CANNONBALL RUN TO MEXICO!!!! (May 18 to 21)

So recently myself and a few other barfers and hashers took a nice little jaunt down south into the land of beer, tequila, tacos and donkey shows, to see what it was all about.

the crew:
meself: glf: Ducati Monster (M900) with the blinging tank, yo!
Stan23: RC51
Pacifisticuffs: SV650
Squid Vicious: Ducati Multistrada 1000
JMH : BMW K1200 RS
Drew: Honda ST1300

the plan was to meet up in the southbay early on thursday morning, and make our way down to Rocky Point, Mexico in the state of Sonora. on the coasts of the Sea of Cortez, for some fun, sun, sand and lots of booze. well. thursday morning arrived, and like any other well planned trip. I woke up late. hahahaha, perfect. I just replaced a missing master link clip on the chain, so it shouldn't be all that bad now. i arrive at morgan hill (south bay) to charges of owing them beers for being late, fine, i'll do it. we do a quick preliminary ride chit chat, agree, and gear up for coldness......we'll be picking up JMH in Coalinga, Ca. and then we'll pick up Drew in Salton City, Ca. later this afternoon.

here is the first three victims:
Squid Vicious, Stan23 and Pacifisticuffs.

we got on the 101 south, and made our way to Hollister for the cutoff to hwy 25 and a cool ride thru some nice twisties, no traffic, but plenty of suicide squirrels, dodging our tires and cheating death everytime. the further from the coast we got, the warmer it got. the morning was very nice, and the sun popped out as soon as we were on hwy. 25. i'm scrubbing in new tires, so i was trying to be cautious on turns. they should be good further down. the only thing i'm packing is a lite backpack with a tankbag. i have to say i'm a big fan of this portion of road, although it can be dangerous, and shouldn't be ridden lightly in lieu of past events and untimely deaths. but i digress.

this first portion of the ride was good, getting each other used to riding in a group with ourselves, and gauging a feel for where people wanted to be, and how they wanted to ride, we merged onto the 198 east, and had a nice climb over the hills with some nice roads, a bit of construction and then we were in Coalinga. where the weather turned to HOT! off come the sweatshirts, change gloves, get water, and check the chain. WTF?! the master link clip is broken. well, haven't seen that before. last night it was missing, and i replaced it. so i replace it again, with a spare, and put a dab of jb weld on it. we also picked up JMH and gassed up.

we decided to hit the IH5 a little earlier to make up some time, and booked it south to exit 239 and went east, gassing up in Arvin, Ca. it is now fucking HOT! the trend will be to pour water down your shirt, leave the jacket open enough for air to get in. soak your pant legs and let the air cool you. it's dry in about 15 miles. here's us at a gas stop with stan23 showing off his wet nipples .....

...from Arvin, we continued east on hwy. 223 to Hwy. 58, and took that east, passing a few harleys, and lots of seeming vacationers just tooling along on the hwy. it's hot, and we're moving at a quick pace. 80+ (as safe as can be of course) we crossed the Tehachapi mts. and that was a load of fun, taking the long winding downhills at a brisk pace.

here is another pic. at the gas station, where we took a break from the heat. the jb weld was missing, but the link was still on the bike. i don't think i let it cure enough. soo i put another dab, and we waited the alloted 15minutes.

..what happens when 2 people forget to put their ear plugs in and/or headphones? everyone has to pull over to let them do it. bloody hot. they just added two beers to their "I owe" tab.

a shot of the group behind me. on hwy. 58 east. we continued, until hitting kramer junction and turned south on hwy. 395 , seeing as how we've past the town of mojave, and we're near the epicenter of the Mojave desert, it is even hotter now, if there is a way to explain that..........

here is a shot of squid on a straightaway. for some reason it was pretty windy in this section...

maybe that's the reaon for all of the windmills....hmph. go figure.

...pounding out miles, can get boring at times, and you have to be able to entertain yourself some. even with the music on, i find I need to do some things. like photos or whatever else is relatively safe while busting ass down the road. so here on hwy. 395, i took to buzzing 18 wheelers!

when we first got on this spat of road, i saw a sign coming up that said "no passing for next 15 miles" oh, hell NO! especially when there was an 18 wheeler, and a car in our way. so we just blew by them, over the line, and made better progress.

it's funny how people will wish for some things, and then when you get it, you sometimes rethink it, wondering if you really wanted said thing.

we saw some dark clouds off in the distance, and man, I was hoping for some rain...when it came, it was a welcome relief to the heat. we just let ourselves get soaked, and that was perfect...on our way back, it would be a different story.

....south on 395, we cut east on hwy. 18 to Apple Valley, Ca. and stopped at this little spot on the side of the road, where we briefly touched the greatest and most historic hwy. in america. Route 66. a photo was mandatory. from left to right:

me, squid, jmh, pacifisticuffs, and stan23 on the far right!

oh, yeah, i forgot a picture of the broken clip on the master link of my chain.

clicking over 33,000 miles...and we've gone 501 miles at this point. ouch. my ass is sore. from riding.

jmh "mctaco" riding his new BMW. sweet bike. moves fast too. we took a lot routes that were off the Interstate corridors, trying not to slab it all the way. the only downside is that it can be slower, even if we are doing a high rate of speed. traffick, small towns, and such, will do this. we hit about 8 miles of construction thru town, so we just cruised along on this section of road where I took the photo. We had traveled east/south on hwy. 247 from hwy. 18 and finally arrived in Yucca Valley, Ca. from here we caught hwy. 62 and circled around Joshua Tree N.P. where we would catch the IH-10 for a brief run down the interstate thru palms springs and eventually south to the salton sea.

we stopped in Indio, Ca. for gas. I do have to admit, that the hottest place, I think, that we encountered was Palm Springs. the wind blowing on us, was like a giant, high powered air dryer in your face. phuck me! I think stan has some more photos from this part of the road, and i'll let those guys post them up as they want on here.

....from IH - 10, we went south on hwy 86 and the population started to thin out, and allowed us to move a bit quicker. it's crazy to see such a large body of water, out here in the middle of so much heat, i do think the weather cooled about a degree or two. so instead of 114 degrees fahrenheith (sp?), it was about 112.

we rolled into Salton City, and were to meet Drew at the intersection of S22 (route) and Hwy. 86. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, on other side of hwy, and we pulled in for a much needed break and some food.

since i got up late, i threw all my things on, and ran out the door, to meet up with everyone. didn't even brush my teeth, no food, no coffee, nothing. so it's now about 4:45pm, and i've had maybe 2 bottles of water, and a snickers bar, and that's it.

superburger looks really good!

we made introductions, took all the gear off, and walked into a dark, and air conditioned burger joint, for a fantastic bacon cheeseburger....goddam was it good. either that, or i was bloody hungry.

here's all the bikes trying to find any shade.

...we took about a half hour break, scarfed some food, and then made the plan to make it to yuma, az. here is squid vicious clowning for the camera. something about flashdance being one of his favorite movies.

this is how hot it was south of the salton sea. note the blaring sun! it felt the same way it looks.

gratuitous ton up photo.

after we gassed up in Indio, Ca. we ate, and then continued south on Hwy. 86, towards Brawley, Ca. and then south to the IH-8. unfortunately took the city (business) route, so that ate up some time, an almost missed turn, and we were on the right track, got onto the interstate and went east to Yuma. my odometer hit 107 miles and my reserve light came on. wtf? so i brought the speed down to 75-80 mph, and tried to keep it steady. we passed holtville as this happened, so now it's like 35 miles to Yuma or the first gas station. shit! like i said before, someone always runs out of gas. the day is getting short, and the shadows are getting long, but we look at the good points, less traffic, and less heat. we finally pull into this gas station, and my odometer reads 142 miles clicked over. i gas up and the pump says I put 4.2 gallons of gas in the bike. i thought it was only a 4 gallon tank. wow. this is an evening shot of the guys gassing up, as we are reminding each other that it is getting later and later, and we still haven't hit mexico yet.

here is a quick shot I took of my map on the bike. we still had about 30 miles to the border, and then the 180 miles to rocky point to go at this point.

ma..sounds like an awesome road trip, but i think im gonna need a goldwing before i do a 900 mile ride

i didnt see brandon with you guys. so..how did you guys get your bikes over the fences on the way back?