May 14, 2019: Day 3 Leg from Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK

12:00 PM After polishing off my leftover ribeye steak from the previous night’s delicious Big Texan dinner I mounted my steel horse Raven to begin Day 3 enroute to Nashville to meet my wife Lori to continue our adventure together.

Again blessed with wall-to-wall sunshine, I roll on the power and I am soon winding over and around the east Texas countryside covered in velvet green grasses and lush trees. The miles quickly slide by until I see the Groom Cross slowly rising up on the horizon. 18 years ago I saw this impressive structure at different times of the day and seasons while making several cross-country trucking runs. My plan is to stop while enroute home from DC. when I’m not under a time crunch. For now the above link will have to do.

5:00 pm: I decided to push through Oklahoma City, OK to an unknown hotel closer to Ft. Smith, AK when welcome signs to the Home of Tinker AFB unexpectedly appear beckoning me to stop and rest in military accommodations once again. No need to ask twice!

I settle into my spacious and very comfortable ‘temporary airman’s lodging’ with plans to drain all the hot water on the base onto my feet and back–after thoroughly washing Raven’s road-nasty ‘butt’.

I easily pass the north gate directly off of I-40 and pass a large BX to my left and a beautifully maintained military golf course to my right and abutting to the approach end of the active runway…and for a brief moment wished I had joined the US chAir Force just to access their wonderful courses, e.g., Hickham’s golf course which follows the south Hawaiian shore towards Waikiki.

I take Raven for her much-needed bath, rinse, and wipe down which leaves her once again shiny and new. Between fat, juicy, and highly plentiful spring bugs on their final kamikaze run, and the usual oily road grime, motorcycle traveling is not for mysophobics. My current windscreen is just low enough to allow bugs with just enough mass to easily pass through the deflected airflow right toward my piehole–were it not for my handy-dandy nylon neck gaiter protectively pulled up over my nose. So far no bugs have managed to inject themselves into my oral cavity…but it’s only day 3, right?

Time for laundry and a great night’s sleep for tomorrow’s trip to Ft. Smith, AK…and one day closer to meeting my Honey early Friday morning for our Rolling Thunder-Run To The Wall Memorial Day weekend!

May 13, 2019: 2nd Leg Alburquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX

9:00 am: Sleeping deeply as if I had a clear conscience I wake up to muscles I never knew I had protesting yesterday’s first 400+ mile ride. Thank goodness for unlimited hot hotel water and gaba pentin! Soon I’m packed and back on the I-40 eastbound for Amarillo, TX and The Big Texan Steak RANCH, home of the 4.5 lb steak, loaded bake potato, 3 shrimp, and a side salad–all to be eaten in 60 minutes or less. Fail and meal costs $74.00. I’ll play it safe and stick with a ribeye, medium rare, thanks!

The ride across New Mexico’s high desert covered with blue-green sage brush to the horizon is a picture-perfect ride: temp is in the mid- to high seventies, with occasional shade from the ‘fluffy puffies’ high overhead. The road is silky smooth and traffic sparse…as are the radio stations. So I’m content with belting out the word I know to classic country songs while making up the lyrics I can remember. A pit stop just west of the Texas state line and Raven is purring away towards the Lone Star state…

6:00 pm: I arrive and park Raven directly across from her 25-year older sister, a ‘vintage’ H-D Road Glide and her owner Jerry Hall, a fellow cancer survivor and retired business owner from Merced, CA who is checking off his bucket list. Jerry has ridden to Fairbanks, AK, beyond the Arctic Circle, and he plans to ride to Prudhoe Bay at the end of the AlCan Highway.

Jerry also knows my former deputy sheriff training officer-who-eventually-ended-up-in-federal-prison-for-dealing-in-stolen-HD-motorcycles-and-parts–but that’s another story for another day…

The 21 oz. ribeye was more than I could eat at one sitting (cowboy beans, fried okra (free), loaded baked potato, and hot yeast rolls notwithstanding), so it will be a well-marbled and perfectly grilled ribeye for breakfast…oh, and the strolling guitar-fiddle duo were not too shabby either. Time to find a room and settle in the the night…safe travels, my new ‘brother’ Jerry!

