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I am going to ride to Deal's Gap in North
Carolina at
the end
of July. It is one of the most famous motorcycle
roads in
the world. Three hundred and eighteen turns in eleven miles.
I'm going to meet my sister and her husband there.
They are
driving down from Rochester, New York and I'm driving over from
Fort Worth, TX. I have a few more miles to go but not
that many more and they are riding down on
their
Harley's while I'm riding my
"old man" BMW. I wanted to do a shake down ride
before
the trip. I have plenty of miles on this bike, I'm just
north of
14,000 miles in just under a year. I got the bike on Father's day
last year. I have even done a few long rides, I
did six
hundred and seventy five miles
with my loving wife on the back one weekend, she didn't love me as much
at the end of that trip.
For the shake down ride I wanted to load the bike up with
exactly the same gear as I was going to take with me on the ride to
North Carolina. I have been buying a lot of stuff for the
trip,
another reason my wife doesn't love me as much as she did a year a go.
I
picked up a tank bag, a couple of liners for my saddle bags, a map case
(which is a little strange since I have a GPS, but sometimes you want
to look at map.) I also bought some hot weather gear; a mesh
jacket,
summer riding trousers, rain jacket, ten different ear plugs (I'm still
looking for
ones that I can keep in my ears for twelve hours.) I bought a
set
of speakers for my helmet. I got a bluetooth intercom that
also
connects to my GPS and cellphone, not really for this trip but for some
reason Cheryl still counts it.
 I packed the maps,
water bottles, a full set of tools,
bike lock, a
diagnostic computer that talks to my Blackberry via
bluetooth, iPod, sunglasses, extra gloves, earplugs, clothes for six
days,
rain jacket, shoes, and a tire repair kit with four compressed
air
cartridges. I have a large top case which was still almost
empty even after
I
loaded up all of this stuff. It has some paperwork, hotel
information, and the maps for the four states I am not presently in.
That means that I can drop my helmet and asylum
yellow motorcycle jacket in
it when I stop to eat and it also gives me some free space so I'll have
a place to put all of the cool motorcycle stuff I buy when I'm
on
the road.
I had planned on riding to St. Louis as my shake down ride since one of
my friends lives there but at 1296 miles the shake down ride
would have been longer than the ride to Deal's Gap. I
have
been to St. Louis before, I even rode through it once on a
motorcycle. I stopped outside of it to
take
a photo just so I could show everyone that told me "That it must have
been
exciting to ride across the country." that it wasn't. I'd
show
them the
photo and say, "It was about 3,000 miles of this." If I went this
weekend I wouldn't be able to
spend anytime in St.Louis anyway. I would have just
enough
time for dinner, some sleep and then I would have to be back on the
road. I would
have stopped for breakfast at least 100 miles south to make
sure I
was clear of the traffic. It was really a bad weekend to pick, Bill was
going to be busy on Friday and had a business trip to Portland
early
Monday. The idea of a 1296 mile shake down ride for a 985
mile
ride to North Carolina didn't make as much sense now that I
was
sober.
Free Booze
I thought up the idea on a flight back from Orlando Florida
after an experiment with alcohol that went horribly wrong on an
American Airlines
flight. I didn't want to eat, but since I was upgraded and
being a
former alter boy I just have to try and get my money's worth.
Since I didn't want the meal I decided to try and get the
value
of the upgrade through booze. I decided to order straight Scotch
whiskey
and the flight attendant brought me a double, which is
Standard
Operating Procedure. I didn' t wave her down for a
refill but
I never refuse one and I always finish it as soon as she
handed
it to me. That means that on this short one hour
and thirty
five
minute flight from Orlando to Dallas / Fort Worth I ended up drinking
nine whiskey's, four doubles and a single. I think
the single
was because the flight attendant was a little concerned that ten drinks
might be too much for me to handle. I served eleven years as
an
Army Grunt and more importantly I was the Director of System
Engineering in Europe so I think I could have handled 10 drinks but I
understand her caution. I packed the
motorcycle the day before the ride and since I
was now sober
I decided that I should do a shorter
ride to shake out the bugs. I call Bill and he sounds
relieved
that I am not going to try and ride to his house in St. Louis on
Saturday and return to Fort Worth on Sunday.
