Welcome to my latest ride report. This time around I did not take nearly as many photos, as we covered many more miles per day and at a faster pace. While last year's group was four riders for the entire trip, this year it was just Randy and I, except for adding our good friend Denny for two days. We were pretty lucky with the weather, hitting Jasper AR under perfect blue skies, and only riding in the wet for a few hours here and there. The bikes were flawless (even though my mechanic is sometimes a dolt :icon_wink:), and we stayed off interstates except for a few miles here and there. Overall, it was the most demanding riding I have done, with long days following other long days for a total distance of 3500 miles (not to be disgusting, but the blisters on my ass were literal and not figurative :icon_redface:)
Before I get into the details, here are some general impressions:
1- Keeping to the back roads is a mixed bag of experiences. You do meet some great people and see some real variety, but the economic hardships that we saw in nearly every small town and rural setting were quite sobering. Old historic structures are mostly boarded up and for sale, while Dollar General has a new store seemingly on every corner (they make WalMart look like a rare encounter they are so plentiful).
2- We saw literally hundreds of campaign signs on lawns, and of all of these, only one sign was for Clinton. The most ironic Trump sign was the one placed right next to the cardboard "10 commandments" that I saw in KY.
3- As was the case last year, Hardly Decent, son were the most common bike we saw. There were just a handful of other brands, not one of which was a Triumph. In fact, we saw very few bikes at all, which seemed strange, especially in the Ozarks, and especially since September is one of the best riding months we have.
Overall, it is always interesting to ride new roads and regions, and while I enjoyed seeing the Ozarks, there are actually much better roads in Ohio and especially where I live in the Adirondacks. I'm glad I went there to see what all the fuss was about, but neither of us has any interest in going back, as there are just too many other great roads to find elsewhere.
Day #1 - Home to Whispering Pines Campground
370 miles
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-RhtnNtJ/0/X3/180-X3.jpg)
Dave joined me for half a day as I headed to my first destination. The first 200 miles were all on familiar roads, and we made good time. Dave split off and looped back just before lunch, and I continued on and grabbed a bite in Cazenovia NY.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-vfV9HXj/0/X3/181-X3.jpg)
After lunch I turned on my new Interphone Tour intercom to listen to directions from my Iphone, as I would soon be turning south onto unfamiliar roads. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the volume level was so low as to be inaudible! Now, before you jump to any unfair conclusions, you should know that I did use it with my buddy prior to this trip, and while the volume output was never what I would characterize as impressive (feeble would be a better word), I could, in fact, hear it. Maybe the firmware update that I did just prior to this trip affected something, or maybe it just decided to shit the bed when its status on this trip had been upgraded to "crucially important", but regardless, it was now utterly useless to me. Being such a clever lad, I had decided to forego paper maps and instead upload the directions for the entire trip to my phone. So...here I am not yet 300 miles into a 3500 mile trip, and I'm already feeling lower than whale shit. What to do?
Continuing on my ride and pondering my options, I saw a Walmart ahead in the distance and quite suddenly I heard a trumpet fanfare in my head (clearly it was my imagination and not my new Interphone Turd). Pulling into Wally World, I proceeded into the store and grabbed a set of the smallest ear buds they had, and then headed back to the bike. Unpacking the ear buds, I carefully stuffed them as far into my ears as possible, then gingerly donned my helmet. It took a few tries to get them to stay in, and I made a mental note to write a thank you card to the engineer who decided to go with the stickiest coating he could find for the cords coming from each ear bud, as this ensured that they would cling to every fabric one might encounter on a riding jacket, thus making it childishly easy to dislodge the ear buds with just a quick head check when switching lanes.
Voila! I could hear the directions and was back in business. It took a few tries to get the volume just right, but now I could concentrate on the road and not worry about missing any turns. Or so I thought...
I finally pulled into the campground about 6:30 PM, having been in the saddle about 11.5 hours for the day. Randy was all set up with his tent, and I followed his lead in short order, as there were storms in the forecast. It felt great to get off the bike, and we turned in at a decent hour.
About midnight, a torrential electrical storm of biblical proportions went through, and the wind and rain were epic. I opened the weather app on my phone, and lay in my sleeping bag and read the distances of the lightning strikes as they hit around us: 11 miles away, 9 miles away, 5 miles away, 2 miles away, then suddenly there was a sound like someone ripping a very large canvas sail, accompanied by an intensely bright white light, followed by a boom that shook everything. The weather app read "0 miles", and I decided at that same moment (coincidentally of course), that I had really been disrespectful to the campground owners not to have better inspected the inside of the shower building earlier, and proceeded to right that wrong immediately! In fact, Usain Bolt couldn't have crossed that patch of wet ground from my tent to the bath house any more quickly!
