Chuck is as we speak on his Kawasaki Vulcan 800 riding across Arizona on his way to New Mexico. No, he hasn’t run away from home. He’s actually living out a long held dream to go on a motorcycle road trip a la East Rider. But without Dennis Hopper. Or Peter Fonda. Or the violence. Anyway.

He’s having a great time but before I let him hit the road (metaphorically – his goal is to stay upright the whole time) I did my best to make him as safe as possible. We outfitted him with a new helmet (a Shoei), a kevlar-coated jacket and pants, bluetooth for the new helmet and a mount for his iPhone with power so he can get navigation spoken to him and also answer phone calls from me asking if he’s okay. I thought about full body bubble wrap but he nixed that idea.

He will be in New Mexico Wednesday and will meet up with a friend so he won’t be riding alone (phew) the whole way but in the meantime he is having a blast getting lost, rained on … but I’ll let him tell the story.

My Big Adventure. Left Long Beach about 6:30 this morning heading to Albuquerque NM. My first overnight stop is is in Wickenburg AZ. It took me about 11 hours to get here. My estimate was about 8 hours. My poor butt. It has been a long day. Started with slight drizzle leaving this morning and by the time I go to Palm Springs it was raining. So I dawned my new riding outfit and was warm and dry. That was until I hit Indio.

Eileen has been VERY kind and got me lots of new toys for the trip. New helmet, the new riding outfit, and a really cool thing to hook my iPhone to the bike with power. Well I got off the freeway, which I wanted to do anyhow, and got gas in Indio. Then I thought I was headed to Wickenburg, but with all the rain all the roads pointing to Wickenburg were closed. So I drove 70+ miles in circles never leaving the Coachella Valley.

Finally got really frustrated and found my way back to the freeway and took off in the correct direction. This slowed me down by at least 2 hours.

Once back on track I sailed down I-10 to US 60 and on to Wickenburg. Once I hit 60 all was good. Exactly what I wanted to find. Two land road and no cars (or trucks) for miles. Got to the Best Western right about 5;30. Took a well needed shower and went to Anita’s Cocina for dinner. (Did I mention the two margaritas) Nice local place then on my walk back to the motel I stopped in to the Golden Nugget for a glass of wine before bed. I was the only person in the bar. I thought there was one other but it turned out he was the owner. Very nice guy and we chatted about the ride while I had my glass of Red Wine (OK there wine selection was not big) but the company was fabulous. When I got back to my room I found there was an overhang I could put my bike under so I did, and I’m glad I did. Right now we have quite the thunder and lightning storm going on, raining hard and the bike is dry .

Time for bed, I know, its only 9:00PM but I’m beat.

Off to Springerville AZ tomorrow, a shot ride compared to today. According to Google maps just 5 hours away without stops. So with luck and stops I’ll be there about 2 or 3 tomorrow after noon.

Stay tuned. — feeling happy.