Had a blast at the Owners Event in Durango but instead of going home to East TN we decided to head for San Diego to see friends and family. Ran into quite a few SpyderLovers on the way down, hope they all made it home safe.
Met this couple at Four Corners
Had to show the tourist the cool way to be in all four states, they were doing the twister thing...not cool! 
We stopped for the night just north of Phoenix and rode the rest of the way in the next day. You would think I would have stopped in at my mom's and got some rest but instead I took a ride to Palomar Mountain and then to Julian. I just couldn't pass up a chance to ride some of my old favorite roads.
On the way up to Palomar I ran into a bunch of locus. This sucker was stuck in my helmet.
I didn't stay long in San Diego as both Ron and I had to get back to TN but we both made the most of our time. Got to eat at some of my favorite places and I picked up another Best in show at the El Cajon car show. :doorag:
Best fast food Burgers in the country :thumbup:
We decided to head back to TN at 4am from San Diego. We really didn't get on the road till 5am but that's another story (BajaRon), just saying.
It was warm but not too bad. The Spyders were running great and they didn't want to stop but about 700 miles into the trip I got a email about some work I had to get done asap so that shut us down right at 800 miles. We wound up staying in the same Ramada in Albuquerque as we had stayed the week before. We ate at the Owl again and while we were there we ran into Dave who was there waiting on his Spyder to be repaired. They were able to hook him up with a loaner that Faran had so that worked out pretty good. :doorag:
From the hotel to my house mapped out at 1460 miles. For whatever reason I had it in my head I was going to ride all the way in. I told Ron he didn't have to do that if he didn't want to but he said he was game. Now this is on a GS/RS with a stock seat and no backrest. I have no idea how he did it with that setup as it was hard enough on the RT.
When we left Albuquerque it was just under 100 degrees and that felt cool compared to what we had been riding in. Suffice to say this was the hottest trip I can ever remember taking. The wind felt like a blast furnace and my temps were reading 104-106 most of the time and I did see 116 at one point. I can't tell you what state that was in because it was all pretty much a blur by then. I was doing pretty good till we got to about 850 miles or so and then I started having my doubts about making it. From there I went to the one fuel stop at a time state of mind. I knew if I could just make it to the next fuel stop I could decide if I wanted to try and push it all the way or not.
It was a battle of the mind and the body but the Spyder had no problem with the miles or the heat. I must say if there was any hiccup at all I would have used it for an excuse to quit but the Spyder didn't cut me any slack in that regard. I'm not saying I wanted to have a problem but I didn't want to stop just because I personally wimped out.
I did learn a hard lesson on this trip. After about 300 miles I decided to drink one of those 5 hour energy drinks and I timed it when the 5 hours was up before drinking another one. I had not eaten anything and was drinking plenty of water. I'll bet I drank 50 bucks worth of water on this run. The first 5 hour I drank didn't do much for me but the second one made me want to crawl out of my skin. It was not a good feeling at all and I couldn't wait for it to wear off. I was not only feeling freaky but I was having the dry heaves too while going down the road. That went on for about 400 miles. I will never take back to back 5 hour energy drinks again. Bad idea!
I did find a new trick that worked great, when we would get fuel I would go to where they had water for your radiator and I would soak myself before leaving. It would last about 50 miles and that was better than nothing. It really helped cool me down.
As the sun set it did get a little cooler but not much, it was still too darn hot. By time we got into west TN I was feeling pretty stupid and it was all I could do to stay on the road. At one point I fell asleep but in my dream I was driving on the roads in Durango. When I woke up I had no idea where I was and I was doing 50 mph. I had been doing 70+ so I have no idea how long I was out or if I was just sleep driving with my eyes open. It was the strangest thing but I knew it was going to get me killed if I let it happen again. Turns out there was a rest stop about two miles from where I woke up so I pulled in there and told Ron I had to stop or I was going to die. He was a sport and was fine with whatever I wanted to do.
Understand that this place was not setup for taking a nap on the ground. The whole place was dirt with very little grass and the one tree I found to lay next to was full of ants so that woke me up right away. The next place I laid my head was a picnic table and apparently they were have some sort of spider rally of their own there as I was covered with spiders in my ears, mouth and crawling down my neck. I went in the bathroom and it was mostly daddy long legs but it still wasn't cool. That pretty much woke me up to the point where I was ready to roll again. It's funny because Ron never got off of his Spyder, I'm not sure if he couldn't or just didn't want to but I'm sure he got some better rest than I did.
BajaRon ready to roll at 3:52am
This last stop was near Jackson TN and we blasted the rest of the way home from there without issue. As it stands we did 1460 miles +or- in 27 hours. The most I had done before on my RS was 1150 in 19 hours so this was a record for me. This is not one I would recommend trying as it could have got us killed. I think if it wasn't so darn hot it would have been better but that's still a long run in the saddle in good conditions. I will say I wouldn't wanted to do it on any other machine. :doorag:
Still haven't cleaned it up yet.
pps:
