I rode from Stephens City, VA to Ridgecrest,CA in 2 and a half days.
Around 1100+ miles, the first day. I started out at 0430. It rained for a couple hours in Virginia until it got light. Pretty uneventful ride, just boring ass interstate that I've seen a hundred times from a car. I had planned to stop at Jack's BBQ in Nashville for lunch. Not happening. I rode by Jack's but it is smack dab in the middle of town and there is no parking near it. Oh well, let's ask Garmin to find me a restaraunt with BBQ in the name. It found me Carl's Perfect Pig in White Bluff, TN. Really good BBQ. Check it out but be sure you bring cash. Carl don't take them new fangled card thingies.
Then that afternoon, I hit nasty rain in Arkansas, just west of Memphis. Should have stopped as I slowed to 15 mph furously wiping my faceshield (Note to self: Rain-X) It looked like more nastiness was heading towards me from the South so I hauled ass. I stopped for the night around midnight in some roach motel in Oklahoma. Creepy caretaker lady and her cat got me checked in. Nice room. What do you expect for forty bucks? It had a bed. Got four hours sleep and started again. Was rolling down the interstate by 0500.
My only planned stop for the day was Rudy's BBQ in Amarillo. I used to live in San Anonio and they had the only two Rudy's in Texas. Now it seems they're all over the place down there. Anyways, really good Texas Pit BBQ if you get the chance try it.
Nothing real exciting all the way to Flagstaff. That's another 1000 miles and change.
The last 430 miles to Ridgecrest was no sweat. I awoke to 39 degrees. Ugh. It dropped as low as 27 before I came out of the mountains to Kingman where it warmed to mid 80's. I love Arizona. Did you know how light a fully loaded GSA gets at a buck 15 going over whoops on old 66?
It's amazing the things you can do when you have the road to yourself. Rest of the ride was uneventful except for some hellacious desert wind. Got into Ridgecrest around noon on Friday the 4th.Then I did a trackday school on Sunday with Lee Parks at Willow Springs on the Horsethief Mile. On my GSA. Super fun! Except now my pegs are beveled on both sides and I need a new set of knee pucks and boots. Oh well, Worth it.
A short video of one of the sessions:
http://youtu.be/011L9p6i8Ck
So I left CA around 0700 on Thursday. Rode through Death Valley, it was a disapointing 95 degrees.
Then I rode north to Tonopah and Rachel, Nevada. Area 51. Weird people. I dropped my bike near Tonopah at a rest area. What kind of state makes an entire parking area out of 4 inch deep pea gravel?! A-holes. I called it an early day and only rode just under 700 miles to Salina, Utah. Got a good night's sleep and blasted off for VA. I had to be back on Saturday so I knew I had to make a minimum of 1000 miles per day. So I did. I stopped the first night in Independence, MO just to the east of Kansas City around 0230. Oh, by the way, I found our winter! It's staying in the Rockies right now in Independence Pass. I got freaking snowed on for an hour and it was hovering around 32 degrees. I'm glad I survived it but that's the first time I've ever had to ride in any amount of snow and it was kinda sketchy there for a bit. After that, the rest of the ride was a breeze.
Pic of the snow I was headed into:
So I got my requisite 4 hours of sleep and got back on the horse. I blasted down the interstate towards home and arrived at 0300 this morning. The only drama to the ride was the many deer along I-68 in Western MD that made my butt pucker ever so slightly.
So to sum up, I guess I did 2 SS2000's or something like it. Total mileage for the trip was around 6000 miles. I did my 12,000 mile maintenance right before I left and the bike has 17,990 on the clock right now.
Anybody want to ride to Minneapolis for a beer?
But there are at least a dozen other BBQ joints!
