Oct 10th….....…mileage today, 980,142: Running good, my total for today is 1,077 miles. Heading for San Diego in the morning.

Oct 11th………..mileage today, 981,208

Oct 12th………..mileage ended at 982,556: two break downs and ran out of gas once. I'm in Yuma, Arizona

Oct 13th………..Doing great…I'm in El Paso, Texas with 983,167 miles and looking to California.

Oct 14th............I'm in Pensacola, Florida, continuing on my 50 CC Iron Butt ride. I'm going to ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, back again to the Atlantic and back again to the Pacific. I started in Jacksonville, went to San Diego, and I'm back in Florida heading for the coast. Then, it's back to San Diego again. No time to check into a motel, I slept in the ditch last night.

Oct 15th….....…600 miles so far today, I'm in Ft. Stockton, Texas. I'm trying for another 600 before resting tonight, on my way back to San Diego. Waved at a lot of cops, one pulled me over with a warning for speeding. This bike will top end at 105 mph, just thought I'd share that with you, not that I'm going that fast…..ran out of gas and a Viet Nam Vet helped me out. Raining all day today….one road rage incident. He yelled, I just blessed him and kept riding. Day before last I completed a 24 hour Bun Burner….1,542 miles in 24 hours. I'm hoping to let Jay Leno ride the bike when I get up to LA, possibly on the 22nd or 23rd of October. I need a new tire. Seems like I just put that one on about 20 or 30,000 miles ago. Time flies.

Oct 15th …......6 PM leaving Tucson now…heading for San Diego

Oct 16th.....….Completed 3 coast to coast runs in under 150 hours. Trying for a fourth, never been done, when I burned a hole in a piston in Yuma, Arizona. 80 degrees in the desert and running hot and hard proved too much for the old girl. Bike at the dealership in town, waiting to hear from the factory on warranty on motor. Hoping I can get by with new heads and oversized pistons. This will slow things down a bit, with less than 13,000 miles to go.

Oct 21st...........I’m still in Yuma, Arizona, having some work done on the bike at the dealer in town. Meanwhile, having some work done on me also at Yuma Regional Medical Center. I hope to be on the road again by the weekend. I completed three 50 CC trips, Jacksonville, Florida to San Diego, California, back to Jacksonville, back to San Diego, and was on my way back to Jacksonville when I burned a hole in a piston while in the dessert crossing the California border into Arizona. I did the three crossings in 149 hours, 22 minutes and was on a record breaking fourth crossing when I had the engine trouble. I completed 8,443 miles in 7 days, 8 hours. I was on a great pace until now. I'll check in when I'm back on the road. My plans are to ride up to Sacramento, stopping in Los Angeles on the way to say hello to Keith Ball. Then I might ride to Montana for a couple of days of mule deer hunting. Up to Canada and then dropping down to Mexico. From there, who knows?

Oct 27th...........Been down since Thursday, October 16th. Got my bike to Bobby's Territorial Harley-Davidson in Yuma, Arizona. Owner, Bobby Erxleben is very cool and a wrench. He'll work on my bike himself. Old school all the way. I started out in Tucson on Thursday morning at 4:18 AM, ran through Yuma and got to Ocean Beach, California at 9:55 AM. Short rest and I was back in the saddle heading east, was just outside Yuma at mile marker 48 and I had a breakdown at 1:45 PM. Still waiting for parts from Milwaukee factory. I need to get back up in the saddle soon.

Here's some of my log notes:
10/14...Ponce DeLeon, Florida 2:30 PM, LaFayette, Louisiana, 8:11 PM (stayed at Days Inn)
10/15…5:35 AM…left motel, reached Lordsburg, New Mexico by 9:21 PM.
10/16…4:18 AM leaving Tucson, Arizona and reaching Ocean Beach by 9:55 AM, turning around and back to Yuma by 12:19 PM. Roughly 1/2 hour later and black smoke and oil. Down time is a drag. Hope to be back on the road by the end of this week and I'm eyeing November 15th as a possible landing date back in Milwaukee. Keep your fingers crossed. Dave.

Oct 29th…….I'm in Utah, heading back to Yuma, Arizona. I had to rent a car to take care of some business and also go to Montana for a couple of days of hunting to unwind a little. I called twice, and my parts are still not in from the factory. I hope they arrive by the time I get back to Yuma. I would like to be back on the road by this weekend at the latest. My target is November 15th, arriving back in Milwaukee as the odometer turns over to all zeros. It's going to be tight if those parts don't come in soon.

Nov 4th........Wow! I’m still waiting for parts. I spoke to Carol Smith at Harley and she told me they should have been here already. I'm not sure we can make our target date before deer hunting starts in Wisconsin. I'm ready to roll, feel good and the shop has the bike up on the lift and ready to work on as soon as our "care package" from the factory arrives. Election Day. I voted absentee ballot because I knew I would be on the road. I hope everyone exercised their right to vote. Talk to you in a day or two, hopefully from the road.

Nov 7th........Finally located my parts. They left the factory over a week ago, somehow made it to the east coast and then out to San Bernardino. Word has it they're on their way at last to Yuma and Territorial Harley-Davidson. I hoped to complete my million mile adventure by November 15th, but with weather closing in I've decided to ride a little longer down south and also visit Long Beach and Bikernet headquarters. Then I'll ride up to San Francisco and maybe catch Vicki's Accident Scene Management class before dropping in on Charlie Brechtel and Biker Inner Circle.

I'm planning on coming home and waiting out the winter before completing the million miles in the spring. We'll have our giant landing party to kick off the 2009 riding season.

(editor's note: continue to visit this site for updates on Dave's magical mystery tour and for details of the landing party in the spring)

Nov 12th.......Bike is repaired and I'm back on the road again. I was getting a little stir crazy but things are getting mellow once again. The wind in my face and the beauty of the southern states is awesome. I left San Diego and I'm heading for Jacksonville, Florida again. I'm going to complete that fourth cross country trip that I was attempting when things went sour in my motor. I will probably head back to San Diego again and from there I'll decide if it's time to ride back home again or keep on going in California for a week. I want to get back to Wisconsin for opening day of deer hunting. Then, Attorney Mike Hupy and Tony Pan will meet me for a tour of the Harley Museum in Milwaukee and a press conference to announce when we will plan on the landing party next spring. Tony and I might tour around Florida in March and then head up for the big day I turn over the million mile mark. Let's see how this shakes out.

Nov 13th…...Banging out the miles and the motor is running smooth and strong. I have to be on the Atlantic coast by 10:30 AM tomorrow to complete this leg of my 50 CC trip (San Diego to Jacksonville). I am planning on returning to Wisconsin and meeting the folks at Hupy and Abraham, S.C., on Thursday, November 20th. We'll announce the big plans then.

Nov 14th.......I'm 70 miles west of Jacksonville (12:30 PM CST) and I'll stop in at the dealer there for a quick check on the motor. I may have an ignition module or coil problem. I'm thinking of heading back to Wisconsin soon, arriving on Thursday, November 20th, for a tour of the museum and a press conference. From there, I have to ride up to St. Paul, Minnesota, to check in at the dealership and register my mileage for their contest there. Then deer hunting starts on the 22nd. I'll be able to relax in the woods and do some reflecting on this past riding season while thinking about what 2009 will bring.

Nov 15th…....I completed my Jacksonville to San Diego run in just over 47 hours. I stopped in San Antonio, Texas at the 991,329 mileage mark and everything is going well.

Nov 17th…....I've covered 5,034 miles in 5 days. Looking forward to coming back to Wisconsin but not eager to hit the cold weather. It's been mild to hot down here. I hear you guys might be getting snow soon.

Nov 18th.......I had to check into the VA in Long Beach for my occasional tune-up on me, not my bike. My medical problems make this journey harder, but that much more worth it too. I visited with Keith Ball and Nyla at their Intergalactic Bikernet Headquarters, and was the recipient of pure royal treatment. They are true bikers and embrace the brotherhood daily.

