Home Sweet Home

A total of 3,362 miles with 56 hours and 11 minutes spent moving on the bike. That's an average speed of 60 mph and according to my GPS my top speed was (ahem) 108 mph - there are some really wide open and smooth roads out there in the Southwest!

I started at an elevation of 886 feet here at home and hit 12,095 feet at the top of Independance Pass. Most of the trip happens on the Colorado Plateau at around 7,000 feet. For a flatlander like me that means a lot of huffing and puffing when walking around. 

The bike purred like a kitten the whole time, even at speeds well over 90 mph, and I feel much more at home on the bike now.

There are so many great roads that I hit on this trip it's hard to remember which ones stand out. For sure Highway 114 in Colorado just south of Gunnison was a high point with so many twists and turns it was almost like being on a rollercoaster.  Hwy 46 in Utah/90 in Colorado was more of a challenge with tight switchbacks and few bumpy areas but a ride everyone should add to their list.

Even Hwy 70 in Utah has some spectacular views...

The Last Day in Colorado

Leaving Aspen and heading back to the same hotel in Sante Fe. The plan is ride over Independence Pass, loop back toward Gunnison then down to South Fork, over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs then Santa Fe.

Independance Pass

This is a fun ride. The area east of Aspen is as close to heaven as I care to get right now and the climb up to the top of the pass is awsome. The road is lined with Aspen trees and the view down the stepp drop off to the right is so enticing that I have to keep refocusing my eyes back to the narrow winding road. You just don't get views like this back in Texas...

Proof that I was there...

I'll be adding a video of the ride over the pass after I get it cleaned up and uploaded to YouTube.

Bouncing back and forth over the Continental Divide

Looping back toward Gunnison took me back over the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass.

The water under my bike was left over from a group of Harley riders I waited on who were taking pic's in front of this sign. I have no idea if it was from one of the bikes or if they were just messy drinkers.

Somewhere along the line I crossed back over the Continental Divide and then came back across again via Wolf Creek Pass. I didn't stop for a sign picture but snapped a couple of shots along the way.

Smoke from New Mexico fires was in the air here...

South Fork wasn't much to write home about but Pagosa Springs seems to have really done a great job of developing the hot springs to make it a 'cool' place to hang out...

After this it was just a sprint to the Buffalo Thunder Hotel at Sante Fe for some food and and sleep.

Aspen

If there is a town that conjures up images of "The Good Life" then it's Aspen. Everything is clean, trendy and expensive.

I stayed at a place called The Sky Hotel and it had that 'cool' vibe going on.

HUGE chairs in the lobby (the backs are 4-5 feet tall)...

My free mango sorbet (also huge)...

Veggie burger, fries and a local IPA to wash it down...

The  Room...

Telluride

Spent the night in Telluride, actually Mountain Village just above Telluride. If you're the type of person that likes to ski in the winter and tromp around up and down steep hills with very little oxygen then this place is for you.

Laid back is the only word for the whole area. Heck with a speed limit of 15 mph you pretty much HAVE to be laid back.

Now that I'm home and can upload some pic's...

My bike tucked in next to the ride of a fellow rider who happened to be staying at the same place...

Wish I had brought something to wear in the pool, the view from the deck is outstanding...

Telluride from a distance...

Day 2 at the races was better, day 3 was perfect, weather wise at least.

The races were exciting with our BMW team taking a 2nd in the SBK Race 1 and 1st in Race 2. The win was by something like .192 seconds.

A few pictures...

Day one at the Races - Cold, Wet and Windy

Earlier in the week the forecast was for warm, sunny weather and a few passing storms on Saturday. Well now the forecast is for rain and a lot of wind.  Perfect weather for NOT being out watching the races. Yet here we are!

One of the fun parts of being here is taking a walk through the pits to see the cool bikes. I guess it was too cold for the guys to open the doors so after a 15 minute wait for the pits to open we got this...

The weather did lighten up a bit for practice to so we got some pic's of the AMA guys.  You can't say they don't push the limit...

