Day 28–Home Sweet Home

This morning we got an earlier start than normal leaving the hotel by 7am, but it must have been luck because for the first time since we left, Lori over slept. She decided that she was so ready to get home that being a princess and going through all her normal process was not needed today. What that process is, is something only women understand and men always wait for. So goes the song, “Wait’n on a woman?” We left the hotel behind and jumped on the Interstate to be welcomed by a flurry of traffic all racing toward Louisville Kentucky. Who knew? After navigating through the morning rush hour our ride was pretty smooth sailing for the first 125 miles.

The second leg of the day had me processing information that had been rattling through my brain since the tire change yesterday. I was smelling something burning and could not put my finger on it. At first I thought it was my riding pants touching the exhaust pipes, but no. When I stopped the bike I looked all around and underneath to find nothing at first. But then I also noticed that I only smelled something when I turned or leaned left. So I looked at the tire that was just put on really close on the right side and there was a warm, sticky, newly burnt strip all the way around the tire. It was rubbing on my trailing arm when I leaned left and the tire flexed under pressure to the right of center frame. When the guy at the Honda shop in Kansas City came to me to tell he was done, he also told me the bushings in the trailing arm might need to be replaced. He also told me he tightened it up and torqued it down. Not sure what he did, but the tire is not centered in the trailing arm and I will have to fix that.

So with this knowledge, I made sure the tire had the correct pressure, and then just took it easy when turning left. I only smelled the burning rubber a couple of times once I figured what was going on. The rest of our trip home today was filled with heat and a reintroduction to I-81 north and all the Tractor trailer traffic. We arrived back in our driveway safely at 4:45pm.

Over the next few days, I will write a summation of our trip with the Good, the bad, and the ugly. I will attempt to get some input by Lori, but sometimes she just doesn’t want to play. The one thing that I learned from this trip is that I can make Alaska and back and I can deal with diversity in small doses. Anyone want to go?

Todays run was 572 miles, and our total is now 10,415.

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left. We have nothing left!!!

Day 27–Spare is on and we R burning it !

The plan today was to get up, drive to the other side or east side of Kansas City and to be at the selected Honda shop by 8:30am. That way I could at least get 85 miles further east and not waste the entire morning waiting for a shop to open. Well it worked out perfectly as planned and as soon as we pulled into the lot and started removing gear, someone greeted us immediately. We chatted for a few minutes about our ride and then what I needed done and there was some hesitation on their part about using my old tire, but in the end they installed it. So by 10 or 10:15 we were back on the road and heading east.

We traveled east far enough to burn what was left in my gas tank then we stopped to top her off, ate lunch, and decide how far east we were going to shoot for and make a hotel reservation. We decided to hit Corydon, Indiana which is only 31 away from our original destination in order to keep the last leg as short as possible.

So we made it to the Hampton Inn in Corydon and we pulled in about 6:45pm we thought. Somewhere along the line we switched to Eastern Standard time, so we lost another hour today. So today was long, but not quite as hot at 98 degrees and we lost another hour. Good part is that when we wake tomorrow, we will not have to fight the time transition again.

So in two days, we have ridden 1107 miles and tomorrow we will do another 574 according to the GPS. You would think by now our butts would be use to this, but there is something different about riding on the Interstate and running on back roads like I normally do. You just do not get as tired or sore because of the constant leaning back an forth and stopping to take pictures or whatever.

Once Lori and I get in the go home frame of mind, we can and will put in some long times and distances to get there. We once did 630 in one day and though we will not do that tomorrow or any of the other legs driven, this will be our longest overall ride ever at over 10,000 miles. Tomorrow will be the first time since we left that I can turn the Garmin GPS on, hit Home, and just follow it to the end. If we leave Corydon by our normal 8am target time, we should be back in Stephens City around 5:30-6pm. As fun as this trip has been, we are looking forward to being home.

Todays run was 557 miles, and our total is now 9843.

Click here for todays pictures:

Tomorrows route is pictured below:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.

Day 26–It was a cooker!!

People in the lobby always smile and wonder how we are going to fit all this stuff on a motorcycle, not knowing that we have a trailer. They see the helmet hanging and you can see the look in their eyes saying, “No way!”

This morning we got up bright an early an hour sooner than normal because we would losing an hour heading east. We moved from Mountain to Central time zone when we crossed into Kansas. The first 3 hours of the ride was great considering we were just rolling along east bound toward home. Then about 11:30am the temperatures started to roll. We had to stop at a rest area just to redo our riding gears. So now just riding in the proper armor and the bare essentials underneath we were ready for the rest of the ride.

