Fall Roadtrip Wrapup and major mechanical issues

    I know it has been a long time since I got back from my trip, but it has been a very eventful few months.  I can finally close out that trip report.

    When I made the stop in Pine Bluff, MO, I noticed that I had an odd tapping in my motor at times.  I ran under the assumption that my valves were getting a bit loose (like they do).  I put it on the checklist of things to do when I get home...."Adjust my valves".  When I got home, I swapped the bikes out and rode the R90 for a couple weeks.  I just didn't have time to get to the valved with the work schedule and all.  One fateful morning I was running late, so I decided to take the 1150 because it is a much faster startup in the morning.  About halfway to work, I noticed the ticking....then it turned into a full blown rattle....then a loud clatter.  I managed to get the bike hack to the house and made the decision to send it to the shop.  They ended up pulling the left jug to see what was up, and guess what they found......





    Things did not bode well for our young hero.  2300 miles across 8 states in a little over a week.  2 miles into the first ride after the trip, the motor lets go.  Not a little lets go, but a catastrophic kablooie.  The cam chain follower on the left side let go.  It is an $11 part, but to get to it, the entire motor has to be removed from the bike and taken completely apart.  Here is my baby on the lift:



    It is a very helpless feeling seeing your bike gutted on the lift like that.  That bike held together over that entire trip, and then let go 2 miles into my commute to work.  My baby drug my silly ass back home wounded.  He could just as easily dropped that part in any state, but he held together long enough to get me home.  That is the kind of love that doesn't wash off with soap and water.  Now he is all stripped on a lift waiting for some love. 

    We decided to go with a 90% rebuild and reseal, and new clutch since he was apart, so it took some time to get him back together.  I almost died when they got him back together and handed me the baggie that held the broken part. 



    It let go at a stoplight.  If that think would have let go on the highway at speed, who knows what would have been the result.  I will definately be buying my bike a beer, I certainly owe him one.

    While he was in the shop, I figured I would ride the R90 for a while.  Unfortunately, she had other plans.  The wonky headlight switch decided it was time to short out and shut down the charging system.  I had planned on taking her offline to do some upgrades, but not just yet.  She ended up going in for upgrades and repairs about 2 weeks later.  I will get the details up on that upgrade when she gets home from the surgeon.

    Fortunately, I was not alone in my time of suffering.  The Roll the Bones rally was kind of rough on The Kel's GS.  It seems that the suspension on the sidecar was not really up to the kind of riding that she likes to do, and it kind of BENT THE HELL out of the sidecar suspension.  Now her bike is in the shop getting the sidecar frame straightened and reinforced.  The builder is confident that the new setup will be much more sturdy when it comes to jumping railroad tracks....YAY!!!!!!!

Here is a little video of some of the rally:



Here is the full playlist of Roll the Bones videos:



She should have the GS back in the next couple weeks.....I hope.

Enjoy,

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 5

    The music of the day was actually pretty random.  I have no idea what the Garmin is up to now.  I think it is trying to lull me into a false sense of security, then play the same song over and over for the next 6 hours. 

    Today's ride was a little bit of a grind.  I really haven't had a burn day yet, and I have a long one tomorrow also.  I am most likely going to Denton, and then on Thursday go to Ft Worth.  That will be as good as a burn day.  Then I will be heading for Hamilton, TX for Roll the Bones III.  I actually get so sit in a sidecar and just hold on.

    The day started off in a little town called Cordova, TN.  After talking to the desk clerk, I decided to get up at 6 and be rolling by 7 to beat the traffic.  That also put me out early enough to stop by the Starbucks south of town to get coffee.  While I was sitting there, I spoke to a very nice police officer, who told me that if I waited until about 8:30 or so, the traffic would die off, and I would be less likely of seeing deer.  Then he added that there had been close to 300 deer/vehicle collisions in October so far.  That pretty much convinced me to stay until 8:30.  I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was fairly light, all things considered, and it only took me about an hour and a half to get to the Mississippi River.

    This brings me to something interesting that I have discovered.  After crossing that river 3 times in 2 days, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was the scariest thing I have ever done on a motorcycle.  I know that you need to stay loose on the bars, and let the bike roll straight.  I know that you just have to stay loose and don't fight the wind. I also know that my entire body was relaxed....except for my toes....they had a death grip on the pegs, through my boots.  I also learned that if I look at the relation of the middle section of the handle bars to the part of my visor that meets the chin bar, I can gauge how heavy the cross wind is.  Shortly after that, I stopped looking at that......

