Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

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bmwdave52
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by bmwdave52 »

Everyone should see Yosemite once on their life, Bodie is awesome, RT 36 is the best motorcycle road around, and tar snakes will make you change your underwear.
Ride reports just don't get any better.
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by R12RnHouston »

Just stumbled on this report. Simply amazing! Thanks!
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

thanks, appreciate it.

Just returned from Big Bend a few weeks ago and trying to get motivated to do a ride report on this magnificent area.
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Well, don't do that-Hippocrates
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by R12RnHouston »

Dr. Strangelove wrote:thanks, appreciate it.

Just returned from Big Bend a few weeks ago and trying to get motivated to do a ride report on this magnificent area.
No kidding! Big Bend is one of my favorite places on Earth. Was out there before Christmas and wrote it up over on ADV. It's here http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=944797 if you get bored. Love the black wheels and yellow crash bars and pannier lids on your roadster. Looks cool!
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

^^^^ alright alright

I'll do it. Just read your entertaining RR and I am suitably shamed into starting another. :D

Thanks for the compliments on Blanche with her blond highlights.

John
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Sunbeemer »

STUPENDOUS report! Your best yet!
Really enjoyed your pics and perspective on the folks and places you rode.
Thanks for the trip!
=D> =D> =D> =D> =D>
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

Thanks, Rich. Good to hear from you and hope this finds you well
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by vwdoctor »

Sunbeemer wrote:STUPENDOUS report! Your best yet!
Really enjoyed your pics and perspective on the folks and places you rode.
very juvenile i know but the "folks you rode" :lol:
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

Juvenile and puerile and sophomoric are so underrated. Always go for the low hanging fruit.
:)
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Sunbeemer »

C'est a propos!
Some are rode hard, and some are harley rode. :lol:

It's all good 8)
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Re: Travels with Blanche DuBois: Out West 2013

Post by Michael22 »

Dr. Strangelove wrote:Everyone has a bucket list.
And for riders that bucket list are places that are calling you, places you want to experience on two wheels.
For years the trusty mode of transportation has been my Stella! red and sexy, but she was perceived to become a little long in the tooth, her age reaching 6 digits, and I was concerned that something could go wrong to leave me stranded. Stranded is not something I want to be. And something did go horribly wrong. Her ABS died and she awaits a transplant (Thanks SweatMark!)

Enter Stella!'s sister, Blanche DuBois, a hottie who always depended on the kindness of strangers. Blanche for the first 5k miles of my ownership was dependent on the kindness of a gas can, and too much angst...but with her third fuel strip now performing well and with her services now up to date, I felt it was time for Blanche to travel. To travel far.
They said Californy is the place you wanna be so I loaded up the bike and rode to Yosemite...and far beyond

The bigger the trip, the more alternatives are needed. There is more to happen that can change vectors, and road conditions, and other stuff. Flexibility is the key. The farther the ride, the more flexibility is required. A day or overnight ride is one thing; hop on and go. Transcontinental is another.

I wanted to go to Area 51, Rachel, Nevada; I wanted Yosemite; originally I wanted the Corbin factory to have Blanche's seat heated, but the wife acceptance factor of that $400 item was nil; she wants me to have a cold one, so Hollister, Ca was nixed.
I realized that traveling from New Orleans, by that time in mid Cali, things could change, so as they say, two paths diverged into a wood, both were less traveled. One went to Crater Lake, still snowed in when planning, then to the Palouse, then Lolo pass, cleared, but still snow, then The Missouri Breaks, then wind my way down south through the Great Plains. Gulf coast to Left coast then follow the Missouri back. A plan.

The other path through the woods was to take a right at N Cali and head to the Bonneville Salt Flats where I would see what the top end of Blanche could be, loaded as she was. Then head to somewhere...Wyoming? Nebraska? Somewhere with wide open spaces and vistas and 360 degree horizons. Landscape out the wazou. Quiet and puffy clouds.

Neither of those two paths happened. Not Plan A, not Plan B, I think it wound up being Plan D2, and that made all the difference. Well, I don't know if it made any difference at all, all options would have been just fine, but D2 was pretty damn cool.

I don't camp. I used to on these, but it's a lot of work finding a place and setting up and tearing down. It is far easier to let Super 8 or Microtel do that. And there's a lot to be said for modern conveniences. I think they'll catch on.

