Heading Out
It was like a bad dream as I found myself heading off on a trans-continental journey that will last several months and I looked down to find myself perched on a Honda 125cc scooter with a bulky bag containing my possessions strapped on the rear seat.



What on earth was I doing that I had got it so wrong? How do you ride with these little wheels? And, most importantly where's my bloody Beemer?

I looked round to see another scooter was following



Was it some sort of nightmare or anxiety dream? Nope, just a rather unorthodox (for me anyway) start to my trip. I'd been hosting a couple of unusual bike travellers, meet Tipi and Chae (with my friend Annie)



Tipi and Chae are from South Korea and had ridden to England on their Honda scooters- yep, folks 125cc automatic ones with those tiny wheels across 12,000 miles including the wastelands of Siberia,



They're my heroes and really nice people to boot. They arrived in time for Christmas and joined 16 of us at my parents' three bedroom house for the festivities. I don't know what they made of their time with my somewhat eccentric family, what I do know is that they blogged six pages about it on their website but as it's all in Korean I don't understand a word of it - they might well be describing the fact that their accommodation was a tent inside a barn, don't forget, this is December ...but when they saw where the rest of us were sleeping, they said they had the best deal.

And now it was late April and in the run up to my departure, they had come back down to Cornwall. The morning arrived that I was setting off, they offered to help me get to the train station. Their suggestion was that we ride in convoy on their scooters, they would be two up while I had my bag and then they would ride both scooters back to my house.
It worked like a dream, once I was used to being on such a different bike. I made it safely down to the train station, my shoulder was aching a bit, but then it has been a bit painful for a while.
I injured it six weeks ago snowboarding when I had a fall whilst going a bit fast and heard my shoulder go crunch. I carried on boarding but somehow my shoulder didn't feel right and gradually became increasingly painful. When I got to the doctor, this was how the x-ray looked.




Torn ligaments had resulted in my shoulder being a bit odd looking- that's the space showing between the bones. Damn - no more snowboarding for the final two days of the holiday followed by weeks of inactivity. I headed to the nearest bar to drown my sorrows, wearing a sling that was closely related to a strait-jacket (you can tell it's France, look at all the ashtrays!)



Six weeks later after some intensive and painful physio, I was back on two wheels and heading off to America, my shoulder had healed just in time, this, believe it or not is the healed shoulder- it still looks a bit odd in real life too, but the doctors were pleased.



I was ready to hit America- the question was... would America be ready for me?

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

After a tiring journey that included a pleasant interlude at the Piano Bar in O'Hare Airport. I got to Phoenix, sweltered a bit in my bike gear until I reached my friend's house.
The next morning my bike turned up from Tucson, Thelma, my R80GS who has been in exile for quite a while.



In the shade of the garage, I got straight down to work, servicing and doing the usual checks.



Everything spick and span, within 48 hours I was out on the road and not before time too



Yep folks, it was 100 degrees as I pulled out of town, I amy be a bit hazy about fahrenheit, but even I know that triple digits is bad news whereever you are. The words "Mad dogs and Englishmen" ran through my head as I turned Thelma northwards and towards the promised cool of the hills.
Payson was my first stop for fuel and a bit of shade. The Harley riders looked at me a bit oddly, but I'm used to that, this time mainly due to my full bike gear, gloves and helmet. Naturally they were in T-shirts, bare-headed and looking cool. They started chatting to me, turned out they were from Chicago, when I mentioned I was on my way there they did a double-take. They then confessed their bikes were being trucked back up there, leaving tomorrow. As I stood there sweating in the heat, I must confess to hearing a little voice in my head saying "Take Thelma, take Thelma", ahead I had almost 2000 miles to ride in the next four days and I had no idea when it was going to get cooler.

