Writing Prompts. Some writers hate them, some love them. I fall in the middle, wavering daily on which extreme I am closer to. Lately, I like them. Quite a bit, actually. But I use them differently than I used to.

Back in my student days I hated them. I hated, for example, being forced to “write a 6 page story that combines the color red, a pair of shoes, and [my] favorite album” (an assignment I had in a Creative Writing 101 type course in college). Oh, I saw the benefit of it – or at least I think I did, anyway – but I found it extremely difficult to force myself to move away from what I wanted to write and focus on something that could meet such varied parameters.

Now I approach the writing prompt a bit differently. I tend to set aside big chunks of time to focus on my “writing projects” so I can focus on the work. Most often this means blocking off several hours on Saturday and Sunday and not writing much at all Monday through Friday. Sometimes, like now, for instance, at the end of the semester, when time is tight with grading and the general craziness of the holiday season, I can go weeks without working on “the project” at all. This is where the writing prompt comes in.

I may not have time to devote to an extended writing session, but surely I have time to write ~500 words about the project. With the example above, were I to use it for my current project, I’d write from the point of view of one of my characters. I wouldn’t worry about creating a short story or anything as structured as that… I’d just pick a character from my novel and freewrite, applying those parameters to that particular character. I’ve found that I have time to do this almost every single day. In the end, none of it may make it in to my novel, but by focusing my concentration, I’m coming to a much greater understanding of my characters earlier in my writing process.

Most importantly, though, it gets me writing in-between my weekend sessions. Too often I found myself not writing at all from M-F, and that really bothered me. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but rather that I felt I didn’t have enough time to work on a full scene. With the prompt, I can take it piecemeal… I can grab my little Moleskine and write a page on my heroine’s favorite song, or how the color red gives her blinding headaches. At the end of the day I can then enter my scribblings into the notes section I keep in Scrivener and see if they take me anywhere new. I’ve written as little as 340 words for a prompt, and as many as 1560. Interestingly, the entry with 340 words will certainly make it into the novel, but the longest entry will likely never see the light of day.

There are a bunch of resources both on and offline I use for generating prompts (feel free to add more in the comments):

Writer’s Digest has pages and pages of blog-style posts that lists hundreds of different style prompts, some with submissions in the comments by readers.

Prompt Generator is more straight forward… push a button, get a prompt. Some seem to be far too general to be useful (in my opinion), but others are quite good.

Creative Writing Solutions has a list of prompts in different categories for specific purposes: Story Starters, Character Development, Setting, Point of View, and Plot Development. I find these interesting, but, contrary to Prompt Generator, too specific when thinking about a project that is already in the works.

The one I use most often, though, isn’t really a prompt generator. One of my favorite resource books (so favorite, in fact, that it’s kind of falling apart and I need to go get a new edition – hardcover next time!) is The International Thesaurus of Quotations. When working on a manuscript, I have found it an invaluable resource to dive deeper into characterization. I simply open to a random page, jab my finger somewhere in the middle of the page, and see what quote it lands on:

“There are some men whom a staggering emotional shock, so far from making them mental invalids for life, seems, on the other hand, to awaken, to galvanize, to arouse into an almost incredible activity of soul.” William McFee, “On a Balcony,” Harbours of Memory (1921). (313)

Then I take that quote, start asking questions, and apply it to whatever character I am working with. Does this describe how my heroine would react to “a staggering emotional shock”? If so, what is it precisely that makes her react this way? Are there any examples I’ve already written about that confirm or contradict this? If not, how does she react? What is it about her that makes her crumble and fall apart? Alternatively, if I haven’t done so in the manuscript already, I’ll spin the start of a scene as an illustration of the idea behind the quote. All this can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes (more if I carried away, as I am sure to do with this specific quote since it is so wonderfully applicable to characterization). Maybe it makes it in the novel, maybe it doesn’t, but either way, my understanding of the character has deepened, and, perhaps most importantly, I have written something of significance that will have an effect not just on my writing habits, but on my writing projects.

Although I do know writers who use them every single day as part of their “Morning Pages” (read The Artist’s Way for more on that. Julia Cameron’s book is a must read for everyone, I think, not just artists), formal prompts are not something I use every day. There’s enough going on in the world around me to not always need a specific generation tool or system. They do come in handy, though, on the days when time runs short and I feel the need to be productive with what little time I have.

Something’s amiss at RFdc. Things might go a little wonky while I try and track down the offending plugin or widgit.

Alternately, I may just make the time to incorporate all the new design changes I’ve been working on. I think you’ll like them. I was planning on waiting until the semester finished up, but if things are broken anyway, I may as well just start implementing the big changes now!

