WHL's BMW Tour

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with motorcycles, nor expensive cars.

BMW - Bodacious Meandering Wanderlust

It had its origins in the pre-pandemic times, a notice that my high school class's 50th anniversary reunion was yet several months away, and please update your contact info, and indicate whether you'd be interested in going.
It's in northern New Jersey.

I immediately created an entry in my proprietary money management spreadsheet to escrow a fixed amount of my monthly income to cover the cost of airfare, a hotel, and a rental car, plus a couple of hundred bucks extra for who knows what. Then the manure hit the fan and the reunion was cancelled, but surely, we'd have a vaccine and everyone would gladly get it because, well, we're intelligent human beings. So, just for the heck of it, I doubled the amount of escrow money and pushed the end-date out a year, and if I needed it for something else, I could use it.

A new notice for the year-delayed 50th anniversary was issued, and things looked good for actually having it. The vaccinated didn't have to wear masks, so we're good! By July, the Delta variant emerged, and I wrote to the reunion committee, saying the it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if they again postponed the shindig for yet another year, expressing my concern that there are way too many idiots who chose to remain unvaccinated (differentiating them from those who cannot get vaccinated due to either medical or age restrictions.) Their (the committee, not the idiots) response was that it was going to happen this October, come hell or high water.

Okay, I'm on board with that, but I'll be damned if I'm going to fly in a plane where half the passengers have to be SaranWrapped to their seats! I decided I'd drive it. Thus, the BMW Tour began its embryonic journey. Lists of people and things to see and do along the way. Geocaching so I'll get out and stretch my legs, etc. And I realized, I could take as long as I wanted. I could put a hold on my mail, get all my bills via email, and pay them all through the bank. I get a 3-month supply of all my meds, and I don't need more for another two months.

I started a spreadsheet to work out the itinerary; mapped all the people and places on Google Earth; tracked hurricanes and locations of COVID surges.
Dropped a few things from the itinerary as a result. I was going to buy a dozen at-home COVID test and do one every two or three days, but I can't find any, so I'll try to find clinics along the route and have testing done that way.

It turns out that getting the driving distance, time, and route between two points can be easy, but you have to keep in mind that at various points, you need to eat, stretch, sleep, do laundry - lots of things - and it's really self-defeating to drive more than say, 500 miles in a day. I've got a dozen hotels booked, and more than half of them are non-refundable.

The route tales me up to Oklahoma, east to Arkansas, north to Minnesota, then southeast toward Chicago, Pennsylvania, Long Island Cape Cod, northern Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, upstate New York, all before arriving in the town I grew up in, in New Jersey.

Haven't given much thought to the return route other than one person and one place.

Remember that "hell or high water" response from the committee. Hurricane Ida flooded the downtown area of my home town in three feet of water.
I should have taken that as an omen. Two days ago, the committee announced they were cancelling the reunion again - too many backed out due to COVID concerns.

So, I've got all these hotel reservations, and of the dozen days I'm taking to get to New Jersey, three in a row are between 500 and 600 miles per day.
But I also have a couple days of no travel once I get to Maine, and again in New Jersey. And to toss another twist into it, My bank got swallowed up by a different bank. I have all new account numbers, a new routing number, and they flip the switch (so to speak) on 12-Oct. I'm going to have to take a day off the road to find a quiet coffee shop or a library so I can then create a new login and password for all the new accounts. The problem is that I have to schedule all my bills to be paid by, oh, the 5th of the month. Like I need this!

I'll be meeting up with some of you along the way. Even if it's just for a few minutes, it'll still be worth it.

I'll update this thread every day or two, when I get time. For now,I have to get together everything I'm packing into the car. I leave in about ten hours.

Wow, that sounds amazing even if the reunion isn't going forward. I guess it would have been you and like two others. Too bad it isn't Northern Wisconsin you're going to hit. I'd drive out and say hi wherever you landed.

Hope all goes well with the bank stuff and that the road proves interesting and adventurous. Looking forward to more.

