2007-01-04 Of Waffle Houses, Hi Speed Runs, and Coincidence

..My Tucson trip

Over the Christmas / New Year break I rode to Tucson AZ from Creston CA to assist the recovering sister and her family, stay for 5 nights, then ride back home. By far the longest 1 way trip yet for this Candy Butt Association member (on the FJR); was curious to see how I'd hold up.

The trip didn't start out so well, and I lost lots of time fiddling with ancillary stuff that was driving me crazy. Like the ER6's only had sound coming out of the left ear bud. Stopped, wiggled the wires located above the seat, it seemed better then took off. Stopped again 12 miles later to lift the seat and wiggle the wires at the StarComm. Stopped again at 15 miles (I'm never going to get to Tucson at this rate, and finally found the problem.. a clogged 'filter' on the right ear bud. Don't need no stinkin' filters anway… After that the throttle lock needed adjusting. After that.. will you get the idea.

Then there was the issue of fuel. I planned gas stops based upon 38 mpg hiway, 32 mpg city… and promptly started getting 31 mpg hiway… so my stops were now befuddled, and I found myself looking for excuses to get more fuel (take a break). Except of course on the home leg to Tucson when I passed Phoenix 20 miles deep in the reserve tank.. and suddenly the fuel stops became scarce. Shit. A Zumo 550 is in my near future as this sucked. After 2 eternites, found a small no name station, gassed up and continued.

In Tucson, the morning ritual was to stop at a local Waffle House. There I met a group of guys who meet every morning just to harass the sh#@$ out of each other. In other words, a great group. On the second day, the rains came, so when I arrived I announced that it was I who brought the Pacific Storm to Tucson. So the gaggle of 4 old guys stand and give me a standing ovation! On the last day, I told them it was the last time they could abuse me, so they better get after it.. The old guy, Harold, asks, 'where do you live?'. San Luis Obispo says I (actually Creston, but no one knows where that is). The old guy says, hey, there's a university down there.. Cal Poly.. do you know a guy named Don? Turns out the old guy is best friends of a guy who sits 2 feet away from at work, just on the other side of cubicle wall. The refrains of 'It's a Small World' start to play..

The ride home was much mo bettah. Left Tucson at 0300 CA time, and Uncle Dave (TurboDave) was right; the desert was cold. Discovery #2 – riding in 20 degree F weather for an hour is one thing; riding for 3 hours is another. My hands were very cold, to the point of being numb. Then, interesting discovery #3; I remembered I had my Hippo Hands with me! Install took all of 4 minutes and those suckers really do work although they are a bit bulky and tend to fold in on the levers at 90 plus.

Which leads to discovery #4 – the roads in Az are FAST! I found and rode with a pack of cars just north of Tucon all the way to Phoenix, at an average speed of 105. I kept thinking that someone would slow down, but no, they just kept hammering on. As the pack approached Phoenix, it slowed down to 85/90.

Discovery #5 hit me on the last leg of the trip, hiway 58 off the 5 – my butt was doing just fine! It occurred to me that all discomfort was in the left shoulder, the same one I've ruined from crashing MX bikes too many time.

Long story short, 751 miles in 11 hours 7 minutes. I felt this was a fairly good average, all things considered.

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