Motorcycle Alabama

Heading Home - I decided to meet Chuck Thursday morning and I didn't see a need for him to ride across LA to pickup my luggage. I strapped 4 bags to the bike, 2 in back seat and 2 on rack above the tour pack. I left the hotel for the 20 min ride to meet Chuck. 5 minutes in I glance over my shoulder and one of the bags is gone. After 10 minutes of getting back on the road I was on, I back tracked to find the bag. No Luck. Bag had shoes, clothes, keys and several blank SD cards. Another setback.
As I continue to meet Chuck, I notice my clutch isn't working. Setback.  Met Chuck at Santa Monica Pier and they informed him no trailers allowed. After explaining he took up less with a trailer than a regular vehicle, they took his 15 bucks. LOL
We spent about an hour on the pier, then headed north.

Bike loaded and ready for the short trip to Santa Monica Pier....so I thought. The black bag on top jumped ship 5 minutes from the hotel.

Sights in the Harbor and the Queen Mary

While in Long Beach, we Uber'd over to Dodger Stadium and took in a ball game.

We didn't stop in Oatman. There were 20-30 burros roaming the streets and looking in the stores. The town was straight out of a old western.

Back on I40 heading west and stopped in Barstow for the night. The next morning I couldn't find my jacket and realized I left it on the bike overnight. Somebody needed it worse than I did. This was the first of many setbacks.

I put on my "rain" jacket and bought a cheap pair of cotton gloves to protect my hands that were blistered. This got us through the Mojave and closer to the west coast. 

I set a heading to Newport Beach, south of LA. It was Saturday and I wanted to avoid LA due to possible riots. We rolled into Newport Beach and took a right on Hwy 1. We headed north to Long Beach.

We found my hotel and unloaded my luggage from Chuck's trailer and sent him on his way to Pasadena. More on that later.....

Hyatt of Long Beach

.....still on the road to Oatman.

A friend used AI to create this video.

Wow! What a trip and weeks since.

We left Seligman we saw a 25 min backup on I40, we decided to ride about 100 miles to bypass the slowdown.

Oatman is about 25 miles off I40. Burros run loose on the street of Oatman. We stopped at a little shop that had some nice merch.








Chuck smoking the curves




Burro on side of road, never flinched as bikes went by.




more pics coming....

I did check with All Sport but, they were MSRP plus all the fees they add on so, I bought the bike from Smith's Sport Cycles for less. I did pay almost 1K more than the shop in North Carolina which I was willing to do for the convenience and to support a local dealer.  Smith's seems to be one of the few family owned motorcycle dealers left.

The seat is better than most but, for long rides, it could be improved.  I spoke to the R&D guy at Sargent and he said they keep track of inquiries for seats they don't already make.  If there is enough interest, they design a seat.

Well I'm 1 day away from having this one in the books.

Leg 1 - Alabama to Long Beach
I left Scottsboro on June 17 with Wing-man Extraordinaire in tow. Chuck on his trusty Goldwing and trailer, me on my new-to-me 2015 Harley Limited. Old man Adversity reared his ugly head several times on the trip...more on that later.

We rode to Memphis on Hwy 72 with only showers in Memphis as we crossed the river. Once on I40 the clouds seemed to part and cleared a way for us. In Texas it was hot, then Arizona and Mojave showed us what hot was. WE arrived in Long Beach on Saturday afternoon.

We made several stops on Leg 1.

Route 66 Midway Point


Sticker Placement


We stayed in Seligman at a decent motel.


Oatman next.....