Albuquerque to Toronto State Park, KS - Day 1 - 2012 Indy 500 Motorcycle Trip

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

I woke up at 5:30am today so I could get an early start considering I had about 675 miles and 12 hours worth of riding to tackle. After eating and finishing some last minute preparations I was able to put up the kickstand and get started at 6:25am.

The ride started fine as I headed out of Albuquerque on I-40 towards Tucumcari. I was riding into the sun for a little while but it wasn't too bad because it was mostly off at an angle and wasn't directly in my line of sight. When I got to Tucumcari I fueled up and jumped on US-54 where I would stay the rest of the day.

I quickly crossed into Texas, then Oklahoma and finally Kansas. When I got into Texas the winds started to pick up but it wasn't really an issue since the wind was at my back and pushing me along. I stopped and ate some lunch jut after crossing into Oklahoma. I had made some turkey sandwiches and brought some apples so I could eat cheaply and quickly. I also had another Red Bull to keep me going since it was getting hotter and hotter with every passing hour.

I can't remember exactly where it was, but I want to say somewhere around the Oklahoma / Kansas border the winds shifted directions so they were coming from the south. Since I was heading east this meant I had a constant 30-40mph crosswind for what seemed like roughly half of the ride. The constant bombardment of wind from both directions was really wearing me down and causing some pain in my neck to keep my head centered on the road.

Just outside of Wichita I started to really debate whether or not I should continue with my original plan of camping or if I should push on and try my luck at finding a cheap hotel. I really didn't want to set up my tent in howling wind and deal with that all night.

Fortunately when I got closer to the Cross Timbers campground the wind had settled down a bit and I was really getting hungry for dinner so I decided I'd just keep with the plan and stay here for the night. I got into the campground around 7:30 pm central time. I picked an available spot, paid for it and then went to go find it… only to find out that someone else had already put their tent there. They said they had paid for it yesterday but their reservation ticket had a date of the 28th which is Memorial Day. I went back to the reservation desk and picked another spot that I saw on my way around that was surrounded by vacancies. Fortunately I was able to get my tent set up just before the sun went down. I quickly scarfed down my second sandwich, had some mac and cheese and an apple. Now I'm writing this post and thinking about how I don't really want to get up at 5:30am again. Anyway, It's off to bed for me. Thanks for tuning in!

Stats:

Distance: 675 miles
Duration: 12 hours
Near death experiences: 0

Tomorrow: Make it to Indy!

Teaser photos: