Days 21, 22 and 23 - The Mad Rush Home

I have not posted for the past few days because I have spent more time on the road and less time in the hotel. I covered 558 miles on Wednesday, 846 on Thursday and 312 on Friday for a total of 1,715 miles in three days.

August 13th - Alexandria, LA to Oklahoma City, OK

Day 21

One of the alternative objectives of the trip was to hit as many states as possible. So this day's journey started around 8:00AM heading north on I-49 but would divert to Texarkana, Arkansas and then on to Oklahoma. So today was the most complex route that I had since the Northeastern US.

Since I don't have a way to keep my cell phone charged as I use it I try only to use the GPS feature sparingly since it eats up the battery. I tried writing out the instructions and putting them on the windshield using the blue painters tape. However, reading ball point in bright sunlight is not easy when you are far-sighted. So I had to stop when I hit a major intersection so I could stop and check out the map. It is a pain to stop and get my reading glasses out but it is necessary.

I am finding that stretching out on a shady picnic table helps get out the kinks in the back, shoulders and legs. The quick nap doesn't hurt either. I  found a small little park in Clarksville Texas.

The other major pain was the toll booths on the Indian Nation Turnpike in Southeastern Oklahoma. They are not associated with the EZ-Pass program so I had to stop and pay manually. This means shutting the engine off pulling out the wallet and trying to hand over the bills without taking my gloves in order to keep the stop under a minutes. I learned the difficulty when I was crossing Indiana and Ohio on their tollways so I bought one of the electronic toll tags since I was going to run into a number of them throughout the East Coast.

I stopped for gas and ran into a couple on a three-wheeler (trike) who were from Tennessee and heading home from Sturgis on a three week trip. It is interesting the stories and the shared experiences we have, so it is nice to sit and talk to complete strangers.

I arrived in OKC around sunset so I cleaned up and had dinner before calling it a day.

Thursday, August 14th - A possible IBA???

I left the hotel around sunrise hoping an early start would make good time. My goal was to get to Gallup, New Mexico which was roughly 700 miles away. I stopped and had breakfast around 9AM and ran into another biker at McDonald's. We sat and chatted for a few minutes and I found out that he was a retired USAF veteran. He was headed to Colorado to visit his grandchildren. We talked about the weather that was over Arizona and New Mexico that we were headed towards.

Day 22

Since I was headed towards the storms, I ran into significant headwinds which dropped my gas mileage mid 20's. This meant that I was stopping every 120-150 miles to refuel which is 50-80 miles sooner than normal. I took a break just before entering into New Mexico. Once I passed the leading edge of the storm system the headwinds decreased so my gas mileage improved to the mid 30's

Less than an hour after entering New Mexico the clouds became darker and the temperatures started to drop so I stopped for gas and got out the rain suit. I hit moderate rain off and on for the remainder of the day. I was lucky since I either outran the big storms or just caught the edges. It was cool enough so that the suit was comfortable

Since I was making good time, I decided to press on and started to think about getting an Iron Butt Award (IBA) which is covering 1,000 miles in less than 24 hours. I stopped for dinner in Winslow Arizona after it was dark. There was a storm up ahead with lots of lightning. I called home to let Trish know what I was thinking so that she could unlock the garage door for when I got home. I called back after dinner when I decided that I was tired and didn't want to risk going any further that evening.

Friday, August 15th - The Final Segment

Day 23

I woke up early and though about maybe trying to get that IBA award but just couldn't get motivated to get moving. So I tried to go back to sleep but after an hour I decided that I was just wasting time. I only brought in the stuff I needed to get ready (shaving kit and a change of clothes). I was out loading up my bike and got talking to another biker as we ran through our TCLOCK pre-ride checks. He was heading up into the mountains around Flagstaff. I put on my leather jacket, balaclava and winter gloves since the temperatures were around 60. I was really glad for this when I rode through Williams Arizona where the thermometer dropped into the low 50's. There was not one cloud in the sky so it was a beautiful day with the sunrise over my shoulder.

I stopped in Seligman Arizona.This is the town that Disney/Pixar loosely based the town of Radiator Springs off of in the movie "Cars". It is located on the Historic Route 66, so I gave some thought on taking the old road. Since I had been on a motorcycle for over three weeks the thought of a hot shower and sleeping in my own bed quickly erased that thought. I switched to my summer gloves since my hands had started to sweat in my heavier ones.

About an hour later when I hit Kingman I pulled over and took off the remainder of the cold weather gear since the temperature had reached 90. I stopped for a final gas stop a few miles short of home.

I pulled into the driveway at 10AM. As I paused to use the garage door opener I chatted with my neighbor Don. He told me to watch out since he was seeing a lot of stories about motorcycle accidents. I told him that I was returning home after 25 days on the road to assure him that I knew what I was doing.

I decided to not unpack the bike until later. I was really glad to be home. I spent some time talking with my wife but I headed to the shower and then went to bed and slept for a few hours. I took it easy the rest of the day but spent most of it paying bills and reading a couple of days of emails.

Finally...

Tomorrow I will post what I learned from this incredible experience. I will take a further look at that IBA to see if I qualified or not. I will keep you posted.