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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Gotta love those winds, nice job on the 50cc and the trip home.
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