Author Topic: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11  (Read 9309 times)

Offline billday

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Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« on: October 19, 2011, 10:05:44 PM »
Day 1, Sierra Vista, AZ to Pecos, TX -- 519 miles

My trip out west (see my previous thread) had been almost completely Interstate-free from the Mississippi on. The plan going East was designed to get me back east as fast as possible: I-10 in New Mexico to I-20 from West Texas to Alabama, then cut northeast on various Interstates I'd never heard of before until Charlottesville VA, where my girlfriend Paige was waiting for me. I left my mom's in Arizona on Tuesday morning (see picture) and aimed to get to Charlottesville by Friday.

The very first part of the trip, however, was on AZ-80 and NM-80, a beautiful road combining open desert and foothills and passes -- beautiful, and it's great to have the memory of my New York-based brick in such places.

Slab or no slab, the West Texas plains had real grandeur as the sun set and the full moon rose dead ahead. I had assumed (don't ask me why) that a room would await me at the I-10/I-20 split, but there was nothing there but darkness. Pressing on, I found a room in Pecos.

The pictures show (from top to bottom): Leaving mom's house; the Geronimo surrender monument in Arizona; and West Texas dusk (as seen from where I went to take a leak).
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Offline billday

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2011, 10:15:56 PM »
Day 2: Pecos, TX to Canton, TX -- 485 miles

Dull, dull, dull. Nothing  but passing semis and listening to the wind all day. The monotony was broken by a few moments of terror in Dallas rush hour. Supper east of Dallas (at a Denny's in a huge "travel plaza") was enlivened by a conversation with a trucker who wanted to tell me about his airhead.

I was pretty pleased with my progress so far -- averaging 500 miles a day seemed to have me on track for my goal. And 500 a day was not hard to do --  just ride.

One of the worst aspects of traveling by slab is the monotonous food. Food was bad on the small roads too, but at least there existed the chance of a (pleasant) surprise. On the slab, the food is bad and it's also the same thing over and over.

The pictures show the main drag in Pecos, and a typical scenic view of I-20 somewhere between Pecos and Fort Worth.
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Offline billday

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2011, 11:34:02 PM »
Day 3: Canton, TX to Eutaw, AL -- 495 miles

What a relief to finally get out of Texas -- that state is just too big. Louisiana flew by -- sorry no time to see your sights. It's always emotional to cross the Mississippi, and crossing at Vicksburg had special weight having recently read US Grant's memoir and being in the process of reading WT Sherman's memoir. There's a visitor center right after the bridge that gives a great view of the river and the high bluffs on the Vicksburg side -- it was just what I pictured from Grant's and Sherman's accounts of the siege of Vicksburg.

The riding was monotonous, except it felt good to knock off LA, MS and part of AL in a few hours, after needing 2-1/2 days to cross Texas.

In the pictures: Canton, TX motel (never saw a swimming pool in a parking lot before); friendly Harley guy along the highway; and the Mississippi River at Vicksburg.
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Offline billday

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2011, 11:55:10 PM »
Day 4: Eutaw, AL to Charlottesville, VA -- 696 miles

On day 3 I ran out of steam just short of 500 miles. That night, on the phone with Paige, I realized I was much farther from Charlottesville than I had imagined. The hours of interstate riding were wearing me down. I wanted to get where I was going. I had 700 miles to go, and I resolved to ride it all the next day.

To anyone else who gets a similar idea, let me say: Don't do it. It was really hard, and really dangerous. When it was over, parking in front of Paige's house in the dark, I seriously questioned whether I could get off the bike without dropping it, I was so tired.

In the pictures: My 1985 K100 burned about 3 ounces of oil in 4,500 miles. Somewhere in Tennessee I picked up a quart of Castrol 20W-50 to top it up. Also, check out the shiny spooge on the front of the engine -- looks like it's originating in the oil/water pump. Should I be concerned about that? Also: Virginia Welcome Center: Thank God, only 200(!) miles to go. And look at the stupid shit you take pictures of when you're exhausted.
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Offline Chaos

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2011, 12:20:15 AM »
Nice trip, especially on a 26 yr old bike.  Guess that's why the 85s are know as the FYKs  (finest year K)  But the important thing here is that you have a Maier fairing, same as me except I got the rectangular headlight!  Be interested to see how it's mounted and what blinkers you used.  I bent a bunch of flat aluminum stock and wire tied R1150 blinkers on a piece of PVC.  Wouldn't worry much about that oil spray, does't look like it's coming from the weep hold at the bottom of the water pump.  Keep the oily side down,  cheers!
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Offline billday

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2011, 01:35:50 AM »
Day 5: Charlottesville, VA to Chestnut Ridge, NY -- 402 miles

I got to Charlottesville on Friday, and got my weekend with Paige. We are just starting out together, and we live 400 miles apart (for now), so that was important. But I also feel more than lucky that I didn't kill myself on my 700-mile day, and the biggest lesson of the trip was to honor my limits from now on.

The second-biggest lesson was to travel the two-lane blacktop. The trip West, especially the from the Mississippi on, was the best part of the trip, that's the kind of touring I want to do in the future.

My bike ran great all the way -- never a hint of trouble (except for the tire that failed out west: http://www.motobrick.com/index.php?topic=1160.0 ). As I said, it barely burned any oil. For the entire trip of 5,330 miles, I averaged 40.08 mpg. The highest mpg on a tank was 47.5, the lowest was 36.01. The lowest mileage was on the long, high-speed stretches out West.

I bought this bike for $1700 in August 2010, I've put about 12,000 miles on it since then, it's been a blast.
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  • 1985 K100

Offline billday

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2011, 01:42:54 AM »
Greetings Chaos,

Thanks for reading!

Here's some background on my fairing installation http://www.motobrick.com/index.php?topic=260.msg3864#msg3864

Love the paint on yours, maybe I can get my bike to be all the same color one day.

What I'd kill to have, is a radiator shroud from a K100 "standard." No luck on that so far.

Cheers,

Bill
  • New York State, USA 10977
  • 1985 K100

Offline billday

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2012, 01:52:49 PM »
Don't know why you can't see my pics anymore :(

(Or is it just me?)

Here's a link to my Picasa album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/williamhday/ReturnFromArizonaOctober2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM7Ww4fxgZWoTQ&feat=directlink
  • New York State, USA 10977
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Offline DRxBMW

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2012, 02:49:45 PM »

Here's a link to my Picasa album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/williamhday/ReturnFromArizonaOctober2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM7Ww4fxgZWoTQ&feat=directlink
Great write up, I enjoyed viewing your pics. 

Ya other than the hill country, Texas is plain boring as hell.





All the prairie states are the same to me. Damn near fell asleep crossing Kansas one time headed into the Colorado Rockies. 
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Williamsport,Pa

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Offline frankenduck

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2012, 05:04:21 PM »
Don't know why you can't see my pics anymore :(

It's because you attached them instead of using IMG tags.  All of the attachments got blown away when i upgraded software versions.
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Offline Crapdealerbob

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Re: Arizona to New York, 10/11-10/16/11
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2012, 08:21:10 PM »
Bill

  Enjoyed your trip, we crossed west Texas last year when we came back from Bloomsberg, yep - it is endless, windy too.

  Enjoyed the pics..
Crapdealerbob
Wickenburg, AZ
1991 K100 RS

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