The Windy Gas Mileage Finale

Tuesday morning and we should be home tonight. The park ranger catches us just as I was starting the bike to leave. We pay our $10 and head south to Highway 412 again. We are going against a very strong wind. On 412 this wind is coming from our left and it is a constant lean on the bike to keep from going off of the road. Little did we know that it would be like this for the entire 400 miles to the house. Except that in Oklahoma the wind was bad but when we arrived in Clayton, New Mexico the wind got even stronger. It is a little over 80 miles from Clayton to Springer where the next gas stop is. It should be no problem as I should have a 20 - 30 mile cushion on fuel says the analytical motorcycle rider never thinking about how much worse the wind would get. I have never explained to Linda about the yellow BMW warning light. There is no need to give the girl anything to worry about. When the light comes on I figure that I can make it to Springer with enough gas to make it another 4 miles now as the wind is so much worse. Keeping my eye on the readouts and my mind doing calculations it slowly changes from a 4 mile reserve to a 4 mile deficit and then it gets worse. By now I am doing only 50 mph trying to conserve fuel. And my bride has noticed the yellow light and understands it's significance. She also knows her husband's tendency to wait until the last minute before getting gas. As we pass through the one building metropolis of Moffet I notice an old gas pump there and I pull in. It's Deja Vu again as I remember doing this once before. I put a gallon of who knows what kind of gas in the bike while Linda is giving me the "You've done it again" look. But we make it to Springer never knowing whether we would have made it without the emergency gallon we purchased. I know it would have been close. Now we just need to do the 180 miles south on I-25 against an incredible headwind. But the good news is that it is Tuesday as the winds are supposed to be much worse for the next 2 days. We arrive home at 5 PM, It has been 11 days for me but almost 8 weeks for Linda so she is anxious to check on all of her plants and her house. We will be home for 9 days and then we start another ride going east again to who knows where and for how long.

Beaver Dunes state Park

Monday morning, darn, it's cold. But I crawl out and start the coffee making. Neither of us slept well because of being cold. Hopefully tonight will be better. We are going west across Oklahoma on Highway 412 which is supposed to be a scenic road for the first half of our trip. And it is quite nice for a long time. There is a sign saying "Sod House, 5 miles north". We haven't made any turns in quite a while so we head north. But it is closed on Sunday and Monday. It evidently is inside of the building that is there. It has been restored or preserved and it appears that the museum building has been built over it. We browse around looking at the old farm equipment that is in a lean-to building and try and guess what some of it might have been used for. Continuing west on 412 we pass the road for another state park but it is too early to stop. We have one more park left to stop at farther west. By now the road has lost it's scenery and we are in flat prairie land. The turn off to the last park arrives and we head north 15 miles to the town of Beaver where we get a Subway sandwich, a bottle of wine and fill up with gas. We arrive at the park which is below the normal Oklahoma state park standards. Once again we are the only tent in the tent camping area. There is a small lake here with people fishing and they seem to be having a lot of luck catching crappie. There is no hot water for the showers and the bathrooms have not been cleaned for some time. It turns out that the state is no longer going to maintain this as a state park and is turning the park back over to the private owners. This is a 2 part park, we are in the fishing side, the other side is sand dunes for the ATV crowd. The literature we read on the park did not mention that there is also camping on the sand dune side and that their facilities have hot water. It is not as cold as the night before so we are hoping for a better night's sleep. Evidently the birds in this area are nocturnal as they call to each other all night long. There was a big orange moon off to the east so I tried to capture it on a photo. We turn in early and listen to all of the birds. We finally get to sleep but at 11:30 somebody comes flying through the area in their pickup truck. This worries me as we are all alone out here so I cannot get back to sleep. It is at times like this that I understand why some motorcycle campers carry a pistol. It used to be that we camped with a group but we do more riding than the group does and we are often alone now. But the truck never returned and I finally got back to sleep sometime after 1:30.

