Scott's Case Files

Winnipeg: Day 6

The sixth day of my vacation was spent on my own personal walking tour. I decided that I'd do a big loop and try to take more pictures than I have been. I'm just not good at taking pictures. By this I mean that I don't take many of them. I'm also not a professional photographer, so even with my cool camera not every picture turns out the way that I'd hoped.

I started off with the Manitoba Museum. It's a nice place with several sections and I decided to try them all.

There's a planetarium at which I caught the show "Are we alone?" referring to the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. The general scientific consensus was "probably not," which was a change from the theories of the odds that I remember reading about and watching on documentaries. The idea was that with all of the stars out there and then take the probable percentage of those that had planets, then the probable percentage of those planets that could support life, then the percentage of those planets that could support life that did, then the percentage of those planets that did support life that then supported intelligent life. Given the billions and billions of stars (thank you, Sagan) odds were very good that there was other intelligent life out there. The more recent hypotheses are that there are so many factors that are required to not only have life on a planet at all, but to protect the planet long enough to develop intelligent life that odds are that we're all there is. We'll have to see how that one goes.

The science section turned out to be very much like the one at the museum back in Milwaukee - lots of hands-on experiments mostly aimed at kids and young adults. Still fun to play around.

The natural history portion was very nice. It focused, not surprisingly, mostly on the various aboriginal populations of Manitoba and the early fur trade. Both of these topics are pretty new to me and definitely not covered at my own home town's museum, so this was definitely worth my while. Did you know that the fur companies themselves minted their own coins? I did not know this. There was also a large exhibit on the Métis, which I found intriguing. When fur-traders (specifically the French) came through the area and had children with the local aboriginal population, their children were called Métis. The intriguing thing is that these Métis were able to band together and form their very own culture. I had no idea that such a thing happened. From what I know of the US frontier, any such child would be labeled a half-breed and the only culture they would then have to pick one culture or the other and certainly didn't band together to form their own. The Métis, it seems, took the best of both worlds and made it their own and formed their own communities. You learn something new every day.

Winnipeg: Day 5

Day 5 was all about enjoying the weather and people-watching.

I also made it to The Forks to take the boat tour. It was a relatively interesting half-hour, but not fantastic. I was surprised to find out how much flooding of the river was actually EXPECTED every year. I'd taken some pictures which show some of the riverwalk's walkways under water and figured that must not be right and due to the same flooding which was affecting the midwest. According to the water line that the tour was shown the spring level goes even higher than that as a norm.

After my walk, Lukas gave me a call and said that he and his girlfriend were eating with some friends at a local spot called Cousins (no relation to the US sub-sandwich franchise). I decided to actually ride my motorcycle over there and had a great time conversing with no few people and eating a veggie burger.

I finished off the night by picking up 1984 from Lukas' bookshelves and giving that a go. This was one of the classic novels that I just never got around to reading. I'll have to buy a copy when I get home so that I can actually finish it!

Winnipeg: Day 4

Day four of my vacation was all about relaxation. I slept in late after the celebration, got some breakfast (well lunch, really), and said good-bye to the hostel and brought my stuff over to Lukas' place. Lukas was particularly busy, so Todd (the other surfer staying with him) and me decided to explore and hopefully find the local jazz festival that was going on.

We couldn't find any jazz festival, but food and beer were easy to come by. Todd lives in Quebec, so it was interesting to hear about the Quebec secession movement and just in general how the Quebequois treated others. It is interesting to hear the many ways in which they believe that they are more French than the actual French. I still don't quite get the movement, though. If they did manage to secede from Canada, the US would probably just roll in and they'd be speaking English whether they liked it or not... :P

A generally quiet day, but a good one.

Winnipeg: Day 3

My third day on vacation had me back at the Forks exploring some other parts of it. I ate a good meal and checked out their prairie grass gardens and the bridge that goes from the north bank to the center of the actual fork. On the bridge, the entire way across is lined with large wolf statues that various local artists had painted. I actually happened to be there as one of the artists was doing her work and had a nice, if brief, conversation with her. Very nice lady and very talented. Pictures of her amazing work to come!

After the Forks, I spent some relaxation time at the hostel. The guy who ran the place, Bill, had to step out and asked if I could make sure nobody played with matches while he was gone. So basically just hang out and make sure that nothing bad happened, but I wasn't expected to sign in new guests or anything that couldn't be done from a lounging position on one of the day-room's couches. No problem. And for my lounging efforts I was treated to a beer - Sleeman's Honey Brown Lager. Excellent localish stuff. Highly recommended by The Scott!