Oh and as a BMW owner (one 23-year old car, but a few bikes in my past, too) I was all excited to see a Bimmer or Beemer out there on the highways, but I'll cope. LOL.

Keeping track of your travels. If you come through KY on your way back, I can offer a bed.
Happy landings!

Leaving as soon as I finish loading the car.

>2 Bookmarque: I'm spending the evening of 29-Sep in Fort Atkinson, if that works for you. But it'll be late when I arrive; it's an almost 600-mile trek I'm making that day.

3> Kentucky was originally on my itinerary for the drive out, but I had to cut it because my reasons for going to Minnesota and Wisconsin were more important to me. But maybe for the return trip ... Feel free to PM me with the name of the town, and I'll see what I can do.

Back to packing.

Unfortunately Fort Atkinson is 3 hour south - way down by Milwaukee, so the timing is bad. Enjoy your time there though!

>1 WholeHouseLibrary:
Enjoy the trip. I look forward to reading about your experiences.

>1 WholeHouseLibrary: I'm also in position with refreshments, looking forward to the travelogue. Enjoy every minute, or at least as many as possible.

>1 WholeHouseLibrary: Sounds like a great trip! Good luck and enjoy!

That's a huge trip! (for reference 600 miles is about the length of the UK! Not something anyone here would consider driving in one day. Although you may have better roads).

Wish you great fun, and plenty of bookstores, company as and when you find it! And extra luck on technology.

Have a wonderful time, and thank you for sharing it with those of us who are stuck at home. :)

Arrived in Tulsa eleven hours after I left home. A good hour of it was spent at the home of a s-i-l north of Waco. Haven't seen each other in two years. I returned to her a book she had asked me to cover its dust jacket with Mylar.
She returned to me a CD she had borrowed - Blood, Sweat & Tears' Child is Father to the Man. Their very first album, with Al Cooper. Nice to hear it again.

Always double-check the GPS device. I thought I was going to go straight up I-35 to OKC, then catch 44 to Tulsa. No, it changed its preferred path to take a couple of toll roads and send me up some highway that veered northeast from Dallas, and I drove through 300 miles of small towns with 25mph speed limits.

Have to keep this short. I left the charger for my VPN at home, so it'll last maybe 2 hours. Fortunately, I can buy a new one just 3 blocks from here.

Tomorrow, a short drive relative to today. Fayetteville Arkansas is about a hundred miles from here, and I'm going to sit in on a band rehearsal, then follow my friend/classmate back to her place to spend the night, and leave early the following morning.

Keep those cards and letters coming!

That was a good start. Nice to see a favourite CD again. The band rehearsal sounds fun.

>9 reading_fox: Even here 600 miles would be overdoing it for one day. Though when I was very small my parents would take us from Johannesburg to Graaff Reinet (500 miles) on one day and on to a holiday cottage they hired in Plettenberg Bay (another 200 miles, then mostly on unpaved roads). And later in the middle ages, it was not unknown for Johannesburgers to drive through the night to Cape Town (1000 miles) for a long weekend. But the present Glen family prefers to see the country in 200-300 mile stages.

>1 WholeHouseLibrary: What a great itinerary! I hope the roads stay clear for you and any adventures are the fun kind, not scary. Looking forward to your updates.

I've driven Brisbane to Mackay in Queensland in a day. That's 950 km or say 570 miles. That's about as much as I'd care to do in a day, and that was (probably) 40 years ago. Back when I was regularly driving between Brisbane and Canberra, which is just on 1,200 km, we would split it over 2 days.

As a child, we'd routinely drive from Poole in Dorset to Deganwy in North Wales (275 miles) to visit my great aunt, or to North Yorkshire to visit a family friend (315 miles). At the time we had a classic Mini, and most of the route was cross-country in those days (it used to take 3-4 hours depending on traffic on the Winchester bypass just to drive to London, now it's only 2 hours).

There would be my mum, myself and sister and the dog. Mum used to say the dog was the best-behaved passenger - my sister and I would squabble on the back seat, but Pasha would crawl under the front passenger seat and go to sleep.

