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| day-01 | day-02 | day-03 | day-04 | day-05 | day-06 | day-07 | day-08 | day-09 | day-10 | | day-11 | day-12 | day-13 | day-14 | day-15 | day-16 | day-17 | day-18 | day-19 | day-20 | | day-21 | day-22 | day-23 | day-24 | day-25 | day-26 | day-27 | day-28 | day-29 | day-30 | | day-31 | day-32 | day-33 | day-34 | day-35 | day-36 | Day-1 & 2 July 7 & 8, 2006 The adventure begins. Getting ready has been the name of the game here. It's been 8 months of getting ready and finding the right crew. But even up to the very last second it was still all about getting ready. The night before we took off, I got about 2 hours of sleep as I just kept thinking of more stuff to prepare... Day-3 July 9, 2006 Prelude to 5,000 miles. Although the crew are all tired from a full days drive to Tennessee and from less than 4-hours of sleep, we were all up early and ready to begin our journey. A few last minute mechanical and safety checks on the motorcycles and tape and battery checks on the cameras and equipment and bike-cams... Day-4 July 10th, 2006 Setup,
review, film, ride, film, eat, film, breakdown, sleep... The film crew is now working more efficiently as we all begin to settle into our routines. Still in Jellico, and anxiously awaiting the moment when we're actually begin riding the Trans-America Trail... Day-5 July 11, 2006 "Nothing a little tap of the ol' sledge hammer couldn't fix". ...actually, it's probably best to let the professionals handle this one. A minor warranty issue on the BMW lead Michael to a 4-hour round trip ride to the local dealership just outside of Nashville... Day-6 July 12, 2006 Good Ol' Sparta hospitality. As strangers in a small town, we were welcomed as if we were family. The previous night, while waiting at the local burger joint for the crew to reconnect, Michael was engaged in conversation with some of the locals who were facinated with our adventure... Day-7 July 13, 2006 Columbia Tennessee to Selmer Tennessee. Today started out like most days. Early to rise as everyone did what they could to get the riders on the road. Arriving to our final destination late at night, after a full days ride, is far from desirable. The only way to finish the day earlier is to start earlier... Day-8 July 14, 2006 Selmer Tennessee to Lula Mississippi. Although we're now at day-nine in our 35-day journey, it feels as though we've been on the trail much longer. The days have been long and we're all feeling the effects of being outside our comfort-zone with days of mental and physical challenges... Day-9 July 15, 2006 A day with Sam Correro, creator of the Trans-America Trail. The Isle of Capri Casino graciously gave us free rooms last night, saving us from pitching a tent on the side of the road. Feeling well rested, everyone but Steven, who insisted on staying in bed as long as possible, headed down to the lobby for some breakfast... Day-10 July 16, 2006 Over the river and through the Ozarks to Choctaw Campground we go. After a great day of riding with Sam Correro, the founder of the Trans-America Trail, we awoke once again in our very colorful rooms at The Isle of Capri Casino Resort in Lula Mississippi. Sam stayed in our room since it was so late when we returned from the Ground Zero last night... Day-11 July 17, 2006 Pontooning Greer's Ferry Lake. After Steven’s accident yesterday, we decided to stay at the Greer’s Ferry Campground in Choctaw Arkansas an extra day. This day was to be a recovery day beginning with a much needed sleep-in... Day-12 July 18, 2006 Surprises on the trail. The day started off with an unexpected surprise. The plan of rising early to get on the trail was obliterated when all our cell phone batteries died over night leaving us with no alarm... Day-13 July 19, 2006 Unexpected challenge. It was another scorcher of a day but a good night sleep had everyone pumped up for the ride into Oklahoma. James, Steven and Michael broke out the tools for some minor adjustments on their bikes and then headed off for another day of exciting riding... Day-14 July 20, 2006 Vance comes to the rescue. It was already 100-degrees at daybreak when the morning started in a panicked rush to deal with the bike issues. James was up at the crack of dawn and went out to sit in the Yukon and make phone calls while the crew slept... Day-15 July 21, 2006 Another day in Broken Arrow. The plan had been for Vance to ride with the guys today, however, due to the late night bike maintenance everyone slept late. When we finally woke up we realized Michael’s back tire was almost totally bald... Day-16 July 22, 2006 Vance finally gets to ride with the boys. After having to cancel a planned ride the day before because of bike maintenance, Vance was up early today and ready to ride. Although we all had a good nights rest, the guys didn’t get on the trail until around 1:00 pm... Day-17 July 23, 2006 Leaving Oklahoma for New Mexico & Colorado. Today we rode through the last part of Oklahoma through fields of Sunflowers and rutty dirt roads. When we crossed into New Mexico, it seemed as if the state line was drawn out from nature as the environment seemed to change right at the state line.... Day-18 July 24, 2006 Leaving Oklahoma for New Mexico & Colorado. It’s gorgeous out here in Colorado - beautiful mountains, green