    After my trip through Suburbia, TN today, I figured out how to spot vehicles that are just dangerous.  The more of those stupid stick figure kids on the back, the more room they need.  The more of the sport or cheerleading kid stickers, the more aggressive they tend to be.  On the whole, I am going to be glad to spend tomorrow on pretty deserted back roads all the way to Denton.  I plan on doing the Talimena Skyway, and shooting video.  Then I am just going to burn it all the way back to Denton.

Here is today's route:


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Have fun

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 4

    Well, it seems like this road trip is a journey through my playlist also.  My garmin is on crack and it tends to play groups of songs over and over on shuffle.  It is still starting out with Crystal Method....same damn song.  Today was a journey through Frank Zappa, Neil Diamond, Queen Annes Lace, and Lady Gaga.  First let me say that when corrupted by road noise the song sounds like "Donna Noble, Patch in....Patch in."  Now I will have to Netflix Dr. Who tonight to reset my brain.  Frank Zappa while riding is just odd....The strange noises that he tends to use are very disturbing on motorcycles.  Lady Gaga.....where do I start?  When "Bad Romance" came on, I noticed that people were giving me lots of room and staring.....a whole lot.  Lesson learned, no dancing on the bike at 80mph......just say no....

    This has turned out to be a good scouting run.  I have found lots of places that I really want to bring everyone back to.  It is just freakin gorgeous up here.  I am finding it to be a bit lonely though.  it is a very stark reminder of just how Austin is.  I have run across no Friends of Dorothy.  I saw a few, but they would not make eye contact.  No stickers on cars, nothing. 

    I got a lot more thinking done today.  I still have no idea what I thought about, but I feel better, calmer, and lighter.  That means the trip is working.  There were a lot of wrong turns today, I mean a whole lot.  I only did 260 or so "map" miles, but there were a good 40 or so of wrong turns.  Pretty much all there was to do was to let go of it and roll.  I knew where the interstate was, and that it would take me to the hotel.  It was really a matter of not getting to go a couple places because I missed the turns and there was no clean way to get back.  I found some other real interesting places though.  There is no way to really get a picture of them, but there are two steel bridges, one across the Mississippi river, and then you take a right and you go across the Ohio river.  The spans are just over 1.9 lanes wide, and about 3/4 mile long each.  It was pretty awesome riding up and back down those big steel cages.  This brought me around to the idea that people would be happier if they could grasp the idea that there are no "Wrong Turns", just the other way of getting there.....sometimes with better scenery.

    Rumor has it that Memphis has a Starbucks.  I don't really care if I get coffee, I just want to speak to someone who is moderately intelligent, and not a backwoods conservative for about 5 min.....I will evwn buy a coffee as the price of admission.


I promised some video, here it is, but before the whiners start complaining that I crossed the double yellow, the camera is hanging off the left side of my tank.

Here goes:








And here is my route for the day:



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Enjoy,

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 3

    The thought for the day is ABBA.  It just so happened that "Fernando" started playing right when I turned onto AR SH87.  It must have looked pretty funny from the outside watching me trying to hang onto the bike in those curves while dancing in my seat.  I actually had the entire road to myself due to some really interesting planning.  When you are riding in a state with a 100 to 1 church to school ratio, the best time to ride is Sunday morning between 8am and noon.

    The playlist pretty much dominated my thoughts today.  The music selection with the garmin on shuffle is only a bit annoying.  What I realized is that it resets every time you turn the garmin off.  It also starts every time on the same song.  I do like Crystal Method, but I got sick of hearing the same song every time I start the bike. I managed to cycle through my entire list of Queen, Abba, and Garth Brooks.  It was actually kind of creepy.

    I think the best thing about the ride today was that there was really no profound thoughts.  There is actually kind of a point of Zen where your brain does not retain much.  It basically processes information and then moves on.  It is really kind of interesting, I pretty much solved all of the problems in the world but I don't remember the answers. 

    Tomorrow night, I will be uploading the first couple videos, depending on the speed of the wifi at the next hotel.

Here is the route so far:



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Have fun

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 1-2

     After a year of big project, busy weekends, and just way too much stuff to do...the ride begins.  Getting out of Austin was a nightmare.  Between Austin and Denton I actually saw 4 wrecks.  That was 4 times where the traffic on I35 came to a halt.  I35 was a solid parking lot all the way from Waco to Hillsboro.  After talking to another rider at the Starbucks, I decided to go over to FM 933 and then TX 22 back over to 35 after Hillsboro.  At that point it was run like hell to Frisco.

    Next came the trek north.  I have pretty much decided that this is going to be a brain burner.  Basically I just want to see how far I can go.  The plan is to ride until I am done, or it is dark, every day.  Since I ended up having brunch with friends today, it was short.  I made it to Muskogee, OK.  The plan for tomorrow is to hit the trail of tears and then going NE.  Don't know how far yet, but I do plan on shooting some video.

Enjoy

Dave

Wandering aimlessly.....

     So, instead of daily updates this time around, I waited till the kind of middle of the trip. It has been a very nice trip so far. I had no plans overall, but I have had a really good time. I did end up in Arkansas. I decided to do a bit of scouting for a trip that The Kel and I are thinking about in a couple years.

     First off, I think I actually might have blown this cute little redneck mind. I was sitting next to my bike, looking at a good old fashioned paper map, and he walks up and asks if I am lost. I respond, no....I know where I am, I just don't know where I am going.......he looks at me and says "well, you are in Dardenelle..." I thank him and continue looking at my map. He then asks me where I think I might be going. I respond "I have no idea, but I have 4 more days to get there". He stares blankly at his feet for about a minute. Then he looks at me and asks if I have been to hot springs yet. I answer that I have a hotel room there. He says "Well, Hot Springs is right down that highway about 80 miles or so" and walks quietly to his truck and drives away. I really wanted to laugh, but then it dawned on me that there are so few people in the world that are just so inherently nice that they feel bad if they can't be helpful and I could possibly have just ruined his day.

     I have also managed to put my finger on the difference between the R1150 and the R90. While I was going up Mt Magazine today, with all of those really tight and fast curves, I noticed that there is a small delay between steering input and steering action. I really didn't notice it exactly before, but I had been on the R90 for a couple weeks, and then jumped on the 1150 and took off. It is really only noticable in real tight twisties but it was odd. Day one was a straight run up to Denton to see a friend of mine from college. She just got her MC license, and had her first wreck. A bruised knee and a broken finger later, she is now looking for her own motorcycle. This is just more proof that motorcyclists are either stubborn as hell, or downright dumb. Having taken that slide a couple times, I feel like I qualify for the latter. Later on that evening, I went to spend the night with other friends from college.



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Day two was a direct run up into Oklahoma. My original intent was to see how far north I could get before I lost interest, it turned into playing in the Ouachita Mountains. On the way out of Dallas, I stopped and visited my nieces. I thought they were going to explode when they saw me outside their house. It was a total surprise visit. After that, I rolled directly up US75 into Oklahoma. I made it into a little town called Mcalester around 5:30. I really did not plan to stay the night there, but the nearest hotel rich cities were two or more hours away, and it was saturday night. The last thing I wanted to do was get caught without a place to sleep in this area. All of the hotel parking lots I passed were filled with motorcycles, so I figured it would only get worse as I went on.



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Day three was a beating. watching the weather in Mcalester, I saw the great yellow and red "amoeba of doom" marching slowly across Oklahoma toward me. My plan was to get up at 5:30 and roll out at first light. Hopefully miss the storm. I left at 6:15 and the storm was visible in the west. I picked a fairly direct route, and very fun, to get to hot springs through Talihena, OK. I managed to stay almost exactly 25 miles ahead of the storm the whole way. If it wasn't for one wrong turn, I would have beat it by 50 miles. On the bright side I found a great dirt road that The Kel and I need to go back and visit. Ark 63a, no idea where it goes, but I bet we can find out..... Once I got through Mena, AR and over the Ouachita mountains, I was clear of the storm. It hit the mountains and turned north. I made it into Hot Springs much earlier than I had intended, and pretty exhausted. Checked into the hotel, scheduled a spa visit, and surfed.



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Day four has been great. Started the day with an 85 minute massage, and then rode up to Mount Magazine. I wanted to see what the area looked like because we are thinking about taking the Merry Band of Idiots up there for a trip at some point. Ark 7 is as much fun as I remember. Ark 309.....I had to stop halfway up and take a couple pictures. I did not have time to take a solid breath let alone look around. I was very busy with the very tight, very fast, changing elevation curves. I almost poo'd. Starting at Havana, AR at 480 foot elevation and going up to the top at 2300 foot or so was interesting. At the overlook, you are looking down on the town. I could not make out the gas station from there. I want to do it again. Maybe next time on the R90, that would be crazy.



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Ok, fallout time.  Getting up early and headed somewhere new tomorrow.