Hang on tight… I’m sure to make things worse before I make them any better

Update: How anticlimactic… the problem was with the 3rd plugin I tried! Something with the Google+ Plugin was blanking out my admin pages. Hopefully, that’s the last I’ll see of that little issue, even if it does mean I’ll be without the G+ badge for a while. I have something different planned in the redesign, anyway, so it won’t be missing long.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled surfing…

See this post for the introduction to this ongoing topic.

For all of the evaluations I am using the basic 4 Corners of the USA route: Rochester, NY > Madawaska, ME > Blaine, WA, > San Ysidro, CA > Key West, FL > Rochester, NY (a trip I one day hope to take).

Harley Davidson’s Ride Planner has been my go-to option for all trips longer than a day or two. Most folks I’ve spoken to haven’t even heard about it, which surprises me, as it has a terrific interface, the ability to save maps, and on-the-fly shared map viewing for tips from other Ride Planner users. Use requires a free account/profile with your email address. In the 2 or 3 years I’ve been using Ride Planner, I’ve never received an email from HD that I didn’t specifically ask for. HD Ride Planner has gone back to Google for their maps (they had switched to Bing for a little while last year) which makes me quite happy.

Creating a new route is a breeze. Simply enter the address in the Start Location field and click on GO.

One of the things I like most is the clean layout of the page. The map takes of most of the real estate, and destinations are listed in the left sidebar with collapsible directions. It’s not quite as clean as Google Maps’ window, but it’s nice.

 Clicking on the Driving Directions button expands the list of turn-by-turn directions. With long trips, like this 10k mile sample I’m using, those turn-by-turn directions can get long an unwieldy, so it’s nice to have the ability to minimize them and focus on the waypoints.

Something that wasn’t typical in my previous uses was this window that kept popping up whenever I clicked the Avoid Highways for this segment option:

It always went away when I hit OK, but it’s frustrating. I’m pretty sure it’s happening because of the amount of data being transferred to/from HD’s servers, so this is something that may prove to be problematic in a real-world, detailed, trip-planning scenario. I’ll definitely update this post if that turns out to be the case.

One of the functions I really like is the ability to see what routes other users have taken in relation to where the Ride Planner is sending you. At the top of the page are 4 icons: Roads, Dealers, Hotels, and Events:

And of course, now that I am writing up a review, I keep getting that annoying window whenever I try to access that particular function. Bad day for a tech failure, HD! If I can, I’ll post an update with some screen shots whenever they get it fixed. Being able to see roads that other riders suggest is a nice feature, however, and even though it isn’t working at the moment it’s still worth checking out.

Saving the map is the simplest of any routing site I have found, and puts Google to shame. Simply click on the SAVE button in the bottom left of the screen:

As you can see, you can also email the map to someone or print out the directions.

Saving it comes with several options:

If you choose to save it publicly, then all of that information is available to other riders (assuming they are able to connect to the HD servers and view the route, anyway!). Once saved, that route is available in your Saved Ride Plans and accessible whenever you return:

Now that I have a GPS, I’m also interested in being able to export the route to my Garmin Zumo 660. This is a major headache with Google, but HD makes it simple. The GPS SYNCHRONIZATION button in the upper right hand corner brings up these options:

Most of Garmin’s units are able to be detected automatically as far as I can tell, but even so, manual mode exports a GPX file of the route which can be read by virtually every GPS unit on the market.

With the exception of a more detailed filter for road selection, HD’s Ride Planner meets every need I have and then some. It’s easily the best online route planning utility I have discovered.

Today I introduce a new series of posts here on RFdc…

How to be a Successful College Student

These quick little entries will be, hopefully, as humorous as they are serious. They’re not really listed in any kind of order. I just jot things down as they occur to me and save them for later. Some will be general, seemingly common-sense type advice. Some will be devoted entirely to a Literature or Composition course. Most will have something to do with writing and be aimed primarily at college freshmen. But all of them – yes, I said all of them – will be honest nuggets of information whose sole intent is to make the academic side of your college life less frustrating, even if they are a bit tongue-in-cheek.

So, without further delay, I give you the premier entry in “How to be a Successful College Student”:

Suggestions and Recommendations

We teachers are a sneaky lot. We’ll do damn near anything to get you to do the work. Not because we’re mean and we hate you, but because we believe that, if you actually do it, you’ll… you know… learn stuff. We turn lessons into games, and then games into serious discussions. We joke around and let you think you’ve derailed those discussions, but most of the time you haven’t. Most of the time we know exactly what you’ll say, because last semester’s class said it, and the semester before that, and so on. Sometimes we even drop “requirements” and instead make “recommendations.” We know it’s a bit of wishful thinking. We know that 60% of you didn’t hear a damn thing after “I highly recommend…”

But here’s an important tip for you… we are watching you. Always. If we “recommend” you read a chapter of the text even though it’s not assigned for homework, be sure that we already know how to tell who read it. And for Pete’s sake, if an essay is assigned with a “recommended” length of five pages, write at least a five page essay! This should be common sense, but for some reason it’s not. You’re not in high school any more. Don’t turn in a five paragraph essay thinking it will be “enough.” Personally, I wish they’d do away with that crap and start focusing on grammar instead. It’ll serve you better in the long run than the formulaic five paragraph trash they made you write for four years, and I won’t have to waste  my time “unteaching” it. If you want to get anything better than a B, you’ll turn in, at bare minimum, every single “recommended” page of that essay.

