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Phoenix Az To Hamilton Il


Guest Wasted155

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Guest Wasted155
Here is my story-- copied it from my blog. I purchased a VFR800 from my friend in Phoenix and rode it back to Illinois--appx 1800 miles. Enjoy! If you want to see other stupid stories, here is my blog: As The Throttle Turns

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Here we go!! This was an amazing ride, the longest I’ve ever been on. 1,772 total miles from start to finish. I went to my Eric’s place in Buckeye AZ (Phoenix area) and left from there. Before we get to the trip, a big thanks to Beth, Kay, Steve, Mindy and Bob for seeing me off to the airport. Huge thanks to Eric for the bike! :) ..and picking me up at the airport…and all the mechanical work on the bike! Lastly, a quick list of the best items I used– Suomy Spec 1-R helmet (perfect!). Sony Ear buds– helped with the wind noise. iPod.. yeah, can’t go anywhere without it. Google maps– siri didn’t do so hot. AlpineStars boots. Icon gloves and AGV jacket. And, unexpectedly, Nike and Under Armor for the warm clothes I needed in ARIZONA!!!

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So, lets start with “pre-ride”. Left Cedar Rapids on Saturday, in nice weather, landed in Mesa to a windstorm, gusting up to 69 MPH– right?? Couldn’t get off the plane for an hour, waiting 30 min for the wind, and another 30 for lightening. The ride home had rain. In ARIZONA!! Right?! Eric spent months warning me about the heat and the dry and the heat… and, the heat. I was prepared for the heat. I woke up on Sunday morning to….80 and cloudy?? Was I still in Iowa?? Bike prep day, get the master link on, gas in the bike, make sure the alarm is charged and plan the ride. Then, the ride….

Day 1, Monday, 4:54 AM local time (AZ)

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Getting a head start on the day to beat the heat. Leaving at 5 am was the idea, so if I got in a solid 5 hours ride, its still only 10AM, and I could park if need be. Pretty cool, that time of the day, I rolled out, followed the I-10 to the I-17. I started to worry about half an hour in, because at 5:30 am, I hit some rush-hour traffic. And it was warm. But, fairly quickly, I got past that. Once on the I-17, I was cruising north at a pretty good pace. When I left the last of the Phoenix area, it was 6:09, and the bank clock I saw said 86 degrees out. (Warm enough). Funny, though… I think that was the last time I saw it over 85 until I hit east of Topeka– more on that later.

High road to Flagstaff!! I stopped at 95 miles to gas up (since I wasn’t sure how often I’d see gas). It was pretty cool– if you don’t know the terrain, check out Google Earth and see the mountains– there were times I was climbing pretty steeply up the mountain… I hit around 3000 feet and realized it was getting cool out. I switched the bikes internal temp to air temp and saw it was about 65 outside– in ARIZONA?? yeah… As I kept climbing, it got cooler, but stayed sunny out- a beautiful ride! I wish I’d stopped to take pictures, because after the 4,000 ft mark, I came down into a valley, and with some clouds and smoke (managed burn) and the sun, it was very picturesque– but there were plenty of semis around, so I didn’t stop to gawk.

After the 5,000 ft mark, I realized it was getting more chilly– I hit a low of 59 at one point, so I stopped to put on my Nike zip up. Let me take a moment to say that I’d brought that along in case it got cool while I was riding back in Iowa and Illinois!! Yeah, in ARIZONA!! Rolled into Flagstaff at 7:58 am, and gassed up again (total of 175 miles) I was feeling sassy, but it was cool and cloudy at this point. Since I was stopped, I took the time to roll out the Under Armor long sleeve shirt to go with the jacket… just about right, actually. I rode out of Flagstaff and it started to warm up to mid/upper 60’s by time I was 40 or so miles out.

