Day Eleven

We started out the day today in Oro Valley AZ - just south of our only waypoint for yesterday - Catalina.
It cooled off to 82 degrees overnight for our 7:15 AM start, but the temp rose quickly and it was in to 90's by 8:30 AM. This will be a short day today and the first where we don't plan to capture any or our required waypoints. The reason for the short day has to do with our plans to stop at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and we wanted to time that so that it's early in the day when we are there.

So, for today its primarily a scenic travel day. We backtrack northbound on AZ-77 for 11 miles to where we then split of on AZ-79. On the map you can see that this road goes through a large "blank"area between the Coronado National Forest and Valley Farms, and that pretty much describes this leg. Its a long straight flat two lane road with almost nothing but cactus on either side of the road. It's also at just 2000 ft elevation so it is HOT, even at the early hour we are traversing it.

Day 11 Track

We continue on AZ-79 up through Florence AZ until it joins US-60 which will take us up through Gold Canyon and Apache Junction out on the eastern edge of Mesa AZ. From there take N Usery Pass Rd and Bush Hwy to get us up into the Tonto National Forest and a scheduled break stop at the Saguaro Lake. We scheduled this stop in order to meet up with a fellow rider friend we knew who used to live in Bradenton FL and rode with us a few times but he's since moved out here to AZ.  We told Mike that we would meet him at 9:00 AM and we rolled in at 9:08 AM. We had coffee overlooking the Saguaro Lake and chatted about our current trip, Mike's latest motorcycle adventures and life in general, and we still managed to only stay there for an hour before moving on up the road. I should add that Mike donated a set of foot pegs for my bike that really help on long rides like this one. Thanks Mike!

So, its 10:10 AM, we've covered 108 miles so far and we are at just under 1500 ft elevation so the temp is 95 degrees as we head north on Bush Hwy. However, we are just starting a climb in altitude that will take us up to 7114 ft over the next 80 miles. When we hit the 4000 ft mark the temp drops 5 degrees and is noticeably instantly. The road is fun riding with plenty of sweeping turns and light traffic so we are enjoying that, especially when the temps drop to 90, and eventually all the way back down into the mid 80's at the peak which is about 20 miles north of Payson AZ. From there we will descend back down to about 3000 ft and that means back up into the 90's again. This heat and elevation will last from Camp Verde on up through Sedona until we climb back up at the end of Oak Creek Canyon. So from a riding perspective today was pretty much a totally awesome enjoyable ride.

So, by now you've figured out that we went up through Sedona AZ. While we didn't stop in town, I did take quite a few pictures from my helmet cam so here are a couple of the better ones.

Road coming into Sedona AZ

Road coming into Sedona AZ

Downtown Sedona

Downtown Sedona

We ended our day on the south side of Flagstaff, AZ.

Today's stats: 277 miles in 7:29 elapsed time, 5:08 saddle time.

Day Ten

Ten days on the road - really getting into the routine now. Have fully acclimated to the time zone change, just in time too as it changes again later today!

We did our usual routine and we off just a few minutes after 7:00 local time. It was just 66 when we left the hotel so we both had our jacket liners in. A one exit stint on the interstate brought us back to NM-117 which reminded me a lot of NM-107 which we ran the other day. he temp dropped another 2 degrees and then I realized that we are at 6000+ ft of elevation and will be climbing to as high as 9500 ft before the morning is out. 117 runs southwesterly along the Acoma Indian reservation and along the edge of the El Malpais National Monument. While not particularly twisty, the views along the road are quite striking. Towering rock formations all along the way coupled with fields of amber grass made for a very scenic ride. We weren't on this road 10 minutes when we encountered a family of Elk crossing the road. Larry was leading and I saw his brakes lights light at the same time as I spotted the 3 elk which had just crossed the road and were now jumping the fence on our left. I looked back at Larry and saw he was braking even harder and only then saw the mother elk who had just jumped the fence on the right side of the road and was now jumping back over to her two waiting calves. This would turn out to set the stage for a day full of animal sightings.

Day 10 Track

From there we turns south on NM-36 for a short hop to Quemado where we got on US-60 which would brings us southwest and across the border to AZ and Springerville. Not far on 36 I spot a tiny little rabbit run out from the left side of the road and right in front of Larry who somehow managed to miss the little guy as I saw him the continue off the the right side of the road and disappear in to the scrub. One lucky little rabbit!
Now on US-60, Larry radios did I see the grey fox on the left. I missed him as I was focused further on up the road,but apparently he crossed the road from right to left. Shortly after we crossed the border into Arizona. Since Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings time, it is now 8:10 AM - or the same time it was when we left the hotel 118 miles ago! Just a few miles after crossing the border we spot our first State Highway patrol car of the day - the first of several for the day which is more that we've seen on the entire trip so far. We rode into Springerville AZ at 8:24 AM local time having ridden 132 miles so we are ready for a break. We grab some coffee at the MickeyD's and 40 minutes later we are heading out again.

From there we turn onto AZ-260 which will bring us across the Apache National Forest. It also brings us across our highest elevation of the day at 9182 ft. This is another beautiful stretch of road with little or no traffic. It is still comfortable at 70 degrees, due to the elevation. This road is mostly winding through the Ft Apache Indian Reservation. This brings us up to our scheduled fuel stop at the Hon-Dah Casino Convenience store. This is an Indian run casino/gas station/convenience store that is a bustling place. When we pull in there is a group of cruiser riders there and when they spot us they immediately come over and are admiring the bikes. A nice group, they introduce themselves and chat us up for a bit.