And, since we’ve established that this isn’t high school any more, five pages means five full pages. Not 4.5 pages, not four pages and three lines on the fifth. Five. In my classes, 4.5 pages is a four page essay. This is especially true in Freshman Composition, because, let’s face it, your conclusion sucks. Chances are, your intro sucks too. But that’s ok. Don’t feel bad. You’re a freshman. Your conclusion is supposed to suck. That’s one of the reasons they pay me to teach you. If it didn’t suck, I’d be unemployed. So, really… thank you for sucking. I appreciate it.

But the thing is… I don’t want you to suck. I want you to be brilliant. I want you to be the next Hemingway or Didion. So if I “suggest” that it takes five pages to write a meaningful, well-thought out, critical comparison of… oh I don’t know… LOLCats and “Dogs Playing Poker”… and you turn in four pages and three lines (including a three sentence conclusion)… well, unlike me, you’re not being sneaky. You’re being an idiot.

My “suggestion” or “recommendation” lets me know exactly who is ready and willing to learn, and who, on the other hand, is looking to skate by doing the least amount of work possible. It lets me know who is taking the work seriously, and who, in turn, I should take seriously. College is tough – tougher than high school ever was. I get that. I remember. I want to make it as easy as I can for you, but I won’t just give you anything. You have to earn it. And earning it starts with taking the work seriously, and taking your teachers seriously. If you keep looking for the easy way out, you’ll find the easiest way out of all.

The Short Story Club is my effort to shine a little light on the short story. It’s always surprised me a little that, with today’s dwindling attention span, short stories have not made a comeback. I find most people, especially my students, are increasingly apathetic towards the short story. In fact, two friends of mine, perhaps the most voracious readers I know, are downright antagonistic when it comes to short fiction. And one is a writer! Perhaps it’s because the nature of the short story is, I think, opposite that of the novel in that it is made to question – to investigate. Where novels open doors and then close them before leaving, short stories pry them open and leave them that way. There are no big answers or revelations. No wrapping things up in nice little bows. Nothing is handed to the reader that says, “Here! This is all you need to know!” Short stories make the reader work for understanding. And the good ones… the really good ones… will keep us working for a long, long time. 

Story: “Judgment Passed”
Author: Jerry Oltion
From: Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Editor: John Joseph Adams

After a 12 year mission exploring “Dessica,” a celestial body they hoped would be able to support life, Gregor, Jody, Gwen, Dave, and the rest of the agnostic crew have returned home to find… “an empty Earth.” According to the four year old newspapers, Jesus appeared in the Tetons, initiated The Rapture, and that was that… every human on Earth and the three thousand Lunar colonists are gone. “Judgement Passed” is a story about how the last eight people on Earth, all scientists chosen by NASA at least in part because of their agnosticism, deal with being left behind by God.

In short, this is a deep, fabulous exploration on the nature of faith, particularly blind faith, regardless of the direction that faith leads. Like all the astronauts, Jody is agnostic. The difference is, she’s agnostic to the core. Rather than accept the evidence – the complete absence of humanity – that there is a God, she clings to her belief that it is impossible to know what really happened:

“And so God missed us. That’s my point. If He were omniscient He would have known we were there…Maybe aliens came and took us all for slaves. Maybe we were a lab experiment and they got all the data they needed. Maybe we taste like chicken. There are plenty of more believable explanations than God.”

She has a certain faith in her agnosticism that sets her in direct confrontation with those who have taken the absence of humanity to mean there is, indeed, a God, and all this time they were wrong. Dave, in particular, latches on to the concept of religion. He is, in many ways, panic-stricken at the thought that he was wrong about it all along. The impact of his “realization” leaves him clinging to the other end of the religious spectrum:

“We found Dave outside on the deck overlooking the Snake River, a shotgun in his hand and a mess of bird feathers and blood smeared across the snow. I could see bird seed among the feathers… “It’s an experiment,” Dave said… “according to Jesus, not even a sparrow can fall without God noticing. I figured that was pretty easy to test.”

Jody had come up beside me and was examining the bird. “It would be if you’d managed to shoot a sparrow,” she said. “This is a chickadee.”

Dave blushed when we all laughed, but he said, “It’s not the species; it’s the concept.”