We also did a couple of trips to Scotland - the first time we used the motor-rail to Carlisle and drove from there, but the second trip we went via Yorkshire there and back. I also did a trip to a university sailing event in Edinburgh, but that was shared driving.

Mind you, I drove non-stop to Llandudno in 2019 - that was 225 miles. On the way back, I drove direct from Holyhead to Corby - a little longer, but it was a 4 hour night drive - I did insist on breaks for black coffee...

Let me know when and where you pass through Pennsylvania. We can meet for lunch at the sub shop.

>11 WholeHouseLibrary: Always double check the GPS! I recently took an 'alternate' route suggested by the GPS and I swear I was back in the 1970's for a while and I'm not sure I was always on a road. Real twilight zone stuff.

Hi all!
That band rehearsal was really special - 3 banjos (of various voicing), a cello, a trumpet, and percussion. They were Carole, Carol, Kurt, Kathy, Carl, and Kevin, so they called me Kmike. Gotta love Dutch diction.
Old tyme tunes, some ragtime. I recorded some of them on my phone. Afterward, I followed Carole back to her place. It was about an hour and a half drive from Fayetteville, Arkansas - then seven miles up a dirt road. No cell phone reception. When I first visited her there, I was still married to ThiMs, and Carole had a telephone party line. Now she has the internet, and her phone works only when she has Wi-Fi on. Even then, it's a dodgy connection.

So, we made dinner, and ate on her spacious screened-in back porch, and the rest of the evening was spent talking interspersed with a lot of song swapping, solos, and duets -- until 3 in the morning. Absolutely awesome evening.

And it got cold! I'm used to temps in the high 90s, my thermostats at home set to cool to 80 ° It went into the high 50s last night. Fortunately, she had set out a heavy blanket for me. I was up before 8, but didn't leave there until almost 11. So much for that early start. Just drove a it over 500 miles today; arrived at the hotel at 22:15. I'm beat.

And I've just spent the past hour (after midnight now) trying to get my laptop to remain connected to my VPN. Very frustrating.

Apparently, the Midwest has outlawed buffet-style dining. No Ryan's; no Golden Corral; no Soup 'R Salad; no Hot Tomato; no (last resort) Sirloin Stockade. Anywhere. Around 21:00, I found a bar/dinner place. Mostly, it's a bar. I don't drink. They wanted more than $30 for a 6-oz steak -- just the steak! I got something else, can't even remember what it was.

Today's agenda: Drive to Austin, MN - take a picture of the sign announcing that I'm there (so I can compare it to the one for Austin, Tx) and to find the SPAM factory. Why? In the Texas town of that name, they have a SPAM Fest every year simply because of the name association. That's reason enough, don't you think?

Then I'm supposed to meet one of our own, but it's another two hour drive, so I won't be staying very long. After that, there's another 5-hour drive to where I'll be laying my head in Fort Atkinson, WI - a total of close to 600 miles. And I'll be repeating that distance the following day. Thanks goodness for geocaching, or I'd have no excuse at all for taking a break.

I got four audio books from my library before I left. The first was Faith of my Fathers by the late Senator John McCain. He narrated it, and it was very calming to hear his voice again. Unfortunately, traffic required more of my attention that I had expected, and I missed a lot of it.

Hotel breakfast are not at all what they used to be. I had a choice of five different sugar-coated cereals to choose from, or a frozen egg, cheddar, and sausage patty on a biscuit (with no instruction regarding how long to thaw and heat it up in the microwave - about 90 seconds, it seems) or an apple.
Plus coffee and containers of juice. I was unable to identify what those bite-size pastries were. That frozen sausage patty - it's got flakes of red pepper in. Two bites and I regretted it.

Have to get some shut-eye.

Well... just as I was about to pull out of the hotel parking lot in Ames Iowa, I got a text message from Morphie, near Minneapolis. A miscommunication on my part, she wasn't able to see me today. Bummer. And I wasn't going to do that drive just to get a picture of the Spam factory, so I cut over 250 miles off today's drive by heading more or less directly to Fort Atkinson, WI.
It's not an actual fort; just want to get that out there up front.

