Just got done riding for the day, covered about 400 miles...now we are at a friend's house, hopefully going to take it easy the rest of the day.

Rough Start

I'm always a little nervous right before a big trip (even though this one isn't nearly as long as Run For The Wall). That's the way I felt this morning as we all got packed. However, as usual, things got better as soon as we were on the road.

It was a little cloudy when we started. The slightly overcast sky got worse as we headed up I-25 through Springs and Denver, and the traffic also got a lot heavier (as can be expected). I've been through Denver a few times in a car, but I noticed everything seems much larger and more intimidating on a motorcycle.

After we got past the big cities, it was very flat. Lots of prairie, but we could still just see the mountains in the distance. What we also saw were large, black clouds that had been steadily looking worse the further north we went. Pretty soon rain was coming down fairly heavy.  But we were in real trouble when it started to hail.  We pulled over and Dad got his rain gear on.  After we got back on the road it was only a couple more minutes and it cleared up. Things looked great for a good stretch. We passed through the Wyoming state line without incident, but it was not long after that when the hail started up again. We weren't sure how long it was going to go and we were getting worn out pretty fast, so Dad took an exit and we stopped at a Motel for the night.

We haven't gone as far as we hoped, but it was real rough today.  I was real glad to stop early. Hopefully tomorrow it will be a little more clear and we can go farther...

Sturgis photos

By the way, here are some photos from Sturgis this year.  I forgot to put them online until now!

Motorcycle Trip Preparations (General Update)

Well, seems like the slow part of my life I mentioned a couple posts ago has ended. Things are moving along now, and fast!

In the last few weeks, I have graduated high school, taken (and passed, thankfully!) the ABATE Beginning Rider's Course, enrolled in New York Instute of Photography's Complete Course in Proffesional Photography and now am getting my motorcycle insured so that I can ride it back from Wyoming on a trip we're starting on next week. Also, I might possibly have a job at Barnes and Noble soon--but, of course, I won't know for sure until it's happened (if it does, hopefully).  I've been waiting a long time for a lot of this stuff to happen, and now it's happening all at once.

I'm very excited about the motorcycle trip coming up. I'll be riding up with dad on his bike, then I'll get mine and ride it down. It's going to be a big trip for my first ride, but Dad is going to be choosing the route and he'll be working with me.  Right now I'm just in the process of packing and getting ready for the trip.  We leave this Friday, so it won't be long now!

Race to the Rides video

Check out my latest video, Race to the Rides. It's a lot like the other video I did with Ryan, but this time we wanted to incorporate a bit of a story. I've had this video done for a while, just haven't had the chance to upload it until now. Enjoy!

Race to the Rides from Zachary Hubbell on Vimeo.

Website I Designed

I recently worked on a website for a friend of mine, Kevin Riley, a motorcycle missionary who has helped my dad out with various events and things.  He had a website, but never had the time or know-how to get it going as well as he wanted, so he asked me to help.

The website host he is with did most of the work for me--it was mostly just customizing templates, photoshopping some graphics and getting words together (along with embedding a few widgets).  I think it turned out pretty well--you can check it out at:

http://roughroadmm.com/