Shake Down Ride
The bike is packed but I still need a destination, so I'm looking at
Google maps and notice that at about
200 miles from Fort Worth there is a town called Rochester. I
was
born in Rochester, NY
so I
think it's karma and looks like it's about the right distance. I look
out a little farther West
and see Hamlin, a place my family used to camp in the
summer. I also notice that if I
continue south I could
come back to Fort Worth via Albany.
This itinerary will allow me to call up my family and say, "I rode out
to Rochester,
had lunch in Hamlin and then headed home via Albany. I did
call
and tell them after I got home and my Mom
was
a little mad that I didn't stop by. My bother-in-law thought
I
was
just crazy enough to try and do that ride. I have driven
from California to New York via the southern U.S. then back to
California via
Canada so I am that crazy but I would need more time than a
weekend to pull it off. This trip to Rochester, TX is all
back
roads
which
isn't a great test, since my trip to North Carolina will be
all
"Super slab" but I really don't want to ride 500 miles on
Interstate just to
end up in Rochester TX. The other thing you have to remember
is
that you can drive seventy miles an hour on these roads so it
is
not a completely bogus test.
I'm still a little surprised by the speed limits here and I
have
lived in Texas for over ten years. When I'm riding with my son driving
at seventy miles and hour it does seems a little fast, but it does make
riding a motorcycle a lot more fun.
Farm Road 1709
 Not
all Farm roads in Texas allow you to drive seventy miles an
hour. I live off Farm Road 1709 and that road has a forty
five
mile an hour speed limit. I'm not sure my European friends
would
understand the roads here. Farm Road 1709 currently has six
lanes plus
a
center turn lane. They just approved money to widen it,
adding
deceleration lanes making it nine lanes across. When I
lived in England I was often terrified that a car might come down the
street in the opposite direction. I never really believed
that
the streets there were wide enough for two cars and if anyone was
parked on
the side of the road it would reduce me to tears. I don't
think
the main runways at Heathrow are as wide as the "Farm Road" I live off
of here in Texas. I guess British drivers are just better than I am.
It is just after 7:30 a.m. when I program Rochester TX
into my
GPS. I ignore it and and turn on to Farm Road 1709 to stop
and
top off the tank. My bike gets a lot better millage if I run
93
Octane in it. 93 octane is sometimes hard to find but the
corner Seven-Eleven has it. I fuel up, then head in the
opposite
direction
that my GPS is telling me to go.
I don't know why but the guys at Garmin seem
to love
Weatherford TX. My GPS always tries
to send me south to
Weatherford even if I'm going North. Weatherford is almost 25
miles south of Rochester so it would have added 50
miles to the trip. Not that I'm complaining about the miles,
but the
route sucks. It has lots of traffic lights,and lots of
traffic.
It is all stop and
go with a lot more stops than go's. I head up Highway 377
toward a
road I like. It is northwest and even
though Rochester is almost
straight west it is worth the extra miles. My GPS points me Southwest
and tells
me I
will get
to Rochester at 12:45 in the afternoon. "Bitching Betty" the
voice of the GPS keeps complaining to me and telling me to do a
"U-Turn." It doesn't matter since I'm not wearing my headset
so I
can't really hear her. When I get on to FM 407
the
GPS finally gives up and stops trying to send me south via Weatherford
to Rochester it also now tells me that I will get into Rochester at
11:34 a.m. So for some reason the GPS wanted me to drive an
extra hundred miles out of my way so I could arrive an hour
and
fifteen minutes later. All of this on surface
streets in
heavy traffic I'm glad I only paid twelve hundred dollars for it. Yet
another reason Cheryl is a little less in love with me than she was
last year.
Rochester, Texas 
I pull into Rochester at 11:05 a.m. (OK, so I did travel a
little
faster
than 70 mph ) It was a lot more fun than I had the right to
hope
for. A lot of little towns are nothing more than
a couple
of houses with one cross street. I was afraid that
they might
not even have a welcome sign but they seem to be very proud of
Rochester. They have a bunch of signs welcoming you to the Greater
Rochester Metropolitan area. There is no gas station and I
can't find a restaurant. They do have a few stores and a
pretty
good looking main street. I amuse the locals because of my
asylum yellow jacket and also because I keep doing
U-turns
on
Carolthers
Ave so I can get a shot of the; Post Office, Fire house, and Tower,
(I'm
guessing it is a water tower but it could be a grain tower, maybe a
tower
that holds peanuts since the Rochester Peanut Company looks
like
the main employer.)
I don't care about a lack of restaurants since the plan was to eat
lunch
in Hamlin, but I would have liked to have found a gas station.
My
tank
was running a little low. One of the many motorcycle books I
read
told me that you should ride a bike like mine between 4,000 rpm's and
6,000 rpm's That does give you the best pick up but not the
best gas mileage. My gas gage is sitting below a 1/4 tank and
my
trip mileage is at 232 miles which means I should be looking for a gas
station.
Post Office
I'm not sure if all post offices have a street address. I
guess they would have to, but it
made me laugh that you could send mail to 213 Carolthers
Ave, Rochester,
TX. 79544. I would have assumed that Postmaster General,
Rochester TX 79544 would be enough. In fact with a population
of
378 people you would think you could just send it to
Rochester, TX and it
would end up with the right person in town.
I was hoping to find a postcard from Rochester but they didn't have
any. They did have a "Don't mess with Texas" postcard but you can get
those anywhere. I don't
know if every town has a post office I would think that it doesn't make
sense but this one was nice and maybe even a little bigger
than my own local
post office.
The Post Office is right across the street from the Fire
Department but it looks
like the Federal government has been a little more generous than the
local tax base has been with the Fire department . I took a
photo of it
because my brother is a Lieutenant in the Rochester, Fire Department
so I always like to get shots of other departments
for him.
Rochester Fire Department
I never would have picked the building out as the fire house.
OK,
maybe the letters spelling out "Rochester Fire Dept." would have
helped, but I'm not sure if
it was built to be the Rochester Fire House from the ground
up or
they later repurposed it to be the town's Fire House.
I would
have loved to have gotten a look at the fire
equipment, but it looks like nobody was home.
The Fire Station is so close to the street that I'm
sure the
engine is already in the middle of the road before the cab
clears
the doors. Of course with only 378 people I would guess crewing the
fire truck kind of empties the street of traffic.
The guys playing checkers in front of the general store were starting
to give me funny looks since I'm taking a bunch of pictures of stuff
that really don't deserve to have their pictures taken.
I'm
also taking at least ten shots of each building
because;
1.) I'm not coming back so I need to make sure I have a good photo of
each building for the blog.
2.) I'm using a digital camera so it pretty easy to delete everything
but the shots I want.
Population 378
I was looking at the city limit sign and thinking, "When you have a kid
here, do you ask them to update the sign?" I have lived in some pretty
small towns but 378 is a little smaller
than the smallest town I have called home. I wanted to get
moving
because Rochester wasn't even the middle of this trip. I still needed
to
head southwest to get enough miles in today to make this a
good
shake down ride. Hamlin, TX looked pretty easy to
find and
only about 50 miles away so I don't bother to punch it into the GPS.
I head out of town a little concerned about my fuel state
but
my "Range 42 miles" warning message hadn't come on yet so I
was thinking that I'd be OK.
I get lost but then I'm almost always lost. A
friend of
mine once gave me directions like this, "When you leave here
turn
right. When you get to the water tower turn around because
that
means you turned left." I had to call her later and say,
"OK,
I'm at the water tower what am I suppose to do now?" I
headed
out of Rochester going what I assumed was Southwest but when I hit the
next
town and it wasn't on my map, which means I must have been
heading
straight West I knew I was lost. I guess it
was better
than heading Northeast but it is still kind of a "Water tower"
moment. I decided to turn the GPS back
on and type in
Hamlin TX. It told me I was definitely at the water tower and
that I
should
do a U-Turn and go back the way I came. This town had
a really old gas station that looked like it
mostly sold
diesel to the
local farmers. They only had 92 Octane which if I run it in
my
motorcycle noticeable reduces my mileage so I decided to pass. The low
fuel warning
message was still not on, so I decide to push it, not one of my better
ideas. Just
as I pull out of town on my way to Hamlin the caution light
comes
on and
I see the message "Range 42 miles" I'm not too
worried, I
should
make it to Hamlin with about 20 miles of fuel on-board based
on my
GPS and the 42
miles to go displayed by my bikes fuel gage..
The gage continues to drop and when I get to the highway sign that
says Hamlin is about 5 miles ahead I don't stop to
get a shot
of it because I'm pretty nervous about my fuel. I am looking at the map
and Hamlin looks to be
about the same size as Rochester, TX. If it
is, that will mean
that
it won't have a fuel station. The story is a lot
better
if I
hit Rochester, Hamlin, and Albany but running out of fuel, while
entertaining to the reader, is not something I want to test on this
shake down ride. I get to the intersection of
Old
Glory road and FM 92, Hamlin is on my left about 2 miles
away
and Stamford is to my right about 22 miles
away. My
bike is
fuel injected with no reserve tank, BMW assumes people will notice when
the
bight yellow caution light comes on and the "Range 42 miles"
message
flashes at you. It has ominously counted down and
is currently reading "Range 21 miles"
The
ride where I crashed my
motorcycle helped me understand that my bike is
pretty heavy.  The
thought of
pushing it for a mile or so to the gas station helped me make
the decision that I was going to head toward Hamlin.
Luckily Hamlin is much bigger than Rochester and it has two gas
stations. Unfortunately the highest octane either one sells
is
91. I figure poor
gas
mileage is better than no gas mileage, so I fill up my tank.
I
also
use the window cleaner to soften and then scrap off some of the bugs
that have turned my windscreen and visor almost opaque. I
don't
think the station has changed the water since the town was
founded
in 1904 but it's still good to rub the worst of it off.
I find a local restaurant hoping to grab something to eat and use the
restroom. I figure I can also finish cleaning the
windshield
and visor with some
napkins. They are trying to save money so they only have an air dryer
in the
restroom and they only give me one napkin. I decide to use
the
back
of my jacket sleeve to clean the mustard from my lips so I can save the
single napkin to finish the job on my visor. I want to at
least
reduce the stale smell I picked up from the first cleaning.
Hamlin has a little nicer Fire House
than Rochester's,
at
least it has one more bay, but then again they did have two gas
stations
so it must be a bigger town. I'm coming up on the half way
point
of this trip. I have to head a little more south to get to
Albany
and since Palo Pinto is right along my route and
it's one
of favorite places
to ride, I will also make a little detour riding south
to Santo,
TX and then backtrack to Palo Pinto, something I do only if
it lets me ride the twisties twice.
Albany
I pack everything back up, pour a bottle of water
over my shirt since
the temperature is starting to rise, and type Albany into the GPS.
The first choice that comes up is Albany, NY which is
1,791 miles away.  I
scroll down to Albany, TX
which
although it's seventh on the list is only 55
miles away. I stop in Albany looking for a fuel station that
has
93 Octane fuel but only find 92 Octane. I top off the tank
anyway figuring it can't hurt. I take a quick shot of
the
sign that proudly states
that Albany is the Home of the Hereford. I'm not
sure if the young ladies of the town
are as happy about this sign as the town council seems to be. I'm not
sure
I even really understand it. Is it the birthplace of the
Hereford or does some kind of famous cow have a house near
here?
I plug Palo Pinto into the GPS and head out.
The bugs
don't seem to be as bad any more but for some reason all of the birds
have
taken to resting in the middle of the road. I'm
alway on the
look out of buzzards since they are very big and like to lunch on road
kill in the middle of the road. They are also
unpredictable when they finally decide to take off. They
might
head away from the road, across the road or straight down the road
toward your bike when you ride up on them. I see a
lot of
road
kill, a few doves basking in the road and what I can only guess is a
small ostrich. It is not a buzzard, I have seen too many of
those
to not recognize them but this bird is huge. It is standing
defiantly in the middle of the road. I continue to slow down
and
notice a whole flock of them on the side of the road.
As I
get closer I realize that it is a flock of wild turkeys, but they are
Texas size turkeys. I keep slowing down when the big Tom
starts
to run toward the side of the road and just as I come up next to him,
he takes off and flys away. I didn't even know that turkey's
could fly and certainly didn't know they could fly that well.
I get to Palo Pinto, take a quick left on FM 4 and
add another
22
miles to the trip by heading south to Santo, TX and then back up the
same road North kind of towards home. My GPS wants
me to
head over to
Weatherford, TX which I ignore plus if I go straight home I'll
end
up
doing only 400 miles and I want to do at least 500 today to really test
the bike. I do stop in Santo to top off the tank again
because I
know they have 93 Octane. I can only squeeze five
dollars
in it
but I am hoping it will buy me a little extra mileage. I'd
also
like to make the next run without stopping for anything except maybe
ostrich sized turkeys. I do the next couple hundred miles with a pretty
big smile on my face. The bike is running great, my loading
has
the bike balanced perfectly and I have a great ride planned
that
should be a lot more fun than today and today was pretty fun.
My wife might not love me as much as she did a year ago
but she loves me enough and it sure is fun to ride.
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