I just got back 2 days ago from my longest trip ever, 4,069 miles in 6 days. I started out in Jacksonville, FL on Friday (06/05) with the destination being a business meeting in Dallas, TX. The first night I made it to Alexandria, LA where they were having some kind of little league event and I found the last remaining hotel room in the entire city at the Red River Inn. Let's just say it was everything you'd expect a $49 hotel room to be.
Day two was off to Dallas. I got there within a few hours and spent most of the day there waiting for my meeting that evening and scoping out the town for the business I had to do there. After spending half the day riding around in 95+ degree weather, I was in desperate need of a shower prior to my meeting. While there I had received a phone call about another meeting in Denver the next day. Knowing that I'd be moving on toward Denver immediately after the meeting, I didn't want to pay for a hotel room just for a couple of hours (nor would I want to rent from a hotel that's willing to rent by the hour) so for $15 I bought a one day membership at the LA Fitness and used their shower facilities. That worked out great. I really wish HD dealerships would consider installing showers for people in situations like mine. I know the demand may not be huge, but a lot of people camp on MC trips and they could come in very handy.
After the meeting it was off toward Denver, via Amarillo. I drove pretty late into the night. Driving through northwest Texas in the middle of the night is a pretty lonely and eerie feeling. It's so dark that you have no clue what you're riding beside. It could be water, open fields, or an invading Chinese army. You would never know the difference. You know it's flat though, because you can see the lights from pretty much every communications tower in the entire state. I finally arrived in Amarillo around 2:00 AM and found a much nicer hotel this time, a Holiday Inn Express.
This is what driving through Texas at night will do to your bike.
After getting up the next morning and checking my tire pressure I found a small nail in my rear tire. I instantly regretted not purchasing the tire and wheel package. To make matters worse, it was Sunday and no dealership within 100 miles was open. Fortunately, the tire was holding pressure, so I just rode on with extra caution and checked it at every stop. It never lost any pressure so the nail may not have even gone all the way in. I was getting close to needing a new tire anyway, so it all worked out. I headed toward New Mexico on US 385 N. This was one of the more pleasant roads of the entire trip. Nice open fields with a lot of farmland and hills.
I continued up US 385 through New Mexico and onto I-25 N. Just before the Colorado border I was greeted by a nasty storm blowing through from west to east.
Fortunately, by the time I got to it, it was mostly past me and I only hit a few minutes of the outer band. What I didn’t get past though was the wind coming off the mountains to my right side. They were very strong and as I was riding north on I-25 I had to maintain about a 3-5 degree lean to the right to keep her straight on the road. After a short ride I was in Colorado. This was my first time being in the Rockies and it was absolutely breathtaking. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains and thought that I had seen the best that Mother Nature had to offer. I was wrong.
I stopped off in the Pueblo Cracker Barrel for a meal when another storm rolled in. As I was watching through the window I saw something that made my heart jump up into my throat. The winds from this storm were so strong that they were picking my bike up off the kickstand and threatening to push it over onto its right side and into the car I parked beside. I immediately jumped up to rescue it, even though there was no way I would have made it in time, but fortunately the winds died down and dropped it back down on the kickstand. I quickly finished my meal and sat outside waiting for the storm to pass.
The sky was still dark, but the rain had stopped, so I geared up and moved onto Castle Pines where I had my second meeting in a Starbucks. This one didn’t go as well as the first and we parted on less than pleasant terms. I have some friends who just moved to Loveland and the plan was to stay with them for the night. Staying the night in a real house with a nice, home cooked meal and a place to do my laundry sure sounded great. Unfortunately the flood gates of hell had opened between my current location and their house, preventing me from making it all the way to them.
I don’t mind riding in a light to moderate rain, but there’s no way I was going to brave that monsoon. I would have loved to have seen my friends, but not at the risk of life and limb, so I ended up staying at a Fairfield Inn just a couple of exits up.
