Well I did it, left Pensacola Fla. Tuesday Dec. 26th on a '01 SERG I found on the internet. 10,850 miles on it. A high idol was a concern so I stopped by the local HD dealership that morning and come to find out a port seal was bad on the EFI carb. so it was replaced and re-mapped. 2 1/2 hours delayed getting out of Pensacola. The plan was to make at least 500 miles a day for the 2000 mile trip.
First leg of the trip was to reach Houston, TX. average temp. was 40-45 degrees.
The area through Gulf Port and Biloxi Miss. is still messed up from the recent hurricane's down there, the pine forests are leaning over with lots of broken tree tops all over the place.
At the Louisiana border I was fortunate enough to have a couple pull over behind me that were headed to Los Angeles so we shared taking each others photos!
Louisiana was pretty much a lot of long bridges over swamp land. I was told by the folks at the HD dealer in Pensacola to stop in Denum, La. for a break and stopped for a bite and had the best roast beef sandwich I'd ever had.
Is was after dark by the time I hit the Texas border so I didn't get off the bike for a photo shot. Still had over 100 miles to make Houston. By the time I hit the east side of Houston it was 37 degrees.
Weds. Dec. 27th leg 2 of the trip was to try and make it to El Paso, TX. Prolly the best weather I had the whole trip was the eastern portion of TX. 50-60 degrees most of the day. Well that changed late in the day as I got as far as Ft. Stockton, Tx. where temps fell to 35. I knew that the next days ride was going to be a cold one. Did manage to have some kick ass BBQ in Texas here... don't ask me why the sign says the "worst" this place was the best BBQ I've had in a long time. They sold all their smoked turkey, pork ribs, baby backs, and briquet by the pound mmmmm.... mmmmmm.... btw this was on the west side of San Antonio.
Leg 3... Thursday Dec. 28th... 38 degrees at 9am. Plan was to make Tucson, Az. as I headed west I could see dark clouds ahead that didn't look good. ( BTW thanks Greg for the play-by-play weather reports! ) Between Ft. Stockton and El Paso the elevation gets up pretty high and I hit snow flurry's in the mountain pass there. It was another cold days ride average temp was 40 or below. By the time I hit Wilcox, AZ. I had had enough. Luckily the hot tub was working at the hotel and I was able to thaw for a good hour.
Final leg.. Friday Dec. 29th! The SERG in front of the hotel in Wilcox, AZ. ....
If you look close you can see snow in the hills behind the bike!
As I get through Tucson I go to down shift to pass a big rig and the toe shifter went all the way past the floorboard.. wtf? Managed to get off the freeway to have a look see and the allen head screw holding the shifter was there and seemed tight so I tighten it as much as I could and ask where the nearest HD dealer was. Back track about 8 miles and made it to Tucson HD. The place was pretty busy so I asked it they could get me in and out quick as I was just passing through. Lucky for me it happened where it did as there was a lot of nowhere in this part of the country. They got me back on the road after about 1 1/2 delay. If it had been the spline on the rod that holds the shifter it would have been worse. Once out of Tucson the rest of the trip was great. Temps in and around the low 60's till I hit the sunrise hwy area and it was once again down in the 30's.
Made it home around 7:20pm. Boy is it good to be home. All-in-all a good trip seeing that I missed some really bad weather for this time of year. I think I'll wait until warmer weather before I do my next cross country. At least now I can say I've done it and lived to tell about it! Just a tad over 2000 miles in 4 days... yeah baby!!!
Ride safe,
Don
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