AZ Day 3 - Get Your Butt Kicked on Route 66

Another day, another mile, and a whole lot more wind (not to mention morning problems and a sand storm)!

Arrived in Albuquerque (ABQ), NM, a little before 5pm Mountain Time and we were ready to get off the road. This was suppose to be our "easy" day, with less than 300 miles to ride. I got up planning on taking a leisurely ride to the local Starbucks for a pot of good coffee while eating my breakfast banana that I had pilfered from the motel in Little Rock. I'd return an hour later for a leisurely time packing the bike followed by a leisurely ride to ABQ. Fate had other plans...and they didn't include leisure.



As per our custom, we'd parked our bikes outside the motel lobby in an effort to minimize theft and mischief but what I didn't see was the sprinkler system next to my bike. My riding buddy, DC's, bike was fine but mine was covered in a crust. The sprinkler's came on while I was sleeping and left the bike soaked but I routinely ride through rain so that in itself wasn't a big deal. However, the winds had returned and covered the bike in a coarse dust. Dried on the bike it gave a sandpaper texture that would scratch the paint if not removed quickly. So, I decided I'd get my coffee, scratch the leisurely breakfast and find a car wash where I could hose off the sandpaper.

Thinking I'd make the best of a bad thing I decided the windscreen could use a little cleaning as I could barely see the road anyways.

I was lucky in that a car wash was right down the street from Starbucks and after a quick wash she was looking great....



And then she wouldn't start.

Yep, dead as a door nail! The dash lights came on but the starter button did nothing. I made a call to the Honda Riders Club of America for a tow and started diagnosing the problem. I'll spare you the technical details but let's just say that after a review of the MSF basics I had canceled the tow and was back on the road. Whew! Of course, my new tattoo of the phone number for the local Honda dealer stayed on my hand the rest of the day. If you want the full story on the dead bike you'll have to meet us for dinner tomorrow night in Springerville, AZ.

After packing we were back on I-40 heading into the wind, literally. We later found out the winds were gusting up to 48 mph. Crap! Another day of being blown about the road turned our leisurely ride into yet another death march...but we made it. Fortunately part of the day was battling head winds which were better than the constant crosswinds of the day before. However, we also had plenty of crosswinds and the gusts were even worse than yesterday.

By pure luck we found the mid point of old Route 66 and had lunch at the Midpoint Cafe. Good food! After a few vanity shots of the bikes we were back on the road and into the wind.

I don't recall ever riding on Route 66 before so we rode parallel to the interstate on a six mile section of the old highway. It's a lonesome road with few cars and sporadic tourists.



We broke up our return trip with several stops for warmer gear. From our departing temperature of 79 degrees in Amarillo the road cooled to a low of 61. Throw in a 80 mph wind chill and it got cold!

In addition to Route 66 I had another first today, my first sand storm! It wasn't large but visibility was as low as 100 yards at one point. We didn't have to break speed but from a distance it looked thick enough to slow our progress. Fortunately we were spared more excitment after our morning troubles.

Arriving in ABQ we found the other two members of our rag-tag crew. No pics yet as I was too hungry to grab the camera before dinner. However, considering these two will be leading us for the next two days I was surprised to see our directions posted on the side of one rider's tank.

So much for GPS navigation!

Tomorrow's ride will take us into Arizona to our room at Reed's Lodge in Springerville, AZ, and a meet up with the West Coast folks. I can't wait!