Heading Northwest...

Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
644
Location
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Bike
Black 2009 NT700
I have been doing some more map crawling and info gathering.
I was surprised to see that Boise only has a population of about 220,000 despite being the State Capital.
I had a look at some of Google's "Street View" pictures and it looks like a nice place, except that they all drive on the wrong side of the road! (old joke I know).
If the world does not come to an end via ICBMs in the near future I might get over there for a look one day.
My wife (Japanese) has a cousin in San Francisco whom she has not seen in 40 years.
We have flights booked to go to Japan for six weeks departing Melbourne on October 30th. They were booked long before this trouble got serious.
I hope that we make it back alive.
If the PDRK and US come to blows it will be nasty in that part of the world.

Macka
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
644
Location
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Bike
Black 2009 NT700
That is a big city compared to some...:wink: Check out this article Here.
That is a strange concept to me, having the state capital less than 10% the size of the largest city within the state.
I live in the State of Victoria and our Capital City is Melbourne.
I live in the SE suburbs of Melbourne which has a population of about 4.5 million.
The next largest regional city is Geelong with a population of 177,ooo.
On the other hand, our National Capital of Canberra, where our son lives and works for the Federal Government, has a population of only 357,ooo.
All of our State Capitals are the largest city in the State.

Macka
 
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Joined
Oct 29, 2011
Messages
1,231
Location
oregon
Bike
2011 NT, 01 Ultra, 04 VLX
Macka.Not to overshadow Phils BBG ride on his NT without /aux fuel which was a outstanding achievmem]nt, in 2010 at the young age of 73 I did a similar BBG of 1524 miles from Wodburn Or to Denver CO with a slight detour built in to give me the require]d miles and a buffer for error in 22 1/2 hours of clock time and just over 2 hours of sdaddle time, but I was on a /gl1899 gold wing and was running a 4 .5 gallon fuel cell that allowed me to do the max 325 miles between fuel stops and stil have a safe amount of fuel if there should bee no fuel available. This was all in the open roads of the western states where fin most cases the posted speed limits were 70 to 80 MPH and you could in most areas bump o]to about 10 mph over the posted with no problems.

Eldon
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
644
Location
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Bike
Black 2009 NT700
I am supposed to be heading off at 7am tomorrow for a 1045km each way camping trip but the weather here is not good.
We had snow not too far from home yesterday which is most unusual.
It is windy, wet and cold, not ideal for riding.
Weather at the destination looks great but I don't like leaving on a five day trip and spending the first 700-800km riding in the gusty wind and rain.
Rain on the way home is OK by me but not on day 1 so, unless the forecast changes overnight, I will not be going.
It is a pity as this one would be my 10th Rally for the year.
The following weekend there is another one but it is only about 200km each way.

Macka
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2011
Messages
1,231
Location
oregon
Bike
2011 NT, 01 Ultra, 04 VLX
Macka,
I sure agree with your thoughts about leaving home in bad weather for a long trip, although I have beenknown to do so if it was for a major comitmrnt. Then I would get into full rain suit ontop of Stich or leather suit and go for it. Sometimes living here in the NorthWET of the US one must deal with the conditions even wheb they are bad.
In my pre retirement life I have had to depart in a snow storm an[with a big truck and know I might be on snow & ice for the next three or four days, it did get interesting on some occasions.
Have a safe trip.
Eldon
 

RedLdr1

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Dec 12, 2010
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2,570
Location
Woodstock, Georgia
That is a strange concept to me, having the state capital less than 10% the size of the largest city within the state.
Many western state capitals became the capital city due to underhanded dealings by rich residents when the state was forming. For example Helena, Montana became the capital because of a battle between two "copper kings" proving who could outspend the other...and buy the most votes. See Wiki Here. Many other western capitals were the richest town, usually due to mining, at the time they were selected. When the mines went bust the majority of the population left....often leaving the politicians in a near ghost town.

My local favorite is Atlanta, Georgia. It's the state capital for three reasons all related to the Civil War. First, the Yankee terrorist General Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground. Nothing was left standing except churches and hospitals so you had plenty of room for building. (I used to live by "Sherman's Point" were he allegedly stood and watched his troops loot and destroy Atlanta.) Second, what was left of the railroads intersected in Atlanta so it was easy to get to...especially for the Yankee occupation forces. Last, an order by the military occupation governor in 1868 made Atlanta the new capital mostly due to the easy access. Atlanta is now the largest city in Georgia but it was virtually nothing when it became the capital.

I'm a history buff and enjoy reading these little bits of trivia about the places I've lived...
 
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