The storm finally abated about 2:00 AM, and we got some sleep.
Day #2 Whispering Farts Campground to Randy's house
280 miles
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-s6wHmZc/0/X3/182-X3.jpg)
We packed up our soaking wet gear (always a treat) and loaded the bikes. Then we headed southwest through the Allegany National Forest and into northeastern Ohio. With all of the fracking for natural gas that has taken place in PA, the state has spent some serious money on their roads, and they were much improved from the last time I was here. Overall, however, as soon as you cross into Ohio, you immediately notice that things are better economically. The farms look to be more prosperous, and the roads are mostly all in good shape. Ohio roads are something really different, as many were originally buffalo paths, which were then used by Native Americans, and eventually by white settlers as roads. If you can imagine taking a ribbon of blacktop and just dropping it out of the sky onto a bunch of rolling hills, then you could be a road engineer for the state of Ohio! These are really a blast on a bike, but the nonchalant way they warn you about upcoming hairpin turns can be a bit worrisome the first few times :icon_eek:
Our route brought us through Amish farm country, and that always means lots of tourists and traffic, which we hit just as the temperature was getting hot. Finally getting around the worst of it, we bear left onto some state roads that are just awesome as we head south towards Randy's house. We finally pull into the garage late afternoon, and drape all of our gear over lawn chairs to dry it all out. Our buddy Denny is scheduled to arrive sometime today, and tomorrow we leave for Spring Mill IN. (Poor Denny has to ride through torrential rain most of the way, and he arrives pretty late after dark).
To be continued...
How are the rim seals holding up?
Quote from: Sin_Tiger on October 13, 2016, 08:07:05 PM
How are the rim seals holding up?
Great! I needed to top up the air a couple of pounds mid-trip, but they have been fine since.
Is there a Steamer under all that luggage?? :icon_lol:
Quote from: nickjtc on November 11, 2016, 01:12:55 AM
Is there a Steamer under all that luggage?? :icon_lol:
Hah! Yes, although it looks bulky because I have a soft cooler bungeed onto the back to keep some food and drinks cold. Otherwise, about the same as I usually carry :icon_redface:
The Mosko Moto gear is excellent :thumbsup
Shit shit shit shit shit!
I did the same boneheaded thing just now that I did a few months ago: I was trying to insert a photo, so I went to preview to check it, and it wasn't working, so I hit the back button on my browser and lost the two hours of work I had just done :icon_frown:
This is why I had not finished the ride report earlier, as it had pissed me off so much that I had to just walk away.
Oh well, now to try and rewrite all of the stuff I had just written. They say the third time is the charm, so we'll see I guess. It may be a few days until I can muster up the enthusiasm to try again.
Nice, what is the black bike, Daytona or Sprint? Hang on, its got luggage, must be Sprint with a full fairing added??
I hear ya :BangHead Just about done when she shouts "yer tea's oot an it's goan cald" and it's gone :icon_rolleyes: I do it in a text file now so I at least recover some of it.
I know the feeling, I use notepad for anything more than a quick reply, then copy n paste as required.
Happy New Year anyhoo.
Regards
Phil
Quote from: Timbox2 on January 01, 2017, 08:45:51 AM
Nice, what is the black bike, Daytona or Sprint? Hang on, its got luggage, must be Sprint with a full fairing added??
Randy has a Sprint Executive and a Daytona Super 3. This is his Super 3, which he painted and then swapped in some of the Sprint pieces for luggage. Goes like a stray cat with turpentine under his tail, and he has not had any issues with his valves closing up. Checks it regularly.
The six pot brakes are something else!
Why paint it black though? :icon_scratch:
He didn't like the yellow.
:bug_eye the yellow ones are very sought after.
"Take number 3...roll 'em"
Okay, heeding the excellent advice of others, I am writing this in Word, and then pasting it into the box so that I don't spend hours typing and then lose everything for a third time (sigh). Wish me luck!
Day #3 – Randy's to Spring Mill Campground
284 miles
We left Randy's house in an overcast mist, which eventually turned to a drizzle, and then the skies gradually began to clear as we proceeded in a southwesterly direction, the last pockets of the moisture from last night's torrential storm finally abating.
