Many of you know I was widowed in 2004 and I toured the country on my own by motorcycle in 2005. This was the year for me, time to recover from the loss of my husband and not have to deal with people other than ordering food and getting a hotel room. I had planned to ride through all 48 states but Tropical Storm Tammy had other ideas.
I often get asked questions about my trip, especially when I share photos on Facebook, so I thought I’d write a blog post with a few facts about my trips along with some favorite photos. Many were taken with my left hand while riding, so the quality isn’t always the best. Here are a few fun facts.
- Rode solo through 42 states for a total of 27,000 miles
- Four trips of varying lengths, the longest being ten weeks
- Most trips were planned with an event at the destination (turn-around point)
- I used Microsoft Streets & Trips for route planning and carried a very small laptop
- I often sang songs to myself about the area I was in (“I can see for miles”, “Oklahoma”, “Gary, Indiana”, etc)
- I tracked the prices of McDonald’s senior coffee
- I tracked the wild animals I saw
- I went through a lot of National Parks, some more than once
- I never planned to ride more than 350 miles a day, less in sightseeing areas
- I didn’t take photos in some states (explanation below)
- I didn’t journal the trip, my head wasn’t into that at the time
- Very few people offer to take a photo of solo travelers (this was pre-selfies era)
As I said, I did my routing with Microsoft Streets and Trips and I pre-planned all the trips at one time. That’s how I spent the first five months after my husband died. The software let me see where the gas stations and hotels were, ensuring I “shouldn’t” run out of gas or have to ride after dark.
I didn’t have a GPS and those that were on the market were pretty basic. Instead, I used a tip from the Motorcycle Tourer’s Forum – each morning I would write each turn on my windshield with a grease pencil. Always on the periphery of my vision, it was a quick and easy way to see where to turn next.
If you look carefully, you can see my instructions on my windshield in the above photo: I-15 N followed by Rt 9. Keeping it simple! It worked well – most of the time. But that was the good thing about Streets & Trips and a small laptop. If I got off route, which did happen, when I stopped for lunch or the night, I would just figure out where I was and adjust accordingly.
Another thing I did in my pre-planning was to schedule a day off the bike about every 10-14 days. I might just veg in the hotel room or I might do a little walking around the hotel, but it was a good break and kept me from getting too tired. I never set an alarm, the only thing that dictated my leaving time was being awake and aware of the weather. There were times I stayed until checkout time at the hotel, waiting for the weather to warm or the rain to clear.
I vividly remember this part of my trip from my home in Sparta, TN to Albuquerque, NM where I was scheduled to get my 1k service for my Harley-Davidson. I was spending the night in Las Vegas, NM (who knew there were two Las Vegas-es?) after having lunch in Kenton, OK with some folks from the Motorcycle Tourer’s Forum. They made sure I was on a good route to Las Vegas after discovering the route I had planned was all gravel. (Eeep!)
Even though the weather was warm and sunny when I arrived was beautiful, the hotel staff told me to park the bike under the lobby’s canopy. When I got up the next morning, it was cold and rainy. With the temperature hovering close to freezing, I opted to wait until checkout time, hoping for less rain and warmer temps.
Checkout rolled around and while still raining, it was a little warmer. My destination was only a two hour ride, a nice short day. But I had no idea what was ahead…
I geared up for rain, put on multiple layers, and headed out after giving another rider who had lost his gloves my latex pair I had brought along as a possible glove liner if needed. About 20 minutes into the ride, I was so cold I was pulling off at exits to warm my hands on my engine. Soon after, I noticed the rain wasn’t sheeting off my windshield. I swiped my glove over it and discovered it was frozen! That’s when I noticed the snow on the sides of the road. I had no idea I’d be going over Glorieta Pass at 7500 ft!
When I finally arrived in Santa Fe, I headed to the first McDonalds I saw. I circled around the parking lot three times looking for a good spot and making sure I had the bike under control (my hands and feet were numb with cold). I’m sure the local “old men” group inside wondered what I was doing. They gawked as I walked in, tossed my helmet and bag into a booth and headed to the restroom with a nod in acknowledgement.
I rode in all kinds of weather – rain, snow, hail, wind and all temps from freezing to 100s. My gear made it all possible, even though it was several years later before I knew about or added any heated gear.
In North Dakota I waited under an overpass as a storm passed through, raining so hard there was zero visibility. When I finally got stopped for the night, the hotel lobby television was displaying the severe storm warnings for the local area.
In Arizona, the wind was blowing so hard when I picked my bike up from the Harley dealer in Kingman, the leather fringe on my grips blew underneath me as I sat, preventing me from getting the bike upright until I figured out why.
All in all, it was an amazing learning experience in so many ways. Here are a few more photos.
That’s it for this post…I’ll write about more experiences on my trip in future posts. Hope you enjoyed!
2 thoughts on “Back in the day… My 2005 journey”
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Sending your blog to my biker daughter who has done “chick rides”, thousands of miles over the years. She is 63.
Awesome – I hope she will stop by!