The evolution of these conflicting beliefs is something that has haunted mankind for thousands of years. God, Zeus, Allah, Ishvara, Elohim, Adi Purush, Vishnu, Wakan Tanka (suddenly I am thinking of “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Sir Arthur C. Clark, another wonderful short story), it doesn’t matter what religion and what god (or God, if you prefer) is in place… the non-believers were/are always at odds, often violently, with the believers. The high points of “Judgement Passed” lie not in the fairly obvious belief system of the author, but rather in the conflict and subsequent resolution of the characters.

“Judgment Passed” is a wonderful example of the power of the short story. It rigorously questions those ideals which we hold so dear and forces the reader to turn the examination inward. “What is it I believe? What would I do?” This is the kind of examination, and resulting self-examination, that makes short fiction such an important part of literature and, I think, life. It may not give the reader any answers, but it certainly provides questions worthy of exploration.

A few years ago I decided it was time to get a laptop. Having been a PC user for over a decade, naturally that’s the direction I looked in first. I had heard about Scrivener, but it was a Mac only app so I never really had a chance to play around with it. I can’t even remember all the different writing apps I used back then (Simon Haynes’ yWriter was the one I liked the best, I do remember that much), but inevitably I always found my way back to OpenOffice, especially for the final draft stage.

And then I got a look at Scrivener up close and personal. I bought a 13” MacBook Pro the next day.

I wrote my thesis on Scrivener. I’ve written short stories, screenplays, magazine articles, and term papers with it. Every single one of my poems is in a single Scivener file, each with its own “page.” And, currently, I have two novels in different stages of development in the works. And now that its coming to Windows, I think it’s time I enlighten my PC friends and followers on the joys of Scrivener.

There’s a veritable truckload of reviews and How-To’s out there for Scrivener (including the terrific video tutorials Literature & Latte has on their site) and how to use it for different aspects of academic and creative writing, so I won’t bother writing another one of those. Indeed, I’m one of those “learn as you go” types who rarely reads the manual, so I could probably learn a thing or four from them! Instead, I’ll go into how Scrivener has become my go-to app for just about everything that involves any kind of writing, not just creative or academic.

The thing I love most about Scrivener is its overall versatility. I love having a single app that can handle almost everything I need for almost every kind of writing project. Do I wish it had a few other goodies under the hood? Absolutely. There are at least two other apps I use regularly that have writing functionality I use/need/want that Scrivener doesn’t provide (mind-mapping and customizable timelines – if anyone knows a decent timeline app, by the way, leave a comment. I have yet to find one I like). For now, though, let’s stick with what might be a few rather unconventional uses for Scrivener.

Journaling

I’ve never been much of a journaler, to be honest. I’d manage to stay dedicated for five or six months, then stop for a few, then start back up again, then stop again. I journaled in spurts. But when I was dedicated, I found myself keeping not one, but several different Moleskines – one for random thoughts, one for story ideas, one for end of the day ramblings, one for work – you get the idea. The problem I was trying to solve was one of post-journaling accessibility. I could never find anything! I had entries dating back almost two decades in well over a dozen different notebooks.

And then one day as I was laying on the couch nursing a broken leg and writing a journal entry in my little black book, I saw my laptop sitting on the coffee table. And it hit me. No, not the laptop… the realization of why I always stop journaling. Notebooks are so damn inconvenient when it comes to research and reference! I couldn’t even remember the last time I had actually picked up one of my old journals and thumbed through it. All those thoughts were, in essence, lost, regardless of me actually taking the time to write them down. And thus my new project began.

I hobbled downstairs to fetch my box of old journals. Back on the couch, I fired up a basic template of Scrivener and created a folder:

2006.

That was the date of the first entry in the journal I picked up at random. Then I created another folder inside that:

December.

And then I just started transcribing, each new entry getting its own page in December titled with, of course, the date. Then came two new folders for 2007 and January, and I kept going. I’m not done yet by any means, but having a search button at my fingertips has paid off on multiple occasions. I actually use my journals now!

Perhaps more important, because I know how accessible they are now, my journaling has become much more consistent. I even keep the “Journal” file open in the background no matter what I’m working on for those random thoughts that aren’t related to whatever project I’m working on at the moment. I still take a single Moleskine with me wherever I go, but every Sunday I copy the week’s entries into Scrivener. I created meta-data so I can sort and tag entries for quick searches. There’s probably a lot more I could do with it if I wanted to take the time, but for now, what I have works perfect for me.