From here we turn off 260 and head south on AZ-73. We are starting a steady descent of altitude now, sometimes as much a 7% grades. We drop 4000 feet in less than 20 miles. As we descend the temps start rising and we hit 80 for the first time of the day. Then we come through a rather large community named Whiteriver which is a sprawling Indian community spread out along the White River. Here, in the middle of town, we come up on a group of 7 horses, just grazing by the side if the road, not in any one's yard - like right on a corner of a street like they were waiting for the bus or something. Not something you see everyday. We continue on until we back onto US-60 again where we turn southwest headed for Globe AZ. This stretch of road turns out the be the most fun of the day, a real motorcyclists road with lots of twists and turns and elevation changes. The only limiting factors are the low mostly 55 MPH speed limit, and moderate traffic with fewer opportunities for passing. Oh, and some tar snakes too. But even with all that we manage to have our fun and we stopped for  couple of photos showing some of the scenery.

Deep River Gorge view from turnout 

If you look closely you can see three tiers for the road we are riding on

Eventually we work our way into Globe AZ. There has been NOTHING for services since we left the Hon-Dah Casino, and unlike Larry I neglected to eat anything at our coffee break so I am famished. We find a local cafe and get some really good tasting reuben sandwiches for lunch. When we leave the restaurant the temp is not well into the 90's. We don our wet shirts under our mesh jackets and head off on our final leg for the day. 90 miles to Oro Valley (just north of Tuscon). This will be more twisty winding route, but now our elevation is low and getting lower. It is getting rally hot, as we bottom out at 2000 ft elevation, the temperature jumps to 109 degrees! That lasted some 15 miles or so and then we climb a bit and the temps drop to a bearable 99 or so. We still have another 50 miles to go

We make our only waypoint of the day, Catalina just 7 miles before the end of the day. The post office, as it turns out, is a contract post and has NO signage signifying the city so we loop back to the city limit sign and get what we need there.

Catalina city limit

We get into our hotel, unload the bikes, take showers to cool off and make phone calls. Then we head out to get dinner and as we walk out of the hotel lobby, there on the driveway, not 10 feet in front of us is a roadrunner. just walking calmly across the parking lot, he spots us and nonchalantly continues at a sauntering pace until he disappears into the brush at the edge of the parking lot.

Stats for the day: 374.7 miles in 8:31 elapsed time, 6:34 saddle time.

Day Nine

We got a good start on a beautiful day today. On the road just a few minutes after 7:00 AM and we're just 70 or so miles from the NM border. It's going to be a lot of interstate today, but we do have one promising road along the way. On I-40 in Amarillo, right when we get on, there's a military convoy that, coupled with a construction zone slows things up a bit, but we're soon out of town, past the convoy and the speed limit is up to 75 MPH. The skies are perfectly clear for a change and the temp was 68 when we left the hotel, but falling slightly as we head west. Larry had the forethought to don a long sleeve liner, but I am "roughing it" with just my mesh jacket over a short sleeve shirt. I am right on the borderline of being chilly but its tolerable and I do expect the temps to increase soon.

Day Nine Track

We make the NM border in an hour and ten minutes, and the temp is holding at 66. Larry reminds me that we are at 4000 ft of elevation so that is why the temp isn't increasing very fast. We have another 41 miles to Tucumcari where we get off the interstate so I am thinking I'll see what the temp is doing then. We also change time zones here so it is now 5 minutes before we left this morning! We make Tucumcari at 8:45 AM and is has warmed back up to 68 so I don't bother with making any gear change. We are getting onto NM-104 for no other reason than it's not interstate and is going in the general direction we want to go. Well, that and Larry just can't resist ANY squiggly lines on the map ;-)

This NM-104 is 107 miles from Tucumcari to Las Vegas (NM, not the "big one"). It runs out a man made lake held back by the Army Corp of Engineers Conchas Dam. It may look like this would be some kind of tourist destination, and there may be a few - VERY FEW - from what we saw when we got out there, but as we head out of Tucumcari the road appears to be deserted. We didn't see another car for quite a long while and over the entire length I'd say we saw maybe 10 other cars on the road - if that. I ran a search for coffee shops along the way and for the first time ever it came back and said NONE! The posted speed limit was a paltry 55 MPH which I really did try to stay at but I couldn't stand that for long. We slowly inched up to 60, then 65 and eventually were maintaining close to 70 much of the way. It turned out to be a really fun motorcycle road. No traffic, a good amount of twists and turns and a lot of elevation changes all combined to make it a definite smile maker. The elevation undulated as I mentioned, but is was also gently climbing from our start at 4000 ft to about 5000 ft at the 75 mile mark. It was here that it got even better, because in the next 25 miles we climbed from 5000 to 7000 ft. In doing so we got much tighter and steeper turns to make the climb, with the only downside that there was a lot of falling rocks very near the side of the road so we had to maintain a margin of sfety watching out for that. At one point I spotted what I would estimate to be at least a 3 ton boulder that looked as if it fell within the last day or so sitting right on the very edge of the road! We also passed several "communities" - a term which I use lightly because most looked like if they had 30 people that was being optimistic. The scenery all along the was was stunning.- rough and tumble scrub brush over soaring mesas and wind and water cut arroyos with all kinds of stunning rock formations. I am sure there is an interesting story behind the geology of this area.

We eventually reach the town of Las Vegas NM where we have a fuel stop planned and then we ae looking for coffee. I run another GPS search and what pops up - another Daylight Donuts! Its about a mile and a half off our route but we've just made a 220 mile run with no stops so feel like we deserve it. After a few donuts and some coffee we are ready to hit the road again. We are back in the interstate now - I-25, but it gets really scenic soon as we head northwards up through the Santa Fe National Forest. The road climbs and dips and wends its wal around, all at a posted speed limit of 75 MPH so it makes for a decent ride up into Santa Fe.

