I go back and read for another couple of hours.

There is a bookstore here. I don’t even need the hors deovers and the free beer. I don’t need to eat supper. I am ready to read, and read, and read. I read two of the books that I bought before I go to bed. I have my priorities straight. LOL

I really like the Hastings bookstore. They have used books. They buy used books at good prices. It is great.

For a long time, when I was ill, I couldn’t read. I felt like my soul had betrayed me, as I have always loved to read. I used to listen to audio books when I couldn’t read, but would often need to listen to them three or four times if it was a book that I was trying to learn from.

Tomorrow I need to get up and head to Lincoln, Nebraska. It looks like it will be a great day for a ride on my motorcycle. I am so looking forwards to it.

Happy Trails, Marty

May 8, 2007 Omaha, Packing Problems due to mornings

May 8 07

Today I am going to present at the Allegant Hospital in Omaha. I get up nervous and uptight. It is hard to get up, pack my stuff on the bike, strap it all down, save out what I need for a presentation and then get to the place thirty minutes ahead of time to set up.

I was supposed to meet people for breakfast, I really, really wanted to go, but wasn’t able to get moving.

It is hard, really hard for me to pack and move before ten in the morning. For most of my life, I have been the person who only wakes up around 10AM. I am fully functioning around 10:20.

Here, the presentation is supposed to start at 10AM.

I find the hospital around 9:30, which makes me uptight. The setup is making me nervous. I find the education wing and walk in. I don’t see anyone or anything familiar. I do see other people seeking the same place I am.

I ask a lady for directions, a house phone, a receptionist. She asks me where I need to go. I told her that I didn’t know. She was a total asshole. She said, if you don’t know where you are to go, then I can’t help you (yep, you know the voice and tone) and ignored me when I asked where a receptionist or a house phone might be.

I walk back outside and think about my surroundings and feel the minutes ticking away. I don’t feel good about the part that they can’t start without me.

I see a sign for valet service and realize that would mean a main entrance. I head over to it and ask the receptionist. She says that she doesn’t know where the meeting is being held. As I am breathing deep and trying to call Ken again, another lady says, “I know where you need to get to” and points out the way when she realizes that the name of the building means nothing to me. It is across the road.

I see a trail of people starting over walking, but I decide to hop back on my bike and take it over. When I do head over with my bike, people realize that I am the speaker and that I have been following their van for quite a while.

I am relieved to find the room and get set up. The people seemed to enjoy my presentation. I have started telling part of my story that often doesn’t get told and use it as examples when I present. The presentation is working its way out. I like it and agree to send handouts to people at the end of the Nebraska presentations.

Some NAMI people and I share lunch together. It is a beautiful day to ride my Vulcan. I kick back, enjoying the ride to Norfolk, which is said Norfork. (Long sad story about a government clerk that thought the people who sent in the application had to be mistaken)

I find the hotel around 6:15. It is a Holiday Inn Express. The desk clerk says “We have free beer and free hors derves until 7PM. It’s amazing. Unpacking my Vulcan suddenly got a whole lot easier. LOL

There’s a washing machine near my room. Good, I can present the next day with no bug guts on my clothes. Grin.

Happy Trails, Marty

May 7, 2007 Omaha, dinner, shopping for black jeans

May 7, 2007

Today, I try to get up and find a new pair of black jeans. All the clothes that I started out with have gotten a lot of hard wear and some weren’t in the best shape to begin with. And some are still soaked. My options for today are pretty limited.

I can’t find the place that I am looking for. Since I have started out early, I enjoy the unscheduled detour ;) and check out the area around where I am headed. It is full of small enterprise. It is another town where all the big business has moved out. Is big business all that this country lives for?

I think some about this concept as I call Ken. I find that I am across the street from the building and have written the address down wrong. Thank God there are cell phones. I attend the meeting with the Nebraska Consumer Regional Leaders in my old jeans, looking scruffy. I think about finding jeans for the presentation tomorrow.

It was great to attend the meeting. I don’t always have the chance to network with other consumers who are in leadership positions. They talk about how they are implementing WRAP across the state. It is definitely a move in the right direction. I still find myself wishing that there was more. Way, way more.

I enjoy everyone that I met in the meeting. They are a great group of people who’s hearts are in the right place. Many are new in their jobs. One person has been in her job about two weeks. That is new.

Later on the regional specialists who live too far away to make it home, Ken and I all go out to dinner at Applebees. I find out that we were all in the same hotel last night. Darn, I wish that I would have known. I would have been thrilled to have been able to spend more time with them.

Later after dinner, I ask them if they would mind shopping. We head over to a mall that is close. (Way easier to find things with them, LOL) I find a pair of black jeans in JC Penney, a place that I seldom shop. I like them but check all over the mall to see if there are any jeans that I might like better. I end up shopping in JC Penney. ;)

People ask me why black. It just doesn’t show the dirt as easily as many of the other options. Anything goes well with black. It always looks good. It makes me look slimmer. Grin

On the other hand, what it does show is bug guts. Yuck. If I have to pack up and leave the hotel in the morning before I present, I can’t get to my clothes to change them and I end up wearing the clothes that I present in as I ride down the road. It does seem to make people think twice, though. A lady in a dusty rose ruffled shirt with a fancy vest riding down the road with full packs. I like it. I like the shirt. I like the vest. I like feeling I have when I wear pink and black.

Happy Trails, Marty

May 6, 2007 Drenched trip into Omaha

May 6, 2007

Today I lay around when I woke up and listened to the rain. And listened to the rain. And listened to the rain. Tomorrow I have to be in Omaha.

The bad thing about packing up a tent in the rain when one is riding a motorcycle is that there is no place to put stuff to keep it dry. I pack everything in waterproof bags, but the tent, my sleeping bag and a few other things including the seat on my motorcycle get totally soaked. It is hard to keep my clothes dry.

I get up, start to pack while it is still sprinkling. Then, it starts to pour. I pull on the pants to my rain gear but the rain still pours in whenever I have to bend over to reach down to stuff my tent in the bag or pull out the tent stakes. I think about putting on the jacket to my rain gear, but rain gear is a mixed blessing. I can smolder inside the rain gear, get overheated and become drenched by my sweat, or I can become drenched by the rain.

I decide to be drenched by the rain, pull out a dry shirt and jacket to travel in, put them in a plastic shopping bag and keep on packing up.

About the time I finish packing up, the rain starts to slow down. By the time that I get on my dry shirt and my rain jacket, it is pouring once again. I have to wait a bit to start as it is raining too hard for me to ride and be able to see.

The rains coming across Kansas last night were vicious and I am going to end up catching some of them. As I head out to St. Josephs, Missouri, it is hard to see. The rain is stinging my cheeks as I slowly head down the road. Even the cars are going slowly. I stop and get some gas in St. Joseph and continue to head up towards Omaha.

A little north of St. Josephs, the rain slows some but the sky still looks alarming and while my body is not totally soaked, the rain is still running out of my boots and drenches the floor around me as I sit in McDonalds and grab a burger. I call a friend in Lincoln, NE and ask her if it is raining. She says yes. I decide to stop and relax and drip some more. After all, it sounds like rain all the way. I might as well take my time.

Instead, as I am leaving the restaurant in Mound City, Missouri, it looks like I am going to be able to catch a break. The rain is abating and judging by the cloud cover, if I travel fast, I will be able to beat some of the rain. I flex my shoulders and get ready to hurtle down the road, once I hit some dry pavement.

A little south of Omaha, I pull off my rain jacket and put it under the cargo nets that hold some of the loose gear to my bike. How absolutely awesome. I pull out the directions to the first hotel and find out about some camping areas for later on in the month.
I check in the hotel and spread out my gear to dry. The newer Holiday Inn Expresses have washers and dryers. The older more formal Holiday Inn’s often don’t have this feature. I can’t find a washer and dryer at this Holiday Inn. The parking is really crowded here, there definitely isn’t enough. I think about parking on the sidewalk, but find a parking space and decide to take it as I can see my bike from my room.

I fall into bed for a couple of hours, riding in the rain, trying to see is harder than regular riding. Later I get up and go eat in the restaurant.

Happy Trails, Marty

May 5, 2007

I got up late. I seem to need to sleep in a lot these days. It has a lot to do with stress.

After looking at the maps last night and running the weather to check for rain and storms I decided to move over to the Missouri Lewis and Clark State Park. There were a lot of sites vacant, probably due to the rains that are due in tonight.

There is no way that I am going to be able to entirely miss the rain, but by planning my moves, I can try to minimize it. Here’s to hoping that I can outsmart or outrun the weather. Running the weather on the Internet helps, but a lot depends upon how savvy I am about reading how the clouds work and where the road heads into the clouds. Fogg Toggs rain gear is great.

The ride over to Lewis and Clark was short and kind of funny. I tried to follow my map. I got off at the exit that it showed would lead to an access road that would lead to my destination. No, really, I do know how to read a map.

When I first got off, there was a restaurant that had a couple of nice ass Harleys sitting right by the door. I hoped to meet them and talk as it looked like a couple. They happened to come out just as I was going in. We started to talk and I found out that they didn’t do much traveling but hoped to do more in the future.

There are a lot of people who buy a Harley and do some weekend riding. Right now I am glad that I have decided to travel even if it means being on a cheaper bike. I like my Vulcan. It rides and moves out great. It is easy to handle. I do wish that I had a bit more room on it. <grin>

I went in the restaurant to eat, came out, strapped on my helmet, eyed the road, thought about asking for directions--then said to myself, the map shows a road that goes through.