 

 

We rolled into Colby, KS for lunch an fuel and the reported temps on my Iphone weather.com was 91. After leaving Colby and about 30 minutes into the ride I reached down and grab the thermometer hanging on the bike and it read 102. It stayed that way the rest of the ride into Topeka. I guess the heat that was being generated off the concrete, bike, and air was combining to make the 102. I made sure to drink something every 30 minutes and offer Lori the same. Then I also stopped every 90-100 miles and made sure we both drank at least 8-12 ounces of water. It was not fun but we have done it before and will do it again tomorrow. That gas pump picture above, did you catch the price per gallon? Can you imagine what I thought when I first saw it? Can you just imagine?

 

 

Tomorrow? We are scheduled to ride from Topeka to Louisville KY, but we may or may not make that because of tires again. To my despair, the back tire has 7500 miles on it and it is not going to make it home. She has started to show the cords and needs to be replaced as soon as possible. So the plan is to get up in the morning and ride to Kansas City an stop at a Honda shop and see if they will put my spare tire on the bike. The worst case scenario is that I will have to buy a new tire from them, but I really want to burn this old tire up instead of just throwing it away. I figure I got 3000 miles left on it, plus I dragged it across the country and back in my trailer, so let’s burn it. Depending on how long this takes, we may be riding in the dark for the first time on this trip to makeup lost time in the shop. let’s just hope once again, they can fit me in.

Todays run was 550 miles, and our total is now 9286.

Click here for todays pictures:

Tomorrows route is pictured below:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.

Day 25–My Girl turned 80 !

I guess I should explain that title before I get in trouble with the wife, you think? On today’s run around the state of Colorado, the Valkyrie’s odometer rolled over 80,000 miles since I bought her new 12 years ago. It has been a very reliable bike that I would recommend over and over again to anyone. So far, the bike has never let me down. Mark, on the other hand has let her down a few times and last time was just the other day. I pulled into the parking lot after changing the oil, hit the kill switch that I never use, started leaning the bike over to ease it onto the kickstand, and forgot to put the stand down. Doh! I laid her right on the crashbars just as softly as a feather hitting the ground, but I laid her down. I had to laugh because that was a first for me, ever! It was embarrassing, but the first thing I did when I walked into the hotel room was to tell Lori what I did. She just shook her head and gave me that your such a little boy look that mothers do. Anyway, the Honda has been a very dependable machine to date.

Today prove to me that of all states that I have been to, Colorado is a very diverse state. The only thing that I can think that it lacks is a border to the ocean. Flat lands that are green and good for farming and ranching. Then the mountains shoot up to over 14,000 feet giving a different climate all year long and providing water for life. Then today I felt at times I was riding through the desert south west of Pueblo. There is so much to offer everyone here from small town to large towns, and then you can almost choose your climate which to me makes this a very diverse state. I can see why people love it.

When we pulled out of Estes Park this morning the first thing on the list was to stop and take a picture of a church that Lori and I saw from the day before. You have to click the full size picture to see the details but this church was built on top of boulders. The stone work is incredible to see in person and is a very unique structure.

I can tell you point blank the rest of this day is going to bore the average reader, but the route laid out was from Road Runner Magazine and there wasn’t much to see or take pictures of, but the roads were great. I spent most of the 360 miles leaning on one side of the tires or the other. The only thing that bothers me is the speed limits in this state. The people of Colorado must really have a hard time making a corner at speed, because they change speed limits here in almost every corner of the road as your driving. The must spend a fortune in speed limit signs. Lori and I did stop once today at an overlook, not to take pictures but to get a quick snack and drink because we were between cities in no mans land. Through the hills you could hear several motorcycles coming and coming fast. It was about 6 or 7 sport bike riders and let’s just say they were flying. Why is this important? Well I got a lecture from Wife that I ever thought about riding and driving like that, she was tripling my life insurance and she was no longer riding with me. So I get in trouble and it wasn’t even me driving!!! Dang!! No worries, I gave up the sport bike thing because they should not be driven by men just for the reason we saw today, if the power is there, we will use it.

