The Great Bike Ride – Day 25

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Our journey today was a short 287 miles, but it felt like more. We started out from Westlake LA after spending a restful night at the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel. The first 150 miles or so was an easy ride on the I-10 freeway. Then we reached the causeway over the southwestern edge of Lake Pontchartrain and traffic came to a halt. Turns out the DOT was striping the road. Seems like they could have found a better time.

After a quick stop at the HD dealer on the outskirts of New Orleans, we headed into the city. John served as our tour guide, taking us to the St Charles district as well as the French Quarter. For some reason, they don't let bikes park around there, so we just rode around taking in the sights. It was hot and humid, and we soon decided to get out of the city.

When we got back to the previously mentioned causeway, traffic was stopped again. I thought it was incredibly bad luck to get caught again by the stripers, but after a half-dozen police cars and a couple of squad trucks roared by on the berm, we knew it was an accident. We were stuck for a good while - maybe an hour.

Then when we finally got to move, the shifter peg fell off my bike. I pulled the bike over, and since traffic was still moving slowly, I could walk back, stop traffic, retrieve the peg, and reinstall it. However, John and Buss were now far ahead with no place to pull over to wait for me. We had already communicated our next stop, and I could run down the freeway with confidence that eventually I would catch up with them. It's good to ride with experienced and trusted friends.

Dinner was special tonight. Besides the fact that we actually had a dinner (last night was peanuts and crackers), we connected up with John's friends, Noel and Joyce Binder. Noel was a crewman on the USS Kearsarge (CV-33), the ship on which John also served, and both are members of the ship association. They took us to a place called Catfish Joe's, where we had what we all thought was the best meal of the trip. I even had gator as a starter. They were great company as well. Good to have met them.

We have now officially started the final side of the square, and are heading towards home. We had a group discussion last night, and decided to forgo Mobile and Pensacola and instead run the Natchez Trace from Natchez MS to Nashville. John had long wanted to do this, and Buss heard it was a good run as well. We also have some serious rain coming in from the Atlantic to the Gulf that would likely intercept us in Florida if we continue east. So we'll be heading to Natchez in the morning.

Total mileage for the trip is now just over 7,000, and we are less than 1,000 to home according to my mapping software. My rear tire, which was installed new before we left, is now down to about 4/32nds of tread.

My butt feels the same way.

DAY 26

The Great Bike Ride – Day 24

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

We left our motel in Columbus TX at about 9am to make the 60 mile ride into Houston and the NASA Johnson Space Center. To save time, we took the outerbelt, called the Sam Houston Freeway, around the south side of the city. We knew the Sam Houston is a toll road, and the normal strategy is to have the lead bike pay the toll for everyone. So John got the job today.

Little did we know that there is a toll booth every few miles. Apparently the charge is by the axle, so John and Buss had to pay for three axles each, and two axles for me. It made for lengthy stops at each booth. Paying tolls is a real pain on a bike, and I think the USDOT should just say bikes get to go through for free. During the Harley 100th Anniversary celebration in Milwaukee, the tens of thousands of bikers coming through Chicago clogged the toll booths on I-94 for hours. This is a good assignment for the American Motorcycle Association.

The Johnson Space Center visit was interesting, but also a little disappointing. The visitor center is a little too commercial for me. You have to pay $5 to park, and $18 to get in, plus another $5 if you want the audio tour devices. Then if you want to play with the lunar lander simulator, it's another $10 or so. They run a tram tour through the center, and before you get on they tell you they have to take your picture 'for security purposes.' Of course, when you return from the tour, they offer to sell you the picture for $15 (wallet sizes also available).

But at least you get to see a couple of very interesting things: a) the Mission Control Center where all space missions through Apollo were managed; b) the mock-up center where all the segments of the International Space Station are set up for training; and, c) an entire Saturn V vehicle.

Then we rode over to the USS Texas, the only surviving World War I era battleship. This was the highlight of the day. Bummer that the engineering spaces were closed for refurbishment, but we had a blast touring the rest of the ship.