At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about the world and I started to see some signs for the “worlds oldest dated meteor impact” site– I remember it from Starman, so I thought “what the heck” and decided to play tourist. It was only 6 miles or so off the road and I was 30 miles from Winslow, so I took the jaunt. Road was cool, winding up to a building in the side of a hill. Now.. be prepared. You walk up a lot of stairs. I walked up the stairs into the building and got in line– the girl at the counter was pretty quick and she justified my trip in one sentence: “that is the most beautiful helmet I’ve ever seen.” yeah, she’s right :)

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Next, I walked up some stairs. Then came to an open area and no clear indication of where to go… through a door up more stairs, up more stairs, through a door, up some stairs. Then, low and behold, a crater. Now, it was massive! But, I don’t think I’d pay to use the telescope thingy just to see the rocks on the other side… they look like the rocks on my side. But, I was a tourist, so I snapped some really bad selfies– I’m not a good selfie taker and this trip didn’t make me better.

On to Winslow. I had to stop there. If you don’t know why…well, sorry, its the Eagles. Learn something. As I rolled into Winslow, it started to sprinkle (in ARIZONA). I stopped to put in my rain liner and rolled down the road to “the corner”. Took some cliche pics and looked around, then went to find the Sonic, because it had an awning to hide my bike under while it rained a bunch. Luckily, they had hot coffee… and didn’t care how long I sat. The myradar app was rockstar for me, because I could watch and wait for the storm to pass enough to get in some miles. I took a quick trip by La Posada, because I heard it was pretty cool, and it was a nice place– wishing I was staying there!

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From Winslow, AZ, it was straight to Albuquerque. NM. Great roads, great ride, some clouds and some rain at one point– rained pretty hard about an hour and a half outside of Albuquerque. But the sun came out right after and I dried off pretty quickly. Once in town, grabbed some gas and used my Hotel Tonight app! (Colin Cowherd had that one right!). Just ask for a hotel in the area and it finds one with rooms and good prices. I stayed at a place called Nativo, because it looked cool on the pictures. Bam, use google maps to get to it and I’m in the room. They had a pool and it was 85 degrees, so I thought, sure, lets swim.

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Nah… brrr is a more correct word. It was freezing!! I had to swim a lot to make it worth the dip. Afterwards, got dressed and stayed in the hotel to eat at the hotel bar. Met some locals, discussed traveling around here and the like. And I started my goal to have a ‘local’ beer in each town I stopped. Good company and some good tacos.

Day 2.. I’m lazy and it was about 9am

I got up, drank some coffee and got loaded up. It was sunny, but cool, around 65 outside. It had rained over night and myradar said that I’d be chasing rain all the way to Amarillo TX. Now, before we go much farther, I’d not brought a rain suit, just a rain resistant liner to my jacket. Off we go! I got about a half our out and it was chilly again, so I stopped to add a layer. A local asked me about the bike and reminded me that the roads get slippery on the interstate when it rains– in Illinois, by this time of the year the roads are fine-ish when it rains. Because we wash all the junk off the roads every week or so– not so much there, so good advice. I rode for another hour or so and it was really looking cloudy out. I found a place called Cline’s Corner. It was a truck stop/rest stop/junk to sell stop. But, it had a cafe with cinnamon rolls and coffee, so good enough for me. At that point, I decided to let the rain head east without me and I’d catch up later. I called Eric to tell him my feelings on his heat/dry in the desert. He and I have been planning this trip for months, figuring out all the stuff I’ll need for the bike and the ride. I mentioned before that he had been warning me about the heat, every time we spoke, he kept beating into my head how hot and dry it was in the desert. How the air just sucks the moisture out of you and that I needed to take 2-3 frozen bottles of water because they’d melt in the first hour. Drink, hydrate, and drink again– every time I get off the bike, drink more, because its going to be hot and dry. “You hear me but you aren’t listening,” he said. So, as I’m riding across the wet and rainy desert at temps of only 75ish degrees, I kept thinking about that part in Dumb and Dumber, where they think they are in Colorado but end up in Kansas or something… I said, “Hey, you remember that part? –because that’s what I think every time I remember the ‘hot and dry’ lessons you were giving me.” Yeah… its hot. It was hotter in Iowa…that Eric Parriott is full of….

