Evidence Photos
Aug 18, 2001
Land Between The Lakes, KY to Cape Girardeau, MO
Morning on the lake.
More morning on the lake. Not surprisingly, the beautiful weather drew tons of other riders; lots of Harleys,
a few Goldwings and other bikes. We waved to pretty much everyone (motorcycle wave: left hand extended straight and pointed down)
and pretty much everyone waved to us. In LA what happens riding an elevator with a stranger
is often considered a great relationship but waving to a complete stranger as you zoom past each other
has to take the cake for casual friendliness. Somehow it feels important to me, I'm just not sure why.
This is the wood shop area of The Homeplace. Here I am learning to shape wood with a drawknife.
As the name suggests, a drawknife is a knife you use by pulling it towards you.
The wood being worked is locked in something like a vise to prevent accidental seppuku. Although not particularly
manually dexterous I was able to turn a rough, square piece of White Pine into something pretty round and symmetrical
in about 10 minutes. White Pine is a hard wood but only after its been dried. When freshly cut it's soft and easy to work
On the left and right are two "interpreters" from the Homestead. These people work the farm (or in the case of
the lady to the right, take care of the house and make quilts) and explain what's going on.
In the middle is one of the farms main crops, dark fired tobacco. Dark fired tobacco is used in pipes, cigars,
snuff and chewing tobacco. Most of the tobacco plants we've seen in Virginia and Kentucky
have a yellow color to them. These were Burley tobacco, used mainly in cigarettes.
Parking lot. Pretty exciting, no? If you care about such things,
notice the two universal joints attaching to the rear wheel, one on the drive shaft and one below.
BMW claims this is what gives the bikes is comfortable, stable ride but still allows for sporty handling.
I don't know if that's true or not, but BMW did do an amazing job with that bike. It's comfortable for long stretches
and above 3MPH you really aren't even aware of the bike's 850 pounds of weight,
over 1000 with 2 riders and luggage.
Sunset on the Mississippi. as we enter into Missouri. Mieko was surprised and delighted to see
that the Bulldozing Committee, who she had wanted to take care of the hills early on the trip,
had come in and done such a good job. It actually wasn't _that_ flat (you could see hills in the distance)
but the ground was certainly more level than what we experienced to date.