Along the way, I did a fair amount of geocaching. At one of them - an intersection of two dusty caliche roads, an elderly woman stopped her car in the middle of her lane. She had the right of way, but remained there for a good five minutes. When I got done replacing the cache, I strode over toward her car and saw her chatting away on her cell phone. There was even an area where she could have pulled over to talk, but no, she just stopped where she was. It made me decide I didn't want to be that kind of old.

MrsHouseLibrary and I had a few favored eating venues, and one of them was the Mongolian Grill style. You fill a plate or bowl with all the different foods you wanted, and it gets dumped on a large circular metal surface, and the "chef" can work on several meals at once while walking around it with a flat metal blade, flipping everything for a few minutes and not mixing the meals together (usually). There were probably six of them in the Austin Texas area, and within a span of two years, they all shut down - long before the pandemic. Well, I found one today; left the receipt in the car; HuHao?
It was very good - the first non-fast-food meal I had in four days now. Just bad timing. Too many miles to cover each day, so because I lost out on seeing Morphie, I actually had a good meal!
Every eatery in Fort is fast food. After I arrived at the hotel, I drove 46 miles to get to a Golden Corral - because it wasn't Arbys, or McDonalds, or Burger King, or Subway. First thing I did was make a salad. So, the extra almost hundred miles was well worth it.

Tomorrow - a 540-mile drive southeast, around Chicago, and then mostly due east to Youngstown, Ohio. Today, I started listening to a 7-CD set titled How the Irish Saved Civilization. I thought it was a comedy routine, but it turns out, it's quite a scholarly piece of research.

Haven't been able to do any journaling, so I'm going to do that for the next half hour, then put my exhausted self to bed.

>20 WholeHouseLibrary:
Too bad about not seeing Morphie, but you made the most of it. There is, or at least was, a Mongolian Grill in Dublin. A group of us went there for our office Christmas night out a few years ago.

I am glad you appreciate how the Irish saved The World. :-)

Finished How the Irish ... The specifics of the how is one track on the 7th (last) CD. Still, it was a good listen. Took half an hour to get through a toll booth with only 4 vehicles in front of me. Don't ask. Got just 1 geocache -- which someone I know from the Austin TX area found just 2 months ago.

I've been on the road 5 days now, and today was the second time a store employee/manager gave me a 20-oz cup of coffee for free. I guess I looked like I really needed it. Both coffees were very good; not like it had been sitting around for hours.

Tomorrow - Flight 93 Memorial, visiting a niece in Wilkes-Barre, a hotel about 30 miles east of Scranton.

>17 morningwalker: Can't do it. I need the detour time to get to see my niece.

ETA - It's 58° in Youngstown! I have clothing for colder temperature, but I packed them on the bottom in the back of the car. Sheesh!

Gotta tell you, the Flight 93 Memorial visitor center is not something for the quick-to-grieve, as I still am from the loss of MrsHouseLibrary. It's not gruesome, but I was moved to tears several times, especially when listening to the recordings from the black box and a few phone calls. I also walked (hiked) down to the crash site. Turns out, I could have driven there and saved myself an hour and a half. Lots of people there.
If you want to hear the Voice Tower (not actual voices, just a 93' tall structure containing wind chimes using a C Lydian mode tuning. Huge pipes!
Go on a windy day. It needs 15 to 20 mph winds to sound.

Also had dinner with a niece I hadn't seen in a good 20 years. She's surprisingly upbeat considering what Life has dealt her.

Tomorrow, I lay my head in New London, Ct. providing I arrive in time to catch the ferry boat.

>23 WholeHouseLibrary: Hope you had good weather and traffic on that cross-PA drive, sounds like you were on I-80. The mountains and traffic can make that drive stressful.

Leaving New London after breakfast. Cape Cod, a Boston suburb and northern Maine is on today's itinerary. This particular Red Roof Inn - WORST hotel ever. Permanent residents, each with "issues," bad odors, the heat/AC only works to blow stale air around. Good towels, though.

