NowhereSummer Ride 2011

During the Labor Day Holiday, Brad took an awesome ride from Utah to New York.  He could not resist taking a ride over the Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee and North Carolina.  That is 318 curves in 11 miles or on this day it was 626 curves in 22 miles for Brad!! 

 

Brad finished up at Deals Gap and rode south to Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas.  Brad must have gotten hungry for some good steak because he ended up staying at Sooner Legends in Norman, Oklahoma on the way back to Utah.  When Brad left Oklahoma he rode through Kansas passing the underpass where we took shelter from the hail and a tornado in May 2010.  This was when I had a flat tire near McPherson during our short ride in the 2010 tornado season.

At the end of the NoWhereSummer Ride 2011 Brad had logged about 5,200 miles.  This includes the two trips leaning the 318 curves in the Tail of the Dragon.  AWESOME!!

Glacier National Park

Brad’s summer 2011 trip took him from Utah into Wyoming touring Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Chief Joseph Highway through Cody, Beartooth Pass, and then into Montana touring Kalispell, he took the Going to the Sun Highway through Glacier National Park.  Then into, Calgary, Banff National Park, just south of Jasper, Alberta, Canada and to the Ice Fields (glaciers).  He rode through a few more national parks in Canada back into Idaho and to Utah.  The whole trip took 8 days covering over 2,800 miles of awesomeness.  Here are a few more pictures.

    

   

                              

Summer Ride 2011

 Greetings family and friends,  I’ve had a great summer while assigned to Okinawa. I actually spent most of the summer in Australia and the Philippines. I did get short stops in Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. I got the refrigerator magnets as souvenirs. I did not get to ride any motorcycles but I met some great people and saw some breathtaking sites along the way. Brad on the other hand got a few rides in during the summer. He took a ride to Glacier National Park in Canada. The pictures he took are absolutely breath taking. The mountain scenes, glacier, winding and turning roads all look inviting to a two wheeled thrill seeker. I hope one day to navigate the roads to Glacier National Park. Until then I will enjoy the photos that Brad took.

Australia Road Signs

Australian M1 Tank Talisman Saber 2011

Hello everyone.  Brad is about to go on an adventure ride to Glacier National Park and Bear Tooth Pass.  I imagine he will have a blast!  I am on an extended camping trip in Australia.  It is winter time here and the weather is great! It is about 65F during the day and 55F at night.  We’ve had a few mornings with frost and it does seem to be getting cooler however it is much more comfortable compared to the humidity of Okinawa.  Since I have nothing to report about my riding I will post a picture of the coolest vehicle I’ve encountered here on my camping trip…the M1 Tank. 

Here are some photos of road signs here in Australia.  Cheers!

Shoveling something in Sydney.

Kangaroos are road kill in Australia commensurate to deer in the U.S.

Means the biggest and fastest vehicle has right of way?

I doubt this neighborhood will like my Vance and Hines!

Bataan Death March and Camp O'Donnell

I just spent two weeks in the Philippines.  Although the visit was for business I still managed to see a few sites.  This site was humbling. I visited the Bataan Death March memorial or known locally at the Capas National Shrine.  There is a memorial on the site where the Capas Concentration Camp was located during World War II.  Thousands of people both Filipino and American died here.   The memorial for the death march indicates that about 14,908 Philippine and about 600 Americans died on the death march. 

  After the death march people were stuffed into the railroad box cars (pictured).  About 150 to 160 people were stuffed in each car.  The climate is very hot in the Philippines and it was about 110 degrees in the box cars.  More people died from suffocation due to the heat and limited ventilation of the box cars.  The survivors were taken to Camp O’Donnell a POW concentration camp.  At Camp O’Donnell another 1600 young Americans died. 

I am not sure the distance of the march.  The sign in front of the box car says 105 km however on the main road near the memorial I saw a Death March marker displaying 112 km.  Nevertheless I understand the march was brutal walking about 25 miles a day, if a person fell they were bayoneted, no food, no water, I could not imagine those harsh conditions.  I am an advocate for monuments of this type to preserve our history.  MAY WE NEVER FORGET.  Semper Fidelis.