Once off the highway we have another  3 to 4 miles of city streets at mostly 25 MPH to get to the post office. Then, just as we are within a half mile, a police car pulls out in front of the line of traffic we are in to block traffic for some sort of PARADE! We sit there for a few unbelieving minutes and then Larry spots a passerby and asks whats going on and is ther a way around. The gentleman tells us exactly how to work round so we make a u-turn and follow the directions an get to the post office in another 5 minutes of so. So by now you know we are looking for signs that list the City and State names for our location photos. So what do we find here?

Partially obstructed signage at Santa Fe NM

Larry's wasn't much better -

We aren't happy with these so we run some GPS searches for a police station - they usually have the city and state on their sign right? Well, the first one we go to is a police substation - and it says simply Santa Fe Police. So I run another search and it lists the main police station as just a block off our route so off we go.

Here's the results there:

What is it with no STATE???

Well, we decide this will have to do so we decide to head on up the road. We thought about lunch since it is now noon (local time), but Larry is still so full from donuts we put lunch off for now. So its back onto the interstate heading for Albuquerque. We make that in 40 more minutes and decide to stop at a MacDonalds for a quick light lunch. That's about it for the day. We pull into Grants NM 75 miles later at 2:30 PM local time. We had booked this hotel yesterday and though we could have gone further it was getting into the 90's and we did cover 420+ miles already today. This will give us time for the blog and some errands we want to get caught up on.

Stats for today: 432.6 in 8:37 elapsed time, 6:47 saddle time.

Day Eight - Start of Week 2

Given that we've been sleeping later each morning, I set an alarm on my Ipod touch for 6:00 AM. I awoke to the tunes I have programmed so I guess it was a good thing. Same routine, get dressed, load the bikes. get hotel breakfast and leave. And it goes according to plan and we are out the parking lot at exactly 7:00 AM.

Day 8 Track Hutchinson KS to Amarillo, TX

It is very cloudy and VERY windy. We got onto KS-61 for a 52 mile leg southwesterly and the wind is definitely going to be a factor today. We can see how it is dropping our gas mileage by at least 10 MPG or more and we expect it to only get worse as the day goes on. Then we turn directly west and the wind is now blowing 25+ MPH directly out of the south, hitting us directly on the sides and it makes for very difficult riding. The bikes are leaned over into the wind and your neck strains with the wind. When trucks pass in the opposite lane, you tend to get sucked towards the centerline and then back again. We have to endure this for another 50 miles or so before we tun NNW which puts the wind more to our backs and lessens the impact greatly. We continue like this until we get into Dodge City for our first waypoint of the day. By the time we arrive there we are both complaining of sore necks.

Dodge City, KS

After the post office, we're in need of a break so we find a very conveniently located Daylight Donut shop just a block down the road. We're finding these all over the place and we really like the donuts! We don't dally too long though and then we're off towards our end goal of the day Amarillo, TX. ON the way though we are going to be running a gauntlet of storms and dealing with that wind I mentioned. The good news is our first leg out of town is directly south and head long into the wind. This continues to hurt our gas mileage, but it is much easier to ride in. Eventually though we do have to tun south westerly and we again are contending with the wind. In addition to that I can see the tell tale signs of a super cell developing out ahead of us and can only hope that we manage to run our from under it before it lets loose. It is tough and go but we manage to get to Liberal KS where we decide to stop for an early lunch because further down our route there is very little to count on for food. We find a nice little cafe and get a really satisfying lunch. I had a post roast dinner with carrots and green beans, while Larry had a meatloaf dinner with mashed potatoes and carrots. All that for like $12.00!

We get back on the bikes and the state border is just a few more miles. Since we weren't too happy with the previous photos of the Oklahoma border, we decide to try this one and it works out much better.

Better shot of Oklahoma Border sign

From here we have the Oklahoma panhandle to cross and its relatively short - about 35 miles. The rain and clouds continue to dog us, but almost as soon as we cross the Texas border things start improving. We still have the wind, but with the hillier terrain of Texas, coupled with the fact that we are mostly running directly into it its far less a factor than this morning. Plus the clouds have now parted and given way to sunny skies!
This does mean that for the first time in two days we will see the temps rise close to or over 90 but we're hydrating well and it isn't any real problem. From the Border to Amarillo, its 131 miles for us and with the raised speed limits in TX we make that in 2 and a half hours. We do have to slow down through a dozen or so towns along the way, and we have to stop for gas in Spearman TX due to the reduced MPG's from the wind. Then we also take a little bypass on some twisty roads around Borger TX so that's why it took as long as it did.Oh yeah, one more photo stop too.

Amarillo TX

This gets us into our hotel a little earlier than usual, so we take advantage of it by doing some laundry and working on our routes for the next few days. I also manage to get caught up on the blog!

Stats for the day: 381.4 miles in 8:13 elapsed time, 6:25 saddle time.

Day Seven - One Week Out

So we begin our seventh day with our same routine, though we slept in even later this morning - 6:30 AM. We might have been late leaving had it not been for the fact that the hotel breakfast was essentially non-existent. We went to the breakfast room and noted there was no fruit of any kind anywhere in sight. We went to fill bowls with cereal when the attendant informs us "there's no milk - there is oatmeal". So I pick up an oatmeal packet and look for hot water and don't see any so I ask do you have hot water, to which she answers "you'll have to microwave it". Well, that was enough for us. We dropped everything and just walked out. We got on the bikes and left the parking lot at 7:00 AM sharp. We were going to wait for breakfast until we got to our first waypoint in Hennessy, but I was leading today and hungry so I ran some GPS searches of the route ahead and it didn't look promising. As luck would have it we had just turned a bend in a little town called Minko when I spotted a diner that wasn't listed on the GPS. We pulled in and it turned out to be a great breakfast. Bacon, eggs, toast and coffee for $6.50 and the bacon was probably the best either one of us could remember. We also chatted with another rider who was already there. He was a retired crop duster who had a bad plane crash so was now retired and just out for a breakfast ride. He seemed a little jealous of us and our ride. We continue northbound on US-81. It takes us an hour and ten minutes to cover the 60 miles up to Hennessey and there we snag our first waypoint of the day - The Hennessey Post Office.