Ready for some racing

Despite the torture test of three days with massive headwinds I made it to Salt Lake City. The ride from Grand Junction to here is not a bad trip despite being on major highways most of the way. The exception being the last 30 miles or so up I-15 - what a mess that thing is. This time I veered off through Provo and looped around through the mountains to the east. I got caught in a little rain in Park  City and got nice and chilled but it was a blast screaming down I-80. It was like doing a giant slalom, except with 800 pound 160 horsepower skies!

The People You Meet On The Road

Like the guy in the pic...

He and I sync'd up on I-40 and chatted at gas stations. He was riding from Joplin back home to Las Vegas into that massive headwind all the way. His glasses blew off in a big gust so he was squinting his way back. Apparently he was shot by a total stranger in a road rage incident about 18 months ago - a 38 right to the chest! The cops caught the guy but he still has no idea what the guy was mad at or why he decided to shoot a total stranger. I figure he's tough enough that he'll make it home.

A Long Windy Day

Made it through the hardest day and I'm ready for some sleep. Twelve hours of hot dry wind really wears you out. The new bike did great and it's a lot easier to ride in the wind since the extra weight really keeps it from getting tossed around as much. On the flip side, it's a bit hotter because of the large windscreen and fairing.

Tonight I'm staying at the Buffalo Thunder Hotel and Casino just north of Santa Fe NM. It's a really nice place and the rate of $89/night is awesome. They even have a special parking area next to the building where they put the bikes... Sweet!

Not bad...

West Texas Riding

Some things never change. Apparently one of those things is West Texas.

102 degrees and 30-40 mph crosswinds must be the norm here. This is my 5th trip - which makes it my 9th time across the Southern Plains - and it's the same every time.

Taking a break in the air-conditioned comfort of a Starbucks in Amarillo. If the workers would stop yapping to each other like they were all half deaf it would be a nice place to relax.

Tracking My Progress

One of the fun parts of doing a trip (for me) is trying to make it somewhat entertaining for my friends that can't or don't want to be with me. Writing a blog and posting up pic's along the way is certainly one way to keep people updated but it seems that the most fun comes from watching my location in near real-time on the map.

I get asked if I feel 'restricted' or somehow inhibited because I'm "being watched" but I find the opposite is actually true. Since I have a route planned there is a certain expectation that I'll be in certain places at certain times. If I deviate from my plan then my timing is off and it's possible I'll reach places like my hotel later than expected. With the tracking I know that my wife can see that even though I may be wandering off somewhere (it happens a lot) I am still moving and therefore probably just fine - lost maybe but at least not hurt or stuck somewhere. Without the tracking she will start to worry if I don't call at 'normal' times.

The original reason I set up tracking was so I could be found if something bad happened and I needed help. Now that we all have smartphones it's as simple as downloading an app and firing it up to create a tracking map so someone can follow your progress. The only problem with the phone idea is that you have to be in a location with mobile service so the phone can send it's location to the server that hosts the map. On the trips I take it's almost a given that I'll be out of cell phone range for big chunks of time and when that happens my location won't update plus I won't be able to contact anyone tell them I need help.

If not a phone then what?

I use a device called a Spot Connect. It's a very rugged unit that looks like this...

The Spot links to my phone via a Bluetooth connection and I can control it from an app on the phone. The Spot unit has a GPS chipset that allows it to know where it is and a satellite transmitter that sends messages which are picked up by one or more of a constellation of 48 satellites and relayed to ground stations where they are forwarded to the Spot servers. Since the messages are sent directly to satellites I don't have to worry about being in range of a cell phone tower, I just have to be somewhere on Earth

The messages I can send consist of "OK" messages, "Help" messages, and "SOS" messages.