Dave

Texas Adventure Ride Day 1

     Today was the first day of TAR. The trip to the host hotel and check in. It was actually a very nice ride. I am spending the weekend as The Kel's monkey. Basically, that means I am navigating, acting as the reverse gear, and trying my damnedest to keep the sidecar's wheel on the ground. 

     Tomorrow we get to actually go out and bounce around the back roads of the hill country, but check in day has a charm all its own.  We pulled in about 3:00 in the afternoon.  We were pretty much the first people here.  That means we got to watch all of the other people get in.  The range of people showing up to the rally is amazing.  So fat I have seen everything from the LiFan 200cc Enduro bike, to the normal cast of characters....BMW, KTM, KLR.  Of course, everybody is riding the best bike.  The guys on the small bikes are going to bounce down the trails that are only a couple feet wide.  The guys on the midsize bikes are going to be running dirt roads and maybe some of the trails.  The guys on the Iron Pigs...they are here to go fast on the dirt and gravel roads.  The most humorous part of this whole dynamic is watching them arrive.  The 200 to 450 cc bikes normally show up on trailers.  The 450 to 650 cc bikes tend to ride short distance or trailer long distance.  The big ones tend to ride in.  There are still a few that kind of made us chuckle though.  The guy who rode his 450cc bike in from Colorado helped a guy unload his BMW R1200 GS from a trailer that he pulled down from Ft Worth.

     While standing outside this evening, I was looking at the parking lot.  It was interesting because the parking lot only looked about half full.  For a sold out hotel, it was kind of odd.  Then I realized that there were only 3 cars in the parking lot and the rest were bikes.  I have to say that the distribution of bikes in the parking lot looked kind of like a prison movie.  The big bikes were all fairly evenly spaced around the front of the lot, grouped by manufacturer.  At the back of the parking lot, clustered up at the back of the parking lot backed up against the fence

     Then there is the RV and mobile shop brought in by the CMA.  These guys rock.  The Christian Motorcyclist Association show up at Rallys and set up free hospitality and emergency repair areas just in case you need help.  They also help coordinate roadside rescues if you need it.

    Time to fall out, lots of riding tomorrow, hopefully there will be video and some pictures.

Dave

Day 4, Little things revisited.....

    More little things.....wow.....  If you get enough little things, the big things get drowned out and you don't even notice them anymore.  This trip started kind of odd for me.  The night before we left I got an odd urge to look up my old friend Russell on the internet.  I do it every once in a while, but I don't look that hard.  This time I found him.  A part of me kind of wishes I didn't.  It turns out he died in 2009.

    Russell was a very good friend, a surrogate big brother, a very good mentor.  We spent a lot of time travelling, partying, and doing things best not committed to paper.  He fell off the map back in 1994 when I moved to Austin and he moved out of state.  He was a tattoo artist and a biker.  One of the things I always thought of when I travelled was that I could run into him at any random Denny's or coffee shop, or gas station somewhere in the country.  Maybe we would be going the same direction and ride together, maybe we would just ride off in different directions.  There is a slight possibility that he may even punch me in the mouth for not keeping in touch better.  Either way, that was always a possibility that was ahead of me when I started my bike.  I started off this trip with a bit of sadness over that new discovery.  This time I knew for a fact that I would not run into him in somem dive restaraunt.  The Kel summed it up best when she called him Shrodenger's Biker.  If not observed, he is both alive and dead, around the next curve, or not.....  Now I know.  He is not. 

    This would have been a sad moment for me, but while we were riding the Talimena Skyway we were passed by a pair of riders.  One on an old Moto Guzzi, one on a newer R1200GS.  We let them pass at the beginning of the ride because we were going fairly slow.  We actually met up with them at a scenic overlook and chatted for a few minutes, but let them go ahead of us because we didn't want to slow down ther pace.  We eventually got in to the Queen Wilhelmina Park Lodge, and started getting gear off so we could hit the restrooms and get some lunch.  About that time, those same two guys pulled up and started shucking gear.  I got to talk to the guy on the GS for a bit.  It turns out that the guy on the Guzzi is a bit older and much more experienced rider, the guy on the GS was younger and fairly new.  The older guy was leading the trip and showing all of the out of the way places, and fun that could be had, and the younger guy was following along trying to absorb everything as fast as possible.  That was when it dawned on me that even though Russel died, he really wasn't dead.  He is still out there in the form of every other pissy old biker that is pulling a rookie around with him showing him how to squeeze a bit of fun out of life. 

