klb1122
0
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2006
- Messages
- 2,531
- Reaction score
- 96
- Location
- Houston, TX
- First Name
- Kory
- Last Name
- Burleson
It’s that time of year again. The Connies have been fitted with new tires and filled with fresh oil. Routes and reservations have been made. It’s time to see some new sights, check several more states off the list, and get some fresh air. I love taking these trips, but I always leave with a heavy heart, especially this year being away from my daughter and pregnant wife. I can’t thank my wife enough for her understanding.
Day 1 - 7/27/2013 - Houston, TX to Salina, KS - 681 Miles
Houston, TX to Salina, KS - 681 miles – MAP LINK
When my alarm clock went off at 3:45 am I stumbled around the house as I woke up. As I began loading up the bike I heard what I thought was rain on the carport. It couldn’t be! I certainly don’t recall hearing anything about rain early this morning. But it was, and it soon turned into a downpour. What an awesome way to start a trip. I called dad to see if he was prepared to take off in the rain. I drug my feet taking off and did so when the rain slacked up.
Trip B is cleared for good measure and my bike has a bit over 36k miles to start with.
I gassed up on the way to dad’s house, trying to get a feel for everything again. I literally had to knock the cobwebs off my bike in preparation for this trip. Since TC4 I had racked up a whopping 300 miles on my bike. A new tire combined with rain wasn’t my ideal way of getting back into the swing of things. I made it to dad’s house at 5:15. We had planned on 5, so considering the downpour we weren’t too far behind.
We took off and as soon as we entered I-45 we ran into another problem. I could no longer hear dad through my speakers. He had bought a brand new set of Sena headsets and this was their first test. I thought it was weird how I could no longer hear him when they were working fine up until entering the freeway. I started thinking about it and the only difference was I had put my helmet down and locked the chin bar in at that exact time. I unlocked the chin bar and immediately we could converse again. I had no idea what was going on, but the moment I would lock my helmet down I could no longer hear dad, but he could still hear me. So up until the first gas stop, I rode with the chin bar down, but not locked in. I joked that I’d just have to remember to snap it into position if I was going to crash. It was an uneasy feeling as I prefer to ride with my face fully protected.
The first gas stop was in Corsicana, TX. Luckily dad brought a tiny allen wrench so I started messing with the Sena on my helmet. My helmet was also brand new; I had picked up a HJC CL-Max II. It is a Bluetooth ready model and I had originally mounted the Sena right over the Bluetooth box. I decided to move it forward and inch or two and then we tested them out with my helmet locked down. It worked! I have absolutely NO idea why my speakers shut off in the original location, but the problem had been remedied so I wasn’t going to worry about it too much.
We made our way though Dallas without any problems and on into Oklahoma. Next gas stop was in Ardmore, OK. Gas station pictures suck, but I guess they’re better than nothing.
Before leaving this stop, I put my Oakley sunglasses on, the same ones I wore all last year. 5 Miles down the road they were already killing me. They didn’t fit well with this helmet and created a nice pressure point right behind my ears. Halfway to the next gas stop I ended up pulling them off because I couldn’t take it anymore. I just went from one extreme to another. It was so bright outside and I had a clear face shield, so I was practically squinting the rest of the way.
As we were getting close to Oklahoma City we got into a construction zone and the barriers made the freeway really tight. I passed a truck on the left and when dad went to pass the truck started moving over into dad’s lane. He didn’t even have time to find his horn, just hollered “HEY!” as loud as he could and luckily the guy had his window rolled down. It startled the guy and he overcompensated, almost smashing his truck into the barrier on the other side. A close call though.
Next gas stop was in Tonkawa, OK. Not much to see around these parts.
I figured I had two options with my vision. Either find a motorcycle shop and hope they had a tinted shield, or buy some new sunglasses. I went for the later at this stop. It turned out being the best $18 I’ve ever spent on a trip. I found some with soft/bendable sides, so they fit in my helmet perfectly. They were also polarized, which provided for some trippy effects at times.
With my new shades, I was feeling great for the final stretch of the day. It may have had something to do with Red Bull and Aleve as well. Neither one of us has ridden in Kansas before, so we colored in another one on the map.
We pulled into Salina, KS late in the afternoon and decided not to do anything special for dinner. We walked over to Wendy’s and then had to make a quick trip to Walmart. Dad forgot a hat for the trip so he wanted to pick one up. He went with a local flavor.
There were a ton of classic cars in town for a meet. Before going back to the room I walked around and grabbed a few shots.
The rest of the night consisted of watching the UFC fights and dad hydrating.
A couple notes for Day 1:
-Comfort Suites has some seriously comfortable beds.
-So far the new Sena headsets are not Trippin’ Connies approved. The batteries depleted with about 200 miles left in the day, so we had to plug them in while riding.
-Today was the most comfortable trip ever getting out of Texas. There was good cloud cover and it only got up into the mid 90s. Coming into Salina, KS it was actually a cool 73 degrees or so.
Day 1 - 7/27/2013 - Houston, TX to Salina, KS - 681 Miles
Houston, TX to Salina, KS - 681 miles – MAP LINK
When my alarm clock went off at 3:45 am I stumbled around the house as I woke up. As I began loading up the bike I heard what I thought was rain on the carport. It couldn’t be! I certainly don’t recall hearing anything about rain early this morning. But it was, and it soon turned into a downpour. What an awesome way to start a trip. I called dad to see if he was prepared to take off in the rain. I drug my feet taking off and did so when the rain slacked up.
Trip B is cleared for good measure and my bike has a bit over 36k miles to start with.
I gassed up on the way to dad’s house, trying to get a feel for everything again. I literally had to knock the cobwebs off my bike in preparation for this trip. Since TC4 I had racked up a whopping 300 miles on my bike. A new tire combined with rain wasn’t my ideal way of getting back into the swing of things. I made it to dad’s house at 5:15. We had planned on 5, so considering the downpour we weren’t too far behind.
We took off and as soon as we entered I-45 we ran into another problem. I could no longer hear dad through my speakers. He had bought a brand new set of Sena headsets and this was their first test. I thought it was weird how I could no longer hear him when they were working fine up until entering the freeway. I started thinking about it and the only difference was I had put my helmet down and locked the chin bar in at that exact time. I unlocked the chin bar and immediately we could converse again. I had no idea what was going on, but the moment I would lock my helmet down I could no longer hear dad, but he could still hear me. So up until the first gas stop, I rode with the chin bar down, but not locked in. I joked that I’d just have to remember to snap it into position if I was going to crash. It was an uneasy feeling as I prefer to ride with my face fully protected.
The first gas stop was in Corsicana, TX. Luckily dad brought a tiny allen wrench so I started messing with the Sena on my helmet. My helmet was also brand new; I had picked up a HJC CL-Max II. It is a Bluetooth ready model and I had originally mounted the Sena right over the Bluetooth box. I decided to move it forward and inch or two and then we tested them out with my helmet locked down. It worked! I have absolutely NO idea why my speakers shut off in the original location, but the problem had been remedied so I wasn’t going to worry about it too much.
We made our way though Dallas without any problems and on into Oklahoma. Next gas stop was in Ardmore, OK. Gas station pictures suck, but I guess they’re better than nothing.
Before leaving this stop, I put my Oakley sunglasses on, the same ones I wore all last year. 5 Miles down the road they were already killing me. They didn’t fit well with this helmet and created a nice pressure point right behind my ears. Halfway to the next gas stop I ended up pulling them off because I couldn’t take it anymore. I just went from one extreme to another. It was so bright outside and I had a clear face shield, so I was practically squinting the rest of the way.
As we were getting close to Oklahoma City we got into a construction zone and the barriers made the freeway really tight. I passed a truck on the left and when dad went to pass the truck started moving over into dad’s lane. He didn’t even have time to find his horn, just hollered “HEY!” as loud as he could and luckily the guy had his window rolled down. It startled the guy and he overcompensated, almost smashing his truck into the barrier on the other side. A close call though.
Next gas stop was in Tonkawa, OK. Not much to see around these parts.
I figured I had two options with my vision. Either find a motorcycle shop and hope they had a tinted shield, or buy some new sunglasses. I went for the later at this stop. It turned out being the best $18 I’ve ever spent on a trip. I found some with soft/bendable sides, so they fit in my helmet perfectly. They were also polarized, which provided for some trippy effects at times.
With my new shades, I was feeling great for the final stretch of the day. It may have had something to do with Red Bull and Aleve as well. Neither one of us has ridden in Kansas before, so we colored in another one on the map.
We pulled into Salina, KS late in the afternoon and decided not to do anything special for dinner. We walked over to Wendy’s and then had to make a quick trip to Walmart. Dad forgot a hat for the trip so he wanted to pick one up. He went with a local flavor.
There were a ton of classic cars in town for a meet. Before going back to the room I walked around and grabbed a few shots.
The rest of the night consisted of watching the UFC fights and dad hydrating.
A couple notes for Day 1:
-Comfort Suites has some seriously comfortable beds.
-So far the new Sena headsets are not Trippin’ Connies approved. The batteries depleted with about 200 miles left in the day, so we had to plug them in while riding.
-Today was the most comfortable trip ever getting out of Texas. There was good cloud cover and it only got up into the mid 90s. Coming into Salina, KS it was actually a cool 73 degrees or so.