Unfortunately, even though the rain was finished with us, the storm was not, and we did encounter a power outage caused by the storm which left all of the traffic lights in Lancaster, Ohio dead. This meant that each of the four vehicles facing the turning area at the front of the very long line of backed up traffic had to come to a full stop and then take its turn one by one. My clutch hand was just about numb by the time we passed through all 300 intersections (okay, that may be a bit of exaggeration, but it sure felt like there were 300), and what normally would have taken no more than 10 minutes cost us closer to an hour. In addition, it began to get warm, and the humidity was still very high from the storm, so both we and our bikes were running hot. Needless to say, when we finally saw Lancaster, Ohio getting smaller and smaller in our mirrors, it was not a bad thing.
Continuing in a southwesterly direction, we eventually came to US Route 50, which was originally one of the themes of our trip. Randy and I had been tossing around ideas for interesting destinations, and we came to the conclusion that instead of focusing on each day's destination, we would choose a road which looked interesting and see where it might lead. He suggested US 50, and so I planned this route a bit differently than previous years. One thing we did not do was make reservations anywhere, instead planning a rough distance to a likely looking campground for the night, but keeping it loose enough so that if something caught our eye, we could stop and change plans accordingly. Since our public schools go back into session the first week of September, we thought the campgrounds would be nearly empty (wrong), and we could have our pick of the nicest sites (wrong again). As you will see, this overly optimistic planning really bit us in the ass a bit later on.
Getting back to our ride, Randy didn't like my plan of staying along the Ohio River just south of Cincinnati, so we jumped onto Interstate 275 and crossed into Kentucky and re-crossed the Ohio into Indiana at Lawrenceburg, where we had a great lunch at the Lawrenceburger Restaurant. They kept bringing pitchers of sweet tea, so we nearly drowned ourselves rehydrating.
I just noticed when reviewing our route map that we had passed the Creation Museum without realizing it, and I only mention it because later on in a Kentucky diner a waitress really bent our ear about how the taxpayers were on the hook for part of the cost for this private museum. We had never heard of it, but when I looked it up later online, I was not surprised such a thing could happen in that region, which is called the "bible belt" because of the many religious fundamentalists and evangelicals who believe in a literal interpretation of the bible (evangelicals were one of Trump's strongest voting blocs; this also explains all of the Trump lawn signs we saw throughout the bible belt). So much for separation of church and state I guess.
This day also featured a stop at the Seip Mounds, a Hopewell Native American site from 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. I was so interested in these that Randy and I later drove up to the Newark Great Circle which is very impressive because of its size and age. He also has a flint site close to his home, and samples of that unique flint have been found throughout many states, as they were widely traded. While you folks in Europe are used to walking on ground previously traveled by people thousands of years earlier, our country's history is primarily focused on the past 300 or so years, and so experiencing these mounds was really something special for me.
We continued to follow Route 50 west until we eventually turned to the south on some nice secondary roads, encountering one closed bridge, but still arriving in one piece at our destination because of our extraordinary navigational skills (blind luck). We noticed the camp sites were filling quickly around us, and set our tents (our middle aged men's version of pissing to mark our territory) to stake our claim, so to speak. This campground also has a big lodge on the premises, which has a large casual dining room with an all-you-can-eat buffet (which was closing in 30 minutes), so we stripped to our camp site attire, and jumped back on our bikes to look for the lodge. Several wrong turns later (sorry boys, it must be low blood sugar :augie), we finally arrived with 15 minutes to spare. Grabbing our plates, we enjoyed the last remains of what might have been a decent buffet a couple of hours earlier. The food that was supposed to be cold (salads) and the food that was supposed to be hot (meat and vegetables) were all similarly lukewarm, as was our reaction when we ate it. Since it was the only option though, and since we had some great conversation, it was just fine.
As we rode back to our tents, we noticed that the campground had filled up, and we were surrounded by RV's and loud families. Oh well, into our sleeping bags and the end of a good day!
Day #4 – Spring Mill Campground to Madison Inn Lodge
397 miles
Randy and Denny and I set out at an early hour and headed west on Rt. 60, eventually intersecting US 50, where Denny turned right and we turned left. It was great to right some miles with Denny again, and I'm sorry that I did not grab some photos of him with us this trip. I had originally intended to really focus on the riding and not worry about any ride report, but now with snow on the ground and both bikes put to bed, I wish I had taken the time to better document this ride.