After my break, time to ride out– pretty un-eventful til I got to Amarillo. I’d pulled into a Cheveron Station to get gas and check Hotel Tonight. Found a hotel that was close by so I booked it. Directions were by Siri, so she had me load on to the 40 and head east. She drove me around a while (about 15 minutes) until I ended up in a residential area– what?? So I tried the directions again and she said I was there– unfortunately, the map on Hotel Tonight was slightly different from Siri and she took me to North Coulter street instead of South Coulter street. So I used Google Maps to get back. Found the place and it had just started to sprinkle as I parked! Nice beating the rain!!

On my way in, I’d seen a hundred billboards for the ‘Big Texas Steak’ or something like that… first thought was, “I want a Texas steak”. Second thought, “too many billboards to be good”. I asked at the hotel desk and she said that Hoffbrau was a better steak house and closer, only 3 blocks away. Hey, that’s good enough for me! And, she gave me a coupon for a free dessert!

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I walked down and the guy said if for one, sit at the bar– cool enough. There were two guys sitting and talking with 3 chairs between them, so I sat down. Found out they were both traveling salesmen, one from Dallas and one from Tulsa. So we talked about kids, colleges, good choices on colleges, beers, football (mostly Big 12), steak and Pat Green. I mentioned that I didn’t have time to make it down to Waco to George’s but I’d do it one time and Dallas guy said he was friends with Pat Green! Knew him and saw him play in bars in Dallas in the ‘old days’ :) He gave me some places to stay next time I was through NM and told me to check out Palo Duro Canyon. Then I got my steak.. wow, and yum, and I didn’t eat the dessert. We also discussed the fact that all the trees were pretty short in Texas– dunno if it’s like that everywhere, but I felt like I was looking at miniature trees everywhere! We all finished and I rolled out the door, back to the hotel– here is the funny part, I walked a block up, then turned toward my hotel (two blocks down) and saw the Cheveron station I’d stopped at when Siri sent me on my wild goose chase– yeah… 30 minute round trip for 2 blocks!!

Day 3– left by 9 and good thing!

I left at 9 because I needed to stop at a bike shop to get some rain gear. I found a Honda dealer and they had some in stock. I had looked at myradar before leaving and no matter what direction I went, it was wet– and really wet. But, I wanted to check out the canyon and I had time. I headed south-east, which was out of the way, but worth the trip. I was just about to the park when I thought I saw it and took some pictures– yeah, it wasn’t very deep where I was at :) Went into the park, looked/rode around and had some fun, but then it was time to hit the road– it was 11 and I still hadn’t gotten towards Dodge City!

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I rolled north and stopped at a town called Pampa TX. I hadn’t hit any fast food yet, but decided to hit the McDonalds to soak up their Wi-Fi. When I came in, I ordered my meal and was about to pay when I heard a guy yell out “hey, wait!” — he came over and was the manager– said “Sorry about that, but you have a really cool bike. I saw you were wearing boots and a helmet and I crashed once on a bike– that stuff saved me. I got your lunch.” –Cool, right?!? I wouldn’t have heard that with my Accord…

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Rolled out of Pampa, with my rain pants on, but not the rain jacket (it blocks all the wind, so I wait til the last minute to put it on). I was about an hour north of Pampa when I could see the rain, it was coming hard and fast. I stopped, put on my jacket, and it started to rain hard! Luckily I was dry. But, it was super windy!! And it was windy all the way to Dodge City. It was my least favorite day of them all, riding-wise. One thing I kept laughing at were all the ‘rivers’ I passed over. Grass…grass…trees… rocks… a creek… oh, wait, the creek was the river. Nice :) When I FINALLY got to Dodge City, I was tired and beat and cold. And my Hotel Tonight app wasn’t working, neither was google maps or siri, so I rode into town to find a McDonalds– their Wi-Fi always works :) Hotel Tonight had one hotel in town for crazy high! So I found a Super 8 and was good to go. I asked what was going on, and she said it was Dodge City Days, and everyone was in town for that and the Rodeo. Ok. She pointed me to a local sports bar for a good sandwich and off I walked (I was done riding for the moment).

The guy there was great, the food was great, place called Bad Habitz or something like that. He said it was worth hitting up the rodeo, so what the heck. He said they had parking for bikes so it wouldn’t fall over, so I gave it a shot.

