Trip Spending

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

I just got my credit card statement from the bike trip. I stopped for gas a lot, good thing it was usually only five bucks:

(click on image to enlarge)

I seriously did not delete anything in between these days. All i bought was gas, motels, a crescent wrench and an orange pop. Well i might have paid cash for some stuff too, like camping sites and maybe food. And going across the country on only 64 gallons of gas isn't too bad either.

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2,600 miles on a Honda - part 2

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

New Mexico border right after sunset
The next day i only rode 180 miles but it was one of the longest days on the trip for me, 10 hours on the road. My first stop was at El Morrow National Monument. I wasn't sure exactly what this was at first but i was riding by so i stopped. Turns out it's basically a puddle of water at the base of a rocky cliff. Well it's a little bigger then a puddle but not much. But apparently to people 100 years ago this was the main place to stop while traveling to get fresh water.
Then a few miles later i crossed the Continental Divide. Which as we all know is the dividing line between rivers draining into either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. Actually i only kinda knew that, i had to google it to be sure. And yes that's snow on the other side of the road. New Mexico is cold at 7,882 feet.

Just down the mountain from the continental divide was the Bandera Volcano & Ice Caves. Let me just say that the name and billboard are way more exciting then the place really is. The volcano was a big cone shaped hole in the ground. And the ice cave was a 50 foot hole that when you walked down into, it gets cold. Let me just say, don't go out of your way to see it any time soon.
I then drove through El Malpais National Forest to I-40. It was only 2pm and i figured i could drive another 180 miles to camp at Santa Rosa State Park. 30 miles down the road that idea came to an end. The traffic on the highway was at a complete standstill. So after waiting a few minutes i rode through the cars on the dashed lines for about a mile, to where i could see the accident. Turns out that two semi trucks collided, one caught on fire and the other spilled paint all over the road. In hindsight i should have immediately crossed the median, turned around and taken route 66. But i didn't, i waited...and waited. From 2:30 to 5:00 i sat, walked around and lied down on the highway next to my bike.


When they finally cleaned up the paint it was near dark so i rode through Albuquerque and stayed at a motel. The low temp that morning was 27 degrees and the bike was running poorly from the altitude so i decided to change the spark plugs in the Comfort Inn parking lot. By the time i left it was all the way up to 35 degrees. I stopped at Santa Rosa Lake State Park off route 66. Apparently New Mexico and I have a different opinion of what should qualify as a state park. It was a lake. Not very big, just a lake. But i guess that's cause i'm from Michigan and there aren't a lot of lakes in New Mexico. I ate lunch at the Route 66 Restaurant then rode to Tucumcari where i was going to buy some $4 mexican blankets from a mexican guy, but i didn't have room on the bike.

Another 50 miles and i was at the Texas border. I thought i should wear my cowboy hat i got in Nashville to try and fit in.

After that i had to hurry because it was almost dark and i wanted to see the Cadillac Ranch. From the pictures i thought it was tons of Cadillac cars buried half in the ground. Turns out it's only 10 but it was still really cool. I got there right at sunset and stayed for about a half an hour.

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Michigan to Arizona - part 2

Monday, 9 November 2009

From Nashville we headed to Texas to stay with our old roommate from MSU, Josh. It was basically either driving:
or not driving:
One thing i learned from this trip...Texas is Big.
There are miles and miles of roads that look exactly like this.
Then in New Mexico we went into some stores selling Mexican blankets and unusual "Action Figures???" With removable stone tablets and "gliding action"

It took almost a whole day to drive across that state but we finally made it to Phoenix. Where upon trying to unload the bike, i broke the throttle cable. I had gone 0.00 miles and already had something break. The cable rusted and snapped in the tube. I was actually really lucky it happened there as opposed to the middle of nowhere. We had the closest shop order a new cable and overnight it.
Here's some other pictures from that part of the trip:

Then ready or not i was on my way back to Michigan...

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2,600 miles on a Honda - part 1

Leaving Adam's house my odometer read 18,598.8 I was kinda nervous and thought "There's no way i'm going to be able to make it all the way back to Michigan." But less than 1 hour later i knew i made the right choice. I was driving to Globe, Arizona which is at an elevation of something like 4,000 feet above sea level. Half way there the view was amazing and i stopped to take pictures.

I got really excited while riding on one of the mountain roads, i rode through a tunnel in the side of the mountain. It was the best bike ride of my life, until two days later.

I rode to Globe to visit my friend Laura who just got a job out there as a counselor for kids on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The next day i helped chaperon for the all day field trip to the zoo, back in Phoenix. The zoo was actually really cool, they had pretty much everything except elephants.

The next day i was back on the bike riding to the Salt River Canyon. I didn't really notice it on the map but Laura said i would probably enjoy it. She was right. On the motorcycle it was great, with road switch-backs going right down the mountain.
That same day i made it to the Petrified Forest. I just assumed this would be old logs, that you weren't suppose to touch, lying on the ground. It was a lot better then that.



I was planning on camping somewhere near the park but it was too cold and no campsites were around. So i rode east on I-40 into New Mexico.

Here's some other pictures from the first few days:

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Michigan to Arizona - part 1

Well i just got home from my 2 week trip to across the United States. The main part of the trip was me riding my 1972 Honda CB500 from Phoenix to Michigan. But before i get to that , the week before i left with my friend John, we went up to Bad Axe and spent some time with his relatives on their farm. I got to help milk cows and plow a field. They actually let me drive that thing for almost half the day, by myself. I think i plowed around 60 acres.




Now on to the trip. Basically it was three days of driving:
Michigan to Nashville
Nashville to Texas
Texas to Phoenix

Before getting to Nashville though we went to the Louisville Slugger factory and got bats made with our names on them. But Nashville was really great. John and i went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, saw some of the Montreal Canadians players walking from the hotel to the ice arena, went to a concert at the Grand Ole Opry and hung out downtown afterwords.

Carrie Underwood was just one of the people singing that night

Main street in downtown Nashville, there was live country music in just about every bar

Oh ya and we played putt-putt and rode go-carts every chance we could

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Arizona to Michigan

Well i'm getting ready to drive with my friend John to Arizona. We're planning on stopping at a few places on the way down there. First stop is at the Louisville Slugger factory to have bats made with our names on them. For some reason i feel like this is going to be the absolute best part of the entire trip. Forget sunset views, national landmarks...i'm excited about a customized wood bat. Next we'll be headed to Nashville to see a concert at the Grand Ole Opry, Carrie Underwood i think. Then driving to Dallas to visit our friend Josh. Then it's off to Arizona.

I've been getting ready for the past several weeks. Setting up the tent in the living room, planning my route and getting the bike ready. It should be around 2,400 miles, taking around 15 to 20 days. Starting in Phoenix, then to Globe, then camp in the Petrified Forest, El Malpais National Forest... I'm going to try and do a lot of camping at national and state parks but who knows. After 200 miles of riding a day i might wuss out and stay in some motels.

White board organization
Route

All the stuff i'm taking

Final bike prep and cleaning

Practicing loading the bike up

Setting up the tent with the dogs

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