09/28/2013: Grand Canyon Run

Before this weekend, I had never seen the Grand Canyon. That said, the opportunity to go presented itself when my friend Jeff told me he'd be riding from Asheville NC to El Mirage California for a couple month photo gig. The plan was for us to meet in Flagstaff this past Saturday. I knew if I was to get there in time to see the Grand Canyon, I needed to leave after work on a Friday, and hopefully make Phoenix before retiring for the evening. Why Phoenix? Well, I-15 is jammed with power gamblers making a mad dash to Vegas for their weekend bounty. I saw no need to mess with people and their money; Phoenix it is. I departed right after work on Friday as planned; despite the fact that I woke up with a stiff neck from Cross Fit. The fact that I couldn't get full range of motion out of my neck wasn't going to stop me; a little treatment with the tens unit and some Ibuprofen and by the time I was ready to leave, it was good enough. This is Jeff and the machine he took across country. Most would refer to this as a "Rat" bike; sorry Jeff. All the bungee cord you see is to hold things on to the bike, not hold the bike together...except one bungee cord that holds a broken light to the side. Jeff is clearly maximizing his motorcycle investment and has probably replaced everything, under warrantee from BMW, by now. I don't know anyone on the planet that is harder on a bike than Jeff. I think his bike has fallen off cliffs, been dragged through mud, set on fire and it lives on.

Beauty meets Beast

Jeff and his machine.  Yes, there is room between the stuff bungeed to the back and the stuff bungeed to the front.  Under all this stuff lies a G650GS.

These are rocket launchers.  You thought you were well armed bringing your gun on a cross country trip; wrong.

Seriously, the tubes carry things like tent poles, extension cord, big photography lenses, food, etc.

There's so much going on here, it's better to just zoom in and look.  Tucked behind the tank bag are the original gauges.

At this point in the blog, you're well acquainted with my ride.  I will share that on this trip, I had 3 new toys with me though.  1) Go Pro camera, mounted to my helmet 2) PLB - Personal Locator Beacon...commonly known as Spot and 3) A heated jacket liner.  There's video at the bottom of this post.  As for the PEB, I didn't realize that you didn't just turn it on to forward your track to a web page, you had to enable the tracking feature.  I figured that out in Phoenix.  Sorry those of you that were trying to follow my trip.  As for the jacket liner...oh my was I spoiled.  Somewhere North of Phoenix, climbing into Flagstaff, it was dropping below 60, so I decided to spoil myself just a little bit and cracked the switch just past the on position.  In seconds, I was toasty warm.  I can only imagine how comfortable this will be when the temp is in the 30's and 40's.  No more heavy layers of clothing for me!  Enough of this.  You want to see pictures, right?  

Of note in Phoenix was my evening's accommodations.  I stopped at a Motel 6 in Northern Phoenix.  I knew I was in the wrong place when I pulled in.  There was lots of police activity a couple hundred yards away in a K-Mart parking lot, and there were prostitutes on bicycles patrolling the parking lots...that and the teenager vaping on the balcony with his butt hanging out of his pants.  I'm trying to think of some similar fashion statement I used to make as a teenager....um...none come to mind.  Maybe Mom or Dad will remind me sometime.

 All that stands between me and a wide angle lens is about $800.  I just can't see spending that much on a wide angle lens...then again, I really like landscape pictures and have missed several because I didn't have one handy.

 There were 3 rappelling teams at the Grand Canyon this weekend practicing.  If you're planning on an accidental fall, this would have been the right weekend.

Jeff at work.

...and video.  I promised video.  This was the most entertaining part of Historic Route 66 - Oatman Az.

Here's a link to Jeff's video of the preceding twisties.

This is a map of the whole circuit.  I suppose it was 5 hours to Phoenix, another 2 to Flagstaff.  We walked around the Grand Canyon taking pictures for awhile and ended up in Kingman early in the evening.  Kingman to Redlands, including 10 miles of very cool Historic Route 66 was 5 hours.  Now a bad weekend getaway!

Round trip = 990 miles.