6/7/11
Pat has been doing a wonderful job detailing the logistics and specifics of our trip so far but I wanted to chime in with my $.03 worth from an operational (Driving) perspective. As Pat pointed out the first day of our journey was highlighted by the stifling crawl through the seat of our gubmint, and we all know what makes up a seat. Sunday though was a different story.

If you ever motor west forget about what that Bobby Troup fella wrote about that other highway, after all it only goes from Chicago to LA. Route 50 will take you from the Atlantic to the Specific ocean, you know the one on the left coast. Now we have only reached St Louis but the drive from Winchester VA through WV and then from the Indiana border through eastern and central Indiana is worth the price of admission. As Pat said WV was up and down with a bunch of 180 steeply banked switchbacks that make you feel like Jim Clark or at least Juan Manuel Fangio. I still have the finger nail marks in my right arm from Pat's reaction to one particularly tight corner. If you can only do a part of WV try Winchester to Grafton. The rest of WV and Ohio was "Lovely" but not as much driving fun. The real surprise came in Indiana from Seymour to Shoals. Route 50 wound through beautiful rolling hills with enough corners to keep your interest up. The best part though were the trees, they covered the road in many places effectively making tunnels which shaded and cooled the road. Too bad we didn't have that kind of cover this afternoon trough the remainder of Indiana and all of Illinois, it was hotter than
H-E double hockey sticks.

Well that's about all from the operational (fun) side of the trip, the Midget is running great, only two small problems so far, a loose exhaust clamp and throttle return springs that decided to lose their "springyness", and as my friend George says " Fixing problems makes men feel like men.

I'm feeling manly now.

6/9/11
We have now made it to Canon City, CO and finally out of the heat of the Plains. As many of us have talked about in past philosophical discussions about driving a sports car or a motorcycle through the Rockies and down the left coast, it would be a great trip if not for the 1000 miles or so of the Midwest that is flat, featureless and HOT. While I'm here to tell you we were correct. We drove through IL, MO, and KS in relentless heat and for the most part it was flat and almost featureless. MO was a nice surprise with rolling hills and sufficient corners to keep you interested. Of course there was the 30 minute stretch where we were trapped behind a wide load truck averaging 10 MPH with no where for one to pass, never mind all five of us. Once we were finally by most of the nice driving road was lost and we were back to the flats. The Flint Hills of Kansas would have been at least acceptable if not for the direct crosswind, 25 gusting to 40, from the left all along the 100 or so miles of US 56. The 18 wheelers passing by in the opposite direction combined with the wind to make it feel as if we were going to get airborne and wind up out with the grazing cattle. Today we caught a break in the weather cool and dry and now we are headed in the area we have always talked of in our past discussions. I will fill you in on the driving experience when I next write in a couple days.