BigClayton

2,568 Miles :-) Well, sorry I forgot to let everyone know I made it back. Had a great trip and still working on adding some more dates for February. Right now looking at a Possible concert in St. Louis area (east in Illinois). Then one down by Mobile,AL. Will keep you posted on that. Had a great trip and would do it all again. I did not realize how many miles I ended up driving. Lots of fun too. I certainly look forward to another trip. Monday was my last ride home and it got COLD......started off at 25 that morning then maybe got to 35. I ended up buying a second set of gloves and still wasn't enough. The thing is I believe it was the higher humidity. Feet and hands were the only thing that got too cold. Just took more breaks was all. I sure enjoyed trying to keep up with you guys and keep you posted. Looking forward to next trip. Clayton

Hi Cowpuc Yes, still have to have a license for Ham (Amatuer) radio. I learned the morse code back in the day , then they dropped the code requirements. But still have all the other stuff.

@Larry1963 Hi Larry and crew, wanted to upload some pictures of my Ham radio setup. The radio has a GPS built into it and transmits my position every 2 minutes (or I can change the time). My bike didn't have the radio or any of the fancy stuff. It was a plane jane. I ordered the antenna mount off ebay thinking I would just use a mirror mount bracket to clamp on an antenna too. Once I got it, I just for kicks tried an NMO surface mount and it fit the hole just perfect. I then ordered the 5/8 wave dual band antenna due to lack of ground plane. Screwed it in and routed the wire up to the front. I use a adapter cable to go from pl259 to TNC for the radio. This radio has Shortwave, AM, FM radio, ham bands and many other options. When I get the Sena SH10 i'll be able to use my Sena SR10 headset with the PTT to talk on it too. I'll use this as my AM/FM radio and multi purpose receiver too. I'm having some issues figuring out how to turn the photos upright. After they upload, they seem to turn so not sure. The radio is upright when I look at it. If you have any other questions please let me know. The APRS network is pretty active. http://www.aprs.fi opens a google map with APRS stations overlayed. You can zoom in and out and this will giver you an idea of the coverage.

Thanks Larry. Will do. There should me a way to tell the site how long of a track to display too. I'll get the pictures tomorrow. Also I think I told you the wrong name of headset. It is a Sena not sigma.

Update: Saturday. I had a great concert last night in Sachse, TX. After the concert (10:00pm) I headed to Nocona, TX. I really wanted to have today off and not do much traveling. So I drove the 2 hours to get to the motel here in Nocona. Very nice motel too. Call The Veranda Inn, I highly recommend it. It snowed most of the morning and was thinking I should have had a tarp, but oh well. No cabs and no delivery in this little town so made a couple trips to local eateries. Lunch I went to a BBQ place and ordered the infamous, "Bowl of Crap". Baked beans, onions, peppers, brisket, sausages, etc. and homemade cornbread. Very good. I think it is funny the looks I get when people see me driving in the snow (Streets where just wet and no accumulation). One truck the passenger got whiplash turning around, lol. Then for supper, with sun shinning and drying my sheep skin seat cover, I went and had some authentic Mexican food. Back to motel where I have been working on updating photos for the website. Now, watching Greenbay play Cardinals. Enjoying the night off. Monday I head up through Oklahoma City to I-44 then East back towards Missouri.

Well quick update madenit up to Temple Texas last night from Mission. Very nice weather and enjoyable ride. Sore butt though. Need the seat mod desperately. 2 1/2 hour ride today to my concert location in Sachse, TX. Then a couple hour ride to Nocona, TX for my last concert of the trip on Sunday. Tomorrow will be a break day.not sure what I'll be doing other than some office work in the motel. Any Venture guys NW of Dallas, SW of whichita falls? will update agin tomorrow.

UpDate. Tuesday. Left waco, Texas little later than I hoped. Had a great day to ride including shedding the winter suit. 65 the high I believe. Stopped at my first bucees truck stop too. That was pretty cool. I made it all the way down to Mission Texas. I play at a showcase tomorrow to book concerts for Jan and Feb 2017. After that I will head to S Padre Island to see what that is all about. I'll have the GoPro and will take some pics for everyone then. Then Thursday I'll start my journey back towards Dallas area for a Friday night concert. Still enjoying the trip.

Hi Larry, nice to meet you. Let me know when your in town for sure. Yes I am a ham too. KB0WZI. I do have a yaesu ft1d ht mounted with a ram style mount off the handle bars. The where the factory antenna was I put a nmo style mount with a 5/8 wave dual band antenna. I use this radio for the APRS feature. My family at home can track my trip off of findu.com. http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kb0wzi-7 i have a sigma Bluetooth headset and they make a Bluetooth adapter with a PTT plug that will hook the radio wirelessly to the headset. I don't have the adapter as of yet but next $150 I will. Mainly just APRS now. It transmits every two minutes. Some areas don't have coverage though but it is cool. Let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to get you a picture maybe tomorrow. Also the radio is water resistant. It has been rained on and through the car wash. Lol. Seems to work.

