September 27 Tucumcari, NM to Georgetown, TX 552 miles
Day 10 Route map
Today is day 10 the last day of our Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride. Well this would be the last day of the trip for me LC & LT have 2 full days of riding ahead of them. . It turned out to be a long ride and long day. I did not plan on riding the 552 miles in one day but because of a little misfortune I did. LC & LT and I rode together down I-40 for about 10 or 20 miles before I headed south and they continued east on I-40 to North Alabama and Georgia. It was another cool morning with clear skies and another great riding day. It remained cool all the way home. As I headed south I could see a mesa in the distance and the road eventually wound its way up to the mesa top where many wind turbines were turning. I was making good time and about 30 miles south of Lubbock I stopped at a picnic area that overlooked the valley below. I made a sandwich and had a coke. I called Janet to let her know where I was and that I would call her later to let her know where I would be.
Wind turbines south of San Jon, NM on top of Mesa
When I pulled into the picnic area I ran over something that made a loud pop. I looked on the road to see if something was there but I didn’t find anything. I checked my rear tire to see if I had damaged the tire but I didn’t find anything. So I packed up everything again and headed down the highway. As I pulled on to the highway I could hear a clicking sound that increased in frequency as I sped up. Then I knew I had picked up something in my tire. I stopped on the shoulder and checked the tire more closely, rolling the bike forward until I found a very large screw sticking in the center of the tire.
More Wind turbines south of San Jon, NM on top of Mesa
Looking off the mesa of wind turbines
One of the things a biker always fears is a problem with one or more tires. Bikes don’t have spares and flat tires make the bike handle really squirrelly. I carry a tire plug kit for when such a thing happening. But I was afraid that the plug wouldn’t do the job because of the size of the screw. The tire wasn’t leaking air so I opted to ride to the next town, which was about 6 or 7 miles ahead. I could see the town from the picnic area. The first business I saw when I got to town was a small tire shop. I stopped and the owner was a biker and he plugged the tire. When pulled from the tire, the screw looked even bigger. I wasn’t sure if the plug would hold. Now I had to decide if I should ride back to Lubbock or ride on to Abilene. It was Monday and bike shops are always closed on Mondays so either way I could not get the tire replaced until the following day. I decided to ride on to Abilene. The tire shop owner told me to call him if I had any problems and he would come get me. That made me feel good to know. When I got to Sweetwater I stopped for gas and checked the tire pressure and it was good so I decided to ride on. I stopped a second time about 150 miles further and the tire was still OK. The GPS was estimating my arrival in Georgetown at 7:30 PM so I thought I would try to make it on home. The last time I stopped for gas I called Janet to let her know my ETA. I got home at 7:44. It was good to be home. I missed my riding buddy that I left at home.
Picnic area about 30 miles south of Lubbock where I picked up the screw…
The screw by a quarter
LC & LT talked about returning to do the trip again but this time with the wives. I think we all missed our riding buddies.
The Larry’s made it home the following day. LC said, they had ridden just over 4000 miles during their trip. Their trip took 11 days where my trip was 3346 miles over 10 days.
For more pictures… Click here.
Gas mileage stats…
- Total Miles Traveled: 3346.2
- Total Gallons of Gas Used: 77.478
- Total Gas Cost: $210.45
- Average MPG: 43.19
- Worst MPG: 36.24
- Best MPG: 52.33
- Average cost/gallon: $2.72
Below are the posts from each day of our ride. Come follow along as we ride and enjoy the fun and beautiful scenery…
Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride introduction
Day 1 & 2 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 3 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 4 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 5 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 6 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 7 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 8 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Day 9 Million Dollar Highway Motorcycle Ride 2010
Ride safe and I hope we see you down the road somewhere…
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