Today as predicted we went from 45 degrees in Estes park to 91 degrees in Pueblo. It wasn’t all that bad and I would much rather ride in the heat than the cold below 45. One last thing that I want to talk about is forest fires. We all see it TV in California and what is happening now in Arizona but you just cannot visualize it until you see it first hand. First the current fire in Arizona, I do not know the exact mileage we are from that fire but it is more than 500 miles, but the smoke in the air here is unbelievable think. We crested a mountain range was descending into a valley and visibility was cut from way over 20 miles to 3 at best. The fire itself is not even close to us, but it affects you. Today we also road through a past fire event that was likely a year old, maybe more, and it was devastating. You could not see all the damage because all the mountains and hills but it was a tremendous amount of acreage. I would estimate close to 200,000 to 300,000 acres. We road about 40-50 miles in one direction before the fire damage finally stopped. Nothing but blacken tree trunks laying down and some still standing soon to buckle over. It was ugly.

Tomorrow begins our three day blast back to Virginia and to be honest, I’m not looking forward to this part of the trip. I hate riding a motorcycle on the Interstates because it is just out right boring. You see almost nothing and you really have to be careful not to let your guard down because it’s boring. We will make almost a straight line blast from Pueblo to Topeka, Ks., or 554 miles according to the GPS software. It also looks like if you look at the weather map for the nation, we will be riding in the hot zone. A true butt burner!!

Todays run was 360 miles, and our total is now 8736.

Click here for todays pictures:

Tomorrows route is pictured below:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.

Day 24–To face fear or turn an run?

The order of business first thing this morning was to get our trailer tires changed and then attempt to do our route as planned. So at 8:45am we’re sitting at the Yamaha dealer waiting for the door to open so we can get it done. At first I thought they were dragging their feet because they didn’t open those doors right at 9am. But in the shop there was Jason who came in early to finish other work he had promised knowing that I was going to be there at 9am. So he told us it would take him about another 30 minutes to finish the current job and then he would get to our trailer. I handed him the re-installation instructions from Bushtec Trailer Company and he said something that really bothered me, “I don’t need no instructions.” That kind of rubbed me wrong, but I didn’t change my expression, tone, or body language and I just said, they do not want you use Red thread lock, tires are directional, 35 PSI cold, and when tightening the wheel set the nut against the wheel then turn just another 1/4 turn. I basically read him the instructions and you could see he didn’t like it to much.

Lori and I left to find a cup of coffee and ended up find an Outlet Mall and all the stores were still closed. Teehee!! We were just finishing up our coffee and my phone rang and it was Jason. Trailer was done but he wanted me to sign a paper releasing them of responsibility that a wheel might fly off. He did not like the thread lock thing and he didn’t like the short shaft they were mounted to. He also had me do the final torque of the wheel and that suited me fine, because I was going to double check him anyhow. I was happy, he was happy, and Lori and I took off to??????, the Under Armor store that was now open. Well after tolerating all this riding on the motorcycle for the past 24 days, I figured I owed her at least 5 minutes in a store. She bought a few things and I bought a hat thing to wear under my helmet and that didn’t work at all, and then we were off.

Those in my family know very well that not much scares me or bothers me that I will not face head on. There is one thing that I fought all my life and that is a fear of heights. When I was in my teenage years, 200 or 300 feet would make me feel uneasy. Then as I age it got a little better. So today the task at hand was to convince myself that I was going to ride a motorcycle pulling a trailer to the highest paved road in the United States. Sounds simple, but if you have never traveled this road, once you get above 10,500 the trees are gone and there are very few guard rails. The snow heaves in the road make you slow to 10 mph or less. Then there is that nasty little wind that likes to blow you around, but only above 10,000. When we arrived at the fee station, the Ranger asked if I would like to park my trailer at the bottom like most riders do and I declined. So up we went and up we went, and the higher we went the slower it seemed I was traveling. The speed limit is only 30 mph and I felt like I was moving about 10 or 15, but every time I checked, I was holding pretty steady 30 mph. The entire run even with all the 180 degree turns, I only blew one corner and went a little wide, but no one was in my way. I did it. I reached the top of Mt. Evans and it didn’t bother me nowhere near as much as I thought it was going to. I put up a celebrating fist in the air and people around me looked at me like I was just a bit crazy. That’s ok, they will never see me again. We walked around for a few minutes, took some pictures of some mountain goats that seemed way to friendly, and then started downhill to get out the cold air. 70 degrees at the bottom of the hill and 44 degrees at the top of the hill.

The rest of the day we spent casually skimming the eastern edge of the Rocky National Park. We rolled into Estes Park around 5pm and if you have never been here, it compares to Gatlinburg, Tn. in beauty but is a little more spread out. The mountains are a little bit taller here to.

