A pedal-to-the-metal day of 600 miles brought me home ahead of schedule. I guess that's some sort of personal "numb butt" record for me. The weather was overcast and pleasant so it made the drive comfortable until Lampassas. Route 281 was lightly-traveled and made for cruising speeds of 75-80. You have to slow down to 35 MPH for every small town though. I averaged 60 MPH for the day and was even able to walk (sort of) last night. Not sure that I would have made better time on I-35 and this way I didn't have to put up with truck wash and crazy drivers.

I called Jane from south of Ft. Worth and acted like I was still coming home on Sunday. When I was starting down our street, I called her and asked her to open the garage door. It was the intended big surprise and we went out and had a nice dinner with Kate. The total round-trip came to 8694 miles. Surprisingly, I only gained about two pounds!

Please continue to follow Clif and Marty's excellent adventure as they continue on the road to Houston. It was a great ride and I'm very happy that Clif persevered in his dream all of these years. I'm happy to have been invited and to have contributed to some of the routes and lodgings.

I hope you have enjoyed the vicarious thrill of following along with me on this journey. Believe me, I thought of lots of clever stuff to say while riding. But I could never remember half of it when it came time to sit down and journal the day. Marty and Clif have written their own perspectives and I hope you'll take the time to read those. It was great trip but one I don't intend to repeat. Next time I go to AK it will be on a plane or cruise.

I was going to post a whole lot of "best of / worst of" for the trip. Maybe I'll do that after I have some more perspective. I did start working on "Bissell's Laws of Motorcycling" so I'll include here what I have so far.

Bissell's Laws of Motorcycling

I'm been thinking about these as I ride. Law #1 was discussed with my riding companions and I've refined it a bit since then. I really wish I had a voice memo device in my helmet so I could record thoughts and impressions as I go (and more "Laws"). Maybe I'll rig something up if I ever do this kind of trip again.

Law #1

The complexity and coordination of any motorcycle trip is proportional to the number of particpants by the following formula:

2^(u+.5s-1) + p
where
u = number of unrelated motorcycles ("unrelated" meaning that the drivers are not related. If your sibling or significant other has their own bike, they don't get counted here. My theory is that you're more used to riding with these folks so they pose less complexity.)
s = number of related motorcycles (i.e. siblings, parent(!), or signficant others riding their own cycle)
p = number of passengers

For example, our group had five people, none of whom is related. There were no passengers. Our complexity factor was thus
2^(5+.5(0)-1) + 0 or 2⁴ or 16.
It is therefore 16 times harder to do/coordinate anything than if I was by myself.

As another example, on our wildflower ride this year we had four motorcycles and a chase car. Three of the wives were motorcycle passengers for at least part of the time. One wife drove the chase car (counted as a vehicle). Coordinating this group had a degree of difficulty of
2^(4+.5(1)-1) + 3 or 2^3.5 + 3.

Law #2

There is always wind but it is never at your back.

Law #3

Bikers without helmets don't wave.

Law #4

You only get a passing lane when you don't need one.

Law #5

"Deluxe continental breakfast" indicates that they have frozen waffles.

Law #6

Animals never cross where the signs say they do.