10:00 am: Of course The Big Texan Hotel is right next door with an available ground floor room! A hot shower and I’ll be resting t like the walking dead, if and when they sleep…without the smell of cadavers, of course!

May 12, 2019: 1st Leg– Mesa, AZ to Alburquerque, NM

11:00 am: Preparing and packing for a cross-country motorcycle ride is more stressful than I anticipated deciding what is essential and what isn’t. Raven, our new 2019 Harley-Davidson Road Glide Ultra, is the least of our worries given her 5-year extended warranty and nationwide dealership support. Having GPS and cruise control will be a treat I’ve not enjoyed on my previous motorcycles, so I eager to play with all the new bells and whistles. I depart home under beautifully clear skies and head north on the AZ-87 Beeline Highway towards Payson following the massive storm systems which have flooded the midwest. I’ve downloaded 3 weather apps to ensure I avoid riding into thunderstorms, or worse. Plan B was to travel east on the I-10 to I-40 via the I-20 and I-30, but that option was washed away by torrential rains and flooding throughout the southwest and central plains…

1:00 pm: dark clouds fat with moisture loom over my intended route to Payson. As I approach Rye the distant yet beautiful gray curtin of virga (rain that evaporates before reaching the ground) decides to treat me to a ‘desert baptism’ and in a matter of minutes Raven and I are thoroughly drenched. We press on and it’s getting harder to see through the lenses of my sunglasses. Then the rain lets up, the moisture evaporates from my clothes and we’re golden. The smell of wet desert earth and mesquite is amazing, so fresh and clean unlike the reeking ammonia of the many dairy farms that dot south Maricopa county. The desert has a unique beauty I am growing to appreciate, especially against the backdrop of a dramatic storm or blazing sunset. The biggest sun devils I’ve ever seen in AZ dance across the high country spawning smaller baby-tornado activity until another storm soaks us right up to Holbrook. Thank goodness for neck gaiters which I pull up over my nose to spare my face the bee-stings of raindrops peppering my face. I love my Sena Cavalry motorcycle half-helmet, but not in those moments when the wind salted with fat raindrops triggers second-guessing my choice in headgear…until the weather clears.

8:00 pm: The lights of Alburquerque appear before me as I remembered them from the Flying J truck stop on the ridge west of town. My GPS takes me to two closed gates at Kirkland Air Force Base where I plan to spend the night and not worry about sketchy people taking an inordinate interest in Raven, or what she might have in her shiny black hard bags or matching trunk…an additional perk of being retired military is my wife and I can stay in excellent accommodations all while protected by our nation’s finest.

A micro-waved Marie Callendar’s fetuccini with chicken and brocolli tastes like a feast after 8 hours on the road with 3 pit stops. I know I’ll sleep deeply and well. The weather forecasts promise that I’ll be riding in warmer weather as I make my way to Amarillo, TX and Oklahoma City, OK on my way to pickup my bride Lori in Nashville, TN by early Friday morning. Raven is fueled and ready for the second leg of our trip to participate in the final nationally-sponsored Rolling Thunder XXXII demonstration ride in Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day weekend. My biggest lesson this day: I miss traveling with my wife. I would not intentially want to subject her to the discomforts Raven and I ‘enjoyed’ this day, but solving problems together is part of the beauty of our marriage. Technology helps us connect throughout the day as Raven and I steadily make our way to Nashville.

Thanks for joining me as I prepare to live my dream of traveling the USA with my wife Lori aboard our new 2019 Harley-Davidson Vivid Black Road Glide Ultra touring motorcycle. Local day and weekend trips throughout Arizona are intended to break-in our new bike…and our older bottoms prior to our cross-country Run To The Wall, Rolling Thunder’s final national demonstration ride this Memorial Day weekend in Washington, DC to honor the memory of all American military POWs and MIAs. Having attended this demonstration in 1999 and 2000, I wanted to share this amazing experience with my wife as this final national event passes into history. We hope you enjoy our adventures!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton