Here goes nothing.

Remember to check jdhovland.com everyday for updates, these will be truncated woefully on Facebook and Twitter.

I know I wanted to start this 2 weeks ago, but getting the motivation up to write about yourself is harder than it may seem.  Now that I’ve started, let’s see if it keeps going.

You’ll need to forgive me if I start on a tangent that seems totally unrelated, but I promise, however winding, it will eventually come to bare.  Besides, if these missives ever go anywhere else, that’s what editing is for.

What kind of person drops everything and starts riding their motorcycle to the Capitol of every state that can be driven to, with the ultimate goal of visiting all 50 state Capitols in the same calendar year? If you’re going to get a grasp of the who, what, where, when, why and how of the whole situation I guess I should introduce myself.

I’m Jonathan David Hovland, usually go by Jon, and for the purposes of writing will use the nom de plume of J.D. Hovland, more in deference to a Norwegian scientist named Jon Hovland than some self grandiose J.D. Salinger comparison.  I’m incredibly intelligent, have a scary accurate memory, slightly taller than average and heavier than I look. I’ve lived in Minnesota for a super majority of my life and eventually want to spend just the spring and autumn here. I love motorcycles and love traveling more than anything, and sadly probably anyone.

Memory is a funny thing, I can’t remember anything from before my parents got married and the family moved to Minnesota. Usually this would be a common occurrence, given people can’t remember what it was like pre-conception, however I was born in 1976, they were married in 1980. No, he wasn’t the donor, but he’s always been my dad, even if it wasn’t official until right after my 21st birthday, when I was heading to Basic Training. There’s photographic evidence, pre-Photoshop, that confirms that my parents did, in fact, take me to Disneyland on numerous occasions. However, I maintain that since I can’t remember, it was more enjoyable for them than me, but I digress.  Apparently those road trips from Phoenix to Anaheim and back sparked some wanderlust that continues to this day.

I can remember when I started to like motorcycles though. CHiPs and a rev up motorcycle toy.  The only thing I recall about CHiPs besides the sunglasses and basic plot are the theme music and a Richard Simmon’s guest stint. However my interest in motorcycles was solidified by the occasional ride on the back of my dad’s Honda CB750 K4, he swears it was a ’74, but I think it’s more likely that it was a ’75, the blue color wasn’t available factory on the ’74, but was stock on the ’75.  I even remember the little ¾ blue helmet that I had to wear that matched the bike’s color. The times that I got to ride on the back of that bike were infrequent and usually just down to the corner to the bus stop. No grand “Zen and the Art…” voyages, yet.

I didn’t actually love motorcycles yet when I got my 2005 Honda Shadow Sabre, VT1100C2, hell, the first time I got on the bike after getting my permit I was scared out of my mind. You weren’t supposed to go on freeways until you got your endorsement, but with the amount of stalling that I was doing at stop lights and signs, dad and I decided that riding at dark was probably worse off than a few miles down 694. No, my love didn’t get kindled until I took the motorcycle safety course that leads to endorsement. One of the instructors was explaining how to plan for an emergency on a motorcycle, and when he removed the rear seat cushion from his bike he had a cache of stuff for almost any scenario: jumper cables, flares, fuses, you name it. As an Eagle Scout, this “Be Preparedness” really stoked a fire in me. I realized there and then that a motorcycle wasn’t just for riding around, it could, given the right planning and precautions, take you away.

In 2008 my dad and I took our first long trip, a 2 week round tripper to New Orleans and back. Due to a bad stator and rectifier on my motorcycle, a fair amount of the trip was a mix of manual labor and ingenuity as well as questionable diagnostic skills by certified mechanics, a killer case of Acid Reflux ruined New Orleans for me. The second half of the trip, through Tennessee, Kentucky and Metropolis, Illinois saved the trip for me. My dad had a little issue with his radiator due to an ill placed amplifier, but thanks to a tube of liquid steel and the kindness of a Harley shop we were able to keep zig zagging up the Mississippi towards home.

2009 was a wash on the motorcycling front for me. Given my height, the stock location of the pegs isn’t very comfortable for me, so shortly after buying the bike in 2006 I purchased a forward control relocation kit, it added a few inches which alleviated a lot of the discomfort. Early in the riding season, either April or May, when I was shifting to second gear a part of the shifting mechanism of the aftermarket kit snapped in half. Since I didn’t want to drive my motorcycle 20 miles per hour everywhere I went, I decided to put it in the garage until I was able to fix it, which I’d do after spending a month in Brussels for work.  After getting back and several failed attempts to buy the part from the maker of the relocation kit, I surrendered and got the parts from Honda to re-install the controls back to their original position. Then winter came.

One of my favorite former co-workers is an avid motorcyclist and had taken numerous solo trips to various parts of the country and while I was in Brussels had ridden his bike up to Hyder, Alaska, the trip before he’d done the northeast states. I was envious and pressed him for all the details about all of his trips, held rapt by all the details of his adventures. He then proceeded to tell me about the Iron Butt Association, basically a series of endurance rides that entailed certain distances in times. I decided that I wasn’t going to do one of the IBA rides, but I did like the idea of visiting the lower 48 states in 1 trip.

After doing some research I decided I was going to visit all lower 48 state capitol buildings, re-ride some of my favorite roads from my prior long distance trip and basically have a good time, I was going to take 35 days to do it, using up most of my vacation time. I was going to leave the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and come back around Independence day. Given some restructuring at my former employer I was given a gracious severance package, and coupled with my savings, the length of the trip didn’t matter so much anymore, so I decided to throw Alaska into the mix as well. Due to an unforeseen family situation, the start of the trip got pushed back until the end of July, and that’s where it starts.