I need to explain a couple of things. I'm a member of the Pelicans Cycle Club, and we certify long distance rides at four levels, Bronze - 500 miles in under 12 hours, Silver - 1000 in 24 hours, Gold - 1500 in 24 hours, and Platinum - 2000 miles in 48 hours.
I had previously completed all of these, except the Platinum. Last weekend was the perfect opportunity to rectify that.
Cheri and I got away from the DFW area at about 7:30 Saturday morning, the plan was that I'd ride with her to Wichita, then she would head up to Topeka, her turn around point for a Silver Wings ride. I'd go on north to Salina and attempt a Platinum.
We didn't have much traffic until we got close to OKC, and it was obvious that OU was having a football game by all the cages with OU flags and stickers plastered all over them. About the time we hit Norman and all the OU traffic turned off, the rain started. It just steadly started raining harder and harder until it got to the point we couldn't see a thing and pulled off on the north side of OKC. We got back on the road when it slacked up some and it finally quit raining about the Stillwater exit.
We had a bit of a fuel scare at the Kansas state line, the station I always stop at was out of business and we were very low on fuel. It was another 20+ miles to the next station, but we made it. My bike is supposed to hold 5 gallons, it took 5.15 to fill it up ...
We said our goodbyes at this gas stop and a few miles later I peeled off to take I-135 north to Salina. It was a very nice day to be riding in Kansas, no wind at all. Those who have been there can appreciate how rare a windless day is up there. Kansas has some very nice interstates too, the roads aren't all beat up and full of patches and potholes like I'm used to, and west of Salina the traffic was extremely light. Western Kansas had obviously gotten a lot of rain and is as green as I've ever seen it.
It got dark on me on the outskirts of Denver. I'd decided to change my route to include Alamogordo and Cloudcroft, NM. This knocked some miles off my original route and I needed to go through Denver to make it up, instead of cutting off to Colorado Springs. I really didn't want to ride that narrow 2 lane between Limon and the Springs in the dark anyway.
It was getting chilly as the sun went down and I had put on my electric gear at Goodland, KS. It was downright chilly by the time I got close to Denver and I was extremely glad to have the heated jacket liner and gloves. The only problem was that my boots and my feet had never completely dried out from the rain in OKC, and my feet were COLD.
As I headed south on I-25 I remembered that there wasnt much as far as motels south of Pueblo, so I decided to stop there for the night. It was almost midnight and about halfway so I stopped for a few hours of shuteye.
I was on the road again by 5:30 local time and it was really chilly now. The thermometer on the bike said 40 degrees and stayed there until Raton pass where it dropped well below 40 on the thermometer and there was frost on the ground. With my heated gear on I was nice and toasty, with dry boots and socks my feet were fine. I only had on jeans, and my knees were cold, but not bad. I think with my core temp staying up because of the heated gear, my legs stayed warmer.
Just south of Las Vegas, NM I peeled off onto 2 lane roads, headed toward Alamogordo. It was extremely windy, a cross wind from the west. It was pretty miserable until I got into hillier country farther south. The Golden Aspen Rally was going on in Ruidoso NM and there were bikes everywhere, not quite as bad as Sturgis, but about 75% of the oncoming traffic was bikes and I quickly got worn out from waving at all of them
I had turned off my heated gear by now, but was still wearing it. Good thing as it got chilly again as I climbed into the mountains toward Cloudcroft. This would be a great destination for a get together, if we could get enough folks willing to ride 535 miles west of Ft Worth.
The cross wind from the west was now a strong tail wind and coming down the mountain going east I got some incredible gas mileage, 50+ for sure but I haven't calculated it exactly. I had been on 2 lanes most of the day and finally hit I-20 at Odessa. Uneventful ride home except for the lightning show that mother nature nature put on starting about Sweetwater. Some damp roads around Abilene had me convinced that I was about to get soaked again, but the storms apparently moved south out of the way. I got my final gas receipt in Azle at 10:55 with 2019 miles on the odometer.
The Route ...
