Day 12 – 6/29/2018 – Salina, KS to Houston, TX – 700 Miles
Salina, KS to Houston, TX – 700 Miles – MAP LINK
As always, there’s only 1 goal for the final day, get home in one piece. Initially the only site we were going to see on the last day was the Original Carpenters Bluff Bridge on the OK/TX border. We scrapped that pretty quickly and just decided to head straight home. Looking back, I wish we would have got off the Interstate and completely avoided Dallas.
We were up super early and took off when there was a bit of light out, before the sun was up. Unfortunately the wind was still blowing hard in the morning, the only difference was the temperature, right off the bat, was a bit more bearable. We rode south on I-135 to I-35 out of Wichita and into Oklahoma. The first stop of the day was for gas in Tonkawa.
Dad was trying to figure out how to get home using his new GPS. He had somehow made the Comfort Inn & Suites back in Salina, KS his “home.”
The wind eased up mid-way through Oklahoma, but of course by that time the temperature had risen. The second stop of the day was for gas again in Marietta.
Leaving there was the worst stretch of the entire trip. We crossed into Texas, and I swear Dallas now starts about 10 miles south of the border. Construction, slow-moving traffic, fender benders, cell phones, heat, humidity… it was a nightmare, and we were only in the Carrollton area. Mom called and said she was looking at the traffic through town and recommended we take I-635 around to US75 south into town instead of staying on I-35. I’ll never know if it was actually better, it was still slow that entire way until we were able to get on I-45 leaving town. Between all the chaos, Dad and I getting separated several times and not able to communicate via the headsets, and the heat, we were both in bad moods. We stopped to re-group on the south side of town in Wilmer.
I told Dad that I had to make a mandatory stop at Buc-ee’s in Madisonville, to get some goodies for my girls. As we were approaching there, Mom called again and warned us of traffic just south of there. She came up with a route to get us from Buc-ee’s down to Huntsville in an effort to avoid the mess. After loading up at Buc-ee’s, which was an absolute zoo, we broke off the Interstate for our detour. I must say, it was a glorious 30 miles. It’s like the Interstate makes me hold my breath, and after a day of battle I could finally exhale. It was at least 10 miles before we even had to pass a car. With our batteries recharged we joined I-45 back on the south side of Huntsville and finished off the ride, splitting off, in traffic of course, where we had met 11 days prior in Spring. While Houston received heavy rains on almost a daily basis, we only had the little bit of rain leaving town on Day 1, we really lucked out in that aspect.
I made it home safely, and was greeted by my fan club. I told my wife with the reception I got, I may need to take more trips.
Here are my totals for the trip… 12 days and 5,320 miles.
It was a great ride overall, but the last day and a half left a sour taste in our mouths. For Dad, it was the most comfortable he’d ever been, thanks to the F6B. The only drawback of it is the front suspension on a bumpy road; it seems to translate directly to his hands. But with the heat, wind and traffic… it has us thinking we may just trailer smaller bikes somewhere next year. We shall see…
Thanks for following along.