Well... actually I do. Having grown up in Odessa, TX, flat smack dab in the middle of the West Texas Badlands, and making trips to El Paso every couple of months, I got a pretty good look at just how straight a piece of interstate can be at an early age. Later on, treks to Lubbock and Dallas only confirmed my belief that someone had stretched a really long chalk line out between cities and then snapped a line for the highways to follow.Last weekend however, I got a chance to see what happens when you leave the beaten path behind.
Around 6 am Friday morning before Memorial day, I saddled up on the Feejer and left the Metroplex. A few weeks prior I had arranged with my brother to give my mom a surprise. The plan was for him to take her to lunch and then I would walk in and surprise her. The ride out there was fairly uneventful and getting an early start put me ahead of much of the traffic. I stopped in Weatherford to top off and grab a quick bite before settling in for the long-haul. The weekend prior to this, I had installed a Vista Cruise throttle lock on the bike which proved it's worth in gold. Even on a big sport tourer like the FJR, it's nice to be able to take your hands off the handle bars to give them a break. Everything went pretty much as expected for the next several hours until I glanced down at the guages and saw my last fuel bar blinking. My mind immediately started digging through rusty file drawers trying to remember how many more miles I could likely coax out of the bike. 92 degrees on the back of a bike going 75-80 mph isn't that bad, but 92 degrees footing it to the next gas station would be a killer. Fifteen miles later Coahoma, Texas came in to view and all was good. I filled up the bike, put a couple of cups of ice in the Oxio and took off again.
Funny what can happen when you've got nothing but your thoughts to keep you company. It's like one giant free-association session. Thoughts seem to wander up and down, left and right, backwards and forwards. Memories of breakfast somehow triggering thoughts of your favorite baseball player of all time. I've thought about wiring up my helmet so I can plug in an mp3 player, but I really like the silence of popping in my ear plugs and traveling in my own world.
I showed up at my brother's house around noon and about half an hour later as they were being given chips and salsa I walked into the restaurant. My mom about fell out of her chair and she got teary eyed, made the long trip out there worth every minute. We had a great rest of the day just sitting on the porch and talking and then spent a couple of hours at Starbucks later that evening. All in all it was a great visit and though I hated having to turn around and head back the very next day, it really was worthwhile.The next day I headed back around 8:00 am. Though feeling a little beat up, it wasn't too bad and I was making good time but slowly and steadily a cross wind starting building up. By the time I was approaching Big Springs, the wind gusts and the heavy traffic was really starting to be a pain in the butt.
Somewhere between Big Springs and Sweetwater, I pulled off the interstate and headed out for a road less travelled and as Mr. Frost stated so wonderfully, that made all the difference. (Ok, so sue me for doing a poor job of paraphrasing)
I wandered down small FM roads roughly paralleling my original course and ran across some wonderful roads and sights and passed through this wonderful looking little town called Buffalo Gap. Approaching Abilene, I decided to get back on the interstate to see if things were any better. Twenty minutes later I was off again following some two lane highway in a generally eastern direction. The bike handled like a dream. I hadn't really pushed it much up until then. The brakes were wonderful even under really hard braking. Dropping that thing down into a turn felt really stable and composed. I scuffed my boots several times before I started to put my feet way back before going into a turn.
There's nothing like the big grin you get on a bike as you approach a sign that indicates a series of curves up ahead and a recommended speed of less than 30 mph. Pounding through turns with increasing elevation is one of life better pleasures. As I left the Possum Kingdom Lake area behind, it was nice to know I was getting close to home and I was pretty relieved to pull in the driveway around 4:30. The trip took much longer than it needed to, but getting away from the traffic and wind gusts and getting to enjoy some pretty scenery to boot was worth it.
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