trees, big up hills & big down hills - we were just flying around on these gravel roads. The only problems were the sharp corners on mountain sides. If you don’t watch it, you can lock up the brakes and slide right off the side of a mountain... Day-19 July 25, 2006 Hanging out in Salida Colorado. We woke up in Salida Colorado and had a team-meeting over breakfast. It seems everyone has concerns now that we’re at the half way point. We decided we needed a day off as we were all in need of rest and a laundromat... Day-20 July 26, 2006 Catch up-ride, Lightning and the Rainbow Trail. After the terrible storm two days earlier, we decided to ride back to Cotopaxi to pick up the section of the trail we missed because of the lightning. My motorcycle is having problems, the carb keeps leaking gasoline... Day-21 July 27, 2006 Salida to Lake City Colorado. So it’s time to leave Salida Colorado. It’s been great place to stay and ride around, but we’ve gotta make it to the Pacific Ocean. We had a heck of a time trying to find our way out of town and back onto the Trans-Am Trail for some reason... Day-22 July 28, 2006 Lake City Colorado to Monticello Utah. Steven’s cleaned his air filter and thrown some carb cleaner in his gas and he’s ready to join Michael and I as we leave the beautiful Lake City. There are very few places that we have come across that are as quaint as Lake City Colorado... Day-23 July 29, 2006 Destination: Moab - only a sand stones throw from Monticello. We began our day in Monticello Utah. After a quick breakfast we headed 40 miles north to Moab. The scenery as we approached Moab was breath-taking but it was just a hint of the spectacular scenery we would experience later in the day... Day-24 July 30, 2006 Today, the White Rim Trail would be conquered. Adamant about avoiding the desert heat, Britton was up at O’dawn-thirty and ready to get out on the trail... Day-25 July 31, 2006 Today, the White Rim Trail would be conquered... this time we mean it.
Day-26 August 1, 2006 A lack of communication, missed check points, and a single incident event created quite a bit of panic and chaos for all of us.
Day-27 August 2, 2006 The sun was just starting to come up as the crew drove into Fillmore Utah arriving at the Spinning Wheel Motel, nearly 10-hours later than planned.
Day-28 August 3, 2006 Feathers are ruffled; Beauty of Wheeler Peek brings peace. So now we find ourselves at the Border Inn – on the state line of Utah and Nevada. The crew was a little worn thin by our push through off-road adventure with the chase vehicle the previous night... Day-29 August 4, 2006 Life in Baker Nevada & Riding the Pony Express Trail. We needed an internet connection to help us lock down our remaining overnight stays for the rest of the trip. Chris and I spent the morning in the office of the Border Inn Motel trying to make arrangements... Day-30 August 5, 2006 Lost. Today was a testing day to say the least. The sage was so thick that the trail disappeared completely. It seemed like we were just blindly cutting through sage brush most of the day. Michael was having a horrible time getting through it since his motorcycle does not have as much ground clearance as our dirt bikes... Day-31 August 6, 2006 We're found, but the bikes are MIA. We returned to the double-wide to find the owners the following morning. For having total strangers break into there home the previous night, they were incredibly understanding about it. Our next issue was to find out how to get to our bikes... Day-32 August 7, 2006 Finally beating Nevada. We got on the bikes and hauled-ass to make up the time we had lost. While the terrain was beautiful and the riding fun, it seemed like every time we set up a shot it either took forever or I had a really rough line, making it hard to keep up with James... Day-33 August 8, 2006 Oregon was not a victory lap. We set aside the morning to do some much needed maintenance on the bikes. It was then that I discovered that my license plate had been ripped off. I still have no idea what happened to it... Day-34 August 9, 2006 Mother Nature gives us her best. James decided that he wanted to take a detour from the trail to visit Crater Lake. I was unsure about this move because we had already lost a ton of time and it was definitely out of our way. The ride to get to Crater Lake was amazing though... Day-35 August 10, 2006 The Road NOT Traveled. We woke up bright and early, threw our gear on and headed to the bikes to get underway. Unfortunately as they had so many times before one of the bikes didn't want to cooperate. Michael's bike wouldn't start and we had to jump his battery... Day-36 (Final Day) August 11, 2006 Beating the trail with back-tracking. The next morning James woke me up and told me we were going to do the last part of the trail backwards until we came to the spot were the rock slide was. At first I didn't really want to, with all the bad luck we had had I just didn't want to tip toe that edge anymore. I realized however...
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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered" — G. K. Chesterton |
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© 2006 Unseen Voices Productions. All Rights Reserved. Website by: Motorrad Media |
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