The Pennsylvania drive was fine actually; Indiana, though -- glad I got through there in one piece. With the exception of drunken rednecks with confederate flags on their trucks and cars (in my area), these were the most aggressive drivers I've encountered. New York drivers get the award for the most polite. And whereas getting to the GW Bridge and through Long Island was stressful, it was only because of the congestion. I got in a wrong lane to get on the LIE; everything was bumper to bumper, but the driver was quite gracious about letting me in ahead of him. Lanes merge, and the drivers automatically take turns in the merge process; no horns, no road rage. Not at all like Texas. I really miss the northeast.

Got to meet up with Clam for about 10 minutes. Busy day for her, but gracious as she always is. A lovely ride on the ferry from Orient Point to New London. Got to begin to catch up on my journaling.

Where on Cape Cod will you be? I'm kind of far out at the elbow, but if you need a stop for a while...

I was in Wings Neck, southwest, just far enough east to be on the Cape.

Currently at the zenith of the tour - west of Augusta, Maine. Will be here two nights at the home of one of my brothers, then it's off to the Berkshires, then Connecticut (but not in that order I fear, based on recent communications.)

It's after 3 a.m. - must sleep

Just want to say I am enjoying your road trip reports.

Agreed. We should send WHL on more trips. I'm thinking a circumnavigation of South America, next.

>22 WholeHouseLibrary: Sorry you couldn't make lunch, but I too am enjoying your trip reports. It makes me want to plan one of my own.

I neglected to mention that I also attempted to see (north of Boston) a first cousin once removed on my mother's side of the family. His mother was the oldest of my generation and died very quickly back in February. From discovery to the initial stage of decline was maybe three days. From onset of decline to her last breath was three hours. So, I had to see him. But I only had his address; no phone number. But my Maine brother Jack had a phone number for his sister, and he sent it to me; long story short, it was a wrong number. I drove to the house, composed a brief note and intended to stick it in his outer door. But the inside door was open! I rang the bell. Last time I saw him was 1998 (a family reunion while I was divorcing ThiMs). Long story short, his wife didn't recognize me, and I didn't recognize her, so there was a minute of "negotiation," but all was fine and she invited me in. It seems I missed my cousin by less than 15 minutes; he was driving his oldest son to college. I got to chew him out over the phone and we (being of Irish descent) had a good laugh over it.

Then it was on into Maine, in the rain, in the dark, and temps in the low 50s.
I discovered that my car can't keep the windshield unfogged and warm up the cabin simultaneously. I chilled until the window cleared, then warmed up until I could hardly see out the windshield. Definitely something I'm going to have checked out when I get home.

Jack and I stayed up until 3 a.m. talking, swapping tunes on our guitars, then to bed for sleep. My Colorado sister Maryanne called at 9 a.m., so six (solid) hours of sleep. More on that in a few days.)

There's a spot by the river within easy walking distance of Jack's place where he likes to spend a lot of his time. Now I know why, and the leaves are bursting into orange and yellow splendor - and birch trees! Haven't seen any in decades and they're all over the place around here. We (he) drove to his son's place some 30 miles away, so also got to me meet his lovely wife and his 15-month-old son, who is just shy of three feet tall. Did I forget to mention that Daddy is over 6'9"? Oops! My bad.

From there, Jack took me to a scenic overlook above Moostlookmeguntic Lake (Phonetically, moose look muh GUN tick) You're welcome. I took advantage of the opportunity to hike a few hundred yards of the Appalachian Trail where it passes near this spot. Also located my now northernmost and easternmost geocache. Yea me!

As the sun went down, so did the temps, and I'm not at all acclimated to it. We were also getting quite hungry, and took our chances in a bar as we (he) drove through Rageley. Surprisingly fantastic hamburger! One hundred and fifty mile round trip ride today.

Tomorrow - doing laundry, packing it all away, maybe some more guitar, but definitely a lot more geocaching as I make my way to the hotel booked in western Massachusetts.

>31 WholeHouseLibrary: A great adventure! Is it the same route back?

