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08/02/08 |
        
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Welcome to my website!
My name
is George Barker and I am honored that you
decided to stop by. With so many choices, you landed here.
Thank you. I created this website to offer a little info about me and my interests, and what I have been up to recently. My prime hobby is motorcycle touring. Look around. If you like what you see, please leave me a comment. Stop by once in awhile as I usually get two significant trips, and one or two smaller trips, each year.
Butt Lite 5 has arrived!
The Butt Lite (http://www.teamstrange.com/) is a seven day, seven thousand mile "scavenger hunt" across the United States, Canada, and perhaps a bit of Mexico too. In June I participated in the Minnesota 1000 and finished... period. If you search the TeamStrange website, you will find my score and how I placed. While I did not get massive points, that's because I decided to chase mileage this year.
If you visit my Gadget Boy page, you'll see that I love gadgets, especially the one's directly related to motorcycle efficiency and comfort. This years gadget is the SPOT personal locator. During the BL5, I plan to have SPOT travel with me and post my locations to Jason Jonas' website for SPOT trips. SPOT updates Jason's website about every half hour and the location on the website lags about 15 to 25 minutes. Come follow my trek for the next seven days by following the link to Jason's site. Here is my "test trip" http://jasonjonas.org/spot/tripViewer.do?id=246 link. Starting on Sunday, August 3, this link http://jasonjonas.org/spot/tripViewer.do?id=250 will be the one to visit.
The rally starts from Decatur, IL on Tuesday August 5 at 6 am. Until then, I will be testing the trip site with a ride around Appleton and then on the way down to Decatur. If you find it interesting, please drop me a note via my feedback page.
Another personal best achieved!
In early October I had a building commissioning conference in Jacksonville, Florida. So, I thought it might be a great opportunity to test my long distance riding skills. The plan was set and route carefully laid out for my biggest challenge to date. The challenge was to ride a Bun Burner Gold 3000 (BBG3000). That's 1500+ miles on two consecutive days. I went from Jacksonville to El Paso, Texas, then up to Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there I headed back east to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and St. Louis, before ending in Lincoln, Illinois. The first day was 1517 miles in 23 1/2 hours. The second day was 1567 miles in 23 hours, 50 minutes. The route was fully documented by IBA rules and hopefully the paperwork will be approved to make it official.
My First Lake Michigan 1000
In mid-August, I had the good fortune to have a free Saturday, so I decided to go for a Saddle Sore 1000 in a loop around Lake Michigan. If the rider makes a complete, and documented, loop around Lake Michigan, the IBA may certify it as a Lake Michigan 1000 ride. This is just what I had hoped to do. I created a careful plan and executed it flawlessly. I even stopped for fuel at, or very near, my planned fuel stops (which is sometimes a challenge with my desire to squeeze "just a few more miles" out of each tank). After the IBR settles down and I get a free weekend, I'll put up a page with a few more details. But for now, the highlight was the Mackinac Bridge, of which I finally had the chance to ride the grated lane for the full length of the grating. Beware, the hi-res movie takes some time to download.
Parting shot from the bridge.
Hi-Res MPG Movie (20 Mb) Low-Res WMV Movie (4 Mb)
Ride To Eat.... to Copper Harbor, Michigan!
Ride to work, ride to lunch. What's the difference, it's the ride that matters. When I heard of the latest ride for lunch (or, RTE - Ride To Eat), I just had to go. I graduated from Michigan Tech over 20 years ago and the Ride for Lunch was in Copper Harbor, Michigan, just a short 300 miles north of Appleton. Rather than making the entire run in one day, I asked Susan to come along and we'd make a weekend of the trip. We stopped at the old stomping grounds in Houghton, saw a ghost town and rode my two favorites rides... Highway 26 along Lake Superior shoreline and Brockway Mountain at sunset. What a trip and what nice people to meet for lunch, we did not know any of them before.
Coat number 19,315 goes on the World's Largest Ball of Paint!
Last year I had the privilege of putting the 19,315 coat of paint on the World's Largest Ball of Paint. Mike Carmichael, family and friends have been adding paint to this ball for nearly 30 years. It all started with a baseball and a dream. Now its, well, large. By the way, Mike keeps a journal and a photo of everyone who has put a coat of paint on the ball. So, the next time you're in a bar and someone claims to have put a coat of paint on the World's Largest, we have ways to verify it. The WLBOP can be found in Alexandria, Indiana, just a short distance north of Indianapolis. This exhibit is behind closed doors, so call/email ahead to make sure Mike will be around to let you in (http://ballofpaint.freehosting.net). See my World's Largest Too page for more information.
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This site was last updated 08/02/08
