Epic Post for an Epic Ride

As you may remember, I had set a goal to ride a 1000 mile “Iron Butt” ride, technically, a “Saddle Sore 1000.” This is a ride described by the Iron Butt Association as 1000 miles and must be completed in less than 24 continuous hours from the official start time. It is NOT based on actual riding time. At any rate, yesterday(5/15/10), I completed the ride, which I started at 1829 on 5/14/2010. The total elapsed time was 23 hours and 40 minutes.

First, a word of thanks: Thanks to my wife who, in spite of her better judgment, allowed me to go on the ride. Next, to my children, Nathan, Harmony and Joshua, who accompanied my on every mile in the “chase vehicle” encouraging me, keeping semis off my back, and keeping friends, family and others up to date with text messages and twitters. Finally, I need to thank Mike, Shelby and Ron at Scoot Over (goscootover.com) for their support. They gave me advice, free service and discounted tires etc to allow me to attempt this ride. THANK YOU everyone! I literally could not have done it without you.

PREPARATION

I'd been mentally preparing for a year or more. Actually physical preparation has been going on for a couple of months. I had told Mike, at Scoot Over, about the ride, so they agreed to “sponsor” the ride. They gave me a tune up and did some minor adjustments after my 500 mile test run in April. They also gave me a new rear tire for their cost.

I was concerned about visibility at night, both seeing and being seen. To be seen better, I went to a bike shop and bought some highly reflective tape and “dots” and liberally applied these to the rear, front and sides of the scoot. I have a reflective vest and I also bought a “Viewpoint Flashpoint Ultra” LED bicycle taillight which I attached to my vest. I figured to have it flashing at night. Is it legal? I don't know.

To help me see at night, I attached a bicycle headlight to the right hand side of the front cowl of the scooter. I finished the 500 mile ride at night and developed a fear of hitting an animal or something at night. The light point slightly to the right in hopes of giving me an additional split-second of reaction time in the event a deer or coyote were to run in front of me. I attached it with stick-on Velcro and, of course, duct tape. The picture was taken AFTER the ride and it all held together well. Did the light make any difference? Not likely, don't waste your time if you want to see better at night. Get a “real” headlight.

Route planning – I learned, after the test ride, that stopping too frequently is a time killer. For that ride, I stopped every 50 miles. My gas gauge isn't as accurate as it used to be, so I new I could go further between stops. I also learned that the Buddy doesn't get the gas mileage that it once did, so I couldn't stretch it too far. I decided on 70 mile “legs.” This worked out pretty well. Tucson to Wilcox, AZ to Lordsburg, NM to Deming, NM to Sunset View, NM to Fort Hancock, TX to Van Horn, TX are each about 70 miles. The final leg from Van Horn to Pecos is 90+ miles with no towns in between, so I knew we would be stopping on the roadside and filling from gas cans. I brought 4 extra gallons of gas along.

Timing – I decided to leave around sundown. I wanted to finish the ride in daylight, where my natural biorhythms would help me stay awake. I am routinely awake til midnight so I knew that riding til 1:00 or even 2:00 am wouldn't all that difficult for me, consciousness wise. I still worried a lot about night riding.

DEPARTURE Tucson - Wilcox

Fellow rider, Sean Lynch, met us at Mr T's Fuel to see me off and ride the first few miles with me. Additionally, he acted as witness for my Iron Butt paperwork and he presented me with a nice Gremlin Bell. (see http://www.gremlinbells.com/ for more info if you've never heard of them.) We didn't have a zip-tie, so the bell road along inside the storage bin on the scooter. Combine that with all the prayer that my wife was providing and everything turned out great.

My official departure time, according to the receipt, was 1829. Off to Wilcox! The temperature was about 90 degrees. At the time I was leaving, I honestly figured I could do this in about 22 hours. If I averaged 50mph, that is 20 hours of travel time. Average 7 minutes per stop, times 15 stops, and that gives me about 2 hours to spare. Silly me.

