Well, we originally planned to complete our first LD ride just before the Moonshine Lunch Run in Casey , IL, finishing April 10th. We were going to leave Thursday afternoon, leave Indy at 4pm, ride to Little Rock, then to Casey, IL by 4pm Friday. Those plans changed about 2 weeks earlier since I found a nice condition '09 in Phoenix and decided to do a fly and ride!
Our adventure began when we flew from 40 degree Indy on Saturday at 11:20am ET and arrived in 75 degree Phoenix at 12:15pm PT. My cousin picked us up at the airport, we had lunch then went to their house house. I took care of the $ and paperwork, donned our helmets, gassed up and started on our way to Santa Rosa, NM, where we would begin - our pre-determined route for this special version of the SS1K - our certificate trip within our longer 1,700 mile journey.
We rode north from an eastern suburb of Phoenix into the hills where the roads were curvy and the temps warm. Our ride had started and we were having a great time. Here is the scenery before we enter the higher elevations.
Now,some of you may be thinking...did they really get a bike they've never ridden before and start either of their first ever LD ride, a distance of 1,700 miles 2up!? Yep, we are that kind of crazy. I planned and planned, but as some of you may have experienced, some things still slip through the cracks. We had our riding jackets with waterproof quilted liners, riding pants with waterproof quilted liners, Freeze-Out tops and bottoms, boots/riding shoes, two sets of gloves...everything we needed for the 45-78 degree temps we expected. Unfortunately, I did not know that the hills between AZ and NM get much colder when the sun goes down - all the way down to 30! We were freezing our asses, and hands, and toes... The good thing was the skies out there are amazing at night. Never before had I seen so many starts due to no light pollution, no humidity, no clouds. It was beautiful. We finally arrived in Santa Rosa, NM at 1:30am, after the one hour time change(! du-oh, forgot about that), temps rose to about 40 but the cold had already set into our bones, and checked into our hotel.
I checked the forecast for the following day to see if any other surprises would be in store for us for the actual SS, but nothing changed so we expected 43-65-45 degree temps for our 1,074 miles. We intended to get up early enough to leave at 8:30 am, ride for about 18 hours and arrive in Casey, IL around 2:30 am. Since I forgot about the time changes and we got in an hour later the night before, we did not get on the road until 9:20 am. This now meant, with the next time change, our 18 hour ride would give us an arrival time at our destination of 4:30. :-(
Gas receipt in pocket, we were on our way from NM, heading to the NW tip of the Texas panhandle. It was a little cold, but at least the temps increased as we traveled! By the time we reached Oklahoma, we were feeling good, fairly warm and got a chuckle out of this building in Hooker, OK.
Next state was Kansas, where the speed limit dropped from 70-75 on the previous roads to 65 mph. This information was kindly relayed to us by a county Sheriff near Pratt. Yep, we were stopped by this officer, who stated he "clocked" us at 82 but radar locked at 77. Interesting thing is he passed us going the opposite direction initially (we were going about 77), I lost track of him, then he showed up behind us with light flashing - how did he get a radar lock when he was never at a stand still or had an unobstructed line of sight to us. Anyway, we was one of the more friendly LEOs and just gave me a warning since all our paperwork checked out!
We continued on to Missouri and arrived in Columbia, MO around midnight. Rode through St. Louis with no traffic issues and with temps dropping, arrived in Casey, IL at 5:19 am, got our other receipt and checked into our hotel. We finished our first LD ride - 2up on a bike we've never ridden before - had an interesting experience, but will probably never do one again. We enjoy riding but also like to stop whenever we want and see local sights. LD rides are definitely in our future, but not timed rides.
We asked for a late check out since the regular time is 11 am and we were granted one hour extra. Well, that is not what actually happened... The maids started knocking on doors at 9 am, knocked on our door at 10 am, received a call from the front desk at 11:05 am asking if we needed an extra day... Needless to say, I had words with them upon check out. However, this was the least of our concerns; it was raining and would not stop all day and we needed to get home. Oh well, our hands got soaked, our feet did too, but our torsos and legs remained dry!