    After we got inside to get a table, they were totally empty except for one couple.  I dumped my gear on the table to hold our spot.  When we got a good look at the other couple in the restaraunt, it turns out that it was The Kel's Dad and his travelling companion.  500 miles away from home, in an empty restaraunt, and who do we see?....Dad.....wow.....talk about a bit of exploding head syndrome.  We ended up spending much longer at lunch than we expected, and then took a bit shorter route back to the hotel.  Very good roads up here, must come back soon.

    To close it out, we are heading back early.  Our house alarm has been going off every day at 5:30.  No idea why, but it has.  Today was the third false alarm in a row.  It is going to take us 2 days to get home, but that means we will just have one more false alarm before we get there.  Then we can figure out what is up with it.  This is where the little things come in.  Most people would see ending a vacation early as a disaster.  It does kind of suck out loud.  Either way, I got some awesome riding in, saw some beautiful scenery, met some awesome people, and closed out a chapter of my life.  I guess now instead of looking forward to running into Russel on the road somewhere, I should just look forward to turning into a slightly shorter version of him.  I guess that is a fair trade on some level.  Who knows? 

Here is the video for today:

Some footage from my bike.....



Some footage of The Kel



Here is the picture set for today:


Here is the route for today:



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Day 2 and 3

     Yesterday we just kind of poked around Paris, TX.  Kel had never seen the Texas Eiffel Tower or the Jesus in cowboy boots.  I got a few pics, they are up on yesterday's entry.  Today we are in Poteau, OK.  The ride up was pretty much straight through the center of the Choctaw Nation.  There is some very nice scenery up here.  When I get a bit of time, I am going to put some video up of the ride today.  The video is kind of shaky, but it isn't bad.




     We ended up fighting some wind today, but it was worth it.  Tomorrow we are going to explore the Ouachita National Forest.  That will be cool.

     The best part about the ride today was the fact that my mind has finally cleared.  The noise has finally died down and I got the chance to just hang out in my head and not think about anything but the ride.  Basically, we hit the break over point.  It will take us more than one day to get home no matter what we do.  That means we are gone.  I like that.

     This morning in Paris, we hit the cold front.  We rolled out at about 65 degrees.  After a couple months of 100+ degree days, that was downright chilly.  We actually pulled our wind liners out for our jackets.  They didn't stay on past about noon, but that is not the point.  WE USED THEM!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!



     Here is todays route.



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Day 1, a bit late.......

Day One,

    It was a very nice ride today.  We managed to get out of Austin about 8:30 or so.  Road trips have a tendency to take on a theme.  Regardless of what you try to force on it, it will develop on its own.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this trip has already picked its theme.....The little things.

    When I first started riding, I really enjoyed the fact that once you get moving you are on your own.  The only things that really matter are the day to day events that affect whether or not you get home alive.  All of the stuff at home, all of the stuff at work, all of the silly stuff that pollutes your brain and distracts you from just being alive.  When you ride, especially for distance, your entire life is on the bike.  One minute you are admiring the view, the next minute a deer comes out of the brush and sends you sliding down the road.  Any little thing can get you.  Things as small as a bird hitting you or an odd little crease in the the asphalt are all it really takes.  Understanding this, and accepting it, gives you a sense of freedom from the daily noise and lets you really think with a clear head. 

    Getting your brain into this mode makes you notice little things.  The little things that could be deadly, the little things that could be a trip ender, or little things that make you laugh so hard you total your underwear.  Today was all about the little things.  The Kel blew the zipper on her riding pants, she also lost the back half of the sole from a boot.  We also ended up getting trapped for about 15 miles behind a truck pulling a mobile home that was shedding insulation the whole way.

    Now we are sitting in Paris, TX.  Tropical Storm Lee is hitting the gulf coast and making a big mess with high winds and heavy rain.  Our plan is to spend the day around here and shoot some pictures locally.  Then on Monday, we will look how the weather is doing and see where we want to go.  I will get some pics up tomorrow, right now, it is time for bed.

Here is the route for today:


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Here are some pictures:

 


Have fun,

Dave

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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Route 66, Day 9....Last day on the route

Getting up and getting moving was a bit difficult today. This is the last day on the route, and tomorrow we head home. Since we are cutting the trip a bit short, we are just going to take our time getting home. No need to push high mileage days, just move it along home at a leisurely pace.