It's now 3:15 PM, and I'm up in Copperopolis, waiting for Charlie Brechtel to come and get me. We doing some filming for his show, Biker Inner Circle on the internet, and I think Thunder Press is sending a reporter to cover my journey also. Hey, here comes Charlie now, and he's got a whole slew of bikers with him. What a guy. I have to go, I'll call in tomorrow and let you know how this went.

Nov 19th…...Wow! What a fantastic couple of days. First the warm hospitality from Keith Ball and Nyla down in Long Beach, and yesterday, I partied down with Charlie Brechtel and Tony's cousin, Dennis Sanfilippo. They filmed a segment for Biker Inner Circle while I was being interviewed by Felicia, Thunder Press reporter. I had Charlie and Dennis ride my bike along with Low Down Dan, bureau chief for Thunder Press Magazine, so they could say they rode a potential million mile Harley. Then Felicia asked if she could ride it. She's the first and only woman to kick start my FXRT, and then she rode it around the beautiful homestead that Charlie lives on. Charlie played a bunch of his original biker songs for me, and he is an outstanding musical talent. They took me to the Nugget, a bar Dennis owns, and showed me around his land, thousands of acres of beautiful California real estate. Some of his land was the site of the filming of the Big Valley TV show.

I thanked everyone for the warm reception and took off this morning. I'm in the high Sierra's right now, about 80 miles west of Reno. I'm hoping for a 1,200 mile day today, and hopefully another similar day tomorrow in order to get to Tony Sanfelipo's house by Thursday night. It's cold, about 26 degrees, and even with my electric vest and gloves, I'm feeling it. Roads are a little slick too, so I'm not sure how good of time I'm going to make, but I'm planning on a long day in the saddle today.

Nov 20th…....I left Green River, Wyoming this morning with about 250 miles to Cheyenne. I'd like to make it to Des Moines by tonight if I'm going to have a chance of getting to Hupy's office on Friday morning. I changed the oil in Reno, Nevada and had a near miss with a car when it suddenly pulled out from a driveway right in front of me. The mechanics from the dealership watched the whole thing and couldn't believe I missed the car. The spiritual light is still shining on me but I could use a heat lamp too. It was 17 degrees out when I started this morning, and has only warmed to about 24 degrees.

Nov 20th…...1:15 PM….I'm on the Nebraska border, and it's still only in the lower 20's out here. What's worse is the wind, some gusts have been as high as 60 mph according to the clerk at the last gas stop. I believe it. I had a hard time catching some tumbleweeds blowing along the shoulder. At times, the wind was so strong I had to keep the bike in 4th gear to better control it. It's slippery out here too. There's an old trick that Iron Butt riders do to enable themselves to stay in the saddle longer. I'm not talking about the auxiliary 6 gallon gas tank. What I'm talking about has to do with the call of nature and a plastic bottle. Well, with these temperatures, that's out. The plastic bottle breaks and then we have another problem. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. I don't think I'm going to make it to Milwaukee by Friday morning. I can't make good time with this cold and these high winds. I'm going to ease back off of the throttle and cruise back to Wisconsin. Let's plan on getting together for that museum tour after deer hunting is over, perhaps the first week of December. Then we have all winter to plan out the landing party in spring. I'll call tonight to report on where I ended up for the night, but I don't think it will be in central Iowa.

Nov 21st......It's 8:30 AM, Friday morning, and it's only about 14 degrees. I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska and I have roughly 550 miles to get home to Eau Claire. My daily mileage has dropped off dramatically with these cold temperatures. I have to pull over every 100 miles or so to warm up. I've been using the trucker's lounges in the big truck stops to warm myself and catch some sleep. I should have just over 995 thousand miles on the bike when I get home, so it will be easy to run off that last 5 thousand in the spring. I'm looking forward to a big celebration and I hope lots of people show up.