[ST] overdue LONG ride report part 5 the last of it

["triumph1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <triumph1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I should have mentioned that when I started out in Williams on Monday 
morning I had the greatest tail wind ever and it lasted all the way to 
Albuquerque.  So the days ride was effortless to that point and when I 
left PJ's Triumph I was pretty happy.  I had the route to Dallas even 
though I didn't know if it was far enough to get 5000 miles in five 
days.  As soon as I left Albuquerque, the wind conditions changed 
dramatically for the worse.  I now had a horrendous cross wind that was 
gusting, yet constant and I thought how could this beautiful place be so 
horrible so quickly.  I stopped off in Santa Rosa for gas and to call 
home and when I opened my tank bag to get my ATM card I heard a weird 
click like something plastic hit the ground.  I looked around and saw 
nothing and decided the guy at the next pump must have dropped 
something.  I gassed up and pushed the bike to a parking spot to call 
home.  650.00 treo cell phone gone, crap, !)@(, $%(^*, son of a %&$#* on 
on with the tourettes again.  So I get change and call home to get Dan's 
number to see if I left it at PJ's because that was the last place I 
used the phone.  Girlfriend tries calling me back on the pay phone, but 
the phone went out of service between calls, more tourettes.  I finally 
convince some guy that it is ok to let me use his cell phone (cash 
bribe) and find out my phone is nowhere to be found.  I tore he bike 
apart looking for the damn phone and finally gave up and decided I'd get 
it replaced in Dallas.  Remember the plastic sound I heard, yes it was 
my phone falling to the ground and I didn't see it.  So I take off, 
pissed because in one day I lost my GPS, Cell phone and pair of nice 
leather gloves, fatigue again, but I didn't catch it.  The wind 
increased and I remember thinking I couldn't do this for much longer and 
the farther I went the worse it got.  Texas again and the cross winds 
were so bad I was having a hard time keeping the bike on the road.  I 
passed a guy on an old BMW and he was going about 40mph and gripping the 
handlebars for all his life was worth.
Finally I pulled off because I couldn't stand the wind anymore and went 
into a gas station and commented on the wind to the clerk and another 
local.  They looked at me like I was nuts and replied "windy out?, 
hadn't noticed"  Then told me that windy is 90mph winds.  I call Duncan 
up and ask him how far to Dallas from Amarillo because at best guess I 
was near Amarillo.  He thought around 400 miles and I needed at least 
300 to get the ss5000.  I said great, I'm on my way and should be there 
very late.  I think I figured around 12:00 or 1:00am, oh so wrong, but I 
had until 4:06 am to get there.
I had cross winds from Albuquerque to Amarillo and when I got to 
Amarillo I was plain all out beat,  but pushed on because I was so close 
and refused defeat at this point.  Darkness fell around me and when I 
got in Oklahoma I started noticing piles of fresh pink flesh in the 
road.  Not just here and there but everywhere.  Oklahoma is like the 
road kill capital.  Tired, the miles pile up and it is getting late and 
I'm looking at getting to Duncans house around 4:00am instead of 12:00 
or 1:00 So I call him and give him an update.  The rest of the ride was 
very uneventful , but very tiring and I started getting gas receipts 
more and more often to cover my finish.  I arrived in Denton TX and got 
my final gas receipt at 4:05 am, one minute to spare for the ss5000 and 
according to the OD I had about 170 miles more than I needed.  I rolled 
into Duncans garage around 4:30 am and was greeted by the largest man I 
have ever seen.  Name was Vance and his story is interesting.  I crashed 
on the futon for 4 or 5 hours and got up in the morning walked out to 
the garage and Steve was up in th garage in his underwear and t shirt. 
Quite the intro Steve, thanks.  I still have nightmares of you in your 
underwear.  So I went to RPM in Dallas, got the chain replaced and went 
back to Steves and sat in the peaceful back yard all day and drank 
coffee, smoked cigarettes and napped.  Spent the night and left in the 
morning for my ride back to Illinois.  Steve was very hospitable and 
friendlier than just about anyone I've met and to just take a stranger 
in was awesome in my book.  The ride home was just a cruise up through 
OK and I missed my turn off and ended up going through all of Kansas 
which to note was the most beautiful state I'd been in.  Eastern Kansas 
is very nice.  Oh as a note, Kansas is where I lost Steve's camelbak 
hydrator, left it on the sleeping bag roll at a rest stop and drove off. 
 Thus the ribbing from Steve in a recent post.  I stayed in a very 
cheesy, dirty motel 8 in Missouri, horrible armpit of a state whose main 
source of income appears to be porn shops every half mile through the 
whole state.  I hate Missouri and never want to go back.  I'd go for W 
Texas again before going through Missouri.  I arrived home in Princeton, 
Illinois around 2:30 pm on Thursday, seven days after I started and was 
already thinking about my next LD ride.  Since I didn't get the actual 
cert for the ss3000, I think I'll do that this summer for the heck of it.
I learned a lot about my physical limits, mental limits and also picked 
up knowledge about planning and packing for long trips.  So many things 
I'll do differently next time and am glad to be alive and somewhat 
healthy.  Hope I didn't bore you all to death, but this is my first ride 
report and I tried to cover most of what I remember the best I remember 
it.  So until next time see ya, take care and above all RIDE SAFE.

TimE
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