Made it to Waco, Tx for the night. Now time to give everyone the update and the "rest of the story". January and February, Branson shows shut down and the booming tourist town pretty much shuts down. So this is my time to either set around driving my wife crazy or hit the road to do some concerts and raising funds for the down time. My issue this year is our car (turbo diesel VW) has a very expensive breakdown so the only vehicle remaining, my 83 Gen 1. Now after reading everyone's stories about road trips and watching videos in my spare time about these special moments, I have always wanted to try this. There was honestly a bit of fear to try it whether summer spring or anytime. Could I do it, how will it be...etc. In my past life, lol, I was a truck driver and have been in all states but Montana (in the future), but this is completely different. I have been watching forecast for two weeks prior before my trip started and if I saw anything too crazy, ice or major snow, I would rent a car. But honestly I didn't want to spend any extra money. The time came to leave and everything was a go for launch. I put my big boy pants and hit the highway. Part of my fear is this 83. Lol. I had a shop try to synchronize the carbs only to mess it up worse. Time got away and do to show schedules I didn't get a Carbtune ready. I'm surprised how well this thing runs even out of shape. I have owned it for at least three years and have pretty much rode it year round. One of the TV shows I played music for knew I rode during the winter and wanted me to try out this "new survival suit" out. It was advertised to be goo down to -60 degrees F. So I managed to get two sets to try out, and got to keep. So that was a blessing. The same suit is now advertised on Glenn Beck. Made by Aeris. Just google Aeris survival suit. Pretty cool to read on them. (Not a paid spokesman). No way I could of bought this on my own. Just worked out that way. So with this suit I ride pretty comfortable during cold even down to 20s. Feet and gloves are the only issue. Feet I wear water wading boots, shin high, with a couple pair of wool socks. Seems to work ok. Gloves are stock motorcycle winter gloves. Not the best but they somewhat work. Friday morning-So so off I go. Highway 65 south out of Branson towards little rock , then to I 30 west towards Mount Pleasant, TX. Then 15 miles or so south to Pittsburg TX for 1st Concert. During the concert it rains on my uncovered bike....pastor asked if I want to park it under the carport over night, and I passed so not to be a "burden" lol and it rained again. Saturday morning - time to head north towards Tulsa for next venue. Apparently I never knew how to actually use the choke. I have always had a habit to pump the throttle a few times while trying to start. Looks like that doesn't work. After flooding the bike and having to now get jump started, I finally get it going and on the road. This, so far, is my only bad weather day. Forecasted 1" of snow Saturday morning in Tulsa, ending by noon. So sounded OK to me. Here we go. Still running good for a possible 3 cylinders ( I forgot to tell you, I need new diagphrams too). This is the only way I know the bike. I really can't imagine it running restored. I get up to around McAlaster OK on the turnpike and it is snowing and wind is blowing. Road just wet. Nothing sticking. One thing I love so far is all the people talking to me at the gas stations. They have never seen someone crazy befor :-). One older gentlemen asked where I was from and he said when he was young he did the same thing. So cool. I actually make it to Mannord, OK just fine with no problems. The venue wanted me to park the bike inside now this is a first here. I park it in my garage at home but this was a carpeted room. Lol. Fortunately I don't leak. Sunday - Concerts Monday - Time to test my theory on how to start the bike without flooding it, lol. Wow!!! It works. Despite a late start I hit the road and head south back thought Tulsa, and somehow my stupid google maps app decides to send me a way I didn't want. I end up on Highway 69 out of McAlster. I had nightmare about this road from the 18 wheeler. Worse on the bike. Ouch. Finally Red River and 69 goes away and now highway 75 in Texas. Aww. Bike is still going strong. Very proud of it for sure. Then I tell my wife over the Bluetooth that I'm going to the Big "D" and I did mean Dallas. Done it many times before but not on a bike. I have to say, even during rush hour, it was a special moment to me. I felt like a flea at the circus but it was so cool. People can not understand why we ride bikes until they are in our shoes. So amazing. I saw Dallas. Literally. Before I had a windshield and that was all I say. Made it through just fine and got down to Waco for the night. Nice hot shower to thaw a bit and now ready to rest this saddle soreness. In the morning I keep heading south down to the Rio Grande Valley where I play Wednseday. After that, back up to Sachse,TX (Dallas area) for Friday night. Then to Nocona, Tx (NW of Dallas) for Sunday. Then tentative, back to Branson on Monday. I told my wife, I would certainly do this again. And looking forward to it. I did try to have my local Yamaha shop tune the carbs before I left but they didn't want to. Didn't know how. Lol. I'd be happy to pay a venture owner to help me with it if I happen to be going by one on this trip. Loving my Venture more now. I also feel like it needs the seat mod done too. That will help out. Im so excited to actually be posting my first real trip on the bike. I will keep you posted. Big Clayton

Hi Cowpuc. I do Last Date in my show. I went to my YouTube channel and realized I have an outdated version on there. Here is a link to a more modern video of me playing Phantom Of The Opera [video=youtube_share;Pf-6qAJ0zsg] I thought I had it available as an MP3 and was going to send you my version of Last Date but not seeing it on the website. I'll try to upload it later on and send it to you.

Smart phone proving to be not so smart.

Well I have finally taken off on my first multiple state road trip on my 83 Gen 1. I'm calling it my texas tour. I have 7 different concerts between 5 cities. This is my second day and I'll try to add more later. Of coarse the carb is giving fits (maybe 3 cylinders ) but still making a go of it. It it snowed today around Tulsa but roads were great. Monday I'm driving from Tulsa to Mission Texas. 800 miles so I may go two days. I'll blog more about the trip with more photos to come Big Clayton

Miles are at 50k.

Well I'm afraid the valve adjustment just got above my pay grade :-) but certainly makes sense that it should be done first.would be nice to have a venture mechanic close by.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=221817224449&globalID=EBAY-US thought about ordering this one from California. To save time. Not it sure if I need the shim kit. So thanks for bringing that up. Thanks for the info on the sliders too. This is why I like this site. Great for folks like me.