Woolaroc, Loss of Power, Lots of Smoke

Sunday morning and no rain, no sun either but at least we are dry. We have about 150 miles to ride to get to Woolaroc. This is an animal preserve and museum started by Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum fame. https://woolaroc.org/ I was here in 2009 and always wanted to bring Linda here. Most of the animals roam free through the park but today they seem to be in hiding. Linda is trying to get pictures while the bike bounces up and down on the undulating pavement and I lean left and right to make the curves on the narrow road. Back into the park is a museum building that appears small from the outside but is very large inside. Much of it must be underground. We spend couple of hours there and then head north towards Bartlesville. There is a state park nearby and it seems warm and dry enough to sleep in the tent. Naturally we are riding into a headwind and I notice the bike slowing down. BAD NEWS I downshift one gear but the bike still does not seem to have any power. In the right mirror I notice clouds of smoke so I pull in the clutch and turn off the ignition noticing that the temperature of the engine is normal. We stop on the side of the road while all sorts of expensive engine failure thoughts are going through my head. We get off of the bike and notice the unmistakable odor of hot rubber. But my tires look fine. So does the left trailer tire. The right trailer tire looks OK except that the wheel is cocked sideways in the fender well. Closer investigation shows that the axle mount has partially broke loose from the suspension system. About then a BMW GS rider stops. He decides to stay with us while I call a BMW owner in Bartlesville that is listed in my book of US BMW owners. The person says he will be right there and in 30 minutes he is there with a trailer. We load the trailer and follow him to his house. After removing the wheel I can put the axle back into position with some help from a hammer but it still needs to be welded. I will have to call a mobile welder in the morning. He says that we can pitch our tent in his yard which backs up to a small lake. We decide to ride into town for a Subway sandwich before setting up the tent. We finish our sandwich and are preparing to leave when Linda notices something. GOOD NEWS A man and his wife have stopped here to eat and they are driving, wait for it!!, a mobile welding truck!!!! A quick conversation, they eat their sandwich and we all return to the scene of the broken down trailer. 15 minutes and $60 later I am putting the wheel back on and we are in motion to the state park. Total delay time was less than 3 hours. Oklahoma has many very nice state parks where you can pitch a tent for $10. We have the whole tent camping area to ourselves as it is still a little cool for tent camping. Well, not quite to ourselves, it seems that the local raccoon is here for dinner and the trash bin is his restaurant of choice. He is not the slightest bit disturbed by our presence and goes on about his business. We set up our tent and somebody comes by and says to look at the northern sky. BAD NEWS It is dark black and coming our way. It looks like we might get a classic Oklahoma thunderstorm which is often accompanied by very strong winds. The decision is made to stay and if the winds get too bad we will go into the brick bathroom and shower building. GOOD NEWS The black clouds pass right over us leaving no rain or wind. But it was a cold night. We are thinking that our 5 year old $25 sleeping bags may have lost a lot of their loft and insulating ability. It might be time for new ones.

Grey Skies over a Covered Bridge

It's Saturday morning and it's raining as we expected. We are glad we chose the motel over the campground. Packing up all the camping gear in the rain is not our idea of a good time. Today we want to go west across the top of Missouri on Highway 36 and then proceed south through Kansas on Highway 7 which is called the Amelia Earhart highway. But first we have coffee at the Hardees across the street. I also have some kind of breakfast platter. Next time I will pass on Hardees. It's not my kind of place. I actually like the fruit and oatmeal cup at McDonalds so I will do that when possible.

And so we are off in the rain and wind. We are heading west and the wind is from the northwest. The gas mileage indicator on the bike is telling me the bad news all the way across Missouri. The BMW is more affected by headwinds than our Goldwing was. But the rain only lasted for 25 miles so after that it was just cold instead of cold and wet. I think that the grey skies affect one mentally giving them the impression that it is colder than what the actual temperature indicates. About 15 miles before Chillicothe I see a sign for the Locust Creek covered bridge so we naturally take off down this dirt road in search of the bridge. After 1.5 miles we park the bike and take a 1/4 mile hike to the bridge. In the path is an animal curled up into a ball and it does not move when we pass it It appears to be a raccoon and we assume that it is either injured or sick as it never moves. The bridge is in very good shape, it seems that it has been restored. On a previous trip we had went to all of the famous covered "Bridges of Madison County" in Iowa which were made famous by the movie of the same name with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.

