The ride from Carlsbad was fairly pleasant, although there is a long stretch with no services. I did make a quick stop at the visitor center for Guadalupe Mountains National Parks which has some exhibits. This park appears to be mainly for hiking and backpacking, so there’s not much to do beyond the visitor center except on foot. I went around El Paso and made it to the Motel 6 in Las Cruces. After a long dry period due to my cold I had dinner at the High Desert Brewing Co., which is in a kind of industrial area, which isn’t unusual for brewpubs. The beer was okay.
From La Cruces I headed to Tucson. I was pretty lucky going to the high wind areas and didn’t encounter anything that was too challenging. The GSX also seemed to have really good manners in crosswinds, especially compared to my DL which really felt them. The first order of business in Tucson was finding a bike shop to restock on chain lube. With my chain going bad I was probably over-lubricating out of fear. I really missed my lost VISA card since the shop I found didn’t accept AMEX cards. The cultural stop in Tucson was Tohono Chul Park. I managed to get lost on way there, even with a GPS. It took me a little while to figure out since it’s unlike the botanical gardens I’m used to. When I finally figured out where the interesting parts were it was getting near closing time. Since they were having a function there they said they were in no rush to kick me out, but I needed to find a place to sleep. Anyway, if you visit Tohon Chul plan your visit better than I did. There are some garden spots where you’d really like to sit down for a while and enjoy the place. Photos at:
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/TohonoChul2012/index.html
My goal for the next day was Casa Grande, so I headed for the Motel 6 nearest to it. My GPS decided to take me in the wrong direction into the middle of the desert, but I figured it out and turned around and headed towards the Motel 6 without guidance from my silicon god. It was a little tricky since the Motel 6 didn’t have their sign turned on, yet, and it was quite dark. Fortunately there was a decent restaurant next door which made things easy. Across the street the truck stop had a Baskin Robins so I was able to treat myself to something I wasn’t supposed to eat. No brewpubs nearby, though.
The next morning I actually go to Casa Grande before it opened, the first time I managed to do this on my trip. Casa Grande is very convenient just like Tuzigoot or Aztec Ruins, since you walk out the back door and you’re there. I’d been here once before when I made my motorcycle trip to Arizona after I was recovering from pneumonia, and it was pretty much as I remembered it, but I must not have gone into the visitor center or I completely forgot about it. Casa Grande is sort of unique since it’s a free standing structure, not built into a cave or around a natural feature.Too bad is was vandalized for a while before it was made into a National Monument.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/CasaGrande2012/index.html
From Casa Grande, which is also the name of the local town, it was a relatively short hop to the Japanese Garden in Phoenix. This is a separate garden by itself near the center of the town. It’s relatively straightforward as Japanese Gardens go, but worth a visit if you’re in the area. The Phoenix Art Museum was nearby and I’d skipped it on my previous trip to Phoenix on my way to Nova Scotia so I decided to check it out. Probably the most memorable exhibit was a mirrored room full of hanging LEDs that is pretty trippy. It was by Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist who had herself committed to a mental institution at one time.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/PhoenixArtMuseum2012/index.html
It was getting late so I skipped the brewpubs in Phoenix. I guess I have an excuse to go back sometime. Crossing the desert this time was much more pleasant than the trip out when I was boiling away. In fact, I made use of the electric jacket under my mesh jacket. That allowed me to deal with a lot of different conditions without having to stop and change. Also, I rode late into the night, getting home at 10PM, which probably helped. I was relieve that my chain was still in one piece by the time I got home, although it was getting pretty bad.
In general, it was a pretty good trip, but I could have stayed out a couple more weeks two see more things in the South, but I had to get back for my dogs. Also, the weather was starting to get problematic, Good thing I didn’t hang around long enough to experience Sandy. The friend I had visited in Pennsylvania said that he did lose power and that there were a lot of fallen trees in his area. I only ran into one good downpour right out of Charlotte, and a small one going into Fort Worth. I did see temperatures in Texas and Pennsylvania that were as cold as anything I experienced in the Yukon or New Brunswick on previous trips. Although I had been preparing for a long motorcycle trip, I was caught off-guard by the sudden opportunity to take this one. I had made certain preparations such as putting on new tires, getting the ergonomics and suspension right, but I ended up changing the oil the night before I left and installing a new battery not much before that. One thing I should have done before I left was install a new chain. I’d made a similar mistake before my Alaska trip, but at least this time I didn’t have to get it changed during the trip, although maybe I should have.
My packing for the trip was pretty bad and I ended up making 3 stops at Fedex to send things home. Some of the stuff shipped was loot such as souvenir hats and T-shirts, but a lot was stuff I never should have brought. On the way out there was almost no room for me on the bike and certainly no way to change my seating position. At least on the final legs home this was much improved. I’m really glad I bought the heavy winger gloves in Durango since I really needed them. The electric jacket and gloves my friend gave me were also very useful, although I used the electric gloves really only one day. In Santa Fe at the REI i did refresh some of my gear such as my rain jacket. This may have been unnecessary but I remembered how my jacket had failed on the way to Nova Scotia and I got a little paranoid. I took rubber overboots which were kind of heavy but I never used them since my Keene boots seemed to be waterproof enough. Maybe If I had to ride longer in the rainI would have needed the overboots.
The GSX-650F performed better than expected. At home its mileage had been unimpressive, but on the open road it got 50-60mpg, about as good as my DL. I had rigged up a carrier for a 1 gallon Rotopax container, but never had to use it. The carrier I built, which attached to the Givi racks didn’t have any problems and worked out pretty well. Speaking of Givi, I was glad that I had switched from SW-Motech to Givi racks since the rear trunk rack is a lot more solid and that was one less thing I had to worry about. The Kappa brand PLX bags never gave me any problems, although one did leak some water in the downpour, but I was expecting that. Krausers and real Givis, PLX and non-PLX have all leaked a little.
Michelin Pilot III tires worked final and I never had any instability problems, except on one temporary surface in the middle of nowhere, but it was manageable. The upgraded suspension was good idea since I had a comfortable, yet stable ride, even when I was grossly overloaded. I guess the money for the Ohlins rear shock was worth it, plus the reworked forks with Race Tech parts.
The Shoei Neotec helmet kept the decibel level low, low enough so that I could listen to my iPods on some of those long, lonely roads. The iPod Classic was great until i fell out of pocket on the way out, and then the iPod Touch took over and handled the rest of the trip. It’s only hangup is that it’s more complicated to operate on the road. The Laminar windshield extension made life livable in the cockpit, but only with the air dam that was originally on the aftermarket windshield. It looked funny, but it worked.
The Gerbing electric jacket I got hooked on since I had to stop less to adjust my layers. Instead, I just adjusted the temperature controller. The electric gloves were great in freezing weather, but when it warms up a little you start sweating in them too much, even with the power off. Those gloves I bought in Durango continued to be winners until I got back to Arizona. The Icon mesh jacket with the Suzuki logo (the only choice when I was shopping) worked great in combination with either the REI parka or the Gerbing jacket. These combinations allowed me to handle a wide variety of temperatures. Likewise, if I pulled rain pants over my mesh motorcycle pants, my legs stayed warm enough in most conditions. I only experienced a really heavy rain once on the trip and the REI parka handled it with no problems. The Columbia parka I’d bought at a Sears in New Brunswick 2 years ago had also been good, but I didn’t want to chance it again-the Marmot parka that had been fine and waterproof in Alaska leaked like a sieve two years later in Canada.
I enjoyed using my National Parks passport book and my national pass whenever I could. They helped motivate me to visit places I might have bypassed. In Richmond, where the admission was free, the pass still came in handy for free parking. Most of the parks I visited seemed to have benefitted from CCC projects during the Great Depression, a lesson that we apparently haven’t learned.
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