20170820-20170822 - Laurel Maryland to Beaver Creek Ohio

The purpose of my trip was to attend residency for the doctoral program at Capitol Technology University.  The residency went from the 18th through the 20th.  The whole objective was to make sure I selected a topic for my dissertation and get it approved.  The mission was a success, much more successful than I thought possible.  Some really great doctors helped me along.

Residency ended at 1500hrs on Sunday.  This was good because I was very excited about seeing my friend Scot in Ohio.  I was six hours away and  by the time I checked out of my hotel room, it was 4pm.  I took the Baltimore Expressway to Rt. 70 because I was not going to let my GPS take me all over creation again.  Right around 9pm, I went through a cloud of something and my allergies were set off to the point that I couldn't see.  I had to keep squinting to push the tears out of my eyes.  I grabbed the next exit and found myself at a Best Western for the night.  I was only 2 hours out and I was going to make my 8am arrival time without issue.

5:30am came early.  I loaded my bike and got on my way  Everything was fine until I came into Beaver Creek.  Traffic came to a stand still.  What should have taken me 2:30 (on my GPS) took half an hour.  Scot was still making breakfast, so all was well.

Breakfast was home made sausage and gravy with French Toast.  Fantastic!!!  After cleaning up, we were on a mission.  We were going to change my oil, Scot was going to teach me how to weld, and we had to put his bike back together.  He had his rear end apart because he found a little puddle under his rear end earlier in the week.  With that mission, in mind, we began.  Scot's bike went back together smoothly, but we did need to go find a part and do a couple errands while we were out.  After the bike assembly, we decided to fly my drone for awhile.

After the drone flying, it was time to start welding.  Scot picked up some scrap metal, we pulled everything outside and began.  The welding was really about learning how to cut with a gas torch and run a bead.  I learned a lot and feel comfortable enough to buy my own rig and start practicing.

Unfortunately, I was working on a bladder infection and things were getting pretty painful.  Dinner was fantastic as always.  Scot is a fantastic cook.  Because of all the things were doing, we didn't get to dinner until 10pm.  At that point, I was in a bit of pain.  I knew it was a bladder infection because just 6 weeks ago, I had one.  I'm guessing that the antibiotic didn't completely rid me of the malevolent bacteria.  I would need to go to urgent care in the morning or find another way to get on antibiotics.

I didn't sleep well.  I was up often peeing after having a gallon of cranberry juice throughout the day; but, when morning came, Scot called his doc who called in a prescription for me.  Things were looking up.  I was going to be leaving today (Tuesday) by noon, but I simply wasn't in shape for that.  We also had an oil change to do.  Breakfast was a simple poached egg and English muffin, just what I needed.  After a bit of a delay, we picked up my prescription and were doing my oil change.  Scot was very impressed by the tool Paul made for me and I think about him every time I change my oil.  The oil change went smoothly.  I did note on my review of the bike that the back tire was toast.  I would need new rubber tomorrow.

Scot and I flew the drone on a mission.  It was a long mission, too long to complete.  The drone ended up coming back on its own because it didn't have enough power.  We shot 4GB video.  The video turned out out really nice and covered most of Scot's development.

Dinner was fish and spinach.  Scot and Marsha have a world class fish place near them.  The Chilean Sea Bass was fantastic.  Scot didn't put any butter on it, but it tasted like butter.

Just before dinner, I called Gateway BMW Motorad in St. Louis MO and made an appointment for tomorrow to get a new tire put on the back.  I think the front will last until I get back, maybe longer.

Tonight the plan is to go to bed early, get up early and be in St. Louis by 3pm at the latest.  After the tire change, I plan to continue riding.

Here is the map of the trip so far:

I neglected to mention that when I pulled into Scot's driveway, Gracie, his half-wolf, half-dog was waiting to greet me.  I pulled into the driveway and shut off the bike with the kill switch.  When she came over, I wanted to give her the attention she was demanding and forgot to turn off the key.  Needless to say, when I came back to the bike hours later, the battery was dead.  We put it on the trickle charger and it took hours before I could start it again.  We let it trickle charge over night.  I'm hopeful I didn't destroy my battery!