The Pig is on the roll

[bicyclist]

Each year, my local motorcycle club has a pair of rides "contests". One is a sort of scavenger hunt, different every year, and the other is to see who rides in the most states during the year. No one had ridden in all 50 states for the contest, so I made that my goal. When I rode through Arizona and New Mexico, two of the four states I'd never ridden in before, I decided that I wanted to go back for a better look. With that in mind, I set out at the end of April and made it as far as Meridian, MS before deciding to bail. I beat feet back up the road through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Next day, they were flattened. That was a 2011 mile trip in 74 hours.

A couple of weeks later I was ready to try again along a different route to avoid the mess left by the tornaders. The bike was packed to leave the next day when I heard that I 40 was closed by flood. That ended that.

Finally, the flood subsided and it appeared that the dangerous weather would be north of my route. I set off on Saturday, planning to do short days to be off the road before afternoon storms sprang up. That worked and the bike was safely parked under cover during bad weather. On Tuesday, in Dallas, I watched out the motel room door as marble size hail fell and rain blew sideways in sheets. Then the sirens started. A tornader scraped a path a few miles away.

Next day, all was calm as I headed for Van Horn, TX.

 

[bicyclist]

When I sprang up at the crack of dawn, the storms had passed and the wind had dried the bike cover. I was anxious to get on the road because I knew that it would be a long, hot ride and managed to take off at 0700. The "dry line" is a term that the weather guys use out here. It refers to a line of dry air ahead of a cold front and is a trigger mechanism for strong storms. The dry line has been hanging out west of Dallas ahead of a stalled front. It was warm and humid as I left the DFW area and I could immediately tell when I hit the dry line. It cooled off enough that I considered stopping to put on my sweatshirt and the humidity dropped. It was quite comfortable and there was no wind. The road is rather pleasant, with elevation changes, plenty of trees and so forth. At Ranger, I saw evidence of the fires that have been plaguing the area and saw a column of smoke on a ridge. Around Eastland, oil and gas wells started showing up. Somewhere along the way, as I was coming over a ridge, the wind started up and blew ferociously for 200 miles. Gas mileage dropped to 45 mpg. The land flattened out and the trees were gone to tilled acreage. There's a huge refinery in Big Spring. As I went through there, the air became thick with what I thought was refinery pollution, but turned out to be dust from the fields. It's so dry that nothing is growing. There's 6 inch high dead stuff or nothing at all in the fields. By the time I got to Pecos, the wind had died down some and the ride to Van Horn was easier. It skirts along some "mountains", hills everywhere else. Van Horn has a jewel of a hotel with a nice restaurant. After a visit to the laundromat to do a better job than the nightly sink rinse, I went down there for the best meal of the trip. Van Horn ain't exactly a bastion of sophistication, but this place was damned good.

So, it was a good ride today, 516 miles, and it finally feels as if I'm getting started.

 

[Phil Tarman]

Thanks for posting your trip report! Have a great trip!

 

[Chucksklrst]

George, got some pictures?

 

[elizilla]

George, when I was in Van Horn I ate breakfast in a place with a car museum. I can't remember what it was called, but the car museum was a surprise to me - it was just a shabby concrete block building, with no particular signage. I'm sure any local could tell you where it is. Worth checking out.

I had eaten and while waiting at the register I looked down the hallway and saw the front of an old car. I walked down to see, and it turned out that there was a long room running down the side of the building and around the back, full of cars and car memorabilia. I asked the cashier if any of the cars run and she said "They all run - we drive them every week when we rotate the other cars in here." LOL!

 

[Chucksklrst]

Well, once I'm done with Arizona, I'm riding over to sit on yer seat!

All kidding aside, thanks for the heads up; I've got my electric gear. When I rode through last year it was 90 in San Angelo and snowed on me in Gallup.

Say, you don't happen to have a torque wrench do you? Maybe I can change my oil when I'm there.

If you come thru Colorado we can take care of your oil at my place.

 

[bicyclist]

George, when I was in Van Horn I ate breakfast in a place with a car museum.

I saw that place, Katherine. Looked pretty cool.

Texans seem to have an affinity for collecting old stuff. I passed a bunch of places like that.

 

[bicyclist]

If you come thru Colorado we can take care of your oil at my place.

Thanks, Chuck. I haven't planned a route home; gotta watch the weather. After I sit on Rick's seat, I'm thinking of heading over to some of the Utah parks. From there it would make sense to head back through Colorado.

 

[Phil Tarman]

Thanks, Chuck. I haven't planned a route home; gotta watch the weather. After I sit on Rick's seat, I'm thinking of heading over to some of the Utah parks. From there it would make sense to head back through Colorado.

I'd suggest that you swing by Fort Morgan on the way home. We're on I-76 between Denver and I-80 up in Nebraska. But since I'm leaving here on Wednesday morning to go to Texas for my 50th HS reunion, I might not be at home. You can sure stop here if you come through before then. Or you can go through Aurora and vist Chuck Henderson. He'll be glad to feed you steaks and the great beverages, change oil, replace tires, whatever. He's a heck of a good guy! (Don't say I never said good things about you, Chuck!)

 

[bicyclist]

T Black Forrest Cake.

OOOO! Black Forrest Cake! My favorite! I met my wife in Toronto and we used to go down the street to a little bakery for Black Forrest Cake.

German beer's OK, but (before I quit drinking) my favorite was Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. The thicker and darker, the better (but not too hoppy).

 

[bicyclist]

OK, for today: It was a pretty short day, only about 300 miles. I left Van Horn shortly after 8 and almost immediately crossed the time zone. It was easy sailing to El Paso; comfortable temps, no wind (56mpg!). That place is a hole. It shares the river valley with a nasty refinery and the air is a stinking yellow. I'd used the Google satellite view to locate an exit that would bring me right down to US 85 where I expected to find a sign for my scavenger hunt. I had to find it there because it runs concurrent with I 25 north through NM and is unsigned. Got my pic and hauled out of there. I stopped to gas up for the run to Lordsburg and found that the available stuff is 86 88 or 91 octane. The Honda runs on regular, but I didn't want to push it so I sprang for the 88. Somewhere between Las Cruces and Deming, the Border Patrol had a roadblock set up. They herded everyone off the highway and did a check of each vehicle complete with sniffer dog. The guy looked at me and said, "Are you a citizen?" "All my life, bud." Then it was back on the road. I took a break in Deming for hydration and to decide whether to go to Lordsburg or Silver City. A woman in a gas station told me there was a fire up toward Silver City and the road was closed, so that made things easy. I got here around noon, had lunch and checked in. So I've had time to attend to some housekeeping details (the Pig is clean) and now I'll do some more trip planning.

The plan is to ride up 191. The holiday weekend has screwed me up and I couldn't get a room in Show Low, so I expect to be in Holbrook tomorrow.

 

[Phil Tarman]

found that the available stuff is 86 88 or 91 octane. The Honda runs on regular, but I didn't want to push it so I sprang for the 88.

George,

Whenever you see three grades of gasoline (at least in the US), it's safe to use the lowest grade. Here in Colorado, we've got 85 octane and anything that runs on regular at lower altitude runs on 85 octane here. The anti-knock deal, as I understand it, is not just a matter of compression ratio, but of absolute pressure. Our air up here above 4,000' is something like 20% less dense than your air down their in the flatlands, so even if we compress it a bunch, it's not at such high pressure to need the higher octanes.

Feel free to buy 86 octane, or if you see, it 85 octane. I've never seen any lower octane than that in the US (or anywhere I've ever been, for that matter).

 

[bicyclist]

Thanks, Phil. You know, I went over the Continental Divide today. Down here, that's only about 4600 feet, but still a ways above sea level.

My F800 loves Colorado. It gets 70 mpg in the mountains.

 

[elizilla]

The Sunoco stations here in Michigan sell 86 octane for one or two cents cheaper than the competitor sells their 87 octane, and they list their 86 price on their signs, so it looks like they are the cheapest. But their 87 octane is always slightly more expensive than the competition's 87. The normal octane rating here is 87, and no one but Sunoco sells 86 octane fuel here - we're what, 700 feet above sea level? Not high enough for lower octane fuels, not as a general thing. I suppose some cars have ECUs that can adjust for it, and others are driven by the oblivious. I avoid Sunoco whenever possible because of these shenanigans.

 

[Phil Tarman]

That's sneaky. I'll avoid Sunoco if I'm ever back in that part of the world, too.

 

[bicyclist]

Got a good night's sleep in a comfortable, quiet room last night. US 70 runs about dead straight out of town heading northwest across the desert to the Arizona border. At Duncan, I headed up 75, which bounds through sand washes and over shale hills. The area looks as though it was a drainage at some time in the past. I rode through a neat hollow with some irrigated fields, some livestock and a few buildings. It looked like a self sustaining ecosystem. No idea where the water came from, though. It's all desert. I stopped in Clifton to gas up before a long stretch of empty road. I'm a fan of railroad stations and saw a fine example repurposed as a Chamber of Commerce office. The Morenci copper mine, north of town is what supports the local economy. It's huge. Rt 191 climbs past the mine in a series of switchbacks that go on for miles, eventually entering the Sitgreaves National Forest and continuing to climb. That section of road is some of the most challenging I've ridden, on a par with the Rattlesnake Grade. The road winds like a snake, going higher and higher until it's over 8000 feet. The air was blessedly cool up there. Once it crosses the hump, it descends onto a saddle and straightens out for a bit. That's where I came across a herd of free range longhorns in the road. Once across the saddle, the road climbs again, but with more sweeping turns. It was heaven cranking over in turn after turn. In 100 miles, I only came across 4 other vehicles on my side and they were all clustered together at around 65 miles in, where the road starts to straighten out again. They were devoured in 2 helpings. The foliage had changed from desert to alpine, with pines and aspen. It was beautiful rushing down the treed tunnel. All good things must end and I bailed off 191 at Eager for lunch. I talked with a retired truck driver and his wife and he told me about the route I was planning to ride to Show Low. He suggested that I might see some snow and the aspens starting to turn green. I was surprised because they were all leafed out where I had been. He pointed out that where I was going was at 9000 feet and damned if he wasn't right. The aspens were just starting to pop. It was a nice ride over the hump. The Pig had to grunt a bit. Took a pic of the bike in front of a Hon-Dah sign that means "welcome" in Zuni.

I tried to post some pics, but got a message about too large files. So I resized them and tried again. No dice. <expletive>

Anyway, it was a wonderful day of riding.




Show Low was congested and I'm glad my reservation there didn't work out. From there it was about 50 miles up to Holbrook an a dead straight road.

 

[Chucksklrst]

Great write up. Keep them coming. Re-size your pics to less than a meg. It should work then. Remember, No pic's , then it did not happen

 

[bicyclist]

I thought I had them resized, but apparently not correctly. I'll have another shot when I get a chance.

 

[Chuck 500]

Great pics George. Looks like you are having a great trip. BTW, what king and size is your butt pad. I am thinking of trying one to alleviate the heat here.

 

[bicyclist]

It's just a piece of sheepskin I've had for years. Helps a lot.