Tomorrow we turn due south and retrace part of route heading toward Pueblo Colorado. The main thing that we want to see other than the Rockies themselves is Royal Gorge Bridge. The other thing to note is what is going to be a wild temperature swing for us tomorrow. When we leave Estes Park, it will be 45 and when we arrive in Pueblo the forecasted temperature is 97. That is a 50 degree change. How do you dress for that? Technically tomorrow will end the scenery and attractions that I have on my list to see for this trip. Once in Pueblo, the following morning we will point the Valkyrie East and blast our way back across 2/3’s of this country. It will take us 3 days to get home from Pueblo and this is going to be some long butt burning days. This was the price I was willing to pay to spend more time west of the Mississippi River. Through all the weather and other mechanical issues that we have dealt with, this has been a great trip that I would do again in a heart beat.

Todays run was 183 miles, and our total is now 8376.

Click here for todays pictures:

Tomorrows route is pictured below:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.

Day 23–Four 11,000 plus passes!

When we first got our weather report this morning it said Durango was 35 degrees! Brrr! That was about 7am and by the time we got everything on the bike and ready to go, we were 45 and rising fast. We only got 30 or 40 miles down the road and I had to stop to change gloves and take a layer off because I was smoking!! Lori just kept adjusting her suit as needed.

Today we road at an average elevation of 8000 feet all day but looking at what was around us, it looked like we almost at sea level. You could see mountain tops in all directions, some with snow caps, others with green tops and others rocky brown. We also saw some magnificent ranches with who knows how many acres of land. We saw waterfalls and tunnels that water flowed over top of. I really can see why people love this place because it’s beauty is so diverse. We road one section today for about an hour before we saw any humans and that was kind of weird. We also road one section were my passenger nodded off and kept head butting for about 15 minutes. I was nice and let her sleep, but it was tempting to rock the bike to wake her up. Instead, I just enjoyed the silence and the scenery.

We crossed 4 passes today and each was over 11,000 feet. Each time climbing through 9500 feet the temperatures dropped to a very uncomfortable 55 or below and 65 mph, that’s chilly. At one of the passes, we actually stopped and on a sign, it pointed to a 13,500 peak were the Rio Grande starts it’s 1,885 mile run to Mexico. We crisscrossed the Rio Grande at least 20 times as we snaked through the valley. 11,530 was the new highest elevation of the day and for this trip.

We stopped in a little town named Lake City for lunch and fuel today and Lori made the comment when she saw the gas pump, “I wonder if our boys would know how to use this kind of pump?” There was no place to put a credit card or debit card. You could not choose fuel type and the on lever was on the side, which caused all the numbers to rollback to zero. I haven’t seen one of these since the 80’s. Sitting just a few feet away was an actual pay phone that still worked. Then across the street we ate lunch at “The SmoQue Shack BBQ.” It was good, filling, and hit the spot. As we were leaving this little town that time left behind, I notice eating on both side of the road, deer. They acting like I was the stranger in town and was wondering who I was. Hmm!

We pulled into our stopping point of Dillon, Colorado about 4:45 pm and the town is sitting right on a very large lake. There was actually two sailboats out playing as we were pulling into the parking lot looking as though summer time had been here a long time. There was still a bit of a chill in the air, but I guess it didn’t bother these sailors at all. When I was checking in and before I could even ask, the nice lady behind the counter told me, your tires are here. Nice!! So I thanked her for taking the shipment for me and then proceeded to our room to call the installer. He told me to show up right at 9am opening and he would get us on the road as quickly as possible. So I’m down to just one issue that concerns me and that is the rear tire on the Valkyrie and I will let it come to me. If a cord shows up before we make it to Stephens City, Va., I will replace it.

Tomorrow after the tires are installed on the trailer, I will make the decision on the fly on whether I climb Mt. Evans with the Valkyrie. I’m getting conflicting information on their webpage on whether the road is open all the way to the top. On their page it say’s open to the first Summit but the last 5 miles to the top is closed until all snow has been removed. Then in the Denver Post as of today, it say’s it is open all the way to the top. I’ll check the weather in the area in the morning and make that decision on the fly. No matter what, we will cross the Berthond Pass an drop into Estes Park for the evening. Tomorrow will be a short mileage day and will be a relaxing run. 

Todays run was 394 miles, and our total is now 8193.