We then headed east on I-10, having made hotel reservations in Lake Charles. But when we got to the hotel, it was in a bad neighborhood, our room had a chirping smoke detector, and the door handle came off in my hand. We bailed out, and after a couple of tries, we found some nice rooms in a hotel attached to a casino.

By our planned route, we are now 1,500 miles from home. Seems like a lot, but seems like a short hop now.

Off to New Orleans in the morning.

DAY 25

The Great Bike Ride – Day 23

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

We made it to Columbus!

Columbus Texas that is. We're 70 miles east of Houston, having ridden a solid 400 miles today from Big Spring TX.

First thing out of the chute, Buss noticed that a tire was going flat on his trailer. Fortunately he carries a spare and it took only a few minutes to change the tire and get on the road. The first 3/4ths of the trip was classic Texas ranch country, gradually turning from desert to grasslands.

We stopped for lunch in Fredricksburg, a little slice of Germany in the middle of Texas. Some folks were even conversing in German in the bier und brats place were we ate. Didn't even have a Texas drawl to it.

It was hectic getting across Austin, especially since rain clouds boiled up and prompted us to pull on the rainsuits. Although it poured for a couple of minutes, we probably could have hidden under a gas station canopy for 10-15 minutes and avoided getting wet altogether.

You can tell that we're getting into a more heavily populated area. I suspect we've seen the last of the wide open prairie as we transition into the Gulf coast region. One thing is for sure, the humidity is back!

DAY 24

The Great Bike Ride – Day 22

Monday, September 17, 2007

Today was a big shorter than yesterday, but still challenging. We left Alamogordo NM in overcast conditions, so I pulled on the pants of the rainsuit just I could stay dry if a storm brewed up. At the beginning of the trip, it felt pretty comfortable as we crested a 7,000 ft pass through the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation. At that point the terrain ceased being desert and turned into pine trees other flora of the Rockies.

Our lunch stop was in Roswell NM, site of an long-rumored alien spacecraft crash in 1947. We grabbed some HD shirts with aliens on them of course. Roswell is not really the quaint little tourist trap I imagined. It's a small city of which the alien stuff plays a minor part.

I was leading today, and made a mistake at Roswell. None of us thought about getting gas, and we ended up leaving town with partially filled tanks, a big no-no out here. The stress level went up every time we crested a knoll and saw another 10-20 miles ahead of us with no evidence of humanity other than ranch entrances and oil wells. I thought it would be very ironic to run out of gas in a middle of a large oil field (all were pumping by the way). We'd see town names on mileage signs, but when we got there the town might be nothing more than a couple of shacks. Finally, with about a gallon left in my tank (it holds five), we hit Tatum NM and gassed up.

As we rolled into Texas, the terrain became flat rangeland with nary a tree, but plenty more oil wells. Our stop point is Big Spring TX, with a refinery ahead of us, and a ridge full of wind turbines behind us. Opposite ends of the energy spectrum...

DAY 23

The Great Bike Ride – Day 21

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The day started with a quick 30 mile ride to the site a retired Titan Missile Launch Complex south of Tucson. I had always wanted to go down into one of these things, and I'm quite sure I'll not be close to one again for some time. After the tour, I told John that this thing was like a "land submarine" in that the crew went down in a hole and stayed isolated, but self-sufficient, until the order came to launch their nuclear weapon. As our tour guide - a former launch crew commander - said, "the order never came." And that was the victory. He also said that this kind of warfare works only when the parties have rational governments. I guess that was his two cents worth on today's global situation.

After leaving the missile museum, we ran through the eastern edge of Tucson to see the aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The boneyard is huge, and you can't see much from the fence. Google Earth is the better way to see what's there.

Our goal was Alamogordo New Mexico, and we made it, but had to ride about an hour in darkness. Along the way we transitioned from the Sonoran Desert, which is pretty green with all the rain of late, to the broad high plain of southwest New Mexico. Leaving Tucson, we dodged some impressive thunderstorms. Because you can see for miles here, and the sky is so clear, it's hard for us to judge how far away they are. Nonetheless, we encountered a fairly small amount of rain. But the clouds blocked the sun for most of the day, making temperatures very comfortable.