Here is the cool bit, I rolled in, found a spot and headed to the ticket booth– and the sky just cleared up. I’d seen clouds and nasty all day, and boom, blue sky and a slight breeze. It was a perfect night!

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The arena was super muddy!! The guys were just covered in mud whenever they hit the ground, but the event was great– he said 6 current or previous national champions were riding that night. And the fireworks were pretty cool too!

Day 4– rockstar sky!

Woke up to Thursday and it was beautiful outside!! Deep blue sky, no clouds, no breeze, upper 60’s for weather. I loaded up my bike, got everything strapped down, got my coffee, started it up to warm up…… and saw a nail in the tire. Crap. I thought hard. I went to O’reilly’s to buy a can of Fix-a-flat. My theory was that if it popped out, I could just fix it and be on my way…. right? A phone call from the voice of reason reminded me that it was a Very Bad Idea… so, off to the Honda shop I go.

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Hey, can we plug this– no. No real surprise there, couldn’t do it at bike shops I worked at. A new tire it was. At this point, let me talk about the dealership== rockstar quality all the way around! Dodge City Power Sports, I think– I showed up there 15 minutes til they opened and they came right out to ask what I needed. We debated the nail, checked for leaking (it leaked :( ) and they said, “we have a tire that fits”. Ok, lets do it. But, great parts 2 and 3, they gave me a deal (didn’t have to) and they had me back on the road by 9:45– great service and fast turn around and I totally appreciated that!!

Now, its about 10 am when I’m finally getting the hell outta Dodge City. I looked at the map and thought I had a good plan. The roads were great, no wind, sunny skies and you couldn’t ask for a better day to ride!!

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I’d pretty much made up my mind that I was going straight home that day (594 miles by Google) so off I went– made one wrong turn, followed the wrong highway and ended up in Hutchinson KS– not bad, but added a few miles to the trip. I went straight north til I hit I-70, then 100 miles to Topeka. All through that trek, the wind never picked up and the temps stayed around the mid 70’s– again, perfect!! Stopped for gas a few times and even got to take off the inner liner of my jacket about 10 miles from Topeka!!

At Topeka or around there, it finally got over 86 for the first time since I left Phoenix– right??? Yeah… I don’t know but I’ll refer you to the Dumb and Dumber part again– I’m sure its never hot in the desert from what I saw :)

I hit I-35 at about 3:30, and was feeling like a rock star! Gassed up and rolled north– at that point I felt like I was home already. I know where I was, knew what’d see, and the trees were normal sized again– the rivers too! I hit 36 and the sign said 157 to Hannibal– Really? I’m the same as home!! I rolled along 36 till someplace outside of Macon. I gassed up and checked the map– 144 miles til home!! I wasn’t stopping again til home!! I climbed back on and kept heading east. When I saw the “Quincy- 35 Miles” sign, I was pretty happy! Once back in Illinois, the only thing I could think was, “you made it this far, no speeding tickets!!!” Luckily, traffic kept me normal speeds and I made it home at around 7:45 pm. Phew…. 621 miles that day!

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Overall, it was a great trip! I’ve never done anything like that, and all joking about the weather aside, I had the absolute best luck as far as temps went the whole ride! I should have been looking at high 90’s up to 108– and I didn’t see any of that– I heard 3 people at the Dodge City Rodeo tell me that it should be 115 there, not 70. Everyone I met along the way was great, and that was good luck too. From all the ways a trip can go bad to the ways it can go good, I landed on the ‘good’ side. Even the nail in the tire turned out to be ok– what if I hadn’t seen it? Or they didn’t have a tire? Or I was stupid enough to ride after I saw it? Yeah… ugly is a four letter word.

Made it home safe and sound and I’d do it every year if I have the chance.

One note– I have no idea how fast you hafta be going on some of those NM-TX interstates to get pulled over, but I was doing mid 80s a lot, and getting passed like I was on a bicycle. I hit 90ish following a guy in a truck, just inside TX and he was pulling away from me like I dropped an anchor. Funny stuff.

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