Well, the road did go through, but not to where (and how) it said. The pavement ended and I ended up on gravel. The scenery was spectacular, but I don’t really like to ride on gravel. I have had a couple of bad experiences with it while doing bicycle riding. Gravel is how I broke my teeth in the third grade. LOL

I carefully rode through the gravel (beautiful day isn't it?)for a mile or two, found another blacktop road, looked around and thought, well this does head in the general direction that I wish to go, put the bike in first and took off.

Went through the town that the park is supposed to be near and didn’t find anything. Now, in a small, rural town, I can easily be the thrill of the day. It is spitting a bit of rain, but not enough that I want to don my rain gear so I get my fair share of allotted, she must be totally nuts looks.

I grab my map, head in the wrong direction and have to turn around and head back again. (Why didn’t I buy that gosh darn bulky WalMart atlas?) I find the sign and the road. Pull in and pick the site.

After I put up my tent and sign in to the campsite I smile and head on over to (front shot of the Lewis and Clark garden by the Museum)

the Museum in Atchison, Kansas. Amelia Earhart grew up in Atchison. Somehow I think that Amelia and I would enjoy each other. She seems to be a really neat person. I don’t get over to her birthplace, but hope to do so in the morning.

In the museum was a great printing press. I would like to have a printing press at some point in my life, one kind of like this one.

There was a neat post about the stuffing of a ballot box in one of the elections. I tried to take a pic of the post, but the exposure in the museum was really terrible. There was a glare from every angle. The post said something that something like over half of the votes cast were illegal votes. That is a lot.

The other thing to do in Atchison has to do with trains, as in the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe railroad,

I love trains. I enjoy riding them and watching them. My dad had Lionel Trains when I was growing up. We often had a track that we could run them on. In fact, when I left home, the family home gained a train room.

At five, I headed back to the campground, and tried to light a campfire, the wood was damp and it took forever and every skill that I had to start the darn fire. Now smelling like smoke and stinking to high heaven, I cooked some meat on a stick, had some salad and stretched out by the fire.

The noise in the background wasn’t a train, around nine it started to pour, thunder and lightning crashed, and I started to hope that I would stay dry. Let me put it this way- it was a heck of a lot better experience than the one that I had on the Trace. I got some sleep and read a book when it was too loud for me to sleep. I didn’t get soaked, but a lot of my stuff got damp.

Happy Trails, Marty

May 4, 07

It's been a while since I have posted. I have lots of reflections.

On the trip to DC that I posted about, I stayed at a Marriott Hotel. I had some luggage that was going with me over to the office and asked for them to call a taxi. Instead, since the limo was sitting empty, they sent me over in it.

I didn't get a long enough ride, LOL, but it was longer than it was supposed to be as the driver got hopelessly lost, had to backtrack and I sat back listening to the music.

Since I posted last, I used my parents house as a home base, went home, home to see my grandkids for a couple of weeks. Is this the right thing to be doing at this point in their lives? I'm not sure.

The trailer that I bought (My Blue Heaven) is still at my parents house. I have had problems with both a hitch and a liscense plate. Both can be straightened out, but I decided to back off and take a look at the problem from a distance.

Dropped by my brothers house and we had a wonderful chance to talk. We really don't know each other. I left home when he was seven, made my parents upset, was handed several precious antiques to haul around the world with me and toted them to Germany, Oklahoma, Michigan, etc. Now they are in storage. I have been back a couple of times, but because of htings that have happened, haven't had the best relationship.

We talked about our parents. Our lives. That kind of thing.

I started back on the road yesterday. It was sprinkling rain when I left, but by the time I got to Macon, Missouri, it was nothing but sunshine and blue skies. It was a beautiful day to just cruise and that is what I chose to do, riding first through the rocky bluff areas that surround the Mississippi River near where I spent the last six years I was at home, through some flat prairie lands, then on to rolling hills dotted with cows, some sheep, and a few hogs.

I was headed over to Saint Jo, but decided to stop in Cameron. I stopped for gas and decided that it looked like it was a nice little town to stop in. I rode around it for a bit and found a place to stay.

My body is a little stiff this morning as I it has been a while since I rode with a load and I have to get back in shape.

Today is looking like I can't pack my raingear away. Bummer. LOL

I don't mind riding in the rain, but decided to not go with a full face helmet for the summer as it was just too hot. That means that the rain can batter my face a bit if it is falling hard. I can always slow down to lessen the force and sometimes choose to.

I am headed over to Lewis and Clark state park to camp tonight. I will enjoy it greatly.

Happy Trails, Marty