Blogging

I keep a separate file for my blogging, organized by date similar to my Journal file. In theory, I could probably combine the two since they share the same basic structure, but things would start to get unwieldy, I think, as time goes on. One feature I do use heavily is the Ideas category in the Binder. Here on RFdc I generally blog about one of three things: Reading, Writing, or Riding. I also try not to post on one of those categories more than twice in a row. At the moment I have about six posts in various states of completion under Ideas, and general entries for ideas on 22 more posts. They are all in a folder that corresponds to their area: Reading, Writing, or Riding. Pre-Scrivener, I did much the same thing in OpenOffice, but I’d always have to start a brand new document, and my Journal document folder was cluttered beyond belief, even with the date-sorted hierarchy. Now I just click the Idea entry, drag it up to the corresponding date and start writing. No more flipping back and forth with Alt-Tab! I can see everything at a glance, every post and every idea I’ve ever made or had that pertains to the website is here in this file. It’s also much easier to include research with my posts, but I’ll let someone else explain that, as I am positive that I am doing it horribly backwards. Even so, backwards in Scrivener > frontwards in OpenOffice.

Recipes

As I write this, I am actually having a revelation about how I use Scrivener for storing my recipes. Go me.

I’m about as much of a cook as I used to be a journaler – which is to say, I’m not much of a cook, either. I can work a grill, and I am king of the crockpot. Other than that, though, I just can’t be bothered. Recently, however, I’ve started to dabble again, and I plan on keeping track of my recipes and research in Scrivener. At the moment, I just have one folder: Crock Pot. That folder contains one item: Chili. It’s a basic chili recipe that I got off the internet. When I got around to making it though, I made some alterations with the ingredients. When they worked out, I dropped another file as a child to the Chili page with the new ingredients. So now I can see at a glance that I have a single recipe with multiple (eventually) variations.

Oh, and that revelation I had? I still have the box of recipes written on 3×5 cards that my mother gave me when I left home for LA 20 something years ago. It has always lived in the cabinet above the fridge. I can probably count on two hands the number of times I have opened it. But… 3×5 cards. Brilliant! I’ll be switching the default view for the Recipe file to 3×5 cards and filing my culinary experimentations that way. One more item on my to-do list.

Conclusion

I have a couple other uses for Scrivener that I’m not sure are going to last, so I won’t go into them yet, but so far I’m more than pleased with how useful this application has become for me outside of my creative writing endeavors. And best of all, by the end of the week it will be available in Windows for all you PC users! Actually, I think that Literature and Latte is offering a pre-order special of 10% off if you want to give it a shot sight-unseen. It retails at $45.00 (for the Mac), so the bang-for-the-buck factor is out of sight.

If you write anything, and I really do mean anything, I think that Scrivener is at the very least a required consideration. Mac users can download a 30 day beta, and I assume Windows users will have the same option once it goes live, so give it a shot. I’m betting you’ll be glad you did.

Edit: 11/3/11
Google+ User Paul Rey informs me they are also pushing out a Linux version with Windows this week. Good deal!

Done and Done
A short play concerning the perils of the demon alcohol

Me: Beer

Conscience: hrmmm?

Me: I’m going to have a beer.

Conscience: A beer?

Me: Maybe two. Or three.

Conscience: Really?

Me: Absolutely.

Conscience: At 2:00 in the afternoon?

Me: Yes.

Conscience: On a Monday?

Me: Were you with me all morning?

Conscience: Well…

Me: No way…

Conscience: I slept in.

Me: Slept in? Are you allowed to do that?

Conscience: When it’s your fault I am.

Me: We went to bed at 10!

Conscience: Maybe you did… but I was up all night.

Me: Doing what?

Conscience: Thinking. Duh.

Me: So you slept in.

Conscience: I did.

Me: On a school day.

Conscience: It was great. You should try it.

Extended, dramatic, almost pregnant (almost pregnant?) pause as Me fumes and grumbles. Then…

Me: Beer.

Conscience: Just because you had a bad day doesn’t mean you want to…

Me: Look… Either I have beer, or you get up whenever I do. You can’t have both.

Conscience: You can’t bargain with your conscience.

Me: I can when my conscience is ignorant of the facts for which it is doing its…. consciencing.

Another dramatic pause as Conscience weighs the terms of the bargain.

Conscience: Fine.

Me: Fine.

Conscience: Good.

Me: Good

Conscience: On one condition.

Me: Which is?

Conscience: No more than three beers.

Me: Done and done.

This is both a recommendation and a cautionary note.

Last winter, a Big Ear representative made a visit to my local BMW shop, Country Rode Motowerks. I decided to pick up a pair for my summer trip around the country. I thought I paid around $60 for them, but I don’t see anything listed on the website at that price, nor does anything really look like the ones above. I think they might the BE-SP Solid Ear Plugs listed at $84.95, but I’m not sure.

I’ll start off by saying these things work, and they work extremely well. I used them a little bit while riding the Indian (a big, throaty S&S Twin) and the difference, and thus the overall riding comfort, was significant. More telling, I used them on the 6,000+ mile summer trip on the GS with the same results. Specifically, on the trip I noticed a significant drop in wind noise when traveling 40+ mph. This was especially the case when flying west across Kansas on a 600 mile day with 30+ mph winds out of the southwest. I find that extended wind noise increases my mental fatigue, and these plugs helped reduce or stave off that fatigue so I could focus on not being blown off the road.

