In college, I practically lived at Denny’s and I liked the way their menu was consistent when I was on the road. Alas, they changed their format to the same as everyone else around twelve years ago. The prices are unbundled, meaning everything is extra so overall the lower prices are misleading. Sigh. That’s why I like the bakery. The one price they quote is the price you pay. Simple, easy, the drink doesn't practically double the cost, Nicky.
I am heart set on a major trip before the winter sets in. This is a record of my thinking today. I’ll match it against reality when the time is right. I can afford three full weeks. According to history, for me that is a week outbound, a week to ten days at destination depending on finances, and a relatively high speed five to seven day return trip. This year I know much of what to expect on the road. I know, for instance, that 350 motorcycle miles per day is pushing it. My average is 346 miles. With the camper, I hope to increase the mileage "about an hour and a half" without getting weary.
What else? Stay off the freeways, where people pass you just because they can. The Honda lacks power in the upper gears so there’s nothing you can do. Keep away from truck routes, but try to find four lane secondaries. The mileage per tank is 166 miles and the average day is three tankfuls. Fill up before bedding down. Visit the small towns for a few minutes each. Stop for coffee mainly at unusual places, like local art galleries. Read the local newspaper.
Travel finances are $75 per day not including accommodation. Now you know why I love my batbike, I spend my money moving, not staying put. This allows one major stop, such as the Country Hall of Fame in Muskogee last year. Best travel time is early morning until 9:30 and late afternoon 6:00 to just after sunset. A moment’s thought about how check-out times and finding a room upset those prime travel hours tells why my camper is a better deal than the motels. Thus, 21 days means a budget of $1600 minimum. Still a pretty good deal if done right—but that is a travel budget, which includes food, gas, and not much else but a little sightseeing. Everything else is extra.
The problem as with most long distance hauls is local transportation at the destination. If you add the commute into town and cost of getting around to the “cheap” airfare, the bargain of flying disappears rapidly enough. I predict this trip will prove once and for all that while land travel still costs, those costs will be about the same as an inclusive accounting of air travel. The trains have the same obstacles because their stations are not where most people want to go. You see about as much country at 35,000 feet as you do on the Sceni-Cruiser when half your train journey is at night.
As for the camper, the sidewalls go up as soon as tomorrow. They are 56” long but like the rest of the unit, this can easily be changed. I doubt I’ll alter much as long as I don’t run afoul of some trailer bylaw. Not after some of the home-made mickey mouse units I’ve seen on the road in this town. The one dimension I cannot match the Amtrak berth is vertical headspace. You can sit up on the Amtrak bed. My camper height is restricted by my own personal insistence that I be able to see over the top of the trailer when I do a shoulder check. And on my motorcycle, I always do a shoulder check.
This gives me around 20 inches of headroom, enough to lean up on my elbows. I’ve installed handholds to help me slide into the compartment, which I will replace with something permanent. The electrical is still problematic. Every option works out to the last milliwatt of power getting consumed over each evening. I don’t require heat, but a fan is necessary. Where does one find large 12V fans? Any radiator shop. As for interior light, I’ve looked closely at those solar powered security lights that come on automatically at sunset. The claim is they last all night. We shall see.
The office guy came over to show me a generator. It’s a Honda, the smallest I’ve ever seen. It would fit on a countertop. It has an electric start and of all the funny things, the thing is almost silent. Five feet away you can’t tell it is running. It looks like about an $800 contraption. It’s nice to know it exists but there is something I never completely trusted about sleeping near stationary gasoline engines.
I chose a few more pieces of music to test on my mixer. My habit of listening to each bass note pays off when selecting vocals that match my still-emerging voice. For a song with complex vocals that sounds deceptively easy, listen to Linda Loveless’ “Blame It On Your Lyin’ Cheatin’ Heart”. Try singing that the way she does, and don’t leave out the grace notes as she returns to each verse. Or the two octave spread at the finale. It’s in Ab, my lucky key as I can lower it to G or raise it to A and still manage.
By late evening I biked over to the bowling alley for a quick visit with Laura. It is neither my crowd nor atmosphere there. The fact that it is a lounge doesn’t help. I’m a lounge lizard, not a bar fly, but I did not recognize even one of the sixteen tunes that the regulars sang before my turn. Most were slow dirges, highly romantic to some people but none had a catchy melody. Folks, save your slow music for home, the crowd is not in the same gloomy mood.
These singers, even the fantastic ones, only serve to offset my act which is about as opposite as you can get. I draw the audience in, the entire bar spins around to watch, out come the phone cameras. But the bowling alley somehow attracts a docile and below average crowd, they seem like the ones who don’t fit in elsewhere.
In the news today, a Hialeah man got 12 years for calling a spade a spade. His otherwise everyday argument became a hate crime when he made an ethic reference. That’s right America, let’s put people in jail for talking what they say when they are angry. Show the world how smart you are. Or how about the article buried on page 8B that maybe the glowing reports of real estate recovery aren’t all that based on fact. Let’s look at the stats.
Florida real estate is a fiasco. 40% of the houses, that’s over 2 million of them in Florida, are underwater. That term has been redefined to NOT include mortgages that are less than 25% over the house value. Who the hell came up with that one? Along with the banks illegally keeping foreclosed property off the market, these millions of houses represent owners who can’t sell except at a loss. These are also owners who can’t trade up which used to keep the market climbing. If all distressed property was included, I say the real underwater rate is closer to 65%. A new recession is in the making.
