My report:
Sunday morning, 3/25 5:15 AM. I'm awake before the alarm goes off. Check the temperature outside. Hmm, 32 degrees. Check the weather forecasts again; while they vary wildly on an hourly basis, it looks like I will be riding into the storm that Mooshie, Matt, Greenhornet, and Triumph guy are trying to outrun. The sooner I get to JT, the better. By 8:00, the temp was up to 40, so I finished strapping everything down, squeezed my leather jacket over a down jacket, and hit the road at 8:30.
I stopped in Wickenburg around 10:00, filled up (took about 1.5 gallons, not bad for 90+ miles
), and headed towards Parker, my next scheduled stop. A short time after Aguila, I ran into NASTY crosswinds. I was going straight, with the bike leaning at a 15 degree angle, and wallowing.
Left-hand turns were scary! I slowed down to 50MPH at times, even though the limit was 65. Once I peeled off hwy 60 onto hwy 72, the crosswinds became more of a tailwind. It's a bit eerie to be riding at 65-70 MPH with no wind noise. The motor is barely working, so the exhaust is muted. It seems like you are gliding along.
After gassing up in Parker (both myself and the bike; I had a hamburger, while the Seeley had 1.7 gallons of high octane), I pressed on towards Joshua Tree around 1:00. I got to JT at about 3:15, and after cruising up and down the main drag, stopped and found I had a voice mail from Lisa. Called her, and could see her waving, right down the street! Crap, I'd ridden right past the bikes parked at the curb twice, and didn't see the Hondas. (the Triumph distracted me!) I ride on down, and get in the left-turn lane at the traffic light. While waiting to get a left-hand turn arrow, I'm hit with a freaking gust of wind that almost blew me over. I knew I was in the presence of the Wind Goddess.....
Monday morning, 3/26.
After bidding adieu to the CA riders, I left JT around 9:45. Once past 29 Palms, Lefty and I had the road to ourselves, except for a coyote that sauntered across the highway ahead of us. There was a bit of a breeze, but nothing compared to the day before. As we neared Parker, a steady stream of RV's began to go past in the other direction; the annual snowbird migration had just begun. After refueling, we continued on to the next stop in Wickenburg. As we were going through the 'burg, Lefty had a spaz attack, banging his piston on the windscreen. It seems he mistook the cottonwood fluff floating in the air for snow; guess his bro warned him about cold white stuff falling from the sky.
While I was refueling,I got into a conversation with an older lady at the gas station which led to me explaining about my precious cargo and mission. She thought the whole idea was great, and told me about a back-packing trip she took through Ireland years ago. She totally got it!!
A while after leaving Wickenburg, I got caught behind a stock truck. You DO NOT want to follow a stock truck on a motorcycle. Why? Because stock trucks carry livestock. Cattle. Cows are not potty trained. When they need to pee, they do, and with a vengeance! I passed at the nearest opportunity, luckily before any incident.
Thirty minutes later, I was at the hand-off point, ahead of schedule..
I had a GREAT time, and it was AWESOME meeting all of you face-to-face!!!!!
Scott
