Day 10...Finally (Last day!!)
So this was the one day I didn't mind being up kind of early. 0630 is my usual wake-up time anyway, and having only an hour time difference, it was like being up at 0530. Still not bad, considering the day before was 0330. We had breakfast and loaded up the bikes. Turned out poor Todd didn't get the 0730 memo and had been ready to go since 0630. He said he gets up at 0500 every day anyway, but I apologized anyway. Poor dude, just hanging out, waiting for the rest of us to get the Hell up. Craig ended up asking Paul for a funnel, because his 2017 HD with less than 5k miles needed oil. I guess having an HD is a lesson in periodic maintenance, because I have seldom looked at my oil level on a trip. I know it was full when I left, and I know it will be full when I get home. However, I decided to look, just for the Hell of it, and I'll be darned, it was exactly were it was the day I did the change. I have 65,000 more miles on my FJR than that HD Screaming Eagle has, and I don't burn a drop of oil. They blame the oil consumption on the hard twisty riding, but my bike saw mostly 2nd and 3rd gear all day, and ran high revs. That's what bikes are supposed to built for. Some guys like "character." I'm totally good without it. "Boring" and reliable as all Hell is good enough for me!!
We hit the road, and went into the same routine. Todd leading, and me in the back. We passed Oklahoma City, and the dammed wind started. Not quite as bad as yesterday's, but more head-on, which made it use more fuel. That wasn't good with the lead bike only making 120 miles on a tank, especially as we gained our altitude back. Sure enough, 99 miles later, we were stopping. DAMMIT!! As we fueled up and got to talking, Todd mentioned that ******* OK, where we were had a tornado warning earlier. Just great. Haha...I went into the store, and when I came out, Paul pointed directly next door, showing me the Yamaha dealership sign. We all laughed because I kept making comments about needing to find a Yamaha dealership. Then he said, "It only took us 3800 miles to find one." And I retorted, "Yeah, but we haven't needed one." Todd, who rides the Vulcan was nearly rolling on the ground ,and Craig just said, "Oooooh." Then I toned it down, because I didn't want to jinx anything. Last thing we needed was some stupid bike issue, no matter what brand. Haha...Of course, my bike made the entire trip without a hiccup.
Back on the road, and the effing wind got worse. In case you don't know, I hate the mutherfu*&^&&*&^%$ sonf of a bi*&^%##$%^ wind. F&*^ the wind. Todd laughed later when I pointed out, its not good for ****. It breaks stuff. We can't run, ride, shoot, get on a roof, or even fly a frigging kite in the wind. It's as destructive as it wants to be, and is ALWAYS blowing the wrong way. Why couldn't we get a tail-wind?? That has NEVER happened. It's always blowing in our faces, and 5 million miles an hour, beating the crap out of us and ruining our gas mileage. There wasn't really any choice, either ride in the wind, or stay sitting where we were, so at 72mph, and stopping every 100 miles, we droned back home.
A few incidents during this trip got me thinking. Remember I said the guys were tired and dehydrated after all the twisties, and they had to slow dramatically for the wind? We also got some rain, which also slowed them down. I will admit, at almost every gas stop, I was the last one ready to go. Why? Because I had to put in my earbuds, put on my helmet, put on my gloves, and put on my Camelbak. I wore good gloves, a full face helmet, always had my Sure 215s in my ears, keeping the wind out, and always had my good jacket on. The other guys all had half-helmet brain buckets, cheesy gloves, sometimes no jacket, no hydration, and no ear plugs. This wasn't all of them all the time. Paul has a cup holder on his bike, and smokes and drinks while he rides. At least he drinks. Craig made it almost the first day, before he started plugging his ears. Paul took along his Nolan modular, but only wore it in the rain and when the wind got bad. The funny thing is, when it came to ride time, I was the only one who never needed to slow down. It could have hailed, and it wouldn't have mattered to me, because I was dressed for it. Craig actually went to CycleGear in DC and bought a 3/4 helmet for the rain, and he didn't take it out of the box until the last day. The amount of time they slowed up the trip due to being ill prepared was exponentially more than the extra minute or two they waited for me at gas stops. I also began to learn the signs of them being ready to gear up, so I would start then, and actually ended up waiting for them.