Now we head direct east on OK-51. Its a two lane road that is very straight, but it does undulate up and down hills. There is a lot of farming and mining activity all along it and we spot numerous oil wells and supporting infrastructure all along this road. We stop for a coffee break in Stillwater which is just about the half way point between Hennessey and Tulsa. After the break we continue on 51 and work our way into downtown Tulsa seeking the main post office there. When we arrive we find a building that is a full city block in size, and though we find two entrances, none of them is labeled with the words "Tulsa, Oklahoma". We're not sure if this will do but here's what we got for photos.

We're running low on fuel so next stop is gas. We find a station, fill up and head out northbound on US-75 for a bit before we turn northwest onto OK-11 which turns out to be a sweet little road through the Osage Indian Reservation. Almost NO other traffic, and gently twisting turning and hilly roads. It was only 26 miles but by far the most fun riding of the day.

From there we get on 60/99 just north of Wynona and that turns us westward and takes us over to Ponka City. This is still Indian reservation territory but the road is much straighter now. All this time the weather has been deteriorating with clouds building and the winds have really picked up a lot. As we head through Ponka City the skies ahead are looking ominous. We continue with fingers crossed and as we get up through Arkansas City we catch some sprinkles from a storm off to our east. We were VERY fortunate as it looked like a big one and we are running now on wet roads, obviously from that storm that conveniently moved out of our way just in time! We continue north to Augusta where we turn west and head into Wichita. It's still cloudy but not threatening rain just yet. The traffic is tedious though with traffic and lights as we get closer and closer to the downtown. We finally reach the post office and get our photos. Just as we are set to leave, it starts to sprinkle!

As we head out of town towards the interstate it continues to sprinkle. Then when we get on the highway it starts raining harder and we're contemplating stopping to gear up, but Larry thinks we're going to run out of it so we hang in there and sure enough after another 5 minutes or so the road turns more westward and the rain tapers off and the further we go the better the skies are looking. I radio to Larry what a charmed life he's leading. We continue on into Hutchinson, KS where we spend the night.

Stat's for the day:  435.2 miles in 8:13 elapsed time, 6:25 saddle time.

For the week: 2,806 miles in 65:13 elapsed time, 51:05 saddle time

Day Six

Like a well oiled machine...

So as usual, Larry is awake first and gets up, then turns on the light and says "Bill, we slept in this morning - its 6:00 AM" I chuckled as I hardly call that "sleeping in" but, it was nice to get a few extra minutes. We both felt like we slept really well which isn't always a given out on the road in a different room every night.

We started packing the bikes and it was already 79 degrees with a heavy overcast. The radar didn't show anything local, though there was a large storm sweeping southeast out of the Oklahoma panhandle which we were concerned we might get caught in later in the day. We went for the hotel breakfast and it was rather disappointing. absolutely NO fruit available, and they had only decaf coffee... Looks like we'll be looking for doughnuts and coffee again :-)

Day 6 Track Austin TX to Chickasha OK

As we mount up to leave, it is trying hard to sprinkle but nothing for us to worry about. We hit the road at 7:07 AM and find pretty heavy traffic as we try to head out of Austin. Nothing horrendous, but tedious for sure. It stays heavy for longer that I would have expected considering we are headed OUT of town. Eventually it thins and we're running free and just about that time the skies finally open up with some light steady rain. Not quite heavy enough to force a gear change, but enough to cook the temps back into the mid 70's. It  didn't last long though, maybe 20 minutes or so and then we were in the clear and close to our first waypoint of the day - the LBJ National Historical Park in Johnson City TX which we make at 8:00 AM.

LBJ National Historic Park in Johnson City TX

Our next stop will be for fuel. I have been using gasbuddy to figure out the best places along our routes to find the best prices for gas. I figure we're saving at least .10 per gallon sometimes .20 or more. I just one week I've already used 64 gallons so it does add up. We are heading directly north now on US-291 and will be for much of the day. It's a mostly two lane highway, but with LOTS of passing lanes and although this lower section runs through Texas Hill Country, the traffic is light and its easy to pass whenever necessary. We make great time and pull into Lampasas TX where we find gas for $3.37. On the way into town we spotted a donut shop so guess where we went next. we spend about a half hour on coffee and donuts and chat up some locals in the store and then we're back on the road again by 9:46 AM.

This US-291 is long, straight and a rather long stretch is under construction - mostly break down lane renovation, but also re-paving the main road as well. There is one section where they are paving and its down to a one-lane road with a pilot vehicle to follow for a couple of miles. We manage to get up to the end of that line just as the pilot car is leaving - great timing - and since Larry is leading today he gets the credit. Once we get out from behind the pilot car, we have some trucks to pass but soon we are running free again and even in the construction zone the speed limit is still 65 MPH. Gotta love Texas! We found a diner in Mineral Wells that turned out to be a good find. Nice change from fast food chains. They had a meatloaf dinner with mashed potato and gravy and carrots, bread, dessert and a drink for just $5.99! The service was great and our food came quickly so we were back on the road in just a half an hour. Before long we get up to Jacksboro TX where we peel off US-291 and head north east on TX-59.

