I'm Back, and Man, I'm Tired!

Just before sun-up on the 19th, the Trident is loaded and waiting for departure.

I'll be making a number of posts about my trip back to Tennessee. Too much to write about to cram it all into one post.

First, I'd like to apologize for not replying to the comments on the previous post. After I put that post up, I was out of Internet contact until I got home. I appreciate the offer of food and shelter (where do you live, Phatty?) and I was about 100 miles east of Memphis, in answer to Tom.

The trip to Tennessee, last weekend, was about as uneventful as two days on the bike can be. It was windy and hot, but no rain or other weather-related problems. The bike ran great, and I stopped in Topeka, Kansas, to take a picture of the odometer as it registered 50,000 miles.

50,00 overall, 565 miles so far that day

When I started riding bikes in 1974, it was really unusual to see a motorcycle with that many miles on it. And, if you did, it had typically been overhauled a couple of times. The motor on the Trident has never been opened up, and it's still running like a new one.

I stopped about every 100 to 135 miles and filled up with gas (23 stops, total, counting the fill-up as I left my neighborhood, last Saturday), even though the bike has a bit longer of a range than that. I have to stop due to butt-range, more than gastank range. In the four days of riding, I covered 775 miles, 460 miles, 835 miles and 460 miles again, for a total of 2530 miles.

At one of the stops in Kansas, there was huge wind-farm across the Interstatee from the gas station. It wasn't there the last time I drove by, and a number of the wind-turbines were under construction, still.

I used 63.162 gallons of Premium gas ($260.08 worth, at an average of $4.12/gal.), and got 40.1 miles per gallon. Average speed, including all stops, was 55.0 mph. Cruising speed hovered right between 80-85 mph for the majority of the trip, excluding the State Highways in Tennessee and rush-hour just west of St. Louis on the way home.

I guess that's enough for now. More, later.

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