2011 Tour of Honor
My rider flag and number for the 2011 Tour of Honor. This flag along with my machine must appear in the foreground of the pictures of the Memorial sites to get credit.
I should have been on the road by now and 1/4 of the way through the Tour of Honor ride but Mother Nature has other ideas. A major cold front has moved in and is pounding the East, Mid West and Texas with record cold temperatures and snow. I’ve ridden in these conditions before but I don’t normally launch under them. You can’t help it when you get caught in them when your already on the road.
Screenshot of the Baja 540C screen in RADAR Demo mode.
Yesterday I mounted a new GPS, Lowrance Baja 540C, on my 2005 ST1300 so I will test it out on this ride. My other Lowarnce I-Way 500c is now toast, having seen better days. I opted for the Baja which has big glove friendly controls and has Topo Maps. I will hardwire it later, so I just routed and secured the excess cable and modified some RAM mounts I had laying around. I also changed my oil and organized my ride gear and tools. My tires had about 500 miles of tread left and was planning on changing them on the road but the weather and road conditions make having the most tread I can imperative. So tomorrows task is to put fresh on some fresh rubber.
Adding some fresh AMS Oil to the ST. I have a quick drain plug which makes draining the oil pan easy but you have to be Houdini to get the old oil filter off without spilling anything. The filter is located above the header so you can barely grab it with a filter wrench or your fingers. One of them things you have to experience.
Tour of Honor Moderators Dave and Steve Brooks released the varying sites within the participating states this morning Midnight PST. I stayed awake with my laptop waiting for the Texas locations to be revealed so I could plan my route. At 0200 hrs CST or 2400 hrs PST a major cold front moved in. Lightning hit my ranch near Florence, Tx and knocked out my power so down went my Satellite internet connection. Heavy wind driven rains pelted my metal roof and skylights, as I noted the 7 Texas Memorial sites and plotted them on Streets and Trips.
One route seemed clear from Central Texas (Georgetown), moving counter clockwise to San Antonio, then onto Harlingen, to Houston, Galveston, Tyler, Amarillo, Midland and then back to Georgetown. Total, of 2028 plus miles. I am enjoying the shelter of my ranch as I check regional weather patterns over the next few days at the various sites. More details on the sites can be found on the TOH website. I plan on leaving Thursday afternoon, which seems to be the worse day for most of Texas but I may be able to thread through the various threats of snow. The problem is Texas is so huge, its like planning a trip through several states and weather systems.
Here is a look at the San Antonio site, just click on the picture.
Teh Alamo Cenotaph. Goal: Take a picture of the Memorial with your Rider Flag and machine in the foreground.
I will SPOT track my trip and will post the link and SpotWalla trip viewer here, the Tour of Honor Forum and on Facebook just before launching.
Here is a brief look at my planned route.
2028 Miles. I mapped out the California sites and they only have to ride 1873 Miles. Texas has more roadway surface than any other state, about 152,205 miles of road, equal to driving around the earth 6 times.
One of my riding buddies, Glenn Copeland may ride with me on Thursday if he gets the okay from his Mission Control. Stay tuned either on FB or here.
Mission Control has cleared me for Launch…..