Click here for todays pictures:

Tomorrows route is pictured below:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.

Day 22 - Over 2 miles high!!

We left Moab Utah this morning on time and ready to roll to Colorado. The weather was nice, so after eating breakfast and fueling up, we hit the road. The first part of the ride was basically a retrace from yesterdays route until we hit Monticello. 20 miles outside of Monticello the winds picked up big time and the temperature dropped 15 degrees. I was like damn, I gotta pull over an put on another layer or maybe two! I turned to look at Lori when we stopped and she just muttered, “I’m cold!” She didn’t plug in her suit and in fairness to her, it felt very warm in Moab when we left, but the change in elevation and wind made for the dramatic change.

So while stopped in Monticello, I noticed that Bushtec had called an left me a message. So I fueled the bike up, left Lori outside putting on her heated suit and I went to see about getting those trailer tires. Jackpot, after speaking with Bushtec for only a few minutes we had it all worked out where those tires are going to meet me in Dillon, Colorado tomorrow by 3pm. That is a relief and the hotel was more than happy to let my package arrive prior to me getting there, so that is all worked out. Now all I have to work out, who is going to install them, me or some company. More on this later.

After putting on a layer and Lori all snuggled with her heated (spoiled rotten) suit, we hit the road eastbound out of Monticello. I was really surprised to see just how flat the country side was as we made our way into Colorado. I guess about 115 miles into the ride we turned onto Highway 145 and it looked all innocent but you could tell after about 10 or so miles we were steady climbing. Now with the temps falling again and my senses telling me we are climbing, I turn the GPS on to do a elevation check and we were 8000 feet and climbing. We were starting to see snow capped mountains getting closer and closer as the mile clicked off. Our first highest ever moment on the motorcycle was breaking through 9000, then 10000, and then 10127 feet. At this point we started downhill and found fuel and lunch in Telluride.

After refueling the machine and the humans, we got back to the ride. The weather was still holding up nicely but that pesky little wind just wouldn’t go away. On the flat land is doesn’t bother me to much, but put me on the outside lane with no guardrail and I can see over the edge a 1000 foot drop or more, and it bothers me just a little. This part of Colorado is playing up their western heritage and all the small towns that you ride through are extremely cute. Course if your looking for McDonald’s, Wal-mart, or some other big chain out here, you’re out of luck and that adds to there charm.

Somewhere along the road we ran into a real cowboy driving cattle down the side of the road. I kid you not, we are talking about 10 cowboys on horses along with a few hundred cattle trotting down the side of the road. Then one calf got spooked and he/she turned tail running in the opposite direction, which happen to be the same direction we are going. Two of them there cowboys took-off after the calf with the rope swinging overhead. Dang, this was just like the movies or a rodeo. One, two, three attempts and finally he roped the runaway and brought him to a stand still, just like in a rodeo. Yeeha!! Then out of no where I hear this in my helmet, “Wow them cowboys sure were sexy!” To which I could only muster, “Really?” I think I need to unplug her suit so she can cool off.

After the un-expected Cowboy show, we turned onto Highway 550 and up we went. We twisted and turned back and forth and it got colder and colder until we finally hit the high of the day of 11,120. I did pretty good dealing with the high altitudes, no guard rails, and wind, so maybe there is hope I can find the internal fortitude to climb Mt. Evans on a motorcycle. I might get luck and that run will be closed! If you do not know about Mt. Evans, it is the highest paved road in the United States at 14,000 plus feet. Google it.

We came rolling into Durango around 3pm and it was 5000 foot lower than the high of the day and a whole lot warmer. Since we arrived a little early, I took this opportunity to change the oil in the Valkyrie for the second and last time while on the road. Lori did some more laundry and that will be the last time and will get us home. I also did a little research in Dillon, made one call, and found someone to install my trailer tires for me Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. So all is looking good in that respect and my last concern is that rear tire on the motorcycle. I told Lori today that we would ride on it until the cords start to show then I will stop and have my spare installed to get us home. The further I push that ME880 Metzler toward home, the more likely my spare will make it. I would feel confortable if the spare is installed within 2500 miles of planned mileage left.

Tomorrow will do another high altitude mountain run from Durango to Dillon. We will cross back over to the eastern side of the Continental Divide, Chimney Rock, and the Tennessee Pass. Looking at the weather it should be really nice, with no wind and temperature 55-65.

Todays run was 391 miles, and our total is now 7799.

Click here for todays pictures:

Tomorrows route is pictured below:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.