Then I received a phone call from Lukas that he, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's sister, and another Couch Surfer were doing some celebrating and wanted to know if I'd like to join them. Sure, why not - good chance to get to know my CS contact. It turned out that Lukas' girlfriend had just gotten into a school that she had been trying to get into for a while, hence the celebration. The night that followed was filled with Canadian history lessons, sharing of stories, drinking brandy and wine, and a hookah. I don't smoke, so I'm normally not a hookah kind of guy but I figured why not. It actually was interesting, though definitely not something that I would make a habit of. It was a good night and I'm glad that I went.

Winnipeg: Day 2

Waking up, after allowing myself to sleep in for a bit, I immediately checked out and got back on the road. I gassed up, got some breakfast at a greasy spoon, and made my way northward from Fargo on Highway 29 (pretty sure that was it).

Once outside the city, it seems that the North Dakota speed limit is 75 (so 80). It meant for a speedy trip, but some of their roadway is not meant for a motorcycle going at 80mph. By this I mean that the small bridges that cross over ravines and such they note a "bump." Normally these aren't bad but on one I actually got some air and lost my footing on my right peg. I recovered but remembered to slow down and hold on tighter when I came to these bridges.

Another incident happened when I was running low on gas. I saw an exit that said that it had gas, but when I got off the sign there said that the town that had the gas was 10 miles off the freeway. So I opted to trudge onwards to the next gas stop. That didn't work out so well. I was getting VERY low and came to the next gas stop - just two miles off of the freeway. I made my way to it, stopped the bike, got off, took off my gear, and noticed at that point that they were closed on Sunday (Winnipeg: Day 2 is Sunday for those of you not keeping up). So now I'm horribly low and I just wasted a total of four miles of gas. Next gas stop is 20 miles. I had options to either stay at this place until Monday or ride on. So I rode on. I have emergency assistance, but it's something that I'd hoped to never actually have to use. Be that as it may, I rode on and just as I'm having hope for making it I come to a long construction zone. Speed limit 40 with all the cars ahead of me taking it extra slow so as not to hit those orange construction barrels. Now, out of 6th gear my bike gets city driving milage so basically I used every curse in the book for my luck and how this construction may have screwed me out of actually making it to the next gas station under power. I couldn't believe my crappy luck. Even as I would see every new sign telling me the milage to the stop I really had little hope of making it. Add onto that, the stop put me just 5 miles short of the Canadian border. I felt that I was doomed to fail this close to reaching one of my goals...

Winnipeg: Day 1

I figure that I'll do this day by day even though I'm ahead a bit (this is in actuality day 3, which proves that I survived the ride up here).

My journey starts out with me packing my things into the saddlebags of my Harley.  The weather did not look fantastic - storm clouds were everywhere.  But I was determined that I would ride unless the rain turned truly torrential.  So off I went.

I got rained on only slightly as I was leaving my neck of the woods, then things thankfully cleared up.  I had decided that I would take it easy on this ride and just take my time as opposed to my usual rushing for the finish line.  It was only as I was far enough on the road where I wasn't going to turn back that I realized that a note that you write to yourself is only useful if you remember to read it.  I had managed to forget my sneakers and toiletry articles.  Someday I'll get a handle on that reminder thing...

True to my word I took my time and stopped at just about every other rest stop to move around and make sure that my legs still worked correctly.  I even took a few pictures (that I'll have to post at a later date).  That's progress!

I was in Minnesota when the sky turned dark again.  It actually looked like I'd dodge it, but as it turns out the twists and turns of the freeway put me right through the middle of it all.  I think there was some small hail mixed in with the rain and every hit felt like needles jabbing into me.  Maybe I'll put on my rain suit next time...okay, probably not.

I got through this when I saw the sign that told me that Fargo was 150 miles off.  As that was directly on my route I decided my goal would be to Fargo that day.  So that's what...600 miles give or take.

I checked into what I thought would be a cheap night at a Motel 6.  Not cheap - pretty standard.  I ended up treating myself to dinner and a movie (I'm my own best date!) before turning in for the night to heal up a little from the ride itself.  600 miles of wind and bugs pounding on you takes its toll.

But a price that I gladly pay!

Winnipeg Bound

I was originally going to title this post "Winnipeg Ho" but then I figured someone would see it and assume I had met some slutty Canadian chick and not even read the post.  "Winnipeg Bound" sounds better, but it still sounds like some north-of-the-border S&M thing going on.  Oh well.