The thing that has come as the biggest shock to me on this trip is the number of people from other places that I am seeing. I am not talking about other states, I mean other countries. So far, we have seen a group of Germans, a couple groups from Canada, one group from Switzerland, and a whole group from Norway/Sweden. They were a tour group that comes in from Norway and rents Harleys and rides from Chicago to L.A. There were about 20 or so bikes, and they were moving like a band of vikings headed for a village. They pulled into the Midpoint cafe about 10 minutes after we did, took a bunch of pictures, spent a lot of money in the gift shop, had some pie, and rode out in about an hour or so. It was actually kind of scary to watch the ruthless precision with which they moved through the gift shop into the cafe, and then back on the road. While we were at the midpoint, we ran into a few guys from Spain. they started the route in Dallas, and were headed for L.A.

After the midpoint, we went to Glen Rio. This is a little ghost town on the TX/NM border. This is where the First/Last Motel in Texas was located. Here is a shot from the motel.




After that, we took off down the older alignment of 66. It is about 15 miles of unpaved road. This was where the first real pucker of the trip came from. About 5 miles in, I started getting some heavy head-shake from the bike on the gravel. A bit further on, I hit some sand and it threw me into a full on tank-slapper. I managed to ride it out and keep the bike up, but I think I ruined my pants. Turns out Glenn, who was riding behind me, was using me for his canary in a coal mine. When I hit something that threw me sideways, he know to slow down and be gentle with it. Since we were never getting over about 20 mph, Kel and I were both having heat problems. If I could get up to 30 mph, the bikes would cool. The problem with 30 mph is that you are in tank-slapper territory again. I am glad we went down there, but I think one time is enough.

After we got back on pavement, we hit I-40 and ran straight through to the hotel. My nerves were not up for more riding.

Here is today's slideshow:



Here is the day's route:


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Route 66, Day 8....Palo Duro Canyon side trip

We decided to burn a day and go out to Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, we also stopped by Cadillac Ranch on the way. We had a lot of fun at the ranch, and of course I had to mark it. We found some spray paint on the ground and I put my "heart with wings" on a Cadillac. Kel marked it too with a KDVG 2010:





The ride down into the canyon was very twisty, but the speed limit was only 30mph. It was also only about 7 miles to the bottom of the canyon, and then 7 miles coming back up. Unfortunately the video camera failed so I don't have any video of the trip down into the canyon. That just means that we will have to go back

We had lunch at the trading post at the bottom of the canyon and then made it back to the hotel by 3:00.

Tonight we had dinner at The Big Texan. If you ware staying in a hotel along I-40, they will send a car out to pick you up.



Here is our route


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Route 66, Day 7....Amarillo by dinnertime.....

We managed to make our way to the National 66 Museum in Elk City, OK. It is a pretty nice little complex. They have some real neat stuff there. I got a few pics, they are in the slide show further down. Overall it was a very relaxing ride today. We pretty much wanted to get to Amarillo so we vould go and explore some in Palo Duro Canyon and then have dinner at the Big Texan. I think today we actually managed to find a higher percentage of original pavement than we have any other day. Except for about 9 miles on the interstate, we were on Route 66. For most of the trip it was the frontage road, but you have to be very alert and switch sides of the highway or you will be forced onto the interstate due to a creek. This will happen if the bridge is on the other side of the highway. Then there are times where the access road will take off into the middle of nowhere and pass through a few towns and then come back to the interstate.

I think the funniest thing I saw was just west of Texola, OK. When you cross the border you end up on the frontage road of I40. It is a 2 lane 2 way road. The neat part about it is that there were yellow wildflowers growing on the side of the road that were high enough that you could not see I 40, but you could hear it. By the time you got to where the flowers were short enough to see over, we were behind the trees again.

Crossing back into Texas also meant Texas bugs. I collected a huge grasshopper in the cooling fins on my motor. It was kind of scary.

Here is the shot of the U Drop Inn in Shamrock, TX:



It was actually a pretty tiring day of riding for only going about 150 or so miles. Route 66 miles are like dog miles. They feel much longer than the odometer says. This is maily due to the fact that you may end up going 70mph, or you may end up going 10mph on a gravel road. You may also circle an intersection a few times trying to figure out how to get there from here. Then realizing that the only way to get to that section of 66 is to take the back exit of a hotel parking lot.

After we got back from dinner last night, we checked on the bikes and my kickstand had sunk half an inch in the parking lot. The nice people at the Outback Steakhouse gave us a couple small cooking tins to put under the stands so we wouldn't sink.





Here is the route we took, hopefully, I will shoot some video from Palo Duro Canyon tomorrow.


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TTFN

Dave