Our adventure began when we flew from 40 degree Indy on Saturday at 11:20am ET and arrived in 75 degree Phoenix at 12:15pm PT. My cousin picked us up at the airport, we had lunch then went to their house house. I took care of the $ and paperwork, donned our helmets, gassed up and started on our way to Santa Rosa, NM, where we would begin - our pre-determined route for this special version of the SS1K - our certificate trip within our longer 1,700 mile journey.
We rode north from an eastern suburb of Phoenix into the hills where the roads were curvy and the temps warm. Our ride had started and we were having a great time. Here is the scenery before we enter the higher elevations.
Now,some of you may be thinking...did they really get a bike they've never ridden before and start either of their first ever LD ride, a distance of 1,700 miles 2up!? Yep, we are that kind of crazy. I planned and planned, but as some of you may have experienced, some things still slip through the cracks. We had our riding jackets with waterproof quilted liners, riding pants with waterproof quilted liners, Freeze-Out tops and bottoms, boots/riding shoes, two sets of gloves...everything we needed for the 45-78 degree temps we expected. Unfortunately, I did not know that the hills between AZ and NM get much colder when the sun goes down - all the way down to 30! We were freezing our asses, and hands, and toes... The good thing was the skies out there are amazing at night. Never before had I seen so many starts due to no light pollution, no humidity, no clouds. It was beautiful. We finally arrived in Santa Rosa, NM at 1:30am, after the one hour time change(! du-oh, forgot about that), temps rose to about 40 but the cold had already set into our bones, and checked into our hotel.
I checked the forecast for the following day to see if any other surprises would be in store for us for the actual SS, but nothing changed so we expected 43-65-45 degree temps for our 1,074 miles. We intended to get up early enough to leave at 8:30 am, ride for about 18 hours and arrive in Casey, IL around 2:30 am. Since I forgot about the time changes and we got in an hour later the night before, we did not get on the road until 9:20 am. This now meant, with the next time change, our 18 hour ride would give us an arrival time at our destination of 4:30. :-(
Gas receipt in pocket, we were on our way from NM, heading to the NW tip of the Texas panhandle. It was a little cold, but at least the temps increased as we traveled! By the time we reached Oklahoma, we were feeling good, fairly warm and got a chuckle out of this building in Hooker, OK.
Next state was Kansas, where the speed limit dropped from 70-75 on the previous roads to 65 mph. This information was kindly relayed to us by a county Sheriff near Pratt. Yep, we were stopped by this officer, who stated he "clocked" us at 82 but radar locked at 77. Interesting thing is he passed us going the opposite direction initially (we were going about 77), I lost track of him, then he showed up behind us with light flashing - how did he get a radar lock when he was never at a stand still or had an unobstructed line of sight to us. Anyway, we was one of the more friendly LEOs and just gave me a warning since all our paperwork checked out!
We continued on to Missouri and arrived in Columbia, MO around midnight. Rode through St. Louis with no traffic issues and with temps dropping, arrived in Casey, IL at 5:19 am, got our other receipt and checked into our hotel. We finished our first LD ride - 2up on a bike we've never ridden before - had an interesting experience, but will probably never do one again. We enjoy riding but also like to stop whenever we want and see local sights. LD rides are definitely in our future, but not timed rides.
We asked for a late check out since the regular time is 11 am and we were granted one hour extra. Well, that is not what actually happened... The maids started knocking on doors at 9 am, knocked on our door at 10 am, received a call from the front desk at 11:05 am asking if we needed an extra day... Needless to say, I had words with them upon check out. However, this was the least of our concerns; it was raining and would not stop all day and we needed to get home. Oh well, our hands got soaked, our feet did too, but our torsos and legs remained dry!
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