I do have two rather significant issues with the Big Ears, however. The first is a personal issue… I’ve never been a fan of having things touching my ears. Even stocking caps I’ll roll up and over because the sensation of something touching my ears drives me nuts (oddly, motorcycle helmets are immune to this, thank goodness). I don’t even like wearing headphones. Even the ones that fully surround the ear bother me. And the ear buds that come with MP3 players are even worse. And worse than those are the Big Ears. I’d like to say it took a while but I got used to it, but by the time I broke camp in West Virginia (day three) they were out and in a pocket, waiting to be used on windy days or when I was going to be rolling along at 55 mph for an extended period. Again, that’s a personal thing, I think, and doesn’t really have anything to do with the plugs themselves.

The other issue, though, does have to do with the plugs. I don’t know if they’re just fitted poorly or what, but every time I pull my helmet on and off, the padding would catch on the plug and damn near rip my ear off. I tried cutting and filing down the edges, but no matter what I did, nothing solved the problem. The pictures on their website all show units with a significantly lower profile, so perhaps they’ve altered their mold to resolve this issue. I don’t know. All I know is that I didn’t want to wear them unless I had to because of the issues with the helmet and my own little weirdness surrounding things on and in my ears.

I actually knew I was going to have a rough time with them while they were creating the mold. First the rep put a small sponge deep into my ears to protect the ear drum. Then he grabbed a turkey baster type of syringe and filled my ear with goop. That’s when I knew I was in trouble. We waited about 10 minutes or so for the goop to firm up, after which he pulled them out and put a little dot on the right one (and yes, I totally forgot which one the dot was on and had to experiment with the initial “install”). He took them back to his office in Syracuse to put the final curing solution (he wasn’t amused when I referred to it as shellac), and I had them in my mailbox within 5 days. Awesome customer communication, all handled via email made this a non-nonsense purchase and I wouldn’t hesitate to do business with them again.

But I’m not sure I will, since these (and other models like them) are the only products the company sells. The two issues I had resulted in me using the Big Ears for maybe 2,000 miles of the 6,000 I traveled. Granted, part of this is also because I just didn’t need them the whole time. The vast majority of my trip was spent on 2-lanes (or less!) at under 45 mph and there just isn’t that much noise on the GS at those speeds. Is it worth it to drop $80+ to upgrade an item I’ll use maybe 1/3 of the time I’m in the saddle? Not at the moment, no. Regardless, I’ll still bring the ones I have along on future trips for those days like Kansas, but they won’t be part of my daily riding equipment. They work, and they work really, really well. I just have weird ears.

Oh, one last bit… There were a few stops along the way where I was surrounded by snorers (you know how you are!), and the Big Ear worked great in that situation too. Falling asleep initially proved a little challenging, but once asleep I had no problems staying that way.

Back on June 2^nd I set off on an adventure – a 10,000 mile cross country motorcycle trip that would take me through 27 states. It was easily the longest and most involved trip I’d ever taken, and I started planning for it almost 9 months before I left. Roads to ride, places to stay, equipment to buy, I tried to think of everything I’d need along the way. And then I started thinking outside the box a bit and tried to plan for those “just in case” moments.

I found, I think, every BMW dealer within 100 miles of my route and plugged them into my Zumo. I counted the miles and made appointments at dealers in Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX in order to get the bike looked over. Since I knew at points I’d be out in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, I subscribed to SPOT Satellite Messenger service. While I knew there was no way to be prepared for every possibility, I tried to take the steps that would give me the broadest coverage. It’s a good thing I did.

By the time I hit Salt Lake City, the TKC-80s were done in. The front was ok for another 500 miles maybe, but the back was totally shot.

BMW Motorcycles of Utah

After talking with the good folks at BMW Motorcycles of Utah, they hooked me up with a pair of Michelin Anakee 2s and gave me some terrific information about riding in Escalante National Monument (The Grand Staircase). I donated the front TKC-80 to their shop. I imagine someone put it to good use.

Down in Austin I needed to get a mileage-based service performed and discovered a bracket holding the rear mudguard in place had sheered off. Nothing devastating, but good to know. They didn’t have the parts to fix it (and neither did anyone else they called, from Dallas to San Antonio), so we jury-rigged a temporary solution that worked just fine. Or it would have if I didn’t crash and break the guard off completely, that is.

During one of my stops on the way to Austin, I took every dirt road in Texas I had planned on riding off my route. See, on my way across the panhandle I discovered that the massive drought had turned most of those dirt roads into fine-grained sand roads. Between the 113 degree heat and the complete lack of rain for the previous 40 or so days, all the moisture just baked away, and I had no desire to plow a fully loaded GS through 4-8 inches of fine talc.