Since I didn't get any new shots of Denny this ride, here he is a few years ago at our Adirondack ride, offering a hand gesture that is unclear (screw you and the horse you rode in on perhaps?):
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-pRTWFPv/0/X3/Adirondack%20Rally%20003-X3.jpg)
And here is his custom painted blue and orange TBS:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-RZXb7Wj/0/X3/Adirondack%20Rally%20002-X3.jpg)
Once Denny had split off, we continued west on US 50 and then weaved our way across back roads which took us south, then west, then south, then west, etc., until we finally pulled into Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, which had a "No Vacancy" sign prominently displayed at the main entrance (remember how we decided to be "footloose and fancy free" and make no reservations?). Another member from the rat forum had planned on joining us for the evening, and we were hoping he might have secured a few tent sites for us. Since cell phone reception had been spotty all day, we didn't even know if he was here, so we proceeded to ride around the campground loops until we spotted his bike. He had indeed secured the last site, but unfortunately, it was a primitive site up on the side of a mountain, and I needed my bike's battery to run my CPAP machine, so we couldn't share it. We did manage to hike up and finally meet CharlieS, but could only chat for a few minutes, as we had to secure a place to stay and daylight was fast disappearing. At this point, we had already ridden 340 miles, and after hiking up the ridge to meet Charlie and then back down, our asses were dragging.
We jumped (well, crawled whimpering) back on the bikes and headed back whence we had come. Taking a turn south, we found a McDonalds in Ironton, which we intended to exploit for their free wi-fi in hopes of finding another campground or motel. My cell phone chose that very moment to decide its battery had done enough work searching for non-existent cell towers all day, and so we made a quick decision based upon the rapidly fading Google Map on my screen and decided to keep heading east where there must be more options.
We ended up riding about another hour, and finally pulled into the parking lot of the Madison Inn in Fredericktown, Missouri quite late. We snagged a room, unpacked the bikes and hit the rack for the night. Our originally planned long day of 340 miles had turned into an excruciatingly longer day of 397 miles, and we were both thrilled to climb off of the bikes at the end.
Serendipity being what it is, though, this major re-routing took us farther south than originally planned, and we found the best road of the trip the following day.
Day #5 –Madison Inn Lodge to Dogwood Springs Campground
260 miles
Randy and I packed up the bikes and jumped onto 67 south, which was a beautiful divided highway with perfect blacktop and no traffic. Having seen no Missouri police thus far (but we had seen 4-wheelers with no plates running on the highways, so hell, how risky could it be?), we decided to wick it up a bit to make up for some of last night's wasted miles. So we cruised along about 85 or 90 MPH, and the bikes just purred along beautifully. After about 40 minutes of this, we turned west onto Rt, 34, which turned out to be a real gem. Lots of curves, perfect pavement, and no traffic. While we didn't yet know it, it would be the best road on the entire trip.
Because of the re-routing yesterday, we changed our route plans, and headed for Jasper, Arkansas, to serve as our home base for exploring the Ozarks. Honestly, I don't recall much of this day's ride after wonderful Rt. 34, except that we had some great barbecue for lunch somewhere along the way, and some idiot knocked down a few traffic cones and nearly clipped Randy in some construction just north of Jasper.
The weather was just settling into a nice prolonged high pressure cell, so Randy and I were looking forward to riding some of Arkansas' most famous roads under blue skies and with a minimum of traffic, as the tourist season was nearly over.
Since we would be staying for several days, we opted for the two man cabin, complete with electricity (yay!), air conditioning (yay), and cable (don't care). The driveway was a bit steep and rocky, and parking was side hill and tricky, but it beat the hell out of tenting. Oh, I almost forgot, they had a pool too!
Here's Randy packing his bike at the Madison Inn:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-BcQhXjb/0/X3/188-X3.jpg)
This is the type of grippy macadam we enjoyed in Missouri and Arkansas:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-Q735BHQ/0/X3/191-X3.jpg)
Our cabin at Dogwood Springs Campground:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-TdTXVRs/0/X3/204-X3.jpg)
Day #6 –Dogwood Springs Campground
Mileage – NFC?
At this point in our trip, we decided to use Dogwood as our home base and ride as many of the best looking roads as possible. Today we grabbed an early breakfast in Jasper, visiting with the locals at a small diner, and then enjoyed superb clear weather for the rest of the day. We rode Rt. 7 south, and then 16 west, and then I can't remember. We ended up passing through Eureka Springs, and we stopped at the Thorncrown Chapel, as well as the Beaver Dam Site. Not much traffic at all, so we ran these roads at our own pace. A beautiful day to ride!
