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Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

Grants NM for lunch. Making good time. Little bit of rain. Temps in the 60s-70s.

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Squeaky, the answer to your question is "a BB1500 certification" and the opportunity to color in two more states on my map.

WA, OR, ID are the last states remaining on the west side of the country (excluding AK and HI) for me to fill in.

1,765 miles in 35H 39M. Too tired to write a RR right now.
 
Cool. Too bad you didn't do it while we were up there visiting the in-laws so we could host ya. After you rest, let us know how it went.
 
My ride report as posted to the AZ Beemers site this morning...

Got home about 8 last night. 1,765 miles in 35H 39M. Not in Skooter's territory (Skooter G is Greg Marbach - a two time IBR finisher that's on the forum), but good enough for me. I thought about getting a few hours of sleep and then completing a SS2K but I was too bushed.

Attempts to kill me: 2
Animals seen: Coyote & Antelope
Weather: Some rain, some wind, low of 55 (between Payson & Heber), high of 91 (Phx). Avoided the tornados
Number of bike drops: 1/2
Radar Detector saves: 2

My route was Chandler, Payson, Heber, Winslow, Tucumcari (sobriety check as I got off I-40), Dalhart TX, Boise City OK, Elkhart KS. Coming back it was Boise City, Springer NM, Santa Fe and Albuq NM, Ganado AZ (detour to get a challenge photo), Flagstaff, Scottsdale (for witness signature and last fuel), and then home.

As I was rounding the right hand curve where the Circle K is just outside of Heber there was a vehicle in the left turn lane facing me. I was running with my HID low beams on and my high beams were modulating. As I got closer to the intersection the driver decided to turn in front of me. All I can say is thank goodness for ABS. She stopped about 1/2 of the way into my lane and I managed to get around the front of her. I pulled into the gas station TOTALLY PO'd, and she came in from the other side. She drove over to me, rolled down her window and profusely apologized. She had been looking at the activity in the parking lot and then proceeded to make her turn without looking back ahead.

After the standard "you could have killed me" and "motorcycles aren't dangerous, you car drivers are the dangerous ones" comments, I calmed down a bit as her remorse was quite visible. She was about 60-65 years old and she was as scared about what could have happened as I was.

The next attempt to kill me was coming into Dalhart TX. This is a huge feed lot operation town and I had a tractor-trailer just make a left turn into one of the lots in front of me. No signal, just turn. Fortunately I had plenty of time to brake hard, but it still ticked me off that he would do that. It's not that I'm invisible - people are always flashing their brights at me when I just have my low beams on as those HIDs put out some serious light. Lesson learned... never assume what the other idiot is going to do or not do.

Right after that a coyote ran across the road from a feedlot into a field but he was far enough ahead of me that it was no big deal. Coming back on Saturday morning I saw TONS of antelope on both sides of the road just grazing. I gave up counting herds after the first six. And one last animal related tidbit; 191 north of I-40 has lots of open range and there are plenty of horses grazing by the side of the road.

NE New Mexico is a great place to make miles just as the sun is coming up. Very desolate, the road is in great shape, and in some sections you can see for miles and miles ahead of you to determine if there are any vehicles heading your way.

Got lost one time because I didn't pay proper attention to the GPS; I turned left instead of bearing left as I was leaving Boise City. After she made several attempts to convince me of the error of my way I finally paid attention to the voice on the handlebar and turned around. I did so in a little turn-off which became a dirt road. As I tried to swing around again with the bike turned/leaned hard to the right I grabbed too much front brake and over she started to go. I stabbed my right foot out and managed to stop the fall but to the detriment of my big right toe. Initially I thought I had broken it, but I was still able to flex it so I just dealt with the pain and kept going. The top 1/3 of my nail on that toe is black and blue and it's still a bit sore, but that's better than having to pick up the dirty fat girl from a steep sloped drive.

The radar detector saved me twice; once as we (myself and a Ducati) were approaching Rye the detector went off so I backed down and tapped my helmet for the other guy to slow. The officer was in an unmarked grey Crown Vic in the crossover lane near the motorcycle junkyard. The next was as I turned off of I-40 onto 191 heading to the Hubbell Trading Post. All I saw was a long climbing straightaway with no vehicles. Just as I whacked open the throttle the detector chirped and then stopped. Thinking that the car about a half mile behind me may have been a LEO I maintained the speed limit, and then I saw the DPS officer ahead of me on the side of the road. The road climbed, but then leveled off and climbed again. The trooper was sitting in that blind spot so if you weren't paying attention you would crest that first rise and he would have you dead in his sights. Thank you Escort!

Benefit of staying at a small town motel: they put your room key in an envelope and tape it to the office door if you're going to be a late arrival. The El Rancho Motel in Elkhart is a decent place to stay considering I was only there for about 7 hours. I arrived at 2045 and was back on the road at 0315 (AZ time). The downside to a small town is that 24 hour gas is not always available. At the time that I was leaving the one station in town was shut down so no fuel receipt for the turnaround point.

Coming into Dalhart I could see some major lightning activity in the distance so I switched to the Weather Band but all I could pick up was sporadic comments of "tornadic, cells, hail, winds, TX, OK", etc. The reception was really bad and there weren't any weather comments on the AM stations either. So after refueling I put on my rain gear and headed north to Oklahoma. I had a GREAT light show off to my right front quarter, but I did not know which direction the storm was traveling. If it was heading my way I was going to be in a serious hurt because there isn't anything between Dalhart and Boise City other than one FM (Farm to Market for you non-Texan heathens out there) road that intersects 385.

The storm was INTENSE. This was the first time I had ever seen clouds turn red when the lightning exploded inside. I was too far away to see any cloud to ground strikes but I'm sure that there was quite a bit of that as well.

As I left Boise City I was now moving to the NE with the storm directly in front of me and I was encountering water puddles every now and then that indicated the storm had previously moved through that area. Again, the light show was great but I felt sorry for anyone in the path of this monster. A few hours of sleep in Elkhart (just so I could color in the OK and KS portions of my map) and then time to head home. A long stop in Santa Fe to have breakfast with an old friend and then it was time to do nothing but gas-n-go.

I had hoped to get my final fuel receipt at the same station I started from at Queen Creek and Price but I was going to be cutting it really close. Even with some major wrist twisting I wasn't sure that I could pick up the 15 minutes that I was behind schedule. I rolled down the 17 with a lot of cages that seemed to have the same intention as myself, with some moving even faster than I was comfortable with. The Wing is a comfortable ride, but stability in the sweepers in the 90+ range is not her strong suit. With discretion being the better part of valor I opted to fuel in Scottsdale because I knew I could get one of my managers to come outside and sign my witness form. So at about 7 pm I pulled off at Frank Lloyd Wright, got my gas and receipt, motored over to WM, and got the overnight manager to sign me off. Then I headed home to put the fat girl away for the night. She had performed well and it was time for her to sleep as well.


One down, three to go.
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Welcome back, Texas T. Although I'm an Arizona native, Texas was home for a long, long time.
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Three down, one to go.
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Night photography is not my forte'.
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And to clarify (somewhat) the previous shot...
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My riding partner on this trip.
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There's more than one.
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A final detour to grab a challenge photo for another forum.
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And I thought that *I* was "flying low" on this trip!
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Dang, it's a lot of work to put all this certification paperwork together. I'm just about done and then I'm going to wait until after this coming weekend's in-state SS1K to get everything submitted:
1 - SS1K
1 - BB 1500
1 - In-state SS1K
1 - BBG 1500 + SS1K

I'm going to fill up my Ego Wall at work in a couple of months. :lol2:
 
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