I left towards Georgia on 123... there's a bridge that crosses the lake
to Georgia at Toccoa... no other way over without going miles around. The
road was closed when I got there. I started to submit to going way out to
i85 and back to Toccoa on 441 (many miles) when I remembered a back
way out towards Yonah dam. I headed out that way and found that I could
go around the 123 closure, and was back on track.
I've become addicted to the bfgps. I can plan any kind of complex route,
and never get lost. Obviously it is good that a gps can tell you how
to go somewhere when you need it. But for traveling for fun, I want
to tell the gps how I want to go. I plotted out a route on mymaps.google.com
and generated a KML file of the route and loaded the KML file into the bfgps.
Buzzwords aside, it was pretty much as easy as plotting out a route on
google maps. I must have made a million turns today, way more than I could
ever remember, and never got lost.
The bad thing about addiction: near Cullman
Alabama, I noticed the bfgps was not charging! I considered turning back.
I stopped in the shade at a city park and fiddled with it and found out that
the usb adapter on my bike was toast, and I had another one in my saddlebags.
I went about 400 miles today, much of it on roads I've never been on.
I planned a route to Hamilton Alabama, but at Culman Alabama I
veered off towards Iuka (eye-ooka) where Britman was staying.
Next day we got the BFGPS "red book certified". Britman was just going to
use some Interstate segment to get to the Mississippi River bridge we
had both planned to cross. We decided instead to use the BFGPS to help
us get back to my route. So we headed out on arbitrary roads, turning
here or there, always trying to guide the "you are here" BFGPS icon
towards the blue line that is my route. We crossed the Mississippi River
into Arkansas at a rural bridge south of Memphis. We ended up that day at
Hazen Arkansas, where Smokin' Joe, Punisher, Rodney, Lance and Roger
were already at the motel.
Next day (days run together on this trip...) Britman headed out
alone towards the Arkansas hills and on to Oklahoma. I followed
the cool kids across Texas on I40 to Amarillo. We made some plans
that night for the next day - straight north into Colorado. I split off
from them and only went to Walsenburg, they continued on 130 over a
mountain pass and got to Pagosa Springs.
I stayed in a strange little place in the old downtown part of
Walsenburg and ate at a Mexican restaurant for supper...
The next day was Tuesday the 4th... they fixed me a great
breakfast and I headed down 130, over Wolf Creek Pass and into
Durango, an overall good ride. Wimp and Margie met me there at
a motel Joe had mentioned - he just noticed it while riding by
and though it would be good... it turned out to be one of the top
motels in town, Adventure Inn, not too expensive, really clean,
and a good breakfast. And a good BBQ place within walking distance.
The next day was Million Dollar highway day. I rode from Durango to
Montrose and Wimp and Margie went up in their van... we got a motel
there and went off the explore the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
I traveled alone the next day towards Gunnison and 149, which by
now I had heard was a good road to ride. I would look forward to
riding it again if I'm ever back in the neighborhood. At the Southern
end of 149 I headed back towards Durango on 130 over Wolf Creek pass.
I stayed in the same motel in Durango, two nights this time, Thursday
and Friday. I took advantage of the hotel's cleanliness and did my
laundry there on Friday. I also called the Honda shop to ask for
front brake pads for my bike. They had a set of EBC pads, so I
went out to get them and ran into Mitch. We rode off to see
the large rock that fell off the mountain and crushed highway
145 between Cortez and Telluride. It was large. Mitch got a
room at the same motel and we went back to the BBQ place
for supper.
Mitch and I rode off to Monument Valley on Saturday. We really
indoctrinated the BFGPS into the Red Book world by going down
a few dirt roads... at one point, the route I had chosen went
to gravel and Mitch was game to keep going... it went to dirt
and then back to paved. We were in the middle of nowhere and
we realized the road we were on was running along side of a
canyon just through the woods, the road kept going and the canyon
kept going. So we stopped the bikes at a trail-head and walked
over to the canyon.
We tried to ride to the canyon too, but were willing to go down this road only so far...
After the camera on my motorcycle's battery ran out, we went across
some wild and unusual desert landscape...
Here's a shot from Monument Valley...
On to ground zero in Taos on Sunday. Monday we all had an easy day
and I changed my front brake pads. We rode off to see the Rio Grande
Gorge outside of town and ate at a good Mexican place, Orlando's
"new mexican"...
Tuesday Britman lead a ride around The Enchanted Circle plus some more.
Here's the group, the bike that looks (to me) kind of like an
st1300 is an 800cc BMW that has no trouble going up-hill into
a head-wind with a bunch of 1500s and 1800s.
Wednesday I led a ride to Los Alamos... I wasn't focused on Los Alamos,
it is just where the roads led.
On this ride we came to another place where we could walk a path and look into a gorge...
Los Alamos was cool though... we had to show ID to get into town.
We stopped at the Science Museum and looked around at some atomic bomb stuff.
"Sir, do you know where the Science Museum is?"...
Got no riding done on Thursday, last day of InZane... I fiddled with
maps and how to get home - 28 hours was the estimate.
Friday me and Joe and Rodney left Ground Zero and followed the
route I had put into the BFGPS. We came into Taos on 64 on Sunday from
the west, but left that day on 64 east out of Taos... it would be a
good motorcycle road if not for traffic...
We used 412 through Oklahoma a long way and landed in Guthrie Oklahoma
that evening. We came into Oklahoma on the pan handle, and for a long way
it was flat to the horizon. By the time we got to Guthrie, though,
it had changed to be nice and rolly with lots of green trees.
Saturday we followed the BFGPS backroads to near Muskogee and
hit I-40 there. We used I-40 through Arkansas and made it to
Hazen.
Sunday we split up. Joe and Rodney hit the interstate through
Memphis and towards Knoxville. I used some back roads to
sneak across the Mississippi River at a rural location south
of Memphis, and then hooked back up to pickup 72. 72 runs just
south of the Mississippi/Tennessee line all the way to
Huntsville Alabama, it was a good way to make some time and
be off the interstate. It goes "interstate-like" through
Huntsville, with limited access (no red lights or intersections)
so that made Huntsville painless. I made it all the way home
from Hazen Arkansas on mostly back roads in one day, got home at around
10:00 pm... I was kind of tired in the dark going over that last hill
from Clayton Georgia, but the moon was pretty much full and it was
cool to see that...
Thanks to everyone who made InZane possible...
-Mike
