The MisterEd 8000; Grande Tour of America

(from the H.O.G. members trip planner & MapQuest)

After a stop at the local H-D dealership at 8:00 AM to pick up a new rubber footpad for my left peg (OK, yeah, they didn't have JUST the pad, I had to buy a set of pegs... so, they're now spares) I hit the road for about ten minutes before I decided that a stop for coffee and a paper was in order.  I didn't get out of Albuquerque until almost 9:30.

Not a ton to say about today's portion of the trip, really.  It was 100% interstate all the way.  I-40 through eastern New Mexico and across the Texas panhandle into Oklahoma.  This is how my road trips go - variable.  I had spent the last three days pretty much off the Interstates and today's flip of the coin said I-40.


Just off the highway near Sayre, Oklahoma

Today was marked mostly by the south wind and the heat.  During the majority of my eastbound trip, much of the midwest and south was in the grip of a heatwave (which has a real bearing on things tomorrow - keep reading.)  Kansas City, for example, had something like 11 or 12 consecutive 100+ degree days.  All that heat was being pumped up into the heartland by strong southerly winds coming up from the Gulf of Mexico.  All of that energy was a result of two massive fronts colliding with tropical storm Erika.  The end result for me in northern Texas and central Oklahoma on I-40 was that I fought a 30 MPH crosswind from the right pretty much all day long.  It was about the only time when riding to the left of an 18-wheeler was actually a nice comfortable break for a couple of minutes at a time.  It was, however, at the peak of the afternoon, about 104 degrees out, and I'm guessing at a fairly high humidity, but not unbearable.

As I traversed the open range of Texas that afternoon, I started seeing the signs.  Rainbow signs - with glitter.  Signs printed with big, bold, brightly painted lettering proclaiming "The Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere" just ahead in Groom, Texas.  Then, I saw it.  Yup, it's a big cross, alright.  What a wonder!  What a sight!  What a waste of perfectly good steel!

You have to understand that I'm not the slightest bit religious or spiritual or whatever and I don't want to offend those that are, but to me the thing looked like someone couldn't figure out what to do with some leftover I-beams from some building project.  And I'm sorry, but the Christian worshippers gathered in silence at the various "stations of the cross" around the base were just plain creepy (that's one of the reasons I don't have my own pictures of this amazing attraction - I started to dig out my camera and got the look of the devil from several of the gathered cult memb...ah...faithful)  Or maybe they just didn't like my motorcycle interrupting their holy peace and quiet.  I'm sure God smiles down on the big crosses much more than the little ones...  OK, I'll shut up now.

Anyway, I finished up the day in Weatherford, Oklahoma.

Weatherford, Oklahoma, you realize, is the home of Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, Jr., right?  You find this out, of course, from the big blue highway sign on the outskirts of town.

And when you go down Tom Stafford Street and visit the Thomas P. Stafford Airport.

And when you visit the Thomas P. Stafford Air and Space Museum inside said airport.

And when you visit Stafford Park ......

Think I'm kidding?
 
The front of the monument  .......................................... and the back

Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge space enthusiast, and General Stafford is one of my childhood heros.  But, I'm not sure that the good people of Weatherford realize how much like a tombstone this thing looks -

But, Weatherford is also the home of SWOSU - Southwestern Oklahoma State University - the Bulldogs.  I arrived in town the evening before school started.  Wal Mart was a sea of freshmen buying dorm supplies - you know, Snickers bars, Dr. Pepper, CD's, TV sets, laundry hampers, rifles and ammo; the regular stuff.

As for the bike, the rear brake pedal began to exhibit a serious sticking problem toward the end of the day.  That's what the Wal Mart trip was for - to buy some emory cloth and silicone spray lube.  Turns out the Teflon bushing inside the pedal, which had been a somewhat snug fit from the moment I installed the pedal, had begun expanding as the weather got hot and after ten hours next to the forward exhaust pipe.  When coming off a freeway and applying the brakes, not having the rear one release is a bit disconcerting.  Once I figured out what the problem was, I spent a half hour or so enlarging the bushing slightly with the emory cloth so it wasn't such a tight fit in the heat.  Worked like a champ - and when the same problem cropped up later with the shifter pedal, I knew the quick fix.

OK - the MP3 player ... I started to get to the point of almost throwing it across the prarie today.  I have a 20 GB unit that has my entire CD collection on it.  I use a nice pair of earplug/phones that block out the wind noise so I don't go deaf and have really good fidelity for music.  Before setting out on the trip, I had tested the player in what I thought was a realistic fashion on some of the roads around Portland.  Well, apparently, I picked test roads that were too smooth.  When in actual use on actual bad pavement in places like southeastern Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and so on, the vibration and thump-thump-thump of expansion joints, chuckholes, pavement cracks and so on was often apprently too much for the little player's hard drive.  I think the longest stretch of continuous music I was able to enjoy was about 30 minutes.  It's funny - riding without tunes after you've had them is MUCH worse than not having had them to start with.  Especially on I-40 across the flats.

On the other hand, in the days to come, I began to realize that the USA has way more bad pavement than good, that's for sure.

But tonight, sitting in a motel in Weatherford, I was fully relaxed and realized that I was really having a great ride and a terrific time.  For the first time on this trip, I forgot about work and the associated crap that goes with it and began to focus on having fun for once.  Not bad - only took four days and 2200 miles this trip...

A few links