I missed one road though: Bragg Road – The Ghost Road of Hardin County.

I have no idea how I found out about this road, and no idea why it appealed to me so much. I arrived at the southern end of the road and stopped, debating about whether or not I wanted to try it. I knew it went straight as an arrow for about 8 miles before it hit the paved road I would turn off on (Farm to Market Rd 1293). More importantly, it was simple to bypass. Hell, I’d even save time if I bypassed it. I took a walk about a half a mile down the road and what I saw looked good. It was a little rutted, but the dirt was firm and there seemed to be plenty of room to turn around if things got worse further on. I went back to the bike, sat on a log on the corner of The Ghost Road and 787, had a smoke, and thought it over.

While I was there, a pickup truck pulled up to see if everything was ok. We ended up chatting for about 15 or 20 minutes, and when I asked him about Bragg Rd he said it’d be fine. “Folks live along the south half,” he said. “So’s they keep it graded real good for them.” He also poked a bit of fun for buying into the whole Ghost Road bit, but it was all in good humor and we had a laugh about it together. I took him at his word and, after he pulled off headed south to 770 (where I had just come from), mounted up and began the last 6 miles of my summer vacation.

The first 5 miles were great. It was a little after 11:00, and by the time I pushed off from 787 the temps were already in the 90s, so it was nice to be in the shade beneath the arching trees that line  either side of Bragg Rd. It hadn’t been graded recently, but it was still in fairly good shape. The ruts down either side were only about 3” deep and the middle had about 1/4” of sand, but it was easy going. I kept it slow and enjoyed the shadowed breeze.

At about the 5 mile mark, though, the road began to deteriorate. At one point my gut told me to turn around, but I didn’t take it seriously. “Three more miles until 1293,” I thought. “How bad can it get in three miles?”

With two miles left, patches of deeper sand started to appear, and the ruts had doubled in width and depth. I slowed to about 20 mph and started weighing my options. If I wanted or needed to turn around now, I’d have to unload the bike to manage the sand and ruts. My gut was screaming at me, but still my head said, “Soldier on! You don’t want to go back through all that crap anyway!”

Instead of having this internal argument with myself, I should have been focused. I let my concentration ebb for a moment of deliberation, and The Ghost Road kicked me in the ass.

Right around noon, and almost exactly at the 6 mile mark, I felt the front tire wash out in the sand. I went down hard, the bike landing on my right leg and my helmet smacking into the sand and dirt. Thankfully I had slowed down during my little argument. Thankfully I hadn’t taken off my riding jacket, gloves, or helmet in the near 100 degree heat.

I popped up and immediately knew I had hurt my ankle. I had no clue how bad it was, but I wasn’t about to unwrap my big ol’ Joe Rocket riding boot to find out. If it was broken, the pressure on it was a good thing, especially considering what I knew I had to do next. I stripped down to my riding pants and t-shirt and unloaded the bike. That was the easy part. Lifting it back up with a bum ankle was the hard part. Once righted, I checked it over, and with the exception of a few scratches on the cylinder, everything important looked fine. The mudguard was hanging by a thread of plastic, so I took it the rest of the way off.

I couldn’t turn around. The ruts were just too wide and deep. I hobbled ahead looking for a spot wide enough to wheel the bike around and found one about a half mile down. The ankle didn’t seem too bad, so I figured it was only sprained. For some reason I decided it would be safer to leave the bike unloaded and carry my gear down to the little turn-around. I kept the tent and sleeping bag loaded since they are so light, but I didn’t want to deal with the extra weight of the side and top cases in what was now 4”-8” of sand.

I hopped on the bike and drove about 1/10^th of a mile, then walked back to my gear. It took 4 trips. I drove another 1/10^th of a mile, and did the same thing. Each trek through the sand worsened my ankle.

About then I got a call from my friend Nick in Houston. It went to voicemail (sorry Nick, phone was in the jacket, I was down the road lugging my gear). When I checked the message, he was worried. He had been watching the SPOT Tracker and noticed I hadn’t moved much in the last 3 hours.

3 hours? Holy crap. It was nearly 3:00 PM. It had taken me just over 2 hours to go 2/10^th of a mile? I did some quick math…

1/10^th a mile per hour…

3/10^th of a mile to the turn around…

6.2 miles behind me…

1.8 miles in front of me…

Carry the one…

Ooof.

I was going to be out here well past dark at this rate - ON THE GHOST ROAD!

I sent Nick a text: “I’m ok. Bike’s ok. Can’t talk now. Will update soon.”

Or something like that. I probably scared the crap out of him, but I didn’t have anything to tell him just yet. The worst part was, I could barely put any weight on the ankle at that point. All that walking turns out to have been a certifiably bad idea.

