Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Ride Home after the 50 CC

The Ride Home
This report immediately follows our 50CC Quest – riding from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA in less than 50 hours. 

50CC Challenge is complete and here we sit in San Diego, CA on Tuesday, March 18th.    Our riding partner, David Clark, has to be home in Athens, GA by noon on  Sunday so our goal is to make it to our house in Duncanville, AL Saturday so he can zoom on home Sunday morning. 

By the time we rested, got our paperwork done, and had a very pleasant sit down breakfast at a local Waffle King, it was time to head back east.  


The goal for the day was Sedona, AZ about 440 miles away.  First it was back through the mountains that had caused the levitation event the night before.  The ride through in the daylight was much more pleasant and we could actually take in the scenery.  One of the goals of the trip home was to avoid the interstate system as much as possible…….we had enough the previous two days.



From El Centro, CA we cut across country towards Sedona.  We rode through the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation area with huge dunes on either side of the road and blowing sand that would cover the road in places.  Neat to see such huges dunes that change shape daily from the wind.  This is a giant playground for folks with ATV’s, sand rails, and the like. 




Between there and Blythe we passed a huge mine of some kind.  We never saw signs indicating what was being mined, but it much have been valuable as evidenced by the miles of high fences topped with concertina wire.  The Colorado River provided a green relief from the starkness of the desert.  From Quartzsite, AZ we headed across country again through the Arizona desert.  There wasn’t much to see until we entered the Prescott National Forest and the Juniper Mountains. 

Jerome, AZ is a most unique little town.  Literally built on the side of a mountain, this small historic mining town has an interesting history.  Once the 4th largest town in Arizona, it has dwindled to a community of about 450 and is filled with art galleries and studios.  Amazing feats of architecture with buildings and homes hanging off the side of the mountain.  You can read more at: 


The Sedona Motel was our resting place for the day and we pulled in at dusk after a long day of riding.  This is a neat, small, mom and pop operation with only about 15 rooms.  The owner,  who lives on site,  was a wealth of information.  We hit a local brewpub for drinks and dinner before a very good long nights sleep.  If you are ever in Sedona, check the motel out.  You won’t be disappointed. 



Wednesday was going to be a long day!  The Grand Canyon was on our list of stops since David had never seen the big hole in the ground.  One of the mysteries of the trip happened in Flagstaff where we stopped for breakfast at IHOP.  We parked and had breakfast coming out to discover that one of David’s winter gloves had disappeared from his bike.  Yes….disappeared.  We searched the parking lot thinking the wind might have blown it away but it was nowhere to be found.  The only explanations we could come up with were that some mean a@@hole stole only one glove or one of the big crows hanging around decided it would make a good liner for his/her nest.  Anyway, there is a good winter glove somewhere around IHOP in Flagstaff. 

The ride north to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff is a great ride as you pass through the San Francisco Mountains.  The canyon itself is awe inspiring so we did the touristy stuff, looking around and taking pictures before visiting the gift shop.  The ride out is just as awesome going through a part of the Painted Desert. 




Our goal was Socorro, NM so we elected to cut through the Hopi Indian Reservation heading toward Window Rock, AZ.  There is little to see other than the despairing poverty of the region.  These folks scrape out a living out of nothing.  The only thing modern we could see were government buildings, schools, and the occasional store. 



With no choice, we hit I-40 through Gallup, and Grants, NM to just west of Albuquerque.  Luck was with us and the winds weren’t too bad.  We stopped for gas and elected to eat supper at the truck stop before continuing on to Socorro.  It is now dark and rather than go through Albuquerque, we cut across on NM Hwy 6.  The only thing we saw on this 28 odd mile leg was total and complete darkness.  At times, our motorcycles generated the only light that could be seen for miles and miles.  That and the seemingly constant flow of trains that tracked alongside the road.  We pulled into Socorro around 10 PM after a 560 mile day. 

Thursday was to be a short but busy day.  From Socorro, we headed through Alamagordo to White Sands, NM to visit the White Sands National Monument.  Along the way we passed the Trinity Site – home of the first atomic bomb test.  White Sands is a cool place where the sand isn’t sand but gypsum.  Blindingly white, it is a neat place to visit. 


From the top of one of the dunes,


From White Sands, we crossed the Sacramento Mountains and the ski areas of Cloudcroft and Ski Apache.  There were still lingering bits of snow on the side of the mountains.  Once we crossed the mountains heading east, we found our old enemy – the wind!  Constant, strong, gusting crosswinds would jerk us around and generally made life unpleasant.  Once we turned south, they became a strong headwind!  Stopping for a meal in Carlsbad we headed south into Texas.  The winds persisted and only started to abate as darkness fell. 

The goal for the day is Monahans, TX which is just a spot along the interstate.  A word of warning to anyone traveling through West Texas.  The oil boom in the area has every motel room for miles filled with oil field workers and business is booming along with the prices for motel rooms.  Never leave a motel room to chance in this area – make a reservation!

Once we hit Pecos, TX it was onto I-20 for the fairly short run into Monahans.  We hadn’t been on the interstate long before eastbound traffic was directed off and onto the access roads.  Inching along at a snail’s pace we tried to figure out what was happening.  Listening to the trucker’s on the CB revealed that there had been a deadly accident several miles ahead and the interstate was blocked.  We inched along in the darkness sandwiched between 18 wheelers.  The eastbound side of the interstate was a parking lot with some truckers relating that they had been sitting for over 4 hours.  We finally passed the scene of the accident and were able to get back on the highway for a short ride into Monahans.  Even though it had been a short mileage day at around 435, it was late when we finally checked in.  Shower and collapse once again. 

Friday was 515 miles of Texas backroads enroute to Huntsville, TX to spend the night with friends Chris and Nancy Stallings.  We managed to avoid the interstate across much of Texas and saw lots of nothing except oil wells and the every present WIND.  Texas roads for the most part are very well maintained and have speed limits to match the territory.  Most 2 lane roads are at least 70mph with many having 75mph posted limits.  We made good time pulling into Huntsville before dark.  Nancy had a nice supper waiting and soon it was again bedtime. 

Neat Courthouses


619 miles is the distance to the house.  We departed Huntsville around 7:00 AM and made our way north through Texas to the boring run of I-20 home.  We stopped in Shreveport, LA for a photo of the world’s largest mural.  I don’t know who the artist was but it was an amazing sight. 



On a side note, Shreveport has the worst section of interstate through town I think I’ve ever experienced.  We always use the bypass to avoid going straight through but couldn’t since we visited the mural.  C’mon Shreveport – do something about your highways!

Several additional stops were made gathering points for our participation in the Big Money Rally.  The BMR is a self-guided scavenger hunt that takes you to some neat out of the way places to photograph some cool sights.  One big theme this year is courthouses.  Some really cool architecture in these old courthouse buildings. 


A good rest break in Vicksburg, Ms and then to the house.  We pulled in around 6:30.  It was nice to be home and stationary for the first time in 10 days.  Showers, food, and rest were the order of business.  David launched early Sunday morning in the rain for his trip onwards to Athens. 

In the 10 days we were on the road, we traveled a bit over 6,000 miles.  Our largest expense was for fuel, followed by motels and food.  The trip looked like this!



Next challenge is coming in April with the 2014 Cape Fear 1000 Rally.  Stay tuned.  


Saturday, March 29, 2014

50 CC Quest

50 CC Quest


One of the many challenging rides sponsored by the Iron Butt Association is the 50CC Quest.  Quite simply, this entails riding from one coast of the United States to the other coast in 50 hours or less.  The most popular route is from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA which when mapped out equates to 2372.6 miles. 

Simple math says to finish the trip, you must maintain an average speed of 47.45 miles per hour over the course of 50 hours.  This includes time spent resting, eating, fueling, etc.  Speeding is not required but keeping the wheels rolling is the solution. 

The Motorcycle Tourer’s Forum was sponsoring the ride providing witnesses in both Jacksonville and San Diego and assisting in completing and submitting the required paperwork to the Iron Butt Association.  Nine bikes were starting the trip with only one two-up….yep, that’s us.  Two riders were completing a 100 CC Quest going from coast to coast to coast in 100 hours or less.  Happily, we can report that everyone accomplished the mission, including the 100CC riders.  Kudos!

We planned the trip in great detail.  Gas stops were planned for every 180 miles with a 20 minute rest break at each stop.  A rest break of 8 hours in duration was planned for Junction, TX.  This would break the trip into 2 segments of 1205 miles the first day and 1167 the 2nd day.  Planned total time for the trip was 44 hours and 11 minutes.  That was the plan.  The plan does not take into account variables such as weather and traffic.  An old saying goes something like:  The best plan in the world goes out the window after the first shot of the battle is fired.  Luckily for us, our battle plan remained pretty much intact.

Planning for any motorcycle trip involves a lot of watching the Weather Channel and the news was not promising for the first leg of the trip.  Heavy rains were forecast for Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.  Radar indicated the front was moving northeast so we hoped it would pass before our arrival.  Ha!    We met at the start point only a couple of blocks from the Atlantic ocean and after getting paperwork completed, a last minute potty stop, and that crucial start receipt we were off.  

Departure was from Jacksonville on Sunday March 16th at 5:16 AM.   We quickly covered the distance to Tallahassee for a gas stop and then onward to Milton for our second stop.  I-10 through Florida is boring and even more boring in the dark. 

