Ophir Pass was a bit of work on the VFR, she was loaded pretty good and the short handlebars, larger weight and zero ground clearance made for an interesting ride down. Oh and the low oxygen was something new for me too. Firstman also got me into Jeeping and I kept hearing his voice in my head telling me to pick the more interesting line (read harder) and terms like airing down and armor all of the sudden applied to my bike. Funny stuff. When we got to the bottom Firstman aired me up and we couldn't find the pressure guage so I ran down the road and back to qualitatively determine is I had 36psi. It was then I realized that there was an exhaust leak. At the nex stop I found the missing bolt on the exhast flange and a little dent in one of my pipes on the bottom. No biggie. After we ate Firstman lent me his bike to run to Napa to get a new bolt. They gave me a 6 and 8mm free which was mighty nice. Upon returning I found the 6 was my man BUT the spacing was too tight for an open end and the fairing too close for a socket. In addition to being somewhat tired, needing a shower (the ones at the campground were coin operated!) and needing to fix this exhaust issue before blowing the exhaust doughnut, scoring my valves and finding myself spending hundreds of dollars to fix something that was literally free I decided to grab a motel room. There was a nice little crappy place like I like (park my bike right by the door, small, A/C that you can crank and a TV which I can watch cops on) right next to the restaurant. Shower, sleep and get up for the next day.
The next morning I pulled the fairing to get to the nut and do a visual over the rest of my bike to make sure the DS adventure didn't have other consequences. While there I realized that I had 900 miles in front of me and getting the headphones working with the GPS (Zumo which BTW is a VERY VERY good one) which was loaded with music would be nice. Playing around a little with that I found a little strip of duct tape on my tank bra did the job. It was still about 2 inches too long for sitting which means I couldn't lean back or stand up. But I had music! And another thing I didn't realize is how nice the GPS turn by turn vocal instructions really make it so much better. No looking at it all the time. Worry free riding.
While I was working on the bike I ended up talking to two Goldwing riders, a German couple, a couple who were from about 70 miles from Cortez, two of the housekeeping staff and various other people. Everyone was positive and there weren't any stories of the mother's cousin's brother's friend who had a friend killed on a bike which was really nice because it's annoying to justify your life to other people. However bewteen the work and the conversation it was going on 11 am Dallas time by the time I had my kickstand up. GPS was saying 12:49 for arrival, adding in five fuel stops and I figured I would be home by 2 am Monday.
First stop was in Shiprock in the UTE reservation. Every one I saw was either emanciated or morbidly obese (two emanciated, rest morbidly obese). I noticed a sign coming in saying that home cooked family meals were more nutritious. I saw something on Discovery where a lot of Native Americans are obese and have diabetes because they eat a lot of junk food and fast food and their bodies were used to a hunter/gatherer diet and never adapted in the relatively short time, I don't know if that's what I was seeing here but I remembered seeing that show. Anyhow I gassed up there because the next town would be right around 190+ miles. After that I gassed up at 190+ miles every time. My mileage was right around 40mpg so I was pretty happy about that. Also using the GPS for music was fantastic! The headphone cord was a little short but it really added something to the ride. Keep in mind that for 20 years I have wanted music on my bike and the best I ever had was a yellow Sony walkman that was “weather proof” and ended up eating a tape and then water got in it. So this was pretty much a life long dream, music on my bike. The headphones I have are the ear bid type and with the flip face I had before the Arai I couldn’t hear them and it was so open that they came out continuously. The Arai is AWESOME! The dark shield also keeps the inside temp down and probably kept me from being sunburned. Not only is it quieter and very cool inside, it holds the headphones in place perfectly. The only downside is it does hurt my ears every time it starts pulling on the cable. But an extension which costs $1.79 at Fry’s would fix that. Also the whole reason I missed a couple of turns using the GPS is that you have to look at it and when you are enjoying the ride you forget to look. With headphones on that never happens. It tells you when to turn, so I never missed a turn.
As I was heading out of Shiprock I decided to keep within 5mph of the speed limit and I was going to do the whole 891 miles that day. The GPS was saying I could be home by 12:39 and I figured I would have four more stops spending about 20 minutes per putting me home by 2. Adding another 5mph in and I would cut that back again by about an hour to 1. At the next stop I ended up being there about 40 minutes. There was a huge line for the bathroom, I had to ask twice for my receipt and I got a couple of hot dogs and a bag of chips for lunch. It was like 107 out so as I ate beside my bike I stripped off the jacket. Some Harley guy with his bike on a trailer was talking with me and started the conversation with “pretty hot for riding” and I told him I was really comfortable when moving which was true. Leather jacket with vents was working very well.
Between the second and third stop I hit a long straight section that had a sign saying dangerous crosswinds. That got me thinking what they could mean, I had been pushed around before by wind and heard stories about bikes pushed odd the road, into barriers or even tractor trailers. I don’t know how hard these winds were blowing but it seemed way more than the 80mph I was heading into! My shoulders were getting a good workout correcting for the wind pushing me back and forth. Cars were going about 10 mph lower than the speed limit except the occasional one going about 10 mph faster than me. In true west fashion the towns were spread way apart but by the signs I got that right around 190 I would be hitting one. That was nearly a mistake! The winds were not just taxing me, but the VFR too. I passed the first off ramp because I didn’t see a gas station right off the highway. The second had one within half a mile so I stopped there. I put in 5.468 gallons (in a 5.5 gallon tank) at 192.5 miles! That wind cut back my mileage an insane amount to 35 and I almost ran out. The VFR ambient was showing 109 degrees and as I sat and drank powerade (you have to pay for the ice cup full price so I put powerade in the ice), filled up my sippy cup, changed to the clear shield after cleaning the dark one I was sweating more without the jacket than I was on the bike! I was about 42 miles from Texas at that point.
The next stop was a little town in Texas, I still had my sunglasses on as the sun went down. I pulled in and gassed up, this time it was cooler so I didn’t take off my jacket. Went in and did the bathroom thing, which was pretty much a non issue because I think I was sweating out what I was taking in and the jacket was drying that off for a nice A/C effect. But not in the head, the Arai keeps me plenty cool there. I grabbed an energy drink because it was about 10:30. I had an estimated 3 hours left and was supposed to be home around 1:30. As I was cleaning my shield a guy on a CBR600 pulled up and we got to talking. I nearly bought one of these instead of the VFR (bike fever hit and Firstman saved me by selling his VFR to me). That is a tiny bike for my size and desire to ride all over the US. But it’s also a very pretty bike. I have never looked at one up close and if I had gone to the Honda dealer I would probably have walked out with one and regretted it often when putting hundreds of miles back to back. We were talking and there were pretty girls driving up every five minutes, they would come over and ask about our bikes. I don’t know what’s in the water in that town but I mean every car had one or two really cute girls in it and they were really friendly and most were wearing really little shorts and a tank top. At least ten of them came up. Then a trooper came up and started talking to us, turns out he’s into riding. We all talked for about an hour and a half about everything from chatterboxes (we REALLY need those, the CBR guy has one and he loves it) to rides. When I left that place I had a good time so the new estimate of 3:30 didn’t really upset me. I had one more stop and then I would be home. Plus I wasn’t feeling tired or really sore. Liberal application of talcum powder seemed to chase that monkey away (if you know what I mean).
The ride to the next stop got me thinking about my next ride. I don’t know when it will be but I am thinking of either New Orleans or the beach again. Something that would be a day there, Saturday and Sunday camping and a day back. Also I was thinking of things that we should get for the big trip. The chatterboxes sound excellent. That really would have made this trip cool if we could all talk while riding. Adding in the GPS to mine would be sweet and I think I will sell the GPS I have and get the next model up for the Bluetooth. The one thing that was kind of a **** was when I was in Pagosa waiting because I was afraid I would miss Firstman's call and then we would be playing phone tag all afternoon. With the Bluetooth that’s not a worry. Another thing would be a seat upgrade. I wasn’t getting too sore but for a longer ride I could see it. And I was thinking about the camera/storage thing. I think the answer is a really small PC with a huge hard drive They have new tablet PC’s coming out that are half the dimensions of a sheet of paper, you could download pictures on that PC and not carry a freaking full size laptop which takes a whole saddlebag. Also I thought about what I should be carrying tool/spare part wise on the trips and other stuff. So I got some thinking done and it was pretty exciting to plan ahead for future trips.
The next stop was about 143 miles from home. After that I started seeing the occasional deer. I would hit my horn, their head pops up and they ran away. The Goldwing guy back at the motel had the deer whistles and he said he sees them look up when he is coming but they don’t run away. So I took to hitting the horn every so often as preventative deer maintenance. After I started that I didn’t see any more. The rest of the ride was pretty easy and gorgeous, my bike creating a little bubble of reality from my running lights, stars overhead in an insanely black sky and occasional flashes of lightning. Cool non humid air rushing over me felt good too after the desert heat.
I ran out of music just as I pulled off 380 to 35E. About 10 more songs and I would have made it door to door! I have plenty more room I just didn’t add more than 149 songs. Now that I have the Arai and my headphones work I will be adding a lot more!
So it was an excellent ride home. I could have rode a bit longer but I was where I lived so I stopped. I did hear Key West calling me though.