4 Corners/Route 66 Tour – 2021

Different strokes for different folks

After 7-days of hard riding through blistering hot deserts, long winding stretches of mountain passes, beautiful green valleys an amazing 180-degree sunrises the differences between Team-60 and Team-70 have boil to the surface.

The smarty-pants Team-60s, Jimmy V & Rick, are on new Harley‘s equipped with the big horse power, latest cruise control, fuel gauge, fuel injection, road melting LED head lights, and a boom-box thumping sound system! They are of the “ride faster and take more breaks” riding school. JimmyV hates interstate freeways! He’d rather ride the back roads through the farms and the villages at 10 over the speed limit. Jimmy dislikes leaving in the early morning dark. These guys are single and enjoy roaring through towns catching an eye!

Team-70s, Dean & Gary, are of the “ride slower, get better gas mileage, go a little farther“ riding style. Dean also believes that it’s easier to ride big miles by starting earlier in the morning (4 AM) rather than riding later at night. And watching the sunrise is a magical experience on a motorcycle!

Gary’s old 1994 Fat Boy Harley is so old it doesn’t have a fuel gauge! When he runs out of gas the engine starts sputtering & coughing he has to reach down and turn his petcock to “reserve” and then he can go another 15-30 miles before he runs out of gas. The Fat Boy gets its best fuel mileage at 65 to 70 mph then he can go between 150 to 175 miles before fueling. Riding 75 to 80 he can go about 110 to 120 miles before needing fuel.

When we got to Texas the speed limit is 80 mph. I can push my little Honda CB500 to run at least the speed limit … 80! For 100 miles I lead the group at 80-85 mph but my gas mileage dropped from 45 miles per gallon 35 miles per gallon. Riding at Team-60’s “10 over” speed I’d have to gas every 120 miles! My most comfortable speed is 70.

So today we split up! We made a common motel reservations. Team-70s left at 4am and Team-2 left an hour later. Out tracks are similar but different. The two teams arrived within 5 minutes of each other. Everybody’s happy.

We had dinner in a barbecue joint!

Crazy about crawfish!

Overlooking a heap of empty shellfish! Everybody left very happy!

Tomorrow we head into Florida. We’re keeping a close watch on the tropical storm heading for the keys. We got to get down there and get corner #3 Key West and hightail it north.

Remember the Alamo!

Tomorrow we ride to Louisiana!

Yesterday it was 119°F when we rode into El Centro. It was 111 in the shade. We came in cooked! To avoid the extreme heat today we decided to leave at 4 AM! Our plan worked perfect. We rode through Yuma and Gila Bend in the dark in 80° temperatures.

The day never got above 90°. The sunrise was spectacular. Is the sun peaked over the mountain range there was a cloud formation that prevented prevented us from having the sun in our eyes. Riding east on I-10 The entire panorama was crystal clear. Long desert valleys, distance mountain ranges, and white cloud streets running for as far as the eye can see.

Gary runs out of gas

Just passed Gila Bend Gary runs out of gas. Ricky had a 1-quart metal bottle of gas which got Gary 6 miles to a gas station. Gary now owns a 2-gal HD plastic gas jug in his saddle bag.

Storm clouds all around us

As the day warms up storm clouds form all around us. It’s still beautiful blue skies with white clouds but on both sides of us we can see rain and lightning striking within a mile! Luckily we avoid all the storms until 3PM outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. Add the gas stop we geared up for rain, but luckily it was just a drizzle which soon cleared up.

Approximately 613 mi in 11 hours. We’re done!

Day 3, we ride 330 mi to our homes!

We want the afternoon to fix all the little things that needs adjusting, changing, change oil, wash our clothes, get a good nights rest.

We plan to depart from JimmyV’s on Day 4, 8AM for Corner #2, San Ysidro, CA.

We started the day at 8 AM meeting at Jimmy V‘s and rode 100 miles to the Border Field State Park. This is the true southwest corner of the US. The border fence goes into the ocean here.

When we arrived at the park, 9:30ish, there was a small crowd of 20 news and film crews. It was a cool, overcast morning. Apparently a Mexican National who served in the US military named Ernie Mariscal was walking along the border from the Pacific Ocean to Brownsville to promote the Mexican nationals who served in the US military becoming US citizens.

We asked one of the news photographer, who had three cameras, if he would kindly take a photo of our group. Mike Blake, a senior photographer for Reuters News, a Pulitzer winner, kindly took the above photo.

The photographer goes back to the the media crowd. In a couple minutes a young man in a suit comes walking towards us. He introduces himself as Tomas Olivia, Mayor Pro Tem of the city of El Centro. He said the photographer Mike Blake said we were riding around the US but our next stop was El Centro. Our research on the high temperatures indicated that Yuma was going to be 115°F so we plan to do a short day, spend the night in El Centro and start at 4AM in the morning to escape the blistering heat.

This was a fun event and we chatted for several minutes with the mayor pro tem. We packed up and headed to a gas station to get our computer printed gas receipts, did our documentation for the mileage and headed east into the high heat with a goal of Key West FL.

It was around 11 AM when we headed east. In the 2 hours of eastward riding we were in 119°F heat!

Our plan for a short day to minimize heat, rest and a 4 AM start tomorrow will keep us out of the blistering Yuma heat.