Mississippi River/Appalachian Mountain Ride 2011

Day 1 May 2, 2011

It is finally here! The start day for our annual ride. We have all been anxiously awaiting this date. The same six from last year are riding, and they are:

Ken Shriner
C.E. Fuller
Bruce Stallman
Jan Marshall
Chuck Roseberry
Al Contreras

We all met at Denny's at 7:30 AM for our farewell breakfast. Our wives joined us, along with Chuck's daughter, Genna, and Tim Sindel. Bev, we missed you. After breakfast, as we were getting ready to leave, my daughter, Jennifer, and grandson, Connor, arrived. It was a nice morning at 73 degrees. We left southbound on the I-17 access road at 9:09 AM.

Chuck was in the lead and I was next, followed by C.E., Ken, Bruce and Jan. The weather was very nice for riding Motorcycles. We continued south and Chuck stopped at the Shell station and mini-mart in Picacho Peak at 10:24 AM after riding 88 miles. The breakfast coffee was getting to him and we had to make our first pit stop. Since Chuck went, we all did too. It was 77 degrees when we left Picacho Peak at 10:37 AM with Chuck still in the lead.

We continued through Tucson and past. After riding another 86 miles, Chuck stopped at a Shell station in Benson for gas. Chuck rides a Harley with only a 5 gallon gas tank. He filled it with almost 5.1 gallons! I forgot to mention that we had a headwind and we were going about 80 mph. Oh well, we made it and gassed up. We left at 12:04 PM at 68 degrees.

I was in the lead now. We headed east. We still had a headwind and continued at 75 to 80 mph. We rode for another 40 miles and we stopped at 12:38 PM in Wilcox, AZ at the...you guessed it, Subway! Four years ago, we stopped by this very same Subway during our 4 Corner's Ride. Four years ago, after we left the Subway and got back onto I-10, Chuck had lost his gloves and we didn't stop to pick them up. I told Chuck that we could keep an eye out for those gloves. We didn't find them! It was a little chilly, 66 degrees. We all put on our jackets. We left at 1:30 PM.

We continued with me in the lead. We crossed the New Mexico State Line and lost an hour because of Daylight Savings Time. Usually after lunch, we like to ride for about 20 minutes and then stop again to take a break. I didn't stop until we rode another 76 miles and stopped at 3:34 PM in Lordsburg, NM. We needed a pit stop. We didn't stay long. We left at 3:53 PM.

I lead the group eastbound on I-10 for another 60 miles. I knew that Chuck's Motor needed gas. We stopped at 4:44 PM in Deming, NM. After getting gas, Chuck told Bruce to lead us to the east end of El Paso, TX. and maybe we could find a place to stay the night. We left at 5:05 PM.

Bruce now lead the group eastbound. We entered El Paso, TX and continued through the city. We rode through several small cities east of El Paso but only saw small "Mom & Pop" Motels. We continued east until we arrived in Fabens, TX at 6:57 PM after riding for 137 miles for a pit stop. The temperature stayed a constant 68 degrees and we were all glad that we had our jackets on! We left at 7:20 PM with C.E. in the lead.

C.E. was leading and Chuck had asked C.E. to lead us to a small city named Sierra Blanca, TX. Hopefully we would find a suitable hotel to stay. We didn't see anything that we would want to stay. The sun was setting. After riding 30 miles from Sierra Blanca, it was dark. With C.E. in the lead, I put all of my headlights on and headed toward the front with C.E. I was side by side with C.E. We both had our bright lights on and the street ahead was well lit. We kept passing signs by the side of the road indicating, "Watch for deer." We all had our bright lights on and we felt better riding in the dark, knowing that we would see the critters by the side of the road. After riding 94 more miles, we got off I-10 and stopped at a "Come and Go" mini-mart. Pit Stop! We had missed the exit to the Holiday Inn Express in Van Horn, TX. It was 9:39 PM. Just prior to getting to Van Horn, we passed a sign indicating that we were now on Central Standard Time. We lost another hour! We got back on I-10 westbound to get back to the Holiday Inn Express. I was leading with C.E. to keep the high-beam headlights on. Well, we missed the exit again! We continued westbound hoping to get to the next exit. There was a small road in the middle of the freeway designated for u-turns. We made the u-turn and headed eastbound...again! We looked like a nighttime "Chinese Fire Drill!" This time we didn't miss the exit. The person at the desk at Holiday Inn Express told us that they were all booked up. They also owned the Hampton Inn next door and they were also booked. We left at 9:44 PM and headed east to the Day's Inn. We arrived at 10:05 PM and we were able to check in at a great rate. We rode back west to a Wendy's for dinner and returned to the Day's Inn at 11:00 PM where we parked our Motors by our rooms and tucked them in for the night.

Not bad for the first day. We rode for 600 miles, and some of that in the dark! We got in very late to our rooms so that meant that I would be up very late working on my blog. Hope I finish soon. Tomorrow we should get to the Houston area. We shall see. So, until tomorrow...