2,600 miles on a Honda - part 5

Thursday, 3 December 2009

After two nights of camping, i was ready for a night in a motel, hopefully with a little time to work on the bike. By the time i got to Garth Brooks' home town of Yukon, Oklahoma i had ridden around 1000 miles. A little later the highway turned into a turnpike so i decided to take route 66. 10 miles down that road i came up to this really strange looking building. It had an awning that kinda reminded me of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars and had a giant metal pop bottle by the road.
The place is called Pops, it's a gas station with several hundred kinds of pop from all over the US. So i filled up with gas and had a Fritz's orange soda. It tasted a lot like Faygo, meaning it was great. In the parking lot there were dozens of motorcycles and after talking to some people, it turns out that on the weekends Pops is the the main hangout place in the area. They said on friday nights there usually isn't a place to park a bike it's so busy.

Then like always people ask me where i'm headed. After i tell them Michigan they ALWAYS say "WOW...you're a long way from home huh? Well good luck and stay safe" The first few days it didn't bother me but i've already ridden 1000 miles, how can i still be a long way from home?

Route 66 was great. Perfect speed with cool little towns every 20 miles or so. I stopped at a motel on the east side of Tulsa and started working on the bike. Changed spark plugs again, realigned the rear tire and tightened the chain. All set for another 1000 miles.

The next day i hit the 20,000 mile mark on the motorcycle. It seemed like a really big event at the time so i stopped and took a picture.
Then at the border into Arkansas i talked with a guy selling oranges and blankets with pictures of Elvis and wolves. I didn't buy any oranges but looking back wish i had got that Elvis blanket.

That night i camped at Bull Shoals State Park. It was on a river near the Bull Shoals Dam. I'm still amazed at the number of people that camp out that time of year. Although i was the only one in a tent, the rest of the people had RV's or campers. This time i used dead leaves as padding under the tent.

I also forgot to mention that back on day 3 in New Mexico i was talking to an indian guy at a gas station. He saw the bike and asked if i was doing some "long traveling" I said i was headed for Michigan. He said "oh ya you are doing some long traveling alright. Well i hope you make it. Be safe." I had never heard that phrase before but after thinking about it while riding a few hundred miles, i started to really like the term "long traveling."

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2,600 miles on a Honda - part 1

Monday, 9 November 2009

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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