TX-59 is a bit twistier than 291 and we were rolling right along further up the road when suddenly Larry radios me "Did you see that gal trying to change her tire". He's following me and I certainly didn't see anyone, but he said I think we should turn around and offer assistance. For me - Damsel in distress - heck yeah let's help, so we did a 180 and about 1/4 back sure enough in what looked to be an unused rest are there's a gal, maybe in her early 20's, wearing flip flops and have very nicely painted nails - both fingers and toes matching - trying her best to break the lug nuts free on her left rear tire. We roll up and offer our help and she gladly accepts. I take the lug wrench and break the first nut free and it was tight! All the rest were too so its a good thing we came along as I doubt she would have been able to break them free on her own. Larry then works on removing the lug nuts while I am jacking the car up and we had that tire changed in under 10 minutes. We wisher he well, she shook our hands and thanks us and that was our good deed for the day. Shortly after this we get to Bowie TX where we now pick up US-81 and head directly north again. Just after the first small town, Ringgold, we approach and cross the state border into Oklahoma. But back at the border, we're trying to get a photo and unlike most other states that have a sign close to the road, here they have a nice looking stone monument type sign that simply says "Oklahoma", but it is very far back from the side of the road. See if you can spot in in the following photo

Oklahoma Border

We're now just 80 or so miles from our planned overnight stop in Chickasha, OK. We will make one more stop - another planned one for fuel in Comanche - because we get gas for $3.38 a gal vs the $3.58 or more it will be in Chickasha. While we are fueling up a local runs up to Larry wanting to know what he has in the thermos on the back seat to which Larry replies "water". The guy then asks if he can put whiskey in instead to which Larry replies - what makes you sure I don't already. He also asked about his riding suit - seemed to me like the guy should just go get a motorcycle.

So we get into Chickasha, and we didn't make a reservation ahead of time. We picked an "Americas Best Value" motel based primarily on its proximity to the Western Sizzler right next door. We go to check in and the manager is "on an errand" for 15 minutes so we wait. Eventually he shows up and we get checked in, make a quick unload of the bikes and change into street clothes. But during the day I have thought up a lan to recover my ride from my lost flag. I figure that the local Staples should be able to scan in Larry's flag and then photoshop in my number and print it back out so that I will have a replacement flag. Turns out the Staples is almost within walking distance of the motel so we jump back on the bikes and head over there. Sure enough there's someone in the printing section who is able to do exactly what I proposed - all while we are waiting and it ends up costing me just $4.00! So it appears that I am back in the game.

We go back to the hotel and immediately walk over to the Western Sizzler for dinner. Only when we get back to the hotel do we discover that our internet wifi is poor at best, and even at that it is up and down at least every 10 minutes. I try for some time to write this blog, but the wifi keeps freezing and I end up losing paragraphs at a time so I finally give up. I end up writing most of this and adding the pictured on Thursday night. Oh yeah, we 're ready to go to bed and Larry realizes that we don't have regular pillows on the bed. Instead there are large throw pillows - I guess so they can save on washing pillow cases... Larry uses a bath towel to cover his. I "roughed it" and went without. Little do we know what is to come...

Day Five

As usual, with our fifth day upon us, we're starting to get into the routine. Arose again at 5:45 AM, loaded the bikes (it was heavily overcast, but not raining - yet), had the hotel breakfast and went to the bikes to mount up - and it starts sprinkling. We needed to get gas so we didn't gear up and rode across the street to the Murphy station. As we are riding over it starts with a heavy drizzle, so after fueling up we decide to put on the rain gear. As usual, putting in the gear has caused the rain to stop - temporarily. We head out at 7:00 AM sharp westbound on I-20 for about 7 miles before heading southwest on US-79. In just a few minutes we are crossing the border into Texas.

 Larry's GPS is still having issues with shutting off randomly, but worst of all is that although the route is loaded, he has no maps on his display and no route line, making it less that helpful. To make matters worse, my GPS is trying to route us a different way, and it takes 10 minutes or so before I finally figure out there is an errant waypoint in my route. Once I figure that out and delete it, "Jill" re-calculates the route and we are good to go.

The skies are getting darker and heavier with clouds by the minute. It was just about 7:30 AM when the rain really began, and it got heavy very fast. The lightning was striking frequently but there was no where for us to stop for cover. We were REALLY GLAD we had put on the rain gear, but even with that Larry was dropping back a bit due to heavy fogging of his glasses. We pressed on and it lightened up a bit as we went through Carthage TX and I was hoping the worst was over, but that was not to be. Shortly after it intensifies again (both the rain and the lightning) and we're stuck just trying to make our way through. Eventually it does actually taper off and by 8:15 AM we are pretty much out of it just running on wet roads now. By 8:30 we are back on dry pavement and it's looking like we're managed to "punch through" the front and come out south of it into warm and sunny weather. We stop at a doughnut shop in Tenaha TX to shed the rain gear (it's too hot when its not raining) and we grab coffee and doughnuts while we kick around ideas on how to fix Larry's GPS.

Day 5 Track

After blowing off a half hour we're back in the saddle and heading down the road. While the Texas roads aren't as curvy as Arkansas, they do offer a mostly 65 MPH and frequently a 75 MPH speed limit for even two lane roads. Needless to say we are making good time with those speed limits. The scenery isn't half bad, especially as we ride through the Angelina National Forest and cross over the Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Just after this we are on the lookout for our first waypoint of the day - the Tyler County Line - for the Presidential GT. We find it pretty much where we had it located on the GPS and snag the required photos.

Tyler County Line for the Presidential GT

We continue south until we get to Woodville, TX where we pick up US-190 and now head west. That brings us up around and over the tip of Lake Livingston - another touristy area with lots of boating related activity. That also reduced the speed limits to 55 to 60 for a while, but that's OK because it stretches the gas mileage and we're planning on making 300 miles on this tank today. Oh we did have to stop near here because Larry thought he had a bee stuck in his jacket on his back. We never found anything, and he didn't appear to have any stings, but it was a good excuse to stop for a break anyhow.At this point, we've already got 200 miles behind us and its only 10:00 AM.

We keep on heading west and SHOULD have stopped in Huntsville TX for lunch, but we were so busy looking for a suitable Route 30 sign (one where we can safely stop and get photos) that we manage to ride right in and then out of town without doing so. The good news is that we are now ON TX-30 so we eventually come across a sign by the side of the road and away from the city streets and with a nice big breakdown lane to pull well off of to get our photos.

Route 30 Sign for the Team Strange 30th Anniversary GT

We are now less than 50 miles from College Station TX which is the home town of Texas A&M University, and more importantly for us, the George Bush Presidential Library. As we roll into College STation, our firt order of business is fuel. We have just run 277 miles on this tank so are getting low. Next up is LUNCH. It's 12:30 PM local time and we've been on the road since 7:00 AM so we are hungry. We find a Panda Express that uncharacteristically is NOT inside a Mall - it's a store in a strip mall and just down the street from the Bush Library. This was my first time eating at his franchise and I was very pleasantly surprised.
It was certainly one of the healthier meals I've had in days and a decent value to boot.

Finally, after lunch we are heading into the Library. We stop at the front entrance and consider using the sign there but decide to go further in to see if there is anything better. After winding around a ways we arrive near the fron entrance, but you can't get a vehicle any closer that several hundred feet to the doors. Definitely a security measure but it makes getting a decent photo very problematic. We did grab a few but as we left, I opted to stop again at the outside entrance where we grebbed a much better photo.

Can you read the name over the glass doors way in the background?

Now we know where we are

It's getting HOT now and our next waypoint is the LBJ National Historical Park, but that is further away than we are likely to make tonight. Unlike the past two nights we do NOT have a hotel booked ahead. So, we head out on our route and just try to make some miles while we can. Well, with the heat comes the growing threat of thunderstorms. We can see the clouds building ahead and decide that maybe we should over-night in Austin.I find a hotel in the GPS and make it our destination, but before we get there I decide we need one more break so we find a convenient McDonalds and go in for a snack, I'm just munching on fruit roll ups while Larry goes to the counter to order a strawberry sundae. A woman sitting in the booth behind me strikes up a conversation with me and is just thrilled to hear the story of our ride. It turns out she hosts a public access TV show in Austin called Austin City Lights. She goes by the name of "Flash Jordan". She was quite a hoot and we had a good time chatting. I gave her the name of this blog so am hoping she finds it!

The rest of the day finishes in short simple order. We swing into Austin proper - just before the evening rush hour and get into our hotel room just before a rather large thundercloud approaches but never quite gets to us. Larry gets on the phone with Garmin for the third time, but it looks like this time may have been the charm as he now has a route loaded and maps showing and the GPS isn't crashing so - fingers crossed for tomorrow when it's his turn to lead.

Today's stats: 385 miles in 8:56 elapsed time, 6:43 moving time.

Day Four

So we finally seem to be getting better the time zone thing. Didn't get up until 5:40 AM local time today. Go through the routine of loading the bikes (several trips from room to bikes with clothes, gear, water/ice etc.) and then we had a nice breakfast while chatting with a local fellow. We got off right at 7:00 AM sharp on a partially cloudy morning with a temp of 72 degrees. Just about as good as it gets for riding a motorcycle!

We head directly south to get out of town and then turn west on AR-25 aka Heber Springs Rd. and oh my goodness what a fun road this is. Everything from steep twisting climbs to graceful high speed sweeping turns. Traffic is mostly light and we are very happy riders. It stays this way over to Heber Springs which is a touristy area located at a huge man-made lake named Greer's Ferry Lake. We could have bypassed around the town but Larry was leading and had deliberately routed us through town and that included yet more fun roads we would have otherwise missed. We continue on AR-25 until we get onto US-65 which is a wider straighter road but that doesn't have quite the "fun factor". US-65 has us headed into Conway AR, and it appears some weather. The skies have been getting heavier with clouds and just as we head into Conway it begins to rain. We duck into a gas station to gas up since we're close to needing it anyways and I elect to don my rain gear while Larry decides to hold off as yet. We continue navigating into and out of Conway and lo and behold the weather slowly and magically improves! We have about 12 miles before we get to Houston AR where we locate the post office and get our first waypoint for the day.

We're ready for a break now, but there is nothing in Houston so we head on to the next town - Perryville. We roll into town and start looking for a diner or coffee shop. We stumble across a place called Mustang Sally's which has a catchy name.

Unfortunately, it's closed, but then we spot another place just across the street - Mainstreet Daylight Donuts.

Sounds good so in we go. A nice lady greets us enthusiastically and serves up some AWESOME coffee and donuts. Oh and how about .75 a doughnut and .79 for a LARGE coffee? We chatted with the owner for a while and managed to poop off a half an hour before getting back on the road.

But here's where the real fun starts! We are now on AR-9, which runs down alongside the eastern edge of the Ouchita National Forest. Once again more fun that should be legal all the way down to where 9 ends at AR-5 just west of Benton AR where we miss a planned turn and have to swing back to find it. When we do, we are surprised by the street sign for "Narrows Rd" which points down what looks more to be a driveway than a road. Undaunted, we take this and it lives up to its name but continues the motorcycling nirvana for yet another 7 miles until we come out on US-70. This drops us down by the southeast corner of Hot Springs AR and another heavy tourist area - Lake Hamilton. Lots of boating, expensive condos and homes overlooking the lake.We're now on AR-7 which is well known as a great motorcycle road, though this southern end isn't nearly as nice as the section above Hot Springs. This does swing us down by yet another huge man made lake -  DeGray Lake. Before long we are getting onto I-30 for about an 80 mile stretch of , well, interstate highway. :-( The good news is that the weather has held out and the temps haven't risen over 90 yet!