• The OK messages I set up at a website ahead of time and are non-emergency kinds of things like "I'm stopping for lunch" or "Getting gas and a snack". I would send that so someone watching, like my wife, won't panic when she sees I haven't moved for an hour. I set up groups of people who can get the message and it can be sent to either email or as text messages to phones.
• Help messages (there is only one) I also set up in advance and it tells whoever gets it that I'm physically OK but I need help (ran out of gas, broke down or whatever). It contains my location and some text about how to decode that location info. The Help message goes to a specific predefined group of people that know what to do if they get that message.
• The SOS message is sent to the GEOS Emergency Response Center and it means I need help NOW. Using this button means I'm in real trouble, probably injured, no one is here to help and I can't get help any other way. The GEOS guys will call my emergency contacts (and try to call me) to see if anyone knows what is going on. If not they coordinate the search and rescue using whatever local resources are available for where I am at the time. There are SOS buttons on both the phone and on the unit itself so I just need to get to either one. I never want to use this button!

So how exactly does that big map on the top of the page work?
A special message is the 'tracking' message and that is done by turning on the tracking feature. I turn this on first thing in the morning and leave it on all day. A tracking message is sent to the Spot servers every 10 minutes and just contains my location and the time. All of the tracking messages are saved at Spot and can be used to plot a map showing where I was and when.

Spot provides a mapping service but it only works for tracking messages received in the previous 24 hours so the track sort of moves along like a snake and it doesn't show the whole trip. To get around that limitation I use a website called Spotwalla because it keeps the tracks for as long as I want. It also lets me define a 'security zone' where it won't display the tracking information. I blot out pretty much the entire DFW area because I really don't want anyone to see where my house is when they know I'm 1,500 miles away. The map above is for this specific trip and I do that by simply telling Spotwalla the exact time to start and stop recording my tracks. Anything recorded in that interval is part of this trip. If the map says there is nothing to display it means my trip hasn't started yet.

Spotwalla supposedly updates the map every 10 minutes on it's own but I've noticed that sometimes it just doesn't work that way and a page refresh is required. If you're watching and nothing is changing then reload the page and it should catch up.

Route Planning

There are two ways to go about a long road trip like this; plan the entire route turn by turn or just wing it and head the general direction you want to end up.  I tend to blend these two methods together so I have a 'target' route that I know will get me where I'm going combined with a freedom to deviate and reroute anywhere I want.

Creating a plan (the route I know will work)

Since I don't have unlimited time (or money) I have to have at least a rudimentary plan to get where I'm going. I have a Garmin GPS (BMW Navigator IV) so I use the Garmin route building software called BaseCamp to create my detailed route plans. The routes are loaded to the GPS and I can simply choose the route I want and it tells me where to go along with various information like how long until I get to my destination.

BaseCamp is sort of like Google Maps in that it creates a route between points that you choose on a map and makes changes as you add or delete waypoints you want to visit. I actually like using Google Maps better but Google does not create nice tidy route files that the GPS wants. Like most things in the Internet world there are a small flock of incompatible file formats and almost nothing works right with anything else. I've played with the various online tools to convert between the formats but none of them would do the job without my having to manually get in and "fix" things.

BaseCamp and my GPS require licensed map files so I downloaded and installed the latest files and built my routes. If you've never done this you don't know how frustrating it can be. The routing software sometimes chooses the most bizarre paths and you have to go in and create what are called 'shaping points' that force the route to follow the roads you want. You don't want to add too many or it overloads the GPS so it becomes an art to choosing the exact places to put the points to get the best effect. Sometimes one shaping point will do the job, sometimes it takes several.

Once the routes were created I saved them to the GPS and I'm ready to go. I may make some minor changes but right now my planned routes look like this (Aqua is outgoing, Pink is the return route)...

The outbound trip is always more of a straight line shot for me because I want to make sure I get to races and therefore limit the amount of 'wandering' I do. For this trip I've combined parts of routes from other years that worked (or were especially fun) along with some new roads so I'm not too bored.

The inbound route meanders around a lot more and crossed back and forth over my outbound trip. That's not my normal plan - I tend to loop back around one side or the other just to mix in some different scenery. This year however I'm trying to scout several areas for potential vacation homes. Telluride and South Fork in Colorado and the Angle Fire area in New Mexico. I also want to hit the amazing area around Aspen again just in case something affordable can be found (Ha!). The inbound trip also contains almost exclusively 'back' roads and avoids interstates or heavily travelled highways wherever possible. The goal is not really to get anywhere quickly but to enjoy the ride - The Journey is the Destination.

