My "Use or Lose" Trip

[tntmo 887]

I had been quite busy the entire month of August and first half of September, ensuring that the US Navy was going to receive well trained new Chief Petty Officers.  It's a six week process that is a very time honored tradition, and I was leading the entire thing so needless to say I couldn't take time off.  I knew I had leave that was above our max carry over limit, we call it "use or lose" because if you don't take the leave yourself, the Navy will take it for you.  I just figured I'd take it at the end of the month but didn't have time to do much planning.

 After the new CPO's had their anchors pinned on September 16th, I put in a leave request for the last week of September.  I had a lot of projects that hadn't got done, so was thinking about working around the house.  About Thursday the 22nd, I decided that I would take advantage of the decent weather and go for a ride....nothing like last minute planning!  I had a run in Lake Elsinore on Saturday, so after work on Friday I drove up there to stay with a friend.  Got up early Saturday, ran 13.1 miles in the hills east of Lake Elsinore and put together a list in my head while I was running.  It's a good time to think.  I usually think, "Why am I doing this?"

 

So with sore legs and a cheap T-shirt and medal, I went home Saturday afternoon to prepare for a week long adventure on the bike.  I dug out some camping gear, some MRE's that I have had since 2008, a few changes of clothes and not much more than that.  Looked over the bike and called it a night. 

25 September, Sunday morning I went to breakfast with my wife, then tied up the last few things on the bike and got ready to go.  

Gas and hit the highway, nothing to exciting about I-8 east.  Once I got to El Centro I took 111 north to Hwy 78.  Kind of cool to see snow plows on the road, moving sand off the highway.  Not so cool to hit those sand drifts and feel the bike moving around under me.  78 follows close to the Colorado River for a while and then dumps me onto the I-10. 

 Stopped for fuel in Quartzite and get back on the Interstate....that's funny, must be the desert heat but it looks like there are headlights coming down this side of the road.  Oh, S***!  Those are headlights!  Some idiot got on the wrong side of the road somehow and then didn't even slow down!  I was flashing my headlight while grabbing a handful of brake, suddenly becoming very religious while I moved to the right shoulder and prayed that this fool didn't decide to go the same direction.  Instead, he stayed exactly into his lane and headed toward an 18 wheeler that I saw in my rear view mirror turn into a huge cloud of tire smoke.  I crested a small hill, so not sure what happened but there wasn't any traffic behind me for quite a while.  Wow!

Right after that, I exited the 10 and got on Hwy 60, then 71 and then 89.  Hwy 89 in AZ is a pretty nice road.  Up through the mountains, lots of nice curves, goes through Prescott.  Lovely town.  I then got on 89A, another lovely ribbon of road with some interesting places to stop.  Jerome looks like a neat place, probably a tourist trap but still interesting.  Going into Sedona was lovely, the afternoon sun was lighting up the hills beautifully.

I stopped in Sedona for fuel and ate an MRE.  At my previous fuel stop, I put it next to the engine so by the time I stopped it was hot.  I've eaten a lot of MRE's, and when they are hot they are okay.  I could have hit up any fast food place on my trip, but I liked the convenience of having some food with me and I can stop at parks or whatever to eat.  I was also sort of doing a test to see how little I could spend on a week vacation.  We'll get to that later.

I made it to Flagstaff about 5pm.  My son is going to college out there, so I went out to dinner with him and stayed the night at his place.  I recently sold his street bike so I had cash for him....he was happy!  The next morning I took him out for breakfast and hit the road.

I aimed to get somewhere in Colorado on Monday.  I had never been to Four Corners before so I headed that direction.  Hwy 89 north out of Flagstaff and then on to Hwy 160.  Lots of nice desert scenery here, small towns, interesting sights.  

There are so many small side roads, I could explore them for months.  The big Tiger does okay on hard packed stuff, but it's not happy in soft dirt or sand.  I'm sure with a decent pilot aboard it can go almost anywhere, but I just keep it on the easy stuff.

 

I met three riders from England here in Mexican Water, AZ.  They flew out and rented bikes (HD and Indians) and were riding from LA to New Orleans.  I wonder if they watched Easy Rider?  Nice guys,  they were glad to see the Brit bike I was on.  I also saw Kug here....he's everywhere!

More nice scenery and roads up to Four Corners.  I wasn't sure what to expect there, didn't know that it was another tourist trap.  They charge $5 per person to check it out, it's not a National Park but rather is owned by the Navajo Nation.  Plenty of shirts and trinkets available t purchase if you'd like.

I continued on Hwy 160 into Colorado.  My first stop for fuel was Durango, and within five minutes I was asked if I'd like to buy some MJ.  Interesting, but I can't.  I figured I'd make it a bit further before calling it a night, looked at my stuff and my jacket liner was missing!  I called my son, guess I left it at his house.  Since it was going to be chilly, I stopped in Pagosa Springs and got a flannel shirt and some supplies.

A few miles out of town I took a forest service road, followed it a bit and then went down a two track trail into the woods.  Felt like the middle of nowhere, so I decided it would work for the night.

No sasquatches bothered me and I got a good night's sleep.  Woke up to some frost and a postcard perfect morning.

 

I made some campfire coffee and hit the road.  Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide....trucking on down, the other side!  Awesome stuff out here.