So for my first motorcycle trip of the year, I've chosen Winnipeg.  In all my time living in Wisconsin, I've never been to Canada...which is sad.  I think that Canada has alot of history and culture to offer and I'm happy to give it a go.

Strangely, even Canadians ask me "Why Winnipeg?"  Well, now that you've asked, several reasons.  For one, it's the closest major Canadian city by land from Milwaukee and since I only have so much time to play with that's a smart move.  Secondly, it just seems like a nice place to visit.  Thirdly, my French is so rusty as to be non-existent.  I would get more across communicating via mime.  So a place where there is a minimum of French going on works out for the better.

I had to scrounge and scrounge at work to get this time off - and it's much needed - so you can bet that I will be having a good time.  I leave soon, after boarding my beloved ferret Myrtle with some nice people.

Yes, soon my Harley and me will be on the road again.

And all will be as it should be.

Helmet: Check!

I just called the dealership yesterday to have them put me in line to have my bike brought out of storage.  The weather is on a slow but gradual incline, so I feel confident that now's the time.  That means my Winnipeg trip just got closer.

It also means time to bring out the gear and make sure that it's ready for riding season.  There's a biker acronym used mostly amongst sport bikers: ATGATT.  It stands for All The Gear All The Time.  The idea is that you dress not for the ride, but for the potential crash and should wear all protective gear - period - whenever you ride.  When you have no seat-belts, airbags, or inches of steel and plastic in between you and whatever you might literally run into, it's all about the gear.

So this season I added a few things to my helmet.  You do want to swap out your helmet every few years, as the foam padding inside the helmet tends to harden after a time (and therefore becomes useless for the purpose of cushioning any blow it might encounter) but mine is good for another couple years at least.  I added a reflective sticker to the back of it, another sticker on the back that just expresses myself, and a sun blocker to the visor.

Adventure Riding

In my obsession with getting back on my Harley and onto the next trip, I've done a decent bit of web research.  One bit of it landed me on a new forum where I discovered "adventure riding."  The site is aptly named Adventure Rider.  The sport/experience of adventure riding seems divided into three categories that meld into one: riding extremely long distances ( around 10k miles or so, no matter what the terrain), riding in places where paved roads are a rarity (ie. Central America), or just seriously off the beaten path (Siberia, Tibet, et al).  Most adventure riding, it seems, involves the long distance as the requisite with the other two as add-ons.

Now, the idea of taking time off work for a 10,000 mile ride however I want to ride it and wherever I want to ride to appeals to me.  Riding way off the beaten path in the middle of nowhere or on outback roads isn't my thing, though.  So I'm probably not a real adventure rider.  And if I was into it, a Harley would not be the bike of choice.  They're great for normal roads and freeways and what have you, but going up steep, switch-backed dirt roads is not smart with your hog.  Such terrain is better suited for a dual-purpose bike or even a sport-bike.  My big fear is if you're riding in the outback many miles from "civilization" and your bike has an issue, the word for your situation is "fucked."  Also, medical care in such places as Central America or Asia isn't generally up to par with the US and likely you don't have the insurance or cash required to cover any care you might need if things go way wrong.

I have this Spidey Sense in the back of my head when I'm planning a trip, be it on a motorcycle or not, and I know when I'm pushing the limit of safety that I know I can take.  Backpacking India solo was pushing it.  Riding to Winnipeg or New Orleans (this year's rides) are not even near to pushing it.  I like to espouse the ideal of "calculated risk" as opposed to just plain (stupid) risk.

Adventure rider or not, I intend to put some good miles on the bike this year and have a blast doing it.  Now if I could only find a way to get The Guys to get into motorcycles, my life would be complete.  As cool as adventure alone is, there's nothing like looking at your buddy next to you when it's over and saying, "We totally did that!" and having that for the rest of your lives...

Motorcycle Awareness Test

Click the link below to take an awareness test.  Sound is helpful to get the full experience, but is optional.

It was used to illustrate why motorists don't notice motorcycles on the street.  The most common motorcycle accident involving another vehicle being a motorist making a left turn at an intersection, cutting off a motorcycle rider who had right of way coming from the opposite direction intending to ride straight through the intersection.  The result is a dented passenger door on the car and a seriously injured or dead motorcyclist.  The kicker is that when such a thing happens, the motorist who has injured or killed a biker gets a citation for failure to yield or some other minor charge and that's it.

Awareness Test

I failed it myself for just the reason stated at the end.