Starting odometer reading: 15,979

Sean accompanied me for about 15 miles, I waved as he left the exit. The first thing I notice is “Man are these cars and trucks moving fast.” The speed limit on Interstate-10 is 75mph. A short ways outside of Tucson, I hit the fastest speed I've ever done on the Buddy, 75mph, indicated. That is about 67 “real” mph. This was on a long, 5% grade going down into Benson, AZ.

As the darkness settles in, I thought of three things: 1. “It's getting cold out here.” 2. “I forgot to turn my brand new, super bright LED, blinking taillight on.” and 3. “My shoulders hurt.”

Wilcox – Lordsburg, NM

I was cold by the time I go to Wilcox. I ditched my summer weight gloves and put on my heavier, leather gloves with wool inserts. I also put on the wind breaker that I used all winter. One of the reasons I waited until May, was I wanted night-time temps of 60 degrees or better. It's one thing to ride to work for 30 minutes with temps in the 30's, but another to ride all night, I figured. Warmer clothes on, I added 1.2 gallons of gas to the scoot, turned on the taillight and hit the road.

Lordsburg, NM – Deming

My first thoughts of quitting occur, for two reasons: first, I was so cold that shaking chills had started. My teeth were chattering. However, every time I would seriously think about pulling over, packing it in and waiting for warmer temps, I would hit a pocket of warm air and start felling better. Once at Deming, I put the liner in my riding jacket.

The other thing that gave me pause, was that my motor started missing out at times. This had happened on the test ride as well. Ron, at Scoot Over, had looked for the cause, but couldn't reproduce it. I asked on Modern Buddy, my favorite scooter forum, and still couldn't find and fix it. I did replace my fuel vacuum petcock, thinking that might help with that AND my mileage issue, but it apparently fixed neither.

The other issue that came up during this leg was speed. From Tucson to Deming is a steady climb. Yes, there are a couple of very nice downhill areas, but overall, it's climbing. Somewhere west of Deming is the continental divide, elevation 4580 feet. My speeds were frequently in the 50-55bph (buddy units per hour) meaning real speeds of 40-50mph. This was not good since I have to AVERAGE 50mph.

Deming, NM – Sunset View, NM

I'm not actually sure of the town. I was looking for the Artcraft Road exit and was almost there when I ran out of gas... the first time. I quickly pulled over, popped the seat and poured my 1 liter emergency bottle into the tank and took off. I made it 68 miles. Hmm, it's was a little too late to rethink that 70 mile per leg scenario. We went down two exits, to Artcraft Road and gassed up. Unfortunately, the lobby area had closed for the night and my daughter and I both needed a bathroom, so went went down two more exits and stopped again. Time lost. I was still a bit cold, so I put my rain pants on.

As the picture attests, I was beginning to look like the Michelin Man.

Sunset View, NM – Fort Hancock, TX

Throughout all of my route planning, I tried to figure a way to NOT go through El Paso. It's not that I've ever really had a bad driving experience there. We used to live in 1984-85. I just wanted to by-pass larger cities. It was as we were going through El Paso at 2:00 am local time that I realized I had not tried hard enough to by-pass this place. Yes, it was Friday night, but it was 2:00 am for cryin' out loud. It wasn't nearly as bad as it would be later on that same day, but maybe that's what made me uncomfortable, “If there are this many cars at 2:00 am, what will it be like 8 hours from now?” Most of I-10 though El Paso is 5 lanes wide and moving fast. The right lanes frequently “Exit Only” and then begin again at the next on ramp. I elected to stay in the middle lane all the way through the city. This perturbed a couple of people, but nothing serious.

The gas station in Fort Hancock was closed, but thanks to the magic of debit cards, we got fuel anyway.

Ft Hancock – Van Horn, TX

All the way to Van Horn, I was trying to visualize my google-map in my head. For some reason, I was recalling that the I-10 and I-20 split was west of Van Horn. A short ways outside of El Paso, there had been a sign for the exit onto Texas Highway 20. The further I went toward Van Horn, I started wondering if it had said I-20 and I had missed it. I was getting quite concernedand was trying to adjust my route in my head.