Other than the hotels for the first two nights on the road, and of course the stay in Salt Lake City, I haven't picked places to stay for the night. I've found that I can always find a place to sleep if I'm not too picky and start thinking about how far I want to get before it gets too late. Having a wife at home who can track exactly where I am all of the time and contact me while I'm riding makes those last minute searches for an available room a LOT easier, for me at least! If I'm tired or it's getting late she can see which towns I'm approaching, find places to stay and make the reservations in a few minutes. If I have the time I'll just ride into town and troll for a decent looking place.

About the bike

I mentioned that my new bike is a BMW K1600 GTL in the first post. This bike is really an amazing piece of machinery.

First off is the engine. This monster has a 1600cc inline-6 motor. BMW is famous for it's inline-6's and this is the most compact I-6 ever made, by anyone. The feel and sound of the thing reminds me of a turbine engine and the power is amazing. Cruising at 80 mph is far too easy with this bike. The GS had the twin boxer motor that could run at any speed all day without stopping but it had certain RPM ranges that were buttery smooth but others that put a lot of vibration into the bike. The GTL is just smooth as silk at any RPM range that I've found. The exhaust note is a deep low 'throbbing' at idle or steady cruising. Open it up and it sounds like an off-shore race boat! I am going to be so lucky if I make it through this trip without a performance award from a state trooper somewhere out in the wide open countryside.

The electronics are almost comical:

• Entertainment
• Sirius satellite radio
• Garmin BMW Nav4 GPS with bluetooth for phone
• USB interface for music
• Support for iPhone/iPod
• USB flash drive
• Bluetooth support for two helmets
• Comfort
• Electronic windscreen adjustment
• Heated Grips
• Heated Seats
• Central locking
• Alarm
• Drivability
• ABS
• Dynamic Traction Control with three settings
• Electronic fuel mapping with three settings
• Electronically variable suspension settings

The list goes on but you get the idea. All of the electronics are controlled by a few buttons and a whiz-bang do everything wheel/toggle. You never have to move your hands from the grips or even look down to make changes if you're able to memorize the entire set of menus.

The accommodations for the passenger (pillion in motorcycle parlance) are much better than on the GS and are a major reason for the change to this bike. We've done a couple of day trips to get used to the bike and so far this one is getting the thumbs up from the wife so I think we have a winner.

WSBK trip preparation

T-minus 24 days and preparation is already underway for this year's trip to the races.

This year will be a slightly different adventure since I no longer have my beloved R1200 GS but instead have a brand new shiny BMW K1600 GTL. The GTL is not an off-road machine by any stretch so this trip all be on nice smooth tarmac. What the GTL lacks in off-road capability it makes up for it technology and raw performance. I could easily make it all the way to SLC in two days with no problem if I had a get out of jail free card to hand the cops every time I got pulled over. The full fairing and larger windscreen will also make the trip a lot less work for me so I hope that I'm not as worn out at the end of the day.

The new GTL

I'm still determining the final routing for the trip but the outline is to hit the following places:

• Angle Fire, NM
• North rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
• Moab, UT
• Salt Lake City
• Telluride, CO
• Aspen, CO
• South Fork, CO

One of the goals is to scout for any potential areas where we can built a vacation home so I'll probably cover fewer miles than normal so I can spend a little more time poking around in a few key areas we are interested in knowing more about. Unfortunately I probably won't hit as many parks either. Of course Colorado is pretty much a giant park anyway so I'm not missing much.

I'm still looking at how to best capture a record of my trip and how to make it easy to follow where I am and what I'm doing. Last year I used a blog like this and it seemed to work so I'm reading about the new options they have for people to follow the blog updates. I may be tweaking the format of things in the next couple of weeks until I figure out how this all works.