The 100 mile gas stops were killing me, and our time. When I travel, I usually stop every 200-250. I hit the restroom, top off my CamelBak and maybe eat. This only happens every few hours. On this trip, EVERY stop was a cigarette, a call to someone, a trip to the head, a snack to buy, and 20 minutes we didn't need to spend. A couple times, I didn't even take my helmet off, and jumped back on the bike, only to realize they were all going inside. I need to find a way to limit those shenanigans to every-other stop next time. We'll see...
We stopped in Amarillo for gas and lunch. After lunch, we finally got to NM. This is where I usually bring the speed up and run about 95. I can smell home from there, and there's no reason to putz around. Not this time, we had to stop in Tucumcari for fuel. The ***** of the wind was, I was only getting like 30mpg too, so it was going to force me into an extra stop, no matter what we did. We rode from Tucumcari 100 miles Milagro. The goal was Clines Corners, but that was about 120, and Todd didn't think he could make it. The pumps in Milagro are OLD. They also face north and south between the store and the freeway, so cars getting fuel are parked facing either east or west. I parked facing west, and hung my helmet on my mirror, like I always do. Because the pumps are old, they don't have card readers, so we had to go into the store to pay for gas. Because of this, I forgot to put my bike on the center stand, like normal. Normally, I get off, remove my gloves, put the bike on the stand, remove my tank bag, and then remove my helmet, or just fuel up and then take my helmet off after I move my bike. However, I don't go into stores with my helmet on, so I took it off, out of order. I went inside, gave the lady my card, and went back to my bike. I went to put it on the stand, and the wind caught my helmet and blew it off the bike. I still use a Scorpion EXO1000 that has the round shield removal disks on the sides. I saw the helmet hit the ground, and followed something as it blew and bounced to about 60 yards away. When I found it, it was one of the disks. Dammit...Thankfully, it popped right back on, and nothing seemed broken. Scratched my tinted shield, and basically pissed me off. Now, I was mad, and wanted to be home. I was tired of the wind. However, this was the only stop, where every one was off, gassed, and back on, ready to go!
We left there, and knew home was right at 90 miles. It was slow, but we were moving along, until we got into Albuquerque, where we were treated to a traffic back-up due to a crash. 4424 miles, and where did we see the ONLY crash of the trip? 9 miles from my front door. I'm not sure what's wrong with people in Albuquerque. They drive like ****. Albuquerque is small enough, that under most circumstances, we can be from just about anywhere to just about anywhere in about 15 minutes. If traffic is busy, maybe 20 or 30, but it's not bad. I can't figure out how these ********* can't pop their heads out of their ***** for 15 minutes. EVERY day, there are crashes in the same spots, all caused by people who have no business driving. Writing tickets doesn't help, because these people breed and their dysfunctional offspring drive the same way.
We got through that, and it was clear sailing to the driveway. Parked the bike in the driveway, and checked the mileage. We had a good ride, and I had fun with my friends. I was super glad to be home, and couldn't wait to see my wife and kids. I opened the garage, and...Nothing. My wife's car was gone, and the house was empty. Haha...Of course it was. In a previous post, I explained they were all everywhere, so it took a little bit, but one by one I found them.
AND, that is it. I got up late this morning and planned to change my oil, as I am almost at 5k miles on this change. I said the Hell with that and didn't even really look at my bike. It can sit for a day or two, and then I'll do some maintenance it needs. For now, I have about 200 emails I need to catch up on, and have to get some work done this week. I'm gonna spend a lot of time in my office, which I don't really enjoy, but it makes being away from my office easier.
Thanks for reading, and the comments. Those were the only reason I wrote nearly every night. Especially, THANK YOU to the guys that bought t-shirts or donated money. That money kept a bunch of stuff off my card, and kept the actual out of pocket for the trip very low. I paid for gas off my card, but that was just for simplicity. I'm betting gas was no more than about $250. Not bad, considering the mileage and the number of days we were gone. The guys were impressed by how many shirts I sold, and were super happy that they were all over the country. You guys rock!!