We roll into Texarcana and follow the GPS to where the post office is supposed to be and nothing... So I run a search and find another post office listed at 2.5 miles from where we are. Off we go with me in the lead and eventually (after some zig-zagging on neighborhood streets) we arrive at a pot office and get the required photos.

So now we ar ready to strike out towards our final destination of the day in Shreveport LA. As we head out of town we note an substantial uptick in the winds. We get routed on a semi-interstate bypass Hwy 549 and the winds are VERY strong - to the point of making a significant difference in our gas mileage for this stretch. I'm talking 34-38 MPG vs the 43-50 MPG we have been getting. Fortunately that leg is only about 25 miles ans then we're on AR-71 which is not elevated like the 549 was an this has plenty of trees lining the sides to stop the winds so out MPGs go back to normal. We ride the last 45 miles down into Shreveport and locate the post office there rather directly. It is only then, as we dismount and I go to set up my "rally flag" for the photo op that I realize that the flag is GONE. It had been tethered to the bike with shoelaces and the tucked under a pair of bungy cords on the pack directly behind me on the passenger seat. Somehow, it managed to come loose of the bungy cords and must have then been hanging out in the wind-stream and eventually broke free of the shoelace tethers. Don't know what can be done about this yet. It may mean that I am unable to submit sufficient documentation to certify the tours. Hopefully we'll be able to work out an alternative to that but I am already waiting for a response to my email inquiring about the issue. We get Larry's photo and head off to tonight's hotel located just a few miles from here.

Thus ends Day four. We rode 365 miles today.

Day Three

One would think that we would be getting used to the time change by now, but what time did Larry turn on the light in the hotel room? Try 4:30 AM local time! I got up and wondered why it was still dark... Well we were up so we got ready to leave but since the hotel breakfast wasn't until 6:30 we sure weren't going to wait around for that. We walked over to the gas station to buy some coffees, and it was closed. By now it was just starting to get daylight so we made coffee in the room (UGH!) and then we got gas (at the closed station but the pumps were open). We got on the road at 6:09 AM local time. That actually worked out well because it again gave us the nicest part of the day for the ride and left us time to get into the hotel at the end of the day with time to do some laundry.

We had just a short one exit hop on I-20 to get over to the beginning of a day of mostly secondary roads up along the north eastern border of Louisiana and then the eastern side of Arkansas. We skirted alongside several lakes that were formed by back-washes of the Mississippi River, and in fact we spent some of the day running on "The Great River Road". At one point while still in LA, we were running up alongside a large cornfield on the right and some woods on the left. It was Bill's tun to lead so he had the thrill to come around a bend and spot a fairly large black bear sitting smack in the center of the road. The bear saw Bill at the same time and he jumped up and then took a quick look before sprinting off into the corn field.

The day was mostly overcast, which was nice because it kept the temps from rising too fast and didn't require sunglasses which was a nice change. There was no threat of rain until after 2:00 PM.

By 7:00 AM we were crossing the border into Arkansas. We needed to get a photo of the Louisiana State border sign so rather than wait until the other side of the state we swung around and got it here.

Twenty five miles further north we stopped for a coffee break at Lake Village AR. The rest of the morning was fairly un-eventful save for the pair of little black puppies wandering across the road. Bill managed to avoid them, but they were so small and so far from any homes we really were concerned for their well being, but being on the bikes there really wasn't much we could do about them. I hope somebody didn't just dump them there and maybe someone in a car would come along and pick them up.

The 155 miles from Lake Village up through to Forrest City were pretty mundane but pleasant secondary roads meandering through farm country. Lots of corn, soybeans and we thing we saw some peppers as well. Lot's of irrigation keeping all that agriculture going but no worries about the supply - the rivers we saw were full up and in some places even over the banks.

We gassed up again in Forrest City and then we came into some really sweet motorcycle roads between there and Wynne, AR. Really nice twisting, undulating road was Hwy 284 along the western border of the Village Creek State Park. It was only 16 miles but it really made our day and was the best riding since we started this trip.

We finally got up to Jonesboro AR and stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. We had been wanting to break the fast food habit of the past few days, but being it was a Sunday most of the few diners along the way had been closed. We got into the Cracker Barrel at right about noon local time and the place was PACKED full of the after church crowd. We felt a bit under-dressed in the company but nobody seemed to mind. We had a nice lunch and were back at it in no time. It wasn't too long and we were rolling into Black Rock AR - which was our primary target for today's ride. We found the post office easier than most to date and got the following photo.

From there we were on the home stretch. Rain was beginning to become a real possibility but the GPS said we had only an hour to go to the hotel so we put the spurs to it and headed out. We did come across another stretch of sweet riding roads, though we also did get some sprinkles that wet the road enough to make us reign in our enthusiasm just a bit. We never did have to break out the rain gear and we rolled into the hotel parking lot in Batesville AR at just a few minutes before 4:00 PM local time.

From there we had the chance to do laundry, go for a swim in the pool, get dinner, get a headlight for Larry's bike, spend an hour putting the headlight into Larry's bike, download the photos and tracks, and as I write this blog entry at 9:35 local time Larry is already sawing Z's :-)

Total miles for the day 380.