Needed to make miles that first day. I left the day after Mother's Day. Hint: always be in town for Mother's day. And also on Mother's Day my two oldest granddaughters were making their First Communion. I could not miss that and meet my Maker when that day comes with the lame excuse of needing to start a motorcycle "journey."
So, I do the Communion,

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but, by that afternoon, Blanche was packed and ready to roll for a 430 am start. Getting out of Louisiana and across much of Texas was necessary that first day, if for nothing more than shaking out the detritus that these trips shake out.
Crossing Louisiana in the south there are two choices: I 10 and US 190. They parallel each other and are only a few miles apart. 190 is the preferred route for me because it is NOT I 10-our nominee for the most miserable road in America--and 190 is smoother, just as fast and far fewer cars and trucks. there are speed traps along the way...Livonia and Reeves, but even with that it is better. This is a Chevron in Likvonia, pretty much just after dawn. This guy was definitely lost and looking for his owner, and knew that was not me. He kept hanging by the station. I got the non verbal communication from him that a Wiemaraner could have been just too much dog for someone and they left him on this stretch of 190. I hasten to add that dogs don't regularly speak to me and also, that knowing and having had experience with the breed, they can be a handful, and we are at the very top of the food chain, still it seemed more than a bit cruel.

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I am out of La by 10 am, and heading for Texas 36 which heads into Abilene where I spend my first night.
In Post, Tx. Post seems to be on the itinerary on every escape from Louisiana (and Texas) I choose, but when in Post, I know Cajun is far away, Duck Dynasty is only a TV show, and I know I am in Texas, big hats, big hair, big everything.

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I took some backroads, but generally US 60 across New Mexico, spending the second night in Los Lunas, a smudge on I 25 south of ABQ.
Raining and a long day on Blanche confined me to the local eateries, of which there were few. I try to eat local, and I like Mexican-and New Mexican, so New Mexico is a delight for me...usually. Not this night. There was a Taco Tico or something like that across the street that seemed to have a menu heavy on the cheeseburger side of the Rio Grande, and then there was a Wendy's and a Denny's. I chose the Denny's because I wanted to sit down on something other than a saddle longer than a Wendy's would allow. You may have made a different choice. You may not like Mexican, or New Mexican, but I was ready for more of a (fresh) frozen from New Jersey Chicken Parmigiano at $7.95 and our fresh garden herb salad with the dressing of your choice, and water, water, water.
I hope it's not snobbery that makes me think some of these things, maybe I've just seen one too many indie film, but there is something just not cheery about places like Denny's, despite the cheery affectations. This has come with age, to me I think. Maybe because I am (far) older than the people who work there, or whatever, but I really hope The cheery servers, Tim and Lauren and Melissa and all of them, are all college students and this is a chance to pay tuition with no loan and maybe some ( select your intoxicant of choice ) money on the side. They are now the age of my youngest, and they hustle, but there is just something that seems desperate? Probably not the right word. And that does sound snobby. But I always tip a bunch at these places.
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Simulation de rachat de crédit
I want them to move beyond the fast food server arena. I think too much about this stuff, or maybe the Effexor hasn't kicked in, but I know the other side of it is that Melissa is a single mom, is not in college and needs this work for 3 or 2 or 1 hot and a cot. I know Money does not Buy Happiness, but neither does minimum wage. No politics please. It's just the human condition, always has been, always will be. But these rides often open up images to you that may go less than noticed. riding solo, there's time for reflection, and not all morbid :) . But, I tip at these places pretty good. I want that on my ledger.

I stop in at Sandia BMW in ABQ, kudos to this fine dealership and the nice people there, to have the service reminder reset and finally am on some pretty decent roads. I get out of ABQ on 550 to NM 197 to BIA 9, a nicely winding road heading mostly west and catching 491 North. 491 is the one that goes through the blowing hard dust/sand storms. Ugh. Since mid Texas and for the remainder of the trip I am plagued by winds, usually 20 mph sustained, often 30 sustained and some with gusts 50 and over. These winds made their presence known to the rest of the country when they met up with the the spring front and danced in Moore, Oklahoma, but for now they were mine. Never from the rear, usually headwinds, or 3/4 from the front and sometimes from the side when they'd feel like they were pushing the laden bike to the side a couple of feet. The sand/dust was so thick that I could not see Shiprock from the road.
But I did the next morning. Whenever in the NW corner of New Mexico, I always make a trip to Shiprock. It's definitely a special place.

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And on into Arizona along BIA 13 to BIA 12 to Lukachukei to 191. that road, despite what my maps showed is paved all the way. Great road, with some pretty steep switchbacks along the way.

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And into St George, Utah where the real trip begins
That's amazing, thank you for sharing us your experience
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