home: https://starling.us/royal_star
by Ĝan Ŭesli Starling
copyright 2007
Not so many photos here as for previous trips. My mood was weighted down throughout most of the hours I spent on the road. Instead of the calming distraction I'd hoped for, the long hours of solo riding just gave me more time to dwell upon the two-fold disappointment that my 19-year marriage had turned out to be. Nothing I did made Karen happy. Her alcoholism I could not cure. Our physical relationship lacked all spontaneity. Affection is something I will not bargain for. Saddled with a mood like this my time in the saddle was introspective. I doubtless passed by any number of worthy sights heedless of the camera beckoning escape from its imprisonment within the left front pocket of my Brooks leather jacket.
Further, unlike my earlier trips when I'd toted along an ancient HP ThinkPad running NetBSD Unix OS. For my new job, I needed LabVIEW and CAD. So that meant a Windows box, or which I'd bought a Dell M90 workstation laptop. With it's 1440 x 900 display and 2nd-from-top Nvidia graphics chip it also proved excellent for 3D games. This brought me, eventually, into one of the virtual, on-line worlds. With that I had only just begun to enjoy a quasi social life in lieu of a functional marriage. On this trip, with so much unaccustomed free time on my hands, this quickly became compelling. Once hooked, and with nearly every motel offering free WiFi, my private journalling efforts fell by the wayside.
So here I am, reconstructing this narrative more than two years ex-post-facto. Doing that from memory, old VISA receipts and notes scribbled into my 2007 Rand McNally road atlas. Not sure who'll want to read it. But for the sake of completeness, here I go down memory lane.
Clearly I wasn't much enthused because I let the weekend slide while getting ready. Didn't ride out of Kalamazoo MI until Monday at 13:36. Had 44,110 miles showing on the odometer at start-of-trip. While riding along my thoughts kept returning to the condition of my marriage. Our house in Kalamazoo was paid for. But my career had taken some turns, six different jobs in all. The last two had me commuting first 110 and then 130 miles round-trip every day. That meant gettin home no earlier than 6PM in the very best of weather, assuming I got out on time. Winter weather sometimes stretched that out to 7PM or even later. Admittedly a nice dinner would always await me. But awaiting me too was the nightly prospect of taking turns to sleep on the couch.
I'd been half-heartedly looking at homes nearer to Zeeland MI where I now work. But signing my name to another mortgage held small appeal. When Karen started dropping hints on how important it would be for the new house to have a "guest room" I could just picture how that would work out. Stoicism and denial no longer sufficed me to get through the day any more than fantasy and nostalgia the night. Shielded behind tinted glasses and facing into an 80 mph wind, no one can tell when a grown man cries.
To further disgruntle me, there next occured the first mishap of this journey. At a gas station along I-80 at Ingalls Park IL just west of Joliet IL I managed to lose my company cell phone. I'd been carrying it on a belt clip, the kind with a magnetic flap. I'm confident it wouldn't just have fallen open while I rode. Probably it caught on my sleeve or something while I messed around buying gas. I had my ear plugs in and paid the pump with a credit card, then fished out the atlas to note down 126 miles at 16:01. At the time I expected the company to debit my salary for it's loss, something over $100, not sure exactly how much.
The Interstate continued to proove thoroughly unmemorable. I made the IL/IA state line, crossing the Mississippi River at 18:27 & 292 miles. I had to hunt around some before finding a vacant motel. My map shows a circle at East Moline, near something called the Children's Museum. My map-scribble says two times, an hour apart 18:50 & 19:50 (361 mi). I'm not sure if this means recognition of a time-zone change or whether I spent exactly an hour hunting a photo-worthy view of the Mississippi. I do remember cruising around for that before hunting down the night's lodging.
Tuesay I must have dawdled around some. Or, more likely I slept overlong because of having stayed up late on the computer. So I didn't make Walnut IA until 15:13 (558 mi). Finally sick of the Interstate I swung north onto I-29 just before the Nebraska border stopping to consult the map at a rest stop at 16:25 (601 miles). Finding green dots (scenic) on the map for US-75 not far away, I headed for that. Settling into a meditative attitude I pass farm country until reaching Homer IA 18:27 (683 mi). From there it is a short hop back across Missouri to Sioux City where I stop for the night.