Let me tell you, it took a strong dose of self-control to cheerily say "see you on the road" and ride out of the petrol station.
I headed northwards leaving the amazing Cacti of Arizona behind, it got cooler, at Low Show or was it Show Low, either name could have applied around here from what I'd seen having already been past the Wild Women Saloon, I'd slowed down to get a look, but thought it would be best not to stop, I wasn't 100% sure what they meant by a saloon, visions of wild westersn with gun fights and brawls ran through my head.
On to Show Low where the staff in the petrol station enjoyed the sight of me searching through the fridge for something to eat, finally selecting something and then removing the chicken part out of a chicken cheeseburger and giving it to a dog before heating the rest of it in a microwave and eating it. I guess vegetarianism has yet to reach this neck of the woods.

Time was passing, as I reached the Narrows in New Mexico having regretfully realised I'd passed the only sign to Pie Town without stopping to take a photo of it...when will I learn? I ask myself.
here's some hills.


I was heading towards Albuquerque, keen to get there before dark.
Someone stood by the side of the road and pointed at the ground as I went past. At first I assumed he was pointing out something on the road, so I checked, no snakes or holes, nothing there, not even a dead one of these



Then I thought he is probably just a biker himself and greeting me so I relaxed again. But my brain was still thinking about it, and finally, I suddenly thought, is my light working? I stopped the bike and checked, whoops, no headlight, the sun was setting rapidly and the light had quickly faded.
Damn, usually not too much of a problem, as I'm generally looking to stop riding and put up my tent at this point. But I had an invite and a destination tonight. Albuquerque was awaiting me.

First day on the road and to be honest, my panniers are in a state of disarray (somewhat like my life) and I am really not sure where my spare bulbs are. I'm used to automatically carrying some because in some European countries it's compulsory to have them on or in every vehicle.

I started unloading with a sigh. I was lucky, in the first pannier, there they were and even more lucky as there was a headlight bulb in the set, I had no idea if I might have used it up previously. Not forgetting, Thelma and my gear have been in storage for quite a while.

The headlight is a bit tricky to replace, I put my hand in to get the old one out, fiddled around a bit, found a loose wire and "hey presto" the lights came on, it was just the connector and not the bulb. Quickly reloaded my case and get back on. By the time I reached the main highway (interstate) it was dark and not a pleasant ride with the trucks roaring past and all sorts of debris on the road. I arrived in time for dinner at 9.00pm except...it wasn't 9.00pm it was 10.00pm, I felt bad, I had no idea their clocks were different from Arizona and they had waited on dinner for me.

Alon and his wife Ann made me very welcome as did their labradoodle - that dog is crazy!
Time for a chat and a catch up, I first met Alon when he was travelling on his Honda TransAlp and was in Ecuador, we also met up in Bolivia and crossed the Salar de Uyuni together, a lot of fun.
The next morning we set off, Alon was "escorting me off the premises" and setting me on the road out of town.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Good luck, will look forward to following this thread

Cool (or not in this case ). Good to hear you´re back on the road, and I look forward to more stories.
Pat

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Pat
www.patonabike.blogspot.com

Hey Tiff,

Good luck on your trip and keep the report coming at us with lots of photos

Steve

Watching with interest!

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2008 Yamaha WR250R

Yip, I'll be following this one too!

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Peter

http://peter-onamission.blogspot.com

Me too,and more pictures please.

Enjoying the tale and pics, good luck with the trip

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Elaine

Striving to live the ordinary life in a non ordinary way

The road out of Albuquerque took me along Route 66 part of the way, with signs such as this to ensure I was singing along all the way



I know people say the Interstates are boring, but you guys have some very amusing roadside signs. I don't want to risk offending anyone by quoting some of them.
From miles away I could see this cross by the side of the road, it was huge







Having looked at my map and having learnt from past experience, Texas is BIG, I just cut through the top bit and ended up camping near the Oklahoma border ...





I'm making a quick getaway after camping in a farmer's field, I'm looking a bit concerned, but so would you if you had just spent the night in a tent that looks like this...




One of the poles broke as I was setting up my tent , it's not repairable, and so I had to make do with attempting to sleep in something that looked like it should have been put in the rubbish a while ago. Being thankful for small mercies however, I suppose I should look on the bright side that at the moment I'm on the road solo and so I didn't have to squeeze anyone else in it.
I also had these to contend with



lots of them scuttling around outside my tent - a little reminder to always close the zip properly.