Once at Van Horn, I quickly went inside and asked how far it was to the I-10/20 interchange. “40 miles.” was the reply. With no small amount of trepidation I asked “East or west of here?” I sighed with great relief when he said “East.”

I was still cold, so it was at this truck stop that I got my first and only cup of coffee. Always wary of time, I mixed ice with it and some hot chocolate so it wouldn't upset my stomach. I downed the mixture then chase it with some ice water that I needed to take more Motrin. My shoulders were killing me, still. The net result of warming myself with coffee? Zip.

We gassed up the support vehicle (i.e. my 1997 Dodge minivan) here as well. This and the fact that I needed rest and something hot/warm to drink resulted in a 20 minute stop. Time!

Van Horn to Co Rd 216, somewhere South of Toyah, TX.

Dawn occurred shortly outside of Van Horn. Notice that I didn't say “the sun rose.” It was cloudy and dark. The difference was that now I could see a bit of landscape outside of my headlight beam. It wasn't much, but I did draw some comfort in it. However, it started as cloudy, as we turned onto I-20, it began to get foggy and as we approached Toyah, a fine mist developed. Additionally, speed continues to plague me. East of Van horn is Plateau. So called, because of it's location. We steadily climbed from Van Horn to Pecos.

I knew that I couldn't make it to Pecos without gas. I had told the kids that we would go til I ran out, pull of the road, gas and go. However, the speed limit in west Texas is 80mph. I decided to pull off when I got low, rather than risk running out of fuel on an overpass or other dangerous spot.

HALFWAY PECOS, TX!

The earlier mist advanced into a drizzle. The mist was a pain, because I had to keep wiping it off my helmet visor, but at least the road had been dry. The drizzle eliminated the dry road. Now, I was continuously wiping the visor, plus every time a truck blew past me at 80mph, I had to avoid or endure the spray from his tires. I'm wet and now I'm cold again, but I didn't want to stop, yet again, just to put on my rain jacket.

The “Flying J” in Pecos is apparently the place to be on a Saturday morning. Because of overuse, my debit card was locked down. (They warn you about this on the Iron Butt website.) I had to stand in line to prepay, then stand in line again to get my change and my receipt. I just noticed as I'm writing this, that the “prepaid” receipts don't have the time on them. I hope the Iron Butt people take note. I also had to find a witness. The young lady at the counter was swamped, so I asked another patron. Thank you Jeremy Ramsey.

Another person in line said, “That scooter sure is fast. I passed you guys back on I-10. Now you're here” Of course, he probably had the luxury of sitting down and eating real food. I ate another granola bar, fired up the bike and headed for home. It was now 11 hours and 30 minutes after we had left home. So much for that 22 hour idea.

I had two things going through my head regarding the time: “There was a lot of uphill on the way here, no we get to go down and we will make up time.” and “You may go a bit faster, but you're tired and sore and will likely need more time at each stop.” Time!

Pecos – Kent, TX

It was still drizzling, but I chose not to put on the rain jacket, because we only hit the drizzle the last few mile before Pecos.

Again, I decided to pull off the interstate before I ran totally out of gas. Put in enough gas to get to Van Horn and off we went. More drizzle.

Kent – Van Horn, TX

I wasn't hungry, but decided to grab something to eat anyway. I went into the Wendy's inside the truck stop and got a chicken “Go-Wrap.” I ate most of it, took 2 more Motrin and away we went.

Hooray! The sun came out. Once at Van Horn, I took the rain pants off.

Van Horn – Ft Hancock, TX

An army convoy, presumably from Ft Bliss in El Paso, pulled out of Van Horn right in front of us. In a car, you pass these guys because they are only allowed to drive 55mph. I knew I was not usually going 55, so I figured I would just join the convoy.

This section might be the most fun. We hit that downhill I referred to earlier and suddenly I was going 60mph, whee! Let's make up some time. We got to a steeper downhill section. I looked and there were no cars or trucks bearing down on us, so I got into the left lane went to make the first pass of the trip. I figured to pass the whole convoy. NOT!

I made it past about 3 vehicle when I noticed a semi coming up behind the van. Is it legal to merge in with a military convoy? I don't know, but that's what I did. The van squeezed in with me and let the truck go by. From that point on, I would draft the vehicle in front of me and keep an eye on fast moving traffic. When I got an opening, I would give it the gas, tuck as low as I could get and pass the next vehicle. I did this all the way til I got in front of the entire convoy.

I stayed in front of them, too, that is until I ran out of gas, again, exactly 1 mile from the “Ft Hancock 1 mile” sign post. Once more, I poured the liter bottle into the tank, hopped back on and rode into Ft Hancock.

Ft Hancock – near the Horizon City Exit, El Paso

I didn't want to risk running out of gas while on 5 lane interstate in El Paso, so I pulled onto the shoulder of the road and executed a quick pitstop. A quick fill from the gas can and off we went, with some degree of nervousness, into the city.

Near the Horizon City Exit, El Paso – Anthony, TX

“I'm alive!” I shouted to the kids as I parked at the pump at the Anthony Flying J. The sprint through El Paso was the most frightened I have even been on a scooter. I was again tempted to quit the Iron Butt, except, I knew that even if I quit and somehow found a way to get off the road, I would still have to go the rest of the way through El Paso. I kept having nightmarish visions of being sideswiped by a car then being run over by my own kids. It was awful.

Quick mental calculations (as quick as you can calculate after no sleep and 700 miles of scooter riding) showed that we were cutting it close. It was 12:30 pm,Arizona time. That meant we had 6 hours to cover about 250 miles. I couldn't remember exactly how far it was to Tucson. I chose Anthony to stop because it was clser to Deming than Artwalk Road and I didn't want to run out of gas again.

Anthony, TX – Deming, NM

That next sign read “Deming – 84 miles” Drat! Wrong again. So we pulled off at a picnic area. I ran around in circles, flapping my arms, in order to loosen the muscles of my hips, thighs and shoulders, while Nathan filled the scooter from a gas can. We couldn't skip the Deming stop because the van needed gas again as well. My pain is getting very, very intense. The Buddy is a great scooter, and I love it, but it is NOT a highway cruiser.

I am seriously doubting that I'll make it in time. An alternative plan comes to mind. I could stop the ride in Vail, AZ. That will buy 20-30 minutes. I may make it yet. Because I am having to prepay for gas and because both vehicle need fuel and because I need to eat something, this stop is longer than I would like, probably 15 minutes of precious time. I toss of piece of cheese and a small bag of Fritos down my gullet and we're off.

Deming – Lordsburg, NM

This section is unremarkable except for the fact that the scooter seems to be running a bit better. Also, as we left the gas station, I realize how much pain I'm in. I pull off and get some Aleve, from Harmony.

Lordsburg, NM – Exit 352, AZ

No time to stop at Wilcox. It has now become a real possibility that we won't make it. There are three large hills between here and home, just west of Wilcox, Texas Canyon, east of Benson, then the steep climb out of Benson, the same one that I went 75bph the night before.

The last mileage sign said it was 90 miles to Tucson and we had 2 hours remaining. I don't know how much gas I have available in cans, but made the decision to skip Wilcox, simply because of the time it takes to get off the road, over to the station, pay, fuel and get back onto the road. I know there's a rest area at the top of Texas Canyon. I planned to top off there and race to the finish. More arm flapping and running in place. Pain! Time!

Exit 352 – Texas Canyon, AZ

I ran into a swarm of something west of Wilcox. I started getting pummeled and ducked behind my windscreen. As we were gassing up at the rest area, a couple walked up, asked what we doing, then asked, “We were right behind you outside of Wilcox. Did you go through the same swarm of bugs we did?” Funny.

I flapped my arms some more and told the kids that I would decide at the Vail exit, whether or not to I would try for Mr T's. Again, I note that the scooter is running stronger. Have you ever seen how a horse acts after you've been riding for a while and then the horse realizes you're heading for home?

Texas Canyon – Finish!