Conditions started to deteriorate shortly after leaving Milton with wind gusts and torrential rain.  Weather band radio was broadcasting tornado warnings with the accompanying lightning and thunder of a good ole spring storm.  Good waterproof gear kept us dry and heated gloves and jacket liners kept us warm as we slowed but kept rolling.  Lightning flashes, rumbling thunder, accompanied by the heavy rain and wind gusts kept us entertained.   I’m not a big fan of tunnels, but the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile was a short break from the wind and rain. 

The skies started to clear as we entered Mississippi which was a welcome relief from the pummeling we had taken for the last 100 miles or so.  In place of the rain, we now had to deal with winds.  Crosswinds are tough on a motorcycle.  They tend to push you around, rattle your head, and generally make riding much less pleasant.  Louisiana is not normally a windy place, but it certainly was today. 

We rolled into Slidell, LA for our 3rd gas stop about 550 miles into the trip.  Surprisingly we were still pretty much on schedule even with the wind and rain.  As we approached Baton Rouge,  traffic slowed and then stopped.  It took us over an hour to get through the disaster that is the highway system with merging highways and heavy traffic for a Sunday afternoon.  The only good point was the weather was pleasant and we didn’t cook in the heat.  Exhaust fumes were enough to deal with.

We feared Houston traffic would be an issue, but we sailed through without a glitch.  In Sealy, TX we stopped for gas and a quick meal at McDonalds, our first meal of the day.  Hamburgers tasted much better than they were supposed to!

The next obstacle to overcome is to get through the deer infested country west of San Antonio.   We saw several herds grazing peacefully along the interstate not even raising their heads to note our passing. 

Junction, TX is simply a small waypoint along the interstate in West Texas but a welcome sight it was to find our motel for the night.  1205 miles down and only 1 hour behind schedule at this point, all attributed to the Baton Rouge traffic fiasco.  Sleep was easy to find and the alarm not so pleasant the next morning!  The Legends Inn is a nice mom and pop motel with good rates and comfortable rooms.  Highly recommended as a stopover point. 

We cut our planned 8 hour rest to 7 and around 7:00 AM CDT we rolled out of Junction headed west after fueling up another tasty McDonalds meal.  Now we are fighting good ole West Texas headwinds which caused a serious drop in gas mileage.  Our average to this point was around 35mpg which dropped to less than 30 for this leg. 

Gas stops in Fort Stockton and Van Horn got us through the remainder of Texas and into New Mexico.  El Paso traffic was heavy but we stayed on the move.  We cruised across New Mexico into Arizona, stopping in Wilcox for gas and a Subway sandwich and another gas stop in Gila Bend, AZ.

El Centro, CA was our last stop before the push into San Diego. We also had to tolerate California gas prices at $4.20 for regular.   It is now 9:30 Pacific time and the last obstacle of the trip was crossing the mountains to the west coast of the United States.  As we started the climb across the Sierra Madre Mountains, we saw what appeared to be hundreds of red lights blinking in unison in the distance.  We’ve seen lots of wind turbine farms at night but never one that had all the lights blinking at the same time.  Quite the unusual sight. 

Winds in the Sierra Madre Mountains are notorious for gusting through the canyons and hitting you from every direction.  There was no disappointment to be had this night as one gust caught us so severely that it basically levitated the bike across two lanes of traffic and onto the rumble strips of the median.  Let me assure you, this is a butt clincher!

Temperatures plummeted from the 60’s of the desert floor to a low of 28 as we crossed the summit.  Thank goodness for the heated gear we put on in El Centro.

We broke over the mountains to the welcome lights of San Diego.  Traffic was light as we made our way to the final stop of our 50 CC Quest.  At 11:36 PM we got our final receipt proving that we had traveled from Atlantic to Pacific in 45 hours and 30 minutes. 

Mileage was 2,434 miles by the motorcycle odometer, 2372 miles by map, and 2,366 by GPS.  The motorcycle was moving for 33 hours and 4 minutes, stopped for 12 hours and 14 minutes.  Overall average speed was 52 mph with a moving average of 72 miles per hour.   

The Goldwing consumed 73.8 gallons of gas over the course of the trip.  Longest stretch between gas stops was 222 miles with the shortest at 98 between Junction and Fort Stockton.  Gas prices ranged from a low of $3.22 in Slidell, LA to the high of $4.20 in El Centro.  Overall average gas mileage was 33 miles per gallon which isn’t bad considering a heavily loaded motorcycle  with both rider and passenger, fighting winds most of the way.    

After getting our ending receipt, we found the beach and in the darkness  got our water and sand from the Pacific Ocean.  It was a short trip to the Days Inn for a fairly short nights sleep before rising to meet our witnesses verifying the completion of our trip.

Pacific Ocean!



Now all we had to do was get home but that is another story!