Monday, April 6, 2015

April 6: Departure minus 2 (maybe)

Hmm. A blog. Well, although it's a stereotype I've avoided until now, it looks like I'm about to become a blogger. I needed a good reason to start a blog, and I'm hoping this journey across most of the country, by motorcycle, will suffice.

People want structure. I've been reminded of that recently as I tell people about my plans (or, more precisely, my lack of plans.) After leaving L.A., my eventual destination is central Alabama, where my daughter lives and goes to college. At some point there will be a layover in Houston, where my employer is headquartered, so that I can spend some time working in person with the colleagues that I usually encounter only by phone or email. In fact, I also plan to work most weekdays during this trip, which will probably last a month or more. I will get up in the morning, fire up the laptop, take the early morning remote meetings with our subsidiary in India, work a bit on my assigned projects, then check out of the motel and hit the road. It would be nice to be retired while doing this, but I think it would be unwise to wait for retirement.

There, that's my plan. But people want more structure. When will you leave? When will you get to Houston? To Alabama? When will you get back? Where will you be the first night? The second? The third?

I don't know the answers to those questions, and I'm really enjoying the lack of structure. It feels like freedom. I want to go places I would otherwise never get to, and get to know folks in every town. Ideally I would like to ride about 200 miles a day, but I'm sure that number will vary a lot. To get to the Arizona border, which is my informal target for the first day, requires about 300 miles. Will these 62-year-old bones handle the grind, day after day? I'm guessing yes, but I'm packing aspirin.

One of my major goals is to never get on a freeway during this trip. That poses some unexpected challenges. If you're in Yuma, Arizona, and you want to go east, it's pretty hard to avoid Interstate 8. If you're in Tucson, Interstate 10 goes the direction you want to go, but nothing else does. I think I've worked around these obstacles but I'll bet that at some point I'll find myself shocked as my road is about to become a freeway and I'll have to scramble to get back to ordinary highways.

In the interest of not getting too cold in April, I want to hug the Mexican border, too, but you would be surprised how many huge obstacles get in the way. Near Yuma, eastward roads are 50 to 80 miles from the border. It's the same story at Douglas, Arizona, and east of El Paso. There are a lot of detours. There's no Border Highway; that's for sure.

I might even walk across to Mexico at some point. It seems wrong to be that close and not take the excursion. Nogales, Douglas, Puerto Palomas, Del Rio... it will probably happen somewhere.

There are some waypoints I would sure like to hit. I'm a birder, so Southeast Arizona deserves some time and attention. It's one of the great birding destinations in the U.S. I also want to see Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns is close by (at least, in West Texas terms it's close.) And Big Bend National Park. I hope to arrive in Houston able to rattle off a string of Texas destinations that almost no one in the office has ever visited. I would enjoy that.

Prep

I've done some preparation. I just finished an oil change on my Kawasaki Ninja 250 (more about that noble steed later.) I've composed some instructions for the kind folks who will care for the house and yard while I'm goine. I've made a list of things to pack. But I can feel April 8 rushing toward me and the tension/excitement will ratchet up from here. I'll talk to you tomorrow.


No comments:

Post a Comment