The same grade of hill that resulted in 45mph speeds last evening, barely slows me to 52mph now. My son tells me that I hit 68 real mph down the hill into Benson.

I have my first close call while zooming down the hill. The entire trip, big rigs had been giving me a lot of room. Some even honked and wave. While I was going down this hill, tired, sore and hanging on for dear life, a truck truck started past me, then began drifting into my lane. He quickly corrected, so I think he might have been checking his radio or texting or something.

We got to the Vail exit and my watch said 1755. That meant 34 minutes to cover what I estimated to be 12 or 13 miles. Go for it!

I began to get very nervous coming in to town. The traffic was unusually heavy and fast. You're always reading tragic stories about people being killed just a few miles from their destination. Finally, I pulled into the station. I made it with 20 minutes to spare, according to my watch. I filled my tank from the exact pump as 23 and a half hours previous and, “damn!” it didn't give me a receipt. That's okay, I needed to get a witness for the paperwork anyway. I went in and had Jon Drake, sign my form.

Finish odometer reading 17,125

According to the Iron Butt site, it will be 2-3 months before I get the official notification. It is even possible that they they will not count my ride. I sure hope they do, but one thing is certain, my kids and I will have something to talk about for a LONG time.

Well, I made it through the rally. During the rally, I found myself being fairly disappointed. I looked around and didn't see the massive numbers of scooters for which I had hoped. The scooter clubs from other cities here in Arizona didn't really “represent.” The people who did come seemed to be having a good time and I was receiving nice compliments on the rally bags, the rides and the overall quality of the rally's organization, but I was all caught up in the numbers.

After the rally, as we were disassembling the remaining rally bags, we started adding up the pre-registrants, late registrants, non-registrants and people who were only able to stop by to say hello and maybe do one short activity. We finally came to an unofficial total of 43. When I first started researching rallies, I had several people tell me that 25 is probably the average for a first time rally.

So, how do you measure “success” for your first rally?

1. Did people have fun? - Check, I heard no complaints and saw no one sulking in a corner. Lots of smiles and laughs. Additionally, there were no crashes or breakdowns.

   
   

   

   Community Participation? - Check, We had 18 local businesses sponsor the rally, mostly by providing raffle items. Scoot Over and Vespa of Marana, especially, really came through for us. Big thanks to everyone.

2. Diverse group of participants? - Check, we had a few vintage scooters and lots of modern ones. Our youngest participant was 16 years old our oldest, somewhere around 70, I would guess. We had about a 60-40 split between the numbers of men vs women. We had scooters from 50cc to 500cc.

3. Did the word get out? - Check, We had riders from Arizona and 3 other states; New Mexico, Texas and Missouri.

4. Good rally bags? - Check, my goal was to produce the best rally bag anyone had ever received at a scooter rally. By all accounts, we succeeded. Most of the folks in my club have never been to a rally before, so it was easy to be their best, however, the riders from El Paso and several locals had been to many rallies. They also agreed that this rally had the best rally bags they had yet seen.

5. Gymkhana? - Check, the entire reason I started planning this rally was for an excuse to be in a gymkhana. I watched numerous videos on YouTube to help design it. I think it turned out well. It was challenging but doable. A lot of people gave it a try and all seemed to have a good time.

   
   

   
   

Could we have done better? Of course we could. However, it was a good enough experience that we are already planning on doing it again next year. We won't be calling it “May Day,” however. Another club, in Oregon, already puts on a May Day rally and they took offense to us calling our May Day as well. We are likely going to go with a western theme.

If there is a rally in your area, I think you should go. Not only will you have fun, but you are supporting and encouraging scootering in your community. Also, from personal experience, I know that it is a lot of work to host a rally. Find your host and thank them.

Ride on,

Howard

Rally Bag Rampage

I think I mentioned it before, preparing for a rally is all consuming. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things I need to do. Our rally is only one week away and stuff is building up in the house. I've got boxes of stuff everywhere.

I don't know how many rally goers check out this blog, so I won't say what all is in these pictures. I want the rally bag to be a surprise. Several items in the bag are custom made, i.e. made by my wife. If you go to her blog, you can see some of those items.
Thise is the first rally I've helped organize, so contacting companies and asking for donations was sort of new (actually, I was an Army recruiter a long time ago, so making cold calls wasn't exactly new) but I did have some success. In the back of the above pic, you can see gloves that Corazzo donated sticking out of the box. In the front are the rally bags themselves, that my wife made.
All of the boxes in the aboce picture are either raffle items or more boxes with rally bag stuff. you can also see the roll of raffle tickets.
Here is another picture of all the boxes of stuff. On the right, is the back of one of the rally shirts. I'm not showing the front, again, because I want the shirt to be a surprise.

Well, one more week to go. I am really looking forward to the rally. At the same time, however, I worry. I want everyone to have a great time. And whether they do, or not, I feel is my responsibility. I had this great DJ lined up for our Saturday gymkhana and concourse, but he disappeared on me. So, it looks like I have another one, but I've never met him, so I don't know that he'll be as good as my first choice.

My next post will probably be after the rally. I hope to have some nice pics. There is currently rain for that weekend in the long range forecast. I know this is the desert and we need all the rain we can get, but I'm praying against the rain anyway.

Ride on,

Howard

500 Mile "Butt Burner" Test Run

As I have mentioned in this blog before, it is my goal to ride a "Butt Burner 1k" ride soon. Now, I should probably just get out there and ride it, but that is not the way my mind works, so I have been working my way up to it. Id did the 130 mile ride to Parker Canyon to test some equipment, then 250 miles to see see how the Buddy would hold up in riding wide open throttle (WOT) for a while, oh yeah, there was the ill-fated ride out to Coolidge and Casa Grande that ended with a detached muffler and a ride home from Picacho, AZ.

Yesterday (4/9/10), I decided to ride 500 miles and see if I could complete it in under 12 hours. For the full 1000 miles I've been debating on riding secondary roads vs interstate highway. Each has its merit and disadvantages. I had initially only considered secondary roads, feeling that they would be safer. I have since vacillated on this vs interstate, several times. For this 500 mile ride, I selected a route which was mostly secondary roads. Here it is. I chose this route the night before. There was another route that I preferred, but when I check all the individual intervals between gas stations, there is one interval between Lordsburg, NM and Douglas, AZ which about 110 miles between petrol stations. I have a 1 gallon gas can one the scoot, but I wasn't sure if I could make it with a full tank plus the gallon, so I chose the other route.

I got up at 6:00 am and was out the door by 6:20. Unfortunately, it took almost an hour to ride to my start point. So, it was 7:35 am before I pulled out of the station in Catalina, AZ, headed north. Below, you can see my scoots odometer reading of 15,036 miles

I immediately noticed that the morning was still a little on the cool side. The temp at the house when I left was 54 degrees, the forecast called for highs in the 80's so I was wearing my mesh jacket, with liner and my new Corazzo armored, orange, reflective vest (which I won at the Friki Tiki Rally raffle.) I passed Oracle and then had the descent into the San Pedro River Valley. 7% grade for 7 miles, woohooo! 53 miles and my first stop for fuel in Winkleman. Then it was a lot of climbing up to my second fuel stop in Globe. I passed 5000 feet just south of Globe, although there is a nice descent as you approach town. Just before Glode, a large deer walked across the road infront of me and paused, as if to say "A scooter? Don't see many of those around here." A blast of the steibel horn and he was gone.

I took the above pic at my fuel stop in Globe. Globe is very rustic and pretty, but not where I stopped. I was timing myself so I had to set all the photo ops aside. That was probably the hardest thing about the ride. Leaving Globe, I went west on US 60, across more mountains (4500 ft elev) down to Superior and back out into the desert. I continued west on 60 until turning south to Florence. I did this because I didn't want to ride through Phoenix on 8 lane freeways with LOTS of traffic. Gassed up in Phoenix, then it was west toward Maricopa. I had to cross a large Indian reservation. Signage is usually poor across any given AZ reservation and this was no exception. I wound up talking to a Southwest Ambulance crew with a GPS about how to get to Highway 1 where I could get over to Maricopa.