Even the ride in the dark from Las Cruces to Alamogordo was nice. The road was straight, smooth, and without a single pothole. Lots of times it gets cold quickly when the sun goes down, but in this case, it remained warm. The only bummer about riding in the dark was that we passed through White Sands Missile Test Range, and I'm sure there was some cool stuff to see.

DAY 22

The Great Bike Ride – Day 20

Saturday, September 15, 2007

This morning we said goodbye to the Pacific Ocean, which had been our constant companion for eight days.

The variety of weather we faced today was pretty comprehensive. We started out in the cool foggy conditions of the Pacific coast. I wore my leather jacket and leather gloves. In less than an hour, we were getting into the California desert, and I could lose the jacket and gloves. The trick we learned riding out here in 2001 was that a long-sleeved white shirt is the best, as it protects you from the sun and wind.

It wasn't enough. By the time we got to the Arizona border at Yuma, the temperature was well over 100 and we were suffering. We were consuming lots of fluids, but still working our way toward dehydration. So at the first roadside rest we found, we dumped water all over ourselves, and took advantage of the evaporative cooling. This worked great, and we stopped every 25 miles or so to soak down again.

Along this part of the route, we noticed these things that looked like segments of a tower that had been laid on their sides and connected by short lengths of chain. They formed a fence, but I had never seen a fence like this. Seems like overkill for cattle, and not much good for keeping anything else from crossing. We finally realized it was the Mexican border after we came to a Border Patrol inspection station.

Then we came into an area of overcast clouds, and the temperature dropped probably 20 degrees. We could see that it was storming -- BIG lightening -- all around us, and that there were mudpuddles in the fields alongside the road, but we stayed dry -- for a while at least. It made for great riding conditions.

As we came to Casa Grande AZ, we stopped for a brief break at a Starbucks, and noticed the winds starting to pick up. We hopped on the bikes to try to get ahead of it, and ended up in a full-blown dust storm.

And finally the rain caught up with us. We caught a few raindrops, but jumped off the first available exit and holed up in a nice convenience store for a few minutes. It poured for a while. The locals said it hadn't rained around here like that since Spring.

The last 20 miles was easy to the hotel just northwest of Tucson. After grabbing dinner at the Denny's next door, we crashed for the night. Total miles for today, about 407.

We are now officially on the third leg of our ride -- the ride back east. The distance between here and home is diminishing every minute.

That feels good.

DAY 21

The Great Bike Ride – Days 18-19

Thursday-Friday, September 13-14, 2007

Sorry for not posting yesterday. The internet connectivity at this place is wretched, so I knew it would be an exercise in frustration to try to upload anything. Today, I found an alternative source of connectivity, and things are much better.

These past two days have been spent in San Diego, so no route map is warranted. My main goal for Thursday was to tour the USS Midway (CV-41), an aircraft carrier which served in the fleet from 1945 until 1992, forty seven years. We spent close to four hours on the ship, touring all the areas open to the public.

Then, at John's suggestion, we took a trolley tour of the city, and I got to see many areas with which I'm unfamiliar.

In the evening, I connected with Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob, and rode up to their place in Rancho Bernardo to have dinner with them. They have a beautiful home on a golf course, and it was great to spend a couple of hours with them.

Friday morning, we took the bikes to the Harley dealer in El Cajon to get oil changes before we start the trek across the desert tomorrow. We had lunch at a great BBQ place in El Cajon, and then returned to San Diego to ride out to the end of Point Loma, again at John's suggestion. This national park is hundreds of feet above the city, and gives a great view of the city, the harbor, North Island Naval Air Station, Coronado and the Pacific Ocean. Lots of things are happening in San Diego this weekend, including something called Yachtfest, sailboat racing trials for the Olympics, and the beginning of Fleet Week by the Navy. We wish we had arrived next week.

But tomorrow we begin heading east, and start the process of shorting the distance to home...

DAY 20