thebottle Blog

The Finish

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. I had problems starting my bike because when it ran out of gas, dirt from the tank got into the filter. A few Army men pulled over and helped me to keep the battery charged until it was running. They stayed with me for 3 hours helping me out, I would have been fucked without them.

In Nebraska it was extremely windy and I had to lean the bike almost to its pegs to keep a straight line. I also ended up stopping at a retired mechanics place where he let me use his garage to change the oil on my bike. We talked for awhile while he worked swapping out a radiator. Later he showed me three very nice looking late ’60s Dodges which he and his sons raced.

Home was a great place to be after such a journey, but it didn’t take more than a couple of days before the road started calling out to me again. It got in my blood; the dust, the wind, the heat, the ride. Yes, it all got into my blood.

In the end I rode 4,250 miles through 12 states in 11 days. I saw the Badlands, the Blackhills, the Rocky Mountains, Las Vegas, and all the tourist traps and scenery in between.