The good news about being stuck where I was is that there was an HD dealership with a quick service lane for tires about 5 miles away, Mile High HD in Parker, CO. I got there right when they opened Monday morning and those guys really took care of me. Doug, the service writer, was an awesome guy. Knowing that I was 2,000 miles from home they went over and above and did a thorough inspection on the bike to make sure that something wasn’t going to break, explode or fall off on the way home. I wasn’t leaving there without purchasing the tire and wheel package. I wanted to make sure that if something happened to this brand new tire on the way that I wouldn’t be buying a new one. I inquired at the dealership about the 6 year package and nearly choked when they wanted almost $800. I listened patiently as the finance manager made every attempt to sway me into buying, and then I politely declined. I immediately walked outside and called Kutter Harley and purchased the package through them for $325. Those guys were great. They understood my situation and sent me the forms to fill out and sign on my iPhone. Within 5 minutes the transaction was complete and they sent a confirmation of coverage to my email. The day after I got home the card and papers were waiting in my mail box. Fantastic experience!
I have always wanted to visit Wyoming and, knowing that I was only a couple of hours from Cheyenne, I headed in that direction. The time from Denver to my house and from Cheyenne to my house is only about a 45 minute difference, so I figured why not do it while I’m this close. Besides, it was mine and Betty’s one year anniversary that day, so I thought it would be a nice treat.
I stopped in at High Country Motor Sports, Cheyenne’s HD dealership. I don’t want to call them downright rude, but I will say they were less than pleasant. I bought a shirt and saddlebag gas can from them and wanted to find a spot to wash the bug guts off of Betty before heading back home. They didn’t have a porter available, so I told him that I would be happy to buy the supplies off the shelf to do it myself in the parking lot and asked if they had a water hose I could borrow. The service writer’s response was “not one that I can lend you”. Uh huh…..thanks a lot.
After leaving Cheyenne I jumped on I-80 through Nebraska and stopped for the night in St. Joseph’s, MO at another Holiday Inn Express. After leaving out the next morning I stopped in at St. Joe’s HD and asked to use a hose to wash the bike. Unlike Cheyenne, these guys were more than accommodating and while I was inside buying a washing mitt and soap, they were scrambling to clear me off a spot, hook up the water hose and mix up some soap water in a bucket with a mitt. I was so grateful that I didn’t bother to return the mitt and soap that I bought. I was glad to give my money to a dealership that went out of their way so much to help me. After washing the bike I stayed and spoke with the manager about the trip. He was a genuinely nice guy, as was everyone else there. Highly recommend that you stop in if you’re ever in the area.
So with a clean and happy Betty it was back on the road, southbound on I-29. When I hit Kansas City I was too close to the state of Kansas not to cross the line and say I’ve been there too. So after a 14 mile detour I was back on track eastbound on I-70, stopping over pretty late in Manchester, TN. Earlier in the trip in Colorado, I wasn’t able to actually drive in the Rockies and only saw them from a few miles away. I wondered if perhaps the Smoky Mountains were nearly as high as the Rockies, but were handicapped in total height by the overall lower elevation in that part of the country. Having the luxury of driving in both mountain ranges within three days, I can say that that is definitely not the case. I remember thinking how small the Smoky Mountains looked after having been in the Rockies less than 48 hours earlier.
By this time in the trip, averaging nearly 700 miles and 14 hours per day - much of it in road construction traffic - my left arm felt like Jell-O from all of the clutch work. I was tired and ready to stop. I had to be home early the next day so I could be up at 3:00 AM the following day to go to work. I found my final night’s hotel, a Fairfield Inn, in Manchester and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. Surprisingly I felt very refreshed the next morning with less than 5 hours of sleep and began the final leg home. The last day was pretty uneventful and I pulled in the driveway around 7:00 PM, with the garage door opening to the sound of “daddy!, daddy!, daddy!” followed by the cutest three year old girl in the world running out to give me a huge hug.
While this trip had to be quick, it was an absolute blast. The good thing about it being just business with a little pleasure was that I got to see the places I want to come back and explore more, as well as the places that I’m satisfied with having just driven through and have no need or desire to return. And it was all on the company dime
Nice write-up...glad you made it home OK...but thats alot of riding..
FYI, truck stops have showers you can use, real cheap...
I knew about that, but at the time I was in the middle of Dallas and there were no truck stops less than 40 miles away. A quick trip across the street to Kohls for $7.00 worth of rag and towel and I was in business. It worked out great.
06-12-2015, 02:13 PM
6 Days, 4,069 Miles