With the end of day two comes discovery of mishap number two. Making a routine inspection of the bike after unloading, I discover a dangerous gouge in my rear tire. Dared not go on with a hazard spot like that no matter how good the rest of the tread still looked. I usually plan my tire changes well ahead, arranging to have them pre-ordered in my name at some way-point. But this is unscheduled, and unbugeted for. My fear was that I'd have to settle for Bridgestones or worse instead of the Metzler 880's I favor.
Once checked into my room, I break out the Yellow Pages and start calling bike shops. Not many are listed but I get lucky. Bob's Bike Shop in Le Mars IA has Metzler 880's in just my size. After then I do recall going out for dinner, but not where exactly. What I do remember is the confusion of twisted roads and oddly angled intersections near motel row. Upon returning to my room I fired up the Dell M90 laptop and spend the evening, not logging the day's journey, but instead animating an avatar inside that virtual 3D world. I promised myself I'd flesh out the log upon my return. I didn't expect that would be so late as now. But better late than never, I guess.
My search for Metzler 880's to fit my '97 Royal Star took me some distance out of Sioux City, northeast along US-75 to Le Mars IA. Bob's Bike Shop gave me very good service. The Royal Star still wears them today. But the ride out, wait to install and ride back pretty much killed the whole day. It also cost me close to $500 since I've gotten into the habit of changing front and back tires both together. That and, of course, a 2nd night in the same motel with no change of scenery. This latter translates into another longer than usual evening spent inside the virtual world of Red Light Center. For lack of any pictures this day, I'll tell you some about that instead.
Unlike most other worlds, in RLC you can change your avatar's name just as often as you like...for a small fee. I'd started out with the basic free account. Then after a week, purchased a VIP subscription for, if memory serves, about $20 per month. Using the VISA provided my age verification and opened up otherwise closed areas. More than this, it allowed one to initiate private text chats. That was important because without it you can only text in local space...meaning only those avatars in visual range will have your text appear on their screen. Via PM you can text to others out-of-sight...accross the virtual world, or at a different level of the game. Now with name like Red Light Center and all their garish banner ads, you'd think it was mostly, or even only, about 3D fantasy sex. But that grows dull very quickly. And anyone who stays very long ends up spending most of their time doing something else in the XXX game world.
By this time I'd changed my avatar completely from what it had been when I started out, the first one being too much like the real me, and thereby gained emotional distance from my fictional character. That made it more an adventure and what with one thing and another ended up being invited to join, of all things, a vampyre clan, adding a 3-letter acronym to the end of my avatar's name. That first affiliation didn't last very long, though, hardly more than a week.
That group was very large and suffered from labrinthine politics at the top and childish social drama at the bottom. They had in-world meetings to deal with it all. And who needs that? So before very long, two of the officers split away to form yet another clan, this one much smaller. The vampyre motif was preserved, to an extent, but without the micro-management of rule-based role playing. I was invited along. This newer group was mainly social. Most of our time was spent gathered in the RLC hotel lobby engaged in very free-wheeling group chat. This turned out working very well for me, since in voice chat, my timing is never quite on. In text there is no worry of jumping in at just the right second and nobody talks over anyone else. Once you get use to it, it just works.
The new group coalesced around its only real officer, the Queen, addressed not with any formality by her title, but with a contraction of her avatar name as just plain Vampy. In all that world, with all its various vampyre clans, when anyone spoke of Vampy, no confusion ever arose. They all knew of whom one spoke. So mainly it was she who kept the conversation always lively with her ever-spontaneous wit and infectious humor. Some of that clan got to know one another well enough, over time, as to share their real life identites and contact info. When one couple suffered a fire in their real-world home in Montreal Quebec, many of us chipped in with real-world money to help get them back on their feet. Like that. So it is that even now, two years after having left my RLC account to drop from VIP to basic (free) status, falling all but completely dormant, I still hear from Vampy now and again by either phone or email. I am always glad to know that things are going okay with her.
I have since moved away from RLC to Second Life in search of more space, greater variety and the opportunity to design, build and freely distrubute scripted objects in-world. But SL requires a much faster ISP and a high-end graphics card too. Vampy, for her part, indulges her own creative impulses presently by writing. She's working on a book which I look forward to one day reading. I do expect to see it in print as her publisher thought enough of the manuscript so far as to pay her an advance. She's promised me a signed copy when it comes out.
