It was at this point that I had a strange realization of the scale of the North American continent. Up until now, I had been putting in 500 to 800 mile days and the vastness of the mountain ranges, deserts, and plains had made a mere hundred miles feel like nothing but a short jaunt. Now, however, riding from Chicago to Goshen (a trip I had made many times), I realized just how far a hundred miles is, even when traveling in a car!
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Around 2:00 pm I fueled up and grabbed a bite to eat in Iowa City, 60 miles short of Davenport and the Illinois state line. Just before Davenport, I-80 heads south through Peru, Illinois and Joliet, then back up through the south side of Chicago. I decided to take a more northerly route on I-88, following the course of the Rock River. Once into Illinois, I again altered course and left the interstate at Sterling to get back on Route 30. The slightly more direct path across Illinois promised lower miles and the reduced speed limit wouldn’t really hamper the Halcyon. It was wonderful to leave the interstate and get back on a two-lane road again across fields that looked more and more familiar to the farmland of northern Indiana. I was tired and sore and relished every break I could afford the time to take out of the saddle.
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With my optimism back, I settled into the ride and began to consider how far I thought I could make it that day. Would it be possible to ride all the way to the group rendezvous point in Council Bluffs, Iowa, making up the distance I had lost? Adding the 200 miles I had lost the previous day to the 550 long distance miles allocated for this stage of the trip would put my total for the day at a formidable 758 miles. Averaging 60 mph I knew I was looking at a bare minimum of 13 hours in the saddle, not counting the 8-10 fuel stops that my Halcyon 250 would require. After running over the numbers in my head, I decided to play it as it lay and enjoy the ride.
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On Tuesday, June 27th, I rolled out of my motel bed, fumbled into my riding gear, and checked out with my helmet on and my pannier bags under my arm. 10 minutes later, I was settling into my second day of the ride with a gorgeous Nevada morning. This second day would take me into Utah, across the Bonneville Salt Flats, over the Wasatch mountain range, and into the rolling hills of Wyoming. I had been concerned that the second day would be worse than the first day, however, after fueling up and the initial discomfort of climbing back into a saddle in which I had just spent 16 hours wore off, the clear early morning air had me exhilarated and ready to settle into the 570 miles I needed to cover to reach our next rendezvous point in Laramie, Wyoming. Little did I know that I would not make it to Laramie that day, nor that I would end the day 200 miles short of the rest of the group as a result of a mechanical issue that was entirely my fault!
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I left the motel around 6:00am, fueled up the Halcyon 250, set my trip meter, and headed east toward Sacramento. The odometer on the bike read 1,402 miles. I noted this and decided, in the interest of time, to head up over the Sierra Nevadas on Interstate 80 as all other routes would take too long to allow me to realistically reach our rendezvous point in Wells, Nevada with any time to sleep.
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On the morning of May 26th, I arrived at San Francisco Airport after an uneventful flight from Chicago. From there, I took the Bay Area Rapid Transit up through the city and across the bay to El Cerrito where my Janus Moto Halcyon 250 was waiting for me. The train trip was quick and easy. I disembarked from the train and walked about 15 minutes to where we had shipped Halcyon #68. We had shipped the bike to our friend Benji’s moped parts company, Treats, also known as the Independent Republic of Treatland. Benji was on hand to let me into the warehouse and access the bike which was uncrated, ready, and in perfect condition.
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The first time Tim showed up at Janus, he told us the story of George A. Wyman, the first person to cross America on a motorcycle, in fact a motor vehicle of any sort. Apparently, this pioneer of motorcycling had passed right through our hometown of Goshen, Indiana on his historic ride from San Francisco to New York City in the early summer of 1903, not a block from where the Janus Motorcycles world headquarters stands. Tim had been working hard, along with a couple of other individuals, to document and raise awareness of George Wyman and his historic ride, as well as creating and marking waypoints along his route. We were quick to accept his request to post a Wyman waypoint sign on the outside of our shop commemorating this historic feat of motorcycling. In the spring of 2018, Tim’s visit was to install the waypoint sign in a more visible location at the front of our (at the time) newly expanded showroom and to install the formal Wyman memorial plaque just below it.
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