Well, here we are post-Love Story and recovering from the knots on my head.
This week I wanted to share a story from a friend of mine, Larry Preston. I had marveled at this story that Larry shared with me -- not so much for the trip, but for what they were riding. In this day of long distance motorcycle touring, we have at our disposal--ST's, Goldwings, BMWs and all sorts of high-performance bikes to choose from to make the long journey quite easy. But 3500 miles on a Seca 400 or XT600 single! My butt started hurting just listening to him tell the story.
Enjoy, and we'll talk next Wednesday about electric gear for your winter comfort.
Here's Larry's story:
My buddy Greg and I left out of Weatherford, Tx on a Friday afternoon in mid-August 1989, our sights set for Yellowstone National Park. Our weapons at hand for this ride, my 1982 Seca 400 twin and Greg’s 1985 Yamaha XT600 dual sport single.
We passed through west Texas on what must be the flattest, straightest (read boring ) roads in the world. Due to our late start, we fell short of leaving Texas day 1, and landed in Muleshoe, Tx.
We got started day 2 and cut across a corner of New Mexico and headed for Colorado, where we stopped for photo ops at Royal Gorge and Great Sand Dunes Monument.
We then began climbing into the Rockies. As you would expect, climbing up and over 10,000ft + passes on our small bikes went something like this, “I think I can, I think I can, whew, made it, WEEEEEEE”. The next couple of days blurred together into chilly mornings, beautiful days with scenic winding roads. We caught a rain shower here and there and the most heinous storms rolled in each evening. These storms left us scurrying for a motel and forgetting the tents and sleeping bags we were hauling. We did camp one night just to prove we could, and I woke up in a rain puddle.
We next passed through Grand Tetons National Park, where we watched the mountains slowly materialize through the clouds. Then headed on to our target of Yellowstone.
Although still recovering from the fires of ’88, Yellowstone park was magnificent. We had a day of seeing incredible hot spring, geysers and ‘moose jams‘. There aren’t that many animals seen from the road so if a moose or other animal pokes its head out, people just stomp the brakes, stop wherever the skid mark ends and reach for the camera. It keeps your skills sharp.
After our day in Yellowstone, we touched the lower edge of Montana and headed East for Mt. Rushmore. We got there on our fifth day, spent a little time with the big heads, then pointed our wheels towards home.
By now we were getting a little saddle sore, averaging about 500 miles per day. Feet on the pegs, feet on buddy pegs, feet on the turn signals front and back, we tried it all. The last couple of days were all about enduring the ride home, since we didn’t find much to look at through Nebraska and Kansas, except someone's reproduction of Stonehenge in junk cars.
We got home 1 week and about 3500 miles later. Or little bikes just ran and ran, asking nothing more than chain lube. Just goes to show that there’s fun and adventure in all sorts of packages.
Larry Preston
We passed through west Texas on what must be the flattest, straightest (read boring ) roads in the world. Due to our late start, we fell short of leaving Texas day 1, and landed in Muleshoe, Tx.
We got started day 2 and cut across a corner of New Mexico and headed for Colorado, where we stopped for photo ops at Royal Gorge and Great Sand Dunes Monument.
We then began climbing into the Rockies. As you would expect, climbing up and over 10,000ft + passes on our small bikes went something like this, “I think I can, I think I can, whew, made it, WEEEEEEE”. The next couple of days blurred together into chilly mornings, beautiful days with scenic winding roads. We caught a rain shower here and there and the most heinous storms rolled in each evening. These storms left us scurrying for a motel and forgetting the tents and sleeping bags we were hauling. We did camp one night just to prove we could, and I woke up in a rain puddle.
We next passed through Grand Tetons National Park, where we watched the mountains slowly materialize through the clouds. Then headed on to our target of Yellowstone.
Although still recovering from the fires of ’88, Yellowstone park was magnificent. We had a day of seeing incredible hot spring, geysers and ‘moose jams‘. There aren’t that many animals seen from the road so if a moose or other animal pokes its head out, people just stomp the brakes, stop wherever the skid mark ends and reach for the camera. It keeps your skills sharp.
After our day in Yellowstone, we touched the lower edge of Montana and headed East for Mt. Rushmore. We got there on our fifth day, spent a little time with the big heads, then pointed our wheels towards home.
By now we were getting a little saddle sore, averaging about 500 miles per day. Feet on the pegs, feet on buddy pegs, feet on the turn signals front and back, we tried it all. The last couple of days were all about enduring the ride home, since we didn’t find much to look at through Nebraska and Kansas, except someone's reproduction of Stonehenge in junk cars.
We got home 1 week and about 3500 miles later. Or little bikes just ran and ran, asking nothing more than chain lube. Just goes to show that there’s fun and adventure in all sorts of packages.
Larry Preston
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