So yes, I spent my evenings in a XXX on-line game. But mostly we were just texting...really...and not only about sex or with annonymous strangers either. So there. Pthhhht! Some of the folks whom I first met in RLC I now know also in Second Life, they either having emmigrated the same as I or who still maintain dual accounts. A virtual world, as it turns out, doesn't necessarily stay completely virtual. There are, after all, real people behind every avatar. Virtual relationships can leak out into real life. More on that at the end of this journal.
Got to my only planned destination just a tad later than planned. As a result I clearly missed the lunch-time rush as the whole town was empty except for me and it's only resident, who, just like in that famous I Love Lucy episode, wore all the hats for every elected office in town. Here you see Elsie Eiler, mayor, fire marshal, chief of police, librarian (and maybe even dog catcher, for all I know) of Monowi NE. I was pretty hungry and the burger was absolutely great. But I doubt if I'll head back there anytime soon. I dawdle over my lunch, chatting with Her Honor a before taking off again. Sated, I head further west aways. It's pretty enough, rolling hills with the river distantly visible to the north.
After a ways I turn south onto US-281. Stopped for fuel in St. Paul NE at 17:27 (1,040 mi). Later on I stooped for the night at a Best Western in Hastings NE (1,090 mi). This motel advertised Free Internet. But it wasn't WiFi equiped, so I had to put a deposit on a LAN cable. And this was the stop where I finally got around to replacing my lost cell phone. Picked up an Altel LG from (shudder) Walmart.
No very early start this day either. My first stop is in Red Cloud NE, at 12:30 (1,135 mi). Keep on south along US-281 until, stopping for gas in Lebanon KS at 13:03 (1,157 mi) and then again for lunch in Downs KS at 13:30. Here I turn east onto US-24 until Leonardville KS where I hang a funny squiggle south, then west, then south again through the towns of Riley and Milford down to my next gas stop at Junction City at 16:23 (1,306 mi).
Checking the map I find green dots for KS-177 which I obtain via short hop east on I-70. Then it's soutn along KS-177 until I stop for the night at Cottonwood Falls KS.
I make El Dorado KS by 11:20 (1,430 mi) where I swing east along US-54 to Iola KS where I stop for lunch at 13:43 (1,520 mi). At Moran KS do I turn south onto US-59 for it's green dots on the atlas. Running south parallel to the Missouri border I stop for gas at Frontenac KS at 15:30 (1,596 mi). I keep on with US-59, which becomes US-69 and then Alt-69, side-slipping Joplin MO crossing into Oklahoma and pass through Miami OK. Later on this same road becomes US-59 once more.
My next goal is to spend a few days with my sister in Somerville AL so I daren't venture too far south. I correct course toward the east following Alt-412 criss-crossing the US-412 tollway a couple of times until the two merge together just this side of the Arkansas boarder. I cross over at West Siloam Springs (1,703 mi) where I stop for the night.
This day I keep on eastward along US-412, stopping for lunch at Yellville AK at 14:36 (1,854 mi). I remember the lunch stop as one of those uncounted small places offering the best BBQ anywhere but being only mildly impressed, the Famous Dave's national chain being as good or better. Then it's pressing on through Turrell AK where I stop for gass at 19:16 (2,048 mi). Then crossing under I-55 the road runs parallel for a ways. I swing eastward again via I-40 heading toward Memphis where I make a few turns at random, ending up by chance or unconscious design at the same run-down motel where I had spent a single night on an earlier trip (2,149 mi).
No photos for this day. What I recall of northern Arkansas is an endless run of same-looking open space, churches, strip malls and BBQ joints. Sorry.
Next day I make my way out of Memphis by dead reckoning, passing under I-240 and picking up US-78 and thence into Mississippi. I take US-72 eaststopping for gas in Slayden MS at 12:59 (2,172 mi). From there I just keep heading east, aiming for my sister's place in northern Alabama. US-72 takes me all the way to Decatur where my aunt and uncle used to live. I switch over to AL-67 when I pass under I-65 and from there I don't need a map anymore. I arrive at 16:46 (2,282 mi). I rememeber clearly how pulling my loud bike abruptly into her driveway set all three of her Wiemeraner dogs to a caucophany of canine alarm.
I spend two more days at my sister's house, visiting with her family. It is a good visit. Patti and I got out or lunch one day and have a long heart-to-heart about my situation at home. She knew I'd been unhappy for quite a long time, but could tell especially on that visit that I was near to giving up on it. I tell her all about the house-hunting prospects and my utter lack enthusiasm for it. Upon my return I'll carry on a little while longer, looking at the occasional house...but my heart is not at all in it.
