No early departure today. Tom and I got to sleep in since we didn’t need to leave until Michele’s flight arrived (expected around 11:30am). Her flight arrived early and she called at around 11am. Tom and I made the short ride over to the Phoenix airport, picked up Michele and headed north out of Phoenix leaving behind the 98F heat. Like we discovered in Albuquerque, NM, the city does a nice job of decorating the highway overpasses and structures. Too bad the Beltway at home doesn’t look like this.
Approximately 90 miles north of Phoenix we had climbed to around 5k feet in elevation and were seeing temperatures in the high 70s. We stopped for a late lunch and then continued on the remaining140 miles to the Grand Canyon.
With Michele on board, I can now share some in route photographs. In addition to the cooler temperatures that came with the increased elevation, the scenery and plant life also changed. Cacti in the lower arid desert were traded for pine trees on the high plains.
We also watched Humphrey Mountain, whose shadow Flagstaff, AZ sits in, grow larger in its dominance of the skyline. Snow still covered the top of the high peak (12,600 ft) providing a stunning landscape.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park at approximately 4pm local time. The temperatures had settled to a very comfortable 75F.
We all got checked in to our cabins and then headed out for dinner at Bright Angel’s Arizona Room restaurant. After dinner we walked up to the historic El Tovar lodge, which was uncharacteristically designed to look like a Norwegian chalet.
Tomorrow we’ll spend all day in the park playing tourist, hopefully getting an early start for the best morning light.
We got up a bit earlier than initially scheduled today so we could get on the road a bit early. Tom’s bike didn’t have any evidence of oil leaks so he had done an excellent job of sealing up the cases he removed. The bike started right up and just like yesterday evening after the repair, the volt meter was showing a healthy charging system. The bikes all packed and filled up with fuel, we were on our way by 6:30am. The temperatures were on the cool side (about 45F) but the wind was calm….for now.
I elected to wear my heated liner and gloves. Tom decided not to in hopes that the temps would quickly increase into the upper 50’s or 60’s. He wanted to take it easy on his stator to start off the day.
The wind was calm for the first 70 miles before it started to pickup. In addition to the wind increasing, so did our elevation. In fact the increasing elevation negated the ever rising sun which kept the temperatures right around 50F for much of the morning. After 100 miles of riding (the last 30 of which were in winds gusting over 40 mph) Tom radioed me that he was turning into an icicle. We stopped at a fuel station at the top of hill right in the middle of the highest winds. It was really blowing.
Tom put on his heated liner and gloves and after topping off the fuel tanks, we were on our way again. I think Tom ran with his heated gloves and jacket on full blast for the next several hours thoroughly enjoying the luxury of heat!
After another 120 or so miles, we stopped again for fuel. We had been battling heavy winds continuously and our fuel mileage was again suffering. So playing it safe, we elected to fuel up when our tanks were half gone. The winds had diminished somewhat and the temps were beginning to finally rise in the upper 50’s.
The next stop was in Holbrook, AZ. This was where we would get off of I-40 and head southwest into Tempe. We topped off with fuel and got some lunch. A couple in a U-haul truck parked next to us and their two little dogs were quite excited to see us and the bikes.
With the temps now at 70F, Tom and I removed our heated gear and prepared for the heat we expected to come as we neared Phoenix. We wouldn’t be disappointed. We saw temperatures rise to 93F as we entered Tempe.
The ride from Holbrook to Tempe was great fun both in terms of the roads and the scenery. We went from high plain pine forests to desert and everything in between. Take a ride with us along Arizona 277 through a forest.
And then along Arizona 87 as we cross over a set of mountains on our way into the Phoenix area.
We arrived in Tempe at around 6pm (5pm local time as Arizona doesn’t adjust for DST). Tomorrow Michele’s flight arrives at 11:30am and then we head to our first National Park of this ride, the Grand Canyon.
Today started out a warm and humid 75F. With the forecast predicting thunderstorms and hot temperatures by noon, Tom and I left a little early. We were packed and rolling by 6:30am. We made our first stop just east of Wichita Falls. I had been tracking a line of thunderstorms that were near our route and kept the fuel stop quick as there looked like a break in the line may allow us to slip through.
We lucked out. As we rolled through Wichita Falls, Texas, we experienced a few sprinkles but the storm didn’t really form until after we had passed under it. With the line of thunderstorms behind us, we had clear skies all the way to Tucumcari, NM.
On our way out of Wichita Falls, another rider on HD Ultra pulled up behind us and found us on the CB. We spoke to each other for a few miles. He was a house inspector and on his way to a job site so he rode with us for about 20 miles or so to Vernon, TX.
We stopped for lunch in Childress, TX for a quick bite to eat and to top off our gas tanks. The winds had been steadily increasing out of the west, southwest and our fuel mileage was suffering from it.
Our next stop would be Amarilo,TX before we made our final push to our day’s destination in Tucumcari, NM. Except for the stiff 30mph winds we were battling, we were making really good time. Here’s a short video of one of the little dust storms we encountered in Texas.
All in all the day was going well; that is until approximately 60 miles from Tucumcari, NM.
Tom radioed that “Uh oh. I think I have a charging system problem.” Tom’s volt meter was indicating that his bike was using more electrical power than it was generating. He turned off everything he could and made it to the hotel.
The suspect was the aftermarket stator had failed. The stator creates electrical current to run the bike’s electronics. Without a stator, you have only the battery to run on. And without any way of charging the battery while the bike is running, you aren’t going to make it very far…certainly not the remainder of our trip.
Tom had brought his original stator with him just in case. Unfortunately, we lacked some of the tools needed to make the switch. So off to the local Napa we went to pick up the needed supplies (soldering iron, solder, shrink wrap, multi-meter, and gasket sealer). When we returned, Tom realized that we needed a 9 volt battery for the multi-meter and neither of us had a 9 volt battery. Tom ran next door and picked up a 9 volt only to discover that we needed a very small screwdriver to get the back of the multi-meter off so we could insert the battery. We both had screwdrivers but nothing small enough.
Off I ran to the local Kmart to pick up a set of screwdrivers while Tom started disassembling the bike. Screwdrivers in hand, we got the multi-meter running and discovered (as Tom had suspected) that the stator was putting zero current out. It would have to be replaced. Easy enough as Tom had done it before and we had everything we needed to do the job….or did we?
Tom remembered the difficulty of getting the stator out of the case last time. He had needed to us an impact driver to remove three large screws. We attempted to remove the screws with a regular screwdriver and had no joy. We needed an impact driver. Tom called up Napa again and caught them just before they closed up. Turns out they did have an impact driver and would stay open so we could buy it.
I quickly rode off to the Napa store again and Tom set to switching out the plug from the faulty stator back to the original Yamaha stator. By the time I had returned with the impact driver and a hammer, Tom had completed the soldering work and we set out to try and remove those three screws.
Tom banged on the first screw and after 5 or so strikes, it broke free! One down, two to go. Tom then moved to the second screw. This one might be a problem. The head had gotten a bit stripped from when Tom had replaced the Yamaha stator with the now broken one. After 3-4 strikes, our worst fears were realized and the head of the screw stripped out the rest of the way. How do we get the screw out? Tom switched bits to a more pointy philips bit. It looked like just the upper part of the head had stripped. Maybe the pointer bit would be able to bite enough on the head to break it free. With deep breath, Tom gave the impact driver 2 good whacks and the screw broke free!! PHEW!
The last screw came out easily enough with the impact driver and Tom swapped out the defective stator for the original Yamaha one. We went back out to the bike (laying on its right side so that no engine oil would escape with the left engine cases removed) and put the engine cases back on, reconnected the stator, and put the bike back together enough so that we could put the bike upright. When the bike was started, the voltage meter immediately provided the feedback we had hoped for….the electrical system was working.
Tom finished putting the bike back together, cleaned up, and with a collective sigh of relief, we headed over the hotel’s restaurant and had dinner.
Tomorrow we ride to Tempe, AZ where we will wait for Michele’s flight to arrive on Friday. The ride to Tempe will be almost 600 miles and should take us about 11 hours.
We started the day a bit earlier than planned and were rolling down the road by 7:30am. The temps were in the mid 70s and the air quite humid.
We made a short 70 mile run west on I-40 and then exited onto Scenic Byway Route 7 through the Ozarks. A few miles along Rt. 7, we stopped at the Rotary Ann scenic overlook.
The view reminded me of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
We traveled north along Rt. 7 and then west along Rt. 16 where we picked up Rt. 23 (the Pig Trail Scenic Byway). The Pig Trail was quite a fun piece of road. Here's a sample.
We stopped for lunch just south of Fort Smith. It was 12:40pm and we had only about 100 miles left before reaching McAlester, OK. The last 100 miles went quickly and we rolled into McAlester at 2:40pm! We had ridden the 340 scheduled miles in just over 7 hours. When checking into the hotel in McAlester, Tom kept mumbling about "something not being right". He just couldn't believe that I had actually scheduled a riding day that had us done before 5pm. I'm sure I'll make up for it later on in the trip. ;-)
Tomorrow we are scheduled to cover 550 miles traveling south out of Oklahoma and then crossing northern Texas on our way to New Mexico. We'll keep our fingers crossed that our luck of dry weather continues tomorrow. The forecast is calling for a 40% chance of thunderstorms.
