Expedition Recovery

10/18/16 Irving, TX to Houston, TX  249.9 miles ridden.  Slow start to the morning but as I gained momentum I just kept working and got the bike loaded and out on the road a bit before noon. That included time to eat breakfast and to install the atlas throttle lock that had come in on Saturday morning.  I rode to a sheet metal shop in Dallas that was recommended when I called around. No one answered the phone but I ran over anyway. Nice guys but no time for several days to get to building me a dash plate for the GPS so I left and headed for a smoothie shop to get a healthy liquid lunch. A final stop for gas and a drink before heading out and starting towards Houston.  I made mostly good time, though the throttle lock failed to work fully and will need some tuning. Stopped for some food and fuel at a road side place with an Arbies in it. Had a few sliders and a Rockstar spritzer before making the final run into Houston.  Once into town I ...

9/30/16 Tamecula, CA to Santa Monica, CA  125.1 miles ridden.  5:15 am is a remarkably early wake up when going to bed at past midnight. I was able to get up and out on the bike pretty early and rode to have breakfast at a little place called the Landing Zone Cafe in Lake Elsinore.  Had a good ride up over the mountains on California State Route 74 but was tired enough to nearly fall asleep riding a few times. The road itself was twisty and would have been a dream ride if there had been less traffic and I had not been so exhausted. Multiple stops for photographs and my book on tape just simply were not cutting it to stay awake, even through the great curves. I finally made the call to switch to some music in my head set and used some Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat to fight off the heat and fatigue. With the music blaring I made a push on to Santa Monica without incident.  In Santa Monica I was greeted by Tessa and her wonderful do...