June 16 2023 Day Fourteen

 June 16^th – Chandler AZ – Day 14

 

And I accomplished my goal today, 1000 miles within 24 hours and according to my bike I traveled 1120 miles in 16 hours and 22 minutes. Not sure how the bike has that figured out since it showed me leaving at 6:16 am June 16 for my ride according to TX (central) time and actually shows my end as being 9:38pm June 17 AZ (Pacific). Oh well, I know I accomplished it and have pictures of the odometer to prove it. Now it’ll be a matter of putting together the paperwork and getting it sent in so I can at least get a patch and my name added to the list of people who have accomplished such a feat. 

 

And to boot, I picked up a couple of hours with my travel West since AZ has its own time, so I am now on Pacific (AZ) time instead of Mountain which I had part way thru TX into New Mexico. The hardest part of the trip was getting to the West side of Austin onto I10 cuz that would be where I could really open it up and travel the kind of speed I wanted to. I kept thinking how much I had stoplights because there have been too many parts of this traveling that has taken me thru some areas that once you get up to what you think will be a good speed, you have to stop because the damn light turned red. Oh well, I guess I have to deal with it now don’t I.

 

I did at least keep myself somewhat sane and not having to worry about gas and made a few more stops than I otherwise would’ve. After talking with Dale, same name different spelling, like he said there aren’t a lot of gas stations West thru TX that I should make sure I’m stopping to get gas instead of pushing it. That meant checking how far I had left to travel on my bike since I did notice some cities too far away that I would’ve easily ran out of gas. The only place I pushed it wasn’t until I hit El Paso because I knew I would be able to find gas in a short range.

 

The other part of this trip was the heat. While riding thru the West part of TX sometimes it had me wondering why anyone would want to live in these kinds of conditions. Things actually cooled off a little once I got to New Mexico, but soon enough it was back into the heat. I also had some road construction that had me wondering if I should be slowing down or not even though the speeds hadn’t changed. The construction was one of those where they cover the asphalt with oil and then they cover it with small pebbles to work its way into the oil. I kept seeing signs hoping it was going to tell me the end of construction only for it to tell me loose gravel ahead, please watch your speed. At least it had been swept that there wasn’t anything to slow me down, so I hit it hard. That reminded me there was a spot where they were shaving the top part of the blacktop to cover it with fresh tar and that was the one that had me worried about the speed. At least the grooves run in the direction I’m moving and not across, but every once in a while, I would hit grooves that seem to want to move you into a different direction. Light on the handles and no sudden movement and I’ll be able to get thru this.

 

Ok, I have one more gas stop to make to close out my 1000-mile ride and I’m only miles from my final destination that it’s also time for me to finally get something to eat. Today wasn’t so much about eating, but at least keeping myself hydrated that I did drink plenty of water for the ride even though you wouldn’t have been able to tell. I also finally got myself a sandwich just to snack on something. And once I did get to Jim, Nan and Ian’s, my first goal after getting the bike unpacked was a well-deserved shower and boy was I dirty. Once showered I felt like a new person, so I’ll definitely sleep well tonight. Tomorrow, or I actually mean today since it is already the 17^th, my bike could use an oil and filter change or even a wash. I’ll have to see what I can find.