Day 2 of the trip was planned to be an easy day. We only had about 450 miles planned and expected to make it to the Little Rock by 4pm. The day stated off cool with temperatures in the low 60s. The humidity was quite high and we had quite a bit of ground level clouds.
Traffic was light and we made good progress in the morning. We went through Huntsville and the space center was easy to see from I-565.
While crossing through northern Alabama, we again ran across the devestration of a tornado.
By 10am, the temps had climbed to 80F. After our first stop (about 10:30am) at around 180 miles, Tom and I put on our neck cooling wraps....aaahhh that hit the spot!
We made it to Memphis by 12:45pm and crossed over the river with little issue. I-55 was well above the river but the flooding was significant. The river was expected to crest today. Some of the overpasses we crossed looked more like bridges since everything below (buildings, signs, etc) were completely submerged. The only evidence that it was an overpass as opposed to a river bridge were the off ramps that looked more like boat launches.
After crossing the Mississippi, we grabbed lunch in Arkansas. After lunch, I was about to make a left to turn onto the on-ramp for I40 west when Tom radios me and says "DON'T go down that road, it is marked one-way." I hesitated and didn't make the turn but realized as I went by that it was infact the on-ramp to I40 west. Well Tom realized his mistake and was able to make the turn onto the on-ramp. So there Tom was getting onto I40 west and I was going to parts unknown. Hmmm. Was Tom already tired of me? Was he trying to tell me something? Well there happened to be a US highway that ran parallel to I40 so I turned west onto that highway and told Tom I'd rejoin him on I40 in about 5 miles. So there we were, Tom on I40 west bound and Rob on US70 west bound. After about 5 miles, I was able to get to an on-ramp for I40 west and just as I was entering I40, Tom came rolling up. Perfect timing.
So today it wasn't the Mississippi that would cause us problems. It was instead the White River in eastern Arkansas. From the point of Memphis we had been seeing signs that I40 westbound was closed at mile marker 219 and a detour was required. Turns out that the White river had flooded it's banks and I40 west was still under a significant amount of water. This required us to take a 50 or so mile detour (as can be seen on the SPOT tracking map at the top of this blog).
The flooding was everywhere. The amount of rain that has fallen on eastern Arkansas has turned fields into lakes and creeks into rivers. Taking the I40 detour extended our ride today by about an hour. By the time we were approaching Little Rock, the temps had risen to 93F and the once cool neck wrap was no longer doing any cooling.
Pulling into the hotel, Tom peeled himself off his bike and said "my ears are sweating!" It was a warm day but one I'll never forget.
Tomorrow, we make our way to McAlester, OK. On our way we'll make a little detour and sample some of the roads and scenery in the Ozarks riding scenic Rt. 7 and 23. It should be another fun day!!
A rather uneventful day today. We made good time and coverred a bit more than 600 miles arriving in Kimball, TN at 6pm local time (CST). Tom was over at my place at about 6:45am and we were off and rolling by 7am.
The radar image showed a bit of wet weather along our route.
Sure enough, a few minutes into the ride, we encountered a little rain. It was very light and not enough to bother putting on rain gear for. We continued riding in a light off/on rain until about Charlottesville. From then on, the weather improved. The clouds lightened and the temps steadily began to rise. When we arrived in Kimball, the thermometor read 84F.
The only real item of note was when we got to about 12 miles north of Ambingdon, VA. We saw the devistation that a tornado had released just a few weeks ago. The damage was considerable. All that remained of some homes was the foundation. The tree's were stripped of their bark. Have a look at the short video I shot as we rode past.
Tomorrow we'll try and get on the road by 8am and head for Little Rock Arkansas. We'll only cover 450 or so miles but half of that will be off the interstate as we drop down into Alabama and Mississippi prior to crossing the big river. Per my typical MO, I never take the most direct route. :-)
We'll be crossing the Mississippi river at Memphis and expect the river to be high. Hopefully not to high to prevent us from crossing. Until tomororw...
Final preparations have been completed....I think. I'll probably remember what I forgot to pack about 2 hours down the road....but for now I feel as though I've got everything stowed away.
Tom has emailed me and says he has "double and triple" checked all his packings so he's ready to go also. All thats left is a good nights sleep for tomorrow's ride.
Tomorrow's forecast appears a bit sketchy. We may run into a few showers between home and Roanoke but nothing real significant. Temps look good starting out in the 50s and climbing into or near 80 as we head south.
The route will be about 600 miles total and I estimate it'll take us about 11 hours. We'll run US29 south into Roanoke and then take I81 south into Tennessee. Then its onto I75 which we'll follow just south of Chattanooga. There we'll grab I24 west dip into Georgia for a bit and then onto Kimball Tennessee, our first day's destination.
