Had a bit of a shocking realization a few minutes ago. As I write this, I am sitting in a McDonalds in Gatesville, Tx. I am here on a motorcycle that was sitting in my garage in a Seattle suburb 12 days ago. I am as far from home on a motorcycle as I has ever been. Hmmm, pretty cool.
Today’s ride so far was from Lubbock to my current location. About 320 miles, counting a couple of sign-reading failures. I am going to meet my sister for dinner tonight, last chance to see each other before she ships out to Iraq for a year. Then I’ll ride down the road a piece to visit my friends Matt and Jodi. I have new tires waiting there for me, will do an oil change on the beast, and relax for a couple of days. It will be good to not ride for at least a day. Friday, I’ll be headed north to viist family in Panora, IA.
Well, the last 110 miles of the day held most of the excitement: first, about 45 miles north of Austin, a piece of OSB about 12×16 came flying out from under a truck and hit me on the left foot. Just a glancing blow, but I still had to pull over and let my vision clear. Ow. Doesn’t appear to be any damage done, though, mostly just shock. It happened so fast, there wasn’t time to take evasive action. Good thing it wasn’t a TV!
Then about 10 miles north of Austin, traffic on I35 comes to a dead stop, all three lanes. I sit there for a few minutes, watching the temperature on the bike rise, and watching folks cut across the grassy strip that seperates the freeway from the frontage access road. Eventually, I decide to follow across. As soon as I get to the frontage road, it stops dead. 3 minutes later the freeway starts moving again. But the frontage road got moving pretty soon, and I’m back on the way.
But the crowning excitement for the day happened ½ mile from Matt’s driveway. I get to the entrance to the development where they live to discover to my surprise, a gate. While I’m standing there, looking at email on my phone, trying to remember if Matt said anything about a gate, a gentleman drives up in a big caddy, and asks if I need help getting in? I explain I’m looking for such and such an address, and he “says, sure, follow me”. I don’t have my gear on, so I push the bike through the gate. As I do so, I knock my phone off of the seat. The display hasn’t been seen since. Phooey, It’s only 2 weeks old, too!
So this wraps up what I’ve been calling ‘Leg 2’. I am now at my farthest point from home, and at about the ½ way point, timewise, as I intend to be home on the 2nd of June. This first ½ has included: a bunch of great roads, a few boring roads, only one day of difficult weather, good friends, and many parts of this country I haven’t seen before. Today, with matt’s help, I’ll put new tires on the Turbo Giraffe, and change its oil, and relax.
Some pictures from day 11..
The wind blows here…
And the roads start to get better…
I just had to take this for Ms. Shooz (aka shiny magpie) and many of the other wetladies…
My sister. We got a chance to have dinner together before she is shipped to Irag for 11 months. I told her to keep her head down, i didn’t want to have to do all the paperwork! she said not to worry, she has body armor for body parts she didn’t know she had! 🙂
An aerostich at 93f. right before this, i rode 6 miles without it, and it’s hotter riding without it than it is with it. just keep drinking…
It is 3566.1 miles from my driveway to matt’s house, via sunfire and misc other points. i think it’s only about 2950 home from here, via iowa, nebraska, and salt lake city.
