tuckers to tdf

Great to see that you're off !!!

I'm thrilled and scared for you both !!!

The SpaceMan wouldn't have even considered this trip ........... not enough room in that RED bag !!!!

Good Luck & Best Wishes !!!

Spaceman Kisses

Thanks to everyone.

Special thanks to the Newcombs Motorcycle gang

We slabbed it to Goodyear Arizona and are being hosted by friends of ours here.

Passed through Palm Springs without getting a ticket!



Entered Arizona and got lower priced gasoline.



Big fire tonight and a lovely bed.






About 350 miles and spent $27.89

Life is REAL tough on the road, not all are qualified!

Hi Colleen and James, I will be keeping an eye on this. See you on the Stahlratte on Dec 6th

Veterans day salute out in the desert

She's not ALL about the bling, but:

I got my first sticker for my side pannier!

This is Frances and her two boys Julian and Mario.

She is a weaver like Colleen and has these floor looms in her garage.

Lovely family.

Frances feels fortunate to have THIS in her yard!

Handwoven leather shag rug in the living room. Frances's mother and father wove this on Colleen's loom in our studio.

Leather and wool shag rug. Handwoven by Frances's parents on one of her looms. Master bedroom



Colleen taught Frances and her family to weave almost 20 years ago.

See you there. First day and we are bang on schedule!

First Pilot/Flying J in Arizona off the 10. I have a frequent Flyer Card for my 'RV'

It looked pretty much like this all day.

We 'moving' averaged 63mph by GPS. Tried to stick at 70 per GPS which was 75 on the speedo. Top speed per GPS was 81mph, so we are really being good!

Action shot of James in the hot afternoon sun. He remained cool and collective. His poise is perfect. This is before he got his sticker from Flying J!

Subscribed.

Have a great trip and thanks for sharing!

That's Awesome, Paul!!! We'll be missing our favorite place in the whole wide world!!!!
Colleen

It's true what you say..... we are lucky fu@#^%$.
We were late to post as the minute we got here.... it was house tour, wine, dinner, more wine, visiting, fire, more wine, well, you get the drift.....
You all were neglected but we certainly weren't! This place is awesome!!!

James will comment on the bike set up now we have ridden a full day.

I am so glad I talked to Pro-Cycle and he had me get the 8.3 rear spring for each bike and the .55 single rate fronts. My Dr. Black rides like a new Cadillac on the freeway. It is SO stable and the suspension REALLY works with all my crap piled on. I have factory mid way pre-load and factory lowering option. The bike just glides, it's amazing.

16/42 is rather long in the gearing for anything but freeway blasting. In the city you have to select first gear for most any corner. If you get behind a slow vehicle on the slab and then want to accelerate you 'almost' want to shift down under 60mph. I say almost, because I didn't shift down but rolled on real slow. After tomorrow in Mexico, even on the Toll Roads I think I will put 15/42.

The packing is working good so far. Happy Trails panniers, Touratech top box and Texport dry bag. It's neat and tidy and easy to use.

We have Autocom bike to bike and never said one word to each other all day!

Really need a throttle lock. (Cruise control)

Suzuki OEM speedo is 5mph high from 65 to 85 for sure.

Ipod is nice on the freeway, but I feel it's too intrusive, Colleen can't LIVE without hers.

I didn't check the gas mileage, but we did go 230 before getting gas (Acerbis) and there was lots left in both sides. We've decided to keep both taps on reserve and use sight/odo to monitor fuel level.

Just had some juice and a bagel from the top box for lunch so no $
Bed and dinner hosted by our friends in Goodyear.
Just gas money.

Tuesday we go through Tombstone and Bisbee to Douglas and cross the border in to Mexico We will get our TVIP's in Agua Prieta I suppose.

Our plan is to scoot right down the middle and skirt Mexico City.

Thanks everyone for all your well wishes, it means a lot, it really does.

Our first day out did not disappoint! We rode happily along the 10 freeway to
Good Year, Arizona. Frances used to weave for me. Her brother Joseph and sister Mari also worked in the weaving business. They were all here tonight and we had a wonderful reunion.

I listened to George Thorogood, Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams, The Rolling Stones, Crosby Stills & Nash, Shawn Colvin, UFO, Rocket 350, Alan Jackson,
Bob Seger, Canned Heat, The Eagles, JEM, Los Lobos, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, The Ventures on my IPOD today......


James and I are each sporting one..... We have 17,180 songs to go through.... that should get us to Argentina and back!:
Colleen