The day did improve though. At one of the rest areas I was fascinated to discover a tornado-proof room to shelter in - handily placed between the ladies and the gents' loos.
I couldn't resist taking a look, it looked like quite an ordinary room to me, with bemches around the wall to sit on and some most informative charts on the wall showing typical cloud formations of tornadoes. I studied these carefully as I don't have much experience of this type of weather.


I took photos as well, ready for easy reference in case I do run into any dodgy looking clouds.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

I wasn't in Oklahome for long- apologies to those who are fans of the State, but I had a destination to reach. Into Kansas and can you believe it almost immediately a big black cloud appeared. I'll admit I'm not hugely knowledgeable about the States, but even I know that Kansas is famous for its tornadoes, my cultural reference point being The Wizard of Oz. I didn't like the look of this cloud looming ahead of me on the highway



I have to admit that in the picture it doesn't look so bad, believe me it looked worse in real life. I stopped and compared it with the pictures from the tornado shelter, decided on a scale of 1 to 10 that it was possibly a 2 and just kept riding hoping for the best.

The cloud gradually disappeared off to the east. I stoppped for a break and after a phone call to VMW in Seattle, decided to do take some action about Thelma's lack of revs and pulling power.
In the carpark of Dairy Queen I got out my tools and spare parts and proceeded to take apart the carburretor. I changed the diaphragm on it



This was me just finishing, the beauty of having a twin-engined bike, from my point of view as someone to whom mechanics does not come easily is that I always have the other side to refer to when I'm putting things back together again, making sure that everything goes back in its correct place.
The change of diaphragm didn't make much difference, Thelma will have to wait until Chicago to have it looked into properly.
Lots of people stopped by as I was working to say hello and ask where the bike is from as it has a huge yellow British registration plate.

I'd lost a bit of time, and as I passed Wichita (singing Seven Nation Army in my head) I realised I had better find a place to camp. I got a perfect spot in a field not too far from the highway, it was hilly so I was out of sight from the road, although it had been a bit dicy to ride Thelma through the long grass hiding the rocks on the slope.

I took a look at the broken tent pole, removed the offending section then re-threaded the shock cord and with some blue electrical tape managed to do a temporary repair to get the tent up.




Still not great but looking a lot better than last night.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Yech! I hate Potato bugs. Whats up with Thelma? Is she not running well?

Thanks for the concern, Thelma was just chugging along and not up to her usual speeds, I knew it was the carbs...but also knew there wasn't a lot I could do about it on the road. And are those really potato bugs?

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Iowa was beckoning with some hospitality courtesy of Ryan, his wife Robin and their collection of pets, Jed, the wire-haired terrier was a mad bundle of energy and extremely friendly. The cats were a bit more reserved until I tried getting to sleep on the sofa that night and they weren't impressed that there was a human on their playground.
R&R kindly took me on a tour around the Bridges of Madison County, just down the road from where they live.



This was Cedar Bridge, the grafitti was a bit off-putting, but they are really great historic bridges.


The next morning it was time to get back on the road, Ryan led me through town on his Ducati and then said goodbye,


just minutes later I heard a siren and was pulled over by someone from the Polk Cunty Sheriff's Department. Although I have got insurance for the US I hadn't actually had a chance to print it out. I think it may be considered a bit naughty to not have the actual document with you or in the vehicle (unlike the UK). The bloke was not very friendly at all, he had decided that because I had a funny looking number plate, I must be a dodgy person. He demanded all my documents, "oh no" I thought, "this is me getting done for it" and so took diversionary action, launching into a long monolgoue about where my motorbike is from and all the countries I've been to on it. I talked non-stop until, in the end he got so bored of hearing me speak (or else just thought I was a nutter) and told me to go.



He obligingly posed for a picture before I took off.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Great trip tiff keep it coming hope Thelma gets better soon.

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We are the Pilgrims, Master, we shall go Always a little further: it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea.