The Ride Home
After the final group picture was taken, over 600 motorcycles went their separate ways to every corner of the US with many traveling internationally. Our little band split up. We took Christine's motorcycle to the local Baton Rouge H-D Dealership where we turned it over to them for the 1,800 mile ride back to Carlsbad in a transport truck. Christine needed to return to California to start work where as I decided to make the ride back home.

After saying goodbye to Christine at the hotel, my riding partner Lloyd and I left dealership to begin our journey back. It was very hot when we left at 1:15 PM, but our goal was to reach the western side of Houston. Traveling was easy although stopping every 100 + miles was in order to hydrate and catch our breath. As we crossed over from Louisiana into Texas there was a sign on I-10 which said El Paso 856 miles....make no mistake, Texas is a big state. Just east of Houston we ran into a welcome shower which cooled us off. We reached our goal of Columbus, TX just before dusk. We had traveled just over 350 miles.

We departed at 6:00am, bright and early Monday morning. It was dark and we didn't know that it was very cloudy. A friend gave us a tip on how to get around San Antonio without going through the city during rush hour traffic. This tip was great and it allowed us to get on the other side and move on toward El Paso. Our goal was to get to El Paso so that I could get a front tire installed before our final push on to California. We arrived in El Paso at 4:00pm, just in time for the H-D Dealership to get a front tire on my bike, and then get back on the road. We set Las Cruces, NM as our stopping point. We reached 745 miles on Monday. California was in our sights.

Tuesday morning we got up early again and left under the cover of clouds making the ride cool....something very welcome when riding across the desert. As we left Las Cruces we looked into our mirrors and witnessed one of the best sunrises I had seen in quite a while. For our final day this was a pleasant sight. Tucson, AZ came in short order and the sun came out with very big puffy clouds providing a bit of cool as we motored west. We needed to stop in Gila Bend for fuel to make it across the last part of the Arizona desert. Gila Bend has been a bit of a bad luck problem for me (another story) so Gila Bend was a very welcome site when we came over the final hill on our way to the gas stop only to see one of the biggest storms heading our way. As you can see from the pictures this storm was lead by a big dust storm, followed by rain and wind. The cafe provided lunch and safe haven as we waited out the storm. As the storm let up we found a window between storm patterns and we hit the road. We made it through and could smell home . . . nothing was going to stop us. The rest of the trip was uneventful and I arrived in Carlsbad at about 8:00 pm, covering about 700 miles on my final day of the ride.

Every time I do an extended ride like this (this being my 5th ride) I am overwhelmed by what I see and experience. I am very blessed to be able to do it. I thank everybody for their patience while I was gone and hopefully my pictures provided a little understanding of what I saw. If you get the chance to do the same, I hope you will. You will not regret it. The US has so much to see and offer; I only saw a little of it. Yes, there's only about 48 weeks left to the start the 2nd phase of this ride . . . the other 26 states east of the Mississippi are waiting. We're already getting ready for it!

Sunrise over the Oregon Pass just east of Las Cruces.

The leading edge of the storm overtaking Gila Bend, AZ

The leading edge of the storm overtaking the freeway heading west.

After 8,850 miles on my speedometer. What an adventure . . . just 48 more weeks!