We gas up in Chillicothe and continue west through all of the rolling hills and farmland. The farms are quite attractive but they also look like a lot of work. At St. Joseph we cross the Missouri River and into Kansas. Naturally I miss the Welcome to Kansas sign and have to turn around and go back and try again to get the picture. It is a good place for a hot chocolate. It's not that we are really cold as we have electric jackets and gloves. It is more the grey skies and wind that make us feel chilled. We find Highway 7 and head south. Highway 7 is listed as a scenic route in our map book and it is a very nice road until somewhere after Atchison when it gets congested and laden with signals. Riding through Atchison I realize that we have now been to all 3 cities of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe of railroad fame. Who said that motorcycle riding is not a cultural experience? The GPS shows 2 BBQ restaurants in Leavenworth but it lies, they are both non-existent. But on the way out of town Linda spots a newly opened BBQ restaurant out of the corner of her eye. Mission accomplished, we have the photo of a BBQ place in Kansas. Now we do not have to go into downtown Kansas City. At 5 PM I decide to stop at the next inexpensive looking motel we see. There is a sign saying Economy Inn 3 miles to the right in Garnett so away we go. It is not as inexpensive as we would like but we are here so we take the offer and hole up for the night. I hope we can find gas in the morning as it will be Sunday. I had a bad experience crossing Kansas on a Sunday once. It seems that all of the business' were closed on Sunday. Wish us luck. Tomorrow we want to get to Bartlesville, Oklahoma to a tourist attraction there that I believe Linda will really like. It is supposed to be warmer there so maybe we can use the tent instead of the wallet for a place to stay.

DeWitt to Cedar Rapids to Hannibal

FRIDAY THE 13TH!!

And away we go to Cedar Rapids. We want to see how the Czech community has rebuilt since the big flood of a few years ago. Unlike New Orleans they did not seek government assistance. Now let's see, was Linda's grandmother's house on 18th or 19th street. No matter, both streets are completely devoid of houses as they have all been demolished. It's very sad. I was here shortly after the flood and took pictures of the house. I am glad I did as that was the last picture that we will have. It will probably be the last time that we visit here. We also went by the Czech graveyard to pay our respects to Linda's grandparents. And of course I must get a BBQ picture in Iowa but this time I use the on-line phone book to find restaurants instead of the out of date GPS. And naturally the first 2 that I try are no longer in business. we du succeed with the 3rd though. We then started south to Hannibal, MO, the home of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. We walked around the old town area and saw the sites. Then I started calling for a place to stay. The campground where the tents are positioned a long ways away from the showers which the self contained RVs are next to was $20 for a tent site. The motel up the road was $35 so we chose the motel. The weather is predicting heavy rain (so it will most likely be dry) and we do not like packing a wet tent. We ate at a local tavern that we walked to and then came back to the motel room to wait for the rain which has not yet shown up at 10:30 PM. Tomorrow morning I will decide which of the two locations I am considering we will be going to. I think I will leave the weather predictions out of the decision process.

Chicago to Iowa

Thursday May 12th

So today we start for home. But not directly, we will visit some cities from our past and take some photos of houses where we have lived. The first stop is Aurora, IL where I was born. There are 2 houses there but it seems that one has been demolished. We go by my first school which is also affiliated with St. Paul's Lutheran Church that our family attended. Over the church entrance is an engraving in German which was the common language of the Aurora Lutheran community in the 40s. But the church billboard proclaimed the church to be both St. Paul's and San Pablo and all of the rest of the billboard was in Spanish. It seems that many things have changed since 1950 when we moved away. From there we went to Belvidere for another photo and an ice cream. The roads from Aurora to Belvidere went through many cities with long red lights but things improved the farther west we went. We are enjoying the riverside highway and all of the rolling farmland. Finally we cross the Mississippi river into Clinton, Iowa. We have dinner at a Subway restaurant and search for the town campground that we were told about. However it is an RV only campground so we head west to DeWitt and a Super 8 motel. We check in and watch the season final of CSI Las Vegas and crash for the night.

Springfield to Chicago

After coffee brewed in my second new JetBoil, the first had a hole in it, I am ready for the short 3 hour run to Chicago. So I decide to first search for the Sugar Creek covered bridge which is somewhere nearby. As a matter of fact it is only about 10 miles away. So I take a picture and then head towards the windy city. The trip seems like it is taking days instead of hours. I get to the motel before Linda so I go to the elevated station to meet her. Wow, it feels good to hold her in my arms after 6 weeks of separation. We do go out for a Chicago deep dish pizza but I really do prefer a thin crust pizza. The rest of the days activities are censored. On Wednesday we take a city tour and then go to Farida's apartment for a typical Kyrgyzstan meal of pilaf and salad. It was great seeing her after about 10 years. We take the elevated back towards our motel and just before our station it begin to rain very hard. I do have an umbrella which we share walking back to the motel. Naturally as soon as we arrive at the motel the rain stops!