Day Two

We can tell we're not yet acclimated to the new timezone. Larry was up at 5:25 local time - which would have been 6:25 eastern time. As a result, I was up soon after and we were on the road by 6:30 AM local time. It was nice to start the day early as it takes best advantage of the coolest part of the day, plus traffic was light that early too. We managed to get to Atmore, AL, but we did continue what appears to be a developing trend - that is finding the post offices. Even with the GPS taking us right to them, they seem to be "hidden" and takes some digging around to find. This one in Atmore was tough because as you'll see in the photo, the sign is very near the top of the building AND in a poorly contrasted color.

 From here we had a pretty good haul to our next waypoint. It was a really nice morning and traffic was fairly light - until we crossed the Tensaw river and got off I-65 at Saraland. From there we headed up US-98 which had a lot of traffic that appeared to be weekenders heading to the country. Eventually that thinned out and it was a nice ride up into Hattiesburg. We stopped there for coffee, fuel and found a Dick's Sporting goods store so I could replace my leaking bite valve (for my Camelback drinking water supply).

Here's the day's track to help you see where we rode:

 By the time we got up to Prentiss and turned westward on US-84 the day was getting long and hot. Eventually we were seeing the tell tale signs of impending rain. We did catch a couple of light showers, but fortunately managed to skirt the worst of it so never had to break out the rain gear. It actually felt good (cooling)!

Along the way on US-84 we picked up the Lincoln County sign for the Presidential tour, and further on down the same road the Adams County sign.

Just after the Adams county stop we rode into Natchez where we stopped for lunch and planned out where we would overnight. We are a little concerned that being in the prime summer vacation times we need to be careful about finding rooms, so we called ahead and pre-booked a room in Delhi, LA.

From Natchez, we crossed over the "Mighty Mississippi" River (which was quite high on its banks as most all the rivers and lakes have been on this trip) and with that we were in Vidalia LA. From there we continued west on US-84 into Ferriday where once again we had to ferret out (no pun intended) the post office. This time the GPS took us to a place that was MILES from the actual post office location. A quick check with locals got us back on track and we captured our last waypoint of the day.

Can't see the name of the post office? Trust me, when you zoom in on the full size photo you can just make it out in that thin strip of light blue just below the Post Office sign.

From here we had about 85 more miles to make it to our hotel and managed to keep out of the rain the rest of the way. We did ride along some incredibly tall and healthy looking corn fields though.

Total miles for the day was 402.

Day One

We got off on a pretty good start this morning. We both got a good nights sleep and were on the road by 7:07 AM. It was a bit foggy at first but by the time we got up the road to our first location - the post office in Charleston TN it had cleared up nicely.

Then we headed south towards our 2nd destination which was Tallapoosa GA and it wasn't too long before Larry informed me that his GPS was acting up. He had been leading, but we switched so he could try to get it going again while I led. Well, I ended up leading all day as Larry's GPS was pretty messed up. Between slow loads, constant re-calcs, shutting off and then refusing to reboot it was pretty much a crap shoot. We made Tallapoosa by 10:30 AM and then headed towards AL for our next waypoint.

We made our next waypoint - Opelika, AL and it was already just about 1:00 PM. Except, we had also passed into the next time zone so it was really Noon local time. We decided to stop for lunch and then headed on down towards our next target. It was a long ride down some very back roads but there was very little traffic so we enjoyed it even with the oppressive heat of the afternoon. And with that heat came the inevitable building of thunderstorms. We could see the sky changing and I radioed to Larry that maybe we should call it a day. He agreed and we rolled into Brewton AL just 40 miles short of our next waypoint and by the time we got checked in and the bikes unloaded the skies opened up. Talk about great timing! We did manage to put on 433 miles for the day - not too bad for mostly off-interstate riding.

Well we also really wanted to have time for Larry to call Garmin support to hopefully work out the bugs in the GPS. Of course, the really crappy hotel Wi-Fi was not helping the cause but he does think he maybe got it fixed. We'll find out soon enough.

We finally walked over to McDonalds for some supper and then back to the hotel so I could download the days GPS tracks, info and photos and then finally write this blog entry. So here it is 9:00 PM local time and I'm ready for another good nights sleep so we can get up and do it all again tomorrow,

Added the GPS Track file for the 1st days ride:

Getting to the Start

Since our official start to this adventure is in Cleveland, TN and Larry was at his summer home in PA and I in Florida, we both had just about equidistant rides of 600+ miles to get to the meeting point. Larry ran into hot days and some pretty heavy rain late this afternoon but got into the hotel at 5:00 PM. My day started at 7:15 AM. It was a pretty nice day but it warmed up quickly, hitting 90 by 11:00 AM and as I approached Atlanta it briefly hit 100! When I got to an hour out of the destination I could see the storms brewing. I stopped by the side of the interstate and donned my rain gear and stowed my electronics. As it turned out, I did get some rain, but nothing heavy and the best part was that the rain dropped the temps by some 20 degrees. I rolled into the hotel at 5:30 PM with 604 miles for the day.

We were both hungry and tired so that's the summary for today. I'll try to load some photos here tomorrow evening. Tomorrow we begin the actual tour so stay tuned.

Bill - Ready to head out

Introduction

This blog will be chronicling the adventures of two avid motorcycle riders, SilverSTreak (Bill) on his Honda ST1300 and LETBMW (Larry) on his BMW GS Adventure, as they ride around the country working to complete all four of the Team Strange Airheads 30th Anniversary "Memory Lane" Grand Tours.

For full details on what this means please see:
Team Strange Memory Lane Tours

We have done our planning, and registered for the rides. Our plans call for us to visit some 160+ locations over the course of approximately 45 not necessarily consecutive days, covering some 17,000 miles in the process. This blog is intended primarily for friends and family who wish to follow us on our tours. As such, it will contain commentary and photos of the adventure as it unfolds.

Here's a screen capture of our planned adventure: