No freakin clue.....Day 2

Rolled out early this morning from Yukon. I wanted to get out before the wind picked up too much. It was about 20mph when I left, and it was forecasted up to 40mph in the afternoon.

I got to do something I always wanted to do today....I "got the hell INTO Dodge". I am currently sitting in Dodge City, KS. By the time I got checked into the hotel, the wind was up around 35-40mph. One thing that I am kind of coming to believe is that a 40 mph tailwind is almost as bad as a headwind. Every 18 wheeler that passed me felt like I got hit in the chest with a hammer every time. I still haven't figured out exactly where I want to go yet, but I figure this is a good start. I am going to burn a day tomorrow looking around Dodge City. I have passed through here a few times, but never actually looked around. I made a promise to someone that I would get a picture of Boot Hill, so that is on the schedule for tomorrow.

Just to prove that my mp3 player has a better sense of humor than me, when I passed the city limits sign, the Dead Kennedys cover of "Rawhide" started on my headphones.

Here is my route for the day:


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Ok.....time to get some rest.......

No freakin clue.....Day 1

So, I am sitting in my garage the day before I leave, I have the last of my stuff packed and I am going over my checklist.  I have everything.  Why do I feel like I am forgetting something.  After a few minutes of thinking, I realize that I have no idea where I am going.  I decide off the cuff to just go to Duncan, OK and see what is up from there.......

I got coffee at the Starbuck's next to the house before I leave.  While I am sitting there drinking my coffee, I notice that "The Girl from Ipanema" is playing.  I love that song.  As I start out on the road, I notice that no matter what song is playing on my mp3 player, I am hearing it to the tune of  "The Girl from Ipanema".  I make it through quite a bit of AC/DC, Disturbed, Joan Jett, and likely the most disturbing of all......Rammstein.  The last thing you ever want running through your head is German industrial music to the tune of "The Girl from Ipanema".  When I got near Duncan, I decided that I would continue to ride until that song was erased from my memory. 

Now, my gift to you:

Now that that is out of the way, I made it to Yukon, OK.  I still have no idea where I am going, I will likely fid out tomorrow evening when I check into a hotel.........

Here is the route for today:


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Don't you get hot in all that stuff.....

Went on a little ride this weekend, Decided to take a nice leisurely trip up to Stephenville, TX. It was looking like we were gonna get some rain, I think it was more wishful thinking on the weatherman's part though. It was around 106 on the ride back to Austin, if it did rain it never made it near the ground.

Coming back to Austin, we decided to take TX 16. We have been trying to see more of that road. The only section that I was really that familiar with is the section down between Kerrville and Medina. A few weeks ago, we rode 16 from Fredericksburg to Llano. Now we have seen the section from Llano up to Dublin.  There is not much out there other that hills and curves.  In a few of those towns, the only thing open on Sundays are the gas stations, and even that is dependent on whether or not they are still in business. 

We did find a very nice Mexican food place in Goldthwaite , TX.  The service was very good and the food was awesome.  Fair warning, it was closer to Mexican food than it was to texmex. The big thing to remember is that it is in a small town, and they shut down at 3:00 on Sundays.

Here is our route:


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A couple quick clips from the weekend....

I will post a more complete entry whenever I get back in town.  Until then, here are a couple clips with the new camera:

Me on FM337:



Kel on TX16 (me chasing):



TTFN

Dave

Route 66, Day 12......Back to Austin

The last road day of a vacation is always the hardest for me.  Your brain usually gets home about one day before your bike does.  You have to be kind of careful with that because it makes you stop concentrating on staying alive, and that is bad.  When we rolled out, it looked like we were going to be riding into a thunderstorm in Austin, so we stopped in Brownwood, TX to put on raingear and get ready for it.  We got a total of 11 drops between the four of us, and we stopped a few miles later and took off our rain liners.  We ended up getting to Austin without any more rain.

Knowing we were pushing to get into Austin before the storm, we really rode hard today.  The way I put it was "Roll like vikings".  We stopped twice for gas, and that was it.  We only stopped long enough to fill the tanks and drink water, and then we were back on the road.  Then we got in and did not see a drop of rain all day long.

After doing a post trip inspection on the bike, I found that one of my side case mounts snapped.  It broke at the connection to the passenger peg.  Not the same place the other one broke.  This one is not going to be fixable with JB weld.  I am going to have to replace them completely.  It sucks, but it is the price of admission I guess.  At least it is a bag mount, not a transmission.

It is time for bed to sleep off this trip.  I will put up a full summary later on this week.

Here is our route:


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Route 66, Day 11....One day left to ride

Well, we should be home at some point during the day tomorrow.  We are spending our last night in Abilene, and we are taking off at 8:00 in the morning.  The ride back has been a bit of a beating.  We had pretty significant crosswinds the whole way back from Tucumcari.  My shoulders are sore, my elbows are sore.  I just want to fall down and sleep. 

I finally shook off the nerves from the tank-slapper.  It took a couple days to clear that out of my head and keep moving.  It just seemed like every movement of the bike was amplified and I had a hard time relaxing.  The fact that we had a 15-20 mph crosswind most of the way both yesterday and today did not help things at all.  I will do a trip wrap up by this coming weekend, and try to get the pictures organized a bit better and actually captioned.

Have fun, here is the route:



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TTFN

Dave

Route 66, Day 10.....The ride home....

Today was the first day of the ride home.  We have passed the apex, and now we are dealing with re-entry.  We started off the morning in Tucumcari, NM.  It was a cool morning with a light breeze when we started.  Since we are headed back south, we are going through the section of New Mexico that I don't enjoy riding through.  Aside from the hideous winds and the stupid heat, there are long stretches of nothing.  Leaving town on NM 209 toward Clovis, the road is straight.  We could actually see the road disappear over the curvature of the earth at one point.  All I could see in front of me was a mesa that stretched from one side of my field of view to the other, and a road that was going straight to it.  After about 20 minutes we got close enough for me to tell that there was not one, but two mesas in front of us and the road curved between them.  That was a fairly disturbing visual on the motorcycle.

The other thing that makes me dislike riding in the desert is the sensation of standing still.  Since the only real features in the landscape is a road that goes straight over the horizon, and a Mesa in the distance,  riding is very disorienting.  The speed limit was 65mph.  While I am watching the horizon, if feels like I am standing still.  There is no movement, just vibration and wind.  There are no close features to see whipping past you an the side of the road.  I looked down at my speedometer and it is still telling me 65.  Then I look at the yellow road markings shooting under my bike, and I feel this sudden blast of acceleration.  It feels like I have just gone from a dead stop to 65mph instantly.  It was very disorienting.

    We crossed the border back into Texas at a little town called Texico.  I have always noticed that when I cross back into Texas from anywhere it just seems to get nicer.  In New Mexico we were fighting nasty crosswinds.  Once we came back into Texas, the winds started calming down a bit.  I have also noticed that the desolation out there looks different.  In New Mexico, everything is just empty.  All of the colors tend to blend together, and the sky just seems kind of dull.  There is some amazing scenery as far as mesas and draws and mountain ranges off in the distance.  I do kind of enjoy running out across New Mexico, there are some pretty views out there, but watching the road go over the horizon and not getting any closer, even after 30 minutes of running, starts eating away at your brain.  It is easy to get your brain into a rut that can get kind of spooky.  You will see a sign that indicates a curve ahead, and you can see all the way to the horizon and there are no curves that are visible.  Then you spot the little draw that drops about 5 feet or so makes a quick curve around nothing at all, and then continues directly inline with the road behind you.

    We also had a major accomplishment today.  This was the first time all 4 bikes made it past the burned out shell station in Anton, TX.  Last time we tried to pass that station, Kel blew her transmission out of her bike.  This is also the first time we all four pulled into the Lubbock Radisson under power.  Kel threatened to kill one or all of us if we tried to stop at that little gas station to get a picture.


Here is the Route for the day:


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