The return trip to Kalamazoo is a straight shot north along I-65 & I-69, completely unmemorable. All of the parallel state and US highways I'd already followed on prior trips between Michigan and my sister's place. I'm not in a mood to explore further afield. So I just race on back home, dodging 18-wheelers and getting gas. I may have stopped somewhere for the night, but if so, I don't recall. The time on the photo below, which I do remember was taken in Indiana, would indicate that I must have. I'll have to see if I can pull my full VISA record for two years past to clarify some of these missing details.
Although off-topic for a motorcycle travel journal, permit me to tell you a little bit about on-line 3D worlds. Since the first of those described below accounts for my evenings as told above, it pertains to this story. The second one I'll describe is where I spend much of my evenings now. There are many others. And I have even been to some of them. But mainly I know just these two.
I partook of this strange, little world for all of about four months...from mid September of 2007 until the following January. There was where I spent late evening hours via WiFi from motels on this road trip. The novelty of it's advertised main attraction wore off quickly. And aside from that it doesn't offer very much. As a social medium, it offers text and chat, just like all the other worlds. But membership turn-over runs pretty high. So any friends you make might not be there long. Still, it was my introduction to Goth culture and bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and SatB. Worthwile for that, if nothing else. Some few good people in that world. But mostly just a lot of drama.
That said, if your computer graphics card is not very good, or if your Internet speed is on the low end, then RLC might be a fair choice. Login and you'll likely see a fair number of avatars frozen like maniquins. That's because they're in-world mainly just for PM chat (private messages) with others who you can't see, being at another location in the game. Much of my time there was spent with my avatar seated or standing in the hotel lobby doing likewise.
Just don't expect to be creative there. Unlike Second Life, in RLC the whole world is defined inside your own computer. The central server just tells your computer what to do with all that stuff. So for you to contribute content, you'd have to personally send a copy to every player. Some peope do share privately designed textures for clothes, etc, within small groups. Within that group they will see each other differently then how you see them.
RLC Try out RLC, if you wish, but you'll likely be disappointed. I have not been there for a long time. My profile was still active, last I checked, as resident Aplonis_Ember_SL
. In RLC, you can chane your avatar name. So identites tend to be fluid. Mostly they do it to change social affiliations. So formerly I was Aplonis_VoS
, and before that Aplonis_Dark
, etc. So now, what the SL
stands for is Second Life, for my having moved away to that better on-line world. I leave my RLC profile up now to lure folks away from out of RLC and into SL.
I expect that one day the RLC managment will notice and take my profile down. But that may take a while. I noticed while I was still in that they tend to leave all the prior profiles up, no matter how long abandoned, so as to inflate their aparent membership.
When two of my RLC avatar friends told me that they'd soon be leaving, going instead to another world called Second Life (SL for short), saying how much better it was, I was moved to check it out too. How very glad I am that I did.
For one thing, SL is easily 100 times larger. And regional variety is greater still. Whereas RLC is several copies each of the same few places with an in-world population seldom higher than 15K avatars at any one time, in SL every place is unique. And even with 60K avatars on-line, some of those places will be empty. That's how big it is.
Unlike with RLC, in SL if you wish to design something, not just clothes, but anything at all, you can just upload it and the central server will make sure that every avatar can see it. For instance, I made a tipping cow. Did that all by myself. See it here: YouTube
SL Best of all, a free membership to SL has no built-in limits on where you can go or what you can do. Just be aware that you need a pretty good graphics card. Also be prepared to confront a more complicated interface. Comparing the user-controls of RLC vesus SL is like unto those of a motorcycle versus the space shuttle. It helps a lot for the newbie to have a guide. But people are friendly and glad to help. Once in-world, do feel free to look me up. I am resident Aplonis Ember
in the search menu. I'll be happy to assist with any newbie issues you might have.
This record needs a happy ending. So here I'll provide one. The August following this trip I moved out of the house in Kalamazoo and into an apartment in Holland MI just five miles from work. In the process I gained back two whole hours from my life every workday. A divorce is pending and will be wrapped up shortly. My 18-year-old son will graduate this coming June. Then I'll be free and clear.
The June prior to my moving out I had chanced to meet, in Second Life, the woman who has now become the new and wonderful love of my life. Although currently separated by three time zones to the west and one international border to the north, we still manage to spend time in real life together three or four times a year. Sharing 90% interests in common she makes me very happy. But that is discussion suited for another page, of which there are several, should you care to search for them.