I had 2 McDonald's burgers, some Sweet tea, fueled up and headed southwest for Gila Bend. Gila Bend was the western-most part of my journey, so I took the above pic as photographic evidence that I was there. Apparently, GB and Roswell, NM have space things and UFO's in common.

Just to the right from the other photo is the second one, showing the "Space Age" restaurant and hotel complete. The front of the hotel is what people from the 60's would have considered "futuristic."

Now I was headed toward home. I fueled up and was off. I went across the US Air Force bombing ranges outside of G.B. and down to Ajo, very close to the Mexican border and last jumping off point for party goers headed to Rocky Point, Mexico (Tucson's closest ocean front.)

From Ajo, it was across another reservation (The Tohon-Odoham Nation) to Sells. I took another 15 minute break to stretch my back and legs, then it was back on the scoot for a short jaunt to Tree Points. A quick gas & go, then I turned south to Arivaca. Time was beginning to get short, so I decided to skip my planned fuel stop there and try to get all the way to Green Valley. I made it and realized I had less than an hour to get from Green Valley, across the valley to Vail.

I made it Vail and my watch showed it was 7:15, 11 hours and 40 minutes after leaving that morning. When I arrived home, the odometer showed 15,587 miles. Quite a day's ride. Well, this morning, I checked the official mileage of what I actually rode and the total was 480 miles. I have to have ridden another 20 miles in 20 minutes. Drat!

Where can I save time to know that I can do twice that distance in less than twice the time? I guess I'm back to the Interstate idea. If I have a chase vehicle with extra fuel on board, I can save the time associated with pulling off the road, finding a gas station, etc etc. I also stopped more often than I had to. 10 stops for fuel ate up a lot of time.

I'll keep you posted,

Ride on!

Howard

Rally Planning

The Sky Island Riders are hosting our first rally, the May Day Rally. Planning and preparing for said rally is consuming my life at this point. We are just 4.5 weeks away. I enjoy planning events and this is no different and I want this to be a great rally. Now, I have only been to four other rallies in my life, so I'm not drawing from a wealth of experience, but I'm doing the best I can. There are three other guys in the club who have quite bit of rally experience and they have been invaluable.

The most recent rally I attended was Friki Tiki, which was held the first weekend in March. It was also here in Tucson and was hosted by the Mary Janes All Girl Scooter Club. I helped a bit in the planning and was a ride leader. It was helpful to have another rally so near to ours, so it's fresh in my mind. I carefully took notes on what worked and where there was difficulty. That info is being used for May Day. Friki Tiki was unique, in that it was also also a music festival. One of the Mary Janes is in a local band, so she combined her two loves into a single event.

One of our meet-ups for the rally was "The Hut" on Tucson's 4th Avenue. Is that Tiki head not one of the coolest backdrops for scooters you've ever seen? I love it! It was moved from a local miniature golf course that closed.

That last day of the rally was a great ride, but unfortunately it rained. However,a little bit of rain, or in this case, a LOT of rain, is no reason to not go out and play in it. That's me, riding through this monster puddle outside of the Bario Brewing Company where we finished the Sunday morning kitsch ride.

Now back to planning. I have been e-mailing numerous local businesses to ask them to provide either raffle items or things for the rally bags. I am really pleased with the rally bags, so far.

My wife hand made rally bags. They are purse string-type bags all will fit in a pet carrier, on a helmet hook, or from a mirror mount. She is also making a scooter-themed quilt for the raffle as well. We are gradually accumulating some nice things for them, too.

Riding Solo

I enjoy taking long rides on my scooters. As a nurse, I have an unusual schedule with days off frequently falling in the middle of the week. Most of my scooter riding friends have more traditional Monday through Friday kinds of jobs. Additionally, week days tend to have a bit less traffic out on the roads that lead to lakes, mountains etc. So, when the mood struck me a few days back to go to Parker Canyon Lake, I had to go it alone.

