June 25, 2013: Starting my Cross Country Blog
This week I began the preparations to the Grey Ghost ( the Sportster) in order to be ready to start the trip to Ohio in mid July of this year. I changed the gear oil and engine oil, both with Mobil 1 - 20W50 full synthetic. Next I installed the windshield and the luggage rack, and then the luggage itself. Next I added a mini tool pouch to the battery cover, which will be used to hold various small items as neeced. Maybe it will hold the "weapon" as well!
As the plan currently holds, I should be shoving off from Tucson on the morning of July 15th. However, this date is fluid in order to accomodate our out of state travel which we plan on taking to look for a new homebase.
The current estimate is that it will take a bit over 6 days on the slab to get there. I want to allow some time to take side trips in some of the towns along the way. Those 6 days include only a short blip on the super-slab, around St. Louis Mo., and that's only because of the intricate road system around that part of the state. The rest of the mileage is planned to be on smaller roadways and byways, where the speed limit tops out at 55 MPH or lower. Sweeeeet. Here is the overall tour plan.
I anticipate updating the journal as I go, which will include road pix and data on the various interesting excursions that may occur along the way.
27 June Update:
The Blog Nazis at Google appeared to have an issue with the Blog Title (thebuttbuster.blogspot.com) due to "adult content" or some other trash, so I changed the name to "thebunsbuster.blogspot.com". Go figure, because I certainly can't.
Today I picked up some additional road materials, namely a few tools and some metal fuel bottles.
7 July, 2012:
Filled the new fuel bottles and verified that there are no leaks, so that milestone is completed. Spare gas will now be on-board the charriot for those long, desolate miles going through northern New Mexico and Texas. departure day continues to be 15 July.
It's a shocker to see how quickly the available storage space on the back of the Harley can disappear, and I'm not even taking a tent/camping gear on this adventure. Cram-it-in space is a premium, so I'm just gonna' have to pull into the roadside Taj Majals. I just can't contain my excitement with regards to checking in the first night at the Route 54 Bates Motel (and subsequent nights as well of course). That classic movie tune keeps skip playing in my chrome-dome, over and over and over, like the proverbial scratched 45. Those were the good old days of turntables and go-go boots. Stone age electronics were awesome.
July 17, 2013
Headed out from Tucson on my way northeast today, on a "practice" long distance run prior to the main event. The heavy monsoon rains in AZ have started, and rain is forecast all along my route. Even so, I wanted to check out the highway. I did hit decent rain several times after departure, once right out of Show Low, AZ., and a few times in NM. Additional light sprinkling hit me in a few other spots along highway 60 as well. Highway 60 seems to stretch on and on and on through AZ and NM, with not much to catch your attention or imagination. The first day ended in Mountainair, NM, quite a ways down the road from Tucson. I'm holed up in an old historic hotel that has been frequented by a number of movie icons in the past. There are a number of Clint Eastwood signed pix hanging on the walls in my room. Kool. Here are some pix from along the way, The bird is from Quemada, NM, and who could resist stopping for pie in Pie Town, NM??
July 18, 2013
I lit out from Mountainair, NM., and headed east again, toward the Texas state line. I ran into rain yet again, which tends to sap your energy pretty fast. I have tired of the rain and the resultant road hazards it presents to the motorcyclist. I drove on and stopped in Fort Sumner, NM. Here the rain had stopped. I decided to veer off from the planned course and headed north to I-40 to see if I could maybe drive out of the wet weather pattern hanging along highway 60. No luck with that idea, the rain was everywhere today. At this point I decided that I had made it far enough on this test run, and headed back west towards Arizona. I decided to attempt I-40 for a short while, until the 85 MPH bunch wore me out. That was a dangerous place to be on a motorcycle, so I headed south to highway 60 towards Socorro, NM. Back on highway 60 again, but at least I could tool along at 50-60 MPH without worry of being run over by an 18-wheeler.
I reached Socorro around 4 PM. Bone tired at this point, and in need of a few beers.
July 19, 2013 - Return to AZ.
I lit out from Socorro this morning right at 0500. No rain this day, just a great sunrise happening. I figured I could make it back to Tucson by mid-afternoon, which it turns out I did (2:30 pm).
All in all, this being my first long distance road trip on a motorcycle, I figured I gathered a lot of beneficial data. Data is a good thing, right? First, never start out on a cross country bike trip during the month of monsoons. The rain is not just limited to southern AZ this time of year, rain is all over the southwest. Next, don't count on the internet to be up to date with the localities of gas stations. Some of the towns in NM had the gas stations all boarded-up with plywood on their windows - OUT OF BUSINESS! The economy has been tough on the small towns in northern NM. A number of the little blips shown on the state map as towns did not have traffic lights, fuel stops, nor a place to rest overnight. Some of those blips had NOTHING but a remote post office hut and a few shacks by the road, partially inhabited I think. I learned that even in July, at higher altitudes (like 7800 feet at the Continental Divide, in NM) it can get bone chilling cold even at mid-morning, and always bring your leather jacket and gloves (which I did!). Cross country touring is a bit rough on the bod, and can be very tough mentally. I found that my attention wandered more than sporadically due to the immense solitude of the wide-open environment. And finally, don't attempt to jaunt around on I-40 on a little Sportster. Interstate travel needs a Harley Road King. Well, a Road King may be in my future.
Total mileage for this test run turned out to be 1270 miles, and 3 days travel time. Total number of near-misses from the car community was 3. Exact number of bug smashes = 1 million, give or take, no flats or break-downs, but I did develop an intermittent MIL (check engine light). The 1800-mile (1 way) cross country trip to Ohio will take some additional planning prior to actual execution. It turns out the MIL was caused by a lean running engine. As I left the 2400 foot altitude in Tucson basin, I steadily climbed out to top out at over 7500 feet peak along the route. The bike from the HD factory is designed to run lean to begin with, and the aftermarket, high performance, air filter that I had installed to allow more air flow, caused the bike's fuel injection computer to declare a potential over-lean mixture. The MIL has subsequently been resolved.
August 27, 2013
Still waiting for the annual rains to subside!
