I needed to make it to Katy, TX, in time to have dinner with my (ex) sister-in-law and her husband today and since I was looking at about a 500-mile ride, I knew I needed to (as my dad used to say) “get my rear in gear.”
I set my alarm for 6:20, had the bike loaded and the SPOT started when I swung my leg over the seat at 6:44. It was a short ride to McDonalds for an Egg McMuffin and a thermos of coffee. I left McDonalds at 7:10 and was on the road to watch the sun come up at 7:16.
A sight I don’t see very often!
I got a few more “shadow” shots:
but missed the shadow!
It had been 69 when I left the motel, and an hour later it was up to 80. I had a few stretches of highway where there gusty winds, but it was never too bad. By the time I got to San Antonio, the temperatures were up into the high-90s and by the time I got around the Loop it was up to 102. After I got out of San Antonio, it went back down to 99 for a while, but when I got here, it was 105. I took a break at a rest area about 70 miles west of here. From a distance, Dudley doesn’t look as bad as he does up close. 🙂
Stats: Day, 495 miles; Trip, 11,495 miles; Year, 17,303 miles; Total, 69,391 miles.
Tomorrow I’m heading toward Baton Rouge where Tim Wilke, a fellow-moderator of the NT-Owners Forum is set up to do an oil and filter change for me.
Chuck Frank, a member of the NT-Owners Forum known there as Chuck 500, joined us for supper and by the time he rode “The Horse With No Name from downtown to Katy, his thermometer was reading 110.
My Epic Post-Retirement Rides 
Wow Phil you are having one trip………..can’t imagine going as far as you have on a bike! You should have put Mt. P on your map, didn’t know you were coming to Texas. Have enjoyed reading your updates. Take care.
Marianne, I was making the quickest time
across
Texas that I could. Mt. Pleasant would have taken me way off my course to get the Four Corners of the US covered in 21 days. Next time!
Phil, You are a true hard-core-biker to be able to ride in that heat and humidity. I’ve been doing heat-shield fabrication on my new KTM to reduce the engine and exhaust heat that comes out of the radiator exit ducts and from the exhaust pipe-related heat where the pipes tuck just inside the frame rails at about the foot-peg area. It has helped a bunch, but when it’d above about 90 degrees, the overall air-temp heat is just about too much for me. I sit there with that dry heat or wet-heat flowing over me and I mentally bitch to myself almost constantly. I do like the vent-system on my Darien Light Aerostitch coat, with the swamp-cooler vest, but for me, above 90 degrees is still way too hot. As I get a bit older here, I’m thinking that my 1984 mild heat stroke event is bothering me more than it used to. The Docs told me back then that I’d have trouble, and I really did for about 10 years, then it seemed better, but the last 6-8 years seem worse again. However, I admit that in my old age, I might just be turning into a wimp, and I plan to begin the re-build of my Chevy Lumina Autocross car into a dual-sport car, complete with sleeping and cargo deck that extends from the back of the front seats to the rear of the trunk area, structural bumpers so that I can lift the car with a bumper jack for tire changes, backup parts and tools for things like engine sensors, fuel pump, ignition parts etc. Then this coming late winter, I think I’ll have it finished and I plan to do some back-roads trips….with the same dirt-road routes that I’ve ridden my bike on. Have fun and sweat hard in your trip across the most miserable climate area of the USA…should get better about Portland Maine. Later….Ken
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Ken, when I get back we’ll have to have a talk about my “adopted” strategy for dealing with the heat. I think we can improve your success. I don’t think the swamp-cooler vests are the way to go now. More later.
Phil,
If you are coming up Hwy 17 through North Carolina, I live in Washington, NC. We would love to offer you a room for a night, shower, washer/dryer, good food. You may be going up I-95 which is about 70 miles west of us. I am Tiger Todd on the forum. You told me where I could get a HMW emblem from the guy in Michigan. I had quadruple bypass surgery in Feb. and have just started back riding. Let me know if you need a place as you pass through our lovely state. I have really enjoyed following your trip and your posts.
Todd, I’ll keep your kind invitation in mind. I’m not sure about my schedule or my route after I leave Woodaddict’s place. Keep an eye on my SPOT.