The MisterEd 8000; Grande Tour of America

Home and Dry

I got out of bed at about 5:30 on Saturday morning.  One of the first things I heard outside was thunder.  Storms were still rolling through the hills from last night.  I checked the weather and it looked like I might be in for some spotty thunderstorm activity through Boise and maybe a little farther, but the area over Oregon showed no clouds at all, so at least the end of the day looked like it would be dry.

I headed out into the dawn, with no real weather anywhere near me immediately out of Twin Falls.  That didn't last long, though.  I made a stop under an overpass to pull on the rain gear again about 45 miles west of Twin Falls - this was the view behind me:


Looking east toward the sunrise, the weather wasn't all that bad.

The view to the west was a whole other story though:

The rain was already falling just to the south of the highway and I figured on getting wet shortly.

I stopped at a rest area about ten miles farther west when the lightning began to make its presence known a little too close for my comfort.  I read Idaho travel brochures and a three day old newspaper that had been left on a table for half an hour or so until the worst of the storm passed overhead.

I stopped in Boise for breakfast and to shake off a bit of the water.  Then the ride continued a bit damp, but relatively warm, until about 40 miles west of Boise when the sky began to lighten up again.  The rain had quit for good by the time I hit the Oregon border.  The rest of the day was a nice ride through eastern Oregon and through the Columbia River Gorge.  Temps were in the 90's by the time I got to Pendleton and it continued hot all the way home - even with a good stiff Gorge wind for the last 90 miles or so.

I pulled in to my driveway at about 3:15 PM.  I took a couple more pictures:



Quicksilver would get a bath later.  I parked the bike in the garage, went in the house, took about a 30 minute hot shower, got in to a pair of old shorts and a T-shirt, and fell asleep in a comfy chair in the back yard for a couple of hours.

I unpacked the bike Saturday night and did laundry - all the highly exciting stuff about the end of a trip.  On Sunday morning, Quicksilver got her bath and then we hit the road again for a nice leisurely ride to the Oregon coast.  I rode to work on Monday morning facing about 350 e-mails and some 45 telephone voicemails.  That's what you get for taking three weeks off.


The Trip Overall

Would I do this again?  That's a question I've been getting asked a lot since I got back.  Hell yes, I will do this again.  I can't say if I'll be doing it on this particular motorcycle or not, but I don't know.  9000 miles in three weeks isn't all that extreme a trip - lots of guys do that kind of mileage all the time.  If anyone's done that kind of mileage on a V-Rod, please drop me a note, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.

For a long trip made up of long days, three things began to grate on me a bit by the end of the trip.  First is the lack of fuel capacity for this bike.  Let's face it, Harley-Davidson didn't design this machine to compete with the Road King or Ultra Classic as a road-burner.  3.7 gallons of gas is terrific for moderate trips and it's perfect for cruising around town.  It gets to be a real pain when you're in the deserts of Nevada and Utah and facing 100-150 miles between gas stations.

The second thing that became a bit of an issue was the foot position and my footpegs.  There's a reason why the big touring bikes have floorboards.  Keeping your feet on the pegs all day long with no real good alternate foot locations gets to be a real pain - literally.  A lot of days, my feet and ankles were what made me stop for the evening.

And finally, storage and luggage attachment are real issues.  I made it work OK, and I travel light enough that it wasn't a real hassle, but again, let's admit it - the bike is not a touring machine and wasn't designed with large amounts of gear stowage in mind.  It took some creative use of nylon straps and buckles to come up with a workable day-to-day solution for cargo.  The biggest issue is getting to the fuel since it's under the seat and my arangement clips my tour pack on over the seat - the pack has to be unclipped at every fuel stop.

But, aside from those issues, I had no major problems on this trip at all.  I only had two "close calls" with cages that, thank goodness, didn't end in a smashed bike or body.  The weather is always an issue no matter when, where or what you ride, but I did manage to pick a week of record heat to travel east...

So yeah, I'll do this again.  The trip was a blast.  I met so many terrific people along the way and saw a whole new slew of new places.  I mentally tagged several places that I want to go visit again next vacation.  The areas around Moab, Utah and in to Western Colorado are first up some time next spring / early summer.

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