343 miles in one day

A Blister run record for most miles in one day.  Two Harbors, Grand Marais, all the way down the Gunflint trail (and up and down and up and down a few times), Grand Marais again, Betty's Pies and back to Canal Park for beer and meat.

Lots of fun, nobody died, Scott is wearing a duct tape hand bandage that nobody wants to see coming off.  And we found that if you have a scooter that doesn't work and you have an identical scooter that does work, it's much easier to debug.  Twice.

No moose, but I think we decided that was probably safest.  We are all exhausted and just now warming up but it was all kinds of good.

Grand Marais

We are in Grand Marais after a very long day of riding into the wind and having lots of pickup trucks with boat trailers pass us.   Some dangerously, others just annoyingly. 

Took some time in Two Harbors to swap out a fuel line in an effort to curb some WOT fuel starvation issues.  So far so good but I'm not convinced its warm enough to reproduce the issue.

Grand Marais is actually chilly but Duluth was extremely warm. No rain but at one point it closed up and got quite cold.  And now we have sunny and wind. 

Time to have some fish!

Helmet audio and gear packing.

The $9 helmet headset kit from office max.  Fits like nothing is there and sounds great.

In past years I have done everything from drain my phone battery by listening to mp3's to getting an old old ugly mp3 player and taping that to the scooter. I think this is probably going to be a bit easier solution but it may be kind of a hassle with the cord hanging down.  We'll see.

As luck would have it I just upgraded my phone to a Nexus 4 and I still have the old phone sitting around so I'm going put it in airplane mode and listen to music on that thus saving my new phone's battery for things like navigation and not being able to find a t-mobile Network.

Packing gets easier every year. It seems all you really need is a toothbrush, phone charger, change of clothes and rainwear.  Everything beyond that is just added weight. I enjoy having my rainwear bundled and strapped in front of my scooter so that it breaks the wind a bit and makes me slightly more aerodynamic.  But I really like to be able to ride the scooter like I do everyday and not like I'm driving a huge bike with tons of luggage strapped to it. This year I have the back rack so I'll be able to strap my backpack to that and be on my merry way without having to worry about being able to fit on the seat or sliding my gear off the back of the seat while I'm riding.

Time for the Blister Run!

Heading north on the annual long distance scooter trip we call the Blister Run this weekend.  I am considering using this blog as the blow-by-blow account of our fun and travels.  We'll see if I follow up on that...