 

It was in the 30's that morning, chilly.  I had the grip warmers on high and switched to my thick gloves.  The views kept me warm, and I made it to I-25N.  I love the signs on the Colorado highways to keep right unless passing.  CA needs those.  I made it to Colorado Springs early, met my sister at the school she works at for a bit and then to her home.  She knew I was coming to visit so she had a treat for me.

 

I forgot to mention that I noticed a small nail in my tire earlier that day.  I pulled it out and put in a plug, pumped up the tire with my small bicycle pump and kept moving.  Well, my tire was negligible anyway so I decided to get a new one while I was in town for a bit.

 

Heidenau K60, supposed to be a long lasting tire.  I was glad to see they had a nice assortment of tires at Apex Motorsports in Colorado Springs.  They got it mounted for me in a few hours on Wednesday morning.  In the meantime, I helped my sister with some work around the house.  We installed a few doors and did some general maintenance.  She always has a list for me when I visit.

Thursday morning I said goodbye to my sister and her family and headed south.  I found some cool back roads in New Mexico, it's so much nicer than I thought it would be.

I took the I-25 South to Hwy 64 into Taos, NM.  Just a gorgeous road, lots of hills, curves, small towns, antelope....everything you want to see.  From Taos I was on all kinds of small roads, some of them were maybe 1.5 lanes wide and were gravel in places.  Awesome, but not much out there and I didn't see many cars.  If someone had issues out there, it could be a long wait.  I eventually ended up in Santa Fe and back on the I-25.  Another MRE snack and I was on the road.  

South of Albuquerque it got really windy and then I got rained on for the first time in this journey.  It wasn't too bad, the wind was much worse than the rain.  After about an hour of that it mellowed out and I pushed on south.  I got on Hwy 26 at Hatch and decided to find a place to stop.  By this time it was pitch dark, so I had no idea where I was going.  I found a dirt road that didn't have "No Trespassing" or "Private Property" signs and didn't have any lights nearby and just went for it.  After about 1.5 miles I just found a few bushes and parked the bike.  It was probably 75 degrees with light wind, a really nice night.  There was a bit of lightning, but I figured it was just leftovers from the storm I rode through earlier.

I set up the tent, had a snack and got into my sleeping bag.  Lots of critters around, they were right outside my tent!  The wind died down for a bit, and then picked up like crazy.  Sure enough, the rain came back.  At least the critters quit bothering me.  I didn't stake down the rain fly very good but at least all my gear was in the tent and I put the bike on the center stand.  I slept pretty good once the rain got going.

You can see the only dry land in sight, which was under my muddy tent.  The center stand had sunk into the mud, which was snotty and sticky.  Getting back to the highway was a fun time, at least I kept the bike upright.  The sky looked like there was rain in the area, but I never ran into any.  I crossed into Arizona and stayed ahead of the wet.

 

I didn't have far to go, stopped Friday to visit a Navy friend near Benson, AZ.  We went to boot camp together 25 years ago, was great to catch up.  My phone decided that it wasn't going to take a charge after the night in the rain I guess, so I didn't get any more pictures.  

The rest of the trip was just a freeway blast on I-10 to I-8 to home.  Hot in the AZ desert, not exciting until I got to San Diego county where I saw more Highway Patrol in the last 75 miles than I did the entire rest of the trip.

I ended up spending $141 in fuel for about 2500 miles of adventure and spent about $10 on coffee and food.  Yeah, I stayed with friends and family a few times but could have easily tented it as well.  Vacation doesn't have to cost a lot, I had a blast and wish I were out there doing another journey.  Not sure if I'm ready to go as hard core as Randy is, but maybe a few of these trips a year will keep me satisfied.  

Get out there and explore, my friends! 

[Bp619 104]

Nice report, like the cost data I had that talk with my wife seems like I'm trading a 3 day moto trip while she does a weekend girls trip crazy how cheap it is riding and camping off bike compared to resort and spa days. Besides the $10k bike but don't tell her that 

[Oracle 195]

Nice trip, Tom. I think we are both on the verge of retirement? At least I know I am. All I think about is doing more camping off the bike trips.

[tntmo 887]

Less than a year from retiring from the military.  I'll see what I can do about not being employed.....

[Mikey777 44]

Nice write up and good pics!  The ride from Prescott to Jerome is awesome.  Some great twisties that just won't seem to quit.  Glad you had some time to just get out there and see the country.  

[Wierdrider 187]

Nice trip Tom, I hope to do some bike adventures soon. 

 

[hodnettjj 0]

Thanks for sharing the trip!! sounds like a blast.  I lived in NM for 3 years and still have family there.  I plan to do a long multi day trip like this in Jan... I'm interested to see if the weather holds out...

 

[Cosmo 10]

Thanks for sharing buddy!  Good job getting out!

[Zubb 1061]

Well played sir! Great way to do it and thanks for sharing the pics and the story. I'm sure there is much I can learn from you.  But I have to reprimand you on your choice of beer.  To pass through Colorado and not sip the hoppy nectars of the indigenous breweries is nigh unforgivable.  I declare a do-over, and this time I'll have to accompany and teach you how to respect their local traditions.  Looks like all I need is $150 (and a tire) and to shake a few bucks out of the beer money can.  Let's go!

 

[Dress4Less 162]

Excellent Tom! Thanks for sharing!

[MacDuncan 131]

Nice stuff Tom, truly an excellent "Wander about" that fills the soul.  Way to flow with it!