But… my phone had rung.

I had cell service.

I’ve been an American Motorcycle Association member since 2003 and I’ve never once used their services (other than hotel and Bike Bandit discounts). On a couple of occasions I’ve thought about canceling, but always wound up thinking better of it. I talked with Alison (I think, or maybe it was Alice?) and she was just awesome. She arranged for a tow truck to pick me up and take me to the nearest hospital. She was worried about not calling me an ambulance, but I said I was, all things considered, OK and that the tow truck would be fine if they were willing to drop me and the bike off in the hospital parking lot.

Ten minutes later Joanne Harris of Big Bird Wrecker Service called me to let me know her husband Brady was on the way. Thirty minutes after that Brady and I were loading the GS onto his wrecker.

Brady and Joanne deserve a post of their own, so I’ll get to them some other day. For now, let me get to the point of this post…

All the preparation I did… all the planning, all the precautions, all the “what if” question and answer sessions… Not once did I ever consider that I would be the cause of my own problem. A moment’s distraction… that’s all it took to end my trip. A moment’s loss of focus. Yes, in the end I was prepared with the physical stuff I needed to deal with the situation, but I’m the one that caused it by first not listening to my instincts, and then getting lost in my own thoughts.

Thankfully the AMA was able to help me out. Thankfully I had cell service. Thankfully I met the coolest tow-truck driving couple on the planet. Thankfully I had such good friends in Nick and Erin, who drove for 2 hours from Houston to rescue me from a backwater hospital whose chief doctor repeatedly told me “You broke your big bone” in the most horrifyingly stereotypical Indian accent imaginable (and yes, Beaumont Baptist will be getting a post all their own as well. Broke my big bone, indeed. Quack).

When I started this post about 1,800 words ago I thought it was about the importance of being prepared. But it’s not, really. It’s about the importance of putting yourself out there, taking responsibility for your actions, and dealing with whatever comes your way the best you can. If you do that, you will find your own success.

And for Pete’s sake, don’t listen to what anyone says about the outcome! I’ve heard more crap about my “failed” vacation in the last four months than I can even remember, from friends and family members alike. The only person who can tell you with any degree of certainty if you failed is you. Your friends don’t know, your parents, your significant other, none of them know. You may value their opinion, but when it comes to your success or failure, they just don’t know what the hell they are talking about.

Not reaching your goal doesn’t mean you failed. My little tumble put an end to my goal of a 10,000 mile trip. I didn’t get to Ride the Dragon, or visit Barber’s. I missed the Blue Ridge Parkway and seeing my cousin Chris who I haven’t seen since… gads I don’t even know how long it’s been. Even though I crashed and missed all that, even though I put myself in the position of adversity that caused the crash, it was still the best trip I’ve ever taken. My vacation may not have turned out like I had so meticulously planned, but it was still a success.

Put yourself out there. Take a chance. Plan and prepare, but don’t be afraid of not reaching your goal. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 10,000 mile trip, a new job opportunity, an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts, or that cute blonde across the room. If you open yourself to possibilities, even unfortunate ones, you will learn about success.

Failure is just a point of view. Don’t ever let it be yours.

I’m one of those annoying folks who seem to meet people and make friends wherever they go. Ironically, I’m also absolutely horrible at keeping in touch with people, so most of those friends make on the road sort of fade away rather quickly. This is one trait I have that I would really, really like to change.

The trip this summer was no different. I met folks all along the way with whom I chatted, went out for dinner and drinks, and shared breakfast. One couple even shared their campsite with me since they weren’t using their tent pad. But there was one friend I made who was friendlier than all the rest…

Everybody, meet Cat. Cat.... everybody.

I’d like to introduce you to… ok I have no idea what her name is. I just called her “Cat.” She and her two sisters live at the Hitch-N-Post Campground in Panguitch, UT. Cat was friendlier than her two sisters, and came over for a visit long before I got my bike unpacked and tent up. In fact, Cat wound up inside the tent before I even took the poles out of the tube!

She sat with me all afternoon, hanging out in the sun while I dined on yummy Mountain House Stroganoff, wrote in my journal, and read a bit on the e-reader. When it started to get dark and a bit chilly, she got up, stretched, gave my leg a rub, and then wandered off to, I suppose, wherever it is she sleeps. In the morning, with frost covering both the tent and the bike, she was back to say goodbye and sat on the picnic table while I packed everything up. She was still sitting there watching me when I pulled out of the campsite.

I’m not much of a cat person, to be honest. I don’t have anything against them, mind you, but I don’t have a whole lot for them, either. As cool as Cat was, it’s not like she ever brought me a stick to throw, and I bet she’s never grabbed a beer out of the fridge for anyone but herself.

That said, though, I sort of miss ol’ Cat and wish I had taken a few more pictures of her.