Eureka Springs was exactly like every other tourist town that I have ever passed through, and like Lake George Village NY, which is about 10 minutes from my home, not a place I would ever waste a second day. We did have some great barbecue, and an interesting discussion with the owner of the restaurant. We were the only customers, and he told us he was originally from California, a lifelong Democrat, but he wouldn't be voting for Hillary because of all of the dead people associated with the Clintons through the years. Not one Arkansas resident to whom we spoke was voting for Hillary, even though she had been their first lady for two different terms. As always, I found our conversations with local residents to be a fascinating aspect of our trip, and this was especially so this time with the presidential election so near.
Here's the early morning view from Rt. 7 just south of Jasper:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-8mM6C9H/0/X3/190-X3.jpg)
Another:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-jfNw3RN/0/X3/197-X3.jpg)
And now one looking down the road:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-bkTDDSP/0/X3/199-X3.jpg)
Here's the dam:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-t9dwnM3/0/X3/203-X3.jpg)
Day #7 –Dogwood Springs Campground to Crowley's Ridge State Park
Mileage – NFC?
Today we rode south and then easterly on more highly-rated roads. We were the only ones on Rt. 16 east for many miles, and while the riding wasn't unpleasant, we both though the Ozarks were not as impressive as other places we have been in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the Adirondacks where I live. For someone who lives closer to the Ozarks on the flatlands nearby, I can really see their appeal. Considering Ohio and NY as our home bases, there are just so many more appealing places to go that require less flatland traveling to attain.
One highlight of the trip was our lunch stop in Mountain Home AR. We stopped at a Valero gas station/convenience store to grab some water and fill up the bikes, and were shocked to find a beautiful buffet lunch inside, all the product of a very friendly cook in a spotless stainless steel kitchen out back. We both filled up happily, and I finished off with a lovely blackberry cobbler fresh out of the oven. A remarkable meal in a convenience store!
Here's the cobbler:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-XvNcXC4/0/X3/205-X3.jpg)
Here's a shot of a building constructed by the CCC, an organization that FDR formed to put unemployed men back to work. When WWII came about, these men were all used to military life, as this was the blueprint for the CCC camps, and so we instantly had thousands of men ready for training. This is at Crowley Ridge, where we camped:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-P7wwbZz/0/X3/213-X3.jpg)
Day #8 – Crowley's Ridge State Park to Econo Lodge Gilbertsville KY
Mileage – NFC?
Great weather again today! We headed north and east, with the Land Between the Lakes as our destination. There are several campgrounds there, and the distance would make for a good long day's ride. Along the way we saw the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi river, standing in the same location that Lewis and Clark did, Pretty cool shit!
Under my tent fly when I began taking down my tent:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-fZdfLZQ/0/X3/220-X3.jpg)
As we approached the plains near the Mississippi, farmers were burning off the rice fields, and there were huge clouds of smoke visible many miles away. With the wind swirling, they looked like tornados. I sent this photograph to my wife and daughters and told them that Randy and I just missed getting swept away by this "tornado". When I 'fessed up, they were not amused:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-8Vw6WHC/0/X3/206-X3.jpg)
Eventually we crossed the very tall bridge over the Mississippi and turned into Fort Defiance Park. Speaking with some state workers who were raking there, they mentioned that the ground we stood upon was 11 feet under the water last spring during the flooding! It's amazing that these huge trees are able to stay attached to land. Looking out into the Mississippi, you see many trees that were not so resilient, and you can't help but be amazed at the size of the trunks as they pass by. Big Muddy indeed!
You can see the difference in color of the very brown Mississippi on the right, and the relatively clean Ohio on the left as they merge here off the point of land:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-vxK87pS/0/X3/227-X3.jpg)
A panorama from the same spot:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-pRMsKVL/0/X3/226-X3.jpg)
As the day was getting on, we were ready to check into a nice campground and set up our tents. We pulled into one of the US Forest Service Campgrounds, and began to fill out the paperwork. I mentioned we wanted a site with nice grass, and the attendant said they all had nice grass, but if we set our tents up on the grass we would be fined and asked to leave. They had paved sites for RVs and expected us to put our tents up on the blacktop. This was the most ridiculous thing we had ever heard, and it was especially grating to us because the guy (who was paid by our tax money) took such obvious pleasure in conveying the news to us. A perfect example of territorial imperative, and since the forecast was for rain soon, we rode north and stayed at a cheap motel instead.