>32 Karlstar: Not at all, except possibly the last day. My friend (see Post #19) wants me to visit her on the way back so I can regale her with my stories of the road trip. And I'd be happy to, but it's a matter of timing and other factors.

Left my brother's place in the late morning, and we spent the next two hours at a laundromat. I came with a coin purse stuffed with quarters, intending to use them at toll booths and for the washer and dryer. Surprise! I would have used up all my quarters just in Massachusetes and Maine. Fortunately, they had human beings at one toll booth per plaza, and they were after dollar bills mostly (which I had!) All those other states - some accepted the TX-Tag I had on the car; Illinois wanted me to create an account (withing 14 days) and pay them using a credit card; and other states will track me down based in my license plate. What a world!

My plan for today was to stop by LTHQ and thank them for all they do, but the address was a residential area - a green house (color, not plant-related). Maybe they all work from home now and there is no office. But I moved on a and concentrated more on geocaching because my only other destination for today was this hotel. Picked up 8 geocaches today (Day 10), which more than doubled the total for the entire BMW Tour. Most of them were at service and rest areas along the highway, but some very creative hides.

Now at the hotel, and having used my phone all day for geocaching and Bluetooth to manage phone calls (it doesn't notify me if the number isn't already in my Contact list,) the battery is below 30%, and I realized I left the charger at my brothers' place in Maine. Fortunately, I have a phone charger in the car that plugs into whatever the thing is that they used to call the cigarette lighter.

I'd tell you about tomorrow's plans, but they've been modified so many times since the Tour started, it's best I tell you about it in past tense. The most likely scenario is that I'll be adding 180 previously unplanned miles to the odometer. Yeah, it's going to be that kind of day.

>33 WholeHouseLibrary: Just after the start of the pandemic, NYS went to cashless tolling at all of the highway tolls, where there are tolls. There are lots of stories of errors, so check your bills when they come!

I'm still here (in NJ until Monday); haven't posted due to technical difficulties - mostly.
Will write more when time permits.

Time does not permit, but its back is turned at the moment.

Here's what I haven't told you: On the last day at my brother's place, when we were at the laundromat, I saw a pharmacy down the road a bit and walked there to see if they might have, beyond all hope, any at-home COVID quick tests. They DID! So, I bought two boxes (with two test in each).

Mind you, I searched for 2 weeks before I left and couldn't find any. And in every town or city I drove through, I stopped at every pharmacy I saw, but they're as elusive as honest politicians.

First test; read the instructions a few times, went through the motions to get the synapse down; prepared the timer app on my phone, and flawlessly took my first test. POSITIVE.

You have to wait 24 to 36 hours to test again, and I did. Another POSITIVE. Mind you, I was completely asymptomatic. And, because we visited my nephew, he wasn't allowed to report for work until all parties involved got a PCR test. I arrived in my hometown in NJ the following afternoon, and spent the next several hours mostly trying to reconnect my phone to the VPN, and while having a connection, filling out online forms to schedule a COVID PCR test. Finally got one - for this Thursday - in Middle-of-Nowhere, Pennsylvania.

My phone didn't work either - only when connected via Bluetooth to my car, and then only if I initiated a call using the car's screen. Just reporting the facts, folks; I couldn't possibly make this stuff up.

I drove around and found an emergency clinic where a Howard Johnson's restaurant used to be. An hour and a half later, I got to see the doctor who wanted to do a quick test to justify me getting monoclonal antibodies.
So I had both. Quick test results: NEGATIVE. He said that the at-home variety of quick test (and named my brand specifically - without me having revealed which I used) aren't worth the value of the cardboard box they come in.

Got the results of my PCR test when I connected to the VPN and checked my email. It's NEGATIVE.

Yeah, that other box is in the trash.

Got a lot of great memories from this trip, and eventually, I'll tell you about them, but overall, it's taken its toll on me. I now have to spend 1/4th of my drive time walking to get the cramps out of my legs. I've got ten hours of just driving time ahead of me. I might make it home on Friday at this rate.
I think next time, I'll take the train.