Arizona in an amazing place. (I suppose all states are in their own right.) If it weren't for the mountains in the background, wouldn't this look a lot like Kansas? A few posts back, i mentioned the Iron Butt Ride. well, I'm still planning on making a run at it, so, I have tried to start fitting in a few "training" rides. Then only way your butt gets used to sitting on a scooter for hours on end, is to sit on the scooter for .... you got...."hours on end." Hence this ride to Parker Canyon.
I picked Parker Canyon because a. it would give 160 miles round trip and b. I couldn't remember ever going there before. Now I'm sure that my mother will say that I've been there "lots of times." but the fact is, I have no recollection of ever having been there. Even now, after the fact, I'm sure I've never been there.

As you leave Tucson and head south, southeast on AZ highway 83, you climb slowly, but steadily. Once you leave Sonoita, the climb steepens and soon you are in mountains, the vegetation changes and it begins to get cooler. You can see the first part of the mountains in the pic above.
Eventually, the road steepens and gets twisty. The photo above shows one of the many signs. You probably can't tell from the picture, but there is a significant downhill grade (I was looking behind me) and I had just passed through a series of five 180 degree switchbacks. Very fun, both ways. The road isn't in very good condition and dodging potholes adds another level of difficulty to the ride, as does dodging cows, since much of the last 30 miles is open range.
I was rewarded with the sight of water. If you're not from the desert, this probably doesn't mean alot to you. But around here, standing water always attracts a crowd, even if it's a puddle left over from a brief rain. In the background, you can see the dam. That's about all there is to Parker Canyon Lake. There was what appeared to be a Jeep Club in the parking lot when I got there. Six or seven Jeeps and their occupants visiting and having a little picnic.
I don't know if you see it, but I turned over 14,000 miles on my 2008 Buddy on the way home. Far the highest mileage on a Buddy, but far from the lowest. I think I have the highest mileage on a Buddy in the Tucson metro area, anyway.

This was a great ride. The scenery was beautiful and the scooter ran great. My butt tolerated the ride well. More butt training rides are in the works. I'm hoping to do the Butt-Burning around the end of the month.

Ride on,

Howard

Glad to be the Slowest

This past Saturday, I put together another ride. It was not one of our monthly rides and I put it together on short (3 days, I think) notice and there was rain in the forecast. Therefor, I wasn't too surprised when only two other scooters showed up. What did surprise me, was, that for the first time in our club's history, only manual shift scooters were present.

Obviously, we are not a "vintage only" club, but it was still kind of interesting to have only shifties. I had planned a route with 2 variations. One if I had some beginners showed up (which was what I anticipated), another if only experienced riders showed (which I figured was pretty unlikely.) Well, in addition to being only shifties, it was also only experienced riders.

I have only been riding scooters for less than 2 years and I really enjoy introducing people to the world of scooters and helping them to improve their skills. Our club is almost entirely made up of newer riders and that is the way I like it, but it was kind of refreshing to have a ride made up of only experienced riders.

As we wound our way through Tucson Mountain Park, I realized that I didn't have to look behind me as often. Partly because there were only 3 of us and partly because we were all comfortable negotiating corners at speed. After topping Gate's Pass and maneuvering down a steep twisty road, we eventually found our way to a long stretch of straight, mostly flat, two-lane black top, so I opened my Stella up.

It was then that I realized that I was not only riding the "slowest" scooter (In the pic above, you can see my black Stella and two P-200's. The red one is pretty modified and is VERY fast.) but I was also the rider with the least experience. I found it to be quite "enlightening" to know that I could ride as hard and as fast as I chose and still not have to worry about my compatriots.

It was with a light heart that I led our little group through a particularly dangerous section of road that has decreasing radius, downhill left turn that has claimed two scooters in the past. We finished our ride at Sir Veza's Taco Garage, where 4 member of the Green Valley scooter club met up with us. Note: If you look out the window, you can see that it started raining shortly after we arrived for lunch. I had a wet, soggy ride home. But it was still fun.