Remainder of the trip
Mileage – NFC?
Sorry, these last few days are lost in the fog of my memory. We stayed at a campground on a river in KY somewhere, and it was nothing special. I do have a photo of our side hill tenting:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-67pjfB9/0/X3/231-X3.jpg)
We did eventually ride some awesome roads through northern KY, eventually crossing into Ohio and then back to Randy's house. The next day he and I ran up to this motorcycle megastore called the Iron Pony, and then stopped at one of the ancient mounds for a walk.
Here's a picture from that walk in the Great Circle:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-JtG9XNL/0/X3/248-X3.jpg)
I stayed with Randy a few days, as the weather was just awful, and then a window of clear skies opened up just enough to attempt a dry run back home. I planned on splitting the 700 miles into two days, and so Randy rode east with me for the morning before turning off and heading back home. We ran some awesome back roads up into Amish country, and then I took all back roads into PA and then NY. I was feeling pretty good, so I jumped on an interstate in western NY that is mostly new and has almost no traffic. Shortly after getting on, a Nissan passed me like I was standing still, and so I let him get just at the limit of my sight, and then I accelerated to keep him there. Turns out he was running about 95 mph, and so I began to make pretty decent time on this portion. We passed every vehicle we encountered, and I kept checking my mirrors as I passed the infrequent exits to be sure no state troopers had joined us.
Finally, after about 45 minutes of this, I suddenly see a state trooper in a Chevy SUV coming downhill across the 75 yard, tall grass median from the west bound lane, and I know the jig's up. Rolling back to about 70 mph, I realize that he hasn't painted me with his radar, but must have seen the Nissan and realized how fast he was going. The trooper squealed his tires as he spun that big SUV onto the black top, and he floored that big V8 and went by me in a flash. In order to close the gap, he must have had that big Chevy's gas pedal pinned to the floor, and as soon as he was out of sight, I rolled it back up to about 85 mph. Amazingly, he didn't actually have the guy pulled over for quite a few more miles, so I guess the Nissan never saw him at all, and just kept cruising along at 95 mph until it was too late. Being a kind sort of fellow, I did honk the horn when I passed him sitting on the shoulder .
Shortly after passing the Nissan and his new friend from the state police, I exited the freeway and got back onto back roads. Since my ass was doing fine, I decided to just keep on riding, and finished the day in my own garage after about 695 miles for the day. I think it was about 15 hours altogether, and is my longest day so far.
In summary, Randy and I had a great trip together. We saw lots of new roads, and we both appreciate just how fortunate we are to each have a riding buddy that neither of us wants to strangle after a few days! Our trips typically involve some fun technical roads, some interesting history, lots of conversations with locals, and a continued love of our bikes. Both of us enjoyed flawless performance from our Triumphs, and it was cool knowing that probably nowhere else in the world would you see this pair of old triples traveling together seeing the sights.
Time to start planning for next season! Hopefully, I'll do a better job with pictures and getting the damn thing written down before I forget so much of it! (Many thanks for the tip about using another program to do the writing – this has saved me immense headaches!)
One more great memory:
(https://photos.smugmug.com/September-2016-Arkansas/i-9tvx2Ks/0/X3/238-X3.jpg)
Thanks for that. Good for you. What kind of gas mileage did you get for the overall trip?
Excellent :notworthy I find myself wandering in a car too and have to constantly nudge myself back to bike observational levels, good avoid :thumbsup
Quote from: nickjtc on January 09, 2017, 06:07:20 AM
Thanks for that. good for you. What kind of gas mileage did you get for the overall trip?
Here's my tank by tank numbers, in US mpg:
mpg
42.3
41.6
43.2
43.9
38.8
36.1
44.6
39.7
36.3
37.6
45.3
42.5
43.0
42.2
39.0
40.3
37.6
44.2
47.7
37.6
37.9
40.6
35.2
47.2
44.3
41.1 (Average for the entire trip)
Quote from: ssevy on January 09, 2017, 03:16:14 PM
Here's my tank by tank numbers, in US mpg:
mpg
42.3
41.1 (Average for the entire trip)
Wow. My old bike was obviously REALLY messed up since those were the mileages I was getting to the Imperial gallon.