It was an early start this morning. I awoke right at 7:15 to an overcast, foggy and chilly morning. The goal was to get out as early as possible, I’ve got about 500 miles to get home. With Libby loaded, and after a short chat with a couple of other riders, we’re on our way.
The rain has moved on but foggy riding can still be pretty damp, especially if it’s thick. We head west towards I-27. Normally I’d follow Libby’s directions, which would take us southeast on state roads, but with limited visibility I feel the interstate is the best road to be on. I’ve yet to don my rain gear this trip and don’t feel I need to just yet. It does get a little wet heading out. The windshield and my glasses are both wet but with my jacket on, I stay dry.
Visibility remains low as we head south towards Lubbock. This stretch is mostly more panhandle plains but I can’t see any of it. Fog is so thick in some spots that I can see no more than a couple of hundred feet. But there is very little traffic out right now and I’m still able to move pretty quickly.
Sixty miles into the day and the cloud cover finally begins to break up. I’ve got to stop to change my clear glasses out for my sunglasses. This is the first morning the sun hasn’t been shining. Rain clouds appear to be off in the distance as we approach the Lubbock area. Radar showed a system of rain moving through my path but dissipating throughout the day. I’m hoping I don’t catch up to it before it disappears.
We finally reach Lubbock and knock off our first hundred miles of the day, and we’re still dry. Here we cut southeast towards Snyder and then Sweetwater. It’s all Texas prairies with a few crop fields of soybeans and sunflowers. The wind picks up as we approach Sweetwater as do the windmills. There’s hundreds of them out here and they stretch for several miles.
From Sweetwater we head east on I-20 towards Abilene, fighting the wind the whole way. Once we get into to Abilene I decide it’s time to stop for lunch, we’re just about 200 miles from home now. Hooters is my choice, it’s a bit out of the way but not much. It’s become a bit of tradition for me the last few years. The shrimp and wings are probably my favorite over others and it always brings back memories of working in the kitchen years ago, and of course meeting the love of my life.
After lunch things get a little hairy. Libby’s GPS and I cannot agree on which way we’re going. I know that highway 36 will bring me all the way back into Temple so I ignore her directions and follow the road signs. Eventually the road signs stop and I’m headed into a residential part of town. I decide to listen to Libby, she’s bound to lead me back to where I need to be.
But she doesn’t. We end up on highway 84 which runs south and then east, highway 36 runs southeast. The landscape is much the same though with Texas trees covering the area. Nothing like the tall piney trees in the Black Hills of South Dakota. These are shorter, rounder trees, looks like mesquite in a lot of places, I’m likely wrong about that though.
We travel through Coleman, Brownwood, Goldwaite and countless small towns in between. Gatesville is the last town before home and we finally start hitting traffic that slows us down. I finally arrive just about 4:30. The kids are of course excited to see me, especially my little girl. But the fun doesn’t stop there.
Unpacking Libby is pretty simple. I can’t park in the garage as it’s occupied and I know the wife needs to leave for a school event soon so I pulled up next to the yard. I’ll I have to do is unload everything into the grass and then start hauling it to where it belongs. The last saddle bag I unpack contains the quart of oil I always keep on hand, as any biker should on a long trip. Apparently it has leaked and the baggie it is contained in has not done it’s job. There’s a puddle of motor oil in the bottom of the saddle bag and most of my bungies have soaked up a good bit. This bag mostly contains bike stuff but the important stuff that is in there stayed dry. It’ll take a good soaking of the bag and the bungees but mostly a minor catastrophe.
But that isn’t all. With Libby unloaded, and everything mostly put away, it’s time to put her to bed. To do that I have to move the truck, but it won’t start. The charger doesn’t seem to be working either, may have something to do with oil as I had it packed in the saddle bag. But when the wife returns I get her jumped and she starts right up. She’s been running for a good thirty minutes so hopefully she’ll be good in the morning.
This trip has certainly been different than any other. The plan was to head into the hills and ride a few days using a hotel as base camp, mostly just to securely stow my gear, then wander the country until it was time to head for home. With the fiasco that happened on day three, that all changed. But it was and adventure. A costly one, but an adventure just the same.
I’m not sure what will happen next year. I like the idea of revisiting trips Dad and I took but I might opt to just take some smaller weekend rides throughout the year, maybe take a kid with me. We’ll see what happens.
So until then, thanks for riding along!
The Motorcycle Diaries of an Easy Rider 