11/22/2013 Day 1: Redlands, CA to: Lordsburg, NM (579 miles)

Weather decisions made easy - Should I leave tonight and get as far as Phoenix, or should I leave in the morning; either way, trying to make Fort Stockton Texas by Saturday night?

The answer is in this one weather map:

This map will stay mostly the same through Sunday, except that the 28 you see in Midland Texas will start creeping south.  That said, my route from New Mexico through San Antonio is in jeopardy, with icy roads possible.

So, It seems like a better plan to attack that area of the country during daylite when the highest temps are possible.  That means leaving tonight and pushing as far East as possible; Phoenix is good, Tuscon is better.  With any luck, I won't have rain and freezing temperatures at the same time in Texas. Once I get through West Texas, it appears that I'll have dry roads; but, the 50's and 60's you see in this map turn to 20's and 30's.  I can deal with that.

Even if I have to wait for a weather window, I'm better off doing it closer to the problem than in California, where it will take me hours to reach the area in question.

Into the rain I go!

You can watch my progress here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Nh80LLnaj95s6rkXyLROojXqIlkmh6jn

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I'm 575 miles into this trip now.  It's been rain pretty much the entire time.  I got a phone call from a good friend of mine and he kept me talking for an hour enabling me to make Lordsburg, New Mexico. When I came through Tuscon, they said don't go up on the mountain.  Well, I didn't listen to the locals. Everything was calm until I got to about 4,000', then all hell broke loose.  It's not raining as much as it was earlier today and it's not cold - 43 degrees.  It's WINDY.  Winds are blowing ESE 31 with gusts to 40-45.  I was holding 0-15 degrees of lean most of the way up the mountain and I think my tires will have uneven wear on the right side.  The sound of the wind sounds like a freight train going through my helmet.

I plan to get up at 6 and check the weather.  If it's above freezing I plan to move on.  If I make it to San Antonio, I should be in good shape for the rest of the trip.  If I don't, I may be stranded in Texas until this storm passes through.

Wish me luck!

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Now that I have some downtime, I can write a little more.  It seems that California was doing it's best to make sure I stayed.  Yesterday, nothing seemed to be working out.  The forecast was horrible for the weekend and CA was rainy and windy.  Never a good start to a trip.  When I got home from work to pack, I parked outside my apartment like I normally do.  It's on an incline and the bike stands pretty straight up because of that.  Well, yesterday, I got no more than 20' from my bike and a gust of wind took it right over.  I have damage (scratches and gouges only) to the right side of the bike.  It went over hard.  I'll post pictures.  Fortunately, no mechanical damage.

I was telling my friend Jeff, who has been really great in keeping in touch with me this ride, about it and he thought a new paint job in the form of a shark with aggressive teeth would look good.  Since my bike already has a natural transformers type look to it, I have no doubt I could incorporate both.

Something to think about; who's got a BMW K1600GT that looks like a high tech shark?  It's a pretty awesome thought?

Jeff, Chris, Dad - Thank you all for keeping me company on this trip.  It makes the miles go by very fast.