Poncho and the RedBaron vs the world

Brass Butt 2x. I did haulass all 814 not very smileage home yesterday. arrived 10pm. so now I officially have 2 brass buttocks and they feel just like that. I will say that the first one was more pleasant inasmuch as I started out fresh and at 6am pull out in the cool morning air. I was halfway across the desert by time the temps got oppressive. Having pushed that hard, day 2 I paid for it as my back barked like a stinkin dingo (for the aussies) and only rode ~250 miles. thru some of the best mountain scenery and not being able to enjoy it as I was in that much pain. Early hotel check in and long sleep in a comfy bed rectified it.

the last day run to the barn. I faced the same challenge in reverse and knew what I had to do. I hit the ground early in cool air and rode out of the NM mountains out into the high mountain desert. Cross winds and Head winds, I pushed hard at 75 to make miles before the sun got its dander up. which it did. by noon I was roasting. even pulling off layers, there was no relief. I stopped only for fuel and bite to eat midday. I pushed hard trying to put miles behind me. By early evening I was too close to home to pull over and get hotel, but yet still had 4 hours ride to get done. Just as I exited I-40 at Sweetwater Tx to take backroads home (I hate riding Interstates and among noisy stinky wind turbulent trucks that cant maintain steady speed) Jesus answered my prayers for relief and the sky opened up and dropped a truck load of Cold Wet Showers.. just on me.. no where else. Blue skies all around, I was getting the primo treatment. I pulled over, parked, undressed and just stood there getting soaked and enjoying every moment of it. I even dug out a mildly cool beer and let that cool my core temp and ease my noggin.
but perserverance is the ticket to getting it done. so I pressed on. two hours later the sun low, the temps eased up enough even though I would be riding after dark soon. I don't like to and avoid riding at night if at all possible. too many bad things happen in the dark. but I did it. got all the way home in one piece and nobody died. not on my watch anyway.

So what is the lesson, take away from this part of this trip? each day ride should be no more than 500 miles = 10 hours saddle time plus adequate time for Lengthy breaks, plenty of walking and don't put off drinking LOTS of water, ( I drank 4 quarts when I got home).
When in the mountains, 200-300 miles per day are plenty.
The Ride Home has always been my Achilles heal. I plan for 3 days 1500 miles, but push myself too hard and try for 2 days. It makes for not a good time riding at the end of a long trip , already exhausted. I think if I get home a day early, its time to decompress and unpack and put everything in order before returning to mundane life of fixing other peoples problems..
So maybe next time I will pace myself and get that last hotel 500 miles away and call it quits, save the last leg for the next day.. If I get too close too home, I think I can make it before dark. it hasn't happened yet , not once in 40years.. dammit! ponchout

I tried to edit, but system would not let me add a pic. so here it is. I quit / didn't take a lot of pix day 2 as I was in great distress pain my back was barking like a wounded hound dog (no aussies here). I pulled up early and got hotel. my style of camping. even though I did back camp gear. it was mostly useless and way too much crap on this sled. from now on its hotels or I am going to need a trailer. cant quite bring myself to that level of bike departure. might just as well be driving my truck if am going to carry that much creature comforts. and of course, I had to chose the busiest week of the summer "Independence Day". that is when we kicked those Limeys out of here. too bad we didn't finish the job and are stuck with Canukistan. they are a lot like aussies, only from Scandinavia and talk funny. but the hotels and parks were full up and 'spensive.. dam capitalist.

day 4, I rode more backroads into Jackson Wy and Teton NP. being the dreaded holiday, crowds - not the kicking britts out part - I hit a wall of traffic at south end of the park. So.. I just decided not to be part of the masses and got a camp spot. I have been here half dozen times, so know my way around. it was early afternoon, so I just set up shop and relaxed. there was a post office/store/restaurant a mile away so I got stamps and beer.
a couple fellas Ben and Frank from Sydney Aus camped next to me. and drank a good chunk of my beers. they had flown into Denver and bought a pair of slightly used new model Sportsters. they said to ride America they thought they needed American bikes. hey, if it pushes your buttons, go for it. Ben and Frank where touring the rocky mountains and were headed to Calgary (that's in canukistan) in a couple weeks time. there is some Stampede going on. probably Canadian version of S'turdgis. hopefully these guys will be well out of the states when that happens first week of august.
ok these pics are Teton mountains am headed into Yellerstones NP next. ponchout

day 5, well the biggest mistake I made this trip was thinking that I needed to go Thru Teton and Yellowstone NPs. having been here many times, it is only natural that I would not want to, as it is right next to where I was headed to; Bear Tooth Mountain and Chief Joseph hiway. 2 very impressive roads worth riding 1500 miles each way for. but my mistake was going thru the parks on a major holiday week. where thehell did all these peeps come from? traffic. the NPs have become a nightmare from July thru Aug. on top of all else, why do they schedule road reconstruction during peak travel weeks? they shut down the only roads in the park to just one lane and traffic backs up for miles. I had a few words with a park ranger at an entry booth. I had already checked in at the previous booth several miles down the road. It made no sense to make another line of backed up traffic just to do the whole process again. I have a lifetime senior pass. they should have a lane just for that. and then she told me I was in the car lane. I said you don't have a m/c lane, just truck/camper lane and car lane. wtf! I was more than happy to get out of the park.. I could have just ridden around the parks out in the Wyoming desert. I wasted 2 days extra days just getting to Red Lodge Mt but here are some pix of Lake Yellowstone. it is a very pretty place before July and after August. just FYI i still was getting about 57mpg pretty steady in the mountains.

day 6, its past the midpoint of the trip and time to turn it around. yesterday heading north out of Cody Wy to ride the Chief Joseph and Bear Tooth hiways, a handful of hardleys pulled out in front of me and headed in the direction I was going following the signs. I just fell in behind them thinking they knew what they were doing. mistake. about 20 miles out into the Wyoming desert, the lead and then the group all pulled over and stopped. I knew then that they had missed an important sign/turn and would have to go all the way back to Cody to find the road we needed to be on. being just another 45 miles to Red Lodge my end of day, I decided to just continue and blow off the 2 big roads for today. I will ride them tomorrow. that sounds like a good idea. and it played out fairly well. got hotel reasonable early and settled in. This next morning I awoke to heavy dense fog/cloud at ground level 8k ft in town. and promise of rain for the day. schitt. no views. no pics. riding up to 11k ft is not going to be worth it. dammitt! but I loaded up and suited up and headed up anyway. It was colder than a witchestitt the higher I rode. Im wearing 6 layers and its freezing. I rode out the top of the cloud 9-10k ft into blue sky sunshine. but it kept getting colder. every time I stopped to take some pics, I would find a turn out place by myself and go to all the trouble of parking and taking off gloves and gear, powering up the phone, sizing up a good pic and then a caravan of vehicles particular 2 class C motor homes would pull in and surround me and everybody jump out of their heated vehicles wearing tee shirts and shorts and get in front of every picture I was wanting to take. giving absolutely no regard to the fact that I am freezing myass off waiting for them to finish their clowning and get back in vehicle and leave so I can take a friggen pic. city folk. tourist. probably flew here too. this happened too many time for me to just chuck it off. I was getting pissed. No I am not going to post all the pics these bozos foto bombed me. here are some pix going up from the north side of the mountain headed back south toward Cody. all this way just to get smorked by city folk tourist. sheesh!