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By Lynx, on July 11th, 2009  Goin through the big D Ok, so we didnt see man eating plants, but I was excited to unexpectedly get to see a carnivorous plant bog at the East Texas Arboretum. Cool! how many people get to see those in the wild.
Traffic was not so bad in the city early on a weekend, but I did end up getting turned around (I thought) and took a wrong turn. From my directions I was supposed to take I35 to I30, seems simple enough. I saw the sign for I30 and merged, then quickly 200 feet away theres another turn for I30, what the? So I took the second turn also and suddenly we’re going north east. Well this cant be right, now we’re going the wrong way, we need to be going south… I thought I’d somehow made a big circle and ended up on the wrong direction of I30.
So just a few miles down the road I’m already lost and had to pull over to look at the map. I was going the right way after all, who designed this mess? At least it allowed us to get a few Dallas skyscraper pictures before we hauled tail out of town.
Continue reading Day 4 – Lizards, spiders and snakes, oh my!
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By Lynx, on July 10th, 2009  We made it to Patricks House Not many pics today, it was just too dang hot and we had too far to go. It was rather uneventful and boring anyway. By 10:00 it was already in the high 90’s and only getting hotter. Every time we stopped I downed an entire large gatoraide and my eyes were just killing me. The best I can describe riding across west Texas is try putting on a jacket and ski pants with a hair dryer up each limb and one pointed at your face and turn on high. I’m thankful I had the foresight to pack a bottle of visine.
Continue reading Day 3 – Texan Blast Furnace
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By Lynx, on July 9th, 2009
Today was another short day so we took the scenic route and played tourist. From 8200 ft and 74 degrees in Cloudcroft to 3200 ft and 107 degrees in Seminole, quite a change in scenery.
We took highway 244 through the Rez to Cloudcroft. This road is amazing, I’m jealous that my dad has some of the best roads I’ve ever ridden just 15 mins from the house. Lots of sweepers down valleys with lots of tall spruce and fir with wispy spanish moss hanging from the branches, some good twisties and climbs, this road has it all. We will definitely have to come back this way during the Golden Aspen Rally in the fall.
In one of the meadows we cruised through was a golden eagle sitting on a rock in the tall grass not 5 feet from the roadway. It didn’t fly away or anything, it just watched us rumble past, an eerie feeling, like a guardian spirit checking us out as we enter holy ground. Yesterday was the buffalo, today an eagle. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
We stopped by The Lodge in Cloudcroft to take a few pictures. It looks like they could use a paint job again. From here the landscape changes quickly, about every 5 miles the climate changes. First its alpine spruce and fir wilderness and looks very similar to the rain forrests of Oregon I went through once. Then you drop back into ponderosa pines, then pinions, then junipers and finally cactus and dessert all in about 30 mins of riding.
Continue reading Day 2 – Goin Down
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By Lynx, on July 8th, 2009  And we’re off! Over a year of dreaming about living on the road for several weeks and exploring this great country of ours by motorcycle and the time has finally come. We’ve learned a lot from the quick 2K mile spring run to Dino’s about packing and pacing. This time we’ll be fully equipped to camp and fish along the way and do this on the cheap. We’ll see how long that idea lasts.
One of my dreams is to go through the Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, so why are we riding through the south in July, where it’s bound to be 100+ degrees and way high humidity the whole way? Well its Cece’s great grandmother’s 100th birthday and those dont come arround too often. Glacier and Yellowstone will still be there next year if global warming doesn’t get too out of control by then.
We plan to hit 8 states in 12 days and judging by Google Maps about 3600 miles not accounting for the side trips and running arround we’ll do. I think we’re prepared for everything. I have enough tools to completely strip down the bike if need be, med kit, camping and cook gear, and maybe the kitchen sink somewhere packed on the bike. So much for those weight limits, I think we’re just a tad over heh, and amazingly with the new intakes and pipes the new 40 horses feel as peppy as ever loaded down. I can already see myself looking back on this years later, “I remember when we used to tour the country 2 up and fully loaded down on a little 650.”
Continue reading And We’re Off – Cece and Tim’s epic Journey
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By Lynx, on June 12th, 2009 This is just a preliminary packing list so I can start thinking about all we need to take so we dont get halfway to Texas and realize we forgot something. I’ll add more and update as I think of stuff.
Nav stuff
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By Lynx, on June 11th, 2009
 Preliminary Route
- 191 miles, Ruidoso, NM : Pam & Baldo
- 248 miles, Seminole, TX : Lalo
- 368 miles, Irving, TX : Patrick
- 122 miles, Flint, TX : Terry & Wanda
- 123 miles, Sam Rayburn Resevior : Campground
- 214 miles, Sam Rayburn Resevior : Campground – Dino’s and back
- 215 miles, Natchez, MS : Campground
- 239 miles, Pine Bluff, AK : Campground
- 316 miles, Tulsa, OK : Tiff
- 201 milesTulsa, OK : Tiff – Oklahoma City and back
- 334 miles, Dodge City, KS : Motel
- 283 miles, Walsenburg, CO : Motel
- 222 miles, Durango, CO : Campground
- 247 miles, Santa Fe, NM : Home!
Notes: Per Patrick, best way into Irving from that side: 20E -> 30E -> 820N -> 183E
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By Lynx, on May 15th, 2009  Buckhorn Burger You wouldn’t expect that this small nondescript building in the middle of nowhere would have one of the best burgers in the country according to GQ and the New York times. Its one of those places that if you didn’t know it was there you’d just pass on by without giving it a second glance, it doesn’t help that just across the street is the legendary Owl Bar that has its own top ten nationwide rankings. I have to admit that I’ve not noticed it in the last several hundred times I’ve passed through San Antonio, New Mexico and this was the first time I’ve stopped here. I usually only stop for the spectacular fudge at the filling station, you better not need gas after dark or on sundays though its closed.
This time there was no missing the old house/tavern, it was packed with more than a dozen Harleys, Bosque Del Apache vehicles and beat up old ranch trucks outside, it was hard finding a place to park. Maybe I shouldn’t have waited until a Ruidoso rally when lots of other bikers would be going through to finally decide to try out Manny’s. First thing you notice is the rather bold statement on the door and you think they must have a lot of balls to put up a sign like that with the Owl just footsteps away, no way the food out of a little shack could be that good. We waited and waited and waited some more, about 45 mins total. First for a place to sit and then another half hour for the burgers to arrive, luckily our waiter was highly entertaining and there was plenty of odd decor items to keep us occupied. How many places do you know of that have a stuffed Cougar next to the tables in the back?
Continue reading Manny’s Buckhorn Tavern – #7 in America
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By Lynx, on April 18th, 2009  Snow & Fog By morning the snow had all but melted. The ground was clear, and the clouds were gone leaving a bright blue sky with a spattering of snow on the trees and shrubs. This looked like the beginnings of a beautiful day, I wasn’t going to let a little bit of snow and cold in the morning prevent me from enjoying a nice day down the hill and delay my overdue maintenance yet another week. It should be just a bit cool until I pass La Bajada Hill, then I’ll be through the worst of it right…?
Continue reading Going For It!
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By Lynx, on April 6th, 2009
Second funeral in less than a month prompted another trip to Ruidoso this weekend. They say things happen in threes, I wonder whats next.
The weather was much warmer this week, no more stopping every 50 miles to warm up my hands and chisel my feet off the boards. Perfect weekend for a relaxing ride or so I thought. As I rode the wind progressively got worse and worse as the day warmed up until I was leaned over at a 45 degree angle to go straight down the road and the sudden gusts would blow me onto the shoulder or into the other lane. The wind gusts were like getting hit by a truck, luckily I was out in the middle of nowhere and wasn’t worried about meeting any oncoming traffic.
The wind noise was fairly bad, I’d learned from the Point Blank Trip to use ear plugs to save my hearing from the wind noise (I still have a ringing in my right ear 5 weeks later from that but its slowly getting less noticeable). Even with the plugs the wind noise was bad and by Corona my ears were hurting, now I know why others say they cut them in half first. The noise was as bad as any other windy day I’d been through in my new helmet and didn’t think they were working too well and stopped in Corona to take them out. Less than a mile down the road I pulled over AGAIN to put them back in. Without them the roar was so bad I couldn’t hear myself think.
The funeral was nice, it was the first time in 15+ years that the whole family had been together. They didn’t agree if I was still the tallest cousin or not but I did get the longest hair award. Also found out I had a few relatives in Albuquerque just down the road I didn’t know about and got some phone numbers for the big trip in July.
I wished I could have come earlier or stayed longer to visit more but the winds were supposed to only get worse through the weekend and pick up later in the day. According to Weather Underground the wind would be west to east until the afternoon and gradually shift north to south in the afternoon, great just perfect for me to have a headwind the whole way if I went through Socorro or cross winds the whole way through the narrow rough road through Corona. Having fought crosswinds the whole way yesterday I decided to go with the headwinds, looking back this was a terrible idea.
Oh my poor, poor bike, with its measly 33 horsepower… I was barely making 65mph at WOT pushing all that wind and periodically the clutch would slip and I’d drop to 55 in the blink of an eye like I’d hit a brick wall. The bike would rev like crazy then catch again and struggle back to 65. Those Barnett Clutch Springs upgrade are starting to look like a real good idea.
About that time I passed the still smouldering ruins of a Chevette on the side of the road smelling like burnt rubber and asphalt. The hood had been ripped off the hinges and smashed into the windshield when they’d tried to put out the fire. Suddenly my problems with the bike struggling against so much wind didn’t seem so bad. With all the dozens of burnt spots on the shoulder of I-25, especially on La Bajada Hill, is this many car fires a New Mexico thing? or is it a common occurrence in other states too? Even my Taurus was smote by the car gods on I-25 outside Belen with a freak electrical fire.
Usually I hit reserve at 135 miles commuting to work to 170 miles on nonstop trips. “I can make the 100 miles to Socorro easy, even with the wind…” I thought in the back of my head. When I hit reserve at a new record low of 88 miles still out in the boonies I really started panicking. Oh Crap! I caught up to an RV and tailed it to San Antonio and some how I managed to make it to Socorro on fumes and to not bust my ass trying to park in hurricane force winds.
 Socorro Springs I stopped at the new Socorro Springs restaurant to rest my aching neck and shoulder. A 10 inch wood fired pizza and a micro brew for $12 not bad. The pizza wasn’t as good as I remembered from my college days but easily as good as Il Vicino and hands down better than any chain pizza joint. I wasn’t the only one with the idea, I talked with a couple on a teal and grey Road King a while and we kicked back and waited for a break in the wind. Good company, they were on their way to Michigan, wow. The guy said he was exhausted after fighting the wind the whole day and they’d got a hotel room up the road to call it a day already at noon.
The blowing sands through Los Lunas and Belen were so thick it was riding through a blizzard with 30 ft of visibility. I now know what it must have been like during the Dust Bowl. Remind me to rewax everything, theres also a slight haze etched into the windshield now, I hope I can buff that out eventually.
I collapsed into a coma on the couch as soon as I walked in my door and woke up a few hours later to the Emergency Broadcast thing going off on the TV warning of Severe Wind, a little late don’t ya think? The news later that night said there was 72 mph wind gusts measured through where I’d ridden, just shy of a category 1 hurricane. No freaking wonder that sucked so bad! If I ever have to experience wind like that again it’ll be too soon.
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By Lynx, on February 17th, 2009 Just posting a ADV style ride report for those who are getting stir crazy and suffering from cabin fever and Parked Motorcycle Syndrome, and to show why you should always be prepared for weather changes lol.
We had a beautiful 3 day Valentines/Prez day weekend and by Monday it had warmed up to 65 degrees. I decided to take the girl home the long way round and we left with plenty of time for sight seeing and pictures. The route we took went along the rim of the Valles Grande volcano caldera crater, one of only a handful of super volcanoes the only other in the US being Yellowstone, here it is on Google. The fingers are sheer rock canyons 100’s of feet deep, making Los Alamos a natural fortress.
I figured it would be maybe 10-15 degrees cooler through the mountains 1500 ft higher, boy was I wrong, heres what we found.
This is overlooking the rim, note the sign they werent kidding, this whole area used to be fenced off as a 400 square mile private hunting ranch with a 5000 head elk herd where independently wealthy outdoorsmen could pay to come bag an elk guaranteed. Its now owned by the state as a preserve. Distances are deceptive, it doesnt look far but its takes a strong spotting scope to see anything across the valley. The mountains in the background are the ones in the center on google and growing several inches a yr for the next eruption, luckily I wont be around then, they expect the shockwave to flatten everything for 400 miles and the ash cloud to bury everything else all the way to Florida, actually that would be cool to see from good distance heh.
 The snow just kept getting deeper and deeper as we went, by now my hands were frozen to the grips with my double layers of gloves. I stopped warm up, we’d been riding an hour to this point but it was so cold I could touch the fins of the engine and the pipes with my bare hands they were barely luke warm. So much for that idea lol.
 We were headed downhill by now and it was further to go back than keep going, we had to be through the worst right? We passed about a dozen more ICE! warnings and WATCH FOR SNOWPLOWS signs but the road surface was completely white with salt and dry, those signs had to have been up since the last storm… Further on the way down the sharp switchbacks and curves, every corner the snow had been melting and running across the road leaving narrow strips of ice on EVERY turn, exactly where you dont want it. A few were a bit squirely but the ice was only a few inches wide at a time and dry pavement after so it wasnt so bad. The ice kept getting worse and worse the further down we went till we hit some steep walled canyons and sections of the road lined with fir trees where the sun never shines, the road progressed from a solid sheet of ice to several inches of solid snow pack. I’m usually fearless and I’ve ridden through these conditions before, but never while 2 up with this much weight on the bike, it was nerve racking. Some of the stretches were very scary, worrying about dumping the bike with her back there. Sorry no pics I sure as hell wasnt going to stop.
Then Just a mere 30 mins later we ended up here, and it felt like 70 out.
I wanted to check out a road for Patrick and we took a detour down a rickety bridge and narrow 1/2 lane paved road, about wide enough for a golf cart.
Awesome! I cant believe I’ve never found this before.
These 3 tunnels were cut by a logging company for a narrow gauge railway that never got built, very cool.
You might recognize this from the cover of Ron Ayres Against the Wind, my best at duplicating the shot.
Further up the road was barricaded and closed for the winter, it looked impassable past there hopefully it’ll be cleared and the snow melted by mid summer.
 Overall we just went 170 miles ish and it took 4 hours to do it. I went home the easy way, 70 miles by super slab lol. And after all I’d just been through the way back was my closest to getting flattened yet. The “hill” on the interstate is about 3 miles long with 1000 ft climb, and my bike chose to hit reserve right there. In all the times I’ve ridden this its never happened in that spot, and as luck would have it I had just passed a Dodge dually truck pulling a big horse trailer. I dropped from 80mph to 50 in the blink of an eye, like a full blown emergency stop, it felt like I was going to go over the bars Wholly Shit! I could hear the truck behind me lock up the trailer brakes slowing down, there was a whole 3 inches of shoulder with barricade to stop falling rocks, nowhere to go to let him by. I did switch to reserve in under a second, but damn… I’m very thankful that driver wasnt on the cell phone and was paying attention at that second.
Be safe out there, hope spring comes to everyone soon.
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